Page:Genesis I-II- (IA genesisiii00grot).pdf/92

Theism and Atheism, as impossible of proof is disproof, we seem to see the outcome of humanity on these final questions. It must be conceded that, while the question of the existence of an Unknown God is an open one, and cannot receive positive proof or disproof, Matter and Force are sufficient basis for all that we perceive with the senses, and that all of which we are conscious is brought about by Force and Matter; whether these are essentially different, but in reality correlated, or whether their correlation must be taken as proof of their identity.

The nerve and brain forces being constantly improved and heightened by the lapse of time and the process of Evolution, there has already come a period when the understanding of both ourselves and Nature is more perfect. In one view the reason why our brain pictures of the exterior world were defective, was that they were incorrectly perceived. During the growth of the brain it could not be otherwise. The feeders of the brain, such as the eye and ear, vary in the extent of their mechanical perfection and range throughout organized beings. A little consideration will show that it must take much time and many lives before the brain of man receives the full benefit of the increased capacity of its feeders.

All history assents in a startling manner to the process of evolution. The progress in Art, and Science, and Morals is attested on every hand, so that it becomes at last self-evident. It is not surprising, then, that those who thing deeply should ask the outcome of present issues, and should endeavor to place themselves in the middle stream of human thought, so that they may be carried farthest from its feeble beginnings. The incomplete, blind, and broken live, born of ignorance and which we cannot fail to notice, should remind us that we are all more or less open to the same fate. At every winding and corner we should be careful, lest what we think is our proper, end in a closed passage, a fatal beach on which we may be hopelessly wrecked. As we sail on, watchfully, let us cheer ourselves with the hope that beyond us lies a goal of perfect happiness for humanity, and that out of our own efforts and experiences has sprung the possibility of its attainment.