PROBABILITIES IN REGARD TO A REVELATION FROM THE CREATOR.
We have now completed our investigations as to the nature and amount of
knowledge to be gained on the great questions of life by reason and
experience independently of a revelation.
We have assumed that the great cause of the disordered action of mind is
that it commences action in perfect ignorance, while all those causes
which experience shows to be indispensable to its right action, to a
greater or less degree, are wanting.
The great want of our race is _perfect educators_ to train new-born
minds, who are _infallible teachers of what is right and true_.
We have presented the evidence gained by reason and experience that the
Creator is perfect in mental constitution, and that he always has acted
right, and always will thus act. This being granted, we infer that he
always has done _the best that is possible_ for the highest good of his
creatures in this world, and that he always will continue to do so.
We proceed to inquire in regard to what would be the best that it is
possible to do for us in this state of being, _so far as we can
conceive_.
Inasmuch as the great cause of the wrong action of mind is the ignorance
and imperfection of those who are its educators in the beginning of its
existence, we should infer that the best possible thing to be done for
our race would be to provide some _perfect and infallible teacher_ to
instruct those who are to educate mind. This being granted, then all
would concede that the Creator himself would be our best teacher, and
that, if he would come to us himself in a visible form to instruct the
educators of mind in all they need to know for themselves and for the
new-born minds committed to their care, it would be the best thing we
can conceive of for the highest good of our race.
We next inquire as to the best conceivable mode by which the Creator can
manifest himself so as to secure credence.
To decide this, let each one suppose the case his own. Let a man make
his appearance claiming to be the Creator. We can perceive that his mere
word would never command the confidence of intelligent practical men.
Thousands of impostors have appeared and made such claims, deceiving the
weak and ignorant and disgusting the wise.
In case the person with such claims proved to be ever so benevolent and
intelligent, if we had no other evidence than his word, it would, by
sensible persons, be regarded as the result of some mental
hallucination.
But suppose that a person making claims to be the Creator of all things,
or to be a messenger from him, should attest his claim by shaking the
earth, or tearing up a mountain, or turning back the floods of the
ocean, it would be impossible for any man to witness these miracles
without believing that the Author of all things thus attested his own
presence or the authority of his messenger. We have shown that, in the
very organization of mind, one of the intuitive truths would necessarily
force such a belief on all sane minds.
One other method would be as effective. Should this person predict
events so improbable and so beyond all human intelligence as to be
equivalent to an equal interruption of experience as to the laws of
mind, as time developed the fulfillment of these predictions, the same
belief would be induced in the authority of the person thus
supernaturally endowed.
In the first case, the evidence would be immediate and most powerful in
its inception. In the latter case, the power of the evidence would
increase with time.
_Miracles and prophecy_, then, are the _only_ methods that we can
conceive of that would, as our minds are now constituted, insure belief
in revelations from the Creator.
But if every human being, in order to believe, must have miracles, there
would result such an incessant violation of the laws of nature as to
destroy them, and thus to destroy all possibility of miracles.
The only possible way, then, is to have miracles occur at certain
periods of time, and then have them adequately recorded and preserved.
This method involves the necessity of interpreting written documents.
If, then, the Creator has provided such revelations, the question occurs
as to how far they may be accessible to all men. Are there revelations
from the Creator in such a form that all men can gain access to them and
interpret them for themselves, or are they so recorded that only a few
can gain the knowledge they impart, while the many are helplessly
dependent on the few?
It is with reference to this question that the interpretation of
language becomes a subject of vital and infinite interest to every human
being. This subject will therefore occupy the remaining portion of this
volume.