Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1899-10-26
God In His World.

God In His World.
washington GLADDEN., D. D., in Sat
urday Evening Post.)
! have written at the head of these
paragraphs the title of one of the most
original and suggestive of modern re-
ligious books. l do not wish to speak
Of the book at this time; | desire
merely to emphasize the title. There
Is nothing new in the phrase. and yet
there shines from it the light of
larger revelation than the world has
yet received. For myself l must con-
less that this phrase is constantly re-
curing to me; at many a turn Of
thought it flashes its light in my path
into many cloudy solution of ideas
II brings instant crystalline clearness.
God is in His world. We have, al
ways been saying something of the
kind, but have we really believed it?
vi course we have used a large word
which was supposed to convey this
meaning Omnipresence- it was a
metaphysical conception; it repre-
sented to us no reality. Or, if we gave
any definite meaning to it, it signified
to us spiritual presence lowering
over the world like an atmosphere.
But the meaning which is conveyed by
the phrase. God is in His world" is
vastly larger than this. We now be-
gin to understand that God did not
make the world 5000 years ago
installing then system of laws and
forces, and since then, in Carlyle's
words. Sitting on the outside of His
universe and seeing it go" We real
ize that His creation is rather con-
tinuous process going on as nightly
and miraculously before our eyes to-
day as it ever was in any creation
morning; that the world is alive in
every part with God "All the things
that we can see and know in the course
of our life in this world" says Mr.
John Fiske, ARE so intimately woven
together that nothing could be left out
without reducing the whole marvellous
scheme to chaos Whatever else may
be true, the conviction is brought
home to us that in all this endless
multifariousness there is one single
principle at work, that all is tending
toward an end that was involved from
the very beginning, if we can speak of
beginnings and ends where the process
is eternal. The whole universe is ami
mated by single principle of life, and
whatever we may see in it, whether
to our half-trained understanding ard
narrow experience it may seem to be
good or bad, is an indispensable part
of the stupendous scheme" This is
the truth which sicence is forcing upon
our thought. The unity of Nature is
the postulate of all scientific reason
ing, and the significance of that unity,
as now to comprehensive students of
Nature it is beginning to appear, is
momentous. We have been afraid to
make much of this truth for that we
should be called Pantheists; but we
need be no more pantheistic than the
Hebrew psalmists were, or that st.
raul anu 81. JOIu COlllCooSQ
selves to be. To find that the whole
world today lives and moves and has
its being in God is not to deny His
transcendency. Your friend IS re-
vealed to you by the light in his eye,
the lines of his countenance, the words
that he speaks, the intonations Of his
voice, the manifestations of his spirit
in the deeds done in the body; but the
recognition of him in the flesh does
not involve the belief that he can have
no life apart from the flesh. To find
God in His world is not to assume
that He has no life apart from this
world. But the higher pantheism
which discerns Him there has foun-
dation for faith far stronger than the
old theology ever gave US. The old
manner of thinking made the world
the antithesis of God; in much Of our
common thought there lurked kind
of dualism Science has forever put
an end to that conception, and has
forced us to regard the universe as
1.-The multiform manifestation of sim
gle, all-pervading Deity" and thus,
says Mr.. Fiske, I'VE become for the
first time pure and uncompromising
Monotheists-be believing in the ever
living, Interchangeable and all-wise
Heavenly Father, in whom we may
declare our trust without the faintest
trace of mental reservation" IT is this
recognition of God in His world which
makes life so serious and so marvel
GUS thing. In the face of this con-
ception, the old distinction between !
the sacred and the secular becomes
meaningless; we are standing all the
while in the presence-chamber of God;
we are co-workers with Him in every
thing we do. And what fellowship
there is for us, if we will only let |
these great thoughts take possession OF |
our mindsl In the silence of the great |
on the shores of the mighty |
ocean, on the banks Of the placid river, |
there may come to us as to Wads-
worth:
"A presence that disturbs me with the
joy
Of elevated thoughts; sense sublime
OF something far more deeply inter-
fused,
Whose dwelling is the light Of setting
suns,
And the round ocean, and the living
air.
And the blue sky and in the mind OF
man"
Conuuests of Christianity.