The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-03-23

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seem but slow; and the scale of Gods
work is vast enough to account for
all his apparent deliberativeness."
Pages and s.
"When we rise to the conception of
this creation, which pictures it as the
field in which universe of immortal
souls is to be perfected in holiness, in
JOY and in love, our thought dilates
the period which this work will take
to countless ages of time. For it is
only when we have included in our
thought this principle of the divine
economy, that we have begun to get
in hand the materials for proper
estimate of our own relations to him
and eternity,-to life here and here
after" Page 10.
cage, change, death Immortality.
= There is one thing more. * * aE
In the course of our increasing age.
out of the successive changes of life,
this side of death or the other, as.
sured by the immortality of the soul,
there must come an hour when the
will, consciously and Of its own ac-
cord, submits to the divine.
For there is such thing as the mex
orableness of love. There is a love
too patient to be tired out, too long
suffering to be exhausted, too wise
to be outwitted, too strong to be re-
sisted, too tender to be defied, too in
tent to be thwarted. Divine love is
so strong and so enduring that it can
never give up its end, never abandon
one of its own offspring. Itcan pun
ish as we'll as comfort. 1t can disci-
pline equally with prosperity or with
distress. You cannot escape
this love. You can never run away
from its pursuing care. 1t will never
give you any peace till you have sub
mitted to it's rule. 1t will not leave
you to enjoy your sim" Pages 26 and
20.
"The way of the transgressors" is
hard because there are always eternal
resistances to be met in it, which make
it the line of the greatest resistance.
Sin is not only contrary to the inner
nature of him who commits it; it is
against the outward nature in the
midst of which he lives. 1t is con-
trary to mans environment. 1t is
against the nature of things. And
he who allies himself with evil is
brought into perpetual collisions
with all the creation around him. He
involves himself in quarrel with
every interest of society, with every
institution devised for mans well
being, with the currents of law which
sweep through creation from high to
low, with the forces which move with
resistless gravitation evermore toward
righteousness and the will of God.
= Every sin arrays itself
against the entire universe" Page
43.
mankind grows better because
the world is so framed and man him
self is so constituted that it is easier
to do right than to do wrong. Ma
ture and the soul agree when man
does right. When he sins they are
in irreconcilable conflict" Page Al.
"The environment of which we
talk when we speak of the laws and
forces of the moral world is nothing
else than God. 1t is always and
forever the pressure of his spirit up
on the hearts of his creatures. 1t is
the stress of his love which makes
the way of the transgressors hard;
and it is the tender benefcence of the
same love which makes the path of
the just SO resplendent." Page 4S.
"He who asks much of his children
sets severe tasks for them, that they
may be trained to do his will. God
teaches us by trials. And no teach
ing compares with his in strict sever
ity. He counts no pressure too hard,
no work too onerous, when the spirits
good is to be sought. His agents
are no respectors of persons. The
worlds progress is gained through
blood and through tears. 1t has
cost this marching race of ours meas
ureless sufferings to reach its present
place, and learn what it knows of
powers and laws. God turns man
into a world bristling with difficulties
and hardships and requires him to
work his own way to knowledge, to
strength and virtue. He goads us to
effort with sharp necessity, and blocks
the road with barriers which tax all
our little strength. Thorny and
rugged is the way which leads to en-
lightenment and holiness. And yet
mans heart is made to be content
with nothing short of that which the