Adventual Essays; Delivered at the Congress of the Parliament of Religions (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ESSAY I. BASIS OF FAITH. BY REV. W. J. HOBBS, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. FAITH. What do we mean by this word ? The lexicographers give us this definition: "Belief, the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared; reliance on testimony." "The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," is St. Paul's definition. In the nature of the case, with these definitions as our guide, nothing can be taken for granted; we must have testimony?evidence. Under these conditions we come to the propositions: Whence came I ? What am I ? Whither am I going? I look upon man and behold a wonderful mechanism. Man is a being truly and wonderfully made; his very being, organism and powers speak with no uncertain testimony that he is the handiwork of an Almighty Maker. When we consider his parts and their adaptability toeach other, and his powers of mind and body, he is really a lord of the creation in which he moves (though fearfully depraved). EVIDENCES IN CREATION. When we open our eyes to the wonders of creation about man, they speak again to our reasoning powers with a testimony that is unanswerable. Surely here is evidence of an Almighty Architect. Here is the work of God who is clearly seen, " Being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." Man, a being endowed with faculties of reason, sees in natural theology, or nature, testimony, unanswerable evidence, that there is a God. When man looks upon the world, its animals, vegetables and minerals; its rivers, lakes and seas; with its change of seasons and man's conquest over it, and sustenance drawn from it; the rivers and seas to float his commerce, material to satisfy his physical wants, with the longings of his mind for eternal existence, he logically assumes, with all the...