The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-12

God has purpose and design in per- hitting trouble and sorrow to continue in the world Is claimed by the preacher in this sermon on the mysteries of life; text, Genesis xiii II, Is anything too hard for the lord?"
 God Is a spirit. infinite, eternal and unehangeable in his being. wisdom pow CT. holiness, justice. goodness and truth.
 This is the definition of God found in the Westminster Shorter Cstechism. No man
 or body of men could give complete de- finition of all that God is. His nature transcends all human conception Lan- guage falls in the attempt to describe his infinite perfection Strive as we may, we realize that he is far beyond all that we can think or imagine. Probably no one
 has framed an utterance that comes so near to the truth as this of the Westmin-
 ster divines and. though it is confessed I ly inadequate it stands unparalleled in the struggle to reach the unattainable.
 It is a strange story that is told of it's
 origin The convocation of the Westmin ster divines was drawing to il close. For
 nearly six long years, since July l, 16iS.
 they had been meeting almost daily in the
 famous hall of Westminster which now bears their name. They had organized
 for the church a directory of public wor- ship" and had almost finished the larger and the shorter catechsms. Their work was practically finished with but one eX- ception. They could not frame q detini- :. tion which would clearly comprehen- l sively and completely answer the gues- ! 0Ff t fa... l.. 4l..e 4laf
 of a heated debate a young man who was
 comparatively an obscure member arose
 and said, Let us pray" Then he com menced his prayer in these simple words; 1 "Oh God thou who art q spirit, infinite, eternal, and interchangeable in thy being.
 wisdom, power, holiness, justice. goodness and truth, teach Us what thou art.'
 With that" so says tradition, 'all the members of the Westminster convocation ] eaped to their feet. crying, That is our l definition of what is God. It is an inspira l ton from his throne" So it was insert | ed in the catechism as the best and fullest definition that could be made of the Being whose attributes are ,syond hum 1 an knowledge.
 Hard to Comprehend.
 1 Many profes to believe that God is omnipotent omnipresent and omniscient,
 
 comprehend this. We say "He can do | all things" But when some one begins to l pin our faith down to a practical illus l traitor of Can God do this?" we say ] like Nicodemus How can these things | be-" We need constantly to remember that there are no limitations to the divine ] power and that all he has promised he is abundantly able to perform. When we see some gigantic evil that needs to be
 removed; when we think of some benefit l that seems necessary to the world, our
 hearts often sink in despair as we regard 1 it as impossible Then new courage and new hope ought to fill our minds as we re- 1 fleet on the omnipotence of the God in 1 whom we trust and to say with the an-
 gel who talked with with Abraham s wife, "Is anything too hard for the
 Lord?" great flood of inspired light
 now fills your soul. You answer: NO,
 no, nothing is impossible for God. God 1 is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchange-
 able. in his being, wisdom, boyer, holi-
 ness, justice, goodness and truth
 God is all powerful. all present and all
 seeing. You grant it. Then Iwould in
 vite you to consider the natural influences ; of your belief ask ourselves why ! God of unlimited power does not remove l some of the evils that cause so much mis-
 cry in the world. We know not.
 Easy would it be if God wished to 1 take all poverty out of the world. With
 mere word he could create for every
 man a palace in which to live. With a
 mere word he could place that palace
 In the midst of garden. With mere word he could have rainbows playing i hide and seek among the falling, springlng l tumbling waters of the fountains of that 1 garden. With a mere ward he could have 1 every mans table grooming under the
 richest threasures of orchards and gar , dens and fields He could furnish to each
 home the finest of wardrobes and the
 most resplendent of jewels and the cost l Hest of earthly treasures The sheep upon thousand hills all belong to God. The gold buried in the darkest mines is his
 The pearls glistening in the opened shells
 of the oysters laying by the coral reefs
 among the entangled gardens of the
 seas" are all his. Yet this abundant ! wealth is to be obtained by men only by l hard labor. It is his law that men shall
 work for the rich that are provided for
 him. God practically gives us nothing
 unless we are ready to work for it.
 Far Reaching Commandment.
 The far reaching commandment which | God spoke to Adam of old he speaks to us: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; | in sorrow shalt thou cat of 1t all the days of thy life thorns and thistles
 shall it bring forth to thee. and thou
 shalt eat the herb of the field; in the
 sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread | till thou return unto the ground, for 1 out of it vast thou taken, for dust
 thou art, and unto dust thou shalt re- | turn.'
 i "Cursed be the ground for thy sake"
 I remember of being struck with a prac- | tical illustration of what God meant by | that sentence. Some years ago out In the
 country I was walking over the hillsldes
 overlooking a beautiful valley filled with
 rich farms. I said to the companion by ! my side: "Looki Did you ever see
 more heautlful country than that? God