acter of the men who wrote them. And what is the record? It is this and none other: "The Son of God is come." Judgment will follow. Are you an honest doubter? If so, you face God hath sent his Son into the

this issue:

world."

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CHAPTER II

IS THERE A GOD?

"The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."

I. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE QUESTION

This is the profoundest problem that can lay hold of the human mind. Is there a supreme, personal intelligence? Is there a Creator who upholds and rules the universe? Is He a Father, gracious and merciful? Is the redemption of mankind accomplished through Him, and through none other? This question lies at the very foundation of all man's religious beliefs. Upon our answer to this depends our responsibility and our duty, our sin and our salvation, our immortality and our future estate. The question of a revelation, an incarnation, and a resurrection is dependent upon our answer to this question.

II. THE FIRST LINE OF APPROACH

The first

There are three lines of approach. of these is intuition. The consciousness of God is race-wide. The belief in God is universal. There are no natural atheists. All are born

with an indwelling sense of God. All men believe in the existence of some being or beings above them to whom they are responsible, and whom it behooves them to propitiate. This belief is not the result of argument. Most men have never faced the question why they believe in God. The wide-spread extent of this belief is a strong argument in favor of its truth. In the darkest night of paganism there are two innate convictions: one of these is of a divine birth, the other is of a sinful alienation. And these two are the causes of the universal unrest of the race.

There is but one way to invalidate this testimony, and that is to entertain the thought that the human race has been unanimous in entertaining a falsehood. This does not mean a mistake in interpretation. This is an entirely different matter. Such a mistake was the theory that the succession of light and darkness was caused by the sun going around the earth. The mistake was in the attempted interpretation,not in the fact of the succession. If there is no succession, then our conciousness carries us to a lie. If it does so, then we have no foundation for any knowledge of any kind.

Hence the universal race-consciousness of the existence of God carries with it the same credibility as do all other facts of consciousness. And this credibility of the facts presented to us

in consciousness is the foundation of all our knowledge. Upon this science builds. Upon this philosophy asks for acceptance.

III. THE SECOND LINE OF APPROACH

The second line of approach is through the reason. By this line of approach we learn to know about God. What can we find that will teach us about God? There are three things. It lies in the nature of our intellect. Where the mind finds an effect, the reason postulates a cause. We are so constituted that wherever any event occurs we are by necessity led to ask the reason for it. We necessarily believe that it was due to some cause. This is a fact in our mental constitution. Proceeding from it we follow two lines of thought.

1. The first is the idea of cause.

a. The work that has been wrought. First, ourselves. We are here; we exist. Whence came we? It is impossible to believe that the human race is eternal, because we cannot think an endless chain. Our procession of thought necessitates a beginning. Hence the first man. And he must be either self-existent, or there must be a cause for his existence.

How did he come into being?

Take any species of animal life. The same reasoning reaches the same conclusion. What is the cause of their existence?

Reasoning necessitates the conclusion of the existence of a self-existing First Cause. The theory of evolution affords no help. Go back to an original ether. It is either in motion or at rest. If it is in motion, the motion is a change that demands a cause. We cannot conceive an infinite series of finite causes. Neither can we conceive that matter is the originator of motion. This is Plato's argument. Since it is impossible for the mind to conceive of matter originating motion there must be a mind as the first cause of motion.

And to this position, reached by Plato so long ago, the new science of our day has at last come. Science today confesses that the universe had a beginning. As the researches of men have gone deeper into the structure of the earth, and into the nature of the universe about us, all doubt has been removed. Astronomy and geology unite to proclaim that Plato was right. And long before both, the sweet singer of Israel told the same story: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork."

With the sinking of the evening sun your copy of the daily press is left at your door. When the dinner hour is over you read it through. The next morning you seek the office. Finding the manager, you put this question to him: "Where did that paper you sent me