Page:Miscellaneous Writings.djvu/243

Rh True idealism is a divine Science, which combines in logical sequence, nature, reason, and revelation. An effect without a cause is inconceivable; neither philosophy nor reason attempts to find one; but all should conceive and understand that Spirit cannot become less than Spirit; hence that the universe of God is spiritual, — even the ideal world whose cause is the self-created Principle, with which its ideal or phenomenon must correspond in quality and quantity.

The fallacy of an unscientific statement is this: that matter and Spirit are one and eternal; or, that the phenomenon of Spirit is the antipode of Spirit, namely, matter. Nature declares, throughout the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, that the specific nature of all things is unchanged, and that nature is constituted of and by Spirit.

Sensuous and material realistic views presuppose that nature is matter, and that Deity is a finite person containing infinite Mind; and that these opposites, in suppositional unity and personality, produce matter, — a third quality unlike God. Again, that matter is both cause and effect, but that the effect is antagonistic to its cause; that death is at war with Life, evil with good, — and man a rebel against his Maker. This is neither Science nor theism. According to Holy Writ, it is a kingdom divided against itself, that shall be brought to desolation.

The nature of God must change in order to become matter, or to become both finite and infinite; and matter must disappear, for Spirit to appear. To the material sense, everything is matter; but spiritualize human thought, and our convictions change: for spiritual sense