MEN AND TREES 



beauty in the character of others. So do our love, 

 faith, hope, charity, develop and augment as we 

 see these things in the world about us. The uni- 

 verse is thus constituted, and that is all we can say 

 about it. 



That right, human right, in the end and on a 

 large scale, prevails, I believe to be true; the right 

 that in long periods of time means, or rather secures, 

 the well-being of the race — the greatest good to the 

 greatest number. 



In discussing the final problems of the universe, 

 we are attempting to describe the Infinite in terms 

 of the finite — an impossible task. We think and 

 speak of God as a person, because our experience 

 gives us no other terms in which to conceive Him 

 except in terms of personality. He sees, hears, plans* 

 governs, creates, loves, suffers, is angry, we say, — 

 in fact, has all human attributes and characteristics 

 vastly magnified. He is an omnipotent and omni- 

 present man. He is the creator and organizer and 

 director of the universe, and hence is responsible 

 for everything in it, the evil as well as the good. Our 

 attitude toward Him is that of a subject toward his 

 sovereign, or toward a supreme judge. We must 

 praise, exalt, supplicate, propitiate Him. There is 

 lying upon my table a recent volume of sermons by 

 an English divine called " The Justification of God " 

 — his justification in the face of the terrible World 

 War which he might have prevented. Thus, just as 



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