The theory that God is absent or inactive is as untenable and
God-dishonoring as the discarded theory of atheism itself.
Evolution, as held by many, harmonizes with and supports the false and
impossible assumption that God created one, or at most, a few germs,
from which all animal species including man, and plants developed, by
"natural law." This theory seems plausible to those who do not examine
it too closely. It does not deny the existence of God, and concedes he
may have created one or more germs, but delegated the development of
an orderly world to "natural law." Thus his activities are no longer
needed. Perhaps they entertain the thought that God must grow weary
under the active and sleepless control of the universe, if not of the
world alone. They lose sight of the fact that a God of infinite mind
and power can not be wearied by any possible complications, or any
required amount of energy. Rather, the exercise of unlimited energy is
a source of pleasure and happiness. May we not learn this from the
boundless extent of the universe? Creation is not a task, but a great
satisfaction. If God finds so much happiness in creating a boundless
universe, would he renounce the pleasure of the active care and
control of 3,000,000 species?
The hypothesis that God delegates to "law" the evolution of the
universe, the world, and all species, is untenable, because no law,
human or divine, can enforce itself. Law has no power. It is not a
being, a creature, a living thing. It is absolutely helpless. It can
not be God's agent to carry out his will. Why the need of it? Why
should not God use his power direct to do his will? What gain in
creating and employing an agent? Which would be easier, to execute his
own will, or delegate it to a law?
His law is simply the record of his acts. He executes his own will
with exact regularity. He does not vary. Hence, all his creatures may
depend on regularity. It seems like law. The power in every case is
the power of God. Law has no power. The law of gravitation has no
power. Matter has no power. One of the primary lessons we learn in
physics is the inertia of matter. Matter can not move, unless moved
upon; nor stop of itself, when once in motion. Absolutely powerless!
The power of attraction, which we may call a property of matter, is
really the power of God. The effects are the results of power and
intelligence. Law has neither power nor intelligence. Human law marks
out the course man _should_ pursue. Divine law records the
course God _has_ pursued. Human law must be enforced by all the
executive power of the nation. God executes his own will, with perfect
regularity; and, by courtesy of language, we call it "law." He is the
great executor of the universe, not far removed, but proven present
everywhere, by the power and wisdom necessary to produce the results.
These results are found in the boundless universe, and in the
microscopic world. They are found in the world far below the power of
the most powerful microscope to detect. All the combinations of
chemical elements are made, hidden from the eye of the microscope.
Substances are dissolved and new combinations made, atoms are
numbered, counted and combined with mathematical precision, and with
an intelligence difficult for man to compute. No law could do
this. Only a Being who has sufficient power and intelligence is equal
to it. Law has no power, nor intelligence. Water is composed of two
atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, combined with absolute precision
everywhere. All chemical reactions require computations of an
intelligent being. All nature teems with proofs that God is every
where present. The elements in a high explosive are arranged
instantly in new combinations, each atom taking its proper partners,
in the proper proportion, with unerring precision. Countless
calculations of the most difficult kind are made instantly and
continually by the divine mind. Thus God's presence everywhere in the
minutest forms of matter is clearly proved. It is a mathematical
demonstration. God is not wearied by the care of worlds and suns, and
systems and snow-drifts of stars on the highway of heaven, and takes
just as perfect notice of atoms and electrons. They who think God is
unable or unwilling to take care of the minutest division of matter as
well as the rolling suns, must have a very diluted idea of God. It is
now claimed that the atom, formerly believed to be the smallest
division of matter, consists of 1740 parts. Sir Oliver Lodge says that
the structure of an atom is as complex as that of a piano. This latest
scientific discovery detects the power and wisdom of God, controlling,
for ages, this minutest division of matter, undetected by the most
powerful microscope.
It staggers one to think of the countless and difficult calculations
that are made instantly by the divine mind in every part of the
universe. The path of every snowflake that lazily pursues its tortuous
course, and rests upon the lap of earth, is marked out, not by any law
or agent, but by God himself. He calculates instantly the cyclone's
path, the movement of every particle of air, the direction, velocity
and path of every raindrop. A law could not do it. The wisest man
could not do it. But God can do it, with the ease with which the
tempest carries a feather on its bosom, or the ocean floats a straw!
Every second, about 16,000,000 tons of rain and snow fall to the
earth; and God calculates the paths of the myriad flakes of snow and
drops of rain instantly and unerringly.
The Conservation of Energy and the inter-convertibility of
forces--light, heat, electricity,--taking place constantly everywhere,
often on a stupendous scale, require bewildering calculations by an
ever-present God. No energy, not even potential energy, can be lost in
converting one force into another. It must be computed exactly.
Who but an infinite God could have calculated the enormous potential
energy of the nebulous gases, required by contraction to cause the
prodigious heat of a universe of suns?
The earth turns over noiselessly every 24 hours, carrying on its
bosom, at the rate of 1000 mi. an hour, at dizzy heights, a most
tenuous atmosphere, without a rustle, without the loss of a second in
1000 years. The earth with its satellite, is traveling around the sun
at the rate of 18.5 mi. per second--75 times as fast as a cannon
ball,--bearing a load of 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons, and
arriving at a given point in its orbit, on exact time every tropical
year. It has arrived so promptly on time following its elliptical
course, at such a rate that the radius vector, a line from the sun to
the earth, passes over equal areas in equal times, furnishing every
moment an abtruse problem difficult for a scholar to solve. The orbit
is so vast that it varies from a straight line, but 4 in. in 666 mi.,
the distance from Philadelphia to Chicago.
The sun also, with its family of worlds and their satellites, is
plunging through space at the rate of 8.5 mi. per second; moreover,
there are swarms of huge suns, many larger than ours, moving in
straight-lines like a universe on a journey, and countless millions of
suns in swiftest flight through the skies, whose orbits and rates of
motion must all be calculated and controlled by a mind of amazing
power and intelligence.
Is not the so-called "scientist" either a madman or a fool, who
believes that all this can be accounted for, without the presence of a
God of infinite power and intelligence?
Water contracts as the temperature falls. But when within four degrees
of the freezing point, water expands and ice becomes lighter than
water, and floats, and saves all bodies of water from becoming solid
bodies of ice.
Who can say that God does not intervene, in this case, to save all
life? It is a striking proof that God is not absent nor inactive.
Gravitation requires the computation of countless millions of the most
complex and difficult problems, every instant, by the divine mind. The
attraction of all matter for all other matter is in proportion
directly to the mass and inversely to the square of the distance. The
exact weight of every object is determined by the attraction of the
earth and every particle thereof, the mountain that may be nearby, the
elevation and altitude of the place, the attraction of the sun and the
moon, and every star in heaven, even though too small to be computed
by man,--all these are computed precisely by the divine mind. These
innumerable calculations prove that God is everywhere. We are
continually in the immediate awesome presence of an Infinite God.
Every computation that man ever made, was made long before by a great
Intelligence, that excels all others combined. How intricate is the
calculation of the divine mind, which causes the water of every ocean,
sea, lake, pond, and vessel, when at rest, to correspond with the
exact sphericity of the earth. In the face of innumerable and
difficult calculations,--proofs of the intense activity of the divine
mind,--who can be so reckless as to say that God is absent or
inactive?
Not only does God make endless calculations in executing his will in
the material universe, but in the intellectual, moral and spiritual
world as well. We can not measure, with any human instruments, the
amount of mental discipline and improvement, resulting from a certain
amount of study. But God calculates unerringly the precise amount of
mental discipline or improvement earned by every mental exertion. The
amount is in precise proportion to the mental effort. The gain is
definite, exact and unerring, the calculation is instantaneous, and
beyond the power of the profoundest mathematician to compute. So also,
the effect of every moral act, wish, desire, purpose, intention or
affection, is instantly computed, and the moral character modified in
exact proportion to their weight. If a man indulges in vice, he
becomes vicious in proportion. If he commits a crime, he becomes more
criminal in nature. Every theft is computed at its proper value.
Every good and noble act ennobles the character in proportion to its
worth. There is a settlement, every instant, and all deeds, wishes,
desires, purposes, and affections go into the character, and affect it
in precise proportion to their weight. Who but an infinite God, can
keep all accounts of his innumerable creatures instantaneously, and
have them complete, exact and unerring? No man, nor angel, nor "law,"
could do it. In like manner, every spiritual act, wish, purpose,
motive,--all go in to make up the spiritual life of man, in exact
proportion to their worth. Not all the mathematicians and scribes in
the universe could together solve the problems, that the great
intellect of the Supreme Ruler is solving every instant of time.
This theory of an absent or inactive God leaves no place for prayer,
an almost universal instinct of mankind. If a blind, deaf, and dumb
and helpless law is in control, it is useless to pray for help. All
nations, races and peoples instinctively believe that God hears and
answers prayer. This is a scientific fact with which evolutionists
must reckon, even if it has a pious or otherwise offensive sound. No
use to pray to an inexorable "law," which, like the gods of the
heathen, can neither see, nor hear, nor taste, nor smell.
How unscientific then seems the following declaration of Darwin: "To
my mind, it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on
matter [How could that be?] by the Creator, that the production and
extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should
have been due to secondary causes, like those determining the birth
and death of the individual." It does not remove the First Great Cause
from active control of the world to call his acts "secondary causes."