The Tupelo journal., 1904-10-28

The Father In Heaven cannot, inoee0,
be automatically demonstrated. The
truth is too vast to be girded by any sys-
tenn of human logic. 1t cannot be es-
tablished in such a way that doubt
The probability of it, however, can be
established, and by acting upon that
probability, we arrive at gertrude.
We have but faith; we cannot know
For knowledge is of things we see;
And yet we trust it comes from Thee,
A beam in darkness, let it grow.
This great truth of the fa%therhood OF
God is a kind Of rational intuition. Like
an axiom in geometry, it only needs to
be stated to be accepted, says Edward
Judson, D. D., in Baptist Standard. II
our conduct is such that the vision OF
God is an intrusion and a menace, it is
easy for us to shut him out of all our
thoughts. The argument for God is
made up of various strands of evidence.
1t is not a chain the strength of which
depends upon the integrity of each in
dividual link. 1t is more like a rope COM
posed of numerous fibers, some of which
may poits IL ldtoi W AN
rope. The idea of God meets the re-
quirements of our intellectual nature.
We keep going back in our thought to-
ward the final cause Of the universe and
we find rest only in the conclusion that
mind is the final cause and not matter.
This is one of the strands in our rope.
We see traces of design in nature. We
stumble upon p~urposeful collocations-
arrangements adapted to the achieve
men of certain ends, and as one picks
up a flint arrowhead, we become aware
of mind in the universe other than ours.
This is another strand in the rope OF
probability. One cannot conceive that a
watch with all its intricate mechanism
made itself, or according to Martineau's
illustration as quoted by Augustus H.
Strong, that patterned damask was made
not by the weave but by the loom, or
as Joseph Cook put it, that books were
written by the laws of spelling and gram
a
Again the thought of God meets the
requirements of our spiritual nature.
Our moral strivings and the instinct for
worship, which is universally prevalent
among men, find their correlative and
counterpart in God. "The desire of the
moth for the star" makes probable the
existence of the star. This is far from
Z mathematical demonstration of God,
but it is only one of the many strands
which, twisted together. compose a
strong rope of probability. But a consid-
Grafton of our own individual insignif-
canoe sometimes makes it difficult for
us to believe in the Fatherhpod of God.
Can it be, we ask, that in this vast uni
verse He searches out with His loving
care each minute human life, as a moth
er-bird penetrates the privacy formed
by the branches of some great tree and
unerringly finds her way to the wide
mouthed nestlings? When we stand
upon some country road at night and
look out upon the starry space and con-
slider that each glistening speck Of dust
in the milky way is a world, and that our
earth. "home of the struggling. suffering.
doubling, dying" is only a single grain
of sand on a measureless seashOre, how
infinitesimal seems each human life that
makes it's home on this grain of sand
among countless other lives which have
been and are and will be! Can it be that
God cares for the individual soul? When
visited by such misgivings I find relief
in this thought that the being, no mat
ter how minute he is. that can grasp his
thought-the starry heavens and a
measure the distance from star to star
is greater than the whole material uni
verse besides. Man is a reed" says Pas
cal, "and the weakest in nature, but he
is a reed that thinks" The brain of ar
ant is but a tiny atom of gray matter
but it possesses a kind of distinction. be-
cause it is the home of thought. While
looking at photographs of vast Egyptian
neutrality-suspicious.. pyramids and
temples-we sometimes lower u eyes
to gaze at the forms Of men standing OF
the sand below. How diminuutive their
human figures seem as compared witt
the huge structures that tower above
them. They seem introduced as a kim
of foil. so that the height of the soli6
masonry shall be enhanced. But, afte,
all, the mar who can erect such struc.
| lures is greater than they. A being made
in the image of God is worthy of his re.
gard. Clay suffused with personalit'
and consciousness transcends the who'll
| material universe with all it's liner
grandeur. We may well believe that a.
the ocean girdles the continents and a
the same time swathes in its soft em
brace the tiniest sprig of sea weed
moistening it in every part. SO the regard
of our Heavenly Father presses against
each individual soul gently and event.
on every side. penetrating to every hid