Where does the atheist begin?  He usually starts with the nebular hypothesis.  And where does that begin?  “In the beginning”?  No.  It begins by assuming that two things existed, which the theory does not try to explain.  It assumes that matter and force existed, but it does not tell us how matter and force came into existence, where they came from, or why they came.  The theory begins:  “Let us suppose that matter and force are here,” and then, according to the theory, force working on matter, created a world.  I have just as much right as the atheist to begin with an assumption, and I would rather begin with God and reason down, than begin with a piece of dirt and reason up.  The difference between the Christian theory and the materialistic theory is that the Christian begins with God, while the materialist begins with dull, inanimate matter. I know of no theory suggested as a substitute for the Bible theory that is as rational and as easy to believe.

If the atheist asks me if I can understand God, I answer that it is not necessary that my finite mind shall comprehend the Infinite Mind before I admit that there is an infinite mind, any more than it is necessary that I shall understand the sun before I can admit that there is a sun.  We must deal with the facts about us whether we can understand them or not.

If the atheist tells me that I have no right to believe in God until I can understand Him, I will take his own logic and drive him to suicide; for, by that logic, what right has an atheist to live unless he can understand the mystery of his own life?  Does the atheist understand the mystery of the life he lives?  No; bring me the most learned atheist and when he has gathered all the information that this earth can give, I will have a little child lead him out and show him the grass upon the ground, the leaves upon the trees, the birds that fly in the air, and the fishes in the deep, and the little child will mock him and tell him, and tell him truly, that he, the little child, knows just as much about the mystery of life as does the most learned atheist.  We have our thoughts, our hopes, our fears, and yet we know that in a moment a change may come over any one of us that will convert a living, breathing human being into a mass of lifeless clay.  What is it, that, having, we live, and, having not, we are as the clod?  We know as little of the mystery of life to-day as they knew in the dawn of creation and yet behold the civilization that man has wrought.

And love that makes life worth living is also a mystery.  Have you ever read a scientific definition of love?  You never will.  Why?  Because a man does not know what love is until he gets into it, and then he is not scientific until he gets out again.  And even if we could understand the mysterious tie that brings two hearts together from out the multitude, and on a united life builds the home, earth’s only paradise, we still would be unable to understand that larger mystery that manifests itself when a human heart reaches out and links itself to every other heart.