Scientific and Religious Journal.
| Vol. I. | JULY, 1880. | No. 7. |
THE FOUNTAIN OF HAPPINESS.
The source and fullness of created good is the knowledge and enjoymentof God. "Give what thou wilt, without thee we are poor; and with theerich, take what thou wilt away." The wicked are like a ship's crew atsea, carried by the winds upon unknown waters, without peace or safetyuntil they can renew communications with the shore. A man alienated fromhis God is without his proper relations, and separated from the fountainof happiness, is like a child unconscious of his father—an orphan,forced along, the sport of accident, with no hope for the future, butdarkness that may overshadow his pathway to the tomb. If we were at oncedeprived of all knowledge of God where would we find hopes for supportin the gloomy hours of adversity? What sadness would reign over theworld! What black despair! O, what a chasm it would make to strike theInfinite One out of existence! "The angels might retire in silence andweep, or fly through infinite space seeking some token of the Fatherthey had lost. With unbounded grief and despair they might wing theirway farther and farther, with their harps all unstrung, and every songsilent, and the soul-harrowing words, 'We have no Father, no God, ablind chance rules,' might be all that would break the awful silence ofheaven. Let the glorious words once more be heard, 'God reigns, helives, he reigns,' and what joy would fill the heavens and the earth."The child of sorrow would lift up his head and say, "Our Father who art[Pg 242]in heaven." The heavenly songsters would string anew their harps, andsend the good news far and wide, "He lives, he reigns, God over all,blessed forever."
"We are not able to estimate the effect it would produce to blot theknowledge of God from the universe. We can not appreciate the sta