South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1921-08-16
GARDNER breaches
ON GOD OF TODAY
Says Deity We Worship is Not
Absentee But is Represent
ed As Personal Being.

The Cod we Worship" was the
theme discussed sunday morning at
the ST. Faurs Memorial Methodist
T Episcopal church by the the Rev.
James L. Gardiner. d. D.. pastor OF
I the church.
Religion is native 70 man." said
/ DR.. Gardiner. AT his highest and
I best man is a worshipful being John
+ Fiske. in his great book, Through
Nature 10 God has well said. Re
f iigion lev one OF the great factors IN
I human history. From the dawn OF
love In human life. the impulse 10
worship. 10 pray and TO believe in
an unseen world. has found express
sion
/ Now the central fact in every re-
I ligion is God. II Is therefore very
/ necessary that we have right ideas
I OF God. as our view Of Deity regu-
/ Iates all our theological thinking. II
we make a mistake here IL Will be
| fatal Our idea Of God affects our
doctrine Of revelation, Of sin, or re-
demption and OF final destiny What
then is our conception OF Deity?
1T is not that Of an absentee God.
In ages past men frequently thought
\ Of God as a being who dwelt apart
from this world. He was thought of
as the high and holy one who in
I habited eternity. He was the God
who sat upon the circle Of the
I heavens and the inhabitants Of the
earth were as grasshoppers before
\ Him He was thought Of only as
/ the Creator Of the universe.
/ God was One who spake and IL
was done. He commanded and the
world stood fast He was One whose
\ government was on earth but He
/ dwelt in the heavens and only after
| death could men see and go TO Him.
! distant Deity-a kind Of absentee
| God.
Remote God Passing.
| Now so far as this has been the
conception of God in the Christian
] church. it is passing. and in fact
/ with most OF us has already passed.
/ The God we worship today is a God
/ who is not far away but near every
\ one Of us. In him we live and move
and have our being
THE God we worship is a per-
| sonal being. The personality of God
/ is a truth that underlies the Chris
\ tain religion. God is not simply
/ some great unseen power. or some
Y first cause. He is not some blind
I force or all pervading energy. God
\ is not the universe. God is not the
/ sum Of all material or even spiritual
/ things. without intellect sensibility
or will. He is not some unconscious
| Thing without personality. The
/ Christians God is a real person.
\ Only such a God could command
/ our worship.
1.-The God we worship IS our
/ Father The Scriptures teach that
\ God is the Father of all men. This
| conception of God is found in germ
I in the Old Testament and is set forth
emphatically in the New. The pas
/ sages. however. in the Old Testamens
which teach us the FatherhOod Of
God. refer not so much to Gods re-
latiOn to the individual. as to His
relation 10 the Nation, Israel. But
in the New Testament we learn that
Cod is the Father OF all men. The
doctrine of the Fatherhood of God
is a doctrine that differentiates CHRIS
1 tianity from every other system Of
! religion. God Is our Fatheb: we are
I His children.
Gods Love Follows.
I The God we worship today is a
/ God who loves His children. We are
all born into the world divinely
] loved. No matter how far we may
wander from Him His love still fol-
I lows us. Jesus was the first to teach
/ men the great truth that the God
we are called upon TO worship is our
/ Father and the essence Of divine
I Fatherhood is love.
I'VE. therefore. in the name of
/ Christ call upon you to worship a
/ God who is not far away but who is
/ near-One who is personal. one
who is our Father and who loves
all His children"