ATHEISM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1158, 14 October 1913, Page 4

ATHEISM.

During the course of a sermon on the subject of “Atheism,” at All Saints’ on Sunday, the vicar, Rev G. Y, Woodward, said :

“We hear much nowadays about Aheisls and Atheism. There is a certain class in society who consider it a sign ot advanced intelligence to pose as atheists.” The preacher asked : “What is an Atheist?” He said: “When we look the word up in the dictionary we find it is derived from the Greek, a without, iheosOod. — without God. An atheist, then, is one who denies the existence of God. I may stand alone, but I deny the existence of an atheist. Two men may be talking together —one says, T recognise a God,’ the other, T do not recognise a God.’ The first man, in his short sentence, makes two statements : (i) there is a God, (2) he himself recognises Him. The second man makes no statement about God ; he simply states that he is incapable of recognising Him —it is merely a statement about himself. I maintain that a finite mind, however intelligent, is not capable of saying whether an Infinite Mind, which we call God, exists or not. All it can do is to make the statement that it is not able to grasp it. I always think that the so-called atheist is like a man to whom you might say, T am going to place you ou an exceedingly large circle. It is so vast that when you walk ou a section of its circumference it will appear to you as a straight line.’ The mau has been placed ou what he has been told is a circle. He walks on a sectiou of its circumference, aud because of its vastness it appears to him as a straight line. Immediately, because his knowledge is limited and he cannot prove the existence of the circle, but all he can grasp is the straight line, he flatly refuses to believe there is a circle, aud denies without any proof that it does not exist. It has been said it is hard to p'ove the existence of God, but very much harder to prove that He does not exist. Belief to God is not a matter of proof, it is Faith. We take nature. ‘By faith we understand that the woilds have been formed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which do appear.’ Behind nature we see design, the work of an Architect, a Master Mind—that Mind we call God, Nature is a mirror in which is reflected' the Personality of God, aud the more we study that mirror the more we learn to know God. We do not prove God’s existence by nature, we simply point to it and say, ‘ln it you will see God.’ By Faith He is seen.”

The preacher then went on to say there was an instinctive feeling in man of a Supreme Being, and this was seen in man’s dependence in all ages on a Power outside of himself. Then there was Revelation. God had revealed himself to his intelligent creation, and the Bible was the Book which revealed Him.

The preacher then dealt at some length on the crowning revelation as given by St. John, “God is love.’’ Love was the chief moral attribute of God. Love was but another name for God.