We are asked to-day to concentrate our
attention upon the levers, the springs and the pulleys and all the
machinery of the universe rather than upon the first great Cause and
Ruler of all.
It is assumed in this objection that much more is known of the laws
and forces which govern the universe than really is. Prof. John Fiske
says in his lecture on "Life Everlasting," I once heard Herbert
Spencer say, "you cannot take up any problem in physics without being
quickly led to some metaphysical problem which you can neither solve
nor evade." Again he says, "The more things we try to explain, the
better we realize that we live in a world of unexplained residua."
Widening knowledge is throwing back into the lumber room many much
vaunted theories of origins. Many wrong conceptions of the order of
nature have in recent years been radically changed. It is freely
acknowledged to-day by the foremost men of science that no man fully
understands the order of nature. Under the present limitations of
human knowledge God cannot be shut up in or out of His universe.
Further research may show that such shutting up to be impossible; for
in the end we are to depend not upon our ignorance but upon our
knowledge of the universe for God's free control of all things.
Already the light begins to dawn when it is seen that all the natural
forces and matter itself are beginning to reveal their origin and
control in one Great Master Force.
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