REVELATION PROBABLE.
Our series of essays are such that this requires no argument here. There are certain analogies that we may, nevertheless, speak of, which will not down at the bidding of David's fool. The facts stand thus: a supply for each and every one of our other faculties, sufficient in quantity for all their necessities, is placed within our reach for their use. Now let us look at the analogy. I have food to eat, good water to drink, light for the eye, air to breathe, and a good earth to walk upon and space in which to move, beauties of nature to admire, its music to listen to with rapture, and things with their combinations to perceive and think of.
Now, Mr. Skeptic, you know that man has religious faculties, otherwise he could never become religious, no more than he could see without eyes and hear without ears. Now, what say you? Did the author of all things make a mistake here by conferring upon us a power that would be of no use? Is this the reason of your rejection of religion? Do you say it is of no use? Or do you say that the Great Creator and wise and merciful Provider forgot to give a supply just here? Come! You boast of reason. Give us your reason. Will you? To one or the other of these conclusions you are irresistibly driven. No other retreat is open. Take either, and, if true, the harmony of the universe is destroyed. Take either, and your folly is so plain that it needs no words of mine to point it out. This is the true conclusion; all analogy points directly and clearly to the probability and fact of a revelation.