THE MYSTERY
OF GOD

by

C. L. PARKER, M.A.

(Formerly Chaplain, Fellow, and Tutor
of University College, Oxford)

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My husband completed this book shortly before his death in 1967. We knew its publication and circulation would fulfil his dearest wish.

I want to thank all kind friends who have lovingly helped towards its readiness for publication, and especially my daughter Faith for preparing the typescript. I know my husband's dedication would be

TO MY STUDENTS

and may I add

TO HIS MANY FRIENDS

Yours in the Lord               
Phyllis H. Parker.

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CONTENTS

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FOREWORD

       It has been a pleasure to peruse the manuscript of this book and its contents have afforded much interest and profit. In reading its pages I have caught again the intonation of the author's voice, as though a tape recorder were expressing the words rather than the eyes scanning them.

       "C.L."—as we called him—was a choice soul, and was the possessor of a clear intellect. His penetrating thoughts flashed with lightning speed from an agile brain. Those students who were privileged to sit before him in the College lecture room will never forget his dynamic presentation of the truth.

       To know him was to love him. His earnestness in proclaiming the glories of God's Word was not the zeal of an austere man, concerned mainly about ecclesiastical dignity, but rather that of a vehement soul pouring forth the sacred truth. Far from being a cloistered monk, C.L. was a volcano, pouring out streams of molten lava.

       His keen sense of buoyant humour freed him from sanctimoniousness without destroying his earnestness. He laughed, not so much at things merely funny, but at things that were great and ennobling, so profound that puny man shrank to insignificance and God became all glorious in His eternal resplendency.

       This Volume is a little study from the pen of one who has now run his course; one who, being dead, yet speaketh. It could be said that his spoken words were even richer and greater than his written words, because of the Spirit's unction that always seemed to rest upon him. Since it is not possible to enjoy his oral utterances any more, we shall greatly prize the rich pages of meditation he has left us as a spiritual legacy.

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       To all who read these pages may we suggest that they be perused slowly and prayerfully, so that devotional rumination upon the themes expounded may produce the rich instruction and edification intended.

       It is a source of satisfaction that one with such a love of God's Word, and accompanying gift of expounding it, has left us this precious deposit of truth to enrich still further the spiritual heritage his spoken words bequeathed.

HOWARD CARTER,        
Kenley, Surrey.

— end of page 8 —

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PREFACE

       The only really important question in life is "What is the character of God?" Upon the answer to this question rests the whole meaning of the Creation. Why did He create at all? What have I to expect in the future? How will He treat me if I ever see Him? What am I to make of that part of the world in which I live, or of what I may know of the wider world outside? How account for evil, sorrow, suffering; above all, death?

       Some have thought to evade the poignancy of these questions by denying the existence of God. Let one such thinker, qualified in every way to speak for his brethren, tell us what he makes of Life: "That man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving, that his origin, growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms, that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought or feeling can preserve an individual beyond the grave, that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, the inspiration, the noon-day brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole Temple of Man's Achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the débris of a Universe in ruins: all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand! Only within the scaffolding of these Truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul's habitation henceforth be safely built".

       This is a quotation from Bertrand Russell's book "A Freeman's Worship"! So far is atheism from providing an escape from the perplexities and problems of Religion! "Unyielding Despair" is sour food for the soul: to be but part

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of an accident, which is bound to end fatally, kills hope, and makes effort meaningless!

       Yet if a man would turn to some religion which may seem to offer an escape from such futility, to which shall he go with any real hope? Will his heart warm itself at the fierce frown of a Buddhists' Temple God? Shall he delight himself in the unmeaning and fruitless round of Brahmin transmigrations till at long last he may sink into impersonal nothingness? Shall he spend his days and nights in turning the unanswering Prayer Wheel, or cower in fear before the menace of a cruel spirit world, or give his money to extricate his unfortunate relations a little sooner from the fires of Purgatory in the hope that his children will do the same for him? It is a fearful thing to find oneself overtaken by some evil from which there is no escape, and to realise one's helplessness in the face of an unsympathetic and powerless world and feel the true agony of loneliness and despair.

       If this booklet can bring one such to the true delight of the Gospel of the Love of God its author will be more than repaid.

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