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“We are compelled by the constitution of our minds to believe in the existence of an Infinite and Absolute Being” (Mansel).
As in the flint there is fire, so in the heart of man there is the yearning for communion with God. This desire may be hidden under the flinty hardness of sin and ignorance, but on coming into contact with a man of God, or on being touched by the Spirit of God, at once the desire in him breaks into flame, as does the flint when struck by the steel.
A craving exists in the human soul which can be satisfied neither in this world nor in the world to come, but only in God. Therefore when man, after having been driven hither and thither by his passions, at last repents, it is to God that he turns back.
God does not wish that we should try to prove His existence by the feeble arguments of our limited intellects. Had He wished this, He Himself would not have remained silent. He could at any time have given proofs convincing beyond anything we can imagine. But it is His will that His people who have enjoyed His sweet and life-giving presence should bear witness of Him, because their personal experience is a witness far more convincing than their reasoned proofs.
No man has ever seen or heard God as He is in Himself, though He has kept on speaking in all ages through apostles and prophets, and in the end has spoken to us through His Son (Hebrews 1:1–2). As Philo has said: “The human voice is made to be heard, the voice of God is made to be seen. What God says consists of acts, not of words.” That is, He speaks through the book of Nature and through His creation, but the pity of it is that people do not trouble to read this book for themselves. Herbert Spencer writes: “Sad indeed is it to see how men occupy themselves with trivialities, and are indifferent to the grandest phenomena, care not to understand the architecture of the heavens, and pass by without a glance that grand epic written by the finger of God upon the strata of the earth.”
If an idolater, worshipping a stone instead of God, feels a sort of peace, this does not signify that there is any consoling power in the stone. Yet, for some, it may be a means of concentration on God; and God does give them consolation according to their faith. But the danger is that the worshipper will not advance spiritually, and, influenced by the material environment, will be degraded himself to the deadness of the stone. And in this state he will recognise neither his nor the stone’s Creator, Who, hidden behind it, can fulfil all the longings of his heart.
However bad and evil-living a man may be, there is in man’s nature a divine spark or element which is never inclined towards sin. His conscience and spiritual feelings may become dulled and dead, but this spark of the divine is never extinguished. This is why even in depraved criminals there is always some good to be found. It has been noticed that some of those who have committed murders with the utmost violence and savagery have often generously aided the poor and oppressed. If this divine spark or element cannot be destroyed, then we can never be hopeless for any sinner. If we say that it can be destroyed, then sorrow at separation from God because of sin and the remorse of hell will never be felt, because for feeling this pain of sorrow and remorse there is nothing in man but this spark—and hell will not be hell without this feeling. And, if he feels the pain, then, being tortured by it, sooner or later it will assuredly compel him to come to God for restoration.
Man is a free agent, who by the wrong use of his freedom can do great injury to himself and to others. But he cannot injure himself to the extent that he can destroy his existence, or the divine spark that is in him. No one, except the Creator, has the power to do so. And the Creator Himself will not destroy it, for had He desired to destroy it He would never have created it. Even if He should, it would only prove that He had acted without foreknowledge or full appreciation of the result. It is impossible to conceive of this in God.
Man has neither created his own soul, nor can he destroy it. The Creator has brought into being every creature for some special purpose; and when man cannot, and God will not, destroy the soul of man, and the divine spark that is in him, then, at some time, the purpose for which man was created will assuredly be fulfilled. And even though many wander and go astray in the end, they will return to Him in Whose image they have been created; for this is their final destination.
Giseler has said about this divine spark: “This spark was created with the soul in all men, and it is a clear light to them, and strives in every way against sin, and impels steadily to virtue, and presses ever back to the source from which it sprang.” As the body lives by means of the soul, so the soul lives by means of God. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me” (John 12:32).
Since God has created man for His own fellowship, therefore he cannot remain eternally separate from Him.