STUDY III. THE THRESHOLD OF CREATION. "Thou from primeval nothingness didst call First chaos, then existence ;-Lord, on Thee Spring forth from Thee; of light, joy, harmony, SIR J. BOWRING. SOME of us limit, and lightly toy with the Creator's attributes; profess to scale the awful heights of infinity, and to build a godless world by means of mechanism devised by human intellect. It is in vain-we cannot so build, nor thus ascend; the genesis of an atom is not less mysterious than the birth of a planet. No doubt a particle of matter is less complex than the universe, but that particle, all in all, is infinite. This particle and that universe are not known as they exist in themselves, but as our senses represent them; consequently, it is impossible to know what matter is, or whether it really has any action of its own, or prove that "it is the origin of all that exists." It is simply preposterous to imagine that we shall ever scientifically trace the continuity of molecular processes into the phenomena of consciousness, and materially explain how our consciousness, by means of imagination, makes itself at home in other and far-distant worlds. Other men, thinking thereby to honour the Almighty, speak of the universe as created by the breath, fashioned by the touch, and launched from the hand of God: likening Him to a mechanic, and His work to a machine. Whereas, the phenomena of the world, and the vast synthesis of energies within us in manifold contact with vaster energies without us, can never be known in objective existence, or as to the essential nature of their cause, but simply as affecting our consciousness; therefore, to say that Divine energy produced the world by methods analogous to human methods, that the laws and manifold harmonies of the universe arose from quasihuman volitions, is to err with materialists who pretend to measure and explain the whole of Nature's operation by their own physical conception. It is quite true, Scripture so describes that portion of the Divine dominions with which we are connected, that for a long time most men thought that the world was brought suddenly into existence, and has remained substantially unaltered. This is not owing to any error in fact, but to the form of the narrative. Past, present, future, are continually spoken of as the now-the present. Things yet to come are often regarded as already existing. The slow operation of ages is not unfrequently represented as of immediate and quick performance. In prophecy, in poetry, in mystical passages, in parables, the same style prevails. It represents, we conceive, the aspect in which things appear to the Eternal; but we are informed that the Father worketh till now, of creative processes proceeding in many other planets, suns, and systems, and we lay aside our former childlike conceptions, acknowledge that the works of the Almighty are continuous, progressive, infinite. Think of time hasting away, preceded and followed evermore and evermore by other time; which, however retraced as to the past, attains no beginning—or, extended into the future, finds no end. Represent space enveloping smaller space, itself enclosed by greater and ever greater; yet, wherever the boundary is set, infinity lies beyond, containing all, itself by none contained. Contemplate existences manifold in number, form, degree, vast movements of worlds innumerable. Adding billions of cycles to the past, we are still far off from that beginning when worlds had birth (John i. 1-3). Chastened by these conceptions, enter the Threshold of Creation. If the world had a beginning and, nevertheless, is infinite; we must suppose that from any instant, say the present, an infinite series of creations has gone forth. This is absurd; notwithstanding the common algebraic form that 1 + 2 + 4 + 8, etc., ad inf. = ∞; for it is the property of a really infinite series that neither first nor last can be found. An infinite world-that is, a world consisting of infinite parts, requires infinitude for their display, and eternity for their enumeration. Suppose that the world is not infinite in extent, nor eternal in duration, then we have a pre-existent eternal void in which could be no creation; for why at any one moment more than another? and beyond the world would be an infinite space, to which the world must have some necessary relation, which is also absurd; for what relation can the world have with nothing? It may be said, and justly, this language is somewhat paradoxical and inexact, for eternity is not time; neither coming nor departing, it is and for ever. Time is measured by the world's changes, and all duration is comprised in two series the past and the future. Add these together, and they form time-not eternity. As to space, we conceive of it as involving (we know not why) the essential element of three dimensions; but mathematicians are undecided as to whether it has precisely the same properties throughout the universe. An inhabitant in space of two dimensions only would be incapable of appreciating the third dimension, but would certainly feel a difference in passing from his space to other portions which were more curved. "So it is possible that in the rapid march of the solar system through space, we may be gradually passing to regions in which space has not precisely the same properties as we find here-where it may have something in three dimensions analogous to curvature in two dimensions-something, in fact, which will necessarily imply a fourth-dimension change of form in portions of matter, in order that they may adapt themselves to their new locality." Now, with God, the universe is not dual nor fragmentary, but an infinite whole. As to space and time, they correspond relatively with the Infinity and Eternity of God: therefore, no idea of ours can approach the vastness of creation; and in vain we inflate our conceptions as to the extent of time. The children of imagination are nothing in comparison with the reality. "It is an infinite sphere of which the centre is everywhere, and the circumference no "Recent Advances in Physical Science," p. 5: P. G. Tait, M. A. 1 where." Hence, we conclude that God is for ever, and infinitely all that He is. Creator, He creates eternally. The world is not by caprice, by chance, by hazard, but of reason and purpose Divine. All this is miraculous, but we are told-" Science has no room for miracles, for by miracles we understand an interference of supernatural forces in the natural course of development of matter."2 Again-"As far as the eye of science has hitherto ranged through Nature, no intrusion of purely creative power into any series of phenomena has ever been observed." 8 Examining the facts on which such statements are founded, the whole philosophy stands self-convicted of inadequacy. It has no explanation of the origin of things. It does not and cannot formulate the whole series of changes passed through by matter in its passage from the imperceptible to the perceptible, nor from the perceptible to the imperceptible. It begins explanations with existences which already have concrete forms, and leaves off while they still retain those forms. Manifestly such existences had preceding, and will have succeeding histories. The assertion-"There is no interference of supernatural forces in the course of Nature"-is based on ignorance of the origin, the continuance, the end of things. It assumes that everything is known, when, in reality, not one thing in the world is fully known, but escapes from our every research into the unknown. It forgets that "information, however extensive it may become, can never satisfy inquiry; positive knowledge does not, and never can, fill the whole region of possible thought." The protestors against miracles protest too much: indeed Nature, as a whole, is one splendid miracle; and presents, in all its parts, innumerable marvels. The whole and the parts, whether wrought by coup de main or process of gradual evolution, are essentially mysterious and marvellous. The blending of mind and matter, influence and emotion, in the bodily structure of sentient and rational creatures is a Pascal: "Pensées." 266 'The History of Creation,” vol. i. p. 60: Prof. Haeckel. 3 66 Apology for the Belfast Address," p. 548. "First Principles: " Herbert Spencer. Union of Mind with Matter. 61 mystery. Will any one state whether Body is the necessary means of bringing Mind into relationship with space and extension, or of giving it connection with place and time? whether Matter is essentially necessary for Emotion? Will not the explanation require an explanation? What is the link joining the stupendous machinery which traverses the fields of space wherein worlds are massed into spheres, revolving with double, treble, or manifold measurement of time in diurnal and annual rotation? Have we sufficient knowledge of the cycles of seasons, of the changing eccentricity of orbits, either to take them out of, or fit them in, the purposes of universal government? Can we say whether or not the vast horology of Nature is a register to spiritual creatures? Can the knowledge of Materialists occupy and monopolise all this sphere? Nay, yet the mind will continue to dwell upon these things, and project itself beyond them. At the very threshold of creation are occurrences which set at nought material philosophy. In what relation do our emotions, often of the most violent kind, neither merely animal nor organic, not purely intellectual nor moral, mingle with other elements of our nature; so that we have sense of fitness, harmony, beauty, sublimity, terror, or their opposites? How do we explain that there is now, and must be throughout all future time, an unascertained Something an Unknown on whom all phenomena and their relations rest? that at the uttermost reach of discovery there arises, and must ever arise, the question-"What lies beyond?" This, so far as we are concerned, is less explainable than would be a voice from the sky. To call it natural is to declare that Nature is a grand inexplicable entity. Take the purely mechanical view: Physical science asserts'Nature does not allow us for a moment to doubt that we have to do with a rigid chain of cause and effect, admitting of no exceptions." Enlarge this statement: The theory of gravitation demonstrates that the hosts of Heaven are parts of a vast mechanism, and that the phenomena of Nature are expressible in terms of matter and motion, resolvable into the attractions and repulsions of material particles. On these principles of materialism, our mind, if sufficiently expanded, |