Summary
“What we require is no new Revelation, but simply an adequate conception of the true essence of Christianity. And I believe that, as time goes on, the work of the Holy Spirit will be continuously shown in the gradual insight which the human race will attain into the true essence of the Christian religion. I am thus of opinion that a standing miracle exists, and that it has ever existed—a direct and continued influence exerted by the supernatural on the natural.”
Paradoxical Philosophy.“He that hath the Son hath Life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life.”
—John.“Omne vivum ex vivo.”
—Harvey.For two hundred years the scientific world has been rent with discussions upon the Origin of Life. Two great schools have defended exactly opposite views—one that matter can spontaneously generate life, the other that life can only come from pre-existing life. The doctrine of Spontaneous Generation, as the first is called, has been revived within recent years by Dr. Bastian, after a series of elaborate experiments on the Beginnings of Life. Stated in his own words, his conclusion is this: “Both observation and experiment unmistakeably testify to the fact that living matter is constantly being formed de novo, in obedience to the same laws and tendencies which determine all the more simple chemical combinations.” Life, that is to say, is not the Gift of Life.
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- Natural Law in the Spiritual World , pp. 59 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1883