The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-11-06
SERMON.
THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD.
BY REV. j. E. JUNE.

Is he not also of the Gentiles9 Yes, OF
the Gentiles also.-Romans iii. 20.
HHIS passage of Scripture is SO
plain thata child can understand
it. 1t teaches a doctrine that Chris
tan sects have held in dispute for
ages-the Fatherhood of God. Paul
had the moral courage to inform the
Jews that God was the God ofheathen
as we'll as the God Of the Jews. This
was the principal object of Pauls
life-to break down the barriers be-
tween Jew and Gentle, by declaring
that they both have one Father. 1t
seems strange to US how our fore
fathers could derive the mournful
dogmas of election, and salvation for
the few and the loss of the many out
of this broad doctrine of Divine Fa-
therhood. Stranger still does 1T
seem to us when we see men IN our
own time laboring to perpetuate
such a conception OF the Heavenly
Father.
In his sermon not long ago March
81, 1879 Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage
said that the Bible gives two de-
scriptions of God. I'm one place 1t
SAYS he is love; in another place it
says he is consuming fire. Both
are right" says NJ. Talmage. God
through Christ is love. God out OF
Christ is fire. To wiz the one, and
escape the other man must throw
himself body, soul and mind into
Christ's keeping" Talmage sees
God through the diabolical dogma
of vicarious atonement which has
done more to blacken his name than
all the crimes of Christendom. If
Mr.. Talmage knows anything he
ought to know what every intelll-
gent commentator comedies that the
word fire as used in the Scripture ls
a symbol of love. Jesus baptised
with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
| am glad that God is a consuming
fire and that he will hold every one
of us in the furnace of his love until
the dross is burned away and we
stand before Him purified.
once read a story that was meant
to illustrate the theory of vicarious
atonement. A father and his son
ouarreled. The father said to the
son leave the house, The son
said, Il will leave and shall not re-
turn until you invite me- And so
they separated. The boys moth
er became heart broken, and pinned
away. She grew weaker from day to
day. She begged the father to in
vite the son back home; but he
would not She wrote the son TO re-
turn, but he said, mo; not until my
father asks me-" At last she sue
ceeded in getting the son to return
home, and taking his hand in one OF
hers. and the fathers in the other, she
cIasped them over her breast, gave a
sigh, and was gone-and the father
and the son were reconciled. Noble
mother, you say. How the son ought
to love her for such noble reconcil-
iation. Yes she was noble mother.
But what shall we say of the father2
Does that man in the story repre-
sent God? II it does | want to tell
YOU that he needs the mercy of man
more than man needs the mercy of
such God.
Such pictures of God have been
drawn simply to draw out our love
for Jesus, while they have blackened
the name of God and made him worse
than the worst human tyrant.
St. Paul says, however, that God is
the God of the Gentiles as we'll as
the Jews. The Jews hated the Gen.
tiles. They considered them no bet
ter than dogs. This feeling passed
from father to son. God belonged to
nobody but the Jews. They thought,
and do think today, that their long
looked for Messiah is coming to
avenge their wrongs and give them
the earth for an inheritance. When
Paul said that their God was also the
Gentiles God it provoked them to
wrath. They had been taught and SO
believed that they had been set apart
as divine favorites. But God knowsno
favorites among men. They are all
his favorites. He bestowed special
spiritual favors on the Jews because
he wanted to use them in preparing
the way for his great message of love
which would benefit all men. There
is nothing in Jewish history that
shows us that the Jews have ever
been special favorites of God. When
idolatry was the only form of worship
the Jews were appointed to set forth
the doctrine of Monotheism. In doing
this work they continually fell from
their allegiance, betrayed their trusts,