abandoned the subject in despair, and, holding it
to be an insoluble problem, have resigned themselves to the cheerless
gloom of Skepticism. In reviewing all these speculations and theories,
we must bear in mind that their authors and advocates, although more
thoughtful and inquisitive than the great majority of mankind, were
equally subject to the same corrupting influence,--"the evil heart of
unbelief,"--and that the same cause which produced practical Atheism in
some, and abject Superstition in others, may also have operated, but
more insidiously, in producing Speculative Infidelity in the minds of
those who are more addicted to abstruse philosophical inquiries. We must
seek to get down to the root of the evil, if we would suggest or apply
an effectual remedy; we must not deal with the symptoms merely, but
search for and probe the seat of the disease; and if that be the
disordered state of our moral nature, which gives rise to fears and
forebodings as often as we think of God, no remedy will be effectual
which does not remove our distrust, suspicion, and jealousy; and no
argument, however conclusive, will have any practical power which does
not present such views of God as to make him an object of confidence,
and trust, and love. It is of vast importance that this fundamental
truth should be kept steadily in view; for, as the disordered state of
our moral nature is the rudimental source both of practical Atheism and
of popular Superstition, so it is also the prolific parent of
Speculative Infidelity in every variety of form: and as long as the
remedy is not applied to the root of the disease, the Atheist, if forced
to relinquish one theory, will only betake himself to another, and after
having gone the round of them all, will rather throw himself into the
vortex of utter and hopeless skepticism, than acknowledge a God whom he
cannot love, a Judge whom he cannot but dread. Christianity alone can
supply an effectual remedy, and it is such a remedy as is fitted to cure
alike the habitual ungodliness, the abject superstition, and the
speculative infidelity, which have all sprung from the same prolific
source. It exhibits such a view of the character and will of God as may
relieve us from the fears and forebodings of guilt, and, by revealing a
divine method of reconciliation, may place us in a position the most
favorable for a calm and dispassionate consideration of the natural
evidence in favor of His Being, Perfections, a