The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-16
BEING FILLED WITH FULLNESS OF GOD Rev. s. p. West Breaches At
 AVondaIe Church TEXT FROM EPHESIANS We Cannot Attribute Any Principle to God Unless That Principle Dwells
 To Some Extent
 In Us.
TEXT FROM EPHESIANS

"Being Filled With All the Fullness of God was the subject of a sermon de- livered by the Rev s. P. West, pastor of the North Avondale Methodist church. at Il a. m. yesterday. The text was: That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by Ills spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to compre- bend with all saints what Is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God "-Bphesians 316-19.
 The sermon was in part:
 This is the sublimest prayer that ever ascended from human heart to the throne of God And as the Holy Ghost does not indite impossible petitions and inspire us to pray for things not att tainable by us, every petition. remark able as they are. may be attained by us. But I desire to call your attention more particularly to the grand climax of this wonderful prayer-'That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God"
 God is a Spirit. This is truth that needs not to be argued. It is true that He is spoken of as having eyes and ears and hands and feet. These are figures of speech to aid our comprehension of God.
 Man is a spirit created in the likeness and image of God. and as God is a spirit so man is spirit. The difference is not in kind, but in degree. No man would dip a glass of water from the ocean and say this is the ocean, but the water in the glass is the same quality as the water in the ocean. No man would hold light ed candle out of his window and say this is the sunrise and yet the fire in the candle and in the sun differ only in mag nitude God is infinite: we are finite. The essential clements of persons lity are mind, will, heart. We possess these as we'll as the infinite one. Not in degree, but in kind. There is this brotherhood of essential properties. this kinship, run ming through all intelligences from the humblest to the highest. Without this identity of essence we would have no ca pacity for knowing God. We cannot at- tribute any principle to Him except that principle dwells to some extent in us. It is justice and thought and love in us that enables us to conceive of justice in telligence and love in God. The man who is a father can best appreciate the state n1ent that Like as father pitieth his children so the Lord ptieth them that love Him" Possessing the same nature, the human spirit being "a finite counter part of the Divine Spirit" it is not thing incredible, but follows as natural sequence that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.
 God has the power to impart and we have the capacity to receive, and we will be filled in proportion as our hearts are open to receive, and in proportion as we do the things upon which our being filled is conditioned. To be thus filled is the highest achievement in a religious life, and it is the privilege of all who desire it. By being filled with all the fullness of God we are not to understand that the high and holy One that inhab- iteth eternity can be compressed into one human soul. This can be done much less than the rainbow can absorb all the light of the sun, or the little lake contain the stars 1t reflects. The rainbow perfectly reflects the light of the sun, and the clear little lake perfectly mirrors the stars in the heavens. So all the attributes of God, as they are related to us, may be imparted to us and we may be filled by fhen1