all, if we were to learn to-morrow that the so-called element had been
resolved. Such a fact is an example of what is stated in the text; and a
belief based on the absolute and unchangeable stability of such a fact
would not be unassailable. But none of the above stated instances of
"dead-lock" in evolution are within "measurable distance" of being
resolved.]




CHAPTER II.


_THE ELEMENT OF FAITH IN CREATION._

In the extract placed on the title-page, the author of the Epistle
clearly places our conclusion that God "established the order of
creation"--the lines, plans, developmental-sequences, aims, and objects,
that the course of creation has hitherto pursued and is still
ceaselessly pursuing,[1] in the category of _faith_.

Of course, from one point of view--very probably that of the writer of
the Epistle--this conclusion is argued by the consideration that the
human mind forms no distinct conception of the formation of solid--or
any other form of--matter _in vacuo_, where nothing previously existed.
And what the mind does not find within its own power, but what yet _is
true_ in the larger spiritual kingdom beyond itself, is apprehended by
the spiritual faculty of _faith_.