I apprehend the INFINITE ONE. You talk about
infinite space, infinite duration, infinite substance. Yes, and I talk
about infinite life, infinite power and infinite mind. We all know there
are infinities in existence. We apprehend them, knowing enough about them
for all practical life purposes. You talk about the infinities known in
science, and I talk about the infinities known in religion. After all our
reasoning may it not be true that mind is infinite in its capacities? May
it not, in the future, comprehend many things which are now
incomprehensible? My increase of knowledge, consequent upon the capacities
of my mind, enables me to comprehend a great deal that I could not
comprehend a few years ago. If I could not have apprehended those things
prior to comprehending them, I never would have learned enough about them
to comprehend them. I always apprehend a thing, know it is, before I begin
to investigate it. Now, I know God, but I do not comprehend him. He is too
great in his majesty for my present knowledge. I may never comprehend him,
still I apprehend him and know enough for all practical life purposes. I
believe that I shall know a great deal more about him in the future; yes,
more even in this life, if I am only faithful in "going on to know the
Lord."
MATERIALISM IN ITS BEARINGS UPON PERSON AND PERSONALITY.
Personality is individuality, existing in itself, but with a nature as its
ground.--_Coleridge._
Paley says: The seat of intellect is a person.
Lock says: Person stands for a thinking, intelligent being, that has
reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, ... which it
does only by that consciousness which is inseparable from thinking, and as
it seems to me essential to it, it being impossible for any one to
perceive without perceiving that he does perceive.
Henry Taylor says: The quality of intelligence is essential in order to
person. That which is not intelligent we call a thing, and that which is
intelligent we call a person. By the word person we therefore mean a thing
or substance that is intelligent, or a conscious being; including in the
word the idea both of the substance and its properties together.
Oldfield says: Person is a subsisting substance or "_suppositum_," endued
with reason as a man is, that is capable of religion.
Thompson says: Person as, applied to Deity, expresses the definite and
certain truth that God is a living being and not a dead material e
|