ad
His thoughts after Him. He is present in the affairs of men and of
nations in all ages. He speaks to men in the voice of conscience and
we hear Him in its strange authority to command and to forbid. In
Christ He is present revealing Himself in human experiences and in
human deeds and words and service. Where two or three are gathered
together in Christ's name He is in their midst. In the Sacraments He
is present to give His sacred gifts.

GOD IS OUR FATHER.

We have considered now some of the great truths of God which have been
revealed to us, but the Fatherhood of God in itself, what is it that we
know of this?

In the teaching of Christ our Master,--the Fatherhood of God is the
central truth of all. It gathers into itself all other attributes and
gives to all a special quality. It is our special Christian heritage.
The heart that believes God to be "Our Father" has room for the
conviction that "God is Love". We shall perhaps gain fullest insight
into the greatness of this truth if we concentrate our thoughts on
certain facts which stand out with special clearness in Holy Scripture.

First of all it is His presentation of the Fatherhood of God which
gives to our Saviour's teaching its wonderful tenderness and power.
Not power alone, nor tenderness alone, but both. He tells us that our
Heavenly Father knows our every need; that He Who feeds the birds of
the air and clothes the lilies of the field will not be unmindful of
the children of men; that our Father's heart is full of that eager,
forgiving, redeeming love which wins our heart in the parable of the
Prodigal Son. On the other hand, He would have us ever mindful that
our Father, when we approach in faith and penitence, is One Whose Name
is to be hallowed, Who is the Lord of heaven and earth to Whom all
things are possible, Who governs all things and knows all things, even
the inmost thoughts of men.

Again, the Fatherhood of God is unchanging and universal. It must be
so for He is the Eternal Father, and "He maketh His sun to rise on the
evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust."
Nevertheless, man's power to respond to God's Fatherhood is not
everywhere the same. We shall understand this best if we study the
Bible teaching on sonship and brotherhood in the light of the
revelation which God has given of His Fatherhood. There are in the
Bible different kinds of sonship, or sonships on different levels. The
fact that