The Love of God Manifested in His Creative Works.
By E. Hilliard
“Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love.” God has not given life to a single creature but that He has created something to sustain that life. Everything is created with an adaptation to the element in which it is to move. He has made the fish for the sea, the animals for the land, and the birds for the air. The tiny fish, the great whale, every beast of the field, every fowl, tree, or blade of grass, is continually speaking to the senses of men, that there is a God, the Creator and supreme ruler of all. The sun, that rises in splendor, and gives forth light and heat to supply the needs of man; the moon, that brightens the gloom of night; and the stars, that shed forth their light, all these speak with a plainer voice than the lips of man or tongue of angels, the power and love of God. The psalmist meditated on the power of God, and while gazing upon the numberless worlds twinkling in the blue dome of the heavens, the Spirit of God rested upon him, and he wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” Ps. 19:1. If the sun, moon, and stars should be blotted out of existence, darkness equal to that in the beginning would be upon us. Were it possible for men to live under such conditions for a short time, they would greatly appreciate the love of God in creating the world, and lighting it up so perfectly to their needs. O, how selfishly we appropriate the rich blessings that God has bestowed upon us through nature! In this world God’s sun shines on the just and the unjust, and His rain falls on the good and the evil. It will not be so when the earth is renewed. There will be none in that beautiful world but those who have recognized the love of God in granting these blessings under the present conditions. Were it possible for them to be there, they could not endure the brilliancy of the sun’s resplendent rays; for says the prophet Isaiah, “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.” Isa. 30:26. It was in infinite love that God pronounced a curse upon the earth after our first parents sinned in Eden. He said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake.” Gen. 3:17. Yes, it was for man’s sake that the strength of the soil was weakened, that thorns and thistles grew, and that the atmosphere, teeming with the effects of the curse, hid six-sevenths of the sun’s brilliancy. God has so arranged this world that sinful men can exist in it, and through Christ prepare to live in it after it is renewed. We could not endure the conditions of any other world. Praise the Lord for His wonderful wisdom and infinite love! Every one who through repentance and confession will respond to the love of God, will see new beauty in all His created works. His heart will be drawn out toward the great Creator, and a bond of sympathy will spring up that will lead him to put his whole trust in his heavenly Father. He will have faith that all his needs will be supplied, even under the most adverse circumstances. His fields may be parched and unproductive, his wells of water exhausted, and the streams dry; yet the God who loves him, and whom he loves, will surely supply his needs. Israel was as secure from want in the barren desert as when surrounded by fields of waving grain. Their supplies fell fresh from heaven every night; for Christ, who led His wilderness people, worked on the principle that He afterwards enunciated in the prayer He taught His disciples, by giving them daily their daily bread.