Physical science discloses the fact that the physical universe is constituted and goes on in accordance with unchangeable and universal laws of reason; that its masses, molecules, and forces are ordered and subordinated so that it can be apprehended in the unity of a rational, scientific system; and that in its parts and as a whole it is progressively realizing rational ideals and ends. And it is possible to trace in the physical system a subordination to ends beyond itself in the spiritual or moral system. heavens declare the glory of God; the earth is full of his goodness; all his works are done in truth. Thus in science man glorifies God when he discovers and declares the revelation of God's glory in the universe.

The

God desires to have his name or glory known. It has been explained that God's end in all which he does is not primarily to show himself. His action is not dramatic. It is the acting-out of all which is divine in him; the realizing of the archetype of perfect wisdom and love eternal in himself, the absolute Reason. His action is the energizing of eternal Reason itself, expressing its eternal truth, in accordance with its eternal laws, realizing its eternal ideals of perfection and good. But having created intelligent personal beings, he would have them know him as he really is in the perfection of his power, love, and wisdom. This is implied in his command to men to glorify God. It is explicitly asserted many times in the Bible. This is implied also in the fact that in all his works he is revealing himself. Pre-eminently his redemptive action in human history, culminating in Christ and his Holy Spirit, is his revelation of himself to men. This fact, that he desires men to know his glory, is not inconsistent with the doctrine of God's doing all things for himself, his own name or glory, as it has been explained, but is a necessary inference from

The universe is constituted in accordance with the principles and laws of reason eternal in God, and for the realization of its rational ends. Therefore finite rational beings can have no true knowledge of themselves and of the universe in which they live except as they know God and see his name or glory revealed in themselves and the universe. Their true well-being is possible only as they know God and their dependence on him; as thus dependent they rest on him in loving trust, and come into harmony with him as revealed in his perfect wisdom and love and with the universe in the constitution and evolution of which his

perfections are revealed. Therefore it is his infinite love which prompts him to reveal himself to man. And so Jesus says: "This is life eternal, that they should know thee, the only true God, and him whom thou hast sent, even Jesus Christ."

THE doctrine of God's end in creation, as explained in the last preceding chapter, is the basis for the doctrine of God's government of the universe. The clearing of that doctrine from prevalent misapprehensions and from the consequent difficulties and confusion of thought, gives us a basis for a clear statement of the doctrine of God's government, free from the misapprehensions commonly attending its discussion, and therefore not open to the objections usually urged against it. The true knowledge of God's government depends also on right conceptions of human personality, of free will as related to reason, and of moral character as related to free will. Inexactness of language, indefiniteness of thought, and erroneous opinions on these subjects have occasioned a large part of the perplexities and difficulties common in the discussion of the government of God, and of the objections and disbelief occasioned by it. In another volume1 I have presented the real significance of personality, of free will, of moral character in its relation to free will, and of moral responsibility, moral government, and the moral system. Those views, if accepted, give precision of thought and language in discussing the universal government of God, relieve us of much of the perplexity and difficulty attending it, and from misapprehensions and confusion of thought on which the force of the objections depends.

1 The Philosophical Basis of Theism, chaps. viii., xv., and xvi.

Starting with correct and definite views on these fundamental points, we may hope to pass through, or rather above, the labyrinthine perplexities commonly attending the investigation of God's universal government, into a clear and satisfactory knowledge of it. There will remain only the mystery always inseparable from the action and revelation of the absolute and infinite Being in the conditioned and finite.

The subject of this chapter is God's government in its generic meaning.

I. DEFINITION. In popular language, God's government of the universe is his management or control of it. More fully defined, God's government of the universe is his action in and through it, continuously and progressively revealing and expressing his perfections and realizing the ends of his perfect wisdom and love.

In this conception of God's government the physical universe is no longer regarded as a finished product, like an iron casting, which can be changed only by being broken. But God's power is plastic in it, developing it to higher forms and through successive epochs. It is like a living and growing organism. The living power of God is progressively guiding its development to the realization of its ideal, as the life in a tree guides all the mechanical and chemical energies in it to the realization of its ideal. And as trees die and decay after dropping the seeds of numberless new growths, so particular solar systems, after they have accomplished their ends in subordination to the moral and spiritual system, may be resolved into nebulous matter and evolved into new suns and planets. But God always directs and governs the majestic processes, progressively revealing in them his own perfections, and realizing the ends of his wisdom and love.

It was the theory of "the illustrious Malebranche" that we see all things in God; and he presented this as the fundamental explanation of the mathematical laws of the elementary impact of solid bodies. Of this theory Comte says: "When such a genius in an age so enlightened has been unable finally to conceive of any other real means of explaining a probable theory but by formally recurring to the continuous activity of a direct and special providence, such a verification ought without doubt to render utterly undeniable the inevitable tendency of our intelli

gence towards a philosophy radically theological, whenever we would penetrate, under any title whatever, to the inmost nature of phenomena, following therein the general disposition which necessarily characterizes all our primitive speculations.' 1 Philosophy from ancient times has recognized the fact that rational ideas and principles underlie all physical forms and combinations; it declares that physical science depends for its existence as science on self-evident principles of reason regulating all thought; and that its necessary postulate is that the universe is pervaded and ordered by reason the same in kind with the reason of man, and regulated by the same principles and laws. Physical science itself is the science which the mind of man finds expressed and revealed in the physical universe; it discovers and declares that the physical universe is constituted and arranged along lines and principles of thought which man finds in his own mind as constituent of his own reason, and which, as postulated in all scientific knowledge of the universe, must be ultimately referred to God, the absolute Reason. In this sense it is true that we see all things in God. And now physical science is teaching also that the universe was not merely at its origin arranged along these rational lines and principles and finished in an original act of creation; but that it is continuously evolving along the same lines in the progressive realization of rational ideas and ends. Accordingly, the history of human thought and the progress of civilization are continuously disclosing the fact and confirming the belief that the tendency of the human mind, from the time of the primitive men till now, to find the supernatural in the natural is the result of the primitive and constituent intuitions of human reason; and that the true knowledge of the universe is possible only as it is recognized as the revelation of God, the absolute and eternal Reason. The doctrine of God's universal government recognizes and declares this immanence of God in the universe, realizing in its progressive development the archetypal ideals of his own wisdom and love.

When we think of the universe as dependent on God for its being and continuance, we call him its creator and preserver. When we think of him as acting in and through it in the accomplishment of the purpose of his wisdom and love, we call him its ruler, governor, sovereign, or Lord. But we cannot understand

1 Philosophie Positive, vol. iv. pp. 663, 664.