mi.] IS GOD A GOD OF LOVE? 321 



manence of natural law. But more : the fact is 

 expressly asserted again and again. (t They continue 

 this day according to Thine ordinance, for all things 

 serve Thee." " Thou hast made them fast for ever 

 and ever. Thou hast given them a law which shall 

 not be broken " 



Let us pass on, gentlemen. There is no more to be 

 said about this matter. 



But next, it will be demanded of us that natural 

 theology shall set forth a God whose character is con- 

 sistent with all the facts of nature, and not only with 

 those which are pleasant and beautiful. That challenge 

 was accepted, and I think victoriously, by Bishop Butler 

 as far as the Christian religion is concerned. As far as 

 the Scripture is concerned, we may answer thus : 



It is said to us I know that it is said : You tell us 

 of a God of love, a God of flowers and sunshine, of 

 singing birds and little children. But there are more 

 facts in nature than these. There is premature death, 

 pestilence, famine. And if you answer: Man has con- 

 trol over these ; they are caused by man's ignorance 

 and sin, and by his breaking of natural laws what 

 will you make of those destructive powers over which 

 he has no control; of the hurricane and the earthquake; 

 of poisons, vegetable and mineral ; of those parasitic 

 Entozoa whose awful abundance, and awful destructive- 

 ness in man and beast, science is just revealing a new 

 page of danger and loathsomeness ? How does that 

 suit your conception of a God of love ? 



We can answer : Whether or not it suits our con- 

 ception of a God of love, it suits Scripture's conception 

 of Him. For nothing is more clear nay, is it not urged 

 again and again, as a blot on Scripture? that it reveals 



sc. Y 



