An Ode to break the drought
The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heav'ns, a shining frame,
Their great original proclaim:
Th' unwearied Sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator's power display,
And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty Hand.
Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The Moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the list'ning Earth
Repeats the story of her birth:
Whilst all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets, in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
What though, in solemn silence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What though nor real voice nor sound
Amid their radiant orbs be found?
In Reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
For ever singing, as they shine,
"The Hand that made us is Divine."
Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
There are a few things I find interesting about this Ode. Firstly, I just love the beautiful imagery of "the spacious firmament," "the blue ethereal sky," "the unwearied sun," and the many other beautiful word pictures created by Addison. These make me ponder the great expanse and beauty of the universe and I love how Addison derives from creation that "the hand that made us is divine." All this gets me pondering though because these kind of associations immediately bring to mind this verse from Romans 1:
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Yet some years ago, a christian friend I really respect stated that he didn't think this verse referred to creation as being a testimony to the nature of God, but this is how I had always read the verse. So, my question is how do you interpret this verse?
The next thing I find interesting about this ode is that in it Addison asserts that to conclude from the evidence in creation that "the hand that made us is divine" is not a matter of faith but of reason. So my next question is this: Do you think it is a matter of faith or reason, or both, to believe that God exists and has eternal power and divine nature?
posted by missmellifluous at 9:30 am
7 Comments:
being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Ever stood outside--after dark--and looked up at the stars and felt the night breeze and heard the quiet night noises of insects? God is heavy upon us in such a place.
I believe everyone knows that there is a God--and that He is worthy of praise and fear. For He is felt in the beauty of creation. His glory is heavy. We cannot shrug it off as if it was not.
And yet, "for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened."
It is only as God gives us eyes to see and ears to hear and a stony heart made flesh in His hand that we receive it by faith.
So, you would say both reason and faith? Reason because of the evidence in the world around us and faith to receive the knowledge that God does exist and has a claim to our lives and live in response to it?
hehehe.
I guess I forgot to answer your question.
Yes, both. All men know by reason. And His children know by faith.
I am a presuppositionalist at heart. . .
Well, you answered in your own passionate way. I like it when you get carried away with the verses, Kim.
I find the whole reason vs faith conundrum quite interesting. I suppose it's a little bit like this blog. Readers see evidence of my 'work', that is my writing, and I guess assume that I exist. Is this faith or reason operating? Obviously readers can't see me, they can only see evidence that I may exist. But I don't think anyone reading this would doubt that I do in fact exist, here somewhere behind my creation.
I wonder why we have so much trouble believing God exists when we see evidence of Him everyday.
Hi, Miss Mellifluous
Kim's right. The reason that people find it so hard to know that God exists is because they have ignored the evidence that is available, and so God has hardened their hearts - and given them over to their wickedness.
Intelligent Design (ID) is one of the major themes of my blog. In effect, what it is doing is saying that there are various aspects of the universe (information in organisms, irreducible complexity of biochemical systems, the way in which our place in the universe is incredibly well tailored for complex, intelligent life - way beyond what one would expect from an anthropic point of view) that are best explained by there being a designer. As Christians we have our opinion as to who that designer is, of course, but this lies beyond the scope of the science (until we come across Slartibartfast's signature in a glacier, anyway).
I was not raised in a home that talked about God. Yet, somehow I knew.
I believe, along with Kim, that it is a matter of faith and reason. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the connnection between faith and reason.
I love the poem!
Another issue is that the word "faith" is used in postmodern contexts to mean something completely different from what it means in the Bible. Francis Schaeffer has a discussion of this idea in the appendix of one of his books, an extract of which I quote here.
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