SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143788, 11 May 1912, Page 6

SUNDAY READING.

Notes of a sermon preached by the Rov. J. W. BURTON m the Whiteley Memorial Church.

iVHAT EVIDENCE HAVE WE THAT GOD IS? Text: ££ Lo, these are but the fringes of his ways: and how small a whisper do we hear of him! — Job, xxvi., 14.

In commencing this series of addresses upon questions which arise in the minds of the more thoughtful, let me, first of all, emphasise the duty we owe to God and to ourselves in trusting our reason. We can never bo sale in life unless wo are guided by those powers of mind and thought wherewith we are endowed. Faith is not the suspension, but the illumination, of reason. It is as truly a function of the mind as is logic; and it brings forth evidence that the colder method of the syllogism cannot produce. 1 have no loar of men becoming rationalistic—if only they will be rationalistic enough! When reason occupies the whole of her territory, instead of a few bleak fields, the spirit of man will come into, its kingdom. And, further, I wish to use the plainest and simplest language. 1 want, so far as possible, to steer clear of the language of the schools and of the theologians; and to speak so that the least educated Gvho may be very thoughtful, notwithstanding) may understand.

In dealing with the evidence for the existence of God, it is impossible to cover the whole ground ; each one will select two or three main linos of thought which make the stonger appeal to him. And it is not by any one argument that we can hope to reach a satisfactory conclusion, but through the combination of the many. Some of our thoughts on this subject are but silken threads of suggestion ; but twisted together they make a three-fold cord which will bear all the strain we can put upon it. Wo shall follow, to-night, two main lines of inquiry—the intellectual and the moral. Wo cannot use our reason very long before we become aware of certain NECESSITIES OF THOUGHT which bring us in touch with the infinite. In fact everything we touch has some relation to the infinity. In many directions it is impossible to satisfy the mind with any limitation whatever. We cannot limit Time— Eternity is a necessity <T thought: we cannot limit Space—lnfinity Is also a necessity of thought. A boy does not go far in arithmetic bcloro he comes up against the recurring decimal—that is the infinite in numbers; he duos not study geometry long before he conies to parallels—which are symbols of the infinite. If he turn from mathematics to Science, he is in even worse difficulties. Tie is taught to believe in the intangible, invisible, never-get-at-able Ether which pervades all space and serves as wings for light and force —ho is in touch with the infinite. Wc cannot escape the infinite whichever way we turn. We may think away the contents of Time and Space; but we can never rid our minds of Time and Space themselves. And in' the same way, wo come to consider the origin of things; and find that only an infinite Cause allows the mind to rest. It was this conclusion which Herbert Spencer came to after all his years of careful investigation ; and men are transcending his work to-day by pointing out that it is a spiritual, not material, power which alone can be thought adequate to sustain the demand of the human mind. There is nothing more certain than this, that Science will, in its maturity, affirm one spiritual Cause for the entire universe of matter and of personality.

THE INTELLIGIBLRNESS OF THE UNIVERSE

is another strand in our cable of thought. We have come to a settled belief that we can understand the universe. AA'e find that by trusting our icason wo ran interpret its meaning; and, though wo make mistakes and invent wrong theories, wo never doubt that the world around ns is capable of rational explanation. AA'e sot npour telescopes and believe that the laws of light will not trick us; we weigh the stars and analyse their component parte as in a laboratory, and arc confident that tho same law's act there as here; wo follow our reason and take tlio atom to pieces and doubt not that tho tiny electrons will obey the laws of planets. AA’e have not made those laws. we have only discovered them; but wo trust the reasonableness of things l and it does not fail us. Two astronomers, one in France and the other in England, noticed independently that tho planet Uranus was pulled out of the regular curve of its orbit at a certain place. They then built up a ladder of pure reason, plumbed it against the infinite, and stretched out their hands to grasp a now' world—the planet Neptune. It was a faith in the rationality of the universe that inspired them. AA'e are certain of this, then, that there is a Mind incarnate in the universe which is not dissimilar from owl’s. If the universe were rational and w'o were rot; then w’e could not possibly understand it. If wo were ntional and the universe were not; again there would ho no possibility of understanding. Hut wo feel that the universe is as rational—nay, perhaps, more rational than wo; and so we comprehend, dimly, at any rate, its meaning. There can be no rationality apart from personality, so far as we can say, therefore our reason prompts us to believe ill a thinking power behind nil that is. And old Aristotle was not impious, but scientific, when he said, “God goometrizes.” The old schoolmen said, “I think, therefore I am” ; tho now schoolmen are saying, “I understand, therefore God is.” THE PRESENCE OF “ENDS” in the universe is but further illustration of this unescapahle intelligence. It lias sometimes boon supposed that the theory of evolution has done away with the 'necessity for God; hut surely the argument is all the other way. Evolution is only the statement of a method —the method cannot explain the cause. In the early days of printing tiie letters were but single types of wood impressed one after another, upon the paper. Then it seemed necessary to have a personality behind them ; hut to-day our linotypes cast their own letters and make their lines all ready for the_ press; hut is there any loss personality required to explain it? Kay, more. Tim more complicated the machinery. tne greater tho need of Mind to explain it adequately. Evolution is only a n ightier and more complicated lii"' tvpe capable of sotting lip thoughts in more intricate fashion. For the wonderful thing gimpt, mu? uxdypxso is ihia.Jhai though.

Chanco seems to play so large a part in it, oven Chance is subjected to the law of ends. Law reigns and triumphs in the midst of all the maze of change; and Life climbs upward working out the beast; and the ape and tiger die. Ever and anon we have glimpses of that

“One far-off, divine event To which the whole creation moves.’

More and more, on purely intellectual and philosophical grounds, we are coming to the conclusion that the only rational explanation of this rational universe 5s an equally rational Power who has worked hitherto and Who still works. True, that we see but fringes ol His ways, and only the faintest whisper of His voice reaches us; but then we are only just training our eye and ear to catch these subtler and more spiritual sights and sounds. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual but that which is natural. Let us leave the intellectual side oi our nature, and listen to the even more

IMPERIOUS DEMAND OF OXJR

MORAL BEING

Wc know no better why we are moral than why we are intellectual; no theories explain the ultimate fact. But we are both: and we must give equal audience to the voices of both mind and soul. Religion does not wait for prom of God any more than a duckling waits for an analysis of water before it trusts its life to it. Man has always prayed since he deserved the name of man. His soul has ever sought touch with the Oversold. The deep in him has cried to a vaster deep. The best and noblest instincts of his nature have prompted him thus. True enough, religion has been mixed with superstition and ignorance; sometimes they have been the bivalve in which the pearl has been shaped ; but they arc not the pearl. “It is in the moments when we are says Renan, “that we believe in God. It is only in the conception of Infinite goodness" that the moral nature of man finds rest. Does nature cheat us. Is there a counterpart for the intellect in tilings around us, and none for the spirit? I cannot think so. It^is this thought, from Plato through Kant to James and Ward, that has ever impressed the serious philosopher.

“In man’s self arise August anticipations, symbols, types Of a dim splendour over on before In that eternal circle life pursues.

it is through the

SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE OF MAN

that the only really satisfying proof of Clod is to be found. No arguments, suggestions, analogies can do any more than lead us to expect beauty in the sunset —the eye must see it for_ itself and the soul of man must recognise it. The full proof is in the experimental test So after all the evidence is personal, intimate, and untransferable. “God enters by a private door into each individual,''’ says Emerson. All our knowledge of persons around us is_ of the same intimate kind, and untransferable. We can teach men to recognise forms and material resemblances; but the spirit of man must be known by spirit. Wc may have a theory of pneumatics; but no music thus sounds in our ears. It is when the spiritual in us catches the notes of sound and weaves' them into a phantasy of sensation that we rcalise'tho “spell of music.” Browning took his stand upon this experience of the soul —

‘But God has a few of us whom He whispers in the ear; The rest may reason and welcome: ’tis we musicians know.”

And it is the spiritual effects of this belief in God which are the deepest arguments to the sold. It is the man who sincerely and truly lives in communion and intercourse with that Power we can but name that finds the richest and strongest life. Ho makes a sublime leap of faith—and falls into the arms of God! Purity, strength, beauty of character grow as surely in the presence of this faith as flowers do in the sunshine, and the soul finds its only satisfying environment. Tp that man all other arguments are as unnecessary as a syllogism'to prove that the sun shines. Ho is “very sure of God.”