Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-04-23
MENTIONS IDEA OF GOD
What the Great Scientific Mind
Thought of its Creator

Thought of it's Creator
a reader, referring to something
that | said about the Almighty In an
article describing mans place in the
universe. writes me letter in which
he demands. in what seems a defian,
tone:
who is God? What is God? Where
is God?"
in neditatif9g on this smashing vol
ley of questions happen to recall what
Sir Isaac Newton wrote on the subject
of God. in a most unexpected place, to-
wit, the close Of his incompatible
''Principia," or Mathematical Princi-
pies of Natural Philosophy" Of which
laiplace, the great French mathemat-
ical genius. said that it. was pre-
eminent above all the other produc-
tions of the human intellect" while
of Newton himself 1t has been averred
that he was the greatest man who
appears in the history of science, and
possibly the greatest intellect that has
ever worked on EARTH
And it occurred to me that my cor
respondent might be more Impressed
by what so great n mind as that OF
Newton thought about God than by
anything that 1 could offer on the sub
ject. particularly since Newton covered
all the three points of inquiry, viz, the
personality, the nature. and the loca-
tion of God.
In general scholium." at the end
of his mighty masterpiece of mathe-
matical reasoning. Newton says of the
solar system and the systems of the
fixed stars that they could only pro-
ceed from the counsel and dominion
of an intelligent and powerful Being.
Then he goes on to develop his idea
of God. in measured sentences that are
like magnificent song Of praise,
bursting unexpectedly upon the ear us
the reader emerges from the stern,
dry logic of the preceding demonstra-
tions. Its beauty Is enhanched by the
sonorous Latin I'm which Newton, ac-
cording to the practice Of the learned
men, of his time, put forth the "Prin-
cipia."
This Being" he says, governs all
things, not as the soul of the world
but as Lord over all. The Su-
preme God is a Being-eternal, inf
mite, absolutely perfect. The
word of God usually signifies Lord
but every lord Is not God. 1t is the
dominion of spiritual being which
constitutes a God. ''' And from His
true dominion Is a living, intelli-
gent and powerful Being, and from
His other perfections that He Is su-
preme or most perfect. He Is eternal
and infinite. omnipotent and omni-
scient: that is, His duration reaches
from eternity to eternity. His presence
from intinity to infinity; He governs
all things and knows all things tina,
are. or can be done. He Is not etern-
.ty or infinity. but eternal and infinite:
He Is not duration or space, but He
endures and Is present. He endures
forever. and is everywhere present
and by existing always and everywhere
He constitutes duration and space.
In Him are all things contained
and moved, yet neither affects the
other. God suffers nothing from the
motion OF bodies: bodies find no re-
sistance from the omnipresence Of
God. AS a blind man has no idea
Of colors, so have We no idea OF the
manner by which the all-wise God
perceives and understands all things
He is utterly void Of all body and
bodily figure, and can, therefore. mel
ther be seen nor heard nor touched
nor ought He to be worshiped under
the representation Of any corpora
thing.
I'VE know Him only by His mos
wise and excellent contrivances oi
things, and final causes. We admire
Him for His perfections, but we rever.
ence and adore Him on account Of Hi
dominions, for we adore Him and Hi.
servants, and God without dominion
providence and final causes, is moth
ing else but Fate and Nature. BLIND
meta physical necessity. which is Ger