Huckleberry Finn explains the
sovereignty of God in a
simple and satisfactory way.
Man is a creature trying to convince
himself he is a creator
The
preacher in our old church-Rev Gilger-he said that God was sov'rign. Maybe I
don't got the word right. Anyway, Miss Watson says that means that God's running
everything like He wants to, when He wants to, how He wants to, and all such. I
go along with it. That's the only way it can be, seeing as how He's God.
But
Rev Gilger gummed it up after that, saying that, in His running everything like
He wants to, He decides to give everybody else their own sov'rignty. The
last time I heard a man jabber like that he was running a fever of a hundred and
six.
You tell me-if I give my best
shootin' marble to Tom Sawyer, do I still have the shootin' marble? Why, I just
told you: Tom's got it. And he ain't giving it back, neither, because I
know him. So soon as God gives away His sov'rignty to everybody, why, He ain't
getting it back. He done tied Himself up. Now everybody's got the sov'rignty,
just like Him. What does that spell? That spells that nobody's got the
sov'rignty. There's no room but for one sov'rignty in the world. It's like
putting six women in a bathroom.
This
thing gets more neutered-up the more a body thinks on it. If everybody's
sov'rign, there's no telling what's going to happen. It's a porridge-podge.
If God really did give sov'rignty to everybody-which He never done, so
don't fret over it-then how's God goin' to garruntee that all what He says
is goin' to happen is goin' to happen? Why, He can't, not if every
blame person in the world's got his own sov'rignty. Even Pap's jackass
knowed that much. If that's the way it washes, all God can do now
is sit around and hope it all comes out. That can't be; He's God.
And to me, that's just the start of His worries, that is, if everybody's got
his own sov'rignty. Well, I know I ain't got it, because every time I try
to excise it, Miss Watson, she fetches the hick'ry. So the whole thing's wet.
You'd
think a schooled man like Rev Gilger would have knowed better. I don't think a
man learns much about God in a cemetery ("seminary" -Ed).
From what I see, they carry their sense in on a wheelbarrow and out in a
thimble. If what I heard in church that day is what they teach in a cemetery, I
know I ain't signing on. And if any of what I heard from Rev Gilger that
day ever makes a lick of sense, I'll eat a worm.
And
I done it before.
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