invisible Power-a Master, a supernatural Power, by whose impulse they exist. Scientific men are almost unanimous that matter is not "force," but "the condition of force"-an inner impulse giving externality. Æther is scientifically defined as an assemblage of vibrationswhether the definition is accurate or not, æther, as all other matter, is the externality of an unknown energy. Light comes by the marvellous vibrations of æther two unseen clothings of invisible force which make other things visible. Sound propagates itself by means of atmospheric undulations-two unintelligent things used by intelligence for production of reasonable speech. It follows from all this, that there is not a particle of matter in the universe which we can either perceive or picture as it really exists. All science is built up of appearances which are not to be trusted if science is true. For example-bodies are not coloured, the appearance of colour is produced by motions or other changes in the uncoloured particles which compose the object perceived and the organism of the percipient. The great and lasting truth, underlying all appearance, is not an indefinable consciousness standing for an unknown and unknowable mode of being beyond consciousness; but that One by whom all things exist, into whose Energy all force returns, and in whom our intellect and emotion find content so far as we apprehend.

For matter to attract and light to shine without the medium of æther, and sound to be heard apart from undulations of the air, would be a miracle; yet the intellect, the inner spirit, is attracted, feels, sees, hears, when there is no light nor sound, nor objective reality; these facts are somewhat akin to the miraculous. The

doctrines, the mysteries, the hopes, mental and emotional powers, dealt with in Sacred Literature, are regarded by profane persons not as fictions or lies, but as destitute of any substantial or objective reality. They ignore the fact, that our mental and emotional consciousness is so true and substantial as to be the measure and gauge of even material being: the only things we know and can know immediately are our own sensations and ideas. Further-one and the same material perception excites different thoughts even in the same individualmuch more in different persons: so that the very appearance of things is greatly of our own making. Nor is that all: many thoughts arise not connected with any external sensuous perception, we imagine things in which the five senses have no function. We attain, indeed, conception of the great truth-Mind creates matter, and without Mind matter cannot be. One of our poets truly writes, that even the human mind is somewhat creative

"Ours is the cloth, the pencil, and the paint,
Which nature's admirable picture draws;
And beautifies creation's ample dome.
Like Milton's Eve, when gazing on the lake,

Man makes the matchless image man admires."

Night Thoughts.

The fact is also forgotten, that it is equally impossible for the uncaused to exist either in mind or matter. Volition, conviction, faith-if they rest not on some ultimate reality-are an effect without a cause; which is absurd, or a miracle. Unbelievers as to miracles accept statements of this kind-"When He ascended the Mount of Transfiguration, a pure glow of inner splendour lighted up the Saviour's mind to a consciousness

of Divine Glory, and of the prophets' spiritual presence. Our Lord and His three disciples, looking within themselves, found the inward glow of heavenly radiance. That radiance might be automatic, or by a spontaneity quickened by great expectations in the Master and in the men; but could not possess objective reality."

If there be then a lighting up of the mind, an inner impulse to the supersensuous, to faith in and a conscious realization of the miraculous, without objective reality, we have a marvel indeed. Human intelligence and emotion could no more create the existing universal belief in and consciousness of Divinity, Heaven, Immortality, and of Divine Action, without something real whercon to rest the superstructure of the various religions in the world, than it can evoke visible material phenomena. Manifestly, our opponents' argument goes on unequal feet: there cannot be mental miracles, if physical marvels are impossible; we are not in vain filled with spiritual helps, comforts, strengths, from the rising till the setting sun; our nature does not contradict itself; and as no man can precisely fix the separating barriers between objectiveness and subjectiveness, between substance and essence, least of all materialists, we safely regard the inner universal impulse to the marvellous as an inwrought evidence of miracles. By this impulse we pray for the recovery of beloved ones who are at the point of death; we feel at the coffin of father, or of wife, that the bands of love are not sundered for ever; we seek for divine help that we may become holy and happy; and are sure that God's hand is leading us to glory.

The external and internal worlds are scenes of

perpetual changes, of which we see neither beginning nor end. If we entertain the hypothesis, as to the past, that all matter existed once in a diffused form, we find it impossible to conceive how this came to be so. When speculating on the future, a grand succession of phenomena is ever unfolding before us. Striving to find the

essential nature of things, either in the past or in the future, we are at fault; nor can we, as to our own consciousness, remember the beginning

"For man to tell how human life began

Is hard; for who himself beginning knew?”

MILTON, Paradise Lost, viii. 250.

Nor are we able to examine our consciousness that at any present moment exists; for only that already past, never one which is passing, can become the object of thought. Goethe says, "Man is not born to solve the mystery of existence, but he must nevertheless attempt it, in order that he may learn how to keep within the limits of the knowable." Attempting it, we are brought, in every direction, face to face with the unknowable. An impenetrable mystery underlies all things-" omnia exeunt in mysterium." We find, nevertheless, that as ceaseless change is not possible without something eternally permanent, for we can only know motion as in contrast with fixity, or comparative fixity; so our intelligence discovers in all law-physical, vital, mental-a transcendent permanent eternal reality. In consciousness of this, our conscience makes a law for us: all promulgated laws are the work of individual consciences—a latent work carried on by heredity, and enduring through many centuries. Law implies responsibility, and ten thousand million convincing voices,

within and without, in this daily course of life and sim and mercy assert that there is a living God, and that we are responsible to a Ruler who knows that He is ruling, to a Worker who knows that He is working, to a Giver and Lover who knows that He is giving and loving.

In the light of this truth we read the pages of all religions; and taking Christianity, the only faith which has its origin, continuance, and enforcement in miracle, we find that perfect obedience to its tenets embodies all virtue, and whatever is best is safest, and the truest means to ensure our happiness. Inner Impulse to the miraculous, as we review our Thought, inspires with

genius and enables with power. The earthly grade shows itself in deep and worthy love for whatever is better than ourselves. Our still rapture as we feel the influence of autumn sunsets, or listen to the symphonies of Beethoven, our consciousness that present joys are mere ripples of emotion compared with the vast movements on the ocean of reverence, of love, of beauty, is a real and true sense of Divine mystery. All outward physical nature is imbued with a sense of the Supernatural. Pass from the amphitheatre of glowing hill and fruitful vale, of broad forest-land and flowery garden, to crowds of rough men and weary-hearted women, even rudimentary religious culture raises their spirit above the sordid details of their narrow life, and suffuses their soul with a sense of the pitying loving Presence of Jesus -sweet and glowing as summer to the houseless wanderer-you thank Heaven for their faith and hope and love. These mental and spiritual marvels are real : they bind us to the skies more firmly and truly than do our bone and muscle to the earth. It is nature, yet