moral qualities, are the more Divine. The
resistless might of natural forces shows us little of God till we have
elsewhere learned to know Him; the power that upholds the planets in
their orbits speaks but of physical force, and tells us nothing of any
holy, loving Being. There is no moral quality, no character, impressed
upon these works of God, mighty though they be. Nothing but an
impersonal power meets us in them; a power which may awe and crush us,
but which we cannot adore, worship, and love. In a word, God cannot
reveal Himself to us by any overwhelming display of His nearness or His
power. Though the whole universe fell in ruins around us, or though we
saw a new world spring into being before our eyes, we might still
suppose that the power by which this was effected was impersonal, and
could hold no fellowship with us.

Only, then, through what is personal, only through what is like
ourselves, only through what is moral, can God reveal Himself to us. Not
by marvellous displays of power that suddenly awe us, but by goodness
that the human conscience can apprehend and gradually admire, does God
reveal Himself to us. If we doubt God's existence, if we doubt whether
there is a Spirit of goodness upholding all things, wielding all things,
and triumphant in all things, let us look to Christ. It is in Him we
distinctly see upon our own earth, and in circumstances we can examine
and understand, _goodness_; goodness tried by every test conceivable,
goodness carried to its highest pitch, goodness triumphant. This
goodness, though in human forms and circumstances, is yet the goodness
of One who comes among men from a higher sphere, teaching, forgiving,
commanding, assuring, saving, as One sent to deal with men rather than
springing from them. If this is not God, what is God? What higher
conception of God has any one ever had? What worthy conception of God is
there that is not satisfied here? What do we need in God, or suppose to
be in God, which we have not in Christ?

If, then, we still feel as if we had not sufficient assurance of God, it
is because we look for the wrong thing, or seek where we can never find.
Let us understand that God can best be known as God through His moral
qualities, through His love, His tenderness, His regard for right; and
we shall perceive that the most suitable revelation is one in which
these qualities are manifested. But to apprehend these qualities as they
appear in actual history we must