The morning journal-courier. (New Haven, Conn.) 1907-1913, 1908-04-06
CONCEPTION OF GOD
Professor Phelps Delivers In
teresting Sermon at South
Church, Bridgeport.
THREE ELEMENTS ENTER
Force from Nature, Truth from the
Bible, Love from Message
of Christ.


Bridgeport, April 5,--Before n large
congregation in the South Congraga-
tional church, Prof. William Lyon
Phelps of the Yale English faculty
preached tonight on our Conception
of God" lie based his sermon on
the first chapter of the Gospel of st.
John, ending with the verse, mo man
has seen God ut any time. The only
Bogotten son. he VINO Is in the bosom
of the Father, he hath declared him"
Professor Phelps said In substance
~ do not see how any one can be
Indifferent about religion, Either it
Is true or 1t is false. II 1t Is the lat
ter we should dismiss 1t from our
lives at once, even combat 1t us 1t
would be wrong TO allow thousands
Of people to continue In error. But
II we believe 1t to be true 1t Is the
most important thing in our lives,
more important than our business,
our professions. Therefore 1t seems
to me illogical to occasionally get
sentimental about religion at some
church services and then not think
any more about it unless some ono
In our family dies, or we are very Ill
or in deep trouble.
II is ridiculous to say that 1t doesn't
make any difference what you believe
SO long as you believe IT. If our God
Is not better than ourselves our re-
ligion will do us no good.
The most skeptlcal century of the
Christian era was the eighteenth. This
skcpticism was due to a false idea Of
God. Modern Christian thought has
done one great thing when 1t made
God the all-important center of the
universe. The modern conception of
God Is that he is, not to speak irrev-
erently, that he Is tho engine of the
universe out OF whom all things come.
We do not know very much for cer-
tain about God. We all have a con-
oeptlon of Him; all different.
There are three ways in which we
can get some notion of God. The first
Is from nature. What kind of a con-
ception do we get from nature? One
OF tremendous force and energy. You
can spell them with capitals T. and r,
II you wish, thought | think that is a
long way from our Father in heaven.
Is there anything but force we get
from nature? I think that is all
Some say we ought to he more natur-
al Why, II we were natural we
| should all be criminals. The child is
absolutely natural and he Ia ahso-
lutely selfish. Only as We curb our
natural instincts we become Christians
good citizens
Nature cares absolutely nothing
about the welfare OF the individual
Yet in that we are especially inter-
ested We care much about the indi-
vidua'.
The second eource is the Bible. What
conception do we get out of the book?
! The truth, fidelity OF God. Genera
ticns change and pass away but He is
ever the same, Interchangeable, ever.
lasting. We change from day to day
our civilizations pass away. He is the
same yesterday. to-day forever.
But we would not Worship a God sim.
ply Of force ard one that changes not
There Is still something lacking. Thii
Is supplied by Jesus Christ. what was
Hlsexact relation to God That We
cannot tell. But | cannot accept tn,
old Calvanistic doctrine. 1t is utterly
impossible to believe that
Christ Is the divine manifestation o
God. If He were not He would b.
quite as powerless to give us any wa.
to God, as Caesar, Napoleon or Lincoln
We call Him the Son of God because
that Is the nearest we can get to It
That Is the immense difference between
the Christian religion and other forms
The remarkable things about Christi
doctrine are not His teachings Of pur,
life or sacrifice Other religions hav,
taught that too, The remarkable
thing which Christ introduced was tn,
message that God Is love. "a reall!
wonderful message that, the grea
thing in Christianity. II is the revela
ton through Christ of the divine low
of God This force. this truth, is als'
active love towards His people.
The most significant historical even
in the world was the birth Of Christ
beside which Gettysburg and Waterloo
arc insignificant. Just as the moon i
the living evidence to the world a
night of the existence still Of the sun
so Christ is the living evidence of Cod
love.
So we have, to form our conception
of God, force from nature, truth iron
, the written word and love from tn
birth of Christ.