But wait a moment. Look at the potter and the clay, and see if you do not get some light from this. Here is the Potter, our great GOD; the great Potter knows what is in His mind; He has in His mind a world of universal peace. He is planning a porcelain vase in which the world is at peace. He meant men to be all of one mind. He made people of one blood to be of one mind in CHRIST JESUS. That is clearly His plan, His design, and we do well to pray for-- "... the promised time When war shall be no more, And lust, oppression, crime, Shall flee Thy face before." That is His plan, that is His design, and some day He will see it accomplished. "He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied." Meanwhile, because He acts like a potter, He is defeated again and again by the character of the clay, for He will not run counter to the free will of the individual or of a nation. If a great and powerful nation deliberately turns back from Christianity to Paganism, if that nation deliberately declares regret that it took up Christianity in the fourth century, if it has adopted the gospel that Might is Right, if the people turn to Odin as their ideal instead of to CHRIST, they defeat the plan of the great Potter; and so He cannot have the porcelain vase of universal peace. You have no right to blame GOD; it is the work of the Devil. GOD is hindered at every moment by the Devil and all his works; you cannot therefore blame our great and glorious GOD for the defeat of His design. The great Potter is not to be blamed because of the refractoriness of the clay. But here comes the splendid resourcefulness of the great Potter. Although He cannot get out His first design of the porcelain vase of universal peace, He is not defeated. He has got a second-best; He will have a beautiful bowl of universal service--a people offering themselves out of sheer patriotism for the service of their country. And that is what He has produced to-day. Who would have thought that five millions of men would have volunteered to fight for their country? Who would have thought that every woman would feel herself disgraced if not doing something for her country as nurse, physician, or in a canteen? Why, the spirit of service abroad to-day among men and women is something we have not seen in our country for a hundred years. The great Potter, then, has produced something from the clay; He has produced the beautiful bowl of service. Let us thank Him for that!