DISCOURSES, ETC. I. FAITH IN CHRIST THE GREAT WANT OF THE SOUL. Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God-believe also in me.-JOHN, xiv., 1. THE word believe, in the original, has in both instances the same form, and the sentence might have been rendered, "Believe in God-believe also in me," imperatively; or af firmatively in both: "Ye believe in God-ye also believe in me;" or, as in the English text, the first affirmatively, "Ye believe in God;" the last imperatively, “believe also in me.” Whichever form is adopted, the meaning is so modified by the previous clause, "Let not your heart be troubled," as to convey the same idea-the insufficiency of faith in God alone, and the need of faith in Christ, to dissipate the fears and satisfy the wants of the soul of man. Travelers have reported of some inconsiderable barbarous tribes that they have no idea of a supreme power, the Maker and Ruler of men and of all things. Such reports are probably incorrect, or, if true in a few instances, these are exceptions to what may, with sufficient exactness, be denominated the universal belief in God. A great many processes of argumentation have been stated as fully justifying, and as having probably led to, this unanimous consent of mankind to the great fundamental truth of religion. They have educed it, it is said, from the relation of cause and effect. Every object and every fact around us A has been produced by some cause or agent, and that by some other more remote, and so on up to a first cause, which must needs be the self-existent God. Another process, less complicated and elaborate, which has therefore been thought by many to lead to the universal belief in question is this: I feel myself hemmed in and limited in the use of all my powers of body and mind. It is the same thing, whether use my intellect, my senses, or my limbs. I can proceed a little way, and then I press against a barrier. I am shut up within the finite, and I feel that I am. Now this sense of the finite, say the metaphysicians, unavoidably suggests the idea of the infinite. This painful apprehension of the limited sphere of human capabilities suggests thoughts of the illimitable. My own scanty knowledge and feeble energies throw me upon the contemplation of omniscience and omnipotence, and thus necessarily lift me up to the great idea of a God in whom these high attributes reside. Now all this may be true, and I see no objection to such statements, considered merely as arguments. It may be, however, that the human mind reaches the conclusion by some briefer process, or by no process at all. It may be an instinct of our nature to believe in the existence of the Author of our being— that faith in God is a first principle imbosomed in our very nature, and that unbelief is the real product of speculation. It seems to me that Atheism, which denies the existence of God, and Pantheism, which imbues all things and all secondary causes with divinity, are not the spontaneous growth of the human mind, but of philosophy, falsely so called. This belief in God, however attained, is not adapted to satisfy the religious wants of man, but rather to fill his bosom with profound anxieties. The moment this great truth is admitted as something more than a pure abstraction, it be comes most startling and alarming. The thought of being in the world along with the God of the universe, its Creator, absolute in authority, irresistible in power, and profoundly mysterious in his attributes, purposes, and modes of dealing with his dependent creatures, is, to every one who lifts up his soul to the reception and contemplation of it, absolutely terrific and appalling. It is "the eternal power and Godhead" of Jehovah that are chiefly disclosed by the works of creation. These attributes tend more to produce terror than to impart consolation and awaken confidence and hope. Nations left to the light of nature seek to avert the anger and enmity of Deity by sacrifices and sufferings, and but seldom indulge in love and gratitude. Creation and Providence do not teach us God's benevolence. The beauties of nature, the enjoyments of life, might be so understood but for contradictory teaching from convulsions, barrenness, famines, pestilence, poverty, anxieties, disappointments, death. Upon the whole, our present condition can not be reconciled with the belief in God's benevolence, without reference to a future state, to which our present mode of existence holds the relation of a probation. And these are doctrines which the light of nature does not reveal. Natural arguments for the soul's immortality, though of some value to enforce and illustrate the doctrine as revealed in Christ, are of no worth out of that connection. The strongest of these are, 1. The nobler powers of the mind, adapted to higher pursuits and contemplations. Yet, in most cases, these powers are little developed-hardly enough to fit men for their duties-and they tend to things sensual and worldly so generally and strongly as to lead to the belief that they are only destined to live for the present. 2. The continual progress of the soul in knowledge and virtue; and yet, in the natural course of things, the mind declines with the body as old age comes on, and seems extinct with death. 3. The strong desire for immortality. Yet other desires. |