Vital question pertaining to Christian belief

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Preface

THE present day has called forth so many excellent books on the Evidences that a prefatory note seems necessary to explain why an additional one, having far less claim, at least upon the cultured, should appear. These lectures were written during the summer of 1885. With two exceptions, some part of each was delivered in course to the people whom it is the privilege of the author to serve. The one on " Probation After Death," and the one entitled " Is the Bible Inspired?" were not pronounced in public. In reading a number of the books on these and kindred subjects, it has seemed to the writer that they were not sufficiently simple in style, but too full of argument and theory, and not practical enough for general reading. They seem to be written for professional men, and they are chiefly read by these. The age is practical. Men are disposed to-day to subject what appeals to their faith to the practical test. It is a good omen. Many are unable to comprehend argument and logic, while philosophical and theological terms are word mysteries to them, but they readily see practical results. All can look at the sun, but few can analyze the light. Christianity has nothing to lose, infidelity nothing to gain, by this test. In some limited way it is the aim

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PREFACE.

of this book to present Christianity and Infidelity in their practical results, and to ask that they be judged upon their own merits. It has been the author's desire to speak to the people, with young men especially in mind. The range of subjects is neither large nor new, but sufficient to include prevalent forms of error, and those great truths which are essential to the experience and maintenance of the Christian faith. So far as it has been possible I have named the authors from whom I have quoted, without marring the page with unsightly foot-notes. In the chapter on the " Divinity of Christ," I must, however, acknowledge my special indebtedness to an excellent work by Prof. Godet, entitled " The Defence of the Christian Faith." With little that is new, but with nothing that is not worthy the prayerful consideration of all who are disturbed with doubt, I commit this unpretentious book to the candid consideration of all into whose hands it may fall, and invoke upon it the blessing of the triune

God — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

M. R.

Chapter I. The Folly Of Atheism

ATHEISM is the last ditch of infidelity. In it the fretting sea of unbelief becomes bottomless and shoreless — a wild, hopeless waste. He who denies the existence of a personal God has thrust himself out of all order, assailed the citadel of his own life, put a scar on his own character, and to the vision of good men and of angels, is a wandering star reserved unto darkness. The announcement of the presence of such a man is a shock to everything noble in us, and we shrink from his touch as we would from the embrace of a leper. Our indignation kindles to fever heat, and words of severe condemnation leap quickly to our lips, when we see a child inflicting cruelty upon a kind mother, or when we know a husband to be guilty of disloyalty to a faithful wife ; but what shall we say of the man who by unreasonable and malicious denial buffets the cheek and stings the heart of Him who set and keeps his pulses going, and has arranged, at such unspeakable outlay, that in the great soul that throbs within him, and in all the varied charm and opportunity of life, he may go down his pilgrim way, more cheered with the notes of a psalm than saddened with the sighs of a requiem. In such I* (9)

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a case we cannot resist the feeling that violence has been done to all that is holy and true and beautiful; and it is not without a significance that carries testimony with it, that every corresponding element in us should instinctively rise to rebuke the offender. I confess to a feeling of horror at sight of a bald and boastful atheist. I have met a man who cannot befriend me, and to whose manhood I could not entrust the protection of my hearthstone. The resonant air, the sunlight, every lustrous star, the singing birds, the flowers, the whole face and voice of nature, join in severe condemnation of the ungrateful creature who can so wantonly violate the love of Him in whom, deny it as he please, he lives and moves and has his being. Do these words seem harsh? How can we be true, and meet the dreadfulness and iniquity of so monstrous an absurdity with milder utterance ?

An unqualified atheist, I hold, is without self-respect; he has discrowned himself; he has consummated the dreadful work commenced by sin in the garden ; the lingering vestige of the holy image is blotted out — and what shall we say of an iniquity that leads a man to tramp with unhallowed feet over everything noble within him, and to exalt to coronation all that is lowest? Has not an avowed atheist always been an unseemly wonder in the world? "People in many parts," another correctly observes, " would turn out and look at a real and avowed atheist, just as they do at some singularly huge and foreign animal, with mingled astonishment and alarm. ,, Why should it not be so ?

THE FOLLY OF ATHEISM. I I

Would we not stare at the man who with pretense would come among us to deny the existence of the air and the light ? Far more shall we not wonder at and shrink from the man who, enveloped in awful shadows, with no hope beaming in his face, and no uplifting joy singing in his heart, and with his hard brow set toward the heavens, calls belief in a personal God a silly delusion ?

Atheism is itself strong testimony against truth and honesty. It strikes at the very source of these.

Dr. Arnold was right when he said — " I confess that I believe a conscientious atheist not to exist."

When a man denies the being of God, the moral tone of his conscience is gone, his faculty of proper discernment is destroyed. The atheist is at war with himself; his lower nature is imperial over the higher ; he has plunged out of the orbit of order; his attitude is defiance to all good. How can he be sincere? Atheism and a correct conscience never held sway in the same soul. In our time this final feat and victory of unbelief has found it well to look a little more to character, and hence among those who pretend to think, it has sought companionship with science and to clothe materialism with a new dignity. Scientific terms and theories are employed to account for the material universe, independent of a personal God.

Matter is credited' with an all-sufficiency which is proclaimed as the mysterious but adequate solution of the mighty problem of creation. But the best sense of the race revolts at these conclusions, while the best scholarship of the time has not failed to vindicate the old and truthful revelation by. exposing the absurdity of a view which in striking out the name of God, destroys at the same time the best aspiration and hope of the human soul.

I wish to refrain from the use of scientific terms and theories in these addresses ; first, because I have nothing to sustain even an appearance of pedantry, and secondly, because I wish to maintain their simple and practical character, so that the most ordinary reader may easily comprehend them. Nor will I violate this purpose if I say here that it has been conclusively shown, as I think, that while the much mooted evolution and development theory is not without some grains of truth, it is sadly cumbered with the fanciful and the absurd. To development after God and because of Him, we make no complaint ; but as a reasonable and satisfactory account of the origin of the material universe, including man, the theory is a monstrous absurdity.

Its acceptance breaks up the harmony of the world ; between the supposed cause and the manifest effect, there is a disparity which contradicts the presumptuous hypothesis; stars and suns, systems and seasons, cease any longer to make helpful revelation to man, and the blackness of darkness settles upon his bewildered mind. I refer to this- materialistic theory not to discuss the question, for I candidly think that would be superfluous, but to indicate perhaps the most effectual source of atheism in our time.

But after all, the universal cause of this vortex of unbelief, as with infidelity, is a corrupt heart. The wish is father to the thought. It must be in the nature of the case, that who braves the venture of denying the Divine existence, must first wish it to be so. The profoundest and best intuitions of the soul must first be perverted. In that attitude there can be no courageous repose in any event, and if any faculty of the man's being should perchance rebel at the fearful assumption, misery must inevitably follow; hence the victim at whatever violence must have the fortification of his own heart's wish at the beginning. The atheist, from his bad eminence, looks up at the vaulted sky, all untouched of God, first in his wish and then in his creed. Two facts precede this frightful precipitation.

The first is the progress of infidelity. Few men, I think, begin with atheism. The declivity of evil either in unbelief or conduct is # seldom made at one leap. Some men wander back from the revelation of God to His utter abandonment from mind and soul. They deny the Christian Scriptures, descriptive of God's character and purpose, and while they are not testimony in proof of His existence, yet they confirm with undoubted emphasis the evidence deduced; and now, with this revelation of God out of the way, what more natural and likely in many a one at least, than the final step from practical to absolute atheism ?

The second cause is the growing mastery of the lower nature. Many a man by a gradual process of moral hardening and vicious habit has driven himself into unbelief of God. The abandonment of course is without reasonable defense, or mite of comfort ; it is simply the state and desire of the victim's heart — at the centre of his life, aye, in what God would make its holy of holies, he says there is no God. Than this man, no more dreadful or pitiable victim exists. Let us hope for the sake of our common humanity that the number of these is not large. The fact is, atheism is such an utter violation of all reason and excellence, that it is not without significance that it has never been able to gain a wide and permanent mastery in the world. There is a lesson in the transientness of the dreadful evil.

History furnishes no proof that rational beings can endure long, nor advance under the bondage of atheism. In the silent roll of the centuries no commanding voice comes forth to champion this monster delusion. It has had its limited following, but where is its temple lifting up its black dome to the heavens, defying the progress of the ages ? There have been brief periods when God's sceptre seemed to be broken, communities seemed to be in bondage to the monster, the sky seemed to shrivel to dust, and the hands of the clock of progress seemed to move backward or to stand still. We have read of one nation rising up and in the rage of every bad passion outvoting God. But these periods have only been occasional a$d brief, and have invariably been followed with a great cry for God's return. The fruits of atheism, as of infidelity, furnish unanswerable testimony against it. A newborn infant can more easily do without its mother than this world can do without God. Plutarch says : " There has never been a state of atheists. If you wander over the earth, you may find cities without walls, without king, without mint, without theatre or gymnasium; but you will never find a city without God, without prayer, without oracle, without sacrifice. Sooner may a city stand without foundations, than a state without belief in the gods. This is the bond of all society and the pillar of all legislation."

Faith in the being of God lies at the foundation of all religious belief; without this, religion is gone, worship is abandoned, and reverence is exchanged for profanity. But this first belief has a still wider meaning. It means the recognition and noblest exercise of personal responsibility; and with this the peace and order of society, and the only hope of a permanent civilization are secured.

Atheism enthroned means revolution, anarchy, and hopeless ruin. Could it obtain, the sooner this fair earth were whelmed in destruction the better.

A nation absolutely given up to atheism would be hell outdone, for even there a belief in a just and a holy God is a check on defiance. But it cannot obtain, for God is. His purpose is inwoven with the wide recognition of His Being, and in the material universe, as well as in those who reverence the Holy Name, He will never be without a witness. His way is in the sea, and His path is in the great waters. The proclamation of the Divine existence neither depends nor waits upon any proof of ours.

The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and God-head. — Rom. i. 20.

The heavens declare the glory of God ; and the firmament show eth His handy-work. — Ps. xix. I.

Atheists secure no advantage by challenging us to prove the Divine existence. On the other hand, we affirm that the existence of God is not simply a mystery, but that it is the culmination of all mysteries.

To attempt to establish the great truth by any mere process of logic and argument would be presumptuous. Mortals are not equal to such an undertaking. Canst thou by searching find out God? — Job. xi. 7. It is not to be done by human ingenuity and human argument. In ourselves, in the world about us, numerous and marvellous facts crowd upon us, overpowering the reasonable and enlightened mind, and in a great choral of voices speak with majesty of eloquence the Omnific Name. But if we are baffled by any attempt to prove that God is, by mere logic and argument, what shall we say of the brazen presumption of any effort to disprove the Divine existence? The difficulty is vastly greater here, and yet the atheist to be consistent is driven to it. His denial at best is poor enough, but if he cannot sustain it by any reasonable argument, he must fall with his theory. What a task he has on hand ! When I think of men, often ignorant, always

THE FOLLY OF ATHEISM. I J

wanting in reverence, attempting to disprove the Divine existence, the trenchant and just verdict of the Psalmist is forced upon me with an irresistible emphasis : The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. In addition to the awful daring of the achievement, consider the scope of knowledge which it implies. Does this man sufficiently comprehend the secrets of the universe, has he sufficiently explored and mastered its boundless bound as to assure us, that as with his own mind and heart, God is not in it ? Unless he is absolutely all-knowing, how is he competent to settle a question of such illimitable magnitude ? Besides such rash irreverent presumption, the hasty venture of Uzzah, when he clutched the ark of God with unholy hands, challenges our compassion.

A single foot-print disclosed to Crusoe the fact that another human life than his own inhabited the lonely island, nor was the conclusion difficult or irrational. But had he not seen the foot-print he would have needed greater knowledge, an entire acquaintance of the island, before he would have been competent to prove beyond question that he was not its only occupant.

When science attempts to disprove the Divine existence, I am more impressed with its pitiable limitation than with its superior knowledge; and what shall I say of the flippant assertion of many whose distinction is their ignorance of themselves and of the wonderworld in which they live ! The unbeliever may express doubt about the Divine existence, but when he goes beyond this, common sense and intelligence revolt at his folly. The enameled skin of an apple, and the downy rind of a peach, the uniform mathematical proportion, so marked in nature, furnish ample evidence of a designing Mind; the foot-prints of Jehovah are everywhere; — but change the proposition from affirmative to negative, and no such limited knowledge and experience will be adequate to sustain it, and if the atheist cannot give a reasonable and satisfactory answer for the un-faith that is in him, of what w r orth his assertion ? Foster, in his essays, presents this thought w T ith force when he says : " The wonder then turns on the great process by which a man could grow to the immense intelligence which can know that there is no God. What ages, and what lights, are requisite for this attainment ! This intelligence involves the very attributes of Divinity, while a God is denied. For unless this man is omnipresent, unless he is at this moment at every place in the universe, he cannot know but there may be in some place manifestations of a Deity by which even he would be overpowered. If he does not absolutely know every agent in the universe, the one that he does not know may be God. If he is not. himself the chief agent of the universe, and does not know what is so, that which is so may be God. If he is not in absolute possession of all the propositions that constitute universal truth, the one which he wants may be, that there is a God. If he cannot with certainty assign the cause of all he perceives to exist, that cause may be God. If he does not know everything that has been done in the immeasurable ages that are past, some things may have been done by a God. Thus, unless he knows all things, that is precludes all other divine existence by being God himself, he cannot know that the Being whose existence he rejects does not exist. But he must know that he does not exist, else he deserves equal contempt and compassion for the temerity with which he firmly avows his rejection, and acts accordingly."

Thus it is clearly shown that there is in the very constitution of the mind, in the limitations by which we are surrounded, as well as in the great infinity that baffles us on every hand, an ever-present hindrance to the possibility of disproving the Divine existence, and the awful presumption of the attempt proves its blushless absurdity.

But what may be entirely clear to some may not appear so distinct to others. The mind that is given to doubt, or that possibly has ventured into the starless night of atheism, will need some evidence palpable and convincing, to recover and stay it. Happily, it is facts rather than theories we have to deal with in settling this vital question.

God does not come to demonstrate the problem of His existence by any distinct revelation. He did not create the world, nor give us the written word, simply to announce the fact of His own existence, though they both reveal to us that He is ; but rather to show what He is, and in what relation He stands to us. As Bacon says, " God never wrought a miracle to con-

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vince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it." The natural world reveals God by revealing His character and purpose.

Whether we look at it in its majestic wholeness or in detail, we feel at once that above this wonderful harmony, this indescribable beauty and order and adaptation, there must be a great First Cause, in whom an infinite wisdom and goodness and power concentrate. We may attribute the vast machinery and unbroken order of the universe to inexorable law, or to what we please, still the human mind at its best will insist upon a Supreme Intelligence whose arm girds every law, and whose will controls every spring of the stupendous movement. The baffling wonder of creation is too much to find satisfactory solution in any theory that falls short of an Infinite Mind. The atheist says that he believes in cause, but his view necessitates a series of causes, a chain of interminable links — but to enlightened reason that is not a cause which is endless. A cause implies somewhere a stop. Forever going back from cause to cause is not finding an original cause. The cause that satisfies us, the cause that is in harmony with the universe, is an adequate First Cause, and this First Cause is the " uncaused cause," of all things — is God. The attributes of this First Cause, as I have intimated, must be determined, in so far as it is possible to interpret them out of the material, from the character of the universe. But that there must be an Eternal, Self-existent, Unchangeable Being, is certain. The voice of reason and

Scripture is one here. The sublime language of the ancient seer proclaims the united verdict — Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting \ Thou art God.

Creation is such an illustration of power and wisdom as continually to confirm the Scripture statement of its origin. When men have examined all theories, save with exceptions which are rare, their restless souls, driven and tossed they knew not whither, have come back to find repose in the simple sublime truth which proclaims God the Creator of all things. Faith resting on this unshaken rock looks up, and to the question, Whence the light? answers — God made it. Whence the darkness ? He spread its sombre curtain and filled its folds with a strange quiet. Whence the stars? He kindled their fires, and at His bidding, like an army with plumes of light, they march peacefully over the plains of heaven. He has set His tabernacle in the dewdrop as well as in the sun. Every leaf, every spear of grass, is a waving banner on which I spell His name. It is God I see in this great worldhouse. He built it and He sustains it. The structure of the universe makes this conclusion inevitable, if we are to respect our reason. As Mr. Pearson correctly says, " It matters not whether it be in the department of zoology, with its two well-established principles, that there is no such thing as spontaneous generation, and that there is no transmutation of the species; or whether it be in the deoartment of a sublime and everenlarging astronomy — it matters not whether we extend our survey to the systems of suns that roll throughout the immensity of space, or whether we centre it on that wondrous microcosm, the human eye; we meet with teeming evidences of design, which not only carry us to a designer, but hand us over necessarily, if we may so speak, to the belief that the Great First Designer is God."

Mark the difference ! The atheist asks us to abandon God. Suppose I adopt his creed ; the dark night has settled about me, the light has faded from the stars. I have nowhere to go, and am like a lost child crying in the night. He plunges me into the deepest gloom and gives me no torch, and I can only grope I know not whither.

I cannot accede to his request; his account of creation violates my reason, it blushes my intelligence, chills my heart, and intolerable gloom crowds in at every door of my soul.

Is not this a fair illustration of his reasoning ? A chair could never have made itself, but the sun is self-created. Your coat had a maker, but your soul had none. The wax flower on your table was formed by the skilled fingers of a human being, but the rose and the lily in your garden grew by chance. The great organ with its choral of trumpets was fashioned by one who had long studied the art, but the human voice, the grandest of all organs, was self-created. The King's crown was wrought by the artisan, but the starry dome above us, the crown of this fair world, was lifted up by some ponderous evolving of things, or some prodigious feat of law. Is he not a monster of incredulity who can bring himself to embrace so absurd a folly ?

It is not without significance that the greatest minds have been compelled to ascend from nature to nature's God. Over that radiant stairway the noblest of earth have gone to the throne of the Eternal, and laying the tribute of their faith, love and obedience at His feet, have found that He who fills immensity with His pressence, is pleased also to dwell in such as be of a contrite heart. The sublime word is true. The worlds above and the world below have but one voice. In the beginning god created the heaven and the earth.

But from the material world let us take a step higher, and see if we cannot find in man such evidence of a Supreme Being as will add strength to the proof already deduced. If we may discover so much evidence of design in the lower forms of creation, surely we shall not fail in the higher. Man is more than an animal. He is endowed with such superiority of faculty as to make him supreme in the material world. It was in reverent recognition of a power above him that the Psalmist wrote, / am fearfidly and wonderfully made. The appeal is direct when the same writer elsewhere says : Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast croivned him with glory and honor.

It was Pascal who said, " I am greater than the sun." How so? "The sun could fall and crush me, but I would be conscious of defeat, whilst the sun would be unconscious of victory/' Man can think. Did not some one greater than he think before him ? His mental constitution alone speaks for God. We have already seen that there is an intellectual necessity for a " First Cause, Himself uncaused and the cause of all." What witness does the moral nature afford? What saith the heart ? The heart, when man is at his best, and sometimes when he is not, goes out to God. We carry within us a sense of dependence upon One abovfe us. When the limitations of human life baffle us, — when unexpected peril confronts us — there is something in man's nature that instinctively cries to God. As Augustine beautifully puts it: " Thou hast made the heart for Thyself, and it is ever restless until it finds its rest in Thee."

The body can become the temple of the Holy Ghost, because man has a heart. I know unbelievers often place but little confidence in such testimony, for who can take so absurd a theory as atheism to his bosom, is likely to have little faith in his kind. If we cannot trust the profoundest feelings of our nature, and the noblest as well, what can we trust? Certainly it is not without significance that this sense of dependence and yearning toward God is an effectual corrective ; the aspiration always contributes to the best elements of manhood. Out of this heart-yearning comes the sublime attitude and voice of prayer. Whence this yearning? We answer from God, who is also its satisfaction. The heart is a greater witness than the intellect

" 'Tis the heart and not the brain, Which the highest doth attain."

But what saith the conscience ?

This strange monitor, this awful sentinel, keeping watch at the gates of my soul, filling me with a sense of obligation and responsibility, smiting me with severe but just penalty when I do wrong, and approving me as readily when I do right. Can I be true to myself and not ask whence this imperial prince among my faculties ? If there be no God, why regard my conscience or recognize the sense of obligation and responsibility with which my soul seems girded ? What is conscience but the solemn voice of man's nature responding to the Being of God? It must be regarded as one of the strongest bulwarks against the mastery of atheism ; and as atheism means its degradation and overthrow, we can easily see what awaits the community, the home, or the individual in whom the giant folly obtains dominion. Who is loyal to his conscience, will guard his manhood, and never abandon faith in the Divine existence. "This theology of conscience," says Dr. Chalmers, " has done more to uphold a sense of God in the world than all the theology of academic demonstration." Kant in his keen criticisms, while denying other witnesses, was baffled by the witness of conscience, and looked upon it as furnishing a sufficient basis for faith in a personal God. I cannot wonder that great intellects in all time have stood in reverent awe of this witness, for —