s of sudden death, or death
from lightning are brought in by jurors as "died by the visitation of
God." Which seems to show that a visit from God is a certain calamity.

The time will come, of course, when all this nonsense about "the act of
God" will disappear. But it will only dissappear because real belief in
God is dying. While men are sincere Theists they cannot help seeing God
in the unexpected and the calamitous. That is how theology began, and
that is how it must continue while it has a spark of vitality. But
theology declines as knowledge increases. Our dread of the unknown
diminishes as we gain command over the forces of nature; that is, our
dread of the unknown diminishes as we turn it into the _known_.

"The act of God" is to be frustrated by Science. We cannot prevent
storms, but we are growing more able to foresee them. We cannot prevent
the angry waves from rising, but we can build ships to defy their
fiercest wrath. We cannot prevent mist from ascending in certain
conditions of sky and soil, but we can drain low-lying ground, and
prevent the mist from being fatally charged with smoke. We cannot
abolish the microbes with which our planet swarms, and if we could we
should be surrounded with intolerable putrifaction; but we can observe
the laws of public and private sanitation, maintain a high state of
vitality, and make ourselves practically invulnerable.

Science is the instrument for achieving the triumph of man. Ultimately
it will subdue the planet for us, and we shall be able to exclaim with
Mr. Swinburne, "Glory to man in the highest, for man is the master
of things." The paradise the theologians dream of will be realised on
earth. We shall not abolish death, but we shall make life strong, rich,
and glorious, and when death comes it will bring no terror, but rest and
peace in the shadow of its wings.

Meanwhile "the act of God" will to some extent survive in the mental
life of the multitude. All prayer is based upon this superstition. Those
who pray for relief or exemption from storm, famine, or disease; those
who pray to be preserved from "battle, murder, and sudden death"; those
who pray to be saved from any evil, are, all praying against "the act of
God." It is God who is sending the mischief, and therefore he is
begged to take it away or pass it on to other persons. Hamburg would be
grateful to God even if he transferred the cholera to Berlin. Thus do
ignorance and selfishness go hand in hand;