The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-02-11
A Difficult Question for the Infldel.

Bishop Clarkson, of Nebraska, preach
ed at Calvary Church last Sunday morn
ing. His text was from I'd Kings, H.,
10: And he said, thou hast asked .
hard thing"
There is no doubt, said the speaker,
that there are men in the world who are
in doubt as to whether there is God,
and who cannot accept Christianity hon
estly and justly to themselves. Yet,
when a Christian speaks to an infdel of
a Divine Savior, the certainty of a res
direction and the eternity of the human
soul, it is invariably acknowledged that
the question is hard one to decide. 1t
is sometimes taken for granted that the
man who cuts clear of Christianity frees
himself from many doubts and difficult
ties. Such an admission is to be de-
plSred. Instead OF escaping, by doing
this, one only surrounds himself with
greater darkness and problems more
difficult to solve than if he were to admit
the truth of the Divine doctrine.
The infdel who denies the Divinity
has, indeed, i hard position. To sus-
tain himself, he must explain how the
world came to be as it is. He must tell
whence came man. and the countless
order of animals, and he must show
how the earth was clothed in such beau
tiful yerdure All this and much more
has the infidel to do. Difficult as it is,
the unbeliever endeavors to explain how,
why and wherefore came all the mighty
mysteries. What is it believer in God
says? He does not advance many
theories; he does not hesitate to say:
81 believe there is God, an omnipo-
tent being from whom all this comesn
What does the infidel say? lie stam-
mers out that it is by chance, and gives
other doubtful reasons why things eX-
list. He will say that there existed an
infinite company OF atoms which united
and made the universe by chance. Can
any one believe in chance? Such con-
ceit is fit for no man, except for him
who in denying God did so at the cost
of his reason. 1t is far harder
to believe that everything was
created by natural law than
by an all-powerful God. In certain
mechanisms there is an absolute knowl-
edge, but in the creation of the universe
facts are not admitted, but supposed.
To assume blindly certain things and
then to state that the results are what
men see is hundredfold more difficult
than to attribute the origin of the world
to Creator. Lord Bacon was believ-
er, and he said that he would rather be-
heve in all the fables than to believe
that the universe had been created with
out a mind.
Another thing that the Christian can
point to is the preservation, through
ages of most adverse circumstances, of
the Bible. The believer asserts that the
Bible is Gods work; the unbeliever that
it is not, and that its preservation was
the merest chance, the result of I'M
foreSeen circumstances. If the Bible is
not the Word of God then it is false
hood; if not Divine, then it is the worst
book in existence. No other book has
ever been written that has not grown
obsolete. But the Bible lived ON, indie
structible, and gathered freshness from
every generation. r-H
Another thing which proves that God
exists is the life of Christ as a factor in
the world Me, without regard for His
doctrines or teachings. He was man
without an army, without family, or
without property; born in a village that
would bring contempt upon his name, a
man who offended rulers, being misun-
derstood by His own, and yet rose to be
master of the whole thinking world.
That fact alone is proof enough of His
divinity. Four hundred millions of
people believe in that man, who in three
score years lifted Himself to throne
greater than Caesars, and which has
outlasted all others. How can an I'M
believer account for all this? He must
be speeches., only answering: "Thou
hast indeed asked hard question"
If any one should map out the boun-
diaries of Christianity, he would find that
it embraced all that was most intelligent
and most civilized. Order, purity, be-
nevolenee, justice and every public virtue
have increased in every land Just in pro-
portion as the Scriptures have been ac-
cepted. Ask an unbeliever for an eX-
PLANTATION of this, and the answer would
be, indeed 'Thou hast asked hard
question" Masters of the science of
reason and of art have all bowed down
in childlike simplicity at the foot of the
Cross. Ask an uubelieyer for reasons
why Christianity is a mere fable, or to