The Truth of Christianity

ing of th

who designed and cr

f God's A

wer. He is al

tion that God

e in its real nature, though in each case the pa

mary of

eator designed the universe; in other words, that when he created it, He foreknew its future history. And fr

ing of th

personal being. And God is the name given to the Pe

aid by many writers to involve the three ideas of thought, desire, and will. But these seem to be all includ

r being so too. For the Creator has somehow or other produced man, with all his attributes; so He cannot be a mere impersonal Being or Force, since a cause must be able to account for it

cannot discover God by any physical means. It would be much more surprising if we could. But though the telescope can find no God in the heavens, just as the microscope

of God's

we use the word, as is often done, for planning alone, we must remember that a personal being is one who can both design and accomplish. The former implies a mind able to form some plan, and the latter a free force, or will, able to carry it out. So a personal being must of necessity

edge. Now the only knowledge which might be thought impossible is how a free being would act in the future, and we have already

e who said so began one of His own prayers with the words if it be possible, this cannot be taken in its widest sense.[2] And provided the word impossible is used in its strict meaning, we have no reason for thinking that God could do impossible things; such as make

. 19. 26

the most probable view. God is thus the Cause of all natural forces now, just as He was their Creator in times past; and what are called secondary or natural causes, have probably no existence. They may, indeed, be called secondary forces, but they are not causes at all in the strict sense; for a cause must be free, it must have the power of initiative. Thus man's free

tion that God

t may be said that the human mind is unable to argue about the First Cause, because we have no fac

y human mind to comprehend entirely, or for any human language to express completely and accurately. Therefore our statements on the subject are at b

cts we know something about them. And even matter when reduced to atoms, or electrons, or anything else, is still a mystery, yet we know a good deal about matter. And in each case this knowledge is not incorrect because it is in

y, we observe the marks of design in nature, and infer the existence, or at least foresight, of some Being who designed them. In neither case have we any direct knowledge as to the cause of what we see. And in some respects Religion is not so unknowable as Science. For our own, real or apparent, mind

er the force of gravity may be in itself, we know what it is to us. We know that if we jump off a cliff we shall fall to the ground. And so in regard to Religion. Whatever God may be in Himself, we know what He is to us. W

is a God, and to leave the question undecided is practically the same as deciding that there is not a God. In the same way, if a ship were in danger of sinking, and a steamer also in distress offered to take off the passengers, for one of them to say that he did not know whether it was safer to go in th

ng them. But after all it is only a choice of difficulties; and, as we have shown, there is less difficulty in believing what we have here maintained than the contrary. It is less difficult, for instance, to believe that the universe had an origin, than to believe that it had not. Similarly as to the existence of

mary of

ust have had a commencement; and this is supported by the theories of Evolution and the Degradation of Energy. Therefore, as this commencement cannot have been a necessity, it must have been due to some Free Force. And a

present. And this conclusion was shown to be not inconsistent with either the process of evolution, or the existence of free w

very effect, it must have had a Cause. Then since the effect shows a certain unity throughout, the Cause must have been One. Since the effect shows in some parts evidence of having been planned and arranged, the capacity for planning