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第11章

god the known and god the unknown-第11章

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rarity of suicide even among those who rail at life most 

bitterly。  The other is the little eagerness with which those who 

cry out most loudly for a resurrection desire to begin their new 

life。  When comforting a husband upon the loss of his wife we do 

not tell him we hope he will soon join her; but we should 

certainly do this if we could even pretend we thought the husband 

would like it。  I can never remember having felt or witnessed any 

pain; bodily or mental; which would have made me or anyone else 

receive a suggestion that we had better commit suicide without 

indignantly asking how our adviser would like to commit suicide 

himself。  Yet there are so many and such easy ways of dying that 

indignation at being advised to commit suicide arises more from 

enjoyment of life than from fear of the mere physical pain of 

dying。  Granted that there is much deplorable pain in the world 

from ill…health; loss of money; loss of reputation; misconduct of 

those nearest to us; or what not; and granted that in some cases 

these causes do drive men to actual self…destruction; yet 

suffering such as this happens to a comparatively small number; 

and occupies comparatively a small space in the lives of those to 

whom it does happen。



What; however; have we to say to those cases in which suffering 

and injustice are inflicted upon defenceless 'sic' people for 

years and years; so that the iron enters into their souls; and 

they have no avenger。  Can we give any comfort to such sufferers? 

and; if not; is our religion any better than a mockery…a filling 

the rich with good things and sending the hungry empty away?  Can 

we tell them; when they are oppressed with burdens; yet that 

their cry will come up to God and be heard?  The question 

suggests its own answer; for assuredly our God knows our 

innermost secrets: there is not a word in our hearts but He 

knoweth it altogether; He knoweth our down…sitting and our 

uprising; He is about our path and about our bed; and spieth out 

all our ways; He has fashioned us behind and before; and 〃we 

cannot attain such knowledge;〃 for; like all knowledge when it 

has become perfect; 〃it is too excellent for us。〃



〃Whither then;〃 says David; 〃shall I go from thy Spirit; or 

whither shall I go; then; from thy presence?  If I climb up into 

heaven thou art there; if I go down into hell thou art there 

also。  If I take the wings of the morning and remain in the 

uttermost parts of the sea; even there also shall thy hand lead 

me; and thy right hand shall hold me。  If I say peradventure the 

darkness shall cover me; then shall my night be turned into day: 

the darkness and light to thee are both alike。  For my reins 

are thine; thou hast covered me in my mother's womb。  My bones 

are not hid from thee: though I be made secretly and fashioned 

beneath in the earth; thine eyes did see my substance yet being 

unperfect; and in thy book were all my members written; which day 

by day were fashioned when as yet there was none of them。  Do I 

not hate them; O Lord; that hate thee? and am I not grieved with 

them that rise up against thee? Yea; I hate them right sore; as 

though they were mine enemies。〃 (Psalm CXXXIX。) There is not a 

word  of this which we cannot endorse with more significance; as 

well as with greater heartiness than those can who look upon God 

as He is commonly represented to them; whatever comfort; 

therefore; those in distress have been in the habit of receiving 

from these and kindred passages; we intensify rather than not。  We 

cannot; alas! make pain cease to be pain; nor injustice easy to 

bear; but we can show that no pain is bootless; and that there is 

a tendency in all injustice to right itself; suffering is not 

inflicted wilfully; 'sic' as it were by a magician who could have 

averted it ; nor is it vain in its results; but unless we are cut 

off from God by having dwelt in some place where none of our kind 

can know of what has happened to us; it will move God's heart to 

redress our grievance; and will tend to the happiness of those 

who come after us; even if not to our own。



The moral government of God over the world is exercised through 

us; who are his ministers and persons; and a government of this 

description is the only one which can be observed as practically 

influencing men's conduct。  God helps those who help themselves; 

because in helping themselves they are helping Him。  Again; Vox 

Populi vox Dei。 The current feeling of our peers is what we 

instinctively turn to when we would know whether such and such a 

course of conduct is right or wrong; and so Paul clenches his 

list of things that the Philippians were to hold fast with the 

words; 〃whatsoever things are of good fame〃…that is to say; he 

falls back upon an appeal to the educated conscience of his age。  

Certainly the wicked do sometimes appear to escape punishment; 

but it must be remembered there are punishments from within which 

do not meet the eye。  If these fall on a man; he is sufficiently 

punished; if they do not fall on him; it is probable we have been 

over hasty in assuming that he is wicked。  





                            CHAPTER IX



                         GOD THE UNKNOWN



The reader will already have felt that the panzoistic conception 

of God…the conception; that is to say; of God as comprising all 

living units in His own single person…does not help us to 

understand the origin of matter; nor yet that of the primordial 

cell which has grown and unfolded itself into the present life of 

the world。  How was the world rendered fit for the habitation of 

the first germ of Life? How came it to have air and water; 

without which nothing that we know of as living can exist? Was 

the world fashioned and furnished with aqueous and atmospheric 

adjuncts with a view to the requirements of the infant monad; and 

to his due development?  If so; we have evidence of design; and 

if so of a designer; and if so there must be Some far vaster 

Person who looms out behind our God; and who stands in the same 

relation to him as he to us。  And behind this vaster and more 

unknown God there may be yet another; and another; and another。



It is certain that Life did not make the world with a view to its 

own future requirements。  For the world was at one time red hot; 

and there can have been no living being upon it。  Nor is it 

conceivable that matter in which there was no life…inasmuch as it 

was infinitely hotter than the hottest infusion which any living 

germ can support…could gradually come to be alive without 

impregnation from a living parent。  All living things that we know 

of have come from other living things with bodies and souls; 

whose existence can be satisfactorily established in spite of 

their being often too small for our detection。  Since; then; the 

world was once without life; and since no analogy points in the 

direction of thinking that life can spring up spontaneously; we 

are driven to suppose that it was introduced into this world from 

some other source extraneous to it altogether; and if so we find 

ourselves irresistibly drawn to the inquiry whether the source of 

the life that is in the world…the impregnator of this earth…may 

not also have prepared the earth for the reception of his 

offspring; as a hen makes an egg…shell or a peach a stone for the 

protection of the germ within it? Not only are we drawn to the 

inquiry; but we are drawn also to the answer that the earth 

was so prepared designedly by a Person with body and soul 

who knew beforehand the kind of thing he required; and who took 

the necessary steps to bring it about。



If this is so we are members indeed of the God of this world; but 

we are not his children; we are children of the Unknown and 

Vaster God who called him into existence; and this in a far more 

literal sense than we have been in the habit of realising 'sic' 


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