Faith of Our Fathers

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 21, 31 May 1923, Page 41

Faith of Our Fathers

[A Weekly Instruction for Young and Old.] Of the Supreme Dominion of Jurisdiction Which God Has Over His -(Continued.) Q. 15. What effects ought the consideration of this supreme dominion of God to produce in our souls? A. Chiefly these two. (1) A most profound humility, a reyerental awe and dread of His infinite majesty. This is what St. Peter most earnestly recommends to all, “God resisteth the proud, hut giveth grace to the humble. Re you humble, therefore, under the mighty hand of God” (1 1 et. v. 6). St. Paul in like manner says, “.Let us serve, pleasing God, with fear and reverence; for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. xii. 28). And indeed if so great veneration is shown to the majesty of earthly kings and potentates, which is scarce a shadow of majesty if compared with God; if their subjects tremble and are confounded in their presence, so as sometime to be unable to speak a. word before them; with what sentiments of veneration, with what profound respect ought our hearts to be penetrated in the presence of the most High God, the most august majesty of the increated, all-powerful King of heaven and earth? With what reverential dread and awe ought we to be overwhelmed, every time we call to mind His Divine presence? every time we hear His adorable name pronounced? “Hear. 0 foolish people." says He Himself, “and without understanding: Will von not then fear He? said the Lord" (Jer. v.. 21). Mr] who am the King of kings, and Lord of lords, Me] who have the universe for My kingdom: all creatures for My subjects; for My throne, immensity; for My sceptre, omnipotence; for My diadem, eternity: for My soldiers, thunders and lightning, tempests and deluges, famines, plagues, and earthquakes; Mil whose anger none can resist: Mr] who have your life in My hand, and can destroy you whenever I please; who have the whole world in My power, and can reduce it to nothing in an instant: Mr I so tremendous a prince; and yon worms of the earth, My creatures. My vassals, My slaves! and will you not fear Me? “If T be your master, where is My fear? saith the Lord of hosts” (Mai. i.. 6). 0 great God. truly "There is none like to Thee. 0 Lord; Thou art great, and great is Thv name in might. Who shall not fear Thee, 0 King of nations? for Thine is the glory ; among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms there is none like unto Thee,” • ( • • for “ the Lord K the true God, He is the living God and the everlasting King: at His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His threatening" (Jer. x.. (J, 10). “Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket before Him, and are accounted as the smallest grain of a balance. . . All the nations are before Hun as .1 they had no being at all and are counted to Hun as nothing and vanity” (Is. xl.. 15 17) “What then k man, 0 Lord, that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?” (Ps. viii .j) “What is the number of my days, that I may know what is wanting to me? Behold Thou hast made my days measurable, and my substance is as nothing before Thee; and indeed all things are vanity ; every man living” (Ps. xxxviii.. 5). And shall this vanity, this nothing dare to set up its crest and to walk with a high head and a stretched out neck in the presence of the Almighty. Alas! how miserable a. delusion would this be! “For if any man think himself to' be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself" (Gal vi 3), and how fatal is his deception, by which the gieat Almighty God becomes his declared enemy, and threatens him with utter ruin and destruction! “If his pride mount up even to heaven, and his head touch the clouds in the end ho shall be destroyed, like a dunghill and they that have seen him shall say, Where is he? as a dream that fleeth away he shall not be found he shall pass mansion of the night” (Job xx., 6). And whv so ? Behold I am against thee, 0 proud man, saith the Lord, the God of hosts, for the day is come, the time of thy visitation? and the .proud one shallfall, he shall fall down and there shall be none to lift him up ; and I will kindle a fire in bis cities and it shall devour all round about him” +i,' K ’ 31) Wherefore let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, who resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble’! (1 Pet. v., 6) (2) The other effect which the supreme dominion of

Almighty God ought to produce in us, is a continual attention „o do His will, and exactly to obey His holv commandments. Our obligation to this is a necessary consequence of His dominion and authority over us; and this obligation is so great that no power in heaven or earth can exempt us from it; we can no more cease to be strictly obliged to obey the commands of God, than we can cease to be His creatures; this obligation is as essential to us, as His sovereign dominion is to Him. And the necessity we lie under of complying with it so absolute, that we have nothing to expect but ruin and destruction, devastation and misery, if we refuse to obey Him, and rebel against Him. All which will still more clearly appear, if we consider attentively (1) I hat we are His creatures; whatever we are, whatever we have, we are altogether the work of His bands: lie created us, and He created us out of nothing; consequently He has the most absolute power over us, and the most incontrovertible right to our obedience, and to every possible service we can do to Him; and of course we are strictly obliged in everything, without exception, to serve Him and to obey Him. Moses speaks with astonishment of the sms of his people, precisely as being an infringement of this supreme title that God has to their obedience as our Creator, and considers their disobedience as the greatest folly. “Is this the return thou makest to the land. 0 loolish and senseless people? Is not He thy bather that made thee, and possessed thee and created tlo ° ? • • • Tlu)11 bast forsaken the God that begot time, and hast forgotten the Lord that created thee” (Dent, xxxii., (), 18). M hat obligation can any man have to obey Hmse who have dominion over him in this world, equal or ‘•.m.parn'.'o to what we owe to God as our Creator or "bat right can an earthly superior have to the service ami obedience ol those under him, equal or comparable to the title that the Creator has to the service of His creatures? A hat is the authority of parents over their children masters over their servants— kings over their subjects, 'I cornua red to the authority which God has over all creatures ; Alas! all earthly dominion, and all the obedience due to it ,s but adventitious, accidental, martial and temporal; but the dominion of the Creator, and our obligation to obey Him is essential, indefeasible, universal, and c m mil If. therefore, it be great injury to earthlv supermi s. when their subjects disobey their lawful commands, who can conceive the unparalleled injury done to the'Almighty •eater. when we. worms of the earth, refuse to m>m Him, and transgress "is sacred laws? What greater I, 1 ' TV ’""I 1 I"' 0 t() tll( ' «*’ ami service of any thing, •in to that ol the work ol his own hands? The gardener ms a perfect right to the fruits of his garden ; the husband- '"‘" to the produce of his land: the builder of a house on Ins own property-to the use and rents of the house " ( ‘ l‘ h V l)lll,ds: the merchant to the profits of his commerce. Now we are wholly the bandy-work of God; He mace ns wmt we are— He created our very substance out o noth i ng— everything we have belongs to Him-we are altogether His undoubted property ; how incontestable then must His right 1,0 to all service and obedience from us r and how great our obligation to serve and obey Him!