What, then, have we found respecting the seductive and too fashionable illusion which has led astray so many minds, especially of speculative, restless, and daring intelligence, in the present age? We have found that Pantheism is essentially only atheism in disguise, and occupies a position in which it combines against itself the arguments which theists have to allege against atheism, and atheists against theism; that, while it dethrones the true God, it sets up in His place Development and Natural Selection as its divinities, clothing them with the attributes which it denies to deity; that its development hypothesis will not bear the test of science, of the natural science to which it professes to appeal; that the origin of protoplasm, the attributes of man, and the growth and transformation of germ-cells, alike refuse to accord with the hypothesis; that the very nature of science itself, as recognizing law and organization, is incompatible with any philosophy which denies theism; that the moral difficulties which rise up as a barrier against a denial of the Christian theism are no less insurmountable than the metaphysical and scientific difficulties; that morality, conscience, natural affection, immortal hope, every deepest, most tender and sacred, most blessed and humanising, instinct of our nature is violated by the denial of a personal and holy God and Judge; in a word, that our whole humanity revolts against it. May I venture to hope that the views which I have now endeavoured to set forth may have some weight with young and inquiring spirits? No more terrible suffering can there be, than for an honest, loving, and virtuous nature to become involved in the meshes of pantheistic doubt and unbelief. We must make up our minds to bear with many profound and painful mysteries which are not to be solved by man; but may the good Spirit of God save us each and all from losing our childlike faith in His almighty, omnipresent, and absolutely good and holy government and providence! POSITIVISM. BY THE REV. W. JACKSON, M.A., F.S.A., LATE FELLOW OF WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD. POSITIVISM. Everybody in this room has, I suppose, heard of the "positive" sciences, or "Positivism" in some shape or other. What does "Positivism" mean? A system based on _positive_ facts. But what are facts? They are (says the Positivist) observed phenomena. As for metaphysical conceptions of all sorts, these are _negatives_ with nothing real, nothing positively true in them. Truth must be sought amongst observed phenomena. It is worth our while to examine this last proposition. Take a "_phenomenon_." You have all observed colour,--what is it? A physicist, if you ask him, will tell you of a modification in a ray of light variously produced--by refraction, for example--as when sunlight breaks a dark cloud into many-tinted beauty. But how if all the world of men and animals were blind?