This is good news, and a gospel. The Bible was written to bring good news, and therefore with good news it begins, and with good news it ends.
But it is not so easy to believe. We want faith to believe; and that faith will be sometimes sorely tried.
Yes; we want faith. As St. Paul says: ‘Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God; so that things which are seen were not made of things which appear.’
No one can prove to us that God made the world; yet we must believe it; and what is more, we do believe it, and are certain of it. But all the proving and arguments in the world will not make us certain that God made the world; they will only make us feel that it is probable, that it is reasonable to think so. What, then, does make us certain that God made the world?—as certain as if we had seen him make it? Faith, which is stronger than all arguments. Faith, which comes down from heaven to our hearts, and is the gift of God. Faith, which is the light with which Jesus Christ lights us. Faith, which comes by the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit.
So, again, when we have to believe not only that God made the world, but that all things which he has made are very good.
So it is, and you must believe it. God is good, the absolute and perfect good; and from good nothing can come but good: and therefore all which God has made is good, as he is; and therefore if anything in the world seems to be bad, one of two things must be true of it.
1. Either it is not bad, though it seems so to us; and God will bring good out of it in his good time, and justify himself to men, and show us that he is holy in all his works, and righteous in all his ways.
Or else—If the thing be really bad, then God did not make it. It must be a disease, a mistake, a failure, of man’s making, or some person’s making, but not of God’s making. For all that he has made he sees eternally; and behold, it is very good.
Now, I can say that; and I believe it; and God grant I may never say anything else. And yet I cannot prove it to you by any argument. But I believe it; and I dare say many of you believe it (you all must believe it, before all is over), by something better than any argument. By faith—faith, which speaks to the very core and root of a man’s heart and reason, and teaches him things surer and deeper than all sermons and books, all proofs and arguments.
May God, our Heavenly Father, fill our hearts with his Holy Spirit of faith, that we may believe utterly in his goodness, and therefore believe in the goodness of all that he has made.