"Then I may begin by saying that the purpose of this life-voyage of ours is that we might obtain the life eternal. 'This is life eternal' that we might know God and His Son Jesus Christ who was sent to us. If we know the Son we know the Father, for we are told that the Father has revealed Himself through the Son. This Son we know as Jesus Christ who was born into the world as we were. He had a body of flesh. He was like us, His brethren; yet this Being, the Scriptures tell us, was in the 'form of God;' that He was the 'image of the invisible God;' that He was 'in the express image of His Father's person.' When Jesus lived on the earth, one of His disciples asked Him, 'Show us the Father.' 'He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father,' was the reply. 'I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me.'"
At this point the Rev. Mr. Strong and his daughter came sauntering along the deck. They paused to listen, then accepted the chairs which Chester hurriedly found for them.
"I am not stating where in the Scriptures these quotations can be found," continued the elder, "though I shall be pleased to do so to any who wish to know. Well then, here we have a glorious truth: if we wish to know God, we are to study the Son. Jesus is the great Example, the Revealer of the Father. He is the Father's representative in form and in action. If Jesus, the Son, is meek and lowly, so also is the Father; if He is wise and good and forgiving, so is the Father; if the Son is long-suffering and slow to anger, yet not afraid to denounce sin and call to account the wicked, so likewise may we represent the Father. All the noble attributes which we find in the Son exist in perfectness in the Father.
"Picture this noble Son, the risen Redeemer, my friends, after His battle with death and His victory over the grave! In the splendid glory of His divine manhood, all power both in heaven and earth in His hand, He stands as the shining figure of the ages. Why? Because He is 'God With Us.'"
There was perfect stillness in the group of listeners.
"Thus the Father has shown Himself to us. There is no need for any of us to plead ignorance of our Divine Parent. The way is marked out, the path, though at times difficult, is plain. The Son does the will of the Father. 'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,' said Jesus. 'The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.' We, then, are to follow Christ, as He follows the Father. Isn't that plain?"
"Do I understand," asked one, "that you believe God to be in the form of man?"
"Rather that man is in the form of God, for 'God created man in His own image.'"
"In His moral image only. God is a spirit. He is everywhere present, and therefore cannot have a body, such as you claim," objected one.