The Knowledge of God 33 Senses; that is, of Natural Science, which reaches its con clusions on the evidence of the physical senses. This rules out faith, which is the sixth sense divinely given to men for the apprehension of spiritual truths. To undertake to solve any of the great problems which have to do with our spiritual life by the testimony of the finger tips is to have one’s labor for one’s pains; since, in the nature of the case, “spiritual things are spiritually discerned”. To undertake to grasp a spiritual fact by the physical senses is as preposterous as it would be to insist on seeing with the ears or hearing with the eyes. Faith is not credulity, nor is it unsubstantial, nor is it believing without evidence. On the contrary, it is both substantial and evidential: only it is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. To refuse to exercise this sixth sense or power of spiritual apprehension is to shut oneself out for ever from the possibility of apprehending God or any of the great, intangible, but real truths which center in Him. Yet we are constantly hearing, in certain quarters, of the importance of pursuing our theological studies “by the scien tific method”. With what result? “We have a world of facts”, they say, “and from these facts, by the inductive process, we must arrive at our conclusions”. It is like an example in Algebra: God is the unknown term; let this be expressed by “x” : the problem then is to resolve “x” into known terms by the use of a multitude of seen and tangible facts. Can it be done ? Go on and pursue your researches along the lines of evolution, until back of cosmos you come to chaos, and back of chaos to the nebula, and back of the nebula to the primordial germ; and that last infinitesimal atom will look up at you with the old question on its lips, as loud as ever and involving a problem as deep as when you began, “Whence came I ?” What is your answer ? God ? Call it “God” if you please; in fact, however, it is simply an impersonal indefinable, inescapable something or other which, for lack of a better
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