and best law, still struggles against his mastery. Its prominent representatives are to-day too often of the school of Hobbes rather than of More, of Bentham than of Coleridge. But if Methodisin is faithful in preaching its founder's truths of "divine realities;" if it still continue to lead "the great spiritual counter movement" which he inaugurated, it will certainly bring down those high heads, as it has leveled all inferior towers. If Brougham brings parliamentary reform; Sharpe, and Clarkson, and Garrison, (who was Wesley's pupil, though he confess it not,) abolitionism; Neal Dow, prohibition; Cary, the missionary movement; Cowper and Wordsworth, and all their followers of to-day, the poetic power, and lay them all at this apostle's feet; if all these, as well as many other masters of men and ideas for the last hundred and fifty years, accept, as they must, John Wesley as their master, then, too, will the scientist, last of rebellions thinkers, because most materialistic, immersed in the matter which he seeks to know, "subdued to that he works in, like a dyer's hand," and his co-ordinate, the materialistic philosopher, also make like acknowledgment, break their wands of mere naturism, and accept the sovereignty of soul in man, of God in nature. Thus shall Plato and John become one in the Spirit and in every believer. Thus shall all thought accept with gratitude the service wrought out for it by this Oxford scholar and tutor, who, when his seat of philosophy brought him into bondage to the sensational school of thought, left it, to find the true light and the true heat in humble faith in the divine Saviour. And when he had thus found this pearl of infinite price, he sold all that he had, and for joy went preaching and teaching every-where the central truths of Christianity and philosophy, until all the world has heard, and much of it has obeyed. So shall it be preached and taught till all the world shall receive of its fullness, grace for grace, and truth for truth, to the uplifting of all thought to its true position and power in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have thus endeavored to show the relation of modern intellectual activity to John Wesley. That literature which concerns itself with religion and reform can be traced clearly and directly, on the best authorities, to this fountain head. All confess that religion was revived through this instrument. The highest names in literature are his. Macaulay's zeal for

liberal English politics was due to his father's influence, who was a direct descendant of Wesley. So are Dickens and his school. The later poets all fall at Wordsworth's feet, and Wordsworth is Wesley.

Spiritual philosophy, which is the only "divine philosophy," alike recognizes Wesley as its restorer. Only as all philosophy accepts his central principles will it be accepted of men. The gross reign of material philosophy has come to an end. The world is revolting from Spencerism, the last utterance of Hobbesism, and our own schools are leading the battle for intuitionalism, which is Wesley. The most pungent and potent defender of Wesleyan philosophy is in the chair of metaphysics in our youngest university. Not unnoticeable is it that the chief representative of the opposite opinion, the philosophy of unfaith and anti-reason, is seated close at hand in the chair of the oldest Calvinistic university. Though it has revolted from Calvinism, it has not from fatalism. It yet lacks faith, and, therefore, has no real philosophy. The leading defender and the leading opponent of Spencer are thus set over against each other to wrestle for the man-soul in its deepest goings. May the professor of the intuitions reign till he sees the overthrow of the hostile, sensuous, mechanical system, and the making of all philosophy by the confession of all its professors, common sense, spiritual, Wesleyan, Christian.

Let us not err nor despair. The good and perfect gift of God, guessed at by Plato, is revealed unto us. Let the old experience still be preached, not of flesh, but of the Holy Ghost. By that our fathers did "attain to more than a prophetic strain." So shall all earthly thoughts be lifted up to the same empyrean; and he whom we have followed, and after whom we have fought and won this hundred and forty years, will stand forth more and more the deliverer of modern thought in its deepest seekings from a philosophy "fast bound in sense," its uplifter into the realm of faith in God the Spirit, and of sight in faith, and of joy in sight, leading every mind and every soul to our only Center and Source, the eternal Spirit, the Lord our God.

ART. II.—SOME OBJECTIONS TO THEISM.

A Candid Examination of Theism. By PHYSICUS. English and Foreign Philosophical Library, Vol. XIII. Boston: Houghton, Osgood, & Co. 1878. THE first impression which this book makes upon the critic is that criticism is useless. Its fiat science and fiat logic are such as to convince him that the author is beyond the reach of argument, and that discussion with him would be as fruitless as with certain sectarians who base their dogmas on a few obscure texts which no one else has ever noticed. Its fiatism further convinces the critic that criticism is needless, for no thoughtful person will be any more likely to be influenced by it than by Millerism or spiritualism. From another stand-point, however, an extended criticism may be excused. The work sums up in a short space a great many current objections to theism, and, as such, furnishes a good text for some general exposition. Finally, too, criticism may be regarded as a duty. Ignorance alone may be excused, for it often results from causes, subjective or objective, for which the person is not to blame. Modest ignorance, even when dense, should be tenderly dealt with. Insolence, also, may be excused, when it is based on a respectable amount of knowledge. But ignorance and insolence combined make a nuisance which it is a positive duty to abate; especially when they claim to be philosophy and science.

Some authors are said to suffer from excessive self-depreciation. The author of the "Candid Examination" is not of this class. He claims for his work great logical rigor and scientific precision. Finally he expresses his own estimate of it as follows:

At a time like the present, when traditional beliefs respecting theism are so generally accepted, and so commonly concluded, as a matter of course, to have a large and valid basis of induction whereon to rest, I cannot but feel that a perusal of this short essay, by showing how very concise the scientific STATUS of the subject really is, will do more to settle the minds of most readers as to the exact standing at the present time of all the probabilities of the question, than could a perusal of all the rest of the literature upon this subject.

This occurs on page 112, in a general summary which begins on page 102. Hence the author has succeeded in condensing

into one hundred and one pages the gist of all that theists and atheists have ever said. A work of this kind is certainly deserv ing of the highest praise, and must fill every thoughtful person with eagerness to know what the author has done. That something terrible has happened is evident from another passage:

Never in the history of man has so terrific a calamity befallen the race as that which all who look may now behold advancing as a deluge, black with destruction, resistless in might, uprooting our most cherished hopes, engulfing our most precious creed, and burying our highest life in mindless desolation. Science, whom erstwhile we thought a very angel of God, pointing to that great barrier of law, and proclaiming to the restless sea of changing doubt, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed," even science has now herself thrown down this trusted barrier; the flood-gates of infidelity are open, and atheism overwhelming is upon us.-P. 51.

Man has truly become in a new sense the measure of the universe, and in this the latest and most appalling of his surroundings indications are returned from the infinite voids of space and time by which he is surrounded, that his intelligence, with all its noble capacities for love and adoration, is yet alone-destitute of kith or kin in all this universe of being.-P. 63.

These passages have in them something of the cry of a wild beast at bay, and certainly they must cause the theist great heart-searching. At one fell swoop, in less than a hundred pages, theism is utterly demolished, and "atheism overwhelming is upon us." It hardly relieves the matter to know that the author himself professes agnosticism, for no rational theist would care to keep his faith after all rational ground for it has been overthrown. It is, therefore, with fear and trembling that we approach the arguments which support this awful conclusion. But before beginning specific criticism, we make one or two general statements, which, however, will not be without bearing upon the later argument.

In the course of our reading we have often remarked that most objections to the theistic argument depend upon attributing to theists views and purposes which they do not for a moment accept. By thus forcing them into a false position, and by assuming that they mean to do what they expressly disclaim, it is easy to convict them of failure, and to denounce their arguments as worthless. For example, many objections are based on the failure to distinguish between demonstrating

a theorem and solving a problem. It is assumed that the theist means to demonstrate the divine existence; and when it is shown that a proper demonstration of this fact, as of all facts, is impossible, the claim is set up that theism is a failure. But the demonstration of theorems belongs only to the formal sciences; all the sciences which deal with reality aim only at the solution of problems. They find their problems in the facts, and then they raise the question how we must think of the backlying cause, or causes, or antecedents, in order that the facts should be as they are. The geologist finds traces of fire in the rocks, and he explains them by assuming that the earth was once molten. Now, even if we allow this conclusion to be just, he would not pretend that he had demonstrated the original fluidity of the earth, but only that he had given a rational solution of the problem furnished by the igneous rocks, etc. So, too, the astronomer who holds the nebular theory would not claim to have demonstrated the nebula, but to have solved the problem contained in the arrangements of the solar system. The same is true for the evolution theory, and for every other scientific hypothesis. Now, it is conceivable that some one should set out to determine the "logical value" of all these hypotheses, and he would find no difficulty in showing that they are all sadly illogical, as tested by the canons of formal logic, or, at least, that they cannot be regarded as proved. But if, on the strength of such a showing, he should conclude that scientific hypotheses deserve no credit, he would certainly be regarded as a fool. But when identical reasoning is applied to the theistic hypothesis, which is just as scientific as the atomic, or evolution hypothesis, it is viewed as a very serious attack, and the word is passed around that theism has no "logical standing."

Now, the theistic theory, so far as it is based on the design argument, is very simple. Like all scientific hypotheses, it does not aim to demonstrate a theorem, but to solve a problem. This problem consists in the order and intelligible character of the universe. The theist observes harmony and the adaptation of means to ends; and the more he studies the system, whether in the organic or the inorganic realm, the more wide-reaching he finds the reign of law, and the more intimate and accurate the universal balance and adaptation.