Unknown God

“ That is a nobler one, and its essential characteristic is to plunge into the Unknown which is God. There the Will lays hold of God in a mysterious manner, and the Unknown God imparts His impress to the Will. ”

“ And forasmuch as the only cause that I am able to imagine as competent to produce such effects is that of intelligent guidance, I accept the metaphysical hypothesis that beyond the sphere of the Knowable there exists an Unknown God. ”

“ He becometh certain that though the Divine Essence is unseen of the eye, and the existence of the Deity is intangible, yet conclusive spiritual proofs assert the existence of that unseen Reality. The Divine Essence as it is in itself is however beyond all description. For instance, the nature of ether is unknown, but that it existeth is certain by the effects it produceth, heat, light and electricity being the waves thereof. By these waves the existence of ether is thus proven. And as we consider the outpourings of Divine Grace we are assured of the existence of God. ”

“ Hence, though God therefore certainly is, he is forever unknown and unknowable: because to know is to think, to think is to condition, and to condition the Unconditioned is a self-contradiction.” In this way the so-called being of God was supposed to be saved at the cost of his essence ”

“ By God, no fortitude have I to bear the loss of you! How should I patience have, when all my hopes are fled away?
Since he I love is gone, in sleep how should I have delight? Who can take pleasure in a life of misery and dismay? ”

“ The position of the Atheist is a clear and a reasonable one: I know nothing about 'God,' and therefore I do not believe in Him or in it; what you tell me about your God is self-contradictory, and is therefore incredible. I do not deny 'God,' which is an unknown tongue to me; I do deny your God, who is an impossibility. I am without God." ”

“ Sad parents then recall your greefes:
Your little one now truely lives,
Your pretty messenger of Love,
Your new intelligence above;
Since God created such immortal flowers
To grow in his owne Paradice, not ours. ”

“ The worm that never dies! the thorn within,
That pricks and pains; the whip and scourge of sin:
The voice of God in man! which, without rest,
Doth softly cry within a troubled breast;
To all temptations is that soul left free
That makes not to itself a curb of thee! ”

“ Indeed, my people I will well to leave and leave a faith Other than that of the sharp sword; yea, Islam I embrace
And testify that there’s no Lord save God and God alone; For constant is the proof thereof and doubt can find no place. ”

“ And suddenly those lashes rose like a curtain, and there came from beneath them a flood of blue colour, which pervaded the room like the odour of camphor and sandal-wood made visible to the eye, and overcame the senses of all that stood by, till they were within a little of swooning away. And like men lying on their backs and gazing into the depths of the sky, they felt as it were enveloped in the colour of heaven, and lost their perception of mundane affairs. For though they knew it not, they were looking at the reflection of the glory of the moon-crested god. ”

“ How is’t I have no pitying friend to help me in my need? Will no one answer my complaint or heed the tears I shed?
My time of life is past away and death draws nigh to me: Will no one earn the grace of God by standing me in stead?
Will none take pity on my state and succour my despair With but a cup of water cold, to ease my torments dread?
The people fell to weeping for him, and the headsman rose and brought him a draught of water; but the Vizier smote the gugglet with his hand and broke it: then he cried out at the executioner and bade him strike off Noureddin’s head. ”

“ O Thou the Truth, O Almighty One, O Creator of Night and Day, I beseech Thee to turn these people into stones, for Thou art omnipotent, nor is aught impossible to Thee, and Thou art able unto all things!’ And God transformed the people of this city into stones ”

“ Nay, since your parting-day, my lords, I swear it by your life, No sweet of life delighteth me; all pleasance I abjure;
And if God order that I die for love of you, I die Chiefest of all the martyrs slain of love unblent and pure. ”

“ How often in the morn is one oppressed by care, Yet gladness follows on the coming of the night!
If things go hard with thee, trust in the Most High God, The ever-living One that is in Heaven’s height. ”

“ I said; and the earth, “Bend low; For a lover lies here and waits for the Resurrection Day.”
“God help thee, O victim of love,” I cried, “and bring thee to dwell In the highest of all the heavens of Paradise, I pray!
How wretched are lovers all, even in the sepulchre, When their very graves are covered with ruin and decay!
Lo, if I might, I would plant thee a garden round about And with my streaming tears the thirst of its flowers allay!”
Then she returned to the garden, weeping, and I with her, and she said to me, “By Allah, thou shalt never leave me!” ”

“ I write with a heart devoted to thee and the thought of thee And an eyelid, wounded for weeping tears of the blood of me.
And a body that love and affliction and passion and long desire Have clad with the garment of leanness and wasted utterly.
I plain me to thee of passion, for sore hath it baffled me Nor is there a corner left me where patience yet may be.
Wherefore, have mercy, I prithee, show favour unto me, For my heart, my heart is breaking for love and agony.
The cure of hearts is union with the beloved and whom his love maltreateth, God is his physician. ”

“ Awake, O wretch, devote thyself this day to God His praise; Repent and turn thee to the Lord, as men have turned of yore.
The rains of the Forgiving One, belike, shall wash away The past and on the sinner’s head the grace of God shall pour ”

“ And hearing these lines from Amjad she sighed with the deepest sighs and, signing to him again, repeated these couplets,
"'Tis thou hast trodden coyness path not I: * Grant me thy favours for the time draws nigh: O thou who makest morn with light of brow, * And with loosed brow-locks night in lift to stye! Thine idol-aspect made of me thy slave, * Tempting as temptedst me in days gone by: 'Tis just my liver fry with hottest love: * Who worship fire for God must fire aby: Thou sellest like of me for worthless price; * If thou must sell, ask high of those who buy." ”

“ When God would execute His will in anything On one endowed with sight, hearing and reasoning,
He stops his ears and blinds his eyes and draws his wit From him, as one draws out the hairs to paste that cling ”

“ There was once a king of the kings of Hind, who was goodly of polity, praiseworthy in administration, just to his subjects, beneficent to men of learning and piety and asceticism and devoutness and worship and shunning traitors and froward folk and those of lewd life. On this wise of polity he abode in his kingship what God the Most High willed of days and hours and years, and he married the daughter of his father’s brother, a beautiful and lovesome woman, endowed with brightness and perfection, who had been reared in the king’s house in splendour and delight. ”

“ Asked the King, "What didst thou observe in them; and did they give thee any charge?" Answered the treasurer, "I found them patient and resigned to what came down upon them and they said to me, 'Verily, our father is excusable; bear him our salutation and say to him, 'Thou art quit of our killing. But we charge thee repeat to him these couplets,
Verily women are devils created for us. We seek refuge with God from the artifice of the devils. They are the source of all the misfortunes that have appeared among mankind in the affairs of the world and of religion. ”

“ The priests and the knights were upon the walls and knelt toward this chapel, and looked up to heaven and made great joy, and well it seemed him that they beheld God in Heaven with His Mother. Messire Gawain looketh at them from afar, for he durst not come anigh the castle for these that shoot their arrows so strongly that none armour might defend him. ”

“ May the king live!
23 And in some time after, when the kings and princes and the sons of men were speaking to Enoch, and Enoch was teaching them the ways of God, behold an angel of the Lord then called unto Enoch from heaven, and wished to bring him up to heaven to make him reign there over the sons of God, as he had reigned over the sons of men upon earth. ”

“ All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods. ”

“ MARKO KRALJEVIĆ AND THE DAUGHTER
OF THE MOORISH KING
Marko's mother asked a question:
"Ah, my son, Kraljević Marko,
Wherefore dost thou build so many pious buildings?
Hast thou sinned greatly against God?
Or doth gold come to thee without labour [1] ?" ”

“ This is one boon that the science and philosophy of our day have unintentionally conferred upon us. They have laboured to make us feel how remote and inaccessible God is, how little we can know Him, how truly He is past finding out; they have laboured to make us feel how intangible and invisible and incomprehensible God is, but the result of this is that we turn with all the stronger longing to Him who is the Image of the Invisible God, and on whom a voice has fallen from the excellent glory, “This is My beloved Son, hear Him.” ”

“ And God caused the old man to find favor in the eyes of the officer, who brought him forth with respect with all his books, and they went from city to city and from country to country until they reached Sevilia; and the officer found that this old man was possessed of wisdom and understanding and acquainted with various kinds of science, upon discovering which he raised and honored him, was constantly in his house and was taught by him all sorts of wisdom, and they built for themselves a lofty and capacious house in the suburbs of Sevilia and placed there all those books. ”

“ Know thou of a certainty that the Unseen can in no wise incarnate His Essence and reveal it unto men. He is, and hath ever been, immensely exalted beyond all that can either be recounted or perceived. From His retreat of glory His voice is ever proclaiming: “Verily, I am God; there is none other God besides Me, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. I have manifested Myself unto men, and have sent down Him Who is the Day Spring of the signs of My Revelation. Through Him I have caused all creation to testify that there is none other God except Him, the Incomparable, the All-Informed, the All-Wise.” ”

“ But I am filled with amazement, when I am told, that, in this enlightened age and in the heart of the Christian world, there are persons who can witness this daily manifestation of the power and wisdom of the Creator, and yet say in their hearts, "There is no God." ”

“ As for the man, he committed his affair to God the Most High, relying upon Him for deliverance, and said in himself, ‘What is this affair?’ Then he did away the leaves from himself and rising, saw great plenty of men’s bones there, of those whom the lion had devoured. He looked again and saw a heap of gold lying alongside a girdle; [2] whereat he marvelled and gathering up the gold in his skirts, went forth of the thicket and fled in affright at hazard, turning neither to the right nor to the left, in his fear of the lion ”

“ I felt less inclined to dogmatize about the existence of matter; but my soul was imbued with a fuller conviction of the existence of a God; and deeper still became the feeling that, so far as things are known to me, there is nothing in heaven or earth more divine than Christ. ”

“ It is almost impossible for them to arrive at any other conclusion, and where, in the history of the world, is it chronicled of any great astronomer that he was an infidel? any one that has the mind, and whose researches have enabled him to stretch out and begin to comprehend and fathom the greatness of the works of creation, that has not in the most humble and reverential manner acknowledged God? ”

“ How much less, then, can we give just descriptions of the Deity! How can we describe Him [89] "who covereth himself with light as with a garment,"—whom no man hath seen, nor can see.
We are aware that every thing speaks of a God. All nature has its language; and however dark the alphabet, it still speaks, and speaks every where; for there is no place where he has not "left a witness." We acknowledge, too, that the only reason why the deep tones of nature are not more audible, may be found in the imbecilities or transgressions of man. ”

“ Let them understand that if their 507“Unknowable” is not eternal, it is no God; if it is not omniscient, it is no God; if it is not omnipotent, it is no God. And, in like manner, if it is not self-existent, immutable, immense, infinitely wise, infinitely good, infinitely perfect, it is no God. And, again, if it is not our Creator, our Master, and our Judge, it is no God, and we have no reason for worshipping it, or even for respecting it. How can we know that these and similar attributes can and must be predicated of the Unknowable, since the unknowable is not and cannot be known? ”

“ This rational and immortal creature in the morning of his existence looked up into the clear sky with reverence, being impressed by the eternal power and godhead that are there, and when he had committed a sin he felt remorseful and guilty; but the very same person now sins recklessly and with flinty hardness of heart, casts sullen or scowling glances upward, and says: "There is no God." ”

“ When, then, we rise, or rather retreat, into the still more interior and delicate sphere of spiritual existences, what difficulty is there in believing that, notwithstanding their invisibility,—there, too, exist both life and organism? and thence ascending still higher to the Divine, there is to the reflecting mind little difficulty in believing in the existence of a Personal God, although invisible. ”

“ I look around me, and see with alarm, in these days of increased knowledge and intelligence, how entirely many thoughtful people are living without God in the world; I mean, without having any conscious communion or connection with him. ”

“ In regard to the last, the thousand varied forms which we every day behold, and the thousand beautiful and minute grades by which matter is led from the simple clod to the most perfect of our conceptions, proves evidently the will of the Deity to vary and employ all that which is within the immensity of his power. To admit that there is a God, is to admit that there is a spirit. ”