The Truth About God And The Bible
By Robert Roberts
Chapter 13: "That They Should Seek The Lord" (Acts 17:27)
It is proved by the facts accessible to all men that God exists,
and that the Bible is His revelation to us of the fact; that He
has a glorious purpose with the earth and with man upon it, involving
immortal life and perfect well-being to all who may become beneficially
related to it in the way revealed by Christ. Is there no antecedent
presumption in favour of such a conclusion in our own constitution
and in the spectacle of heaven and earth around us? Is it reasonable
to suppose that the stupendous system of the universe exists for
no higher end than the feeble gratification of an ephemeral and
decaying race of animals? Is it reasonable to suppose that the
aspirations of the noblest of mankind are without a counterpart
in the region of the possible? Is it reasonable to suppose that
the earnest uplifting of the human heart in agonising desire towards
a Higher than man are without a meaning in the universe of being?
The vibrations of the needle pointed to the Pole long before the
existence of such a point on the earth's surface was known. So,
in true philosophy, do our fervent longings point to the Almighty
Father and Disposer of all things, even if He had not chosen to
reveal Himself.
The higher minds of the world are on the side of this argument.
MR. GLADSTONE has told us that the unbelief growing so common
is calculated, if generally received, to disintegrate society
in the next generation [Robert Roberts died in 1898] though its
present advocates, through the bias of inherited principles, might
continue subject to moral restraint. PROFESSOR TYNDALL, in the
preface to his published addresses, says that mankind requires
the lifting power of a noble ideal. Even JOHN STUART MILL, born
and bred a sceptic, in his last days assumed an attitude indicative
of some thing higher than his atheistic proclivities. The Daily
News says:
"Mr. Mill was so far true to his early training that he tried
hard to show how small was the intellectual warrant for the misty
aspirations; but the 'Time-Spirit' led him again and again to
the brink of the abyss after logic had made its final declaration;
and his last book reveals him in the attitude of one looking across
the ocean of eternity with wistful eyes and something of a fond
expectancy. Thus he presents one of the most pathetic figures
in all the literature of negation. His aspiration for something
to believe in beyond this petty life will speak to doubting intellects
with intense force. He and such as he testify not that this age
is sceptical, but that even sceptical minds hunger for a religion
in which they can believe. The last century tried to feed the
mind on the husks of dry and negative logic, but again has come
that yearning for something higher which has often before been
the harvest of new faiths. When essentially scientific intellects
like Mill and Tyndall link reverential hopes to strict deduction
of the reason, the most careless observer may detect an immense
transformation of opinion, and the most timid heart may take comfort."
All these utterances point in the direction of a need which the
Bible supplies. The Bible gives us the purifying and reforming
restraint which Mr. Gladstone sees human society needs. It gives
us the uplifting ideal which Professor Tyndall declares to be
necessary. It gives us an ideal glorified man -- the manifestation
of the Eternal invisible Father of all -- a man who once lived
in our weak and afflicted state, whose work has already filled
the world with light compared with the darkness that reigned before
his appearance; a man who now exists in an incorruptible, immortal,
omnipotent nature; whose re-appearance in the world will take
place at an appointed time for the assumption of human government,
and the blessing of all mankind, on the foundation of glory to
God, with whose appearance there is associated this glorious prospect
of every friend of his, that he will use the power God has given
him to recall them from the oblivion of the grave, or transform
them from their physical weakness to an immortal state identical
with His own, and associate them with Himself, with every circumstance
of honour and renown, in the perfect order of things He will establish
and administer among men in that blessed day of promise, when
there shall be no more curse, and no more pain and sorrow, and
sighing shall flee away.
THE END
