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PREFACE.

When I began to give instruction in systematic theology, the discussions in the class-room were continually forcing us back to preliminary philosophical questions, pertaining to the reality, processes and limits of human knowledge, and to the constitution of man as a personal being. I thus found it would facilitate our work to treat these questions together in a course of preliminary lectures on the Philosophical Basis of Theism. Students in successive classes have found these lectures and discussions helpful both in their studies of Apologetics, Theodicy and the Philosophy of Religion and in the clear and intelligent apprehension of the Christian truth and life. Many of them, from year to year, have assured me that they had been greatly helped by them and have expressed their earnest desire for their publication. From these annual lectures and discussions this volume has grown up. I publish it, partly because, with the volume before us as a text book to refer to, I shall have more time for examining with my classes the subjects which belong more distinctively to systematic theology; and also with the hope that discussions, which have already been helpful to many young men, may be of service to others who are striving to solve the great theological and religious problems of our times.

Yale Divinity School, June 23, 1883.

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CONTENTS.

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