IX. SHORT ANSWERS TO POPULAR OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION.

I. THERE IS NO GOD.

Answer. Are you sure of that? Who then has made the heavens and the earth and man? Did all these things create themselves? "The solar system has a sun and numerous planets; they are all distributed in a certain ratio of distance; they move round the sun with a certain velocity, always exactly proportionate to their distance from the sun; this holds good with regard to the nearest and the farthest. They move in paths of the same form; they are ruled by the same laws of motion; they receive and emit light in the same way. The laws, which are the constant modes of planetary operation, are exceedingly intricate; yet they are uniform, and the same for one planet as for another; the same for a satellite as for a planet. They are perfectly kept, and so uniform in action, that if you go back to the time of Thales, five hundred years before Christ, you can calculate the eclipse of the moon, and find it took place exactly as the historians of that day relate; or you may go forward five days, or five years, or five thousand years, and calculate with the same precision. Now the atheist must declare that all this order of the solar system was brought about by the fortuitious concourse of

atoms, and indicates no mind, plan, or purpose in the universe. This is absurd. A man might as well deny the fact of the law of the solar system, or the existence of the sun, or of himself, as to deny that these facts, thus co-ordinated, indicate a mind, denote a plan, and serve a purpose calculated beforehand." A story is told of a man of talent supping one evening with some atheists. The philosophers spoke of their denial of the existence of God, but he remained silent. The clock struck when his opinion was asked. He contented himself in answer with pointing to the clock, and saying, "Clocks do not make themselves." Another anecdote is related of the reply of a Christian lady to an unbeliever. He was labouring to persuade her that everything in the world was self-originated and not created. "In that case," said she, good enough to tell me which originated itself first, the hen that lays an egg, or the egg that produces the hen." One anecdote more. Another lady was in society with a professed atheist, who talked much of his disbelief in God. As none agreed with him, he exclaimed impatiently, "I could not have supposed that in a company of intellectual beings I alone could have been found without belief in God." "Excuse me, sir," said the lady: "you are not alone, my cat and my dog, lying yonder in the rug share in your ignorance, only they, poor beasts, have the wit not to boast of it."

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Answer. What would the world come to if your assertion were true. If there be no future open to man, he will live for this life alone, and only for the gratification of self. He will not recognize any responsibility to a higher power, he will deny the reality of justice, take conscience out of human consciousness, the soul out of the body, dismiss God from the universe, accept selfishness as his only motive, force as the last appeal. Alexander at a feast slew Clitus, both beng drunk at the time.. One of the flatterers, not drunk but sober, said, "It is all right, there is no law above the king." That was practical political atheism, the sober flatterer exalting a drunken murderer above the eternal God. Deny eternity and judgment and you deny Divine Justice. The world is full of evil,. which even our common sense tells us must be righted at some time. "Look on the aspect of human misery, the outrage, blood and wrong which the earth groans under. Here is the wife of a drunkard, whose marriage life is a perpetual violation. She married for love a man who once loved her, and who is now a beast. The poor wife watches over him, cleanses his garments, wipes off the foulness of his debauch, and stiches her life into the garments which some wealthy tailor will sell, giving her for wages the tenth part of his own

profit, and which some dandy will wear, thanking the 'gods of dandies' that he is not like that poor woman, so ill-clad and industrious." Is there no future with reward for this self-sacrifice, no future with punishment for this brute who has wrecked a poor woman's happiness, and brought ruin and disease upon his offspring? Natural instinct cries out and answers "Doubtless there is a reward for the righteous, doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth." But the poor woman seeks the atheist and asks, "what comes of all this? Am I to have no compensation for my suffering?" And the atheist says, "Nothing comes of it; there is no compensation. You are a fool. Eat, drink and be merry. Live for self, for self is all that we know exists.'

III. THERE IS NO PROVIDENCE.

Answer. You conclude that there is no Providence because in this world, there is so much that seems to you to be useless. There is so much that is bad. One is born poor and another rich. There are so many troubles and afflictions among some, and so much prosperity among others. Concrete things, however, is our answer, often seem imperfect because they do not completely serve our transient purpose, while we know not the eternal purposes of God. We look at the immediate and transient re

sult, not at that which is ultimate and permanent. Thus the mariner cannot come to port by reason of the storms which obstruct his course; he thinks the weather imperfect. But the philosopher knows well that the storms are absolutely necessary for the well-being of the world, for the dissipation of noxious vapours and the distribution of beneficial gases. The oak tree in the woods appears quite imperfect. The leaves are spoiled by the maggot, the twigs are rotted by the slug, the grub lives in the young acorn, the woodpecker breaks the bark, the squirrel gnaws away whole limbs. But the tree has served a purpose, it has been a home to innumerable living beings, a home and food and life to them, and for this object partly was it created. Then if you look at the relation of God to the universe, you will see that, as far as you understand it, the whole is as well taken care of and provided for as the most contented grub that lives on the bounty of the oak. The attraction of gravitation is a good thing, it keeps the world together; and if the tower of Siloam, thereby falling to the ground, slays eighteen men of Jerusalem, that number is too small to be considered beside the myriads who are upheld by this same law.

In fact we are too short-sighted to see the why and wherefore of all God's dealings. If you get inside a clockcase you will be bewildered with the chains and weights and wheels and noise, and it is