Show IN Man a it k kinds i it ds greatest idea I 1 sunday school lesson for january 6 by william T ellis one idea and that the most important ailt of all comes soon or late to t 0 every alerv human being what do I 1 think of god in vague fear filled form this idea took 10 hold of 01 the earliest caveman cave man and it is s still t ill the ultimate speculation of the most learned modern modem scientist all sorts of interpretations of god mostly hazy lazy I 1 have filled all sorts of if heads in 0 our u r days patter of the intellectuals intellectual s 1 I god i is the first cause the ultimate force the divine mind and so forth in the thought of the anci ancients enU he was god the all terrible and life was a long attempt at pro of him but jesus came with a new inter pie pi elation tation of god he brought to the world a fresh idea about the and this idea was his supreme message the gospel that he commanded his friends to proclaim jesus said that god is our father th that at thought seemed at al first so phlip simple I 1 e as co be blasphemous it lob iob bed theologians of their old authority as ai hair splitters and interpreters it brought down out of the thin air air of priest cfaft and divinity tie the greatest idea that has ever grossed engrossed en the mind of mortal and made it so simple and clear that a kittic child or an ignorant peasant could grasp it god is all that wisdom lias has ever attributed tri buted to him and wore more but first of all and including all else ile he is our heavenly father full of love and tenderness and sympathy and providence and forgiveness whatever is best in earthly fatherhood that god is to an illimitable degree earliest Eai liest childhood senses this fa when whan worldliness fails to grasp it in ili his beautiful book beckoning from little hands patterson dombois tells or of finding in the desk of his daughter who lied died when six years old the childishly scrawled words god is love he loves lambs I 1 mans greatest concern is the nature of god that is the basic t truth ruth and jesus has made it forever clear by using and teaching the tender word father as the interpretation of the infinite nobody can understand all about god but bu t every everything thing th that a t mortal needs to know about him Is is wrapped up in the sigle word father whatever the best of earthly fathers is to his children that and infinitely more is god ever every college student comes to a stage and usually passes through it when w hen ile he is beset and tormented abo about ui the refinements of philosophical speculation concerning a S supreme u re me being these subtleties sublet ies sometimes ape dissipate lissi pate the clear teach teachings inu of jesus that the nature of the infinite and eternal is the nature of a father whose thoughts toward us are all compassionate and paternal tile the great disobedience is the refusal to accept god as a pitiful protective provident father whose love is the very essence of his nature all th the e practicalities of human ex peli relience ence are bound up in this tremendous teaching of the fatherhood of god it is an ever expanding truth but it all centers in the one unshakable simplicity castin casting 9 all your care upon him for he careth for f you A few days lay S aizo ago there came to my desk an advertisement of a new edition of a famous encyclopedia a and n d in treating of its astro astronomical astronomic nomi cal features feature S it nonchalantly nonchalant lv remarked concerning tile the earth we now know it to be an unimportant particle in a vast firmament of untold 11 an unimportant particle th though 0 ugh it contains tile the one lace of beings 11 great enough to attempt to envisage the universe and to master the tha forces of nature and to merit the of all as their loving father that is the sort of silly statement that brings so many sc scientists lentis ts into disrepute this earth is no unimportant fragment ament so long as t thinking human beings n gs live upon it to them it is all important it wis for no ot nt fragment of a celestial system that jesus lived and died and rose again as the sent son of god beffie there can be a son there must be a father before there can be I 1 a father there must be a son en tailed in the of gods fat father 1 er 1 hood is the allied of and of brotherhood if god is i s ouri our father then we are his sons filleti fil filled ledi j with his life and bound to show his H is character chai acter A few evenings ev edings ago I 1 i talked with a descendent of benja j min franklin who lather startled mel me I 1 by the causal way in which lie he re balked franklins blood is in me I 1 i he was proud of his heritage and tries to live up to it for children should display the family traits linns innas hope e of lifting the level of life is is a all I 1 fo founded aided upon this truth that now are we the sons of god and it doth not yet appear what we shall be peace pacts and disarmament conferences ferencek feren ces s are being earnestly acclaimed today bodan I 1 as a hope of a new and better world order they will be utterly vain unless there be unde underlying them that truth which derives irom from tile the fatherhood of god the brotherhood of man if we really are sons of god then we are inescapably brothers and should so conduct our ourselves for the honor of our father and in obedience to him and in loyalty to the older brother who has revealed him and reconciled us wo we are constrained to conduct our lives by the law of brotherhood which is an obvious corolla corollary ry of t the b e la law of fatherhood the all the world watched the romantic race of the prince of wales to reach the bedside of the stricken king of england A nation shared his anxiety but in his heart the prince must have been saying he is your king but he is my father all remoteness and fo formality rm aliby passes out of the relationship between the great king of the universe and his subjects in the consciousness that he is first of all our father comfort concerning the everyday needs need of life was taught by jesus in his great platform because god is our father we are freed from fear even in the realm of temporalities ties therefore be not anxious saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall w we e be clothed for your heavenly father that ye have lave need of all these things upon that truth we may inay stake our life for time and eternity the creator and ruler of all is our father |