The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, November 1883: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
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The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, November 1883: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
4. The finite mind is the highest created existence. This is left
without discussion for the student to amplify.
5. The finite mind exists because of the infinite mind. The gas jet
burning above my head affords an illustration. It exists because of a
well-stored gasometer two miles away; because of complicated machinery
by which coal has been caused to yield up its hidden stores of light;
because of a system of underground conductors that terminates in
the burner on the wall. Without the burner and the light all these
appliances would be useless; and they in turn exist only that there
may be light. So the finite mind exists because of the infinite—nor
can we think with satisfaction of infinite mind in the universe and no
creation or correlated force.
6. The finite mind hungers to know the infinite; it peers into the
measureless space which its eye can not pierce, and longs for the
infinite to reveal itself. This fact is historical, “Canst thou by
searching find out God?” has been the question of the ages; and
the answer has been “the world by wisdom knew not God.” The cry of
multitudes of hungering souls has been: “O, that I knew where I might
find him.” As light is necessary to the eye, and air to the bird’s
wing, and sound to the ear, that each may perform the work for which
it is adapted, so a knowledge of the infinite mind that is of God, is
essential that the finite mind—that is, man—may fulfill its destiny.
And this knowledge is possible only through self-revelation by God to
man. That such a revelation has been made we have already asserted.
That the Bible is that revelation is our claim, which we will discuss
in a future lesson. The present lesson will be content to inquire
simply, how that revelation has been effected. We answer:
_God wrought it out in the presence of the race_ in ways unmistakable,
exhibiting every attribute of his character, _even to those of mercy
and forgiveness_. God wrought (not wrote). What we call the inspired
Word is a mediate, not an immediate act of God. God wrought, the work
extending through many ages, perhaps not even yet finished.
_Wrought_ (_a_) in nature, so that “the invisible things of him since
the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through
the things that are made.” Creation then is itself a part of the
revelation, but only a part; for out of it comes no hint of forgiveness
or redemption.
(_b_) In man, _by spiritual manifestations_, _by intellectual
enlightenments_, _by illuminations of conscience_, such as could not
originate in the human soul. These revelations or workings of God in
man mark a large portion of the history of thought through the ages;
and in that dim twilight of the race, when men like Enoch walked with
God, though history is but a shadow, yet it is the shadow of God
working in man.
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