The universal fatherhood of God.
I. THE NATURE OF THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD.
1. God is the Source of our being. He has not only created us as he has created the rocks. We are not manufactured, but begotten by God. He has breathed his life into us.
2. God has formed us in his own image. There is a similarity of nature in child and parent. All spirits belong to the same family and have a common likeness to God.
3. God is closely related to us. Throughout life the father is most nearly connected with his children by nature and consequent claims and duties. God is our Father now; he has not merely called us into being in the past. He always and necessarily bears the fatherly relation to us.
II. THE EXTENT OF THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. From God "every family in heaven and earth is named;" then God is the Father of every family. His fatherhood is universal.
1. It reaches to all spiritual beings. Of what orders, how many, and how various they are, are wholly beyond our speculation. But none are so remote, so peculiar, so lofty, or so low as not to come within God's fatherly relationship.
2. It is individually concerned with each separate order of beings. "Every family." The families are distinguished and so are their homes. God regards his children with personal interest.
3. It is not destroyed by evil conduct. There are fallen beings, orders, and families that are degraded in sin. But these make no exception to the universal fatherhood. In spite of the shameful corruption of some of the families, God is still Father of all. David did not cease to be the father of the rebel Absalom. The prodigal son could arise and go unto his father. The worst sinner, when he comes to himself, may say, "My Father." This necessarily results from the very nature of fatherhood. The three facts of origination of life, community of nature, and close relationship can never be annihilated. For a father to ignore them is for him to become an unnatural parent.
III. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD.
1. In God.
2. In us.