The Greeks used the word "epistasin" to express the idea that we express
by the word science. Our word means certain knowledge. Theirs was
understood to mean "coming to a stand," from "epi," upon, and "staseo,"
to stand. Science takes account of phenomenon and seeks its law. When
you apprehend a phenomenon and discover its law you have accomplished
all that the term indicates, even though you fail to comprehend the whys
and wherefores of the law. "Certain knowledge," this phrase indicates
limitation. All that it demands is that you know that which you profess
to know. It therefore follows that the word "science" is equally
applicable to the comprehensible and incomprehensible. The word is from
"scio," _I know_. As men's knowledge, in the present state, at least, is
limited, so science, as presented by man, is also limited; but, as men
are progressive beings, science and the sciences may increase, adding
more and more of truth. There are, however, shores beyond which science
will never carry us, but on the contrary will leave us to settle down,
to rest forever in content or discontent, just as we choose.
The modern hypothesis of materialistic unbelievers is that there is but
one substance in the universe, and that is matter. If this be so, then
all knowledge pertains to matter, and when you have reasoned yourself to
the last element known, or knowable, in physical analysis, which will be
the point of departure as well as your ultimate truth behind which you
can not go, then, of course, you are where you must rest satisfied or
dissatisfied; you have come to the Rubicon beyond which you will never
pass. The mere physicist finds, as a legitimate result of his hypothesis
of but one substance, his rest in the ultimate of eternal matter and
blind force. The Christian, recognizing spiritual substance also, finds
his ultimate or resting place in God, who is the last element in vital
and mental analysis, and also the Christian's starting point in his
inductive reasonings. We realize that scientific knowledge is
profitable, even in the field of matter, but if we refuse to science any
domain above matter she will lead us to the dust of the grave, there to
forsake us forever amid its gloom and sorrow. Here Colonel Ingersoll's
"night birds"--for angels he has no use--move with "rustling of wings."
When such men reason themselves back to the germ cells and sperm cells,
and stand there upon the last element in the analysis of the human body,
they are not able to take another step until they acknowledge the
existence of spiritual substance as matters master, which ever was, and
is above matter, which takes hold of matter and builds germ cells and
sperm cells and inhabits them, as the inherent fore which superintends
the building, differentiating the species, and determining the sex.
Ask the unbeliever, the materialist, what this vital principle is, and
he answers: "It is the all-pervading force that is modified by the
organic structure." That is, in his philosophy, the "vital force is
produced by the organism," and the "organism is produced by the vital
principle?" So, being at the last limit of the physical analysis of the
organic being, he is involved in a contradiction, while the Christian
who believes in a spiritual substance refers all to spirit, and claims a
continuation of his identity as an intelligent spirit, resting in his
ultimate or starting point, viz: God. Do you say I am lost in God? Well,
to be thus lost in God is to be saved from corruption and from the dust
of the grave; but to be lost in the dust of the grave and in the
ceaseless changes of matter is to be lost to God and to spiritual being.
Let me be with God rather than lost amid the dark waves of oblivion.
Has science no prerogatives above the physical? Tread lightly here; you
might step on holy ground. Do you use the old cry that all outside of
matter belongs to the "unknown" and "unknowable?" Exchange the terms for
the terms the "uncomprehended" and the "incomprehensible," and we will
walk side by side. We know many things which we do not comprehend. Do we
comprehend all that belongs to the physical sciences? Do we comprehend
matter? I know that I know, but do I comprehend that knowledge? If I
should say I know the unknowable, I am guilty of a contradiction in
language. Do you say matter is infinite? Can I comprehended the
infinite? If science be that certain knowledge which is the equivalent
of comprehension, then one of two things is true: First, there is no
such thing as physical science; or, secondly, I may have certain
knowledge of the infinite--may comprehend the infinite. How is this?
Where is the difficulty? It is here: the knowledge which constitutes
science is not necessarily that knowledge which is the equivalent of
the comprehension of the thing known. Hence the incomprehensible is not
to be excluded from the field of scientific investigation. If matter be
infinite, and if it belongs to the field of scientific knowledge, then
the infinite and incomprehensible belong, also, to the domain of
scientific investigation. If the infinite can not be comprehended,
matter can not be comprehended, and if all that can not be comprehended
should be dismissed from scientific investigation, then matter should be
dismissed.
In physical science we know the vital force exists which builds the germ
and sperm cells, but we do not comprehend it. If you ask physical
science to explain this invisible force or power, she will say,
Gentlemen, I have given you an introduction to this wonderful builder;
you see it is there at the threshold of organic being, but I can not
tell you why it is there, nor what its properties are; if it has any,
they are outside of my domain. I deal with matter. You must ask at the
gate of the unseen, ask the science of the spiritual, the mental and
vital. I am in wonderful contrast with mind, with life also. I am
inertia. Some of my votaries have tried to give you the answer which you
so much desire. They have said, "It is the all-pervading force which was
lying away back in the antechambers of eternity." Have said, "It was
burdened with a universe of worlds." Have said, "It was destitute of
personality." Have said, "It was not, and is not, an intelligence." Have
said, "It was without will, purpose or desire." Have said, "All beauty,
harmony and order were its results." Have also said, "It was," away back
in the ages past, groaning and heaving, travailing, in great anxiety to
be delivered. Speaking of it in the light of "natural selection," they
have deified it, giving to it all the mental operations of an
intelligent, living God. On this account some of my lovers are
Pantheists. They deify nature; deify everything, and call it all God. A
few ignorant Christians, on this very account, are ready to give up
their warfare with Pantheists. But the battle is not won because the
word "God" is pronounced; for sober reason says, If nature is _all_
God, she is _a_ God, who is no God; or a nature without a God, just as
you choose to express it. After all, it remains an axiom, that "you can
not get more out of a thing than there is in it." So, of necessity,
there must be, somewhere in this universe, _Eternal life and mind_.
Reader, "how readest thou?"