se and enjoy him. "He that hath sent me is with
me: the Father hath not left me alone, for I always do those
things which please him." It is a fair inference from such
statements as this that to do with conscious adoration and love
those things that please God is to be with him, without regard to
time or place; and that is heaven. "I speak that which I have seen
with my Father," God, "and ye do that which ye have seen with your
father, the devil." No one will suppose that Jesus meant to tell
the wicked men whom he was addressing that they committed their
iniquities in consequence of lessons learned in a previous state
of existence with an arch fiend, the parent of all evil. His
meaning, then, was, I bring forth in words and deeds the things
which I have learned in my secret soul from inspired communion
with infinite goodness and perfection; you bring forth the things
which you have learned from communion with the source of sin and
woe, that is, foul propensities, cruel passions, and evil
thoughts.

"I come forth from the Father and am come into the world; again I
leave the world and go unto the Father." "I go unto Him that sent
me." Since it is declared that God is an Omnipresent Spirit, and
that those who obey and love him see him and are with him
everywhere, these striking words must bear one of the two
following interpretations. First, they may imply in general that
man is created and sent into this state of being by the Father,
and that after the termination of the present life the soul is
admitted to a closer union with the Parent Spirit. This gives a
natural meaning to the language which represents dying as going to
the Father. Not that it is necessary to travel to reach God, but
that the spiritual verity is most adequately expressed under such
a metaphor. But, secondly, and more probably, the phraseology
under consideration may be meant as an assertion of the Divine
origin and authority of the special mission of Christ. "Neither
came I of myself, but He sent me;" "The words that I speak unto
you I speak not of myself;" "As the Father hath taught me, I speak
these things." These passages do not necessarily teach the pre
existence of Christ and his descent from heaven in the flesh. That
is a carnal interpretation which does great violence to the
genuine nature of the claims put forth by our Savior. They may
merely declare the supernatural commission of the Son of God, his
direct inspiration and authority. He did