Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-11-27

| REV. ROBERT ]. LOCKE.
thought of the Christ which has so in
creased the potencies of life, then the
service will be one of gladness and
the heart will gain by this corporate
expression. of thankfulness with the
Christian people of the city.
The World is Gods World.
cd Let US set first in our thought
of thankfulness the idea that the
world is all Gods world That all its
force, its beauty, its promise, belong
to him. That the spirit which thun-
ders in the moral law also thunders
in the physical law. That the world of
man, of the wild flower, of the flow
ing river of the raindrop, of the star
is also the world Of God. That he Is
expressing himself through every me-
dunn which bears upon man. This is
Jesus thought of the world. This has
been the thought Of theology which
having stated, we have proceeded in
stantly to deny. But Jesus when he
would teach man the regard in which
he is held by the Father, directs his
attention to the birds of the air, and
when he would show man how God
will protect him and give him the
needful things of life, he takes him
to the field where the lilies are sway
ing their graceful stems, rocked by
the winds of heaven, and there tells
him that God caring for these will not
neglect his earthly child. 1t is a world
In which God is continuously and
everywhere. With the prophet of
the old testament Jesus thought is
that God is vitality interested in all the
things of mans world When the pro-
phet speaks we hear him saying that
man shall be in league with the stones
of the field and the land shall bring
forth abundantly and Gods richest
blessing will come in the oil and the
olive, and the hillsides burdened with
their harvests. It is limited view
which thinks of God only in respect to
the moral universe Let us not blame
others for thinking that the things
which they win from the field and the
mine are the results of their own ef-
fort and that God has nothing to do
with it, when we think of him so much
as relating himself only to the inner
life of man. Through the burning bush
and through the golden yields of the
q
hearts of men. His ownership is still
complete. Mans tenure of earth is
slight. He is the child of the
passing day and the sojourner in a
brief pilgrimage. Accommodating great
or little, his story is soon told and the
place where he once walked sees him
no more. His possessions go to anoth-
er and stranger. and he goes back to
the God who eternally holds title to
all things in the world. 1t is Gods
world in which he takes up the broken
schemes and purposes of men and
through his own immutable purposes
carries them to an end consistent
with his perfect will. In this is seen
q continuous presence of God in all
the history of the world. 1t is not a
world of yesterday, neither is it a
world of today, but it is world in
which God is making all things ready
for the forward leap into the better
life and experience of tomorrow God
is a God of the morning, not of the
night, God whose thought is reach
ing through the years to the man that
is to be. And in doing this he shows
US that the world in which we live is
not a divided world, but world of
unity, place in which not only a part
has spiritual value, but the whole pos
sesses divine ministry to the heart
of man.
Nature is Dependent.
Our definition of nature is arbi-
trary. We, with much egotism, set off
certain things by themselves and say
this is natural and this supernatural;
this belongs to God and this man mus.
hate; this is divine and this is not
| The division is man-made. Even the
book Of Genesis has the sense of unity
of life in it. There is binding togeth-
er of all the creation. In this division
we lose much which God meant should
enrich life. The oak might say to the
violet, Thou art nature, but l am not
II belong to higher order And the
bird in its pride, beating against the
wind, might say to the lamb in the
fold, Thou art nature, but | am not.
And man may say that he Is above the
nature which exhibits itself in the
plumed wing and the delicate flower,
and he is, but he is wise enough to see
that common currents of power and
life flow through them all. In his pride
he may set himself on the throne Of
his own making, but God whispers
down through the recesses of his be.
ing, down to the violet, down through