1.  To have right thoughts of God.  It would seem to be too obvious to need statement, yet experience shows that this fundamental necessity is not always secure, far from it.  It is not often put into words, but traces may be found only too easily of foundations of religion laid in thoughts of God that are unworthy of our faith.  Whence can they have come?  Doubtless in great measure from the subtle spirit of Jansenism which spread so widely in its day and is so hard to outlive—­from remains of the still darker spirit of Calvinism which hangs about convert teachers of a rigid school—­from vehement and fervid spiritual writers, addressing themselves to the needs of other times—­perhaps most of all from the old lie which was from the beginning, the deep mistrust of God which is the greatest triumph of His enemy.  God is set forth as if He were encompassed with human limitations—­the fiery imagery of the Old Testament pressed into the service of modern and western minds, until He is made to seem pitiless, revengeful, exacting, lying in wait to catch His creatures in fault, and awaiting them at death with terrible surprises.

But this is not what the Church and the Gospels have to say about Him to the children of the kingdom.  If we could put into words our highest ideals of all that is most lovely and lovable, beautiful, tender, gracious, liberal, strong, constant, patient, unwearying, add what we can, multiply it a million times, tire out our imagination beyond it, and then say that it is nothing to what He is, that it is the weakest expression of His goodness and beauty, we shall give a poor idea of God indeed, but at least, as far as it goes, it will be true, and it will lead to trustfulness and friendship, to a right attitude of mind, as child to father, and creature to Creator.  We speak as we believe, there is an accent of sincerity that carries conviction if we speak of God as we believe, and if we believe truly, we shall speak of Him largely, trustfully, and happily, whether in the dogmas of our faith, or as we find His traces and glorious attributes in the world around us, as we consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, or as we track with reverent and unprecipitate following the line of His providential government in the history of the world.

The need of right thoughts of God is also deeply felt on the side of our relations to Him, and that especially in our democratic times when sovereignty is losing its meaning.  There are free and easy ideas of God, as if man might criticize and question and call Him to account, and have his say on the doings of the Creator.  It is not explanation or apology that answer these, but a right thought of God makes them impossible, and this right thought can only be given if we have it ourselves.  The Fatherhood of God and the Sovereignty of God are foundations of belief which complete one another, and bear up all the superstructure of a child’s understanding of Christian life.