, 1876-11-18

human society you will find that the
sense Of obligation, the breadth oft. the
depth of it, the height of it increases Just
IN proportion to the civilization, to the
advance, to the greatness, purity and dig
nifty Of individual men. The man who
knows the most. who IS master, who
stands the highest of all the world to-
day, that man is bound by the grandcSt
obligations OF any human being. God,
then, is the one being who is the most
bound OF any in the universe,
What are some Of the practical appli-
cations of this Gss has no right 10
sacrifice the least or lowest creature that
he has made for the sake Of his own
glory. 1t has been taught, as part Of
the theology OF the cpresent day, that God
has right to sacrifice thousands and
millions, if need be, for the sake of dis.
playing some one of his own divine
characteristics to the universe. Accord.
ing to any human standard OF righteous
ness that we can conceive, n being cupa-
ble OF doing such thing as this would
be simply displaying to the universe the
record of his own iniamy. We could
not admire or worship any such char
Nctcristic us this.
Not only this, but God has no right
to sacrifice the life or the interests of one
person to another in the long run. The
human father may fird himself under the
necessity, sometimes, Of sacrificing the
welfare Of one child for the welfare of
another child, He is placed where he
must choose one of two evils, and if he
be wise, loving, tender, he will choose
the least, under the stress of this neccs,
slty. But God, if he be perfect wisdom,
perfect power and perfect love, can never
he under any such necessity. There can
be no such possible cxigency arise as
shall compel Omnipotence to choice of
evils, for the very conception of Omnipo.
tcnce carries with it the idea of power to
control all evils and to ring out of them
all good. So that God, say, has no
right Il speak it reverently) to sacrifice
the right or welfare Of the least and
meanest creature ON earth to the welfare
or the honor or the glory of any other
creGture that he has made.
God is under just this obligation to
humanity: to see to it that the life of
every one of his children shall on the
whole, in the long run, be to that child n
blessing, and not curse. If there were
Il human father on earth capable of bring
ing into being child, foresceing that
that child would all his life long curse
the day of his birth, that father, say, by
all the standards of Judgment to which
human righteousness is compelled to re.
fer, would be condemned rs selfish as
wicked, as Infamous and certainly God
is as good as men. God, then, say, is
under obligation to humanity to sec to
it that the life of every creature he has
made shall. on the whole and in the long
run, be blessing to that creature.
What are some of the practical results
of this doctrine 1t Mt least crentcs n
grand probability in favor of future
life. One of the strongest arguments |
know in favor of a future life for man
are the children whom God has made
whose whole lives are lives of suffering
and sorrow. There are other children
worse still than these whose lives are
stunted at the beginning, so that they
never develop intellect, or thought or
heart, or ANYTHING that constitutes the
grandeur or the glory of humanity.
Worse even than these simply stunted
ones, in the depths of human wickedness
Ignorance and crime, there are every year
born hundreds and thousands who grow
up from childhood to manhood without
the least opportunity of conceiving what
true manhood and womanhood means
who never hear the name of God. ex-
cept as it is DETAINED; to whom virtue is
simply name and scoff. The crimi.
mails, the outcasts of society; the dregs
of civilization-dregs, not by reasen of
their own fault, but by virtue of the very
necessity of their birth. Just such drees
as you and l would have been in their
circumstances. So that we have no right