The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-12
THERE Is A GOD.

it becomes, together with its signi6-
canoe, the more weighty it appears.
Of course one must, if possible, avoid
errors in the application of the law.
1t must be understood that we have
no right to assert anything to be an
effect until we have proven it to be
such. What is may always have been.
Only as we investigate that which
exists and discover it to be a conse-
quence have we right to look for an
antecedent.
The important and relevant matter
to be candidly considered is as to
whether or not the universe bears evil
dence of effect, of having had be-
ginning; whether or not there is evil
dence of any change. If it is not an
effect we have no need to look for its
cause. But if it can be proven to be
an effect we have no alternative but
to seek out it's antecedents. Are not
the words of the noted Prof. Robert
Flint of value in this connecticut He
says: "The progress of science has
not more convincingly and complete
ly disproved the once prevalent no.
ton that the universe was created
about six thousand years ago, than
it has convincingly and completely
established that everything of which
our senses inform us has had COM
mencement in time, and is of COM
pound, derivative and dependent ma
ture. 1t is not long since men had
no means of proving that the rocks,
for example, were as old as the earth
ITSELF no direct means of proving
even that they were not eternal; but
geological science is now able to tell
us with confidence under what condi-
tions, in what order, and in what
epochs of time they were formed. We
know that the Alps. are not
even old as geologists count age. Z.
If we seek, then, after what is eternal,
science tells us that it is not the earth,
nor anything which it contains, not
the sea nor living things within it,
not the moving air, not the sun, nor
the moon nor the stars. These things
all tell us to look above and beyond
them. Science is, day by day,
finding out more and more that it
(the universe) is an effect. The growth
of science is in great part merely the
extension of the proof that the uni
verse is an effect" If we accept these
statements as true, as we think we
must, we ought to proceed to find
out the cause of this effect, the cause
| of the universe.
Some assert that the universe
caused itself. If so matter has won
derful and magnificent powers. And,
inevitably, we turn to those persons
who make this assertion and ask
"What is matter7" One answers that
it is "atoms;" another that it is Seen
ters of FORCE" another that it is
permanent possibility of sensations"
There is no agreement of judgment.
1t seems easy to tell what clod of
dirt is, or what tree or shrub is. But
these differing replies indicate the
difficulty of the task.
1t may be that one or the other of
these explanations of matter will be
acceptable. If so is the problem
solved7 Hardly. For it must be ad
mitted that "atoms," "centers of
force" or permanent possibility of
sensations" is far from being 'sim-
ple." Each is compound. Each is
complex. Each has the appearance,
even when reducsd to its last analy-
sis, of something made.-(Who has
seen the elements in an "atom" or
even an "atom" itselfO If anything
is made it had beginning, and is an
effect. To say that the materials of
the universe produced that universe
and yet to be unable to analyze those
materials beyond a compound is not
to solve the problem in hand. The
question to be answered is "How came
those materials to be what they are
and as they are7" If the answer be
that they were produced, we ask,
"What produced them7"
To follow the law of cause and
effect there is but one conclusion. If
we run through an infinite retrogres-
sion Of causes we but make more i'm
possible the escape from the convic-
ton that behind, beyond and above
all is an uLcaused cause, first cause.
So long as anything is considered an
effect, so long must its antecedent be
sought out. 1t is only when some
thing is reached which cannot be
shown to have been in any way al