The Washington herald., 1917-04-01
HE MAKETH EVERYTHING BEAU.
TIFUL.
By Rev. CLARENCE VINCENT. d. d

By Rev. CLARENCE VINCENT, d. ID.
Ecclezastes sIl-"He hath made everything beau
tiful in its tinle."
Not until the statue is finished can It
be called beautiful The text suggests
that everything that God does, when
finally completed, reveals the Divine pur-
poss and wisdom.
The Natural world
This viewpoint gives a new meaning
to the natural universe. Bailey Willis
says that the age of the universe Is in
computable. Lord Kelvin sets the limits
of its age between twenty and forty mill
lions of years. Recent conclusions de-
clare that the age of the world can hard
ly be less than one hundred millions of
years, During that time, under the
changes and upheavals, the earth would
nave looked ugly and incomplete. Yet
during these aeons God was working to-
ward an end-to make a beautiful world.
a home for man. a field for His redemp-
tion and providences. The natural world
today is beautiful in its natural features
and in its adaptation for man.
The Kingdom of God
This viewpoint is especially important
In considering the kingdom of God. Only
as we take into account the long purpose
Of the Almighty moving on toward COM
piclcIlcSS Cdl we BcI any AoI sc SeANASAehS
ton or certainty. Millions die in ignor-
ance and superstition, countless multi
tudes live aimless and debased lives, sor-
row afflicts all, and war and greed de-
stroy and despoil the children of men.
How can these things be IL love and
Providence are at the heart of society?
We must have the long look of life. God
takes hundreds of years to make a tree.
but when you look at the mammoth trees
L., ToI hat Ia kod
a good tree. God Is working to make
a good man and a perfect society; 1t can
not be done as you clap boards upon a
house; 1t must be a growth. 1t takes
time to judge the present world, we must
have in mind the world that shall some
time be.
One far-off divine event.
To which the whole creation moves
There is no other way to look at evil
and get any hope out of 1t except that
of the text, that God will make even this
beautiful in its time. There was not a
moment in Jobs life from the time his
trials began up to the last moment in
which Gods purpose was completed that
one could see anything in evil but evil.
Jobs confidence that all would come out
right was based in trust AS the writer
OF IndI DOOk IOOkeO over Ine HnlSneQ lie
OF Job, he could say, so Jehovah bless
ed the latter end of Job more than his
beginning" and enumerated the delights
and treasures of his closing years. In
many places the Scriptures tell men that
God is working as certainly in the DIFF
ficult and sad as in the propitious and
joyful.
painter was working upon his can
vas. So wrapped up in it was he that
he forgot he was on a scaffold, and with
his eyes fixed on the canvas was STEP
ping slowly back. One noticed him at the
moment he stood upon the plank's edge.
II flashed through the friends mind that
II he should speak the word Of warning.
the lifted foot would be set down and
the artist would fall. Like q flash, the
helper threw the brush he held against
the canvas. The artist in dismay and
anger started forward. The assistant had
haved his life. The only attitude THAT
any one can take as he sees his own and