The profound mystery which surrounds all thoughts of God.
"Thy way is in the sea," etc. A new word has been added of late to the English language—a brace of new words, as dismal in meaning, as uncouth in sound—"agnostic," "agnosticism." The fact is not new (1 Corinthians 1:21). An agnostic is one who believes it impossible to know that one central, supreme, primary truth, apart from which all knowledge is vanity. Nature, science, conscience, love, like sides of an immense pyramid, slope upward; but the summit is in cloud. Reason pierces the cloud, and cries, "God is there!" Faith soars into the light which thick darkness veils, and proclaims, "God is love!" But the agnostic reckons Faith unscientific, Reason going beyond her province; doubts if there be anything but cloud. So when Moses went up into the thick darkness where God was, the people, who thought the flesh pots of Egypt much more real than the voice from Sinai, said, "As for this Moses, …we know not what is become of him." Christianity and agnosticism are so irreconcilably opposed, that sympathy on the part of a Christian towards an agnostic seems difficult. Yet you cannot understand any one with whom you have no sympathy; and when you neither sympathize nor understand, you have little chance of doing good. Agnosticism contains a kernel of Christian truth, and therefore presents a point of contrast for Christian sympathy, viz. the profound mystery which surrounds all our thoughts of God, setting strait limits to our knowledge, baffling all attempts of human reason to pass those limits (Job 11:7; 1 Timothy 6:16).
I. THE MYSTERY OF CREATION. Our senses show us the surface of universe phenomenon; the harmonious working of the mighty machine; the endless flow, through birth, growth, decay, of the river of life. But where is the moving power, the fountain, the loom in which this wondrous web is being woven, and the hand which weaves? Science pierces below the surface; shows everywhere unchanging law, faultless adjustment, interchangeable forces, rules of number, measure, weight, mutual attraction and fitness. But we cannot stop short in these. "Evolution" is supposed to explain it all. But what explains evolution? As Mr. Spencer has rightly observed, we should rather call the process of nature "involution," because at each step and stage something new and surprising comes in. Process is not cause. When, e.g; a number of primary atoms enter into combination, not at haphazard, but in fixed. proportions of number and weight, and a new substance, with wholly new properties, is produced—whence came these properties? Had the atoms continued apart, they would have had no existence to all eternity. Why do the atoms attract and cleave to one another? Whence their violent movement? Where are those laws of number, weight, proportion, which cannot exist in the atoms, yet which every atom so absolutely obeys? To talk of laws is no explanation; it is the very existence of laws we want explained. Science can give no reply to these or ten thousand such questions. The Bible gathers up all lesser mysteries in the one primaeval mystery with which its first sentence sets us face to face—not to reason or comprehend, but to worship: "In the beginning, God created."
II. THE MYSTERY OF PROVIDENCE. By "providence" we understand the Creator's wise, merciful, universal, sovereign control over all his works, especially human life and the welfare of his children. We often compare nature, or human life, to a web incessantly weaving; but this is a very feeble image. Instead of parallel threads, crossed at right angles by another set of parallel threads, we see countless millions of independent lines of natural force and of human will crossing at every conceivable angle every moment with incalculable speed. Yet the pattern of God's purpose is being woven. "No man liveth to himself." Sometimes in concert, often in discord, mostly in ignorance or disregard, we are influencing one another, depending on one another. Yet "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God." Daily experience confirms the Bible teaching, that in what is to our eyes this inconceivable tangle of will, chance, and law, every thread lies under God's eye, obeys his will. Illust.: History of Joseph (cf. Genesis 15:13; Genesis 42:36; Genesis 45:7, Genesis 45:8). Miracles are not more wonderful than providence (special reference here to the passage of the Red Sea). No sharp line between them in Scripture. No reason to think "natural laws" broken in one case or other, any more than man breaks natural laws when he drives his trains through mountains, makes iron float on the ocean, compels wind, water, steam, lightning, to work his engines (see Psalms 119:89; Daniel 4:35).
III. THE MYSTERY OF GOD'S DEALINGS WITH OUR RACE AND WITH INDIVIDUALS. Scripture shows one line of Divine purpose from beginning to end of world. History shows all the most energetic progressive races brought into contact with the Bible and the Church of God. But why the slow progress of the gospel; the huge stagnating masses of heathendom; the late birth of science; the obstinate prevalence of war, tyranny, slavery? If we say (rightly) sin is at the bottom of all, this only runs up all other mysteries into the deepest and darkest. Compared with all this, what we call "mysteries" in our daily life seem simple, especially with the key of promise (Hebrews 12:5-10). Yet how dark they often are!
IV. Above, beneath, around, behind, all these mysteries is THAT OF WHICH WE SCARCELY DARE SPEAK—THE MYSTERY OF GOD HIMSELF—his eternity, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, righteousness, love (Psalms 139:6). This is a lesson, not of unbelief, but of faith. A God whom we could comprehend, in whom we found no unfathomable depth of mystery, would be no more the God of the Bible than of nature. Yet "we know what we worship" (John 4:22). The cloud covers the mount, but the path is open. "We draw near" (Exodus 20:21; Isaiah 45:15; Hebrews 10:19, Hebrews 10:22). See how from this awful view of Divine mystery the psalmist passes—like a change in music from a stormy minor to a cheerful major, and restful close: "Thou leddest," etc. We know all we need to know. Not a question concerning God, on which our welfare practically turns, but the Bible has a clear, full answer (John 1:18; John 17:3; 1 John 4:16).