Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith Part 32

They do lead to results. They are effects and tell us of a cause. They are powerful effects, and proclaim a powerful cause. They are moral and spiritual effects, and a.s.sure us of the existence of a moral and spiritual agent who has caused them. They are holy effects, and convince your sinful soul that they are produced by a holy being. But they are also benevolent, life-giving, blessed effects, and proclaim that G.o.d is love. The Lord, the Spirit, is as plainly declared in the facts of religious experience, as the Creator is in the creation of the universe; and it were as rank Atheism to attribute these orderly and blessed results to chance or to evil pa.s.sions, as to attribute the Cosmos to blind fate, or to the beasts that perish. He is as much an enemy to his happiness who denies the one, as a foe to his reason who rejects the other. Dear reader, why should you not believe in,

6. _The only science which can make you happy?_ which can bestow peace of mind, nerve you to conquer your evil habits, enable you to live a holy and happy life, and to die with a blessed hope of a glorious resurrection? You know there is no science which makes any such offers, or which you would believe if it did. But the Bible unfolds a science which does, and enables you to believe it too. The facts of religious experience give most convincing evidence of the reality and power of the grace of G.o.d. It were as easy to persuade a Christian that he had produced this change of heart and life by the excitement of his own feelings, as that he had kindled the sun with a lucifer match. And the character of the work and the worker a.s.sures him that it will not be left unfinished. His faith receives these facts of religious experience as the first installments upon G.o.d's bonds, and as pledges for the payment of the remainder of his promises. The joy and peace which G.o.d gives him now, prove most satisfactorily his ability and willingness to give him larger measures of these enjoyments when he is capable of receiving them. Just as we have good reason to believe that he who has made the sun to rise out of darkness will guide him onward in his course to perfect day, have we also good reason to believe that he that hath begun the good work of his grace in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Christ is in us the hope of glory. This eternal life, which is begun in our souls, is so much superior to mere animal vitality, that we can not doubt that he who has given us the greater, will also give us the lesser, and quicken our mortal bodies also, by his Spirit which dwelleth in us. We know that our Redeemer liveth.

7. And now, in conclusion, dear reader, we ask you not to take these things on our testimony, nor yet on our experience; _but to try for yourself_. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. Come see the Savior who has saved us, and be saved by him too. There is nothing more dangerous, unless resisting the evidence of the truth as it is in Jesus, than acknowledging this to be truth without immediately obeying the gospel. G.o.d requires your immediate and cordial acceptance of Christ to save you from your sins. He tells you that the only way of escape from your sins now and from h.e.l.l hereafter is through him; for there is none other name given under heaven or among men whereby you must be saved. He promises to hear your prayer and give you his Holy Spirit to work in you the work of faith with power, if you will only and earnestly ask. "_Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: What man is there of you whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?_"[385]

Thus you will come to possess an actual experimental knowledge of the most excellent of the sciences. In the present begun enjoyment of eternal life you will, not merely believe in, but positively _know_, its Author, the only true G.o.d, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. You will rest in no fallible and erring testimony of man's wisdom, but your faith will stand in the power of G.o.d. You will be able to say, "_Now we believe not because of thy sayings: for we have heard him ourselves, and_ KNOW _that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the World._"[386]

Hear G.o.d's own warrant and invitation to your poor, thirsty soul, to forsake your vanities and come and be eternally blessed in Christ. Have the witness in yourself and be a living proof of the blessed reality of religion.

"Ho every one that thirsteth! Come ye to the waters!

And he who hath no money! Come ye, buy and eat!

Yea, come! Buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread?

And your labor for that which satisfieth not?

Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good, And let your soul delight itself in fatness.

Incline your ear and come unto me: Hear and your soul shall live: And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, Even the sure mercies of David.

Behold! I have given him for a witness to the people, A leader and a commander to the people: Behold! thou shall call nations that thou knowest not, And nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee, Because of the Lord thy G.o.d, And for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee.

"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, Call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, And to our G.o.d for he will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, And return not thither again, But water the earth, and cause it to bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: It shall not return unto me void, But it shall accomplish that which I please, And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.

The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, And all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: _And it shall be to the Lord for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off._"

FOOTNOTES:

[322] Holyoak's Discussion with Grant and Tonney.

[323] Bacon Novum Organum, I. xlix. xlvi.

[324] Sir W. Hamilton's Lectures, I. 53.

[325] Journal of Speculative Philosophy, I. 20.

[326] Humboldt, _Cosmos_, Vol. I. p. 7, 156.

[327] Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, 356.

[328] Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1852.

[329] Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1852.

[330] _Cosmos_, 4, 518. d.i.c.k's _Celestial Scenery_, chap. III. Sec. 7.

[331] _Cosmos_, 1, 75. Loomis' _Progress of Astronomy_, pp. 34, 40

[332] Loomis' _Progress of Astronomy_, p. 34, etc.

[333] _Outlines of Astronomy_, III. Sec. 13, 140.

[334] Thus several of the best telescopes in the world are rendered nearly useless by the pa.s.sage of heavy railroad trains in their vicinity.

[335] Somerville's Physical Sciences, VI.

[336] Cosmos IV. 477. Phillips' Address to the British a.s.sociation, 1865.

[337] North British Review, LXV.

[338] Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1864, 158.

[339] Cosmos I. 109.

[340] Cosmos IV. 501.

[341] Cosmos IV. 378.

[342] Harper's Magazine, June, 1872, p. 149.

[343] Annual Scientific Discovery, 1864, 134.

[344] Cosmos III. 40; IV. 363. Annual, 1861, 395, 396.

[345] Cosmos IV. 474.

[346] Kendall's Uranography, p. 11.

[347] Cosmos, 443-5.

[348] North British Review, No. LXV.

[349] Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1852, 119.

[350] Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1854, 150.

[351] Cosmos III. 115.

[352] Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1860.

[353] Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1852, 139.

[354] Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1864, 166.

[355] Plurality of Worlds, XII.

[356] North British Review, LXV.