The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-10-31

bllndly accept or be doomed; but as
the expression of spiritual exper-
fence which we may share and be
blessed. 1t is an utterance of the
deepest life of the soul, the conscious
union of the little man with the
Great God. 1t encourages us to
aspire to that lofty height where
doubt and fear are forgotten in sacred
repose and content, and in the inner
most quiet of perfect love"
2. The Fatherhood of God. How
that word Father" comes out in all
his discourses! 1t rims his entire
conception of the Deity. The inte
rior nature and the attributes of God
he never discussed. His relationship
to us and our relationship to him was
all that concerned Jesus. And here
he speaks out of his own experience
and out of the tenderness of his own
heart. He knew his own love, and
he felt that the love of God must ex
coed it, as the ocean exceeds the bay
or inlet Whereas men had pictured
God hideous as Moloch, vengeful and
cruel, Jesus said: "He maketh his
sun to rise on the evil and the good,
and sendeth rain on the Just and
the unjust" Peacemakers are the
children of God. The light of our
good works is to guide men to the
house of our Father. We are COM
manded to love our enemies and pray
for our prosecutors that we may be
the sons of our Father in heaven. 1t
is the Father who seeth in secret our
prayers and our aims, and who will
recompense. The prayer Jesus
taught his disciples begins with Our
FATHER" Not a sparrow falleth
without his notice; much more will
ou1 Heavenly Father care for us. Our
first duty is to love him. All that he
requires is to be worshiped in spirit
and in truth. Form and ceremony
he accounts as nothing. Within the
temple or outside of it; not alone in
Jerusalem c. upon Samaria's sacred
mountain, but everywhere may the
true worshipers worship the Father.
"Invisible and'silent stands
The Temple never made with hands,
| Unheard the voices Still and small
OF its unseen confessional.
He needs no special place of prayer,
Whose hearing ear is everywhere"
8. The Care of God This thought
is wrapped up in what has just been
said of his Fatherhood. He who
clothes the grass, and decks the lily,
and feeds the raven, is pledged, says
Jesus, to the greater care for his chill
dren.
1t is much to be able to feel today
that, poor and Insignificant as our
lives may be, they are encompa ssed
by the larger life of God, parts of his
plan, materials for his building.
Maggie Tulliver, in George Eliot's
story, was helped out of her dismal
moods, when ''she learned to look at
her own life as an Insignificant part
of divinely guided whole" This is
the true standpoint. Each one is
weaving some threads into the great
pattern; and the supreme wisdom
gu des the flying shuttles of the loom.
There is a story of one who con-
versed with a villager whose village
lay Nesting in the bosom of great
mountain. He ventured to ask
whether they had many storms dur
ing the year. ooh, yes" was the an
swer, eff there is storm anywhere in
the ne ghborhood, it seems to find us
out" Chow do you account for it,"
"Those who seem to know say it's due
to the mountain which towers above
our village. If he happens to see
cloud anywhere upon the horizon, he
beckons until it settles upon his brow.
We villagers call it putting on his
night-cap.'" "Have you had any
accidents from the lightning7" None;
not one. We have seen the lightning
strike the mountain hundred times,
and grand sight it was; but nobody
has been killed" "What have you,
then7" 1--WE have the down-pour of
the rain. The fertility of our village
which you SO much admire, is all due
to the thunder showers" So Jesus
taught us that wherever storms beat
and tempests rage, God stands, like
the mountain, between us and final
harm. There he stands to break the
lightning force, to hurl aside the
thunders, and to turn the pelting
rain of sorrow and affection into show
ers of blessings. "As the mountains
are round about Jerusalem, so is
the Lord round about his people,
from. henceforth and forever"
H.
IN THE SECOND PLACE LET Us CONSIDER
THE WORDS OF JESUS CONCERNING MAN.