. In other words, while the study of mere physical and chemical action might easily lead us to a strong belief in second causes, or to the belief that in this department of nature at least certain "properties" had been imparted to matter and it had then been left to act largely by itself; yet, since the vital processes of li ving organisms are capable of exact correlation with all other forces, such as light, heat, and electricity, the direct action of this universal all-controlling Mind in all the phenomena of nature seems demonstrated beyond a doubt, leaving apparently little or no room for any action of second causes.
But this view of the matter, as is very evident, is liable to lead to a pantheistic view of the universe, than which nothing could be more horrible.
How then shall we reconcile these conflicting views?
In this case, as in so many others, the Bible comes in to show us the rational
via media
, the straight path of reason and sound philosophy which avoids the absurdities of both extremes.
The plain and unambiguous teaching of the Bible is that God, the Creator, is a being, a person, infinite in all His powers and perfections, omnipresent throughout the universe; yet that there is a place in which He is to be found, or where He abides, in a sense in which He is not to be found in any other place. This paradox is easily understood when we realize that God is present everywhere throughout His universe
by His word and by His Spirit,
--His word being as effective throughout the remotest corners of His universe as near at hand, for the very simple reason that matter has no "properties" which He has not imparted to it, and therefore it can have no innate inertia or reluctance to act which God's word would need to overcome in order to induce it to act, even when this word operates across the boundless fields of space. He has created free personalities, and He leaves the mind of each of His creatures free to serve Him or not to serve Him, these free intelligent beings becoming thus true second causes. More than this, provision for almost innumerable second causes seems to have been made even among other departments of nature, without however interfering with the direct action of the word of the Infinite One in guiding and controlling them all.
Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, was associated with the Father in all the primary work of Creation; and He came to earth to show us what God the Father is like, that mortals might behold their Creator without being consumed. In Him we are to behold as much of the Deity as it is for our good to know; beyond that we must trust the hand that never wearies, the mind that never blunders, the heart that never grows cold.