" "And seek ye not what ye
shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For
all these things do the nations of the world seek after; and your Father
knoweth that ye have need of these things." It may be said that Christ
did not teach science. True, but He taught truth; and science, so
called, when it comes in conflict with truth, is what man is when he
comes in conflict with God.
The advocates of these extreme opinions protest against being considered
irreligious. Herbert Spencer says, that his doctrine of an inscrutable,
unintelligent, unknown force, as the cause of all things, is a much more
religious doctrine than that of a personal, intelligent, and voluntary
Being of infinite power and goodness. Matthew Arnold holds that an
unconscious "power which makes for right," is a higher idea of God than
the Jehovah of the Bible. Christ says, God is a Spirit. Holbach thought
that he made a great advance on that definition, when he said, God is
motion.
The third method of accounting for the contrivances manifested in the
organs of plants and animals, is that which refers them to the blind
operation of natural causes. They are not due to the continued
cooeperation and control of the divine mind, nor to the original purpose
of God in the constitution of the universe. This is the doctrine of the
Materialists, and to this doctrine, we are sorry to say, Mr.
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