Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1873-06-12
SPIRIT OF THE AGE
Thursday June 12, 1873.
Thoughts on the Being of God.

it is around this subject Of the 'Being
of Cod" that the fercest battles have
been waged, and the sublimest efforts
of the human intellect put FORTH
Whether God be Personality or a
Force, or u Congeries offorces; wheth-
er or not all aoe see may be the ulti.
mate Poaoer, with which we have
to do; whether there may not be,
various spheres, within which partic
ular Gods are supreme, being how
ever tributary to other higher Powers
Deism, Theism, Polytheism, Panthe-
ism, Positiveism, Natural Selection,
Protoplasm, these are the mere names
of theories, more or less, involving the
nature of Deity, with which every
tyro in learning becomes familiar
Amid these various schemes Of thought
abont the Deity, it is a long point
gained. when we arrive at the majes-
tic dictum of Moses -'Hear O Israel
the Lord Our God is One Lord. -
The theology of Moses was intensely
practical, and his books, which seem
to us, of such simple, legislative
tone, and of so calmly an enunciatory
character, were originally exceedingly
polemical and controversial, as we shall
see, if we consider the mission of
Moses, and the state of the Jewish
mind at the epoch of the Jewish
Prophet. In the time Of Joseph, the
dynasty which ruled in Egypt was
somewhat under the influence of the
teachings of Abraham, and hence it
was, that natural sympathy came to
exist between the Court Royal and
the Israeltish immigrants; but, in
era of Moses, a new faction had at
tained the supremacy, which, they
employed, as well to introduce the
most absolute idolatry, as to perpetu-
ate their own power. History indeed
is tull of instances of this policy, which
usurpers, have adopted, for revolution
ising social and religious customs,
which had become associated with the
interests of a defeated monarch.
The Shepherd Kings, as they are
called, accordingly had introduced in
to Egypt the most perverted idolatry.
Their theology was exceedingly in
tricate, trinity, in everything was
everywhere worshipped by them. But
little is known of the details of the
system, but the whole course ofthe
developement Of the deliverance of
the Israelites, was equally gradual
proofto the Egyptians ofthe impotency
of their Gods. Like the Greeks, the
Egyptians seem to have deifed almost
) every natural object, the river Nile,
its frogs, the winds, the cattle, all seem
to have possessed sacred charac,e,
in their eyes. The first chapter Of
Genesis accordingly, being designed
as an antidote to Egyptian ideas, o.
4 the eternity Of matter, details witt
great emphasis the fact that Goo
originated matter, that it has origin
= in definite periods, cons, or days, il
time, and is not eternal, as the Egyp
, tian philosophy taught. And, so also
the purpose for which the sun and
moon and stars were created, are de
tailed with great distinctness in order
> that men might not worship what was
meant only to give us light. More
f over, vegetables, reptiles, and othe1
c inferior animals being worshipped by
the heather, Moses is very particulal
/. to state the genesis or origin of thes,
y things, for, it is abhorrent to the hu
=, man mind, to ac0rship what is created
; and the exact error of the Egyptian
philosophy-an error-into which th'
chosen people of God might fall, wa
: the theory that these things were
+ eternal-that they had developed from
I, one form of matter, or existence int,
!, another, till at last they had attained
their present form. And if these oh
jects are eternal, they are proper OBJ
y jects for worship, for whatever, by th'
= innate conception of our minds, j
uncreated, must be considered as crea
70 tive in its nature, hence as God.-
1t is not so absurd, as we may sup
pose, to worship the sun, and tn
moon, or Uhat rich poetry of tn
heavens, as a great poet has called,
the stars. In mind untaught tn
theology of Moses and Christ, ye
alive to their beauty, the rare ii
fluence of the first stars of eventidt
or the opening glories of sunrise
: must excite the instinct of worship, a
in christian mind they do, thought
of the alteration of their Maker.