Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-08-27
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THE HEART OF THE UNIVERSE.

BY henry 4. cops.
las the hart panteth after the wa
ter brooks so panteth my soul after
thee, o God"-Ps. IS: 2.
AS soon as you take one god away
from man he looks for another. The
hunger for an infinite object of love
and confidence, for the life in which
all life explains itself, is common TO
all The ages show it TO be ineradi-
cable Whatever 1t might have signi-
fed in the past of fear or worship, to
the mind OF man to-day it is the
search for a personal center to the
universe.
Long since we have outgrown the
old theologian's god, the mighty man
who made the earth with His fingers
and guided the stars with His hands.
who, sitting aloft in the skies, die
tated human affairs, an arbitrary,
awesome, omnipotent sovereign, a
king lifted to the highest degree. That
picture once contented men because.
just as regal power then seemed essen
tial to a state, so did that superhuman
sovereignty seem to be essential to the
universe
But we have not outgrown our need
of a center and a life to our living;
we have not outgrown the need OF
such being as will answer the prob
lem of living in terms of our own
lives. Just as normal life needs
other lives, other personalities and
friendships, so does the larger life of
every man reach out into the infinite
with it's longing for larger friendship
and love.
This Is the search for God, reach
ing our hands into the dark night of
the Infinite and unknown, hoping that
we may find there the touch of hand
that can lead through the shadows and
feel the throb Of heart that will as
sure us of the unfailing goodness and
rightness ruling through all. We seek
not a king nor a first cause, but
life that answers In the measure Of
that larger living to our own.
You can never satisfy the hearts of
men with the most elaborate schemes
Of the working OF blind force; the last
word of science leaves much unspoken
for the soul Of man We may accept
all and deny nothing that science may
say and still demand that more must
be said and insist on our liberty to
! seek further where microscope and
scalpel can discover nothing.
/ IN this
| that there is one who cares, that love
/ and sympathy, the best we know and
the highest we have are at the heart
| of ALL that we are not as dust on the
| whirling wheels of relentless nature,
| but that through all, as in US all,
moves that of which tenderness, com
passion and affection are born.
/ Such being defes ali description,
such being makes no formal demands
! of US No questions of loyalty, of
! worship, or of an analytical belief can
enter here. But given a heart 10 the
universe, one there to whom we can
! turn, toward whom our love can 60
out, half the problem Of living is
solved and all takes on new meaning
That is what we need, not defni-
| tons of the infinite, not agreements
| on attributes or names, but the sense
! that just as our own lives find unity
! in a personal spiritual center so does
| all life, that we can only read the
! mystery Of living in letters Of love
| God is not for purposes Of argument
| nor for systems of ecclesiasticism, but
for our aid and encouragement in liv-
! ing.
/ 1t matters not at all whether our
| inner visions of that central unifying
| life may agree. 1t matters only wheth.
err the whole of life takes on this per
sonal meaning, whether in the dark
and trying hours we can be sure that
| through the eternities, where our
/ friends cannot go and where other
/ helpers fail, hands OF love are
stretched to us and a heart of tender
ness beats with ours.
This is a mans hunger for God, not
for pictures of one who made the
worlds, not so much for a creator nor
| for an infinite lord and still less for
the theologian's masterpiece, but for
that tenderness. affection and wisdom
that In the wider, farther reaches Of
life will be TO US what father and
friend are in the smaller circle Of
, their possibilities