ance is given to former terms. The fact of the universal reign of law may be accepted and all the terminology referring thereto may be retained. There might be a modification of the conception of the efficiency or power of a law. It might also follow that the term law or law of nature should be used to designate the known processes of God's will, and to distinguish them from the unknown; leaving the unknown or spiritual or supernatural processes and effects still no more nor less truly and distinctly the results and manifestations of his will, than are ordinary or natural phenomena. It will be said that philosophy has already decided against this statement and has affirmed that apparent cause and effect are necessarily related. As a purely philosophical question dealing only with phenomena and their relations, upon observing universal and perpetual recurrence of the relations of antecedent and conse quent events, it seems natural to infer that such relations exist of necessity. But if it be admitted that under all phenomena there is One infinite intelligent Power, that fact is sufficient to account for the relations of phenomena, antecedent, and conse quent, without linking them together by necessity. Their constant recurrence is a beneficent notification to intelligent creatures whereby they may guide their plans. It is presumption for us to decide that He could not dispense with agencies and instruments.

events.

Whether there is or is not necessity in the current processes of the laws of nature, or whether antecedent and consequent both issue direct from the will of God, is a question above our investigation and comprehension. Therefore it is not proper to dogmatize nor to assume that we know either that there is or is not a necessary relation between antecedent and consequent We can repeat and remember that we are unable to know that there is necessity in their relations, and we ought to do this in order to prevent errors that might flow from a mere assumption. If the certainty of the proceeding under nature's laws may be accounted for by attributing it to the constant action of the will of God in detail and in directness as well as in general modes and results, the probabilities are not against this solution. It is proper to accept as true that which will harmonize with other truth. Both science and religion may

hand, and withal embodying the divine idea of fitness and beauty. In accepting these facts we do not thereby conceive of physical atoms nor of any phenomena constituted of them, as God.

In aiming at a statement that shall not involve the ejection of the Creator from any part of the universe, perhaps the above paragraph or something like it may approach the truth and be of practical service, admitting, however, that the beginning may be lower than the physical atoms named. Yet any statement that involves as this does, the notion that the Creator primarily works upon material that is exterior to himself, implies that there was something prior to him and not of him, the contra diction that there was something prior to the First, and independent of the All-cause. In creating all things he has constituted the elements of all things, not an atom excepted. him and by him they consist and continue to be, and in him they move, and without him they would not move nor be. Is this Pantheism with its chilling tendencies?

Of

If we retain the ordinary notions of nature, with all that the name is used to cover, and conceive that every movement of it is a movement of God, then to our minds he is merged and lost in blind necessities and inexorable laws, and we all are drifting with the current of fate on fragile ice-floats, and the depths of a cold ocean is our destiny.

But if we divest nature's laws of absolute necessity and of automatic power, so that necessities and laws shall appear, not as superior to nor as coördinate with, but as subordinate to God; and acknowledge without reservation his general and particular dominion with universal presence and activity, he then appears to our minds as the center and the dispenser of freedom, light, and life, and of law as well. Thus if there is any gold in pantheism we get it without the dross. Whether the relations of nature and created things to their Author as described, be named by the words intimacy, union, or identity, He nevertheless prevails and appears as a primal and active intelligence. Do we extinguish our individuality, and also that of all the substantial things we see? Our experience has given us the habit of distinguishing between the things we perceive and also between those things and the Creator, and no mental gymnastics will deprive us of the valuable habit.

We have no difficulty in perceiving a distinction for practical purposes between antecedent and consequent, cause and effect, force and product. Yet all that is in the product was in the force; and all that was given to constitute a product remains in it. We may take cognizance of things in their concreteness, and notice their relations and purposes, and give them their names; and we may do quite another thing in making an analysis of them to discover their constituent elements. In these processes there is no contradiction or inconsistency; and it is immaterial how deep and complete the analysis may be. If we shall find that no atom moves and no perceptible thing exists independently of the constructing, sustaining, and present power of the Creator; that He is universally immanent; we will avoid confusion and utter no contradiction if we nevertheless treat created things as distinct from the Creator. If in doing so we fail to convey or to conceive absolute truth, the failure is not peculiar to this case, and it does not occur on account of our choosing to use the word Creator rather than the word force or forces; or choosing the word person or God rather than the word power or protoplasm.

We want a basis which cannot be undermined and from which storm and tide cannot move us. Then let us firmly ad here to the verity of an Omnipotent and Omnipresent Intelligence. Like many familiar facts this great truth transcends human comprehension, but it does not violate human reason. It is a foundation upon which all superstructure of phenomena may rest in stability and symmetry. It is a center toward which all facts of science and all systems of philosophy may converge and in which they may blend. It gives light upon both material and spiritual mysteries. It reveals the source of energy, purpose, method, intellect, and of matter and its developments. No other theory will afford so rational an interpretation of things visible and invisible. It elevates our physical tenements, and gives a response to the longings and an impulse to the aspirations of the soul.

Refusing to admit of even a delegated substitute for Him, we shall be prepared to accept whatever phenomena or potency may be disclosed whether natural or supernatural. While the ordinary courses of His works will be exalted as such, and

admired for their fitness, benignity, beauty, and permanence, yet it will not be inconceivable that a jar, a discord, a miracle may at some point hasten a beneficent process, illustrate the excellence of the ordinary, reveal the hand that moves it, awaken sluggish minds, and make a special call for awe, allegiance and trust. No new nor contravening power is introduced in a miracle. It is extraordinary but not extra-potential. The adoption of the theory of these statements may put aside necessity, law, nature, and matter from the positions they now hold as false gods standing in front and obstructing the view of the Omnipotent One. Then it will be seen that He works perpetually, and not merely at initiation-that he works directly and consistently giving definite promises by established methods, not that he has delegated and surrendered his power to a blind substitute. Under this conception whenever the gentler term of natural consequence is used, it will signify all that is expressed by Almighty fiat, and when His decrees are spoken of it will be an allusion to the effects of causes in their ordinary relations. Whether by special and abrupt construction or by evolution and growth, whatever is produced will be perceived to be the direct effect of His will. We shall be prepared to admit, if true science shall claim it, that wherever conditions arise that are favorable for organism and life, they will appear, and it may be with or without tangible seed. If it be said He causeth the grass to grow for cattle and herb for the service of man-that not a sparrow is forgotten and that even the hairs of your head are numbered-that He maketh small the drops of water-that He made the world and all things therein, and in Him we live and move and have our being, then this will be no hyperbole, but His works will be so recognized and the conviction of His presence will be so vivid that it will not seem extravagant to say He will walk and converse with those who have clean hearts and who will look and listen to Him.

ARTICLE VA-SOME RACE-PROBLEMS IN CHINA.

AN added respect for the aggressive enterprise of our century comes from the thought that some of its reforms have reached China. To Western minds that nation has typified absolute conservatism and lack of progress, guarded by avowed contempt for foreigners and inaccessibility to trade. We of the United States have mustered conceit to look upon our hoary-headed neighbor with feelings of mingled pity and contempt. His vast and highly-favored domains have vulgarly been called breeding-grounds for the multiplication of a repulsive, loose-moraled race of "heathen." In the popular mind China has lately been deemed worthy of notice only because likely to cause annoyance by an overflow of undesirable population, or for possible inducements for trade, or because furnishing a mart for our surplus silver. For the comparative philologist, the ethnologist, the evangelist, however, the "Flowery Kingdom" has suggested far deeper and truer questions, concerning the origin of written language, the rise of the ancient nations, the conquering power of Christianity. An exhaustive discussion of any one of these broad subjects might appropriately be made the life-work of a Napoleon for energy, a Pascal for memory, a Gibbon for acumen, a Schliemann for diligence, and, we are safe in adding, a Methusalah for age. Nothing is farther from our intention than an attempt to pronounce upon these vexed questions of scholarship. Yet it may be possible within the limits of a short article to give a brief resumé of recent events,-of progress, if such has been made, in China. Still more interesting should it prove to mark out the lines within which constitutional, social, and religious changes must occur if the complex machinery which governs them is set at work. The present period seems especially appropriate for the discussion of this general theme, for it has introduced to American readers several recent texts on the condition of China and a greatly enlarged reprint of the standard treatise on the "Middle Kingdom." Written by a