220 The Fundamentals the answer is that if such an artificer existed he himself would require to be accounted for, since beings that are finite must have begun to be, and therefore must have been caused. Accordingly this artificer must have been preceded by another greater than himself, and that by another still greater, and so on travelling backwards forever. Hence it was argued by .Kant that pure reason could not demonstrate the exist ence of God, but only of a competent demiurge or world- builder. But this reasoning is fallacious. The human mind cannot rest in an endless succession of effects without a First Cause, like a chain depending from nothing. Kant him self seemed to recognize the unsatisfactory character of his logic, since, after casting out God from the universe as Creator, he sought to bring Him in again as Supreme Moral Governor. But if m an ’s moral nature cannot be explained without a Supreme Moral Lawgiver, on what principle can it be reasoned that man’s intellectual nature demands less than a Supreme Intelligence ? 2. Without a God the Christian cannot explain to himself the Person of Jesus. Leaving out of view what the Gospels report about His virgin Birth (though we do not regard the narratives as un- historical or the fact recorded as incredible), and fixing at tention solely on the four records, the Christian discerns a personality that cannot be accounted for on ordinary prin ciples. It is not merely that Jesus performed works such as none other man did, and spoke words such as never fell from mortal lips; it is that in addition His life was one of incom parable goodness—of unwearied philanthropy, self-sacrificing love, lowly humility,, patient meekness and spotless p u r i ty - such as never before had been witnessed on earth, and never since has been exhibited by any of His followers. It is that Jesus, being such a personality' as described by those who beheld His glory to be that of an only-begotten from a Father, full of grace and truth, put forth such pretensions and claims
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