The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-11-02
GOD KNOWS.

His Omniscience Does Not Outrun His
Love and Thoughtfulness.
Nothing is more characteristic of the
conversation of the Turks than its
pietistic tone. Orientals always want
to seem good. The ready phrases of
poetry and religion are ever on their
lips. When they are not cursing they
are generally blessing somebody.
"Kusmet oloursa." "If it be fate"
says the traveller, 1--WE will do so and
SO, or arrive thther at such and such
time"
"Mashallah" "Wonderfull What
things God whilst" exclaims the listen
er, who is all the while rejecting that
what the other man is remarking is
very commonplace. "Estafroullah!'
"God forbid" cries the accused, in open
protest against a charge to which he is
secretly convinced he should plead
guilty.
But no one of these religious COM
monplaces is at once more terse and in
itself more really suggestive than the
ejaculation so frequently interlarded
with the conversation of Orientals:
Allah bilir!" 'God knowsw You ask
man: ''Do you think it will rain to-
day?" He is no weather prophet, nor
the son of weather prophet, and so he
answers deprecatingly. God knows"
You talk politics with another individu-
al and express wondering surmise as
to what the country's coming to- Your
confrere replies, resignedly: God
knowsp' You condole with some be-
reaved neighbor. and gently suggest
that God makes no mistakes in His
providential dealings. EYES," he quiet
ly murmurs, "He does all things we'll
God knows"
God knows? Yes, It is fact and
blessed one-true for Asia, true for
America God is no agnostic. He is
untaught, but He is not ignorant. He
is not on The outside of His own crea.
ton. shut out of the lives of the very
creatures He has called into being. No.
God is in the world, and in it as it's in
tellectual and moral master-in it to
: fathom, to grasp, to dominate all it's
complicated, multiplex details of life,
TO satiSIy ltS myriad needs.
This is our creed as Christians. We
believe in an intelligent, immanent
Lord-not in distant extraneous
Deity. For us He is not only situated
far off in cosmic spaces, but near in
mundane latitudes-not merely there.
but here. And we are glad that the
Divine intelligence comprehends all the
manifold complexities and perplexities
of our earthly life-that His thought
runs down into and follows patiently
and exactly along through all the
grooves and sinuosities of our individ-
ual and social activity. He knows it
all. We can not tell Him any thing con-
corning either ourselves or life at large
that He does not already know
Such knowledge is too wonderful"
for us-it is "high," solemn and signiti-
cant. Considered in itself alone, how
ever. it is comfortless and oppressive
If we stop short with God knows" we
shall be hopelessly borne down under
the weighty sense of critically obser-
want Divine contemplation and inspec-
ton.
it does not of itself render life more
comfortable or more promising. Alb
stract knowledge is cold, icy thing,
without heart or hand to help, I'm
less God loves too God knows" is aw-
full!
No, knowledge is not enough. We
might possibly conceive of Supreme
Being who knew all things and hated
everything He knew; who, possessed of
all knowledge of us and of our possible
destinies, yet most skillfully utilized
that very intelligence with a view to
the most exquisitely-devised torture
and excoriation of our helpless human
ity, and the crucifxion of all our noblest,
tendercst feelings-or if not quite that,
Being whose knowledge of His own
creation was only equaled by His su.
preme and perpetual Indifference to its
deeper needs.
Accordingly, if we would be built uI
in hope and vigor of life, we must no,
las does the Turk practically be con
tented with, "God knows" but proceed
confidently to the further position God
feels, and cares" "Allah ekberw God i,
great" "He is wise" says the Oriental
yet He has virtually nothing TO dc
with the details of my life and tn,
hungerings of my heart" ''He caretf
for YOU" replies the Christian, quoting
Paul. He is not only acquainted with
grief" abstractly, but in all mans Attic
ton He is afflicted"
Here is solid comfort. God is no care
less observer of human life and its trib
ulations, coolly and coldly noting dowl
as matters of merely passing, or at tn
most, of scientific interest, the detail
Of the worlds troubled life, God i
right with us, heart and soul, In all on
struggles and yearnings This thought
this conception, is ever need in tn
worlds always wanted close home :
the aching heart of poor humanity.
We believe. then in God who's
omniscience and omnipotence do no
ontrun His love and thoughtful tender
ness. We have no fear that He vii
forget us. We are troubled, we ar
baffled, we are perplexed-but Go
reigns and God helps. 1t is said that tn
common Russian soldiery, so frequentl
neglected and maltreated at the hand
of sub-officials. in their distress an
desperation may be quite ready to blam
and curse their immediate superiors, c