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
only through this knowledge of the nature of intelligence that we can
infer our fellow-men to be intelligent beings; and not less is it an
indispensable condition of our inferring God to be an intelligence.
Then, causality and design, and the will and intelligence within us
through which they are interpreted, cannot, even when combined, enable
us to think of the Creative Reason as righteous; although obviously,
until so thought of, that reason is by no means to be identified with
God. The greatest conceivable power and intelligence, if united with
hatred of righteousness and love of wickedness, can yield us only
the idea of a devil; and if separated from all moral principle and
character, good or bad, only that of a being far lower than man, which
might have reason for worshipping man, but which man cannot worship
without degrading himself. The existence, however, of a moral principle
within us, of a conscience which witnesses against sin and on behalf
of holiness, is of itself evidence that God must be a moral being, one
who hates sin and loves holiness; and the light of this, "the candle of
the Lord," in the soul, enables us to discover many other reasons for
the same conclusion in the constitution of society and the course of
history. But if we had no moral perceptions on the contemplation of our
own voluntary acts, we certainly would not, and could not, invest the
Divine Being with moral perfections because of His acts.
There is still another step to be taken in order to obtain an
apprehension of God; and it is one where the outward universe fails us,
where we are thrown entirely, or nearly so, on our internal resources.
The universe, interpreted by the human mind in the manner which has
been indicated, may warrant belief in a Being whose power is immense,
whose wisdom is inexpressibly wonderful, and whose righteousness is to
be held in profoundest admiration and reverence, notwithstanding all
the clouds and darkness which may in part conceal it from our view; but
not in a Being whose existence is absolute, whose power is infinite,
whose wisdom and goodness are perfect. We cannot infer that the author
of a universe which is finite, imperfect, and relative, and all the
phenomena of which are finite, imperfect, and relative, must be, in the
true and strict sense of the terms, infinite, perfect, and absolute.
We cannot deduce the infinite from the finite, the perfect from the
imperfect, the absolute from the relative. And yet it is only in the
recognition of an absolute Being of infinite power, who works with
perfect wisdom towards the accomplishment of perfectly holy ends, that
we reach a true knowledge of God, or, which is much the same thing,
a knowledge of the true God. Is there, then, any warrant in our own
nature for thinking of God as infinite, absolute, and perfect, since
there seems to be little or none in outward nature? Yes, there are
within us necessary conditions of thought and feeling and ineradicable
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