The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-29
THE PERSONALITY OF GOD.
Mr.. Beecher Makes an Effort to Re-
move Some Perplexing Doubts.
We Cannot Have knowledge of God Through
the Senses, hut Must Seek It in
Right Living and High Endcayor.
Special to the Indianapolis Journal.

BROOKLYN, N. Y, Sept PSI am going to
try if can alleviate some of the difficulties that
hover about many rejecting minds on the sub
ject Of Gods personality, said Mr. Beecher
this morning, in Plymouth Church aThere have
always been men who have been troubled about
the evidences of the existence of God. am not
going to touch that subject at ALL it is separate
department ofinyestigation. But, admitting the
existence of God, there has been mystery
thrown about tia mystery that has not been
poisoned by infdelity, but that fingers as a
trouble in the hearts of men who want to be
right and to live right have
felt the need of some help on this subject my
own self; Ihaye felt the waves of doubt and diff
fculty. have not received a perfect illumina
tion, but more restfulness, more hopefulness,
and dim, imperfectly seen ground of trust; and
shall try this morning, as best may, to meet
any Of the difficulties in any minds that lie
along the same region where / have suffered
We cannot have any knowledge of God through
the senses, we cannot see Him, hear Him or
touch Him: we cannot understand Him from the
intellect pure and simple Theologians have
thought out God and what a miserable mess
they have made Off The creeds and the cate
chims that represent God are very much like the
attempts of children at art-legs and arms Of
wooden stiffness are given to their representa-
tions of animals. The God of the creeds is very
much a wooden god. We are to learn God from
the radiant disposition within us first, and then
intelligence may have its usefulness afterwards.
Our personal and most vivid conception of God
springs from the feeling and the imagination.
he fbafh
the realms of theological learning are, after all,
Gods chosen instruments for making known to
us what He is-feeling to suggest quality, and
imagination to work quality up into portraiture.
The result is some approach towards an under
standing of God, but never the reality of God.
The longing of men for such a knowledge of
God as men have Of each other, we all know, ex
lists
1T is a complaint that men make when they
begin to turn their eyes towards positive relig-
ion, that they cannot think of God-He is un-
thinkable to them; an evanescent wrath. He
is a great spring something beyond
their recognition What power in ones life it
would be. we think, if God would only deal with
us once as we deal with each other But they
that worship must worship in the spirit This is
a blow to all imaginations of God as a physical
being It is impossible to think of God in the
way in which man thinks Of man.
Mr.. Beecher took the child at its mothers
breast as illustration of the relative positions
of God and man, and hkened the growth Of the
infant in knowledge of its mother to the ad-
vancement Of man toward conception of God
There was gradual unfolding of the child to
an understanding of the fact that its mother was
something more than milk bearer; it learned,
in vague way at first that she controlled it,
and as it grew it learned to love her. and to un-
derstand why it should love her. Gan this, Mr.
Beecher continued, ''and yet nowhere near is the
child to understanding the full inward, hidden
nature of the father or mothers It is not until
they come to manhood and to womanhood, and
go out into the world, that the son understands
the nobility Of his father and the daughter the
sweetness patience and grandeur of her mother
And so it is as between God and man. But
between man and man we are all the time meas
uring men Of genius by the lower forms Of what
are called pragmatical men, who work and find
fodder for themselves and other animals The
upper understands the under, but the under does
not understand the upper in life.
mo other law exists as respects the under
standing Of God. He is too far above you. The
alphabet of understanding of the world is not
competent to spell out the attributes of the
eternal, the omnipresent Jehovah. We do not
fret at the operation Of this law in the lower
sphere, and we ought not to worry at its opera
ton in the higher sphere. No man can form an
adequate conception OF God unless he is God-like.
All right living and all high and noble disposi-
tions in ones self and among men are the mate
rials that are on the palette for the imagining
Of God. Slow as it is, believe the world is GER
tainly advancing in excellence and in excellency
of knowledge. The world is gaining, growing
toward God, and it is this hope and certainty
that we are growing towards God and a knowl
edge Of Him. that is my comfort and my conso-
lation. believe there is God Ibelieve that
the whole Of my being pronounces that Those
images that hover before the minds Of awakened
men are undoubtedly images of something,
though what we scarcely can see.
What glorious thing it is to live am
sorry for the stones-they have no career and
for the dust, that lies dust still thank God
for the unnumbered yet unborn ] hail and con-
gratulate their coming into better lif 9, into in