A Christmas Gift to the American Home and the Youth of AmericaGravengaard, N. P. (Niels Peter)
Religion
A Christmas Gift to the American Home and the Youth of America
Gravengaard, N. P. (Niels Peter)
Christmas -- Devotional literature; Devotional literature
Let us imagine an old sailor a couple of hundred years ago. Through
more than a generation he had steered his vessel sometimes aided by
wind and currents, sometimes against them. If he were told that a ship
might be steered straight against the wind and the currents without
sails, without cruising, without oar strokes, he would have uttered a
fierce sailors' oath that such a story was a lie--wild imagination!
No, he knew by _experience_ what was the power of the wind and the
currents, and he had been struggling ever so gallantly against those
very powers of the sea--no, no--don't tell me stories like that! You
may be able to find some unexperienced people who will believe tales of
that kind, but I know better.
Meanwhile we all know nowadays that the proud vessels sail steadily
against wind and currents without canvas sails, without cruising
manoeuvres and without oar strokes. What is the reason for this? Are
wind and currents adhering to other laws in our days, or has their
effect been changed? No, not at all! But the old salt thought that his
experience was exhaustive in this special field. It all required a
power which he did not know, and in whose existence he did not believe.
The attitude of the unbelieving science in our age toward the miracle
is exactly like this. It has emitted many a droll sailor's oath to
affirm that the miracle is contrary to its experience--and with the
very same justification as did the sailor. We all need being reminded
that human experience is very, very limited. It embraces such a small
fraction of the universe, and it is not inclined to concede its
limitations. The handicap of science is that of the sailor. In order
to steer his ship right against wind and currents a power was required
which he did not know and in whose existence he would not believe. In
order to let the miracle happen, a power is required of which science,
as such, does not know and in whose existence it refuses to believe.
How many unbelieving physicians have not sworn as drastically as
did the sailor, that they could not share the Christian faith in
resurrection? The physician says like the sailor: I know better--don't
tell me stories! I have seen too often how that pumping machinery
in the human body which is called heart, comes to a stop, and when
the heart ceases beating, the eye is extinguished, and the body
approaches the process of dissolution. Don't tell me anything about the
resurrection of the dead. It is contrary to my experience.--And yet,
all that is required in order to make this possible, is a power which
he does not know, and in whose existence he will not believe.
He who was powerful enough to turn dust into man from the beginning,
certainly is powerful enough to revivify that dust.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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