Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/303



God Possesses a Body—See.

God, Presence of—See.

God Proved—See.

GOD, RECOGNIZING

Dwight L. Moody in his sermons used to tell of a mother who had an only child that was an idiot. When it was fourteen years of age a neighbor came in and found the mother weeping in the bitterness of her soul. Asking what was the matter, the mother answered: "For fourteen years I have cared for that child day and night; I have given up society and spent my time with her, and to-day she does not know me from you. If she would only recognize me once it would pay me for all I have ever done for her."

Mr. Moody would add: "How many are there over whom the Son of God has watched and cared for and blest, and who have never once recognized Him, have never once looked up into His face and said, "Thank you, Lord Jesus."

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GOD REVEALED IN NATURE

The mosses on the rock, as well as the trees that bend stately above them, the birds that fly and sing in heaven, as well as the clouds that gather and dissolve there, the mimosa that closes its sensitive petals if a footfall approaches, and the stars that reign silent on empyreal thrones—each must in turn give witness to the Most High; till the frame of creation shall be all eclaircised, not so much a pillar engraven around with the trophies of omnipotence, as a solid but transparent sphere of crystal, lighted from within by the calm thought of God! (Text.)—

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See.

God Self-revealed—See.

GOD SENDS GIFTS

A lady physician in one of the mission fields restored to health a beloved child of a native. In gratitude the parents knelt at her feet and not only thanked but worshiped her as a god. She remonstrated, saying that she was a mortal like themselves and worship belonged only to God. They replied that no one but a god could have saved their loved one from death. "Whom would you thank and praise," the missionary replied, "for a princely gift sent by the hand of a coolie—the servant or his generous master, the giver? I am but God's coolie by whose hand He has been pleased to send you this great gift of healing." (Text.)

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GOD, SLEEPLESS CARE OF

This song of nightfall is by the Rev. Archibald Haddon:

The tangled threads, the untilled field, The words unsaid, the tasks half done, Battles unfought, and wounds unhealed, Must wait until another sun.

Stars move, the tides and rivers roll, Grass grows, rain falls on vale and hill. And deep in my unconscious soul The sleepless life of God works still.

I rest on thy unwearied mind; Thy planning and thy love go on, Nor dost thou leave me far behind; I'm carried to another dawn.

The new day breaks. From earth's old mold Fresh flowers grow along my way. New light is flashed on problems old; On ancient life new forces play.

O wondrous, wakeful Warden! When The last great nightfall comes to me, From that deep slumber rouse me then, That I Thy tireless child may be. (Text.)

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GOD SURROUNDING THE SOUL

Constant communion will surround us with an atmosphere through which none of the many influences which threaten our Christian life and our Christian work can penetrate. As the diver in his bell sits dry at the bottom of the sea, and draws a pure air from the free heavens far above him, and is parted from that murderous waste of green death that clings so closely round the translucent crystal walls which keep him safe, so we, enclosed in God, shall repel from ourselves all that would overflow to destroy us and our work, and may by His grace lay deeper than the waters some courses in the great building that shall one day rise, stately and many-mansioned, from out of the conquered waves. (Text.)—

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