the Father willing all, the Son working all, the Holy Ghost confirming all."
This complexity of the Divine-Human life in the Son of God, this union in Christ Jesus of serene untouched blessedness in the heavenly regions of His spirit with His bearing, in the active joy of a "glad giver," all the sin and sorrow of the world, is revealed as the comfort and confidence of man, whose own deepest experience is love that suffers, whose highest worship therefore must be of Love that is strong to suffer.
It was a double joy that was shewn in Christ besides the bliss of the impassible Godhead, which is the bliss of Love without all time and beyond all deeds. For there was joy in the Passion itself: "If I might suffer more, I would suffer more," and joy in its fruits: "If thou art pleased, I am pleased." Thus, too, we are told of three ways in which our Lord would have us behold His Passion: first, "the hard pains He suffered on earth"; second, "the love that made Him to suffer passeth as far all His pains as Heaven is above earth"; third, "the joy and the bliss that made Him to be well-satisfied in it."—"With a glad countenance He looked unto His wounded Side, rejoicing" (xxii., xxiii., xxiv.).
From the sight of Love that is higher than pain comes the sight of Love that is deeper than sin. Julian had had the mystical shewing that God is all that is good,[1]
- ↑ "Quid me interrogas de bono? Unus est bonus, Deus."—S. Matt. xix. 17.
