God our Father

Front matter

Autlior of *' The Happiness of Heaven,"

"Thus therefore shall yon pray : Our Father who art in heaven."— vi. 9.

BALTIMOEEj Published by John Murphy & Co.

Preface

I'N presenting tMs little book to the pnblic, the author would express Ms grateful thanks for the very favorable manner in which " The Happijstess OF Heayek was received. The little treatise now presented was the author's first attempt at book writing; but circumstances did not then permiMts publication. These no longer existing, he presents it to the same kind public, begging for it a share of the charitable indulgence extended to the other.

iv

PEEFACE.

Though written principally to meet the wants of a certain class of pious people, it should not be inferred that they alone can derive profit from its perusal. Indeed, it is hoped that all, without exception, will be benefited by viewing God as their Father. Even the poor sinner, who has almost lost hope, will recover it and return to his Christian duties as soon as he becomes convinced that God is a Father, ready to receive him and to forgive all his sins. Should even one such be brought back to the bosom of our heavenly Father, the author will feel himself abundantly rewarded for all his toil.

St. Louis UniveesitTj St. Louis, Mo.

Christmas Dmj^ 1872

CHAPTER. PAGE.

I. Why SO many persons do not loye God as

they desire . . . , 7

n. If we would see God, by Faith, as He has revealed Himself to us, we must view

Him as our Father 26

in. An objection answered 44

IV. We must view God as our Father, if we would be in perfect harmony with the New Law, which is one of Love 68

V. God is our Father because He is our Crea-

tor 90

VI. God is our Father because He has adopted

us in Jesus Christ » - o . . . 115 vi

COITTENTS.

CHAPTER. PAGE.

YII. Yiewing God as our Father is of the greatest help to us in the time of spiritual desolation 134

YIII. Yiewing God as our Father produces peace

of conscience as to our past sins 164

IX. Yiewing God as our Father produces perfect love 187

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Chapter I

WHY SO MAKY PERSOITS DO ISTOT LOYE dOD AS THEY DESIRE.

MANY persons Mglily gifted, both by nature and grace, with, religious dispositions, earnestly desire to love God above all things, with their whole heart, with their whole soul, with all their strength and with all their mind. In order to reach this perfection of love, they live a truly Christian life. They confess and receive holy communion as

8 GOD OUR TATHEE.

often as tliey are permitted ; and tliey certainly endeavor to perform tliese two lioly actions with tlie necessary dispositions. They hear mass devoutly on Sundays, holy days, and even on week days. They listen attentively and respectfully to sermons ; and they seldom, if ever, neglect the duty of prayer. In a word, they really try to he good, by performing all their duties, and by practising the virtues which their state and position in life demand. They are not only in earnest about saving their souls, but many of them are, moreover, aiming at a high degree of Christian perfection, either in the world or in religious communities. They are, therefore, members of that little flock which the heart of Jesus loves so tenderly, and which He

GOD OUR FATHEE.

addresses in these words : " Fear not, little flock, for it liatli pleased your Father to give you a kingdom."^

Now, we should naturally believe that, in all such persons, there exist a most tender love for Grod, a most intimate familiarity with Him, and a ceaseless longing to be united to Him forever. We should expect to find "the peace of God, which surpasseth all understaiiding,"f reposing calm and supreme in the very depths of their souls. It would seem as if the thought of God, whom they serve so faithfully, must be the sunshine of their lives, and that they already enjoy a foretaste of heaven. And so it is with many. They have every reason to believe that they

GOD OUR FATHER.

are in a state of grace, and tliat God loves them in return for the love which they bear Him. They enjoy that peace which Jesus gave to His disciples, when He said : " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you ; not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid."^

But with others it is very different ; indeed, it is quite the reverse. For if we penetrate beyond that beautiful exterior of piety which has led us to form such a judgment of them, we find, to our extreme astonishment, that, instead of a tender and filial love for Grod, and a childlike confidence in Him, they have an inordinate fear, and even a positive

* John xiv. 27.

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dread of Him. They do not love God ; at least so they imagine. Again and again have they endeavored to love Him, but it seems to them every day more and more impossible. They see little or nothing amiable in Him ; nothing that can captivate their hearts. They cannot even see that He is good. The fact is, they have to struggle much in order to keep the faith, and not to fall into downright infidelity. Hence, the thought of death, and of appearing before the Living God, produces in them impressions very similar to those felt by the condemned criminal, when he hears the prison door opened for the purpose of leading him to the scaffold. Oh, if they could only love God ! If they could only believe that He loves

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tliem! How light tlieir hearts would be, and what an exquisite happiness they would enjoy, even in this world !

This is certainly a bad state ; or, at least, it has all the appearance of being such. I have not overdrawn the picture ; for I have stated precisely what these good people feel, and what they say of themselves. In some, it is true, this depression of mind may not be so great ; but, in others, it even borders on insanity.

Before saying anything of the cause or causes which may bring about so undesirable a state of mind, or pointing out the remedies to be applied for its cure, these good people must be told, first of all, that, whatever they may feel or think of themselves, they most cer-

GOD OUR FATHER.

tainly Ic^ve 'God, and that He as certainly loves them in return. Their love for Him is not sensible, it is true ; but it is sincere and devoted. They do not, indeed, enjoy the sensible sweetness which God sometimes pours into the souls of His beloved children ; but, how desirable soever such consolation may be, it is not, in the least, necessary to prove the existence of a true and sincere love for God. The evidence of a true love for God does not consist in sensible devotion, but in the keeping of His commandments. This is what Jesus Christ Himself tells us : If you love me, keep my commandments. ... He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father ;

GOD OUR FATHER.

and I will love Mm, and will manifest myself to Mm.'"^ These clear and emphatic words of Our Blessed Lord make it as evident as the light of day, that the keeping of His commandments is, "by itself, a positive manifestation of our love for Him. "Whatever, therefore, may be yonr opinion of yourself, and whatever may be your feeling, or absence of feeling, in the service of Grod, rest assured that you really love Him, and that He loves you, so long as you lead a good life — such a life as I have already described.

Nevertheless, it must also be acknowledged that such a disturbed state of the mind is not the normal or habitual one which God intended for His

* John xiv. 15.

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cMldren. "We shall, therefore, inqnire into the causes which bring abont this restlessness and apparent inability to love God.

There can be many causes whose combined action may spread gloom and despondency in the soul, and induce persons to believe that they do not enjoy the divine favor. But we shall mention only three — probably the principal ones — and of these only one will be treated of at length in this book.

1. This total absence of sensible devotion, darkness and dread of Grod may be a just punishment which He inflicts upon us for our sins, especially sins against charity, so common among persons who make an open profession of piety. It may, also, be a punishment for lukewarmness in the service of Grod, dissipation of mind, idleness, a general want of generosity toward God, and otlier imperfections ; for God often withdraws all sensible sweetness in the practice of religion from those who are not generous toward Him. If, therefore, you stand guilty of the faults above-mentioned, the simple remedy is evidently to take more care in avoiding sin, and to be more generous toward God.

2. This state may also be a trial from God, through which holy souls must pass in order to be cleansed from earthly stains, and be made to resemble Jesus Christ more perfectly. For, as St. Paul tells us, ''Whom He foreknew He also predestined to be made conformable to

GOD OUR FATHEE.

the image of His Son."^ Hence, after revealing to them His surpassing Tbeanty, and filling them with the sweetest consolations, God, suddenly or gradually, withdraws from them His sensible presence, and then darkness overspreads the soul. All the beauty and other perfections which they had formerly seen in God, and which had so often been the subjects of their contemplations, now seem entirely faded. Old passions, which they had so courageously mortified, and which they thought dead and buried forever, suddenly spring into life again, and, aided by the devil, wage a fearful war against them. Their past sins and infidelities, which they had fondly hoped long since forgiven and

* Rom. vii. 29.

B

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forgotten, rise up now in the most horrid shapes, and loudly call upon heaven for vengeance. In their nnspeakable distress, they look up to heaven for help ; but the heavens seem to be made of brass. They see there nothing but a thrice-holy God, who seems angry with them, and on the point of hurling them to the deepest hell. This vision of an offended and angry Judge fills them with so great a fear and dread that their former tender love for God aj)pears to have entirely died away. They then feel, in a certain degree, the intense agony which overwhelmed the soul of Jesus when he cried out : " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

These are some of the severe trials we read of in the lives of tlie saints. They are like a fire throngh which chosen souls pass in order to be purified from the remnants of earthly dross and imperfection. By such trials they are made worthy of God, according to the words of the Wise Man: Afflicted in a few things, in many they shall be rewarded: because God hath tried them and found them worthy of Himself. As gold in the furnace, He hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust. He hath received them, and in time there shall be respect had to them.'"^ Besides being purified and made to resemble Jesus Christ the more, their merits are vastly increased; and, by such trials, they become more qualified

* Wis. iii.

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to do great tilings for Grod's glory and for the salvation of souls.

Here, tlien, we liave the second cause of that darkness of mind and dread of Grod. But, as is evident in the case of saints, it is a trial which comes and goes, and not the habitual path in which chosen souls walk ; for, after the fearful storm, the heavens brighten again, and we find the same souls basking once more in the sweet light of God's countenance. Besides, such severe trials are usually given only to the chosen few whom God conducts to Himself by extraordinary ways — ways to which none of us should ever aspire.

3. We now come to the third cause of the sad state complained of by so many professedly pious people, and it

GOD OIJR FATHEE. 21

is the only one to wliicli I call yonr special attention. You take wrong yiews of God. Yon view Him liabitnally, and almost exclusively, as yonr Sovereign Lord and Judge, King and Master, and almost entirely ignore His fatherly character. You forget that, while remaining your Lord and Judge, He is also your Father, and that He loves you infinitely more than earthly parents ever can love their children. You seem to forget that He is' also your Redeemer, who, having clothed Himself with our nature, exhibited His love for you "by a life of humiliations and sufferings, and by a most ignominious death upon the cross. In a word, you forget or ignore all that is most tender, amiable and beautiful in God, and fix your aOD OTJE FATHER.

mind morbidly npon those forbidding attributes, wliicli, bj their very nature, inspire fear, and even dread. The natural consequence is, that you are filled with a fear of God so inordinate as to prevent you from loving Him with the filial love which He asks when He says : ''My son, give me thy heart.'"'^

JSTow, what is the remedy to be applied for the cure of this morbid state of mind ? The remedy evidently consists in viewing God rightly — that is, in all His divine attributes, without ignoring any or exaggerating one bej^ond the others ; it consists, moreover, in giving, in our minds, a bold prominence to those attributes which God has exercised more than others in our regard.

* Prov. xxiii. 26.

GOD OUR FATHER.

In other words, it consists in viewing God habitually more in those attributes which inspire love and confidence, and less in those which inspire fear and dread.

It would be impossible, in so small a book, to dwell at length and separately upon the beauty of God, upon His goodness and unspeakable love for us, upon His mercy and compassion for sinners, or upon whatever else is, by its nature, calculated to kindle in ub a tender love for Him, and a childlike confidence in His mercy ; yet we shall, in reality, do all this by viewing Him in the one divine attribute, which is, so to speak, the origin or source of all His love and compassion for us — His Divine Paternity. We shall see, as we pro-

GOD OUE FATHEE.

ceed, that God is our Father in a sense so profound that we can never fathom it with our present limited powers. We shall see that He has not only revealed Himself to us in that most endearing character, but, moreover, that it is His expressed will we should habitually view Him as our Father. Furthermore, we shall become convinced that, to consider Grod as our Father, is the source of peace, love, and numberless other blessings. For, as soon as this becomes your habitual view of Him, those dark clouds, of which you ha^ e so often complained, will disappear, as the morning mists vanish before the rising sun. A heavenly light v/ill shine where darkness had brooded before ; and, instead of inordinate fear, there will spring up love, peaceful confidence, and a sweet familiarity witli God. You will seem to yourself a new creature, gifted with the wings of the dove, wherewith to fly to the highest perfection, for you will then love God with your whole heart and soul, as you so ardently desire.