Page:A Defence of Revealed Religion.pdf/26

26 upon this subject; and while men have tried to love the Father even as they have loved the Son, the effort has been in vain. Human hearts have clung to Jesus Christ, the hope of the dying has been in Him, and their last breath has pronounced His name, and though prayers have been offered to the Father, they have been "for Jesus' sake." The angry God has been loved little and feared much—the merciful Son has been loved much and feared none at all.

It is time that this divided allegiance should be disavowed; and indeed many have denied the Godhead of Jesus Christ as their only way of escape from it. Others, however, with (what we believe to be) a clearer insight into scriptural teaching, have acknowledged Him as God alone, "in Whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Upon another occasion we shall ask you to attentively follow us while we endeavour to prove the Sole Divinity of Jesus Christ—we have only here alluded to it in an incidental manner, as presenting us with a nobler conception of our Father in heaven than is presented in the popular views concerning the Fall and Atonement.

The highest conception that we can form of God must be far short of the reality, but we may be sure that His perfections do not partake of the nature of human imperfections—"His ways are higher than our ways." The unforgiving, angry, relentless spirit is an infirmity in man; and surely it cannot exist in the Author and Giver of every good; surely our God