In  speaking  of  God  as  the  Incomprehensible,
we  are  asserting  a  great  truth,  which  is  needed
to  deepen  our  awe  and  to  aid  our  worship.  We
are  apt  to  be  superficial  in  our  thought  and  speech
about  God,  and  to  produce  in  others  the  impres
sion  that  we  have  an  exactitude  of  knowledge


32  Some  Thoughts  on

which  serious  thinkers  feel  to  be  inconsistent
with  the  mysteriousness  of  the  Divine  Being.
The  natural  reaction  from  this  irreverent  temper
of  our  minds  is  seen  in  such  a  form  of  belief
as  has  been  expressed  by  that  remarkable  man
whose  long  and  strenuous  life  has  just  reached  its
close.
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  systematic  survey  of
all  objects  of  knowledge  or  of  thought,  was  led
to  postulate  an  "  Unknown  Reality "  as  the  First
Cause  of  all  phenomena.  He  firmly  believed,
if  I  understand  his  position  aright,  in  the  exist
ence  of  this  ultimate  Cause  ;  but  he  believed  also
that  it  lay  beyond  our  knowledge,  and  so  he
named  it  "the  Unknowable."  He  differed  from
us  in  his  inability  to  believe  that  the  First  Cause
had  chosen  to  reveal  itself  under  conditions  which
rendered  some  measure  of  human  knowledge
possible.  We  hold  that  God,  who  in  many
portions  and  in  many  fashions  spoke  to  men
of  old,  at  last  revealed  Himself  yet  more  mani
festly  in  His  Son,  that  so  we  might  learn  some
necessary  lessons  of  His  Being  and  His  Character.
