6. It is the Father to Whom all existence owes its
origin. In Christ and through Christ He is the source of
all. In contrast to all else He is self-existent. He does
not draw His being from without, but possesses it from Himself and in
Himself. He is infinite, for nothing contains Him and He contains
all things; He is eternally unconditioned by space, for He is
illimitable; eternally anterior to time, for time is His
creation. Let imagination range to what you may suppose is
God’s utmost limit, and you will find Him present there; strain
as you will there is always a further horizon towards which to
strain. Infinity is His property, just as the power of making
such effort is yours. Words will fail you, but His being will not
be circumscribed. Or again, turn back the pages of history, and
you will find Him ever present; should numbers fail to express the
antiquity to which you have penetrated, yet God’s eternity is not
diminished. Gird up your intellect to comprehend Him as a whole;
He eludes you. God, as a whole, has left something within your
grasp, but this something is inextricably involved in His
entirety. Thus you have missed the whole, since it is only a part
which remains in your hands; nay, not even a part, for you are dealing
with a whole which you have failed to divide. For a part implies
division, a whole is undivided, and God is everywhere and wholly
present wherever He is. Reason, therefore, cannot cope with Him,
since no point of contemplation can be found outside Himself and since
eternity is eternally His. This is a true statement of the
mystery of that unfathomable nature which is expressed by the Name
‘Father:’ God invisible, ineffable, infinite.
Let us confess by our silence that words cannot describe Him; let sense
admit that it is foiled in the attempt to apprehend, and reason in the
effort to define. Yet He has, as we said, in ‘Father’
a name to indicate His nature; He is a Father unconditioned. He
does not, as men do, receive the power of paternity from an external
source. He is unbegotten, everlasting, inherently eternal.
To the Son only is He known, for no one knoweth the Father save the Son
and him to whom the Son willeth to reveal Him, nor yet the Son save the
Father Cf. St. Matt. xi. 27.. Each has perfect and complete
knowledge of the Other. Therefore, since no one knoweth the
Father save the Son, let our thoughts of the Father be at one with
the thoughts of the Son, the only faithful Witness, Who reveals Him to
us.