The Reporter.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 5, 29 April 1893, Page 9

The Reporter.

THE BISHOP AND HIS CRITICS

Several newspapers in Australia have waxed sarcastic over the remarks made by His Lordship Bishop Nevillto the effect that “the Queensland floods might have'been permitted in order to check the growth of the insane materialism which has grown so much of late, so that men might learn that nature is not always kind.” His Lordship, without referring directly to his critics, had something to say by way of reply in the course of a sermon which he delivered at the harvest thanksgiving service held in St. John’s on Wednesday evening. He preached from* the 12th chapter of St. John, 24th verse ;—“ Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” The preacher remarked that in all the glimpses we are permitted to obtain of God and His workings we perceive above all other things that we can discover about Him that He is ever exercising that activity which belongs to His nature. Everything comes from His fullness, and of all the characteristics of God we observed His fullness of action, and further, the order always prevalent in that action. It is of the nature of the case that we can know but little of God. We have only two ways of getting any knowledge of Him, viz., by reading His two books—the book of nature, in which He is revealed through physical things, through matter and its operation, and the other book, the Bible, which is more distinctly a revelation, and in which He speaks to us directly and tells us what He sees fit to tell us because He knows it to be needful to us in our present condition. With regard to the first book, wherein we read of God in the realm of physical and material things, we can only know those things which are within the sphere of our powers of observation, which lie within our ken. Therefore wc do not know the beginning or origin, or destiny of anything so far as nature has revealed them to us. Our knowledge is very limited—it is confined to an infinitely small segment of the great circle of knowledge exposed to our view. With regard to the otherbook in which God revealed Himself more directly, our knowledge of Him through its

means is also limited because He only bestows upon us a knowledge of Himself in proportion as that knowledge is required by us. He has not told us everything belonging either to Himself or the universe over which He has unlimited sway because it is unnecessary to thus minister to our curiosity. With regard to physical things, we know not their origin or nature, and with regard to more spiritual and moral concerns, and the realm which we speak of as God’s revelation, we do not know anything. We know nothing of the origin of evil, for example, nor of the manner in which spirit acts upon matter, although we are convinced, by daily experience as well as by God’s constant declarations, that spirit does act upon matter. But while their power of observation was thus limited, many people, in their folly and presumption, refuse to acknowledge that there can be anything worthy of our attention which we cannot know, grasp, conceive, and measure with our finite capacity. If our knowledge was thus limited it is by no means wonderful that there are mysteries all around us mysteries, with reference to material things, and mysteries still more deep and unfathomable with reference to the realm of spiritual existence of which, as yet, we know so little. How foolish, therefore, are they who refuse to accept anything which lies beyond the measurement of their own finite capacity! People were constantly;met with who declined to accept anything which they could not understand, grasp, or be quite sure of. But they could not expect to do such a thing. We cannot delineate the countenance of God, or measure Him, because we know only dimly of what such a Being consists, and therefore with regard to all-things less than He Himself there' is still of necessity much of mystery in every realm and sphere of things, natural or supernatural, material or moral or spiritual, as the case may be. That being so, then we saw more clearly the folly of those who will only be guided by materialistic considerations. It might be well to glance at the different ideas existing in the world on these subjects. Thews were first of all those who denied the operations of God altogether, because they denied that there was any God to operate, in the realm of material things. Such people must declare that matter is eternal. They acknowledge its existence because, as they said, “we can touch it and see it.” They must also recognise the orderly arrangement of almost everything in the material world —the processions of the universe, the recurring seasons, the never-ending succession of summer and winter, of day and night, the fact that the planets do not overrun each other ; and they must imagine that all that order, which we are blind if we do not observe, is self-originated. Nay, if they think of themselves, they must acknowledge that without a God, man, with his conflicting emotions and often puzzling thoughts, is an inexplicable enigma to himself. Humanity is unexplained, and unexplainable, without a God, and the position of the Atheist is, therefore, a mere folly. Then there was a class of persons, who seemed to imagine that while there was undoubtedly a God, there was also a kind of second deity in the shape of Nature. God, they said in effect, has to do with eternity and the salvation of men’s souls, while the powers of Nature deal with things with which He does not concern Himself. Who is Nature ? Where does she dwell ? How came she to exist ? If they analysed the question, they would see the folly of those who take up this position. It was simply a revival of the Gnosticism of a bygone age—the embodiment of crude notions ■ exploded long ago. • Lastly, there are people who, while admitting that all things are from God, hold that he acted countless ages ago—that having originated law and order by a single effort of His will, He retired from all concern in that which he had made, and ceased to act. To maintain this was to deny the supreme attribute of God, who was the same to-day, yesterday and for ever. The clearest notion we have of Him, whether by direct revelation or through His works, isthat he is always working—supporting all things', governing all things, dwelling in all things, sustaining all things. We have not only to conceive that there must ever be deep mysteries beyond our power of comprehension,, but that they are always being revealed to us more and more by the action of God, either in nature around us, or by the operation of His spirit in our own hearts. We are bound to acknowledge Him as the oneruler and law-giver, and therefore dominant in all physical things, and though floods,, hurricanes, storms, and earthquakes seem to work destruction, we cannot deny that such things are within His power. Some people decline to believe this because, as they said, they could tell the reasons of these things—that if hot and cold currents of air came into contact, fain would be precipitated,, and the like. But it was one thing to know the secondary causes of the phenomena around us—it was another to perceive the Cause of causes ; and sciolists only exhibited, their own. want of knowledge when they mistook the instrumental for the operative cause. To make such a mistake was mere childishnesss. A child sees a train or steamer and assigns some cause for its movement, although it is ignorant of the actual cause. We may say that it is the machinery and the coal which cause a steamer to move, but these things have no originating power within themselves, and are of- no avail until man has lighted the fires and over-ruled the machinery. So with God and nature, and the things of nature. The things which we think are the actual causes of storms and floods are only the proximate, the mechanical causes, but all the real causes are of God’s own will.