The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-07-18

of the liberal order, said to me: "But
we do not know. God in nature is
often unmerciful. He may be as un-
merciful in the future life to those
who have resisted his mercy here" Is
not this position reputation OF
Christianity, Christianity being rev.
citation of God as our Fatheri II
Jesus taught anything he taught
this. 1t is the very spirit of all the
Gospels. To say, eve don't know"
is agnosticism on the most vital point
of Christianity.
Reasoning from the destructive
forces of nature, and inferring from
those forces that the supreme law
giver is not controlled by a moral mo-
tive or disregardful of moral motive,
is to argue specifically. Physical
life and physical death are natural
and we may say good. We cannot
say the forces of nature are essentially
cruel. We cannot say they are not
benevolent arrangements included in
the purposes of an Infinite Father.
When they destroy there is perfect
impartiality. There is not shadow
that revenges are to be satisfied.
When we come to read nature
scientifically we read Gods truth in
his word. We find deluges to have
been blessings rather than curses.
Subsidences and elevations involving
great deluges are natural phenomena,
benevolent in results. Intelligent
Christians ought to see goodness in
the coal beds underlying continents.
When an immense mass of vegeta-
ton was sunk in oceans depths, there
must have been a deluge, and when
through the chemistry of nature this
immense mass had become anthracite
coal, seismic force elevated it. Penn
sylvania is witness to this. We have
no written or traditional history of
the deluge that then occurred, yet
we have geological record as true
to fact, as pen of man could make it.
The Noachian deluge, like all deluges
was the result of material renditions,
yet not disconnected with the Infinite
Designer.
Atmospheric disturbances are ap-
palling to us and show our utter
helplessness to avoid or control them.
If we think of them as the activities
of Gods will, how can we reconcile
them with an universal providence,
directed by Infinite wisdom and i'm
partial goodness' On this James
Martineau. in his "Study of Religion,
Vol. End. Chap. 3rd, says: eff you
ask me to find place for these pain
full physical phenomena in the moral
order of things and tell you the end
for which each is ordained, / have no
answer to give. But, if the question
be, how, with these things in the
physical order, the moral order is
compatible7 Tneed only to beg of you
to look beyond the particular phe-
nomena to the system in which they
appear and which cannot be judged
alone. They occur in conformity
with atmospheric and meteorological
laws which alone render life possible,
and under shelter of which every
breathing thing exists, and moves
and grows, and sees the world and
feels the sun: so that the same rules
which are death-dealing for an hour
or day, are life giving forever. If
we are to judge truly of the express
sion and significance of nature, surely
we must look on her face, not in the
commissions of passing struggle but
in its permanent aspect of composure
or of JOY" Notwithstanding these
occasional death dealing storms, shall
we dare to say it was incumbent on
a wise and good being to refrain from
ordaining terrestrial lawss
After all, the best solution to the
heart-rending accidents of earth is,
to come to the doctrine, that GAIL
things work together for good" to all;
for this is essentially the Christ doc
trine. "If ye do good to them which
do good to you, what thank have ye9
for sinners also do even the same"
The denial of this position creates
species ofsemi- atheism in the church
es and agnosticism out OF the
churches. NH.