Traces of that tradition, and of these patriarchs connected with it, may be found in nearly all, and so far as I know, in all the mythologies of the world, as well in ancient as in modern times; as well in the mythology of the civilized Greeks and Romans, as in that of India, China, Egypt, and that of the American Indians. The tradition has evidently been corrupted, added to and twisted into fantastic shapes by the idle fancies of corrupt minds, but despite all the changes made in it, traces of this tradition are discoverable in the mythology of all lands.
I believe, too, with Crabb, "That the fictions of mythology were not invented [always] in ignorance of divine truth, but with a willful intention to pervert it; not made only by men of profligate lives and daring impiety, who preferred darkness to light, because their deeds were evil, but by men of refinement and cultivation, from the opposition of science, falsely so-called; not made, as some are pleased to think, by priests only, for interested purposes, but by poets and philosophers among the laity, who, careless of truth or falsehood, were pleased with nothing but their own corrupt imaginations and vain conceits."[E]
[Footnote E: Crabb's Mythology of all Nations, pp. 174-5.]
Thus the tradition of the patriarchs was, in time, degraded, by some branches of their posterity, to mythology—a muddy, troubled pool, which, like a mirror shattered into a thousand fragments, reflects while it distorts into fantastic shapes the objects on its banks. Still, under all the rubbish of human invention may be found the leading idea—God's existence, and that fact alone, however misshapen it may be, proves how firmly fixed in the human mind is the tradition of the fathers; while the universality of that tradition goes very far towards proving its truth. When once the idea of the existence of a God is suggested to the mind of man by the testimony of the fathers, and represented as he is by that tradition, as the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and also as the great governing power throughout the universe,—very much is discovered in the marvelous works of nature to strengthen and confirm, almost to a certainty, the truth of that tradition.
Man is conscious of his own existence, and that existence is a stupendous miracle of itself; he is conscious, too, of other facts. He looks out into space in the stillness of night, and sees the deep vault of heaven inlaid with planetary systems, all moving in exact order and harmony, in such regularity that he cannot doubt that intelligence brought them into being, and now sustains and directs the forces that preserve them. Thus the heavens declare the existence of God as well as his glory. This thought is in harmony with the tradition of his fathers, and he recognizes the identity between the intelligence that he knows must control the universe, and the God of which his fathers testify.
Nor is this all: but in the mysterious changes which take place on our own planet, in the gentle Spring, luxuriant Summer, fruitful Autumn and blighting Winter, with its storms and frosts—the "mysterious round" which brings us our seed time and harvest, and clothes the earth with vegetation and flowers, perpetuating that wonderful power we call life, the strangest fact in all the works of nature—in these mighty changes, so essential and beneficent, man recognizes the wisdom and power of God of whom his fathers bear record.
As the heavens declare his existence and glory, so, likewise, do these changes and a thousand other things, connected with our earth, until lost in wonder and admiration, one exclaims with Paul, "The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead."[F] Or else he calls to mind another scripture, still more sublime— "The earth rolls upon her wings, and the sun giveth his light by day, and the stars also giveth their light, as they roll upon their wings in their glory, in the midst of the power of God. * * * Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or the least of these, hath seen God moving in his majesty and power."[G]
[Footnote F: Rom. i: 20.]
[Footnote G: Doc. and Cov. Sec. 88: 45-47.]
"But wandering oft, with brute unconscious gaze,
Man marks not Thee; marks not the mighty hand,
That, ever busy, wheels the silent spheres!"