Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-11-17

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Gated 10 II, impels through amedium so
solid. PARTICLES so minute, and to which
only a new law, revolutionizing matter,
could give weight and momentum
Religion, in direct opposition to the
nonsense Of modern Science, represents
the Deity as everywhere present, within
US aHd without, and therefore directly
and Immediately acting In all the opera
tions of Nature; and yet, with singular
inconsistency, it prsys to him as "Our
Father" that is, our Generator, who
art in Heaven"
! INQUIRE Of your own mind, and you
4sViIl admit that you hAbitually conceive
Of God as q Being ct a distance, not
present with and within you. You con-
stantly replace q present Deity with the
Laws Of Nature and the Forces of
matter.
| What are the forces OF matter Can
YOU conceive that matter, OF Itself, Is
! possessed of or generates any forces, un-
! less inertia te one? The forces Of matter
are forces of the Deity, acting through
/ matter. Analyze matter, and see If you
| can discover the vital force and the force
! of growth, the attraction of grsvitation
or cohesion z IA $50 ~ a.
According to Religion, God everywhere
| frames every minute infusOrium, as
carefully as the first one to which he
communicated life. Every leaf and
every blade of glass is framed by his
| hand: aid there is no middle ground
between this and the theory of his total
| assepce from the Universe, wherein the
| Laws of Nature take his place.
What then are these LdsVsf II the
Deity were to end, would they continue?
Science means by that term that God
has Willed that certain causes shall al
ways and invariably produce certain
effects, certain combinations always pro-
duce certain results, certain consequences
always follow certain acts; and certain
powers and properties always belong to
matter. If these could not survive the
Deity, and are only maintained by His
Will, then they are the determinations
Of His Will, acting immediately and con-
tinually; and not lars enacted by Him,
and sfterWsId operative OF themselves.
A law may OutlRst the IAWgiveri the
attraction OF cohesion could not survive
the Deity. To will and effect the result,
are not successive with the Deity, but
simultaneous; and 81. the Kabals teaches,
one is the other. The forces OF Nature
are the powers of God in action and
manifested. ... ... .......-... ....-
According to modern science, the sun
is the greatest Of all miracles I; for how,
in accordance with any idea we have Of
light, can an opaque globe, surrounded
by a luminous atmosphere, emit an
ocean of light and heat, reaching even
to this earth-a heat so intense that even
here, collected by q lens, IL melts the
metals? How could any mass Of
matter, possessing the qualities OF mat
ter known to US, continue in solid or
even a fluid state, encircled by fire Of
such intensity Of heat as must surround
the sun?
Our darkDess is a cone Of shadow, the
earth's circumference its base, its apex
in immensity. Ever revolving like
wheel, il also describes its great ellipse
in space; and GoD is present in the dark
ness as IOeu ds IN the light.
Man has made God after his own i'm
age When he does not assign to the
Deity OF his imagination, bis own bodily
members and organs, he invests him
with his moral qualities, his mental and
intellectual powers. How are we war
rsnted in assigning him any Of these
Why should the creature assign his cred-
ted attributes and powers to the Creator?
We possess five senses, and can conceive
OF no others. II Sight had not been given
Us, we could form no conception OF that
sense. OmuipoteDce may have created,
IN this or some other sphere, races Of be-
ings with senses wholly different from
ours. Elsewhere there may be matter
with other qualities than those Of the
matter known to US and there may be
many Entities that are neither matter
nor non matter, though we can conceive
only OF matter and nothing, or the void
We possess Intelligence and Reason
and without these, TO as, there is no In
tellect, or Mind or Soul. By these alone
can we conceive that the effects could be
produced, which seem to be the contriv-
anees OF design and ingenuity, and which
constitute the Universe Of things. Yet
other Beings may possess not these, but
other and wholly aifiereRt powers, utterly
foreign to our conception and beyond our
comprehension. H
We may as rightfully term GoD Light,
as Intelligence. TO predicate Intelligence,
and the process OF u1derstdndIng, OF
HIM, Is TO transfer TO Him our own
powers, and predicate limitation and in
feFiority, and originated powers, unless
we hold that our Reason and Intelli-
gence are but parts Of His, rays from the
great central source and ocean Of both;
as we ere taught by the Ksbala and the
Hermetic philosophy. ..-. ..... --..
Forces, light, electricity are, but do not
eIist. They are like thoughts, and the
sensations Of pain and pleasure. To be
and TO continue are not to eIisf, that is,
to lire, The VIZ Is not q being, and yet
it is q power. Existence can be pfedt-
Gated only Of combinations of matter.
We can conceive Of no existence Of the
Soul separate from the body. This is not
the mere envelope and instrument OF the
Soul, and still less clog upon it, or its
enemy. They are welded together and
form one, and this union constitutes ex-
istence.
Hence some Of the ancient philoso-
pliers denied that even existence could
be predieated Of the Deity. The Very
Deity, they said, is, but does not ezist
Existence, they said, is succession of
phenomena in time; but with the Deity,
all is simultaneous, and the Is, the WAS
and the SHALL BE are one. '
May it not be that God and the Uni
verse are one; and that he erists only in
connection with Il? II he credteOit, there
was sn eternity before it; and before 1t,
said the old philosophy, God WAS, silent,
immOvable, Inaccessible, but did not
erist since existence Is action, change,
alternating prepondersnce Of forces?
We utter no dogma as to these things.
nor say that such are our opinions. We
but suggest, in order that you may
think. N
We only say that God is one and the
Universe Is one that be Is not remote
from it, but present everywhere within
It; that its Forces are bis Forces, its
Laws the immediate action Of his VIII;
that the power of the Human win is
unknown and indefinite; that there are
no hostile forces, but only contraries in
Nature; and that, as Darkness is the
Shadow, the absence snd not the enemy
OF Light, so the Evil in the Universe Is
as necessary as the Good; the Suffering
as the Enjoyment, Death as Life. And
10 terming God The Absolute Reason, We
assign to him no intellectual faculty Of
our own since Reason is as Independent
of us as Truth is.
Light, Vitality and Electricity, sup
posing the latter 10 include Magnetism
and Galvsnism, are the mightiest agents
of the Deity known 70 US In Nature.
How far their essences are independent
Of each other, and distinct, We do not
know. Light, At least, by the common
consent Of sll ages and men, Is the most
apt symbol Of the Deity himself, and
therefore we use the symbol, by means
Of the great Light OF our Council, which
represents the Sun.
aLight and Darkness, +" said Zoroaster,
"are the worlds eternal ways. COD is
the Principle Of everything that exists,
the Generator OF all Beings, Eternal,
| Immoveable, Self Existent. There are
no bounds to his power. He Is the Infin-
ite mind and Supreme Intelligenoe.n
HWisdom, !" say the old Hebrew books,
chad flowed forth from Eternity, from
! the earliest times OF the earth. .nz''When
he prepared the Heavens, l was there;
when he described circle in the ocean
Of light.p And the word rendered
sWisdomn means the Gensrativs Intel
| leetual Potency Of Deity. ta1
This Wisdom, the daughter Of God, is
also Male and Generator. "6hs q the