unbeliever. You are not yet able to combine these elements in a manner to satisfy yourself, and therefore, though I hold you to be religious, you have as yet no religion.

"The reason why the prevailing institution does not satisfy you, is either in the fact that you do not fully comprehend it, or that your ideal is above it. You may have seen the religion of your country from a low and unfavorable point of sight, and may have therefore inferred that it embodies less of truth, beauty and goodness than it actually does. In this case it is not that religion you have rejected, but something else to which you have given its name.

"Admit, however, that you fully comprehend it, perceive it precisely as it is, and are really able to take in more of truth, beauty, and goodness than it represents, still you have one or two inquiries to make before you can be justified in rejecting Christianity. Does what passes for Christianity fully represent the ideal of Jesus? Is it equal to what Jesus designed to institute? Is it a perfect realization of the conception of Jesus? If not, and I am sure that it is not, then you should seek to ascertain the conception of Jesus, the amount of truth, beauty and goodness he contemplated."

"And if that be below my ideal?"

"Then you must turn prophet, and preach a new religion. You have no other alternative. If you will do this, and show me that you really comprehend more of truth, beauty and goodness, than Jesus did, I will become one of your disciples, and, if need be, follow you to the cross."

CHAPTER XX.-GOD.

"But all this, though very well, fails to reach my case. Grant I have the conceptions of which you speak, still I have no conception of God, and without God, I can hardly be religious. I not only have no conception of God, but I cannot even form one."

"If you mean to say that you have no definite conception of God, that you cannot define the idea of God, you doubtless are correct. But if you mean that you can have no conception of God, I must beg leave to differ from you."

"But what conception can I form of God? What is God?"

"He is spirit."

"But what is spirit?"

"Spirit is something to be described chiefly by negatives;

we can easily tell what it is not, but not so easily what it is. Nevertheless, I apprehend that you may attain to a proximate idea of what it is, if you attend to the manner in which we commonly use the word spirit.

"The use of this word spirit, is various. We say the spirit of the remark, and a spirited remark, spirit of nature, spirit of the universe, spirit of truth, spirit of man, a man of spirit, spirit of the affair, spirit of wine, &c. Now in all these and the like cases, I apprehend that we use the word to designate the reality and force of the thing or subject of which we speak. The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.' The mere form or verbal enactment of the legislative authority, is not the law; the intent, the reality, the spirit of the enactment, that which is actually intended by the legislative authority, is the law, obedience to which gives life.

"We say the spirit of his assertion.' In this case we make more or less clearly in our minds, a distinction between the form of the assertion, the literal words used, technically interpreted, and the general scope and meaning, the real intention. Here the force and reality of the assertion, the real thing asserted, is what we would designate by the phrase, 'spirit of his assertion.'

"By a chemical process we extract a substance from corn, which, when diluted with water, we call ardent spirits. Here again is the same radical meaning of the word. We have extracted the force, the strength, the essence of the corn, and we term it spirit. Etymological research into the word, would confirm this result, but I waive it as unnecessary.

Now the human mind is, to say the least, so constituted, that it must believe that what is, is; that a thing cannot both exist and not exist at the same time. That which exists it must believe is something. In all objects which we see we recognise an existence. We do not believe that the universe is a mere apparition, a mere sense-shadow. Something is at the bottom of it. Something lies back of all appearances and shines out in all appearances. The phenomena around us may change their colors or their forms, they may now be putting forth the buds and blossoms of spring, or wearing the thick foliage of summer, or the rich and varied and golden hues of autumn, or stand in the chilling nakedness of winter; yet amid all these changes, we seem to ourselves to recognise something which changes

not, a permanent, indestructible essence, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. This something is what we mean by reality. Amid all these appearances, these sense-shadows, these flitting apparitions, these perpetual changes, we believe there is something real, permanent, unchangeable.

mere

"Now this real, permanent, unchangeable something, we believe to be in every thing which exists, and to be that which exists, and only that. It is always the thing. That which is not real, permanent, unchangeable, is to us no existence, no being, but a shadow, an unsubstantial form, a nothing. The reality, the permanent substance, the living force of that of which we speak, that which constitutes its essence, and makes it what it is, is then, if I mistake not, what we mean by its spirit. The spirit of a man, is the real, the permanent, the substantial man, as distinguished from the form, the shadow, or changing apparition which environs him. Take what is real, substantial, unchangeable in man, that which constitutes him man wherever he is, and keeps him man in spite of all the modifications of disposition or character to which he may be subjected, in time or space, and you have the spirit of man; that is, you have the reality, the ground, the substance of the being called man, so far as he contains them in himself.

"Extend your thoughts now from man to the universe. Penetrate beyond and beneath all forms and shadows, all that is changeable and transitory, that is not, but appears; seize what is real, substantial, what constitutes the ground and reality of all existences, that which remains unchanged amidst all changes, which

'Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars and blossoms in the trees;

Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent ;'

and you have what may be termed the spirit of the universe, the life, the essence, the ground, the living force of all that is.

"It follows from this that the spiritual is always the real, the substantial, in opposition to those who regard it as chimerical, as merely imaginary. Hence also that which we regard as the real, the substantial, is always the invisible. That which is seen, which we examine with our senses, is never to us, did we but know it, the thing itself. It is mere appearance, shadow, pointing to a reality back of it, a sub

stance which sends it forth, but which it is not. We always call that which is permanent, immutable, in the thing,-not its apparition, the thing itself, and this always transcends the senses, is transcendental. Spirit, is in fact, the only reality of which we ever do or ever can form any conception. Men are materialists only because they misinterpret or misname their own beliefs.

66

*

Now, God is spirit. He is then the life, the being, the force, the substance of whatever is. In light he is the light, in life he is the life; in soul he is the soul, in reason he is the reason, in truth he is the truth, in cause he is causality, in beauty he is the beautiful; in goodness he is the good-God. Wherever we attain to that which is real, which absolutely exists, which possesses a real, living force, we attain to God. In all these forms, in all these changing objects, whether in the natural world or the moral, which are forever passing or repassing before our eyes, is there not always one thing which we seek? Amidst all these mutations which oppress and sadden our hearts, and make us at times exclaim, This world is all a fleeting show,' do we not seek the permanent, and that which changes not? In these forms of faith which distract us, these creeds, dogmas, theories of the moral and intellectual world, so full of vanity, ever varying and imparting life never, seek we not something which is not vain, varying, distracting, which is not dead, nor subject to death, but living and life-giving? Wearied and worn with the endless windings of our pilgrimage, finding our journey ever beginning and never ending, that toil, toil, eternal task-work is our lot, sigh we not for deliverance, to be freed from our labours, and to find repose? Weary and heavy laden we would throw off our burdens and be at rest. The soul cries out for an ineffable repose. Now, what we seek in all this, is God. He is always the one thing we are seeking after. Amidst the variable and the transitory he is the immutable and the permanent. Amidst clashing and distracting forms of faith, he is the truth; to the soul aspiring to be wise and good, he is wisdom and goodness; to the weary and heavy laden he is rest, repose. In all things we seek a reality, and all reality in the last analysis is God.

I am not sure but I am indebted to an extract which I have somewhere met with from a Hindoo writing for the thought here expressed, as well as in part for the language, but I have no leisure at present to make the necessary reference.

"God is to us the invisible substance, the invisible reality of all that arrests our senses, excites our minds, or touches our hearts; the invisible universe of which this outward, visible universe is the shadow, the apparition, or manifestation. Its life, being, cause, substance, reality are in him, in whom we, as a part of it, 'live and move and have our 、being.'

"To the question, then, what is God? the best answer I can give, is, that he is the unseen, unchangeable, and permanent reality of this mighty apparition which men call nature, or the universe. You may say that this answer is vague and unsatisfactory, that it defines nothing. Be it so. I began by saying God cannot be defined. He is indefinable because he is infinite, and infinite is that which cannot be defined. Nevertheless this answer I think, with the remarks I have made, will help you, not to comprehend the incomprehensible, but to apprehend it."

CHAPTER XXI.-THE DEMONSTRATION.

"I think I catch some glimmering of what you mean; but allowing that your answer to the question, what is God, is satisfactory, still I wish it demonstrated that there is a God."

"I can hardly be expected to give you a complete demonstration in the course of a single conversation. What I have already said, would be satisfactory to my own mind; but if it is not to yours, we will look at the problem a little closer. I suppose, if I make it as certain that there is a God, as you are that you exist, it will answer your purpose ?"

"Yes. I shall be satisfied with that degree of certainty." "I have already, I believe, established the fact that we have the conceptions of the true, the beautiful, and the good, and that we should cease to be men if we had them not; or in other words, that divested of these conceptions, reason would not be reason."

"That point I consider settled."

"If we are compelled by the very constitution of our being to entertain the idea of the true, for instance, we must believe that something is true. If I believe something is true, I must believe in the true in itself, for it is only by means of the conception of the true in itself, that I am able to conceive of any particular truth. Besides, I have shown that

Vol. IV.-18