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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 D( .mw| in t|e Seiirt of t|e |iii§'§ |ii(iitie§; OR, Htheistic Errors of the Day Refuted, AND THE DOCTRINE OF A PERSONAL GOD VINDICATED. BY THE REV. ALEXANDER W. McLEOD, D.D.„ Miniater of the M.E. Church. " Infinite Power and Majesty Divine ! Eternal were thy glory and thy throne ! Eternal bliss and glory would be thine, Were men, and angels, stars, and suns unknown." TORONTO : METHODIST BOOK AND PUBLISHING HOUSE. T8 if §0 KING STREET EAST, P ^ 1 PREFACE. \ Indifference to personal religion is an evil of prime magnitude, as, if persisted in to the close of life, it must be followed by the loss of the soul ; yet, if the truth be held even theoretically, that indifference may give place to deep concern for salvation, which, if car- ried out to its legitimate end, will secure the happiest results. There is, however, a more serious and a growing evil gaining ground. A careful observer of surrounding movements cannot shut his eyes to the painful fact that atheism, in one form or another, is insidiously tainting the minds and corrupting the hearts of no small number of persons, whose infidel tendencies are but little suspected by those who should be the most concerned in their detection. This evil is creeping into families, the heads of which are mem- bers of the Church: the serpent is again finding his way into paradise, seeking to tempt and to betray. The mildest form of this evil appears in the doubts expressed of the authenticity and inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures, and, by consequence, of their obli- gatory character and of their claim to unreserved obe- dience. Instead of taking counsel of the Lord by ft ^ IV PREFACE. searching the Scriptures and obeying their precepts, the sceptically inclined adopt, without examinations the opinions of men who are ever talking about the inconsistencies of the Bible, and justifying their own laxity of morals by referring to Noah and David, as if the Bible were the patron of vice and the enemy of virtue. Then the opinions of certain men who have a repu- tation in the scientific world and whose so-called dis- coveries are said to contradict the truth of the Mosaic Cosmogony, are readily seized upon by some who are ambitious, in a cheap way, to be ranked among the knowing ones, and to be considered associates of those who pride themselves on being free from old-time prepossessions in favor of the Christian religion. Thus taking it for granted, on such flimsy authority, that Moses has erred in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, they infer, as if proved beyond doubt, that he has erred in all the subsequent parts of the Pentateuch ; and as Moses is recognized as a true and faithful servant of God by Joshua, David, Malachi, and others of the Old Testament, and by our Lord and His Apostles of the New, his errors, so the proof grows ! are carried to their account, and the whole Bible is by this process brought under suspicion. Fine reasons ! So tine, that if they were a little finer, there would be nothing of them left ! The sophistry, thus so delicately wrapped up, is at once exposed, by deny- ing that Moses has erred. He has not erred, but has PREPACK written the truth, which every successive scientific fact, not fable, as it becomes known, renders the more apparent. Moreover, lectures have been and are still teing delivered by avowed atheists, in which ridicule of the Bible, and of the God of the Bible, has been indulged to an extent disgusting to every one who has regard for the decencies of society, but in which certain classes, old and young, have found, judging from ap- pearances and the applause elicited, great entertain- ment ! Thus a poison, more deadly in its effects than that of the worst species of malaria, has be-n diffused among communities — more fatal, because, whilst the latter may cause the death of the body, the former will assuredly destroy first the soul, and then, by re- action, will result in the destruction of the body also. Perceiving this increasing evil, and sorrowing over its pernicious effects, the writer of these pages has deemed it a duty to lift up a warning voice, and by confuting atheistic sophistries, seek to reclaim some at least who have fallen into this " snare of the devil," and to guard others who have as yet escaped from being led away by this " error of the wicked." To avoid burdening the text with lengthy extracts, a few appropriate and interesting articles are given in an Appendix. Baltimore, Md., U.S., 1881. N CONTENTS, SECTION I. Atheism Incapable of Proof 1 SECTION II. The Universe a Proof of a Personal God ig SECTION III. Matter in its Elementary and Modified Forms not Eternal 25 SECTION IV. The Universe not from Chance 30 SECTION V. Life Subversive of Atheism 3(j SECTION VI. Motion— a Proof of a Supreme Ik-ing 43 SECTION VII. The Starry Host 55 SECTION VIII. Argument from Design gg SECTION IX. Indictment of Atheism : its Antidote 84 viii Contents. APPENDICES. Appendix A. p^^, God Geornt'trizes 2qo Appendix B. The Atmosphere ^w Appendix C. The Architecture of the Eye jjg Appendix D. Atheistical Bravado : Ingersoll I24 !|| ARROWS IN THE HEART OF THE KM'S ENEMIES. ♦♦ SECTION I. ATHEISM INCAPABLE OF PROOF. It is impossible to prove there is no God. Invin- cible difficulties surround and exclude proof. Before the sceptic can affirm " there is no God," with the hope of producing conviction, he mus-i; have previously visited every portion of space, and by personal inter- course become acquainted with, and interrogated all intellectual existencies. Should his exe.mination be less than universal and minute, his investigation would be essentially imperfect, and the ground of his want of faith in the orthodox doctrine fatally defective. For anything he can show to the contrary, there is a God, and yet through incapacity or inattention, or both, his existence may have been overlooked. "Ere we can say that there is no God, we must have 10 ARTIOWS IN THE HEART roamed over all nature, and seen that no mark of a t^.ivine footstep was there ; and we must have gotten intimacy with every exir'ent spirit in the universe, and learned from each, that never did a revelation of the Deity visit him ; and we must have searched, not into the ^ eccrds of one solitary planet, but into the archives of ail worlds, and thence gathered, that throughout the wide realms of immensity, not one exhibitioT.i of a reiofuins: and a livinor God ever has been made. For a man not to know of a God, he has only to sink beneath the level of our common nature. But to deny him, he must be a God himself. He must arrogate the ubiquity and omniscience of the Godhead." — Dr. Chcdviers. But what man has ever taken or attempted to take this serial voyage, or has made or attempted to make this inquiry ? If such a man has ever lived, his name has been so carefully concealed, that its form has never mot human eyes, nor its sound saluted human ears. Not one of the " Freethinkers," who, not long since, held a Convention in the State of New York, made either a verbal or a written report of such a voyage and of such an investigation for the encouragement and confirmation of the brotherhood in their belief ! But these are enterprising times. Is there, then, a sceptic with nerve equal to the trial ? Tlie twelve labors of Hercules, the voyages of Columbus, La Perouse, and other well-known adventurous men, are mere trifles compared with this enterprise; but let OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 11 him, however, not be discouraged, but act from the inspiring conviction that the greater the difficulties to be surmounted the greater the satisfaction attendant on success. The world waits to do honor to his courage ; but not until success has crowned his effort, can he, consistently with honor and the strict demands of truth, expect his bald and bold assertion, that "there is no God," to be credited by prudent men. Unbelief in the existence of God of necessity ranks no higher than a mere opinion ; an opinion without a justifiable foundation ; an opinion assuredly false, the offspring of prejudice, of defective investigation, of fallacious arguments, of overweening conceit, of deter- mined rejection of evidence ; and, in not a few instances, it has been induced by such obliquity of conduct as would make the non-c'^tence of God., the Holy and Omniscient One, the impartial Judge, the Punisher of the wicked, above all things desirable, thus culminat- ing in the fatal error, the deadly sin of atheism. The atheist has no special means of knowing there is no God. He has no proof — not an iota of proof. Whence does he derive his assumed knowledge ? He does not believe in Revelation ; it '^ould not, then, have been revealed to him. He believes not in any- thing supernatural ; no spirit, then, has come from the invisible world to make known to him there is no God. Has he derived his assumed knowledge from man V His informer is in the same predicament as .1 12 AKROWS IN THE HEART himself — both alike are under the same disabilities. One atheist says to another, " Do you believe i-^ the God of the Bible?" "No." "Neither do I." Instead of one foolish man, there are, in this case two foolish men ; and this is all the proof the one can give to the other. At best there is only conjecture ; but conjectures may be false ; they form a poor basis for such audacious unbelief. All the positive proof is in an opposite direction. The evidence that there is c God is as clear and as bright as sunlight ; as convincing as millions of wit- nesses can make it. The evidence is cumulative, every winged moment adding to its force. Of old the general statement was : " The heavens declare the glory of God ; and the firmament showeth his handy work;" now, that testimony is still more emphatic. True science, so far from opposing, corroborates the sublime doctrine of Deity, by opening to our view minute and other numberless individual proofs not apparent but actually comprehended in the general declaration. On every object, great and small, God has left his impress. Among his countless witnesses there are no mutes. Nor has the sceptic any assurance that, in denying God, he is right. Doubts and fears, like armed hosts, will more or less frequently start up to disturb his false peace. Conscience, unless " past feeling," will at times utter its drea i accusations. Atheism is not in- vulnerable. The airows of the Most High are sharp OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 13 in the heart of the King's enemies, whereby the people fall under him. In health, in sickness, amid scenes of revelry, in the midst of the activities of life, in the darkening hour of death the falsity of atheism has appeared to scores once strong in its belief. The shadow of an armless hand has quickened the understanding and sent fear and trembling into the guilty heart. Where then was the support that scepticism had so boldly promised ? Groans, tears, self -accusations, confessions of guilt, prayers for mercy, are the reply. Yes! scepticism has proved a failure when support from it was most needed. With grief, painful to witness ; with abhorrence, no words can adequately describe, it has been, in many instances, renounced. In other cases, remorse, despair, horrible blasphemies, anticipations of coming doom, have attested the con- scious and utter abandonment of its dupes. God was then his own witness, criminating, alarming, punish- ing the persistently guilty, but showing mercy to repentant sinners. We have said that atheism is without an iota of proof ; but a show of proof has been attempted. Only two methods of proof are available for this purpose. There must have been a period when there was not anything existent, or something must have existed from eternity. This proposition is self-evident. Were there no First Originating Cause, there must have been a period, when, except matter be eternal, there was not any thing existent — when all was nonentity. limmmtwSitxf-iSHmm 14 ARROWS IN THE HEART I 11 A " No-God " is a nothir'^. Between existence and non-existence there is no medium. A thing exists or it does not exist ; it is something or nothing ; it can- not be nothing and something at the same time. God is something, matter is something ; but God is something necessarily different from matter. If he differs in nothing from matter, if he has precisely the same properties as matter, neither more nor less, then, to all intents and purposes, he is matter ; but we claim that " God is a Spirit," an infinite Spirit, something altogether distinct from matter. Prior to the existence of matter, if there were no Spirit, there was nothing existing — there was no God. "If there were no Spirit" — this supposition the sceptic is required to turn into absolute certainty, by proving its truth. If your neighbor died yesterday he cannot be alive to-day ; but did he die yesterday ? Whether he is or is not alive to-day depends upon whether or not he died yesterday. How, then, does the sceptic propose to prove the above supposition ? Simply by taking for granted that there was no Spirit ; that because there was no matter there was no God ! Assumption is no proof. Grant the assumption and the argument is complete. Grant that prior to the existence of matter there was nothino: else existent, and it follows that there is no God. Deny the assumption, what then i How is he to prove that there is no God ? At the threshold of what he would call proof, but we mere assumption, he meets with an insuperable diffi- OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 15 culty — a difficulty to which his absolute ignorance of the subject must yield. Was he present when matter came into existence ? Does he know from personal observation how or under what circumstances it came into being ? If not, what does he really know about the matter ? Absolutely nothing. Ignorance here is not "the mother of devotion," but the father of no small measure of presumption. Suppose matter existent : here is something. The second method of proof is, that because there is some- thing there is nothing else existent ; that is, because there is matter there is no God. The former method is an attempt to prove by the non-existence of one thing the non-existence of another thing ; the latter, by the existence of one thing the non-existence of another thing ! " There is a generation, how lefty are their eyes ! and their eyelids are lifted up." There is no God because matter exists ! The universe exists, but God is not the universe, therefore God does not exist ! About as conclusive as if one, in striving to prove that there is no sun, were to syllogize thus : The moon exists, but the sun is not the moon, therefore the sun does not exist ! We think the existence of the universe proves quite a different thing as we shall show hereafter. The legitimate inference is that atheism is incapable of proof. i I ll^i 16 ARROWS IN THE HEART *^ SECTION 11. THE UNIVERSE A PROOF OF A PERSONAL GOD. We are surrounded by innumerable objects which strike our senses. Their minuteness, their magnitudes, their motions, their order, their utility, their beauty fill our minds with wonder. From the grain of sand on the sea-shore, from the pebble in the street, from the blade of grass and the waving corn in the field, to suns and systems, to the blazing comets that pursue their eccentric and solitary courses through the profundities of space, they call forth our admiration and excite our curiosity. They cannot be ignored. They compel attention. Whence came they ? Do they furnish proofs of the existence of a First Supreme Cause ? Have they a voice ? They have : " There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." To an unprejudiced mind they proclaim the existence of a Being of infinite per- fections and of inexhaustible resources. OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 17 ipel lish ise ? iech leir )rds lind )er- Note : Atheistic theories are various, being neither uniform nor infallible. In treating the topics involved in this discussion we have to adapt our arguments to the fallacious reasoning employed by the opponents of the true faith. On the supposition that there was a period when there was no matter, does the non-existence of matter prove that there was at that period no God ? Matter and spirit are essentially different. Except that they are substances, they have no attributes or properties in common. They may exist separately, or, as in the case of man, in union. How any sane man can doubt of this essential difference is truly a matter of astonish- ment. Every man, not insane, is conscious of possess- ing something which thinks, understands, compares, judges, wills, desires, loves, hates, fears, «fec. This something is a simple, indivisible substance, which to distinguish it from matter, we name spirit or soul which is incapable of performing any of these acts. Who ever dreams of a stone loving, fearing, thinking, willing, or having self-consciousness ? Kick a stone, it does not resent the act ; throw it into a river, it fears nothing, but without a groan or complaint sinks to the bottom and quietly remains there ; take the best possible care of it, pet it, wrap it up in silk, give it the best place in the cabinet, offer it the daintiest food, it shows no interest, it manifests no love ; give it the choice of a great good or a great evil, it is insensible to the offer and wills neither the one nor the other ; 2 18 ARROWS IN THE HEART \ " I place before it an easy or a difficult problem for solu- tion, it is dumb ; talk to it about right and wrong, it has no perception of moral distinctions — without com- punction on the one hand, or without joy on the other, it would allow itself to be used by a burglar to commit murder, or by an honest man to aid in building a church : and what is true of a stone is true of all matter. But may not the power of thinking, &c., be superadded to matter ? The question is a confession that that which thinks is diverse from matter, otherwise it would only be adding matter to matter. Manipulate, refine, etherealize matter to the utmost, the result is matter still. The process may change its form but not its nature. Given — a piece of chalk, crucibles, acids, heat, and other chemical agents, to endow the resultant with the power of thought, &c., or to produce anything that is not matter. To remand the process to God is to re- mand it to a Being that atheism does not acknowledge. If the sceptic be as wnse as he pretends to be, he ought to be able to effect, in the case given, the result required; if he is not able, he ought at once to confess his ignor- ance and incapacity, and acknowledge that there exists a Power capable of creating a spirit endowed with mental and moral qualities. We may, in turn, ask, by what or by whom is the supposed addition made ? Not by the material part of man, for the very best reason, that being matter it cannot act, and if it could, there is, according to mate- 1 OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 19 rialism, no substance diverse from matter from which the power of thinking, &c., could be derived. All observation shows that the body without a soul is dead, and the supposition is, that before the super-addition, the body was without a soul, or without that specific something necessary to enable it to think, &c. ; hence the necessity for the alleged addition. The argument now shows, that if anything is added to the body to constitute man as now existing, and ,0 enable him to perform mental acts, the addition must be made by a Being, who himself has intellect to know what to add, and power to carry his knowledge into effect, which brings us directly to the God of the Bible. Indeed, if there were only a material God, and only a material soul in man, how did thought origi- nate ? How did mental operations come into being ? Matter is incapable of thought, but we find thought in operation ; what could have suggested thought, or how could matter have first conceived the idea of its necessity and then endowed itself with it ? Questions which materialism can never answer. But what is super-added ? A power ? a capability ? a quality ? These have no existence apart from the substance in which they inhere. They necessarily pre- suppose such a substance. Thus, if I think, judge, choose, reject, will, love, &:c., I must possess something capable of thinking, judging, choosing, &;c., of which these are properties ; this something, is not matter but spirit, for these acts are not the acts of matter but 20 ARROWS IN THE HEART I I t ! of a spiritual being. They are not, and never can be made, the endowments of matter however refined, but they demand for their existence a spiritual substance, and such a substance is the soul. It is, therefore, this soul or spirit, and not a mere quality, which is united to the material body in man, and which constitutes him a thinking being. The phenomena of mental acts cannot otherwise be accounted for. The spirit in man is, and nmst be, the gift of a spirit ; only a spirit can confer a spirit. The man who denies the existence of the soul or spirit, to be consistent, ought to deny that he is the same person that he was ten years ago. On what can he rest his identity except it be on self-consciousness, a principle not in any degree appertaining to matter ? Personal identity depends upon our spiritual nature. Owing to changes in the body during the space of seventy or eighty years, were the substance, in which consciousness of identity inheres, material, it must have been several times destroyed, so that no one of ad- vanced age could be assured he is the same person or being that he was when he was ten or twelve years old ; but this is opposed to universal experience. Sup- pose a man committed a murder several years ago, for which he was subsequently arrested, and when arraigned for trial he pleaded that he was not the man who committed the offence — that he was somebody else, that he had another body and consequently could not be the man who was guilty of the deed. Would he be OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 21 believed by judge or jury, after twenty credible wit- nesses, bad, under tbe sanctity of an oatb, deponed to bis identity? His plea would be justly regarded as a sorry quibble not having tbe sligbtest influence to arrest sentence and the dread execution of tbe law. His own consciousness would convict bim of adding falsehood to his previous crime. Spirit and matter being essentially different, tbe affirmation, that " there is no God," because at a cer- tain period there was no matter, involves as previously shown, a gross absurdity. The non-existence of matter at a given time past cannot disprove the exist- ence of Deity. Matter may not exist and yet there may be a God. If, then, at any period of the past there was nothing existent, there would be nothing now ; from nothing, nothing remains. This is as true in everyday affairs as in mathematics. Persons who doubt may try the experiment for themselves. From an empty purse see how much good and lawful coin of the realm you can take out. Sow no seed in the ground and see how much wheat, corn, oats, barley, or other grain you will harvest. Common sense teaches that if we would reap we must plough, harrow, and sow. If we would live we must eat and drink. If we would see we must have light and open our eyes. If we would not appear as persons devoid of common sense we must use our reason, shun atheism and believe in God. Between cause and effect there is a correlation that no really wise man would deny. M i 22 ARROWS IN THE HEART i « 11 f i i The non-pxistcnce of matter at a given time past, furnishes a conclusive argument in proof of the exist- ence of a Personal God. Tlie universe exists. Of necessity it mu.st he the effect of some cause — a cause adequate to produce such an efiect ; unless it can be shown that the universe created itself. But that which has no existence cannot produce that which has existence. That wliich creates is a Creator. A creator must exist before it creates. The material universe could not have given birth to itself. It could not have been cause and effect, or, in other words, it could not have been a creator and a creature, at th ' same time. But the supposition is, that there was at the same period, neither matter nor spirit. Under these circumstances it is self-evident, that actual beinf^ would be impossible. There was no power ; nothing in which power could inhere ; all was blank, vacuous, and inert. " Nothing " has no being. " No-being," has no power, no intelligence. But the universe exists; there- fore, there must exist something, some cause adequate to give it a being — that something, that ca^Tse is God. From this argument there is no escape ; it concludes, fully and logically against atheism. Until the sceptic can osent irrefragable proof that fields of wheat have sprung up spontaneously ready for the harvest, where ilo seed had been sown, and where there was no possibility of its having been sown, say from the surface of the barren rock, unvisited, also, by genial OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 23 sunshine and fertilizing showers, our argumtjnt holds good; even the credence of this impossibility were more reasonable than the belief, that the vast material universe has come into being without an infinite Creator. This is comparing small things with great, but there is nothing great, in any sense, about atheism, except its folly and its sin, these being truly im- measurable by human standards. To create the rude material of the universe required infinite Power. To set it in order, to endow it with all the properties it possesses, to beautify and adorn it, to adapt it in every part to definite and useful pur- poses, demanded Power and Intelligence to which no limits can be assigned, to which no appellation short of infinite can be justly applied. The mechanism of the heavens and of the earth — the heavens with their suns and their satellites, the earth with its atmosphere, oceans, and mountains, with all its variety of hill and dale, with all its numerous yet diversified productions, with its animate tribes, and with man, the crowned sovereign of this vast domain — required such an intimate knowledge of all arts and sciences as to fill the loftiest human intellects with indescribable amazement ; a knowledge so vast, so perfect, that to obtain even a slight acquaintance with some of its elements, demands the intensest devotion of the raaturest minds and a lifetime of the most laborious study. After all their attainments, they are standing only on the shore of a boimdless, fathomless 24 ARROWS IN THE HEART I" ocean, and, whi'st dropping into it their little lines, are compelled to exclaim : " O the depth of the knowledge, the wisdom, and the power of Him, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance — who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working — who doeth great things past finding out, yea, and wonders without number ! " Let the sceptic answer the questions pro- posed in Job xxxviii, xxxix, xl, xli, and if he do not " abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes," it will be because he has permitted blindness and hardness to "^eize upon him as their unresisting prey. '^aw-^ --^r^ OF THE KINGS ENEMIKS. 25 SECJTION III. MATTER IN ITS ELEMENTARY AND MODIFIED FORMS NOT ETERNAL. Sceptics affirm that the heavcins and the earth, vvitli all they contain, have existed from eternity, and have happened in form, order, V>eauty and utility \)y cJucace, thereby excluding a positive act of creation hy an infinitely Intel lif^ent and powerful Vjeinf^. If this theory be adopted to avoid or lessen diffi- culties, it fails to accomplish its object. The eternity of matter is, at least, as inconceivable as the eternity of an infinite Spirit. Were matter eternal it must have existed everywhere. No valid reason can be assigned why it should be limited in f[uantity, or why it should occupy one place rather than anot}if;r. Ubiquity is one of the attributes claimed for Deity — his presence is everywhere. Analogically, we infer that if matter were eternal, ubiquity would be one of its propel uies — that all space would be occupied by 26 ARROWS IN THE HEART solid matter. The universe would be necessarily a solid mass ; there would be no room for separate or detached bodies ; iherefore, no possibility of motion. But matter does not so exist ; hence, it is not eternal. This is one view of the subject: take another. Admit- ting that originally matter existed in a chaotic state — that is, in a gaseous, liquid, and solid state, gases, liquids, and solids all mixed together — tiien, as eternity implies the idea of permanency, matter must be un- changeable in essence and form ; and as the existence of God, or of an infinite Spirit is supposed to be ex- cluded, there could have been outside of itself no power to alter or modify its condition ; therefore, matter being in itself inert the chaotic state must have been immiltabie. But that chaotic state does not now exist ; nor, as far as our world is concerned, has it so existed for upwards of six thousand years. Whence, then, the change — all that constitutes the variety of earth ? Whence order from chaos ; beauty from de- formity ; utility from comparative nselessness ; this wondrous frame from an unseemly mass ? Let sceptics deny the evidence of their senses ; let them, ostrich- like, hide their heads in the sands of atheism, — infinite powder and intelligence are conspicuous in all these forms, in their order and uses. This cannot be denied without contradicting the testimony of the vast majority of mankind ; as for the cavils of atheists, they are captious and fatuous. A great revolution has taken place. The chaotic OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 27 condition has been exchanged for a state of order, and in a way to charm all eyes and gladden all hearts. — " The earth was without form, and void ; and darkness way upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good : and God divided the light from the darkness. * ♦ * And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament : and it was so. * * * And God said. Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth ; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas : and God saw that it was good." Chaos itself was the result of divine energy ; subsequently, with the voli- tion went forth a power from the Creator which chaos obeyed and the habitable earth with its various ap- pendages appeared. Hence, neither in its elementary nor in its modified forms is matter eternal. Still more preposterous is the theory, if atheistical theories admit of degrees, that the universe as it now is, is 3ternal ; implying the eternity of man and of the present races of inferior animals, as well as that of every other existent object. Once existing always existing is the legitimate, logical inference from .r: 28 ARROWS TN THE HEART ^1 ij II the doctrine that excludes a creating God and avows the eternity of the universe. Matter, in its present forms, cannot change itself any more than it could have changed itself in its chaotic state. A sub- stance in itself eternal and yet liable to change is an impossibility. Were it subject to change, it would be eternal and not eternal, unchangeable and changeable, at the same time. If the theory now under considera • a/ tion be true, it follows that the present forms of material things must have existed throuofhout the eternity past to the present time, without change, without diminution, and without accession of particles, and that they will so continue for the eternity to come ; but that they have existed thus, every living man can contradict, and that a similar contradiction may be giv'u in the future, is as certain as that atheism is a ten.- expressive of egregious folly and unparalleled sin. Time was when we, our neighbors, and the world's multitudes were not. A generation ceases to live and disappears from the face of the earth, on an average, every thirty years, and another generation takes its place. Change is stamped on everything around us. Even the granite I'^ck suffers loss by attrition. Chemistry opens to us a world of change. Storms and tempests, floods, fires, and earthquakes teach us the painful lesson of mundane instability. Old ocean is not exempt ; its waters are not to-day the same as they were yesterday; evaporation, rains, and the Oir THE king's ENEMIES. 29 flow of rivers are the agents of change. The life and the death of the vegetable world ; the life and the death of the animal world, tell the same story. These and other voices protest against the eternity of matter. Succession is not permanency. Similarity is not identity. On this subject geology is not silent; it "proves that there was a time when man and his fellow-creatures had no place on earth, and the wild fiction that they must have existed forever is at once destroyed." 80 ARROWS IN THE HEART y 1 1 SECTION IV. THE UNIVERSE NOT FROM CHANCE. Driven from one position after another, the atheist still strives to maintain his ground. He has an arrow in his quiver, which, he thinks, artistically aimed, will pierce through the orthodox shield. The aim may be artistic, but if strength to draw the bow fail — what then ? The arrow may only wound the hand that would send it forth. What is the weapon that is to work such dire destruction ? Listen ! " The present forms and pro- perties of all things comprised in the universe are due to chance !"* Say you so ? If not considered obtru- sive, we ask — how did you obtain this knowledge ? Were you present and an eye-witness, when this wondrous transformation is said to have taken place ? To this question a sufficient answer will be found in * The atheist does not use the word chance as expressive of a cause not known, but as synonymous with No cause. OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 31 your reply to another question, " How old are you ?" Or had you an informer — one, on whose knowledge and veracity, reliance may be safely placed ? We doubt — we more than doubt. There is, however, a way by which, if you think you can prudently use it, you can overwhelm us with confusion and save your own credit. Produce your witness ! Let him stand forth in the light of day and tell us all about the matter ! Tell us where he was — what he saw — what and how chance worked in those primordial times ! Let him tell the whole story, declaring everything, concealing nothing ! Cross-examination on our part, we promise, shall be neither very searching nor pro- tracted. Chance ! What is chance ? Is it something or nothing ? Has it a real or an imaginary being ? If a real being, it must be matter, because atheism does not admit of spirit. If material, it must be like all other matter, possessing similar properties — inertia and impenetrability among the rest. Is it subject to attrac- tion or gravitation ? For what bodies has it an especial affinity ? Atheistical ? If it is nothing, only imaginary, nothing can be said in its favour : it is as devoid of reason as the skeleton of an ape's head is of ' human brains. Grant for the moment that chance is somethincf real ; let us see to what the admission leads. In opposition to its own inertia it must have exerted tremendous power, a force so superior as to have over- 32 ARROWS IN THE HEART if i I I It. ! come the inertia of all other matter and set it in motion. So we are told, in real fairy-story fashion that " once upon a time," the chaotic molecules — (whence these molecules ? Who or what gave them being ? You see you cannot take the lirst step with- out a Creator) — began a very lively dance, whirling about in space, whirling in and out, hither and thither, until somehow, but how is not exactly known, except the as yet unproduced witness can give the informa- tion, things by chance took their present forms ! A whirligig on rather a large scale ! A frightful one — especially to the eternal men, women, and children, who could not avoid being participants in those astounding gyrations, circumvolations, and circum- volutions ! Think of the whirling and twirling ; of the rushing and crushing ; of the dashing, clashing, and smashing ; of the colliding, uprising, and down-falling; of the squaring, triangling, and rounding ; of the expanding and contracting ; of the floating and depositing ; of the thumping, bumping, dumping, and pumping ; and of every kind of thing necessary to complete the operations of the chance-force ! O, chance ! chance ! chance ! Thou must have been the greatest of all giants, immeasurably overtopping the legendary giants of olden times, who merely "hurled mountains and forests against Olympus," regardless of the lightnings of Jupiter ! What are the uplifting and the hurling of a few mountains and forests to the formation of the OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 83 innumerable bodies comprised in the universe ! They played with toys — thou sporte ■ I hi I I! fl tf 42 ARROWS IN THE HEART not necessary to the production of the hen : if the egg preceded, then the egg is independent of the hen, and so the hen is not necessary to the production of the egg. Now all observation shows that without the hen there is no egg, and without the egg there is no hen. It follows that one or the other was first, in other words, was created. How would you account on your principles for the facts in the case ? For my part, I am old-fashioned enough to believe the Scriptures have solved the problem, when they say — * God created every winged fowl after his kind,' and that he provided for their increase, when he added — 'Let the fowl multiply in the earth.' " The young man was silenced. He obtruded no further remarks on the company. He did not even cackle I Thus ended this chapter in the experience of this free-thinker, who prided himself on his free- thinking, atermw^hich has been aptly defined as "free from thinking." Ever after this rencounter, one would suppose, the sight of a hen would awaken un- pleasant associations, and his appetite for eggs would be effectually spoiled. OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 43 SECTION VI. MOTION — A PROOF OF A SUPREME BEING. Archimedes, it is said, boasting of the power of the lever and fulcrum, exclaimed — " Give me a place to plant my fulcrum and I will move the world ! " No place could be found ; the experiment, therefore, was not made. We cannot but regard the failure of the Syracusian mathematician as a very fortunate circum- stance ; it may have saved the earth and its inhabitants from a dreadful catastrophe ! Modern science has greatly improved mechanical forces. Why do not some of our enterprising un- believers attempt to discover the place that Archimedes failed to find ? If successful, they might move the world to some purpose ; perhaps, reverse the j)oles, or turn the world upside down. They might then boast of their god-like powers, and enter into a contest with Nature's God, with a fractionally better prospect of success than their present imbecility warrants. We T- 44 ARROWS IN THE HEART ) ! candidly confess that we w^ould prefer the world to be " turned upside down " by the means used by Paul and Silas (Acts xvii. 6), rather than by the aid of the lever and the fulcrum; the former we know would save — what dire calamities might follow in the train of the latter, we leave to imagination to depict. Calmly considering the arguments for and against dangers to be apprehended from this quarter, we have concluded there is no jjround to fear. Notwithstanding man's imbecility, the earth moves, and with great rapidity and regularity. It rotates daily on its own axis, and it has never failed to ac- complish its annual revolution around the sun. To the former we are indebted for our days and nights ; to the latter for our varied seasons. What thus moves the earth or causes it to move ? Nothing or something ? Nothing has no power ; it cannot, therefore, be moved by nothing, or by that which has no beinof. Somethinof, or some being must move it or cause it to be moved — that something, that Being is God, acting directly, or indirectly through forces he himself has established for that specific pur- pose. " No," says the atheist, " the earth revolves around the sun in consequence of the centrifugal and centripetal forces, therefore, not by the power of God." The premises we grant, the inference we deny. What are these forces ? They had a beginning. Time was when there was no sun. Time was when the earth was a chaos. Do not forget that there was a time OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 45 Lt IS Ih ie when, according to atheistic notions, the molecules were flouncing her^^ and there and everywhere where chance led them ! Whence, then, came these forces ? Who or what assigned to them their power, and set exact limits to that power ? Who or what Urst sent the earth forth in space and gave it its diurnal rotary motion ? Nothing or something ? Nothing has no power. Something must have been the cause, and that something is God. Respecting the motion of the earth, is it not mar- vellous, that the atheist's god. Chance, should have eventually fixed the inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit at 23° 28', causing thereby the different lengths of day and night, and, in its annual revolution around the sun, the pleasing and healthful variety of the seasons ? Had chance hap- pened to have left it perpendicular to the plane of its orbit, we need not say, the earth would have been a very different place for man's residence from what it is at present. The inhabitants of Jupiter, had we access to them, could give us a little light on this sub- ject — could impart information that would make us contented with our lot, and effectually rebuke the pre- sumption of the man who dare affirm that our world is a " blunder." Is it not unaccountable that chance, amid all its vagaries, should have just hit the right inclination, the best adapted, all things considered, for the comfort and advantage of man, and has had the good manners, giving everything its due, let us say, h 46 ARROWS IN THE HEART 1^ ' i: 11 V \\ the kindness, not to meddle with the arrangement since ? Let the sceptical mathematician calculate the number of probabilities* there were at first, before the present inclination of the earth's axis was definitely determined, against chance leaving it at 2^^ 28', — the calculation, if correctly made, would afford, we think, something new in his experience ; he would see, as the result, an array of figures that would startle him ; and, if open to conviction, would cause him to pause and to ask — " Is this the work of chance ? Rather is it not the decision and the work of an Infinite Intelligence ? " To the uneducated mind, the rotundity of the earth is a puzzle. We have read of an Irish fisherman who was " somewhat bemazed by the information that the world was round, yet were his reasoning faculties not overwhelmed. 'Round is it?* said he; 'it is hard enough to go down hill by land, but it must be the very mischief to go down-hill by water.' He came to the conclusion that ' any man who attempted it must go sliddherin away entirely.' " Notwithstanding this alarming prediction, the earth is a large globular body rolling in space. What up- holds it ? Nothing or something ? Nothing has no power ; it therefore cannot uphold the earth. The earth, it is true, is hung upon nothing, a fact announced as far back at least as the time of Job (xxvi. 7). Having no material solid support, it must be upheld by some existing power — by an infinite power ; and * See Appendix A, p. 108. OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 47 ced 7). eld md that power is the infinite power of God. Resolute in his unbelief, the sceptic, as before stated, ascribes its suspension and its motion to the conjoint operation of the centrifugal and centripetal forces, thereby seeking to hide his denial of God under the flimsy covering of a verbal phrase, " the Laws of Nature," overlooking the fact, that the laws of nature^ is only another phrase for the laivs of God — of God " upholding all things by the word of his power." All matter is indifferent to rest or motion. A body at rest will remain at rest unless some force put it in motion. Anything that produces motion is, in tech- nical language, called a force. Throughout the universe at large potent forces, silent and invisible, are con- stantly at work. Surrounded by these, touched by these forces almost at every point, the majority of men live and die without giving a thought to these wondrous agents, and, by consequence, have all their lifetime been insensible to the power in activity with- out a moment's cessation. How few realize that they are living on a globe revolving on its own axis at the rate of one thousand miles an hour at the equator, and pursuing its unwearied course in its orbit around the sun at the rate of sixty-eight thousand miles every hour ! How few, looking to the heavens on a cloudless night, think of the stars otherwise than so many bright points, unmindful that they are revolving worlds, many of them larger than the sun ! How few think of the power that originally gave them motion, and which keeps them in their courses ! v- ■\ i J t i :.^ ;i ! I ' 48 ARROWS IN THE HEART The discoveries of astronomers prove that these forces, under the direction of infinite wisdom, have been calculated and arranged according to strict mathematical principles, showing a Master Mind at work, necessarily excluding all possibility of chance. We have spoken of the motion of the earth, but the sun itself, besides its rotation on its own axis, has a "periodical motion, in nearly a circular direction around the common centre of all the planetary bodies, never deviating from its position more than twice its diameter." It is also supposed to be moving and carrying with it the planets and satellites of its own system, in a vast orbit, around a distant centre. The earth is distant from the sun ninety-five millions of miles ; late observations make the distance some- what less. The sun is about one million four hundred thousand times as large as the earth ; but being only one-fourth as dense, its matter is only three hundred and fifty thousand times as great as that of the earth. The moon, the earth's satellite, is distant from the earth about two hundred and thirty-eight thousand five hundred and forty-five miles, and is about the same distance from the sun as the earth ; it is one seventy-millionth part as large as the sun, and one forty-ninth as large as the earth. Reference need not be made to the other planets and satellites, the dimensions of which, and their distances from the earth and the sun, may be learned from astronomical -works. The same forces are at work with them as with the planet w^e inhabit. OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 40 The masses of globes are proportional to the cubes of their diameters. Diameter of the moon 2,160 miles ; of the earth 7,912 miles ; the mean diameter of the sun 886,000 miles. The mass of the moon is to that of the earth as 2,160' is to 7,912'; the mass of the earth to that of the sun as 7,912' is to 886,000=*. The projectile or centrifugal force is that impulse given to the earth by the Almighty Creator when he first sent it forth in space. Gravitation, which prevails among all bodies, large and small, is a force which attracts bodies toward each other, and, in general terms, is in proportion to their density, and the quantity of matter they contain. Bodies, put in motion, would move in a uniform straight line in the direction in which the force is applied, unless some force intervened to alter its direc- tion. Thus, the earth, once set in motion, would pro- ceed in a straight line, were it not for the mutual attraction between it and the sun, which causes it to gravitate towards the latter. The force is called centri'petal. Every body revolving in an orbit is under the influ- ence of a centripetal and a centrifugal force ; the cen- trifugal is a tangent to the orbit, the centripetal is in the direction of the radii. These forces vary according to "the weight, the length of the radii, and the squares of the velocities " of the respective bodies ; hence, " the centrifugal forces of any two bodies are in the compound ratio of their '■ I * ARttOWS IN THE HEART ^: I J I weights, their radii and the squares of their veloci- ties;" but "the force with which bodies gravitate towards each other is in direct proportion to their respective masses and in inverse proportion to the squares of their distances from each other." If, there- fore, the centripetal force were suspended, the earth and the other planets would fly off into space ; if the centrifugal force were suspended, they would fall to the sun. In the words of an eloquent author — " The mechanism of the solar system strikingly displays the wisdom of the great Creator. The centrifugal force depends, of course, upon the rapidity of the revolution ; and in order that these forces might be exactly balanced, God has imparted to each planet a velocity just sufficient to produce a centrifugal force equal to that of its gravitation. Thus they neither fall to the sun on the one hand, nor fly off beyond the reach of his beams on the other, but remain balanced in their orbits between these two forces, steadily revolving from age to age." Kepler's three great laws, governing the movements of the planets, may be here cited, affording further proof of the working of an Intelligent Cause : — 1. "The orbits of all the planets are elliptical, having the sun in the common focus." ^ The planets, therefore, move with different velocities, in the different parts of their orbits. 2. "The radius vector of a planet," (an imaginary line joining the centre of the sun and the centre of the i: OF THE KINOS ENEMIES. 51 of planet, in any part of its orbit), " describes equal areas in equal times." 3. " The squares of the periodic times of any two planets " (that is, the squares of the times they take to make a complete revolution round their orbits), "are proportioned to the cubes of their mean distances from the sun." These astronomical principles and laws, though on our part designedly limited in number, yet justify the following arfjument : — To adjust to a nicety all these various and apparently conflicting influences, so as to produce the results now apparent to every beholder, required imperatively in the Adjuster a knowledge of the principle^ of what lay be called the Natural Sciences, to which no -jated intellect, however capacious, can lay claim. Before there was an atom of matter ; before there was a sun, or the earth, or the moon ; before there were other planets and their satellites ; before a line was stretched and a foundation-stone laid ; before the waters were measured and the mountains and hills were weighed, — all the necessities of the case, all the actual and possible influences, all the danger of collision, all the provisions for safety, harmony, and continued order, all the purposes to be answered, must have been present, as ideas, in His mind. The most comprehen- sive yet minute knowledge, and a power to execute equal to that knowledge, must be pre-supposed on the part of the Being who gave this solar system birth. f I 52 ARROWS IN THE HEART The denial of such knowledge and of such power argues a folly so great, a perversity of intellect so monstrous, that it would defy even Satanic cunning to work out a deliverance from the justice of the charge. There is no wish on the part of Christian philo- sophers to deny that the universe is influenced by the laws of gravitation or attraction ; but it is altogether another matter, when atheists, in their vain effort to banish God from his own universe, assign these laws as a sufficient justification of their unbelief. Their plea is a shallow subterfuge. Laws, as they well know or ought to know, necessarily pre-suppose a law- maker. They do not make or formulate themselves. If wise and useful they imply intelligence to frame and power to execute. Gravitation is a force, but it can be neither seen nor felt, nor be perceived by any other of the senses. How do we know it exists ? Only by its effects. In the case before us we have admitted effects, which must have an efficient cause. The laws in question like all other laws, must have a framer and an executor ; laws not executed, or incapable of being executed, are a dead letter ; they are worthless. Who or what, then, is the framer of these laws ? Who, or what, is the executor ? No-being or an actual Being ? No-being has no intelligence, no power ; therefore, that which has no existence could neither have framed nor have subsequently executed these laws. OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 53 ;ing h or ore, lave iws. They have been framed and subsequently carried into effect by a Being capable of thinking, foreseeing, planning, adjusting, and executing — of using the best means to secure the object proposed to be attained. This Being is no other than the living God. Human agency is here an absolute nullity. Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Euler, Laplace, Olbers, the Herschells, Sir William Smith, and a host of others, have achieved great celebrity in the depart- ment of astronomical science ; but as much as they deserve to be admired for their intellectual capacities, and as highly as they are worthy to be esteemed for their astronomical contributions, it should not be forgotten, that they were only discoverers or inter- preters, not the originators, of the laws by which our earth and the heavenly bodies were influenced cen- turies before these astronomers saw the light. These laws have in themselves no intelligence. They know not their own existence, nor are they con- scious of the part they have in the immense panorama which the heavens and the earth present to our wondering gaze. Gravitation, attraction, motion are blind unintelligent powers with which the Creator endued matter, when he gave being and form to the universe ; these powers in their unwearied operation, affording irrefragable proofs of the existence and marvellous attributes of God and of his continued superintendence of all his works. The supreme Law- giver is invisible, but existence and the exercise of r^J1 1: . I 54 ARROWS IN THE HEART r power are compatible with invisibility. No sane man denies the power of gravitation and of the wind, because they are invisible. " Law," says Professor Nichol, " is not merely the Almighty's minister : the order of the world is not merely His ordinance : the Forces, if so we name them, which express order, are not powers or inferior energies He has evoked from the silences, and to whose guardianship he has entrusted all things, that so he himself might repose. No ! above, below, and around, ihere is God, there is his dread Omnipresence, speaking to Finite Creatures through finite forms a language which only the Living Heart can under- stand ! In the rain and sunshine, in the soft zephyr, in the cloud, the torrent, and the thunder, in the bursting blossom and the fading branch, in the returning seasons and the rolling star — there is the Infinite Essence, and the majestic development of His Will." \- OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 55 m *^ SECTION VII. THE STARRY HOST. Passing from our Solar System, which is only a speck amid the vast universe, and merely glancing at the unnumbered orbs which adorn the arch of heaven, visible to the eye and seen through telescopes, we ask — "What testimony do these silent but eloquent witnesses give to our argument ? " We rtply — " The further we advance in our explorations of the distant regions of space, and the more minute and specific our investigations are, the more august and astonishing are the scenes which open to our view, and the more elevated do our conceptions become of the grandeur of that Almighty Being who 'marshalled all the starry hosts ' and of the viultiplicity and variety of arrange- ments he has introduced into his vast creation. And this consideration ought to serve as an argument to every rational being, both in a scientific and a religious h' 56 ARROWS IN THE HEART I' : i ^' point of view, to stimulate him to a study of the operations of the Most High, who is 'wonderful in counsel and excellent in working,' and whose works in every part of his dominions adumbrate the glory of his perfections and proclaim the depths of his wisdom and the greatness of his power." The nocturnal heavens present to the naked eye a magnificent sight ; by the aid of the telescope that gorgeousness is immeasurably increased. The con- stellations are the ensigns of God's majesty ; in the telescopic stars may be seen his sign-manual, attesting his government throughout the furthest depths of space. Literally, he sways his sceptre over worlds innumerable. We cannot judge of the extent of his domain by what is seen ; the greater number of his works occupy regions to us invisible. Wherever the telescope has pierced worlds on worlds appear. Whilst viewing the Milky Way, Sir W. Herschell estimated that, by counting the stars in a single field of his telescope, not less than fifty thousand had passed before his vision in the short space of one hour ! The estimated number of stars in our firmament, visible to the naked eye, is — 5,623, visible through telescopes, 854,296,000 ; " if we suppose that eack of these sums is accompanied by as many planets as are embraced in our solar system, we have nine thousand millions of worlds in our firmament; but even these form a very minute and comparatively insignificant portion of the boundless empire which the Creator has OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 57 reared and over which he reigns." There is fitness in the bold questions of Young : " Where, ends this iniglity building ? Where, begin The suburbs of Creation '{ Where, the wall Whose battlements look o'er into the vale Of non-existence ? Nothing's strange abode ! Say, at what point of space Jehovah dropp'd His slacken'd line, and laid his balance by ; Weigh'd worlds, and measur'd infinite, no more ? " Those bright patches, seen in various parts of the heave is, are clusters or groups of stars — some visible to the naked eye, others, made known by aid of the telescope. Of these, the most illustrious are Pleiades and Hyades in the constellation of Taurus, Praesepe or the Bee Hive in Cancer, the gorgeous cluster in Coma Berenices, and another in Hercules. Sir John Herschell pronounced that of Berenice's Hair " the most magnificent object he had ever beheld ; " of that in Hercules, Professor Nichol says, — " Perhaps no one ever saw it, for the first time, through a telescope, without uttering a shout of wonder." There is reason to believe that " the individual stars of these clusters are suns like our own, the centres of so many distinct systems, and that their mutual distances are equal to those which separate our sun from the nearest fixed stars." The nearest of the fixed stars is not less than tiventy billions of miles distant from the earth ; the distance of some of the telescopic stars is, in comparison, without hyperbole, immeasurable, i Ul 4 I ''I ' ill in mmmimm 58 ARROWS IN THE HEART :lil I The constitution of the Nebulce, those hazy appear- ances of light in the heavens, was long a matter of interest to astronomers and others ; the telescope has resolved them into numberless small stars. A nebula in the Sword of Orion, especially, held the astronomical world in doubt, but at length it was resolved by Lord Rosses telescope. " Thus doubt and speculation," says Professor Nichol, " on this great subject vanished forever ! And now, if only for a moment, contemplate that Stellar Creation in its unveiled magnificence ! Restrained no longer by the consideration of probabilities, freed from the necessity of discerning among its mighty forms only resemblances of those developments of power which more closely surround us, we can recognize no limit either to its stupendous extent or inconceivable variety. The nebulous spots resolved into stars, is a fact which of itself vastly modifies our conception of the magni- tude of that Creation ; but how hopelessly does imagi- nation strive to enlarge itself that so we realize tHe interior gorgeousness of these distant groups. In the nebulous stars, circular or compact galaxies of all orders of glory may now be traced, leading from the splendid cluster in Hercules, as their loivest point, up through schemes of being in which sun is nearer sun until their entire skies merge into one blaze of light and one throng of activities ; not like ours, coldly studded with points far apart, whose mutual influences are sundered by huge abysses ! But high above all OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 59 stands Orion, the pre-eminent wonder and glory of the Sidereal Universe. Considering it as so remote that its light cannot reach us in less than sixty thou- sand years, and at the same time as occupying so large an apparent portion of the heavens, how stupendous must be the extent of that Nebula ! It would seem almost, that if all the clusters hitherto guaged, were collected and compressed into one, they would not sur- pass this mighty group, in which every wisp, every wrinkle, is verily a Sand-heap of Stars ! There are cases in which, though Imagination has quailed. Reason may still adventure inquiries and prolong its specula- tions ; but at times we are brought to a limit, across which no human faculty has the strength to penetrate, and where, as now — as if on the threshold of the very Infinite — we can only bend our heads and silently Adore ! " The following quotation is from Professor Mitchell, who, from the greatness, the glory, the order, the har- mony of the material universe, gives a sublime and striking view of the Divine Attributes : — "If there be anything which can lead the mind upwards to the Omnipotent Ruler of the universe, and give to it an approximate knowledge of his incompre- hensible attributes, it is to be found in the grandeur and beauty of his works. If you would know his glory, examine the interminable range of suns and systems which crowd the Milky Way. Multiply the hundred millions of stars which belong to our own ?i! ir h If:. 60 ARROWS IN THE HEART 'island universe/ by the thousands of those astral systems that exist in space within the range of human vision, and then you may form some idea of the in- finitude of his kingdom : for, *lo ! these are but a part of his ways.' Examine the scale on whicli the universe is built. Comprehend, if you can, the vast dimensions of our sun. Stretch outward through his system, from planet to planet, and circumscribe the whole within the immense circumference of Neptune's orbit. This is but a single unit out of the myriads of similar systems. Take the wings of light, and flash with im- petuous speed, day and night, and month and year, till youth shall wear away, and middle age is gone, and the extremest limit of human life has been attained — count every pulse, and at each speed on your way a hundred thousand miles, and when a hundred years have rolled by, look out, and behold! the thronging millions of blazing suns are still around you, each separated from the other by such a distance that, in this journey of a century, you have only left half a score behind you. " Would you gather some idea of the eternity past of God's existence, go to the astronomer, and bid him lead you with him in one of his walks through space ; and, as he sweeps outward from object to object, from universe to universe, remember that the light from those filmy stains on the deep pure blue of heaven, now falling on your eye, has been travelling space a million of years. !■ ) OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 61 " Would you gather some knowledge of the Omnipo- tence of God, weigh the earth on which we dwell, then count the millions of its inhabitants that have come and gone for the last six thousand years. Unite their strength into one arm, and test its power to move this earth. It would not stir it a single foot in a thousand years ; and yet, under the omnipotent hand of God, not a minute passes that it does not fly far more than a thousand miles. But this is a mere atom — the most insignificant point among his innumerable worlds. At his bidding, every planet, and satellite, and comet, and the sun himself, fly onward in their appointed courses. His single arm guides the millions of sweeping suns ; and around his throne circles the great constellation of unnumbered universes. "Would you comprehend the idea of the Omnis- cience of God, remember that the highest pinnacle of knowledge reached by the whole human race, by the combined efforts of its brightest intellects, has enabled the astronomer to compute approximately the pertur- bations of the planetary worlds. He has predicted, roughly, the return of half a score of comets ; but God has computed the mutual perturbations of millions of suns, and planets, and comets, and worlds without number, through the ages that are past, and through- out the ages that are yet to come, not approximately, but with perfect and absolute precision. The universe is in motion — system rising a-bove system, cluster above cluster, nebula above nebula — all majestically sweep- 1 I w 62 ARROWS IN THE HEART i ' I ing around under the providence of God, who alone knows the end from the beginning, and before whose glory and power all intelligent beings, whether in heaven or on earth, should bow with humility and awe. " Would you gain some idea of the wisdom of God, look to the admirable adjustments of the magnificent retinue of planets and satellites which sweep around the sun. Every globe has been weighed and poised, every orbit has been measured and bent to its beautiful form. All ^is changing; but the laws fixed by the wisdom of God, though they permit the rocking to and fro of the system, never introduce disorder, or lead to destruction. All is perfect and harmonious, and the music of the spheres that burn and roll around our sun is echoed by that of millions of moving worlds." The capacity of Lord Rosse's telescope is such, that, it is said, if a star of the first magnitude were removed to such a distance that its light would be three millions of years in reaching the earth, this telescope would, nevertheless, show it to the human eye. But has this most powerful telescope reached the utmost limits of creation ? Is there nothing beyond its revelations ? Let Professor Nichol answer : — " However potent the telescope no man dare reckon that all things are taken in by its vision, or that it has penetrated to the outer battlements of this majestic Stellar Creation, any more than that previously all things were seen by his unassisted eye. Nay, the telescope itself, in every stage, has made very different OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 63 declarations — ever proclaiming how far it lingers behind a comprehension of the riches of Existence, even when unfolding such unexpected wonders. What mean, for instance, those dim spots, which unknown before, loom in greatei and greater numbers on the horizon of every new instrument, unless they are gleams it is obtaining, on its own frontier, of spheres ever stretching beyond, also studded with glories, and enfolding what is seen as a minute and subservient part ? I shrink below the conception that here — even at this outskirt of the attainable — bursts forth on my mind ! Look at a cloudy speck in Orion, visible, without aid, to the well-trained eye ; that is a Stellar Universe of majesty altogether transcendent, lying at the very verge of what is known. Well ! if any of these lights from afar, resemble in character that spot, the systems from which they come are situated so deep in space, that no ray from them could reach our earth, until after travelling through the intervening abysses during centuries whose number stuns the imagination. * * * Often overpowered by the dread contempla- tion ; beneath such majesties, feeling as in faintness, that surely I must be lone and forlorn, I turn over with a cheering delight to that sweet home-picture of Luther s^ when he speaks of the little bird, that on summer evenings came to his pear-tree at sunset, and sang, ever melodiously and without one note of mis- giving, because though dread Eternity was above, below, and around it, God was there also ! " i\\ ill ill : if [■ ' i I t = ^ I { « m f 64 ARROWS IN THE HEART So felt the Psalmist wlien he exclahned : " When I consider thy lieavons, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained ; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of man, that thou visitest him?" "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? or wliither shall I flee from thy presence ? If 1 ascend up into heaven, thou, art there : if r take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me ; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee ; but the night shineth as the day : the darkness and the light are both alike to thee." It is both a comfort and a strength to know, that " though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect to the lowly." To the Christian believer God is everywhere ; in the heights and in the depths ; in the wilderness and in " the city full ;" in the cottages of the poor and in the mansions of the rich ; in the crowded marts ai.d in the solitary chamber ; by the couch of the living and by the bed-side of the dying. " Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off ? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him ? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth ? saith the Lord." Look at the atheist ! If any one has just cause to feel " lone and forlorn," it is he. Amid the splendors of Creation; surrounded by incontrovertible proofs OF THE king's ENEMIES. 65 of the existence of an All-wise, an All-powerful a Gracious, and a Loving God,--he, of his own accord cuts hnnself oft' from union with all that is great and good in heaven and earth. Choosing the darkness of the present and renouncing all claim on the inheritance ot the future, he is an orphan amidst a vast brother- hood-an object of pity to angels -to devils an object or scorn ! I r. n 5 I ii 6G ARROWS IN THE HEART i SECTION VIII. ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. I, ;i ii I Design implies a designer. Is it possible to indicate design ? Can it be made so clear as at once to challenge belief ? Design signifies intention, plan, adaptation, contri- vance ; and is the direct opposite of chance — the term being used in an atheistic sense. Take the following illustrations, easily understood by the most illiterate : — I received a letter from my brother, informing me that, being on his way to pay me a long-promised visit, he would bo with me in the evening. He arrived, his countenance beaming with pleasure, and after sundry affectionate salutations and inquiries, he said — " You received my letter ?" " Is that it ? " T replied, pointing to the letter. " Yes ! that is it. I thought you would be pleased to hear of my coming." m OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 67 h" !0 1- H .d le 31" " Then you intended to write that letter ?" He looked at me curiously ■. " The letter itself is proof of my intention. Why such a question ?" " I have a reason ! a strong desire to know if you did really intend to write to me before you actually wrote." " Of that there can be no doubt. I have a shrewd suspicion, brother, that you would not have received the letter, had I not had a previous intention of writing it ! " " You then affirm, without equivocation or mental reservation, that the letter did not write itself — did not post itself — did not find its way to me itself — in a word, that chance had no connection with its pro- duction or with its reception by me." " As far as its production and its having been posted are concerned, I answer — Yes ! How you received it you yourself best know. Did it drop from the sky ? Did it fly through the window or come down the chimney into your hands ? " I was compelled to acknowledge I had received it through the agency of the postman. "Are you satisfied? Is your desire gratified?" asked he. " Yes ! I am satisfied." I could not but observe, however, that he watched me furtively or suspiciously for some time during our subsequent convex'sation. r^' '■.v| 68 ARROWS IN THE HEART Ui^~, I ' I called on my tailor and requested him to make me a suit of clothes. He measured me carefully. Seven days afterwards he sent the suit, with a note sfcating he would call in the afternoon to see how the garments fitted. On his arrival I asked — " Did you intend these clothes for any one in particular ? " He replied — " I. intended them for you. They fit you admirably." " They fit very well ; but did you design them especially for me ? " '' Design them for you ! For whom could I have intended them if not for you ? " " Why did you measure me ? " " To secure a fit." " Could you not have made them just as well without a measure ? " " Not to fit you." " Did you make them according to the measure ? " " Certainly." "Then the measure was a plan or contrivance to secure a fit ? " " Undoubtedly." " You are sure, that, having laid the cloth on your cutting-out table, the shears did not of their own accord, without your aid, cut the suit out regardless of the measure, and that the needles and silk and lining and buttons did not spontaneously finish the work,-— you, in the meantime, standing or sitting as an unin- terested looker-on; you are sure, that these clothes, OF THE KING^S ENEMIES. 69 fitting, as you say, so admirably, were not fashioned by chance ? " " My answer," said he, in quite a soothing manner, with fear apparent in his eyes, — "is — send for the doctor ! " On saying which, he darted out of the room quite hurriedly. I am wearing vhe clothes ; my wife admires them, and frequently exclaims — " What an admirable fit, my dear I " I have a piece of ground attached to my dwelling. I employed a person to prepare a garden, leaving to him the entire arrangement. In about ten days he requested me to look at the garden. " What garden ? " said I. " The garden you engaged me to make. Come out, sir, and see if it please you." I went out — the sight was beautiful — the change wonderful. "What do you think of it, sir ? " " It is beautiful ! But what had you to do with it V " Only to make it according to your request." "Did you prepare the ground, lay out the beds, and arrange the walks ani flowers according to a pre- conceived plan, or is tht whole an accident of chance ?" " I scarcely understand you, sir. Chance ! If this garden is chance-work, it is the first time I have been so highly-favored. This garden cost me time, thought, labor, and care." 1 . it' m '3 70 ARROWS IN THE HEART ii " You are quite sure, all these things did not trans- sport themselves here and arrange themselves in their present order without your aid ? " He seemed bewildered, rubbed his forehead, then looking straight into my eyes, said — "You are the strangest gentleman I ever saw- What is your meaning, sir ? Do you wish to know if I worked by plan or at hap- hazard ? Look at this paper and let it speak for itself," and he handed me a paper. I looked at it — it was a plan of the garden. I com- pared the two, and giving the paper back to him, said — " I am satisfied. You deserve credit for the plan itself and for executing it with such fidelity." He went away, apparently not very well pleased ; and as he shut the gate I thought I heard the word " Queer ! " ill ? .*!. It was raining; the roof of my house began to leak. I sent for a carpenter, and said — " there is a leak in the roof." He replied, " I will soon stop it." Some- time afterwards I heard a noise as if somebody were sawing wood and driving nails. I went out, and looking up, shouted — " What are you doing up there ? " " Stopping the leak." Half an hour after, he came down. Said he — " Had you forgotten that you had requested me to stop the leak ?" OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 71 " Had you a design," I replied, " in taking the board, saw, hammer, and nails up there ! " '■ What a question ! I do not mind, however, telling you that I took them up premeditatedly, purposely, with the full design to stop that leak." " Why did you go up ? Could you not have stopped the hole down here ?" " That is the best joke of the season ! I could have stopped the hole down here, had the hole been down here — but it was up there — and as the hole could not come to me, I had to go to the hole. You know tlie reason why Mahommet went to the mountain ? " " That is an old story. Seriously, could not tlie board, hammer, saw, and nails have taken themselves up and covered the hole without your help ? " "I will answer your serious question ])y asking another question equally serious — Could another man eat your breakfast or dinner so as to satisfy your personal hunger and thirst ? " " Certainly not." " So I answer — certainly not. Have you ever seen such a feat performed as you suggest ?" " No." " Nor ever will." " Then you really had a design in what you did ? " " Yes, sir ! A lofty design — a design as high as the roof of your house." " I am compelled to acknowledge it." He replied — " You are a funny man ! " !ii ■,f)i' ARROWS IN THE HEART A short time ago, I went to the Academy of Music and heard my intimate friend, Professor Matthew Matics, deliver a profound, elaborate, and eloquent lecture on " The Importance of the Unit." His ideas were strikingly original, clothed in appropriate language, and, judging from the countenances of the audience, one could see the lecture was highly ap- preciated. The style combined the argumentative with the ornamental. Frequent bursts of applause greeted the Lecturer, which were gratifying to him as well as to his especial friends. At the close, and on the dispersion of the audience, I took his arm and we proceeded homewards. " Matthew !" said I, " Had you thought of your subject, before you delivered it ? Had you a plan, or sketch, or skeleton of it, in your mind ? or did you just open your mouth, and let the words roll out as they might chance to come ?" He stopped short, and said : — " What do you mean ? Did I talk nonsense ?" " Far from it ! — the lecture exhibited deep thought, and was copiously illustrated by appropriate similes, tropes, and other rhetorical figures. But was the composition mere chance-work, or was it the result of due deliberation on your part ; in other words, did you design to treat the sub>iect as you did, before you appeared before your audience ?" The feelings of my friend seemed to be wounded. A few minutes elapsed before he replied : — or THE king's enemies. 73 " Well, I never expected such questions to be pro- posed to me by any sensible man, much less by you, my friend. I can but repeat the question, " What do you mean ?" " Matthew ! Did you not affirm, during an argu- ment with our mutual friend, Elec Tricity, that there was no such thing as design in any one of the departments of Nature ? I merely wished to know whether or not you extend your affirmation to the departments of Mind and Oratory. If your lecture of an hour, worthy of commendation, as it is, required thought, arrangement, say, intelligence, on your part, and to appreciate it, like intelligence on the part of your audience, is it reasonable to affirm that, in Nature, design is not design, or that the undeniable marks of design, so conspicuous in the ten thousand objects by which we are surrounded, do not indicate the existence of the operation of an Intelligent Mind? For some time my friend was silent, apparently lost in thought ; at length he said : — " Was I such a fool as to make that statement ? I must have strangely forgotten myself and gone counter to my deepest convictions. That I should have done so, shows how far a person may go, in the heat of an argument, in thoughtless expressions against truth, and in favor of error, which, in his calm moments, he would be the first to decry. I thank you, my friend, for your just rebuke, and will profit by it. Hear, now, my recantation, and lelief : — Design implies a designer, just as Thought pre-supposes the existence of Mind." Ill ti WW 74 ARROWS IN THE HEART ;l' • " When the whole universe seems to present to us, on whatever part of it we may look, exactly the same appearances as it would have presented, if its parts had been arranged inteutiomdly, for the purpose of producing the results vfhich are now perceived, — when these appearances of adaptation are not in a few objects out of many, but in everything that meets our view, and innumerable, therefore, as the innumerable objects that constitute to us the . universe, — we feel an absolute impossibility of supposing that so many appearances of design exist, without design. * * * A few types may be thrown loosely together, and some of them may form a word. This we can believe, without any suspicion of contrivance. If many such words, however, were to be thrown together, we should suspect contrivance, and would believe contri- vance with the most undoubting conviction, if a multitude of types were to be found thus forming one regular and continued poem. * * * Such is our nature, that it would seem as truly impossible, that a number of types thrown together, should form the Iliad or Odyssey, as that they should form Hosier himself. * * * What should we think of any one, who should ascribe to chance the combination of letters that form the Principia of Newton ! and is the world which New^ton described, less gloriously indica- tive of design, than the mere description ?". — Prof. Thomas Brown. Proofs of the existence of a Personal God, from design, are everywhere manifest. The difficulty is not F^ ^ OF THE king's ENEMIES. 75 to enumerate, but to select. There is not a branch of Science, that does not teem with instances of adapta- tion ; and what is Art but the practical use of design ? Without adaptation, there could be neither science nor art. The whole universe is a vast repertory of design. Turn where you may, look at the vast, or the most minute, design meets you at every point ; the more circumstantial the scrutiny, the deeper the conviction. Destroy adaptation, and there would be no world, no life, nothing by which life could be sustained. Glance at the atmosphere.* The principal elements of atmospheric air, are che two gases, Oxygen and Nitrogen, not in chemical union, but forming a uniform mixture, being spread through each other. In 100 parts of atmospheric air, oxygen is to nitrogen, in round numbers, as 20 to 80. Oxygen is the vital constituent, but in a pure, unmixed state, it is so cor- rosive, so violent in action, that it would destroy, in a short time, all who breathed it ; but in the atmos- phere it is just so diluted with nitrogen, as to render it suitable to sustain the life of animals, and to answer other important purposes. There are other compounds of these two elements : — Nitrous Oxide, laughing gas N O Nitric Oxide, suffocating, . . . . N Og Hyponitrous acid, N Og Nitrous acid, N O4 Nitric acid, aquafortis, N O5 The gases are here chemically united. *See Appendix B, p. 111. I m 76 ARROWS IN THE HEART A very slight, permanent change in the relative proportions of these gases, it may be seen, would render the air unfit for the sustentation of animal life, as at present existing. Is, then, the composition of the air attributable to chance, or has it been definitely determined by a Being of Infinite Knowledge, by One intimately acquainted with the nature of these gases, and who adapted them intentionally to secure the ends proposed ? According to our knowledge of other gases, could any two, three, or more, of them be substituted for those selected ? What says the expert chemist ? On what grounds can the atheist account for the uniformity and the permanency of the prop oionate parts of the gases that compose our atmosphere ? If chance be pleaded, the most obtuse must perceive that it manifested great intelligence in the selection, and that there are no possible guarantees against frequent, if not constant deviations. Under atheistic chance-work, it is marvellous, that the composition of the atmosphere should continue the same under all circumstances, by night and by day, in heat and cold, in the valley and on the mountain-top ! Analyze the air at any time, and in any place, the proportions of oxygen and nitrogen will be found ever the same. Without Divine Arrangement, this would be just as impossible as that water would continue unaltered in form, when exposed to the intense frosts of winter, the warm influence of summer, and the heat of strong, OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 77 continuous fires ! " The power, wisdom, and goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, are no less strikingly displayed in the delicate adjustment of the inappreciable air, than in poising and regulating the ponderous orbs that circle through illimitable space." The physical structure of man shows in every part undeniable marks of design. Man stands erect at the head of the animate world, furnished with all the appliances necessary to secure his supremacy. The head, the ear curiously constructed, the eye,* the spinal column, the ribs, the heart, the lungs, the liver, the entire digestive apparatus, the gall-bladder, the shoulder, the fore-arm, the wrist, the hand, the knee- pan, the ankles, the foot, the joints, the muscles, the nerves, the processes, the articulations, the arrange- ment for the circulation of the blood by means of the arteries and veins, — indeed, the entire physical economy, — all proclaim with united voice, that man is not only " fearfully " but also " wonderfully made." " A slight alteration in the structure of the eye," says Dr. D. W. Gordon, " would make every ray of light be felt, like devouring fire ; a slight change in the structure of the ear would make every sound like the deafening roar of a cataract, and a similar change in the nervous system would make every touch like the stab of a sword." — Indeed, all pain is caused by the disturb- * For an interesting article on TJie Architecture of the Eye, see Appendix C, p. 115. m 78 ARROWS IN THE HEART fif ance or interruption of the natural functions of the living body. " Throughout the entire frame, we have surprising examples of economy of material to the end designed ; combining lightness, force, firmness, elas- ticity, leverage, motion, resistance, security, and grace. These contrivances are so numerous, and so wonder- fully constructed, that a volume would be insufficient to describe them." The automata, which the utmost skill of man, with the human skeleton before him as a model, has been able to fashion are contemptible caricatures of the man of God's creating. A man of ordinary size has from 25 to 30 pounds of blood in his body. The labor of the heart, through which this blood has to pass in ceaseless rounds, is enormous. Its average beats are about 72 in a minute, equal to about 4,000 in an hour, or one hundred thousand in a day, or thirty-eight million in a year, which, were a person to live sixty years, would give the immense number of twenty-two hundred and eighty million bc^ts ! Estimating, according to modern physiologists, the quantity of blood expelled at each contraction of the v. ^utricle as four ounces, two hundred and eighty-eigbt ounces, or eighteen pounds would be expelled in a minute, or one thousand and eighty pounds in an hour, nearly thirteen tons in a day, or upwards of for.r thousand tons in a year, which, multiplied by the number of years, would give the number of tons in a life-time. This circulation of the blood through heart, arteries, veins, and lungs is inces- i\ OF THE KINGS ENEMIUW, 79 sant whilst HIV hiHin. Tho inovoinen(,N of this machinery are, dnviwg houlth, hd smoothly perfornuul that we are unc()nscio\is ot* th<»in. Tliiiik, thrn, of tho IftUir (»t' tlu^ \wMi. Hidden from sight, it contiuwoM ui^rht and thiy it«< Involvintary, un- ceasing, untiring labor. r«M'(Mvinm and discharging the pahuhin\ of lift*, in sonvo instamM^M, Hyh»\igh a period of more than a hundvud years 1 Terpotual motion, un- attainable as yet by human skill, is manifest in the revolutions of our earth, and of the celestial orbs, and is exliibited, on a smaller scale and for a shorter period, but in an equally w^ondrous manner, by the action of the heart. The utmost eftbrts of man, in this direction, are stamped with futility, when brought into com- parison with the effects produced by the simple volition of the Divine Artificer. " The wisdom of the Creator," said the physician Hambergher, " is in nothing seen more glorious than in the heart." Sir Charles Bell thus concludes his Treastise on Animal Mechanics: — " A man possessed of that humility which is akin to true knowledge, may be depressed by too extensive a survey of the frame of nature. The stupendous changes which the geologist surveys — the incompre- hensible magnitude of the heavenly bodies moving in infinite space, bring down his thoughts to a painful sense of his own littleness. He is afraid to think himself an object of Divine care ; but when he regards the structure of his own body, he learns to consider (•' ( i : I 80 ARROWS IN THE HEART ^ Wm'^i ^^^H 1 ! S ^IB' ) i^^^i ^^H ■1 mm: space and magnitu-ie as nothing to a Creator. He finds that the living being, which he was about to contemn, in comparison with the grrat system of the universe, exists by the continuance of a power, no less admirable than that which rules the heavenly bodies ; he sees that there is a revolution, a circle of motions no less wonderful in his own frame, in the microcosm of man's body than in the planetary system ; that there is not a globule of blood which circulates, but possesses attraction as incomprehensible and wonderful as that which retains the planets in their orbits. The economy of the animal body, as the economy of the universe, is sufficiently known to us to compel us to acknowledge an Almighty power in the creation." The adaptation of light to the eye and of the eye to the light ought not to be overlooked. To man light would be useless without the eye, and the eye would be useless without the light. This adaptation \s mutual and bespeaks design. No one, unless reduced to a stat3 of positive idiotcy, can, with any show of reason, deny a fact sc palpable. The number and the position of the eyes, also deserve attention. Can the sceptic assign a good reason, in accordance with his doctrine of chance, why he has not three, four, or more eycc, or even but one eye, instead of two ; and in case of only one, why that is not found on the top of his head or at the tip of his nose ? Light, whatever it may be in itself, is essentially a creation. Before sun, moon, or stars were created — ■ OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 81 bhe a while as yet " darkness was on the face of the deep" — "God said, Let there be light and there was light." Its velocity proves it to be the product of an infinite power. It travels at the rate of two hundred thousand miles a second, or to bring the calculation more within our grasp, its velocity " exceeds that of a cannon-ball by one million five hundred and fifty thousand times." What aggregation of human force could propel the lightest object throu^n space at such a rate ? Talk of light, one of the most important, one of the most widely diff*used, objects in Nature s domain, happening by chance ! The idea is absurd to an extreme ! sur- passing in foolishness that of the monkey-paternity of man ! Its properties exhibit infinite wisdom — its uses, infinite beneficence. The eye is equally the handiwork of God. Its con- struction baffles human skill. The variations of that construction as seen in the eyes of different pnimals, according to their necessities and to their modes of living, show infinite intelligence, m a manner adapted to display the unlimited resources of the Creator and to call forth the admiration of all intelligent beings. Nor is design less conspicuous. If all things happen by chance, the sceptic will please explain why fishes have no " eye-lids and lachrymal apparatus," and why the mud-crab that " seeks its food in mud and turbid water," has " a little brush near its eye, to which the prominent horny eye can be raised, and against which 6 m wtm^m^mmmBsmi^mmiiwmimmm 82 ARROWS IN THE HEART V-B it is wiped, with an action as intelligible as that of a m?t.n wiping his spectacles." " It has been well said that in the Book of Nature is written in the plainest characters the existence of a God which Revelation takes for granted — of a God how full of contrivance ; how fertile in expedients ; how benevolent in his ends ! At work everywhere — every- where, too, with equal diligence ; leaving nothing incomplete — finishing ' the hinge in the wing of an insect ' as perfectly as if it were all he had to do — unconfounded by the multiplicity of objects, undis- tracted by their dispersion, unwearied by their incessant demands on him, fresh as on that day when the morning stars sang together and all nature shouted for joy." — Jesses Gleanings in Natural History. Search the world of Nature throughout, and there is but one intelligible conclusion, that adaptation or design is manifest in all its departments, pointing with the brightness of a sun-beam, to a Supreme cause, infinite in goodness, wisdom, and power. To this conclusion the wisest and the best men, ir every age, have given their unqualified assent, to the shame and confusion of the mentally distorted specimens of humanity, yclept atheists. "Reason — through number, time, and space ; Darts the keen lustre of her serious eye, And learns, from fads compared the laws to trace, Whose long procession leads to Deity. " ^' c aeed not further pursue the subject of design OF THE KING S ENEMIES. 83 in the works of creation ; sufficient has been adduced to prove it to be not a chimera but a reality. More elaborate works abound with instances in which adaptation is apparent. Our unpretending pages may awaken in the minds of our readers, especially of youth, an anxiety to continue their inquiries into this most interesting and profitable subject. Of one thing they may be assured, that the more they examine into particulars, the deeper will become their conviction of the existence and personal acts of the God of the Bible, and of the falsity of atheistic theories. jign ■I 84 ARROWS IN THE HEART ;l \ ' ' \ 'i' m SECTION IX. INDICTMENT OF ATHEISM: ITS ANTIDOTE. Coleridge asks a pertinent question : " How did the atheist get his idea of the God whom he denies ? " The idea of God is not innate — it is not born with us. Were it innate, it would be as much an inalienable a part of our mental constitution as any faculty of the mind ; and, as such, we could scarcely imagine such a thing as atheism existing in the world. " Suppose ?. person," says Mr. Hare in his Preservation Against Socianism, " whose powers of argumentation are improved to the utmost pitch of human capacity, but wiio has received no idea of God by any revelation, whether from tradition, Scripture, or inspiration, how is he to convince himself that God is, and whence is he to learn tvhat God is ? That of which as yet he knows nothing, cannot be a subject of his thought, his reasonings, or his conversation. He can neither affirm nor deny till he know what is to be affirmed or denied. 'i OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 85 Ansi are but tion, how ;e is t he his irm lied. Whence then is our philosopher to divine, in the first instance, his idea of the infinite Being, concerning the reality of whose existence he is, in the second place, to decide ? " " We owe the knowledge of the existence of God, and of his attributes, to revelation alone ; but being now discovered, the rational evidence of both is copious and irresistible ; so much so, that atheism has never been able to make much progress among mankind where this revelation has been preserved. It is resisted by demonstrations too numerous, obvious, and convincing ; and is itself too easily proved to involve the most revolting absurdities." — Watson's Theological Institutes. If then the atheist's idea of God accords with the revelation God has given of himself, it is evident, that to that revelation, directly or indirectly, he is indebted for it ; and, it is the only true idea of a First Can se he has, though, foolish and wicked man, he repudiates its truth. But if his idea does not coincide with that revelation, it is equally evident, that he is denying a fictitious being, the product of his own or some other silly person's brain ; and that in denying the existence of ^ach a beincj he is contendincj with a shadow of his own projection. Well would it be for those who have settled dovvu into an atheistic belief, and for those who are hovering over the brink of infidelity, to ponder on the solemn warning, uttered in tones that should send fear and quaking into the inmost recesses of their deceived hearts : " Woe unto him that striveth with I h 86 AEROWS IN THE HEART li li h *' his Maker!" "Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him ? he that reproveth God, let him answer it." " Atheism is an unnatural monstrosity." It is the climax of ignorance, incredulity, and ingratitude ; it violates reason, unphilosophises true philosophy, sub- stitutes the greatest errors for the sublimest truths, and ignores the scientific deductions of thousands of the brightest minds that ever adorned our world. Atheism is tlie madness of sciolism — the very spirit and body of egoism. It degrades man to the level of the brute, while it does not improve the condition of the brute. It not only denies but defies God, contemns everything sacred, darkens and undervalues the present, and would fain blot out the future. Atheism is as weak in argument as it is wicked in principle ; it often corrupts by its immoralities and !in. settles unfortified minds by its sophistries. Breaking down the sanctity of an oath, it introduces confusion and every evil work, annihilates the safeguards and upheaves the foundations of society. Being "without God " it is "without hope in the world." By denying the guilt and power of sin, it hardens the heart and stupefies the conscience. By denying the vicarious sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, it abnegates the only ground, and ruthlessly destroys the last hope of salvation for our race both here and hereafter. By denying the immortality of the soul, the future judgment, the rewards of the righteous, and the or THE KING S ENEMIES. 87 lOUS the 3 of By ture the punishment of the wicked after death, it takes away all TDotives to virtue and proves a prolific source of incibements to vice. Atheism, therefore, is a sin aganst God, a sin af]fainst the individual, a sin against mariiind. Thomas Watson, one of the non-conformist divines, has a pithy saying : ** He that saith there is no (rod is the wickedest creature there is ; he is worse thai a thief, who doth but take away our goods from us, mt the atheist would take away our God from us." Atheism is a dark, bottomless abyss. Over it hangs a pall of dense blackness ; no ray of light relieves the fearful gloom. Having no sitn, though it may have howers — showers of tears — it can have no rainbow of lope. Atheism is a lie. Bad as Satan is, he himself has lever had the audacity to say — *' There is no God ; " out as the "father of lies" he prompts several of his " children " to utter this grossest of all falsehoods. There is not an imp in the infernal regions that does not know it to be a falsehood and laugh at the silly dupe. That must be a foolish fish that is caught with a naked hook ; but the atheist allows himself to be deceived and ensnared without even the semblance of one. The atheist with all his pride of skill, is no match for the devil. Satan, so to speak, always plays with loaded dice. Some men see the cheat and escape. Satan stakes nothing and loses nothing ; the atheist f 1 S 11 a i ■ !S <11'S 88 ARROWS IN THE HEART stakes his soul and loses his all. The determined atheist plays against fearful odds ; the consequence is, he is cheated out of his eyes, out of his soul, out of his God. All he gets for his tremendous losses are scorn hud taunts from the very beings by whom he has teen deceived — a hazardous game in which no pruaent person would engage. Notwithstanding this true indictment of athefem, we admit that there may be instances, of rare occur- rence however, in which an atheist, living in \he midst of a Christian, God-fearing community., alfecisd by surrounding influences, may exercise restraint ovei his passions, and especially, if a member of a respect- able family, may cultivate an external morality, just as he would cultivate his garden, and pay respect to an enlightened public opinion by abstaining from the grosser immoralities, and in this way live above his avowed principles; but this is no commendation of atheism any more than abstaining from theft would be a vindication ci murder. The taint still remains. The " whited sepulchre which appears beautiful out- ward," has the foulness within. Denial of God, the crowning sin, is cherished in the heart. No external paint can efface this hideous blot ; it shows like the crimson-stain of unavenged blood. The only fair way of judging of the spirit, the tendency, tfie working of atheism, is to examine its inf.uence and operations in a community of professed infidels, in which the restraints of Christianity had OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. .89 I u never been known and felt, or, if known and felt, had been superseded by atheistic teachings. Tlie nearest approach, in modern times, to this deplorable condition, was realized in France, during " ihe reign of Terror," when the reins of government wero seized by avowed atheists, monsters in human shape, who, having full sway, led thousands of their deluded followers into the commission of all manner of crimes, drove hun- dreds and thousands into undeserved exile, deluged the land with innocent blood, thereby affixing an indelible stain on the escutcheon of their country. "The excesses and enormities of this period of French history are almost, indeed, too incredible for the sober pen of history to record. A new calendar was formed ; and in order to obliterate the remembrance of the Christian Sabbath, ea,ch month was subdivided into three decades, the first days of which were festivals or days of rest. A few days after, the nmnicipal authorities of Paris appeared in the Convention, attended by the bishop and clergy, decorated with caps of liberty, who publicly renounced their off s of Christian pastors. The bishop of Moulins threw down his mitre, and preached the doctrine that 'death is an eternal sleep.' Various allegorical creations, such as Liberty and Equality, were deified, and a young woman of abandoned character was enshrined as the Goddess of Keason on the altar of Notre Dame, to receive the adoration of the multitude. * * * The guillotine was in constant action, and thousands were Ih ff^r ii ml 90 ARROWS IN THE HEART |; i ! j ; »■ i . ■ 1 '■I ': immolated. Royalists and republicans indiscriminately felt the axe." — Maunder. Then went up to heaven a cry whose piercinor tones " entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth" — a peal of warninpj penetrated all lands, whose vibrations are still heard, and which will continue to be heard as age after age rolls on. Pitiable, indeed, is the condit,ion of the atheist. Without hope in his own future, and equally without hope respecting the future state of his nearest and dearest relatives, he is necessarily destitute of all consolation. Annihilation at death is, in its dreariest aspect, his summu7)i huiiuTn. 4.s a dog or cat perishes, so he believes he and they will perish. His beloved ones die, and as he looks for the last time on the face of a father or a mother, a sister or a brother, a wife or a child, endeared by a thousand fond associations, nature feels and weeps — whilst he, in his cold unbelief, overlooks tho fact that he is indebted to the Universal Father for his susceptibility of these natural emotions. But what a blank is their existence ! According to his views, their sun has set never again to rise ! They have gone to the grave never to be revived ! The parting he believes is for (-ver! Melancholy thouglit ! The grasses and the flowers of the field, after winter's drear reign is over, may, by the visitation of the genial sunshine and soft showers of spring, revive, but man once dead can be visited by no resurrection-power — the grave holds its prisoners in a perpetual grasp. So sang Sicilian Moschus, in his melodious Idyl on the OF THE king's ENEMIES. 91 death of Bion, and the mournful, hopeless strains have been repeated by tlie atheist through all time. In vain for him have " life and immortality been brought to light," He is deaf to the voice, now wooing him to mercy — that voice, which, when time shall be no more, shall sound through death's dark charnel-houses, com- manding the dwellers therein to " come forth," each soul tenanting its own transformed and deathless body — thus rendered once more complete, they shall live for ever. The sceptic will not rise to the height of this great truth, but he grovels in gloomy error. The light shines but he will not see ; consolations abound but he will not participate; the Friend of Sinners, the Lover of Souls, invites but he will not accept ; Christ proclaims — " I am the resurrection and the life : he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," but he, in the most repulsive sense, says to " corruption, thou art my Father : to the worm, thou art my mother and my sister '" and my brother. To the Christian the future is luminous with the Saviour's presence and glory. The commendation of " Well done, good and faithful servant," the crown of life, the palm of victory, "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," an eternity of activity and bliss, during which there will be constant progress in knowledge and holiness, await him beyond this rolling sphere ! At death he enters upon his inherit- }' rmsM IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) ^/ /. %r So Si i.O I.I 1,25 ^m §2.5 ■^ 1^ 12.2 - fl^ liio !.4 1.8 1.6 "•fr- ^y / (?=^, ' <.> ''" Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 (716) 872-4503 \^^ % ^ • -fr.TTi^. -V"' ■■■-■*^!T'TH-Hf-- o^ r p 1:| I iH ill 1 ijfff ■' MjM ^H » ' 9 i 92 ARROWS IN THE HEART ance and is " for ever with the Lord," an associate of all the holy and happy in the universe. The cutheist dies, and like Judas Iscariot, goes to his " own place," — a truthful exemplification of the solemn words of Christ — " Ye shall die in your sins : whither I go, ye cannot come." Here the curtain drops, not to be raised until the Archangel's trump shall sound, calling the quick and doad to judgment. Then every eye shall see God in the person of the Judge. They who denied as well as they who crucified him shall look on him whom they had pierced — pierced with thought, with tongue or pen, as well as with sptars — on him no longer a gracious Mediator but an inexorable Judge — a Judge on whose impartial decisions depends everlasting happiness or everlasting woe. What a change from a " No God " to a living, personal God ! What a change from the "meekness of Christ" to the "wrath of the Lamb !" What a change from the darkness of error to the unsullied light and pungent convictions of eternal truth ! What a change from the proud, defiant atheist on earth to the shrinking, quailing, cowardly being at the Judgment ! * To what place of refuge shall he turn — to whom, in his fear and anguish, shall he appeal ? No place of refuge — no advocate among the numberless multitudes surrounding him — can be found ! The final Court has passed irreversible sentence : the righteous shall go from the judgment-seat into ''eternal life," the condemned into "eternal punishment." * See Appendix D, p. 124. OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 93 These disclosures should arouse the sceptic to a searching examination into the ground of his unbelie^. His interest in the subject ought to be increased, and his prejudice against Christianity lessened, by the consideration, that the Christian can lose nothing, at the same time he has nothing to fear, if atheism he true. His belief in divine Revelation, in its humbling and elevating doctrines — his personal experience of its blessings, his hopes stretching into the limitless future, if all false, can give the atheist no advantage ; whereas, if true, whilst the gain of the Christian cannot be computed, the loss of the atheist may be set down as infinite. The first flash of light, as emerging from the " dark valley " he enters into the spirit-world, will reveal the utter groundlessness of his reckless con- fidence. In black despair he will meet the dread realities of eternity. All that his voluntary error and his persistent rejection of truth involve, he must suffer in his own depraved nature, whilst he can put in no valid plea to bar the inexorable sentence of condem- nation. The Book he now rejects contains warnings upon warnings to alarm those who say in their hearts " there is no God," who determinedly reject overtures of mercy through the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, repulse the aids of the Holy Ghost and quench his influences. The atheist, therefore, cannot plead unavoidable ignorance, nor can he have just grounds for surprise when called upon to suffer the consequences of his wilful, resolute course of infidelity. God will I' If \li I. iilil 1 ; !, , i liil 94 ARROWS IN THE HEART be justified when he speaks and be clear when he judges. Have you, who are now reading these pages, ever examined carefully and impartially the proofs in support of Divine Revelation, with a sincere desire to arrive at the truth, and with an interest commensurate with the issues at stake ; or hav- you been led to doubt and to deny by the flippancy, the sacrilegious wit, the sly innuendoes, the bold assertions, the unfounded charges, the stale objections of some super- ficial, egotistical, and, it may be, eloquent advocate of infidel principles ? If any bias be allowable it should be in favor of the Bible. Indeed, every sincere seeker after truth should wish divine Revelation to be true, because the Bible is the only book that states clearly the nature of God as a Spirit, and invests him with attributes or perfec- tions, which even our limited minds recognize as worthy of the Supreme Being. All other gods — gods so called — are of human origin and necessarily partake of the defects of their manufacturers. The Bible alone shows man's relationship and responsibility to the one, true God — exhibits his infinite love to our race in the gift of His Son, proclaims His method by which a sinner can be justified, sanctified, and finally saved, reveals a future and an eternal state of being — every- thing, in fact, that concerns man's duty and happiness, and his safety in both worlds. If, then, the Bible were really a book of human and not of divine origin, if it were divested of its character as an authentic rr" OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 95 revelation from God to man, there would nowhere be found an authoritative guide in matters of faith and practice. All moral and religious subjects would be enveloped in darkness impenetrable by human reason, and our race left to stumble on through life in that darkness, not knowing whither to go for direction, comfort, and security. Were this truly the case, it would imply that God, who had made man, had abandoned him to the vagaries of his own ignorance, and left him so circumstanced as to render his ruin inevitable and irreparable. Such an implication, if well founded, would be an impeachment of the justice, the goodness, and the wisdom of the all-perfect One. But this is not the case. God has not thus abandoned mankind, but in His Revealed Will has provided fully for all their necessities. The claims of the Bible, as a Revelation of God's Will to man, are justified beyond reasonable doubt by Miracles, Prophecies. Doctrines, and Personal Experi- ence. These furnish an array of proof sufficient to challenge implicit belief. Every one may know whether the Book be of God or not. There never has been a serious objection made against these proofs from any quarter, that has not been repeatedly and triumphantly answered. But what avail replies — if not read and duly considered — if there be not a will- ingness to admit conviction ? But atheism interposes a thick veil between its dupes and the truth, so that they will not see what is so obvious to others o. J '(! Ihl] I U l!l^-i f! I:! Ill l!ii! 96 ARROWS IN THE HEART Darkening the understanding and warping the judg- ment, it so perverts, that they have eyes but they see not — ears have they but they hear not. Had the Greek and Latin Classics been subjected to the same crucial tests as its enemies have employed against Christianity, we doubt that a single page would be acknowledged to-day as genuine or found in a readable condition. The preservation of the Bible, through so many centuries,subiected to so many violent, persistent, and malignant attacks by individuals of so various calibres of mind and occupying such different positions in life, can be accounted for on no other ground than that it has been watched over and preserved by Him by whom it was inspired. The Bible is not a book merely, containing so many pages and so many words. So to speak, it is a living book — a book of permanent and increasing influence. It has always been a book of life and of influence. To its entire contents will apply the words of Jesus : "The words that I speak unto you, they arc spirit, and they are life." " The word of God," says St. Paul, " is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any tw^o-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The Bible is the great teacher of Morals — the great and efl^ective agent, promoter, and upholder of civili- zation. Take the Bible away, — the civilized parts of the world would ere long relapse into barbarism j M ? i OF THE KINGS ENEMIES. 97 dg- see the ame Linst I be iable rh so itent, ,rious Ltions than Him many living uence. e. To "The they quick, word, 1 and cerner e great civili- arts o£ jarism *, nations and individual men would become no better than so many wild beasts, the stronger preying upon the weaker, robbery, bloodshed, and death being their every-day diversions. This is not a mere rhapsodical assertion ; facts show it to be a sober reality. Look at those nations that have not possesse