GOD MANIFEST:
A TREATISE ON THE
GOODNESS, WISDOM, AND POWER OF GOD,
AS MANIFESTED IN HIS
WORKS, WORD, AND PERSONAL APPEARING:
SHOWING, ALSO, HOW
THE PERMISSION OF MORAL AND PHYSICAL EVIL IS RECONCILABLE WITH THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES.
BY THE
REV. O. PRESCOTT HILLER,
AUTHOR or "PRACTICAL SERMONS," ETC.
"What in me is dark,
Illumine; what is low, raise and support;
That, to the height of this great argument,
I may assert eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men."
Milton.
LONDON:
HODSON AND SON, 22, PORTUGAL STREET.
BOSTON, U.S.:
OTIS CLAPP, 3, BEACON STREET.
1858.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year, 1858, by
O. Prescott Hiller,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
Entered at Stationers' Hall.
PREFACE.
In the following work, the author has sought to solve some of the great problems of the "mystery of life," under the bright light of the New Dispensation, in which light alone they are solvable. He has endeavored to trace both moral and physical Evil to their true source: to show that the latter is but an effect of the former, and that the former is simply the result of a perversion of man's faculties,—the possibility of which perversion was necessarily implied in his existence as a free and rational being. The origin of the Diseases, which so widely afflict mankind, is also attempted to be shown: the origin, also, of fierce Animals, and of noxious and poisonous Plants and Minerals; the causes, too, of Poverty in social life, of Tyranny in political life, and of Wars between nations. And, everywhere, the great object has been to make it plain that with man himself, and not with the good Creator, lies the responsibility for all these evils.
On the other hand,—in all the uses and beauties of the natural world, in all that is good, true, and happy amongst men both in time and eternity, the presence, the operation, the creating and sustaining power of the same good and wise Being are sought to be made manifest, and all the glory is shown to belong to Him alone. In the wisdom of a Socrates, the genius of a Shakspeare, the goodness and greatness of a Howard and a Washington,—everywhere, the writer has sought to display a present God. Above all, the volume of the Holy Word is shown to be truly God's voice speaking to men,—and Jesus Christ, the Saviour, to be God appearing and made visible to men.
In attempting to set forth in a single volume so various and important truths, the author was aware of the difficulties of his task. With what degree of success it has been executed, will be left to the reader to determine. He can only say, that, in every part of his work, he has continually looked up for aid and guidance to the great and good Being, whose love and wisdom he was striving to set forth, and that, in answer to that prayer, he was conscious continually of His supporting Hand. He trusts, therefore, that the work, thus executed, will have the Divine blessing, and be found useful to his fellow-men.
August, 1858.
CONTENTS.
THE EVIDENCE THAT THERE IS A BEING ALL-POWERFUL, WISE, AND GOOD, BY WHOM EVERYTHING EXISTS.
Chapter I.
| 1 |
Chapter II.
God Manifest in His Works—the Spiritual Universe.
| 33 |
| 52 |
| 73 |
| 104 |
Chapter III.
| 150 |
Chapter IV.
| 184 |
DIFFICULTIES, REGARDING THE WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF THE DEITY, OBVIATED.
Chapter I.
Man, not God, the Author of Moral Evil.
| 225 |
| 239 |
Chapter II.
Physical Evil derived from Moral.
| 263 |
| 283 |
Section III.—Social and Political Evils—
War |
318 |
| 328 |
| 346 |
Chapter III.
| 367 |
PRACTICAL INFERENCES.
| I. | 407 |
| II. | 432 |
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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