how things are_; it answers the question, _how is it_?
There is nothing in which we are more interested than we are in the _how
is it_? Let us not ruin philosophy; consciousness is her foundation with
us; for in order to knowledge there must be primary and intuitive beliefs;
the man who has no faith in his own ability to see truth, when it is
presented through the medium of the senses, will never come to any
definite conclusions about any thing. So mind is innate, and lies in
consciousness, or self-hood, and is at the bottom of all our knowledge;
otherwise we would not, and could not, be men.

Mind is above matter, and virtue and morals are above both in their
results. The certainties are not all confined to physical nature, and
hence science should not be. Personality and the freedom of the will,
possessed in consciousness, are as certain as any facts in the physical
world. Truth, justice, right and wrong are equally certain.

WAS IT POSSIBLE?

The miracle of the sun and the moon standing still in the days of Joshua
is urged as contrary to the philosophy of nature, and therefore untrue.
That which is simply above the ordinary is not necessarily contrary to the
ordinary. The objection is without value until it be proven that there is
no God; for it is in his power to control the planets. Otherwise he is not
omnipotent. On this very account, it is true, that there is no consistent
ground between Christianity and atheism; for the moment we admit the
existence of God, that moment we concede the existence of the power
adequate to the accomplishment of all the miracles of the Bible. Joshua
went to the aid of the Gibeonites against the confederate kings; went up
to Gilgal _all night_, and came instantaneously upon the enemy; having
thrown them into confusion with great slaughter, and chased them from
Gibeon to Beth-horon, in a westerly direction, the Lord co-operating in
their destruction by a great hail-storm, which slew more than the swords
of the Israelites, but touched not the Israelites. In this situation of
things the sun appears over Gibeon eastward and the moon over Ajalon
westward. When Joshua saw it, moved by a grand impulse, he said: "_Sun_,
stand thou still over Gibeon; and thou, moon, over the valley of Ajalon."
See Joshua 10: 1 to 28.

The entire machinery of nature is no more in the hands of an Omnipotent
God than a clock or watch in the hands of a man. How absurd it is for a
man, who believes in G