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Essay(s) by Arthur Brisbane
Study Of The Character Of God
Arthur Brisbane
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       "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said . . . . Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding."--Job xxxviii. 1, 4.
       Since men have lived on earth their feeble intellects have struggled to realize the majesty of God.
       Succeeding nations and civilizations have expressed through laws or religions their puny conceptions of the power that controls the universe.
       As mental and moral standards have improved, there has been constant improvement in the conception of God.
       The Greeks and Romans imagined a variety of gods, and attributed to these the vices and weaknesses of men.
       The Fijians worshipped a god who devoured the souls of the dead, inflicting torture in the eating, but mercifully releasing souls from pain when the meal was ended.
       The ancient Mexicans went to war "because their gods demanded something to eat." Their armies fought "only endeavoring to take prisoners, that they might have men to feed those gods." ----
       Even with the birth of the one great idea--THE UNITY OF GOD--the personality of the universal Creator was but a reflection of His worshippers.
       He was a "jealous" God, a "man of war." "God Himself is with us for our captain."-- Chron. xiii., 12.
       God dwelt in a city made of nothing cheaper than gold and precious stones. For His own glory, He maintained a court Oriental in form, with strange beasts to sing His praises, and He tortured forever and ever creatures that He had made.
       The present conception of an omnipotent God has changed greatly since the old days, when cruelty was the rule and was admired. There is to-day insistence on God's LOVE, on His JUSTICE, on His MERCY that "endureth forever"--there is practically no teaching of the old belief that a creature, born of circumstances, and good or bad as circumstances may determine, is to suffer endless torment under never-changing conditions of horror. ----
       The writing of this editorial is based upon frequent reading of the book of Job. In that ancient and wonderful book, as in no other writing, the Jewish forces of poetry and of prophecy are exhausted in the effort to portray God's majesty.
       All of the old prophet's knowledge of the world, all of his mystic notions of sidereal government, are used in the effort to glorify his Creator.
       "Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days?
       "Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, Here we are?
       "Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow?
       "Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks?
       "Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?
       "Will he make many supplications unto thee? Will he speak soft words unto thee?
       "Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail?"
       Thus through chapters of greatest beauty the primitive mind seeks to portray for the benefit of other primitive minds the omnipotence of the world's Ruler. ----
       What hope has man of conceiving, even approximately, the great law-giving Force that rules the universe? Shall we ever do more than attribute to Him those qualities which our own pygmy minds admire? Shall we forever conceive Him as a glorified "individual"?
       We believe that in the Book of Job there is suggested the method of studying God that alone can aid us to a better, higher conception.
       The study of God must be prosecuted through the study of astronomy, and this the old prophet foreshadows clearly:
       "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
       "Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?"
       Long years ago children were taught to admire a god who created a leviathan, a unicorn, and "Behemoth."
       Children of the future will be told:
       You live on a globe twenty-five thousand miles round. It travels ceaselessly through space at a speed of eighteen miles a second. Compared to the huge sun that lights and gives us life, our earth is but a pinhead, and the sun itself is but one tiny dot in the ocean of space. Through that space the sun rushes on an errand unknown, carrying us with it.
       Everything moves, revolves, rushes ceaselessly, yet a balance registering the one-thousandth part of a grain is not adjusted as nicely as these huge behemoths of limitless space. Laplace shows positive proof that the earth, travelling eighteen miles per second, has not changed the period of its rotation by the hundredth part of a second in two thousand years.
       The mind of the future, imbued with respect for the Force that controls, conducts and makes the laws for the universe, will attain more nearly to a conception of God. But a study of God will remain man's chief and constant effort while he lives here. That study is never-ending.
       [The end]
       Arthur Brisbane's essay: Study Of The Character Of God
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The "Criminal" Class
"Limiting The Amount Of A Day's Work"
150 Against 150,000--We Favor The 150,000
600 Teachers Now, 600,000 Good Americans In The Future
Again The Limited Day's Work
Astronomy Woman's Future Work
The Automobile Will Make Us More Human
The Azores--A Small Lost World In A Universe Of Water
A Baby Can Educate A Man
Catching A Red-Hot Bolt
The Cow That Kicks Her Weaned Calf Is All Heart
Crime Is Dying Out
Cruel Frightening Of Children
Cultivate Thought--Teach Your Brain To Work Early
Did We Once Live On The Moon?
Discontent The Motive Power Of Progress
Do You Feel Discouraged?
Don't Be In A Hurry, Young Gentlemen
Drink A Slow Poison
The Drunkard's Side Of It
The Earth Is Only A Front Yard
Education--The First Duty Of Government
The Elephant That Will Not Move Has Better Excuses Than We Have For Folly Displayed
The Existence Of God--Parable Of The Blind Kittens
The Eye That Weighs A Ton
The Fascinating Problem Of Immortality
France Has Learned Her Lesson
From Mammoths To Mosquitoes --From Murder To Hypocrisy
A Girl's Face In The Gaslight And An Important Part Of The World's Work
The Good That Is Done By The Trusts
The Harm That Is Done By Our Friends
Have The Animals Souls?
How Marriage Began
How The Other Planets Will Talk To Us
The Human Brain Beats The Coal Mines
The Human Weeds In Prison
Imagination Without Dreaming The Secret Of Material Success
The Importance Of Education Proved In Lincoln's Case
It Is Natural For Children To Be Cruel
Jesus' Attitude Toward Children
Knowledge Is Growth
Last Week's Baby Will Surely Talk Some Day
Law Cannot Stop Drunkenness--Education Can
Let Us Be Thankful (Thanksgiving Day, Nov 27, 1902)
Let Us Be Thankful (Thanksgiving)
Man's Willingness To Work
The Marvellous Balance Of The Universe--A Lesson In The Texas Flood
The Monkey And The Snake Fight
A Mother's Work And Her Hopes
No Happiness Save In Mental And Physical Activity
No Man Understands Iron
No Napoleonic Chess Player On An Air Cushion
One Of The Many Corpses In The Johnstown Mine
The One Who Needs No Statue
The Owner Of A Golden Mountain
Poverty Is The Father Of Vice, Crime And Failure
The Promising Toad's Head
Respectable Women Who Listen To "Faust"
Shall We Do Without Sleep Some Day?
Shall We Tame And Chain The Invisible Microbe As We Now Chain Niagara?
The Steeple, Moving Like The Hand Of A Clock
The Story Of The Complaining Diamond
Study Of The Character Of God
There Should Be A Monument To Time
Those Who Laugh At A Drunken Man
The Three Best Things In The World
Three Water Drops Converse
To Editorial Writers--Adopt Ruskin's Main Idea
To The Merchants
To Those Who Drink Hard--You Have Slipped The Belt
To-Day's World-Struggle
Too Little And Too Much
Trusts And The Senate
The Trusts And The Union-- How Do They Differ?
The Trusts Are National School Teachers
Trusts Will Drive Labor Unions Into Politics
Try Whiskey On Your Friend's Eyeball
Two Kinds Of Discontent
Two Thin Little Babies Are Left
Union Men As Slave Owners
The Value Of Poverty To The World
The Value Of Solitude
The Vast Importance Of Sleep
We Long For Immortal Imperfection--We Can't Have It
What About The Chinese, Kind Sir?
What Animal Controls Your Spirit?
What Are The Ten Best Books?
What Should Be A Man's Object In Life?
What The Bartender Sees
What Will 999 Years Mean To The Human Race
When The Baby Changed Into A Fourteen-Year-Old
When We Begin Using Land Under The Oceans
When Will Woman's Mental Life Begin?
Where Your Body Came From
A Whiskey Bottle
White-Rabbit Millionaires And Other Things
Who Is Independent? Nobody
Why Are All Men Gamblers?
Why Women Should Vote
William Henry Channing's Symphony
The Wind Does Not Rule Your Destiny
Woman Sustains, Guides And Controls The World
A Woman To Be Pitied
Woman's Vanity Is Useful
The Wonderful Magnet
Your Work Is Your Brain's Gymnasium