On "Natural Law in the Spiritual World".A. Gardner, 1885 - 67 pages |
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ab extra according Agnostic Agnosticism analogy apostles appeal to experience application of natural apply argument assertion beauty of character benevolent sympathies biological law biologist bird bird-germ bridgeless gulf capacity of acting cerned chapter on Biogenesis character of spiritual Christ Christ-life Christian confessed Conformity to Type crystal dead souls decided and necessary deny distinct new thing distinction of natural divine doctrine Drum Drummond's book flesh God's Herbert Spencer idea illustration Incarnation inorganic kind kinetic energy kingdom law of biogenesis law of nature means ment mind mond moral animal mysterious natural and spiritual natural law necessary limits nescience never outermost circle pantheism Paul perfect correspondence physical determination physicist Plato principle of continuity protoplasm regenerate relation religion reverent spirit scientific scientific method simply speaking spiritual facts spiritual sphere spiritual world spiritually organic surely teaches tells thing added tion torpid truth vironment virtuous word
Popular passages
Page 20 - ... and illuminated as to enable us to see and feel the very molecules of the brain ; were we capable of following all their motions, all their groupings, all their electric discharges, if such there be ; and were we intimately acquainted with the corresponding states of thought and feeling, we should be as far as ever from the solution of the problem, " How are these physical processes connected with the facts of consciousness ? " The chasm between the two classes of phenomena would still remain...
Page 58 - ... perfect correspondence would be perfect life. Were there no changes in the environment but such as the organism had adapted changes to meet ; and were it never to fail in the efficiency with which it met them ; there would be eternal existence and universal knowledge.
Page 16 - No man can study modern Science without a change coming over his view of truth. What impresses him about Nature is its solidity. He is there standing upon actual things, among fixed laws. And the integrity of the scientific method so seizes him that all other forms of truth begin to appear comparatively unstable. He did not know before that any form of truth could so hold him; and the immediate effect is to lessen his interest in all that stands on other bases.
Page 27 - The plant stretches down to the dead world beneath it, touches its minerals and gases with its mystery of Life, and brings them up ennobled and transformed to the living sphere. The breath of God, blowing where it listeth, touches with its mystery of Life the dead souls of men, bears them across the bridgeless gulf between the natural and the spiritual, between the spiritually inorganic and the spiritually organic, endows them with its own high qualities, and develops within them these new and secret...
Page 51 - As it is impossible to think of a limit to space so as to exclude the idea of space lying outside that limit ; so we cannot conceive...
Page 36 - What goes on, then, in the animal kingdom is this : The Bird-life seizes upon the bird-germ, and builds it up into a bird, the image of itself. The Reptile-life seizes upon another germinal speck, assimilates surrounding matter, and fashions it into a reptile. The Reptile-life thus simply makes an incarnation of itself ; the visible bird is simply an incarnation of the invisible Bird-life.
Page 19 - It thus appears that, assuming the existence of a Supreme Governor of the universe, the principle of Continuity may be said to be the definite expression in words of a trust that He will not put us to permanent intellectual confusion, and we can easily conceive similar expressions of trust with reference to the other faculties of man.
Page 34 - There being no passage from one Kingdom to another, whether from inorganic to organic, or from organic to spiritual, the intervention of Life is a scientific necessity if a stone or a plant or an animal or a man is to pass from a lower to a higher sphere. The plant stretches down to the dead world...
Page 24 - Man is a moral animal, and can, and ought to, arrive at great natural beauty of character. But this is simply to obey the law of his nature — the law of his flesh ; and no progress along that line can project him into the spiritual sphere. If any one choose to claim that the mineral beauty, the fleshly beauty, the natural moral beauty, is all he covets, he is entitled to his claim. To be good and true, pure and benevolent in the moral sphere, are high and, so far, legitimate objects of life.
Page 38 - The end of Salvation is perfection, the Christlike mind, character and life. Morality is on the way to this perfection ; it may go a considerable distance towards it, but it can never reach it. Only Life can do that.