Year: 1876

choose, on the basis Of the StrctcSt sci


cntic method to satisfy those who ar,


not content with the logic of the hcart-


this iathcr-lOvr, this mOthcrlo love- thi'


ten lcrncss, this care, have come from
some fountain that possesses a love, Il
tenderness, a care, fully equal, at least
to that which has been produced, and
which we know rs 4 fact in our own cN,
pcricncc and all about us. SO it seems
to me that, by u logic absolutely unan.
swcrablc, We have n right to claim that
if God he not Just like Il human father in
his feeling toward the children Of his
created power, he is, at least, ms wise, as
good, as tender. as loving, rs true, as
careful of the welfare of his children
for all the tenderness and the love of our
human life is simply single ray of the
Divine brightness which fills the whole
universe with light That which is the
fountain cannot he less than the streams
which flow from it so that God, we
may believe, is not only as good as hu.
man father, but his feeling for us. his
love, his care, his tenderness, infinitely
transccnds anything we can conceive of
as belonging to humanity.


And, more than that. Human fathers
are not always wise. We may plan the
best we know for our children, but we
are liable to all kinds of mistakes. We
lay out pathway for our chidren's
feet to walk in; but after series of
years we find that we erred, and that it
Is too late now for them to take the
other path, which would have been q
better one for them to have followed.
We human fathers are weak. We stand
beside our children and see them suffer,
seeing them, perhaps, in poverty or sor'
row, and are utterly unable, though our
hearts ache with the longing to do It,
to extend to them the needed aid. Some
OF us have within the past year stood
beside the bedsides OF sick darlngs, and
longed with hearts that were breaking
to do something th@ should deliver
them from their sorrow, from their pain,
that should keep back the shadow of
death that was slowly coming over
them, and that should rescue them from
the power of the destroyer, and all in
vain, because Of the limitations tC our
human faculties. We were not as strong
as the enemy that invaded our homes,
But as we think Of God and form n con.
ception Of him which is infinite and per.
feet, we must eliminate from this
thought all these elements of unwisdom
and OF weakness. God is perfect wis
dom. lie never has made mistake and
never can. If we could conceive such n
thing possible then we should conceive
the throne of the universe vacant. There
Is no God unless he be perfect in his
wisdom.


And then, God is perfect might, and
whatever may happen in the long course
of the history Of things we must never
feel that it comes because of any lack of
power on the part of God. He does not
stand by seeing this universe with its
gigantic wheels, like the Juggernaut,
rolling over and crushing the lives and
hearts of his dear ones for the reason
that he is unable to block the wheels.
Whatever else be the inference, whatever
else be the reason that we are compelled
to adopt, we know that God, if he he
God atall, is omnipotent; that he holds
in his hands all power; that he is able to
WELD the destinics of nations and the
destinics alike OF the individual, down





even to the minutest speck of life that is
revealed by the microscope on the sur
face of the globe.


And then, to build up the conception
OF God we must think of him as perfect
bcnevolence. Earthly fathers, however
much they may love their children. are
not perfect in that love. They are liable
to be swaycd by bias, by fits of anger or
passion, AMI sometimes, out of pure
spite or malignity, ordinarily loving faith
ers may do things so unworthy of them
that they should be ashamed of for the
rest Of their lives. But God loves us
perfectly, if he be God at all, and there
fore nothing that has come to pass in the
course of our lives has como becousa of