the time I myself,-the living being to whom this body belongs,-am as invisible as God. We cannot see God, but we can see what He does. We can see this universe of stars and hills and people, in which He lives as the soul lives in the body. CHAPTER IV DOMESTIC THEOLOGY: II. THE NA- HE first step in a child's theology is a realization of the being of God. He is to understand that God is. The next step is some perception of the relation between God and us. The child is to realize the nature of God. God made us and all the world. The story of it is in the beginning of the Bible. A little part of the wonder of the world we may see with our own eyes, but more and more of it appears as we study the books of those who have studied the world-books of astronomy, of geology, of botany, books about beasts and birds and fishes. Even with all this put together, we are but beginning to be acquainted with the forms and the forces, the mysteries and the beauties of the world. God made the world, not as a carpenter makes a house by gathering together a quantity of materials and placing one upon another; but rather in the likeness of the growth of a tree, which begins with a seed, in which are two wonderful and mysterious things, matter and life. When we ask, Where did matter come from? and, Where did life come from? we can only answer that God brought them into being we know not how. The world began with matter and life, and these two, when they are combined, result in what we call growth. In the tree, by the processes of growth, the matter and life which are in the seed grow into stem and leaves, and trunk and branches, and thus into a great tree. And in the world, the land and the sea, and all things that grow out of them and that live in them, come from the beginning of matter and of life nobody knows how many hundreds of thousands of years ago. And that is repeated all the time, in all the changing seasons, in all the harvests, and in all birth of animals and of human beings. Matter and life and growth are still mysteries which nobody understands, and they are at the heart of all existence. We put the seed in the ground, but God makes it grow. Even we ourselves come into being by means of matter and life and growth. Every one of us was once a very tiny particle of matter, less than the smallest seed. In this particle was life. Then it grew in the body of our mother, kept safe there from all harm and nourished as the seed is nourished in the earth. Little by little it grew and came into shape, with body and head and arms and legs, formed day by day under the care of God. By and by, the tiny living particle became a baby and was ready to leave the body of the mother and begin to live in the world. When that hap pened we were born. That was our birthday. This is how all little children come into the world, according to this wonderful and mysterious working of God. After the child is thus taught our relationship to God as our Maker, he may be made to understand something of our relationship to God as our Father. Big and little, old and young, we are all children in the great family of God. Not only has God made us and all the world, but He takes care of us and of all things. He has set the sun to give us light by day and the moon and the stars to shine by night. And He feels concerning us as a father feels concerning his children: that is, He loves us, and He wishes us to be well and good and happy, and desires us to live together in peace and pleasantness. It is, of course, impossible for children to understand fully the occupations or methods or motives of their parents. Such an understanding requires more experience |