GERMS OF THOUGHT. ON THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. "What am I? and from whence? 1 nothing know, And, if a God there is, that God how great!" A WRITER of celebrity says, "See, here, I hold a Bible in my hand, and you see the cover, the leaves, the letters, the words; but you do not see the writers, or the printer, the letter founder, the ink maker, the paper maker, or the binder. You never did see them, you never will see them, and yet there is not one of you who will think of disputing or denying the being of these men. I go farther; I affirm that you see the very souls of these men, in seeing this book; and you feel yourselves obliged to allow that they had skill, contrivance, design, memory, fancy, reason, and so on. In the same manner, if you see a picture, you judge there was a painter; if you see a house, you judge there was a builder of it; and if you see one room contrived for this purpose, and another for that, a door to enter, a window to admit light, a chimney to hold fire, you conclude the builder was a person of skill and forecast, who formed the house with a view to the accommodation of its inhabitants. In this manner, examine the world, and pity the man, who, when he sees the sign of the wheat sheaf, has sense enough to know that there is a joiner, and somewhere a painter; but who, when he sees the wheat sheaf itself, is so stupid as not to say to himself, 'This had a wise and good Creator.' This sort of reasoning carries conviction along with it." When I survey the visible scene of the universe, and inquire into its origin, I am led to conclude, that it either existed from eternity, or was produced in time. From eternity it could not be, for what is continually changing and altering cannot be eternal. As it had a beginning, it certainly was not the effect of chance; for that would be as absurd as to affirm, that a regular poem was made by the casual shaking of the letters of the alphabet together, and then throwing them on the ground; or, that a curious machine, containing numerous parts, and various motions, was constructed by the accidental meeting of the several materials of which it consists. The existence of a Supreme Being may be easily and strongly inferred from the works of nature. If he were not, nothing could have being. The various creatures on the face of the earth are produced by successive generations: then there must have been a first generation; that first generation could not have given existence to itself; it must have been the effect of some first cause, who is self-existent, inde pendent and eternal. This argument is con clusive for the existence of an eternal being, To exclude an infinite agency, as the first cause of the astonishing productions which the universe exhibits, would be irrational as well as atheistical. In whatever direction I look, every object proclaims the being and perfections of God. I see his adorable name inscribed, not only on the celestial bodies, but it is written in legible characters on every blade of grass, and on every leaf of every tree. Or, if I turn my intellectual eye inward, conscience bears witness to this important and consolatory' truth. How just, then, will be the condemnation of the atheist, who wilfully shutting his eyes against the clearest evidence, and obstinately refusing to listen to the voice of an inward monitor, in his heart says, "There is no God." This blasphemous assertion is an awful proof of the total depravity and desperate malignity of his moral nature; for, if he did not secretly wish it, he never would indulge such a thought. The majesty and kindness of God appear so illustrious in the construction of the universe, as to be sufficient to attract every discerning eye, and impress every grateful and generous heart. On viewing the works of creation, we discover in them an infinite variety and awful grandeur, which evince an almighty power; and they are evidently as curious and beneficial, as they are stately and magnificent. If it be a self-evident axiom, that there can be no effect produced without an adequate cause, then it is equally certain, that the external objects by which we are surrounded demonstrate a Deity. |