Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-04

shows how the fact of spiritual being and
the fact of physical phenomena are related
to certainty. The one certain fact In this
world is the fact of spiritual being. There
is nothing in all our experience SO absolute
ly sure as the existence of that something
which nobody can gee, nor hear, nor touch,
nor locate, nor even make mental picture
OF, which we call oneself. Out OF the nrst
cause, then, came as an effect man, person
al being. Did an impersonal cause eject
personal being? Isl likely? Is it rea-
sonahle? A cause must be adequate to Its
effect The whole of the effect must have
been present in the whole cause, or else
something in the effect was caused by moth
ing. Is an impersonal cause adequate 10
effect personal being?
Indeed, we have already shown that the
first cause is characterized BY intelligence
and will. Can these conceivably exist save
in person? Must we not call the first
cause "He?"
QUESTION OF INvISIBILITY.
II it be objected that the first cause can
not be person because it is invisible we
have a ready answer. So are we invisible,
in so far as our intelligence, will and per-
sonality are concerned. No man living has
ever seen another man, nor has seen even
himself. You may look at yourself in the
looking glass for whole day, but will see
your head, not yourself. The body is no
more ourself than the garments are with
which we clothe it. We see that the in
visible-spiritual beings who dwell about us
make their existence known by certain
visible and audible manifestations. We
know from our own personality that these
manifestations indicate such intelligence,
will and personality as we are conscious OF
ourselves. So we believe in the existence
of man. We believe that within that body
is man; that the cause which moves that
hand, which uses the vocal organs to ex-
press Ineligible sounds, is spiritual be-
ing. Unseen, unheard, unimaglnable as
to place or shape, but looking out of human
eyes, smiling with human lips, grasplng
our hand with his hand, is man.
And we believe in the same way In the
existence of God. We cannot see God any
more than we can see each other, for God is
a spirit as we are. But the world is full OF
spiritual beings, making themselves known
by ineligible acts. and behind all rs
Supreme Spiritual Being, making Himself
known in the same manner.
If it be further objected that the first
cause cannot be personal because He is in
finite, we answer that He is indeed infinite,
because we cannot think Of Him as less than
infinite. The world as we see it-nature
mand an infinite Maker. 1t demands only
a Maker immeasurably greater than mans
But the first cause must be an infinite cause,
because there also can the mind rest. That
the first cause is infinite is a mental fact.
HIGHEST FORM OF BEING.
But the first cause is personal, also be-
cause personality is the highest form of
being we are aware of. If GOD is less than
personal He is less than we are. The cause
is not adequate to the effect. At the same
time, we do we'll to remember that per-
sonality is but halting word. 1t
is no more than a word thrown
out" as Matthew Arnold would have said,
at an idea. 1t is quite inadequate. So,
too, is the pronoun "He" inadequate, setting
a limitation of sex. We must, however. use
some kind of language. We must express
ourselves in human speech. That is the
best we have. Words are but the counters
of thought, not its solid coin. Personality"
seems to come as near to the truth as a word
can come. The real truth, as Mr.. Herbert
Spencer has affirmed, lies not between per-
sonality and something lower, but between
personality aud something higher. God is
all that we are, and more infinitely.
The other characteristic of man which en-
ters into this argument is conscience. We
may say what we will about the origin of
conscience; we may maintain what we
please about its relation to pain and pleas
ure, to loss and gain, and
about its possible development out of
vagueness into defniteaess: we may say
also what we will about the decisions of
conscience, and its relations to latitude and
longitude. These considerations are quite
beside the point. Man has a conscience.
Everybody isaware instinctively and irresis-
tibly of difference between right and
wrong. Everybody IS conscious, moreover,
of some influence within him which Is for
ever persuading him toward right, and say
ing mo" to the inclinations of his will
toward wrong. The word "ought" is in all
languages. The word "duty' was not in
vented either by moralists or by dictionary
makers. That it is right to do right, and
wrong to do wrong, all sane people, from
one end of the world to the other, from one
end of time to the other will tell us.
ABSOLUTELY SURE OF CONSCIENCE.
That there is a law of Righteousness dis
tinct from our own will, above our own will,
we know. Our definitions may be quite in |
adequate, and our obedience still more in
adequate, but that there is voice within,
characteristic OF our inmost being, that we |
are absolutely sure OF. We are aware, it is |
true of defect and sin in our own lives and |
in the lives of others, but we are conscious |
as opposed to the voice of that inward |
monitor which we call conscience.
What kind of cause lies behind a con-
science? L say that the Being who made a |
man with conscience is a moral Being.
We look from the individual to the race |
We go back in history and watch the growth |
of man. What kind of history is it? 1t |
is history of moral progress. There is |
defect wrong, sin all along. But these are |
essential to progress. Tney simply mean
that things did not begin perfect. Progress |
implies an imperfect beginning and i'm |
perfection all along. Evolution has no |
better illustration than the growth OF the |
human race in goodness. Step by step man |
has gone on in the path which leads to |
Compare the Old Testament |
with the New. Compare the past with the |
present anywhere. Here is a race of men |
standing for the fact of moral progress The |
great first cause isstill at work making 1nan |
better. What kind of cause can it be?
look out at nature and at man, L look |
around me and within ME, seeking to know
the character of the cause which made all |
this. And when I see the uniformity and
the adjustment of nature, when I perceive
the intelligence, the will, the personality,
the conscience of man, then 1 say that an
infinite, supreme, intelligent, self-determin-
ing, righteous and personal spiritual Being
made all this. Reason reinforces faith. The
mind and the heart unite their voices in the
first sentence Of the Christian creed: be-
lieUe in God. GEORGE HODGES.
YANKEES IN BERMUDA.