We should be more properly said
to _know_, by intellectual processes of observation, inference, and
conclusion, that there was a Law Giver, an Artificer, and a First Cause,
so unlimited in power and capacity by the conditions of the case, that
we must call Him "Divine."
And many will probably feel that their just reasoning on the subject
leads them to knowledge--knowledge, i.e., as approximately certain as
anything in this world can be.
But the text, by the use of the term [Greek: aion], implies (as I
suggested) more than mere production of objects; it implies a designed
guidance and preconceived planning. If it were merely asserted that
there is a first cause of material existence, and even that such a cause
had enough known (or to be inferred) about it, to warrant our writing
"First Cause" with capitals, then the proposition would pass on all
hands without serious question. But directly we are brought face to
face, not merely with the isolated idea of creation of tangible forms
out of nothing (as the phrase is), but rather with the whole history
and development of the world and its inhabitants, we see so many
conflicting elements, such a power of natural forces and human passions
warring against the progress of good, and seeming to end only too often
in disaster, that it becomes a matter of _faith_ to perceive a Divine
providence underlying and overruling all to its own ends.
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