The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-02-05
The Rev, pr, Stagg Breaches at
 the First Presbyterian
GOD IS FOUND IN COSMOS
Faith Not Conditioned on Miracles, the Falling of Stars, or Natural Phenomena-Deistic Concep-
 tion of God.

rlTst Ifespyteflan church, filled his pulpit as usual yesterday morning, taking as his text: Except ye see signs and won ders ye will not beIieve"-John AIS.
 He said in part:
 There is form of proof which lies pat ent upon the truth itself that we ignore, and which ought to be satisfactory, but which is often set aside because of our craving for the supernatural All of which proves there is something in the best of us that makes Us seek for the extraor- dinary. It was the rebuke of this dspo- sition that called forth the text After all faith is not conditioned upon the miracu- lous, and the miracle does not play so large part in the story of the gospel, nor do the claims of Christ rest so en- tirely upon it, as many suppose,
 It is remarkable, this passion which all l over the world and in all ages of man obtain for the marvellous and supernatu- raj, It is found in those who in their dreams are longing for extraordinary for tune, without putting forth the labor by which 1t shall be acquired, longing for the gift of the fairy who, with magic wand shall transmute the base into gold It Is found in those who indulge in dreams of honor and cultivate the sentiment of ann bition without being willing to undergo the sacrifice by which a genuine reputa- ton must be achieved. It marks those who in the exigencles of life seek supernatural assistance without making the effort which shall bring the needed relief. It is characteristic of those who wish to leap by a single bound from conscious imper- lection to the highest ideal of charac- ter without being willing to go down Into the earnest and patient battle with what is corrupting and impure in their make up. Which means that all realm in which man moves affects him according to his notions, and none of his notions affect him so seriously as those he entertains about God and the material world about him. This desire for the supernatural has robbed him of many of the helps of the natural. and in his desire for the spec 1 tacular he has lost the impress of orderly nature, always at work for his good.
 The deistic conception of God puts him out of the world while nature runs itself, and this in turn has developed what | men call naturalism. which means nature and God separated, and this thinking has been brought about because man has re- fused to seek God in the world, and has insisted upon regarding him as separated from it. This false view of nature has produced an equally false view of the supernatural. Both insist on a self-run- ming world, which excludes the super natural, except as interference, omens and prodigies.
 l In much of mans history God has been sought for in strange and striking events l in marvellous concidences instead of the orderly movement and progress of human l life and society storm. drought, flood, epidemic have meant more than the men tai and moral progress of the race. Men do not look for God in the moral realm, but in the field of physical prodigy. The arguments for Gods existence are not in falling stars, or eruptions of the earth. but in the whole cosmic movement being guided by the Divine Will, and being an expression of a divine purpose; and the reasons for the presence of God among men Is not the working of signs and won ders upon occasion, but that history is l building itself according to a great or derly plan, which has it's beginning in | the will of Him who is all and over all 1 From this viewpoint of the divine im- mnence Gods familiar methods are just as divine as are his other ways that are past finding out" divine purpose. a moral development. in a word a tendency which has God as it's director and His purpose as its aim, Is the only way for hf hfrtn 1faftF to laa iafa | ligible This purpose cannot be traced in all the details of existence. Specific inter- pretatlons are apt to take one astray, but the existence of an all-wse and all-em- bracing purpose Is necessary to theistic | faith.
 l If God were felt to be In the world and not beyond it, and if men were always persuaded of this fact, vast amount of confusion and some considerable rubbish would be eliminated from thelr thought, for what is ordinary today was extraor- dinary but yesterday, and what the fath- CTS supposed to take place by immediate divine interposition is seen today to come under the reign of natural law, so that the better one understands the workings of nature the wider is her application and the easier we live without the super natural The better we understand the world in which we are, the more we see the purpose in atoms and stars and suns, | of Him who made them and established the ways of their coming up and going down. Natures laws are His ordinances. and an orderly law-governed world is a piece of handiwork worthier of the Su- preme Being than Titanic forces and cha otic movements.
 Strong in the Human.
 So strong Is the bent, in the human, for the extraordinary that it has made the fight against the truth always and every where. The orderliness of the heavens had to fight against sings and wonders in meteors, eclipses and comets, which pre- saged famine or pestilence or death all supported by scripture which was suppos- ed to reveal the mind of Him who is the author of the natural Texts of scripture have given the ground work for theories of storm and lightning. and truth has had to struggle nowhere harder than with her own friends The history of disease is interesting, not alone because it is the history of suffering, but because it is the history of how men felt about God. The great epidemics have been either a visitation from above or else due to the devil and to seek relief by natural means