Norwich bulletin., 1913-05-24
SUNDAY MORNING TALK
THE HAND OF THE POTTER.

Among the oldest Of the arts Ot men we must surely mention that of pot terY. The jars and bowls that the aDcheologist digs from ancient ruins speaks of mans earliest life on this planet. Our remotest ancestors in their cave homes were workers in clay.
 Their familiar industry shaped the theology of early peoples. As they modelled and molded bits of mother earth into useful forms so they them selves were being molded by powers outside of and greater than themselves. The Jewish prophet saw into the mat ter clearly when he wrote of his God, 70 Lord we are the clay and thou art our Potter"
 Browning puts the truth in telling lines,
 Ay, note that Potter's wheel, that met aphor and feel
 Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay
 He fixed thee mid this dance of plas-
 tic circumstance
 This present, thou, forsooth, would'st
 fain arrest
 Machinery just meant to give the soul
 it's bent
 Try thee and turn thee forth sufficient
 ly impressed.
 The force of the fact is felt by many WAO nave never uldu6 any CONSCIOUS philosophy of it. Life is being shaped not only by our own wills and pur- poses, but also by circumstances quite beyond our control. The round of ex- perience to which we are daily being subjected determines character. There is a
 Divinity that shapes our ends
 Rough hew them how We will
 According to one view the circuTn- stances of life are purely accidental. We are in universe without plan or purpose. Man is a waif driven hither and you like a bit of seaweed in the surf, the play of capricious forces.
 According to another view we are governed but by a force unloving and destructive. A colossal tyrant is en- throned in the heavens, ordering man s hampered and depressing career. There is small gain in this view over the first. As well believe in chaos as in some inquisitor holding his victim on the rack.
 But according to the austere and beautiful thought of the prophet the good God is the Power ordering and disciplining man. Hands of love are fashioning the rough material into veS- sels of use and beauty. It is a Iona process through which the clay from the pit stands on the table at length as a. rich and gleaming vase. The shapeless lump must endure the throwing. the turning, the delicate hand work, the glazing, the repeated visits to the fiery furnace. If clay could be endowed with consciousness it must often wonder at its cruel treat ment.
 Not otherwise men baff1ed and dis couraged by the ways of Providence often ask hard questions. They demand the meaning, if there be any meaning, in such experiences as come to them. Materialism has no semblance of an - swer At such times the faith of Isaiah is the only key to a great mystery. It Is the sole faith that satisfies Beside it unbelief is weakness and impotence complete.
 Life may be regarded as a trans forming process. A man is a calcu- lated work of his Creator to whose completion the wisdom and power of God will be devoted Doubtless not until we can view life from it's heaven ward side will compensation for our hard discipline be apparent in souls brought into the symmetry and beauty of the Makers image. THE PARSON.