The author has to acknowledge many obligations to his friend, Dr. Bernard Moses, for material aid rendered in getting this work through the press. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, _July, 1875_. CONTENTS. Page CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM STATED 13 CHAPTER II. GOD THE CREATOR 27 CHAPTER III. THE CREATION 56 CHAPTER IV. CREATION.--THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING 97 CHAPTER V. CREATION: ITS HISTORY 127 CHAPTER VI. CONSERVATION.--THE RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD 172 CHAPTER VII. CONSERVATION.--THE RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD 202 CHAPTER VIII. PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY.--THE RELATION OF GOD TO HUMANITY 244 CHAPTER IX. SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER 292 CHAPTER X. MORAL GOVERNMENT.--ITS GROUNDS, THE CORRELATION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN 344 CHAPTER XI. MORAL GOVERNMENT.--ITS NATURE, CONDITION, METHOD, AND END 366 "To such readers as have reflected on man's life; who understand that for man's well-being Faith is properly the one thing needful; how with it martyrs, otherwise weak, can cheerfully endure the shame and the cross; and without it worldlings puke up their sick existence by suicide in the midst of luxury: to such it will be clear that for a pure moral nature, the loss of religious belief is the loss of every thing. "All wounds, the crush of long-continued destitution, the stab of false friendship and of false love, all wounds in thy so genial heart, would have healed again had not its life-warmth been withdrawn. "Well mayest thou exclaim, 'Is there no God, then; but at best an absentee God, sitting idle, ever since the first Sabbath, at the outside of his universe and seeing it go?' 'Has the word Duty no meaning; is what we call Duty no Divine messenger and guide, but a false earthly phantasm made up of desire and fear?' 'Is the heroic inspiration we name Virtue but some passion; some bubble of the blood, bubbling in the direction others profit by?' I know not; only this I know, If what thou namest Happiness be our true aim, then are we all astray. 'Behold, thou art fatherless, outcast, and the universe is--the Devil's.'"--CARLYLE. THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM STATED.