THE UNIVERSE INSTRUCTED.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3933, 27 February 1884, Page 4

THE UNIVERSE INSTRUCTED.

Mr. Herbert Spencer has written a review, an ossay, or an article of some kind, entitled " Religious Retrospect and Prospect," and which, we aro told, was written with the intention that it should be published simultaneously in several parts of the world, and, if we recollect aright, in more than one language. Proof-sheets of this uiticlo, with corrections in Mr. Spencer's handwriting, were sent to Sir George Grey, by wiiom they wore given to the New Zealand Herald, and our contemporary has bcou tho first paper in New Zealand to publish the all-important document. And the pains taken by the author in this matter, provo that he attributes a vast importance to his article, and expects somo commensurate results to ensue from its publication, either to his own advantage or to that of the readers, whoso numbers ho had done so much to make as large as possible. Nevertheless, it is difficult to sec how, at least, any great good is to accrue tomankind in general—for to such an end it seems evident Mr Spcncor aspires—by the study of an article which concluded with an assuranco to us that tho mystery in which the universe is now wrapped will only bccoincintensified by tho progross of mankind, and that tho more tho faculties of man become dovolopeci, the more he will wonder—without understanding the more ; his sole certainty beiny that he is " ever in presence of an Infinite and Eternal Energy, from which all things 2n*ocecd," and that, for the most part, we should say must be already plain to him, Mr Spencer, however, in this article, continues to interpret the Christian creed according to his own pouulitir canon, and predicts its declino rather from the defects of his own philosophy than from any necessary element of decay in Christianity itself. He tells us, for example, that tho belief must die out that a " Power present in innumerable worlds throughout infinite space, and who, during millions of ywirs of the earth's earlier oxistence, needed no honoring by its inhabitants, should bo seized with a craving for praiso; and having created mankind, should be angry with them if they do not perpetually tell Him how great He is." But here also wo find a trace of that anthropomorphic God, who, as Father Clarke has well shown us in the Month, is Mr Spencer's solo imaginary deity, and who is " tied down to tho conditions of the transient creatures ho has made." " God does not exist in time," continues the writer, " the eternity of God is no more time raised to an infinite power than tho lovo of God is human love raised to infinity. Time implies change, and God cannot change. Time implies succession, and in God there is no succession of months, or days, or years. Time implies movement, and while God's existence is one of tho most intense activity, it is at the same timo one of the most perfect repose. In timo there is a past, and present, and futuro, and for God there is no past, no present, no future. Time is the measure of the existence of created things, it varies with their nature, even in ourselves it is affected not a little by tho circumstances and the condition of our body and mind

.... Time is something relative not absolute, and as in God all is absolute, time has no meaning in respect ot His existence. God does not exist in timo—no, not iv infinite time. Ho is abovo all time, and before all time, and beyond, all time. The existence of God is au existence which contains in itsolf all temporal existences, but it bolongs altogether to a different order of being. It contains them, but under a higher form, and freed from their created imperfections. It contains all that is truo in them, all that is good, all that is perfect, but it does not contain those necessary limitations which aro the result of their coming into being in time and belonging to the temporal order. It contains them in something the same way as the intelligence' of a man contains the intelligence of some one of tho lower animals ; there is nothing which they possess which he does not possess, but ho is freed from the limits which their nature as brutes imposes upon them. So in the existence of Him who was and is, and is to come, there is contained (virtually and eminently, as thcologiaus say,) all lower forms of existence, but His existence is not confined and hampered by thoso conditions of timo which confine and hamper the creatures He has made." It is evident, then, that Mr Spencer does not deal with tho God of Catholic theology, and that, in predicting the fall of a system he has himself imugined, he talks to no purpose. The Catholic Chinch knows nothing of a God seized after a million of years with a "craving for praise," and all other Christian systems aro but shadows, more or less mutilated or distorted, of that of the Catholic Church. But since Mr Spencer knows of an Energy from which all things proceed let him explain how it is more credible that, after not millions of years but an eternity, thero could proceed from that Energy the material universe, that mankind ahould after millions of years bo called upon to tho faculties that their Creator had given them, and for their own perfection, His praise... If this implies a change in the God of the Christian, surely tho changes in tho material universe imply a change as great in the Energy of which Mr Spencer speaks.—N.Z, Tablet.