THE BIBLE CLASS.

VISIONS AND VOICES OF GOD.

No. I. THE VISION OF GOD IN NATURE.
BY THE REV. OWEN D. CAMPBELL, M.A.

INTRODUCTORY.

Ar the present day we are exposed to a very subtle danger. A change has come over the minds of unbelievers. The great denial, "There is no God," is seldom now upon the lips of unbelievers. They feel that such a tremendous negative could only be pronounced by one who had explored the universe and knew everything that was to be known. This is a scientific age, and the tendency of scientific thought is to declare that, if there be a God, we cannot discover Him or understand His nature. Scientists tell us that our knowledge cannot extend beyond the phenomena of the material universe, and that whatever lies beyond these we must ever remain in ignorance of, and need not concern ourselves about. Professor Huxley thinks that the tendency of theology also is in this direction. He says, "The theology of the present has become more scientific than that of the past, because it has not only renounced idols of wood and idols of stone, but begins to see the necessity of breaking in pieces the idols built up of books and traditions, and fine-spun ecclesiastical cobwebs, and of cherishing the noblest and most human of man's emotions by worship, for the most part, of the silent sort at the altar of the Unknown and Unknowable." This is the creed of those who designate themselves Agnostics (Agnostic means one who is incapable of knowing), and there are reasons for believing that to-day they constitute a very numerous and rapidly increasing class of unbelievers. There is that about Agnosticism which seems so reverent, so modest, so humble, and so appropriate to the condition of a mortal, and corresponding to the narrowness of his powers, that it fascinates many minds. At our ancient Universities the converts to this new Ism may be counted by hundreds, and among the better educated of our young men and women who have been repelled from Christianity by what has been called "the devout impertinence of scholastic theology," there are many who are tempted to take refuge from the difficulties of faith in this creed of quiescent ignorance. It is, therefore, scarcely possible to overestimate the importance of directing young minds and hearts to the revelations which God has given to us of Himself. "If," says Ruskin, "instead of assuming the being of an awful Deity, which men are sometimes unable to conceive, we were to show them a near, visible, all-beneficent Deity, whose presence makes the earth itself a heaven, I think there would be fewer deaf children sitting in the market-place."

IN NATURE.

"THE invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." The teaching of these words of the Apostle Paul that are the germ of all our natural theology is that God discloses Himself to us in Nature. The revelation is incomplete, but so far as it goes it is sure and true. Examining Nature, we find everywhere a manifestation of power. However far our observations extend back, this power cannot be eliminated. This Agnostics admit, but they maintain that of this power we know and can know nothing. Mr. Herbert Spencer, who may be regarded as the Coryphæus of Agnosticism, says, "The consciousness of an inscrutable Power manifested to us through all phenomena has been growing ever clearer, and must eventually be freed from its imperfections. The certainty that,

on the one hand, such a Power exists, while, on the other hand, its nature transcends intuition, and is beyond imagination, is the certainty towards which intelligence has from the first been progressing. To this conclusion science inevitably arrives as it reaches its confines, while to this conclusion religion is irresistibly driven by criticism." And Professor Tyndall says, "The Power which the universe manifests is utterly inscrutable." But while we fully allow that our knowledge of this Power, whatever it be, is very imperfect, our contention is that it is not "utterly inscrutable." In its essence, of course, it is, but not in its manifestations. And if it be replied that it is only the manifestation of the Power, and not the Power itself, that we know, the answer is it is only the manifestations of any power that we can really know. To say, therefore, that "the Power which the universe manifests is utterly inscrutable " is by no means correct.

1. We hold then that "the Power which the universe manifests" is INTELLIGENT. The old argument from design has been often assailed, and some statements of it need to be considerably modified. They expose themselves to the charge of taking for granted the thing to be proved. Thus when it is said, "Design implies a designer" it is objected, not unreasonably, that we assume that there is design in Nature. What the old argument, however, really meant was that effects must have had a cause, and this argument is not nullified by any of the discoveries or theories of modern science, though they may require a different statement of it. For instance, assuming the truth of the doctrine of the universal reign of the principle of evolution which Darwin has done so much to popularize (I am far from thinking that his theory has been established as a scientific fact), this hypothesis does not weaken, but rather strengthens, our contention that the Power manifested in the universe is intelligent. For the germ in which lay the potentiality of all things that are, and from which they have been evolved by such manifold developments; must have been created by a far-reaching intelligence. It is not easy to understand how any thoughtful man can look round on all this wonderful and beautiful world, and yet fail to find there anything but blind chance or unintelligent force. Hume, in his Natural History of Religion, says: "The whole frame of Nature bespeaks an intelligent Author." Professor Tyndall surely felt this when, in his address on "Crystalline and Molecular Forces," he said, "In my ignorance of it all, I have asked myself whether there is no power, being, or thing in the universe whose knowledge of that of which I am so ignorant is greater than mine. I have asked myself, Can it be possible that man's knowledge is the greatest knowledge-that man's life is the highest life? My friends, the profession of that atheism with which I am sometimes so lightly charged would, in my case, be an impossible answer to the question."

2. We hold also that "the Power which the universe manifests " is BENEFICENT. We admit that there is much in Nature to make us doubt this. If we had no other Gospel in our hands we should be startled, alarmed, the very ground of all religious hope and trust would quake under our feet, as we read John Stuart Mill's terrible indictment against Nature in the first of his Three Essays on Religion. Words seem to have failed him--and he was no mean master of words-to express his sense of utter dissatisfaction with the home we live in, his righteous condemnation of Nature's doings. He describes with the might of his clear style the cruelties and abortions to be found in Nature-the destructiveness of floods and storms, and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, explosions of fire-damp, visitations of epidemics, failures of crops, &c. But great and awful as these things are, it is easy to exaggerate their significance, and to overlook two facts: (a) that some of them at least are not

without counterbalancing advantages; that out of seeming evil, they work real good; out of transient evil, enduring good; and (b) that others of them are largely the result of violation of wholesome law. The lightning and the storm clear the air which otherwise would stagnate into pestilence; the fires which rend the earthquake and burst from the volcano are the quickening forces of the world; whilst the worst epidemics are often caused by disregard of plain duty. But when all this has been fully and frankly acknowledged, it must be admitted that sometimes Nature appears to be execrably ruthless and execrably cruel

"Red in tooth and claw
With ravine."

Nevertheless, it would be unfair to arraign Nature for evils which are the exception and not the rule, occasional and not general, and to ignore the overwhelming testimony on the other side that the main current of tendency throughout the universe is beneficent. That the Power which lies behind all phenomena, and gave them their original impulse and direction, did so with the clear purpose of securing not the misery, but the happiness of men on the whole, has been acknowledged over and over again by men who were constitutionally inclined to pessimism. For instance, John Stuart Mill himself says, "Endeavouring to look at the question without partiality or prejudice, and without allowing wishes to have any influence over judgment, there does appear to be a preponderance of evidence that the Creator desires the pleasure of His creatures." And W. R. Gregg, on whom "the enigmas of life" weighed heavily, confesses that Nature manifests a profuse beneficence. "Every sort of beauty," he says, "has been lavished on our allotted home: beauties to enrapture every sense; beauties to satisfy every taste; forms the noblest and loveliest; colours the most gorgeous and the most delicate; odours the sweetest and subtlest; harmonies the most soothing and the most stirring; the sunny glories of the day, the pale Elysian grace of moonlight; the lake, the mountain, the primeval forest, and the boundless ocean; the silent pinnacles of aged snow in one hemisphere, the marvels of tropical luxuriance in another; the serenity of sunsets; the sublimity of storms; everything is bestowed in boundless profusion on the scene of our existence; we can conceive or desire nothing more exquisite or perfect than what is around us every hour." And when we take into account the wondrous adaptation1 to be found everywhere the correspondence between necessities and environments, demand and supply, whereby the constitutional wants of all created things, from the blade of grass up to man, have been met in the conditions of their existence-it is difficult to believe that "the Power which Nature manifests" is not beneficent.

3. But a Power which is intelligent and beneficent must be a PERSONAL Being. An objection is felt on the part of many to the use of the word "personality" in connection with the unseen Power of the universe, on the ground that it implies limitations which belong to personal beings as we know them on earth. This is a serious objection, and we feel its force. In answer, we can only say that we are quite willing to give up the word if a better can be substituted. Still, it is impossible to think of such a Power except as a Being having more or less affinity to ourselves. Believing, then, in the intelligence and beneficence of the Power, the phenomena of

1 There are few more striking illustrations of this than in the fertilization of orchids. These beautiful flowers are so constructed that they cannot fertilize their own seeds as other flowers do, but passing insects dipping into the nectary of the flower for honey unconsciously transfer the flower dust from one where it would be wasted, to its neighbour who is in need of it.

Nature manifest, we are driven to believe in a Being possessing mental and moral attributes which, so far as we know, are the heritage of persons only. This Being we call God.

We have admitted that the revelation of God in Nature is inadequate, and in some of its parts faulty and ambiguous. If there is some light, wholesome and helpful light, there are also gruesome and awful shadows that burden and perplex the soul. The cruelties, disasters, and abortions of Nature are stubborn facts. There are considerations which diminish the difficulties arising from them, but no considerations can completely remove these difficulties. We need a fuller and clearer revelation of God than Nature can give us, and this revelation has been given to us in Conscience, which even the heathen called "The God within us"; in History, which has been described as "the conscience of the human race"; in the Affections and Aspirations of our own hearts; in the Bible, which is the record of the manifestations which God has vouchsafed of Himself in the lives and hearts of other men; and in His Son, who is the Word of God, and in whom are seen all the treasures of the Divine wisdom and knowledge. After all, if we would know God, we must be students of His life who said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." Then let Agnostics and scientists and philosophers say to us what they will, it will be enough for us to answer them, "At first we believed in God because we had heard of Him from the wisest and holiest lips we knew; but now we have seen Him for ourselves, and know that He is the great Lord, and Lover, and Saviour of Men."

SUNDAY IN CHURCH.

THE MORNING LESSONS.

THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT. WHEN HASTE IS WISDOM. While he lingered the men laid hold upon his hand; he said, Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, &c.-GEN. xix. 16, 17.

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MEN do not often require to be entreated to 'escape for their life." When the fire is spreading, or the ship is sinking, it is usually the exhortation to be calm that is most timely. Yet there have been occasions, as shown by the text, and as revealed to us by the ruins of Pompeii, when a foolish lingering has endangered, if it has not cost, the sacrifice of life itself. In the spiritual domain, it too often happens that men need to be vehemently aroused, to be powerfully besought, to hasten from impending ruin. We have to "take them by the hand," to say with an imperative fervour, "Escape for thy life." Haste is not always wisdom, but it is so when

1. WE ARE THREATENED BY DISCORD, social or domestic. 66 Agree with thine

adversary quickly," said our Lord, and He went on to warn His hearers that if the satisfaction were not made immediately there would be a heavy penalty to pay (Matt. v. 25, 26). As soon as the difference arises, set to work to compose it. The violated law of love exacts the uttermost farthing from those who break it. Therefore, look to it at once; do not lose a day; let everything, even devotion (Matt. v. 24) give place to the urgent work of reconciliation; make any needful sacrifice to heal the breach, lest the slight suspicion, the trivial offence, grow into a serious quarrel, into a life-long feud, or (if communities are concerned) lead to open and disastrous strife.

II. WE ARE SHADOWED BY TEMPTATION. Owing to some adverse circumstances, or, as is more probable, to some culpable weakness of our own, we may find ourselves in danger of moral declension and ultimate downfall. A very slight departure from strict rectitude starts us on a wrong and perilous path. It may be deviation from truth, or from temper