Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-12-12
The GROUND OF GODS CLAIMS

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His Requirements Are Always for Ou1
Good.
"Are Gods claims on us Just and
right? On what ground do they restE
If we are, as III pastors tell us, under
an obligation which no language can
express, to love and, obey Him, why are
we?"
Such questions as these often arise
in the mind if they do not frame them
selves into words. Well does the writer
remember how he used to put them tc
himself, even before he entered his
teens; and many a thoughtful boy and
girl ponders, if he does not ask, sub
stantially the same questions now. II
we a answer them so simply and
clearly as to leave no uncertainty on the
matter i'll u readers minds, we shall
meet the want, we are sure, of not a
few.
We may without hesitation assume
that Gods ways are always right and
his requirements always reasonable.
If they ever seem otherwise it is be-
cause we do not understand them.
They are always such that every right
minded being in the universe would
commend them if he could know the
reasons for them. We are, then, never
to think of these requirements as obliga-
tory simply because He has made them,
but are always to remember that He has
made them because infinite wisdom and
o saw that it was wise and right that
we should obey them. Gods commands
are simply revelations to us of what
ought to be, and what our own welfare
and happiness demand. They are
spiritual guide-boards which His fatherly
regards for His children has put up
along the wayside of life to guide them
to happiness and Heaven. Some seem
to have the idea that He makes require
mentS OF us for somewhat such a reason
as the farmer gives orders to his cattle.
because his w interests are to be pro-
NOTED by Il obedience. 1t has even
been taught that we are to obey Him
because He is so great and powerful
that He will crush us into perdition if
we do not. Such representations of
II Fatherin Heaven.a and of the reasons
why we should always aim to please
Him, are misrepresentation. They
give us a most unworthy view of His
character and a most unworthy motive
for our obedience to Him. No kind
and loving father here on earth wishes
his children to obey him simply from a
cringing fear of punishment if they do
not. That is a slavish spirit, not a
tiliar one. And w may be sure that
the best and most loving of all parents
does not desire His children, as their
reason for complying with His com
mands, any such low and selfish re-
gard merely to their own advantage.
He asks for our love, and love is not a
hollow, calculating policy, but such a
contiding affection as the happy little
child gives his loving mother.
God is our Father. He has set His
human children in families, establishing
between them the sweet relationship of
parent and child, partly that that rela-
tionship might be to us a revelation of
the relationship between Himself and
His children. When a young husband
and wife have a little babe given them
to love and to educate, they become
capable of understanding Gods feelings
toward them as previously they could
not. That little ones coming has
opened in their own nature depths in
which they discover new revelations of
the tenderness and love of our Father in
Heaven toward His human children.
For we have been made in the image of
God, so that by looking into our own
nature we may the better understand
Him, as by looking at a photograph we
get a more truthful idea of the person
it represents.
When we call to mind the noblest.
wisest, most loving father of whom we
have W. heard, do we hesitate a mo-
ment to say that his children ought to
love him and show their love in their
treatment of him? DO we not affirm
that as promptly and positively as that
two and two make four? And uppose
n of that fathers children should ask,
in skeptical murmuring: ''\Nhy ought
l to love my father and conform my
wishes to his?' Should we not feel at
once that there was something sadly
wrong in that child? Such a question
would be itself q condemnatory proof
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