The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1912-03-22
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GOD ISL

| SOu 10 lONS - JplI ~, o.
Man IL n big interrogation point. lie
| questions everything, even God. Ami
mails do not The horse and the dog
never ask Whence came II" width
er am l goingT' "Who Is God''
| Where is heT" They 20 mutely OH
| with unquostioning eyes. We peer int
rocks, but he is not there. We gaze
toward the stars. He is not there. The
limitations OF knowledge bind us. The
A, Il, G OF earthly alphabet Ia hard
learned We talk learnedly about COO
| ditions and theories. relations and
notifications, conjectural hypothesis
| fundamental propositions, philosophical
principles and metaphysical specula
| tons, but what do they mean? When
we are done we have simply been jug
Cling with words. The brain throbs
! In WEAKNESS. the body sinks in eX.
haustion, we soon drop into lies last
sleep. When we say, who is God?
Let me see him. IL is the finite calling
on the infinite. The temporal measur
ing with the eternal. The shadow
cropping toward the substance.
God Is Spirit.
Not "a" spirit, not one Of many, not
one Of a class, but by himself He Il
spirit! And when you leave out "a"
you enlarge your idea OF God. They
that worship him must worship him In
sp.rtt'- TO- you cannot worship by
simply kneeling or singing or beating
on a tomtom; not even repeating words
is worship. You may play an instru.
ment without being musician. Sena
ca was a moralist without being moral
A candle is but n stick Of tallow until
II is lit. God Is spirit No man can
worship spirit until he uses his spir
itual sense. But evidence is every
where. How do you know there's "A
GodT' asks scoffer Of Arab guide.
How do / know a camel passed my
tent in the darkness | see his foot.
prints I'm the sand" Human soil il
marked with divine footprints. See ii
in history-a reformation. discovery
of a continent, revolution, abolition OF
slavery. ! have stood on shore Of far.
off Pacific island and picked up strange
shell, rare in color marvellous in for
nation, and said, A creator has been
here. 1t is not SO mucA question, l.
God knowableI as, DO you have faith
sense to know? AS a rule, fish have
eyes and see light. Should ocean fish
debate with blind fish Of Mammoth
cave as to existence of light: AS II
rule men see and hear, but some are
blind, others are deaf. Why argue
with a man who denies color or sound
You give a quick look of pity. The
poor fellow is deaf or blind.
Not 10 Here Nor 10 There.
We seem determined to know God,
spirit, through the senses. We must!
We will know! The greatest glory of
Qan must always be his ability to dis
cover the unknown, to comprehend the
uncomprchended. To be frozen in ice
berg, wrecked on strange shores, burn
ed in volcanoes, pale in study, Sut1O
cate in laboratory is nothing to man
II he can find the unknown. We are
half frightened, however if some sci
enlist writes magazine articles saying
he has taken biologists hammer. as.
trOnomer's telescope, biologists micro
scope, physicists test tube and has
found no God-at least If there is one
he could not see him. Sure And
blind man might return from art
gallery saying he had gone over
world reDuted canvas with his thumb
end and, to the best of his knowledge.
there was no picture there Trying to
comprehend through the wrong sense!
God meets humanity on plane OF hui
man intelligence. If ! wanted to re-
veal myself to colony of ants I would
have to do 1t on plane of ant intclli-
gence (Which IS considerable. Christ
Is God revealed on mans plane. No,
God cannot reveal himself fully. Self
repression IS part of key Of revelation
OF higher to lower. use smoked
glass to look at sun. 1t admits
so much Of light as my optic nerve
can endure. Christ is the TRANSPORTED
flesh through which we see the tender
ness and love of God, for
God Is Love.
Only two definitions of God given.
God Is spirit God is love" But
how shall / explain the love of God in
type as | would 2 Pa? ! won't at
tempt to- woman wouldn't argue
her affection for her lover No writer,
no poet. ever gets more than refec-
ton Of her love in his lines. Theology
comes nearer than geology or astrono-
my, for we are more nearly akin to
The Almighty than to rocks or stars.
His breath is in u.s. He whispers US
secrets like a lover. He hides from
learned and reveals to babes. A cob
bier at his bench may know more than
professor at seminary Each gets his
own concept of God. God approaches
him on his own level. To one God is
all mind, great intellect; to another
law. grinding, ceaseess law. Read
the meaning Of ruins by the Nile. crum-
bling Parthenon in Greece. dust OF
Nineveh and Babylon, pathetic with
prayers of naughty and proud peoples:
The great worlds altar steps
That slope through darkness up to God
were covered with prayer dust OF
mighty nations, cropping, clutching
blindly Mt Gods skirts, each with its