angels were glad to find it was to be so upon the earth also; they
rejoiced to see that what was bound in heaven, was bound on earth; that
the same principle held in each. Compare Matt, xviii. 10 and 14; also
Luke xv. 10. 'See that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I
say unto you that their angels in heaven do always behold the face of my
father which is in heaven.... Thus it is not the will before your father
which is in heaven,'--_among the angels who stand before him_, I think
he means,--'that one of these little ones should perish.' 'Even so, I
say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repenteth.'

Having thus thanked his father that he has done after his own 'good and
acceptable and perfect will', he turns to his disciples, and tells them
that he knows the Father, being his Son, and that he only can reveal the
Father to the rest of his children: 'All things are delivered unto me
of my father; and no one knoweth the son but the father; neither knoweth
any one the father save the son, and he to whomsoever the son willeth to
reveal him.' It is almost as if his mention of the babes brought his
thoughts back to himself and his father, between whom lay the secret of
all life and all sending--yea, all loving. The relation of the Father
and the Son contains the idea of the universe. Jesus tells his disciples
that his father had no secrets from him; that he knew the Father as the
Father knew him. The Son must know the Father; he only could know
him--and knowing, he could reveal him; the Son could make the other, the
imperfect children, know the Father, and so become such as he. All
things were given unto him by the Father, because he was the Son of the
Father: for the same reason he could reveal the things of the Father to
the child of the Father. The child-relation is the one eternal, ever
enduring, never changing relation.

Note that, while the Lord here represents the knowledge his father and
he have each of the other as limited to themselves, the statement is one
of fact only, not of design or intention: his presence in the world is
for the removal of that limitation. The Father knows the Son and sends
him to us that we may know him; the Son knows the Father, and dies to
reveal him. The glory of God's mysteries is--that they are for his
children to look into.

When the Lord took the little child in the presence of his disciples,
and declared him his representative