Lecture by the Rev. H.M. Murray.

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 14, 5 February 1884, Page 2

Lecture by the Rev. H.M. Murray.

••FAITH, AItp TREASON." The Rev H. M. Murray gave his usual monthly' lecture in the Presbyterian Church on Sabbath eyemiig. The* Tec- • turer chow his text from thellth chapter of Hebrews,' 3rd yerse^'ffly faith we> understand thfat the worlds were framed by the Word ofV|G^^:H* Saitt jthat these words'show faijlb i» TOt^ppswf ,to> reason, nay, they ".show" that '^-itfcand Reason". are identical.. Faith .gives ua ; t^^bwl^geJ^JyVhat rt .■'■'" I deduction of the cognitive fawtlMJ: 'But if thetwo. are identical, why ba^e f w^ ;r gv<> names P Reason and Faith, for pjfe.thjlgP ; The answer to .w^ »iMplewf: Faith. i denotes, a special, exercise of, reason. Seasoning gets, different namesaecpraing 1 to: the subject which. for the time the ■ reason is concerned with; Thuswe haveaxioinatiq reasoning and probaUereasoniog- : Now.faith ,is, reason da.iy exercised en a | particular class of objects*, viz,, those which Jhe Apostle in the first verse, of ; the'chapter call-i the •■** things vnot* seen:?' ■ "Faith is the evidence, or proving, pf ' th;ngßno*.seen f "apd of teethings 'not '. .seen he instances* one in oar text, via,, the crenlion of the werfdby God. «-«By faith j Wubderit»nd' : tW^ ; lhie- yroitfo^n ! .ff»m<Hl;,byjthe word^^God^ liusiSik ;veiy ; . important point ia the controversy \ between the Christian and the iceptift. i .The. sceptic seeks :l '-ipt ihow^that faith is * bpposed i to reason. Chrisitian robtrpyer- ; .sialistsin reply bayej^Twrßlly cdntewiedl that Faith and Reason have each, tbetr : legitimate province, but in doing so they : haye often gone too far in the dirertibei ! of separating and distiDguishing between .. Faith and Reason. They have, tho* : unwittingly given too much room to their ) opponents in their contention • that faith . is opposed to reason, for to be distioct from reason comes periloostly. near being nnreaspnable. The right Txwition to take .. up is that faith w reiisbi exercised apon : a special daas,^' ; sobj^i^' ; ' , vi^*,-*^.oi^ seen world *'and r '-ite'Wati^-;\lO^LVwy same lawsgovernFajth—R^s^bing which gov erns all other kinds ,pf reasoning. Beli(rf»areratiM^conclumc«sfroi^p»emboa ■But if faith be reifspa ' ! a. "very imp^awb practical conclusion l&lbws-^ yii^^fiSt all, men are bpond to ]beheve,ar*^^,€Hr course .thia position is denie^ % n»n^. They say no man i* . ,reepeisb"*<^^ -'lito: beliefs, but only for honesty in his beliefs, i The innocence of erjror in belief is a veiy J plausible theory, but it should be suspected by' every tboaghtful man because * it flatters our spiritual mdolen&^'and because it encourage* iirfiffei^ocewitht regard to troih. The truth is> as we are responsible to God fo.* the use we make of our faculties, and as reason is the noblest faculty of .all, we are responsible for the use ;we make of it. And its highest purpose is to give us the knowledge of God and 1 our relation* to Him. In the Epistle to the Ronwni. Battl teaches that man's reason^ at first waa quite competent to knW'Gbd; and that tbe ignorance .of fGod .^ . Jfbich the heathen world*^ the consequence. ; off) -j^r,j^vi^^nwm from Him. The! leetjarer^iii "taking up . the statement,pf theVtex l^ ;Bhow^djrfiat it gave the . only rational account of tue origin of the "world. A Tlie odj otter alternative is the positioa of tbe atheist* which involves the absurdity that the . world made itself. The .laws. :©£ 'our reason^ without which we- <»uld' ndt. reason, that every >ffoct; must / Jiate a cause, that deHi-^a mast r have , a designer, and that the effect cannot be greater than its cause, oblige, u» to conclude that the world . was made by God. The position assumed by the agnostics or or poiitivisft is merely a barefaced at' tempt to burk enquiry. In fact it is a denial of reason.- T^ey -lay-we cauenly observe phenpmeniiiindyerify our pj^servations, we caboo-t -reason about tbem*|j Fiuding'theyidannot oonfute thevarg^.-; < menti of Theists/they evade them SRi^? aether. <^e lecture; eepupied nearly -ai" a/hour,| and was listened to with : *hfc r greatest attention. - - "A ;-.* ,^-, *tf