NELSON AND CO.

PRINTERS, OXFORD ARMS PASSAGE, ST. PAUL'S,

LONDON.

THE

LOCAL PREACHERS' MAGAZINE.

AND

CHRISTIAN FAMILY RECORD.

Original Essays.

THEOLOGY; NATURAL AND BIBLICAL.

CHAPTER I.-GOD: HIS BEING AND ATTRIBUTES. "For every house is builded by some man; but He that built all things is God."HEBREWS iii. 4.

1. WHAT can a creature say about the great Creator? "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection?" (Job xi. 7.) These questions by Zophar are worthy of our attention; and they intimate, very properly, that "His ways are past finding out." Yet He ought to be the subject of our profound and reverent contemplation. For, "this is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John xvii. 3.)

2. There are two books open for us to study. It will be our own fault if their pages are not carefully read and pondered. Although we may never "find out the Almighty to perfection," let us, nevertheless, "find out" all we possibly can while here, and then haste away to the other world, where the study will be resumed with greatly enlarged powers.

3. I shall avoid, as far as possible, using any terms which are not generally understood. There are two methods employed in searching out the nature and character of God; the one by coming down from Himself to His works; the other by going up from His works to Himself. I shall adopt the latter course.

4. I picked up, in the street in which I live, a small pebble, and put it in my pocket. Here it is. I place it before me: it is of an oval, egg-shaped form, about the size of a sparrow's egg. Where had it been before it was laid down in the roadway, to form, with a number of companions, combined with sand and grit, a firm carriage road for general traffic? I know not. I never thought of inquiring. One thing is quite certain; it was placed there by some one. It has not the power of self-motion: it is dead, insensible matter. It is entirely passive. I can put it on my writing table, or in my pocket. It offers no resistance. It is an insignificant, lifeless pebble; that is all. But is that all? How did it come into existence? Who made it? Can I make a pebble? Did you ever know any one that JANUARY, 1869.

VOL. XIX.

B

could make a pebble? Supposing that the operative chemist should bring together a number of loose materials, and form something like my pebble; he would smile at my ignorance or simplicity, I am thinking, were I to ask him to form a pebble like mine out of nothing. But this insignificant pebble is a part of the great globe on which I live, which, at some time or other, was produced from nothing.

5. I may be met by some who may say, "Sir, you must have but a very contracted view of things, to suppose that this earth was created out of nothing, some six thousand years ago." I did not say so. I care not whether this earth was formed from matter which did in reality exist six thousand years ago. This I do know, that the matter of which this earth is formed, whether it existed six thousand, six millions, or six billions of years ago, could not create itself: hence its existence proves there must have been a creator; and that Creator is GOD.

6. The little pebble before me is a representative of the world of inanimate matter, and proves that there is a great Creator. But I go from this inanimate pebble, and on the window-ledge, to the right of where I am sitting, are two flower-pots, containing two beautiful geranium plants. I must humbly confess that I am a very poor botanist and florist. I like to see the beauties and smell the fragrance of the pretty flowers; but have not taste or disposition to attend to their cultivation. I am pleased to see that taste in others; and I have always hope of a man who loves flowers, that he will ultimately meet his Saviour in the garden of Paradise above

"Where everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flowers."

These two geranium plants, when first placed there, had not advanced far in their growth. There were, however, buds of promise, which have since developed into flowers of beauty, modesty, and purity. Some buds have bloomed, faded, and fallen. Here is one in its native covering, not yet fully unfolded. Here are others yet to bloom. This modest little plant, with its innocent flowers, may very properly represent the whole vegetable world, from the little blade of grass to the sturdy oak; from the moss on the wall to the cedar of Lebanon.

7. We have in the flower before us, and in the world of vegetable life which it represents, a vast step in advance from the inert pebble and the worlds of insensible matter of which it is the representative. In the pebble we see evidence of Almighty power in its creation; but in the plant we see the present exercise of that power in its life and growth, as well as consummate skill in its formation.*

8. The two steps we have already taken have brought us into the pre

* A sceptic, who was not only a scholar and mathematician, but also a skilful reasoner, states:-" Some years ago, I had the misfortune to meet with the fallacies of Hume on the subject of causation. His specious reasoning shook my faith in the being of a God. But one beautiful evening in May, I was reading by the