The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-02-06

doctrine of the fatherhood is that it
includes everybody. There is no
mind so darkened, no pagan so be-
nighted, no heart so sinful that it may
not look up with the same sweet cry,
"Fatherl Fatherp which being trans
lated in the language of common life
means 'Mother MotherF'
Mr.. Moody somewhere tells this
simple story of little child that lay
dying: "Out from the little pallid
face there looked the large, wonder
ing eyes, as the breath came hard
and fast. The mother, bending low,
sought to console the little one by
pictures of the life beyond. Shetold
her of the celestial city, the heavenly
Jerusalem, with its wondrous gates
and streets of gold, but the little girl
only said YEARLY, Pm so tired moth
or, shouldn't care for that Then
the mother spoke of the music she
would hear there, grander, sweeter
and nobler than any ever heard on
earth, but still the little sufferer
said, Oh, am so tired, mother, |
shouldn't care for it, The mother
felt that she could say no more. SO
in her love she just lifted the child
out of it's cot and clasped it to her
breast, and as the little head nestled
on her shoulder peaceful smile set
tied upon the face, and the tremu-
lous lips opened to say, That's what
1 want, mother Is it not so every
where? Is not this the one long cry
of every troubled heart-'That's what
l want, Motherp That's what l
want, Father. I want to know the
eternal love-
Now all l ask is, have we empha-
sized this too much? Is it bad for the
world to know this wondrous divine
love? Has the old story been re-
peated too often7 Is it stale? Is it
trite? Are men tired of hearing it
If so, then truly we need not organ
ize; we need not combine in its de-
tense. But is it not as true today as
it was hundred years ago? Some
body should defend it. Somebody
should tell it over and over again.
If the world needed it then, does it
not need it just as much now9
(2) There is only one thing more
of which l care to speak, and that is
a thought which springs inevitably
out of this that have been already
talking about. might have put it
in the very language of the Scripture
in a hundred different forms-for ex-
ample, thus: For God will have all
men to be saved and come into a
knowledge of the truth" Or in less
logical form, l might say with Paul:
"For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin-
cipalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other
creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus, our Lord" To be sure,
Paul said this long time ago. 1t
was not new to him. 1t was not new
to Jesus. But we have thought it so
beautiful, so valuable, that it was
necessary to say it over, to emphasize
it and re-emphasize it. Under the in
fuence of the dark Latin theology it
had been somewhat forgotten. Peo-
pie drifted away from it, and SO it
became our province to put it once
more in central place in the Chris
tan theology, with all that it in
wolves.
And now if I translate it back into
logical form, it simply means the
final triumph of good over evil, the
final redemption of all mankind; but
you will understand it better when
told in the story of the prodigal son,
or the lost piece of silver, or the lost
sheep, for what Jesus means in these
sweet, old stories God means to &C
complish as final end of his govern
ment. In other words, at the last
there are to be no lost sheep, there
are to be no lost pieces of silver and
no sons that are to be forever and
ever as prodigals. Or to put it once
more into poetic form, Tennyson
would say:
''Oh yet we trust that somehow good
Shall be the final goal of i'll,
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt and taints of blood
That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish in the void,
When God hath made the pile complete. "
Or Whittier would say:
Il walk with bare, hushed feet the ground
Men tread with boldness shod;
/ dare not fix with mete and bound
The love and power of God.
know not what the future hath