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Foundations, and God's Objective Existence

January 28, 2017
Copyright © 1993 Ronald W. Leigh
Biblical quotations are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

A.  Foundations

1.  The need

A foolish man ... built his house on sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.  (Matt 7:26b-27)

Here Jesus reminded us that our foundation is very important.  Don't build on sand.

In the year A.D. 1173, work began on a new bell tower in the town of Pisa, Italy.  The tower was intended to be a magnificent structure with very thick walls constructed entirely from marble.  After the first three stories were completed, the ground underneath the tower started to give way and the tower began to lean.  Even though it was obvious that the foundation was not adequate for three stories, five more stories were added over the next 200 years.  The tower did not stabilize until the mid 1970's.  Even though the leaning tower of Pisa still stands, it stands as a monument to the importance of a building's foundation.

Trees also require a firm foundation.  The visible part of a tree may get most of our attention, but it is not all there is to a healthy tree.  Underground a complex root system gradually expands to nourish and support the visible part of the tree.  Would a tree stand very long against the wind if it had no roots?

A tree, by nature, develops a root system as its foundation.  A good architect, by training, includes a solid foundation as an integral part of a building.  But what do we do? I'm afraid that, in many cases, we are not even as smart as a tree!  Many people set goals, make choices, and live their entire lives without ever consciously examining their foundation.

What exactly do we mean when we speak of a person's foundation?   We have in mind his or her basic set of beliefs.  And, what particular beliefs belong in one's foundation?   If you can answer all the following questions correctly, you have a solid foundation!

1. Is the world I see (the material world) all there is, or is there a spirit world as well?   Does God exist?   If God does exist, what is he like?   Do other spirits exist that are superior to man?
2. What about man?   Was man created?   Does man have a creator to answer to?   Does man have a soul that will live beyond the grave?   Is man able to choose anything or is man merely a pawn?
3. Is there such a thing as right and wrong?   Is everything merely a question of power, social convenience, and personal pleasure?   Or is there a moral aspect to life that involves not just guilt feelings but real guilt?  Will the guilty be punished?  Will the good be rewarded?
4. What is the meaning and purpose of life?   Why is there suffering?   Is there any guidance for the choices of life or any help for the weaknesses and temptations of life?
5. Is there an afterlife?   And if so, are there any guarantees for the afterlife?

2.  Values and actions built on the foundation

Basic beliefs are closely tied to both values and actions.  Values are built upon basic beliefs.  And, in turn, values produce both guidance and motivation for decisions and actions.

When your basic beliefs are correct, that is, when you see things the way they really are, then it is not very difficult to value what's really important.  This gives you the knowledge and motivation required to do what is right.  If your basic beliefs are not correct, then you have no way to value what is truly important, and your actions are misguided.

Of course, the above chart is an oversimplification.  Motivation and actions are also affected greatly by personal and social needs.  Nevertheless, here we are making the point that what we believe significantly affects what we value, which significantly affects what we do.  When we make any important decision, our basic beliefs are in the back of our mind influencing that decision in one direction or another.

For example, you are facing an important decision.  Perhaps it is a choice of a lifetime partner.  Perhaps it's a schooling decision or a career decision.  Perhaps it is the difficult decision to treat or not treat a relative with a terminal illness.  At such times, how you see reality, along with what you value, will certainly influence your decisions and your actions.  Your foundation affects every decision and, therefore, every aspect of your life.

3.  Examining the foundation

Everyone has a basic set of beliefs, but not everyone has taken the time to critically evaluate those basic beliefs.  It is a shame that many people build their entire lives without ever knowing if their basic beliefs are true or false.

Pity the person who is not sure of what he or she believes, and has to say the same thing the soldier is supposed to have said before entering battle:

O, God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul, and take me to heaven, if there is a heaven!

Where do people get their basic beliefs?  For the uncritical, who never examine their foundation, their beliefs come from two sources.  Some of their beliefs are held over from childhood.  Other beliefs are uncritically adopted from the culture, the media, and friends.  We are all aware that in each decade there are certain views (beliefs) promoted over and over again by the media and the popular culture – the "politically correct" views.  Of course, the stronger your personal need for acceptance and approval, the more likely it is that you will feel a need to be politically correct.  But the strong person makes up his own mind, and does not let the current culture squeeze him into a mold.  The Apostle Paul warned against such mindless conformity.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world  (Rom 12:2)

For example, let's say that you believe strongly that the Redwoods of California should be preserved in order to save the spotted owl.  Perhaps that is your belief simply because it's a popular belief promoted on TV and the internet and in the press.  In this case you are merely a follower being led along by the crowd.  And when the popular culture changes its mind, or adopts a different emphasis, you will probably go along, because your belief was never critically examined in the first place.  Since you have not examined the number of spotted owls, have not examined alternate habitats of the spotted owl, have not examined the feasibility of tampering with short food chains, have not examined the place of the Redwoods in the local ecosystem, have not examined the appearance and disappearance of species by natural means, etc., your belief is nothing more than a faint reflection of someone else's belief.  You can't even call it your own.

When the issue is more significant than spotted owls, such as the life or death or eternal destiny of a human being, you have much more obligation to get it right.  So we must examine our foundations and each come to our own conclusions.

As we look at our foundations, we will be examining the Biblical teachings regarding the questions listed above.  The Apostle Paul said that

Each one should be careful how he builds.  For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.  (I Corinthians 3:11)

But we cannot merely assume that the Bible is a valid source, nor can we merely reiterate Christian teachings in isolation.  We must give contending ideas a fair hearing.

And when we are finally satisfied that we have found the best source and the best set of basic beliefs, we still have not finished the task.  It is not just knowing the truth that serves as a foundation for life, it is making use of that truth in our lives.

A good foundation, consciously adopted, is not just for philosophers and theologians, it is for everyone.  The person who has the correct set of basic beliefs has a huge advantage over a person who does not.

• When you have a good foundation, you have confidence to build all your other beliefs on that foundation.
• When you have a good foundation, you have a valid starting point for an honest self-image and a balanced personality.
• When you have a good foundation, you have the guidance you need for selecting long-range goals.
• When you have a good foundation, you will have a valid interpretation of the needs that surround you and thus your motivation for action will be well directed.
• When you have a good foundation, you have a valid criteria against which other sets of beliefs can be evaluated.
• When you have a good foundation, you have an anchor you can trust when life's circumstances become difficult.
• When you have a good foundation, you have a helpful framework in which to interpret current events.
• When you have a good foundation, you can face death and eternity with calm assurance.

In short, your basic set of beliefs, if they are true and you have acted upon them, is the foundation for a meaningful, productive, and happy life.

Jesus said that

Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  (Matt 7:24-25)

B.  God's objective existence

The questions we have listed above can easily take a lifetime of examination, so we will only be able to scratch the surface here.  We will begin our examination of basic beliefs by looking at the question regarding the objective existence of God.  Does God actually exist, or is God just an idea in some people's minds?

1.  Which God?

Before we attempt to deal with the question of God's objective existence, we have to deal with God's nature.  In other words, we have to be more specific about just what God we are talking about when we ask if this God exists.

If you try to begin with the existence of God, by asking the question "Does God exist?", you are automatically assuming a certain nature for God.  You are asking, implicitly, if a certain kind of God exists.  To make the question a fair question, you must define your terms, that is, you must define or describe the type of God you are referring to.

If you do not define your terms, it becomes impossible to deal with the question.  For example, there is a vast difference between the question "Do the gods of the ancient Greeks exist?" and the question "Do the gods of the Hindus exist?"  Likewise, there is a vast difference between the question "Does the god of certain 19th & 20th century philosophers exist?" and the question "Does the God of the Bible exist?"

If you do not define the type of God you are asking about, each person considering the question may assume a different kind of God and the discussion becomes inconclusive.

So we have to settle on a basic definition for God, or at least a list of certain characteristics, before we can legitimately ask if that particular God exists.  In order to focus quickly on the type of God we are talking about, we will simply say that when we use the word "God" we are referring to the God of the Bible.  This God can be described as personal spirit, or as spirit being.  Thus, we ask this specific question, "Does the God of the Bible exist?"

This question is fully answered in the field of Christian apologetics.  In this paper we merely introduce the question and outline several possibilities.  In addition, our answers are taken from the Bible, and the question of the Bible's reliability similarly belongs in the field of apologetics.  Here we accept the Bible's teachings without further defense.

The answers to this question of God's objective existence can be grouped into three major schools of thought — agnosticism, atheism, and theism.

2.  Agnosticism

Sometimes agnosticism is confused with atheism.  The atheist holds that it is possible to come to a conclusion on the question of God's existence, and of course his conclusion is in the negative.  However, the agnostic says we cannot know whether or not there is a God.

The agnostic does not just say "I don't know."   That would be a case of simple ignorance.  Rather, he says, "I cannot know."   The implication is that no one can know because there is not sufficient evidence to have confidence in any particular conclusion.  It is a position taken after careful consideration of the evidence and of others' answers to the question.  One of the most well known agnostics was Bertrand Russell, the British mathematician and philosopher of the early 1900's.

But, of course, there are very few true agnostics, because there are relatively few who have thoroughly examined the evidence.  It is all too easy for a person to call himself an agnostic simply because he "doesn't have a clue," and perhaps doesn't want to be bothered with the question.  But the true agnostic is a searcher.  Even if his present conclusion is that we cannot know, the genuine agnostic keeps searching.

3.  Atheism

Atheism, of course, is the belief that we can know whether or not there is a God, and its conclusion is that there is no God.  Even after looking hard at nature, at the testimony of believers, at the philosophical arguments favoring God offered by various thinkers, and even at the Bible, the atheist still concludes that everything makes better sense without God than with God.

Atheism can be an intellectually honest position.  While this writer disagrees heartily with the position, there are some who have honestly come to this conclusion.  It must be remembered, however, that the Bible evaluates disbelief in God much more harshly when it says that "there is no god" is a statement of a fool  (Psalm 14:1).

There are certain areas where atheists have not been honest.  One area is a willing blindness to the witness of nature — a blindness that has been highlighted by the recent intelligent design movement.  Another area is the atheist's quickness to generalize from the observed gradual development of some religions to the gradual development of all religions.  This brings us to a particular type of atheism which we will call atheistic religious evolution.

4.  Atheistic religious evolution

Even if all the problems connected with belief in God could be ironed out, that is, so that theism was internally coherent to everyone's satisfaction, we would still have to ask if God is really there, or if we have simply worked out a well developed idea of God in our minds, and that's all it is, just an idea.

Even if the conception proves internally coherent, there is the question of our grounds for claiming that anything actually exists corresponding to it.  (article on "theism," A Dictionary of Philosophy, St. Martin's Press, 1982, p. 326)

And it is philosophically sound to raise this issue, because internal consistency does not establish an idea as true.  Consider a situation in which five witnesses at a trial get together ahead of time to make up their story.  During the trial, everyone's version of what happened corroborates the other stories and it would be easy for the jury to assume that their story matched what really happened.  But obviously, in this case, the fact that there is consistency between the five stories does not establish the truth.  So it is legitimate to raise the question of whether or not the idea of God matches a God who is really there, or if the idea of God is a mistaken idea.

Some are of the opinion that the idea of God is, in fact, a mistaken idea.  For them, God is only a word we use to express an idea in our minds.  According to this opinion, there is no actual God that exists apart from the idea.  And no matter what we say about God, he is still non-existent, only a word.  Even if we say that God is certainly there, it is still just God-talk, according to this view.

This is not a new view.  The Greek philosopher Xenophanes, who lived 500 years before Christ, made some interesting comments about the Greek gods, Zeus and his gang, particularly about the fact that famous writers like Homer and Hesiod had ascribed vice and crime to the gods.  Xenophanes claimed that it was impossible to know anything for certain about the gods, so the Greeks created dozens of gods in their own image.  In other words, he claimed that the description of the gods came not from reality, but from man's imagination.  And, of course, with regard to the Greek gods, this claim is correct.

Others have adopted this same thought and applied it to the God of the Bible.  For example, Ludwig Feuerbach, an early 19th century German philosopher, said that all religion is a projection of human qualities into an object of worship.  He taught that the Trinity is man's projection of his own reason, will, and love.  Similarly, Friedrich Nietzsche, a late 19th century Prussian philosopher claimed that the idea of God is nothing more than a projection of man's uneasy conscience.  And Jean-Paul Sartre, early 20th century French philosopher, stated that it is impossible for God to exist and that the idea of God is a projection which man makes.

But it is not just the philosophers who take this view of God, which is basically an evolutionary view.  They have already accepted physical evolution, so they reason that, during the latter stages of our evolutionary development (when we developed language and became able to think in abstractions) we developed our idea of God.

This view is sometimes organized around a scenario made up of four stages.  The four stages begin with animism, then pantheism, then polytheism, then finally monotheism.

• Animism is the belief that all things (not just people, but animals, plants, and even rocks, rivers, and fire) possess a life-principle or soul.  Thus, all things are able to think and act.  In short, animism is the belief that everything is alive.  Some refer to this as the personification of natural objects.  Animism led to pantheism.
• Pantheism is the belief that everything is god, or that God is everything, or that God is in everything.  In other words, God and the universe are identical, or at least they are inseparable in the sense that God is the soul of the universe and has no independent existence apart from it.  Pantheism led to polytheism.
• Polytheism is the belief that there are many gods which are separate from the physical universe.  Each god rules in a certain area or in a certain context.  Thus you have one god of the mountains, another god of the valleys, another of the rain, and so forth.  A further development of polytheism is Henotheism, which emphasizes that one of these gods is supreme.  This view ultimately developed into monotheism.
• Monotheism is the belief that there is only one God.  Some historians claim that the first monotheist was an Egyptian pharaoh during the 14th century B.C. who worshipped exclusively the sun-god Aton.  Others claim that Judaism was the first form of monotheism, followed by Christianity and Islam.

Here is how H. D. Lewis describes this view.

It has been argued that the very idea of God ... emanates from man's emotional needs ....  It is in fact man himself ... who has created God in his own image ....  The attempt is made to substantiate this view from accounts of the proclivity of men, especially in early times, to personify natural objects – rivers, trees, mountains, and so forth, and, in due course, to confer peculiar properties upon them, leading in time to the notion of some superbeing in whom these powers and properties are concentrated.  (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1982, Vol 18, page 267)

Certainly, for many philosophies and religions, there has been an evolution of thought regarding the existence and nature of God.  But here is where the error occurs.  It is the error of generalization – the generalization that all ideas about God have developed in man's mind.

We have to recognize that, in many cases, the above analysis of the origin of the idea of God holds much truth. This notion that man has created God in his own image (that God exists only in man's mind) is, unfortunately, all too true for many religions and cults.

The problem is, of course, that Christianity is lumped in with all other religions as just another example of the evolution of the idea of God.  Notice how Peter Berger assumes this approach in his comments about Israel:

It is not very easy to decide at what point in the religious development of ancient Israel there emerged that conception of God which we now associate with Judeo-Christian monotheism (The Sacred Canopy, p. 115)

But it is an oversimplification to include Christianity with the rest of the world's religions in this matter.

Should Judaism (at least orthodox Judaism) be included with Christianity in this regard?  No.  Only ancient believing Judaism should be included, not modern Judaism.  Before the time of Christ, believing Jews were, of course, the true people of God.  And in our day, it must be remembered that, according to Paul's analogy of the cultivated olive tree, ancient believing Judaism is the root which supports Christianity (Romans 11:17-24).  But it must also be remembered that modern Judaism rejects Jesus as the Christ, and thus rejects God.  Belief in God requires belief in the Son (John 5:23; 6:45; 1 John 2:23; 2 John 9) and belief in the Son includes belief in the Father (John 12:44)

Of course, we need to recognize that it is a human trait to generalize and oversimplify.  We are all tempted to tie up our thoughts in neat little packages.  We tend to make our conclusion neater than the evidence.  We find it easy to make a generalization or stereotype apply to every individual.  But we must be open to exceptions.  For example, suppose again that you are listening to five different witnesses.  They have all seen the same event, but this time each one tells a different story.  You know that they cannot all be correct, so you are tempted to conclude that none of them is correct.  However, it is still possible that one of these unique stories could be factual.

It is certainly legitimate to suggest that, while most religions' concepts of God have evolved, one religion's idea of God did not evolve.  Instead, that idea came in verbal form from the God who actually exists, independent of our ideas about him.  Similarly, it is legitimate to suggest that the God described by one religion does objectively exist, while the gods described by many other religions exist only in their minds.

So, when we find many who believe that God is just an idea in people's minds, we have to agree, as far as most religions are concerned.  But we disagree as far as Christianity is concerned.

5.  Theism

Now, let's consider theism.  Specifically the Bible's claim of the actual existence of God.

The very first verse of the Bible declares that "In the beginning God …".  Then, throughout the Bible God's objective existence is both assumed and explicitly stated.  We will look only at a few of the passages which explicitly state, rather than assume, God's existence.

For example, David wrote

The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'.  (Psalm 14:1)

Also, it is especially interesting to notice the name that God gave himself in his conversation with Moses at the burning bush.  After God told Moses that he was to lead Israel out of Egypt, Moses asked God what name he should use for God when telling the Israelites that they should follow him as God's leader.

God said to Moses, "I am who I am.  This is what you are to say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"  Exodus 3:14

The Biblical scholar and theologian, James Oliver Buswell, says that the Hebrew words in the phrase "I am who I am" might better be translated

"I am I who am"; that is, "I am the God who exists ...." (Systematic Theology ..., p. 35)

This translation would certainly emphasize the actual existence of God.

In the next verse God refers to himself by using a different but related name.

Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers ... has sent me to you.'  Exodus 3:15

The name "LORD" appears in the original Hebrew as just four consonants, J H V and H.  It is translated "LORD" in the NIV and "Jehovah" in certain other translations.  The actual Hebrew word was probably pronounced "Yahweh" or "Jahveh".

This name for God is unique among God's many names in the Bible.  For one thing, God is the one who gave man this name for himself.  Also, while the more general name for God, Elohim, is used in the Bible for other false gods, Yahweh is never used to refer to any gods other than the one true God.  Also, whenever the Bible explicitly refers to the name of God, for example when it says "and his name is", it always uses Yahweh.

So the name Yahweh appears to be a special name for God, particularly for the Israelites who were constantly surrounded by nations that had many idols for many gods, which did not exist at all.

Some translations use the word "Jehovah" instead of "Yahweh."  Jehovah is an artificial word.  It is a combination of the four consonants, J H V and H, plus vowels borrowed from the Hebrew word Adonai.  This strange combination of names came from the Jew's fear of pronouncing the four consonants.  When they would come to the word in the text, they would substitute Adonai.  Later these vowels were actually written into subsequent copies of the Hebrew text, which became the basis for our English word Jehovah.  Nevertheless, the original Hebrew word ("JHVH") is thought by many Bible scholars to be derived from the Hebrew verb "to be" and thus again refers to God's objective existence.

George Rawlinson paraphrases and expands the phrase "I am who I am" in Exodus 3:14 as follows:

I exist, as nothing else does -- necessarily, eternally, really.  If I am to give myself a name expressive of my nature, so far as language can be, let me be called I AM.  (Ellicott's Commentary, Vol. 1, Page 200)

Necessary, self-sustained, independent, eternal existence must always be of his essence.  (ibid.)

It's interesting to notice that this Exodus passage is not the only place where God emphasizes his existence.  The Apostle John, in Rev 1:8 quotes God as saying

I am the Alpha and the Omega ... who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

Consider also what Paul says about the so-called "gods" behind idols:

We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one.  For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is but one God, the Father ...; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ ....  But not everyone knows this. (I Corinthians 8:4-7)

Paul's thought could not be clearer here.  On the one hand you have those religions which create idols.  They have only their idols.  There are no actual gods behind those idols.  On the other hand you have Christianity, which does not create idols, since it is forbidden by the second commandment (Exodus 20:4).  But they do have their God.  The Biblical God, the God of ancient believing Judaism and of Christianity, does exist.  There can be no doubt.  The Bible expects us to believe that God is there.  He is more than just an idea in our minds.

6.  Consequences of belief in God

What difference does it make, that God actually exists? For one thing, and this is surprising to some, it causes us to have the highest possible opinion of man.

Those who deny God's existence often give the impression that they think they have a higher view of man.  They reason that their view of man must certainly be higher than the view of man held by theists, since theists place God above man.  However, Francis Bacon was correct when he observed the following:

They that deny a God destroy man's nobility; for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.  (Oxford Dictionary of Quotes, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 1979, p. 25)

We hold the highest possible view of man for two reasons.  First, we believe that God exists and created man in his own image (Genesis 1:26-27).  Second, we believe that God valued man so highly and loved man so much that he was willing to suffer the consequences of our sins in order to restore our fellowship with him (1 Peter 3:18).

If you dismiss God from your view, you dismiss any real value for man.  And the same happens for every other Christian belief.  If God does not objectively exist, but is only an idea in our minds, then sin must also be only an idea.  After all, the very definition of sin is based on what God has said in Scripture about man, and sin only makes sense in contrast to God' holiness.  And if there is no real sin, then there is no need for salvation, or for the church.  The concepts of worship and holy living become meaningless.  In other words, if God does not objectively exist, then every other Christian teaching becomes nonsense.

7.  Psychological Christianity

Surprisingly, there are some modern theologians who attempt the impossible.  They teach a psychological Christianity.  They reject the idea that God exists objectively, but at the same time tell us that we should still worship God.  They reject the idea that Jesus was God and rose from the dead after dying for our sins, but at the same time tell us to follow Jesus' example and have hope.  They say that it is our faith that is important.  And if we believe in God or in Christ's deity or resurrection, according to them, our belief is the thing that will see us through.  The stronger our faith, the better off we are.  It does not matter, they say, that our beliefs are not founded in reality because, to them, what is happening psychologically is what is important.  What it boils down to is this: we are told to believe for the sake of believing.  Don't worry about the facts, just believe.

But this is the opposite of what the Bible teaches.  Paul deals with this very notion when he says that

If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith .... If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile .... If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.  (I Corinthians 15:14,17,19)

You see, faith by itself, is of no value at all.  Faith is not a good thing; it is not a bad thing.  It is, by itself meaningless and valueless.  Faith has to have an object in order to have any meaning at all.  In other words, we must have faith in someone or in something.

For example, when you have faith in a good, competent doctor, you understand that it is the doctor that is making the diagnosis and prescribing a treatment, not your faith.  And when you have faith in a quack doctor, you understand that it is the quack doctor that misdiagnoses your illness and causes you extra pain.  In both cases it is the object of your faith that is doing well or doing poorly.  The credit, or the blame, goes to the doctor, not to your faith.  Faith, without an object, is a meaningless concept.

If a person attempts to have faith in God, but the object of that faith, God, is not really there, that person is to be pitied.  Likewise, if a person has faith in Christ, but Christ is not who he claimed to be and did not rise from the dead, that person is to be pitied.

So we reject this type of psychological religion entirely.  Those who peddle psychological religion can make it sound noble.  They can make it sound like one of man's highest achievements.  But don't be duped by them, they are to be pitied.

C.  Conclusion

Of course, there is a great deal more about God that would be important to consider if we had the space, because God is not only there, he has communicated a great deal about himself and about us in the Bible, and he is there for us.  He wants us to be on his side.

When you understand the importance of foundations you can't help but be concerned.  Just as it is very sad to see a person who leaves God out of the foundation of his life, it is also sad to see God being pushed out of our American way of life.  But the burden is on us as individuals.  We need to make sure that we, individually, and our children and the next generation of believers have firm footing for the difficult road ahead.

We hope these thoughts will help you think about the importance of your foundation, help you appreciate the strength of the Christian foundation, and encourage you to continue to examine all of your basic beliefs.  As the unknown hymn writer said:

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
      (words by "K" in Rippon's Selection of Hymns, 1787)