GOD THE HOLY FATHER - Loyola University Chicago

GOD THE HOLY FATHE R

By

PETER TAYLOR FORSYT H

M.A., D .D .

LONDO N

INDEPENDENT PRESS LT D

MEMORIAL HALL, E,C .4

'252. .

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First published in "Little Books on Religion " , Hodder & Stoughton, 1897 .

Reprinted in "Silent Hour Booklets" , Hodder & Stoughton .

Re-issued, Independent Press, 1957.

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 suggestio n

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

Page

FOREWORD

v

THE HOLY FATHE R

I

THE DIVINE SELF-EMPTYIN G

I Limitation a Power and not a Defect

II The Divine Personality

III The Incarnation and its Moral Reality

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

the Birth, but in the Death of Christ

29

32

34

36

39

THE TASTE OF DEATH AND THE LIFE OF GRACE 4 5

I The Taste of Death

II Death for the Million

III Death as Grace

THE LIVING CHRIS T

47 ,

55

63

81

I The Historic Chris t

II The Living Chris t

III Christ Personal to U s

84

88

96

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION

97

I The Sin of the Regenerat e

II Sanctity and Fait h

III Growth and Perfection

IV Practical Resume

99

I1 5

130

141

THE HOLY FATHER

THE HOLY FATHE R

ST. JOHN XVii . II .

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

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¡ªendless pity, end less promise, endless power¡ªlingering, 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

HEN

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