irreligious. This last dogma, like the first, admits not of being
evidenced. As nothing is inconceivable, we cannot even imagine a time
when there was nothing. Atheists say, something ever was, which
something is matter. Theists say, something has been from all eternity,
which something is not matter, but God. They boldly affirm that matter
began to be. They affirm its creation from nothing, by a something,
which was before the universe. Indeed, the notion of universal creation
involves first, that of universal annihilation, and second, that of a
something prior to everything. What creates everything must be before
everything, in the same way that he who manufactures a watch must exist
before the watch. As already remarked. Atheists agree with Theists, that
something ever has been; but the point of difference lies here. The
Atheist says, matter is the eternal something, and asks proof of its
beginning to be. The Theist insists that matter is not the eternal
something, but that God is, and when pushed for an account of what he
means by God, he coolly answers, a Being, having nothing in common with
anything, who, nevertheless, by his Almighty will created everything.

It may without injustice be affirmed, that the sincerest and strongest
believers in this mysterious Deity, are often tormented by doubts, and,
if candid, must own they believe in the existence of many things with a
feeling much closer allied to certainty than they do in the reality of
their 'Great First Cause, least understood.' No man can be so fully and
perfectly satisfied there is a God in heaven as the Author of this
Apology cannot but be of his own existence on earth. No man's faith in
the imaginary is ever half so strong as his belief in the visible and
tangible.

But few among professional mystifiers will admit this, obviously true as
it is. Some have done so. Baxter, of pious memory, to wit, who said, 'I