God made our lives to be a song Sweet as the music of the spheres, That
still their harmonies prolong For him who rightly hears. The heavens
and the earth do play Upon us, if we be in tune: Winter shouts hoarse
his roundelay, And tender sweet pipes June. But oftentimes the songs
are pain, And discord mars our harmonies: Our strings are snapped by
selfish strain, And harsh hands break our keys. But God meant music;
and we may, If we will keep our lives in tune, Hear the whole year sing
roundelay, December answering June. God ever at his keyboard plays,
Harmonics, right; and discords, wrong: "He that hath ears," and who
obeys, May hear the mystic song.
SIN AND ATONEMENT.
For the sake of clearness, and in order that you may definitely
comprehend the doctrine of sin and atonement which I believe to be the
true one, I need in the first place to outline as a background that
which lies at the foundation of all the popular theologies of
Christendom. I am perfectly well aware that at least a part of the
time, while I am doing this, I shall be traversing ground with which
you are already familiar. Some of it, however, I think may be somewhat
strange to you.
The tradition begins with the story of a war in heaven. In some way
rebellion began among the angels; and he who had been Lucifer, the
light-bearer, prince among the glorious sons of God, took up arms of
rebellion against the Almighty. Naturally, he failed in this inevitably
losing battle, and was cast out into the abyss, with a third part of
all the angels, who had followed him.
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