ht of it. Robert Fleming tells us about
Robert Bruce, that he was a man that had much inward exercise about his
own personal case, and had been often assaulted anent that great
foundation truth, if there was a God. And often, when he had come up to
the pulpit, after being some time silent, which was his usual way, he
would say, "I think it is a great matter to believe there is a God";
telling the people that it was another thing to believe that than they
judged. But it was also known to his friends what extraordinary
confirmations he had from the Lord therein, and what near familiarity he
did attain to in his heart-converse with God: Yea, truly, adds Fleming,
some things I have had thereanent that seem so strange and marvellous
that I forbear to set them down. And in Halyburton's priceless _Memoirs_
we read: "Hereby I was brought into a doubt about the truths of religion,
the being of God, and things eternal. Whenever I was in dangers or
straits and would build upon these things, a suspicion secretly haunted
me, what if the things are not? This perplexity was somewhat eased while
one day I was reading how Robert Bruce was shaken about the being of God,
and how at length he came to the fullest satisfaction." And in another
place: "Some days ago reading Ex. ix. and x., and finding this, 'That ye
may know that I am God' frequently repeated, and elsewhere in passages
innumerable, as the end of God's manifesting Himself in His word and
works; I observe from it that atheism is deeply rooted even in the Lord's
people, seeing they need to be taught this so much. The great difficulty
that the whole of revelation has to grapple with is atheism; its whole
struggle is to recover man to his first impressions of a God. This one
point comprehends the whole of man's recovery, just as atheism is the
whole of man's apostasy." And, again, in another part of the same great
book, Halyburton says: "I must observe, also, the wise providence of God,
that the greatest difficulties that lie against religion are hid from
atheists. All the objections I meet with in their writings are not
nearly so subtle as those which are often suggested to myself. The
reason of this is obvious from the very nature of the thing--such persons
take not a near-hand view of religion, and while persons stand at a
distance neither are the advantages nor the difficulties of religion
discerned." And now listen to Bunyan, that arch-atheist: "Whole floods
of bla