Various

“ There must be a mind, or chaos produces order, blind power perfects effects, and non-intelligence the most admirable correspondence and harmony imaginable. Skeptics pride themselves much on their reason. They can't believe, they say, because it is unreasonable. What is unreasonable? To believe in a mind where there is every appearance thereof that can be? Is it more reasonable to believe, then, that every appearance of mind is produced without any mind at all? Skeptics are the last men in all this wide world to pretend reason. They doubt against infinite odds ”

“ The only creature that has the reason to manage the world, has the physical organization to do it. No beast with man's reason could do this, and no man with the mere instinct of a brute could do it. How marvellous, then this adaptation! How wondrous the adaptation of everything, and how astonishing that any man, with all these things in view, can for one moment forbear to admit a God. ”

“ Should the wheels of nature stop their revolutions, and her energies be palsied, and life and motion cease, even then would she exhibit incomparably greater evidence of design, in her mere construction and adaptation, than do the works of art. Shall we then be told that when she is in full operation, and daily producing millions upon millions of useful, of intelligent, of marvelous effects, she still manifests no marks of intelligence! ”

“ If such be the truth in the case, where do we find the origin of the myths from which “Bible myths” have descended? Is it found in the true God presiding over the elements of nature and the destinies of men, as well as the events of creation and providence? Or, can it be possible that we have many counterfeits without a genuine? Many myths sustaining no analogy, either near or remote, to anything real? It is an absurdity, destructive of the term employed, because myths cease to be myths without some near or remote relation to realities. They must sustain some analogy to something real. ”

“ Not a thousandth part so unreasonable would it be to believe a real factory of this description, were one to exist, to be a chance existence, as to believe this universe so. Sooner could I suppose nature herself possessed of intelligence than admit the idea that there is no intelligence concerned in her organization and operations. There must be a mind within or without her, or else we have no data by which to distinguish mind. There must be a mind, or all the results of mind are produced without any. ”

“ Draper's book, entitled “Conflict Between Religion and Science,” makes a square fight between the Bible and science. So far is this from the truth that, on the contrary, it does not even set up a square issue between Protestantism and science; its issue lies between Roman Catholic religion and science. Hear him: “Then has it, in truth, come to this, that Roman Christianity and science are recognized by their respective adherents as being absolutely incompatible; they can not exist together; one must yield to the other; mankind must make its choice—it can not have both. ”

“ In nature we not only see all the works of art infinitely exceeded, but we see, as it were, those works self-moved and performing their operations without external agency. To use a faint comparison, we see a factory in motion without water, wind or steam, its cotton placing itself within the reach of the picker, the cards, the spinning-frame and the loom, and turning out in rolls or cloth. Such virtually, nay, far more wonderful, is [pg 138] the universe. ”

“ Truly the history of scientific investigation reveals the same fallibility of human nature that is known in the many errors found in the line of theological investigation. Truth, in science and religion, stands true to her God—man alone deviates. ”

“ The spirit of man is a wonderful intelligence! “The body without the spirit is dead, being alone.” When we analyze the physical structure back to the germ and sperm-cells we are brought face to face with the invisible builder. Call it what you may, it still remains the same invisible architect, which, being matter's master, built the organism. We live, and breathe; we die, and cease breathing. Dead bodies do not breathe. Therefore, life lies behind breath, and spirit behind life. So life and breath are both effects, which find their ultimate or cause in spirit. ”

“ What plant, what shrub, what tree has not organization and arrangement the most perfect imaginable? What insect so minute that contains not, within its almost invisible exterior, adjustment of part to part in the most exact order throughout all its complicated system, infinitely transcending the most ingenious productions of art, and the most appropriate adaptation of all those parts to its peculiar mode of existence? Rising in the scale of sensitive being, let us consider the beast of the forest, in whose case, without microscopic aid, we have the subject more accessible. ”

“ My object in this lesson is to present the myths, the ancient, fictitious and fanciful narratives concerning the gods, in such a manner as to enable you to see the utter absurdity of the idea that the religion of the Bible is of mythical origin. Myths are fictitious narratives, having an analogy more or less remote to something real. From this definition you discover that a myth is always a counterfeit, and as such always appears in evidence in favor of something more or less remote, that is true. ”

“ For what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day. ”

“ The whole universe, whether considered in its elementary or its organized state. From the simple grass to the tender plant, and onward to the sturdy oak; from the least insect up to man, there is skill the most consummate, design the most clear. What substance, useless as it may be when uncompounded with other substances, does not manifest design in its affinity to those substances, by a union with which it is rendered useful? ”

“ What is the logical and scientific difference between saying plants, which make the nearest approach to the animal are animals without sensation, and saying animals are men without intelligence? Let it be understood at all times, that if man is simply an animal endowed with the gift of reason, an animal may be simply a vegetable endowed with the gift of sensation. ”

“ But similitude never proves identity short of completeness. While the analogy between the ancient mythical system of gods and their worship and the true God and His worship is restricted to power and intelligence, there exists a contrast between them deep as heaven is high and broad as the earth in point of moral character, virtue, and every ennobling and lovable attribute. ”

“ Now, that there is a sovereign God, who is without beginning, and who, without having begotten anything like unto Himself, is, nevertheless, the Father and the former of all things, what man can be gross and stupid enough to doubt? ”

“ We know that mind exists by our consciousness of that which passes within us. The propriety of the sayings of Descartes, “I think, therefore I am,” rests upon the consciousness that we are thinking beings. This intelligence is not obtained by the exercise of any of the senses. It does not depend upon external surroundings. Its existence is a fact of consciousness, of certain knowledge, and hence a fact in mental science.
We are continually conscious of the existence of the mind, which makes its own operations the object of its own thought ”

“ Man's body is in noble contrast with all mere animals. It is so formed that its natural position is erect. “The eyes are in front; the ligaments of the neck are not capable of supporting, for any considerable length of time, the head when hanging down; the horizontal position would force the blood to the head so violently that stupor would be the result. The mouth serves the mind as well as the body itself. According to the most critical calculation, the muscles of the mouth are so movable that it may pronounce fifteen hundred letters.” ”

“ When you venture to affirm that matter acts of itself by an eternal necessity, it must be demonstrated like a proposition in Euclid, otherwise you rest your system only on a perhaps. What a foundation for that which is most interesting to the human race!—Voltaire. ”

“ A New Zealander has sometimes the grace to feel ashamed of mentioning the subject in the hearing of an European, whereas it is impossible to make a Fijian really feel that in eating human flesh he has committed an unworthy act. He sees, indeed, that the white man exhibits great disgust at cannibalism, but in his heart he despises him for wasting such luxurious food as human flesh.... The natives are clever enough at concealing the existence of cannibalism when they find that it shocks the white men. ”

“ Let him take the letters of the alphabet and throw them about promiscuously and then see how long ere they would move of their own accord and arrange themselves into words and sentences. He may avail himself of the whole benefit of his scheme; he may have the advantage of an energy or power as a momentum to set them in motion; he may put these letters into a box sufficiently large for the purpose, and then shake them as long as may seem him good, and when, in this way, they shall have become intelligible language, I will admit that he will have some reasons for doubting a God. ”

“ He who denies the contrast between mind-knowing and matter-known is dishonest, for it is a fact of consciousness, and such can not be honestly denied. The facts given in consciousness itself can not be honestly doubted, much less denied. ”

“ Women, for example, are seldom known to eat ‘bakolo,’ as human flesh is termed, and there are a few men who have refrained from cannibalism through superstition. Every Fijian has his special god, who is supposed to have his residence in some animal. One god, for example, lives in a rat, another in a shark, and so on. The worshiper of that god never eats the animal in which his divinity resides, and as some gods are supposed to reside in human beings, their worshipers never eat the flesh of man. ”

“ Ascending still higher in the scale, we come at last to man—man, the highest, noblest workmanship of God on earth—the lord of this sphere terrene—for whose behoof all earthly things exist. In common with all animals, he has that perfect adaptation of part to part, and of all the parts to general objects, which demonstrate consummate wisdom in the Cause which thus adapted them. ”

“ It seems to us that, no sane man, who is acquainted with the ancient mythicals, can regard the religion of the Bible as a child of mythical descent. It is as deadly in its influence upon those myths, and all mythical worship, as it could be made by an infinite mind.
Voltaire says “the character of the mythical gods is ridiculous;” ”

“ From all this it will be seen that it is impossible to limit the term spirit to its ancient physical currency. Our term mind is, for two reasons, a better word for its place in modern literature. First, it never had a physical application. Second, the terms are used indifferently in the New Testament when they relate to man. See Romans, i, 9 and vii, 25. All spirits are one in kind; in character the difference lies; that is, spirits are all imperishable. It is not in the nature of a spirit to cease to be. If it is, then there is no imperishable nature that is revealed to man. ”

“ Picture to yourself an elephant with a body covered with thick fur, about thirteen feet in height and fifteen in length, with tusks eight feet long, thick, and curving outward at their ends, a stout trunk of six feet in length, colossal limbs of one and a half feet in thickness, and a tail naked up to the end, which was covered with thick tufty hair. ”

“ It is very natural for us to draw comparisons, and when we do not make ourselves familiar with things and their uses, we are very liable to be led into error by a few points of similitude. All the infidels with whom I have become acquainted look upon the Bible like the man looked upon the flax-break, and like the man looked upon the oat field. ”

“ On one occasion, when some of the disciples of the Nazarene were sleepy, Jesus said to them, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” It is the spirit that wills to make a special mental effort. Here is the “font” of all our ideas. “What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?” 1 Cor., ii, 11. Will, as an effect, belongs to the spirit of man, as the cause lying behind. Beyond this no man can trace this subject, short of crossing over from the spirit of man to the invisible Father of spirits. ”

“ He it is of whom, under different names, we adore the eternal power extending through every part of the world, thus honoring separately by different sorts of worship what may be called His several members, we adore Him entirely. May those subordinate gods preserve you under whose names, and by whom all we mortals upon earth adore the common Father of gods and men. ”

“ The original term, translated by the term spirit has, in its history, away back in the past, a physical currency. The old-fashioned materialist or “soul-sleeper” finds his fort in this fact. His entire aim is to get the people back to an old and obsolete [pg 152] currency of the term “pneuma.” If we lay aside words which were used in a physical sense, in times gone by, we will not have many words to express the ideas embraced in mental science. In ancient times “pneuma” signified both mind and wind, or air. ”

“ A spirit, that is, a simple, incorporeal, immaterial being, possessing higher capacities than man in his present state. Of created spirits, the human spirit, soul, after its departure from the body and as existing in a separate state. ”