The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-11-10
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AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. EBERT RUSSELL.
Theme: Gods FGthcrhood.

brooklyn, N. Y.-The Pew. DR.. FL
bert Russell, of Earlham College. In
diana, preached in the Friends Meet
ing House, Sunday morning, on The
F%atherhood of God" There was a
large congregation. DR.. Russells
text was Luke 11:2: And He said
unto them, when We pray, say, our
Father" He said:
Fundamental in all u religion is
the conception of God. More or less
consistently all that we do in the way
of worship or service springs from
what. we believe God to be, and what
we believe He wishes us to do and
be. It is important for US very fire.
quently for the keeping of our re-
ligion truly to 60 back to this funda-
mental element in our religion. I
say our conception Of God determines
our religion in so far as it iG a con-
sistent thing. If we believe that
God is a despot we shall cringe and
fawn before Him. If we believe He
is a jealous God we shall walk softly
and not appear too prosperous in His
presence, lest in jealousy He smite
US. If we believe He is an absent Of
an impassive God, who neither knows
nor cares how we feel towards Him or
regard Him, then we shall go on our
way as if Col did not exist, and shape
our course OF action with reference to
our own desires, and we shall. not
reckon with God. We shall say with
Jobs friend, as not God in the height
of Heaven? What doth God know"
There is a story from the East Of a
certain Parsee who was performing
his devotions at the altar OF fire. and
there drew near a Jew and a Chris
tia1. The Jew, moved with jealousy
that men should worship the creature
instead Of the Creator, said: DO you
worship FREE" NO" said the Parsee,
1--WE do not, we only worship the
Great Spirit that manifests Himself
In the flame" What do you call that
spirit?" asked the Jew. "We call him
Ormuz. What do you name the IN
finite One?" I'VE call Him Jehovah"
said the Jew. "God of Gods and Lord
of Lords. the Great God and terrible"
The Parsee answered, Your name is
a great one, but it is awful" Then
turning to the Christian, he asked:
"How do you name the Great One?"
and the Christian said: I'VE call
Him Abba, Father" and the Parsee
answered, Your name is the greatest
of all, but who gave you authority to
call the Infinite, Father"
Now, it is Jesus who teaches III
that. Father" robbed of it's human
infirnities, of its evil, of its limita.
lions, Is the name likest to God. II
we would comprehend what is the
character of God and His attitude
toward US we should come before Him
with the word Father" upon our lips.
It is worth while for III to take the
conception, this revelation of Jesus OF
God, and see. what kind Of religion is
consistent with il; how we, as chill
dren of our Father, should worship
Him and behave ourselves before Him
and talk of Him. Jesus has not left
US entirely to draw our own infer
ences. He told US to call Him Father.
I know that theologiaDs dispute over
the question, whether it is right to
speak of the f%atherhood of God to all
men, but certainly we shall be true to
Jesus if we talk Of the fatherliness Of
God. And we shall find that Jesus
has something to say about Gods re-
lation tc the universe, to this world
Of which humanity is SO small a part.
The Pharisees believed in a distant
God, God on His throne afar off in
the seventh heaven, a majestic sover-
eign. removed from the common
things of the world. They believed
the world was carried on through the
mediation of angels. They believed
that God once for all had given His
will for mems conduct in the law,
that on some far off day men would
stand before Him and be examined
as to whether they had kept the law
and that only by some special provi-
dence or miracle did God take a d.
rect hand in the control Of His uni
verse. That was not the teaching of
Jesus. To Him the world was the
Fathers house. To those rabbis who
believed that God had spent six days
in making the world, He said, my
Father worketh until now" He could
say that His Father makes the sun
rise and sends the rain on the evil
and the good alike, clothes the lily
and feeds the birds. God needs no
angel to tell Him what is going on
in the world. He knows III needs
before we ask and when VIZ pray we
do not have to invoke some angel
to carry tho petition, but simply say
in sincerity: ."Our Father" How
that changes the conception Of re-
ligion and our relation to God; how
1t fills the world with the presence of
the Divine! Far be it from me to
deny the possibility, or even the con-
tinUous recurrence of the things we
follows the teaching of Jesus the
miracle loses its unique character for
our religious thinking and life. /
believe that Jesus turned the water
into wine Git was exceptional activity
of the Divine power), but I believe
that when the vine blossoms in the
sprirg and natures its fruit in the
fall, it is just as much the activity of
God as when Jesus performed the
miracle at Cana.
When Jesus teaches US to think Of
God as Father, He calls attention,
first. to the likeness between our
spirits and the Spirit of God, as there
Is a likeness between father and son
III LaluIS, dHu ~oeCouuiJ, " IAc ioFo
hat God, His Father, feels toward
w. are made "in the image Of
God" whatever that may mean, and
we certainly bear a spiritual likeness
to Cod. Love and reason and power
Of will in US, though finite and small,
mean the same in us that they do in
God.
w could not understand Him II
that were not true. In fact. only
human sin is the unlike thirG to