The Fatherhood of God

“This is the resi wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing” —

“S5Ee hcfjtItJ glorg, tfjc glorg as of tijc onig tfsottm of tfje JFatl)er, full of grace anJ trut.”

—JOHN i. 14.

, «. .r T If the fronds of the pahn, by a beautiful f <I5 >( Eastern Christian myth to which we have

already referred, were said to whisper the name of Jesus, it may surely be averred of the true Heavenly Palm, that the leaves were heard continually to whisper a name, well-nigh, if not altogether, new to God’s spiritual Israel — that of Father.

And yet, may it not be truthfully asserted regarding not a few who live under the better dispensation, that there are often distorted views entertained of the nature of God, little in harmony with this Divine Fatherhood? Are there not many who think of Him only as a mighty Architect who has piled infinite space with His handiwork; — omnipotent, omniscient; — awful in His holiness, inexorable in His justice, implacable in His vengeance. They have fully apprehended the partial revelation of Him as the punisher of sin, but they have failed to gaze on the glorious complement of His character, as the Gracious and Merciful, the Father and the Friend.

This new paternal relation of Jehovah to His people is manifested in the Person of Him who came to our world the Incarnation of the Divine Spirituality — the unveiler of the essential perfections of Deity. “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” He is Himself the articulate answer to the query of His impatient disciple, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” “He that hath seen J/^,” was the reply, “hath seen the Father.” As there had been a patriarchal, a legal, an angelic, a prophetic dispensation, — so now Christ came as the founder and exponent of a yf/A?/ one. To take the significant opening words of the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews (not as they are rendered in our version, but as they have been rendered in the full force of the original), “God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by a So?t.”

Most delightful surely and comforting is this theme of contemplation — Christ the Revealer of the Father! “The Word,” says the beloved Apostle, “was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (and then follows our motto-verse), “we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Well may He be designated by this appropriate term. For just as ’ words ’ are the outward audible expression of silent invisible thought, so Christ is the expression of the Invisible God, the utterance and embodiment, in human shape, of Him who revealed Himself in the dimness of an earlier dispensation as “Secret,” “Wonderful,” “Incomprehensible.” “From henceforth,” says Christ, pointing to Himself, “ye know the Father, and have seen Him” (John xiv. 7). How He dwells upon the very name! How He delights to interweave it with parable and miracle, and intercessory prayer, and last agony, and first Resurrection-words! Well He knew the tender associations the image would call forth among the millions who pondered the story of His incarnation. He would have the sacred earthly relation transfused into the Heavenly. As He puts His people in the clefts of the Rock, and makes all the glory of His goodness to pass by, the proclamation is made, “My Father and your Father, My God and your God!” The opening invocation of His own Universal Prayer is “Our Father.” He would have them to know and to feel, even in the house of their earthly tabernacle, that they are pacing a Father’s halls; — a dwelling frescoed and decorated with a Father’s love! In seeing Him they see the Father (John xiv. 7). In asking Him for some needed boon, they ask the Father. The names are interchangeable. “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name. He will give it you.” Oh, how near does all this bring the great God Almighty! How it represents Him, as regarding with discriminating love each member of His redeemed family; caring for their wants, sympathising with their sorrows, bearing with their infirmities; loving them — we had almost said doating on them as a Father. How different from the heathen conception of their deities, living in the isolation of a voluptuous calm; far removed from the concerns of earth, devoid of all personal interest in those from whom, nevertheless, they demanded cruel offerings, and over whom they were often represented as revelHng in sanguinary malignity. “God in Christ,” “God with us”: — “with us,” as truly as Jesus was with the anxious Nicodemus, or with the sisters of Bethany, or with the widow at Nain, or with the disciples tossed on their midnight sea, or with the downcast wayfarers on the road to Emmaus. “God with us” — brought down from the regions of infinite abstraction; challenging our perfect confidence and trustful love. Even in our Gethsemanes of deepest sorrow, we can take the cup as He did in His midnight watch, and say, “O my Father! If it be possible!”

Realising this glorious truth, we can breathe the time-worn litany, with the consciousness of a new meaning and trust, — “O God, the Father of heaven, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners!” O my gracious Father! I will measure Thee no longer by any low human standard. Let the gentleness and benignity of Him who walked this earth as Thine Image, teach me evermore to repose unhesitatingly in the everlasting kindness of Thine Infinite heart. Under this glorious shelter, — the shade of this Palm of Elim, “I will lay me down in peace and sleep;” for God is viy Father; and God is Love! Yes, and even though that love should at times be veiled, and the leaves of the earthly palm tree be saturated with “the dews of the night,” I shall strive to remember the new sacred Covenant relation, and with a child’s unwavering trust breathe the words the Divine Revealer Himself has taught me — “Even so, Father! for so, it seemed good in Thy sight!”

‘* O Father! not my will, but Thine be done,

So spake the Son. Be this our charm, mellowing earth’s ruder noise

Of griefs and joys;
That we may cling for ever to Thy breast

In perfect rest.”

“I SAT DOWN UNDER HIS SHADOW WITH GREAT DELIGHT.”