“To Mr. S. J——, Merchant, Plymouth.
“My Dear Nephew,—You ask me ‘to put into one of my nutshells’ the pith and marrow of the controversy which at this time pervades the English mind as to the claims of Science and Faith. Let me try: The material universe—so the sages allege—is a vast assemblage of atoms or molecules—‘motes in the sunbeam’ of Science, which has existed for myriads of ages under a perpetual system of evolution, restructure, and change. This mighty mass is traversed by the forces electrical, or magnetic, or with other kindred names; and these by their incessant and indomitable action are adequate to account for all the phenomena of the world of matter, and of man. The upheaval of a continent; the drainage of a sea; the creation of a metal; nay, the origin of life, and the development of a species in plant, or animal, or man; these are the achievements of fixed and natural laws among the atomic materials, under the vibration of the forces alone. Thus far the vaunted discoveries of Science are said to have arrived. Let us indulge them with the theory that these results, for they are nothing more, are accurate and real. But still, a thoughtful mind will venture to demand whence did these atoms derive their existence? and from what, and from whom, do they inherit the propensities wherewithal they are imbued? And tell me, most potent seigniors, what is the origin of these forces? And with whom resides the impulse of their action and the guidance of their control? ‘Nothing so difficult as a beginning.’ Your philosopher is mute! he has reached the horizon of his domain, and to him all beyond is doubt, and uncertainty, and guess. We must lift the veil. We must pass into the border-land between two Worlds, and there inquire at the Oracles of Revelation touching the Unseen and Spiritual powers which thrill through the mighty sacrament of the visible Creation. We perceive, being inspired, the realms of surrounding space peopled by immortal creatures of air—
‘Myriads of spiritual things that walk unseen,
Both when we wake and when we sleep.’
These are the existences, in aspect as ‘young men in white garments,’ who inhabit the void place between the Worlds and their Maker, and their God. Behold the battalions of the Lord of Hosts! the Workers of the sky! the faithful and intelligent Vassals of God the Trinity! We have named them in our own poor and meagre language ‘the Angels,’ but this title merely denotes one of their subordinate offices—messengers from on high. The Gentiles called them ‘Gods,’ but we ought to honour them by a name that should embrace and interpret their lofty dignity as an intermediate army between the kingdom and the throne; the Centurions of the stars, and of men; the Commanders of the forces and their Guides. These are they that, each with a delegated office, fulfil what their ‘King invisible’ decrees; not with the dull, inert mechanism of fixed and natural law, but with the unslumbering energy and the rational obedience of spiritual life. They mould the atom; they wield the force; and, as Newton rightly guessed, they rule the World of matter beneath the silent Omnipotence of God.
“‘And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold the Lord stood above it.’—Genesis xxviii. 12. Tolle, Lege, my dear nephew.
“Your affectionate uncle,
“R. S. Hawker.
“Morwenstow Vicarage, Cornwall.”