He trusts God's
Providence, and resigns Himself to His will, He takes up the
attitude of a child towards Him, and loves best to call Him the
Heavenly Father. The expression is simple, but the thing
signified is new. He first knows Himself, not in emotion but in
sober quietness, to be God's child; before Him no one ever felt
himself to be so, or called himself so. He is the first-born of
the Father, yet, according to His own view, a first-born among
many brethren. For He stands in this relation to God not because
His nature is unique, but because He is man; He uses always and
emphatically this general name of the race to designate His own
person. In finding the way to God for Himself He has opened it to
all; along with the nature of God He has at the same time
discovered in Himself the nature of man.
Eternity extends into the present with Him, even on earth He lives
in the midst of the kingdom of God; even the judgment He sees
inwardly accomplished here below in the soul of man. Yet He is
far from holding the opinion that he who loves God aright does not
desire that God should love him in return.
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