On
the contrary, all such efforts to realise Him must only
belittle Him, bringing the Infinite down to the narrow
terms of human thought, at a time when that thought was
in the main less spiritual than it is at present. Even
the most material of modern minds would flinch at
depicting the Deity as ordering wholesale executions, and
hacking kings to pieces upon the horns of altars.
Then having prepared your mind for a higher (if
perhaps a vaguer) idea of the Deity, proceed to study Him
in His works, which cannot be counterfeited or
manipulated. Nature is the true revelation of the Deity
to man. The nearest green field is the inspired page
from which you may read all that it is needful for you to
know.
I confess that I have never been able to understand
the position of the atheist. In fact, I have come to
disbelieve in his existence, and to look upon the word as
a mere term of theological reproach. It may represent a
temporary condition, a passing mental phase, a defiant
reaction against an anthropomorphic ideal; but I cannot
conceive that any man can continue to survey Nature and
to deny that there are laws at work which display
intelligence and power. The very existence of a world
carries with it the proof of a world-maker, as the table
guarantees the pre-existence of the carpenter. Granting
this, one may form what conception one will of that
Maker, but one cannot be an atheist.
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