The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-05-15

ehoO IL iuiio OFOI iHbO tuo OpPOolto GA
treme and denies the supernatural al
together. Like many a protest it
rejects not only wrong view of the
matter but the matter itself. 1t fails
to discriminate. 1t fails to see that
there may be such thing as the SUI
pernatural even though the old view
thereof is rejected, but with the old
view it consigns the whole thing to
the regions of myth and supersti-
ton. This is really the natural his
tory of very much of our modern
misrepresentation 1t is not the
result of any profound study of the
subject, but simply the result of
protest against wrong view until it
ends in no view,-in absolute mega
ton.
Now, modern supernaturalism re-
jects the old view just as completely
as misrepresentation. 1t does not
hold that nature has gone wrong and
so become unnatural, and hence must
be corrected by some outside inter
ference. Neither does it hold that
Christ or Christianity is any such in
reference with the natural order of
things. 1t rejects all notions of the
supernatural as something unnatural
or opposed to nature.
Modern supernaturalism begins
with God. First of all God. 1t posits
God as above all and before all, the
great Cause and Providence of all.
This God is infinite in all of his at
tributes and absolutely free in all of
his activities. What he does he does
not from necessity but because he
chooses to do it. This God is self
existent, and by the side of this God
there is not another in the form of
self-existent matter. Matter exists
by the will of God, not only in form
but in substance. If matter is eternal
as to substance it is so not because it
is self-existent or because it is a nee
essary proceeding from God, but be-
cause it is willed every moment by
God. The inspiration of all that is,
including not only the forms of mat
ter but matter itself, is the infinite
love, and the cause of all is the infin-
tie volition. God willed the universe
into being and this is the sole cause
of it's existence. All the fun that has
been made out of Goods creating
the world out of nothing" only reveals
an inadequate conception of deity.
All the fun comes from the notion
that God is SO much like man that he
cannot create or make anything unless
he has something to make it out of.
The idea of God creating the world
out of nothing, therefore, is supposed
to be very funny. But the fun drops
out as soon as we understand that
the meaning is that he created the
world out of no previously existing
matter; that he himself is the all-suf-
ficient cause. This is the ultimate
fact. God didn't create the world out
of nothing, but out of himself. He is
the absolute and all-sufficient cause
and so there is no violation of the law
of causation. Indeed, if the ultimate
atoms are only rings of force, as the
scientists are now telling us, it is not
difficult to imagine how matter might
come from the infinite volition. God
would only have to will these rings of
force to create the building stones of
the universe. The only thing, how
ever, insisted upon, is that God is be-
fore all as we'll as in and above all;
in fine, the great Cause and Provi-
dence of ALL
In fact, any notion of self-existent
matter leads to dualism. 1t creates
another god, for this matter must
have its own laws and forces which
God did not give and cannot take
away, but must use and obey even as
man does, if he would make anything
out OF this matter. All that G cd can
do is to obey these laws and use these
forces and hence he ceases to be a
creator and becomes mere molder
or fashioner of matter. He doesn't
create worlds, he only forms them out
of this self-existent matter, much as
a boy might make marbles out of
clay. To think of God as a molder
is no better than to think of God as a
carpenter" and in either easel it is not
to think of God at all. For to think
of God as imperfect or as being that
might be better is not to think of God
at all. And surely God that is merely
a molder of ready-made matter is not
a perfect God. We can easily think
of a being better than such a God.
The notion of self existent matter,
therefore, taSes something from God
and renders him imperfect while con-
fes eddy it is not perfect of itself; and
so we have two deities in the universe
both of whom are imperfect. Modern