494 NATURE
NATURE
to God. this head.
Atheism dismisses the question by refusing to admit thatit hasa meaning. That there is no God, that there exists nothing but the successions and co- existences of phenomena, is the principle of specu- lative Atheism. Theoretically, there is no reason why Atheism should not recognize the free agency of man, and so admit the idea of nature in the second sense above described; but, as a matter of fact, Atheism is usually based on philosophical materialism, which can find no place for free will within its borders. That nature is self-created and self-acting is its fundamental thesis. Such a conception is utterly irreconcilable with religion in any true meaning of that ill-used word, and must not be further dealt with here.
But, granting the existence of a Supreme Person whose mind and purpose the operations of nature reflect, in what relation do we conceive Him to stand to the visible order of the world? The answer suggested by the first page of the Bible and by the first article of the Eitistian creeds is that He is its Creator, the ‘Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible’; ef. Gn }', Ex 20", Is 661, Jer 32!7, Ac 14%, Rev 411, The various ‘proofs’ of the existence of God, in particular that known as the ‘cosmological’ proof, are concerned with the justification to the intellect of this instinctive belief of mankind, which was present to the Hebrews, as it seems to have been preeene to every primitive race of men (see GOD).
ut this conception of God as the Creator of nature is not by itself a satisfying or complete conception of ate Supreme. God is not to be regarded, if we are to follow Scripture, only as an Infinite and All-holy Being on whom the world depends for its creation. Reason certainly requires as to believe that the Creator of nature tran- scends nature; but the heart is not satisfied until it recognizes God not only as the Great Artificer, but as the present source of the world’s life, as having entered into history, as never abandoning the universe which He has made. No one really cares to speculate about a Being who is relegated to an ever-receding past, an absentee Creator, pursuing (as it has ea said) an eternal policy of non-intervention.’ And yet such barren Deism is the logical outcome of exclusive attention to that conception of the Supreme which regards Him solely as transcending nature. This was the especial fault of most of the English theology of the 18th century, that it did not realize that (as Butler put it) God is no less nature’s Governor than its Author.
It is thus apparent wherein the imperfection in Paley’s famous illustration of the watchmaker and the watch consists. An artificer having once constructed a machine and set it going, leaves it to its own devices ; the more perfect the machine is, the less will interference necessary. But that is not a complete account of the relation of God to nature. The analogy breaks down hope- lessly in this respect, that nature is not only the creation of God ; it is also the sphere of His con- stant and beneficent activity. ‘Of him,’ but also ‘through him and unto him are all things’ (Ro
Something, therefore, must be said on
11%), And this conception of God as a Spirit dwelling in nature and manifesting Himself through nature is frequently expressed in Scrip-
ture. ‘Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence?’ asks the Psalmist. ‘If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there ; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me’ (Ps 1397"). Again, to the Psalmist
God is the continual spring of life: ‘Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; thou takest away their breath, they die’ (Ps 104). So also Elihu declares, ‘The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty giveth me life’ (Job 33). This conception of God, widely different from that taught by the Deism of the last century, is the conception which the progress of natural science and our increased iaiow bag of the secrets of nature is bringing more and more into promi- nence. That God is in natare as well as above nature, that He +. at once an Indwelling Spirit and a Transcendent Personality, is the true theistic doctrine of science. Nature does not work in- dependently of Him; all its operations are due to His ceaseless activity. He upholds ‘all things by the word of his power’ (He 15). The course of history is not a blind mechanical process of evolu- tion; ‘the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men’ (Dn 417).
This is well said in one of the authorized Homilies of the Church of England: ‘It is not to be thought that God hath created all this whole universal world as it is; and thus once made, hath given it up to be ruled and used after our own wits and device, and so taketh no more charge thereof; as we see the shipwright, after he hath brought his ship to a perfect end, then delivereth he to the mariners, and taketh no more care thereof. Nay, God hath not so created the world, that He is careless of it; but He still preserveth it by His goodness ; He still stayeth it in His creation. For else, without His specia goodness, it could not stand long in this condition.’ *