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GILCHRIST LAWSON GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD GLEANED FROM MANY SOURCES BY J. GILCHRIST LAWSON Special Correspondent Leading Religious Papers AUTHOR OF “GREATEST THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE,” “‘GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST,’ “DEEPER EXPERIENCES OF FAMOUS CHRISTIANS,’ “PROOFS OF THE LIFE — HEREAFTER, AND OF “THE MARKINGS IN THE CHRISTIAN WORKERS TESTA- MENT, “‘ THE PRECIOUS PROM- ISE BIBLE,’ ETC. GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY \ COPYRIGHT, 1920, ¥ wae g 5 : ty ie} oO S Oo a fea) PREFACE For the greater part of his life the compiler of this volume has been collecting the greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers on the greatest themes. Having found appreciative publishers and appreciative readers for his books “Greatest Thoughts About the Bible” and “Greatest Thoughts About Jesus Christ,” he decided to compile this volume on the greatest of all themes, “Greatest Thoughts About God.” During the years the compiler has engaged in evange- listic work in the United States and Great Britain, he was able to consult the best books in the best libraries of Amer- ica and Britain and to glean the best thoughts from them. While engaged in journalistic work, for five years, for the leading religious papers, in London, England, he was brought in contact with most of the religious leaders of the world and garnered the best thoughts from them. Through his connection with the religious publishing business during the last ten years, he has been able to collect the best thoughts from all the leading religious papers. Owing to the exceptional privileges which have been given to him by the providence of God, the compiler of this volume is able to give to the world the very cream of religious thoughts concerning GOD. With a grateful heart to the kind providences which have enabled him to do so, he now dedicates this volume to the glory of God and for the public good. James Gitcurist LAwson. CONTENTS DEFINITIONS OF Gop NaTURE A REVELATION OF Gop EXISTENCE OF GoD. . Erernity oF Gop. SuPREMACY OF GoD SOVEREIGNTY OF GoD. . PERSONALITY OF GoD. © Trinity oF Gop Gop THE CREATOR ArrriBUTES OF GoD Gop INFINITE AND Tha eee ee Gop UNcCHANGEABLE, OR IMMUTABLE . OMNIPOTENCE OF GoD | OmniscIeNceE oF Gop. “. OMNIPRESENCE OF GoD ste UntversaLity oF Beier In Gop Lrrerary Men’s Beier 1n Gop Ports’ BELIEF IN Gop STATESMEN’s BELIEF IN GOD Famous Lawyers’ BELIEF IN Gop Purtosopuers’ BELIEF IN Gop . ScIENTISTS’ BELIEF IN Gop . ADMISSIONS OF SKEPTICS CONCERNING ‘Gan CHARACTER OF GoD . . Lovevor GoD oo ei Ho.tiness oF GoD. . . Justice or Gop .. . (FRAcEe OF GOD. ess Mercy: or Gop . .. vil vill CONTENTS Goopness oF Gop. oe LONGSUFFERING OF Gop. ... . GSRIEF OF GODi) OS 2 eee ee ee (SUIDANCE OF Gop) oe apn Nos GLory AND RicHEs or Gop. .. . PROVIDENCE OF GOD). oes WITLI OR ASOD sorcerer ee ee ae de PGE OFC GOD ee he ae a FATrTHruLness of Gop 9). ego WRUTHEULNESS OF (GHOD 200) oe EATHERHOOD OF GOD) .e 2000 ON tVisterLiry Or Gop. eye eae SRINGDOM VOR GOD 6 fii Ko bead Wa none Names, TirLes anp SymBots or Gop kIOD SoHATRED “FOR ISIN» 00 oh) e ou Tue INDWELLING oF Gop .°:. . . Our DEPENDENCE ON Gop... . BENEFITS OF TRustING Gop... SEEKING APTER (GOD te eu et nas How Gop 1s REVEALED TO Us. . . DOVE FOR COD Gainers Mie solr at, Mia PEBWINGICIOD Pri Ml eis cn ale nae PEAR ORR GDO UCR Hae Ne, MV ae NEGLECTING AND Opposinc Gop . . BLASPHEMING THE NAME oF Gop . . FatsE Beviers Concerninc Gop . . Proverss Apour Gop -.:. ... ENDER Gu erp en ee Oe oe ne an ee GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD \ GREATEST THOUGHTS | ABOUT GOD DEFINITIONS OF GOD BIBLE DEFINITIONS OF GOD God is a Spirit—John 4:24. God is love—1 John 4:8. GOD CANNOT BE DEFINED As the human mind is finite, and conceives by defining the limits of its thought, and as God is known to us to be infinite, it is evident that the human mind can never be. capable of conceiving God adequately as He is, or of de- fining His being—Hodge. | “Gop” THE GREATEST WORD In form, the word “God” is small indeed, but in meaning it is infinite. It expresses the greatest thought that ever entered the heart of man. It is lisped by the children, read ‘and known of all men; but also inscribed at the zenith of the universe, and shedding its glory on all below it—H. W. Everest. NO MEANS OF DEFINING GOD What is God? The telescope by which we hold converse with the stars, the microscope which unveils the secrets of nature, the crucible of the chemist, the knife of the anato- 9 10 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD mist, the reflective faculties of the philosopher, all the com- mon instruments of science, avail not here. On the thresh- old of that impenetrable mystery, a voice arrests our steps. From out the clouds and darkness that are round about God’s throne, the question comes, “Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty to perfec- tion?”’—Thomas Guthrie. GLADDEN’S DEFINITION OF GOD The Unknown Cause of the universe is Himself a Spirit, whose Word is perfect truth, whose nature is perfect right- eousness, whose law is perfect love-—Washington Gladden. GOD THE UNIVERSAL SOUL Hail, Source of all being! Universal Soul Of heaven and earth! Essential Presence, hail! To Thee I bend the knee; to Thee my thoughts Continual climb—who with a Master hand Hast the great whole into perfection touched. —Samuel Thompson. GOD EASILY KNOWN BUT NOT DEFINED We know God easily, if we do not constrain ourselves to define Him.—Joubert. CHRIST’S DESCRIPTION OF GOD Christ’s thought of God was that of a being clothed with matchless simplicity and beauty. He affirmed that God is _man’s Father, who made His earthly child in His own image; that man is a miniature of the Divine Being; that what reason and judgment and memory and love are in the small in man, they are in the large in the great God. . . Christ revealed God as the world’s great burden- bearer full of an exquisite kindness and sympathy; that what He was DEFINITION OF GOD 11 through thirty-three years, God is through all the ages; that what He was to publican and sinner in Bethlehem, God is for all maimed and wrecked hearts in all worlds; that no human tear falls but that God feels it; that no human blow smites the suffering heart but that God shrinks and suffers; that with wistful longing He follows the publican and the prodigal, waiting for the hour when He may recover the youth to his integrity, or lead the man grown gray in sin back to his Father’s house.—N. D. Hillis. eed THE WESTMINISTER DEFINITION + — There was a story once told to me by an American Pres- _ byterian minister in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster Abbey, that the Westminster divines, when they were draw- ing up The Confession of Faith and came to the question of making a definition of the Supreme Being, found the diff- culty so overwhelming that they proposed to have a special prayer for light. The youngest minister was to undertake the office. It was, according to English tradition, Calamy ; according to Scotch, Gillespie. He rose, and began by an impassioned and elaborate invocation of the Almighty, which he had hardly uttered» when the whole assembly broke out into the exclamation: “This shall be our definition!” The definition may be read in the third article of the West- minster Confession—Dean Stanley. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. _ —Westminster Catechism. CRUDEN’S DESCRIPTION OF GOD ~~ God.—This is one of the names which we give to that eternal, infinite, and incomprehensible being, the creator of all things, Who preserves and governs everything by His Almighty power and wisdom, and Who is the only object of our worship.—Cruden. 12 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD . PLATO’S IDEA OF GOD There is something very sublime, though very fanciful, in Plato’s description of God—*“That truth is ‘His bade and light His shadow.’—Addison. GOD A CIRCLE WITHOUT CIRCUMFERENCE God is a circle whose center is everywhere, and its cir- cumference nowhere.—Empedocles. GOD INCOMPREHENSIBLE Invisible, Immortal One! Behind essential brightness unbeheld, Incomprehensible! what weight shall weigh— What measure measure Thee? what know we more Of Thee, what need to know, than Thou hast taught, And bid’st us still repeat at morn and even— God, Everlasting Father, Holy One— Our God, our Father, our eternal all— Source whence we come, and whither we return; Who made the heaven, who made the flowery land? Thy works all praise Thee: all Thy angels praise: Thy saints adore, and on Thy altars burn The fragrant incense of perpetual love.—Pollok. MELANCTHON’S DEFINITION OF GOD God is a being spiritual, intelligent, eternal, true, good, pure, just, merciful, free altogether, of immense power and wisdom.—Melancthon. NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD WALLACE’S FAVORITE QUOTATION God of the granite and the rose! Soul of the sparrow and the bee! © The mighty tide of being flows Through countless channels, Lord, from Thee. It leaps to life in grass and flowers, Through every grade of being runs; While from creation’s radiant towers Its glory flames in stars and suns. HOW NATURE REVEALS GOD The book of Nature is an expression of the thoughts of — God. We have God’s terrible thoughts in the thunder and lightning; God’s loving thoughts in the sunshine and the breeze; God’s bounteous, prudent, careful thoughts in the waving harvest. We have God’s brilliant thoughts beheld from mountain top and valley, and God’s sweet and pleasant thoughts of beauty in the little flowers.—Spurgeon. GOD SHINES THROUGH NATURE Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of the omnipresent God bursts through everywhere.—Emerson. As a countenance is made beautiful by the soul’s shining through it, so the world is beautiful ae the shining through it of God. Jacobi. GOD EVERYWHERE REVEALED In all the vast and the minute, we see the unambiguous _ footsteps of the God, Who gives its luster to the insect’s 13 14 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD wing, and wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds.— Cowper. CREATION A TEMPLE OF GOD In Psalm XXIX.—that psalm of nature, where creation is seen as a temple—all nature is God’s grand cathedral: The ‘waters are the great organ with its deep diapason, and the thunders peal forth like the colossal pipes of the pedals; cyclones and whirlwinds are the choir with majestic voices ; the lightnings are the electric lamps; giant oaks and cedars are the bowing worshipers; and the psalmist says, “In His temple doth everything shout Glory!"—A. T. Pierson. EVERYTHING .REVEALS GOD The whole world is a phylactery, and everything we see is an item of the wisdom, power, or goodness of God.—Sir Thomas Browne. COWPER SAW GOD IN EVERYTHING In the vast and the minute we see The unambiguous footsteps of the God Who gives its luster to an insect’s wing, And wheels His throne upon the whirling worlds. —Cowper. NATURE REVEALS GOD’S RICHES God is so rich that He can put more of what is beautiful upon a single lily or tulip than the great King Solomon could put on all his clothing. The hoarse, homely peacock carries more that is beautiful upon his tail than the richest king could ever show. And even the poor butterfly, which is to live but a few hours, has a more glorious dress than the proudest, richest man that ever lived. God can dress this poor worm up so, because He is rich. If, then, He can take such care of the lilies, the birds, and insects, and make them more beautiful than man can ever be, will He not take NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 15 care of us, if we obey Him? Suppose you had a rich father, so rich that he had a hogshead full of gold, and a great barn full of silver: do you think that, if you were to be a good child, he would ever refuse to take care of you? But God has more gold and silver laid up in the ground,’ which men have not yet dug up, than would make a mountain; it may be, thousands of mountains. Can He not take care of you? Suppose your father had more oxen and horses and cattle than you could count over in a day, or in a week: would he not be able to take care of his child, and give him everything he needs? Yes. But God has “cattle upon ten thousand hills”; and “every beast of the forest” is His, and His are “all the fowls of the air.” Can He not give you food from all these cattle, and clothe you, and give you beds from the feathers of all these fowls? Yes: He is able to do it all. Suppose your father was so rich that he had ten thousand men to work for him every day, all at work, and all paid to their mind, and all happy in working for him: would you have any fears that he could not take care of you and do you good? But God has more servants than these: He has all the good people on earth in His em- ployment, and all the angels in heaven. He pays them all. And, if you need anything, He can send one, or a million, of these His servants to you, to help you.u—Dr. J. Todd. NATURE IN HARMONY WITH GOD Inasmuch as God made the universe, and made it to har- monize with His own nature and will, it is difficult to see how a soul that is not en rapport with Him can escape being out of joint with the universe. Each point of difference with the Divine Will which pervades the universe must be a point of friction and heat.—W. R. Taylor. NATURE IS GOD’S HARMONY. When I behold all the requisites in organs, where music is in perfection, I stay not on the iron, lead, wood, the pipes, nor on the bellows: my spirit flieth to that hidden 16 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD _ spirit, which distributeth itself with so melodious propor- tionable divisions throughout the whole instrument. So, when I contemplate the world, I stick not on the body of the sun, the stars, the elements, the stones, the metals, the plants, nor the living creatures: I penetrate into that secret Spirit, which insinuateth itself thereunto with such admirable power, such ravishing sweetness, and incompara- ble harmony.—N, Caussin. NATURE GOD’S DWELLING We are coming to think of God as dwelling in nature as the spirit dwells in the body. Not that God and nature are identical; He transcends nature as I transcend my body and am more than my body.——Lyman Abbott. NATURE REVEALS GOD'S GREATNESS If philosophy is to be believed, our world is but an outly- ing corner of creation; bearing, perhaps, as small a propor- tion to the great universe as a single grain bears to all the sands of the seashore, or one small quivering leaf to the foliage of a boundless forest. Yet even within this earth’s narrow limits, how vast the work of Providence! how soor is the mind lost in contemplating it! How great that Being whose hand paints every flower, and shapes every leaf; who forms every bud on every tree, and every infant in the darkness of the womb; who feeds each crawling worm with a parent’s care, and watches like a mother over the insect that sleeps away the night in the bosom of a flower; who throws open the golden gates of day, and draws around a sleeping world the dusky curtains of the night; who meas- ures out the drops of every shower, the whirling snowflakes, and the sands of man’s eventful life; who determines alike the fall of a sparrow and the fate of a kingdom, and so overrules the tide of human fortunes, that whatever befall him, come joy or sorrow, the believer says, “It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good” !—Dr. Guthrie. NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 17 NATURE A SPARKLET FROM GOD Father, we thank Thee for the daily sun, sending his rose- ate flush of light across the wintry world. We thank Thee for the moon which scarfs with loveliness the retreating shoulders of the night. We thank Thee for. . . the stars wherewith Thou hast spangled the raiment of darkness, giving beauty to the world when the sun withdraws his light. All this magnificence is but a little sparklet that has fallen from Thy presence, Thou Central Fire and Radiant Light of all! These are but reflections of Thy wisdom, Thy power, and Thy glory !—Theodore Parker. CARLYLE’S PICTURE OF GOD'S CATHEDRAL Neither say that thou hast now no symbol of the God- like. Is not God’s universe a symbol of the Godlike? Is not immensity a temple? Is not man’s history and men’s history a perpetual evangel? Listen, and for organ-music thou wilt ever, as of old, hear the morning stars sing together —Sartor -Resartus, p. 175. GOD'S GREATNESS SHOWN IN NATURE And you, ye storms howl out His greatness? Let your thunders roll‘like drums in the march of God’s armies! Let your lightnings write His name in fire on the midnight dark- ness; let the illimitable void of space become one mouth for song; and let the unnavigated ether, through its shoreless depths, bear through the infinite remote the name of Him whose goodness endureth forever !—Spurgeon. GOD'S BENEVOLENCE SHOWN IN NATURE The benevolence of our Great Creator is chanted even by things unpleasant to the ear. “The nuptial song of reptiles,” says Kirby, “is not, like that of birds, the delight of every heart; but it is rather calculated to disturb and horrify than to still the soul. The hiss of serpents, the croakings of frogs and toads, the moanings of turtles, the bellowing of 18 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD crocodiles and alligators, form their gamut of discords. Here, also, we may read beneficent design. Birds are the companions of man in the lawn and forest, in his solitary walks, amidst his rural labors, and around the home of his domestic enjoyments. They are, therefore, framed beauti- ful to the eye and pleasing to the ear; but of the reptile tribes, some are his formidable enemies, and none were ever intended to be his associates. They shun cultivation, and inhabit unfrequented marshes or gloomy wilds. Their harsh notes and ungainly or disgusting forms serve, therefore, to warn him of danger, or to turn his steps to places more fit for his habitation—H. Duncan. GOD’S VOICE IN NATURE Every effect is the result of some free will; but many effects within and without us are not produced by a created will; therefore they are produced by an uncreated. .. . On the deep sea, under a venerable oak, in the pure air of the mountain-top, the Christian communes with the Father of spirits. . . . All ethical axioms are the revelations of Him- self to his children. Their innocent joys are His words of good cheer; their deserved sorrows are His loud rebukes.— Prof. Edwards A. Park, in Old South Church, Boston. GOD’S PROVIDENCE SHOWN IN NATURE Every part of nature seems to pay its tribute to man, in the great variety of tribes, as well the prodigious number of individuals of each various tribe, of all creatures. There are so many beasts, so many birds, so many insects, so many reptiles, so many trees, so many plants upon the land; so many fishes, sea-plants, and other creatures in the waters; so many minerals, metals, and fossils in the subterraneous regions,—that there is nothing wanting to the use of man, or any other creature of this lower world. The munificence of the Creator is such that there is enough to supply the wants and conveniences of all creatures in all places, all ages, and upon all occasions—Derham. NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 19 LEARNING GOD THROUGH NATURE It is the modest, not the presumptuous, inquirer who makes a real and safe progress in the study of divine truths. One follows Nature and Nature’s God; that is, he follows God in His works and in His word.—Bolingbroke. GOD'S BEAUTIFUL WORKS cit If God hath made this world so fair, Where sin and death abound, How beautiful beyond compare Will paradise be found. —Montgomery. LOOKING THROUGH NATURE TO GOD Slave to no sect, who takes no private road But looks through Nature up to Nature’s God. — Pope. NATURE IS GOD’S BODY All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the soul. -——Pope. EVERY BUSH AFIRE WITH GOD Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; And only he who sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries. —Browning. GOD PLANTED THE FIRST GARDEN God Almighty first planted a garden.—Bacon. “ NO ATHEISTS AT NIGHT By night an atheist half believes a God—Young. 20 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD NATURE IS GOD’S ART Art is man’s nature; nature is God’s art——Philip James Bailey. THE GROVES AS TEMPLES The groves were God’s first temples—Bryant. ” GOD MADE THE COUNTRY God made the country, and man made the town.—Cowper. ” GOD WALKS IN THE GARDEN A Garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! Rose plot, Fringed pool, Ferned grot, The veriest school of Peace; and yet the fool contends that God is not— Not God! in Gardens! when the eve is cool? Nay, but I have a sign: *Tis very sure God walks in mine. —Thomas Edward Brown. FOOL; CALL GOD NATURE Of what I call God, And fools call Nature. —Browning. GOD’S VOICE IN NATURE God hath a voice that ever is heard In the peal of the thunder, the chirp of the bird; It comes in the torrent, all rapid and strong, In the streamlet’s soft gush as it ripples along; It breathes in the zephyr, just kissing the bloom; It lives in the rush of the sweeping simoon; NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 21 Let the hurricane whistle or warblers rejoice, What do they tell thee but God hath a voice? God hath a presence, and that ye may see In the fold of the flower, the leaf of the tree; In the sun of the noon-day, the star of the night; In the storm-cloud of darkness, the rainbow of light; In the waves of the ocean, the furrows of land; In the mountains of granite, the atom of sand; Turn where ye may, from the sky to the sod, Where can ye gaze that ye see not a God? —Eliza Cook. GOD THE LIFE AND LIGHT OF THE WORLD ‘Thou art, O God! the life and light Of all this wondrous world we see; Its glow by day, its smile by night, Are but reflections caught from Thee; Where’er we turn, Thy glories shine, And all things fair and bright are Thine. —T. Moore. MADNESS NOT TO SEE GOD IN NATURE He who perceives, as did Auguste Comte, that “the heavens declare no other glory than that of Hipparchus, of Kepler, of Newton, e¢ al.,’—he who gazes on the midnight heavens, who beholds the order of their march with its marvel and its mystery, and who interprets not their hiero- glyph upon the scrolls of space into the plain handwriting of Divinity—he who, in the music of the spheres, discerns not that the theme of this celestial opera in infinite refrain is God, God, Gop, he indeed is mad.—Rose Cleveland’s book, George Eliot’s Poetry and Other Studies, p. 67. GOD’S SOUL SHOWN IN HIS WORKS The painter’s. soul is, no doubt, thrown into his painting, and the sculptor’s and architect’s into their statues and 22 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD buildings; but their souls meanwhile exist apart and are capable of other acts besides these. In a sense as true as it is grand, the soul of the Creator is streaming through the order and life of creation; but meanwhile he exists inde- pendent of and far above them.—McCosh. | THE SEASONS SHOW GOD'S WISDOM There are in the sumbeam three different principles,— the chemical, the luminiferous, and caloric; and each of these has a special function to discharge in relation to the plants of the earth. The chemical principle has a power- ful influence in germinating the plant: the luminous rays assist it in secreting from the atmosphere the carbon which it requires in order to its growth, while the heat-rays are required to nurture the seed, and form the reproductive ele- ments. Now it is a remarkable circumstance, that, accord- ing to Hunt, the first of these is most powerful, relatively to the others, in spring; that it decreases in summer, while the second becomes more powerful; and that in autumn both are lessened, while the third increases in force,—that is, each principle becomes potent at the very time when it is most required.—McCosh. THE FLOWERS REVEAL GOD Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies; Hold you there, root and all, in my hand, Little flower; but if I could understand What you are—root and all, and all in all— I should know what God and man is. —Tennyson. THE FIRMAMENT GOD'S MANTLE It is but the outer hem of God’s great mantle that our poor stars do gem.—J. Ruskin. NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 23 NATURE INSPIRES REVERENCE FOR GOD He who bridles the fury of the billows, knows also to put a stop to the secret plans of the wicked——Submitting to His Holy will, I fear God; I have no other fear—Racine. ALL NATURE HAS A VOICE TO TELL Words by J. Gichrist Lawson The God who formed the mountains great Can lift the soul to heights sublime; And He who formed the quiet vales Will fill the heart with peace divine. The One who made the earthly sun So full of power and warmth and might, Can cause the Sun of Righteousness To bathe the soul in floods of light. The boundless ocean e’er proclaims A God omnipotent to bless: The mighty billows are but types Of waves divine of righteousness. As rivers flow to earthly seas In deepening, widening, growing power; So peace which God alone can give Grows ever stronger hour by hour. The treasures hid in earthly caves Are only for a fleeting time; The riches which the Spirit shows. Are more than rubies, gold, or mine. The stars of heaven ever tell Of Christian hopes more bright than they. The tuneful birds and beauteous flowers Proclaim the wisdom of God’s way. 24 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD All nature has a voice to tell Of God’s great power and love and grace. His Word and works then let us read Until we see Him face to face. GOD’S WISDOM AND LOVE SHOWN IN NATURE ~ God has not only created all things beautiful and wonder- ful in themselves; He has fitted them all to each other; He has made them all by weight and measure; He has formed them, as it were, with a balance in His hand, in such a way that if even one of them had been but a little greater or a little less in proportion to the others, this beautiful world would soon have fallen into ruins, and no living thing could have existed on it. | Do you wish examples of this? They are innumerable— the only difficulty is to choose which to tell you. Let us take the air as the first example. God created the atmos- phere on the second day. It has been reckoned that it sur- rounds the world to the height of about fifty miles above - our heads. It might seem to you a very trifling matter if it were a few miles more or less in height; and yet this would make a great difference to us. If it were a few miles less in height—as, for instance, at the top of Mont Blanc—the barometer would stand at sixteen inches, and men and ani- mals would soon be suffocated. If, on the contrary, it were a few miles more in height, the barometer would stand at more than forty-seven inches; it would be insupportably hot wherever the rays of the sun could reach, and your lungs could not bear it long. You may judge of it by the Dead Sea, where the atmosphere is only a quarter of a mile higher, and where the barometer stands at twenty-nine and three- quarters, but where the heat is excessive, and the air very irritating to the lungs, as we are told in the account of Lieutenant Lynch’s expedition. And if the atmosphere were higher still, the winds would be irresistible—our houses and our trees would be thrown down, we should take inflamma- tion in the lungs, and the nature of all things around us would be entirely changed. NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD 25 Take another example. On the third day God formed the seas and the dry land. If the dry land were a little harder than it is, we could not cultivate it—we could neither plow nor dig. The roots of the plants could not pierce the hard soil, and they would perish. If, on the contrary, the earth were softer than it is, we should sink in the soil, as we do in a plowed field after rain; and neither houses, trees, nor plants could be kept firm in the ground. If the water of the sea were heavier, all the fishes would be borne up to the surface, and would be unable to swim in it; and they would die as they do in the Dead Sea, whose water is only a quarter heavier than distilled water. And if the water of the sea were lighter, the fish would be too heavy to swim, and would sink down and die at the bottom. If the water of the sea and of the lakes, which always contracts and becomes heavier as it becomes colder, did not cease to obey this law at about the fourth degree above freezing point, the bottom of most of the seas and of all the lakes would be a mass of ice for the greater part of the year; whilst, on the other hand, by this admirable arrangement, their depths never freeze. : You may think, perhaps, that it would be a matter of in- difference to us whether our globe were a little larger or a little smaller than it is, since for so many years men lived upon it in total ignorance of its size. But there is a neces- sary proportion between the size and weight of the earth and the strength which God has given to our limbs and muscles. If, for example, we could be conveyed to the moon, and if it were like the earth in all respects except its size, we should there weigh five times less than we do upon earth. We might bound up like grasshoppers to a great height in the air, but we should be so unsteady on our limbs that the hand of a child could throw us over. And if our earth, on the contrary, were as large as the planet Jupiter, all other things remaining the same, each of us should feel as if we were forced to carry the weight of eleven people as heavy as our- selves. The weight of a man of ten stone would be 110 stone, and none of us could walk or stand upright—scarcely even move. 26 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD Ah, let us repeat what we said before——“The work of the Lord is perfect. It is always good—very good.” —Professor L. Gaussen. GOD’S GREATNESS REVEALED IN NATURE About the time of the invention of the telescope, another instrument was formed which laid open a scene no less wonderful, and rewarded the inquisitive spirit of man with a discovery which serves to neutralize the whole of the argument. This was the microscope. The one led me to see a system in every star; the other leads me to see a world in every atom. The one taught me that this mighty globe, with the whole burden of its people, is but a grain of sand in the high field of immensity; the other teaches me that every erain of sand may harbor within it the tribes and the fami- lies of a busy population. The one told me of the insignifi- cance of the world I tread on; the other redeems it from all its insignificance; for it tells me that in the leaves of every forest, and in the flowers of every garden, and in the waters of every rivulet there are worlds teeming with life, and numberless as are the glories of the firmament. ... By the one there is the discovery that no magnitude, however vast, is beyond the grasp of the Divinity; but by the other we have also discovered that no minuteness, however shrunk from the notice of the human eye, is beneath the condescen- sion of His regard.—Dr. Chalmers. GODS GENTLENESS REVEALED IN NATURE What is the dew upon the flower, but God’s gentle nur- turing of the most delicate and refined results of vegetation? What is the falling rain, but gentle drops of heaven’s love— distilling verdure upon the earth, and feeding the ear of corn to provide bread for man? Above all, what is light— penetrating, invigorating, inspiriting light—light, making the birds to sing with glee; light, making the beast of the field to bask in its warmth; light, making the insect happy, and the eagle to fix its gaze; light, unmeasured light, free to NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD QT the slave, wealth to the pauper? It is the gentle beam of love kindled in the eye of God, and looking tenderness and care upon all created things. Yes; we are encompassed with the gentleness of God, fructifying the earth, and urging her onward to fresh beauty and renewed fertility—J. C. M. Bellew. GOD'S NAME WRITTEN EVERYWHERE I read His awful name emblazoned high, With golden letters, on the illumined sky; Nor less the mystic characters I see Wrought in each flower, inscribed on every tree: In every leaf that trembles to the breeze, I hear the voice of God among the trees. —Barbauld. THE UNIVERSE NOT AN ACCIDENT That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse | of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious | treatise of philosophy.—Swift. EVERYTHING REVEALS FEATURES OF GOD = There’s nothing bright above, below, From flowers that bloom to stars that glow, But in its light mry soul can see Some feature of the Deity—Anon. FOOTPRINTS OF THE CREATOR _ “How do you know,” a Bedouin was asked, “that there is a God?” “In the same way,” he replied, “that I know, on looking at the sand, when a man or a beast has crossed the desert—by His footprints in the world around me.’—Canon _ Liddon. NATURE CAUSED BY GOD Nature is but the name for an effect whose cause is God. —Murphy. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD THERE IS ONE GOD In the beginning God.—Gen. 1:1. But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him—1 Cor. 8:6. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the|man Christ Jesus—1 Tim. 2:5. God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth—John 4:24. Before me there was no God formed.—Isa. 43 :10. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath; there is none else.—Deut. 4:39. NO NEED TO PROVE GOD'S EXISTENCE vf The Bible does not attempt to prove God’s existence. Its first verse sets out with a story that God did, not with an argument to show that God is. ... None of the old pa- triarchs or prophets or preachers of righteousness, of whom the Bible tells, attempted to prove God’s existence. . The only reference in all the Bible to the idea . . . is where Paul speaks incidentally of the needlessness of such an at- tempt. He says that even the heathen know that there is a God—know it from the works of nature—‘so that they are without excuse” if they refuse to acknowledge and worship God.—H. C. Trumbull, in The Sunday-School Times. EVIDENCES OF GOD'S EXISTENCE Basil called the world a school, wherein reasonable souls are taught the knowledge of God. Ina musical instrument, 28 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 29 when we observe divers strings meet in harmony, we con- clude that some skillful musician tuned them. When we see thousands of men in a field, marshaled under several colors, all yielding exact obedience, we infer that there is a general, whose commands they are all subject to. In a watch, when | we take notice of great and small wheels, all so fitted as to concur to an orderly motion, we acknowledge the skill of an artificer. When we come into a printing-house, and see a great number of different letters so ordered as to make a book, the consideration hereof maketh it evident that there is a composer, by whose art they were brought into such a frame. When we behold a fair building, we conclude it had . an architect; a stately ship, well rigged, and safely con- ducted to the port, that it hath a pilot. So here: the visible world is such an instrument, army, watch, book, building, ship, as undeniably argueth a God, who was and is the tuner, general, and artificer, the composer, architect, and pilot of it. —Arrowsmith. CREATION, REGENERATION AND PROPHECY PROVE GOD’S EXISTENCE The beauty of the nearby dewdrop or the distant suns, the miracle of heart change and the marvels of prophecy alike proclaim that there is a God——Wnm. C. Allen. WHAT WE KNOW OF GOD 1. We can not disprove his existence. On any theory of the world we have need of him. We must have all knowl- edge, or the one thing we do not know may be that there is a God; we must be everywhere, or in the one place where we are not God may be. In order to prove there is no God, we would need ourselves to become gods in knowledge and ubiquity. The atheist can not be certain of his creed. It is not axiomatic. He can not find a fact or truth from which it may be inferred. He can not frame a syllogism that _ will prove it. There is not a star, not a flower, not a blade Of grass that will agree with him. 30 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 2. There is something now, and hence something has al- ways been and always will be, and that something ts God. Unless knowledge of any kind is impossible to us, there is something now. If ever there was a time when there was nothing, absolutely nothing, nothing could be now; it is an axiom that from nothing nothing comes. Hence it is most ‘certain that something has been from all eternity. This something was independent, and must still be so, and no change in the universe can affect its existence. Therefore it will always exist; it inhabiteth eternity. Still further, what- ever now exists must have existed potentially in that which has always existed. Well, there are now such things as in- telligence, conscience, moral freedom, personality, and all other spiritual qualities. Then, this which has always been was a spiritual being, was God. Nor is this view invalidated by the fact that matter also was potentially in him; for evi- dently matter and all things proceeded from him; and what matter is, and that it could not be created by the eternal and almighty One, no man knows.—H. W. Everest. ALL CREATION PROCLAIMS A CREATOR The lofty mountains, the thunder of the cataract, the bois- terous sea, the flow of the rivers, the fruitful field, the lonely forest all bear impressive witness to a universal and won- derful Architect. Every humble blade of grass, each modest wild flower—the germination and growth of which science cannot explain—bear testimony to the marvelous handiwork of a supreme Creator. The stars in their courses tell of 2 great Superintendent of the universe without whose control all things would collapse and perish. God 1s everywhere. The touch of his finger is detected in the far-off worlds—the music of the winds sings his praise—Wm. C. Allen. IS THERE A GOD? A fire-mist and a planet— A crystal and a cell— A jelly-fish and a saurian, And caves where the cave-men dwell; THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 31 Then a sense of law and beauty, And a face turned-from the clod— Some call it Evolution, And others call it God. —William Herbert Carruth. PROPHECY PROVES GOD'S EXISTENCE The most amazing fact of history is the realization of Bib- lical prophecy. Men of vastly different epochs, with widely diverse intellectual capacity, often unknown to each other, all dedicated to Jehovah, foretold with great variety of de- tail of the coming of One Who was to be the light and hope of the world. Their extraordinarily various predictions were realized in the personality of only one man, Jesus Christ. According to the lay of compound probability as applied to chance, there was not one possibility in very many millions of such a consummation of prediction. To assert that this is coincidence is absurd. The only explanation is that a supernatural authority was operating through these seers of successive centuries, and that when Jesus came he was really what he claimed to be—the incarnate Son of God. —Wm. C. Allen, GOD'S EXISTENCE THE FOUNDATION OF RELIGION The existence of God is the foundation of all religion. The whole building totters if the foundation be out of course; if we have not deliberate and right notions of it, we shall perfarm no worship, no service, yield no affection to him. If there be not a God, it is impossible there can be one; eternity is essential to the notion of a God; so _all religion would be vain and unreasonable, to pay homage to that which is not in being, nor ever can be.—Charnock. NO PHILOSOPHY WITHOUT GOD _ [have read up many queer religions; and there is nothing | Aaa the old thing, after all, I have looked into the most 32 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD - philosophical systems, and have found none that will work without a God.—J. C. Maxwell. DERZHAVIN’S RUSSIAN ODE * I am, O God, and surely Thou must be! Thou art! directing, guiding all, Thou art! Direct my understanding, then, to Thee; Control my spirit, guide my wandering heart. DR. GALEN CONVINCED When Galen, a celebrated physician, but atheistically in- _ clined, had anatomized the human body, and carefully sur- veyed the frame of it, viewed the fitness and usefulness of every part of it and the many several intentions of every little vein, bone and muscle, and the beauty of the whole, he fell into a fit of devotion, and wrote a hymn to his Creator. —Arvine. — WHO TAUGHT THE BIRD? Who taught the bird to build her nest Of wool and hay and moss? Who taught her how to weave it best And lay the twigs across ? Who taught the busy bee to fly Among the sweetest flowers, And lay her store of honey by To last in winter’s hours? Who taught the little ant the way _ Its narrow nest to weave, And, through the pleasant summer day, To gather up its leaves? ’Twas God who taught them all the way, And gave them little skill. He teaches children, when they pray, To do His holy will. —Jane Taylor. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD Bo PALEY’S WATCH ARGUMENT, A.D. 1818, In crossing a heath, suppose . . . that I had found a watch, . . . and it should be inquired how the watch hap- pened to be in that place; I should hardly think to answer . that for anything that I knew, the watch might have always been there. . . . Forthis reason, . . . that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive ... that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose (etc.). Suppose . . . that it possessed the unexpected property of producing . . . another watch like itself... . No one can rationally believe that the (former) . . watch from which the (latter) watch . . . issued was. the proper cause of the mechanism. . . . Nor is anything - gained by running the difficulty farther back, 4e., by sup- ‘posing the watch . . . to have been produced from an- _ other watch, that from a former, and so on indefinitely... . A chain composed of an infinite number of links can no more support itself than a chain composed of a finite num- ber of links. . . . The machine which we are inspecting demonstrates, by its construction, contrivance and design. Contrivance must have had a contriver; design, a designer ; whether the machine immediately proceeded from another machine or not. . . . Every indication of contrivance,— manifestation of design —which exists in the watch, exists in the works of nature (etc., etc.) —Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, f Chapters I., I., III. AN ATHEIST CONVINCED _ Dr. Marshall, a lecturer on anatomy, had deeply studied the construction and laws of man, and was never happier _ than when explaining them. He once devoted a whole lec- _ ture to display the profound science that was visible in the formation of the double hinges of our joints. Such was the effect of his demonstrations that an inquisitive friend, _who had accompanied Dr, Turner to the lecture, with skepti- _ cal inclinations, suddenly exclaimed with great emphasis, 34. GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD “A man must be a fool, indeed, who after duly studying his own body can remain an atheist.”—Arvine. AUGUSTINE'S EXTENSIVE SEARCH FOR GOD y , I asked the earth, and it answered, “I am not He;” and whatsoever are therein made the same confession. I asked the sea and the things therein, and they replied, “We are not thy God; seek higher.” I asked the air with its inhabi- tants; it answered, “I am not thy God.” I asked the heavens —the sun, moon and stars. “Neither,” they said, “are we the God whom thou seekest.” And I answered. unto all these, “Ye have told me that ye are not He; tell me some- thing about Him.” And with a loud voice they exclaimed, “He made us.”—Confessions, Bk. X., Ch. VIII. YOUNG'S TWO LITTLE NIGHT THOUGHTS One sun by day; by night ten thousand shine, And light us deep into the Deity ; How boundless in magnificence and might! O, what a confluence of ethereal fires From urns unnumber’d, down the steeps of heav’n Streams to a point, and centers in my sight! By night an atheist half believes in a God. CREATION SUPERNATURAL What could be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster.—Jeremy Taylor. CREATION BEYOND THE SKILL OF ART | There is something in the nature of things which the mind of man, which reason, which human power cannot effect, and certainly that which produces this must be better than man. What can this be but God ?—Cicero. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 35 CAN NOT DISPROVE GOD'S EXISTENCE The very impossibility which I find to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.—Bruyere. GOD IN SCIENCE, HISTORY AND CONSCIENCE © There is a God in science, a God in history, and a God in conscience, and these three are one-—Joseph Cook. NATURE GOD'S HIEROGLYPHICS The world of nature is throughout a witness for the world of spirit, proceeding from the same root, and being constituted for this very end. The characters of nature which everywhere meet the eye are not a common but a sacred writing—they are the hieroglyphics of God—Trench. DESIGN SHOWN IN CREATION A man that should meet with a palace beset with pleasant gardens, adorned with stately avenues, furnished with well- contrived aqueducts, cascades, and all other appendages con- ducing to convenience or pleasure, would easily imagine that proportionable architecture and magnificence were within ; but we should conclude the man was out of his wits that should assert and plead, that all was the work of chance, or other than of some wise and skillful hand. And so, when we survey the bare outworks of this our globe; when we see so vast a body accoutered with so noble a furniture of air, light, and gravity; with everything, in short, that is neces- sary to the preservation and security of the globe itself, or that conduceth to the life, health, and happiness, to the pro- pagation and increase, of all the prodigious variety of crea- tures the globe is stocked with; when we see nothing want- ing, nothing redundant or frivolous, nothing botching or ill made, but everything, even in the very appendages alone, exactly answereth all its ends and occasions,—what else can be concluded but that all was made with manifest design, 86 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD and that all the whole structure is the work of some intelli- gent Being, some Artist of power and skill equivalent to such a work ?>—Derham. THE WITNESS OF GOD'S SPIRIT The devout man does not only believe, but feels there is a Deity. He has actual sensations of Him; his experience concurs with his reason; he sees Him more and more in all his intercourses with Him, and even in this life almost loses his faith in conviction.—Addison, 1672-17109. MAN’S NATURE REQUIRES GOD If it (the idea of the existence of God) is interwoven with the mind, if it is part of the soul’s original furniture, it is folly to talk of its having been evolved, and equal folly to doubt that it is God’s own appointed witness to the truth of His existence—Lorimer. CONVINCED BY A LEAF When the Rev. John Thorpe, of Masborough, in York- shire, England, had preached for about two years, he was greatly harassed with temptations to atheism, which con- tinued, with a few intervals, many months. His distress sometimes, on this account? was so great as to embarrass his mind beyond description. At length, however, he was happily delivered by the following occurrence :— Passing through a wood, with a design to preach in a neighboring village, while he was surveying his hand, a leaf accidentally stuck between his fingers. He felt a powerful impression to examine the texture of the leaf. Holding it between his eye and the sun, and reflecting upon its exqui- sitely curious and wonderful formation, he was led into an extensive contemplation on the works of creation. Tracing these back to their first cause, he had, in a moment, such a conviction of the existence and ineffable perfections of God, which then appeared, that his distress was removed ; and he prosecuted his journey, rejoicing in God, and admir- THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 37 ing him in every object that presented itself to his view.— Arvine. CONVINCED BY A FLOWER A magazine writer tells of a gentleman who had the mis- fortune to be an unbeliever. One day he was walking in the woods reading the writings of Plato. He came to where the great writer uses the phrase “geometrizing.” He thought to himself, “If I could see a plan and order in God’s works, I could be a believer.” Just then he saw a little “Texas star’ at his feet. He picked it up, and thoughtlessly began to count its petals. He found there were five. He counted the stamens, and there were five of them. He counted the divisions at the base of the flower; there were five of them. He then set about multiplying these three fives to see how many chances there were of a flower being brought into existence without the aid of mind, and having in it these three fives. The chances against it were one hundred and twenty-five to one. He thought that was very strange. He examined another flower, and found it the same. He mul- tiplied one hundred and twenty-five by itself to see how many chances there were against there being two flowers, each having these exact relations of numbers. He found the chances against it were fifteen thousand six hundred and twenty-five to one. But all around him were multitudes of these little flowers; they had been growing and blooming there for years. He thought this showed the order of in- telligence, and that the mind that ordained it was God. And so he shut up his book, and picked up the little flower, and kissed it, and exclaimed, “Bloom on, little flower; sing on, little birds; you have a God, and I have a God; that God that made these little flowers made me.’’—Foster. REASON DEMANDS A GOD He who can imagine the universe fortuitous or self- created is not a subject for argument, provided he has the power of thinking, or even the faculty of seeing. He who _ sees no design cannot claim the character of a philosopher ; 88 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD for philosophy traces means and ends. He who traces no causes must not assume to be a metaphysician; and if he does trace them, he must arrive at a first cause. And he who perceives no final causes is equally deficient in metaphysics and in natural philosophy; since, without this, he cannot generalize—can discover no plan where there is no pur- pose. But if he who can see a creation without seeing a creator has made small advances in knowledge, so he who can philosophize on it, and not feel the eternal pres- ence of its Great Author, is little to be envied, even as a mere philosopher; since he deprives the universe of all its grandeur, and himself of the pleasures springing from those exalted views which soar beyond the details of tangible forms and common events. And if with that presence around him he can be evil, he is an object of compassion; for he will be rejected by him whom he opposes or rejects. —Dr. Macculloch. CREATION NOT THE RESULT OF CHANCE We have passed from planet to planet, from sun to sun, from system to system; we have reached beyond the limits of this mighty solar cluster with which we are allied; we have found other island universes sweeping through space; the great unfinished problem still remains,—Whence came this universe? Have all these stars which glitter in the heavens been shining from all eternity? Has our globe been rolling round the sun for ceaseless ages? Whence came this magnificent architecture, whose architraves rise in splen- dor before us in every direction? Is it all the work of chance? Ianswer, No! It is not the work of chance. Who shall reveal to us the true cosmography of the universe by which we are surrounded? It is the work of an Omnipotent Architect. Around us and above us rise sun and system, cluster and universe; and I doubt not, that, in every region of this vast empire of God, hymns of praise and anthems of glory are rising and reverberating from sun to sun, and from system to system, heard by Omnipotence alone across immensity and through eternity——Prof. Mitchell. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 39 — DESIGN SHOWN IN CREATION “In the corner of a little garden,’ said Dr. Beattie of Aberdeen, “without informing any one of the circumstance, I wrote in the mold with my finger the three initial letters of my son’s name, and sowed garden-cress in the furrows, covered up the seed, and smoothed the ground. Ten days after this he came running up to me, and with astonish- ment in his countenance told me his name was growing in the garden. I laughed at the report, and seemed to disre- gard it, but he insisted on my going to see what had hap- pened. ‘Yes,’ said I carelessly, ‘I see it is so, but what is there in this worth notice? Is it not mere chance?’ ‘It can- not be so,’ he said; “somebody must have contrived matters so as to produce it.’ ‘Look at yourself,’ I replied, ‘and con- sider your hands and fingers, your legs and feet; came you hither by chance?’ ‘No, he answered, ‘something must have made me.’ ‘And who is that something?’ I asked. He said, “T don’t know.’ I told him the name of that Great Being who had made him and all the world. This lesson affected him greatly, and he never forgot either it or the circum- stance that introduced it.”—Foster. GOD ENDURES FOREVER Darkness is strong, and so is sin, But surely God endures forever. —Lowell. GOD IS OVERHEAD But I believe that God is overhead And as life is to the living, so death is to the dead. —Mary Mapes Dodge. GOD IS LIVING © God is living, working still. John S. Dwight. ALL IS WELL WHEN GOD REIGNS God is and all is well. —Whittier. ETERNITY OF GOD GOD IS ETERNAL Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.— LEU Vk Gig hee 3 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.—Ps. 90:2. But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever; and thy remem- brance unto all generations.—Ps. 102:12. Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.—Isa. 40 :28. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.—Psa. 41:13. DEFINITION OF GOD'S ETERNITY One of the deaf and dumb pupils in the institution of Paris, being desired to express his idea of the eternity of the Deity, replied, “Ir is duration, without beginning or end; existence without bound or dimension; present, without past or future. His eternity is youth without infancy or old age; life without birth or death; to-day without yesterday or to- morrow.’—Arvine. 3 GOD’S ETERNITY INCOMPREHENSIBLE “In the beginning”: when was that? By what innumer- able stages, through what immense eras, the imagination must travel in order to reach it! Not the least of the many benefits which modern science has conferred upon us is the 40 ETERNITY OF GOD AY _ enlargement of our conceptions concerning time. How vast a period is a thousand years! How far off it seems since Alfred the Great ascended the English throne, yet it is not quite a thousand years ago. Last week I saw in the Exeter Museum a mummy that is supposed to have been embalmed in the days of Hezekiah. What marvelous revolutions have taken place since that mummy was a living man! How old we should have thought him had he lived till now! Yet he would have been quite a juvenile beside Adam had he-not drawn upon himself the curse of death. How far off seems the time when our first parents dwelt in paradise! And yet what an insignificant period is that compared with the ages which have elapsed since the granite which forms the first courses of our new chapel was a molten fluid! What a mys- tery is time, stretching ever backward, past the hour when _ at the laying of the earth’s foundations “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy!” past the hour when those “morning stars” and “sons of God” were called into being! But when in thought we have reached this dateless period, when we have gone beyond it, and find ourselves in a vast void where no star shines and no seraph sings, even then we find ourselves in the presence of God. We can think of all things and persons besides Him coming into existence, but the thought of the birth of God is one which the mind refuses to entertain. He is the great I AM, to whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. He is “the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy.” Let us bow in reverence before Him. “Lord, Thou hast been our dwell- ing-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God.” - —R. A. Bertram. ETERNITY TOO VAST FOR THE HUMAN MIND When creation began, we know not. There were angels and there was a place of angelic habitation, before the crea- tion of man, and of the world destined for his residence ; 42 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD and even among these pure, spiritual essences there had been a rebellion and fall. How long these spirits had ex- isted, and how many other orders of things besides, it is vain to conjecture; for conjecture could lead to nothing. surer than itself. But of one thing we are certain, that how far back soever we suppose the commencement of creation car- ried, let it be not only beyond the actual range (if a definite range it may be said to have) of the human imagination, but even beyond the greatest amount of ages and figures, in any way combined, could be made to express ; still there was an eternity preceding, an eternity from which this unimaginable and incomputable duration has not made the minutest deduc- tion; for it is the property of eternity, that it can be neither lengthened by additions, nor shortened by subtraction of the longest possible periods of time. Before the commencement of creation, therefore, before the fiat of Omnipotence, which gave being to the first dependent existence and dated the beginning of time, in infinite and incomprehensible solitude, yet in the boundless self-sufficiency of his blessed nature, feeling no want and no dreariness, Jehovah had, from eter-_ nity, existed alone. There is something awfully sublime in this conception of Deity. Our minds are overwhelmed when we attempt to think of infinite space, even as it is replen- ished with its millions of suns and systems of inhabited worlds; but still more are they baffled and put to a stand when we try to form a conception of immensity before sun or star existed, before any creature had a being, of immensity filled with nothing but the pure, ethereal essence of the great uncreated Spirit. When we think of the millions of worlds, with all their interminable varieties of spiritual and material, animate and inanimate, brute and intelligent, tribes of be- ings, there is unavoidably in our minds the conception of Deity as having, in the superintendence of all his works of power, wisdom, and goodness, both incessant occupation and exhaustless sources of enjoyment—Dr. Wardlaw. REASON TOTTERS AT ETERNITY If we can keep our minds calm on the subject of the “Eternity of God,” if reason does not totter on her seat at i) ETERNITY OF GOD 43 the contemplation of underived existence, it will be strange if any other mystery relating to God should disturb us. He who can bring his reason to bow reverently at the idea of a Being who had no beginning is well prepared to receive any communication of His will—Nehemiah Adams. CROSBY'S CONCEPTION OF GOD We can have no conception of God himself, except as in time and space.—Madison Peters’ Great Hereafter, p. 389. SUPREMACY OF GOD GOD ONLY IS OMNIPOTENT .__..There is but one Omnipotent power. If there be two Om- nipotents, then we must always suppose a contest between these two: that which one would do, the other power being equal, would oppose, and so all things would be brought into confusion. If a ship should have two pilots of equal power, one would be ever crossing the other: when one would sail, the other would cast anchor: here were a confusion, and the ship must needs perish. The order and harmony in the world, the constant and uniform government of all things, is a clear argument that there is but one Omnipotent, one God that rules all. “I am the first, and I am the last, and beside Me there is no God.”—Watson, 1696. THE KORAN ON GOD’S SUPREMACY When Abraham set out on his travels, he was insufficiently acquainted with religious truth. He saw the star of the eve- ning, and he said to his followers, “This is my God!’ But the star went down, and Abraham exclaimed, “I care not for any gods that set!” When the moon arose, he said, “This is my God!” But the moon, too, went down. Then the sun arose, and he saluted it as Divine; but the wheeling sky carried the king of day behind the flaming pines of the west. And Abraham, in the holy twilight, turning his face toward the assenting azure, said to his people, “I give my- self to Him who is . . . the Father of the stars and moon and sun, and who never sets, because He is the Eternal Noon!”—The Koran. HINDOOS AND GOD'S SUPREMACY Rev. W. Arthur narrates an interview with an aged Hin- doo. The latter said, “Some time ago one of our people 44 SUPREMACY OF GOD A5 went to your house, you took him into your room and said a great deal of sense to him, and gave him a book. It was the first that had ever been in our town. We assembled and read it together. It certainly was a very wise book, but had one fault that very much surprised us all.” What this grave fault was he refused to tell till he had been repeatedly urged to do so. He at length said, “The fault was this: it would not allow of any God but one! Now what do you say to that?” He had rightly apprehended the unity of the God of the Bible. It leaves no place for his polytheistic faith.— ’ Foster. _ INDIAN BOYS DEFINE GOD'S SUPREMACY A missionary in India was catechizing the children of one of the schools. A Brahmin interrupted him, saying that the ‘Spirit of man and the spirit of God were one. The mission- he ary called on the boys to refute it, by stating the difference between the spirit of man and God. They gave the follow- ing answers: “The spirit of man is created—God is its creator ; the spirit of man is full of sin—God is a pure spirit; the spirit of man is subject to grief—God is infinitely blessed, and incapable of suffering. These two spirits can never be one.”—Foster. | GOD ALONE CAN SATISFY Believe me, I speak it deliberately and with full convic- tion: I have enjoyed many of the comforts of life, none of which I wish to esteem lightly ; often have I been charmed with the beauties of nature, and refreshed with her bounti- ful gifts. I have spent many an hour in sweet meditation, and in reading the most valuable productions of the wisest men. I have often been delighted with the conversation of ingenious, sensible, and exalted characters; my eyes have been powerfully attracted by the finest productions of hu- man art, and my ears by enchanting melodies. I have found pleasure when calling into activity the powers of my own mind; when residing in my own native land, or traveling _ through foreign parts; when surrounded by large and splen- 46 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD did companies, still more when moving in the small endear- ing circle of my own family: yet, to speak the truth before God, who is my judge, I must confess I know not any joy that is so dear to me; that so fully satisfies the inmost de- sires of my mind; that so enlivens, refines and elevates my whole nature, as that which I derive from religion, from faith in God: as one who is not only the parent of men, but has condescended, as a brother, to clothe Himself with our nature. Nothing affords me greater delight than a solid hope that I partake of His favors, and rely on His never- failing support and protection... . He who has been so often my hope, my refuge, my confidence, when I stood upon the brink of an abyss where I could not move one step forward; He who, in answer to my prayer, has helped me when every prospect of help vanished; that God who has safely conducted me, not merely through flowery paths, but likewise across precipices and burning sands ;—may this God be thy God, thy comfort, as He has been mine !—Lavater. GOD ONLY WORTH KNOWING There is nothing on earth worth being known but God and our own souls.—Bailey. SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD GOD REIGNS It is a great truth, “God reigns,” and therefore grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord; and, therefore, no sinner on earth need ever despair—Ichabod Spencer. ~ GOD DIRECTS THE UNIVERSE The hand of God never tires, nor are its) movements aim- less. It makes all things subservient to its designs, and, at every turn, disappoints the calculations of man, causing the most insignificant events to expand to the mightiest conse- quences, while those that have the appearance of mountains vanish into nothing.—John Lanahan. GOD’S MOVEMENTS NOT AIMLESS Have faith! where’er thy bark is driven,— The calm’s disport, the tempest’s mirth,— Know this! God rules the host of heaven, The inhabitants of earth. —Schiller. GOD RULES HEAVEN AND EARTH King Porus, when Alexander asked him, being then his prisoner, how he would be used, answered in one word, _“Basilikeios;” that is, “Like a king.” Alexander again re- plying, “Do you desire nothing else ?”—‘‘No,” said he: “all things are in this one word, ‘Like a king.’” Whereupon _ Alexander restored him again. But this has not always been _ the happiness of kings and princes. Yet he that hath God hath all things, because God is all things. Take a pen, and 47 48 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD write down riches, honors, preferments, they are but as so many ciphers; they signify nothing: but write down God alone, and he will raise them to thousands, hundreds of thousands. And then it is that a Christian is truly happy,— when he can find himself and all things in his God— Spencer. GOD ALL IN ALL The moral government of God is a movement in a line onward towards some grand consummation, in which the principles, indeed, are ever the same, but the developments are always new,—in which, therefore, no experience of the past can indicate with certainty what new openings of truth, what new manifestations of goodness, what new phases of the moral heaven may appear—Mark Hopkins. GOD'S GOVERNMENT MOVES FORWARD Converting grace puts God on the throne, and the world at His footstool; Christ in the heart, and the world under His feet—Joseph Alleine. GOD ON THE THRONE “ O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Be Thou our guard while troubles last, And our eternal home! —Watts. GOD GUIDING ALL Thou art! directing, guiding all, Thou art! Direct my understanding then to Thee; Control my spirit, guide my wandering heart: Though but an atom midst immensity. —Derzhavin. GOD OMNIPOTENT Can we outrun the heavens? —Shakespeare. d SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD 49 SUBMISSION TO GOD If the barbarian ambassador came expressly to the Ro- mans, to negotiate, on the part of his country, for permis- sion to be their servants, declaring that a voluntary sub- mission to a foreign power was preferable to a wild and disorderly freedom, well may the Christian triumph in the peace to be obtained by an unreserved submission to Him _ who is emphatically called the God of order—Buck. GOD GOVERNS _ God governs in the affairs of men; and if a sparrow can- not fall to the ground without His notice, neither can a _ kingdom rise without His aid—Benjamin Franklin, GOD OVERTHREW NAPOLEON Was it possible that Napoleon should win the battle of Waterloo? We answer, No! Why? Because of Welling- @ ton’ Because of Blucher’ No! Because of God! For _ Bonaparte to conquer at Waterloo was not the law of the _ nineteenth century. It was time that this vast man should _ fall. He had been impeached before the Infinite! He had vexed God! Waterloo was not a battle. It was the change of front of the Universe !—Victor Hugo. THE WICKED CANNOT ESCAPE However wickedness outstrips men, it has no wings to fly from God.—Shakespeare. GOD'S WILL IS PERFECT _ God’s will is the very perfection of all reason—Edward ) Payson. PERSONALITY OF GOD MEANING OF GOD'S PERSONALITY A stone is not a person, for it can do nothing. The animal that is controlled by instinct is not a person. The piston-rod of an engine that goes in and out as the steam compels i only a thing. But God is free, God is absolute. He enter- tains purposes, he invents, he puts forth volitions, he is the author of free moral beings. He must have been free, for there was nothing outside of him, and hence nothing to com- pel any definite condition. If he were matter, he would have” no power of volition; if he were a diffused force, as elec- tricity is supposed to be, he would be subject to attraction and repulsion; if he were only a quality or an attribute of something, he could not originate anything, and could not be God.—H. W. Everest. GOD A PERSON, NOT A POWER There are those who give out the notion that what we call Deity is “the Power that worketh for righteousness.” There is being suggested something that sounds like pan- theism. There are powers in the world: gravitation, elec- tricity, etc., but one could not look to any one of these as to a friend who could say, “I have loved thee with an ever- lasting love.””—John Hall. ‘D'ISRAELY’S LOTHAIR SAVED FROM ATHEISM “T wish that I could assure myself of the personality of the Creator,” said Lothair; “I cling to that, but they say that it is unphilosophical!”’ “In what sense,” asked the Syrian; “is it more unphilosophical to believe in a personal God, omnipotent and omniscient, than in natural forces, uncon- scious and irresistible? Is it unphilosophical to combine power with intellect ?” 50 VHE PRENTRY: OF (GOD TRINITY OF GOD DESCRIBED As the sun hath three distinct properties,—as the globe, the light, and the heat,—and though each of these keeps its distinct traits, there is but one sun, not three suns; so in Deity, the unity of essence is not taken away by distinc- tion of persons; and yet there is no confounding of persons, or changing of one into another. As there is but one sun throughout the whole world, no more is there but one God. As the sun shows himself by his beams, so God the Father shows himself by his Son Jesus Christ, who is his Word and - Eternal Wisdom. As the sun by his heat makes us feel his force, so God makes us feel his Holy Spirit, which is his infinite power—Cawdray. TERTULLIAN ON THE TRINITY We worship unity in trinity, and trinity in unity; neither confounding the person nor dividing the substance. There is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost; but the Godhead of the Father, and of ~ the Son, and of. the Holy Ghost is all one; the glory equal, - the majesty co-eternal—Tertullian. TRINITY COMPARED TO A LIGHT Tell me how it is that in this room there.are three candles and but one light, and I will explain to you the mode of the Divine existence—John Wesley. TRINITY COMPARED TO WATER, ICE AND SNOW? Snow is water, and ice is water, and water is water ; these three are one.—Joseph Dare. 531 coe 52 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD THE TRINITY IN LIGHT Light is composed of three parts, one visible and two in- visible,—first, illuminative rays, which affect our vision ; sec- ond, chemical rays, which cause growth and give the results of photography; third, the principle called heat, and sep- arate from either. So there are three persons in one God, one visible and two invisible. These component parts are capable of separation and independent action. Each can be sundered from the other, and still retain its full efficiency.— Bishop Warren. THE TRINITY IN WATER A converted Indian gave the following reason for his be- lief in the Trinity: “We go down to the river in Winter, and we see it covered with snow; we dig through the snow, and we come to the ice; we chop through the ice, and we come to the water. Snow is water, ice is water, water is water; therefore the three are one.’’—Selected. Se 4 = em heated ~ GOD THE CREATOR GOD CREATED THE UNIVERSE As a man exhibits himself in physical forms and actions, so there is one other Spirit, a great, wide, mighty, infinite, eternal Spirit back there in the depths of space, and in the present, and in the future, and in the abysses of space, who at His will wrestles into existence great globes, and keeps them in their position. He builds them, and places on them these mysterious forms of earth which are signals hung out over these abysses to tell coming spirits who He is, what He is, what He does, how high is His throne, and how vast is His power from eternity to eternity, from infinity to infinity through all ages of all time; He is holding forth to men and angels these external tokens of His almighty power, of His infinite skill, and of His everlasting love-——Bishop R. S. Foster. REASON ACCEPTS GOD AS CREATOR The demand of the human understanding for causation requires but the one old and only answer, God.—Dexter. GOD THE GREAT “FIRST CAUSE” Let the chain of second causes be ever so long, the first link is always in God’s hand.—Lavington. REASON LEADS TO GOD AS CREATOR The world we inhabit must have had an origin; that origin must have consisted in a cause; that cause must have been intelligent; that intelligence must have been supreme; and that supreme, which always was and is supreme, we know by the name of God.—Selected. 33 54 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD ATHEISM LEADS TO AN ABYSS Everywhere we see a chain of effects and causes, of ends and means; and since nothing has come of itself into the state in which it is, it always thus indicates, farther back, another thing as its cause, which renders necessary exactly the same farther inquiry; so that in such a way the great whole must sink into the abyss of nothing, if we did not admit of something, of itself originally and independently external to this infinite contingent, which maintained it, and, as the cause of its origin, secured its duration—Kant. GOD OR EVOLUTION But there is a theory called evolution, atheistic evolu- tion, according to which the world made itself. Evolution is a machine for the manufacture of worlds, and all things therein—suns, planets, continents, plants, animals, men, philosophers, religions and evolution theories. This ma- chine is made up of many parts—matter, force, eternal change, life potencies in dead matter, tendency to variation, natural selection and survival of the fittest. These parts are nicely adjusted and work harmoniously. It is wonderful what variety, what complications, and what contradictory products this machine has been turning out during all the ages! matter and spirit, life and death, sin and holiness, true and false philosophies, science and “science falsely so called,” evolutionists and anti-evolutionists. Now, all: the wisdom, science and law manifest in these products must be in this machine. Who made this machine, for it is more wonderful than anything else? Was it evolved by a pre- vious evolution? Did it have a father, a grandfather, and who was the Adam of this genealogical line? Evolution in- creases the need of God; for if it is a reality, it is the biggest thing in existence, excepting its Maker. No, going back however far, we can not get beyond God. Again, since as we go back along the chain of causations we must stop somewhere, why not stop with the world as it is? Why not say that the material world as we find it GOD THE CREATOR 55 is eternal; it is the first link; it had no cause? Would this be more mysterious than God? We can not stop short of an adequate cause. Mere dead matter and blind force are not adequate causes of spiritual effects. Thought, purpose and goodness must be accounted for, as well as atoms and suns, with all between them. As a last resort, it is said that God is incomprehensible. Who is he? Where is he? What was he doing during the eternity gone? Why should he have contrived a universe composed of such curious and wonderful things? Why did he not make a better world? Could he, and would he not? Or would he, and could he not? Why does he permit sin? Why not strike down the sinner with his thunderbolts ? Why not, at once, blot out all the race—a race that finds its chief glory in the carnage of battle? Does he exist alone? Alone in the infinite solitudes of space, alone in the finite isolations of eternity? Yes, he is incomprehensible. If he came within the limits of our finite intelligence, he would not be God.—H. W. Everest. ATTRIBUTES OF GOD GOD'S ATTRIBUTES BLEND TOGETHER As the boundless fields of stellar systems, in a particular region of the heavens, appear one immense and cloudless scene of light; but when contemplated with the aid of the telescope, each constellation is distinctly seen emitting its radiations of light, and contributing to form this blaze of splendor; so it is in regard to the Divine nature: the whole is resplendent with inconceivable grandeur, and yet each per- fection possesses a distinct glory, and contributes its rays to reveal the character of Him who “is Light, and in whom is no darkness at all.” Or like the prismatic colors, each dis- tinct, and in the perfection of beauty ; and yet all blending in one beam of light—Ewing. PERFECTION. OF GOD'S ATTRIBUTES There is all possible perfection in God. In Him absolutely ‘is fullness. All life is in God, life in all its varieties. Je- hovah is the living God. All wisdom is in God: He is “the only wise God.” All purity is in God: “God is light.” All righteousness is in God: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.” All love is in God: “God is love.” These sev- eral attributes are not only individually complete, but perfect in their harmony. They combine as the prismatic colors in light, and unite as the several gases which constitute the at- mosphere, and they blend as the hues of the rainbow.—S. Martin. GLORY OF GOD'S ATTRIBUTES The creature is nothing in comparison with God; all the glory, perfection, and excellency of the whole world do not amount to the value of a unit in regard of God’s attributes; 56 oath ee ‘i . 7 i a a ee ee ee NS r\ ATTRIBUTES OF GOD 57 join ever so many of them together, they cannot make one in number; they are nothing in His regard, and less than nothing. All created beings must utterly vanish out of sight when we think of God. As the sun does not annihilate the stars, and make them nothing, yet it annihilates their ap- pearances to our sight ; some are of the first magnitude, some of the second, some of the third, but in the daytime all are alike, all are darkened by the sun’s glory: so it is here, there are degrees of perfection and excellency, if we compare one creature with another, but let once the glorious brightness. of God shine upon the soul, and in that light all their dif- ferences are unobserved. Angels, men, worms, they are all nothing, less than nothing, to be set up against God. This magnificent title, “I am,” darkens all, as if nothing else were. —Manton, 1620-1667. GOD’S ATTRIBUTES UNCHANGEABLE A being is absolutely perfect when it is incapable of the least accession or diminution. Now such a being is God, and none but God. As the sun gets nothing by the shining of the moon and the stars, neither loseth anything by their eclipses or withdrawals; so the self-sufficient God gains nothing by all the suits and services, prayers and praises of His creatures; neither loseth anything by their neglect of their duties. He is above the influence of all our perform- ances.—Swinnock, 1673. GOD'S ATTRIBUTES LIKE HIMSELF His glory is as Himself, eternal, infinite, and so abides in itself, not capable of our addition to it or detraction from it. As the sun, which would shine in its own brightness and glory though all the world were blind, or did willfully shut their eyes against it, so God will ever be most glorious, let men be ever so obstinate or rebellious. Yea, God will have’ glory by reprobates, though it be nothing to their ease, and. though He be not glorified of them, yet He will anes Him- self in them.—N. Rogers, 1 SOA TOGO: 58 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD GREATNESS OF GOD’S ATTRIBUTES It was a noble conception of the great artist of antiquity, who, to express the grandeur of the father of the gods, placed his statue, composed of ivory and gold, and crowned with olive, in the midst of the most sumptuous temple of Greece, but enthroned and sitting; and of such dimensions that the roof of that majestic edifice was but a little elevated above the summit of the image, and conveyed the striking intimation that this noblest structure was after all too lim- ited to contain the uplifted form of the divinity. To the vulgar eye, the magnitude of this stupendous image appeared as a defect, and the proportions of the general fabric seemed to have been forgotten. But, on a closer inspection, this very circumstance contributed, more than all besides, to its impression,—engrossing, absorbing, and overwhelming the spectator; not more with the richness of its materials and the perfection of its symmetry than by the gigantic scale of its greatness,—casting a new and unexpected glory upon the dwelling which it far outshone. But what is the dwell- ing we can fabricate for the. invisible and infinite God? Where is the house we build Him, or what is the place of His rest? How the very insignificance of every earthly sanctuary, contrasted with His infinitude, adds to the force of these emotions! How His immeasurable grandeur swells upon our thougnt when we remember that, though here His foot may tread, His power upholds the stars and His glory outshines the firmament; while the amplitude of all creation lies—like a pebble from the shore—within the hollow of His hand !—M’All. JUSTICE AND MERCY OF GOD Justice and mercy are the two arms of God, which em- brace, bear, and govern the whole world; they are the two engines of the great Archimedes, which make heaven des- cend upon earth, and earth mount to heaven. It is the bass and treble string of the great lute of Heaven which makes all the harmonies and tuneable symphonies of this universe. ee cP ae a ky ATTRIBUTES OF GOD 59 Now, as Mercy is infinite, so is Justice. The Divine Essence holdeth these two perfections, as the two seales of the bal- ance, always equally poised.—N. Caussin. GOD’S ATTRIBUTES Fear God for his power, trust him for his wisdom, love him for his goodness, praise him for- his greatness, believe him for his faithfulness, and adore him for his holiness.— Mason. GOD'S POWER AND HIS ATTRIBUTES The power of God in its exercise is under the government of His wisdom, love, truth, and goodness—attributes equal with His power.—Selected. GOD INFINITE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE GOD'S GREATNESS NO HINDRANCE TO FAITH Rowland Hill was once trying to convey to his hearers some idea of the greatness of God’s love. Suddenly he stopped and, raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed, “I am un- able to reach the lofty theme. Yet I do not think that the smallest fish that swims in the ocean ever complains of the ocean’s vastness. So it is with me. With my puny powers | I can plunge with delight into a subject the immensity of which I shall never be able to comprehend.”—-F. M. Good- child. OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IMPERFECT We know God but as men born blind know the fire: they know that there is such a thing as fire, for they feel it warm them, but what it is they know not. So, that there is a God we know, but what He is we know little, and indeed we can never search Him out to perfection; a finite creature can never fully comprehend that which is infinite—Manton, 1620-1667. WE KNOW LITTLE OF GOD'S GREATNESS j A young child, who has hitherto fancied that the rim of the sky rests on the earth a few miles away, and that the whole world lies within that circle, sails down the Forth there, and sees the river-banks gradually widening and the river passing into a frith. When he comes back, he tells his young companions how large the ocean is. Poor boy! he has not seen the ocean,—only the widened river. Just so with all creature-knowledge of God. Though all the arch- angels were to utter all they know, there would still remain an infinity untold—Culcross. 60 A ing eee a eid ee ee a ne Oe ee ee INFINITE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE 61 OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD VERY LIMITED God is to us, and to every creature, incomprehensible, If _ thou couldst fathom or measure Him, and know His great- ness by a comprehensive knowledge, He were not God. A ¢reature can comprehend nothing but a creature, You may know God, but not comprehend Him; as your foot treadeth on the earth, but doth not cover all the earth. The sea is not the sea if you can hold it ina spoon. Thou canst not com- prehend the sun which thou seest, and by which thou seest all things else, nor the sea, nor the earth, no, nor a worm, nor a pile of grass: thy understanding taoweth not all that God hath put into any the least of these; thou art a stranger to thyself, and to somewhat in every part of thyself, both body and soul, And thinkest thou that perfectly compre- hendest nothing, to comprehend God? Stop then thy over- bold inquiries, and remember that thou art a shallow, finite worm, and God is infinite. First reach to comprehend the heaven and earth and whole creation, before thou think of comprehending Him, to whom the world i is nothing, or van- ity—Baxter, 1615-1601. TO COMPREHEND GOD NOT NECESSARY The human mind may know God, and learn of God, though it has no terms by which to explain Him; it may think of Him as Absolute, as Infinite, as Personal, while it may never in this life be able to fathom the full meaning of these sublime ideas.—George C. Lorimer. MAN’S IMPERFECT IDEAS OF GOD One day, in conversation with the Jungo-kritu, head pun- dit of the College of Fort William, on the subject of God, this man, who is truly learned in his own shastras, gave me from one of their books this parable :—‘“In a certain country there existed a village of blind men. These men had heard that there was an amazing animal called the elephant, but they knew not how to form an idea of his shape. One day 62 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD an elephant happened to pass through the place: the villagers crowded to the spot where this animal was standing. One of them got hold of his trunk, another seized his ear, another his tail, another one of his legs, etc. After thus trying to gratify their curiosity they returned into the village, and sitting down together, they began to give their ideas on what the elephant was like: the man who had seized his trunk said he thought the elephant was like the body of the plantain tree; the man who had felt his ear said he thought he was like the fan with which the Hindoos clean the rice; the man who had felt his tail said he thought he must be like a snake ; and the man who had seized his leg thought he must be like a pillar, An old blind man of some judgment was present, who was greatly perplexed how to reconcile these jarring notions, respecting the form of the elephant; but he at length said, ‘You have all been to examine this animal, it is true, and what you report cannot be false: I suppose, therefore, that that which was like the plantain tree must be his trunk ; that which was like a fan must be his ear; that which was like a snake must be his tail, and that which was like a pillar must be his body.” In this way, the old man united all their notions, and made out something of the form of the elephant. Respecting God,” added the pundit, “we are all blind; none cf us has seen Him; those who wrote the shas- tras, like the old blind man, have collected all the reasonings and conjectures of mankind together, and have endeavored to form some idea of the nature of the Divine Being.” The pundit’s parable may be appropriately applied to the science of theology. Some Christians see one truth and some another, and each one is quite sure that he has beheld the whole. Where is the master-mind who shall gather up the truth out of each creed, and see the theology of the Bible in its completeness ?—a sublimer sight than the believers in the isms have yet been able to imagine.—Spurgeon. FALSE CONCEPTIONS OF GOD The beautiful rays coming from the face of God, and shining in such loveliness around us, are reflected and re- INFINITE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE 63 fracted when they come in contact with the human heart. Each heart is apt to receive only such as please it, and to reject the others; hence the many-colored aspects, some of them hideous in the extreme, in which God is presented to different nations and individuals; hence the room for each man fashioning a god after his own heart. An evil con- science, reflecting only the red rays, calls up a god who delights in blood; the man of fine sentiment, reflecting only the softer rays, paints from the hues of his own feelings a god of mere sensibility, tender as that of the hero of a modern romance; the man of glowing imagination will array in gorgeous but delusive coloring, and in the flowing drapery of majesty and grandeur; beneath which, however, there is little or no reality; the observer of laws will represent him as the embodiment of order, as blank and as black as the sun looks when we have gazed upon him till we are no - longer sensible of his brightness—McCosh. THE CREATOR OF ALL INCOMPREHENSIBLE _ If I never saw that creature which contains not some- thing unsearchable; nor the worm so small, which affordeth not matter for questions to puzzle the greatest philosopher I _ ever met with; no wonder, then, if mine eyes fail when I _ would look at God, my tongue fail me in speaking of Him, _ and my heart in conceiving. As long as the Athenian super- scription doth so too well suit with my sacrifices, “To the unknown God,” and while I cannot contain the smallest rivulet, it is little I can contain of this immense ocean. We _ shall never be capable of clearly knowing, till we are capable of fully enjoying; nay, nor till we do actually enjoy Him. What strange conceivings hath a man, born blind, of the sun and its light; or a man born deaf, of the nature of sounds _ and music; so do we yet want that sense by which God must be clearly known. I stand and look upon a heap of ants and see them all, with one view, very busy to little purpose. They know not me, my being, nature, or thoughts, though Iam their fellow-creature; how little, then, must we know of the great Creator, though He with one view continually 64 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD beholds us all. Yet a knowledge we have, though imperfect, and such as must be done away. A glimpse the saints be- hold, though but in a glass, which makes us capable of some poor, general, dark apprehensions of what we shall behold in glory.— Baxter, 1615-16901. NO WAY TO COMPREHEND GOD What is man? It seems an easy thing to answer that question; yet I am not sure that, even at this day, we have any correct definition which, distinguishing him on the one hand from the angelic race, and on the other hand from the higher orders of inferior creatures, is at once brief and com- prehen ive. Now, if we have such difficulty in defining even ourselves, or those objects that being patent to the senses may be made the subject of searching and long experiment, is it wonderful that when we rise above his works to their maker, from things finite to things infinite, it should be found much easier to ask than to answer the question, What is God? The telescope by which we hold converse with the stars, the microscope which unveils the secrets of nature, the crucible of the chemist, the knife of the anatomist, the re- flective faculties of the philosopher, all the common instru- ments of science, avail not there. On the threshold of that impenetrable mystery a voice arrests our steps. From out the clouds and darkness that are round about God’s throne, the question comes, Who can by searching find out God, who can find out the Almighty to perfection :—Dr. Guthrie. WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND OURSELVES v How can man understand God, since he does not yet un- derstand his own mind, with which he endeavors to under- stand Him ?—John Ruskin. GOD NOT MYSTERIOUS BUT UNFATHOMABLE The infinity of God is not mysterious, it is only unfathom- able—not concealed, but incomprehensible. It is a clear in- INFINITE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE — 65 finity—the darkness of the pure, unsearchable sea—John Ruskin, ANGELS CANNOT COMPREHEND GOD The glorified saints and holy angels, who behold as much of His glory as creatures can bear, do not know Him as He is. They are filled with His power and love. He compre- hends them, but they cannot Him. A vessel cast into the sea can but receive according to its capacity. Thus are they filled with His fullness till they can hold no more; but His glory still remains infinite and boundless. The glorious seraphim, therefore, are represented as hiding their faces with their wings, unable to bear the splendor of His pres- ence—Newton, 1725-1807. FINITE CANNOT UNDERSTAND INFINITE It is indeed our unhappiness in this state of weakness and mortality that the most advanced in knowledge and im- proved in piety have yet but very lame and imperfect con- ceptions of the great God. And the reason of it is manifest ; because we are forced to understand that which is infinite, after a finite manner. For philosophy teaches, that “itell- gere est pati, et pati est recipere.” And one thing receives another, not according to the full latitude of the object, but according to the scanty model of its own capacity. Tf we let down a vessel into the sea, we shall bring up not what the sea can afford, but what the vessel can hold: and just so it is in our own understanding of God.—South. BEECHER ON GODS INCOMPREHENSIBILITY Our knowledge of God in the present state of things, with all that has been done to winnow the wheat from the chaff, is exceedingly incomplete and unsatisfying. Our knowledge of the divine nature is unlike the knowledge of the qualities of matter which may be discerned through the use of our senses. God cannot be learned by any process of observa- tion; nor can His kingdom be studied by scientific methods. 66 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD As is declared, “The kingdom of God cometh not with ob- servation.” A knowledge of the divine nature is not a thing to be demonstrated by scientific tests. It depends upon growth in us. We cannot understand in God anything of which we have not something in ourselves that stands for a suggestion, an analogue, and of which we have not had a parallel experience. How far can we understand God? As far as we ate developed in spiritual directions. How is it possible for us to come to any considerable understanding of God, who is, after all, to us but a Being somewhat greater than good beings whom we have known upon earth? How much can we convey of our nature and of our modes of gov- ernment to the intelligent creatures that are below us?—for there are creatures below us who understand many things. How much could we make the horse, the dog, or the ele- phant understand, either of our dispositions, or of the mo- tives from which we work, or of the structure and nature of our minds, or of the processes of society, or of the civil government which we are carrying on? You could not make them understand these things, because they have not the development, the faculty that makes the meaning plain to them. The beings below us cannot understand us because they are not sufficiently unfolded. And is it not so as between us and a superior Intelligence? There is not that in us which can understand God. Parts of His ways, and these the lower parts, we understand ; but the distance between us and the Eternal Father is greater than the distance between us and the more intelligent animals be- low us. | When we shall see Him as He is, not the first rude daubs of the incipient artist will seem so rude when the master- artist has found his skill, as our earliest conceptions of God will seem when, “in the ages to come,” we shall see Him as He is, no longer as through a glass darkly, no longer as the vision of our own imagination, no longer as the imper- fect work of our reason, but in all the amplitude and full- ness of the real Being, and when we are so developed that we are able to behold and still to live —Beecher. —— a INFINITE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE 67 GOD FAR GREATER THAN WE CONCEIVE In this world our knowedge is comparatively dim and un- satisfactory, but nevertheless is introductory to grander and more complete vision. This is eminently true in regard to our view of God. We hear so much about God that we conclude that we under- stand Him. He is represented as having the tenderness of a father, the firmness of a judge, the pomp of a king, and the love of a mother. We hear about Him, talk about Him, write about Him. We lisp His name in infancy, and it trembles on the tongue of the dying octogenarian. We think that we know very much about Him. Take the attribute of ‘mercy, Do we understand it? The Bible blossoms all over with that word mercy. It speaks again and again of the tender mercies of God; of the sure mercies; of the great mercies; of the mercy that endureth for ever; of the multi- tude of His mercies. And yet I know that the views we have of this great Being are most indefinite, one-sided, and incomplete. When at death, the gates shall fly open, and we shall look directly upon Him, how new and surprising! We see upon canvas a picture of the morning. We study the cloud in the sky, the dew upon the grass, and the husband- ‘man on the way to the field. Beautiful picture of the morn- ing! But we rise at daybreak, and go up on a hill, to see for ourselves that which was represented to us. While we look, the mountains are transfigured. The burnished gates of heaven swing open and shut, to let pass a host of fiery splen- dors. The clusters of purple cloud hang pendant from ar- bors of alabaster and amethyst. The waters make a path- _ way of inlaid pearl for the light to walk upon; and there is morning on the sea. The crags uncover their scarred visage, and there is morning among the mountains. Now you go home, and how tame your picture of the morning seems in contrast. Greater than that shall be the contrast between _ this Scriptural view of God and that which we shall have _ when standing face to face. This is the picture of the morn- ing: that will be the morning itself —Talmage. 68 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD OUR CONCEPTIONS OF GOD ARE PALTRY How mean and paltry are any words of ours to convey any idea of him who made this mighty world out of nothing, and with whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thou- sand years as one day! How weak and inadequate are our poor, feeble intellects to conceive of him who is perfect in all his works—perfect in the greatest as well as in the small- est; perfect in appointing the days and hours in which Ju- piter, with all its satellites, shall travel round the sun; per- fect in forming the smallest insect that creeps over a few feet of our little globe! How little can our busy helpless- ness comprehend a Being who is ever ordering all things in heaven and earth by universal Providence—ordering the rise and fall of nations and dynasties, like Nineveh and Car- thage; ordering the exact length to which men like Alexan- der, and Tamerlane, and Napoleon shall extend their con- quests, ordering the least step in the life of the humblest be- liever among his people, all at the same time, all unceasingly, all perfectly, all for his own glory! The blind man is no judge of the paintings of Rubens or Titian. The deaf man is insensible to the beauty of Handel’s music. The Green- lander can have but a faint notion of the climate of the tropics. The Australian savage can form but a remote con- ception of a locomotive engine, however well you may de- scribe it. There is no place in their minds to take in these things. They have no set of thoughts which can compre- hend them. They have no mental fingers which can grasp them. And just in the same way the best and brightest ideas that man can form of God, compared to the reality which we shall see one day, are weak and faint indeed.—Ryle. FATHOMLESS DEPTHS OF GOD “Canst thou by searching find out God?” There is an un- fathomable depth in all his decrees, in all his works; we can- - not comprehend the reason of his works, much less that of ‘his decrees, much less that in his nature; because his wis- dom, being infinite as well as his power, can no more act to (St a INFINITE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE _ 69 the highest pitch than his power. As his power is not ter- minated by what he hath wrought, but he could give further testimonies of it, so neither is his wisdom, but he could fur- nish us with infinite expressions and pieces of his skill. As in regard of his immensity he is not bounded by the limits of place; in regard of his eternity, not measured by the min- utes of time; in regard of his power, not terminated with this or that number of objects; so, in regard of his wisdom, he is not confined to this or that particular mode of work- ing; so that in regard of the reason of his actions as well as the glory and majesty of his nature, he dwells in unap- proachable light, I Tim. 6:16; and whatsoever we under- stand of his wisdom in creation and providence is infinitely less than what is in himself and his own unbounded nature. —Charnock. COULD UNDERSTAND HIS MOTHER'S GOD In 1853 Sir David Brewster was in Paris, and was taken to see the astronomer Arago, who was then in deep suffer- ing, and was soon to die. He thus describes the interview : “We conversed upon the marvels of creation, and the name of God was introduced. This led Arago to complain of the difficulties which his reason experienced in understanding God. ‘But,’ said I, ‘it is still more difficult not to compre- hend God. He did not deny it. ‘Only,’ added he, ‘in this case I abstain, for it is impossible for me to understand the God of you philosophers.’ ‘It is not with them we are deal- ing,’ replied I, ‘although I believe that true philosophy neces- sarily conducts us to belief in God: it is of the God of the Christian that I wish to speak.’ ‘Ah!’ he exclaimed, ‘he was the God of my mother, before whom she always experienced so much comfort in kneeling.’ ‘Doubtless, I answered. He said no more; his heart had spoken; this he had under- stood.’’—Foster. DISCOVERED HIS IGNORANCE OF GOD v Simonides, a heathen poet, being asked by Hiero, King of Syracuse, What is God? desired a day to think upon it. 70 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD ' At its end, he desired two. Thus he continued to double the number of days before he could give an answer. The king asked what he meant by this conduct. The poet replied, “The more I think of God, he is still the more unknown to me.’’—Foster. GOD'S GLORY COMPARED TO THE SUN Though the sun is the source and fountain of light, there is little good in gazing at the sun, except to get blinded. No one ever saw the better for looking the sun directly in the face. It is a child’s trick; grown-up people know better. We use the light which ine sun gives, to see by, and to search into all things,—the sun excepted. Him we cannot explore beyond what he reveals of himself in the light and heat which he sheds upon us, and in the colors by which he is reflected from the earth. There is no searching of the sun: our eyes are too weak. How much less can we search the sun’s Creator, before whom the myriads of suns are but as so many cloud-bodies!—J. Pulsford. ee Cee a a eae ey See ay) GOD UNCHANGEABLE, OR IMMUTABLE ty GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong con- solation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us——Heb. 6:17, 18. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.—Jas. 1:17, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.— Heb. 13:8. GOD'S STRENGTH NEVER FAILS “Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” We may depend upon Him, for His arm is never dried up, nor does His strength fail. ie There ts no wrinkle upon the brow of Eternity. God is where He was at first; He continues for ever a God of in- _ finite power, able to save those that trust in Him.—Manton, 1620-1667. MAN CHANGES, NOT GOD Famine, pestilence, revolution, war, are judgments of the Ruler of the World. What sort of a Ruler, we ask, is He? _ The answer to that question will determine the true sense of the term, a judgment of God. The heathen saw Him as a passionate, capricious, changeable Being, who could be angered and appeased by men. The Jewish prophets saw Him as a God whose ways were equal, who was unchange- - able, whose decrees were perpetual, who was not to be __ bought off by sacrifices but pleased by righteous dealing, and By a 72 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD who would remove the punishment when the causes which brought it on were taken away; in their own words, when | men repented God would repent. That does not mean that He changed His laws to relieve them of their suffering, but that they changed their relationship to His laws, so that, to them thus changed, God seemed to change. A boat rows Lapeer against the stream; the current punishes it. So is a nation — violating a law of God; it is subject to a judgment. The boat turns and goes with the,stream; the current assists it. So is a nation which has repented and put itself into har- mony with God’s law; it is subject to a blessing. But the current is the same; it has not changed, only the boat has changed its relationship to the current. Neither does God change—we change; and the same law which executed itself in punishment now expresses itself in reward.—Broche. GOD’S PROMISES ARE UNCHANGEABLE What encouragement could there be to lift up our eyes to God if He were of one mind this day and of another mind to-morrow? Who would put up a petition to an earthly prince if he were so mutable as to grant a petition one day and deny it another, and change his own act? But if a prince promise this or that thing upon such or such a con- dition, and you know his promise to be as unchangeable as the laws of the Medes and Persians, would any man reason thus? because it is unchangeable we will not seek to him, we will not perform the condition upon which the fruit of the proclamation is to be enjoyed. Who would not count such an inference ridiculous? What blessings hath not God promised upon the condition of seeking Him?—Charnock, 1628-1680. ALL THINGS CHANGE EXCEPT GOD All things change, creeds and philosophies, and outward systems—but God remains.—Mary A. Ward. OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD GOD IS ALMIGHTY But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible-—Matt. 19:26. _ . Ah, Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there 1s nothing too hard for thee.—Jer. 32:17. _ The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.—Rev. 19 :6. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us- ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power? i Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from _ the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly | -places——Eph. 1 :19, 20. _ Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.—Eph. 3 :20. GOD’S OMNIPOTENCE IN CREATION _ It is impossible for the mind which is not totally destitute of piety to behold the sublime, the awful, the amazing works of creation and providence—the heavens with their lumi- naries, the mountains, the ocean, the storm, the earthquake, _ the volcano, the circuit of the seasons, and the revolutions of ~~ empires—without marking in them all the mighty hand of _ God, and feeling strong emotions of reverence toward the _ Author of these stupendous works——Timothy Dwight. GOD AN OMNIPOTENT KING Oh, when His wisdom can mistake, His might decay, His love forsake, 73 4 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD Then may His children cease to sing,— “The Lord omnipotent is King!” —Conder. GOD ABLE TO SUPPLY EVERY NEED It is as easy for God to supply thy greatest as thy smallest wants, even as it was within His power to form a system or an atom, to create a blazing sun as to kindle the fire-fly’s lamp.—Thomas Guthrie. GOD AN OMNIPOTENT WORKMAN What an immense workman is God in miniature as well as in the great! With the one hand, perhaps, he is making a ring of one hundred thousand miles in diameter, to revolve round a planet like Saturn, and with the other is forming a tooth in the ray of the feather of a humming bird, or a point in the claw of the foot of a microscopic insect. When he works in miniature, everything is gilded, polished and perfect; but whatever is made by human art, as a needle, etc., when viewed by a microscope appears rough, and coarse, and bungling.—Bishop Law. OMNIPOTENCE SHOWN IN ALL GOD'S WORKS The same Being that fashioned the insect, whose existence is only discerned by a microscope, and gave that invisible speck a system of ducts and other organs to perform its vital functions, created the enormous mass of the planet thirteen hundred times larger than our earth, and launched it in its course round the sun, and the comet, wheeling with a velocity that would carry it round our globe in less than two minutes of time, and yet revolving through so prodi- gious a space that it takes near six centuries to encircle the sun!—Lord Brougham. RICHTER’S AWE-INSPIRING APOLOG An angel once caught up a man into infinite space, and moved with him from galaxy to galaxy, until the human = A ee Se eae ae OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD 15 - heart fainted, and called out, “End is there none of the uni- verse of God?” And the constellations answered, “End is there none that we ever heard of.” Again the angel flew on with the man past immeasurable architraves and immensity after immensity sown with the rushing worlds; and the _ human heart fainted again, and cried out, “End is there none of the universe of God?’ And the angel answered, “End is there none of the universe of God; Io! also is there no be- ginning !” OMNIPOTENT TRANQUILLITY IN GOD’S WORK The Divine work, because it is such work, is rest—tranquil in its energy, quiet in its intensity; because so mighty, there- fore so still—Selected. _ RESTING IN GOD'S OMNIPOTENCE There is nothing left to us but to see how we may be ap- - proved of Him, and how we may roll the weight of our weak souls in well-doing upon Him, who is God omnipotent.— Rutherford. GOD MORE POWERFUL THAN ALL ELSE * __ When Antigonus was ready to engage in a sea-fight with _Ptolemy’s armada, and the pilot cried out, “How many are _ they more than we?” the courageous king replied, “’Tis _ true, if you count their numbers, they surpass us; but for _ how many do you value me?” Our God is sufficient against all the combined forces of earth and hell—Spencer. ‘ i GOD'S POWER NOT LIKE KING CANUTE’S © _ King Canute, a Danish conqueror of Britain, was one day _ flattered by his courtiers on account of his power. Then he ordered his throne to be placed by the seaside. -The tide - was rolling in, and threatened to drown him. He com- _ manded the waves to stop. Of course, they did not. Then _ he said to his flatterers, “Behold, how small is the might of kings !’”—Foster. | 716 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 2 GOD’S ANSWER TO MAN’S DEFIANICE Chaplain McCabe tells that, in a Dakota town, a follower of Colonel Ingersoll said he would build a barn that “God Almighty couldn’t blow down.” So he erected a solid struc- ture entirely of stone; and then the first cyclone that came along doubled that barn about as a giant would a baby, not leaving one stone on another. Since then the man has been more modest in his asseverations——Rev. E. S. Lorenz. HAD FORGOTTEN GOD'S OMNIPOTENCE One of the early Christians was much perplexed over the passage which represents the earth as founded upon the waters. Then he thought upon the omnipotence of God, and said, “I forgot God when I said, How can this be?” Many doubts are silenced in the same way. The power of God makes the yielding waters firm as adamant, or the airy nothing, upon which he is said to hang the world, stronger than pillars of brass.—Foster. GOD'S POWER OVER THE UNIVERSE The power which gave existence is power which can know no limits. But to all beings, in heaven, and earth, and hell, he gave existence, and is therefore seen to possess pow- ers which transcend every bound. The power which up- holds, moves, and rules the universe is also clearly illimit- able. The power which is necessary to move a single world transcends all finite understanding. No definite number of finite beings possess sufficient power to move a single world a hair’s breadth; yet God moves the great world which we inhabit sixty-eight thousand miles in an hour; two hundred and sixty times faster than the swiftest motion of a cannon ball. Nor does he move this world only, but the whole sys- tem, of which it is a part; and all the worlds which replen- ish the immense stellary system, formed of suns innumer- able, and of the planets which surround them. All these he has also moved from the beginning to the present mo- ment; and yet “He fainteth not, neither is weary !”—Dr. Dwight. OMNISCIENCE OF GOD GOD KNOWS ALL THINGS Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.—Acts 15:18. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do— Heb. 4:13. _ The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.—Prov. 15:3. ) For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things—I John 3:20. ~ O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising, thou under- standest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. _ For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.—Psa. 139:1-4. GOD KNOWS BEST ™ By Marian N. Clark God knows best what is best for me. Why should I worry—or anxious be, Trying to fathom the course I take, Grasping at bubbles that fade,and break? One step is all I have need to see. God knows best what is best for me. God knows best what is best for me All through time and eternity. In my Father’s house is goodly store Of all I can ever need—and more. oe hate 78 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD With Him I rest, for I know that He Always gives what is best for me. —Sunday School Times. ALL KNOWLEDGE DERIVED FROM GOD What must be the knowledge of him, from whom all created minds have derived both their power of knowing, and the innumerable objects of their knowledge! What must be the wisdom of him, from whom all beings derive their wisdom; from whom the emmet, the bee, and the stork receive the skill to provide, without an error, their food, habitation, and safety; and the prophet and the seraph im- bibe their exalted views of the innumerable, vast, and sub- lime wonders of creation, and of creating glory and great- ness!—Dr. Dwight. GOD'S OMNISCIENCE SHOWN IN HIS WORKS He who cannot see the workings of a Divine wisdom in the order of the heavens, the change of the seasons, the flowing of the tides, the operations of the wind and other elements, the structure of the human body, the circulation of the blood through a variety of vessels wonderfully ar- ranged and conducted, the instinct of beasts, their tempers and dispositions, the growth of plants, and their many ef- fects for meat and medicine; he who cannot see all these and many other things as the evident contrivance of a Di- vine wisdom is sottishly blind, and unworthy the name of man.—William Jones of Nayland. GOD’S WISDOM INFINITE The wisdom of the Lord is infinite as are also His glory and His power. Ye heavens, sing His praises; sun, moon, and planets, glorify Him in your ineffable language! Praise Him, celestial harmonies, and all ye who can comprehend them! And thou, my soul, praise thy Creator! It is by Him and in Him that all exist—Kepler. .. =7-", ae Feit ee Pt a Pe Orns Lae I { ¥ 4 { rf i % OMNISCIENCE OF GOD ag TRUST THE WISDOM OF GOD He knoweth all; the end Is clear as the bestaning to His eye; Then wait in peace, secure though storms toll by, He knoweth all, O friend! —Sunday-School Times. GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING There is not a city, there is not a village, not a house, on _ which the eye of God is not fixed. He notices the actions, words and thoughts of every member of every family, in this and in every place. He observes every family in which no prayer is offered, and marks that as a house on which his blessing cannot rest. If they acknowledge not God, neither can God acknowledge them as his; for “them that honor me,” saith God, “I will honor; and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” He sees the knavery and dishonesty which are practiced in some houses, and which the inhabi- tants of the houses think to shut in with the walls which en- close them. He notices the vain and unprofitable conversa- _ tion of many who forget that for “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of — judgment ; _ indulged in privacy, by some who would blush to think that their imaginations were exposed to any human eye. He _ knows all the hypocrisy which sometimes lurks. under fair eee and the wicked thoughts and desires which are words and specious performances. He knows and observes all and forgets nothing. He records all in his book of re- membrance. Let the consideration that all things are naked and opened tnto the eyes of him with whom we have to do, have its proper influence upon us.—Preston. GOD’S KNOWLEDGE A CHECK TO SIN ” The omniscience of God is a great check to sin and mo- : tive to virtue. A heathen philosopher advised his pupils to _ Imagine that some distinguished character was always look- | ing at them, as the best aid to excellence of life-—Foster. 80 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD GOD’S KNOWLEDGE OF US PERFECT Let us ask ourselves seriously and honestly, “What do I believe after all? What manner of man am I after all? What sort of show would I make after all, if the people around me knew my heart and all my secret thoughts?’ What sort of show then do I already make in the sight of Almighty God, who sees every man exactly as he is?— Charles Kingsley. GOD MERCIFUL AS WELL AS OMNISCIENT Take comfort, and recollect however little you and I may know, God knows; He knows Himself and you and me and all things; and His mercy is over all His works.—Charles Kingsley. GOD'S WILL NOT ONLY GOOD, BUT BEST It is certain that this is not only good which the Al mighty has done, but that it is best; He hath reckoned all your steps to heaven.—Rutherford. “COD SEES BENEATH THE SURFACE There is a recent application of electricity by which, un- der the influence of its powerful light, the body can be illum- inated so that the workings beneath the surface of the skin can be seen. Lift up the hand, and it will appear almost — translucent, the bones and veins clearly appearing. It is so in some sort with God’s introspection of the human heart. His eye, which shines brighter than the sun, searches us and discovers all our weakness and infirmity.—Pilkington, THINK OFTEN OF GOD'S OMNISCIENCE We cannot too often think that there is a never sleeping eye that reads the heart, and registers aur thoughts—Bacon. —— a OMNISCIENCE OF GOD 81 GOD'S KNOWLEDGE INCLUDES EVERYTHING God nothing does nor suffers to be done But thou wouldst do thyself if thou couldst see. The end of all things here as well as He. —Selected. NO CLOUD ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE However dark our lot may be, there is light enough on the other side of the cloud, in that pure empyrean where God - dwells, to irradiate every darkness of this world; light enough to clear every difficult question, remove every ground of obscurity, conquer every atheistic suspicion, silence every hard judgment, light enough to satisfy, nay, to ravish the mind forever——Horace Bushnell. GOD’S EYE SEES EVERYTHING God looks to the bottom and spring of actions; not only the matter but the principle. A man that stands by a river in.a low place can only see that part of the river that passes by; but he that is aloof in the air, in a higher place, -may see the whole course, where it rises and how it runs. So God at one view sees the beginning, rise, and ending of actions; whatever we think, speak, or do, He sees it alto- - gether. He knows our thoughts before we can think them, “Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising; Thou understandest my thoughts afar off.’ Before we can con- clude anything, a gardener knows what roots are in the ground long before they appear, and what fruits they will -produce.—Manton, 1620-1667. GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE EXPLAINED God’s prescience, from all eternity, being but the seeing everything that ever exists as it is, contingents as contin- gents, necessary as necessary, can neither work any change in the object by thus seeing it, nor itself be deceived in _ what it sees Hammond, 1605-1666. 82 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD GOD’S FOREKNOWLEDGE DOES NOT INTERFERE WITH MAN’S FREE AGENCY “ Foreknowledge is not the cause of the things that are foreknown ; but because the thing is future and shall be, that is the reason why it is foreknown; for it doth not, because it was known, come to pass, but because it was to come to pass, therefore it was foreknown; and bare knowledge is no more the cause of any event, which because it is known must infallibly be, than my seeing a man run is the cause of his running, which, because I do see, is infallibly so— Tillotson, 1630-1694. NO SIN HIDDEN FROM GOD God’s omniscience should indeed make us ashamed to commit sin: but it should embolden us to confess it. We can tell our secrets to a friend that does not know them; how much more should we do it to Him that knows them already! God’s knowledge outruns our confessions, and anticipates what we have to say. As our Savior speaks concerning prayer, “Your heavenly Father knows what you have need of before you ask;” so I may say of confession, your heavenly Father knows what secret sins you have com- mitted before you confess. But still He commands this duty of us; and that not to know our sins, but to see our inge- nuity. Adam, when he hid himself, to the impiety of his sin, added the absurdity of a concealment. Our declaring of our sins to God, who knows them without being beholden to’ our relation; it is like opening a window to receive the light, which would shine in through it howsoever. Every man has a casement in his bosom, through which God looks in upon him every day. When a master sees his servant commit a fault in secret, and thereupon urges him to a confession, he does it not so much to know the fault as to try the man. Now there is no duty by which we give God the glory of His omniscience so much as by a free confession of our secret iniquities. Joshua says to Achan, ‘My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make con- fession unto Him.’’—South, 1633-1716. ee ee ee ee ee ~-nock. OMNISCIENCE OF GOD 83 LIVING IN SIGHT OF GOD Julius Drusus, a Roman tribune, had a house that in many places lay exposed to the view of the neighborhood. A per- son came and offered that for five talents he would so alter it that it should not be liable to that inconvenience. “I will _ give thee ten talents,” said Drusus, ‘Gf thou canst make my house conspicuous in every room of it, that so all the city may behold in what manner I lead my life.” It would be well for us to recollect that we are all thus continually ex- posed to the eye of God—Whitecross. DID NOT LIKE AN ALL-SEEING GOD Some of the natives of South America, after listening a while to the instructions of the Catholic missionaries, gave them this cool answer: “You say that the God of the Christians knows every thing, that nothing is hidden from | him, that he is everywhere, and sees all that is done below. Now, we do not desire a God so sharpsighted ; we choose to _ live with freedom in our woods, without having a perpetual observer of our actions over our heads.’’—Arvine. GOD THE SOURCE OF ALL WISDOM God is the fountain of all wisdom in the creatures, and therefore is infinitely wise in Himself. As He hath a full- ness of being in Himself, because the streams of being are i derived to other things from Him, so He hath a fullness of wisdom because He is the spring of wisdom to angels and men. That Being must be infinitely wise from whence all other wisdom derives its original; for nothing can be in the effect which is not eminently in the cause; the cause is al- ways more perfect than the effect. If, therefore, the crea- tures are wise, the Creator must be much more wise.—Char- GOD'S WISDOM NOT ALL REVEALED If the mind of God as discovered to us in His Word and works is so vast and deep, what must His mind be in all its undisclosed resources—in the infinity and eternity of its existence ?—John. Bate. us OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD GOD IS EVERYWHERE Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? if I ascend into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there; if I _ take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost - parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy \ right hand shall hold me.—Ps. 139:7-10. Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord.—Jer. 23 :24. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.—Prov. 15:3. Do not J fll heaven and earth? saith the Lord.—Jer. 23: 23,24. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded!—I Kings 8:27. That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.—Acts 17:27. COMFORT OF OMNIPRESEN CE “ Ever with Thee, Almighty Love, through all the weary night— A joy above all other joy, a light above all light; And all the day, where’er I stray, on path bestrewn with flowers, Or dight in winter’s drapery of snow, and sleet, and showers. Ever with Thee, Almighty Love! I lean upon the breast On which the universe of stars, with all their being, rest; 84 OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD 85 _ That cares for many a thousand worlds, yet ever cares for me, And guides my way, by night and day, where’er my wander- ings be. Ever with Thee, Almighty Love! Thy Son, the King of Kings, To me the message of Thy love, writ in His heart’s blood, brings ; And when the blasts that shake the base of earthly hopes o’ertake me, He gently whispers in my ear, “I never will forsake thee.” Ever with Thee, Almighty Love! When lying in the dust, ’ll gather all Thy Promises, and lean on them my trust; Then rise refreshed, and journey on, assured the end will be A home in heaven for evermore, Almighty Love, with Thee! —George Paulin. GOD’S POWER EVERYWHERE PRESENT God is everywhere present by His power. He rolls the orbs of heaven with His hand; He fixes the earth with His foot; He guides ail creatures with His eye, and refreshes them with His influence; He makes the powers of hell to shake with His terrors, and binds the devils with His word. : _—Jeremy Taylor. GOD’S GOODNESS AND MERCY EVERYWHERE There are regions beyond the most nebulous outskirts of matter; but no regions beyond the Divine goodness. We may conceive of tracts where there are no worlds, but not of any where there is no God of mercy.—J. W. Alexander. HEBREW IDEA OF GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE To the Hebrews, the external universe is just a black screen concealing God. All things are full of, yet all dis- 86 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD tinct from, him. The cloud on the mountain is his cover- ing; the muttering from the chambers of the thunder is his voice; that sound on the top of the mulberry-trees is his “going ;’” in that wind, which bends the forest or curls the clouds, he is walking; that sun is his still commanding eye. Whither can they go from his spirit? whither can they flee from his presence? At every step and in every circum- stance, they feel themselves God-enclosed, God-filled, God- breathing men, with a spiritual presence lowering or smil- ing on them from the sky, sounding in wild tempest, or creeping in panic stillness across the surface of the earth; and, if they turn within, lo! it is there also,—an “eye” hung in the central darkness of their own hearts. Hence the Muse of the Hebrew bard is not Dame Memory, nor any of her siren daughters, but the almighty, all-pervading Spirit himself, who is at once the subject, the auditor, and the in- spirer, of the song.—Gilfillan. | GOD AN EVER-PRESENT FRIEND It is impossible to conceive of any thought more appalling than this would be, did this unseen and ever-present Being regard us with unfriendly feelings. . . . And it is difficult to conceive of.all the agony which would accrue to us from the consciousness that an enemy, unseen by us, attended all our steps; that his eye was upon us by night and by day; that in solitude or in the crowd—in our places of business—at home or in the street, he never left us. His invisibility would render us unable to defend ourselves from his assaults, were we otherwise capable of doing so; and leaving us ignorant of his intentions and movements, would keep us in a state of torturing suspense, ever fear- ing, and not knowing how soon he might gratify his en- mity by involving us in ruin. And did we know, more- over, that, owing to his great power, we were completely at his mercy, and that his will would suffice to inflict upon us the most excruciating tortures—oh! then the thought would be so fraught with horror as to occasion a very hell on earth—a hell from which even the bottomless oS Spates a ecee: - OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD 87 abyss, or the blackness of darkness, would prove a welcome refuge ; nor would it be surprising if some, by a suicidal act, attempted to obtain relief from the intolerable thought. And what cause for gratitude have we that a thought which might be so fraught with horror may prove to all of us the source of unfailing consolation! The character of God is such that the man is sadly wrong who derives no comfort from the consciousness of His presence.—Landels. GOD'S PRESENCE LIKE THE AIR As birds, wheresoever they fly, always meet with the air; so we, wheresoever we go, or wherever we are, always find God present.—Sales. WHY GOD'S PRESENCE IS NOT MORE MANIFEST What can be so awful as to know that there is never any moment at which what we do is not entirely naked and ex- posed to the sight of God, just as surely as though we were in the noon-day light, before an assembled universe? Those who, upon occasions of ceremony, are in the presence of an earthly monarch, have an incessant feeling of constraint, an oppressive sense that certain forms of respectful eti- quette must every moment be kept up. How infinitely would the feeling of constraint, the sense of subjection to another’s will, be increased, if we could realize in a similar degree the tremendous presence of the King of Kings, who is, in truth, never absent from us for a single instant, who not only sees everything which we do, but even reads the most secret thoughts and desires of our hearts! The marvel is, that we can live on in the enjoyment of the pleasures of life, and in the pursuit of our lusts and appetites, just as though no God existed. This, melancholy as are some of its results, I take to be one of the most remarkable of the many proofs which are to be found of the wisdom and mercy of our Creator. We are able to appreciate the continual pres- ence of God as a pure act of abstract reason, just as we are _ able to know that space must be infinite, and that there must 88 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD be a never-ending eternity; but we cannot realize any of these truths as hard, tangible facts, in the same way that we realize, by their contact with our senses, the existence of the material objects of the world around us—the trees and rivers we admire, the food we eat, the friends we love. That we cannot in this substantial, matter-of-fact way, feel the continual presence of God, is, I say, a merciful and lov- ing provision of our Maker. For it is clear that if we could do so, our whole moral nature would be, as it were, turned upside down. To begin with, we should cease to be free moral agents, As it is impossible that a man, trembling on the edge of a precipice or threatened with instant death by shipwreck, could indulge in any besetting sin, so it would be equally impossible that he could do so when oppressed with the conscious presence of that awful Being who can at a breath consign him to any fate. But all pleasure would cease too. The foundation of all our enjoyment consists in the absence of restraint, and the consciousness of power and freedom to do and think according to the desire of the passing moment. A man may have his pride gratified by being admitted to a ceremonial interview with his sovereign upon some state occasion; but it is with a sense of relief that he escapes from the kingly presence, and gets back to the free atmosphere of everyday existence. There could be no enjoyment of life were we under the restraint which would be necessarily incidental to our being imbued with a contin- ual consciousness of the presence of the Almighty Maker of all things. God is therefore like an august and wise monarch, who does not often burden His subjects by calling them into His presence, or, if He does so, dispenses with His scepter and his robes, and meets them genially with condescending friendship. By the wise and holy man the presence of his Almighty King is always felt and known, even when it is not actually perceived. He ever remembers that the Monarch 1s in His palace to rule and govern and direct, even when there is no outward pageant, no noisy manifestation of external power. Thus the presence of God becomes a settled and abiding thing, but rather as a sweet and soothing influence than a hard, tangible fact. On the other hand, the ungodly OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD 89 man can for a time, so to speak, cast out God’s presence. He strives to forget it altogether, and for the most part he is successful. He goes on in his own sinful, selfish way, liv- ing outside God’s presence, until the day arrives when that presence can no longer be evaded, and it comes with all the terrors of eternal judgment. God has left abundant witness to His existence in the infinite wisdom and goodness which we see manifested everywhere throughout the world. But in this life His presence coerces no man. We can live with or without God, as we choose.—Hooper. OMNIPRESENCE TRANSCENDS HUMAN THOUGHT God is behind all space. What a solemn mystery there is in this idea of space! Modern science has added to the benefits which it has conferred upon us, this also, that it has enlarged our conceptions of space. How much more worth- ily we are enabled to think of the universe and empire of God than those could have done, who regarded the firma- ment as a solid shell of the earth, star-gemmed, fixed a few miles above it, and revolving around it for the purpose of al- ternating day and night! One of the most conspicuous re- spects in which astronomy has proved herself the handmaid of devotion, has been by revealing to us in part the scale on which the universe is built. What heights and depths of space the telescopes of Rosse and Herschel have enabled us to penetrate! What awe seizes upon the soul, as viewed through their powerful lenses the faint nebule resolve them- selves into clusters of shining worlds, and through the _ spaces between these worlds, across immeasurable and in- conceivable distances, other nebule burst upon the aston- ished vision! as all these countless suns and systems are de- tected to be revolving around the brightest of the Pleiades! Is that to us faint star the center of the universe? Is it there that God sits enthroned? Is that the one stable and unmoving orb? Or is that moving too, carrying the innum- erable suns and worlds that are linked on to it around some _ vaster center? Where is the center of the universe? Where - is its circumference? How far must we travel before we 90 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD reach a margin beyond which space does not extend? Is there such a margin? But though we had reached the last world that revolves around the great unknown center, we should not have come.upon a tenantless void; we should still be in the presence of God, in the hollow of whose hand all worlds and suns and systems lie. “Whither, O Lord, shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy pres- ence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.”—R. A. Bertram. A SKEPTIC’S OBJECTIONS ANSWERED A certain man went to a dervis, and proposed three ques- tions: “First, Why do they say that God is omnipresent? I do not see him in any place: show me where he is.- Sec- ondly, Why is man punished for his crimes, since whatever: he does proceeds from God? Man has no free will, for he cannot do anything contrary to the will of God; and, if he had power, he would do everything for his own good. Thirdly, How can God punish Satan in hell-fire, since he is formed of that element? and what impression can fire make on itself?” The dervis took up a large clod of earth, and struck him on the head with it. The man went to the cadi, and said, “I proposed three gestions to a dervis, who flung such a clod of earth at me as has made my head ache.” The cadi, having sent for the dervis, asked, “Why did you throw a clod of earth at his head, instead of answering his ques- tions?” The dervis replied, “The clod of earth was an an- swer to his speech. He says he has a pain in his head: let him show me the pain, and I will make God visible to him. And why does he exhibit a complaint to you against me? Whatever I did was the act of God. I did not strike him without the will of God, and what power do I possess? And, as he is compounded of earth, how can he suffer pain from that element?” The man was confounded, and the cadi highly pleased, with the dervis’s answer.—J. H. Vincent. 7 ‘e ‘ri Sine In pps RE TTR SS Se le ee OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD 91 GOD’S OMNIPRESENCE SYMBOLIZED Among the Jews, the wave-offering was waved horizon- tally to the four points, and the heave-offering heaved up and down, to signify that he was Lord of heaven and earth. —Bowes. WHERE IS GOD NOT? A heathern philosopher once asked a Christian, “Where is God?” The Christian answered, “Let me first ask you, Where is he not ?’—Arrowsmith. GOD FILLS HEAVEN AND EARTH A little boy being asked, “How many gods are there Pree plied, “One.” —“How do you know that 2?”—‘‘Because,” said the boy, “there is only room for one; for he fills heaven and earth.”—Foster. WHERE GOD IS A teacher asked, “Where is God?” One boy replied, in heaven;” another, “Everywhere,” and another, “God 1s here.” —Foster. GODS PRESENCE A MORAL RESTRAINT Would men speak so vainly if they considered God over- heard them? Latimer took heed to every word in his exam- ination when he heard the pen go behind the hangings: so, what care would persons have of their words if they re- -- membered God heard and the pen is going in heaven?— Watson, 1600. GOD IS NOWHERE- “God is nowhere,” was the fool’s motto which an infidel lawyer nailed up in his office. One day his little daughter spelled out the words, but made a mistake in dividing the letters, “God-is-now-here.’’ Her father corrected her, but she soon read it wrong again. The trifling circumstance im- 92 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD pressed the man so much that he finally abandoned his in- , fidelity, and became a worshiper of the ever-present God.— Rev. E. 5. Lorenz. 2 MACLONALD A PART OF GOD'S ALLNESS_ Thou art the only One, the All in all; Yet when my soul on Thee doth call And Thou dost answer out of everywhere, I in Thy allness have my perfect share. JOY IN GOD'S PRESENCE I believe that into the weakest, saddest heart that opens to receive this Divine Guest, the Father and the Son will come and abide; and the exalted joy that abiding brings what words can express! The Divine dwelling in the human, the Infinite in the finite, how marvelous! how glorious! This must be the real foretaste of heavenly joy—the truest heaven we can know on earth.—A. H. K. WHY MEN LOVE LOCAL GODS When spiders stretched their webs across the eyelids of Jupiter, notwithstanding all the efforts that Greek sculpture had put forth to make the image awful, the human wor- shiper would hide, without scruple, in his heart, the thoughts which he did not wish his deity to know. It was even an express tenet of the heathen superstitions that the authority of the gods was partial and local. One who was dreadful on the hills might be safely despised in the valleys. In this feature, as in all others, the popish idolatry, imita- tive rather than inventive, follows the rut in which the ancient current ran. A god or a saint that should really cast the glance of a pure eye into the conscience of the worshiper would not long be held in repute. The grass would grow again round that idol’s shrine. A seeing god would not do: the idolater wants a blind god. The first cause of idolatry is a desire in an impure heart to escape RSS, = a _— eer . Po SSH he ae sa = EAs ne > i Te eee OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD 93 from.the look of the living God, and none but a dead image . would serve the turn——Arnot. LIFE A VISION OF GOD’S PRESENICE Life should be a constant vision of God’s presence. Here is our defense against being led away by the gauds and shows of earth’s vulgar attractions—Alexander Maclaren. WHY GOD'S PRESENCE IS NOT ALWAYS MANIFEST I know that as night and shadows are good for flowers, and moonlight and dews are better than a continual sun, so is Christ’s absence of special use, and that it hath some nourishing virtue in it, and giveth sap to humility, and putteth an edge on hunger, and furnisheth a fair field for faith to put forth itself—Rutherford. NEED OF GOD’S PRESENCE ?” I need Thy presence every passing hour; What, but Thy grace, can foil the tempter’s power? Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, oh, abide with me! —H., F. Lyte. CALMNESS IN GOD'S PRESENCE A consistent Christian may not have rapture; he has that which is much better than rapture—calmness—God’s serene and perpetual presence——F’. W. Robertson. THE INDWELLING OF GoD We may search long to find where God is, but we shall find Him in those who keep the words of Christ. For the Lord Christ saith, “If any: man love me, he will keep my words; and we will make our abode with him.”’—Martin Luther. SPAR THE SOUL DEAD WITHOUT GOD As the soul is the life of the body, so God is the life of the soul. As therefore the body perishes when the soul 94 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD leaves it, so the soul dies when God departs from it.—St. Augustine. | INSPIRATION OF GOD’S PRESEN'CE Do we vividly feel that He is near us as our everlasting Friend, to guide, cheer, and bless our aspirations and our efforts? And in this confidence do we watch, pray, strive, press forward, and seek resolutely for ourselves and fel- low-beings the highest end of existence, even the perfection of our immortal souls?—W. E. Channing. GOD LIKE THE GREAT OCEAN The never-ceasing boom of the great ocean, as it breaks on the beach, drowns all smaller sounds——Alexander Maclaren. ENJOYING THE PRESENCE OF GOD He who knows what it is to enjoy God will dread His loss; he who has seen His face will fear to see His back.— Richard Alleine. REST FOUND IN GOD'S PRESENCE The presence of God calms the soul, and gives it quiet and repose.—Fenelon. NO PLACE WHERE GOD IS NOT A little child six years of age, being introduced into company, was asked by a clergyman where God was, with the offer of an orange. “Tell me,” replied the boy, “where He is not, and I will give you two.” GOD ON THE OCEAN AS ON: THE LAND Isn’t God upon the ocean Just the same as on the land? —James T. Field, in the Tempest. tie iti SA ig at aA IE FRE ~ SSS UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF IN GOD ARCHBISHOP RYAN ON THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS I was witness to a remarkable scene. . . . I saw, in their various religious costumes, representatives of all religions on earth. . . . The cardinal opened the congress with pray- er. It was at once a prayer and a profession of faith—a universal faith in God. Not a man of all those various religions of the whole world, of every tribe and tongue and people, who did not cry out to God with him: “Our Father _ who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Not a man who did not feel his dependence on God’s providence for his daily food, hence all prayed as with one voice: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Not a man who had ‘not sinned and been sinned against, and hence the chorus: _ “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us.” Not a man who did not feel that while he lived he was in danger of sin and its consequent punishment, and _ hence the closing petition: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”’—Address on Agnosticism and its Causes, in Academy of Music, Philadelphia, December | 12, 1894. H. M. FIELD AT THE RELIGIOUS PARLIAMENT It has been my fortune to travel in many lands, and I _ have not been in any part of the world so dark but that I have found some rays of light, some proofs that the God who is our Father has been there, and that the temples which are reared in many religions resound with sincere worship to Him. I have found that “God has not left Himself without witness” in any of the dark climes or _ religions of this world. 95 96 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD POPE’S UNIVERSAL PRAYER Father of all, in every age, In every clime adored By saint, by savage, and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord; Thou First Great Cause, least understood, Who all my sense confined To know but this: that Thou art good, And I, myself, am blind, etc. GOD’S SIGNATURE ON ALL HEARTS God has stamped His indelible signature upon all human hearts, which no degradation can efface.... It would seem that every human soul is more or less “aflame with God.” As these truths come to us they are therefore com- mon property, “floating ideas,” “elder truths,’ in Adam’s heart and in all men’s hearts; handed on from hand to hand through migrations, explorations and otherwise; unifying us with all past saints and sages, and with God; most likely they are the voice of God resounding through the ages.— Townsend, in “The God Man.” ‘ ALL PEOPLE ACKNOWLEDGED GOD Kircher lays it down as a certain principle, that there never was any people so rude which did not acknowledge and worship one supreme Deity.—Stillingfleet. CICERO’S TESTIMONY There is no people so wild and savage as not to have be- | lieved in a God, though they have been unacquainted with His nature.—Cicero. ALL NATIONS BELIEVED IN GOD Amid all the war and contest and variety of human opinion, you will find one consenting conviction in every UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF IN GOD 97 land, that there is one God, the king and father of all— Maximus Tyrius. SOURCES OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD But what has been often urged as a consideration of much more weight, is not only the opinion of the better sort, but the general consent of mankind to this great truth; which I think could not possibly have come to pass, but from one of the three following reasons: either that the idea of a God is innate and co-existent with the mind itself; or that this truth is so very obvious that it is discovered by the first exertion of reason in persons of the most ordinary capacities; or, lastly, that it has been delivered down to us _ through all ages by a tradition from the first man. The atheists are equally confounded to whichever of these three causes we assign it.—Budgell, 1685-1736. NO GODLESS NATION We have found, down to the present day, in all nations, even the most degraded, some conception or other of a a Higher Being... . It has been said, not without reason, that atheism never really existed as a full conviction in any human breast. ... That any one should consciously and conscientiously make this idle notion his permanent convic- tion, and that he should not venerate aught as the Divine Power, this is difficult to believe—Christlieb, in Modern Doubt and Christian Belief, p. 140, ff. NO PEOPLE WITHOUT GOD No people is without a consciousness of God. The negroes of Africa, the wild Indians of America, have all been ac- quainted with a higher Being. Nations and tribes are capable of sinking to almost animal savageness and stu- pidity; but this is a degenerate, not a natural condition; and even then the notion of a God is not entirely obliter- ated.—Luthardt, in Fundamental Truths, p. 41. 98 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD UNIVERSAL BELIEF IN GOD INTUITIVE The universality of the idea (of the existence of God) evidently cannot be satisfactorily refuted; and if it is estab- lished, it proves that it is intuitive, and its intuitiveness proves that it is the counterpart of reality; just as the reflection of a face in the water is a sufficient evidence that the face is not an illusion—Lorimer, in Isms, p. 46. NO TOWN WITHOUT A TEMPLE,“ Traversing the world, you may find towns without walls, | without letters, without kings, without coin, without schools, without theaters; but a town without a temple of prayer, no one ever saw.—Plutarch. BELIEF IN GOD COMMON TO MANKIND I firmly believe that God exists, and that He has made a revelation to mankind. . . . The different divisions of man- kind may differ in regard to some of the attributes of the Deity, . . . but common to them all is a belief in God as the Supreme Being, who is self-existing and eternal, by whose will all things and all other beings were created.—George Ticknor Curtis, Creation or Evolution, Pref., p. ix., and p. 5. NATURE'S LAWS ALONE GAIN UNIVERSAL CONSENT In everything the consent of all nations is to be accounted the law of nature, and to resist it is to resist the voice of God.—Cicero. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD INNATE Among the numerous and diversified tribes that are scat- tered over the different regions of the earth, that agree in scarcely any other sentiment or article of religious belief, we find the most perfect harmony in their recognition of a Supreme Intelligence, and in their belief that the soul sur- vives the dissolution of its mortal frame.—Dick. UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF IN GOD 99 BELIEF IN GOD A UNIVERSAL CREED How do we know God? There is an innate knowledge of Him. We are so made as to feel Him, as it were. It is one of the intuitions or first truths of the mind. This knowledge is universal, as proved by history, observation, and Scripture. Conscience works in some way everywhere. Men have everywhere a sense of dependence on some higher Being, and of responsibility to Him—Dr. John Hall, in Questions of the Day, p. 77. PRIMEVAL BELIEF IN GOD With regard to three primeval ideas, there is observable similarity among all ages and all nations. They have all - conceived of One Supreme Being who created and sustains all things; they have all believed that man has within his body a soul which shares the immortality of the Eternal Source of Being whence it was derived; and a natural sense of justice, the basis of all other laws, early dawned upon all human minds—Lydia Maria Child, Aspirations of the World, Introduction. MAN TENDS TOWARD GOD From Thee, great God! we spring, to Thee we tend, Path, motive, guide, original, and end, —Samuel Johnson. ALL MANKIND SOUGHT GOD Ideas of how or where the Divine Being exists were vague, and so they remain unto the present day. All people on earth from the beginning of time have been “feeling after God, if haply they might find him,” and still we are obliged to ask, as Job did many centuries ago, “Canst thou by searching find out God?’—L. M. Child. 100 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD » GOD SPEAKS TO ALL MANKIND wy The day of national religions is past. The God of the universe speaks to all mankind. He is not the God of Israel alone. . . . God’s revelation is continuous, not con- fined to tables of stone or sacred parchment. He speaks to-day to those that would hear Him.—Rabbi Hirsch, at the Religious Parliament. GOD COMMANDS MOST FIDELITY If we look closely at this world, where God seems so utterly forgotten, we shall find that it is he, who, after all, commands the most fidelity and the most love-—Mad. Swet- chine. MAN’S REVERENCE FOR GOD - What is there in man so worthy of honor and reverence as this, that he is capable of contemplating something higher than his own reason, more sublime than the whole universe —that Spirit which alone is self-subsistent, from which all truth proceeds, without which is no truth ?—Jacobi. MAN’S SOUL SIGHS FOR GOD An old mystic says somewhere, “God is an unutterable sigh in the innermost depths of the soul.” With still greater justice, we may reverse the proposition, and say the soul is a never ending sigh after God—Christlieb. . CHINESE ORIGINALLY MONOTHEISTS Five thousand years ago the Chinese were monotheists. ... The original monotheism ... remains in the state worship of to-day. ... The fathers of the nation... figured the visible heaven as the one thing illimitable. Then there arose the idea of God . . . symbolized by the figure of this visible sky. Their name for this idea of God, conceived of as a personal being, was Ti. ... The od UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF IN GOD 101. emperor, representing all the millions of his subjects, gives in it (the service of incense) solemn expression of their obligations to God, and of their purpose (the purpose of himself and his royal line) to rule so as to secure the ob- jects intended by him in the institution of government. Such is my idea of the highest acts of worship in the re- ligion of China.—James Legge. THE HEAVEN-FATHER OF THREE NATIONS ° We have in the Veda the invocations Dyas-pitar, the Greek Zeuspater, the Latin Jupiter; and that means in all three languages what it meant before these three languages were torn asunder,—it means the Heaven-Father—Max Mueller. ALL AFRICAN TRIBES BELIEVE IN A SUPREME GOD » Dr. Livingstone says that all the newly discovered tribes in the interior of Africa “have clear ideas of the Supreme God. There is no necessity for telling the most degraded of the people of the existence of God, or of a future state, for these facts are universally admitted.”—L. T. Townsend, ' The God-Man, p. 87. ESQUIMAUX BELIEF IN THE GREAT SPIRIT Sir John Franklin, in his account of his second visit to the Polar seas, gives the following as the ideas of the elderly Esquimaux concerning God: ‘“‘ “We believe that there is a Great Spirit, who created everything, both us and the world for our use. We suppose that he dwells in the land from whence the white people come, that he is kind to the in- habitants of those lands, and that there are people who never die; the winds that blow from that quarter (the south) are always warm. He does not know of the wicked state of our country, nor the pitiful condition in which we are.’ To the question, ‘Whom do your medicine-men ad- dress when they conjure?” they answered, “We do not 102 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD -think they speak to the master of life; for if they did, we should fare better than we do, and should not die. He does not inhabit our lands.’ ’—Foster. BELIEF IN THE GREAT GOD IN INDIA One day when Mr. Richards, missionary in India, was conversing with the natives, a fakir came up, and put into his hand a small stone, about the size of a sixpence, with the impression of two human likenesses scultpured on the surface: he also proffered ‘a few grains of rice, and said, “This is Mahadeo!” Mr. Richards said, “Do you know the meaning of ‘Mahadeo’?”. The fakir replied, “No.” Mr. Richards proceeded, “‘‘Mahadeo’ means the great God,— he who is God of gods, and besides whom there can be no other. Now, this great God is a spirit. No one can see a spirit, who is intangible. Whence, then, this visible im- pression on a senseless, hard, immovable stone? To whom will ye liken God? or what likness will ye compare unto him? God is the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. He hath said, I am Jehovah: there is no God beside me!” The poor fakir was serious, re- spectful, and attentive, continually exclaiming, ‘““Your words are true.’’—Foster. ANCIENT EGYPT BELIEVED IN ONE GOD Myer’s Ancient History, which is the standard in many thousands of schools in America, says, concerning the re- ligion of ancient Egypt; “The unity of God was the central doctrine of the system. The Egyptians gave to the Supreme Being the very same name by which he was known to the Hebrews—Nuk Pu Nuk, ‘I am that I am.’ ”~ p..r.0nv ARCH ZOLOGY AND THE ONE GOD No doubt, archeology will yet discover ancient inscrip- tions and documents enough to show that belief in the one true God was once universal. It still survives amidst UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF IN GOD 103 the polytheism and idolatry into which heathen nations have drifted in their ignorance and darkness. The Jehovah- \ Father of the Hebrews, the Jove-Father of the Greeks, and the Joa-Pater, or Jupiter, of the Romans, were one and the same Jehovah.—J. Gilchrist Lawson. PERSIANS WORSHIPED THE SUPREME GOD A Jew entered a Persian temple, and saw there the sacred fire. He said to the priest, “How, do you worship fire?’— “Not the fire: it is to us an emblem of the sun and of his animating light,” said the priest. Then asked the Jew, “Do you adore the sun as a deity? Do you not know that he also is a creature of the Almighty?” The priest answered, that the sun was to them only an emblem of the invisible light which preserves all things. The Israelite continued, “Does your nation distinguish the image from/ the original? They call the sun their god, and kneel before the earthly flame. You dazzle the eye of the body, but darken that of the mind; in presenting to them the terrestrial light, you take from them the celestial.’ The Persian asked, “How do you name the Supreme Being?’—“We call him Jehovah Ado- nai; that is, the Lord who was, who is, and shall be.”— “Your word is great and glorious; but it is terrible,” said the Persian. A Christian approaching said, “We call him Abba Father.” Then the Gentile and the Jew regarded each other with surprise, and said, “Your word is the near- est and the highest; but who gives you courage to call the Eternal thus?”—“The Father himself,’ said the Christian, who then expounded to them the plan of redemption. Then they believed, and lifted up their eyes to heaven, saying, “Father, dear Father;’ and joined hands, and called each other brethren—Krummacher. GOD'S NAME ON ANCIENT TEMPLE -* Once on a time the savans were sorely puzzled by certain irregular holes on the front of an ancient temple. One more sagacious.than the rest suggested that these indenta- 104 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD tions might be the marks of nails used to fasten Greek characters to the stone. Lines were drawn from one point to the next, when they were found to form letters, and ’ the name of the Deity unexpectedly stood disclosed.— Baxendale. EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHER'S BELIEF Alexander the Great went to hear Psammo, an Egyptian philosopher; and the saying of his that pleased him most was, that all men are governed by God, for in everything that which rules or governs is divine. But Alexander’s own maxim was more agreeable to sound philosophy; he said, “God is the cammon Father of men, but more par- ticularly of the good and the virtuous.”—Plutarch. ANCIENT NAMES FOR GOD When Alexander, the son of Philip, was at Babylon, he sent for a priest from every country and nation which he had vanquished, and assembled them together in his palace. Then he sat down on his throne, and asked them, saying, “Tell me, do you acknowledge and worship a supreme in- visible Being?” Then all the priests bowed their heads, and answered, “Yea, O king!” And the king asked again, “By what name do you call this Being?” Then the priest from India answered, ‘We call it Brahma, which signifieth the Great.” The priest from Persia said, “We call it Ormus; that is, the Light.” The priest from Judza said, “We call it Jehovah Adonai, the Lord which is, which was, and is to come.” Thus each priest had a peculiar word and particular name by which he designated the Supreme Being. Then the king was wroth in his heart, and said, “You have only one Lord and King, henceforth, you shall have only one God, Zeus is his name.’ Then the priests were grieved at the saying of the king, and spake, “Our people always called him by the name we have proclaimed, from their youth up: how, then, may we change it?” But the king was yet more wroth. Then an old sage stood forth, a Brahmin, who had accompanied him to Babylon, and said, UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF IN GOD 105 “Will it please my lord the king, that I speak unto this assembly?” Then he turned to the priests, and said, “Doth not the celestial daystar, the source of earthly light, shine upon every one of you?” Then all the priests bowed their heads, and answered, “Yea!” Then the Brahmin asked them, one by one, “How do you call it?” And each priest told him a different word and a peculiar name, according to his own country and nation. Then the Brahmin said to the king, “Shall they not henceforth call the daystar by one name? Helios is his name.’ At these words, the king was ashamed, and said, ‘Let them each use their own word; for I perceive that the name and the image constitute not the being.” —Krummacher. A GREENLANDER’S IDEA OF GOD A converted Greenlander said, “It is true, we were ignorant heathens, and knew nothing of God or a Saviour; and, indeed, who should tell us of him till you came? but thou must not imagine that no Greenlander thinks about these things. I myself have often thought a boat, with all its tackle and implements, does not grow into existence of itself, but must be made by the labor and ingenuity of man; and one that does not understand it would directly spoil it. Now the meanest bird has far more skill displayed in its structure than the best boat; and no man can make a bird. But there is still a far greater art shown in the formation of a man than of any other creature. Who was it that made him? I bethought me that he proceeded from his parents, and they from their parents; but some must have been the first parents; whence did they come? Common report informs me they grew out of the earth; but if so, why does it not still happen that men grow out of the earth? And from whence did this same earth itself, the sea, the sun, the moon, the stars, arise into existence? Certainly there must be some being who made all these things; a being that always was, and can never cease to be. He must be inexpressibly more mighty, knowing, and wise than the wisest man. He must be very good, too; because every- 106 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD thing that he has made is good, useful, and necessary for us.’ —Foster. THE STOICS BELIEVED IN GOD The Stoics also teach that God is unity, and that He is called Mind and Fate and Jupiter, and by many other names besides.—Diogenes Lertius, 200 A. D. ONE DEGRADED TRIBE FORGETTING GOD An intelligent traveler in South Africa states that among the more degraded tribes he found one where no word was known in the language for a “Supreme Being.” There was a word remembered but dimly by here and there an old man—one or two in a thousand—but entirely lost to the mass of the people, signifying, “Him that is above.’ By gradual steps the very name of the Supreme had faded out, after the vanishing faith in Him, from the savage soul Huntington. | ANCIENT SYMBOLS OF GOD One of the most ancient hieroglyphic representations of God was the figure of an eye upon a scepter, to denote that God sees and rules all things. The Egyptian hieroglyphic was a winged globe and a serpent coming out of it; the globe to signify God’s eternity, the wings His active power, and the serpent His wisdom. The Thracian emblem was a sun with three beams; one shining upon a sea of ice and melting it; another upon a rock, and melting it; and a third upon a dead man, and putting life into him.—Bowes, LITERARY MEN’S BELIEF IN GOD EDUCATION INCOMPLETE WITHOUT GOD All intelligent thinkers upon the subject now utterly dis- card and repudiate the idea that reading and writing, with a knowledge of accounts, constitute education. The lowest claim which any intelligent man now prefers in its behalf is, that its domain extends over the threefold nature of man; over his body, training it by the systematic and intelligent observance of those benign laws which secure health, im- part strength and prolong life; over his intellect, invigorat- ing the mind, replenishing it with knowledge, and culti- vating all those tastes which are allied to virtue; and over his moral and religious susceptibilities, also, dethroning self- ishness, enthroning conscience, leading the affections out- wardly in good will toward man, and upward in gratitude and reverence to God.—Horace Mann. LIFE NOTHING WITHOUT GOD There is need, bitter need, to bring back into men’s minds that to live is nothing, unless to live, be to know. Him by whom we live—J. Ruskin. HISTORY PROCLAIMS “GOD REIGNS” At the foot of every page in the annals of nations may be written, “God reigns.” Events as they pass away pro- claim their original; and if you will but listen reverently, you may hear the receding centuries, as they roll into the dim. distances of departed time, perpetually chanting “Te Deum Laudamus,” with all the choral voices of the count- less congregations of the ages.—Bancroft. 107 108 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD SHAKESPEARE’S GRATITUDE TO GOD God’s goodness hath been great to thee. Let never day nor night unhallow’d pass, But still remember what the Lord hath done. —William Shakespeare. CREATION PROCLAIMS A GOD The Supreme Being has made the best argument for kis own existence in the formation of the heavens and the earth, and which a man of sense cannot forbear attending to who is out of the noise of human affairs——Addison. PLUTARCH’S FAITH IN GOD It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an one as is unworthy of Him; for the one is only unbelief —the other is contempt.— Plutarch. KINGSLEY’S FAITH IN GOD Tell me not, O infidel, there is no God, no heaven, no hell. Tell me not, O infidel, there is no risen Christ. What intelligence less than God’s could fashion the human body? What motive power is it, if not God, that drives the throbbing engine of the human heart, with cease- less, tireless stroke, sending the crimson stream of ‘life bounding and circling through every vein and artery? What and whence, if not God, is this mystery we call mind? What is it that thinks and feels and knows and acts? Oh, who can deny the divinity that stirs within us? God is everywhere and in everything. His mystery is in every bud and blossom and leaf and tree, in every rock and rill and vale and mountain, in every spring and rivulet and river. | The rustle of His wing is in every zephyr; His might 1s in every tempest. He dwells in the dark pavilions of every storm cloud. The lightning is His messenger and the thun- LITERARY MEN’S BELIEF IN GOD 109 der is His voice. His awful tread is in every earthquake and on every angry ocean. The heavens above us teem with His myriads of shining witnesses. The universe of solar systems whose wheeling orbs course the crystal paths of space proclaim through the drear hall of eternity the glow and power and dominion of the all-wise, omnipotent and eternal God.—Charles Kingsley. CARLYLE—GOD IN THE BUSINESS WORLD Capital and labor never can or will agree until both decide on doing their work faithfully throughout, and like men of conscience and honor whose highest aim is to behave like faithful citizens of the universe and obey the eternal com- mandments of Almighty God who made them. (Concern- ing this advice R. H. Hutton comments thus:) Mr. Car- lyle has mended his religious faith since he last described the damnable condition of the world in- which he is com- pelled to live, and in his letter to Sir Joseph Whitworth on the relations of capital and labor he speaks of Almighty God with a pious simplicity which is a surprise and a pleas- ure, after those ‘““Abysses” and “Eternities” and other ornate vagueness and paraphrastic plurals of his middle period. ... It is to my mind a most satisfactory thing to find Mr. Carlyle in his old age dismissing the “Immensities” and the “Eternities” altogether, and coming back to the simple advice to the people . . . to pray to God that they may do their work well. (1874.) ATHEISM A HIDEOUS CREED I doubt if at all times and in all moods any individual ever adopted that hideous creed (atheism), though some have professed to do so—Sir Walter Scott’s Private Journal. CARLYLE’S DEFINITION OF PRAYER What I myself practically in a half-articulate way believe on it, I will try.to express for you: Prayer is and remains ceomer 110 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD always a native and deepest impulse of the soul of man, and, if correctly gone about, is of the very highest benefit— nay, one might say indispensability—to every man aiming morally high in this world. No prayer means no religion, or at least only a dumb and lamed one. . . . Prayer 1s the aspiration of our poor, struggling, heavy-laden soul toward its Eternal Father. . . . Prayer is a turning of one’s soul, in heroic reverence, in infinite desire and endeavor, toward . the Highest, the All-Excellent, Omnipotent, Supreme. The modern hero, therefore, ought never to give up prayer.— Letter to young George A. Duncan, June 9, 1870. THE STARS GOD'S PERPETUAL PANORAMA One might think that the atmosphere was made transpar- ent with this design: to give to man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. If the stars should appear one night in 1000 years, how men would believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile. The stars awaken a certain rever- ence because, though always present, they are inaccessible — Emerson, in Nature, p. I. THACKERAY S REVERENCE FOR GOD When the late William M. Thackeray was returning from America, and had arrived within a few hours of Liverpool, a Canadian minister on board was, after dinner in the saloon, referring to the happiness which the pas- sengers had enjoyed together and the solemnity of parting from each other never to meet again until the day of judg- ment; and when he had ceased Thackeray took up the strain, saying that what the reverend gentleman had spoken was very proper, and was, he was sure, responded to by the hearts of all present. But there was something else which he thought they should do before they separated. In his opinion they should join in expressing their thanks to God / LITERARY MEN’S BELIEF IN GOD 111 for His goodness to them during the last ten days upon the deep, and for bringing them in safety to their destination ; and at his request the minister was called on by the com- pany to lead their prayers as together they poured out their gratitude to Him who is “the confidence of them that are afar off upon the sea.” I like to think of this in connection with the name of Thackeray; and the story, which is well authenticated, blooms in my eyes like an wmmortelle upon his grave—Dr. William Taylor. POETS’ BELIEF IN GOD SPENSER ON GOD’S GOODNESS But we, fraile wights, whose sight cannot sustaine, The sun’s bright beames when he doth on us shine But that their points, rebutted back againe, Are dulled, how can we see with feeble eyne The glorie of that Majestie Divine In sight of whom both sun and moone are darke Compared to His least resplendent sparke! The means therefore which unto us is lent Him to behold, is on His works to looke Which He hath made in beautie excellent, And in the same as in a brasen booke To read enregistred in every nooke His goodenesse which His beautie doth declare, For all that’s goode is beautifull and faire. HORACE’S ODE TO THE ALL-SUPREME Who guides below and rules above, The great Dispenser and the mighty king; Than He none greater, next Him none That can be, is, or was: Supreme He singly fills the throne. GOETHE’S GOD BEHIND NATURE The persuasion that a great, producing, regulating and conducting Being conceals himself, as it were, behind Nature, to make himself comprehensible to us,—such a conviction forces itself upon every one.... II2 POETS’ BELIEF IN GOD 113° No! such a God my worship may not win Who lets the world about his finger spin, A thing extern; my God must rule within, And whom I own for Father, God, Creator, Hold nature in himself, himself in nature; And, in his kindly arms embraced, the whole Doth live and move by his pervading soul. BRYANT’S ODE TO A WATER-FOWL There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast, The desert and the illimitable air, Lone, wandering, but not lost. He who from zone to zone ‘Guides through the boundless air thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone Will lead my steps aright. KIPLING’S RECESSIONAL God of our fathers, known of old— Lord of our far-flung battle-line— Beneath whose awful Hand we hold , Dominion over palm and pine— Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget—Lest we forget. LOWELL TO THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS God of our fathers, Thou who wast, Art, and shalt be! when the eye-wise who flout Thy secret presence shall be lost’ In the great light that dazzles them to doubt, We who believe Life’s bases rest _ Beyond the probe of chemic test, still, like our fathers, feel Thee near. —Atlantic Monthly, Dec., 1876. 114 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD LOWELL—GOD’S UNLIKENESS TO A CANDLE O Power, more near my life than life itself ... If sometimes I must hear good men debate Of other witness of Thyself than Thou, As if there needed any help of ours To nurse Thy flick’ring life, that else must cease, Blown out, as ’twere a candle, by men’s breath, it My soul shall not be taken in their snare, To change her inward surety for their doubt Muffl’d from sight in formal robes of proof. —Poems, p. 404. ge tie i OE WHITTIER INTERVIEWS STAR-GAZERS Was not my spirit born to shine Where yonder stars and suns are glowing— To breathe with them the light divine . ‘ From God’s own holy altar flowing? ; To be, indeed, whate’er the soul , ff In dreams hath thirsted for so long— iM A part of heaven’s glorious whole i Of loveliness and song?... , O watchers of the stars of night, ) Who breathe their fires as we do air! Suns, thunders, stars, and rays of light! O say, is He, the Eternal, there? Bend there, around His awful throne \ The seraph’s glance, the angel’s knee? 4 Or are thy inmost depths His own, * O wild and mighty sea? ? —Hymn from the French of Lamartine. ¢ BROWNING'S GEMS CONCERNING DEITY ‘ ai I find first, writ down for very A B C of fact: Fi In the beginning God made heaven and earth. ee # What I call God, and fools call Nature. : God’s in His heaven; all’s right with the world. « POETS’ BELIEF IN GOD 115 KINGSLEY ON GOD'S ORTHODOXY God’s orthodoxy is truth. MATTHEW ARNOLD’S FAITH IN GOD The true God is and must preéminently be the God of the Bible, the Eternal who makes for righteousness, from whom Jesus came forth, and whose Spirit governs the course of humanity—Literature and Dogma. (Conclusion. ) MRS. BROWNING DESCRIBES GOD’S NEARNESS They say that God lives very high! But if you look above the pines You cannot see our God. And why? And if you dig down in the mines You never see Him in the gold, Though from Him all that’s glory shines. God is so good, He wears a fold Of heaven and earth across His face— Like secrets kept, for love, untold. But still I feel that His embrace | Slides down by thrills through all things made, Through sight and sound of every place: As if my tender mother laid On my shut lips her kisses’ pressure, Half waking me at night, and said: Who kiss’d you through the dark, dear guesser ? ATHEISM A BLIND OWLET Forth from his dark and lonely hiding-place, Portentous sight !—the owlet Atheism, Sailing on obscene wings athwart the noon, _ Drops his blue-fringed lids, and holds them close, And hooting at the glorious sun in heaven, - Cries out, “Where is it?” —Coleridge. STATESMEN’S BELIEF IN GOD WASHINGTON BOWS TO AN ALMIGHTY PRESIDENT (In his first Inaugural Address.) It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent sup- plications to that Almighty Being who rules over the uni- verse, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate, to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States, a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand, which con- ducts the affairs of men, more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of Providential agency.— Richardson’s Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. Dp." 52. WASHINGTON’S PRAYER FOR THE NATION “I cannot omit the occasion : . . to repeat my fervent supplications to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and Sovereign Arbiter of nations, that His providential care may still be extended to the United States: that the virtue and happiness of the people may be preserved; and that the government which they have instituted for their pro- tection may be perpetual.”—George Washington. 116 a er + ee 7 SS ee Se ——— pk a a Sh a aise ee ig ne Se ee Se ee Ot gag SS ae cr - i e if ie i y, i fy % uf i 4 STATESMEN’S BELIEF IN GOD 117 WASHINGTON’S FAITH WHEN DYING Do not flatter me with vain hopes. I am not afraid to die, and therefore can hear the worst. Whether, to-night, or twenty years hence makes no dif- ference. I know that I am in the hands of a good provi- dence.—Washington. | Mrs. Washington was at the bedside, where she had often been “seen kneeling” with “her head resting upon the Bible’; Mr. Lear and Dr. Craik were leaning over the bed; and four of the domestics were in the room. He raised himself up, and casting a look of benignity on all around him, as if to thank them for their kindly attention, he com- posed his limbs, closed his eyes, and, folding his arms upon his bosom, expired, saying, “Father of Merctes, take me to Thyself.’”—Washington. LINCOLN’S TRUST IN GOD I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will com- ‘mend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.”—Farewell address at Springfield, when leaving to become President. LINCOLN WOULD BE ON GOD’S SIDE “T hope, Mr. President, that God is on our side,” said a member of a visiting clerical delegation; to which the President replied, “I have not concerned myself about that question;” adding, after the shock of surprise had been well effected, “but I have been very solicitous that we _ should be on God’s side.” —Banks, from Abbott, The Union Gospel News. . 118 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG “We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’—Abraham Lincoln. GLADSTONE’S FAITH IN GOD Mr. Gladstone, when asked a short time before he died what was his greatest hope for the future, replied: “I should say we must look for that to the maintenance of the faith in the Invisible. That is the great hope of the future; it is the mainstay of civilization. And by that I mean a living faith in a personal God. After sixty years of public life, I hold more strongly than ever to this convic- tion, deepened and strengthened by long experience of the reality, and the nearness, and the personality of God.” BISMARCK LOYAL TO THE KING OF KINGS If I were not a Christian, I would not . . . serve the king another hour. Why should I incessantly worry myself and labor in this world, exposing myself to embarrassments, annoyances and evil treatment, if I did not feel bound to do my duty on behalf of God? If I did not believe in a divine ordinance which destined this nation to become good and great, I would never have taken to the diplomatic trade, or, having done so, I would long since have given it up. I know not whence I derive my sense of duty but from God.— Spoken during Franco-German War. FRANKLIN’S BELIEF IN GOD \ Letter to Dr. Stiles, President of Yale College. “I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argu- ment it contains against a particular Providence, though you allow a general Providence, you strike at the founda- tions of all religion. For without the belief of a Provi- STATESMEN’S BELIEF IN GOD 119 dence, that takes cognizance of, guards and guides, and may favor particular persons, there is no motive to worship a Deity, to fear his displeasure, or to pray for his pro- tection. I will not enter into any discusion of your prin- ciples, though you seem to desire it. At present I shall only give you my opinion, that, though your reason- ings are subtle, and may prevail with some readers, you will not succeed so as to change the general sentiments of mankind on that subject, and the consequence of printing this piece will be a great deal of odium drawn upon your- self, mischief to you and no benefit to others. He that spits against the wind, spits in his own face.”—Benjamin Franklin. : For my own part, when I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favors, but as pay- ing debts. In my travels and since my settlement I have received much kindness from men and numberless mercies from God. Those kindnesses from men I can therefore only return to their fellow men; and I can only show my gratitude for these mercies from God by my readiness to help my brethren. For I do not think that thanks and com- pliments, though repeated weekly, can discharge our real obligations to each other, and much less those to our Cre- ator.—Benjamin Franklin. I have never doubted the existence of the Deity; that He made the world and governs it by his Providénce; that the most acceptable service of God is doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished and virtue rewarded either here or hereafter—Fisher’s The True Benjamin Franklin. ALEXANDER THE GREAT’S THEISM God is the common Father of us all, but more especially . of the best of us——Plutarch’s Lives. 120 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD NAPOLEON’S BELIEF IN GOD His (Napoleon’s) savans, Bourrienne tells us, in that voyage to Egypt, were one evening busily occupied arguing that there could be no God. They had proved it to their satisfaction, by all manner of logic. Napoleon, looking up into the stars, answers, “Very ingenious, Messieurs; but who made all that?” The atheistic logic runs off from him like water. The great Fact stares him in the face: “Who made all that ?’—Carlyle in Hero Worship, p. 2109. Napoleon was returning to France from the expedition to Egypt. A group of French officers one evening entered into a discussion concerning the existence of a God. They were on the deck of the vessel that bore them over the Mediter- ranean Sea. Thoroughly imbued with the infidel and atheistical spirit of the times, they were unanimous in their denial of this truth. It was at length proposed to ask the opinion of Napoleon on the subject, who was standing alone, wrapt in silent thought. On hearing the question, “Is there a God?” he raised his hand, and, pointing to the starry firmament, simply responded, “Gentlemen, who made all that?’”—Foster. THE WICKEDNESS OF ATHEISM It is impossible to govern the world without God. He must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge. his obligation Washington. MAN!S DOMINATING IMPULSE Daniel Webster was once asked: “What is the most im- portant thought you ever entertained?” He replied: ‘The thought of my individual responsibility to God.” > = aS be ne =33 = — Sounds a3 rae re, eo mS ’ wie ee See Se aes —— = pat ep atch FAMOUS LAWYERS’ BELIEF IN GOD | BLACKSTONE—CORRECT IDEAS ABOUT GOD Just ideas of the moral attributes of a Supreme Being and a firm persuasion that He will finally compensate every action of human life—these are the foundations of judicial oaths that call God to witness the truth of those facts which perhaps may be known only to Him and the party attest- ing. All moral evidence, therefore, all confidence in human _ veracity, must be weakened by apostasy and overthrown by total infidelity Commentary on the Laws of England. GOD GOVERNS THE WORLD WISELY God governs the world, and we have only to do our duty wisely, and leave the issue to him. —John Jay. STORY'S CHARGE TO BOSTON GRAND JURY We believe in the Christian religion. It declares our ac- - countability to God for all our actions, and holds out to us a future state of rewards and punishments as the sanction by which our conduct is to be regulated. ONE SUPREME BEING Far different is the case with Christianity. It propounds no equivocal doctrines. It recognizes no false or foreign gods. It allows no idolatrous worship. It presents to all men one Supreme Being the only proper object of worship, unchangeable, infinite, omniscient, all-wise, .all-good, all- powerful, all-merciful, the God of all, and the Father of all. —Joseph Story, Judge of the Supreme Court. 121 122 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD JUDGE SHARSWOOD—FIRST TRUTHS The existence of a Supreme Being—a Spirit, infinite, eternal, omniscient, omnipotent—is a first truth of moral science. JUDGE SERGEANT—-COMPETENT WITNESSES The test of the competency of a witness on the ground of his religious principles is whether the witness believes in the existence of a God who will punish him if he swears falsely. KENT TELLS US ABOUT THE LAWS Human laws labor under great imperfections. They ex- tend to external actions only. They cannot reach the secret crimes which are committed without any witness save the all-seeing eye of that Being whose presence is everywhere, and whose laws reach the hidden recesses of vice, and carry their sanctions to the thoughts and intents of the heart. PHILOSOPHERS’ BELIEF IN GOD SOCRATES FAITH IN GOR The end of life is to be like unto God; and the soul fol- lowing God will be like unto Him; He being the beginning, middle and end of all things——Socrates. PLATO CALLED ATHEISM A DISEASE Atheism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an error of the understanding. ATHEISM IN ALL RESPECTS HATEFUL Man, when he resteth and assureth himself upon Divine protection and favor, gathereth a force and faith which hu- man nature in itself could not obtain; therefore, as atheism is in all respects hateful, so in this, that it depriveth human nature of the means to exalt itself above human frailty.— Lord High Chancellor Francis Bacon, ATHEISM DESTROYS MAN’S NOBILITY They that deny a God destroy man’s nobility; for clearly man is of kin to the beasts by his body, and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.— Bacon. A BACON’S BELIEF IN GOD -. Thad rather believe all the fables in the Talmud and the Koran, than that this universal frame is without a mind. —Bacon. - 123 124 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD ATHEISM SENSELESS AND ODIOUS This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an in- telligent and powerful Being. And if the fixed stars are the centers of other like systems, these, being formed by the like wise counsel, must be all subject to the dominion of the One. ... Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors.—Newton. PHILOSOPHICAL TO BELIEVE IN GOD It became him who created them to set them in order; and if he did so, it is unphilosophical to seek for any other origin of the world, or to pretend that it might arise out of a chaos by the mere laws of nature. _ I find more sure marks of the authenticity of the Bible than of any profane history whatever—Sir Isaac Newton. GOD’S EXISTENCE MATHEMATICALLY DEMONSTRATED The idea of a Supreme Being, infinite in power, goodness and wisdom, whose workmanship we are, and upon whom we depend; and the idea of ourselves as understanding, ra- tional beings, would, I suppose, if rightly considered, afford such foundations of our duty as might place morality among the sciences capable of demonstration, wherein, by necessary consequences as incontestible as those of mathe- matics, the measure of right and wrong might be made out. —Newton. CREATION PROVES GOD'S EXISTENCE Our own being furnishes us with an evident and incon- testable proof of a Deity; and I believe nobody can avoid the cogency of it who will carefully attend to it. I think it is unavoidable for every rational creature that will examine his own or any other existence, to have the notion of an eternal, wise being, who had no beginning.— Locke. Spelt oe tte espe. —Goulburn. GOD’S ANGER CAUSES MAN’S UNREST It shows and exerts itself by cursing of enjoyments. We may, like Solomon, have all that wit can invent, or heart de- sire, and yet at last, with the same Solomon, sum up all our accounts in “vanity and vexation of spirit.” There is a “pestilence that walks in darkness,” a secret, in- visible blow, that smites the first-born of all our comforts, and straight we find them dead, and cold, and sapless; not answering the quickness of desire, or the grasp of expecta- tion. God can send a worm to bite the gourd, while it flour- ishes over our heads; and while He “gives riches,” deny a “heart to enjoy them.” For whence is it else, that there are some who flourish with honors, flow with riches, swim with the greatest af- fluence of plenty, and all other the materials of delight; and yet they are as discontented, as dissatisfied as the poorest of men? Care rises up and lies down with them, sits upon their pillow, waits at their elbow, runs by their coaches; and the grim spirits of fear and jealousy haunt their stately houses and habitations. I say, whence is this, but from a secret displeasure of God, which takes out the vitals, the heart, and the spirit of the enjoyment, and leaves them only the caput mortuum of the possession.—South, 1633-1716. GOD CAUSES MEN TO FEEL HIS WRATH God’s anger exerts itself by embittering of afflictions. Every affliction is of itself a grievance, and a breach made _ upon our happiness; but there is sometimes a secret energy, that so edges and quickens its afflictive operation, that a blow leveled at the body sha!l enter into the very soul. Asa bare arrow tears and rends the flesh before it; but if dipped in poison, as by its edge it pierces, so by its adherent venom it festers. me “ 934 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD We do not know what strength the weakest creature has to do mischief, when the Divine wrath shall join with it; and how easily a sma!‘ calamity will sink the soul, when this shall hang weights upon it. What is the reason that David is sometimes so courag- eous, that, “though he walks through the shadow of death, yet he will fear no evil”? And at another time, “God no sooner hides His face, but he is troubled,” as Psalm 30:7. What is the cause that a man sometimes breaks through a greater calamity, and at another time the same person fails and desponds under a loss of the same nature? I say, whence can this be, but that God infuses some more grains of His wrath into one than into the other? Men may undergo many plagues from God, and yet by the enchantment of pleasures, the magic of worldly diversions, they may, like Pharaoh, harden their hearts, and escape the present sting of them. But when God shall arm a plague with sensible, lively mixtures of His wrath, believe it, this will not be enchanted away; but the sinner, like those magi- cians (whether he will or no), must be forced to confess, “that it is the finger of God,” and consequently must bend and lie down under it. God may cast a man into prison, nail him to the bed of sickness, yet still He may continue master of his com- forts; because the sun may shine while the shower falls. The soul may see the light of God’s countenance, while it feels the weight of His hand. But for God to do all these things in anger, and to mark the prints of His displeasure and His indignation upon every blow; this alters the whole dispensation, and turns it from a general passage of Providence into a particular de- sign of revenge. It is like a deep water, scalding hot, which as it drowns, so at the same time it redoubles its fatal influence, also burns to death, An unwholesome air will of itself make a man sick and indisposed; but when it is infected, and its native malignity heightened with a superadded contagion, then presently it kills. And such a difference is there between afflictions in them- — ee A ae eo ANGER OF GOD 235 selves and afflictions as they are fired, poisoned, and en- livened with God’s wrath.—South 1633-1716. THE TERRIBLENESS OF GODS WRATH The greatness of divine wrath appears in this, that though we may attempt it in our thoughts, yet we cannot bring it within the comprehensions of our knowledge. And the reason is, because things, which are the proper objects of feeling, are never perfectly known, but by being felt. We may speak indeed high words of wrath and ven- geance, but pain is not felt in a discourse. We may as well taste a sound, and see a voice, as gather an intellectual idea of misery; which is conveyed, not by apprehension, but by smart; not by notion, but by experience. Survey the expressions of Scripture, and see it there clothed and set forth in “fire and brimstone,” in “the worm that never dies,” in “utter darkness,” in “weeping and wail- ing, and gnashing of teeth.” But what are all these but shadows! mere similitudes, and not things! condescensions, rather than instructions to our understanding! poor figura- tive essays, where, contrary to the nature of rhetoric, the figure is still beneath the truth. Fire no more represents God’s wrath than the picture of fire itself represents its heat; and for the proof of this, let the notional believer be an unanswerable argument, who reads, sees, and hears all these expressions, and yet is not at all moved by them; which sufficiently shows that there is no hell in the description of hell. But now, there is no man who has actually passed under a full trial of God’s wrath; none alive who ever encountered the utmost of God’s anger; and if any man should here- after try it, he would perish in the trial, so that he could not report his experience. This is a furnace that consumes while it tries; as no man can experimentally inform us what death is, because he is destroyed in the experiment.—South, 1633-1716. 236 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD - DIRECT BLOWS FROM GOD'S WRATH It inflicts immediate blows and rebukes upon the con- science. There are several passages in which God converses with the soul immediately by Himself; and these are always the most quick and efficacious, whether in respect of com- fort or of terror. | That which comes immediately. from God, has most of God in it. As the sun, when he darts his beams in a direct perpendicular line, does it most forcibly, because most im- mediately. Now there are often terrors upon the mind, which flow thus immediately from God, and therefore are not weakened or refracted by passing through the instrumental convey- ance of a second cause; for that which passes through a thing is ever contracted according to the narrowness of its passage. God’s wrath, inflicted by the creature, is like poison administered in water, where it finds an allay in the very conveyance, But the terrors here spoken of, not being inflicted by the intermediate help of anything, but being darted forthwith from God Himself, are by this incomparably more strong and piercing. When God wounds a man by the loss of an estate, of his health, of a relation, the smart is but commensurate to the thing which is lost, poor and finite. But when He Himself employs His whole omnipotence, and is Himself both the archer and the arrow, there is as much difference between this and the former, as when a house lets fall a cobweb, and when it falls itself upon a man. God strikes in that manner that He swears; never so ef- fectually as when only “by Himself.” A man striking with a twig does not reach so dreadful a blow as when he does it with his fist; and so makes himself not only the striker but the weapon also. These immediate blows of God upon the soul seem to be those things that in the Psalms (38:2) are called “God’s arrows:” they are strange, sudden, invincible amaze- ments upon the spiric, leaving such a damp upon it, as de- ee ee a ANGER OF GOD 237 fies the faint and weak cordials of all creature-enjoyments. The wounds which God Himself makes, none but God Him- self can cure——South, 1637-1716. LAW HAS ITS ORIGIN IN GOD Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world.—Richard Hooker. GOD NOT MERCIFUL ONLY A God all mercy is a God unjust.— Young. GOD’S ANGER A DIVINE PERFECTION Lord Shaftesbury attempts to satirize the Scripture rep- resentations of the Divine character. ‘One would think,” he says, “it were easy to understand that provocation and offense, anger, revenge, jealousy in point of honor or power, love of fame, glory, and the like, belong only to limited be- ings, and are necessarily excluded from a Being which 1s perfect and universal.” That many things are attributed to the Divine Being in a figurative style, speaking merely after the manner of men, and that they are so understood by Christians, Lord Shaftesbury must have well known. We do not think it lawful, however, so to explain away these ex- pressions as to consider the Great Supreme as incapable of being offended with sin and sinners, as destitute of pleasure or displeasure, or as unconcerned about His own glory, the exercise of which involves the general good of the universe. A being of this description would be neither loved nor feared, but would become the object of universal contempt. It is no part of the imperfection of our nature that we are susceptible of provocation and offense, of anger, of jeal- ousy, and of a just regard to our own honor. Lord Shaftes- bury himself would have ridiculed the man, and still more the magistrate, that should have been incapable of these properties on certain occasions. They are planted in our 938 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD nature by the Divine Being, and are adapted to. answer val- uable purposes. If they be perverted and abused to sordid ‘ends, which is too frequently the case, this does not alter their nature, nor lessen their utility. What would Lord ‘Shaftesbury have thought of a magistrate who should have witnessed a train of assassinations and murders without be- ing in the least offended at them, or angry with the perpetra- tors, or inclined to take vengeance on them for the public good? What would he think of a British House of Com- mons which should exercise no jealousy over the encroach- ments of a minister; or of a king of Great Britain who should suffer with perfect indifference his just authority to be contemned.—Andrew Fuller, 1754-1815.’ FAITHFULNESS OF GOD GOD’S FAITHFULNESS LIKE THE SEA God’s truth and faithfulness “are a great deep.” They resemble the ocean itself; always there—vast, fathomless, sublime, the same in its majesty, its inexhaustible fullness, yesterday, to-day, and forever; the same in calm and storm, by day and by night; changeless while generations come and pass; everlasting while ages are rolling away.—Richard ‘Fuller. GOD A NEVER-FAILING FRIEND It is the saying of Euripides, that a faithful friend in ad- versity is better than a calm sea to a weather-beaten mariner, Indeed, the world is full of false lovers, who use their friends as we do candles, burn them to the snuff, and when all their substance is wasted, trample them under their fect, and light others; but God to His chosen is as the ivy clasp ing about a wall, which will as soon die as desert it. Ex- tremity doth but fasten a trusty friend; whilst he, as a well- wrought vault, is the stronger by how much more weight he beareth. Though many men are as ponds, dry in the heat of summer, when there is most need of them, yet the blessed God dealeth not so with His saints: but His help is nearest _ when their hardships are greatest. When they walk in the valley of the shadow of death, He is with them—Swin- nock, 1673. TRUSTING GOD'S PROMISES If you were to spend a month feeding on the precious promises of God, you would not be going about with your _ heads hanging down like bulrushes, complaining how poor _ you are; but you would lift up your heads with confidence, 239 040 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD and proclaim the riches of His grace because you could not help it—D. L. Moody. GOD’S PROMISES FULFILLED When we come to tell the completed story of our lives, we shall have to record the fulfillment of all God’s prom- ises, and the accomplishment of all our prayers that were built on them.—Selected. ALL NATURE PROCLAIMS GOD'S FAITHFULNESS We ask Nature to say—whether her God, who is our God, is true to his word? whether he ever says, and fails to do? By the voices of the sun, the stars, the hills, the val- leys, the streams, the cataracts, the rolling thunders, and the roaring sea, she returns a majestic answer. Spring comes with infant Nature waking in her arms; Summer cotnes bedecked with a robe of flowers; Autumn comes with her swarthy brow, crowned with vines, and on her back the sheaves of corn; Old Winter comes with his shivering limbs, and frozen locks, and hoary head; and these four witnesses—each laying one hand on the broad table of Na- ture, and lifting the other to heaven—swear by him that liveth for ever and ever, that all which God hath said, God shall do.—Dr. Guthrie. BELIEVING GOD'S PROMISES I believe the promises of God enough to venture an eter- nity on them.—Watts. GOD NEVER FORSAKES UNLESS FORSAKEN God never forsakes a man unless He is first forsaken by him.—Augustine. a Fe eS ee ee PRU A PUNE SS, Ol GO) THE YEARS CONFIRM GOD'S TRUTHFULNESS Time that weakens all things else has but strengthened the impregnable position of the believer’s faith and hope and confidence. And as, year by year, the tree adds another ring to its circumference, every age has added the testimony of its events to this great truth. “The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, but the word of the Lord shall endure for- ever.”—Thomas Guthrie. GOD REVEALS TRUTH AFTER TRUTH God hides nothing. His very work from the beginning is revelation,—a casting aside of veil after veil, a showing unto men of truth after truth. On and on from fact Divine He advances, until at length in His Son Jesus He unveils His very face——George MacDonald. GOD’S TRUTH TOO SACRED FOR SKEPTICS God’s truth is too sacred to be expounded to superficial worldliness in its transient fit of earnestness —F. W. Rob- ertson. GOD UNLIKE SERTORIUS OR PERTINAX Of Sertorius it is said that he performed his promises by words only; and of the Emperor Pertinax, that he was rath- -er kind-spoken than beneficial to any. Not so the Almighty. —Trapp. 241 FATHERHOOD OF GOD MEANING OF GOD'S FATHERHOOD Fatherhood! what does that word itself teach us? It speaks of the communication of a life and the reciprocity of love. It rests upon a Divine act, and it involves a human emotion. It involves that the Father and the child shall have kindred life—the Father bestowing, and the child pos- sessing a life which is derived; and because derived, kin- dred; and because kindred, unfolding itself in likenes to the Father that gave it. And it requires that between the Fath- er’s heart and the child’s heart there shall pass, in blessed in- terchange and quick correspondence, answering love, flash- ing backwards and forwards, like the lightning that touches the earth, and rises from it again—Alexander Maclaren. ONLY CHRISTIANS CAN: CALL GOD FATHER You cannot call God father till communion with Christ be enjoyed; and when this is enjoyed your privileges become wonderful. Now you may look on God and say, “Thou art my portion.” Now you may go to God and say, “Thou art my Father.” Now you may behold the love of God and say, “This is my treasure;” and the covenant of God, and say, “This is my storehouse;” and the providence of God, and say, “This is my shield.” Now you may look on Christ and © say, “This is my Redeemer ; He is mine and I am His; He lives in me, and I live in Him; He dwells with me, and I dwell with Him; He sups with me, and I feed on Him; His blood is my refuge and my heart is His mansion. He doth graciously traffic in my heart by His Spirit, and I can as freely traffic with heaven by His intercession.’’—Sedgwick. 242 — ao nN FATHERHOOD OF GOD 243 THE RELATIONSHIP OF FATHER The relation which the Most High sustains to His intelli- gent and accountable creatures is too comprehensive and too intimate to be perfectly imaged by any earthly tie; but in the relation which runs through this parable (1.e. of The Prodi- gal Son, St. Luke 15:11-32) it finds its nearest equivalent. And what amongst ourselves is fatherhood? It is that rela- tion which identifies greatness with littleness, which makes it quite natural that the arm which wields the battle-sword should gently rock the sleeping babe, which secures from contempt the master of sentences, the sage, the orator, though he babble idle rhymes in his infant’s ear. It is that relation which lives in the loved one’s joy or honor, and which is wounded in his grief or his disgrace; which feels no pride like a son’s promotion, and which, gazing at the blood-stained garment, cries, “It is my son’s coat, an evil beast has devoured him: I will go down to him in the grave sorrowing;’ but which would rather that the evil beast had devoured him, than that he should live to blight his princi- ples or forfeit a virtuous fame. It is that relation amongst men which toils and denies itself, and does not grudge the long journeys and the sleepless nights which enable the father to lay up for the children; and both in heaven and earth, it is that relation which delights in being trusted and which desires to be loved in return; which cannot be asked ‘ | too many favors, or be entrusted with too many confidences, which seeks one gift only, “My Son, give me thine heart,” and hears no language more pleasing than “My Father, | Thou art the guide of my youth. Father, forgive my tres- / passes, and give me this day my daily bread.’”’—Hamilton. FATHERHOOD IMPLIES LOVING CARE Every one takes care of his own; the silly hen, how doth she bustle and bestir herself to gather her brood under her wing when the kite appears! No care like that which Nature teacheth. How much more will God, who is the Father of such dispositions in His creature, stir up His 944 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD whole strength to defend His children? “He said, They _are my people, so He became their Savior,” as if God had said, Shall I sit still with my hand in my bosom, while my own people are thus misused before my face? I cannot bear it. The mother as she sits in her house hears one shriek, and knows the voice, cries out, Oh, ’tis my child! Away she throws all, and runs to him. Thus God takes the alarm of His children’s cry, “I heard Ephraim bemoaning himself,” saith the Lord; his cry pierced His ear, and His ear affected His bowels, and His bowels called up His power to the rescue of him.—Gurnall, 1617-1679. . FINDING GOD AS OUR FATHER What another being is life when we have found out our Father; and if we work, it is beneath His eye, and if we play, it is in the light and encouragement of His smile. Earth’s sunshine is heaven’s radiance, and the stars of night as if the beginning of the beatific vision; so soft, so sweet, so gentle, so reposeful, so almost infinite have all things become, because we have found our Father in our God.— F, W. Faber. MOSLEMS DO NOT CALL GOD FATHER The Mohammedans have ninety-nine names for God, but among them all they have not “our Father.”—Selected. SONSHIP IMPLIES ACCESS. TO..GOD During the war, President Lincoln was so besieged with applicants on various errands that he could not give au- dience to all, and men of influence could not see him when they wished. Many went away from the White House dis- appointed, unable to see the President. But there was a loved son of the President, little ““Tad,’’ who came and went when he pleased. Such is the privilege of the sons of God. —Foster. as a eS FATHERHOOD OF GOD 245 FATHERHOOD IMPLIES LOVE AND PITY “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.” “Like as a father’”—but how is that? You see yonder dusky tents along the stream, and knots of cattle grazing on the neighboring hills; but the chieftain stays at home. In the cradle lies the babe whom a foster- mother is bringing up, for his own mother died on the day when he was born; and hand in hand with his widowed sire walks a little boy full of love, full of notions bright and strange, asking hard questions, telling dreams; till a sudden change comes across the scene, and in the effort to be a play- mate to Rachel’s little son, for a moment the patriarch for- gets his cares and griefs and, as men would say, his dignity. How is it that a father pitieth his children? An old king is seated at the city gate. Not far away a battle is going forward—a battle on which hangs the monarch’s crown, perhaps his very life. And there is panic through the town, _the helpless running to and fro, and the fearful looking forth of those who think they already see their houses in the flames and red slaughter rushing through the streets. But now posting towards the city are seen the little clouds, the dust of separate couriers, and all rush to hear the tidings. “All’s well!’ exclaims the first; “Victory!” shouts the sec- ond; but with fierce impatience, demands the monarch, “‘is the young man Absalom safe?” and, trarisfixed by the fatal truth in his cry of anguish, the cheers of exultation suddenly subside, and as he staggers up to his solitary chamber, the joyous crowd fall silent, and even the conquerors when they at last return, like the perpetrators of a crime, slink through the gate crestfallen. How is it that a father pitieth his children? For long there has been only one son at home, and you might suppose there never had been more than one; all is so complete and orderly, and the new-come servants and the neighbors never speak of any other. But along the highroad there is this in- stant traveling a gaunt and haggard figure, his filthy tattered WS, clothing showing little traces of bygone foppery, and in his looks not much to betoken gentle breeding; so shabby and 246 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD so reprobate that those who pity common beggars shake _the head or slam the door on this one. But though the dogs bark at him and charity turns away from him; though the meanest hut rejects him, and though the passengers scowl at his petitions, one heart awaits him, and keeps for him the original compartment, warm, ample, and unfilled. Yonder, as he has surmounted the summit of the hill and is gazing down on the long forsaken homestead and hesitating wheth- er he may venture nearer, which quick eye is that which has recognized him a great way off, and what eager step is this which runs so fast to meet him? and who is this that in the folds of his kingly mantle hides the ragged wanderer, and clasps him to his bosom, and weeps upon his neck the tears of enraptured affection, and cuts short his confession with a call for the best robe and a command for instant festival? . Oh, what a love is this which the heavenly Father hath unto | His children !—Hamilton, 1814-1867. SONSHIP IMPLIES PREEMINENCE A king is sitting with his council deliberating on high affairs of state involving the destiny of nations, when sud- denly he hears the sorrowful cry of his little child who has fallen down, or been frightened by a wasp; he rises and runs to his relief, assuages his sorrows and relieves his fears. Is there anything unkingly here? Is it not most natural? Does it not even elevate the monarch in your esteem? Why then do we think it dishonorable to the King of kings, our heavenly Father, to consider the small matter of His chil- dren? It is infinitely condescending, but is it not also super- latively natural that being a Father He should act as such? —Spurgeon. , GOD'S WATCH-CARE OVER HIS CHILDREN One great object of revelation was to show us God as our Father. It is thus the Son reveals Him when He says that no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth Him. And there are many pas- a=) 2 ain aed FATHERHOOD OF GOD Q4'7 sages of Scripture that point us to this delightful revelation —such as, “As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him;” “TI will be to him a father, and he shall be to Mea son.” “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delighteth in his way.” You have, doubtless, seen a kind and tender parent taking the little child by the hand when just beginning to walk, turning the steps aside when obstacles are in the way, directing the child where to walk, and bending over the little one with fond delight. I have seen young parents laughing with joy ' when they have observed the first steps which the little ones take—they delighted in their way. And so God is repre- sented as bending from above over us, and ordering the steps of a good man, watching his pathway, holding him by the hand, leading him in the way he should go, and delighting in his way. And never was a tender and loving parent so de- lighted in marking the footsteps of a child, as God in watch- ing the ways of a good man—delighted at all his efforts in the paths of piety and peace. Such declarations present the doctrine of the watch-care of God over them that fear Him; or, as it is sometimes called, the doctrine of a special providence. This doctrine teaches us that God is especially watchful over those who love Him; and that, where men fear and serve Him, He has special care toward them—watches their pathway and di- rects their movements.—Simpson. DID NOT FEAR HIS FATHER There is a beautiful story in ancient poetry. A great warrior, the hero of Troy, clad in fierce armor, stretches out his arms to embrace his child before he goes to the field of battle. The child is afraid of the dazzling helmet and nod- ding crest, and stern, warlike aspect of his father, and shrinks back in terror and alarm. But there is a loving, tender heart beating within that panoply of steel. The father unbinds his glittering helmet, lays aside his fierce armor, and comes to his child with outstretched arms and tender words of love. And the child shrinks from him no longer, 248 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD but runs to his arms, pillows its head upon his bosom, and _ receives his parting embrace and kiss. So men are afraid of God when he appears in his majesty and terribleness. They think of his omnipotence, his glory, the awfulness of his throne, the terrors of his justice, and shrink back from him. But as this father laid aside his fierce armor and came to his child in all the tenderness of paternal affection, so God veils his glory and splendor and awfulness, and reveals himself to his children in the sweetest aspect of love.— Anon. GOD’S LOVE FOR HIS CHILDREN The least degree of sincere sanctification, being an effect of regeneration, is a certain sign of adoption, and may minister a sure argument to him that has it, that he is the adopted child of God. Now, as parents love their children, not so much for their wit and comeliness, or the like qualities, as because they are theirs, so does God love His children: yea, had He not loved them before they had any good qualities in them, for which He might affect them, they had never come to have any such, Parents delight as much in their young ones as in those that be at man’s estate, as well in those that are not able to earn the bread that they eat, as in those that are able to do them the best service. Nor is any father so unnatural, that because his child, being weak and sickly, is therefore somewhat way- ward, especially being a good-natured and otherwise dutiful child, will for that cause the less either regard or affect it. No, we are wont rather to be the more affectionate towards them when it is so with them. Yea, I say not what infirmity, but what disease, almost, is there so loathsome as will keep a mother from tendering and tending her child? In like manner it is with our heavenly Father whose love goes in- finitely beyond the love of any earthly father or mother whatsoever. For as a father, says the Psalmist, is pitiful unto his children, so the Lord is pitiful to those that fear Him. And the most natural mother, the kindest and dearest parent that is, may sooner forget or not regard the fruit of their own body, than He can forget or not regard them. — EI SSIES Pe = See a ee Se eS “ | a Oe FATHERHOOD OF GOD 249 “And I will spare them,” says He, “that fear Me, and think on My name, as a man spares his own son that serves him.” He loves and delights in His little weak ones, His young babes in Christ, that can scarce almost creep, much less go well alone yet, as well as in His well-grown ones, that are able to help and to tend others. For the Lord’s delight is in all those that fear Him, and that rely upon His mercy. He is content to accept at their hands what they are able. Asa little done by a son gives his father much better contentment than a great deal more done by a mere stranger or servant. And there is a difference between a son and a servant; that a servant, if he cannot do his master’s work, his master will not keep him, he must go, seek him some other service; whereas a son, albeit he be not able to do ought, yet he is not therefore cast off; his father keeps him not for the ser- vice he does or can do him, but he keeps him because he is his son. Yea, it is not the wants, and infirmities, and imper- fections, or the remainders of sin and corruption in God’s children, that can cause God to cast them off or to abhor them. “Our corruptions shall not hurt us, if they do not please us,” says Augustine. Nor is it so much our corrup- tions as our pleasing of ourselves in them, that makes God to be displeased with us. Any beginning of sincere santify- ing grace, then, argues God’s child; and a weak child of God being yet a child of God, as well as a strong, has good cause and great cause therein to rejoice.—Gataker, 1574-1654. THE TENDER MEANING OF FATHER Christ especially revealed Him as a Father. In His first and last words Christ calls Him “Father.” Asa Father God thinks of us, loves us, works for us, cares for us, protects us, provides for us in the future. Father is the most en- dearing appellation in which He is made known unto us. “I should have been a French atheist,” said Randolph, “had it not been for one recollection, and that was when my de- parted mother used to take my little hands in hers, and cause me on my knees to say, “Our Father which art in heaven.’ ” “This little word, Father,’ says Gurnall, “lisped by faith in 250 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD prayer by a real Christian, exceeds the eloquence of Demos- thenes, Cicero, and all the famous speakers in the world.” “My life,” says Evans, “hangs by a single thread; but that thread is in a Father’s hand.” “I never fear,” said a little child, “when my Father is with me.” ) “My Father God!” that gracious sound Dispels my guilty fear; j Not all the harmony of heaven ‘ Could so delight my ear.” \ —John Bate. : Pee mh Se ma INVISIBILITY OF GOD GOD IS A SPIRIT There is no other passage in Scripture besides this (John 4:24) where it is expressly declared that God is a Spirit ; yet throughout the whole of Scripture we are led to infer that He is so, and our duty to Him is everywhere founded on the belief and knowledge of this attribute of His nature. When we affirm God to be a Spirit, we not only distinguish Him from all bodily substance, but, in the same manner as the soul greatly excels the body in the superior powers of life, understanding, knowledge, activity, so we must con- ceive of God as of a Being excelling in an infinitely higher proportion, not only the souls of men, but also all other in- tellectual natures or spirits whatsoever—Samuel Clarke, 1675-1720. AN INVISIBLE RULER Krummacher says, that an idolatrous tribe chose a Jew named Abiah to rule over them, who was greatly grieved at the idolatry of his subjects, and angry because they would not reform. The Lord said to him, “Thinkest thou T cannot destroy their idols? and yet I suffer the sun to shine upon them. Go thou, and do likewise.” Abiah suffered them, and had a successful reign. When he came to die, he told the people that his son would be their king; that they had never seen his face, but should know his government by the fruits thereof. The people promised obedience, kept the promise, and prospered greatly, though they had never seen their king. Wise commands came from the palace. Like the beams of the sun, the kind influence of the invisible mon- arch spread over the nation, reaching every child of want. - Then they all marveled, and said, “We sée him not: how _ can he see us?” Then the people longed to see and bless him, as they did their idols. They made images of him. At last, they came together before the palace-gates, and im- ¥ plored, “Oh! let our lord the king suffer us to see his face.” 251 952 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD Then the king came forth in simple raiment; and the people rejoiced and wondered, and said, “We know thy face;” for he had often walked among them unknown. Then the king said, “Now you see that I am a man like you. Think ye that this mortal flesh has reigned over you? Not so: that which has guided you ye cannot see; neither can I. Can ye see wisdom, kindness, and justice? Now ye see me, but ye do not see them. Judge ye what is my earthly form. Can the visible create the invisible? That which is in me, also, is not mine, but His who made me your king.” After this, the people returned to their homes, blessing their king. They broke in pieces their pictures, images, and idols, and believed in Him who is invisible-—Foster. COULD NOT SHOW THEM GOD At Buhapurum, a child about eight years old, who had been educated in Christianity, was ridiculed on that account by some heathens older than himself. In reply, he repeated what he had been taught respecting God. “Show us your God,” said the heathen. “I cannot do that,’ answered the child; “but I can soon show you yours.” Taking a stone, and daubing it with some resemblance of a human face, he placed it on the ground, and pushed it toward them with his foot. “There,” said he, “is such a god as you worship,’— Foster. -GOD INVISIBLE LIKE THE WIND A poor dumb boy, in whom I was interested, and whom I had been seeking to impress with the fact of the being of a God, told me that he had been looking everywhere for God, but could not find him; “there was God—wno.” I seized a pair of bellows, and blew a puff at his hand, which was red with cold on a winter’s day. He showed signs of displeas- ure; told me it made his hands cold, while I, looking at the pipe of the bellows, told him I could see nothing; “there was wind—no!” He opened his eyes very wide, stared at me, and panted; a deep crimson suffused his whole face, and a soul, a real soul, shone in his strangely altered countenance, while he triumphantly repeated—“God like wind! God like wind!’—C. Elizabeth. ae san eS THE KINGDOM OF GOD GOD'S KINGDOM WITHIN The kingdom of God which is within us consists in our willing whatever God wills, always, in every thing, and with- out reservation; and thus His kingdom comes; for His will is then done as it is in heaven, since we will nothing but what is dictated by His sovereign pleasure.-—Fenelon, BECOMING PART OF GOD'S KINGDOM _ Were it not well, then, to begin with the substance, to learn to apprehend the reality of that kingdom which is all around us now, whether we recognize it or not,—to take our aims and endeavors into it, that they may be made part of it, however small,—to surrender ourselves to it, that our lives may do something towards its advancement, and that we may become fellow-workers, however humble, with all the wise and good who have gone before us, and with Him who made them what they are?—J. C. Shairp. ENTERING GOD’S KINGDOM If you want to work for the kingdom of God, and to bring it, and enter into it, there is just one condition to be first ac- cepted. You must enter into it as children, or not at all— John Ruskin. 253 NAMES, TITLES AND SYMBOLS OF GOD THE EYE OF GOD When we perceive that a vast number of objects enter in at our eye by a very small passage, and yet are so little jum- bled in that crowd, that they open themselves regularly, though there is no great space for that either; and that they give us a distinct apprehension of many objects that lie be- fore us, some even at a vast distance from us, both of their nature, color, and size; and by a secret geometry, from the angles that they make in our eye, we judge of the distance of all objects, both from us and from one another; if to this we add the vast number of figures that we receive and re- tain long and with great order in our brains, which we eas- ily fetch up either in our thoughts or in our discourses, we shall find it less difficult to apprehend how an infinite mind should have the universal view of all things ever present be- fore it—Bp. Burnet. | GOD A SUN “The Lord God is a sun” conveys a striking and impres- sive truth when we think of the sun only in his obvious character as a source of light and heat. But what new energy is given to this magnificent emblem when we learn from astronomy that he is a grand center of attraction, and when we, in addition, take in that sublime generalization that the sun is the ultimate source of every form of power ex- isting in the world! The wind wafts the commerce of every nation over the mighty deep; but the heat of the sun has rarefied the air, and set that wind in motion. The descend- ing stream yields a power which grinds your grain, turns your spindles, work your looms, drives your forges; but it is because the sun gathered up the vapor from the ocean, 254 NAMES, TITLES AND SYMBOLS OF GOD 255 —<—<<<<—{_ J$———— ee which fell upon the hills, and is finding its way back to the source whence it came. The expansive energy of steam propels your engines; but the force with which it operates is locked up in the coal (the remains of extinct forests stored among your hills), or is derived from the wood that abounds in your forests, which now crown and beautify their summits. Both these primeval and these existing for- ests drew their subsistence from the sun: it is the chemical force resident in his rays which disengaged their carbon from the atmosphere, and laid it up as a source of power for future use. The animal exerts a force by muscular contrac- tion ; he draws it from the vegetable on which he feeds; the vegetable derives it from the sun, whose rays determine its growth. Every time you lift your arm, every time you take a step, you are drawing on the power the sun has given you. When you step into the railway-carriage, it is the sun-power that hurries you along. When gentle breezes fan your lan- guid cheek, and when the resistless tornado levels cities in its fury, they are the servants of the sun. What an emblem of Him in whom we live and move, and have our being !— Prof. Green. GOD IS LIGHT Suppose the case of a cripple who had spent his life in a room where the sun was never seen. He has heard of its existence, he believes in it, and indeed, has seen enough of its light to give him high ideas of its glory. Wishing to see the sun, he is taken out at night into the streets of an illuminated city. At first he is delighted, dazzled; but after he has had time to reflect, he finds darkness spread amid the lights, and he asks, “Is this the sun?” He is taken out under the starry sky, and he is enraptured; but, on reflection, finds that night covers the earth, and again asks, “Is this the sun?” He is carried out some bright day at noontide, and no sooner does his eye open on the sky than all question is at an end. There is but one sun. His eye is content: it has seen its highest object, and feels there is nothing brighter. So with the soul: it enjoys all lights, yet amid those of art and nature, is still enquiring for something greater. But when it is led by the e 256 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD reconciling Christ into the presence of the Father, and He lifts up upon it the light of His countenance, all thought of anything greater disappears. As there is but one sun, so there is but one God. The soul which once discerns and knows Him, feels that greater or brighter there is none, and that the only possibility of ever beholding more glory is by drawing nearer.—Dr. W. Arthur. | DOES RADIUM TELL US ABOUT GOD? The article by Dr. Howard A. Kelly in The Sunday School Times, on Radium, had a special interest for me, as last winter, while being shown some of the properties of radium by a scientific friend, I was deeply impressed and de- lighted by their analogy to the attributes of God. While Dr. Kelly has mentioned the more striking of these characteris- tics, there are a few other resemblances that seemed so beautiful to me, I would like to speak of them. The particles of radium were shown to me ina glass vial, looking like dull, gray bits of clay: the room was darkened, and the colorless, lifeless atoms glowed with a wondrous brilliancy, and with a soft, violet radiance that I have seen only in occasional flashes of lightning. The sudden tears cames to my eyes, as the thought flashed upon me—‘‘Such will be the change of the resurrection! Sown in dishonor, | ‘ raised in glory!” Again, there are two, I believe only two, of the attri- butes of God, with which He is positively identified : Christ said, “God is Truth”; and John says, “God is Love.” In the Bible, love is symbolized by red, and truth by blue—the combination of red and blue gives violet—the incomparable — hue of radium, Also, red is the first color in the solar spec- trum, and violet the last,—and Jesus said, “I am Alpha and . Omega, the first and the last!’ There is one more significant likeness: Radium pene- % trates all known substances—but one! Hence, to keep other chemicals from being affected by it, the glass vial containing radium must be wrapped in lead-foil, lead being the one sub- stance impervious to its influence, and a fit type of the one ~ NAMES, TITLES AND SYMBOLS OF GOD = 257 18 SU el iach hea core 0 wg ene Ne EROS See et Eee unpardonable sin—Unbelief—which alone can resist the power of Christ. As radium, the most mysterious and powerful of ele- ‘ments, is among the last to be discovered, so the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ will be the last to crown the earth with glory. - I do not like to think these resemblances are mere coinci- dences—they are to me Nature’s proof of Divinity ——A Washington, D. C., Reader. : (The scientific accuracy of the above statements has been verified by a high authority—The Editor.)—Sunday School Times. | GOD A ROCK What are the reasons for which our God is compared to a rock? First, then, a rock is steadfast: its stability, as contrasted with the flowing waters of the sea or the shift- ing sands of the desert, is the first thing that strikes us. “With him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Next, a rock is often chosen as the site of a stronghold, from the security it gives. Men build their castles upon a rock, for purposes of defense; the wise man built his house upon the rock for safety in the storm: “The Lord js my rock and my fortress.” Again: in Palestine we find that the rock often contained a cave, or cleft, used as a hiding-place: “Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust.” In such a cleft Moses was hidden: “I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by” (Exod. 33:22). A rock became also a shelter in an- other sense: “The shadow of a great rock in a weary land ;” “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” And the rock that gave security was also a source of refreshment: for “he opened the rock, and the waters gushed out;’ so that they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.”—Cameron. GOD A SHIELD ‘A shield is for defense and safeguard of the body in time of battle: God is the defense and safeguard of His 258 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD people in the conflicts of life. A shield is not only to de- fend and preserve one part of the body, but every part: God defends the souls of His saints in their entirety. A shield is used to keep that part of the body that is struck at by the enemy; it is a movable piece of armor, that a skillful hand can turn this way or that way, to take the blow or arrow, according as he sees it directed against him: so God by His truth, spirit, etc., protects His people— Keach, ALL NATURE SYMBOLIZES GOD All things in the natural world symbolize God, yet none of them speak of Him but in broken and imperfect words. High above all He sits, sublimer than mountains, grander than storms, sweeter than blossoms and tender fruits, nobler than lords, truer than parents, more loving than lovers. —Cawdray. NAMES OF GOD 1. JEHOvAH.—It expresses self existence and unchange- ableness. It is the incommunicable name of God, which the Jews superstitiously refused to pronounce, always substitut- ing in their reading the word Adonai, Lord. Hence it is represented in our English version by the word Lorp, printed in capital letters. Jau.—Probably an abbreviation of the name Jehovah, is used principally in the psalms. It constitutes the concluding syllable of hallelujah, praise Jehovah. God gave to Moses His peculiar name, I am THAT I Am (Ex. 3:14), from the same root, and bearing the same fundamental significance as Jehovah. | ; 2. EL, might, power, translated God, and applied alike to the true God, and to false gods (Isa. 44:10). 3. Elohim and Eloah, the same name in its singular and plural forms; derived from the Hebrew word, signifying, to fear, reverence. “In its singular form it is used only in the latter books and in poetry.” In the plural form it is sometimes used with a plural sense, for gods; but more commonly, as a pluralis excellentie, for God. It is applied NAMES, TITLES AND SYMBOLS OF GOD) 259 to false gods, but preéminently to Jehovah, as the great object of adoration. 4. Aponal, the Lord, a pluralis excellentie, applied ex- clusively to God, expressing possession and sovereign do- minion; equivalent to xvpwr¢ Lord, so frequently applied to Christ in the New Testament. 5. SAppal, Almighty, a pluralis excellentie. Sometimes it stands by itself (Job 5:17) ; and sometimes combined with a preceding El (Gen. 17:1). . 6. Exryon, Most High, a verbal adjective signifying to go up, ascend (Ps. 9:3; 21:8). 7. The term TzeBaotH, of hosts, is frequently used as an epithet qualifying one of the above-mentioned names of God. Thus, Jehovah of hosts, Jehovah, God of hosts (Amos 4:13; Ps. 24:10). Some have thought this equiva- lent to God of battles; the true force of the epithet, how- ever, is “Sovereign of the stars, material hosts of heaven, and of the angels their inhabitants.” 8. Many other epithets are applied to God metaphori- cally, to set forth the relation he sustains to us and the offices he fulfils; as King, Lawgiver, Judge, Rock, Fortress, Tower, Deliverer, Shepherd, Husbandman, Father, —A. A. Hodge. GOD’S HATRED FOR SIN GOD’S ETERNAL HATRED FOR SIN God Himself, we have always understood, hates sin with a most authentic, celestial, and eternal hatred. A hatred, — My a hostility, inexorable, unappeasable, which blasts the scoundrel, and all scoundrels ultimately, into black annihila- tion and disappearance from the sum of things. The path i of it is the path of a flaming sword: he that has eyes may see it, walking inexorable, divinely beautiful and divinely terrible, through the chaotic gulf of human history, and everywhere burning, as with unquenchable fire, the false and the deadworthy from the true and lifeworthy; making all human history, and the biography of every man, a God's Cosmos in place of a Devil’s Chaos. So it is in the end; even so, to every man who is a man, and not a mutinous beast, and has eyes to see-—Thomas Carlyle. SIN LOATHSOME TO GOD It is not every unclean thing that offends the sight: while — q the slightest stain upon some things will excite in us deep — dislike, the feeling depends entirely upon the nature of the thing, and the purpose to which it is applied. We pass by an unclean stone unnoticed ; it is unconscious of its state, and meant to be trampled under foot. But rising a step higher in the scale of creation, to an unclean plant, we be- come conscious of a slight emotion of dislike; because we ~ see that which might have pleased the eye, and have beauti- — fied a spot in the creation, disfigured and useless. An un- clean animal creates our dislike still more, for, instead of DI proving useful in any way, it is merely a moving pollution. i But an unclean human being excites our loathing more than - all; it presents our nature in a light so disgusting that it a. 260 GOD’S HATRED FOR SIN 261 lessens our pity for him if he be miserable, and excites in us ideas of disease, contamination, and pain. But an un- clean spirit—it is loathsome above all things, it is the soul and essence of pollution, it is the most unclean object in the universe, it is the spectacle which excites the deep dislike of God Himself. His dislike of it is the more intense, because originally it was pure and capable of making perpetual ad- vances towards divine perfection; whereas now it presents itself to His eye, robbed of all its purity, and defiled in all its powers, a fountain of pollution —Salter. GOD DOES NOT CAUSE SIN A man has a servant who is a thief, and yet the servant would be esteemed for an honest man; so, to try him, his master leaveth his purse full of money before him; if his servant steal it, is he not a thief, and does he not declare himself to be such a one? Yes, undoubtedly. And now, who made him a thief, the master or the money which was left where he might come by it? Surely neither of them, for the money is the good creature of God; and when the master put it before his servant, he did not compel him to take it and steal it. If this servant had been an honest man, he would not have touched it, or if he had taken it, he would have brought it back to his master and not have kept it; but seeing that the servant was already a thief, and had his heart given to theft, when he had the occasion to put into execution the wicked affection of his heart, he did it. And whereas he did it no sooner, that was because he had not the occasion and means; for if occasion had been sooner offered to him, and if he had found whereto to reach out his hand, he would not have kept it in; and when he began to put forth his hand, he not only then began to be a thief, but he began to declare himself what he was. As we have the example in Judas, who was a thief a long time, but he never showed it until he had an opportunity: even so, although God hath given the occasion to man to prove and try him, and to cause him to make known that which is in his heart, it followeth not therefore that God hath done 262 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD the sin or is the Author of it, or that we must impute the fault to Him and not to the man who hath committed it.— Cawdray, 1609. ~ MEN SIN UNLESS GOD RESTRAINS THEM There is a vast difference between the sun being the cause of the lightsomeness and warmth of the atmosphere, and the brightness of gold and diamonds, by its presence and positive influence; and its being the occasion of dark- ness and frost, in the night, by its motion, whereby it de- scends below the horizon. The motion of the sun is the occasion of the latter kind of events; but it is not the proper cause, efficient, or producer of them, though they are necessarily consequent on that motion, under such cir- cumstances; no more is any action of the Divine Being the cause of the evil’s wills. If the sun were the proper cause of cold and darkness, it would be the fountain of these things, as it is the fountain of light and heat: and then something might be argued from the nature of cold and darkness, to a likeness of nature in the sun; and it might be justly inferred, that the sun itself is dark and cold, and that his beams are black and frosty. But from its being the cause no otherwise than by its departure, no such thing can be inferred, but the contrary; it may justly be argued, that the sun is a bright and hot body, if cold and darkness are found to be the consequence of its withdrawment;’and the more constantly and necessarily these effects are con- nected with and confined to its absence, the more strongly does it argue the sun to be the fountain of light and heat. So, inasmuch as sin is not the fruit of any positive agency or influence of the Most High, but, on the contrary, arises from the withholding of His action and energy, and, under certain circumstances, necessarily follows on the want of His influence; this is no argument that He is sinful, or His operation evil; but, on the contrary, that He and His agency are altogether good and holy, and that He is the fountain of all holiness. It would be strange arguing, indeed, be- cause men never commit sin, but only when God leaves them eee ae = = eat “ fart ca ese es — ae — SAI Oh a ee Ne a ge a ee en ee Ne eT GOD’S HATRED FOR SIN 263 to themselves, and necessarily sin when He does so, that therefore their sin is not from themselves, but from God; and so, that God must be a sinful being: as strange as it would be to argue, because it is always dark when the sun is gone, and never dark when the sun is present, and there- fore all darkness is from the sun, and that his disk and beams must needs be black.—Jonathan Edwards, 1637-1716. GOD PERMITS BUT DOES NOT APPROVE OF SIN The wisdom of God is seen in this, that the sins of men shall carry on God’s work; yet that He should have no hand in their sin. The Lord permits sin, but doth not ap- prove it. He hath a hand in the action in which sin is, but not in the sin of the action. As in the crucifying of Christ, so far as it was a natural action, God did concur; if He had not given the Jews life and breath, they could not have done it: but as it was a sinful action, so God abhorred it. A musician plays upon a viol out of tune: the musician is the cause of the sound, but the jarring and discord is from the viol itself. So men’s natural motion is from God, but their sinful motion is from themselves. A man that rides on a lame horse, his riding is the cause why the horse goes, but the lameness is from the horse itself. Herein is God’s wisdom, the sins of men shall carry on His work, yet He hath no hand in them.—Watson, 1696. GOD IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF SIN God is no more the Author of sin than the sun is the cause of ice; but it is in the nature of water to congeal into ice when the sun’s influence is suspended to a certain degree. So there is sin enough in the hearts of men to make the earth the very image of hell, and to prove that men are no better than incarnate devils, were He to: suspend His in- fluence and restraint. Sometimes, and in some instances, He is pleased to suspend it considerably; and, so far as He does, human nature quickly appears in its true colors—~ Newton, 1725-1807. 2964 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD THE PURITY OF GOD Any ethical system which teaches that God is so pure that there is a vast void between Him and the needy, sinful soul, and which has a tendency to make men fear to go to Him on account of His great purity, is a false system. God’s purity is one of His most glorious attributes, but it is used to slander and misinterpret His nature. A right view of God is one which presents Him as a Being who, just in: the proportion that we are impure, draws us to Him that we may be purified. When a man is hungry, he looks for him who has the loaf. When a man is sick, he looks for him who has the medicine. When a man is perishing in the stream, and has struggled to the shore, and cannot get out, he cries to him who has strength. The soul that is sinful goes to Him who has purity to be.cleansed. And a view that presents any other God but One who says, “Behold, in Me is your salva- tion,” is a false view. Any view which presents God as a Being whose justice shallemake sinners, who wish to return to Him, unable to do so, is a false view. Public sentiment and public law are like ramparts around a city. As long as a man is inside of the ramparts, they defend him, but the moment he is outside of them, they treat him as an enemy, and he cannot get back, but is exposed to the sweep of artillery. As long as a man stands inside of the ramparts of public sentiment and law, he gets along well enough, but the moment he chances to get outside of them, allemen declare him to be an outcast. You might as well attempt to climb up the steep sides of Mount Sinai, as up the human heart when it has set itself to punish those who have done wrong. Public sentiment and law may save a man before he has done wrong, but they damn him after he has done wrong. But not so with God. The way to Him is down hill. Up hill is down hill if it be toward God! If we are in danger, in Him is safety. If we have done wrong, in Him is the remedy. He is the sun that shows us, when we are in darkness, where to go; He is the bright and morning star — ~GOD’S HATRED FOR SIN 265 that makes our dawn and twilight come to us; He is our way; He is our staff; He is our shepherd; He is our scep- tered king, to defend us from our adversaries ; He is All, in all, to all !—-Beecher. SIN MAY GRIEVE AWAY GOD’S SPIRIT The obstinacy of Pharaoh was properly his own. It is true, we are assured that God hardened his heart; but we are not thereby warranted to suppose that God is the Author of the sin, which He hates and forbids. It is written again, that “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man,” and the scripture is to be interpreted con- sistently with itself. It would be absurd to ascribe dark- ness or ice to the agency of the sun, though both inevitably follow if the light and heat of the sun be withdrawn to a certain degree. A degree of heat is necessary to keep water in that state of fluidity which we commonly suppose essential to its nature; but it is rather essential to the nature of water to harden into ice, if it be deprived of the heat which is necessary to preserve it in a fluid state; and the hardest metals will melt and flow like water, if heat be proportionably increased. Thus it is with the heart of fallen man. In whatever degree it is soft and impressive, capable of feeling and tenderness, we must attribute it to the secret influence of the Father and Fountain of light; and if He is pleased to withdraw His influence, nothing more is needful to its complete indurationNewton, 1725- 1807. GOD LOVES SINNERS BUT HATES SIN A mariner in a storm would very fain save his goods, but, to save the ship, he heaves them overboard. A tender- hearted mother corrects her child, whereas the stripes are . deeper in her heart than in its flesh. As it was said by a judge about to give sentence of death upon an offender, “I do that good which I would not:” thus God, more loving than the careful mariner, more tender than the indulgent ‘966 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD mother, and more merciful than the pitiful judge, is will- "ingly unwilling that any sinner should die. He punisheth no man, as he is a man, but as he isa sinful man. He loves him, yet turns him over to justice. It is God’s work to punish, but it is withal His “strange work,” His strange and foreign act, not “His good will and pleasure,” His nature and property being to have mercy on all men.— Spencer, 1658. GOD’S EYE ALWAYS ON SIN How dreadful is the eye of God on him who wants to sin! Do you know about Lafayette, that great man who was the friend of Washington? He tells us that he was once shut up in a little room in a gloomy prison for a great while. In the door of his little cell was a very small hole cut. At that hole, a soldier was placed day and night to watch him. All he could see was the soldier’s eye; but that eye was always there. Day and night, every moment when he looked up, he always saw that eye. Oh! he says, it was dreadful! There was no escape, no hiding: when he lay down, and when he rose up, that eye was watching him. — How dreadful will the eye of God be upon the sinner, as it — watches him in the eternal world forever !—Dr. J. Todd. ~ ie ER ON Te tet THE INDWELLING OF GOD GOD’S INDWELLING A HEAVEN How far from here to heaven? Not very far, my friend; A single hearty step Will all thy journey end, Hold there! where runnest thou? Know heaven is in thee! Seekest thou for God elsewhere? His face thou’lt never see. —Angelus Silesius. FILLED WITH ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD To creatures made in God’s image, and renewed in God’s image, God Himself must ever be the standard of com- Be pleteness. Between God and all His creatures there is, we . feverently acknowledge, a vast difference; but the pitcher _ May be full as well as the river, and the hand may be full as well as the storehouse. There is a fullness which is as _ teally the attribute of that which in capacity is small, as of _ that which in capacity is infinite. The sweet little flower | “forget-me-not,” is as full of color as the bright blue sky over its tiny head. The vine of the cottager may be as full of fruit as the vineyard of the wealthy vine-grower. _ The baby which smiles on its mother’s breast may be as. _ full of joy as the seraph before the throne. The vast dif- | ference which exists between God’s nature and ours does Not prevent that nature in some respects being a standard. The fullness of man may be as the fullness of God. God is full, and man in his capacity may be full as God.—S. | (Martin. ae 267 068 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD e EVIDENCES OF GOD'S INDWELLING You go past the dwelling of your neighbor. The door ; +5 closed that is wont hospitably to be opened. The windows — are all shut. The curtains are down, There is no sound of pleasure in the yard. There is no coming or going of in- \ dustrious feet. And you say, “The master is gone.” Did ‘ you see him go? You did not. Have you searched the ' house? You have not. But there were certain tokens ‘ when he was present by which you judged he was there. — To-morrow you go past the same dwelling again, and the ~ door stands open, the windows are no longer closed, the curtains are rolled up, there are merry sounds ringing in the house and in the yard, and there is smoke rising from © the chimney. Now there is quite a different state of things ; and you say, “Ah! the father has got home.” Because — there are so many things that indicate it. These effects | are evidences to you that he is present. Now, the same thing is true of the chamber, the dwelling of a man’s soul. — When God is present, certain things bear witness, and the © witnessing of these things is evidence of God present with — us, and-it is to be taken as a manifestation of that presence. ‘ ——Beecher. AT HOME WITH GOD His thoughts, His will, His love, His judgments are men’s home. To think His thoughts, to choose His will, to judge His judgments, and thus to know that He is in us, with us, is to be at home. And to pass through the valley of the shadow of death is the way home, but only thus, that as — all changes have hitherto led us nearer to this home, the © knowledge of God, so this greatest of all outward changes— for it is but an outward change—will surely usher us into | a region where there will be fresh possibilities of drawing nigh in heart, soul, and mind to the Father of us all—_ George MacDonald. | ee ee SS ~er THE INDWELLING OF GOD 269 “AUGUSTINE FOUND GOD WITHIN I sought Thee at a distance, and did not know that Thou wast near. I sought Thee abroad, and behold Thou wast within me.—St. Augustine. ~ RECEPTACLES OF GOD We would be receptacles of Thine influence. As the sun shines in the dewdrop according to its measure, so shine in us. Fill the whole of our little orbs with Thy presence, so that Thy life shall augment ours, and sustain it—Beecher. sce % OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD GOD TO US AS SUN TO FLOWERS When the sun shines bright and warm, all the flowers of the field open and display their leaves, to receive him into their bosoms; but, when night comes, they fold to- gether, and shut up all their glories: and, though they were like so many little suns shining here below, able, one would think, to force a day for themselves; yet, when the sun withdraws his beams, they droop, and hang the head, and stand neglected, dull and obscure things, So hath it fared with us: while God hath shone upon us with warm and cherishing influences, we opened, and spread, and flour- ished into a great pomp and glory; but He only hides His face, draws in His beams, and all our beautiful leaves shut up or fall to the ground, and leave us a bare stalk, poor and contemptible—Bp. Hopkins. WHY GOD ALLOWS TRIALS God often lets His people reach the shore as on the planks of a shipwrecked vessel. He deprives us of the cisterns sn order to make us drink out of the fountains of waters. He frequently takes away our supports, not that we may fall to the ground, but that He may Himself become our rod and our staff. The embarrassments of His people are only the festive scaffoldings on which His might, His faith- fulness, and His mercy celebrate their triumphs.—Krum- macher. | TRUSTED HIS OWN STRENGTH William Rufus, having seen the coast of Ireland from some rocks in North Wales, said, “I will summon hither all the ships of my realm, and with them make a bridge — to attack that country.” This threatening being reported to Murchard, Prince of Leinster, he paused a moment, and 270 Sn “arene a 4 ee ot a —_———— >-- OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD 271 then said, “Did the king add to this mighty threat, if God please?” On being assured he made no mention of God in his speech, he replied, “Sure that man puts his trust in human, not in divine power, I fear not his coming.” —Buck. ai ‘THERESA’S TRUST IN GOD God and one man constitute a majority—Anon.—God is multitudinous above all the nations of the earth.—Beech- er.—“A penny and Theresa are nothing, but a penny and God are everything,” was St. Theresa’s motto on founding a grand monastery.—Foster, GOD NEEDED EVERYWHERE The Rev. John Newton sometimes said, he had received more damage at his own door than in all the countries he had been in abroad, for he had twice fallen down the steps at his own door, each time spraining a knee. So much injury he had never received abroad. Such a fact shows clearly the necessity of our always living as if exposed to danger, and thus committing ourselves to the Divine pro- tection.—Arvine. LIFE NOTHING WITHOUT GOD Let us gratefully remember that God infuses into our perishable frame a spiritual power, which can acknowledge the truth of His existence, adore the redundant plenitude of His perfections, rely on His goodness, fear His justice, and aspire to His immortality. By the principle of analogy, as our material form shall return to its mother earth, so our spiritual part shall return unto its Creator. This, in- deed, is a proud distinction which brings into contact and alliance the spiritual part of man with the supreme and primitive greatness, God! Let then the wise man speak with derision of every state and condition of life, since, _ wherever we cast our view, we behold the funereal gloom of death hovering over our brightest hours. Let the wise man equalize the fool and the sage; let him even confound 272 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD the lord of the earth with the beast of the field: for if we look at man but through the medium of a coarse corporeal ‘eye, what do we behold in his fugitive existence but folly, solicitude, and disappointment? and what do we behold in ~ his death but an expiring vapor, or a machine whose springs are deranged, and which lose the power of action? Do ye wish to save anything from this total ruin? Cast your affection as an anchor on God!—Funeral Oration for Hen- rietta of Orleans. By Bossuet. ' WE SHOULD WORK AS WELL AS TRUST A little story is told of Christmas Evans, the celebrated Welsh preacher, and his diligent, thrifty, common-sense wife. One day she reminded him that the potato patch needed: some attention; but he said, “O Catherine, never mind the potatoes; just put your trust in Providence, and all will be well.” She replied: “T’ll tell you what we'll do, Christmas; you go and sit down on Moelly Gest (a neighboring mountain), waiting for Providence, and I’ll go and hoe the potatoes, and we'll see to which of us Providence will first come.”— Rev. E. 5. Lorenz. DRUMMOND—THE SOUL’S FEELERS The protoplasm in man has a capacity for God. In this lies its receptivity. The chamber is ready to receive the new life. The Guest is expected, and, till He comes, is missed. Till then the soul longs and yearns, wastes and pines, waving its tentacles piteously in the empty air, feeling after God. It is now agreed that the universal language of the human soul has always been, “I perish with hunger.”— Natural Law in the Spiritual World, p. 300. WE CANNOT TRUST TO CHANCE It has been wisely observed, that we require the same hand to protect us in apparent safety as in the most immi- ‘nent danger. One of the most wicked men in the neigh- OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD 273 borhood of a pious minister, from whom this account was derived, was riding near a precipice, and fell over: his horse was killed, but he escaped unhurt. Instead of thank- ing God for his deliverance, he refused to acknowledge His hand in it, and attributed his escape to chance. The same man was afterwards riding on a very smooth road; his horse suddenly tripped and fell, threw his rider over his head, and killed him on the spot while the horse escaped uninjured. —Arvine, LONELINESS WITHOUT GOD This yearning for an infinite Father, this feeling of lone- liness in the universe*-without the idea of God, is certainly an important moral factor in the question of probability.— Curtis. THE MOTHERHOOD OF GOD Naturally as the new-born draws nourishment from its mother’s breast, so the heart of man takes hold on God in surrounding nature.—Jacobi. FARRAGUT’S TRUST IN GOD The same great God who has thus far preserved me will still preside over my destiny. It is our place to submit pa- tiently to His will, and do our duty. Our lives are always in the hands of a Supreme Ruler. Pray to God to give you good understanding and keep you from evil and protect you from harm. . . . I shall go to church to-morrow and try to return suitable thanks for the many blessings bestowed upon me.—Farragut, in a letter to his son. GENERAL HAIG’ FAITH IN GOD An interesting incident, which illustrates the Christian faith of a great general, as well as the value of the army chaplain’s ministry in hours of actual crisis, is related by Major James M. Black, of Edinburgh, brother of Rev. 274 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD Hugh Black and a chaplain with the British forces. Writing _ toa friend, he said: “Two Sundays ago—the dark Sunday _ of the German push—I was at general headquarters. Sir i: Douglas Haig was very quiet. He came up and thanked — me afterwards for the comfort I had given him, and he _ remarked: ‘Remember, the battle is not ours, but God’s.’ He is a sincere Christian.”—Missionary Review of the World. BENEFITS OF (TRUSTING GOD GOD GIVES LIGHT AND JOY He who climbs above the cares of the world and turns his face to his God has found the sunny side of life. The world’s side of the hill is chill and freezing to a spiritual mind, but the Lord’s presence gives a warmth of joy which turns winter into summer.—Charles H. Spurgeon. TRUST IN GOD BRINGS COMFORT Among the countless general orders given out by com- manders of great armies during recent years, there is per- haps none more significant than this statement from General Pershing, commander-in-chief of the American expedi- tionary force: “Hardship will be your lot, but trust in God will give you comfort; temptation will befall you, but the teachings of our Savior will ge you strength. Let your valor as a soldier and your conduct as a man be inspiration to your comrades and honor to your country.”—Selected, REST FOUND ONLY IN GOD God is the only sure foundation on which the mind can rest—S. Irenzus Prime. GOD FILLS THE EMPTY HOURS Seek God in those hours which have appeared to you so empty, and they will become full to you,—for He will Himself sustain you in them.—Feénelon, LOVE FOR GOD DRIVES OUT EVIL Love for God is the ruling energy. This, like Aaron’s rod of old, swallows up all evil enchantments of the heart. 275 276 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD It enters the sacred temple within, and, like another Mes- ‘siah, it expels every lurking desecration forthwith. It is a flame which not only lights up the dark chambers of the soul, but transmutes into its own pure essence all its ele- ments of feeling and of thought—Dr. Thomas. GOD’S FAVOR IS ENDURING A little, with the blessing of God upon it, is better than a great deal, with the encumbrance of His curse; His bless- ing can multiply a mite into a talent, but His curse will shrink a talent into a mite; by Him the arms of the wicked are broken, and by Him the righteous are upholden; so that the great question is, whether He be with or against us, and the great misfortune is, that this question is seldom asked. The favor of God is to them that obtain it a better and en- during substance, which, like the widow’s barrel of oil, wasted not in the evil days of famine, nor will fail—Bishop G. Horne. GOD CANNOT BE ELIMINATED What is the plain man to think as to God? This is a very important question. Years ago it was written that “the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” The query of the twentieth century is, Has not the wisdom of the modern world relegated to a bygone age the kind of God our fathers worshiped? Such a question is unsettling, it is bewildering. And it has its disastrous effects. Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, sometime premier of Great Britain and one of the British Empire’s leading statesmen, has ap- proached this question with the results of ripe scholarship at his command, but with the ordinary man in mind.* Those who read his noted work on “The Foundations of Belief,” that appeared a few years ago, will know something of the ability, the intellectual acumen, and the clarity of insight that he would bring to such a study. We hasten to give his conclusions as stated in his declared purpose, which was “to show that all we think best in *Theism and Humanism. By Arthur James Balfour. George H. Doran Co.: New York. Price $1.75, net. BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD Q7T human culture, whether associated with beauty, goodness, or knowledge, requires God for its support, that humanism without theism loses more than half its value.” In estab- lishing his position he reviews the results of human thought in esthetics, ethics, science, and philosophy. He does not discuss these in their methods, but takes their conclusions and insists that unity, some great root principle, must run through all, binding together the most diverse material. Only thus is it possible to “maintain the value of our highest beliefs and emotions.” “We must find for them a congruous origin.” He strikes a conclusive blow at mechan- ism and naturalism in these words: “Beauty must be more than an accident. The source of morality must be moral. The source of knowledge must be rational. If this be granted, you rule out mechanism, you rule out naturalism, you rule out agnosticism, and a lofty form of theism be- comes, as I think, inevitable.’”—Selected. EARTHLY OBJECTS DISAPPOINT The objects of human desire and ambition are very fair, and at a distance promise very well to him who can come up with them. But the pursuit of them (and the whole natural life of man is one long pursuit) is like the country- man’s chase after the rainbow. He thought that one limb of the bright arch rested in the field close to him, but when he had cleared the hedge, and come up to the spot.on which it seemed to rest, the rainbow had adjourned into another field. Even so these various earthly objects of desire or ambition, one after another disappoint those who attain them; their prismatic colors all vanish when we come up close to them, they are found to have their anxieties and their troubles (not the least of which is the precarious tenure of them), and some new rainbow is seen ahead, two or three fields off, to lure us into a pursuit which turns out to be as fruitless as the former. Must it ever be so? Is there no really satisfactory object in which the soul of man may find a full and perfect contentment? Assuredly there is. Our Creator does not mock and baffle us by implanting 278 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD strong instincts in our nature, and great yearnings after happiness, which have nothing corresponding to them. In the knowledge of God, in the appreciation of God, in the enjoyment of God, in communion with God, but in nothing short of this, man can find rest —Goulburn, WHY EARTHLY THINGS CANNOT SATISFY And now is the question asked, Why is this world un- satisfying? Brethren, it is the grandeur of the soul which God has given us, which makes it insatiable in its desires— with an infinite void which cannot be filled up. A soul which was made for God, how can the world fill it? If the ocean can be still with miles of unstable waters beneath it, then, the soul of man, rocking itself upon its own deep longings, with the Infinite beneath it, may rest. We were created once in majesty,,to find enjoyment in God, and if our hearts are empty now, there is nothing for it but to fill up the hollowness of the soul with God. Let not that expression—filling the soul with God—pass away without a distinct meaning. God is love and goodness. Fill the soul with goodness, and fill the soul with love, that is the filling it with God. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us. There is nothing else that can satisfy— F. W. Robertson, 1816-1853. THE SOUL’S INSTINCT FOR GOD As when I hunger, my hunger says that there is food; as when my eye was made, that eye said that there was light to match it and to meet it; so in the higher realms of experience, I do know that certain struggles and yearnings, certain mute wants, certain indefinite and indescribable experiences, all point to something higher than I am. What is it that the vine seeks, day by day, struggling through the leaves, and twining itself upon whatever comes in its way? Is it support? It would be just as well sup- ported if it lay on the ground. Why does the vine go still twining up? It is because it is in love with the light. Why BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD 279, is it that men’s souls twine, and rise, and aspire? Is it instinct? What is instinct but this: that there is something in the nature of the soul which reaches out after a stimulus which it feels, as the plant grows toward the light which looks upon it and stimulates it? As everything in the vege- table kingdom reaches toward the sun, so the soul reaches toward God. He yearns for us, and we reach out toward Fim.—Beecher, GOD OFTEN A LAST RESOURCE How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven. —Geo. MacDonald. A LITTLE WITH GOD CAN SATISFY A little, with the blessing of God upon it, is better than a great deal, with the encumbrance of His curse; His blessing can multiply a mite into a talent, but His curse will shrink a talent into a mite; by Him the arms of the wicked are broken, and by Him the righteous are upholden: so that the great question is, whether He be with or against us, and the great misfortune is, that this question is seldom asked. The favor of God is to them that obtain it a better and enduring substance, which, like the widow’s barrel of oil, wasted not in the evil days of famine, nor will fail— Bp. Horne. GOD MORE THAN GOLD It was the saying of a wise Roman, “I had rather have the esteem of the Emperor Augustus than his gifts:” for he was an understanding prince, and his favor very honor- able. When Cyrus gave one of his friends a kiss, and another a wedge of gold, he that had the gold envied him that had the kiss as a greater expression of his favor. So the true Christian prefers the privilege of acceptance with 280 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD God to the possession of any earthly comfort, for in the light of his countenance is life, and his favor is as the cloud of the latter rain —Buck. GOD THE BEST COMPANION Resemblance to God results from our intimacy with him. “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” But while a “companion of fools shall be destroyed, he that walketh with wise men shall be wise.” We soon assume the manners of those with whom we are familiar, especial- ly if the individual be a distinguished personage, and we preéminently revere and love him. Upon this principle, the more we have to do with God the more we shall grow into His likeness and “be followers of Him as dear children.” —Jay. : FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD Never shall we be lonely, never have to complain of want of companionship, if we acquire this blessed habit of talking with God. There was an old Scotchman sitting by his humble fire, and a visitor asked him if he was not lonesome sitting there all day, and he said, “Nae, nae, I just sit here clacking wi’ Jesus.” When we say that “clack- ing” is with the Scotch the word for friendly talking, our ¢ readers will not suppose there was irreverence in the old man’s words; perhaps they may see something to be envied as well as admired—Power. THE SOUL CAN REST ONLY IN GOD As bees can never stay upon any corrupt thing, but only stop among the flowers, so no creature can ever satisfy your heart, for it can never rest but in God alone; God not being willing that our hearts should find any resting-place, no more than the dove which went out of Noah’s ark, to the end it may return to Himself from whom it proceeded De Sales. . BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD 281 ’ CASTING OUR CARES ON GOD If a king should promise one a living whilst he lived, it would lessen his carefulness for earthly things. How much more should God’s promise make us careless for worldly things, seeing He is the King of all kings!—Cawdray. GOD'S FAVOR MORE THAN THIS WORLD All the world without God’s favor cannot make a man happy. What will it profit us if the whole world smile upon us, and God frown and be angry with us? All the candles in the world cannot make it day, nay all the stars shining together cannot dispel the darkness of night nor make it day, unless the sun shines; so whatever comforts we have of a higher or lower nature, they cannot make it day with a gracious heart, unless God’s face shine upon us, for He can blast all in an instant. A prisoner is never the more secure, though his fellows and companions applaud, and tell him his cause is good, and that he shall escape, when he that is judge condemns him, Though we have the good word of all the world, yet if the Lord speak not peace to our souls, and shine not upon our consciences, what will the good word of the world do?—Manton, 1620-1667. WITHOUT GOD ALL IS CHAOS The being of a God is the guard of the world; the sense of a God is the foundation of civil order; without this there is no tie upon the consciences of men. What force would there be in oaths for the decision of controversies, what right could there be in appeals made to one that had no being? A city of atheists would be a heap of confusion; there could be no ground of any commerce, when all the sacred bonds of it in the consciences of men were snapt asunder, which are torn to pieces and utterly destroyed by denying the existence of God. What magistrate could be secure in his standing? What private person could be se- cure-in his right? Can that, then, be a truth that is destruc- tive of all public good ?—Charnock. 282 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD GOD ALONE CAN SATISFY A man that is hungry finds his stomach still craving. Something he wants, without which he cannot be well. Give him music, company, pictures, houses, honors, yet there fol- lows no satisfaction (these are not suitable to his appetite), still his stomach craves; but set before this man some wholesome food, and let him eat, and his craving is over. So it is with man’s soul as with his body; the soul is full of cravings and longings, spending itself in sallies out after its proper food. Give it the credit, and profits, and pleasures of the world, and they cannot abate its desire; it craves still (for these do not answer the soul's nature, and therefore cannot answer its necessity) ; but once set God before it, and it feeding on Him, it is satisfied; its very inordinate, dogged appetite after the world is now cured. He, tasting His manna, tramples on the onions of Egypt: “He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but he that drink- eth of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst.” —Swinnock, 1773. ASSURANCE IN TRUSTING GOD In his autobiography, Robert Louis Stevenson tells of a day in his childhood when he accidentally locked himself in a a dark room. He could not turn the key to release him- self, and he was in terror by reason of imagined enemies, until his father came to the door and called to him. Then he became quiet. In a little while the music of his father’s voice made him forget his surroundings and his terrors. And he actually enjoyed the remaining time of his impris- onment before the coming of the locksmith. So we may bear terrors, difficulties, dangers—every untoward thing— as we remember that God is with us, Who speaks reassur- ingly —Rev. F. S. Corbett. GOD SUPPLIES EVERY NEED He that hath God for his portion shall have all other things cast into his store, as paper and packthread are cast — BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD 283 into the bargain, or as a handful of corn is cast into the corn you try, or as hucksters cast in an over-cast among the fruit you try, or as an inch of measure is given unto an ell of cloth. Matt. 6:25, 31-33. O sirs, how can that man be poor, how can that man want, that hath the Lord of heaven and earth for his portion? Surely he cannot want light that enjoys the sun, nor he cannot want bread that hath all sorts of grain in his barns, nor he cannot want water that hath the fountain at his door; no more can he want any- thing that hath God for his portion, who is everything, and who will be everything to every gracious soul. O sirs! the thought, the tongue, the desire, the wish, the conception, all fall short of God, and of that great goodness that He hath laid up for them that fear Him, and why then should they be afraid of wants ?—Brooks. TRUE HAPPINESS FOUND IN GOD While earthly objects are exhausted by familiarity, the thought of God becomes to the devout man continually brighter, richer, vaster; derives fresh luster from all that he observes of nature and Providence, and attracts to itself all the glories of the universe. The devout man, especially in moments of strong religious sensibility, feels distinctly that he has found the true happiness of man. He has found a being for his veneration and love, whose character is inexhaustible, who, after ages shall have passed, will stall be uncomprehended in the extent of His perfections, and will still communicate to the pure mind stronger proofs of His excellence, and more intimate signs of His approval._— Channing. fn GOD BRINGS SPRING-TIME TO THE SOUL It is with God and the soul as between the sun and the earth. In the decline of the year, when the sun seems to draw afar off from us, how doth the earth mourn and droop; how do the trees cast off the ornament of their leaves and fruits; how doth the sap of all plants run down to the roots, leaving the bare boughs seemingly sere and dead! But, at the manifestation of it in the rising of the f 984 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD spring, all things seem revived; the earth decks herself in the fresh habiliments of blossoms, leaves, and flowers, to en- tertain those comfortable heats and influences. So, and no q more, in the declining and approach of this all-glorious Sun of Righteousness; in His presence there 4s life and blessed- ness, in His absence nothing but grief, disconsolateness, and 4 despair. If an earthly being do but withdraw himself from — us for a time, we are troubled; how much more if the King of glory shall absent Himself from us in displeasure !— malters) ALL ORDER COMES FROM GOD The accusations of conscience evidence the omniscience | and the holiness of God; the terrors of conscience, the jus- tice of God; the approbations of conscience, the goodness of God. All the order in the world owes itself, next to the providence of God, to conscience; without it the world would be a Golgotha. As the creatures witness there was a first cause that produced them, so this principle in man evidenceth itself to be set by the same hand for the good of that which it had so framed. There could be no conscience :¢ there was no God, and man could not be a rational crea- By ture if there were no conscience.—Charnock. fs EARTHLY PLEASURES LIKE MOONLIGHT As he that walketh in the sun careth not whether the 3 moon shine or no, because he hath no need of her light: @ even so, when a man hath found the heavenly riches, he careth not for earthly riches——Cawdray, 1609. ALL THINGS LITTLE COMPARED TO ETERNITY Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you 4 little in comparison with eternal realities—R. M. Mc- 7 Cheyne. : GOD NECESSARY TO MAN) If God were not a necessary being of Himself, He might 4 almost seem to be made for the use and benefit of men.— ¢ - Tillotson. BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD 285 GOD MAKES SOME MEN GREAT Some must be great. Great offices will have Great talents. And God gives to every man The virtue, temper, understanding, taste, _ That lifts him into‘ life, and lets him fall Just in the niche he was ordained to fill. , Siu —Cowper. GOD MAKES GREAT LEADERS The fire of God Fills him. I never saw the like; there live No greater leader. f . —Tennyson. PRAISE Gop! Praise God, from whomeall blessings flow! Praise Him, all. creatures here below! Praise Him above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. _ —Thomas Ken. ACQUAINT THYSELF WITH GOD By Mrs. F. A. Breck Job 22 :21-28 Acquaint thyself with God, O Soul, And good shall come to thee; His words.shall be as Ophir gold,— He thy defense shall be. Thou shalt delight thyself in Him, And offer prayer and praise; He will establish thy decree, Send light upon thy ways. O friend, acquaint thyself with God, Let Him his peace impart, © And His abounding mystery-joy Find run-ways in thy heart! 286 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD GOD ALONE CAN GIVE STRONG MEN God, give us men. The time demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and willing hands. —J. G. Holland. GOD A BULWARK AND FORTRESS A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing; - Our helper He amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing. —Luther. TRANSFORMING POWER OF GOD Out of the knottiest timber God can make the vessels of mercy for service in the high palace of glory —Rutherford. GODLINESS PRODUCES CLEANLINESS Cleanliness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God.—Bacon. A CURE FOR DISCOURAGEMENT It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his helper is omnipotent.—Jeremy Taylor. GOD AN EVER PRESENT FRIEND # In the changes of things you will find a past and a fu- ture; in God you will find a present where past and future cannot be.—St. Augustine. GOD ALWAYS WITH US On every Mohammedan tombstone the inscription begins — with the words, “He remains.’ This applies to God, and ~ gives sweet comfort to the bereaved. Friends may die, for- tune fly away, but God endures—He remains.—Perrine. BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD 287 GOD OUR LIGHT AND LIFE God with us, and all things in God, is light in darkness, life in death.—Cecil, GOD GAVE HAYDN OVERWHELMING JOY When the poet Carpani inquired of his friend Haydn how it happened that his church music was always so cheer- ful, the great composer made a most beautiful TEP yoy ok cannot,” said he, “make it otherwise; I write according to the thoughts I feel. Whert I think upon God my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap, as it were, from my pen; and since God has given me a cheerful heart, it will be pardoned me that I serve Him with a cheerful spirit.” — Baxendale. WHAT GOD IS TO US What wings are to the bird, oil to the wheels, weights to the clock, and the loadstone to the needle, that are the dis- coveries and smiles of God to the soul at its conversion.— Brooks. GOD EVERYTHING TO HIS CHILDREN It is no wonder that, when God would reveal Himself, He _ Soes out of our common speaking one to another, and ex- _presseth Himself in a way peculiar to Himself, and such as is suitable and proper to His own nature and glory. Hence as when He speaks of Himself, and His own eternal es- sence, He saith—“I am that I am;” so when He speaks of Himself, with reference to His creatures, and especially to Fis people, He saith—“I Am.” He doth not say—“I am their friend, their father, or their protector.” He doth not _say—"T am their light, their life, their guide, their strength, or tower ;” but only “I Am.” He sets, as it were, His hand to a blank, that His people may write under it what they please, that is good for them. As if He should say—‘‘Are _ they weak? I am strength. Are they poor? I am riches. _ Are they in trouble? I am comfort. Are they sick? I am 288 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD health. Are they dying? Iam life. Have they nothing? I q am all things. I am wisdom and power, I am justice and mercy, I am grace and goodness, I am glory, beauty, holi- — ness, eminency, super-eminency, perfection, all-sufficiency, — eternity, Jehovah. Whatsoever is suitable to their nature, — or convenient for them in their several conditions, that Iam. © Whatsoever is amiable in itself, or desirable unto them, that Iam. Whatsoever is pure and holy, whatsoever is great or — pleasant, whatsoever is good or needful to make men happy, ~ that Iam.” So that, in short, God here represents Himself _ unto us as an universal good, and leaves us to make the ap- — plication of it to ourselves, according to our several wants, q capacities, and desires, by saying only in general—“I Am.” — —Bp. Beveridge. q SEEKING AFTER GOD FOUND GOD AFTER DESPAIRING “T have heard,” says Mr. Daniel Wilson, in a sermon of his, “of a certain person, whose name I could mention, who was tempted to conclude his day over, and himself lost; that, therefore, it was his best course to put an end to his life, which, if continued, would but serve to increase his sin, and consequently his misery, from which there was no es- cape; and seeing he must be in hell, the sooner he was there the sooner he should know the worst; which was preferable to his being worn away with the tormenting expectation of what was to come. Under the influence of such suggestions as these, he went to a river, with a design to throw himself in; but as he was about to do it, he seemed to hear a voice saying to him, Who can tell? as if the words had been audi- bly delivered. By this, therefore, he was brought to a stand; his thoughts were arrested, and thus began to work on the passage mentioned: Who can tell (Jonah iii:9) viz., what God can do when he will proclaim his grace glo- _ tious? Who can tell but such an one as I may find mercy? _ or what will be the issue of humble prayer to heaven for it? _ Who can tell what purposes God will serve in my recovery? a By such thoughts as these, being so far influenced as to _ resolve to try, it pleased God graciously to enable him, through all his doubts and fears, to throw himself by faith on Jesus Christ, as able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him, humbly desiring and expecting mercy for his sake, to his own soul. In this he was not disap- pointed; but afterwards became an eminent Christian and minister; and from his own experience of the riches of _ Stace, was greatly useful to the conversion and comfort of others.—Arvine. 289 290 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD AS THE HART PANTETH AFTER THE WATER-BROOKS Once a king, in crossing the desert in a lone caravan, was — parched with thirst. Dreadful is that dry and thirsty land where no water is! The sands were strewn with the wrecks — of caravans, the skeletons of men who had died of thirst © lying in that dread cemetery, and then the cry arose, “Wa- ter, water! there is no water!” It was a fearful moment. Parched throats, and eyes hopelessly looked up to the all- too-cloudless sky along the plain; overhead, the red-hot cop- _ per sun. Then said one, “We must let loose the harts— — the light, fleet harts.” They bounded in all directions. — Keen in their instinctive scent of water, the spring was found; and then, when they sat to rest beside the beautiful — and blessed pool,—then said the king, as he took forth his _ tablets and wrote, “As the hart panteth after the water- — brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.’—E, P. Hood. % LONGING FOR GOD When my blood flows like wine, when all is ease and pros- perity, when the sky is blue, and birds sing, and flowers — blossom, and my life is an anthem moving in time and tune, then this world’s joy and affection suffice. But when a _ change comes, when I am weary and disappointed, when — the skies lower into the somber night, when there is no song of bird, and the perfume of flowers is but their dying ~ breath, when all is sunsetting and autumn, then I yearn for Him who sits with the summer of love in his soul, and feel + that all earthly affection is but a glowworm-light, compared . to that which blazes with such effulgence in the heart of q God.— Beecher. 5 GOD’S VOICE TO MANKIND Gods fade, but God abides and in man’s heart Speaks with the clear unconquerable cry Of energies and hopes that cannot die. _ —John Addington Symonds. HOW GOD IS REVEALED TO US GOD EVERYWHERE REVEALED O Lord, Thou showest thyself everywhere, and every- where inattentive men neglect to perceive Thy presence. All Nature speaks of Thee, and resounds with Thy holy name; but she speaks to men that are deaf, and who owe their deafness to the noise and distraction that they raise about themselves. Thou art near, Thou art even within them; but they wander out of themselves, and are fugitives from their own breasts.—Fénelon, 1651-1715. GOD REVEALED ONLY TO THE PURE IN HEART The Divine nature can only be made known to us through that part of our nature which is like His. You cannot imi- tate silence by making a noise. You cannot make a man have sweet tastes by giving him sour or bitter. You cannot take an opaque stone, and with it illustrate the transparency of glass or a diamond. You cannot by darkness imitate light. You must have the quality itself that you wish to make known. If that which in God is so precious were a material thing, then it might be made known to us through material organizations; but as God is infinite in love, and beauty, and wisdom, and glory, and excellence, He is to be known to us in these elements by the actual possession of the qualities themselves, as windows through which the light of heaven shines. The windows in us are to be like the heavenly windows; and the knowledges that come to us are to be brought out from the very chords which are in our bosom, and which vibrate in us.—Beecher. 291 LOVE FOR GOD GOD SHOULD BE FIRST IN OUR HEARTS We should give God the same place in our hearts that he holds in the universe. If we have God in all things while they are ours, we shall have all things in God when they are taken away.—Selected. WESLEY'S LOVE FOR GOD The aged John Wesley, a short time before his death, at- — tempted to speak, but could not make his friends under- — stand. Finally, gathering all his remaining strength, he ex- claimed, “The best of au is, God ts with us!’—Rev. E. S. Lorenz. GOD’S LOVE BEGETS OURS Some years ago two gentlemen were riding together, and, as they were about to separate, one addressed the other thus: “Do you ever read your Bible?’ “Yes, but I get no ~ benefit from it, because, to tell the truth, I feel I do not love God.” “Neither did I,” replied the other, “but God loved me.” This answer produced such an effect upon his _ friend, that, to use his own words, it was as if one had lifted him off the saddle into the skies. It opened up to his soul at once the great truth, that it is not how much I love God, but p how much God loves me.—Bertram. a A NEGRO PREACHER’S LOVE FOR GOD The freedmen exhibited great anxiety to learn to read. One of them, an old preacher, spelled out the word Gop, _ and was told that it was the name of the One he sometimes preached about. He held up his hands in surprise, exclaim- 292 LOVE FOR GOD 293 ing, “Is this the name of God, and that the way it looks when printed?” Then, brushing away his tears, he gazed upon the blessed name, saying, “Oh, blessed day! God has permitted these old eyes to see to read his name.”—Foster. GOD’S LOVE FOR ALL The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy. The lonely pine on the moun- tain-top waves its somber boughs and cries, ‘““Thou art my sun.” And the little meadow violet lifts its cup of blue, and whispers with its perfumed breath, “Thou art my sun.” And the grain in a thousand fields rustles in the wind and makes answer, “Thou art my sun.” So God sits, effulgent in heaven, not for a favored few, but for the universe of life; and there is no creature so poor or so low that he may not look up with childlike confidence and say, “My Father, Thou art mine.’’—Beecher. SERVING GOD DOING EVERYTHING TO GOD’S GLORY God should be the object of all our desires, the end of © all our actions, the principle of all our affections, and the — governing power of our whole souls—Massillon. 4 WE WERE CREATED FOR GOD’S SERVICE When the son of Fluvius was found in the conspiracy of | 7 Catiline, the displeased father reprehended him sharply, say- ing, Non ego te Catilini genut, sed patrie—‘I did not beget _ you for Catiline, but for your country.” This is the lan- — guage of God to his children: I gave you not bodies and souls to serve sin with, but to serve me with. Our bodies | were not formed to be instruments of unrighteous action, — nor our souls the gloomy abodes of foul spirits —Secker. ONLY THOSE LIVE WHO LIVE FOR GOD We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. - We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Life’s but a means unto an end; that end Beginning, mean, and end to all things,—God. —Philip James Bailey. USE YOUR STRENGTH FOR GOD Be sure that God : - | Ne’er dooms to waste the strength He deigns impart. __ —Robert Browning. 294 a SERVING GOD 295 WORK AS WELL AS PRAY Help thyself, and God will help thee-——Izaak Walton. God helps them that help themselves.—Franklin. God helps those who help themselves.—Algernon Sidney. LIVING FOR GOD Let each man think himself an act of God, His mind a thought, his life a breath of God; And let each try, by great thoughts and good deeds, To show the most of heaven he hath in him. —Philip James Bailey. THE BEST MOTTO There is no better motto which it (culture) can have than these words of Bishop Wilson, “To make reason and the will of God prevail.”—Matthew Arnold. GOD OUR MOTIVE AND OUR END From Thee, great God, we spring, to Thee we tend.— Path, motive, guide, original and end. —Johnson. WALKING WITH GOD I would rather walk with God in the dark than go alone in the light—Mary Gardiner Brainard. WE MUST BE TRUE TO GOD TO BE TRUE TO MAN He’s true to God who’s true to man.—Lowell. GIVE GOD EACH MOMENT And give to God each moment as it flies —Doddridge. 296 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD TRUST GOD AND KEEP POWDER DRY Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry.—Colonel Blocker. WE OWE ALL TO GOD If all that I am and have be from Him, I cannot surely owe Him less than all—J. Howe. LEARNING OUR DUTY I must see the face of God before I can undertake any duty.— _M’Cheyne. READING GOD'S WORD WITH PRAYER Whoever wishes to be with God ought always to pray, and often to read; for when we pray we speak to God, and when we read He speaks to us.—St. Augustine. LIVING NEAR TO GOD Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you little in comparison with eternal realities. Be as much as you can with God.—M’Cheyne. SERVE GOD CONTINUALLY God is Alpha and Omega in the great world: endeavor to make Him so in the little world: make Him thy evening epilogue and thy morning prologue; practice to make Him thy last thought at night when thou sleepest, and thy first thought in the morning when thou awakest; so shall thy ‘fancy be sanctified in the night, and thy understanding recti- fied in the day; so shall thy rest be peaceful, thy labors prosperous, thy life pious, and thy death glorious.—J. Quarles. FEAR OF GOD FEAR WHICH IS NOT REVERENCE The pagan nations have ever stood in awe of deities, whose wrath they have deprecated, but whose love they have never dared to hope for. In the East-India Museum in London, there is an elaborately carved ivory idol, from India, with twelve hands, and in every hand a different in- strument of cruelty. Papists put God far away, and trust to the intervention of priests, of saints, and of the virgin. Prayers for a man must still go on after his death, and money be paid to buy God off from his vengeance. On the door of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, in Fribourg, Switzer- land, I saw a notice requesting the prayers of the charitable for a youth who had died a few days before, “fortified by the sacraments of the church;” and, inside, a painting of sundry persons in the flames of purgatory, with a contribu- tion-box underneath, and this inscription, “Oh! rescue us; you, at least, who are our friends.’—C. D. Foss. TRUE FEAR BEGETS LOVE In all thine actions think that God sees thee, and in all his actions labor to see Him.—That will make thee fear Him, and this will move thee to love Him.—The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge, and the knowledge of God is the perfection of love——Quarles. WHY WE SHOULD FEAR GOD Each of the attributes of God are proper to raise a suit- able fear in every considerate mind: His majesty a fear, lest we affront it by being irreverent; His holiness a fear, lest we offend it by being carnal; His justice a fear, lest we 297 298 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD provoke it by being presumptuous; and His goodness a fear, lést we lose it by being unthankful—bDr. J. Young. FEAR OF GOD REMOVES ALL OTHER FEAR Submitting with respect to His holy will, I fear God, and have no other fear.—Racine. | CAST YOURSELF ON GOD'S MERCY If you fear God, cast yourself into His arms, and then His hands cannot strike you.—St. Augustine. | NEGLECTING AND OPPOSING GOD THE WORLD TRIES TO FORGET GOD Apart from clear acts of great and grievous sin, how is God forgotten, clean forgotten, by the greatest part of man- © kind. They live as if there were no God. It is not as if they openly rebelled against Him. They pass Him over and ignore Him. He is an inconvenience in His own world, an impertinence in His own creation. So He has been quietly set on one side, as if He were an idol out of fashion, and in the way. Men of science, and politicians, have agreed on this, and men of business and wealth think it altogether the most decent thing to be silent about God; for it is dif- ficult to speak of Him, or have a view of Him, without al- lowing too much to Him.—F. W. Faber. MAN’S INGRATITUDE TO GOD Manlius successfully defended the Capitol of Rome against assault and thereby won the gratitude of the citi- zens. Afterward he was condemned to death for some misdemeanor. The people remembered the favor which he had done them in saving their Capitol, and would not allow him to be slain anywhere in sight of it. They found a place in a grove by the river side, where no spire of the Capitol reminded them of their ingratitude, and there they executed him. Men who can find no place where God’s mercy reaches not do not scruple to crucify his Son afresh.— Foster. ALL CLASSES NEGLECTING GOD The high and the low, the young and the old, the busy and the idle, alike shun acquaintance with God, as if His very name brought uneasiness, and disturbed our comfort and 299 800 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD _ repose. If we mention God to the young, we too often seem to be troubling them with what they had rather forget in such early days; while the aged dislike to be reminded of their misfortune, that their time on earth is drawing near to an end. If we mention God to the gay and happy, we appear to be interfering with their pleasures. If we men- tion Him to the great and to the learned, they will intimate that such subjects belong rather to a humbler class and station. But the poor and laborious, on their part, refer us to those who have more information and more leisure. Thus, a large portion of mankind, in all classes, strive to keep God out of their thoughts, and to live, so far as in them lies, without Him in the world. Yes, without Him, who, as the Apostle says, “is not far from any one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being.” Why should they act so strangely and unreasonably, if they believed that ac- quaintance with God would give them peace.—Bishop Sum- ner. BONAVENTURA’S TEMPTATION The devil told Bonaventura that he was a reprobate and should, therefore, seek to enjoy the pleasures of this world. The saint answered, ‘‘No, not so, Satan; if I must not enjoy mi after this life, let me enjoy Him as much as I can in —Foster. DISREGARDING GOD Is God a being less to be regarded than man, and more worthy of contempt than a creature? It would be strange if a benefactor should live in the same town, in the same house, with us, and we never exchange a word with him; yet this is our case, who have the works of God in our eyes, the goodness of God in our being, the mercy of God in our daily food, yet think so little of Him, converse so lit- tle with Him, serve everything before Him, and prefer everything above Him. Whence have we our mercies but from His hand? Who, beside Him, maintains our breath at this moment? Would He call for our spirits this mo- ment, they must depart from us to attend to His command. So Se aa es ee eae = i NEGLECTING AND OPPOSING GOD 301 There is not a moment wherein our unworthy carriage is not aggravated, because there is not a moment wherein He is not our guardian and gives us not tastes of a fresh - bounty.—Charnock. MAN’S WILFULNESS TOWARD GOD It is observable how God’s goodness strives with man’s refractoriness. Man would sit down at this world, God bids him sell it and purchase a better; just as a father, who hath in his hand an apple and a piece of gold under it: the child comes, and with pulling gets the apple out of his father’s hand; his father bids him throw it away, and he will give him the gold for it, which the child utterly refus- ing, eats it and is troubled with worms; so is the carnal and wilful man with the worm of the grave in this world and the worm of conscience in the next.—Herbert. NO ONE WISE WHO NEGLECTS GOD With God there is no free man but his servant, though in the galleys; no slave but the sinner, though in a palace; none noble but the virtuous, if never so basely descended; none rich but he that possesseth God, even in rags; none wise but he that is a fool to himself and the world; none happy but he whom the world pities. Let me be free, noble, rich, wise, happy, to God.—Bp. Hall. DESIRE TO BE RID OF GOD Many men believe in the existence of a God; but they do not love that belief. They know there is a God; but they greatly wish there were none. Some would be very pleased, yea, would set the bells a-ringing, if you believed there were no God. Why, if there were no God, then you might live just as you liked; if there were no God, then you might run riot, and have no fear of future consequences. It would be to you the greatest joy that could be if you heard that the eternal God had ceased to be. But the Christian never 302 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD wishes any such a thing as that. The thought that there is a God is the sunshine of his existence.—Spurgeon. FEARING THOSE WHO FEAR NOT GOD I fear God, and next to God I chiefly fear him who fears Him not.—Saadi. FUTILITY OF RESISTING GOD As God is incapable of changing His resolves, because of His infinite wisdom, so He is incapable of being forced to any change, because of His infinite power. Being almighty, He can be no more changed from power to weakness than, being all-wise, He can be changed from wisdom to folly, or, being omniscient, from knowledge to ignorance. He can- not be altered in His purposes, because of His wisdom; nor in the manner and method of His actions, because of His in- finite strength. Men, indeed, when their designs are laid deepest and their purposes stand firmest, yet are forced to stand still, or change the manner of the execution of their resolves, by reason of some outward accidents that obstruct them in their course: for, having not wisdom to foresee fu- ture hindrances, they have not power to prevent them, or strength to remove them, when they unexpectedly interpose themselves between their desire and performance; but no created power has strength enough to be a bar against God, By the same act of His will that He resolves a thing, He can puff away any impediments that seem to rise up against Him, He that wants no means to effect his purposes can- not be checked by anything that riseth up to stand in his way; heaven, earth, sea, the deepest places are too weak to resist His will.—Charnock. THREATENING GOD Rev. G. S. Owen, missionary in China, says: “The wife of a man living at Chuen-sha, a city near Shanghai, had a severe attack of madness. At night she became especially NEGLECTING AND OPPOSING GOD 303 wild, foaming and raging terribly. The husband went at once to the temple of the city god, presented various sacri- fices and made vows; but his wife remained mad as ever. He went again and again; but to no purpose, the woman grew worse. The man got furious; he had half beggared himself by making offerings to the city god, yet his wife was no better. He would have his revenge. Away he went to the temple, and thus addressed the city god—‘You call your- self the city god, while in reality you are an evil, money- loving, unjust demon. It was my ancestors who built you this fine temple, and I have been most regular and devout in my worship; in return you have made my wife mad, and refuse to cure her. Well, now mark what I say: if she is not better within three days, I will pull you down from that pedestal, and throw you into the first ditch I can find, and there you shall rot.’ The woman got better within the pre- scribed time, and thus the god escaped the threatened pun- ishment.” Others than heathen first attempt to bribe and then to terrify their God into compliance with their schemes. PRESUMING AGAINST GOD Be not curious to search into the secrets of God; pick not the lock where He hath allowed no key. He that will be sifting every cloud may be smitten with a thunderbolt: and he that will be too familiar with God’s secrets may be over- whelmed in His judgments. Adam would curiously in- crease his knowledge; therefore Adam shamefully lost his goodness : the Bethshemites would needs pry into the ark of God; therefore the hand of God slew about fifty thousand of them. Therefore hover not about this flame, lest we scorch our wings. For my part, seeing God hath made me His secretary, I will carefully improve myself by what He __ has revealed, and not curiously inquire into or after what _ He hath reserved.Adams. | GOD IRRESISTIBLE _As-you stood some stormy day upon a sea-cliff, and marked the giant billow rise from the deep to rush on with 304 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD foaming crest, and throw itself thundering on the trem- - bling shore, did you ever fancy that you could stay its course, and hurl it back to the depths of ocean? Did you ever stand beneath the leaden, lowering cloud, and mark the lightning’s leap, as it shot and flashed, dazzling athwart the gloom, and think that you could grasp the bolt, and change its path? Still more foolish and vain his thought, who fancies that he can arrest or turn aside the purpose of God, saying, “What is the Almighty, that we should serve him ? Let us break his bands asunder, and cast away his cords from us.” Break his bands asunder! How He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh!—Dr. Guthrie. TRYING TO DENY GOD I question whether there ever was, or can be in the world, an uninterrupted and internal denial of the being of God, or that men (unless we can suppose conscience utterly dead) can arrive to such a degree of impiety; for before they can stifle such sentiments in them (whatsoever they may as- sert) they must be utter strangers to the common concep- tions of reason, and despoil themselves of their own hu- manity. He that dares to deny a God with his lips yet sets up something or other as a God in his heart. Is it not la- mentable that this sacred truth, consented to by all nations, which is the band of civil societies, the source of all order in the world, should be denied with a bare face, and dis- puted against, in companies, and the glory of a wise Creator ascribed to an unintelligent nature, to blind chance? Are not such worse than heathens ?>—Charnock. SLIGHTING GOD The Arabians offered sacrifices and other offerings to © idols as well as to God, who was also often put off with the — least portion, as Mohammed upbraids them. Thus when — they planted fruit trees, or sowed a field, they divided it by — a line into two parts, setting one apart for their idols and © the other for God; if any of the fruits happened to fall from ~ Fe OD pee eng ge ee Ee gE Ie ea NEGLECTING AND OPPOSING GOD 305 the idol’s into God’s, they made restitution; but if from God’s part into the idol’s, they made no restitution. So when they watered the idol’s grounds, if the water broke over the channels made for that purpose, and run on God’s part, they dammed it up again; but if the contrary, they let it run: on, saying, they wanted what was God’s, but he wanted nothing. In the same manner, if the offering de- signed for God happened to be better than that designed for the idol, they made an exchange, but not otherwise.— _ George Sale. GOD’S FOE NO FRIEND TO MAN A foe to God was never a true friend to man.— Young. PRESUME NOT GOD TO SCAN Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man. —Pope. FEAR GOD ALONE Henceforth the majesty of God revere; Fear Him and you have nothing else to fear. | —James Fordyce. THE CRUSHING OF MAN’S CONCEIT For what are they all in their high conceit When man in the bush with God may meet? —Emerson. VINDICATE GOD'S WAYS TO MAN Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, But vindicate God’s ways to man. —Pope. MAN POWERLESS AGAINST GOD _ Where can man boast that he has trod on him that was “the scourge of God” ?—Edward Everett. 306 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD GOD’S MILL SLOW BUT SURE God’s mill grinds slow, but sure—George Herbert. SINNING AGAINST GOD’S GRACE When the king removes, the court and all the carriages follow after; and when they are gone, the hangings are tak- en down. Nothing is left behind but bare walls, dust, and rubbish. So, if God removes from a man or a nation, where’ He kept His court, His graces will not stay behind ; and if they be gone, farewell peace, farewell comfort; down go the hangings of all prosperity, and nothing is left behind but confusion and disorder.—Dr. Stoughton. ONLY THOSE WISE AND FREE WHO SERVE GOD With God there is no free man but His servant, though in the galleys; no slave but the sinner, though in a palace; — none noble but the virtuous, if never so basely descended ; none rich but he that possesseth God, even in rags; none wise but he that is a fool to himself and the world; none happy but he whom the world pities. Let me be free, noble, rich, wise, happy to God.—Bp. Hall. INGRATITUDE TO GOD The Dead Sea drinks in the river Jordan and is none the sweeter; and the ocean all other rivers, and is none the fresher; so we receive daily mercies from God, and still remain insensible of them, unthankful for them.—Bishop Reynolds. WITHOUT GOD, WITHOUT ALL The inscription on the front of Downing Hall, North Wales, is a very suggestive one. It runs in Welsh, “Heb Dduw, heb ddim; Duw a ddigon;” and translated signifies, “Without God, without all; with God, enough.”—Guide to North Wales. > ah NEGLECTING AND OPPOSING GOD 307 GOD MERCIFUL TO HIS ENEMIES While Voltaire lived at Lausanne one of the bailies (the chief magistrates of the city) said to him, “Monsieur de Voltaire, they say that you have written against the good God; it is very wrong, but I hope He will pardon you... . But, Monsieur de Voltaire, take very good care not to write against their excellencies of Berne, our sovereign lords, for be assured that they will never forgive you.”—Smiles. MAN A MARRED MACHINE WITHOUT GOD Living without God! Do you know what that man re- sembles who does this? He is like a piece of wheel-work out of gear, or a faulty machine, which only mars what it ought to make, wounds the hand which it should help, and obliges the owner to break it up and throw it aside— Mullois. GOD CASTS DOWN THE PROUD When one asked a philosopher what the great God was doing, he replied, “His whole employment is to lift up the humble, and to cast down the proud.’—Selected. NOTHING CAN SATISFY WITHOUT GOD It was a sweet saying of one—‘‘As what I have, if of- fered to Thee, pleaseth Thee not, O Lord, without myself ; so the good things we have from Thee, though they may re- fresh us, yet they cannot satisfy us without Thyself.’”— Brooks. NOTHING CAN BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR GOD God may well be taken as a substitute for everything; but’ nothing can be taken as a substitute for God.—Dr. Davies. NO REST OUTSIDE OF GOD Lord, Thou madest us for Thyself, and we can find no rest till we find rest in Thee —St. Augustine. BLASPHEMING THE NAME OF GOD REVERENCE FOR GOD’S NAME You have often heard it said that the British philosopher Boyle never mentioned the name of God without a percep- tible pause. That is an example worth our following. And the followers of Mohammed never tread on a chance piece of paper that lies upon the ground, lest the name of Allah be written on it. Even they with their false religion know better than to play familiar with Him before whom the archangels veil their faces——F, M. Goodchild. GRANT ON SWEARING AND SAYING GRACE (Memoirs.) JI am not aware of ever having used a pro- fane expletive in my life. . . . (Addressing Chaplain Crane.) Chaplain, if it is agreeable to your views, I should be glad to have you ask a blessing every time we sit down to eat. PENNSYLVANIA LAW ON BLASPHEMY If any person shall willfully, premeditatedly and despite- fully blaspheme, or speak loosely or profanely of Almighty God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, or the Scriptures of Truth, such a person, on conviction thereof, shall be sen- tenced to pay a fine, not exceeding $100, and undergo an imprisonment, not exceeding three months, or either, at the discretion of the court. (1860.) SWEARING IN A GRAVEYARD “T will give you ten shillings,” said a man to a profane swearer, “if you will go into the village graveyard at twelve o'clock to-night and swear the same oaths you have uttered, 308 BLASPHEMING THE NAME OF GOD 309 when you are alone with God.” “Agreed,” said the man; “an easy way to make ten shillings.” ‘Well, come to-mor- row and say you have done it, and you shall have the money.” Midnight came. It was a night of great darkness. As he entered the cemetery not a sound was heard; all was still as death. The gentleman’s words came to his mind. “Alone with God!” rang in his ears. He did not dare to utter an oath, but fled from the place, crying, ‘““God be mer- ciful to me a sinner !’’—Selected. FALSE BELIEFS CONCERNING GOD PANTHEISM DEFINED The earliest and most prevalent idea seems to have been Pantheism, which means God in all things. More strictly defined, it means that God is the Soul of the Universe, and the universe is His form; that the smallest creature and the minutest particle exist by having within them a living prin- ciple which is a portion of the Universal Soul; that every object that we see was originally in the Divine Mind, and could not otherwise have come into existence, as no machine could be made without first being an idea in some human mind.—L. M. Child. PREVALENCE OF PANTHEISM No form of religious error is more dominant now than . .. Pantheism. This is the identification of God with His universe, and especially with man. The German philo- sophical spirit has spread extensively through England and this country, saying that God is only a sort of power per- vading the universe which awakens to consciousness in man. That is Pantheism, and that pervades our literature. Browning’s poems are full of it. Tennyson is tinctured with it in some places. It puzzles you to know exactly what he does mean. Carlyle shows a similar tendency.—Bishop Nicholson of the Reformed Episcopal Church, in The (Philadelphia) Press, July 10, 1899. THE GOD OF PANTHEISM The God of Pantheism is not, like the God of Deism, outside the world, but within it, its life and soul, present in everything that is or that lives; in the leaves of the trees \ 310 FALSE BELIEFS CONCERNING GOD 311 and in every blade of grass; in the bee and the bird, endow- ing them with skill to build their cell or nest; in man, in- spiring him with lofty thoughts and noble purposes.—A. B. Bruce, Apologetics, pp. 79, 80. SCHOPEN HAUER’S OBJECTION TO PANTHEISM The chief objection that I have to Pantheism is that it says nothing. To call the world “God” is not to explain it; it is only to enrich our language with a superfluous synonym for “world.” . . . However obscure, however loose or con- fused may be the idea which we connect with the word “God,” there are two predicates which are inseparable from it—the highest power and the highest wisdom. . . . It is only Jews, Christians and Mohammedans who give its proper and correct meaning to the word “God.’—A. Scho- penhauer, Religion and Other Essays, pp. 55, 57, 58. BRUNO’S IDEA OF IMMANENCE A Spirit exists in all things; and no body is so small but that it contains a part of the Divine Substance by which it is animated. FISKE’S PORTRAIT OF THE GREEK GOD They (the Greek Christians as represented by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Athanasius) regarded Deity as im- manent in the universe, and eternally operating through natural laws. In their view, God is not a localizable person- ality, remote from the world, and acting upon it only by means of occasional portent and prodigy; nor is the world a lifeless machine working after some pre-ordained method, and only feeling the presence of God in so far as He now and then sees fit to interfere. . . . On the contrary, God is the ever-present life of the world; it is through Him that all things exist from moment to moment, and the natural sequence of events is a perpetual revelation of the Divine wisdom and goodness. PROVERBS ABOUT GOD Against God’s wrath no castle is thunder-proof. All things proclaim the cariee of a God.—Napoleon. Better God than gold. Every little blade of grass declares the presence of God. —Latin. Everything has an end excepting God. Dutch, Father and mother are kind, but God is kinder.—Danish. God deals His wrath by weight but without weight His mercy. God delays but does not forget—Modern Greek. God does not pay weekly but He pays at the end.—Dutch. God extends from eternity to eternity—Aristotle. God has many names though He is only one being.— Aristotle. God is not hasty but He forgets nothing —German. God is patient because eternal—St. Augustine. God postpones, He does not overlook.—Turkish. Good is God and long is eternity. Hae God, hae a’.——Scotch. If God be with us everything that is impossible becomes possible. If God be with us who shall stand against us ?—Latin. To God’s counsel chamber there is no key.—Danish. Unless God be with us all labor is vain—Latin. Whom God will help none can hinder. What we have in us of the image of God, is the love of truth and justice—Demosthenes. Who hath God hath all, who hath Him not hath less than nothing. 312 INDEX Abbott, Lyman, Nature God’s dwelling, 16 Adams, Nehemiah, 42, 162 Adams, Presuming against God, 303 Adams, S. F., God Sends What Is Best (Poem), 219 Adams, Thomas, God’s mercy man’s only hope, 177 ‘ Addison, 12, 108 African tribes belief in God, 101 Agassiz prayed constantly, 131 &@ Kempis, Thomas, God’s goodness over all, 199 Alexander, Mrs. C. F., God’s Mysteries of Grace (Poem), 220 Alexander, J. W., God’s goodness every- where, 85 Alexander the Great’s Theism, 119 Alford, Dean, God at the Helm (Poem), 220 Alleine, Joseph, God’s government moves forward, 48 Alleine, Richard, Enjoying the presence of ~ God, 94 Allen, William C., Proofs of God’s existence, 29, 31 All Nature Has a Voice to Tell (Poem), 23 Ancient names of God, 102 ANGER OF GOD, 230 Archeology and the one God, 102 Arnold, Matthew, Faith of, in God, 115, 295 Arnot, Why men love local gods, 92 Arnot, William, In the hollow of God’s hand, 224 Arrowsmith, 28, 91, 216 Arthur, Dr. W. A., God is light, 256 Arvine, 33, 36, 40, 83, 271, 273, 289 Astronomers’ belief in God, 130 Atheists and atheism, 11, 16, 23, 25, 37, 38, 109, 115, 120, 122, 124, 127, 310 ATTRIBUTES OF GOD, 56 Augustine, St., 34, 93, 217, 228, 240, 269, 286, 296, 297, 307 Bacon, 19, 80, 123, 139, 286 Bailey, 20, 46, 295 Bailey, Philip James, Living for God, 294, 295 Balfour, A. J., God cannot be eliminated, 276 Bancroft, History proclaims God reigns, 107 Barbauld, God’s name written everywhere, 27 Barnes, God’s love greater than ours, 150 Bate, John, 83, 250 Bates, 165, 198 Baxendale, 103, 127, 287 Baxter, 61, 63, 65 Beecher, 65, 138, 145, 153, 166, 167, 170, 173, 174, 178, 183, 188, 189, 194, 199, 265, 267, 269, 279, 290, 291, 293 . Bellew, J. C. M., God’s gentleness revealed in nature, 26 BENEFITS OF TRUSTING GOD, 275 Benevolence of God, 17 Bentley, The eternity of God, 126 Berkeley, God’s providences hard to under- stand, 222 Bertram, R. A., 40, 89, 171, 200, 292 Beveridge, Bishop, God everything to his children, 288 Bible, 14, 28, 40, 77, 84, 128, 157, 158 Bismarck loyal to the King of Kings, 118 ape Correct ideas concerning God, 21 BLASPHEMING THE NAME OF GOD, 308 Blocker, Colonel, Fear God and keep powder dry, 296 Bolingbroke’s free thought Theistic, 19,1365 Bonaventura’s temptation, 300 Bossuet, Bishop, Life nothing without God, 272 Bowes, 91, 106 Bowring, Mercy Never Wanes (Poem), 183 Boys, Grace not all given at once, 174 ' Bradlaugh would not deny God, 135 Brainerd, Mary Gardiner, Walking with God, 295 ] Breck, Mrs. F. A., Acquaint Thyself with’ God (Poem), 285 = Broche, Man changes not God, 71 Brooks, Phillips, 214, 218, 283, 287, 307 Brougham, Lord, 74, 196 Browne, Sir Thomas, Everything reveals God,14 ~ Browning, Mrs., 115, 140 Browning, Robert, 19, 20, 155, 294 Browning’s Gems Concerning Deity (Poem), 114 Brown, Thomas Edward, God Walks in the Garden (Poem), 20 Bruce, A. B., The God of Pantheism, 311 Bruno’s idea of the immanence of God, 311 Bruyére, God’s existence cannot be dis- proved, 35 Bryant, William Cullen, 20, 113 Buck, 49, 279 Budgell, Sources of the knowledge of God, 97, 271 Burke, Edmund, God gives all that is best for us, 198 - Burnet, Bishop, The eye of God, 254 Burr, E. F., Greatest astronomers believed in God, 130 Bushnell, Horace, 81, 224 Caird, Dr., To have God is to have every- thing, 216 313 314 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD Cameron, God a rock, 257 Carlyle, Thomas, 17, 109, 140, 260 Carruth, William Herbert, Is there a God?, 30 Carus, Paul, His belief in God, 130 Caussin, N., 16, 57, 160 Cawdray, 51, 161, 201, 221, 258, 262, 281, 284 Cecil, God our light and life, 287 Cecil, Richard, Why God removes man’s props, 211 Chalmers pities the atheist, 26, 139 Chance, Creation not the result of, 38 Channing, True happiness found in God, 283 Channing, W. E., Inspiration of God’s presence, 94 CHARACTER OF GOD, 144 Charnock, 31, 68, 72, 83, 177, 218, 219, 281, 284, 300, 302, 304 Child, Lydia Maria, 94, 310 Chinese originally monotheists, 100 Christlieb, 97, 100 Cicero, 34, 96, 98 Clark, Marian N., God Knows Best (Poem), 77 Clarke, Samuel, God is a Spirit, 251 Cleveland, Rose, Madness not to see God in nature, 21 Coleridge, Atheism a Blind Owlet (Poem), 115 Conder, God an omnipotent King, VB Condescension of God, 195 Cook, Eliza God’s Voice in Nature (Poem), 20 Cook, Joseph, God in science, history and mind, 35 Corbett, Rev. F. S., Assurance in trusting God, 282 Cowper, 14, 20, 213, 285 Craik, D. M., God’s love the key to every- thing, 154 Creation as evidence of God’s existence, 14, 28, 29, 31 CREATOR, GOD THE, 53 Cruden, Description of God, 11 Culcross, We know little of God’s greatness, 60 Cumming, God’s joy to do good, 199 Curtis, Loneliness without God, 273 Curtis, Ticnor, Belief in God common to mankind, 98 Cuyler, Theodore L., Working on God’s lines, 212 ‘ Dare, Joseph, Trinity compared to water, etc., 51 Davies, Dr., No substitute for God, 307 DEFINITIONS OF GOD, 9 DEPENDENCE ON GOD, 270 Derham, 18 Derzhaven, 32 De Sales, Francis, 175, 280 Descartes’ knowledge of the true God, 125 Design shown in creation, 35 Dexter, Reason accepts God as Creator, 53 Dick, The knowledge of God innate, 98 Dickson, Alexander, God supplies our needs, 224 Diderot, Belief of, in God, 134 D’Israeli’s Lothair saved from atheism, 50 Doddridge, 192, 295 Dodge, Mary Mapes, God is overhead, 39 Drummond, Henry, The soul’s feelers, 272 Duncan, George A., Carlyle’s definition of Prayer, 110 Duncan, H., God’s benevolence shown in nature, 18 Dwight, Dr., 76, 78 Dwight, John S., God is living, 39 Dwight, Timothy, God’s omnipotence in creation, 73 Edison’s belief in God, 128 Edwards, Jonathan, Men sin unless God restrains, 263 Egypt, Ancient, believed In one God, 104 Egyptian philosopher’s belief in God, 104 Elizabeth, C., God invisible like the wind, 252 EMBLEMS OF GOD, 258 : Emerson, 13, 110, 305 Empedocles, God a circle, 12 Esquimaux belief in the Great Spirit, 101 ETERNITY OF GOD, 40, 126 Everest, 9, 50, 54 Everett, Edward, Man powerless against God, 305 Everything reveals God, 14 Everywhere, God is, 13 Evolution, God or, 54 Ewing, God’s attributes blend together, 56 EXISTENCE OF GOD, 28 Faber, F. W., 244, 299 FAITHFULNESS OF GOD, 239 FALSE CONCEPTIONS OF GOD, 62, 310 Faraday, a devout believer, 128 Farragut, Admiral, Trust in God, 273 FATHERHOOD OF GOD, 242 Faucheur (See Le Faucheur). FEAR OF GOD, 297 Fellowship with God, 280 Fénelon, 94, 152, 155, 198, 211, 221, 224, 253, 275, 291 Field, H. M., At the Religious Parliament, 95. Field, James T., God on ocean and land, 94 Firmament, God’s mantle, 22 “First Cause,’’ God the, 53 Fiske, 126, 311 Flavel, John, 151, 221 Flowers, The, reveal God, 22 Forbearance of God, 160 Fordyce, James, Fear God alone, 305 Foreknowledge of God, 77 ¥oss, Bishop C. D., 141, 297 Z Foster, 37, 39, 44, 69, 75, 76, 91, 101, 102, 105, 146, 169, 214, 225, 244, 252, 271, 293, 299, 300 Foster, Bishop R. S., God created the uni- verse, 53 Franklin, Benjamin, 49, 118, 295 Froude, J. A., God can overrule mistakes, 221 Fuller, Andrew, God’s anger a Divine per- fection, 239 Fuller, Richard, God’s faithfulness like the sea, 238 Galen, Dr., Convinced, 10, 32 Galileo’s faith in God, 127 Garnett, Richard, Praying to Love, 156 Gateker, God's love for his children, 249 INDEX 315 Gifford, O. P., The best people have be- lieved in God, 142 Gilfillan, Hebrew idea of God’s omnipresence, etc., 85, 149 Gladden, Washington, Definition of God, 10 Gladstone’s faith in God, 118 GLORY AND RICHES OF GOD, 214 God, a circle without a cireumference, 12 God, Alone can satisfy, 45 God, Ancient names of, 104 GOD, ANGER OF, 230 God, Archeology and, 102 God, Astronomers’ belief in, 130 GOD, ATTRIBUTES OF, 56 GOD, BENEFITS OF TRUSTING, 275, 278 God, Benevolence of, 17 God, Bible definitions of, 9 God, Blaspheming the name of, 308 God, Cannot be defined, 9 GOD, CHARACTER OF, 144 God, Christ’s description of, 10 God, Creation proclaims a, 30 GOD, DEFINITIONS OF, 9 GOD, DEPENDENCE ON, 270 God, Directs the universe, 47 God, Easily known but not defined, 10 GOD, ETERNITY OF, 40 God, Everywhere revealed, 13 GOD, EXISTENCE OF, 28 GOD, FAITHFULNESS OF, 239 GOD, FALSE BELIEFS CONCERNING, 310 God, False conceptions of, 62 GOD, FATHERHOOD OF, 242 GOD, FEAR OF, 297 God, Flowers reveal a, 22 GOD, GLORY AND RICHES OF, 214 GOD, GOODNESS OF, 189 God, Government of, moves forward, 48 GOD, GRACE OF, 164 God, Greatness of, 17, 26 GOD, GRIEF OF, 206 GOD, GUIDANCE OF, 207, 210 GOD, HIS HATRED OF SIN, 260 GOD, HOLINESS OF GOD, 157 GOD, HOW HE IS REVEALED TO US, 291 God, Ignorance concerning, 67 GOD, INDWELLING OF, 93, 267 GOD, INFINITE AND INCOMPRE- HENSIBLE, 60 GOD, JUSTICE OF, 158 GOD, KINGDOM OF, 253 God, Knows Best (Poem), 77 GOD LAWYERS’ BELIEF IN GOD, 121 GOD, LITERARY MEN’S BELIEF IN GOD, 107 GOD, LONGSUFFERING OF GOD, 200 GOD, LOVE FOR GOD, 292 GOD, LOVE OF GOD, 148 God, Man’s nature requires a, 36 GOD, MERCY OF GOD, 176, 182 GOD, NAMES, TITLES AND SYMBOLS OF, 254 GOD, NATURE A REVELATION OF, 13 GOD, NEGLECTING AND OPPOSING, 299, 301 God, No philosophy without, 31 GOD, OMNIPOTENCE OF, 73 GOD, OMNIPRESENCE OF, 84 GOD, OMNISCIENCE OF, 77 God, Perfection of, 50 GOD, PERSONALITY OF, 50 GOD, PHILOSOPHERS’ BELIEF IN, 123 God, Plato’s idea of, 12 GOD, POETS’ BELIEF IN, 112 God, Power of, 59 GOD, PROVERBS ABOUT, 312 God, Prophecy proves existence of, 31 GOD, PROVIDENCE OF, 18, 218 God, Reason demands a, 37 God, Reverence for the name of, 308 GOD, SCIENTISTS’ BELIEF IN, 128 GOD, SEEKING AFTER GOD, 289 God, Sees everything, 80 GOD, SERVING, 294 GOD, SKEPTICS’ ADMISSIONS CON- CERNING GOD, 132 God, Soul of, shown in his works, 21 GOD, SOVEREIGNTY OF, 47 GOD, STATESMEN’S BELIEF IN, 116 God, Submission to, 49 GOD, SUPREMACY OF, 44 God, The greatest work, 9 God, The universal soul, 10 GOD, TRINITY OF, 51 GOD, TRUTHFULNESS OF, 241 GOD, UNCHANGEABLE AND IM- MUTABLE, 71 GOD, UNIVERSITY OF BELIEF IN, 95 God, Westminster definition of, 11 GOD, WILL OF, 227 God, Wisdom of, 24 Goethe's God behind nature, 112 Goodchild, F. M., 60, 308 GOODNESS OF GOD, 189 Gouldburn, 162, 167, 204, 233 Government of God, 48 GRACE OF GOD, 164, 167 Grant, General, Opposed to swearing, 308 Greatness of God, 16, 57 Greenlander’s idea of God, 105 Green, Prof., God a Sun, 255 GRIEF OF GOD, 206 GUIDANCE OF GOD, 207, 209 Gurnall, 174, 180, 183, 185, 187, 243 Guthrie, Dr. Thomas, 16, 64, 74, 152, 167, 175, 178, 191, 194, 197, 240, 241, 304 Guyon, Madam, The Will of God (Poem), 228 Haig, General, Faith in God, 273 Hall, Bishop, 216, 301, 306 Hall, Dr. John, 50, 99 Hamilton, 160, 211, 243, 246 Hammond, God's foreknowledge explained, 81 Hare calls atheism a vacuum, etc., 129, 144 Harmony, Nature is God’s, 15 Harris, George, Science only denies an absentee God, 129 Haydn, Given overwhelming joy by God, 287 Hebrew idea of God’s omnipresence, 85 Heine’s faith in God, 126 Henry, Matthew, 222, 224 Henson, P. 8., Only fools deny God, 130 Herbert, George, God’s will slow but sure, 306 Herbert, Man’s wilfulness toward God, 302 316 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD Herschel on God and gravity, 129 Hillis, N. D., Christ's description of God, 11 Hill, Rowland, God’s love like the ocean, 181 Hindoos and God’s supremacy, 44 Hirsch, Rabbi, God speaks to all mankind, 100 Hodge, 9, 137, 157 Hiodge, A. A., Names of God, 259 HOLINESS OF GOD, 157 Holland, J. G., The doctrine of special providences, 222, 286 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, One unquestioned text, 156 4 Holt, Mrs. N. A., Need of Guidance (Poem), 209 Hood, E. P., Thirsting for God, 290 Hooker, Richard, Law has its origin in God, 237 Hooper, Why God’s presence is not more manifest, 87 Topkins, Bishop, God to us as sun to flowers, 270 Hopkins, Mark, God all in all, 48 Horace’s Ode to the All-Supreme, 112 Horne, Bishop, 276, 279 Hovey, Friendship Like God, 217 Howe, J.; We owe all to God, 296 Hugo, Victor, God overthrew Napoleon, 49 Hume a Deist, 135 Huntington, A tribe forgetting God, 106 Ignorance of God, 67 India, Belief of, in the great God, 102 Indian boys define God’s supremacy, 45 Indwelling of God, 93, 267 INFINITENESS AND INCOMPREHEN- SIBILITY OF GOD, 60 Ingersoll not an atheist, 135 Ingratitude to God, 299 INVISIBILITY OF GOD, 251 Jackson, Dependence on God’s grace, 164 Jacobi, 13, 100, 273 Jay, God the best companion, 280 Jay, John, God governs the world wisely, 121 Jerrold, Douglas, Man judges God by him- self, 144 Johnson, Herrick, Atheism now extinct, 137 Johnson, Samuel, Man tends toward God, 99, 295 Jones, William, of Nayland, God’s om- niscience, 78 Joubert, God easily known but hard to define, 10 Joy found in God, 92, 275 Judges, famous, Belief in God, 122 JUSTICE OF GOD, 158 Kant, 54, 125 Keach, God a Shield, 258 Kempis, Thomas a, God disposes, 199, 213 Ken, Thomas, Doxology, 285 Kent, tells us about the laws, 121 Kepler, God’s wisdom infinite, 78 Kerr, Rev. Hugh T., A.M., D.D., The Will of God, 227 KINGDOM OF GOD, 253 Kingsley, 89, 108, 115, 144, 159, 198, 209, 223 Kipling’s Recessional, 113 Kirk, E. N., God’s love for sinners, 155 - Knowledge all derived from God, 97, 125 Knowledge of God, 98 Koran, The supremacy of God, 44 Kossuth, History the revelation of Provi- dence, 220 Krummacher, 103, 104, 230, 270 Laertius, Diogenes, Stoics’ belief in God, 106 Landels, God an ever-present friend, 87 Lanahan, John, God directs the universe, 47 - Lavater, God alone can satisfy, 45 Lavington, God the great ‘‘ First Cause,’’ 53 Law, Bishop, God an omnipotent workman, 74 Law has its origin in God, 237 Lawson, James Gilchrist, 23, 102, 142, 159, 212, 223 LAWYERS, FAMOUS, BELIEF IN GOD, 121 Le Faucheur, Michel, 175, 183 Legge, James, Chinese originally mono- theists, 100 Liddon, Canon, Footprints of the Creator, 27 Light, God compared to, 255 Lincoln, Abraham, Belief in God, 117 LITERARY MEN’S BELIEF IN GOD, 107 Locke, Creation proves God’s existence, 124 Longfellow, No accidents with God, 220 LONGSUFFERING OF GOD, 200 Lorenz, Rev. E. §., 76, 91, 186, 272, 292 Lorimer, 36, 61, 98, 221 Lotze, Hermann, Proclaims his faith in God, 127 LOVE FOR GOD, 292 LOVE OF GOD, 148, 245 Lowell, James Russell, 39, 113 -155, 217, 295 Luthardt, No people without wWod, 97 Luther, Martin, 93, 286 Lyte, H. E., Need of God’s presence, 93 Macculloch, Dr., Reason demands a God, 37 Macdonald a part of God’s allness, 92 MacDonald, George, 241, 268, 279 Macduff, 153, 195 Maclaren, Alexander, 92, 94, 151, 176, 211, 242 Macleod, Norman, Guidance greater than supposed, 211 Macmillan, Transformations wrought by grace, 172 M’All, Greatness of God’s attributes, 58 Mann, Horace, Education incomplete with- out God, 107 Manton, 56, 60, 71, 81, 184, 281 Martin, S., 56, 267 Martineau, James, 131, 223 Mason, God’s attributes, 59 Massilon, God should be everything to us, 294 Maxwell, J. C., No philosophy without God, 31 McCheyne, R. M., 284, 296 McCosh, 62 Melancthon’s definition of God, 12 MERCY OF GOD, 85, 144, 176 Meyer, F. B., 140, 149 Mill, John Stuart, The real ruler of the universe, 126, 130 has Westen INDEX 317 Mitchell, Prof., Creation not the result of chance, 37 Montgomery, God's beautiful works, 19 Moody, D. L., Trusting God’s promises, 239 Moore, T., God the life and light of the world, 21 More, H., Our wills blended with God’s will, 229 Mountford, William, God has a purpose in everything, 210 Mozoomdar, A pagan conception of God, 145 Mueller, Max, The Heaven-Father of the nations, 101 Mullois, Man 2 marred machine without God, 307 Murphy, Nature caused by God, 27 Myer’s Ancient History, Ancient Egypt believed in God, 102 NAMES, TITLES AND SYMBOLS OF GOD, 254 Napoleon, 49, 120 NATURE A REVELATION OF GOD, 13 Nature God’s harmony, 15 Nature God’s hieroglyphies, 35 Nature God’s dwelling, 16 Nature Inspires reverence for God, 23 Nature Reveals God’s greatness, 16 NEG? SCTING AND OPPOSING GOD, 29° 301 Nev: un, John H., Lead, Kindly Light (- sem), 209 Newton, Angels cannot comprehend God, 65 Newton, John, 223, 263, 265 Newton, Sir Isaac, Philosophical to believe in God, 124 Nicholson, Bishop, Prevalence of Pantheism, 310 Ocean, God compared to the, <°* OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD, 7é OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD, 84 OMNISCIENCE OF GOD, 77 OPPOSING AND NEGLECTING GOD, 299, 301 Owen, Rev. G.S., Threatening God, 302 Paine, Tom, Believed in God, 132 Paley’s watch argument, 33 Pantheism, 310 Park, Prof. Edwards. A., God’s voice in nature, 18 Parker, Theodore, Nature a sparklet from God, 17 Paulin, George, Comfort of Omnipresence (Poem), 84 Paxton, J. R., God is kind but just, 160 Payson, Edward, God’s will is perfect, 49 Pennsylvania law on Blasphemy, 308 Perfection of God, 56, 157 Perrine, God always with us, 286 Persians worshipped the Supreme God, 103 PERSONALITY OF GOD, 50 Peters, Madison, Eternity beyond con- ception, 43 PHILOSOPHERY’ BELIEF IN GOD, 123 Philosophical to believe in God, 124 Philosophy, None without God, 31 Pierson, A. T., 14, 158 Pilkington, God sees beneath the surface, 80 : Plato’s idea of God, 12, 122, 145 Plutarch, No town without a temple, 98 Plutarch’s faith in God, 104, 108 Poems, 17, 20, 21, 23, 33, 36, 112, 115, 229 267, 285, 286 POETS’ BELIEF IN GOD, 112 Pollock, God incomprehensible, 12 Pope, 19, 96, 135, 305 Power, Fellowship with God, 280 Pressensé, Atheism would be a hell, 138 Preston, God knows everything, 79 Prime, S. Irenzus, Rest found only in God, 275 Promises of God, 239 Prophecy proves God’s existence, 31 PROVERBS ABOUT GOD, 312 PROVIDENCE OF GOD, 18, 218 Pulsford, J., God’s glory compared to the sun, 70 Quarles, True love begets fear, etc., 217, 296, 297 Racine, 23, 298 Radium, God compared to, 256 Reason demands a God, 37, 53 Reid, J. M., All things working for good, 222 RESISTING AND NEGLECTING GOD, 299 Rest found in God, 94, 275, 280 Rest, None outside of God, 307 ; REVELATION OF GOD TO US, 13 Reynolds, Bishop, 184, 306 RICHES AND GLORY OF GOD, 214 Richter’s awe-inspiring apolog, 74 Robertson, F. W., 93, 149, 160, 241, 278 Robespierre sways France against atheism, 143 Rock, God compared to a, 257 Rogers, N., God’s attributes like Himself, 57 Rousseau’s belief in God, 134 Rowe, Elizabeth, Glory of God manifest in his mercy, 179 Ruskin, John, 22, 64, 107, 139, 212, 253 Rutherford, 75, 80, 93, 210, 286 Ryan, Archbishop, At the Parliament of Religions, 95 Ryle, Our conceptions of God are paltry, 68 Saadi, Fear those who fear not God, 302 Sale, George, Slighting God, 305 Sales, De (See De Sales). . Sales, God’s presence like the air, 87 Salter, 145, 146, 168, 215, 261, 284 Satisfy, God alone can, 45, 282, 307 Saurin, James, Meditate on God’s love, 154 Savonarola, God infinite in mercy, 144 Sawyer, S. J., Deists now extinct as dodos, 56 Schiller, God’s movements not aimless, 47 Schopenhaur’s objection to Pantheism, 311 Science and God, 129 SCIENTISTS’ BELIEF IN GOD, 128 Scott, How God guided Israel, 212 Scott, Sir Walter, Atheism a hideous creed, 109 © Seasons, show God’s wisdom, 22 Secker, We are created for God’s service, 294 Sedgwick, Only Christians can call God Father, 242 SEEKING AFTER GOD, 289 318 GREATEST THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD Seneca's idea of perfect liberty, 127 Sergeant, Judge, Competent witnesses, 122 SERVING GOD, 294 Shakespeare, 48, 49, 108, 219 Shairp, J. C., Becoming part of God’s king- dom, 253 Y Sharswood, Judge, First truths, 122 Shedd, Prof., The necessity of God’s justice, 161 Shield, God a, 257 Sidney, Algernon, God helps self-helpers, 295 Silence of God, 203 Silesius, Angelus, God’s Indwelling a Heaven (Poem), 267 Simpson, God’s watch-care, 247 SIN, GOD'S HATRED OF, 260 Sin, No, hidden from God, 82 SKEPTICS’ ADMISSIONS CONCERN- ING GOD, 132 Smiles, God merciful to his enemies, 307 Smith, Goldwin, Science and monotheism, 129 Socrates’ faith in God, 122 South, 65, 82, 201, 233, 235 SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD, 47 Spencer, 47, 75, 161, 184, 205, 266 Spenser, God’s Goodness (Poem), 112 Spurgeon, 13, 17, 62, 180, 181, 215, 246, 275, 302 Stanley, Dean, The Westminster definition of God, il STATESMEN’S BELIEF IN GOD, 116 Sterne, Laurence, 188 Stillingfleet, All people acknowledged God, 96 Stockdale, F. B., God the greatest sufferer, 206 Stoics’ belief in God, 106 Story, Judge, Belief in God, 121 Stoughton, Dr., Sinning against God's grace, 306 Submission to God, 49 Sufficiency of God, 217 Sumner, Bishop, All classes neglecting God, 300 Sunday School Times, 79, 207, 257 Sun, God compared to the, 70, 214, 254 SUPREMACY OF GOD, 44 SWEARING, OR BLASPHEMING GOD'S NAME, 308 Swetchine, Mad., God commands most - fidelity, 100 Swift, The universe not an accident, 27 Swinburne, Love knows our way, 155 Swing, Atheism is soul paralyses, 138 Swinnock, 57, 165, 205, 239, 282 SYMBOLS, NAMES AND TITLES OF GOD, 254 Symonds, John Addington, The voice of God, 290 Sympathy of God, 196 Talmage, 67, 182, 196 Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, 34, 85, 188, 197, 217, 286 Taylor, Jane, Who Taught the Bird? (Poem), 32 Taylor, W. R., Nature in harmony with God, 15 Tennyson, 22, 285 Tertullian, The Trinity of God, 51 Thackeray’s reverence for God, 110 Theodoret, Why God permits trials, 210 yet n Dr., Love for God drives out evil, we Samuel, God the universal soul, Tillotson, 82, 169, 284 Todd, Dr. J., 15, 266 Toplady, We need daily grace, 164 Townsend, God’s signature on all hearts, 96 Townsend, L. T., African tribes believers in God, 101 Trapp, God unlike Sertorius or Pertinax, 241 Trench, Nature God’s hieroglyphics, 35 TRINITY OF GOD, 51 Trumbull, H. C., No need to prove God’s existence, 28 TRUTHFULNESS OF GOD, 240 Tupper, M. F., God is of necessity Love, 155 Turner, God means good, 199 Tyrius, Maximus, All nations believed in God, 96 UNCHANGEABLENESS, OR IMMUTA- BILITY OF GOD, 71 UNIVERSITY OF BELIEF IN GOD, 95, Vianney, 164, 175, 185 Vincent, J. H., A skeptic’s objections an- swered, 90 Voltaire’s belief in God, 134 Wallace’s favorite quotation, 13 Walton, Izaak, Work as well as pray, 295 Ward, Mary A., God unchangeable, 72 Warren, Bishop, The Trinity in light, 52 Washington, George, 116 Watson, 44, 91, 165, 174, 184, 185, 187, 263 Watts, 48, 240 Webster, Daniel, Man’s dominating im- pulse, 120 Wesley, Charles, Depth of Mercy (Poem), 182 Wesley, John, 51, 292 Westminster Catechism, Definition of God,11 Whitecross, Living in sight of God, 83 Whittier, J. G., 39, 114, 219, 220 Who Taught the Bird (Poem), 32 Wicked, The, cannot escape God, 49 Williams, W., A Prayer for Guidance (Poem), 209 WILL OF GOD, 227 Wisdom of God, 22, 78, 83 Young, Dr. J., Why we should fear God, 298 Young, God’s foe no friend to man, etc., 19, 237, 305 Young’s Two Little Night Thoughts (Poem), “B47 a a Princeton Theolog' ical Seminary-Speer Libra iA | > 7. 2 en hia ira Ve & * 4 eS — soe na ae a5 ae ee ay ees ii ie es er a x - ” a5 pee Bec. 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