Norwich bulletin., 1918-05-11
Sunday Morning Talk
IF l WERE KING.

A celebrated agnostic of by-gone years used often in his lectures to raise the question whether or no this universe Is being run haphaZard. As for himself. he could see no evidence of God or of overruling goodness in the world. It was his wont to remark that, If he were in charge of affairs, he thought he could improve on the present adnla illustration. This senti- ment usually followed a survey of the wrongs, sufferings, and injustices that aff1lct society. and by which any of us in our thoughtful moments, are disturbed. The crowd that had patd e dollar a head to listen to the elo- quent lawyer was wont to applaud the declarations as being something es- pecially daring and noble.
 To many people, perhaps to moat people in certain moods this world appears a place full of unreason, where justice in any thorough going sense is but a name. In view of what is al lowed to happen. the Power that sits on the throne seems, at times. to lack either intelligence or good will. It is on record that the terrible Lisbon earthquake made many infdels, and every world calamity since has added | to the number. Multitudes lose faith in a benevolent God when human af- fairs go seriously aWry. And there is not seldom in the mind of many a rebel the unspoken conviction that if ne himself were in charge of affairs, he could conduct them better. The l sentiment of old Omar, as rendered by i Le Gallienne, is a modern as well as an ancient one:
 l If I were God, and this poor world i were mine
 1 Oh, then shouId'st see on what a fair 1 design
 would rebuild it like a dream for 1 thee
 Nor should'st thou ever blush tO call it thine.
 Of course, the egotism of this mood
 scarcely needs comment. It is so CO.,
 lossal as to be quite amusing. That | biped without feathers called man is
 never more amusing than when he
 turns from his own tiny bailiwick to
 tackle world problems. Thousands of | statesmen sitting on cracker boxes in l corner groceries from Maine to Cali 1 fornia are fully competent to advise <! the government in its most intricate
 problems-to let them tell it. The
 weeds will run riot this summer in
 their own kitchen gardens, but they
 are sure they could run the national farm.
 So it is in the large sphere of cos mical affairs. There is a grim humor about mortal pretensions. The notion that a single finite mind could legis- I late for a universe simply advertiSes l the ignorance that darkens OUT under standings as with a pail. Think of a
 man, to whom the simplest of the nat ural laws represents blank mystery to whom the common domestic prob
 lens are insoluble, running a world!
 It is to, laugh. What most spouting infidels need most is to take them selves less seriously.
 Rebellion against this mundane
 scheme of things is generally conceiv- ed in selfshness. Why does one wisI to grasp the sceptre and tamper witt
 the established order? Is it to work
 out a scheme of good for all mankind Not at all. It is; generally, simply tC
 please oneself. I grieve over the rair
 that spells my picnic plans, not think
 ing of the farmers thirsty fields.
 sigh for relief from the sun in ho
 weather. not rejecting that ibroat acres of corn need just these baking
 rays. Man is circumscribed and pro
 vincial in his thought. What he de sires of nature is that she be good t, Me and my wife, my son John ant his wife. Us four, no more" That ther
 are hundreds of millions of other nal ,, contents beside himself on the plane to be provided for never occurs t . him. How successful would the aver , age one of us be, when you think i ; over, in arranging for the happiness . of the whole human family?
 That the Almighty rules in humal
 affairs, and no man or group of mer : no matter how wise, is the deepes source of confidence we have. Other , wise, the world might well be aban r doped to it's fate. Henry Van Dyke riding across the bad lands of Dakot; l on a starlit night tells us that tn = cowboy by his side studied the heav I ems intently and then remarked: Tn glad someone bigger'n I am is running l this outfit" Has not that same re
 fection flashed hundreds ofltimes int f cur own minds?
 l Man has full contract to rule wel r his own personal kingdom. Create n responsibilities would crush him. Le r him be thankful that this round globe V as a passenger on which he is bein s hurled through space, is undergirde 2 by Almighty Love. and that God Il directing to a righteous goal the af