The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser., 1909-10-22
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AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. ELBERT RUSSELL.
Theme: Gods Fatherhood.

Brooklyn, N. Y.-The Rev. Dr. Ell
bert Russell. of Earlham College, In
diana, preached in the Friends Meet
ing House, Sunday morning, on The
Fatherhood of God" There was
large congregation. DR.. Russell's
text was Luke 11:2: "And He said
unto them, when We pray, say, our
Father" He said:
Fundamental in all our 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. 1t is important for us very fre.
uuently for the keeping of our re-
ligion truly to go back to this funda-
mental element in our religion. l
say our conception of God determines
our religion in so far as it is 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 smlta
us. If we believe He is an absent or
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 God did not exist, and shape
our course of action with reference to
our own desires, and we shall net
reckon with God. We shall say with
Jobs friend, as not God in the height
of Heaven? What doth God know"
There is story from the East of a
certain Parsee who was performing
his devotions at the altar of fire, and
there drew near Jew and a Chris
tian. The Jew, moved with jealousy
that men should worship the creature
instead of the Creator, said: "Do you
worship fire?" "No," said the Parsee,
1--WE do not, we only worship the
Great Spirit that manifests Himself
In the fame" what do you call that
spirit?" asked the Jew. "We call him
Ormuz. What do you name the In
finite One?" "We call Him Jehovah, )"
said the Jew. "God of Gods and Lord
of Lords, the Great God and terrible. J"
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: ave 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 us
that. Father" robbed of it's human
infirmities, of it's evil, of its limita-
tions, is the name likest to God. If
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 us to take the
conception, this revelation of Jesus of
Cod, and see what kind of religion is
consistent with it; 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 theologians dispute over
the question, whether it is right to
speak of the fatherhood 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 to the universe, to this world
of which humanity is so small part.
The Pharisees believed in a distant
God, God on His throne afar off in
the seventh heaven, 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 di-
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 our needs
before we ask and when we pray we
do not have to Invoke some angel
to carry the petition, but simply say
in sincerity: "Our Father" How
that changes the conception of re-
ligion and our relation to God; how
it 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
call miraculous, but to anyone who
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
spring and natures it's 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
in nature; and secondly, to the love
that God, His Father, feels toward
men.
We are made "in the image OF
Cod" whatever that may mean, and
we certainly bear a spiritual likeness
| to God. Love and reason and power
of will in us, though finite and small
| mean the same in us that they DO III
| God.
| We could not understand Him il
| that were not true. In fact, only
human sin is the unlike thing tC
God.
t The sinless man is the one thai
most clearly shows what God is. Rev
elation between God and man must
be a process of mans comprehendlns
! God and realizing His purpose.
| Man can comprehend Gods pur
nose, lust as a son his fathers, bu