It is not easy to, realise all that is included in the relation of Father which God holds to us His children. Even of our bodies He is far more truly the Father than our earthly parents. God created the original material out of which my body was formed. It was He who fashioned it to a shape fit to receive my soul; it was He who gave it life; it was He who watched over it during the process of its formation; it was He who brought it safely into the world. If I owe respect and obedience to my earthly parent, how much more do I do so to God!

God is my Father, in a far truer sense, as the author of my soul. To it my earthly parents contributed nothing. As regards all that is my true self, all that is most noble in me, all that belongs to the higher order of things. God, and God alone, is my Father. He, and He alone, has given me my talents, my memory, my free-will, my intelligence. If in my body I resemble my earthly father, I resemble my Heavenly Father in my immortal and spiritual soul. Hence I am far more closely united to the latter, and am indebted to Him for my true self that is to dwell with Him forever.

God did not bring me into being by a mere momentary action, but continues the act of creation in my preservation, and will continue it to all eternity. Earthly relationship gradually fades away, but not my relationship to God. Earthly parents forget their children, but God never forgets me. "Can a woman forget her infant so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? If she should forget, yet will not I forget thee" (Isaias xlix. 15).