Again, Paul speaks of another great mystery, viz., "that every man should love his wife even as Christ loves the Church." Now we would inquire whether the love and consequent union of Christ and His Church is to come to an end by death, and a final separation take place in the world to come? or whether, on the other hand, the union is more perfect and complete in the other life than it is in this? All agree that the love and union of Christ and the Church is eternal, and that it not only continues in the other world, but it is made perfect there. This being the case, it leads us to the irresistible conclusion that the love and union of a man and his wife should extend into, and even be more perfect in eternity, or else Paul was very wrong in telling every man to love his wife even as Christ loves the Church. Having {54} established the fact or principle of eternal union between a man and his wife, we will now proceed to establish the eternal relationship and authority on one hand and obedience on the other, that will exist between parents and children. To illustrate this principle we have a beautiful and plain precedent. Jesus Christ and His Father continue to be one in their affection and union since He rose from the dead; and He still yields obedience to the commands of His Father, and has also revealed that He will continue to do so, when He has put down death, and all rule and authority and power. "Then shall the Son also be subjected to the Father." We hear nothing in all this subject about Jesus Christ ever being of age so as to be free from all further obligation to obey His Father; but on the contrary it is clearly revealed that He will always be subjected to Him. Now this same Jesus prayed to His Father, as testified by the Apostle John, that His disciples and those who believed on their words might be one even as Christ and His Father are one; not only one with God and Christ, but also one with each other in the same manner and in the same sense that they are one. Now suppose, in fulfillment of this prayer, a man and his children were His disciples; and finally in the eternal world, they became one with each other in precisely the same sense that Christ and His Father are one, would not these children be subject to their father in the same manner as Christ is subject to His Father? Certainly they would.