But there is another thing about father and son which we must look
at, and that is this: a good son loves and obeys his father, and
the better son he is, the more he loves and obeys his father; and
therefore a perfect son will perfectly love and perfectly obey his
father.

Now, here is the great difference between animals and men. Among
the higher animals, the mothers always, and the fathers sometimes,
feed, and help, and protect their young: but we seldom or never
find that young animals help and protect their parents; certainly,
they never obey their fathers when they are full grown, but are as
ready to tear their fathers in pieces as their fathers are to tear
them: so that the love and obedience of full-grown sons to their
fathers is so utterly human a thing, so utterly different from
anything we find in the brutes, that we must believe it to be part
of man's immortal soul, part of God's likeness in man.

And in the text our Lord declares that it is so; He declares that
His obedience to His Father, and His Father's love to Him, is the
perfect likeness of what goes on between a good son and a good
father among men; only that it is _perfect_, because it is between a
perfect Father and a perfect Son.

Father and Son! Let philosophers and divines discover what they may
about God, they will never discover anything so deep as the wonder
which lies in those two words, Father and Son. So deep, and yet so
simple! So simple, that the wayfaring man, though poor, shall not
err therein. 'Who is God? What is God like? Where shall we find
Him, or His likeness?'--so has mankind been crying in all ages, and