ETHICS. 



are duties which we may owe Him. It therefore 

 becomes of consequence to inquire into 



3. The Attributes of God. 



Various classifications of these are made. That 

 which it seems most proper for natural theology to 

 adopt is determined by the general characteristics 

 of power, intelligence, and moral aim, which are 

 assumed to have been disclosed in establishing 

 the existence of God. If we are constrained to 

 believe in a being disposed and able to give exist- 

 ence to such a universe as we know and infer 

 Him from, we are also constrained to ascribe to 

 Him all qualities necessary to the constitution of 

 such a universe. 



First, It appears that He must have power, 

 omnipotence for the performance of whatever 

 demands to be done. Under this head appear to 

 come three attributes eternity, spirituality, and 

 omnipresence, (a) He must be eternal. His 

 existence being necessary to account for all con- 

 tingent existence, cannot be thought of as ever out 

 of existence, but as beginningless, endless, eternal. 

 (t>) He must be spiritual If the position that 

 matter is contingent be correct, that which caused 

 matter must be non-material, otherwise it would 

 itself be contingent, and require a cause. What 

 spirit or the non-material is, we know by refer- 

 ence to our consciousness of the antithesis between 

 ourselves and the physical universe, (c) He must 

 be omnipresent. If He is the sustainer of all 

 existence, He must be in efficient relationship to 

 every part of it. 



Second, Intelligence in its designer is demanded 

 by the constitution of the universe. In this re- 

 spect, God must have the two attributes of omnis- 

 cience and wisdom, (a) He must be omniscient. 

 In the intelligent regulation of our own limited 

 sphere of action, we are conscious of the necessity 

 and possibility of grasping a considerable number 

 of conceptions at once. In a controller of the 

 universe we are compelled to imagine a degree of 

 this power able to cope with the whole area of 

 being. () He must be wise. Adequate infor- 

 mation alone is not sufficient for successful control. 

 There must be the ability to use the information 

 so as to produce desirable effects. This is the 

 function of wisdom as apart from mere knowledge. 

 The conditions of existence are held to be such as 

 to require the ascription to God of this quality of 

 wisdom. 



Third, The state and history of the world seem 

 to evince a moral purpose in its divine admin- 



istrator. In view of this conclusion, it is usual to 

 ascribe to God the attributes of goodness, love, 

 holiness, and righteousness, (a) He must be 

 good. Goodness is willingness to communicate 

 what is in one's own power to retain. The world 

 abounds in proofs of the presence of a bountiful 

 power. (V) He must be loving. Love is delight 

 in the attachment and happiness of personal 

 beings. The existence of sentient and rational 

 beings, and the provision made for their enjoy- 

 ment, is held to be proof that this quality of love 

 must exist in the Supreme Disposer. Certain 

 appearances not consistent with this idea are 

 explained on the hypothesis of discipline, tem- 

 porary distress as conducting to higher and per- 

 manent well-being. Others spring from sin, 

 which is not of God's making, (c) He must be 

 holy. Consciousness testifies to free-will, and 

 free-will implies the ability to sin. Our own 

 knowledge of sin qualifies us for declaring whether 

 anything of that nature is mixed up with the 

 government of the world. Experience demands the 

 declaration that no sin is apparent in the acts 

 of God, that He is holy, (d} He must be right- 

 eous. History is to be interpreted as a develop- 

 ment of justice. Certainly it is mingled with 

 abuse and crime, which often seem to escape ; but, 

 resting in the ultimate datum of free-will as 

 affirmed by conscience, we must attribute these to 

 the sins of man, not to the authorship of God ; 

 while the ceaseless striving of the historical forces 

 to rectify wrongs, to punish evil, and reward excel- 

 lence, declares it to be the Supreme design to 

 vindicate and establish righteousness, and calls 

 for a future where the temporary inequalities of 

 the present may be fully redressed. 



To these single attributes may be added the 

 universally applicable attribute of immutability, 

 belief in which is demanded by the experience 

 which the human race has gained of the stable 

 character of the universe, and the unity of purpose 

 pervading its history, as well as by the insurmount- 

 able difficulty of conceiving a change in the 

 essential nature or aims of existence. Belief in 

 such attributes and their possessor leads neces- 

 sarily, except where prevented by sinful free-will, 

 to certain states of feeling and forms of action ; to 

 hope and tranquillity in view of the divine benefi- 

 cence ; to the performance of duty in view of the 

 divine righteousness ; and in view of sin, and the 

 extent of human ignorance, to a willingness and 

 desire to examine the credentials of any statement 

 that comes presenting probable claims to be a 

 revelation. 



ETHICS, 



Or Moral Philosophy, has been defined to be 'that 

 science which teaches men their duty, and the 

 reasons of it.' The details of duty are usually pre- 

 sented in a series of rules directing men how to 

 act in the various emergencies of life ; and as 

 these rules are, in Christian countries, drawn, for 

 the most part, from the precepts of Sacred Scrip- 

 ture, they are held to carry their own reason along 

 with them, as being the expressed will of the Ruler 

 of the universe. Nevertheless, the sacred writers 

 themselves, while delivering their precepts in the 



name of Heaven, are constantly appealing to their 

 inherent reasonableness, as if they had a claim to 

 be obeyed in the very nature of things, and as if 

 men, if they would only attend to them, would see 

 and feel them to be right, though they had no 

 such authority. 'Why do not ye of yourselves 

 judge what is right?' The Gentiles, we are also 

 told, ' which have not the [written] law, are a law 

 unto themselves.' 



Now, as we have been inquiring what ground 

 there is, independently of revelation, for belief in 



379 



