The New South., 1893-08-05
WHY WE NEED GOD.
Reasons for the Christians Faith In su
premc Power.


Reasons for the christian's Faith In a SUI
preme Power.
According to French mot, III we
have no God let us invent one. That Is
good sense. II there were no God it
would be social necessity TO believe
in God
This fact that the world So certainly
and imperatively needs God makes
all Christians who vitality believe in
their religion--far too many do not-a
little impatient with those who talk as
II there were no God, who make no
room for Him in their philosophy of
the universe, and do not seem to miss
the lack. We believe in God with too
much conviction Of the social value OF
our faith. to be willing 10 have God
bowed out of the universe as an un-
necessary factor in IT,
To say that the world and all that is
in ii was created by law is not to say
that there is no God behind the law;
and those who are devoting themselves
to the study of Nature must not teach
us that there is nothing but law and no
Lawgiver. IL is very good thing to
dissect Lingulas and mudfish, or to
study the love-notes of Gryllid@,
or search for the teeth of fossil birds,
or fill up the lacking steps between the
extinct and the living horses: but it is
not worth while in the process to as
sume that the visible, which can be
shaved off and put on microscopic
slide. can exclude the invisible. II is
| still well to let Nature point To Ma
| lures God.
But however IL may be with these
students OF processes of creation and
life, we Christians confess that we need
God for our own protection, and we
also believe He is needed for the pro-
lection OF society. We need Him
ourselves for our own per-
sonal wants, because without Him
we know into what worthless lives, or
into what sins and crimes we may fall.
For we look upon q bad life as itself
the worst disaster that can befali a
man; not merely or chiefly because Of
the suffering that a man endures for it
in this world or the next. bnt because
wiclxedness and all selfishness Is in itself
only bad. II not only leads to bad but
il is bad even when, as is often the
case, ii leads its agent TO success and
happiness. Against this worse evil we
know that we need all the protection
that the promises or the threatenings
Of God can provide us.
There may be those who have reached
such sublimated heights that they do
not need even to be reminded, by the
presence Of God. that purity is good
only, and that vice is only bad. But
we know that most of us are controlled
by our hopes and fears. We know that
men work not because work is a
pleasure. but because they hope to get
comfort and escape discomfort by it.
We know that in our Efforts to avoid
sin it is decided help to us TO remem-
ber that there is God who sees us, and
He viii reward or punish. We thank
Him every day for the revelation Of
His righteous Judgment, because il
helps us and nerves us In our contest
against the evil that is in our corrupt
natures We want all the help we can
get: and if this motive Of present and
rewarding God were taken away we do
not know into what evil we might fall.
But if faith In God be lost, then with
the loss of God win also go, for most
men. the struggle for virtue. They
will say: II our existence is but bnb-
BILE. why not let it be as gaudy as it
may be? 1t viii make no difference
tomorrow. Let us eat and drink,
like the swine Of Epicurus' herd,
for tomorrow we die. Possibly the
generalized experience of the race
might decide that theft or adultery or
falsehood is unlucky, but observation
teaches us that bad men are successful
and happy. Why should we not be
happy in the same way, If there be no
righteous God, and no righteous judg-
rnent? We fear our philosophy might
be no better than this. Paurs would
have been no better, and he was a
saint We are sure that the worlds
would be no better. We know what
society has become whenever the re.
straints of religion were thrown off,
and we shudder at the prospect We
know the world needs God. and we
want no philosophy which excludes Him
from life. and is content to study phys
ical and vital conditions. as IL the slope
Of condyle were Of more Importance
than the moralities Of the universe :