^ The two sublimest affirmations concerning the Deity in the inspired Word are these — " God is Light," " God is Love." It is the latter of these two which, apparently, had so taken hold of the mind and the heart of Browning that he never wearies of reiterating the statement of the fact in numerous connexions and in various forms. In " Paracelsus " he declares unhesitatingly :
God ! Thou art love ! I build my faith on that.
And presently, praying for one who has erred, and for himself,
he says :
Save him, dear God ; it will vbe like Thee : bathe him In light and life! Thou art not made like us; We should be wroth in such a case; but Thou Forgivest — so, forgive these passionate thoughts Which come unsought and will not pass away!
64 ' GOD WHO IS OUR HOME
I know Thee, who hast kept my path, and made light for me in the darkness, tempering sorrow So that it reached me like a solemn joy; It were too strange that I should doubt thy love.^
ii. A Dwelling-place. Our need of the eternal God is but too manifest. Weak and mortal, man feels himself a most helpless being. Birth and death are stronger than he ; of the one he is the product, of the other the victim. He comes out of a past eternity, in which he had no conscious being ; he must go into an eternal future where he is to be — he knows not what. This little conscious present is all he has, all that sense can discover or intellect disclose. Mind can see, can feel, the lonely sadness of this little life — can look out into the infinities of space and time, realize their bound- lessness and its own minute personality, till it feels like a small self-conscious star twinkling solitary in an immense expanse.
^ In moments when the thought of these infinities, conceived only as such, has been strong in me, I have felt like one standing, and reeling while he stood, on a narrow pillar reared high in space, looking up to a starless sky, out on a boundless immensity, down into a bottomless abyss, till in the despair of utter loneliness the soul has cried, " Oh for the face of the eternal God above, and the everlasting arms below." ^
The dearest things in this fair world must change;
Thy senses hurry on to sure decay; Thy strength will fail, the pain seem no more strange.
While love more feebly cheers the misty way. What then remains above the task of living ?
Is there no crown where that rude cross hath pressed? Yes, God remains, His own high glory giving
To light thy lonely path, to make it blest. Yea, God remains, though suns are daily dying, —
A gracious God, who marks the sparrow's fall; He listens while thine aching heart is sighing;
He hears and answers when His children call; His love shall fill the void when death assails, — The one, eternal God, who never fails.^
^ J. Flew, Studies in Browning, 23. ' A. M. Fairbaim.
• William Ordway Partridge.
DEUTERONOMY xxxiii. 27 65
1. What man needs is a permanent consciousness of the eternal God as a daily presence, the very atmosphere in whichl the soul lives, moves, and has its being. To this, two movements are necessary, one from God to man, one from man to God.
There's heaven above, and night by night
I look right through its gorgeous roof; No suns and moons though e'er so bright
Avail to stop me; splendour-proof
I keep the broods of stars aloof: For I intend to get to God,
For 'tis to God I speed so fast, For in God's breast, my own abode.
Those shoals of dazzling glory passed,
I lay my spirit down at last.^
(1) God's movement is one in fact and essence, though manifold in form and manifestation — Love. There is truth Divine and universal in that saying of the Psalmist — "Thy gentleness hath made me great." All man's greatness comes from God's gentleness. Were He wroth, our spirits would fail before Him ; but He remains merciful, and we endure. " Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." His heart, boundless as space, infinite as eternity, beats with mercy ; and the eternal God around us means simply, Man is enveloped in eternal love.
^ Two little girls were playing with their dolls, and singing —
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast, There, by His love o'ershaded,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.
Mother was busy writing, only stopping to listen to the little ones' talk :
" Sister, how do you know you are safe ?" asked Nellie, the younger of the two.
" Because I am holding Jesus, with both my hands, tight," replied her sister.
" That's not safe," said the other. " Suppose Satan came along and cut your two hands off!"
Little sister looked troubled, dropped dolly, and thought.
^ Browning, Johannes Agricola in Meditation. DEUT.-ESTH. — 5
66 GOD WHO IS OUR HOME
Suddenly her face shone with joy. "Oh, I forgot! Jesus is holding me, and Satan can't cut off His hands ; so I am safe."^