One Father and His One Word

The sacred teaching, on the other hand, tells us that he who is the supreme Source of good and the Cause of all things is beyond all understanding, and so cannot be expressed by word or speech or name. He surpasses the power not of language only but of thought itself. He is not bounded by place or by body. He is not in heaven, nor in the ether, nor in any other part of the universe, but is wholly independent of everything else, and pervades the depths of unexplored and hidden wisdom. The sacred oracles teach us to acknowledge him as the only true God, apart from every bodily essence and from every lesser service. That is why it is said that all things are from him, but not through him. [a] He himself dwells as Sovereign in hidden and undiscovered regions of unapproachable light, and orders and arranges all things by the sole power of his own will. Whatever exists, exists by his will; without that will, it cannot be. And his will is always for good, since he is Goodness itself in his very being. But the one through whom all things are, God the Word, comes forth in a way beyond words from the Father above, as from an everlasting and inexhaustible fountain, and flows on like a river with a full and abundant stream of power for the preservation of the whole universe.

Let us now take an illustration from our own experience. The invisible and undiscovered mind within us, whose essential nature no one has ever known, sits like a monarch in the privacy of his secret chambers, and alone decides on our course of action. From it comes forth the word, its father’s only offspring, from its father’s bosom, begotten in a way and by a power we cannot explain. It is the first messenger of its father’s thoughts. It declares his secret counsels and, making its way to the ears of others, carries out his designs. [d] So everyone enjoys the benefit of this faculty, yet no one has ever seen that invisible and hidden mind which is the parent of the word itself. In the same way, or rather in a way that far surpasses all likeness or comparison, the perfect Word of the Supreme God comes forth from his Father’s Godhead and kingdom as the only Son of the Father. He does not consist in the power of speech. He is not made up of syllables and parts of speech, nor carried by a voice vibrating on the air. He is himself the living and effective Word of the Most High, existing in his own person as the Power and Wisdom of God. So, being the perfect Offspring of a perfect Father and the common Preserver of all things, he spreads himself with living power throughout creation. From his own fullness he pours out abundant supplies of reason, wisdom, light and every other blessing, not only on the things nearest to himself but on those most remote, whether on earth or in the sea or in any other sphere of being. [e] To all these he assigns, with perfect fairness, their limits, places, laws and inheritance, giving to each its fitting portion according to his sovereign will. To some he assigns the regions above the earth, to others heaven itself as their home. Some he places in the ether, others in the air, and others still on earth. It is he who moves human beings from here to another sphere, reviews their conduct here without partiality, and gives each a recompense according to the life and habits of each. By him provision is made for the life and food not only of rational creatures but also of the animals, for the service of human beings. To the animals he grants the enjoyment of a perishable and fleeting span of life; the rational creatures he invites to share in the possession of immortal life. So universal is the work of the Word of God. Present everywhere, and pervading all things by the power of his intelligence, he looks upward to his Father, and governs this lower creation, which is beneath him and follows after him, in accordance with his will, as the common Preserver of all things.

Standing in between, as it were, and drawing the created toward the uncreated essence, this Word of God exists as an unbroken bond between the two, uniting things that differ most widely with a tie that cannot be severed. He is the Providence that rules the universe, the guardian and director of the whole. He is the Power and Wisdom of God, the only Son who is God, the Word begotten of God himself. For, as we learn from the words of the sacred writer: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that has been made.” Through his life-giving power all nature grows and flourishes, refreshed by his continual showers and clothed with a strength and beauty that are always new. [h] Guiding the reins of the universe, he keeps its onward course in line with the Father’s will, and moves, as it were, the helm of this mighty ship. This glorious Agent, the only Son of the Supreme God, begotten by the Father as his perfect Offspring, the Father has given to this world as the highest of all goods. Into unconscious nature he has breathed his word, like spirit into a lifeless body, and through the divine power he has given light and energy to what in itself was a rough, lifeless and formless mass. It is our part, then, to acknowledge him and regard him as present everywhere, giving life to matter and to the elements of nature. In him we see Light, the spiritual offspring of Light beyond words: one in essence, since he is the Son of one Father, yet holding in himself many and varied powers.

The world is indeed divided into many parts, yet let us not suppose for that reason that there are many independent Agents. And though the works of creation are many, let us not conclude from this that there are many gods. How grievous is the error of those childish and deluded champions of the worship of many gods, who make gods of the parts that make up the universe, and divide into many a system that is only one! Their conduct is like that of someone who would single out a man’s eyes and call them the man himself, and his ears another man, and his head another; or who would separate in thought the neck, the chest and shoulders, the feet and hands and the other members, and even the very powers of sense, and so declare one individual to be a crowd of men. Such folly would surely be met with contempt by sensible people. Yet that is what a person does who devises for himself a crowd of gods out of the parts of a single world, or who even thinks that the world, the work of a Creator and made up of many parts, is itself a god. He does not know that the divine nature can in no way be divided into parts. For if it were put together from parts, it would have to be put together by some other power, and what is put together in that way can never be divine. How indeed could it be, if it were made of unequal and unlike elements, and therefore of worse and better ones? Simple, indivisible and uncompounded, the divine nature exists at an infinite height above the visible structure of this world.

And so we are assured by the clear testimony of the sacred herald that the Word of God, who is before all things, must be the sole Preserver of all intelligent beings; while God, who is above all and the Author of the Word’s begetting, being himself the Cause of all things, is rightly called the Father of the Word, as of his only Son, and himself acknowledges no higher Cause. God himself, then, is One, and from him comes the one Word, his only Son, the Preserver of all things, present everywhere. The many-stringed lyre is made of different strings, high and low, some slightly stretched, others drawn tight, and others between the two extremes, yet all are tuned by the rules of the art of harmony. In the same way this material world, made up as it is of many elements and containing opposite and hostile principles, such as moist and dry, cold and heat, yet blended into one harmonious whole, may rightly be called a mighty instrument made by the hand of God. On it the divine Word, who himself is not made of parts or of opposing principles but is indivisible and uncompounded, plays with perfect skill, and produces a melody that is in tune with the will of his Father, the Supreme Lord of all, and glorious to himself. Again, a single body holds many parts and members, outward and inward, yet one invisible soul, one undivided and bodiless mind, pervades the whole. So it is with this creation, which, though it consists of many parts, is still only one. And so the one mighty, indeed almighty, Word of God, pervading all things and spreading himself with unwavering energy throughout this universe, is the Cause of all things that exist in it. [j]

Look over the whole range of this visible world. Do you not see how the same heaven holds within itself the countless courses and companies of the stars? Again, the sun is one, and yet it outshines many, indeed all other lights, by the surpassing glory of its rays. In the same way, as the Father himself is One, his Word is also One, the perfect Son of that perfect Father. If anyone should object that they are not more, he might as well complain that there are not many suns or moons or worlds, and a thousand other things besides, like the madman who would gladly overturn the fair and perfect course of Nature herself. As in the visible world, so also in the spiritual: in the one, the same sun spreads its light over all this material earth; in the other, the one Almighty Word of God lights up all things with invisible and secret power. Again, a human being has one spirit and one faculty of reason, which is still the active cause of countless effects. The same mind, trained in many things, will undertake to farm the land, to build and steer a ship, and to construct houses. Indeed, the one mind and reason of a human being can gain knowledge in a thousand forms. The same mind will understand geometry and astronomy, and discuss the rules of grammar and rhetoric and the art of healing. And it will excel not only in knowledge but in practice as well. Yet no one has ever supposed that there are many minds in one human form, or marveled that there are many beings in one man because he is capable of such varied knowledge.

Suppose someone found a shapeless lump of clay, molded it with his hands, and gave it the form of a living creature: the head in one shape, the hands and feet in another, the eyes and cheeks in a third, and so fashioned the ears, the mouth and nose, the chest and shoulders, by the rules of the sculptor’s art. The result is indeed a variety of shapes, of parts and members in the one body. Yet we must not suppose it to be the work of many hands. We must credit it entirely to the skill of a single artist, and give our praise to him who has shaped it all by the energy of a single mind. The same is true of the universe itself, which is one, though it consists of many parts. Surely we need not suppose many creative powers, or invent a crowd of gods. Our duty is to worship the all-wise and all-perfect working of him who is truly the Power and the Wisdom of God, whose undivided force and energy pervades and penetrates the universe, creating all things and giving them life, and supplying to all, together and one by one, the many gifts of which he himself is the source. In the same way, one and the same stroke of the sun’s rays lights the air at once, gives light to the eyes, warmth to the touch, fruitfulness to the earth and growth to plants. The same sun marks out the course of time, governs the movements of the stars, makes the circuit of the heavens, gives beauty to the earth, and shows the power of God to all. And it does all this by the single, unaided force of its own nature. In the same way fire has the property of refining gold and melting lead, of dissolving wax, hardening clay and consuming wood, producing these varied effects by one and the same burning power.

So also the Supreme Word of God, pervading all things, existing everywhere, present everywhere in heaven and on earth, governs and directs the visible and the invisible creation, the sun, the heaven and the universe itself, with an energy that cannot be explained in its nature or resisted in its effects. From him, as from an everlasting fountain, the sun, the moon and the stars receive their light, and he rules forever the heaven he has made as a fitting emblem of his own greatness. The angelic and spiritual powers, the bodiless and intelligent beings that exist beyond the sphere of heaven and earth, are filled by him with light and life, with wisdom and virtue, with all that is great and good, out of his own treasures. Once more, with one and the same creative skill, he never stops supplying the elements with substance, and ordering the unions and combinations, the forms and shapes, and the countless qualities of organic bodies. He preserves the varied distinctions of animal and plant life, of the rational creatures and the beasts, and supplies all things to all with equal power. So he shows himself to be the Author, not indeed of the seven-stringed lyre, but of that system of perfect harmony which is the workmanship of the one world-creating Word. [k]