THE KING’S' BUSINESS
1067
vanced did not fail to discover traces o f what they sought either through want o f famil iarity with the language o f the natives, or through -starting with the presupposition that the religious conceptions o f the natives must be equally exalted with their own. In any case, on the principle that excep tions prove the rule, it may be set down as incontrovertible that the vast majority o f mankind have possessed some idea o f a Supreme Being; so that if the truth or falsehood o f the proposition, “ There is no Gbd,” is to be determined by the count ing o f votes, the question is settled in the negative, that is, against the atheist's creed. 11. The Confession of the Agnostic “I cannot tell whether there is a God or not.” —Without dogmatically affirming that there is no God, the Agnostic practically insinuates'that whether there is a God or not, nobody can tell and it does not much matter—that man with his loftiest powers o f thought and reason and with his best appliances o f research, cannot come to speech with God or obtain reliable infor mation concerning Him, can only build up an imaginary picture, like an exaggerated or overgrown man, and call that God—in other words, can only make a God after his own image and in his own likeness without being sure whether any corre sponding reality stands behind it, or even if there’is, whether that reality can be said to come up to the measure o f a Divine Being or be entitled to be designated God. The agnostic does not deny that behind the phenomena o f the universe there may be a Power, but whether there, is or not, and if there is, whether that Power is a Force or a . Person, are among the things unknown and unknowable, so that prac tically, God being outside, and beyond the sphere o f man’s knowledge, it can never be o f consequence whether there be a God or not—it can never be more than a subject o f curious speculation, whether there be inhabitants in the planet Mars or not. As thus expounded, the creed o f the agnostic is open to serious objections. 1. It entirely ignores the spiritual factor
in man’s nature,— either denying the soul’s existence altogether, or viewing it as merely a function o f the body;; or, if regarding it as a separate entity distinct from the body, hnd using its faculties to apprehend and reason about objects, yet denying its ability to discern spiritual real ities. On either alternative, it is contra dicted by both Scripture and experience. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible pro ceeds upon the assumption that man is more than “six feet o f clay,’’ “curiously carved and wondrously articulated,” that “ there is a spirit in man,” and that this spirit has power not only to apprehend things unseen but to come into touch with God and to be touched by Him, or, in Scripture phrase, to see and know God and to be seen and known by Him. Nor can it be denied that man is conscious o f being more than animated matter, and o f having power to apprehend more than comes within the range o f his senses, for he can and does entertain ideas and cherish feel ings that have at least no direct connection with the senses, and can originate thoughts, emotions and volitions that have not been excited by external objects. And as to knowing God, Christian experience attests the truth o f Scripture when it says that this knowledge is no figure o f speech or illusion o f the mind, but a sober, reality. It is as certain as language can make it that Abraham and Jacob, Mqses and Joshua, Samuel and David, Isaiah and Jere miah, had no doubt whatever that they knew God and were known o f H im ; and multi tudes o f Christians exist'today whom it would not be easy to convince that they could not and did not know Godr although not through the medium o f the senses or even o f the pure reason. 2. It takes fo r grunted that things can not be adequately known unless they are fully known. This proposition, however, cannot be sustained in either Science or Philosophy, in ordinary life or in religious experience«- Science knows there is such things as life (vegetable and animal), and force (electricity and magnetism for exam ple), but confesses its ignorance o f what
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker