Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-11-04
y. " q I NWVhaIls
Publisher aud Proprietor.
Our study OF the Attributes of
Deity.


1t is not only certain that the
new sciences need not harm Chris
tian doctrine, but it is possible they
may absolutely reform our ideas of
God, When we inherited the notion
of the Almighty being person like
a human person, we fell heir to a
very inferior conception. A Deity
fashioned like the colossal David Of
Angelo has not been the best form
through which or in which the
human family could behold its
maker and judge. The Deity thus
embodied, thus centralized, was too
easily removed from the homes and
paths of men. All human hearts
have always thought of Him as be-
ing elsewhere, and hence He has
been too far away to alarm the sin
| full and to comfort the sorrowing.
Wicked men have felt that they
could hide from Him; that millions
and millions of miles lay between
their little actions and the White
Throne. Devout hearts have looked
up with tears, wishing for the
wings Of a dove, or the wings Of
light and thought, that they might
fly away and fnd the infinite rest
In his error and weakness, the
Christian has compared his prayer
to telegraph that ran from earth
to the realms of the Father. II
any science can come with power to
overthrow these childish symbols
of Deity and give MS Father fill
ing all space with his presence, We
shall all hasten to call that science
the noble benefactor Of religion
T. must be remembered that
= aners,, nal God" does moi
imply a localiz.,d or humanized
God. A personal God IS
power conscious of self--a MINI
a consciousness. 10 picture this
mind as a person like king or q
fudge was the error of the infant
man. If, by degrees, science can
remove this idea from the earth,
erase it from the memory OF us whC
are living and exclude it from the
generation to come, and give TO the
soul belief in mind which pene'
trates and permeates the whole
universe, and which hence enyel-
opes every heart, it will have poured
into mOrtals new motive and into
death itself new consolation. Ant
it does indeed seem that the new
science, should it ever be estab
lished, will be followed, not By
atheism, but by a new conception
of the omnipoteuce Of God. In
stead Of dressing up the Deity il
the form of a Moses or a David
the universe WI all become thc
form of the Almightys every con
stellation will be included IN III
diadem; every fowery world be in
terwoyen in His wreaths; all tn,
floods of light become the fold
and trains of His garments. IN al
times Christians have loved her
and there to venture upon thi
thought. From st. John, who sag
the creative word coming from al
the universe ana encamping in tn
Christ, to all the mystics of tn
. seventeenth century the mind ha
] attempted to bring the lntinit
nearer ID Itself. But the fear 0
pantheism on the one hand and III
feebleness Of the intellCcs OIL tn
other, have always come to lead tn
head back to great man on a thron
as being the lawful representation
. of the Eternal. Oh, that som
science may come, if come it ha
not, that shall throw down on
craven images in our temple, an
| shall cast our hearts into an omn
), present soul, as drops Of water al
cast into the seal Do you desire
II believe that million years az
Deity placed in certain seeds tn
germs of life? Would we not be
ter feel that the Father is still
Y the sunbeam that plays around OF
u pathway at noon and in the moar
" ing winds that sigh at midnight
1t is high time that those who brea
be the laws of right, whose loves a
full of allin1ustice and vice, shoul
70 fool that tharn il an 0mninresel