o you say the cause is in the influence of
other planets? Well, suppose, for the sake of the argument, we admit it,
are we then through with the problem? No. We have only moved the
difficulty one step backward. We can see how one billiard ball may set
another in motion, but it is only thinkable upon the supposition that
there was an agent behind the ball which put the second ball in motion.
What put the first ball in motion? Did it put itself in motion? No. The
law is this: A body must remain forever at rest without some external
agency to put it in motion. Now, you step out from our planet to its
nearest neighbor, and from thence to the next, and so on till you get to
the furthest limits of matter--carry along with you the idea that one
planet has put another in motion until you arrive at the last one
thinkable, and then ask yourself this question: Is inertia a property of
matter here? Is the law of motion, already quoted, a law of motion here?
If it is, then, of necessity, science demands an agent outside of planets,
or behind the whole of them, to put them in motion, and to control them
while in motion in order to carry them forward in _circles_--do you see?
"But the fool says in his heart there is no God."

THE INCONSISTENCY OF MODERN UNBELIEVERS OR MATERIALISTS.

The materialistic unbeliever is necessarily bound up in a contradiction
from which there is no escape short of a denial of the eternity of matter,
space and duration, on the one hand, or a denial of the materialistic
philosophy, upon the other.

His reasoning is this: Space exists. I know it exists. I can't set bounds
to space, therefore it is infinite.

Matter exists. I know it exists. I can't annihilate matter, therefore
matter is eternal.

Duration is. I know it is. I can't set limits to it; therefore duration is
infinite.

Now, it is easy to discover that the conclusion in each case rests upon
two thoughts. First, Conscious knowledge expressed in the phrase "I know."
Secondly, Want of power to set bounds to space, to limit duration and
annihilate matter.

The other and contrary side is brought up in the following arrangement:
Mind exists. I know it exists. I can't set limits to mind; therefore mind
is infinite, mind is eternal.

Life exists. I can't comprehend or set limits to life; therefore life is
infinite, life is eternal.

The time was when there was no life or mind associated with or in matter,
the matter belonging to our pla