The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-01-28
Sreria1 Contributors.
nor
THE HUMANITY OF GOD.
BY REV. NJ. d. SHUTTER.
(MinneapOlis.)
A RELIGIOUS AND FAMILY WEEKLY.

The humanity of God, his love and
tenderness, his goodness, his patience,
his long suffering this side of his ma
ture is revealed in Jesus Christ. 1t is
revealed in his word. What hideous
deities the world has worshiped. What
Jupiters and Molochs What obscene
and cruel conceptions Even among
the Jews God was the strong one and
the eternal one preGOminantly, The
word, Father, as applied to him, was,
indeed, used two or three times in the
Old Testament, but Jesus first put the
word into general currency. 1t is the
key-word of the New Testament. 1t
banishes the fear of the slave, and
makes love and reverence possible.
Man is not driven to his fOOtst0Ol with
the crack of the lash about his ears he
is drawn by the golden cord of graft
tude. His praise arises as he comes
within the atmosphere of the divine
love as naturally and sWeetly as the in
cense of the flower rises upward under
the wooing of the sun. We are made
to feel, under the teaching of Jesus,
that God is not far from any one of us.
"He is closer than breathing, and nearer
than hands or feet" Do as we may,
yourselves from God we cannot free. Z"
The humanity of God is shown in
what Jesus teaches concerning his care.
He who clothes the grass of the field,
who sees to it that the birds of the air
do not go hungry, numbers our very
hairs and sees to it that our little lives
are not orphaned. 1t is shown in what
Jesus teaches of his impartiality. Sun
and rain descend without discrimina-
tiOn upon good and evil, just and un-
just. Only those who, in like manner
bless friend and foe, are called his chill
dren. 1t is shown in what Jesus teaches
of his relation to sin. the one chief
and beautiful truth he made clear for
ever" says Stopford Brooke, land more
clear than any had dared to make it
before, that God always loved us, even
when we were his enemies, and that
therefore he was never to be feared
again, never needed propitiation, never
needed to be recOnciled to US, never was
apart from us save only as a perfect
father is apart from sinful child-a
father whose punishments are founded
on sacred law, not on anger-whose law
has that love at its root which seeks
the perfection of the child, and whose
love welcomes with unspeakable JOY the
first flush of penitence, truth which,
when believed, annihilates supersti-
tion." That same humanity is shown
in what Jesus teaches of the outcome
the restoration of the lost coin, the find
ing of the lost sheep, the return of the
prodigal.
Take the keyword, "Father," or that
other expression, "God is love-" and go
through many parts of the New Testa-
ment with it, and see what light it
throws upon many passages that are
persistently misread. How the human
ity of God palpitates under the harsh
est mistranslatiOns Even where the
form seems severe and IS correctly
translated the hum anity of God is the
golden center. We are reminded that
our God is consuming fire." but
what fires are more ardent than those of
love when they seek to burn out the
faults and impurities of the object be-
loved 1t is because God loves men
that he will be satisfied with nothing
less than the burning of the drOss and
the refining of the gold. Love is not
mere good nature, blinking helplessly
and complacently at evil ; it uses sever
ity-the chastising rod, the purifying
fire-to accomplish for its beloved that
which is best. We read of Gods final
conquest of his enemies and at once a
picture of sword and torch, picture of
slaughter and devastation, flashes upon
the mind. We seem to see God who
commanded us 10 forgive our enemies,
standing with his own heel on the neck
aprostrate foe, hissword at the breast.
We forget the lesson that even a pagan
has taught us.
Nangfee, emperor of China, being
told that his enemies had raised an in
surrection in one of the distant prov
inces, said "Come, then, my friends,
follow me, and promise you that we
hall quickly destroy Them" He march