"When from the dawn of life we see all things working together toward the evolution of the highest spiritual attributes of man. we know, however the words may stumble, in which we try to say it, that God is in the deepest sense a moral Being. The everlasting source of phenomena is none other than the infinite 'Power which makes for righteousness.' Thou canst not by searching find Him out; yet put thy trust in Him, and against thee the gates of hell shall not prevail; for there is neither wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Eternal."-John Fiske.

A Greylock Pulpit.

THE EVERLASTING ARMS.

The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.-Deut. 33:27.

race.

Our race has ever sought for God, because God has ever sought for the The belief of men in the existence of God has been one of the few ideas which are so general as to be practically universal. It is therefore difficult to estimate what the world owes to this idea. We have no experience of what the world would be without it. We are not likely to have any such experience. In order to determine what the influence of the idea has been, we should need for examination, a state of society which had maintained an existence at least several hundred years without the idea.

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Practically, as we have ever gone upon experience in the matter, we may note the fact that the idea has, in distinction from other ideas, a remarkable tenacity. Individuals here and there have scouted it, but with no lasting effects. Dogmatism settles nothing. We hear men say; we must have or "we do not need a God, as though their opinion one way or the other would create the fact in the case. Thus an atheist will talk as though his opinion fixed the facts as he states them, and the theist may likewise dogmatize.

What is the origin of this persistent grasp of the idea of God and what is its value? Whence this theme, which runs through all the religions and puts its everlasting arms not only under Moses; Zoroaster, Mahomet, Socrates and Paul, but the common people? How account for the fact that the mind of the little child siezes the idea of God with a normal naturalness which requires no effort of explanation to impart it? Men who have been concerned in the civil affairs of the world, who have been our governors, judges and statesmen are on record as believers in God. Washington, Webster, Cromwell, Gladstone, Blackstone, Franklin, Lincoln uttered no uncertain sound.

Our greatest men, the poets, have not failed us. The naturalist has sometimes thought himself an atheist. This has come about by a certain partiality, which has grown upon him through his pursuit. He has been concerned almost exclusively with physical things, not with the broader chemistry which is concerned with the entire welfare of the state. It is his misfortune rather than his fault. He is an investigator in a limited field. It would not be strange if he should not always take time to investigate the field of religion, to settle how far the claims of lawyers and statesmen, and theologians and teachers are right or wrong. It is possible for a man to be too busy to take time to separate every fact from every dogma. It is not for one man to do everything. While all our little would be scientists, are running about in imitation of others taking on airs as followers of what they deem a skeptical science, it would be well to recall the following words of the truly great Herbert Spencer; "Amid the mysteries which become the more mysterious the more they are thought about, there will remain the absolute certainty that we are ever in the presence of an infinite and eternal energy from Whom all things proceed.”

It was because France drove out from her borders that element of her population which had developed its best industries, which had kept alive independent conscience and which relied upon the living God, that the French revolution and the worship of license followed. The experience of men, even in the short run, who attempt to start towns and run governments without religion, has been só uniformly disastrous, that it is only tried at rare and unhappy intervals. There has been an experiment tried, in one of the western states, in a community from which the founders strove to exclude all churches and the idea of God. I need not say that this scheme was a failure. It may be that many of you would not have known that there had been such a place but for this mention. If even for an extensive period, there should be no marked deterioration, such as to breed crimes, sufficient emphasis must be given the fact that generation after generation of men have poured their hereditary influences into the veins of these experimenters. These men, if not “born again," may be well born. They are from the sturdy, clean, law-abiding Puritan, Pilgrim, Huguenot, or Cavalier stock. The influence of the God of their fathers has extended far beyond the third and fourth generation. If the community was entirely made of picked men, it would go on for not a few generations, under the impetus of blood, but no such community is practically picked.

It is not good business sagacity to plat an addition to our cities without provision for the churches; not because of the dogmas, of immersion, salvation, election, apostolic succession and laying on of hands, but because of God, whom they all serve in their own free way. Old dogmas may keep only a temporary hold, but the God who stood as a living fact before the emperors of the first three centuries of our era, is the God who brought the living Christ to take the place of myth and legend. The Roman senator could wink at Juno, and laugh at the credulity of the people, but the God of Paul and Peter was no subject for ridicule. The influence of the life of the early church was refreshing. It brought out love and made it shine in contrast with the corruption of the empire. This fact proved no passing

episode. We see the manifestation of the Eternal.

Here is a fact, Jesus of

Nazareth. He asserts the hoary truth that man needs God. He adds to the assertion the need's supply.

Man's need of God is a real need. His consciousness may not always report the need to him with the same precision, but the need is constant. With primitive and barbarous people, the phases of consciousness are such as the age permits. Sacrifices, cruelties, expiations are the. barbaric forms, not of religion, but of human conduct unenlightened by God. They stumble about as helpless infants, simply moving in the direction of the greatest force of gravity. The line which separates them from the animal world is moral sense. Feeling that they have offended one or all the gods, they have been known to build altars and burn upon them their own children. What is the mental process here? This, says one; "Let us do something, to make an angry God good-natured." Men say: "We would, if we had the power, take the life of those who should offend us, and therefore our destiny is sealed if we do not smooth down the ruffled feelings of the Deity." So the heathen bury alive, throw children to crocodiles, and serpents to appease their gods. This is not religion, but the absence of it. Their need of true religion is only made more vividly to stand before us. They must worship something. The modern Hindoo has three hundred million gods. Some worship one thing and some another but all have the nature which can only be satisfied by reality.

In civilized countries men congratulate themselves that they are not as these other men, but we need not take any credit. The blood of those who worshipped Thor and Odin and built the Druidical altars is in our veins. Our atheism or idolatry may be as many sided as it has ever been in history. Our idols may wear different clothing and have an air of respectability. These idols are wealth, (whether we have it or not) power, reputation, pleasure at expense of others or of our own good. We are polytheists, many of us, but after all the true God was never served by more true men than to-day. He is still rejected by men who understand Him, but He is also rejected by men who do not understand Him, men who unconsciously serve Him. The self-seeking, self-indulgent trifler who comes from opportunities which are good, is one type. On the other hand there is the earnest character, who has the wish to believe, who will not make believe or try to make himself believe that he believes. He cannot accept the old dogmas. He knows some are wholly false. He knows some others are partly false, and he has no time to waste on the transient. Such often are God's noblest souls. Their creed is not long, but it is deep. They do not worship as others do, but they are seekers after God. They do not come into the church to smother doubt and get peace by believing, reckless of living, to get "rest" and safety by pushing their heads into an ecclesiastical sand-bank reckless of thinking. Rather with humble consecration to their best knowledge, as learned for their own heart, from sources not themselves, from the Scriptures, from life, from contemplating the character of the best men, and above all from the example and power of Jesus Christ, they seek to live the Christian life. This will require them to be honest, to use their reason in dealing with all, to throw away many worn-out dogmas, to take on larger

ideas in their place, and so round out the man and the church. Men want certainties. An old thing may be good or bad. A new thing may be good or evil. Their concern is truth. If some old enemy, which has cursed their imagination for years, has been apparently slain, they do not feel like venturing forth till they know he is dead. Men long enchained, or shut up in jail, when told of their release often do not realize their good fortune and stand spell-bound,not able to accept so goɔd a message. They are stunned by the intelligence and deny that they can be the recipients of such favor.

Many a man in his loose mistaken fashion, will attack the large Christianity of the day and when he comes to review his argument finds, that laboring under early impressions, he is foolishly trying to save a long outgrown and narrow system. So far as this is the case with honest, earnest, men, it is pitiable and pathetic in the extreme.

I do not wonder that many men do not like prayer or take to prayer. It would not be strange to me to hear a really pious man say that he hated to pray. The reason is that the prevailing idea of God has not been such as to elicit any enthusiasm. Instead of being lifted by the character of God as on wings, the wings have been clipped, so that the soul wanders about on the ground bedraggled and in restraint, when it was made for flight. Show me what the average conception of God is in any community or family and I will give you an account of that community or family. Through all the stages of the march of civilization, you can follow men by the character of their God. We classify ourselves as we worship the physical, the mental, or the moral and spiritual supremely.

The true God as a spirit is seen in many forms according to our faith. We see Him in nature's majestic and quiet moods on sea and land and in the moving planets. Again, as a spirit of wisdom, He is revealed in the order, harmony and unity of natural law. As a Spirit of goodness, He is revealed in Jesus Christ as One who sees the "tooth and claw," the sorrow and bondage, the sin and over-done vengeance of his scarcely begun work. He understands the "eye for eye" habit of man and comes to offset it, to overcome it, and to complete its mission by a soul lifting Gospel. That which calls for joy, that which satisfies every craving of humanity, is found in Christ. Therefore in His divine teachings are found that only which can attune the soul, draw out its beauty and break forth at last in spontaneous song.

"But" says someone; "I do not believe that he is Divine, I deny his Divinity." Do you deny His Divinity? Tell me what is Divinity. If you can not tell me what Divinity is, then you are illogical to deny it. You say; "Is this not a double-edged sword, can you affirm the Divinity?" I can say that "I know that my Redeemer liveth." I can say, "I know in part.” I can say that He claims Divinity and that I have personally verified a part of that claim and believe that I shall verify much more. I do not claim "to have apprehended,” but this one thing I do, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." This is a calling of much life and deepening belief, of love with justice as instrument, and justice with love as guide. I believe that men can come to so think of God that they will want to pray just as flowers like to bloom. When we once learn, not by being told, but by personal meditation and experience, that theology is not