them, is to set them right here and there,
when they go intolerably wrong. We shall believe not merely in an over-
ruling Providence, but (if I may dare to coin a word) in an under-ruling
one, which has fixed for mankind eternal laws of life, health, growth,
both physical and spiritual; in an around-ruling Providence, likewise, by
which circumstances, that which stands around a man, are perpetually
arranged, it may be, are fore-ordained, so that each law shall have at
least an opportunity of taking effect on the right person, in the right
time and place; and in an in-ruling Providence. too, from whose
inspiration comes all true thought, all right feeling; from whom, we must
believe, man alone of all living things known to us inherits that
mysterious faculty of perceiving the law beneath the phaenomena, by
virtue of which he is a _man_.

But we can hold all this, surely, and equally hold all which natural
science may teach us. Hold what natural science teaches? We shall not
dare not to hold it. It will be sacred in our eyes. All light which
science, political, economic, physiological, or other, can throw upon the
past, will be welcomed by us, as coming from the Author of all light. To
ignore it, even to receive it suspiciously and grudgingly, we shall feel
to be a sin against Him. We shall dread no 'inroads of materialism;'
because we shall be standing upon that spiritual ground which
underlies--ay, causes--the material. All discoveries of science, whether
political or economic, whether laws of health or laws of climate, will be
accepted trustfully and cheerfully. And when we meet with such startling
speculations as those on the influence of climate, soil, scenery on
national character, which have lately excited so much controversy, we
shall welcome them at first sight, just because they give us hope of
order where we had seen only disorder, law where we fancied chance: we
shall verify them patiently; correct them if they need correction; and if
proven, believe that they have worked, and still work, [Greek text], as
factors in the great method of Him who has appointed to all nations their
times, and the bounds of their habitation, if haply they might feel after
Him, and find Him: though He be not far from any one of them; for in Him
we live, and move, and have our being, and are the offspring of God
Himself.

I thus end what it seemed to me proper to say in this, my Inaugural
Lecture; thanking you much for the