404
Fa mi in Gon a nkokssity to human socikty.
Vol. vu,
.ing the soul of culture, refinement, pleas
ure and art into an arena of blood, lust,
and blasphemy startled and appalled the
civilized world. Paris became like the
.Colosseum, when eighty thousand people
men and women looked down upon
nine thousand wild beasts, tearing each
other, and with delight heard their min
gled cries of rage and pain. Or when the
Atheistic rovolcrs feasted their eyes and
gratified their ears, while men slew each
other to make sport for them.
Between the most perverted views of
God which have distorted the worship of
Idolaters, and blank Atheism, there is an
immeasurable space. Amid the worst
phases of Idolatry, society is possible;
bill must inevitably perish in a region
from which the thought of God is ban
ished. Let the animus of the French Atheists,
when at the height of its phronsy, seize the
race, il would extinguish it from the earth
in less than a year. Il would raise an
other Hood which would swell above all
the mountains of human life, and destroy
all Hush leaving not oven a solitary fam
ily to lloat in safety above it.
Associated with the thought of God is
a leeliug of relation to him, and account
ability to him, and a future retribution.
If a man believe without questioning, that
there is no God, he can have no hope of
u future life; and can feci no restraint of
responsibility. He Is of the dust and
goes back to his own. All his thoughts
must be of the earth, earthy. There can
be no upspringing in his aspirations, no
looking forward beyond the grave. In
despair he culls the worm his brother,
and looks to the grave as his final home,
lie is scperated from the beasts only by
the fierce intensity of his appetites mid
passions. It would be far easier to unite
hyenas, wolves and tigors, with alegators
and serpents in helpful associations,
than to bind such beings in society.
Break through the gloom of Atheism
and open only the faintest gleam of hope
of a future life toman. Stir within him
the slightest query concerning accounta
bilitv, and you have scperated him im
measurably from the bruits; and you have
made it possible for him to associate with
his fellows.
Starting from the level, where society
is possiole, we find people elevated in
civilization in exact proportion to the
status of their faitli in God.
When the human family left the ark and
descended to the plains of Iran, they
were favored with a very clear and full
revelation of God. The awful catastro
phe in which the millions of mankind
save only eight souls, had perished, had
impressed upon the eight, who rode above
the universal ruin lor months, God's be
ing, sovereignty and power. In time they
scperated from Babel; each portion
marching under the inspiring conscious
ness of the presence of that Being who
had confounded their tongues. One de
partment took possession of the rich val
leys of the Tigris and Euphiatcs. By
force of their faith in God they developed
a mighty and magnificent civilization.
But by degrees their viows of the Su
preme became perverted, and they turned
to worship the hosts of heaven. As they
pushed away from their consciousness of
the presence of the Creator, their civiliz.v
lion grew cold and gloomy. Ever de
scending they multiplied deities, and en
dowed them with human frailties; and
their civilization grew voluptious and
cruel until it perished from the earth.
Another department pursued their
inarch soulh-wc.-tward, slowly advancing,
feeding their Hocks through the valley of
Canaan; Ihey reached the Nileand spread
themselves along its incomparable valley.
By the might of their primitive faith yo
forcibly expressed by Pharaoh to Abra
ham, they built cities and piled monu
ments, the remains of which will carry
the glory of their builders down to the
latest limes. But Egypt did not liko to
retain the knowledge of a holy and pres
ent God, and the people, first put symbols
in his place, and then in time brutes and