C. A. Row

“ Does not moral evil cause a great amount of physical suffering? Are not vast numbers of men the prey of ignorance and superstition—great evils doubtless, and of which unbelievers heavily complain? In one word, when we contemplate the present condition of mankind, does not the sternest reason affirm that it is inconceivable that this can be the final condition of God's creative work? Yet these things are no theories but obvious facts, and on the supposition on which we are reasoning, facts in the universe of God. ”

“ The truth is that death is a phenomenon which is caused by the joint action of a multitude of natural forces. But if these were overborne by any force of nature, or by the Author of nature calling any unknown force into activity, or even by the energy of his own creative will, it would be absurd to call such an event either a violation of the laws or of the order of nature, and therefore to affirm that it was incredible. Death is the result of the action of the natural forces which we observe around us. No natural force with which we are acquainted can effect a resurrection. ”

“ So strong is it, that it may be truly said of large numbers of mankind that they spend all the time which they are not compelled to devote to the serious realities of life, in little else than hearing and speaking of some new thing. It is undoubtedly the cause of a large number of fictitious beliefs, and produces, in minds where the rational powers are weak, a ready acceptance of the unusual, the strange, and the wonderful. The same principle, acting in conjunction with others, when uncontrolled by reason, has occasioned many of the exaggerations which are to be found in history. ”

“ Miracles viewed as mere phenomena stand on exactly the same ground as very unusual occurrences, or very wonderful discoveries. As far as they are contrary to past experience, they are alike credible or incredible. They are events of which the cause is unknown, but may or may not hereafter be discovered. It is quite true that any extraordinary phenomenon requires a stronger testimony to render it credible than an ordinary occurrence. ”

“ Paul distinctly pledges the truth of Christianity on the reality of the fact: “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain; yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not, ... and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” ”

“ The facts form, so to say, the essence of the religion. The Christianity of the New Testament is a growth which encircles itself around the person of its founder in a manner in which no other system of thought or religion, [pg 371] which has existed among men, has ever done. If we take the person of Jesus Christ out of the New Testament, the whole system of its teaching crumbles into nothingness. If we remove the person of its founder from every other system of human thought—its great religions form no exception—the system remains intact. ”

“ But, for the purposes of the present argument, I have simply to draw attention to the fact that imagination, wonder, reverence and awe form an essential portion of our being. It would be in the highest degree undesirable to get rid of them, even if we were able. How mighty is the influence of the first of these principles! It lies at the foundation of everything that is great and noble in man. To it are due the magnificent creations of poetry; in fact everything which adorns life, and much of that which raises us above the mechanical forces of nature. ”

“ If therefore under the moral government of God it is a fact that such forms of human wickedness exist; and if it is supposable, that there are other rational beings in the universe endowed with higher powers than man, how can it be inconceivable that they may differ in moral character, precisely in the same way as men do; and that some may be eminently virtuous, and others fearfully corrupt? It is clear that the difficulty centres in the existence of moral evil in the universe of a God who is possessed of almighty power, and perfect holiness and goodness. ”

“ On the very threshold of inquiry into the origin and true character of Christianity we are brought face to face with the supernatural. It is impossible, without totally setting aside its peculiar and indispensable claim to be a direct external revelation from God of truths which otherwise human reason could not have discovered, to treat Ecclesiastical Christianity as a form of religion developed by the wisdom of man. Not only in form does it profess to be the result of divine communication, but in its very essence, in its principal dogmas it is either superhuman or untenable. ”

“ I have now shown on the strongest historical evidence that it is impossible that the belief in the Resurrection can have grown up slowly and only succeeded in gradually establishing itself. On the contrary, I have proved that it was coeval with the birth of the Church, and that it formed the one sole ground of its existence. I have also proved that the belief in it was universal, and that it was accepted by the entire Christian community without distinction of party; and that their belief can be traced up as the sole cause of the renewed life of the Church after the crucifixion. ”

“ There can be no doubt that a number of vices, when indulged in beyond a certain point, reduce man's moral being to a wreck and render him obnoxious to the action of external agency. The power of self-control may be indefinitely weakened. If vice is carried to its extreme forms, it produces phenomena hardly, if at all, distinguishable from madness. Such a state of man's moral nature would form a suitable precondition to enable a superhuman being to overpower the reason and the will, the supremacy of which was already impaired by an influence from within. ”

“ I fully accept the statement that moral truths cannot be proved by the evidence of miracles, but must rest on their own inherent evidence; and that all positive duties rest on the command of God, to whom we feel, on other grounds, that all love, reverence, and adoration are due. The truth of doctrines also cannot be established by the performance of a miracle; but when we accept them on external authority, they rest on the testimony of God, and our full persuasion that He must be in possession of all truth. ”

“ The occurrence, therefore, of anything opposed to the ultimate rulings of these unintelligent physical forces is not incredible. It is perfectly true that man can only produce results through the agency of these physical forces; but he can modify their results, and so use them as to make them the means of effectuating his purposes. It is quite true that nothing can occur opposed to the forces of nature; that is to say, that, while the force of gravitation is in energy, and no other force is present capable of overcoming its power, the ascension of a human body into heaven is impossible. ”

“ No more pernicious principle can be laid down than that things which are contradictory to our reason can be accepted by the principle of faith. Such a principle would divide the human mind into two hostile camps, and if carried to its logical consequences, must land us in universal scepticism.
It by no means follows that things which transcend our rational powers to discover must be contrary to our reason when they have been discovered. We can only arrive at the knowledge of unknown facts by observation, or accept them on the testimony of others. ”

“ If laws are the invariable sequences of phenomena how is it possible that one law can suspend another law? It is not even true that one force can suspend another force. All that it can do is to neutralize its action. Physical philosophy is constantly attributing to laws what can only be true of forces, and even frequently ascribes to them what is only true of intelligent forces. It must never be overlooked in this controversy that the laws of nature can effectuate nothing. Forces, not laws, produce results. ”

“ It is not correct to assert that the belief in miracles has been confined to ages of ignorance. Will it be affirmed that the most flourishing period of Grecian literature was an age of ignorance? Yet a belief in a current supernaturalism prevailed in it. Was the Augustan age an age of ignorance? Both ages were ignorant of physical science: but during few periods has the human intellect been equally active. Each age contained men endowed with common sense sufficient to make them adequate judges whether the supernatural occurrences above referred to were possible or not. ”

“ Nor is it right to affirm that we are only reasoning in a circle when we reason from His moral attributes as displayed in the government of the world in favour of the probability of a revelation; or if because a revelation which claims to be from God, bears the impress of His character, we employ this fact as an evidence that it comes from Him. To affirm that He is unknowable or unthinkable is to proclaim that man has no concern with God, and that all revelation is impossible; therefore, the objections urged against the evidence of supernatural religion on these grounds are untenable. ”

“ It is plain, that if there is a God, every being in the universe, however powerful or intelligent, can only act within a certain definite sphere of operation, which the Governor of the universe has assigned to him. Within what limits then is he allowed act? Are subordinate agents permitted to interfere with the material forces of external nature? and if so, within what bounds? Can they wander over the universe at their mere will and pleasure, and interfere with its operations? How far is their interference permitted in the moral and spiritual worlds? ”

“ When under the influence of awe, he has contemplated it in its terrible aspects, unguided by a being who possesses a moral character, these feelings have prompted the imagination to fill it with beings who excite the feeling of superstitious dread.
Although the vastness of the material universe and the energy of its forces can excite the feeling of wonder, yet that of reverence refuses to find in the mere extension of space, or the might of material forces, any object adequate to its demands. The vastness of the material universe may fill the mind with wonder and admiration ”

“ Genius is a mental power which manifests itself only on rare occasions. Who can affirm that we have ascertained the law which regulates its birth? We may judge from analogy that this, as other things, follows a law of some kind; but respecting the causes which give it birth our philosophy is profoundly ignorant. Nor have we any knowledge of its mode of action. It manifests itself in various forms. There is the genius which makes the poet, the philosopher, the scientific discoverer, the orator, the politician, and many others. ”

“ The habit of speaking of his inspirations, from which scientific men are not exempt, proves our complete ignorance both of its nature and origin.
But to descend to a humbler sphere—our own minds. We are all conscious that thoughts rush into them in a most unbidden manner, and that we pass through mental states which our analysis is unable to explain. Can any man affirm, however deep may be his philosophy, that the known laws of association of ideas are adequate to account for all the mental phenomena of which he has been conscious? ”

“ As I have observed, the principle is found energizing wherever man exists. Although in one age it may be more active than in another, it is alike the inheritance of the civilized man and the savage. It has displayed itself in the creations of the poet and the writer of fiction; in the various forms of religious thought; in the production of ghost-stories and pictures of the under-world; in the creation of the various forms of demonology, witchcraft and magic; in the milder form of fairy-tales; in charms and incantations, and in efforts to pry into the future. ”

“ It is an unquestionable fact that the human mind has been in all ages disposed to accept a number of narratives of supernatural occurrences upon very insufficient testimony, and which the principles of sound reason lead us to reject as untrue. Such beliefs have been peculiar to no one period of the world's history, but have been co-extensive with the human race; and they form one of the most remarkable facts in our nature. ”

“ If we do not already believe in supernatural agencies, no miracle can prove to us their existence. The miracle itself, considered as an extraordinary fact, may be satisfactorily certified by our senses, or by testimony; but nothing can ever prove that it is a miracle: there is still another possible hypothesis, that of its being the result of some unknown cause; and this possibility cannot be so completely shut out, as to leave no alternative but that of admitting the existence of a being superior to nature. ”

“ Is it not true that men have existed both in the ancient and modern world, whose actions have inflicted the greatest evils on mankind for generation after generation? Can any one doubt that descendants suffer for the sins of remote ancestors, and children for those of their parents? Facts are facts, and they will not become less so by our refusing to look at them. The evil wrought by such a man as Philip II. of Spain, is a fact, and it has extended its baneful influence to our own times. ”

“ Even in our deepest retirement we should never be free from the invasion of their prying curiosity. Such a power would be incompatible with the moral order of society. It follows, therefore, that an unknown order of nature, presenting the most violent contrast to the visible one, whose phenomena do not follow an invariable but an intermittent law, and are only alleged to manifest themselves under conditions favourable to imposture, possesses such a degree of inherent improbability as to justify its rejection, even by those who recognise the action of none but material forces in the universe. ”