The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-04-08

/ DeCt tnaL we Hl1SlL HIVE Slldhcii cuA
critical heads over it, as doubling the
| genuineness OF the legion so little ac-
| cordant with the general course of the
| evangelc teaching. 1t would have
| been much more natural and logical, we
might have said-much more accordant
with the method of Christ and the apos-
| ties, to proceed from the seen to the
unseen, ard read "ye believe in Me;
believe also in God" How explicitly
| and repeatedly we are taught in this
| very matter of knowing God and be-
| lieving in Him, that it is through
Christ that we come to God This Is
the fervid declaration of the Epistle of
Peter Through Christ we are belev-
ers in God Who raised Him from the
dead and gave Him glory" And this
very gospel of John reiterates the
thought of Peter, declaring mo man
hath seen God at any time; the only be-
| gotten Son, who in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him"
And, curiously enough, nowhere Is the
thought SO solemnly enforced as in
this very chapter which begins Eye be-
lieve in God, believe also in Me-" In
this same chapter Jesus saith, no one
cometh to the Father but by Me; If We
had known Me, We would have known
My Father" Philip saith of Him,
Lord, show us the Father" Jesus
saith, Hast thou not known Me,
Philip? He that hath seen Me hath
seen the Father" Now would 1t not
| have been more congruous with the
! spirit Of Els own teaching If, striking
| the keynote of this memorable dis
| course, our Lord, knowing the love and
confidence toward Himself, of all that
| group Of troubled hearts, had led thcm
| from Himself Whom they had seen
to the Father Whom they had not seen;
saying to thonl LET not your hearts
be troubled we believe in Me; believe
also In God?'
| And yet in this same gospel of John
there are many limitations of the con-
verse-we might almost call 1t the con-
tradictory--truth; that While no man
cometh to the Father but by the Son,
SO also no man cometh to the Son but
by the, Father. Every man that hath
learned of the Father coneth unto
Me; no man can come to Me except the
Father draw him. These, and more
like them are among "the things that
He said In the synagogue, as He taught
in Capernaum. 1t Is evident we have
to do here with one Of those great
truths which are not to be taken in at
a single glance, nor summed up in
single phrase. There are two sides to
it, not both of them visible from the
same point. There is a sense In which
70 hrie tbrC oh
as sense in which we come to God
through Christ. We need not think Of
those troubled hearts" that We're gath
cred about their Master that sorrowful
night, like watchers beside a death
bed, took the full meaning of His words
They were among the things of which
He said to them that same evening,
we know them not now; We shall know
hereafter" 1t was when the light and
glory of the resurrection dawned about
them that they might begin to under
stand this meaning. Then at last they
might begin to see that it was not by
some mistake or displacement Of words
that, speaking comfort to their fear and
trouble He had said. not, 9"ye believe
in Me; believe also IN Cod" but I'VE
believe in God: believe also In Me-"
And to us, as lapsing centuries, and
revolving years, and waxing and wan
ing moons bring again the dark days Of
the Passion and the light of. Eastertde
the meaning of the words shines out
afresh, and our hearts are no more
troubled nor afraid.
1t was nothing more than truth to
say Of the faithful eleven, and of all the
pious Jews who cherished in their
hearts "the hope of Israel" that they
did "believe in God.' the unseen and
heirs OF all the former ages. Those
long centuries of discipline, from
David's time, from Moses time, from
Abraham's time, had not been In vain |
Through captlvities, through opprcs-
sions, through diverse and terrible trib- |
ulations as we'll as through ages of |
prosperity and peace, the people had |
learned to put their trust no more in |
brazen or marble images, nor IN human !
throned in visible strength |
and state, but in King eternal, i'm |
mortal, invisible Those idolatries which |
of old had held the people under the |
spell Of strange fascination had lost |
their charm and had become the object |
of universal adherence, as alike UNI
patriotic and imp.ous. 1t had become |
one of the marvels of the Roman world,
the annual gathering Of this scattered |
and homeless people from all quarters
of the earth, to worship en- unseen God |
before an empty shrine. Sightseers
from afar gathered to look upon it, as
they flock to Oberammergau.
Not less truly than the pous Christian
Of the days of Paul, might the pious I
of an earlier day declare I'VE
look, not at the things that are seen
but at the things that are unseen; for
the things thatrare seen are transient,
the things that are unseen are eternal"
And do not thing of this faith of the
ancient believers in the invisible and
eternal God as If it were merely a tenet
Of their philosophy, or a dogma of
their orthodoxy. How practical, how
real 1t had grown TO be--how victorious
over ethe world, how potent over the
hearts Of the whole people, you may
zee in all the later books of the Old
Testament-in Daniel, and in Ezra and
Nehemiah, and in that noble history.
he first book of the Maccabees These
we're they who Through faith subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness. OBJ
aimed promises; from weakness were
made strong, turned to fight armies of