heartiness. Perhaps no man ever heard him accused of want of candor, or of earnestness in any profession of regard. He was not very demonstrative, and yet, he had an affectionate

nature.

Dr. Hoge also abounded in secret prayer. Many a time have his children suddenly entered his study and found him on his knees; until at last it came to be their custom to knock or give some notice of their coming in. Even then very often it was evident he had just risen from his knees. Dr. Hoge also well understood the meaning of the apostle when he said, "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." Upon reflection and deliberation he renounced wealth and its temptations. He had ample opportunities of accumulating a vast property. Indeed, he had in actual possession such an amount, that if he had husbanded it, as did many of his neighbours, he would have possessed a very large fortune. But he saw the danger, and made his escape. At one time he was offered on terms quite accordant with his means thirty thousand acres of fine land in Madison county; but he saw the effect it was likely to have on his ministerial character and usefulness, and declined the offer. He had some experience of the increasing cares attending a growing fortune, and although the scantiness of his salary, during a considerable part of his life, would have furnished a very plausible pretext to many to embark in secular pursuits, he determined to mind. his calling, which was serving Christ in the gospel. His decision was wise. He did never regret it. Even here, he has left his children a better heritage than boundless wealth. "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches." Yet Dr. Hoge was independent in his old age. "He lacked no good comfort."

Dr. Hoge loved to preach. When some one was asked, What is Dr. Hoge doing these days? the answer was, "He is preaching away." He held with the apostles, that the two greatest things done on earth are preaching and praying. Acts vi. 4. If one did not wish Dr. Hoge to preach for him, it was safest not to ask him; for he seldom declined an invitation. Whitefield, who began to preach at twenty-four years of age

and died at fifty-six, had preached eighteen thousand times. We have no means of knowing how many times Dr. Hoge preached; but we do know, that for fifty-nine years he was abundant in labours. "There will be time enough to rest in the grave," said a laborious servant of Christ. Men can keep silence without licensure or ordination. Let those who hold a

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commission proclaim the glad tidings. Some have asked, Was Dr. Hoge eloquent? The answer to this question will depend on the definition we give of eloquence. One writer says, Eloquence is animated simplicity of speech." In this sense Dr. Hoge was truly eloquent. Another says, "Eloquence is the art of persuasion." In this sense also he was eloquent. He often, even in his latter years, very powerfully moved large audiences. Or, if eloquence consists in a happy use of appropriate language, then Dr. Hoge was eloquent. For who ever wished to "lend him a word?" On communion occasions, Dr. Hoge, like his venerated father before him, was peculiarly tender and solemn. Yet never did he seek meretricious ornament; never was he highly imaginative; seldom did he thrill a whole audience by rare words uttered in clarion tones; perhaps at no time did men say, What an orator!

Dr. Hoge's reverence for sacred things was marked and lifelong. He never "wooed a smile, when he should win a soul." He was always fluent, never flippant.

And he made men feel "how awful goodness is." His presence hushed indecent levity. Yea more, it commanded profound respect. On one occasion he was called into court as a witness. The clerk was about to administer the usual oath. The counsel of the party who had not summoned him, said, "Mr. Clerk, you need not swear that witness." Without the oath the court permitted him to give his testimony, and it was decisive of the case.

Dr. Hoge was also a man of peace, and well did he know how to keep the unity of the Spirit. We have heard very harsh and ungracious things said to him, but we never knew him to give the bitter retort. When the great rupture in the Presbyterian church took place about twenty-five years ago, some of his church desired an organization in connection with our New-school brethren. These discontented persons, of

course, would talk, and some agitation was felt. Dr. Hoge knew what was going on. He called his session together. They sent for the persons who were causing dissension. They insisted on remaining in the church. He and his session insisted that they should bind themselves to live quietly, or at once take regular dismissions. The pastor and session prevailed. All were dismissed, and there was no further disturbance.

Hardly anything has struck us as more remarkable than the uniform agreement of men in estimating Dr. Hoge's character. Just as we were closing this article our eye lighted on an estimate of him in the Cleveland Herald. The editor says:

"Dr. Hoge was one of the remarkable men of the age. He was not only an Old-school Presbyterian, but an Old-school Christian gentleman. Tall, erect, active, and inured to the privations and hardships of pioneer life, he bore the weight of accumulating years with unusual vigour and strength, and did not shrink from the great work of his youth and manhood in old age. Modest, affable, benevolent, talented, and full of good sense, Dr Hoge held the even tenor of his way among the same people for nearly three-score years, baptizing their children, marrying the young, consoling the dying, burying their dead, each year binding closer the bonds of union."

ERRATUM-On page 100, for Hackett read Sackett.

ART. IV.-Can God be known?

THIS is a question which lies at the foundation of all religion. If God be to us an unknown God; if we know simply that he is, but not what he is, he cannot be to us the object of love or the ground of confidence. We cannot worship him or call upon him for help. Our Lord tells us that the knowledge of God is eternal life. How is it then that there are some among us, who say that God cannot be known?

There are, however, three answers given to the question which we purpose now to consider. The one is a distinct affirmative answer; another as distinctly negative; and the third

is a qualified affirmative. Among the ancient philosophers there were some who asserted that the nature of God could be as distinctly and as fully determined as any other object of knowledge. This opinion, however, was confined to a small class, until the rise of the modern speculative school of philosophers and philosophical theologians. With the disciples of this -school, it is a primary principle, that what cannot be known cannot exist. And consequently that God is, only so far as he is known. To say, therefore, that God cannot be known, is to deny God, or, as Hegel says, it is the sin against the Holy Ghost. Werke xiv. p. 219. Mansel, p. 301.

How God is thus known in his own nature, these philosophers differ among themselves. Schelling says, it is by direct intuition of the higher reason. He assumes that there is in man a power which transcends the limits of ordinary consciousness, and by which the mind takes immediate cognizance of God.

Hegel and his followers say, it is by a process of thought; our thought of God is God. Our knowledge of God is God's knowing himself. We know of God all that God knows of himself. This knowledge is God's self-consciousness. Werke xii. p. 400. Mansel, p. 245. Hamilton's Discuss. p. 10. Cousin finds this knowledge in the common consciousness of men. That consciousness includes the knowledge of the finite and infinite. We know the one as we know the other, and cannot know one without knowing both. "God in fact exists to us only so far as he is known." These philosophers all admit that the infinite can only be comprehended by the infinite, and, therefore, man to known God must be himself God. Reason in man, according to Cousin, does not, belong to his individuality. It is impersonal, infinite, divine. What is personal to us is our free and voluntary activity; what is not free and voluntary does not constitute an integrant part of our individuality. See Hamilton's Discuss. p. 15. Princeton Review on Cousin's Philosophy, 1856.

This theory starts, as we have seen, with the idea of the absolute, which is defined to be that which exists in and of itself, and is independent of any necessary relation. From the absolute, which is the object of immediate knowledge, in one of the methods above mentioned, are determined the nature

of God. 2. His relation to the world; and, 3. What the world is. As to the nature of God, it follows from the nature of the absolute, that he is all things. "What kind of absolute Being is that," asks Hegel, "which does not contain all that is actual, even evil included." Werke xv. p. 275. Mansel, p. 77. It also follows from this idea that neither intelligence, will, or consciousness can be predicated of the absolute being as such. For all these imply limitation and relation. He is indifferent substance, which manifests itself, and comes into existence in the world. This determines his relation to the world. It is that of identity, so far as the world is the existence of God. It is coeternal with him. Creation is necessary as the self-evolution of God. And the world itself is merely phenomenal. It is the ever-changing mode of the divine existence. It has in itself no reality, except as the actual of the divine being is the real. Man has no individual subsistence, no personal immortality, no liberty, no accountability. Such is the doctrine of those who pretend to a knowledge of the infinite. In opposition to this doctrine, so monstrous and destructive, others have gone to the opposite extreme, and maintained that God is not knowable. We know that he is, but not what he is. This proposition has been understood in very different senses by those who use it. Plato has said, the search after God was difficult, and when found, his nature could not be declared. And Philo still more definitely asserts that the divine essence is without qualities and attributes; and as we can know nothing of any essence but by its distinguishing qualities, God in his own nature must be to us altogether unknowable.* So the devout Pascal, (Pénsées, partie ii., art. iii. 5.), says, "We know there is an infinite, and we are ignorant of its nature-we may well know that there is a God without knowing what he is." This is repeated continually by the Greek and Latin fathers, many of whom intended nothing more than that the infinite God is incomprehensible by his creatures. Others again in this declaration of the incapacity of man to know God, refer to the spiritual blindness occasioned by sin. And, therefore, while they deny that God can be known by the unregenerated, affirm that he is

* Strauss's Dogm. i. p. 527.