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Text
THE
SUPREME POWER
IN THE UNIVERSE.
BY
T. L. STRANGE.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS
SOOTT,
11 THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD, UPPER NORWOOD,
LONDON, S.E.
' .* '
1877.
Price Sixpence.
�LONDON :
FEINTED BY C. ~W. BEYNELL, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET,
HAYMARKET, W.
�THE
SUPREME POWER IN THE UNIVERSE.
--------_4_-------
HE subject upon which I venture to embark is
one which attracts the attention of every
earnest and reflecting mind, while it is apparent that
it involves considerations surpassing the powers of
the human intellect to apprehend or compass. The
finite cannot grasp the conditions of the infinite, and
yet the sense of the infinite forces itself upon us as
an imperious necessity. For example, we all see
that there must be an eternity of time and an infini
tude of space, because it is impossible that it should
be otherwise. Put time back to any limit, or space
to any bounds, and there must have been time and
space lying beyond the terms contemplated. And
there are other such conditions. Space must be
characterized by eternity equally as time, for such a
state as the absence of space is not imaginable. But
what does space involve ? It has been well observed
that the conception of “ nothingness ” is an impossi
bility. The space, therefore, in all its parts, muBt
have been occupied by something, and that some
thing we must accept as matter, however attenuated
in substance. Matter then has been eternal, as time
and space. But matter cannot be disassociated from
those properties which to our experiences are inherent
to it. That is, it must be what is capable of combina
tion, dissolution, and imparted motion. Being sus
ceptible of being acted upon by what is exterior to it,
it is fair to assume that what may operate upon it,
namely force or energy, is also vested with eternity.
Matter, occupying all space, and therefore immeasur
able in its possible dimensions, is also capable of being
brought to infinitesimal proportions. Reduce an atom
T
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The Supreme Power in the Universe.
to any scale, however minute, it cannot be denied
that with adequate means the process of reduction
may be continued perpetually. Thus time, space,
matter, the properties of matter in expansion and
divisibility, and force or energy, are all apparently
associated with infinitude. These are the circum
stances to be recognized in dealing with the important
■subject before us. Thegreat question to be consideredis
whether, beyond the elements sensibly working around
us, there is a higher power, supremely endowed, ope
rating in the universe and governing all things—a
power that has designed and constructed all that we
behold, and that directs all for the accomplishment of
intelligent ends ?
The bulk of mankind, deriving their ideas from
primitive and uninstructed times, have decided
this question by figuring to themselves an
imaginary being to take the place to be filled in
the constitution of the universe as its creator and
•ruler. They have formed this being, as might be
■expected, upon human models, in realization of human
standards of power and excellence, and its special
image is transmitted to them in company with the
'Country, language, and national sentiment with which
they happen to be personally linked. On the
other hand, among the thinking classes there is a
considerable and an increasing body who occupy
themselves with the finite, practically remitting what
is infinite to the precincts of the unreal. What they
can establish to the satisfaction of their senses, upon
positive experience, in connection with the operations
in nature taking place around them, they will ac
knowledge ; what cannot, in the same method and
■degree, be exactly demonstrated, they are content
either to disallow, or to disconnect themselves with
as to them unapproachable. They stand thus in the
opposite extreme to the emotional image worshipers.
But, in their process of negation, these would-be exact
thinkers may prove, possibly, to have placed them-
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
5
selves at greater disadvantage relatively to the truth
than those who have satisfied their desires with wellmeant but fanciful representations, transmitted to
them through ancestral channels, and accepted by
them without questioning.
In such an examination as the present, the
argument from design must assert itself, however
often it may hitherto have been presented, and, as
some think, disposed of. Admitting that there are lawsinherent in nature which must prevail to whatever
use natural materials may be put, we are to consider
how matter may be acted upon and turned to account
without invading these laws. Man works in this
manner with the substances around him, ever con
forming himself to the laws affecting matter, but
converting the substances operated upon, and sub
jecting them to endless combinations, in order toproduce in shape, colour, texture, and adaptabilityy
whatever he desires to effect and serve himself of.
He is able to act even upon organized forms, altering
and improving them within certain limits. Wild
grasses are turned by him into edible grain, sour or
tasteless fruits are developed into delicious products,
flowers are diversified in structure and colour, and
domestic animals are varied and brought to high
standards of excellence. Attention to natural courses
in culture, supplies of nutriment, and conservation of
species or breed, brings about these remarkable results.
Some particular form is aimed at, and in time the
growth is moulded to acquire it. Thus we have
grey-hounds, race-horses, toy-terriers, &c. A change
of colour in the feathers of pigeons, or an alteration
of their bony structures, Mr. Darwin informs us may
be obtained premeditatedly by the proper measures.
But there is a point beyond which the operations of
man cannot extend themselves. In the organic
world he can act upon what exists, inducing varieties,
but he can create nothing. He cannot project
novel forms, or command the sources of life. He
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can improve but not originate. He cannot even con
ceive a new shape for an animal or a plant, but has
ever to . draw his ideas from existing shapes. The
objects in nature, organized and unorganized, are
endlessly diversified, but he is incapable of suggesting,
far less of producing and adding to these groups, one
purely original structure.
’
In the natural forms there are obvious evidences
of design and adaptation meeting us at every turn,
pointing to some unrevealed power that has planned
and executed the whole. Each object has its appro
priate place, and is surrounded by what is suitable
and necessary to it. Plants propagate themselves by
methods established for them, and take up nutriment
from the soil, the air, and the water supplies, by means
of organs provided them, and assimilate this and con
vert it into their various tissues by instrumentalities
specially constructed for such purpose. Great are
the diversities in the vegetable kingdom, but each
member of the innumerable family keeps its appointed
place and grade. The rose never has the sting of the
nettle, or the proportions of the lordly denizen of the
forest. The fig-tree does not produce the grape, or
the grape the thistle. The projected order is pre
served as by the edict and hand of a law-giver.
Though each form has apparently similar constituent
parts, none of these go astray to invade or disarrange
existing species. A plant is not engrafted on an
animal, nor a bird or fish upon a quadruped. Among
the animal tribes the evidences of what is entitled to
be called design are still more precise. These are put
together with complicated arrangements of articulated
bones, ligaments, vessels, fibres, and external cover
ings, all indispensable to the objects so provided, and
not to be interfered with, injured, or removed, with
out entailing serious sufferings and risks to the being
so operated upon. They are capable of locomotion
and volition. Some move on earth, some in air, some
in the waters, and they are specially framed for their
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
7
respective elements. Appropriate food supplies are
provided them on which they can feed and sustain
their bodily frames. The adaptability of the sexes,
their propensity for each other, the care of offspring,
the instrumentalities given for attack and defence,
and the sagacity and methods of confederated com
munities such as the bees, ants, and beavers, exhibit
the agency of a designing, controlling, and protect
ing power in operation to fit them in organization and
■endowment for the ends of their existence.
In the highest of these vitalized forms, namely
mankind, there are superadded the manifestations of
mind, with the emotions and moral perceptions, to a
degree to set this race on a level of their own, and
give them the supremacy over all that is around them.
The intellect of man examines all things, weighs
consequences, draws conclusions, shapes therefrom
designed courses calculated to attain desired ends,
and stores, imparts, and thus perpetuates its acqui
sitions, raising ever to higher and higher standards
the fabric of human knowledge and excellence. Ad
vancing from what we can judge to have been the
condition of one in the stone age, living in caves,
clothing himself with the skins of animals, and occu
pying himself with but little else than the means of
satisfying his physical wants in the coarsest manner,
we see man in the present day raised to a compara
tively high level through the exercise of the faculties
with which he stands provided. He has surrounded
himself with conveniences and luxuries of habitation,
food, and clothing, and stored himself abundantly
with resources to minister to his ease, enjoyment, and
pleasure ; he enlarges his mind with useful and agree
able knowledge; he transports himself from place
to place, by land and water, in luxurious vehicles
anrl vessels moved without effort from himself, and
sends his messages, to whatever distances, with, a
speed resembling that of the lightning; he. supplies
himself with fuel, metals, and other materials, from
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The Supreme Power in the Universe.
the bowels of the earth, pierces mountains to forge
passages through them, spans rivers with roadways,
and transforms the surfaces of the earth to suit his
convenience and secure his ends; his skill sets at
nought physical difficulties, and his power is multi
plied thousands of fold by mechanical means adjusted
to meet with accuracy every purpose ; he exa-mi-neg
nature in her grandest and minutest forms by aids
enormously surpassing the measure of his natural
visual organs ; he analyses everything, ascertaining
its properties to serve himself of them; thus he puts
to use all that he comes in contact with, expanding
his knowledge and improving his status; he en
deavours to understand himself as well as all with
which he is associated; and in this pursuit he is ever
conscious of conditions that transcend the powers of
his apprehension, speaking to him of a supremacy of
knowledge, power, and goodness surpassing the ut
most limits of his conceptions.
Though the universe, in respect of time, space,
matter, and force, is constituted with infinitude, the
objects coming under our observation, one and all, it
is apparent, are of finite order. Whatever may be
their endings, it may be concluded that all have had
their beginnings. The orbs in space express to us
forms obtained by consolidation of matter. We see
vast nebulae floating about in shapeless masses, and
observe some of them in spiral motion, apparently
undergoing conversion into globes such as belong to
our own methodized system. The spectroscope re
veals to us that other spheres are constituted with
materials similar to our own; all seem to be governed
by the same laws, and the presumption is that all
have had a like origin. The crust of the earth speaks
to us of development by superadded matter, ever ad
vancing the capabilities of our globe. At first no
life existed on it; then the waters gave forth marine
products; then dry land appeared and terrestrial
products were generated; and the advance was
�The Supreme Po-wer in the Universe.
9
ever made from inferior to superior conditions, until
at length the stage of excellence in which we stand
was arrived at. Within some circumscribed period,
during the immeasurable expanse of time, everything
we behold, from the vastest orbs in the heavens to
the minutest objects upon earth, has had its beginning.
How have these forms been devised and projected,
with their successions and diversities, and their adap
tations each to its place and sphere ? If the proper
ties in matter were left to uninfluenced operation,
what could have resulted but shapeless combinations
and disruptions effected with ever recurring same
ness ? Could there have been changes of scene and
the constant introduction therein of fresh actors of
endlessly varied form and diversified characteristics ?
Could these have sprung into being, each from its
origin outlined and suitably and adequately endowed
for the position it had to fill ? And could all have
been arranged from the first in nicely-adj us ted correspondence with well-contrived, instrumentalities and
intelligently directed action ? It seems impossible,
with any degree of fairness, to attribute to insentient
matter such high results. Matter is but ingredient
constituted to be put to use by composition. It obeys
the control exercised over it by applied power, as in
stanced in the industrial works of man. In the
sphere that lies beyond his ability to influence, has
it been its own ruler, with capacity to originate diver
sities, fitting these with complicated appliances
specially constituted to secure definite ends ? We see
no signs anywhere, in the well-ordered and compre
hensive system in which we stand, of fortuitous or
eccentric results, of tentative efforts, or failures, and
the conclusion should be inevitable that chance opera
tions of insentient matter have nowhere prevailed,
but that all has been due to intelligence accomplish
ing predetermined ends in supremacy of wisdom and
of power.
_
The operations of man within the range of his
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The Supreme Power in the Universe.
means afford indications how, possibly, higher mani
festations, lying beyond the limits of his powers,
may have been brought about. The materials of
which all organized forms are composed exist abun
dantly in the treasuries of nature. In some manner
these are brought together and formulated into living
plants and animals, and again the tie that unites the
■components is severed and they fall into their former
separated or atomic condition. Man, making use
of the materials around him, applies these, according
to their properties and adaptabilities, to develop,
alter, and improve living organisms. He acquires
by experience a knowledge of what these substances
■are capable, and, putting them to use, advances
gradually to perfect his ends. He thus effects very
remarkable changes of form and character in the
objects operated upon, so that the original types
become scarcely recognizable. The process through
which the added matter on these forms is imposed
and incorporated, may be that by which their primi
tive constructions were framed and realized, namely,
the designed use, application, and consolidation,
of those materials of which, at their dissolution,
they are seen to have been composed. If thoughtful
supplies and adaptations are necessary to vary and
improve the plant and animal, thoughtful adaptations
and compositions, it seems fair to conclude, have
been necessary for the formation of the original
structures.
The conditions of life and thought claim special
attention. Some suppose that they are generated
in matter, occurring from its associated properties,
while others maintain they must be derived from
some superior source lying beyond the range of our
observation, and that the material combinations of
which we know are merely channels and instruments
through which the life and the thought act and are
exhibited. The appeal to experience gives us no aid
in arriving at the former conclusion, while, as far as
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
11
it goes, it supports the latter. We see and are
conscious of the operating processes, while of the
sources of life and of thought we have no know
ledge. The manifested action depends upon the
character and condition of the instrumentality, but
we have no means of satisfying ourselves that the
instrumentality generates the action. Where the
organization is feeble, injured, or otherwise defective,
the expression of life, motion, and thought will be
correspondingly lowered, distorted, or imperfect.
A crooked or injured limb will assuredly exhibit
lameness, and a mal-organization or lesion of the
brain weak or perverted thought; and with degenera
tion of thought disturbance of the moral senses may
ensue. But it would be an obvious error to attribute
the source of motion, whatever its character, dis
torted or otherwise, to the limb itself; and equally
may it be viewed as error to ascribe the source of
thought, whether acting normally or abnormally, to
the tissues of the brain. There comes a moment
when the connection between the life and the
thought with the physical organization is snapped,
the latter being left and the former gone, and
then it should become evident that the sentient
properties stand with an origin independent of the
frame which has been once their habitation but has
ceased to hold them.
The prevalence of centralization in the orderings
of nature is a circumstance bearing upon the present
inquiry. The sun visibly rules the movements of
our globe and its associated planets, and, it may be
judged, is the source of supply of their most
important necessities. In like manner the principal
planets rule the movements of their satellites. The
sun, revolving on its centre, is apparently under the
governance of some superior sphere situated in the
expanse beyond it. The solar system, and the
countless orbs in space, are thought to be circling
round some common centre. The mineral, vegetable,
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The Supreme Power in the Universe.
and animal kingdoms are held within their proper
bounds, and every species connected with them has
its limits which cannot be transgressed. Each
organized object, whether plant or animal, has some
inward power caring for its existence, ministering to
its . wants, and directing it in efforts for its good.
Is it to be supposed that the law of centralization is
wanting Just where it is most required, and that the
great universe, with its multifarious and complicated
contents and arrangements, all working together in
associated regulation and mutuality of support, is left to
the influence of laws acting casually and independently
in matter without any central governor to watch
over and direct the whole ? Could the well-appointed
system, with all its diversified and orderly details,
which we witness, have resulted from natural forces
abandoned to fortuitous action ? And, were such
the process, should we not have seen tame uniformity
commonly prevailing, varied with confused inter
mixtures and calamitous catastrophes ?
When it is maintained that there is a power, the
author of all the structures we behold, having all in
his keeping and under his governance, and standiug
thus, in a measure, responsible for whatever is and
whatever happens, it is constantly objected, in view
of surrounding evil, weakness, and misery, that, per
mitting or necessitating such results, he cannot be
possessed of those attributes of perfect wisdom, capa
bility, and goodness, which should belong to such a
being, and which are universally ascribed to the
Creator by those who recognize his existence.
It is apparent, when we contemplate the circum
stances of our globe, that it has attained its existing
condition through a process of advancement from low
to higher results. It was, seemingly, shapeless
nebula, till consolidated into its present form; at first
it was without life upon its surfaces, then came
marine organizations, and afterwards those that are
terrestrial. The primitive was not the perfected con-
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
13
flition, but all had to be developed through graduated
elaborations. Man himself forcibly illustrates this
principle in nature of progress from inferior to
superior stages. He has had to better himself
as to his food, clothing, habitation, conveniences,
knowledge, by exercising intelligent industry, all
that he requires having to be wrought out by his
own exertions, where nothing was presented to him
ready fashioned for his use. And as he has had to
provide for his physical wants, so also has he had to
minister to those demanded by his intellectual and
moral constitution.
In the processes of the physical advancements in
nature, it is remarkable how, by an evident law, one
object serves itself of others for purposes of self
advantage. The minerals and the gases of the
atmosphere feed upon allied substances, disintegrating
and absorbing matter standing in affinity to them;
the vegetables appropriate what they require from
the minerals and the atmosphere, adding their
acquisitions to their own systems ; and the animals
freely consume the vegetables, and also devour one
another, none being more destructive of lower life
than the intelligent beings standing at the head of
the created forms. To accomplish such ends in the
vegetable kingdom, leaves and rootlets, acting as
absorbents, are supplied, and in the animal, muscles,
talons, and fangs; while man is endowed with inge
nuity enabling him to fashion weapons, placing all
other living beings at his mercy. If we are to object
to evil and suffering in the world, the weak falling
sacrifices to the strong, consistency would require us
to demand that an end should be put to all these
operations whereby the superior orders receive their
supplies at the expense of the inferior.
Another objection taken is that the exercise of
free-will by man interferes with the idea entertained
of an omnipotent Creator. If man, it is observed,
is a free agent, he cannot be under the control of a
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The Supreme Power in the Universe.
supreme director; if not a free agent he is not a
responsible being. The attribute of free-will, or some
thing analogous thereto, belongs to spheres below that
of the human race. Wherever there is independent
action, there is an operation resembling, however
distantly, the expression of will in man. The attrac
tions and repulsions in organic matter act with
invariable certainty, and so far these substances may
be said to be left to their own courses. In organic
forms these properties take the shape of the affections
and antipathies, inducing the correspondent action of
love and hatred. The plants have a faculty resem
bling the will of animals whereby they may be said
to govern themselves for their good. They extend
their branches in the direction of the light, courting
its influences, and their roots in that of their nutri
ment ; trees will incline their stems so as best to
resist, prevailing winds, and the sensitive plant
exhibits aversion to touch such as might characterize
one of the animal tribe. Every animal, however low
in type, has the means of selecting and appropriating
what is calculated to serve for its sustenance, and it
is only specimens of the very lowest order which have
not liberty to move about as they may please. We
see among them, as plainly as in mankind, the exer
cise of the affections, the display of the antipathies,
sexual and parental love, rapaciousness in securing
their prey, or ingenuity in avoiding seizure, the whole
being manifestations of free-will operating among
them within the bounds of their natural capacities.
In man the scope of the will has more extended
action. Where the creature is low in scale its wants
are limited, and its occasions for ruling itself are
proportionately few, and therewith its liability to
error is reduced. The animals are therefore com
monly governed by a faculty of nearly unerring
quality, which we term instinct rather than rea
son. When there is the gift of high intelligence,
as in man, the field of the wants and the temptations
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
15
is greatly enlarged, and he being left to fulfil his
desires through the exercise of his mental endow
ments, the risk of misdirecting himself is propor
tionately increased. He is conscious of two powers
within him, the one inclining him to what is right,
the other to what is wrong ; and his judgment is apt
to form erroneous conclusions respecting matters on
which it is exercised. Thus, while animals, as a rule,
are seen shaping their way in a natural and healthy
manner, man is liable to misuse his powers and to
plunge himself habitually into what is detrimental to
him. The question is how far the supreme Creator
and director contemplated can be held responsible
for the evil with which mankind are associated.
The laws of nature, whereby mankind have to rule
themselves, are so unvarying in their constitution,
that they cannot be broken without entailing, to a
certainty, corresponding unfavourable results. If
man, exercising his reason and free-will, misjudges
these laws, or disregards them, be it in ignorance or in
hardihood, he brings upon himself, inevitably, the
consequences attaching to the violation. If he walks
heedlessly into a river or over a precipice, his life is
endangered or destroyed ; if he deliberately puts his
finger into the fire he is burnt, or into a snake’s mouth
poisoned. He feels himself free to do all this or to
abstain from so doing. If he habitually gorges him
self with unwholesome food his health will suffer;
if he constantly inebriates himself his entire system
will be overthrown. The moral constitution, equally
as the physical, has its laws which cannot be invaded
with impunity. The man addicted to lying, stealing,
lust, violence, or any vice, debases himself, wounds
his conscience, forfeits his own self-esteem, and is
despised and avoided by all the respectable portion of
his fellow-creatures. He unfits himself for any honest
pursuit, is trusted by none, and becomes amenable to
the offended laws of his country. Unhappily the
degeneration of the parent, whether physically or
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morally, may be transmitted to his stock, and much
of man’s infirmities and obliquities belong to him
constitutionally through ancestral influences. Some
of his forefathers have disobeyed the laws of nature
in their own persons, and the injurious consequences
have been transmitted to their offspring. Much
depravity is also induced by the force of circum
stances and of example, whereby the individual is
enslaved in early youth before he has had sense or
fortitude to resist surrounding influences or assert
his independence. It is then asked, in respect of the
asserted author of our beings, whether, if not directly
responsible for the evil invading man, he is not so
indirectly, from having involved man in conditions to
incur the evil, and formed him weak and liable to be
prejudicially acted upon, duped, and betrayed into
what is hurtful to him ?
The answer to this question may perhaps be best
given by suggesting the converse of the condition
objected to. To be insusceptible of evil, man must
be so constituted as not to admit of evil invading
him, and the elements must be restrained from in any
way presenting evil to him. To fulfil the conditions
demanded, man must be established perfect in wis
dom, knowledge, and power, or, in a word, placed on
a level with his contemplated maker. The world,
and all connected therewith, must be altered to suit
beings so privileged. There must be no extremes of
climate, no storms, floods, or earthquakes ; water
must not drown, fire must not burn, food must be
never otherwise than beneficial, and all poisons must
be expelled; the animals must be harmless to man
and to each other, sustaining themselves in some
wholly innocuous manner, or rather made capable of
living without reducing other elements to destruc
tion, vegetal or animal, for the sake of supporting
themselves; there must be no catastrophes or acci
dents of any description, and death itself, with its
attendant debility to the dying man, and woe to the
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
17
survivors, must be abolished. Thus the arrangements
of the creation must be put aside, and an entirely
new system introduced, in order that man may be
preserved free of the possibility of experiencing evil.
And what would be gained by the change ? There
•would be no sense of right and wrong where wrong
could have no room; there would be no appreciation
of virtue or wisdom where there was no vice and no
folly; all being perfect in body and mind, none
could require anything of another; there would be
no sympathies, no interchange of thought, no
stimulus to exertion ; all would be on the dead level
of unalterable equality.
The tenets of the Christians and the Secularists
leave both parties without the means of accounting
for existing evil. The Christians consign the greater
part of mankind to everlasting torment, whatever
they may have suffered on earth, making the very
existence of these rejected ones a continuous expres
sion of unrelieved and aimless evil; the Secularists,
seeing no future for man, leave all present evil ulti
mately remediless. The race, they say, may improve
in the course of ages to an infinite extent, but for
individual suffering in the meanwhile there is no
compensation ; and bitter are their complaints against
the ordering of creation which entails such results.
But if it may be believed that there is a future in store
for man, and that the entire race have been created
for final good, there are considerations, of an obvious
character, to clear the question of its difficulties.
Every transgression against the laws of nature,
physical and moral, being followed by disadvantage
ous and frequently painful consequences, it is appa
rent that the sufferings induced are designed to guide
the individual to other courses not entailing such
consequences ; that is, the evil visits the transgressor
for the purposes of correction and instruction, and
thus is enforced a system consistent with the pre
sumption that man has been created for good and
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The Supreme Power in the Universe.
not for evil; and as the desired results are not secured
in this life, it also becomes reasonably probable that
a future state of existence, when he has ended his
days on earth, is awaiting him, wherein the fruits of
his discipline will become apparent, and the training
needful for him be carried on continuously. Free-will,
within certain bounds, is thus necessary to man to
allow of the treatment in aid of his moral culture to
which he is subjected being maintained. If he could
not take action with spontaneity for his own govern
ance, he would be a mere automaton, executing his
appointed offices, but learning nothing. But with
liberty of action permitted him, and the consequences
of acting rightly or wrongly brought home to his ex
periences, the course of instruction necessary for his
advancement is plainly instituted. If his welfare
consists in his directing himself due north, every
deflection to the east or the west carries him out of
his way. Were no bad consequences to ensue from
his taking a wrong direction, he would pursue it to the
end and never reach his proper destination; but when
evil comes upon him at his first step in a wrong line,
he receives a warning which should arrest his course
and induce him at once to turn to a better path. The
process speaks of a moral governor and director pre
siding over human conduct and interests. The indi
vidual is subjected to constant discipline, here and
probably hereafter, in view of elevating his nature
and fitting him to be a recipient of boundless blessing.
To pause upon the circumstances of this fleeting life
and pass thereupon an ultimate judgment, is an
obvious mistake, if there is such a future before us ;
and without such future it is impossible to understand
why the discipline undergone should have been im
posed. We may take an illustration from the culti
vation of the vine. Its shoots are pruned away, its
roots are laid bare to the cold of winter, offensive
refuse is presented to it for its sustenance, and its
first efforts at production are balked, its clusters
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
19
being nipped off and cast away as rubbish. At this
time, any one ignorant that there was a future
for the plant, would say an enemy is dealing with it;
but when at a later period it is seen spreading itself
around, its branches covered with luscious fruit, the
mystery is cleared up, and it is found to have ever been
in the hands of one caring for it, aiming at its good,
and knowing effectually how to attain his end. The
sour and uninviting wild grape, through the treat
ment it has undergone in interference with its natural
impulses, has been converted, by seemingly harsh but
really beneficial measures, into the first of fruits. In
like manner the gold, if it had a voice, might com
plain of the furnace of the refiner, while the process
for its purification is but a passing stage, necessary to
have it accepted and put to use as the most precious
of the metals. Just so is it with the human race, who
have to be advanced through the school of suffering
from their original low standard, scarcely lifting
them above the brutes around them, to the expression
of the highest excellence. To be turned from error
they have to be made sensible of the painful results
induced by error, and their spirits have to be lowered
and rendered ductile, apprehensive, and teachable;
and each has to learn his lessons for himself. A father
would gladly transfer to his son the advantage of the
experience he has earned, but the son would then be
a mere copy of the father, whereas, to be stable, he
must have a character of his own ; and it is only by
his individual training that this can be sealed to him
and be made to him an enduring benefit.
Is man, in the onward path marked out for him,,
which he has to pursue under such constant attention
to the circumstances in his way, left altogether to his
own resources unwatched and uncared for by any supe
riordirector? Is it in his case an assiduously maintained
culture unfollowed by a harvest ? Does he strive, at
whatever sacrifice, for spiritual advancement, and end
by obtaining no recognition? There are fields of know-
�20
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
ledge, apparent to him, lying beyond the reach even
of his apprehension. The conditions of measureless
expanses of time and space, and infinite resources of
matter and power, occur to him as necessities, but he
is unequal to grasp and comprehend such circum
stances. As he examines the roots of things he finds
himself incapable of fathoming any of them. He can
observe with tolerable accuracy immediate causes, but
the ultimate causes are always out of his reach. He
knows not how his food is assimilated, how life
enters his own or any other system, how any seed or
ovum fructifies and is developed into its appropriate
form. There are then founts of knowledge, of which
he is conscious, but which are unapproachable to him
in his present state of constitution. In the moral
field his apprehensions and desires are equally high
and aspiring, and his capacity for attaining the ends
he has in view in like manner limited and insufficient.
He can conceive standards of excellence too exalted
to be reached by any human effort. Govern himself
how he will he is always sensible of shortcomings.
He knows he might do better, but his inadequate
powers prevent his acting up to his recognized prin
ciples. He has aspirations of an indefinable nature,
proper to himself, in which others, whatever their ex
periences or maturity, are ill-qualified to take part.
These are the struggles of the inner man for expan
sion, recognition, satisfaction, which can be directed
only to some quarter external to and above himself,
where he may claim sympathy and support, and be
sure of being met and dealt with free of risk of mis
apprehension. Is there such a quarter in the unseen
world to which he may go for the relief and supply of
those his ultimate needs that he fully feels can never
be met and satisfied in any other direction ?
We are conscious, in our own systems, that mind
has command over matter, the direction of our
thoughts and studies, every movement of our limbs,
every action of which we are capable, being initiated
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
11
and regulated by the power o£ will implanted m us.
One of superior will, intellect, or tone of feeling,
readily impresses and influences those around him,
and there are occasions when the dominion of ope
mind over other minds is evidently exerted with in
tention and success. If the physical forms around us
have been devised and put together by some unseen
constructor qualified to accomplish his designs in
whatever he thus undertakes, may we not believe that
those higher faculties belonging to man, his intelli
gence, emotions, and moral sentiments, which are not
accidents of his nature, but belong to all m various
degrees, under an universal law, proceed from a like
source and are subjected to a like governing agency t
And as the physical man is sustained by resources of
supply outside himself, may we not conclude that the
inner man, equally requiring sustenance and growth,
receives supports from a direction external to his
System, and is in the hands of a superior power,
cognizant of his wants, and ever ministering to him
for his good ?
.
•
i
The conscience is a faculty influencing our moral
condition, the existence of which all must recognize.
Fairly and honestly used its dictates will ever be in
the right direction, nor are its indications given in
uncertainty or weakened by compromise. As if by
the finger of a supreme director, . to the true anc*earnest seeker the proper path will be pointed out
and commended for adoption. And if the indications
given are disobeyed, ordinarily the thoughts of the
disobedient will be troubled till they yield and pursue
the course they are made to feel is the right one. If,
however, the teachings of the inward monitor are set
at nought, its action becomes weakened, the moral
perceptions are obscured or perverted, and the indivi
dual sinks into indifference or degradation; but the
witness is merely quelled and silenced, not absolutely
extinguished, the conscience of the most hardened
being always susceptible of awakenment by some
�22
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
visitation lowering and searching out his spirit,
or by some monition and appeal addressed to him
reaching his inmost apprehension. Is not this re
markable property, which< is common to man, just
such a medium as a superior power may make use of
to come into contact with us in order to stimulateour thoughts and direct our actions for our ultimate
good ?
It must in the end be conceded that whatever has
been offered in these pages as reasonable possibilities,
can only be accepted properly by those who are able
to believe and act upon the conditions spoken of. If
the Creator is to work sensibly upon the creature, it
is a first necessity that the existence of such a beinoas the Creator should be recognized. There are
multitudes who avow that there is such a being, but
who approach the subject no further. Theirs is an
acknowledgment based upon no personal persuasion,
but such as is merely due to the prevalence of com
mon consent. The Securalist may be forgiven for
challenging a creed not supported by better founda
tions, especially when it is seen to take its shape from
the crude anthropomorphic models of the ancients.
To feel that there is such a power as I presume to
point to, the sense of his being must be expressed by
habitual dependence upon his rule. He does not
show his hand to those who are not prepared to take
home to themselves the fact of his interpositions.
Nor can any trace his dealings in discipline of their
spirits who have not submitted their interests to his
direction and keeping.
The whole race, laden with infirmities and sur
rounded by temptations, are in a position to requirethe ruling hand of this supreme and infallible director,
and access to him must therefore be free to all.
There can be no gate to be closed or opened, the
mere circumstances of existence giving all a title to
approach their Creator, and receive at his hands the
satisfaction of their wants. Addressing themselves
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
23
to the same being, the experiences of all resorting to
him, should be, and are, necessarily alike. And alike
also are their ultimate hopes. Setting aside all
artificial distinctions, and fancied stepping-stones,
deliverance from evil, and establishment in final
blessing, are the aims, in all their several forms of
worship of the devout, whatever their denominations,
whether Catholic, Protestant, Theist, Jew, Mahommedan, or Pagan. A common creed, based upon
natural and universal testimonies, awaits the accept
ance of mankind when they may bring themselves
to be satisfied with it—a creed full and comprehen
sive ; sufficing for every need and every desire;
giving no room, when once apprehended, on which
doubt, distrust, or divison can find a standing place ;
round which the whole race may range themselves
in assured union ; resting on foundations wide
-enough for all, adaptable to all, and which can be
disturbed only when the universe itself, with all its
associated conditions, is overthrown. It is a belief
that the Almighty Being standing as the author and
the ruler of all is our ever-present and unalterable
friend. Such a confidence should reconcile us to
every form of temporal evil, and bind us together in
the recognition of a brotherhood rooted in him—often
professed, but hitherto never realized. Every other
creed yet resorted to has introduced some inter
mediate agency, a circumstance necessarily occasioning
isolation, and promoting discord. This creed alone
is stamped with simplicity, grandeur, universality, and
every element of demonstrable truth ; suitable to the
merest child; sufficient for the most matured and en
lightened intellect; and holding out considerations and
prospects to tranquillize and satisfy every mind. It
provides the one who is governed by it with
grounds to reconcile him to the present life and its
manifold ills, and hopes to cheer and support him in
view of a life that has to come. The Secularist is
without either source of consolation ; evils unredressed
�24
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
embitter the thoughts he has of existing conditions,
and a future is not before him. The artificial creeds,
it is now apparent, cannot stand the knowledge of
the day, and are being manifestly subverted. It be
comes ns to supply their place with sufficiently broad
and solid foundations. We must not be content to
recognize and obey the intellect and disown the
emotional part of our systems, any more than we
should think of feeding the emotions at the expense
of the intellect. The whole man must be met in all
his requirements, and the sense that we are in the
hands of a beneficent creator, under training for
future blessing, is that which alone can compass us
in our varied conditions, remove all difficulties in our
paths, and fulfil our every need. If this be the true
faith, to this faith we may rest assured we all shall
come. Then the world at large will be introduced
to confidences and hopes it has never had, and its
advancement in all that should characterize it as the
work of him who has made it, will, it may be safely
concluded, be fairly initiated and prosper onwards
and for evermore.
PRINTED BY C. W. RBYNELL, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET, HAYMARKET.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The supreme power in the universe
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Strange, Thomas Lumisden
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 24 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Printed by C.W. Reynell, Little Pulteney Street, London. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Thomas Scott
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1877
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5522
Subject
The topic of the resource
Cosmology
Theism
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The supreme power in the universe), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Space and Time
Theism-History of Doctrines
Universe