swearing profanely who allows his speech to go beyond the simple, straightforward yea and nay. The law of personal retaliation and hatred of enemies is to be superseded by the new commandment, "Love your enemies and pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father who is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust" (v, 44, 45). In the matter of prayer he puts stress on one's personal approach to the Father. The psalmist uttered one of the most affecting conceptions of Jehovah to be found in the Old Testament when he said, "As a father pitieth his children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him" (ciii, 13). But the utterance is general, and is based on the conception of reverential awe rather than of love in the heart of the child. Jesus speaks of "thy Father," and inculcates personal confidence and affection in one's approach unto God: "When thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee" (vi, 6). He assures us that our heavenly Father knows our needs before we ask him. Be not anxious, he says, about food and drink and clothes. Your heavenly Father feeds the birds, and clothes the lilies, and are ye not of much more value in his sight than they? And so, in addressing God in prayer, he teaches us to say, "Our Father; give us our daily bread; forgive us our debts; bring us not into temptation." Elsewhere he says: "Not one sparrow shall fall on the ground without your Father; but the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (x, 29, 30). With what personal confidence, then, ought we to pray unto our Father who is in the heavens! We are, accordingly, admonished to be perfect children, inasmuch as we have such a perfect heavenly Father (v, 48), and to let our light shine before men, that they, too, may see, and know, and glorify our Father who is in the heavens (v, 16). Other teachings of Jesus in the synoptic gospels involve this same impressive doctrine of our heavenly Father. He assures those who are persecuted and brought to bear witness for him before governors and kings that it shall be given them in that hour what they shall say by the Spirit of their Father (Matt. x, 20). This is in noteworthy harmony with the doctrine of the Comforter in John's gospel. "Call no man your father on the earth," he says (xxiii, 9), "for one is your Father, the heavenly." This means that the filial relation to God should be realized in a manner so enhancing to our thought that no merely human title, not even that of father, should for a moment lead us to forget our blessed relationship to our heavenly Father. His frequent use of the expression my Father has also its suggestions. "Whosoever

shall do the will of my Father who is in the heavens, he is my brother, and sister, and mother" (xii, 50). Here, surely, Jesus reveals his Father in a most personal and affectionate way. Every pure human relationship is thus sanctified with those whose lives are "hid with Christ in God," and all the blessed possibilities of regeneration and eternal life take on an overwhelming heavenly aspect by the suggestions of such spiritual relationship to "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Add to this the solemn words of Matt. x, 32, 33: "Every one who shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in the heavens. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in the heavens." Also those of Matt. xv, 13: "Every plant which my heavenly Father planted not, shall be rooted up." In all such statements Jesus not only assumes a unique relation to God as his heavenly Father, but also implies the provision for a personal filial relation to God of all that love him. He also reveals the Father in various aspects of his heavenly tenderness in such other sayings as, "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in the heavens" (Matt. xviii, 19). "It is not the will of my Father who is in the heavens, that one of these little ones should perish" (ver. 14). "Verily I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in the heavens" (ver. 10). "The righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (xiii, 43). "I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and ye shall sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Luke xxii, 29, 30; comp. Matt. xix, 28). It is impossible to study these sayings of our Lord and fail to see that in a variety of profoundly suggestive ways he is making the Father known to them that are willing to know him. His language has at times the style of metaphor and proverb, but the essential thought is never difficult to grasp, and in every instance we catch some new and impressive glimpse of the love of our Father who is in the heavens.

(2) Simplicity of Christ's Gospel of the Father. Furthermore, this manner of revealing the Father has its peculiar adaptation to those who possess childlike simplicity and willingness to learn the truth. Things that concern our deepest needs, things of a very practical character but of far-reaching importance, are often hidden, by reason of barriers of their own construction, from those who are wise in their own conceit. The simplicity of the gospel of Christ is one of its highest claims upon our confidence, and the

beatitudes, pronounced in Matt. v, 3-8, upon the poor in spirit, the sorrowful, the gentle, the merciful, and the pure in heart surpass in beauty and tenderness even such exceptionally comforting words of the Old Testament as, "Jehovah is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as are of a contrite spirit" (Psa. xxxiv, 18); or those of Isa. lvii, 15: "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit." The simple adaptation of Christ's teaching to touch the heart of humanity everywhere is its crowning excellence. Herein he surpasses psalmists and prophets that were before him. While it is written, in Dan. vii, 27, that "the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High," Jesus says, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke xii, 32). In explaining the purpose of his parables he said to the disciples: "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them (who vainly pride themselves in ability to see and hear) it is not given.

Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not" (Matt. xiii, 11-17; comp. Luke x, 21-24). All this and much more of a similar kind illustrates the simple, direct, and touching manner in which Jesus made known the Spirit of his Father and our Father who is in heaven.

(3) The Father's Delight in His Children. But these same teachings also reveal the delight of our heavenly Father in communicating his grace to those who are of a receptive heart. Such revelation is a positive pleasure (evdoxía, a delightful satisfaction) unto him. He is as well pleased to impart the riches of his kingdom to his children as he is well pleased in his beloved Son (Matt. iii, 17; xvii, 5). As the Father loves his anointed Son, and delights to honor him, he reveals in this conspicuous fact that he has exquisite joy in all his obedient children. The great commandment which Christ extols as comprehensive of the whole Law and the Prophets would be without force if we did not assume that the Father himself loves us with an affection that passeth understanding. How wonderfully and genuinely must he love us to expect that we love him with all the heart and soul and mind and strength! He surely expects reciprocal affection, and in the entire ministry of his Son Jesus Christ he has given us assurance of his unspeakable pleasure in manifesting his holy love for man, and in receiving from man the simple, childlike response of a love unfeigned.

2. Great Advance on the Old Testament View. In this more personal revelation of the love of our heavenly Father, Jesus made a noteworthy advance beyond the general teaching of the Old Testament. He spoke with an authority greater than that of Moses and the prophets, and in proportionate clearness brought God nearer to the human heart. For while the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms extol the loving-kindness and long-suffering of the God of Israel, and in a few instances ascribe to him the title of Father, the power, majesty, righteousness, and holiness of God receive by far the more elaborate treatment. In that older time the nation and the family were put so far above the individual that personal interests were comparatively lost from sight. Hence when Jehovah says in Jer. xxxi, 9, "I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born," it is the nation, the people as a collective body, not the individual Israelite, that is thought of as "the dear son, the darling child" (ver. 20). So, too, in Hos. xi, 1, "when Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt," it is not an individual but all the tribes of Israel that the prophet has in mind. The same appears in Exod. iv, 22: "Thus saith Jehovah, Israel is my son, my first-born." Also in Isa. lxiii, 16; lxiv, 8, "Thou, O Jehovah, art our Father," is the cry of Jehovah's servant Israel, who calls himself "thy holy people, the tribes of thine inheritance." While such a collective idea of Jehovah's first born son was the prevailing thought, the true personal relation of each individual to God as his heavenly Father could not be fully made known. This highest and holiest personal relationship was first brought to light in Jesus, who at twelve years of age spoke confidently of "my Father" (Luke ii, 49), and whom at the Jordan the voice out of heaven proclaimed as "my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." What the prophet Hosea (xi, 1) said of Israel as a people, the evangelist sees fulfilled personally in Jesus (Matt. ii, 15). The magnificent language, which in Isa. xlii, 1-4, is addressed by Jehovah to Jacob his servant and Israel whom he has chosen, is in Matt. xii, 18-21, applied directly to Jesus Christ. And, similarly, in all the teaching of our Lord relative to his Father and our Father who is in heaven, he puts forward the more personal revelation of the Father to the individual heart of everyone "to whom the Son willeth to reveal him."

3. The Only One Good. It is further to be remarked that in his revelation of the Father Jesus declares him as the one God who is the impersonation of all goodness. To the man who addressed him as "good Master," he said: "Why callest thou me good? None is good save one, the God" (15, ỏ dɛó5; Mark x, 18). This declaration should not be construed into a denial of Christ's goodness, but

is designed rather to put forward the highest conception of personal goodness and center it in God. Somewhat after the manner of Eliphaz (in Job iv, 18; xv, 15), who would enhance the thought of God's holiness by suggesting that his holy ones and even the heavens themselves are comparatively unclean, Jesus affirms that God alone is absolutely good. This characteristic quality of the divine nature must needs comprehend all those moral attributes which we have classified under omnisentience, namely, faithfulness, goodness, loving-kindness, emotionality, righteousness, and holiness; and hence we learn that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ possesses all these qualities in absolute perfection. The Pharisee, whose notions of righteousness and goodness were altogether conventional, and who was wont to "tithe mint, and rue, and every herb, and pass over the justice and the love of God" (Luke xi, 42), was hardly susceptible to such a revelation of divine goodness as these words of Jesus contain. This declaration concerning goodness might perhaps be paraphrased so as to conform to what our Lord said about his knowledge of the day and hour (Mark xiii, 32): "No one is absolutely good, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."

4. Doctrine of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel. The peculiarities of the fourth gospel are such as to justify our study of its doctrine of God in connection with the same doctrine found in the first epistle of John. In both gospel and epistle we find the teaching of Jesus touching his heavenly Father set forth in language and style peculiar to the Johannine writings, but the doctrine is in all essentials in complete harmony with that of the synoptic gospels. The doctrine of the Logos, in whose incarnation was beheld "a glory as of an only begotten from a Father full of grace and truth," has its commanding significance for the true revelation of God. There are also other statements of a general character, which here call for only a passing notice. The Father is "the only true God" (xvii, 3; comp. vii, 28; viii, 26); he is the "holy Father," and the "righteous Father" (xvii, 11, 25), also "the living Father," who has life in himself, and has given to the Son to have life in himself (vi, 57; v, 26). In the first epistle (i, 9; ii, 29; iii, 7 ; v, 20) we meet with the same general statements, and from all such teaching we derive the concept of a blessed Father, full of grace and truth, existing through eternity but manifesting himself in time as holy and righteous altogether, and that supreme manifestation is in and through his Son.

(1) God is Spirit. The most specific declaration of the essential nature of God to be found in John's gospel is in iv, 24, where Jesus says to the woman of Samaria, "God is Spirit." The Greek