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BOOK FIRST.

EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE AND

CHARACTER OF GOD.

CHAPTER I.

CONSCIENCE.

a. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD AS A LAWGIVER INFERRED FROM THE EXISTENCE OF CONSCIENCE.

§ 1. a'. From conscience as to self.

Let us suppose a stranger from some distant land to be dropped down at dusk on the suburbs of one of our great cities. On the unfenced commons where he alights he observes pathways, at first slight and ungraded, gradually expanding into paved and leveled streets, and lights, beginning with the old-fashioned and dim lamp, and brightening, as the city limits open, into the frequent and brilliant gas. He sees many places of danger, it is true, but he finds a corresponding number of guards. At one point he hears the snort of a locomotive dashing across the horizon, but precisely as there is a danger to human life from its approach, (13)

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are precautions taken to make that danger less. By the country road a sign-post is planted. As the road draws nearer to the city, a sentry-box is placed at the juncture, by which a watchman is stationed to give warning whenever a train is due. So it is with respect to other dangers. In the fields or in the remote and sparse suburbs, a few constables are enough to keep the peace. But in the midst of the dense population which crowd toward the centre, the number of gilt stars and printed badges show that the precautions are multiplied as the dangers increase. That quiet, unofficial-looking man, who may be lounging listlessly at one moment in the lobby, or at another looking intently at the stage, is a special policeman, commissioned to be ready to spring forward at the first alarm to extinguish those sparks which the inflammable material collected at a theatre are so apt to kindle into a conflagration. Guards are stationed at the outside of a mock-auction store, cautioning the unwary against imposition. Others are seen, whose directions are to place a rope around a house on fire, so as to keep from it the curious or idle, who may be crushed by the falling walls. Others stand at depots or landings, watching the pickpocket, who is himself watching his intended prey. And all unite in proclaiming the one truth, which the traveler will not be long in discovering the existence of a city on the one side, which is beset with many temptations and difficulties, and the existence of a municipal government on the other, whose office it is to resist these temptations and obviate these difficulties. The police prove both the government and the temptations of that which is governed.

§ 2. The same proof is afforded by conscience. The self

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