Christian idea of God and there are many non-Christian ideas about
God; it is the latter which keep men from heartily engaging in the
service of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Wrong Conceptions of God.--Some of these are:

1. That He is a blind fate or unknowable force. Personality is
denied, and it is asserted that this great force neither sees, cares
nor even knows what men do or do not do.

2. Even if this great force be personal, and knows what is going on
amongst men, He is perfectly indifferent to right or wrong actions.

3. God knows and sees all that is going on, but He has wound up this
universe like a great clock. To help or succour any man in his
distress would disarrange the whole system. Natural law must have its
course; it is useless to pray.

4. God is revengeful or weak; in the first place men seek to keep out
of His way, in the second they do not care.

When men adopt these wrong ideas of God and cherish them they are
fashioned after them in life and character. Here are the
stumbling-blocks which need to be removed before men, who think this
way, can be brought into sympathy with the Church of Christ. Man can
never come into personal loving relations with a Universal Substance
or Force, no matter how mighty it is.

Right Conceptions of God are necessary for the true worship of the
Almighty, for the exercise of proper conduct to our fellow men and for