Character and Conduct – 6 October – Manifestations of God

FOR how, as a matter of fact, do we grow to know God?   Let me refer you to Professor Flint’s book on Theism for the best answer I know.   We begin to know God as we begin to know our fellow-man – through His manifestations.   We may be tempted to think that we cannot know what we cannot see, but in a perfectly true sense we never see our fellow-man:  we see his manifestations;  we see his outward appearance.     We hear what he says;  we notice what he does, and we infer from all this what his unseen character is like, what the man is in himself;  so similarly and as surely we learn to know God.   We see what He has done in nature and in history;  we see what He is doing to-day;  we read what He has conveyed to us for our instruction ‘in sundry times and in divers manners’;  and so we learn to listen for and to love ‘the still small voice’ in which He speaks to our hearts.   One knowledge is as gradual and yet as sure and certain and logical as the other.

Work in Great Cities, Bishop WINNINGTON INGRAM

oooOOOooo

These quotes are from ‘Character and Conduct’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1905 as a follow up to her volume of Daily Readings for members of the Being and Doing Guild who asked for an additional volume

In her preface Whishaw writes:

‘This collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it.’

It is my hope in publishing them here readers may be inspired to imitate the example of the authors.