To be near unto God - pagina 192
foreground as the first and great commandment. is less complaint in the Bible about lack of brotherly love than about forgetfulness of God. The Apostle shows that this was no Jewish exaggeration, when in his epistle to the Romans he reiterates the bitter complaint of the Psalmist that: "There is none that seeketh after God, no, not one." This does not exclude the fact that love for God can be poured out in the soul. It is frequently observed that this Divinely-outpoured love which at first was small and weak, afterwards became stronger and more tender. But take a man by himself, as he grows up by nature, not only among good-for-nothings and criminals, but equally much among cultivated and honorable people, there is no love in that man for God. He does not seek God. Indeed, there is no one who really loves God in the way in
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which God requires it. For a long time this seemed to be different, but it was appearance only. Even at the beginning of the last century it was still the rule among the rank and file of our people to favor religion And to abhor every form of atheism. Without willing to be called pious, no one desired to be known as irreligious, and on solemn occasions the name of the Lord was always remembered. Are people worse now than formerly? By no means. They have emancipated themselves more genBut on the whole people now are what erally. they were before. Only with tliis difference, that now unbelief is preached more boldly from the pulpit and university chairs, in the press and in Has this practice provoked a open meetings. 188
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Bekijk de hele uitgave van dinsdag 1 januari 1918
Abraham Kuyper Collection | 620 Pagina's
Bekijk de hele uitgave van dinsdag 1 januari 1918
Abraham Kuyper Collection | 620 Pagina's