environment science assures us, be ever better
described than by these words concerning the "Father of our
spirits?"

And an infinitely wise, good, and loving being will have fixed modes
of working; for "with him is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning." Thus only can man trust and know him. The old Stoic
philosopher tells us "everything has two handles, and can be
carried by one of them, but not by the other." So with God's laws.
Many seem to look upon them as a hindrance and limitation to him in
carrying out his righteous and loving will toward man. But they are
really the modes or means of his working, which he uses with such
regularity and consistency that we can always rely upon them and
him. The pure river of the water of life proceedeth from the throne
of God and of the Lamb.

If I am lying ill waiting anxiously for the physician I can think of
this great city as a mass of blocks of houses separating him from
me. But the houses have been arranged in blocks so as to leave free
streets, along which he can travel the more quickly. And God's laws
are not blocks, but thoroughfares, planned that the angels of his
mercy may fly swiftly to our aid. We are prone to forget that these
laws are expressly made for your and my benefit, as well as that of
all beings, that we may be righteous and unselfish. And this is one
ground of the apostle's faith that "all things work together for
good to them that love God." And in the Apocalypse the earth helps
the woman. It must be so.

But what if you or I try to block the thoroughfare? What would
happen to us if we tried to stop bare-handed the current of a huge
dynamo, or to hold back the torrent of Niagara? Nothing but death
can result. And what if I stem myself against the "river of the
water of life, proceeding from the throne of God," and try to turn
it aside or hold it back from men perishing of thirst? And that is
just what sin is, even if done carelessly or thoughtlessly; for men
have no right to be careless and thoughtless about some things.
"The wages of sin is death;" physical death for breaking physical
law, and spiritual death for breaking spiritual law. How can it be
otherwise? The wages are fairly earned. The hardest doctrine for a
scientific man to believe is that there can be any forgiveness of
such sin as the heedless, ungrateful breaking of such wise and
beneficent laws of a loving Father. And yet my earthly father has
had to forgive me a host of times d