Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-10-29
CHILDHOOD OF MAN.
what . Full Sense of Gods Fatherhood
Involves. M

We need a new word A child who
has lost his father is called an orphan.
We have no word to describe the Ia
ther who has lost his child. Yet the
sense of loss and Of Incompetence is
as real and often as intense in the one
case as the other. Perhaps it is the over
sight of this fact that makes SO many
fail to realize that they have duty to
God. We hear great deal of the father
hood of God and the brotherhood of
man, as if nan had duties only to his
brother man. They seem to forget
that by calling God their Father they.
in form at least, acknowledge them
selves His children, and thereby in
reality imply that they have duties to-
ward Him. Such people when they
hear Christians speak of God as their
Father in a peculiar sense are apt to
become indignant and claim that this
is presumption. God is the all-Father,
and is just as much theirs as the Chris
tian's. Perhaps the best answer to this
is one given this last summer by New
York pastor in the form of two coun-
ter questions:
DO you pray to your Father?" he
asked one of these men.
"No, l cannot say that l do. 1t is
long since l have been in the habit of
prayer"
"Do you think of Him as interested in
your daily life, your business, your sue
cess or failure?"
mo, don't think / do"
do not misunderstood me, then, il
say that I should think you would be
ashamed to claim as your Father one
with whom you hold no communion at
all, whom you never consult, from
whom you are content simply to re-
ceive."
He might have said more. No one has
the right to claim relationship who does
not acknowledge the duties involved in
the relationship. Gods Fatherhood is
not and cannot be complete without
mans childhood. A glimpse of Gods
view of the relationship is found in the
parable of the Prodigal Son, and in
Paul's expression: HE that spared
lot His own Son, but delivered Him up
for us ALL" We need not dwell upon the
full meaning of the word spared" with
all that it implies of self-sacrifice, il
we would gain an idea of what father
hood means to God. We might then
gain a new conception of what child
hood means for man
Childhood means obedience. God, our
Father, has uttered certain commands,
as He has a perfect right to do. If we
recognize His Fatherhood we are bound
to obey His commands; we must observe
His law. Our own preferences, our
own judgments have no standing what
ever if they come in conflict with His
expressed will. Childhood means trust.
Trust includes faith, confidence and the
resulting courage, patience, persever-
ance. God. as our Father, has placed us
here, and given the assurance that He
desires the best possible life for each
one of us. All He asks is that we
obey Him and then trust Him. If we dis
obey and take the conduct of our life
into our own hands, then we refuse to
recognize His Fatherhood and cannot
blame Him il life does not turn out as
lie planned it for Ills. If we obey Him.
then we may be confident that He will
care for us. "He knoweth our frame
and remembereth that we are DUST"
therefore, like as father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear Him." In this caring He may use
discipline, even chastisement; for what
SOL is he whom his father chastiseth
not?" but His love may be relied upon
to guide His power, and He will cause
''ail things to work together for good"
to us.
Those who claim the Fatherhood of
God, but fail, or refuse to recognize,
their own childhood, miss the grandest
conception Of human life. They even
miss the best of the brotherhood Of
man." because they miss the divine in
man. They miss, too, the most beauti-
full conception of God, earnestly loving,
watching over His children, even those
who forget Him. If He gives peculiar
blessing to those who as children obey
and trust Him, it is from no partiality,
butsimply because their love meets His.
completes it, and the united love makes
the present ideal Of the one family in
Hmm. Y. Independent.