Theism; being the Baird Lecture of 1876 — John Shaqi
Theism; being the Baird Lecture of 1876Flint, Robert
Religion
Theism; being the Baird Lecture of 1876
Flint, Robert
Theism
According to the view just stated, the evidences or proofs of God's
existence are countless. They are to be found in all the forces, laws,
and arrangements of nature--in every material object, every organism,
every intellect and heart. At the same time, they concur and coalesce
into a single all-comprehensive argument, which is just the sum of the
indications of God given by the physical universe, the minds of men,
and human history. Nothing short of that is the full proof. There may
be points in space and instants in time where creative and sustaining
power appear to our narrow and superficial intellects to have been
strangely limited, but surely we ought not so to concentrate our
attention on any such points or instants as to be unable to take in
a general impression of the immeasurable power displayed throughout
the realms of space and the ages of time. It may be possible to show
that many things which have been regarded as evidences of intelligence
or wisdom are not really so, and yet the universe may teem with the
manifestations of these attributes. Faith in the righteousness and
moral government of God must be able to look over and to look beyond
many things calculated to produce doubt and disbelief. No man can judge
fairly as to whether or not there is a God, who makes the question turn
on what is the significance of a few particular facts, who is incapable
of gathering up into one general finding the results of innumerable
indications. A true religious view of the world must be a wide, a
comprehensive view of it, such as demands an eye for the whole and not
merely for a part--the faculties which harmonise and unify, and not
merely those which divide and analyse. A part, a point, the eye of an
insect, the seed of a fruit, may indeed be looked at religiously, but
it must be in the light of the universe as a whole, in the light of
eternity and infinity.
"Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies;
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower--but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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