Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/35

 STUDY II.

THE EXISTENCE OF A SUPREME INTELLIGENT CREATOR ESTABLISHED.

EVIDENCE ASIDE f ROM THB BIBLE, EXAMINUD isr THB LIGHT OF REASOK. AM UNTSNABLB THEORY. A REASONABLE THEORY. TH CHARACTER o GOD DEMONSTRATED. REASONABLE DEDUCTION.

UYEN from the standpoint of the skeptic, a reasonable and ^ candid search into the unknown, by the light of what is known, will guide the unbiased, intelligent reasoner in the direction of the truth. Yet it is evident that without a direct revektion of the plans and purposes of God, men could only approximate the truth, and arrive at indefinite conclusions. But let us for the moment lay aside the Bible, and look at things from the standpoint of reason alone.

He who can look into the sky with a telescope, or even with his natural eye alone, and see there the immensity of creation, its symmetry, beauty, order, harmony and diver- sity, and yet doubt that the Creator of these is vastly his superior both in wisdom and power, or who can suppose for a moment that such order came by chance, without a Crea- tor, has so far lost or ignored the faculty of reason as to be properly considered what the Bible terms him, a fool (one who ignores or lacks reason): "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." However it happened, at least that much of the Bible is true, as every reasonable mind must conclude; for it is a self-evident truth that effects must be produced by competent causes. Every plant and every flower, even, speaks volumes of testimony on this

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