ONE of the greatest statesmen of the day, and a man as highly distinguished as he is truly honorable, is delivering, while I write this paper, a series of lectures on theism.
His object is doubtless the best.
What is theism? It is “a belief in God, with or without a revelation; as opposed to atheism.” Atheism is a system of philosophy which teaches that there is no God, but which has comparatively few adherents. For to admit a God puts an end to all speculation on that subject, and deprives the clever mind of man from exercising itself on a field of immense interest.
Hence the other system—that which believes in the existence of God—is preferred. But the question arises: Can God be known apart from a revelation It may safely be said that He cannot. Then, has He deigned to supply it?
He has, and that in two ways—first in creation, and secondly by His Word.
The former bears witness to His power and Godhead; for who can rightly view the testimony rendered by the deeply complex worlds around us, with their unerring motions through space, or their minute details of microscopic perfection, without, so far, owning a Creator’s skill, design, and power? To do so is proof of true wisdom. If the vast sweep of the telescope fail to convince, surely the marvels of the microscope, as it dissects before the eye the beauties of the blade of grass, or of the butterfly’s wing, should suffice.
Think of the exquisite machinery of the human frame. “I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Thy works,” said the Psalmist, as he considered that frame in its ten thousand adaptabilities and powers of mind and muscle, of temper, passion, love, hatred, joy, sorrow, and, last and greatest, the unspeakable privilege of being able to communicate with God Himself.
This highest dignity of all is conferred on no creature on earth but man! And yet we read that “the world by wisdom knew not God.”
How is that? How comes it that God is hidden from human philosophy, and that He should place Himself out of its range?
Was it thus always? Did not God hold converse with man in his earliest moments, ere sin had entered? He did.
The estrangement and moral distance have therefore been caused by sin, so that now for sinful man to know God another revelation is necessary.
That revelation is the gospel, whereby “it pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe.”
This revelation may, alas, be rejected with the other. Creation and the Scriptures may both be disregarded and set at naught as witnesses, but each bears its own rich testimony, one to the power and the other to the love of God, and the latter in a way so marvelous that the believer not only admits the existence of God, as theism may justly claim, but he realizes the love of God; and, wonderful fact, he loves Him in response. How absolutely, therefore, is the knowledge of God necessitated ere He can be loved.
“We love Him because He first loved us.” And Be the apostle could say, “I know whom I have believed.”
Ponder these words—a man—a sinner—the chief of them, had received in the gospel such a revelation of God, and that God a Saviour, that he could calmly and reverently say, “I know Him.”
No stretch of theistic philosophy could do that for such a one!
The highest philosophy lies in the acceptance, by simple faith, of that precious gospel which tells not only of the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ, but which also enables the believer in Him to cry “Abba, Father,” to that God who has been pleased to reveal all His heart in the gospel of His grace.
J. W. S.