GOD THE HOLY FATHER .edu

GOD THE HOLY FATHER

By

PETER TAYLOR FORSYT H M .A., D.D.

LONDO N INDEPENDENT PRESS LT D

MEMORIAL HALL, E,C .4

First published in "Little Books on Religion " , Hodder & Stoughton, 1897 . Reprinted in "Silent Hour Booklets" , Hodder & Stoughton . Re-issued, Independent Press, 1957.

a'i '252. .

FOREWORD

This book is a reprint of three small books of sermons by m y father for which there has been a demand for some years . They are : The Holy Father and the Living Christ; Christian Perfection and The Taste of Death and the Life of Grace . These sermons were all preached and published around the turn of the century, an d before his longer books were written. Yet they are regarded as important because they give the key to all his later thinking an d writing . It has been suggested to me by one who has studied hi s theology deeply that if the sermons were rearranged, and no t merely reissued as they first appeared, they would form a logica l sequence, a system of theology in small compass . This suggestion I have gratefully adopted . The Holy Father deals with the natur e of God the Father ; The Divine Self-Emptying with the . SelfHumiliation of God the Son ; The Taste of Death and the Life of Grace with the Sacrifice and Passion of Christ the Saviour ; The Living Christ with Christ Risen and Alive for evermore ; and Christian Perfection with the consequent life of the Christian .

JESSIE FORSYTH ANDREWS .

PRINTED AND MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN ET FETCHER AND SON LTD, NORWICH

CONTENTS

Pag e

FOREWORD

v

THE HOLY FATHE R

I

THE DIVINE SELF-EMPTYIN G

29

I Limitation a Power and not a Defect

32

II The Divine Personality

34

III The Incarnation and its Moral Reality

36

IV The Incarnation as the Miracle of Grace is not i n

the Birth, but in the Death of Christ

39

THE TASTE OF DEATH AND THE LIFE OF GRACE 45

I The Taste of Death

47 ,

II Death for the Million

55

III Death as Grace

63

THE LIVING CHRIS T

81

I The Historic Chris t

84

II The Living Christ

88

III Christ Personal to U s

96

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION

97

I The Sin of the Regenerat e

99

II Sanctity and Fait h

I1 5

III Growth and Perfection

13 0

IV Practical Resume

141

THE HOLY FATHER

THE HOLY FATHE R

ST. JOHN XVii . II .

HEN the Io3rd Psalm says, "Like as a father pitieth hi s

W children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him, " it comes home to a time like our own . It is one of thos e gleams of vision in which the soul of Israel outran the spirit o f its age. It transcended its own genius . It rose from the covenan t God to the father God . It uttered an intuition whose source wa s inspiration, and which in the fulness of time rose into the revelation of God's first and last relation to the world . The music , heart, and passion of it lives for ever in Christ--endless pity, endless promise, endless power--lingering, searching pity, lovin g and lifting promise, weariless power and peace .

But it points beyond itself. There is a height and a depth in th e Father beyond His utmost pity and His kindest love . He is Holy Father and Redeemer, and it is His holiness of fatherhood tha t is the source of our redemption and sonship . It is not their obstacle . " Thou, 0 Lord, art our Holy One, therefore we shall not die ." He is father of pity to human weakness, still mor e father of grace to human sin, but chiefly father of holy joy t o our Lord Jesus Christ. The New Testament name and idea o f God is not simply "Our Father", but "the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ." And Christ 's own prayer was "Holy Father ". That was Christ 's central thought of God, and He knew God as He is . The new revelation in the cross was mor e than "God is love". It was this "Holy Father ". That is, God at His divinest, as He was to Christ, as He was in Christ .

In the Old Testament God is father often enough as well a s in other faiths . And in the I03rd Psalm it appears in a mor e original and tender way than I can stop to point out . But it is with many limitations . The name, for instance, is as yet imported into God rather than revealed from Him . He is like a

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