All the holy books, and nearly all holy men who have figured in
the world, have cherished a belief in what is termed "special
providences,"--a doctrine which teaches that God individually and
personally superintends the affairs, not only of all nations, but of
each individual human being, now amounting in number to about fourteen
hundred millions. It seems strange that the striking absurdity of such
an assumption has not struck every mind possessing the power to reflect
or investigate. The thought of his looking after the affairs and
happiness of fourteen hundred millions of human beings at a time,
besides running several thousand millions of worlds, far excels any of
the astounding feats of the evil genii of Gulliver. In the sublimity of
its absurdity and impossibility, it stands without a rival. It expands
beyond the utmost stretch of human credulity. Like all the other
doctrines of the popular creed, it sprang up in an age of the world
when the human mind accepted every thing presented to it without
investigation,--when nothing was rejected on the ground of its being
too absurd to be believed. And an absurdity, when once established, no
matter how monstrous or how stultifying to the intellectual or reasoning
faculties, can bid defiance to the efforts of the few men of the world
whose minds are too much expanded and enlightened to accept such gross
absurdities. There are several objections to the doctrine of "special
providences," both of a logical or scientific character, and also upon
moral grounds, which shows that it should have no place in an age of
scientific intelligence.
One of these objections is the one just brought to notice,--that of
its extreme absurdity and practical impossibility. It does not require
a great mind, but only a reflecting one, to see that no rational
conception of the Supreme Being could render it practicable for one
mind, however boundless in knowledge and infinite in power, to be so
divided as to look after the interest of each individual of a countless
number, scattered over a world of more than a hundred and seventy-five
thousand millions of miles in extent. A scientific investigation of the
operations of nature has settled the conviction in every scientific mind
that the life, actions, and destiny of every human being are under the
control of fixed and immutable laws, which need only to be studied and
observed to guard him effectually from personal accidents, and those
physical disasters to which he often falls a victim through ignorance
of the proper means of avoiding them. It is now patent to all critical
observers that the serious disasters and numerous causes of physical
suffering to which the larger portion of the human family were so
frequently subjected in past ages, have largely diminished, and are
constantly decreasing as the march of science dispels the ignorance of
the people,--such as the sinking of ships, attributable to imperfect
mechanical construction; pestilential diseases, caused by the general
ignorance of the causes of and means of preventing; the explosion of
steam-boilers on rivers, railroads, &c. And, from the present rates of
improvement in these respects, we may reasonably calculate that the time
is not far in the future when such disasters will be unknown. Then we
will have no need of "special providence" to save the people from the
fatal consequences of their ignorance. The conviction seems now to be
generally established in the public mind, that when a boat is wrecked,
or a locomotive strays from the track, and a few persons escape with
their lives from the general wreck and ruin, it is to be ascribed to the
interposition of the hand of Providence. But common sense would
suggest, that, if Providence had any thing to do with it, he should have
commenced a little sooner, and put some more brains or common sense into
the heads of the managers of these cargoes of human beings, or kept
the whiskey out of their stomachs till they reached their point of
destination. In the thousands of cases annually reported of Providence
interposing his aid to save some reckless mariners, or some heedless
passengers on a pleasure-boat, from a watery grave, or rescuing a few
persons from the wreck of a railroad bridge, or some similar calamity,
the disasters might all have been avoided by Providence simply acting
upon the wisdom of the proverb, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound
of cure." It would be considered an act of criminal neglect on the part
of a father who could stand by and see his children, from ignorance of
the danger of such a situation, fall from a precipice, and get crippled:
for which his diligence in taking care of them, and trying to heal
their bruises, would by no means excuse him, as he should have commenced
sooner, and prevented the accident from taking place. And nearly all the
cases of providential interposition are liable to the same objection:
the assistance is too long delayed. A collision of two ships recently
occurred on the Atlantic, by which both vessels were reduced almost to
wrecks; but "providentially but few lives were lost," though most of the
passengers were injured. Now the question naturally arises, Why did
not God, when he perceived the vessels were approaching each other,
interpose his providential care, and prevent the disaster? He either
could not, or would not; and, in either case, he is not infinite in
all his attributes, according to the general ideas of the matter. If he
could not, he is either not omnipresent or not infinite in power;
and, if he could and would not, he is not infinite in kindness and
benevolence, or he would have put forth his hand, and saved his children
from such a terrible fate. It is time mankind would learn that God
governs the universe by general laws, fixed and unalterable, and ever
harmonious, and that he never interferes immediately or personally in
the affairs of men.
That finite human spirits do, in many cases, aid in human affairs by
warning of danger, &c., is fully believed by many persons. If this be
true, their interposition would be liable to be mistaken for that of the
Infinite Spirit. But that any being can perform millions of finite acts
at once, or that God should suspend the operation of his laws, which
control the universe, for the purpose of attending personally to the
wants and prayers of each and every individual the world over,--many
of the petitions running counter to, or in direct conflict with, each
other,--is an idea too absurd to find lodgment in any truly enlightened
mind. But we entertain the pleasing thought that men are beginning to
learn that God governs by general laws, and not by personal or special
agency. These laws are so perfect in their operations that no special
laws or personal interference is necessary in any case. A critical
investigation of any case of special providences would satisfy any
scientific investigator that it was governed entirely by natural causes;
but such scrutinizing investigations are seldom made.
The great mass of pious people in all past ages have been so ignorant,
and so little accustomed to reasoning or observation, that they have
never observed, that, although many cases are reported of Providence
interfering to save the life of a child who fell from the window of a
basement-story, none are recorded of his saving a child that fell from
the fifth story. Why is this? Does not this fact suggest a scientific
lesson? But the heads of the great mass of the people have been so
filled with creeds and catechisms that they have no room for science.
It will be time enough to talk about special providences after a case
is known of a man escaping with his life after a cannonball has passed
through his head, or a bullet through his heart. The belief in special
providences is calculated to paralyze human effort in times of danger,
and thus suffer the consequences to be more frequently fatal. Let a man
believe, while a ship is being wrecked in a storm, dashing against
rocks and billows, and her deck overflowed with water, that there is a
Providence in the case, and he will naturally labor with less zeal and
effort to save the vessel. If the case is in the hands of God, and it is
his good pleasure that they should be lost, it is of but little use to
work the pumps; and, if it is his will that they should be saved, they
will be saved without much effort on their part. There can be no doubt
but that millions of pious people have been restrained on various
occasions from putting forth their strongest efforts to arrest a
threatening disaster, from the conviction that the hand of God was in
it, and that no human efforts could change the fate he had decreed for
them. And thus the doctrine, in its practical consequences, has been
pernicious. But, in this age of reason and scientific illumination,
men are beginning to learn, that, in cases of threatening danger and
destruction, muscle is more necessary than "Providence;" that, when a
ship is sinking in mid-ocean, pumps are more efficacious than prayers;
and, when a building is on fire, they can better do without the
assistance of Providence than without water, firemen, and engines.