Sonliness

In this was evidenced beyond all controversy the divine sonliness of the ever pious Jesus.

May like obedience, confidence, / Truth, sonliness, and heart, / Constellate here, and radiate hence! / Semblance and chill depart!

Know that He never forgets His children—never says, “My son has made his bed, let him lie on it.” His Fatherhood is infinite. And see how that brings out the sonliness.

While the fatherliness of Lincoln appears, the sonliness of the lad is no less evident.

6. because ye are sons; i.e. God, having given you the position of sons, also gives you the spirit of sonliness.

My mother was a fair-to-see, clever, feeling-rich, spirit-lit being—a kind of oversoul [genius]. I worshipped her for her high how-ths ((qualities)), for the fun it was to live with her. As a fellow-Australian, as a fellow-agin-the-law-man, as a fellow-art-man, I always took her side, in my own heart. This had nothing to do with love, or sonliness.

Better far to regard the moments of lamp-lit peace as an accidentally charming illustration of mother-and-child indicative of nothing except nothing better to do, and displaying nothing except that mothers cannot help enacting motherhood nor sons sonliness.

As this fable suggests, there is not an overwhelming distance separating filial duty (can we speak of sonliness?) from a maimed exercise of self-interest, and ultimately personal disaster, experienced as self-sacrifice.