IS NATURE ALL THE GOD THERE IS?
By A. P. Lawton
SO SAYS A. If by nature we are to understand the Creator of heaven and earth, that would be correct. But as this term is generally understood to be the creation, then A must be wrong. Who made this earth with its attendant spheres, hung upon nothing, each fulfilling its order? If I should answer, They made themselves or each other, you would at once say, Impossible. If I should tell you that nature made the house you occupy, you would not believe me; you would know better. How, then, can you make me understand that all these vast creations were conceived and brought forth by nature, or by mutual consent? But says A, I cannot comprehend God, and to believe what we cannot comprehend is not required. What can you comprehend? When we find ourselves unable to comprehend the most simple of the Creator's work, which are visible and tangible, is it a wonder that we cannot comprehend the invisible creator? We hear no one say that, because they do not know how a blade of grass grows, there is no grass, and that we ourselves do not exist because we cannot explain our existence. When we see an edifice, we know an architect has been there. No one will say that it made itself or sprung up by chance, because they had never known the builder. If we allow ourselves to use good common sense upon this important subject, as we do on other things, all is easy. We reason from effect to cause in the most common things. If we see a footprint, we know some one has made it. When we see a production, some one must have produced it. When we view the vast universe, we know, or should know, that it never produced itself. Take the Bible view, and all is plain. But how can we know that the Bible is true? It proves itself. What the prophets foresaw and predicted thousands of years in the past have met their perfect fulfillment, and have become history. This of itself is a sufficient proof for any one who does not choose to disbelieve. Only a small part of the prophetic word remains unfulfilled—the plagues, the latter rain, the shaking of the powers of heaven, and the burning of the earth, and the destruction of the wicked, which are just as sure of fulfillment as those which have been fulfilled. Each will come in its order.