Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-04-19


back thousands upon thousands Of
years TO the creation Of the world, you
are not yet at the beginning Of Gods
eternal existence. for God existed be-
fore the world was.
what Eternal Means.
What the eternal existence Of God
means cannot be better illustrated than
by the following words of NJ. Camille
Flammarion, the celebrated astrOno-
mer. What this French writer says
about the heavens VIC cnn easily apply
TO the duration of time: Let us mag
inc that we sail a million years with
the velocity of light, 10000 miles
second. Are we at the confines Of the
visible universe! See the black i'm
mcnstics we must cross. But yOndcr
new stars are lit up in the depth OF the
heavens. We push on toward them
we reach thcm-again n million years,
new revelations, new starry splendors.
new systems. new worlds. new earths.
What. never an end? We are at the
vestibule of the infinite. We have adj
vanced but n single step, We are al
ways at the same pont-the center ev'
prywhcre. the circumference nowhere.
We see before us the infinite, Of which
the study is not yet begun We have
seen nothing. We recOil in terror. We
/ might fail in a straight line during a
whole eternity nor ever reach the bot
| tom. 1t is infinite in all directions"
! SO wherever we go into the past let
! US always think of God as farther back.
/ Not only must We amplfy our ideas
/ in reference 10 Gods eternal existence,
/ but we must also amplfy them in ref
crence TO Gods personal presence. The
! Bible tells us that we are made after
, Gods image. 80 God created man in
his own image, in the image Of God
created he him, male and female Gro
atcd he them" Does this imply that
God is like unto us physically-that he
has two eyes, two hands. two feet and
a beating heart? lust as find Queen
Nictorias face stamped upon the Eng
fish shilling. so some people think Gods
face. in n physical sense. is stamped
upon us. But is this true? Nay. Am
plify. Ampify your idea Of Gods per-
sOnality In the One Hundred and
]
whittier shall 60 from thy spirit
or whittier shall ! flee from thy pres
encc: If ! ascend up into heaven. thou
art there: If ] make my bed in hell.
behold. thou art there: If I take the
wings Of the morning and dwell in the
uttcrmost parts of the sea. even there
thy right hand shall hold me. Yea. the
darkness hideth not from thee, but the
night shincth as the day. The darkness
and the light are both alike TO thee"
In other words. God is here, God Is
there. God is every whore at once. How
can all this he and yet God be like
ourselves in a physical sense? Men in
capable Of conceiving pure spirit have
supposed that God has human form,
as did the ancient nihropomorphites.
or IN animal form. ms did the ancient
idolatcrs but the Bible doctrine IA OK
pounded by Jesus is. God is a spirit.
and they that worship him must wor-
ship him in spirit.
1t Passes comprehension.
Not only does the Omniprescnce Of
God pass all human conception and
explanation, but his personality. called
the Trinity. also passes human ex'
PLANTATION. Here we have God the Fa-
thcr. God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit. How can you interpret it: A
denr friend of mine told me how an
old Spanish artist once tried to explain
it. Above one of the affairs Of a MeXi-
can cathedral was Il picture amid
clouds. out of these clouds appeared
the faces of three men. These three
faces We're all the same. Under the
picture. in Latin. were the words The
Father. the Son and the Holy Ghost
T These three faces We're all alike; they
were like three photographs of one
: face taken from the same negative
, But had that artist caught true con
ception of the Trinity: No. He nc
: more pictured the true God than did
? the artist who tried to picture the face
, of the Trinity as that Of one man. The
+ full conception of Gods eternal exist
r cnce and Of Gods personality passes
2 all human grasp. Therefore | say tt
you. as Michael Angelo said TO Raphael
q when thou nrt trying to reach out after
= the personality of God. amplify anC
] Oh ihk. '''"A - " 'P'i .
I infinite That means no flight Of human
= magination can reach the heights OF
/ plumb the depths or touch the bound:
: Of the realms of his presence. WI
4 must accept Gods personality as in
o finitely more comprehensive than W.
o can prove him to be or else we shall
never accept him ut all.
But though l have dwelt long upoI
= my first point, l believe it Is The leas
~ important Of any I shall present for |
>, is almost an impossibility for any on
!. of lis to get away from our belief in M
o Overruling God who was the creator o
q the universe after we have studied TN
;, wonderful harmonies of the natura
=, world. We are like the student OF skcp
, teal tendencies who was seated Mt tn
= feet Of that master Of anatomy, DR.
q Marshall. The great professor was ex
=, planning to his class the marvelS of tn
;, points OF the knee or Of the hand, Aft
err he had finished his talk this studen
-. exclaimed, "a man must be fool IN
i deed who, after duly studying his owl
:, body. can remain an atheist" So W
=, say, "A man must be a fool who cal
n study the harmonies Of nature and no
believe that n master mind, called tn
;, Creator and the Ruler is molding ant
\ influencing all" But. after we hav