" Omnipotent."

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3208, 31 May 1879, Page 4

" Omnipotent."

Half tlie. jdifficulties ".which lio ill., tbe Way of believing in a Personal God as the Ruler as well as the Creator of the universe are of our own making. They are wholly gratuitous, and arise out of, the inconsiderate and unwarranted use of a single word— Omnipotent Thoughtful minds in all ages Lave experienced the most painful pcrplcxitios in the attempt to reconcile certain of the moral and physical phenomena we sec around us with the the assumption of a Supremo Being- at once All-wise, 'AH-jjooo^and Almighty. The mental history* of mankind presents few gadder spectacles than is afforded by the acrobatic efforts, the' convulsive contortions, thealmostincredi- 1 ble feats of subtlety and-force, performed by piety and intelligence combined in,this self-imposed field of conflict—this torturechamber of tho souli Thousand*}have there made shipwreck of k ,their - faith— thousands of their truthfulness f and candour — thousands upon thousands of their.^pQaco of mind. When tho, ac? tual facts of the 'moral and the natural world came-to be" fully * recognised and understood, it was felt to be inconceivable how or why "Infinite Love should have created a scene + qf, teeming life, of. which the most saliohfc" .feature' if universal conflict and universal slaughter —every organic being ceaselessly occupied in trampling down or devouring its neighbor, and dependent for its own existence uporrtloing this successfully. It was- felt 1o Ue* dually'in comprehensible that Infiv nite Goodness and- Illimitable Power shojjld have created a world so rife with evit-rinto which evil entered so easily, and ruled 1 with so' predominent a sway. The origin and rneaniDg of evil, its whence-and its why, has always been the crux 1 of the sincerest and profoundest thinkers—the insoluble problem of humanity. It has scattered those who have tried to master it as widely as the fabled Tower of Babel. Some it has driven into Atheism ; some into Manicheism ; some into, denials of tho most obvious "facts of life-and nature ; some info the betrayals of |he ■ mobt • fundamental principles; .of morality.; some into elaborate schemes of damnation and redemption, which to un-, perverted minds seem almost 'blasphe* xnous in their audacity. That I problem is .insoluble. " Nature, never truly set us such contradictions to reco'ncileT 'The conditions of the real problem "'have been incorrectly stated. What' 1 stateable reason, what "quotable warrant have we for 1 assuming that the' Creator; was, or that the Supreme Being is, ?" The word originally implied no accurate -logical ( conception^of absolute or unlimited power; ,'but was used ito express relative rather than a positive idea. It was a natural and a fitting repithct to use towards, or of, a, Being ™hose power, as compared with that of man, was simply immeasurable and incalculable; -\ and -/might ■-therefore' iv ordinary parlance bo called " Infinite." Those who first used it and those who adopted'it never thought of defining the word ; aad, never straining their,imaginatton to dream of boundaries or limitations, spoke easily of the boundless' and illimitable; while the incurable vulgar disposition of uncivilised minds to flatter the* object cf their worship came in aid of the expression, till by degrees the loose language of an -age which defined nothing was invested with the rigid formalism of an age which sought to define'everything, and the'vague"description of poetic piety became the hard and therefore false dogma of the Scholastic creed. That omnipotence, in the precise, absolute, metaphysical' meaning of the word, should ever Jiave been accepted as an indisputable and essential attribute of the Deity, is. one of^the most .curious instan<jjsi; {imobgst=tl^nSilti3{|phi^^yJb.j|\ traced, of the fatal facility with which" in theological fields one age-blindly, thoughtlessly, and umnquiringly adopts the notions oS'its predecessor. •■ '• Yet do divines even now, when they give thdmse'lvAS'' the to question their own minds on the subject, really and in very truth attribute absolute omnipotence^to,, the Supreme Being;? -;jDo tl*ey believe 1 that 'He * can combine' "-iniiereht contradictions? That. He};can enable a human creature to be in two places at the sanjejinstant of time ? If He cannot do these things, then He works..and livei undejj limitations and ; and we require 1 lib furtherOcohcessibn '■ttiacf fftriii< to deprive the problem of, the existence of eviV of li'alf its gloom ' and difficulty, and. though not to ,solve it, at lea&tto indicate that if. is not 'mherelitly insoluble. We have only to conceive the Creator, immeasurably, incalculably wise,, beneficent and mighty—good; and powerful'; to, a degree which,, in reference igl human: beings, may fairly be .called/infinite ; but still " conditioned ">— hampered,, it may be,, by the attributes, qualities, imperfections of the material on which/he, has to operate; bound possibly by laws or properties inherent.in the nature of the material—and we descend, so to speak, into abreathable intellectualatmosphere |t once. Wfen'eed not attempt to conjecture what, those fettering.l aws or. '''eitit'rlbutei may, be j we have only! to suppps^;'their; existence—a suppositibn/»r,tOTayac,i"e"Biari('ly'; more probable than its opppsite^and^it becomes possible at once to believe in and. to worship, God, without doing violence to our moral sense, or denying or distorting the sorrowful facts that surround-our daily life.—" Enigmas of Life."—W. R. GBEG;i • ' •■'■'"'■■ i■• ;:■■•■•• /.•.- .v; ■•r.'j r ; jii«sl)

The change in the nomenclature of one part of Victoria is full of significance. The district in which 'the,Kellys are at large is now called the " Kelly country,'' and an up-country paper attributes the non-success that has attended the efforts to capture the gang to the fact that the inhabitants of ; the 'district are 'deming a large profit from supplying the 300' policemen 1 arid the'many horses' which are engaged in the chase. This small army has proved quite a mine, for the farmers, selectors, and business people generally. A tall of earth occurred in the claim nt Bald Hills, near Addison's Flat, on Wednesday, killing a man named Banquolini, and injuring F. l>esODza. IToitoway's Ointment akd Phis.—An infallible icmedy for bad Legs and afj iinds of Wounds —The surprising eale 7 of these in--valuable *in< dicines in every part of the c'ivilißtd woria in tl c niOßt convincing proof of tbeir efltctiry. rlhcy speedily cure bad legs, old-wound?, scrofulu, and discuses of: the skin/ ThoußundH ol pdfoiiH Milloiing fioin theao drcadiul liialadiea h.xvo been cured by tHem utter every other meanl} hud failed'; and it rt T a fact beyond all doubt thut fhcre is no iintd houjbyer obetmate or long standing, bat muj be qnjtkl;. r< IrvuJ and ulUiiultlj cu^x-U »by tlje i</ fuJ ifiediQinto.. .. „/4.Lur united attioft 13 mtfliatibL; ruoie lined aolf Le sai<^ m praiaf ox tbt.-e ttltbrated Pills. Let tbose who doubt tbeir e-xfellencc- give them atriul.