Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/27

Rh And at the hour of the church's great darkness and the world's great need, a new revelation (such is the belief and teaching of the New Church) was vouchsafed—the very thing to have been expected when we consider the paternal character of God—his deep concern and tender care and boundless love for the children of men.

And what is the character of the Heavenly Father as disclosed in this new revelation? To answer this question briefly, it is: That He is a Being of infinite wisdom, tenderness, mercy and love. All that is highest, purest, noblest and loveliest in human character is from Him, and exists in Him in a measureless degree. He not only loves, but is Love itself; and this is Life itself. Love is his very substance and esse. All the love there is in heaven and on earth is from Him, as all life is from Him. And his love is infinite in all its attributes; infinite in its sweetness, its purity, its amplitude, its power. We can form but a faint conception of God's love, because we can receive or experience it only in a feeble degree. The love of a wife for her husband, of a mother for her child, of a lover for his betrothed, is, in respect to its sweetness, tenderness and unselfishness, a faint image of