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VOL. LXXXVI. RICHMOND,
The F?the
"Our Father who art in Heaven?Matt, b,
0; Luke 11, 2.
These words form the preface, or invocation
to the prayer, which Jesus gave us as a model.
What a glow of brightness and warmth it
throws over the Whole prayer! and into what
a serene region it lifts the child of God as he
prays.
"Our Father." This is not figurative language.
It is the human fatherhood that is a
simile of the divine.
God is our Father. It is a thrice blessed fact.
The spiritual existed before the material. The
.uhstance must go before the shadow.
The earthly fatherhood helps us to understand
the heavenly, and the true.
When Abraham was called upon to give up
his only son, he saw in a vision something of
what it cost the great heart of God to give up
His only Son for the salvation of the world.
"Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw
it and was glad."?John 8. 56.
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and we His children, it must be that lie has
communicated Ilis nature to us.
In the record of our creation, we learn that
"the Lord God formed the man out of the dust
of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and man became a living
soul." By this inbreathing, we understand that
in some inscrutable way *He communicated His
eternal spirit or breath into man.
Moreover, "God said let us make man in our
own image, after our own likeness."
In doing that, He stamped upon the human
s?nl, a likeness, not of personal appearance, but
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^^^Knowledge righteousness and true holine>V?Eph.
4, 24.
This impartation of ITis divine nature by
breathing, makes a man God's image, God's offspring,
God's son. Read Luke's record of man's
Kcnealogy-?""Who was the son of Enoch; Who
was the son of Seth; who was the son of Adam;
*ho was the son of God? Man shares finitely in
God's infinite nature.
Hnt Adam having fallen from this high es*ah',
God in His mercy offered him recreation.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
^?rd Jesus Christ, who, according to His abundant
mercy, hath begotten us again." John says
those who believe on Jesus, "He gave them
tho r..?
I'uwer or the privilege of being the sons of
who were born not of blood, nor of the
*>11 of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
Qod."
Gofl created and recreated us, so that now, all
was lost in Adam may 'be found in Christ,
',,ul we are made His children.
one sense, God is t/he Father of all men,
,lri(l all men ^re a brotherhood. But only be
NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA. SEPTEM
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s in Christ can, in the full and true sense
of the word, address God as, "our Heavenly
Father."
Then God being truly our Father, and we His
children, what inevitably mast grow out of this
relation? .
Authority.
(1) First Ilis absolute authority over
us. His right to do with us, and for
us, as seemeth good to Him. There are two
kinds of authority. When a government is organized,
certain men are invested with authority
to rule. This government is a legalized impersonation
and subjects are compelled to obey.
Then, again, there is a natural, inherent, inalienable
authority, such as the parental. And just
as the earthly father has the right to govern his
offspring, so our Heavenly Father has the right
to govern His. Here the earthly furnishes an
adumbration of the heavenly. The Bible commands
children to obey their parents, not simply
because they have power to compel, but
< nly b cause it is riirht.. Here- love shnnW he
the impelling power, and so in the spiritual domain.
And sinee our Father in Heaven is infinite
in wisdom and love, our obedienee to His
will should always be prompt and joyful.
Parents are under obligation to teach and
train their children, punishing disobedience.
Where this is not done in the home, children
often grow up lawless citizens. It is easy for
children that are taught obedience to law in
the home, to be law-abiding citizens, and as life
goes on to grasp the higher obligation of obedience
to laws of God. The civil government punishes
u;> for disobedience, but our Heavenly
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chastens us.
Punishment, is inflicted for violation of law,
and "Christ is the end of the law to every one
that helievrth."?Rom 10, 4. We are not tinder
law, hut under grace.
Provision and Protection.
(2) God being our Father and we His children,
it is certain that He will provide for all
our real wants and protect us from all evil. He
has given us abundant assurance of this. "Take
no thought for your life what ye shall eat, or
what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what
ye shall put on. Ts not the life more than meat
and the body more than raiment?" "Are not
five sparrows sold for two farthing and not one
of them is forgotten before God." "But even
the very hairs of your head are all numbered."
Can any one frame a sentence so explicit of
perfect and continual care? Our Father's care
of you, dear reader, i^? as complete as if you
were the only being He had on earth to care for.
Our Heavenly Father forbids undue anxiety
about everything pertaining to this life. Be
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m. Presbyter/an <r
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BER II, 1912. NO. 37.
V ,
_/^/4 Rev. W. H. Peikias
^ COVINGTON, TENNESSEE
not anxious as if at sea, tossed about between
hope and fear.
Love.
(3) God being our Father, we are sure that
lie loves us. It requires no exercise of the will
l'or parents to love their children. God is our
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lis from the condemnation of (His broken law,
and we are, therefore, assured that He loves us
with an infinite love. His love for His children
is stronger than even a mother's love for the
child she bare. "She may forget, but I will not
forget thee."?Is. 49, 15.
Such is the bond of union between the Heavenly
Father and His child, through the Mediator,
that it is impossible that it should ever be
broken.
"The soul thai on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
That soul though all hell should endeavor to
shake,.
I'll never, no never, no never forsake
God is our Father and He must love His
children. God is love itself. It is His nature.
It is the golden band that binds all the glorious
attributes of His character in one harmonious
whole.
One Kingdom.
(4) God being our Father, it binds all His
children to constitute one harmonious kingdom.
When Jesus taught us to say "Our Father,"
lie was not coupling Himself with the twelve,
but teaching them and us, when we lift our
hearts in prayer to God, we are to go, arm in
arm, with all God's people everywhere, in all
the world, whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free.
All are one family and as we have occasion, we
are to be as kind and helpful to others as we
would be to the members of our own households.
"I bow my knees," wrote the great-hearted
Apostle to the Ephesians, "unto the Father oi
our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named."
io iDe named and to t>e are one with God. To
bear God's name is to belong to God's famlily.
"There is one body and one spirit, one hope,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all." One family scattered over the
earth, striving for same destination, and to be
one family at home in our Father's house for
ever and ever.
The two words "Our Father" suflreest the
moral unity of the human race. In those words
the missionary spirit is 'born, the spirit that fastern
and will never rest until the final triumph
of Christianity.
(5) As God is my Father and I am His child,
T am an heir of God and a joint heir with
Christ, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be, but we know that when He shall appear
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