Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-04


row. These laundering words are simply
the best words that we have to express in
tellectual and spiritual truths. And we
have to use the same sort of speech about
God. God is not q man, but man is the
highest form of being that we have any eX-
perience of, and we have to represent God
to ourselves under this best symbol that
we know.
THREE WAYS OF THINKING.
Indeed, the only adequate revelation Of
| God which the race has ever had was given
! in the life of man. When we read in the
gospel, first that ''The Word was God, and
then that ''The Word was made flesh and
| dwelt among Us, we may seem for mo-
ment to find contradiction of the text. If
the beginning Of the gospel of st. John is
true, can we say that God is not man?
| That God became man is the central afirma-
| tion of the Christian religion.
| But there are three ways of thinking
! about God in His relation to the world
Sometimes we think of God as the eternal
and the infinite, as the omnipotent and
omnipresent. as the maker and the guide Of
| all the myriad worlds. as the God of nature.
| In this sense, God did not become man.
Jesus of Nazareth as He walked and talked
in Gaiilee was not occupied with the courses
of the planets. Sometimes we think of God
as the supreme source of all morality, as
| the divine lawgiYer, as the leader and teacher
| of the race out of the worse into the better,
| helping and inspiring, speaking in all noble
Oratory and all sublime poety, whispering
to the children of genius the wonderful
secrets of art and music, behind all refor-
nations, all martyrdom, all heroism, the
soul of all human goodness, the God of con-
! science. In this sense, God did
| ,O% Tocr1 of N0u rof IN
as He healed the sick in the streets
of Jerusalem was not helping on
good government in Rome, nor good litera-
| ture in Athens, was not speaking in the
| hearts of men questioning between wrong
! and right. We escape, I think, a great
deal of the difficulty which gathers about
| the truth of the incarnation when We under
stand that it does not mean either of these
afirmations about God. When we think
that first thought about God we are think
ing of God the Father, and when we think
that other thought we are thinking of God
| the Holy Spirit And you will not findany
sentence either in Holy Scripture or in
Christian theology which declare that either
the Father or the Holy Spirit was made
| man.
THE HUMAN REVELATION.
1t was the 'eWord' which became flesh.
And the "Word" means the reve-
lation of God, that side of the
being of God which most needs
manifestation in visible, unmistakabls
shape, and is capable of it. For there is
third way of thinking about God. That
which above all else we desire to know con-
| cerning Him is His relation to our own
souls. We want to be taught about the
human relations of God. What is the char
acter of God as 1T touches us? Does He
/ for ~ low hat Ia
the disposition of God toward man? What
| is Gods measure of mans conduct? What
| future has He made ready for those whom
| He loves? This is what was revealed in
Jesus Christ. Out of all the attributes and
relations of the infinite God this for brief
| space of years was made visible and plain,
| in the most natural and most fitting medium,
| in the manifestation of it in a human life.
No amount of the most careful instruction,
no writing upon the circle OF the
| sky could so reveal the relation which
God holds to the individual soul as this
setting of a God-flled man in the midst Of
men and letting Him live out that relation
day after dav in His human life and death.
| There is no book like that life. There is no
| sermon like that cross. Thus 1t was that
| God was indeed O man. So that the yerv
height of truth which we can possibly con-
eeive concerning God S relation to our souls is
! that God is like Christ, that God loves men,
and even sinful men, es much as Christ did.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOD AND MAN.
| Nevertheless, God is not man. That is,
| God is immeasurably more and infinitely
better than any man. Let us be thankful
| for that!
''God is not a man," said Balaam, "that
| He should lie, neither the son of man that
| He should repent" God means exactly
what He says, and will keep His word. ''[
| will not execute the ferceness of Mine
anger" God says in the sermon of Hosea:
| 81 will not return to DESTROY Ephraim, for
1 am God and not man." God is infinitely
patient, infinitely forgiving, infinitely
| loving.
! The difference between God and man, ac-
cording to Balaam, is that God is infinitely
Interchangeable Balaam could appreciate
that. The great thing that he wanted Of
| God was that God should change his mind.
| With all his heart he longed to curse that
invading army. A good, round, vigorous
and effective cursing, which should demor-
alize the yalor of the men of Israel and give
| the victory to Balak, meant promotion for
Balaam, meant royal favor and great honor,
and house full of silver and gold. But
Balaam knew that that army, down on the
| plain below, was blessed of God. And he
| knew also that whoever was blessed of God
/ W&S DleSSeu. ne JTlpu 10 1eJ OOu 10
| that blessing into maledictiOn. He PRAYED
as earnestly as he knew how, and a good
many times But he had to come back after
| the stoutest of his prayers and
| tell Balak plainly that God is
not man. God stood on the side of Israel,
and no amount of money which might be
gained for the prophet of God by different
kind of preaching, and no number of great
men end kings who might be offended by
refusal to curse people who deserved no
cursing, weighed with God at all.
AN ABSOLUTELY IMPARTIAL JUDGE
1t is great thing to know that we have
beside us an absolutely impartial judge.
Anybody who has listened to the testimony
in o court of justice, with a desire to learn
the truth and to get at the right, knows
what hard thing it is to give an accurate
iudgment-one of the hardest problems in
the world. And everybody who has gone
to court in his own heart, and has listened
there to the opposing voices, for and against,
which make themselves heard in every
moment of selection between the
better and the worse, knows how much
influence is exerted at that bar by
the prospect of gain, by the opinion of the
great, by the hope of popularity. The
Church herself, in the persons of her fore
most men, has again and again cursed those
whom the Lord has blessed because the
king has bidden her to curse. But God
cares not for kings There is no man so
wealthy, none so cultured, none of such
illustrious family, or of such high position,
that God will hesitate to leave him out OF
the society of heaven. God is for the right.
And no matter how little man has, If he
has good, clear conscience, God 1s on his
side And God knows God is not man.
Not all the kinodoms of the earth and the