Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/57

 ing depends upon the will. We have seen that as wisdom is the effect of the understanding, so the Son of God is called ; and as love exists in the will, so the Father is called. We proceed, therefore, to notice the other points of resemblance. And, first, every work of the Father is said to be performed by the Word: "Without Him was not anything made that was made." Yet, of Himself, the Son can do nothing; it is the "Father that dwelleth within Him that doeth the work." Exactly similar is the situation of the will and the understanding in man. Every work of the will is performed only by the understanding, and without it not a single affection can operate with effect. Yet alone, the understanding can do nothing; it is the affection within that animates and renders it active. Again: "No one knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any one the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him." Here it is declared, that by the Son alone can the Father be revealed; just as by the thought alone the will can be made manifest. In the same manner, the Son is described as the only means of approach to the Father; and the only medium by which the influence of God can be received: even as the understanding is the only means of approach to the will, and the only medium by which the affections can operate. Yet the Father and the Son, like the two faculties of man, are one—one in person—one truly, "without confusion of parts, or division of substance." From the Father, through the Son, proceeds the Spirit: as from the will, by the understanding, proceeds outward operation. This outward operation is power in man. This operation of the Spirit is power in God.