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BIBLICAL STUDIES.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

THIS world, and the solar and stellar systems, are, as all affirm, the result of forces operating continually, and with incalculable variety and complexity.

Surely as we know anything, we seem to know that force unguided by intelligence, leads to confusion, destruction, chaos; and force guided by wisdom, to order and beauty.

If the active forces which the world and the firmament reveal, were not controlled by wise intelligence, we should naturally expect to see disorder and ruin every where. We do not see disorder and ruin; but every thing in its season, and beautiful. No nook where chaos reigns, has been detected on the round world, or in the sky. The natural effects of force without wisdom, are nowhere to be found. The natural effects of force directed by wisdom, appear every where. According therefore to the creed of the Atheist, there is a universal cause in operation, namely, force without wisdom, without any corresponding results. Nay more, according to his creed, this universal cause is in opera

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tion, and the universal effects are in diametrical opposition to it, being such as would naturally arise from force directed by wisdom. The alternative before men is simply this, whether they will believe the universe, or believe in direct contradiction to the testimony of the universe. "The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead."

If there be any escape from this conclusion, it lies in the direction of polytheism. That there are gods many, is, when compared with the assumption that we know not whether there be any God, a reasonable conclusion. The British constitution is the building of many architects. Why should not the creation be so? Because the British constitution is patchwork; but the universe, instead of being a jumble of many designs and heterogeneous parts, is, as far as we can scan it, quite as remarkable for its unity, as for its vastness: revealing to us a unity of purpose, by its unity of construction. "He that built all things is God."

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