Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1894-03-15
AN OPEN LETTER TO sTENo

name 10 the Herald very frequently
for number of mouths past. Occa.
sionally have read your articles and
have always found you brandishing the
polemic's club. But in your last arti-
Gle you seem to have thrown down the
club and donned the students gown.
1t is for this reason that l venture to
write you. The club means resistance;
the gown MT ans receptivity. If you
have sincere spirit of enquiry, if you
are really looking for something, l
may be able to render some assistance,
carry lantern perhaps.
I would suggest that you begin at the
beginning. You are not ready yet to
discuss the question of the divine au-
thority of the Scriptures, because you
do not know whether there is any
Divinity to hare authority. You must
first decide the question whether God
exists. You propose to 90 In quest
of Him. Thousands have found him
without going to search; He comes and
presents himself. There is little fila
ment in glass bulb; the electricity
sweeps through and it becomes mean
descent. There are mans religious
Instincts Deity sweeps through them
and the soul glows with the knowledge
of God. There is mans Conscience;
the Deity sweeps through and the
conscience cries, 81 ought" Irreversi-
BILE surrender to the headings of this
inner tight will bring one out into
noon-day assurance that God is.
But you are not satisfied with this;
you want to find him with the intellect.
Perhaps your intellect is predominant,
and it will not be satisfied until it, too,
has grasped God Well, then, if the
intellect would find Him. it must have
some method about its search; it must
begin where there is certainty, and
then, like the mariner, keep its reckon
ings as it proceeds; otherwise it is lost
upon a trackless ocean. Intellectual
processes are as exact as mathematics.
and if they start with certainties they
must end in certainties. Geometry is
built upon fundamental certainties,
upon automatic or self evident truths.
like the following: A straight line is
the shortest distance between two
points; the whole is greater than any
of its parts. Such propositions need
no proof. They are the bed rock upon
which every demonstration is reared.
We must get down if possible to some
self.eYident proposition, some automatic
truth, if we are going to prove to the
intellect that God exists; we must start
with certainties and proceed without
error as we do in mathematical pro-
cesses. What are the drionaS from
ecttch zoe can start to proUe the eriSt-
eace Of Gods We will begin with that
question in our next letter.
Now, on the other hand, if you are
going to prove that God does not exist,
the requirements are equally rigid.
You must begin where there is certainty;
your first propositions Chat is, your
premisesl must be established as true,
either by, self-evidence or by adequate
proof. You start with the proposition
that "all that exists is matter" Do |
you stand there upon the bed rock of |
certainty Is the truth of that state
ment self-evidencing? Does it coerce |
the intellect like the proposition, a
straight line is the shortest distance
between two points? If not, you must
establish it by proof. If so, then I
would call your attention to the fact
that your proposition is the beginning
and the end of your argument; if that
premise is true, no argument is needed
To say, IAN that exists is matter is
identical with the proposition, There
is no God. You have assumed what
You profess to have proced That is
what logicians call begging the cues
iion If it is self-evident that all that
exists is matter, it is equally selfevident
that there is no God, and there the
questis ends; there is no room for ar
gument. You never heard two men
debating the question as TO whether a
straight line was the shortest distance
between two points. l would SUGGEST
that You go back and establish yourself
upon some certainties and then start
out aud see if you can prove that ali
that exists is matter If you can. Won
have also, at the same time. proved
thst there is no God P'o'e'