tihvaxy of Che theological ^eminarjp PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY i^t- PRESENTED BY the Estate of Rev. David Henderson^^^odwillie BX 7233 .N4 G6 Newton, B. Gwernydd Glimpses of God, and other sermons I ^ d3A ^^rz>^^i^^^^^^^< Glimpses of God, AND OTHER SERMONS, :n^' ^^H OF PF.IUce '4 OCT 9 1945 ^ BY / B. GWERNYDD NEWTON, Pastor Franklin Avenue Congregational Church, Cleveland, Ohio. cleveland: franklin avenue congregational church. 1897. Copyright 1S97, by B. Gwernvdd Newton. THE IMPERIAL PRESS,, CLEVELAND, O, TO MY IJROTHER, REV. GEORGE TALALUN NEWTON, TO WHOM I AM INDEBTED MORE THAN TO ANY OTHER MAN, FOR MY "glimpses OF GOD," THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. " Z- of every soul that has awakened to its own possibilities, and become conscious of its own need. Yea, verily, he echoed in those words the cry of the universal heart, for what all men need and seek, consciously or un- consciously, is to know God. The irrepressible instinct to seek the Infinite finds expression in in- numerable ways, but satisfaction in one way only — seeing the glory of God. The human heart yearns for God, and for a God wdiich it can know and love. So that there is a sense in which the request of Moses is typical of the request of every man, and this brings us to our subject — TJic Request. " I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory." The spirit of this request is rational, religious, and royal, while in form it is possibly wanting in all these qualities. I. THIS REQUEST IS RATIONAL. It presupposes not only that it is possible to know God, but that to some extent He is already known. It can not but imply three things in the soul that conceived it : a conviction of the existence of God, a craving for a closer contact with Him, and a con- sciousness of an unworthy and unsatisfying concep- 14 GLIMPSES OF GOD. tion of Him. Thus, this request for a special revela- tion of Jehovah is an acknowledgment that He has already revealed Himself, for there could be no desire for a greater, if the less great had not been given and appreciated. The. text, therefore, im- plies that — (a) Glimpses of God ai'c possible. Men deny to-day the possibility of securing glimpses of God. He is looked upon by the agnostic as the great Unknown and Unknowable. These terms are emphatically and effectually denied in the ex- perience of every true worshipper of the Father. If He is tmknowable, He can not be God. Man's progress, mental and moral, is determined by his knowledge of, and conformity to, truth. If God, who is by hypothesis good, reserves to Him- self what He might reveal with benefit to man, He denies Himself. Any charge substantiated against the goodness of Jehovah is a denial of His Divinity. Selfishness is wrong in man, and can not be right in God. ^A being who hides truth that would help others in the pursuit of happiness is selfish, and selfishness is sin. A God of love can not but in love make Himself known. God, with- out power and desire to make Himself known, and man without power and desire to know God, are to us self-contradictions. The human mind possesses THE REQUEST. 1 5 power to commimicatc with, and seeks to influenee mind. Is the Infinite mind less gifted, or the In- finite heart less gracious? Man, without the desire to know his Maker, is unknown. He has been cre- ated to glorify God, and wisely endowed with facul- ties that are useless, save in this sacred service. The supreme function of the soul is to serve the Supreme. The divinest power in man is his power to commune with the Divine. Sanctified commun- ion with God is the secret of spiritual conformity. Communion and conformity between beings desti- tute of the faculty of communication are contradic- tions. If God has endowed man with useless facul- ties, and planted in his soul impulses and powers which can never be exercised or satisfied. He has created him in a manner unkind, imwise, and tm- just, therefore unlike God. We know of no instinct in the vast world, but may find ample opportunities to be satisfied in the exercise of its function. Are we to believe that God has created the profoundest instinct of the soul to belie and mock it ? No, a thousand Noes. The craving of man's heart for the Divine, and the thirst of his soul for knowledge of God, are sufficient proofs that glimpses of God are possible. If God can not be known, man has no responsibility ; duty is an idle word, without mean- ing. Duty implies obligation. Where there is no 1 6 GLIMPSES OF GOD. knowledg-e there can be no obligation, and where there is no obligation there is no God. But the " I ought " of humanity is universal. Whence comes it, if God has not revealed Himself? The moral sense in man necessitates belief in a moral ruler, and this implies revelation. The human conscience in its wonderful evolution, with its increase of light on moral questions from decade to decade, is simply inexplicable, if God has not revealed Himself. Man's mental and moral natures demand for their completeness a revelation of the mind of God. Faith in the revelation of God is only the unavoid- able counterpart of belief in the existence of God. Whoever believes that God is, and that He is love, must of necessity believe that glimpses of God are possible. Whatever a man's philosophical or theo- logical definition of Hell may be, its soul must ever remain — the hidden face of God. No greater Hell is possible than to be removed permanently from the presence of the Almighty, where all communi- cation with Him is impossible. A being therefore who hides himself of choice, when the happiness of myriads of men is ruined thereby, may be a devil, but a God — never. The goodness of God seeks the happiness of all His creatures, and this is best re- alized in revealing His own goodness. {b) Glimpses of God are actual. This means THE REQUEST. I7 that in mercy He has made Himself known to man. This He has done in different modes and divers manners, by natural and supernatural means, in man's mental, moral and spiritual natures. God has revealed Himself in a natural revelation, in the material, mental and moral world. I. God speaks to man in the material universe. All thing-s created demonstrate the majesty of the mind and the eternal power of the Creator, " for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being- understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork." No being equipped with intellectual faculties, need fail to find in Nature, if he be anxious, a clear testi- mony to the existence of God, and of His sovereign will. The reasoning faculty with which man is en- dowed will enable him, through a mental process, to arrive at an intellectual knowledge of God. Mind intuitively demands a cause for every effect, and moreover, that every cause be as great, or greater, than the effect. It is a truism that like alone pro- duces like. The inference is therefore natural, if not irresistible, that tlic mind expressed in the nia- terial universe demands for its creative cause an intelligent, personal Being. The utility of creation l8 GLIMPSES OF GOD. and its beneficent laws indicate the wisdom of the Creator. Eveiything in Nature expresses, accord- ing to its several ability, the majesty of the mind of its Maker. Her every voice echoes the voice Divine. The inanimate world speaks only what God to it has spoken. He told the lily to be white and beau- tiful, and all she sweetly says is, " Be wdiite and beautiful." He said to the sun, " Let thy light shine," and all that the sun has ever said is, " Let thy light shine." Inanimate nature is instinct with the impulse to inspire the intellect with increased interest in the Infinite. Comets and constellations, stars and suns, illuminate the pathway to the mind of the Eternal. Their light lend they in love, to lead the lost back to the Lord of Life. Each soli- tary star in the sky strives to stimulate the soul to seek the vSupreme. Every beam of light is brimful of love, as it seeks to illuminate the temple of the soul with the light of faith. The birds, in melodious song make known their Maker. The balmy breezes bring benediction, and breathe blessing upon each burning brow, as softly they whisper " Hope thou in God." The murmuring brook, with its minor music, as it quenches the thirst of man and beast, tells the best it can of the love and care of God for his creatures. The perennial spring, as it mirrors Heaven, shows the soul how it may mirror God, THE RFQl^F.ST. 1 9 Every flower that cools and caresses with sweet per- fume the cruel foot that crushes it, j^ives man a lesson in forg-ivcness, and whispers in death, " God is love. " Thus, everythin<( in the material uni- verse, from the starry sky to the sands of the sea, from the dewdrop which glitters in the mornini^- sunlight to the mighty restless deep, blend their voices in saying to him who hath ears to hear, " Have faith in God." 2. God reveals Himself in man's mental nature. The human mind is only an expressed thought of the mind Divine. The mind of man in its majesty mirrors faithfully, though faintly, the mind of the Eternal. In all its manifold movements it mani- fests the creative energy of the mind of God. Every thought evolved, every truth recognized, every discovery made, adds new emphasis and force to the clear and constant testimony of the finite mind to the Tnfmite. Every faculty and power with which the human intellect is endowed are lenses in its tel- escope, which enable the observer to secure glimpses of God. Man has been created in the image of (lod, and like Him, he is able to think, yea, and to think like Him, for he thinks God's thoughts after Him. The pleasures secured in intellectual pursuits, and the joys of contemplative thought, demand for their completion and crown, the Infinite, who alone can 20 GLIMPSES OF GOD. account for, and satisfy the mind. The mind of man is meaningless, unless there be a mightier mind with which it can communicate, and on which it can meditate, — a mind mighty enoiigh to move it to muse and to mould its musings. The human mind is meditative, because the divine mind is com- municative. A meditative human mind is inexpli- cable without a communicative divine mind. The intellectual nature of man receives its inspiration and satisfaction only in an intelligent, infinite, per- sonal Creator. Mind mirrors its Maker. 3. God reveals Himself in man's moral nature. The soul of every natural revelation of God is the revelation of God in the soul. The soul of what Nature speaks of the Supreme is what the Supreme speaks in the soul. Man's moral nature most mir- rors God, for it is most like the God it mirrors. The soul doth most bear the image of God; and the soul that doth the image of God .most bear is the soul most like the image it bears. Conscience, — the Shekinah in the sanctuary of spirit, the manifesta- tion of God's presence and glory, the royal repre- sentative of righteousness in the realm of reason, the advocate of God in the soul's tribunal, the ethi- cal echo of the Eternal, — is a revelation of God in the soul. Thus, the deepest, divinest and most inde- structible portion of our being bears distinct testi- THE REQUEST. 2 1 mony to the nature and character of God, and gives us glimpses of His glory. The sense of responsi- bility in man is in itself a revelation. The universal sense of obligation in tlie human soul is inexpli- cable, without God; with Him, nothing is more natural. The soul craves the Creator, and if it fail to find Him, it creates its own God. This instinct whicli is universal, and this impulse of worsliip which is imperative, surely indicate the existence of God. Man is ever conscious of a sense of obliga- tion and a feeling of responsibility. In manifold ways, he instinctively seeks to atone for any omis- sion in the fulfillment of his supposed duty. Con- science becomes more exacting decade after decade. The moral sense of right and wrong constantly be- comes keener. The soul is ever becoming more sensitive to the sense and shame of sin, and society more imperative in its demands for personal purity and national righteousness. Justice, truth and purity, hope, faith and charity are appreciated to- day as never before. We look upon as vices wliat our fathers looked upon as virtues. This ethical evolution of conscience, without (xod, and without the light of God in the soul, is a mystery of mys- teries. The soul, each time it utters '' I ought," confesses God. All sorrow, sniTcring and shame experienced because of sin, every pleasure or joy 2 2 GLIMPSES OF GOD. realized because of virtue, declares — there is a God. All sense of guilt, every attempt to atone for sin, is imperishable evidence of the existence of a moral ruler. Thus are glimpses of God possible to all anxious to secure them, in the material, mental and moral world. They may be realized only through the right use of proper methods, the right employ- ment of proper faculties, and careful conformity to the laws of investigation. This knowledge of God can not be secured unless the soul seek it, and he who seeks well will ever be successful in his search. The revelation will not appeal, however, with the same force to all minds, for the greater the mind and the more reverential the spirit, the greater will be the realization and the deeper the appreciation of the glimpses secured. Different evidences ap- peal with varying convincing force to various minds, and this ethical and intellectual knowledge of God will not influence or inspire all alike. Nevertheless, glimpses are accessible to all and should be invalu- able to all, as a potent though primitive proof, of the presence and pre-eminence of a personal Creator in the universe. The glimpses of God secured in the material world will move most mightily the poet, while the ethical knowledge of God, the revelation secured in the moral realm, will move most mightil)^ the matter-of-fact moralist. We will receive from THE REQUEST. 23 Nature whatever we invest, with proportionate in- terest. The seientist will seenre the secrets of science, tlie poet poetr3^ the theologian theology, and all who seek for the Infinite, glimpses of God. The more intelligence and interest, sympathy and sincerity we invest in Nature, the more will we be able to draw on her bank book, of interest and capi- tal. Nature speaks many languages, but is polite enough, imvaryingly, to clothe her answer in the tongue in which she has been addressed. She is ever like a loving, though not over-indulgent moth- er, who always gives good gifts to her children, but ever with kind and deep discrimination. If any ask a fish, she will never give a serpent. If any ask bread, she will never give a stone. Her gifts, how- ever, are ever determined by the nature of the re- quest and the spirit of the recipient. He who seeks for coal will never discover a comet. He who studies the sky will learn the secret of the stars, and not the song of the sea; he will learn the lesson of law in the language of light, and not the lesson of love in the language of the leaves and the lily. Each will gather from Nature only that which cor- responds to what he already possesses. '' To him that hath it shall be given "is a law of nature as well as grace. Hence, some become proficient in one branch of study, some in another, and in his 24 GLIMPSES OF GOD. special field is each most likely to find God. Man's head invariably follows his heart. He will ever learn to know what he loves, and that only as he loves to know. Thus, the glimpses of God in Na- ture always come to man through the royal road of loyal love. The astronomer will be borne in a chariot of light, over a fiery pathway to the presence of Jehovah. Every ray of light pencils for him, in rich and royal radiance, the glories of the Creator. The poet, with a devout spirit, will bend the knee in the temple of beauty, to do homage to the God who painted the lily and robed the rose. Never- theless, the knowledge of God learned from Nature's open book, though of inestimable value, fails to satisfy the soul's craving. Nay rather, it intensifies the longing of the human heart, increases man's ambition, and inspires him with new aspiration for a clearer and worthier conception of the Divine. Nature can never appease the hunger of the soul. She but wings hope, fires faith, and inspires love to move in quest of God. The glimpses of God gleaned from the fertile fields of Nature are inefiicient to qualify man to realize the purposes of his Crea- tion, therefore a superior revelation is imperative. The necessity demands the supply. The yearning of the soul for God is a prophecy and a pledge of God-given satisfaction. The promptings of the THK REQUEST. 25 human heart and the revelations of Nature are CtocI- ^•iven promises of greater revelations of Himself, and God must be faithful to His own promises. A good God must seek the good of all His creatures. Man is happy only as he is good, and good only as he knows God. He can not know God only as God in love niakes Himself known. ]\Ian needs Ciod, and is constrained thereby to seek Him. This God- given desire and Godward tendency of the soul must inevitably, by the law of love, crystallize into actual glimpses of God. Granted that Ciod is love, and it is granted that the best revelation possible to the best love is given to man. Love claims love, and the best love demands the best of which love is capable. The Infinite Mind can be satisfied only in the satisfaction of the mind it has created. Mind in its majesty seeks to mould and move mind. It can not but be communicative and seek affinities. All wdio believe in an intelligent God must believe in a revelation of Him. The possibility of ever}' revelation depends upon God's desire to make Him- self known, and man's ability to appreciate the revelation given. The goodness of all intelligent beings in the universe depends upon their knowl- edge of God. Therefore, a (iod of love can not withhold the highest manifestation pf)ssible of Him- self, from those anxious to receive it. When Moses 26 GLIMPSES OF GOD. cried " Show me Thy gioiy, " the request was per- fectly rational, for already he had received special manifestations of the majesty, the mind, and the mercy of God. The knowledge thus secured, though of much greater value than the revelation of nature, only led him to expect and to seek a higher mani- festation of God's glor3\ There are times in a man's history when the responsibility of life would crush him, were it not possible for him to be relieved and strengthened b}^ glimpses of God. No one in his century, or probably in any previous century, needed or received such glorious manifestations of the divine majesty as the " Man of God." Nobly had they been received, and none the less nobly had they been reproduced in his life. He possessed in a high degree all the necessar}' qualifications to apprehend and appreciate God's natural and supernatural revelations. He had a genius for poetry and proph- ecy. His eye was searching, his ear sensitive, his heart sympathetic, and these are the three impera- tive conditions of prophetic and poetic insight. But few men have ever walked this planet who were able to appreciate or interpret Nature as Moses. Na- ture kept but few secrets from him who loved her so well. He secured a keener insight into the m3^s- teries of Creation, and beheld more of the glor}^ of the Creator than any man before him. Day by day. THE RFJJUEST. 27 under the inspiration (^f (tocI, had he stood in the (ienesis of ereation, witnessiniif ehaos eharmed into eosmos, and privilei^-ed to behold the birth of lii;"ht, hiw and b'fe. He heard the divine voiee, whose eeho is the inspiration of all life and beauty, callini*- into beino- the universe. He listened with enrapt- ured soul to the musie of those words, so frau^-ht with creative energy, and, lost in adoration, he gazed on the first miracle of resurrection — life ushering forth from the tombs and vaults of death, dead mat- ter becoming vivified with light, instinct and ani- mated witli life. He stood by the cradle of crea- tion, looked with inspired eye on the evolution of life, and saw infinite space blossom into teeming worlds. He heard, witli inspired ear, every melo- dious sound of which Nature's harp is capable. He was present at every concert given by the creation, up to his day. He listened to the sweet melody of the morning stars when they sang together, and was charmed when Nature's sublime symphony rendered for tlie first time the Hallelujali cliorus. He listened so well that he learned every note of Nature's glori- (jus anthem. He saw the Garden of Eden, clothed in matchless beauty and adorned with ro3'al robes, full of fragrance, 1)1 ush when first introduced to the morning sunlight. Moses has enriched the world with a history of the Genesis of creation, which must 28 (ILTMPSES OF GOD. ever remain, because it is simple, salutary and suffi- cient, the most fascinating and satisfying interpreta- tion of the origin of Nature. The eye of Moses, quickened and illuminated by the inspiration of the Almighty, had looked upon all the glorious mani- festations of the divine mind that had ever been granted to man. His ear had treasured every vibra- tion of the divine voice, which had ever reached human ears, from the time it was first heard when God walked in the garden, in the cool of the day, until it had commanded him to present himself on Mount Sinai. He heard the first question addressed to man, which fell from the divine lips, and the first promise of the Redeemer of the race. He tm- derstood God's purpose in calling Abraham, to raise a peculiar people, for Himself. Already God had spoken to him, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. He had seen the glory of Jehovah as had no other. He was one of the greatest prophets and the first inspired revealer of divine truth. He was God's chosen ambassador to Pharaoh, the anointed deliverer of His chosen people, the eman- cipator of Israel. He was not only elected of Heav- en to be a leader and law-giver to the people, but a personified conscience to the world. No one had secured a clearer conception of the Creator's pur- poses, or given such a sublime expression of them THE REQl^EST. 2() to man. Ilaviiii^ thus been so gloriously endowed with privileges and erowncd with such glorious glimpses of God, is it any wonder that he should long for more, and cry " Show me Thy glory?" Nay, having been permitted to understand so well the divine secrets, not to show his appreciation by seeking to know still more, would be tmnatural, and unworthy. The practical value, for himself and people, of the revelations already received could not but force a rational being to seek a greater vision. Nevertheless, to know precisely what Moses desired, when he said " Show me Thy glory, " is involved in much difficulty, and enveloped in much mystery. It is much easier to say negatively what the request does not mean, than to state positively what it does mean. It could not be a prayer for a sensuous ex- hibition of God's majesty, or simply a desire for an external display of divine power and glory. He had seen enough of such manifestations. It could not mean that he expected in some miraculous way to be able to comprehend Ciod. He was too wise a man and knew himself and Jehovah too well to have entertained such a wild desire. Could the greatest historian, if not the only historian of the world, for two thousand years, a man intellectually and spiritually head and shoulders above the rest of mankind, become so unreasonable as to expect that 30 GTJMPPES OF GOD. the finite mind could comprehend the Infinite? The character of Moses, as seen in the light of history, demands that we exonerate him from the charge of making so irrational a request. Still, he asked to see the " glory " of God. What does this mean? What- ever answer we make, it must be granted that he longed for a revelation not already received, some vision not yet secured. Moreover, it must be con- ceded that he craved a higher and worthier concep- tion of God's character, a clearer understanding of His purposes, and a nearer approach to His divine heart. Indeed, everything in the history of the transfiguration of Moses suggests that wliat he really wanted, whether he was conscious of it or not, was a manifestation of God's spiritual nature. But just what the " glory " means must more or less be a matter of conjecture, for everything be- longing to God is full of His glory. II. THIS REQUEST IS RELIGIOUS. It is simply the ambition of a religious man to understand more of the mind, and to get nearer the heart, of his Father in Heaven. It is a pleading of a soul enraptured with the contemplation of the divine character, for a more understanding heart, a broader view, a keener and more appreciative in- sight, into the glorious mysteries and perfections of THE R KOI' EST 31 His Ijcin^i^;. Surely, this is not only a worthy, but the most devout ambition possible to the human soul. To seek that knowledge of the Father whieh deepens our own spiritual life, and fills us with in- creased power to serve others, can not but be well pleasing in the sight of Heaven. The spirituality of the soul depends oij its spiritual yearnings, and this request of Closes is the winged desire of the soul for that spiritual insight, without which deep religious life is impossible. When the soul is dis- satisfied with its spiritual attainment, and yearns for a more spiritual conception of (lod, it is nK^ved by the divinest impulse. ^lan instinctively seeks to know God. The more he knows of Him, the more will he desire to know, and the more he de- sires to know the more he will know. As the spir- itual life deepens, the soul's ambition to know (lod is intensified. The nearer we are permitted to draw to the heart of Jehovah, the more earnest and sincere the cry of the soul — " Show me Thy glory." To understand the religious character of this desire of Moses, it is necessary that we take into considera- tion the circumstances under which it was expressed. We must needs look upon the Man of (lOd, bowed down by sorrow and filled with unutterable grief because of the idolatry of the people at the foot of the mount made holy by the divine presence. We 32 GLIMPSES OF GOD. must listen to his intercession, his pathetic plead- ing with God to forgive their sin, and learn to ap- preciate the promise of God's continued favor. Then, and then only, will we learn what moved Moses to cry, " Show me Thy glory." Plis request had a practical bearing on his own life and duty, in that crisis in the history of the people. He had lost confidence in himself, and in the people, and was in sore need of every help to increased faith in Jeho- vah. His faith in himself was shaken, because he liad so forgotten himself when he stood face to face with Israel's sin. The most patient of men burned with righteous indignation and was moved in wrath at the sight of the golden calf, and taking vengeance into his own hands, with the aid of those on the Lord's side, he slew three thousand men, as if love, — forgiving love, — was foreign to his nature. And yet how he loved these people ! No human love was ever deeper, or more self-sacrificing. Hear him as he pleads with God to forgive their transgression, or to blot his name out of the Book of Life. Could any love be stronger? Not only stronger than death, but stronger than the desire for immortality. His prayer was heard, his petition granted, and a prom- ise given of Jehovah's continued presence to aid the prophet and to bless the people. But how his faith in the people had weakened! How could he ever THE REQUEST. T,^ again have conlidcnce in thcni? Had they not, near the mount made terrible by the presenee of Jeho- vali, been guilty of inexensable idolatry? He de- spaired of ever aceomplisliing the work laid on his heart to do — making these people obedient and faithful to the God of Heaven. From himself, his thoughts would turn to God. How great was His longsuffcring, pity and patience, and how ready to forgive was the Holy One! Who could understand this mystery? How could holiness and love in har- mony dwell together in the divine heart ? God hated sin with a holy hatred, impossible to the human heart. How could He then forgive their sin, and yet remain holy? What was the explana- tion of this righteous love, and yet loving righteous- ness? Moved to the depths of his being by these conflicting thouglits, he cries ''I beseech Thee." How pathetic, reverential and devout! His whole heart is in the words, as if his life depended on the answer. " I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory. " "He had secured a glimpse of God's forgiving love. AVas it any wonder tliat he should desire to know more of the pity, patience, and peace of his Father's heart ? Like a child he looks up to his Father's face, and asks that He would explain to him the mystery of His love. He wanted a glimpse of the essential glory of (iod, but only that he miglit un- 34 GLIMPSES OF GOD. derstaiid the nature of His purposes, and future dealings witli Israel. He was anxious to learn the lesson God was so anxious to teach Elijah, near the same spot. He longed to be initiated into the mys- teries of divine love, as manifested in God's long suffering and patience with sinful man. It was a desire to see the best in God, at its best; to behold the glor}^ of His glory. It is as natural to find fault with the rushing river for seeking the sea, the flower for being fragrant and bending toward the sun, or a child for seeking the mother's embrace and leaning, when sick and sad, on her bosom of love, as to condemn the soul for exercising its most divine function when, like Moses, it cries " Show me Thy glory." III. THIS REQUEST IS ROYAL. What jMoscs desired was not only wise and good, but the best of which his best nature was capable. Therefore it was not only rational and religious, but in very truth royal. It did not spring from mere sentiment or selfish impulse, but from the sublime and sacred yearnings of the soul to approach its ideal. It was a noble ambition of a noble nature, finding expression in a most spiritual longing for a glimpse of God, which would increase its spiritu- ality and strengthen it for self-sacrificing service. THE REQUEST. 35 Moses sought to secure a higher revelation of God, that he might be the better prepared to serve his generation. He longed for more spiritual insight into the spiritual nature of the vSuprcme, that his soul might be made more sensitive to the sense of sin, and more sympathetic with the sinner. His thought was not of himself, but of (lod's glory, and the good of God's people. He would approach nearer tlic Divine in spiritual affinity, that he might inspire the people with spiritual aspiration. His request was but the outpouring of a spirit moved to its depths with an earnestness that was terrible, to secure greater inspiration to fulfill its mission. It was simply the most spiritual struggle of a soul in its most spiritual season, for a vision of God that would strengthen it to secure supremacy over all selfishness. Moses w^as never more like (lod than when he sought the vision that would make him (xodlike. He reached the highest altitude hitherto attained in his spiritual experience, when he uttered the impassioned appeal, " vShow me Thy glory." As he surmised it, the form of the request was not spiritual, but the spirit it breathed was akin to divine. If the form was faulty, the faith and fervor were faultless. If, as some suggest, he even ex- pected in some miraculous manner to be able to see the divine essence, and gaze with mortal eye upon 36 GLIMPSES OF GOD. the personal faee of Deity, even this does not lessen the .spirituality of the prayer, or the value of the spirit that prompted it. AVhat soul is so divine as to separate everything sensuous from its spiritual search and service, or is spiritual enough to rightly interpret its spiritual yearnings ? We find that Philip, who had been privileged to breathe the spiritual atmosphere surrounding the Saviour, who had gazed on the most glorious and perfect mani- festation of God possible, who had heard the most spiritual words that ever fell on .human ears, and seen the most spiritual revelation of the moral nature of the Father in heaven, rises no higher than Moses in spiritual sensitiveness or conception of the spiritual God. The petition " Show us the Father " is identical with the royal request of Moses, " vSliow me Thy glory. ' ' They are both precisely the same, in root and branch. Philip has not advanccdon Moses in spiritual aspiration, nor is he superior in spiritual interpretation of his soul's need. Indeed, after sitting at the Saviour's feet for eighteen cen- turies to learn of Him the secret of spiritual strength, men have scarcely risen to a higher plane of spiritual sensibility, and are but little less trammeled by the htmian tendencies and material influences to which flesh is heir. Man is strangely human in his divin- est moods and most spiritual moments. If the de- THE REQUEST. 37 sire of Moses was crude in its manner of expression, it is perfect in its Godward movement. This desire of Moses is one of God's jewels, reflecting the light of Heaven in the soul it adorns. The rough setting of this diamond divine, all will note, while the spir- itual eye alone will appreciate its royal radiance and heavenly hue. It is a glittering gem of grace, a jewel of the royal diadem. It is a flower from the Paradise of love, blossoming in God's garden of the soul, and reaching out in fragrance to its heav- enly home. All that Moses hitherto had seen of God had been manifested in sensuous form — the cloudy pillar, the burning bush, the Shekinah sym- bol, these were his highest opportunities to know the spiritual nature of God. Who can rise higher in his conception than his knowledge warrants ? God can not expect a man to be greater and nobler than the revelation he has received enables him to be. This request is royal, for in spiritual sensitive- ness and sagacity it falls not one whit below the aggregate value of the glimpses of God given to Moses. If a man attain to the full moral stature made possible by his privileges, men and God can not but be satisfied with his life. The current of the religious life of Moses, ever full and strong, never rose higher in spiritual tide than when he exclaimed "I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory." It had 38 GLIMPSES OF GOD. moved in a majestic 'stream, its volume gaining velocity with every obstacle it surmounted, until it became impatient of hindrances and limitations and sought the ocean of the Infinite. If we would esti- mate aright the character of Moses, we must measure him, not by what succeeding generations have at- tained, but by the breadth and depth of his life, as compared with the men of his century. To know Moses, we must measure him by the slaves he eman- cipated. Moreover, when we remember how few have risen above having their spiritual services marred by the material and physical elements, so much objected to in the prayer of Moses, we can not but confess that his request was royal, in spite of the crudity of its form. It is sadly true that the majority of Christians have yet to learn to think of the spiritual God, and worship Him in a purely spir- itual way. Men look for their glimpses of God almost invariably in connection with churches or creeds, Bible or prayer book. While these are valuable aids, when properly used, in keeping God before the mind and concentrating the mind upon God, yet too often they are so unworthily and un- spiritually employed as to successfully hide the spir- itual God from our vision. How few there are in this enlightened age and privileged century that look for spiritual vision unaided by material forms ! THE REQUEST. 39 We clothe our most spiritual ideas in material con- ceptions, oft mistaking; the shadow for the substance, the form for the life, the means of grace for grace itself, and the things that tell concerning God for the essential spiritual glory of the Eternal. Many see the things of God and God is seen in many things. But oh how few see God — the spiritual Be- ing — apart from all things. God grant that our souls may continually cry, " Show me Thy glory," until we have seen the Father in Heaven, as re- vealed in the Son, and His glory has passed be- fore us. THE RESPONSE. "And he said, I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee ; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew merc3^ And He said, Thou canst not see My face; for there shall no man see Me, and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass while My glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with My hand while I pass by: And I will take away Mine hand, and thou shalt see My back parts: but My face shall not be seen." — Exodis 33 : ig-23. Such is God's royal response to the royal request, '' Show me Thy o-lory. " The rational, religious and royal request of Moses is representative of the earnest desire of every devout soul for glimpses of God. The response of Jehovah is typical of the gracious manner in which Tie satisfies every sincere desire to see His glory. The response sanctions, satisfies and sanctifies the request. The request is the condition of tlie rcspouse, and tlic response is the crown of the recpiest. The ixMpicst is the re- sponse, in prophecy; the response is the request in 42 GLIMPSES OF GOD. realization. Without the request, the response could not be; with the request, the response could not but be. Every God-given desire must meet with God- given gratification. The universal craving for knowledge of God is a universal testimony that glimpses of God are possible. A natural revelation is a promise of a supernatural revelation. Every glimpse of God secured through the aid of natural faculties, in the natural realm, is a prophecy that glimpses of God may be secured, through the exer- cise of spiritual faculties, in the spiritual realm. So that the intellectual and the ethical knowledge of God accessible to man is a promise that spiritual knowledge is possible. The response of God to Moses is a promise, pledge and proof not only that glimpses of God are possible and probable through supernatural manifestation, but that a spiritual vision of the spiritual God is divinely assured to every soul spiritual enough to seek it. It thus has a two-fold interest and value to all who are anxious to see God's glory. It is valuable as a manifesta- tion of the manner in which God received and an- swered the prayer of His servant, and also because it reveals the gracious attitude He always maintains toward the seeking soul. It is of priceless value because it enables us to see the precious gems of grace with which God adorns the soul of His serv- THE RESPONSE. 43 ant, but its value is enhanced ten-fold by the war- rant it contains to make its treasures our own, and the promise it gives of the invaluable gifts of grace with which God will reward every honest endeavor to see His glory. Surrounded as we are by influ- ences other than divine, hampered and hindered by human frailty, discouraged by mysteries which bafrte our ingenuity to elucidate, oft on the verge of despair because of repeated failure to find out God, we can not but welcome these words that are like stars of hope, illuminating the night of spiritual ignorance. What man, harassed by doubt and dis- appointed hopes, tortured by the sense of sin and shame, has not sought to find rest by piercing the heart of dark doubt and standing face to face with the Father, who knows how to pity, who is ever pa- tient, who is willing to pardon, and who is able to give purity and peace to the sotil ? Who, having thus felt, will not appreciate these words so full of heaven-born light, hope and love, that in such simple yet sublime manner tell how every sincere soul may find and nestle in the bosom of the Father in Heaven ? This response ought to influence and inspire every soul to increased elfort to know God. It is like cold water to the thirsty traveler under the scorching sun on the burning desert sands. It is to the soul as the North Star to the sailor, a 44 CxLIMPSES OF GOD. never-failing- source of inspiration and ever-efficient guide to the desired haven. It contains a promise which crystallizes under our very gaze into a veri- table vision. He who realizes his own need of a nearer approach to God, in order to qualify him for the efficient fulfillment of any arduous task, will not fail to appreciate the heaven-born message which this response contains, and the inspiration it breathes. He who reverently ponders over it will never fail, however distressed, despondent or de- spairing, to " renew his strength like the eagle " and to soar heavenward, leaving sorrow like clouds below and live only in the light of God's love. May our eye be sensitive to the spiritual light, our ear appreciative of the music of the divine voice, and our heart responsive to the life-giving touch of holi- ness, as we draw near to study these words of God, so like Him, full of the mystery of light, life and love, grace and glory. The text naturally falls into three divisions. The first speaks of what God reserves to himself ; the second, of the reason for this divine reservation, and the third, of what He is ready to reveal to man. The first teaches that only glimpses of God are pos- sible; the second, that only glimpses of God are necessary, and the third, that glimpses of God are assured. Thus the response speaks of THE RESPONSE. 4c; RKSERVATION IN R KVKI, A'lloN. " My face shall not be seen." Such is the divine decree, from which there is no appeal. It expresses and emphasizes an eternal fact. The decree speaks of the unveiled, personal face of Jehovah, which Moses probably had wrong-ly surmised to be the vision which his soul craved when he exclaimed, " I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory." He is assured that while God is ready to vouchsafe every mani- festation necessary to qualify him for the highest service, that there must ever remain of the Divine an unrealized vision. It is ever thus. A divine reservation is imperative to every divine revelation. Ood has ever to hide Himself in order to be seen. Without the hand that covered Moses in the cleft of the rock, and hid the effulgent light of the divine countenance from the gaze of his mortal eye, the vision granted to him would have been forever im- possible. A revelation of God of necessity leaves in reserve more than it reveals, hides more than it manifests, and discloses only as it is successful in hiding. A vision is that which succeeds in veiling- all else, that it might itself unveil. It is a natural law that the greater light has to be hid, before it is possible for the lesser light to be seen. The sun has to set before the stars are seen. The inherent 46 GLIMPSES OF GOD. revealing foree of every object is commensurate with its power all else to hide. Shade as well as sunlight is indispensable to sight. Excessive light means blindness. Is not this the explanation why God, who dwelleth in light unapproachable, clothes Himself with clouds and darkness? How sugges- tive that He who is Light should choose so often to manifest Himself in the form of a cloud, (rod's choice of the cloud for a chariot and covering is not caprice, but it is selected rather as a medium of communication because it is approved of divine wisdom. It was in a cloud He appeared on the mercy seat, and in a cloud He descended on Mount Sinai to speak with Moses. The cloud was not only necessary to the manifestation, but an integral part of the vision. It succeeded in manifesting God as it was successful in hiding Him. Even dark clouds become transfigured, transparent and translucent when in touch with God, and irradiated with light divine. Let no one complain of the cloud which contains God, or fear the cloud if God is in it. The cloud around God, like the shadow of the sim, brings life and light into the world. Light apart from darkness equals blindness; light in darkness equals vision. Excessive light renders vision as impossible as does excessive darkness. Unrestricted revelation means restrictecl and ruined vision. THE RESPONSE. 47 There is a sense in which there is a reservation in every divine revchition, and a revehition in every di\inc rcserv^ation. (lod must ever reserve nicjre than He reveals. There will ever be mysteries in the Divine which the human can never hope to solve, and depths which the linitc can never hope to fathom. The Infinite must ever be mysterious. Were (jod less divine He would he less mysterious; but were He less mysterious He would l)e less divine. To eliminate mystery is to dim the light of divinity. The finite can not comprehend the In- finite, until the Infinite become finite. Though we know all possible to human nature of the Divine, we must ever feel that we possess but a glimpse of God, and the nearer we approach the more will the full vision seem to evade us. Ever on and on will the soul be impelled by lieaven-born impulses, at- tracted by ineffable Icn^e and inspired by irrepres- sible instincts to seek to " know the Almighty unto perfection," but ever conscious that the distance traversed through countless ages is Init a step of a journey that can know no end. What mortal eye can scan infinitude ? What human heart can ever hope to hold the ocean of divine love? What plum- met can sound divine depths? He who knows most of God will realize most how little he knows. The less we think we know, the more we actually know. 48 GLIMPSES OF GOD. and the more we know the more will we strive to know. But when all that it is possible for us to know of the Father in Heaven is realized, it will only be a glimpse of God. Visions of inestimable value have been vouchsafed to man since the world be- gan, but were they all gathered together and con- centrated into one great revelation, though it con- tain everything that man has seen or felt of the Divine, and though it be enriched with the experi- ence of the myriad mariners who have sailed on life's ocean, even then it would give us but a glimpse of God. The Bible contains a rich galaxy of gath- ered glimpses of God. It tells what the best men at their best have seen and heard of the Eternal. It is full of statements which show how men have received visions of the Infinite, and crowded with precious promises that greater visions will yet be granted. Men have prized the revelation it con- tains far above their lives, for it has brought the light of holiness and hope of Heaven, into the home and heart of humanity. But, after all, it contciins but a glimpse of God's glory. Though all that men have gathered, gleaned and garnered from Nature's garden of glimpses of God, and though all the knowledge of Him ever given to man in na.tural and supernatural manifestations, as expressed in poetry, science, music, philosophy and theology, be THE RESPONSE. 49 brought together in one strong ray of liglit and focused on the Being of God, though the effect be effulgent and blinding bright, it will give only a glimpse of Cjod. Blend together the revelation of Nature and of grace, the word and the works of God; though its radiant light be so rich and royal that angels are riveted to gaze upon it with eyes of wondering and adoring love, yea, though man is transfigured by its glory and his whole being, mate- rial, mental and moral irradiated by its light — after all it is but a glimpse of God. The world is what it is to-day in mind, morals, manners, and motives, because glimpses of God have been sought and se- cured. Yet our knowledge is but as a dewdrop to the mighty ocean, a ray of light to the meridian sun. We have but a fragmentary conception, a partial knowledge, a hurried view, a faint idea, an inkling — in a word, a " glimpse " of God. vStill we thank God that glimpses are possible, yea, and that glimpses only are possible. For eternity, the glory of every glimpse will be a glimpse of God's glory, yet the best of glimpses will be but glimpses at tlie best. 11. REASON FOR RESER V A T K )X. Thou canst not see My face, for there shall no man see ^le and live." The motive by which God is ever prompted in reservation and revelation is 50 GLIMPSES OF GOD. the happiness and the moral well-being of man. Love is the royal reason for all He reserves and all He reveals. He reserves and reveals that man mig-ht live. He ever refuses to grant every request which would not ensure the increased influence and happiness of the soul that conceived it. As God is love, and some human desires are impolitic, there- fore their divine satisfaction is impossible. The soul may desire that which is rational, religious and royal, but may express -its desire, and request satis- faction in a form that is wanting in all these quali- ties. God will ever satisfy such a desire, but ever refuse to grant such a request. He refused to grant the request of Moses in the form in which it was made, while He full}^ satisfied the spirit that prompt- ed it. Indeed, He could have satisfied His own heart, and the heart of Moses, in no other way. The reservation in the revelation God made to Moses was imperative for the preservation of the life of His servant. Moses could not see the face of God and " live," and God desires to preserve and not to destroy life. He has no pleasure in the death of the sinner, how much less in the death of the saint. Divine wisdom declares reservation in revelation necessary ; therefore divine love has made it imperative. What God reserved from Moses He withheld, not because the revelation thereof would THE RRSPONSE. qi be SO majestically terrible as to iill him with mortal dread, but because the hi<^hest manifestation of divine love in unveiled effuli^encc would so over- whelm him with a sense of his own un worthiness and of God's g'lory, as to slay him with excessive lig-ht. This would baffle the purposes of divine love, and the end the prophet was so anxious to reach. Therefore (lod said, " My face shall not be seen." What God reserved from ]\Ioses, He has reserved from all men. " No man hath seen the Father," and no man ever will, save in the Son. Were it otherwise, man w^ould no lon^^-er be human or God Divine, for to see the personal face of (iod w^ould unman man and undeify Deity. Moses, like many others, knew not what his words implied, but was deeply conscious of a cravin^^- which God could only satisfy, and which could be satisfied only with (iod. As ever God interpreted the desire, not the expression of it, and answered the spirit and not the words. He satisfied the soul of His servant, thou^^h He reserved to Himself what Moses thoui^iit to l)e necessary to his well-being. To satisfy the desire it was imperative to deny it, in the form in which it was presented. God promised to give to Moses not only what he desired but much more than he under- stood to be his need. That the Father in Heaven should deny to i\Ioses the inalienable prerogative of 52 GLIMPSES OF GOD. a child to look on his father's face seems, on the surface, harsh and arbitrary. But " there is recon- ciliation in the depths. " He could not be a Father, and act otherwise. The reservation is the result not of any arbitrary enactment of God's sovereign- ty, but the unavoidable restriction of love, the out- come of His Fatherhood. If God revealed to man all that human curiosity craves to know, man's judg- ment would be dethroned, his will paralyzed and his happiness, yea, and life, destroyed. Man often desires to know what he is unprepared to learn, and seeks knowledge, the possession of which would prove detrimental to his highest interests. How prone is man to think, in his mental madness, that mysteries are misery-makers. He fain would be- lieve that the panacea for all his woes is to know all that he desires to know, while in fact the elucida- tion of all mystery would be to man the consumma- tion of all misery. God in mercy reserves to Him- self what man is unprepared to know. In this, as in all else, human capacity alone sets the limit to divine generosity. III. REVELATION IN RESERVE. " I will make all My goodness pass before thee. . . I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with My hand, while I pass by. And I will take away My hand, and thou shalt see My back parts. ' ' THE RESPONSE. 53 In these words God promises to reward the spirit of His servant with the highest manifestation pos- sible of His g-lory. While he is informed that there is a reservation of necessity in divine revelation, he is assured that God is ready to grant to him the greatest revelation that it is possible for man to re- ceive. Thus does God satisfy and sanctify the sin- cere search of the soul for spiritual sight. Divine love never refuses to grant any request, without making ample recompense. God's reason for re- serving to Himself that which would hinder and not help His servant in the attainment of holiness and happiness, lends mercy to the reservation and maj- esty to the revelation. This is the royal response of divine love to the request of Moses, as interpreted by divine wisdom. The revelation promised con- tains immeasurably more than Closes realized to be his need, (iod will vouchsafe to him the vision necessary to qualify him for the efficient fulfillment of his great mission, and will reveal as much of His glory as mortal eye can behold. This promised revelation is valuable not only because it gives us an insight into (rod's cliaractcr, and throws light (Ui the conditions of spiritual vision, but also as a prophecy that all who conform to tlic laws of spir- itual investigati(Mi will be rewarded witli glimpses of God. If anv douljt existed in the heart of Moses 54 GLIMPSES OF GOT). concerning the reception his request would receive, it must have been forever removed by the royal re- sponse which promised so glorious a revelation. It must ever be interesting and instructive to all who would secure visions of Cxod, to consider the way in which it has pleased Him to reveal Himself. In- deed, this is of supreme importance, for man's re- demption depends upon a revelation of God. Relig- ion without revelation is impossible. He who has not learned how God speaks to man can not know, or seek to know, how man may and should speak to God. Man's conduct is governed by his conception of God. He becomes perfect as he perceives per- fection in the Almighty. Insight into the divine character alone can inspire man to approach the di- vine ideal. The best in man can never be at its best until it has realized the best in God of which it is capable. Therefore inquiry into God's methods of revealing Himself is second only in importance to the revelation itself. The measure of our interest in every special manifestation of God is commen- surate with the depth of our consciousness of our own need of a special vision. As our longing for the infinite is intensified, our interest is enhanced in all revelations promised and realized. This vision of God promised to Moses is a prophecy of the reve- lation with which the Father in Heaven will enrich THF, RESPONSE. 55 and ennoble the sincere search of every soul for glimpses of His glory. In response to the desire of Moses to see His glory, (iod promises that all His goodness sliall pass before him. This suggests that His glory and His goodness are identical. Even to God His glory is His moral character. The glory of His glory is His goodness. As the Almighty conceives it, His glory consists not in His almighty power, infinite wisdom or eternal existence, but in the moral qualities of His personal character, — righteousness and love. His glory does not depend on those perfections which are necessary to His be- ing. He could not but be almighty, all-wise and eternal, and however valuable these attributes may be, they can not with any propriety be considered as constituting His personal and peculiar glory. Character in (lod, as in man, is that which is created of choice, and not of compulsion. That whicli is compulsory ]:)ossesses no virtue, though in itself it contain much good. The good that one chooses is one's crown, (xod, in a special sense, is good and gracious because He chooses so to be, and this con- stitutes His glory. The glory of Deity is His per- sonal character, and the glory of His personal char- acter is goodness, or love, (rod always emphasizes mercy and love as the essence and crown of His divine perfection, lentil man has had a glimpse of 56 GLIMPSES OF GOD. the love of God, he intuitively feels that there is yet in Him a glory that he has never seen, and thoug-h glorious visions of His majesty and glory be ever granted to him, the spiritual instinct of the soul will still cry out, " vShow me Thy glory. " Seeing the spiritual God, the Father, alone can satisfy the spir- itual nature of man. Moral quality alone can move and mould a moral agent. Love alone can irradiate a being with its own light, and make it lovable. Goodness alone can transform and make men good. The vision of God's love alone can satisfy the love- hungry soul. Though we possess all knowledge of the majesty of God, as expressed in the innumer- able worlds around us, and though we be privileged to receive every other revelation possible of the Di- vine, save the vision of love, the hunger of our soul will be unappeascd, the longing of our heart unsat- isfied, and continually we will cry, " vShow me Thy glory." It is only when the mind has grasped the truth that (xod is love and when the heart has learned to love like God, that the soul has seen the glory of God and is satisfied. God promises to pro- claim His name before Moses, and this name is evi- dently an integral part of the revelation. Instinct- ively we ask what the name of God has to do with the vision. The answer is not far to seek. God's name is inseparably connected with His glory, for THE RESPONSE. 57 it Stands for His moral character. The Deity has many names. They are all holy and expressive of certain attributes of the divine character. Tlie name spoken of here was evidently pronounced for the first time, in the hearing- of Moses, or it could not have been a necessary part of the new revelation. What could it have been, but the name that identi- fies Cxod with the work of salvation? The identical name which he earned for himself in redeemin<^ man, alone would harmonize with the vision. Man's salvation is said to be '' to the Lord for a name." AVhat name worthy or more effectual in assisting Closes to understand the mysteries of divine love than the name so full of love, " the Lord, long suffering and gracious, plenteous in mercy and truth?" (xod is very jealous of this name, and He esteems it above every other. He pardons iniquity " for His name's sake," and one of the strongest pleas that man can make for mercy is '' for Thy name's sake, pardon my iniquity." This name is spelled only in letters of love, and can be known and appreciated only as it is expressed in the work of salvation. Is not tliis the reason wh}' God says, in introducing His name, " and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious?" The name bcconics of practical value when tlie ([ual- ities it rc])rcscnts arc manifested in deeds of mercy. A name is always valual)le as it is appropriate, and 58 GLIMPSES OF GOD. appropriate only as it helps to distinguish the qual- ity for which it stands, from all else. The good- ness of God expresses His name, and ?Iis name in- dicates His goodness. Every vision is valuable, not to the extent of the inherent glory it contains, ■ but in proportion to its power of making that glor}' transferable to man. A vision is great, only as the soul is enabled to appreciate the glory it unveils. The love of God is as clearly seen in all the attend- ing circumstances pertaining to the revelation prom- ised to Moses, as in the act of granting the revela- tion itself. A vision is valuable only as we are in a position to perceive its glor}^ This is true of all visions. Without an attainable vantage ground, the most beautiful landscape would to us have no inter- est or charm. Until we stand in a favorable posi- tion, the most lifelike painting would have no beauty. It was thus with Moses. Without the cleft of the rock, and the covering hand of God, the vision, though in itself of inestimable value, would have had no practical influence on the soul. God, however, in mercy always provides these requisites of a right relationship to the revelation received. The cleft of the rock is always necessary, and ever within reach. The shadow of His hand is imperative to every vision, and it is ever read}^ to cover and to keep in safety the soul, when His goodness passes THE RESPONSE. 59 before it. With what a sense of security and of the near approach of the Father in Heaven, God's hand filled the heart of Moses! It is ever thus. What hand so strono- and tender, so fatherly, as the hand of God? Blessed is he whose habitation is under the shadow of the hand of the Almig-hty. When the soul has been made strong enough^ through the nourishing care and protecting hand of (iod, to live in the light of His presence, the shadow of His hand will be removed, and His love in undimmed glory shall be seen. The cleft of the rock and the hiding- hand are both necessar}' conditions of revelation. The cleft of the rock, while closing from his view everything on the right and the left, focused his eye on God as He passed before him. It was necessar v not only that Nature should disappear from the vision before the personal Ciod would btx:ome vis- ible, but that Nature should turn all her lights to reflect on the passing glory. The soul that would see the spiritual God must become conscious only of that which is spiritual. The cleft of the rock can not but suggest the Rock of Ages, cleft on Calvary, in which all sinners may hide, and may in safety gaze upon God's glor3\ In the cleft of the Rock of Ages, the particular vision given to ]Moses is made possible to all, and all that hide theivin are privi- leged to behold, not the passing but the abiding 6o GLTMPSE? OF GOD. glory of God. The climax of God's promise to Moses,' the kernel of the response and the soul of the revelation, is that Moses would be privileged to see God's ''back parts." These words may be translated, " Thou shalt see Me as revealed in the latter days. ' ' What can this mean, save that God was about to reveal Himself to Moses, as He would be seen in Emmanuel redeeming- the world. No interpretation is more natural to the spirit of the whole narrative. God's love could be satisfied with nothing less ; the soul of Moses could desire nothing more. This we believe to be the revelation which God informed Moses He held in reserve for him — the highest manifestation possible to mortal eye of the spiritual God, as seen in Christ, the Re- deemer. Moses is about to see " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," to taste of the joy of salvation, and to look upon '' the glor}^ of God in the face of Jesus Christ." THE REALIZATION. " Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself there to Me in the top of the mount. And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount : neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount. And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." — Exodus 34: 2-7. Thus are glimpses of God realized and sueh are the realized g-limpses of God. Stich is the vision of the spiritual God, and such is the God of the spir- itual vision. In these words we are permitted to draw near the heart of Jehovah, to enter into the 62 GLIMPSES OK r,OD. Holy of Holies of His character, and to gaze upon His glory. All who would appreciate the revelation of God made to Moses, and make the vision their own, must ascend the mount made holy by the divine presence, with reverential awe, and seek to enter the sacred solitude and silence of Sinai, not in a sensuous, selfish or sentimental spirit, but in sanctity of soul and with a spirit sensitive to things spiritual. To behold the glory of God we must needs stand with Moses in the cleft of the rock, hav- ing fulfilled the conditions of spiritual sight, and with sanguine spirit await the realization of the promised vision. Our souls must burn within us with godly enthusiasm, and our hearts be so filled with spiritual yearning that we will hail the vision with holy love. These words emphasize the co-operation necessary between the human and the Divine, to make possible the realization of divine revelation. They enumerate the conditions imperative to spir- itual vision. They teach us three things concerning the realization of glimpses of God. First, the char- acter of the recipient ; second, the conditions of the reception ; third, the nature of the received glimpses. Thus, in the light of Heaven, they reveal to us: I. THE RECIPIENT. The spirit of Moses is representative of the spirit THE RE.\T.IZATir)N. 6;^ which is iinpcnitivc to spiritual siglit. lie was privileged to sec God only as it is possible for all men to see Him. God is ever the same, and His relation the same to all who diligently seek Him. While glimpses of God are possible to all, they are possible only under certain unchanging conditions. A certain spirit and attitude of soul are imperative to spiritual vision. The qualification of Moses to receive glimpses of (lod was amply tested by the conditions imposed upon him, and in the fulfillment of the divine requirements his soul was fully pre- pared to receive the revelation of God. He pos- sessed the spirit without which it is impossible to see God, and in the possession of which it is impos- sible not to see God. Thus, indirectly, the text emphasizes the conditions of spiritual sight. The first condition of spiritual sight is — {(i) Siiico'tty. No one will fail to note the sin- cerity of spirit which Moses manifested in every stage of his search for the spiritual (lod. Sincerity marks his every step and characterizes his every effort. Sincerity blossoms in every desire and ripens in every deed. Sincerity was the secret of his search and the secret of his success. It was because he was sincere that he sought, and secured, this supreme vision. His whole soul was in the search, for it was the search of his soul. This is sincerity. He lived 64 GLIMPSES OF GOD. only to see God, and saw God only to live like God. No one will succeed in seeing- God in any other way. The mind that is not honest, the spirit that is not upright, and the soul that is not sincere, can not possibly see the spiritual God. Unless we possess a pure heart and a pure life and are in truth what we appear to be, pure, real, true — in a word, sin- cere — we can not hope to secure glimpses of God. This is as wise as it is good. The insincere soul is incapable of appreciating spiritual things; it only trifles with truth. He that is insincere is unfaith- ful to the light he already possesses, the truth al- ready revealed, and thus is unqualified to appreciate the visions of God and glimpses of His glory. Divine revelation can only be made as the human is prepared to receive it. God can not malce Him- self known, save to the soul that with sincerity seeks a worthier conception of Him. Glimpses of God, like all gifts of grace, are denied only to those who are destitute of the power to utilize them. Sincer- ity is the first fruit of faith, and the first and final condition of fellowship. Sincerity is alone the soil which can nourish worthy aspiration after God. Spiritual aspiration is but the sincere search of the soul for a more perfect knowledge, a closer com- munion and a greater affinity of spirit with the Divine. The soul that would see the Supreme must THK KEALIZAIIUN. 6 c; seek to do so with a sin^^le eye. As the marksman closes one eye in order to concentrate the i;'aze of the otlier, tlie better to take aim, and the astronomer looks with single eye through the lenses of the tele- scope, so must he who would look far and well into the hidden things of God, to behold His eternal glory. The sincere soul alone will succeed in se- curing glimpses of Ciod. The second condition of spiritual sight is — {/}) Spirituality. This means sympathy of soul with God and things spiritual. There must be affin- ity between percciver and perceived in all worlds. Like alone can kncnv like. Spiritual things are spir- itually seen. " God is a spirit, and they that wor- ship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." " Blessed arc the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Without holiness no one can see Him wlio is Holy. Purity of heart or spirituality of mind is not only a condition but a qualification without which spiritual sight is impossible. The soul must exercise its spiritual function, before we can appre- ciate spiritual things or see the spiritual (lod. This is no arbitrary arrangement but the imperative law of divine love. The spiritual man alone can discern spiritual things. He who is not spiritually minded, though he be an intellectual genius, will utterly fail to understand spiritual things, because totally desti- (^€ GLIT^IPSES OF GOD. Uite of the necessary qualification to receiv^e them. Glimpses of God are given only to the Godlike. He who would succeed in making special discoveries in the spiritual world must ever conform to this essen- tial condition of spiritual sight. We would not un- derestimate mental endowments or overestimate, were that possible, spiritual faculties. Deep spir- itual natures alone can rise to a worthy conception of the " high and lofty One who inhabiteth Eter- nity." Nevertheless, the man whose mental nature is highly developed and mind well equipped, if spir- itual, will understand more of God, get into closer touch with the Divine, be of greater service to humanity than is possible to an unlettered man, though possessing an equally devout and spiritual soul. He will secure greater glimpses of God and reveal more of God to his fellows, than is possible to the man who is his inferior intellectually. On the other hand, he who can not write his name, but has been born of the spirit of God, and is in sym- pathy, through love, with the purposes of His holy heart, will learn more of the secrets of divine love^ receive and reproduce greater glimpses of God, than can the most learned philosopher destitute of spir- itual affinity. How natural is this divine arrange- ment, and how merciful and good it shows God to be ! Glimpses of God are possible to all, hence all THE REALTZATION. 67 may excel in Godliness. The illiterate may be illu- minated with the li^ht divine, and become the most illustrious sons of God. The same law is reiterated in the world of Nature. The man that is in sym- pathy with Nature alone will succeed in learninL^- her secrets. He that loves, alone can woo Nature until she loves and confesses in sweet confidence her affection. He must approach her clothed with the irresistible t^race and charm of love before she will unseal her lips to speak the secrets of her happy heart. Nature has but one imperative de- mand of all her children — love. The poet may be ii^-norant of science and yet be admitted without question into the holy of holies of Nature's heart. If he possesses the true poetic instinct, he will never fail to charm the world with his interpreta- tion of Nature. He will look on the beautiful lily and catch a q^limpse of the God who made it. As he gazes on the sun, he will see the vigil eye of ricxl. The true poet and the true painter, like the true Christian, will everywhere see God, and every- where assist men to behold His glory. The artist alone can appreciate and interpret art ; the poet alone can appreciate and interpret poetry, and the Godlike alone can see (xod. The spiritually minded will secure most, appreciate most, manifest most, glimpses of (jod. It is noteworthy that by far the 68 GLIMPSES OF GOD. greatest discoveries in all worlds have been made by men great in heart, rather than head power. God is love. In love has He done all things, and love only can understand and appreciate love. Love only can see love, and love sees love only. Who but a friend can a friend fathom ? None but the spiritual can see the spiritual God. The third condition of spiritual sight is — (c) Sci'vicc. The last and most imperative quali- fication to secure glimpses of God is that condition of soul, that activity of spirit and sacrificing love which we designate service. It includes sincerity, spirituality and self-surrender. The first stands for spiritual ambition, the second for spiritual affin- ity and the third for spiritual assimilation. These three conditions of spiritual sight represent the Christian graces. The first is hope, the second faith, and the third love, " and the greatest of these is love." Blended together, they constitute the essence of spiritual life, which is but another name for love in service and the service of love. This word stands for everything that is essential to secure glimpses of God. He who loves to serve God will learn of God how best to serve Him. Knowledge of God is the best preparation for serv- ice. The one Biblical word which includes every- thing essential to eternal life is Love, and love is THE REATJZATI(~)N. 69 but soul in service. The words, " If any man will do His will, he shall know the doctrine," teach us that obedience is an imperative condition of spir- itual sii^iit. Indeed, it is the most im])ortant of all conditions', for without obedience to the truth already revealed, man is not prepared to receive a revelation of a greater truth. He only successfully studies Nature who is in sympathy with her spirit and in loving obedience conforms to her ways. He that would secure glimpses of God must appreciate those already received by reproducing them in his life. This is obedience, for what is obedience but sympathetic and sacrificing service ? No one can serve God unless he loves Him. No one loves God unless he serves Him, and no one loves and serves without being constantly made more like unto (xod. Through service alone are we qualified for higher service. He that would know God must love Him, for God is love. Higher knowledge of God must be sought through increased sympathy expressed in more faithful, loving and efficient service. There is only one royal road to the holy of holies of (iod's heart, and that is the way the Saviour went, — obedi- ence, expressed in self-sacrificing service. He that would know (lod must learn to look with the eye of God, think with the mind of G(xl, act with the will of God, judge with the conscience of God, and love 70 (ILTMPSES OF GOD. with the heart of God. In a word he must co- work with God. The best way to know God is to serve Him. Had not Moses been faithful in the fnlfillment of the task allotted to him, had he not shown the spirit of self-sacrifice and made serv- ing God the great sacred aim of his life, he would never have been qualified to receive this vision of God. Moreover, had he sought it from any other motive or for any other purpose save to qualify him for more efficient service, it would never have been granted unto him. God reveals Himself that man might the better serve humanity and Heaven. God never honors selfishness with spiritual sight. vSelfishness, like sensuality, blinds the spiritual eye and closes the heart of God like a sealed book. He that would know God must seek to know Him not from any idle curiosity or simply for personal satisfaction, but because the knowledge is imperative to enable him as a man to do his duty. He that would secure glimpses of God must seek them not only from the right motive, but in the right manner. The spirit must be humble, lowly, teach- able. Without humility no one can approach Him who is Holy. God can not reveal Himself to the man who has no eye to see or heart to feel anything but self. He that is filled with thoughts concerning himself has no room for God in his soul. Haughti- THE REATJ;^ATION. J I ness and holiness can not hope to dwell together in harmony. The Saviour emphasized the importance of possessing- the childlike spirit, the teachable dis- position, if we would become (rodlike. Moses pos- sessed pre-eminently these essential qualifications for spiritual vision. His sincerity, spirituality and service made him honored of men and beloved of God. This is the reason why he was rewarded witli this special vision and glorified with this glimpse of God. This is the explanation why God spake to Moses " as a man speaketh with his friend." He was humble of heart, appreciative of spirit and faith- ful in service. His heart was united with the heart of God in the bonds of love, and his spirit, ever strong in sympathy with the Supreme, was strengthened through service. All who would secure the glimp- ses of God with which the life of Closes was enriched and ennobled must seek them with similar spirit, along the straight road of sincerity, the upward path of spirituality, and rough road of self-sacrihc- ing service. II. THE RECEPTION. The words of tlic text inform us not only of tlie spirit necessary to receive glimpses of God, but of the manner in which gbmpses are received. Tliey give in detail the conditions of time and place in 7^ GLIMPSES OP GOD. which Moses received this vision. It is of great importance not only to know who may receive glimpses of God, but how, when, and where, it is pos- sible to receive them. Manifold are the environ- ments and many the seasons in which men have been permitted to see the glory of God. It is sug- gestive that the three greatest visions granted to Moses were given on the mount — one before he com- menced his life work, to call and consecrate him for service; the second in the midst of life's duties, to encourage and to strengthen him in the fulfill- ment thereof; the last at the close 'of his mem- orable and majestic career, a reward and crown for faithfulness and a preparation for Heaven. There are but few places in which we would more natu- rally expect visions than on a mount, — Nature's near- est physical proximity to Heaven. The mount is the sanctuary of seclusion and solitude, the throne of Nature, before which the earth doth homage. All the world looks up to it with adoring eyes, and every star in Heaven seems to center its gaze upon it. Its foundation is the rock, and its canopy the star-studded sky. The mount represents every- thing that is majestic, lofty and transcendent in Nature. It lives above the clouds and the petty dis- sensions and strifes of meaner elements, drinking in the light that floods the sky, and lifts up its head THE REALIZATION. 73 as if its royal ambition was to touch Heaven. It is the home of freedom, untranimeled by the conven- tionalities of life's commonplace conditions. From its summit the widest outlook of earth and Heaven is possible, and there the soul can in sacred solitude and silence scan sublime space, and soar past stars and suns to the sanctuary of spirit where the spir- itual God is seen and served. We are not surprised that Jesus was so wont to retire to the mount to pray. What place so conducive to contemplative thought and communion. He that is not filled with a reverential spirit on a mount, would not worshi]^ in Heaven. Moses was transfigured on a mount ; Elijah learned his greatest lesson of God on a mount; Jesus was transfigured on a mount. He who is anxious to secure a glimpse of God will do well to seek it on a mount — alone with God. That God chose the mount as the place in which to reveal Himself to Moses is significant and suggestive. He has a reason for all the selections He makes, whether of spirit, seasons or scenes, and the greatest reason is superior adaptability. He specifies to Closes tlie time, the place, and all the necessary preparation ; he is to l)e ready in the morning and to present him- self on Mount Sinai. No man is to go with him, neither is any man to be seen throughout all the mount, nor the flocks nor herds to feed before it. 74 OLTMPSES OF (ion. Moses had to ascend toward Heaven to meet God, and God descended toward earth to meet Moses. The glory of man is that he can go up ; the glory of God is that He can come down. Had Moses failed to observe an}^ of the conditions given, he would never have realized the desired vision of God. But he was too miich in earnest and too anxious to re- ceive the promised revelation, to omit the fulfilment of any condition, to question or to fail to obey the divine decree in every detail. He manifested his faith in the act of hewing the two stones and taking them with him to the mount. God might easily have furnished them by the simple act of His sovereign will, but here was an opportunity to test and develop the faith of Moses, while also giving him the privi- lege of co-operating with God. He had to arise early and climb to the top of Mount Sinai; this meant individual effort and personal sacrifice, and thus proved his preparation to receive the promised vision. Moses rose up early, and bearing with him the stones, ascended with grateful heart and expect- ant spirit to the top of the mount and presented himself before the Lord, having faithfully observed all the conditions laid down for him. Therefore, God rewarded him with special glimpses of His glory. The spirit underlying these conditions is imperative to spiritual vision, though the form may THE RKAl.lZA riON. 75 and does often vary. We must ever have faith in God and prepare ourselves to receive impressions from the Divine. Wc must ascend heavenward, leavinj4' behind the din and noise of the world, and above clouds in the undimmed sunlight, with sweet confidence and strong faith, hold hallowed commun- ion with God. He that is not prepared to sacrifice pleasure, time and case, and to make all things sub- servient to the realization of glimpses of God, will never see the glory of God pass before him. Man's greatest glimpses of God have been secured in soli- tude. Special visions are given only to those in special need of them ; special need moves the soul to its depths, and when so moved the soul instinct- ively seeks solitude. Strong souls seek solitude. This is not strange ; it is their native home. Sub- lime spirits arc born in solitude. He that is anx- ious to secure a worthier conception of the Eternal will seek to be alone in order to commune with God. The soul that would know God must learn to know itself, and the soul that would know itself retro- spectively, introspectively, and prospectively, must seek solitude. As there are sorrows too sacred for speech, so there are spiritual experiences when man instinctively seeks solitude and becomes in- tolerant of every presence save the Divine. Under no other conditions are glimpses possible. When 76 CzLIMPSES OF CxOD. the soul is enraptured with things divine, and filled with holy enthusiasm born of the consciousness of contact with God, and so absorbed in hallowed com- munion with Him that it becomes unconscious of its physical surroundings and lives only to know and love the Father in Heaven, then and then only does it behold the glory of God. This is possible in all environments, whether on the mount or in the valley, in the sunlight of pleasure or the shadow of pain. God is not limited to time nor place, and al- though the mount has been made sacred as the place where God has so often revealed Himself, yet we rejoice to know that in other scenes and less favored spheres the voice of God has been heard and His glory revealed. Ezekiel had visions of God among the captives by the river Chebar. The heavens were opened to John in the solitude of Patmos. Hence, glimpses of God are possible in very un- promising environments. Even when suffering- humiliation in the land of captivity and surrounded by an idolatrous nation, men have received visions of God. We are not surprised when they are given on the mount, or in the promised land, in the enjoy- ment of freedom, surrounded by religious influences and privileges, where the very air seems heavy laden with God's precious promises. It is quite natural to expect them by the river Jordan, the THK RKAl.IZA IU)N. 77 scene of so many of Crod's mighty works, or in the temple where His glory appeared on the mercy seat. But in Patmos and by the river Chebarl This startles and surprises the soul, and is a mys- tery ever. Nevertheless, it is a truth that circum- stances nor country, nor crimes of comrades, need hinder the soul that seeks, from securing glimpses of God. It is of supreme importance that we re- member the circumstances under which this special vision of God was vouchsafed to Moses. It was when his soul was bowed down in sorrow, when he was assailed by spiritual despondency and driven by the idolatry of the people to the verge of despair. Spiritual sorrow is ever rewarded with increased spiritual strength. vSpecial visions of God are given to secure special victories over spiritual difficulties. It is strangely true that glimpses of God are more frequently secured in sorrow, sadness and suffering, than in any other seasons. When the night is dark and dreary, when spiritual despondency and despair harass the soul, when failure follows our footsteps and our fond hopes droop and die in a single night, when sickness assails the body and dark doubt be- clouds the mind, and evil days come upon us; when there is no solitary star of hope in our spiritual sky, every light in Heaven having burned out like a candle in the socket, — amidst such experiences as 78 rxLniPSES of god. these do men rise to holier coneeptions of God. This is a strano^e fact, but though strange, true, and written not only on the leaves of history but in- delibly inscribed on the scroll of many a soul. Great sorrows drive great souls closer to God. Job strug- gled until he saw God when Satan sought to destroy his soul, and everything seemed to suggest that he was God-deserted. The three young men in Babylon had glimpses of God in the light of the fiery fur- nace. Stephen saw the heavens open and had a transfiguring vision of God while suffering martyr- dom, Paul had visions when persecuted and in prison. Martyrs had glimpses of God's glory in the light of the fagot flame, when borne in a chariot of fire to Heaven. Think not then, my brother, that it is necessary to live in peace and prosperity or to reach high altitudes of favor, fortune or fame to secure glimpses of God. Nay, they may be secured when the soul is bowed down by sorrow, held in the iron grip of grief, and when everything in the out- ward environments defies the eye to see the God of love. Seek not to be delivered from the night ex- periences of sorrow, or from the path of self-denial and sacrifice in order to secure visions of God, but know rather that when in the way of duty, though suffering humiliation in the land of captivity or sur- rounded by sin near Sinai, outside the pale of the THE REALIZATION. 79 promised land, then art thou most assured of a g-limpse of God. May we ever remember that the suffering's of the soul, like the sorrows of a child, speed its flight to the Father's embrace. Sorrow and suffering, when sanctified by sweet submission of spirit, issue into seasons of spiritual serenity and satisfaction, the soul of which is that the spiritual God is seen. III. THE RECEIVED GLIMPSES. The soul of all study is the study of God as seen by the soul. The soul that will secure the greatest glimpses of God is the soul that knows best how to value glimpses already received, whether by itself or by others. The secret of superior glimpses is soul-appreciation of glimpses already secured. Nothing, therefore, is of more vital interest and im- portance to all who would know God than to acquaint themselves with what men have learned concerning Him. Our interest in the glimpses of God realized by others is commensurate with our individual yearning for a worthier conception of God. The value of every life is determined by the light it throws on the char- acter of God. Men are immortal to the extent that they have been illuminated and irradiated with the light of divine love. Their influence is imperishable and their glory luminous, as their souls illuminate So GLIMPSES OF GOt>. the pathway to the heart of God. The secret of the spirituality and strength of any soul is its power to make stepping-stones of the spiritual experiences of others, to rise to a higher conception of God. Hence our interest in the vision of God vouchsafed to Moses. The value of the vision is the glory it un- veils. Our interest in every vision is proportionate to the insight it gives into the character of God. As every truth holds a manward and a Godward rela- tion, so every vision of God possesses a human and a divine element. Glimpses of God, like all the gifts of grace, bring earth and Heaven together, and blend the human with the Divine. We have already considered the human element; now we approach the divine. As ever, the divine lends value to the human, and the received glimpse of God is the soul of our interest in the recipient and the reception. What is of vital importance is that we see God as He was seen of Moses, when His glory passed before him. The glory of God is the harmony of holiness, as music is the harmony of sounds, beauty the har- mony of color, and love the harmony of hearts. As it passed before Moses it was beauty to his eye, music to his ear, and love to his heart. God's glory is His goodness; His goodness was manifested to Moses, for it passed before him ; but the goodness of God being a moral quality is of necessity invisible to THE REALIZATION. 8l mortal eye, save as expressed in works or embodied in a person at onee both human and divine. To embody infinite goodness, that person must needs be divine; to reveal it to man. He must needs be hu- man. How, then, could Moses see " the f;'oodness of God," apart from His works, save in Jesus Christ? He could not look upon the face of God to see His glory; he could not see His glory without looking on the face of Jesus Christ. If divine love declared it impossible to look on the face of God to behold His glory, divine love made it possible to see God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ. We can not but believe that the vision vouchsafed to ]^Ioses was a manifestation of the Incarnate vSon of Ciod and a prophetic view of His salvation. What more natural than that the legislator through whom the law was being given should catch a glimpse of the ^lessiah, through whom grace and truth would come? This alone could have satisfied the desire of Moses. What he reailly wanted in his heart of hearts, whether he knew it or not, was to see Jesus, who alone is the supreme revelation of Cxod's glory. Does not God promise this when He says, '' Thou shalt see My back parts?" What can these words mean if not this: Thou shalt sec Mc as I will mani- fest Myself in mercy to man in the latter days?^ It is certain that the phrase will bear this translation. 82 GLIMPSES OF GOD. and hardly less certain is it that the spirit will bear this interpretation. God could not be seen " as in the latter days " save in Emmanuel, in whom dwelt bodily the glory of God. The possibility of such a revelation is unquestionable. Moses saw "Christ's day, and was glad. ' ' Why not believe that it was from Sinai he saw it? Granted the necessity of this revelation to qualify Moses for the special work en- trusted to him of God, in preparing a peculiar people to receive the Messiah, and everything else is granted. If the Incarnation of Christ is a fact, it is to God an eternal fact, and to Him the manifesta- tion of Jesus to Moses presented no more difficulty than His manifestation to Saul after His ascension. We can not interpret the request of Moses and the response of God without feeling that neither could be fully realized, save in the manifestation of the Re- deemer. If we say that what Moses wanted when he asked to see the glory of God was to understand how holiness and love could dwell together in harmony, his desire could not be fulfilled save in a vision of Jesus Christ. In Him alone is found the explana- tion, for in Him holiness and love dwell in sweet accord, and mercy and truth are seen in close em- brace. If what Moses wanted was a manifestation of God's purposes and future dealing with Israel, surely no revelation could be satisfactory or com.-- TTTE RFAT.TZATIOX. 83 pictc which left out the soul of all I Us dealinos — Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the «^lory of all God's dealings with man, for what is the glory of God save holiness triumphant in forgiving love, right- eousness and mercy kissing each other ? This is visible only in the Saviour. Jesus is the realization and the consummation of righteous and redeeming love. A glimpse of Emmanuel was all that Moses could desire, but nothing less could have satisfied his heart or qualified him for his service. More- over, the names or attributes emphasized in the vision made to Moses are without meaning only as they find expression and interpretation in Christ. " ^lerciful and gracious, longsuffering and abun- dant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. " This revelation is unintel- ligible, save in Christ Jesus. '' Mercy" means a heart for misery. It points to the passibility of God, and teaches how He is capable of sympathiz- ing with the sinner in his suffering. This is the initial step in man's salvation. He is " gracious " — His heart goeth out in saving love toward the sin- ner. " LongsutTering " — patient witli the impeni- tent; " abundant in goodness and truth " — though infinite, yet too full of love to contain it. " Keeping mercy for thousands" — making a safe investment of mercy until the S(jul is driven by poverty to 84 GLIMPSES OF GOD. claim it. " Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin ' ' — the sacrifice of the Sinless for the sinful. How is this revelation possible only in Christ? It is in Him that the heart of God is seen going forth in sacrificing sympathy to the sinner. In Him is seen the patient longsuffering of God. In Him the overflowing love of God is manifested. In Him alone is forgiveness possible and mercy reserved for men. Surely this revelation was a glimpse of Gos- pel salvation, and a glimpse of salvation means a glimpse of the Saviour of the world. The greatest manifestation of the glory of God to the world is Jesus Christ, and well might this have satisfied the soul of Moses and brought him to his knees. Well might he have been transfigured by the vision, and his whole being become irradiated with its divine glory. Nothing could have so prepared him to ele- vate, educate and emancipate Israel as to see Im- manuel, God's ideal man and man's ideal God. The soul can find supreme satisfaction only in the Saviour. What all souls long for, consciously or imconsciously, is to see the God of love, and to re- alize that in truth He is the Father in Heaven. This is the highest conception of God possible to the soul, as it is the heart's deepest yearning. The Fa- ther is seen only in the Son, and he that hath seen the Son only has seen the Father. He that hath THE REALIZATION. 85 seen the Son has learned that " God is love." He understands how God can love and is moved to love like God, for His <^oodness has passed before him, Moses was moved by love when he requested God to show him His glory. God was moved by love when He responded to the request, and in a unique manner. He in love passed before him until Moses was moved by love. When Moses saw Jesus he became nobler, wiser and holier. He returned from the mount of vision prepared for his life's work, more in sympathy with his people, a better leader, a wiser ruler, for he had seen the ideal Ruler and Redeemer — the Prince of Peace. THE RESULT. " And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the ,earth and worshipped. And he said, If now I have found grace in Thy sight, oh Lord, let my Lord I pray Thee, go among us ; for it is a stiff-necked people ; and pardon our iniq- uity and our sm. And take us for Thine inheritance. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words. For after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He did neither eat bread nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. And it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai." — E.\«.i)i:s 34: S. 9, 27-32. The result of <,dimpses of (iod is tninsfig-unition. 88 GLIMPSES OF GOD. Transfiguration is the irradiation of the human by divine love, as the result of the illumination of the human by divine lig-ht. To see God is to become Godlike. To know*God is to love Him, and to love Him is to become like Him. The spirituality of any soul depends upon its insight into the spiritual nature of God. The strength of any soul in service is determined by the strength of its spiritual sight. The spiritual life deepens as the spiritual outlook widens. The higher the soul rises in its conception of God, the deeper becomes its sensibility to things spiritual. Vision ends in adoration ; adoration ends in assimilation; assimilation ends in reproduction. This is Godliness. Godliness is Godlikeness, and Godlikeness is the result of adoringly gazing on God's glory. The soul that secures the greatest vision of God becomes most like the God of the vision. The vision mirrors the transfigured soul; the transfigured soul mirrors the God of the vision. In the vision, love unveils divine life ; in the transfig- uration, life unveils divine love. The vision is life in the language of love ; the transfiguration is love in the language of life. He who beholds the glory of God is transformed to His very image. Glimpses of God illuminate and irradiate man's whole being, until he becomes Godlike. All glimpses of God have a transforming influence, but the greater the THE RESULT. 89 vision the ^'rcater its transfii^Tirino- power. Our vision of (iod determines our eoneeption of Ilini, and our eoneeption of God determines our charaeter before God. Our charaeter always conforms to our eoneeption of God and it ean never rise higher. Conception of God is character in promise ; charac- ter is conception of Cjod in crystallization. jSIan worships the God of his conception, and becomes like the God he worships. He reverences God as his conception rises ; and he reproduces God in proportion as he reverences. Glimpses of God gen- erate reverence in the soul. The soul retains what it reverences, ruminates on what it retains, and re- produces that on which it ruminates. Aloses re- ceived a glimpse of (xod which increased his rever- ence, and as a pearl of great price it was treasured in his heart and retained in his memory. Rever- ently he reflected and ruminated on the vision he had received, until its glory became an integral part of his being and was reproduced in his life. This is the secret of his transfiguration. It is ever thus. The soul that receives a vision of God will reverence the God of the vision, retain and ruminate on the vision, and will invariably reproduce and reflect its glory. These are the stages in man's transfigura- tion, and the results of glimpses of God — reverence, retention, rumination and reproduction. 90 GLIMPSES OF GOD. revp:rence. " And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped." Thus humility hastens to do homage to holiness. Humility loves holiness and holiness loves humility. One attracts the other, and where both meet, there is Heaven. Humility honors holiness in doing- it homage ; holiness honors humility in receiving its homage. Holiness produces humility, and humility promotes holiness. Humility is the condition of holiness in man, and holiness the crown of humili- ty. He who gazes on the glory of God instinctivelv bows his head and worships. He does not droop as doth the fading flower, but bends rather like the full and ripened ear of corn under its very weight of glory, having profited by the light and warmth of Heaven until made ready for sacrifice and service. It is on his knees alone man can enter into the hoi}- of holies of the temple of truth, and invariably he wdio has so entered and seen the glory of God on the mercyseat will return with increased humility of heart, lowliness of spirit and contrition of soul. Glimpses of God's glory can not fail to impress the soul privileged to receive them with a sense of its own utter unworthiness. The lonofer we oraze Upon the sun of righteousness, live in its light and rHK UKSIT[/|-. gt treasure its beams, the more oppressive will be- eomc the eonseioiisness of our own moral darkness. The further we arc permitted to wander into the temple of holiness, the deeper will become our hatred of all that is unholy. The nearer we are permitted to draw to the heart of Ood, and the more we learn to appreciate the depth of divine love, the more will we realize the shallowness of our own lives and the selfishness of our own love. This will bring us to our knees, not only to adore, but in in- tense earnestness of spirit to seek to be transformed to God's glorious image. This is reverence. Sin becomes hideous in the light of holiness ; selfishness dies in the presence of divine love. We learn to love as we learn how God loves. He who has seen the glor}^ of God — Jesus Christ — has learned to look with the eye of God on self, on sin, and on society. He hates iniquity with the hatred of God's holy heart, and is filled with contrition when the light of holiness reveals the stains of sin on his soul. Moses learned his lesson of forgiving love wlien permitted with prophetic eye to gaze on (yod's incarnate love in Jesus Christ. It is ever thus. No miracle, how- ever mighty, or manifestation, however majestic, will so move the soul to realize its best in life and love, as the matchless miracle of mercy — Jesus Christ. To see Jesus, the glory of God, is to be- 92 GLIMPSES OF GOD. come like Him, full of God's glory. No surer sign of having secured glimpses of God is possible than the possession of the Christlike spirit, and no surer sign is possible that we possess the spirit of the Son of God than that, like Him, we constantly seek com- munion with the Father. This spirit Moses pos- sessed; he " bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped." Holiness invariably fills the soul with humility, and humility uplifts the soul to hold hallowed communion with the High and Holy One. The soul finds its supreme satisfaction in seasons of spiritual vision, in the worship of the spiritual God. This is the object, not only of every vision of God vouchsafed to man, but of everything that divine love has undertaken in man's behalf. To enable the human life to blend with the divine in the har- mony of holiness, is the high aim of holy love. Communion between God and man is the realiza- tion of the highest purposes of the Divine and the satisfaction of the deepest yearning of the human. Heaven itself can contain no choicer crown for the Christian than to be privileged to gaze upon the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and through constant communion to be changed and conformed to His very image. Only the soul that has seen the glory of God knows how to appreciate the privilege of drawing near to God in prayer. Nothing so in- THE RESUT.T. 93 Spires man with the enthusiasm of holiness for eom- munion with the Father in Heaven as to behold the Lord's Christ. The soul that has not seen the glory of God is not capable of the highest communion, and he who knows not what it is to pray is a stranger to the most Christlike passion and Godlike peace. The secret of salvation is absolute conformity, through communion, with Jesus Christ. Salvation apart from conformity, or conformity apart from communion, is impossible. To see Christ is to see the Father, and to see the Father only can satisfy the soul. A passion for prayer is a preparation for, and a promise of, visions of God. Without prayer no glimpse of God is possible; with prayer every vision of God is possible. As Moses understood the spiritual nature of God, his faith and his love in- creased. His confidence deepened as his conception widened, and the better he understood the character of God, the readier was he to trust his own life and the life of his people to His care. Is not this the meaning of the words which fell from his lips, " Let my Lord, I pray Thee, come among us and pardon our iniquity and sin, and take us for Thine inherit- ance?" He had already told the Lord that he loved these people far better than his life, and now lie can desire nothing l)ctter for himself or tliem tlian to be made the subjects of the grand and glorious 94 GLIMPSES OF GOD. salvation which he had been permitted to see. Moses could pay no greater compliment than this to divine love. The only way to appreciate the Sav- iour is to accept His salvation. To realize and rec- ognize that through God alone is redemption pos- sible, and to receive the Redeemer with true glad- ness of heart, is all that God requires and all that man can do. When we realize that God is love, and learn how God can love, we have seen His glory. When the mother who would gladly sacrifice her own life to preserve her child has so learned to ap- preciate the love of God that she can look up into His face and say, " Into Thy hands, O Father of love, I commit my child, knowing well that Thy love will last where mine may grow cold, ' ' the good- ness of God has surely passed before her. II. RETENTION. " And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words." The command to write, although expressly given in connection with the divine precepts delivered to Moses, is pertinent to the vision, for it emphasizes a duty which all who have received glimpses of God have ever been glad to obey. Moses realized that the principle underlying the command was to be honored in connection with the vision. Therefore he wrote not only all the words that God to him had THE RESULT. 95 spoken, but everything that words could tell of the glory he had seen. Every soul that has received a vision of God instinctively seeks to retain its influ- ence and reproduce its glory. Indeed, no result more naturally follows the reception of glimpses of God than the desire to retain and to reproduce. Without an appreciative spirit, glimpses of God would be impossible ; possessing this spirit, retention is imperative. He that has seen the divine glory, heard the divine voice and felt the divine power, will treasure these privileges more than life and love them as the soul's richest heritage. Glimpses of God are never forgotten; their influence will last as long as life. Memory gladly retains what the soul reverences. The glory of memory is that it ever retains glimpses of God's glory. To perpetu- ate impressions and influences produced by visions of God is memory's most, sacred service to the soul. As the priests in the tabernacle of old kept the lamps ever burning, and the people ever reminded of the abiding presence of God's glory on the mercy- seat, so memory, like a priest in the temple of the soul, keeps the soul ever illuminated with the light received from the vision of God's glory, (ylimpses of God are the most honored paintings whicli hang on memory's walls. What man has seen of (iod is indelibly written in letters of love on his soul. He 96 GLIMPSES OF GOD. who has heard the divine voice reverently retains the message it breathes. Every revelation of God given to man in time has an eternal significance, and though of pre-eminent individual importance is, nevertheless, of universal interest. It is therefore imperative that we retain, so that we may reproduce the vision of God vouchsafed to us. God's inter- pretation of the mystery of divine love will ever remain the soul's most sacred trust. Glimpses of God leave a lasting impression upon the soul. The greater the vision, the greater its influence. Moses was able to tell the children of Israel " all that the Lord had spoken to him on the mount." Ezekiel remembered the exact day on which he received his vision of God; John remembered the hour when first he beheld the glory of the ^lessiah; Paul remembered the place and hour when he saw the Saviour. Every saint has seasons and scenes made ever sacred in his spiritual experi- ence, because of special visions received. We are made strong and Godlike, in proportion as our life is marked and moulded by these seasons of spiritual vision. It will ever be thus. AVe can not but re- member the first ray of light which illuminated our soul, and brought hope and life to our sad and sor- rowing spirits in the dark night of guilt. Who can forget the first glimpse of God's saving grace in THE RESUT/r. 97 Christ Jesiis? It is easier to forget everything- than this vision of love, and while the soul lives its mem- ory will last. It is a fixed star of hope in our spir- itual sky. While there are many who have been surrounded by religious influences all their lives, who are unable to analyze the forces that have con- tributed to their spiritual development, or point to any special season in their histories when they first saw God, yet it is imperative that all should know that glimpses of God have been received. There should be a time in the life of every believer, to which he can point as being a season in which his soul has seen the spiritual God, when in a state of spiritual ecstasy he breathed love in the very atmos- phere of Heaven and was irradiated with the beams of God's holiness. No soul should be content with- out securing these seasons of spiritual serenity and sanctification. No soul will fail to find who will but seek. None privileged to receive will fail to retain. 111. RUMIXA'JIOX. " And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water." Everything points to the fact that Moses rumi- ULitcd long and well on the glimpses of (uxl he liad received. He thought again and ai^ain, mused and nieditated, pondered and rellccted on the vision 98 GLIMPSES OF GOD. vouchsafed to him, nntil his soul became surcharged with God's glory. He gladly availed himself of the seclusion and solitude of Sinai to meditate on the glory that had been revealed to him. For forty days and forty nights he was in the mount, without time, opportunity, or probably inclination, to eat or drink. It is unnatural to suppose that all this time was occupied in receiving his glimpses of God or in writing the divinely-given precepts, while nothing- is more natural than that he should ruminate on what had been revealed. He had been uplifted to a state of spiritual ecstasy by the vision vouchsafed to him until he was unconscious or unmindful of aught save the glory of God. When men secure great glimpses of God they become so lost in contempla- tion of the perfections of His being that they are unmindful of the claims of their physical nature, and live only to ruminate on the vision they have received. That Moses, who represented the law; Elijah, who represented the prophets, and Christ, the fulfill- ment of both, should each have spent forty days and forty nights in devout meditation after receiving a special revelation, surely teaches the spiritual value of rumination. Spiritual vision makes spiritual reflec- tion imperative. Rumination is the process by which the soul assimilates glimpses of God. The spirituality Qf the soul is developed, not by what it has seen of THE RESULT. 99 God, but by what it has assimilated of God. Rever- ential rumination is a eondition of spiritual strength and Godliness. We become Godlike, in proportion as we ruminate on the g-limpses of God we have re- ceived. Meditation is the law of development in the moral as well as in the mental world. Assimila- tion determines the orrowth of the mind and soul. As book-learning is so much raw material, which has to be coined in the mental mint into the cur- rency of the realm of thought, before it can con- tribute to the growth or glory of the mind, so spir- itual knowledge has to be assimilated by the soul, through devout meditation, before it can contribute U) its spiritual life, (jlimpses of God are valuable only when the soul has so ruminated upon them that through the process of assimilation they have be- come a constituent part of its very being. The great need of the world, intellectually and spiritual- ly, is not more knowledge, but more thought. What it requires is not more revelation but more reveren- tial reflection. Though glimpses of (rod are e\'cr the soul's most precious lieritagc, yet until they be- come, thnnigh meditation, an integral |)art of our spiritual nature, they are like unutilized forces, in- valuable Init wasted energies, (lod gives a revela- tion of Himself only to the soul that is meditative, for no other is prepared to receive or to profit by lOO GLIMPSES OF GOD. the revelation. Hence, it is invariably the rule that the greatest glimpses of God are given to the great- est sonls, for the greatest souls are greatest in re- flective and assimilative faculties. This is at once both the condition and the crown of greatness. Had Moses not ruminated upon the vision of God, and thus assimilated its glory, his transfiguration would have been impossible. God's spiritual nature is made known to the meditative soul onh^ and that in proportion as its meditation is spiritual. Recep- tivity is the secret of revelation. Revelation is the secret of reverential reflection, and rumination the secret of reproduction. IV. REPRODUCTION. " And when he came down from the mount, Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone. . . . And he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken to him in Mount Sinai." |:, Thus did Moses consciously and unconsciously re- produce the glimpses of God he had secured on Mount Sinai. Consciously, he uttered the words God to him had spoken ; unconsciously, he reflected the civine glory he had seen. Thus do all men who have seen God reveal Him. Every man who hears the divine voice becomes aproplict, — a person- ified voice, the echo of the voice of God. What is IHK RESUI/r. lOI heard is heard for others, as well as for ourselves. Every revelation given, while important for our- selves, is none the less valuable to others. God reveals Himself not simply that the individual might be saved, but that through the individual He might redeem the race. Glimpses of God are not given to satisfy mere sentiment or to feed selfishness, but rather to prepare the recipient the better to serve God and his generation. The law of grace is that we love to give what love to us has given. We re- ceive in order to give. The more generous we are in giving, the more generously shall we receive. We shall be rewarded with new revelation, according to our fidelity in reproducing revelations already re- ceived. Man's moral mission in the world is to mir- ror his ^laker. ^lan mirrors God in proportion as he has been privileged to see His glory. Thus, when man sees God, God is seen in the man. When man has been illuminated with the beams of God's holiness, filled w4th the energy of divine light and irradiated by ineffable love, he becomes a personi- fied conscience — a determinati\'e element in men's character, and in their conception of God. The im- pulse to seek and the instinct to find God we call inspiration. The glimpses of God received, and visions reproduced, we call revelation. All men are not equally inspired, therefore all men do not T02 GLIMPSES OF GOD. equally reveal (lod. There is no injustiee in this, for as men are unequal in intelleetual endowment, so are they in spiritual faeulties, with this differ- ence, however, that intellectual genius is a gift, while spiritual genius is a gTowth. That is, a man may be an intellectual genius and yet leave his mind uncultivated, for the love of knowledge is not always proportionate to the ability to know. But in the spiritual realm, the faculty to know is com- mensurate with the desire to know, superior knowl- edge being the reward of superior love. Thus, the desire for spiritual knowledge is the condition of spiritual sight. Inspiration is the power to receive knowledge of God; revelation, the reproduction of knowledge received. Inspiration is the faculty to appreciate vision; revelation is that faculty, exer- cising its function in reproduction. Inspiration comes from God; revelation comes through man. Inspiration is the cause; revelation is the effect. Inspiration is imperative to revelation; revelation is imperative to inspiration. The God of love could not but men inspire ; inspired men could not but God reveal. The inspiration determines the revelation ; the revelation is proportionate to the inspiration. God will be seen in the man in proportion as the man has seen God. The sun can not withhold its light nor the flower its fragrance, neither can the THE RF.SUI/r. 10^^ inspired soul witlihold its revelation. Man instinet- ively realizes that lie has no rii^iit to reserve to him- self knowledo-c vital to the welfare of others. Man receives light from Heaven that he might refleet it on the world. The soul that has seen God can not but help others to see Him. The most absorbing passion of the inspired soul is so to reveal (xod that men may be inspired with a passion to become God- like. That the revelation should be written is as natural as that the inspired soul should speak. The revelation being of pre-eminent importance to all people, its preservation in a permanent form acces- sible to all is imperative. The Bible is a reproduc- tion of glimpses of God given to God-inspired men. It is a rich galaxy of glorious glimpses of God. It contains what the best of men at their best have seen of God, and as God's special relation to any soul is an indication of the natural relation He bears to all, what He speaks to one He speaks to all. This constitutes the authority of the Bible in mat- ters of conduct, and its charm as a guide into the mystery of divine love. As God is ever the same, the revelation is unchangeable, though man's con- ception of both will vary according to his inspira- tion. God is ever giving to man greater discern- ment of revealed truth, and men in every age dis- cover new and larger meanings in the revelation l04 GLIMPSES OF GOD. made through inspired men. Men are privileged to-day to behold in the revelation, glories which were hidden from the inspired men through whom it was given. Thus, though the revelation is infal- lible, because divinely given, it neither exhausts nor excludes inspiration. God deals with soul as soul, and though He speaks to all as He speaks to each individual soul. He speaks to each as He speaks to all. What other men have seen of the divine glory and reproduced in their lives is valu- able only as it stimulates the individual soul to seek the spiritual God. The Bible is not the consumma- tion of divine knowledge, but rather one of God's primers, the study of which qualifies the soul for a higher revelation. When its teaching has become incorporated into the life of our soul, it becomes of practical value, and that in proportion as it prepares and adapts us to know more of God. He who rests with simply contemplating the revelation made through others, without rising to seek individual and immediate knowledge of God, is false to the genius of revelation and untrue to the profoundest impulse of his soul. To believe that knowledge of God travels only along the beaten lines of Biblical truth, is to limit the inspiration of the Almighty. The consummation and crown of all revelation is Jesus Christ. For eternity He will continue to be the THE RESULT. I05 supreme manifestation of Cxod, yet the soul will see the Father in the Son, not according- to what others have seen or written, but as it is inspired by love immediately to interpret His life. We must see Christ before we can be transformed to His image, and at best the Bible is only a mirror which reflects His grlory. In Heaven, as on earth, some new rev- elation will gladden the heart, and glimpses of God ever greet the gaze of the redeemed. Progressive revelation and increased knowledge are imperative to the happiness of the soul. Individual development in Godliness must ever depend on individual discov- ery. Increased knowledge is the secret of increased love, increased love the secret of increased service, and increased service the secret of increased glory and happiness. Conformity to Christ is possible only through individual communion with Him. The value of every life is the inspiration it gives men to seek individual communion with God. Thus, the measure of a man's influence on his generation is determined, not directly by the glimpses of God he has secured, but indirectly by the glory of God he reproduces in his life. The glory of any man is not that he has seen God, but that (xod is so seen in him that men through him are moved to love God. The power to reveal God and to reproduce His glory is the great essential qualification to serve Io6 GLIMPSES OF GOD. humanity and Heaven. Without this revealing- love, knowledo-c and faith are as " sounding- brass or a clanging cymbal." The greatest need of the world is more men who have seen God, and in whom God is seen, — men made so beautiful in holiness that they inspire men to become holy. The soul's highest attainment is to become so transparent that God is seen through it. This is possible only through liv- ing in the light of holy love. Moses looked with adoring eyes upon the glory of God, until he was unconsciously transformed to its very image. This is the secret of transfiguration — to draw so near the heart of God that our whole being, mental, moral and material, is irradiated with His light. In the light of love the face of Moses became luminous. He " wist not that his face shone." Unconsciously he was clothed with the glory of God, and uncon- sciously he reflected the light of ineffable love. True greatness is ever unconscious of its glory, and God alone can tell the value of unconscious influ- ence. Moses was illuminated with divine light and irradiated with divine love, and thus unconsciously he reproduced the glory he had seen in the mount. Divine love alone can so irradiate the human, and make m ^n Godlike. Let him who would be trans- figiired follow in the steps of Moses until he comes in touch with God, and by that touch is transformed THE RKSITl.T. 107 to His i^lorious iiiKii^c. lie who is thus transtiu-ured bears tlic iina^t^'c of (iod, and is like the image he bears. He ereales a moral atmosphere around him- self, in which selfishness and sin can not live. Such is the influence of Godliness. Godliness is the gath- ered o-leanings of Glimpses of God. Glimpses of (lod — the glittering gems of grace — are the Genesis and *'-oal of Cxodliness. THE THREE CROSSES. " And when they were come to the place, which is called Cal- vary, there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left." — Luke 23: 33. The three crosses of Calvary represent the three crosses of humanity. On one of these three crosses every man is crucified. The first is the cross of selfishness, the second the cross of self-surrender, and the third the cross of self-sacrifice. The first is the sinner's cross, the second the saint's, and the third the Saviour's. The sufferer on the first died losing- life, the sufferer on the second died receiving life, and the sufferer on the third died giving life. The first was dead in sin, the second was dead to sin, and the third was the death of sin. Let us study the characters of these crucified ones, and strive to learn the lessons of their lives in order to understand the goal toward which we ourselves arc, moving. It is imperative that we decide immedi- ately which of these three is our representative, in order that we mav understand thorou-'hlv our own no GLIMPSES OF GOD. character, our influence on the world, the nature of the cross on which we are crucified, and the end which will inevitably be ours if we persistently pur- sue the same path. Up to the time of the crucifixion the characters of the two thieves who were crucified with Christ were so similar as to be almost iden- tical. The principles by which they were prompted, the motives by which they were moved, their dis- honor, disgrace and death, were so similar up to the crosses, where each turned his own way, that to represent the character of one is to faithfully portray the life of the other. They were thieves, or more correctly, robbers — wholesale plunderers, belong-- ing most probably to the band of Barabbas. They were impulsive, ambitious, courageous. They sacri- ficed judgment for sentiment, honesty for notoriety. They became malefactors in order to become bene- factors. They condemned in principle what they up- held in practice. They neither respected human laws nor obeyed the laws of Heaven. They were selfish enough to dishonor men, and sinful enough to dis- obey God. They aimed to secure national and polit- ical liberty through moral slavery. They endeav- ored to seciire national right through moral wrong. They attempted to condemn national tyranny and social slavery through individual cruelty, oppres- sion and crime. They fain would employ vice to THE THRKF: crosses. Ill enthrone virtue. It is probal^le, however, that they were looked upon as publie heroes beeause their motive, aceordin<^ to publie opinion (regardless of the means employed or the result realized), was to faeilitate the freedom and emancipation of their nation from the shame and slavery of the Romish yoke. This seems to be the only reasonable w^ay of explainini^ the demand for the release of Barabbas by men who professedly were so attached to the Law of Moses, which rec[uired the death of every murderer. They looked upon him as a patriot, one who had claimed to be the Messiah, and bid fair to justify his claim. This being so, the people's posi- tion was clear and the contrast suggested in the ([uestion of Pilate all the more pointed when he asked, " Whom will ye that I release unto you, (Jesus) Barabbas or Jesus which is called Christ ? " The people were ready to follow Barabbas, for in many things he was their ideal Messiah. Had Christ employed the same means, laying aside the love of law and the law of love ; making the tem- poral prosperity of Israel the only concern of His life, and physical force instead of moral suasion the means b}- wliich to attain it, tlie jews would not have crucified but would have crowned Him. lie- lieving this, we can not but believe that the people who were so anxious to release the chief would glad- 112 GLIMPSES OF GOD. ly, were it in their power, have released his asso- ciates also. The most reasonable way, therefore, of accounting- for the crucifixion of these two thieves is by reminding ourselves that Pilate had been prac- tically forced to crucify Jesus, and now gladly availed himself of the opportunity to avenge him- self on the Jews by crucifying these two national patriots. It is well to bear in mind, however, that though Pilate nominally carried out the law and condemned them, yet in reality it was their own characters that crucified them. The law condemned them, but their lawlessness crucified them. So far, the lives of these two thieves had blended together and apparently no discord had ever existed. But on Calvary the harmony was destroyed and the similar became essentially dissimilar. The only ex- planation of the change is that Jesus Christ had come between them. One was crucified on the rieht, the other on the left of the Saviour. It is difficult to decide, regarding the crosses on Calvary, which was on the right and which was on the left. But if the penitent thief was then on the left, he has been on the right ever since ; right side of truth and life, right side of the Saviour's love, right side of immortality and glory, and the right side of Heav- en — the inside. The great change in the characters and conditions of these men is but the result of the 'I'lIF. rilRKK CROSSES. IT3 (lilTcrLMit inllucncc the life and death of Christ liad upon tlieni. How differently they spent their hist liours on earth. One wept because of the ingrati- tude of his life ; the other hardened his heart. One declared the Saviour's innocency, while the other despised Him. One received, the other rejected the Redeemer. One blessed, the other blasphemed Emmanuel. This is why one died receiving, the other losing life, — the different relation in which they stood to Jesus Christ, the contrary effect which the person and atoning work of Christ had upon them. This is always so. Men that w^ere alike ii]) to the time they entered the Saviour's presence and were introduced to Divine Love have become essentially different in mind and in heart, in thought and in life. This must always be so. It is impera- tive that men be impressed and influenced by Im- manucl. They can not be better or worse because they have come into contact with Him. They will be better or worse according to the manner in which they will treat Him. Men must rise or fall, accord- ing to their conception of Christ. Every man must reject or receive the Redeemer, crucify or crown Christ. Neutrality is imp()ssil)le. He must be the life or death of every man, and He will be to man what man makes Him to be. \Vc determine what He shall be to us, in deciding what we will be to 114 GLIMPSES OF GOD. Him. Receive Him, and He is your Redeemer; reject Him, and He will be your destroyer and death. Thus it proved to be in the case of the char- acters now under consideration. The one died re- ceiving, the other losing life. Each lost his natural life because he loved it and sought to save it, with- out remembering that " whosoever will save his life shall lose it ; and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. ' ' Practically, these men com- mitted suicide, for their untimely death was but the result of a wasted life. Sins are punished in this life, and although a man receive forgiveness for his transgression, yet he is forced to suffer the inevitable punishment inflicted by Nature upon those who violate her laws. God will forgive, but Nature — never. The penitent thief, although he believed in Christ and was saved from the moral consequences of his sin, yet had to suffer the physical conse- quences thereof. This in itself is a strong reason against delaying repentance until the day of death, for while we sin we hasten on that day. It is sadly true that many act as if the King of Terrors moved too slow, and through sin they hasten on his ap- proach. Even in the article of death the impenitent thief rushed on impetuously, as if eager to embrace the second death. Thus he died losing life, and as his loss of eternal life is typical of the way in which THE THREE CROSSES. I 15 every sinner luses it, we are anxious to in(|iiire how he lost it, and this brin^i^-s us to consider I. THE CROSS OF SELFISHNESS. The sad death of this man is but the sequel of self- ishness, which indeed is the secret source of all the sorrows, suffering and shame of society. Selfishness is the soil out of which springs all sin. It is the root of evil and the bane of life. This man died /osi/ij^r lifc\ because selfishness inevitably works out its own self-destruction. It was possible for him to save his life even while in the agony of death, and though he died yet to live again. He had every advantage neces- sary to know the way of salvation. He saw the Son of God in the act of sacrificing Himself on the altar of love to save sinners. In the presence of holiness he could not but realize his own depravity. In the face of the self-sacrifice of Jesus could he less than be cognizant of the selfishness of his own soul? Compared with the depth of Christ's love, how shallow was his life! The evidences of Christ's Messiahship within his reach were of a more con- vincing character than those which converted his comrade in crime. The strongest proof of Christ's Divinity and Christianity's choice credential is the salvation of a soul. Therefore the most undeniable, imperishable and convincing evidence that Jesus Il6 GLIMPSES OF nOD, was the Christ was in this man's possession. He was an eyewitness of the power of Christ to save, for he saw one snatched as a brand from the burning, and was privileged to behold his soul blossom into virtue and love at the living touch of the Lord of Life. He heard the beautiful and tender words in which Christ responded to the faith -of the penitent as expressed in the request " Remember me. " He heard all the words which fell from the Saviour's lips while dying for the sin of the world — words that have converted millions of men ; — words which express His relation to the world that He was leav- in2f, and to the world into which He was entering; — words so fraught with all-conquering love as to eternally declare Him to be the Son of God and the Saviour of men. He listened to those words, so simple yet so sublime, so full of calm courage and confidence as to form a firm foundation for faith. Moreover, the penitent thief, while expressing his belief in Christ's innocence, indirectly endeavored to bring him to repentance and to trust in Christ for life. The reason that this man lost life was not because he had fallen out of the reach of divine mercy; not because light on his own condition and Christ's compassion was inaccessible ; not because he had sinned too long, although it was the eleventh hour, but because he refused life on the only condi- THE THRF.F. CROSSES. TI tion (iod could ^rive it. He ignored the proffered salvation, and blasphemed tlKroaviour. He not only sinned in the dark, but/refused to repent in the light. He was condemned notlSet^vuse he had not sought the Saviour, but because he refused to love for his life, the Life of Love. This man lost life, while his companion in crime, who had sinned as much and as long, and had fallen as low as he, sought and found life. Thus, the penitent con- demns the impenitent. This loss of life was volun- tary, therefore criminal. Like all men who are lost, he simply refused to be saved. No man is ever lost for any other reason. Thus he perished, and that in Calvary. Near the Saviour's cross, within the sound of His voice, in sight of His self- sacrifice, he lost life. In Calvary, where life is found and freely offered to all, he courted death. Calvary, the birthplace of the saint, became to him the deathplace of the sinner. In Calvary, where Emmanuel the Emperor of iMnancipation was en- throned, and where He established His empire, this man sold his soul to the eternal slavery of selfish- ness, sin and Satan. Near the fountain of life, he drank the poison of eternal death. While the world's Redeemer opened the door of salvation to all wilbng to l)e saved, while his companion in life and death repented, believed and found Hfc ctei'nal, Il8 GLIMPSES OF GOD. while the news was being carried by the angels to the Heavenly Jerusalem, he blasphemed and died. Thus, he became reproached of men and condemned of God. His name has become a signal of death and of destruction, one of the finger posts on Hell's high- way, and a lighthouse on crime's cliffs. Angels wept because of his ruin, devils gloried in his destruction. Men, moved by human sympathy with the perish- ing, would leave him to the compassion of Christ, and draw the veil over his sad end, saying sadly, " He is gone." Gone — but where? Gone — but how? These are questions which the Judgment Day shall answer. Therefore, do we hold our peace. This man's life and death give us a perfect portrayal of the history of every unbeliever. All men who are lost in Christendom are lost in the same way, in the same place, and for the same reason. He is a perfect representative, all in all, of unbelievers. Whatever may be a man's reason for rejecting Christianity, for refusing salvation, his condition, character and crime are practically the same as that of the impenitent thief. Men will challenge this, and while they shudder and say, " Shame " when they see the sad, sorrowful sequel of selfishness, yet they refuse to recognize the reproduction of the impenitent thief in themselves. If you dare sug- gest the thing, they will treat you with contempt. THE THREF. CROSSES. ITQ and settle the subject with silent scorn. Oh man, thou shalt have all the fair play possible, for thou wilt need it all. Thou shalt be thine own jud<(e and advocate. Where is the picture overdrawn? What has been mentioned respecting this thy rep- resentative, which is not strictly true concerning thee? Dost thou claim that thou art not dishonest, in that thou obeyest the laws of the land and art ac- counted just of men ? Thou didst not create thy- self: thy life, therefore, is not thine own. In living for self thou dost rob humanity and Heaven. Dost say thou art no murderer? In refusing salvation, thou dost voluntarily sell and seal thy soul for the second death. Is not this the greatest of all murders? Dost claim thy reason is not dethroned? What is sin but moral madness? Not to understand our duty toward man and God; not to realize the true end of life; not to obey the highest and profound- est instincts of the soul, is foolishness without a fel- low in the fertile field of folly. Where, then, is thy wisdom? Is it seen in being blindly led by thy passions to the perilous precipice over which thou- sands of souls have been hurled to hell? Dost claim thou art no blasphemer? What is greater blas- phemy than to acknowledge the Saviour's right to the soul, and yet refuse to serve Him; sympathiz- inu' with Christ's suffering's, vet sinful and selfish T20 (HJAIPSES OF GOD. cnoug-h, in order to satisfy thy sensuous soul, to pieree afresh His saered side? What g-reater bhis- phemy tlian to promise to i^ive thyself to Christ when in the hands of death, powerless to help or hinder virtue's victory? Art thou not eondemned and crucified? Does not thy conscience condemn thee, and thy sins crucify thee? If not crucified, then art thou free, but thy hands and feet are nailed to Satan's cross of selfishness, and none but Christ can free thee. Thy character is criminal, the cru- cial crisis of thy career has come. Thou art yet in Calvary, the only place where salvation is possible. Thou art near the cross of Christ. Thou hast seen the Saviour suffering-, hast seen His torn brow and wounded side, but thou art unconcerned. Inani- mate creation is convulsed with compassion for the Christ so cruelly crucified. The sun becomes ashamed of his own brightness, and rather than look upon his Creator crushed, veils himself with dark clouds and hides in shame. The rugged rocks, adamantine hard, break their hearts and rend in twain at the sight of the Rock of Ages — cleft. The grave can not keep its own when the Resurrec- tion and the Life become the death of death. Every- thing is full of interest in the atonement of the cross, save unbelieying man. Thy companions who were condemned and crucified on the same cruel lirK IIIREK CROSSES. I2T cross Ikivc repented and believed, and liave been freed by tlie i;reat Emancipator of souls. Tliou hast seen the nails taken out of tlieir enjss, their bonds broken. Thou liast witnessed the expressions of joy which flooded their faces. Thou hast heard the shout of hallelujah which fell from their lips. In love they have pleaded with thee and sou^i>-ht to bring- thee to repentance, but thou art still unorate- ful, unbelieving and unmoved. This but drives the tiails deeper into thy cross. Thou art despising sal- vation, yea refusing life, in the only place, in the only way, in which (yod Himself can give it. Be reconciled, then, to (xod. Haste to make Christ thy friend. There is danger and death in delay. Re- member, this is a fair average: For each one who secures life in the eleventh hour, another fails. The impenitent thief failed to find life. Follow not in his footsteps, lest death be the fruit of thy folly, and thou suffer the greatest downfall possible in the moral universe of God; from Calvary to — Hell. II. THE CROSS OF SELF-SURRENDER. Self-surrender and self-denial are supreme condi- tions of spiritual life. They are the secrets of spir- itual sight, strength and salvation. This man died JiiidiiiX' life. While fast losing his natural life, he souglit and fouud eternal life. Wliile being 122 (iLlMPSEP OF GOD. robbed of the former, he was rewarded with the lat- ter. The death of his body declared the triumph of evil ; the life of his spirit declared the triumph of Emmanuel. Thus, like every saint, he became liv- ing to God as he died to the world. He received life because he fulfilled in Christ all the conditions of salvation. (a) His repentance ivas real and remorseful. He acknowledged his guilt, the justice of his condem- nation, and changed for the better in reference to the Saviour, sin, society and self. This is always the first fruit, as well as the final test, of the reality of repentance. This man learned to look upon his own life in the true light, because he considered it in the light of Christ's life. He saw the folly, the faithlessness and the failure of his life. He realized the precious privileges and opportunities he had lost, the valuable time he had wasted, and the wealth of love he had slighted. This created true contrition in his soul, and forced him to Christ for forgiveness. {b) His faith was niigJity and living. He be- lieved in Christ when everybody else appeared to disbelieve. Although the disciples had left Jesus, and the religious teachers of His own nation re- jected and ridiculed His claims, yet this man believed in Him. He received Him as his King, THE TIT REE CROSSES. 1 23 though He had not yet come into His king-dom. He looked upon Him as the Prince of Life when in the article of deatli. He believed in Him as a Sav- iour when slain, and the Mcssiali wlien murdered. His faith was intelligent, for he gathered all the evidences within his reach concerning the super- human in the Saviour, weighed them and found tliat they were strong enough to convince him of His ^lessiahship. He looked upon His calm cour- age, divine dignity, pathetic patience, changeless charity, saving sympathy, sacred sorrow, loving life and living love, sublime simplicity and sanguine, spiritual serenity, amidst the storm of sorrow and suffering in the stronghold of sin. He listened to His intercession for His enemies when he said, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what the}' do. " He saw that He lived and died in har- mony with His principles of love. Unitedly these things formed an irresistible argument to the mind of the penitent, that Jesus was the " Christ. " What convinced this man is, in reality, evermore the great proof of His Divinity. No miracle more clearly manifests it, no words more lovingly express it than the death of the cross. (r) Ills love 7iurs sti'ou^i^' atui cJiaiii^clcss. He loved Christ sufficiently to disregard all else in order to serve Him. He well knew that lo declare 124 C.TJMPSES OF COD. his belief in the Saviour was to estal^lish hatred be- tween himself and his nation, and also forfeit the eommon bond of sympathy whieh existed between him and his fellow-thief. This required strength of soul, eourag-e of conviction and a sacrificing spirit. His prayer was full of faith and love — " Lord, re- member me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. " A short but a strong prayer; a humble yet a high and holy petition. Prayers are measured and valued, not by length, but by breadth and depth. This petition contains all that man can desire for time and for eternity, and all that God can give. He struck the keynote in the anthem of happiness, hope and holiness when he desired to be lovingh^ remembered by the Lord of Life. The answer wliich Christ gave proved the value of this prayer, and His appreciation of the love and faith that prompted it. " To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." Christ never bore a clearer witness to His own Divinity than He did while dying. These are surely the words of a conqueror and not the con- quered. He recognizes and reveals, in the " valley of the shadow of death, ' ' that " all authority is given to Him in Lleaven and on earth," and that He has "the keys of death and Hell." Thus, He is the ruler of all worlds and the Prince of Paradise. Of all death scenes, this is the most ideal. There is a T]]V. 'I'TIRRE CROSSES. 125 combinatiun of thini^'S which make it so. He died while servino- the Saviour. He died like the Re- deemer, in the same manner, at the same time, in the same phice. The death of Moses was very beau- tiful, dyino- alone but with God, far removed from everything that made death hard ; passing from a glimpse of the earthly Canaan into the Heavenly Canaan. An ideal death, surely. But of all deaths this is the grandest in the annals of history; going arm in arm with Christ through the " valley of the shadow of death," and entering into glory together. What inexpressible privilege to be introduced by Emmanuel into His own empire. This is the in- heritance of every soul that has surrendered to the Saviour. There is a sense in which every saint dies with the Saviour, and in which the Saviour dies with every saint. He goes through the death struggle with His disciples. The penitent thief loved Christ sufficiently to spend his last moments in serving Him, in declaring His innocency, and in winning others to think favorably of Christ. This is the only acceptable service, all that Christ requires, and all that man can give. To live only to love is the law of life. It is impossible to realize the depth of this man's love unless we remember that, while suffer- ing the most excruciating pains in the anguish and agony of death, he is all forgetful of himself but 126 GLIMPSES OF GOD. ever mindful of the Master. This is why he re- ceived life. He possessed all the excellencies of the Christian character in germ, if not in growth. He was noble and true. As soon as he was convinced of the Saviour's innocency and of his own guilt, without hesitancy he bears testimony to both facts before the world. He had not only faith in prin- ciple but also in practice. He was brave and de- voted. In the face of all foes, when the battle was fiercest and the danger greatest, when fiends in fury cried, ' ' Victory now or never, ' ' when the fierce fire of fanaticism in frenzy flamed, when the Sav- ioiir suffered in solitude while struggling for suprem- acy, he pressed to the front of the battle and acknowledged Him King. He was sympathetic and loving, not only with Christ, but with his fellow- thief. Like every Christian, he could not keep the truth to himself, but, as the sim gives light and life, so did this man offer his light to lead his comrade to Christ, imtil his life burnt out in death. All his words, from his conversion to his death, are full of love. These elements in character are God's de- light. Christ honors the man in whom they are found. The penitent thief not only received eter- nal life, but his name has been immortalized because of his attachment to and love for the Saviour. His services were sanctioned and sanctified by the Sav- THE THREE CROSSES. 1 27 ionr, and sealed witli sueeess. The robber was re- formed and made a revealer of rig'hteousness; the plunderer was made a preaeher of the prineiples of the Prinee of Peaee. His rag-s w^ere ehanged for the robes which the g-lorified wear. He who was too de- graded to live with men in the morning, through the mighty power of grace at noon became pure and g-lorified enough to be the personal companion of the i)eerless King of glory in Paradise. His sorrow was turned into joy, his weeping into a song, his death unto life, and from the cross he was led to wear a crown, to join the happy band who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and to enjoy the inexpressible privilege of being introduced to the realities of the eternal world — yea, and to God, by Christ, as the first fruit and proof of the magnetic power of the cross. This man's conver- sion was no greater miracle than any ordinary con- version. God's laws are the same to all. Pie is no " respecter of persons. " The conditions of salva- tion are the same for all men, at all times. Then all may hope and none need despair. Let no man think because the penitent thief was saved in the eleventh hour that deathbed salvation is easy. Without question this man's struggle was a hard one, and he who has not strength of conviction suffi- cient to seek salvation when physically strong will T2b OLi:\rPSES OF GOD. in all probability fail to find it when becoming- too weak to live. Let all who would find life, and though they die, live evermore, self -surrender them- selves to the Saviour, serve Him with such loyal love, sincerity of spirit, completeness of character, as the impenitent thief, from their conversion to their death, and they also shall be glorified in the eternal presence of Christ in glory. III. THE CROSS OF SELF-SACRIFICE. Jesus Christ, whose life was perfect, whose char- acter to man was righteous and to God holy, whose words were full of grace and truth, who was tender yet just, merciful yet righteous, of His own free will laid down His life for others. The Infinite in mind, yet lowly in heart, the most despised yet the most charitable, the One most hated yet the One most loving, who though rich yet became poor that man through His poverty might be made rich, laid down His life for others. The author of joy, yet a man of sorrows, who spent His life to do good to the men who spent theirs to do Him evil, laid down His life for others. He blessed those that cursed Him, loved those who hated Him, prayed for those who crucified Him, and died for those who sought His life. Thus He lived and died for His enemies, living to give life, dying to destroy death. This is self. THF. IIIKF.F. CROSSES. 1 29 sacrifice. The death of Jesus Christ was vuhintary; He died of His own free will. Thoui^rh Pilate con- demned Him to death, yet it was love that crucified Him and riveted Him to the cross. He died be- cause He was strong enough not to live; man dies because he is too weak not to die. Jesus alone was strong enough to die; other men die because they are too weak to live. He loved enough to die that those whom He loved might live. He could not "save Himself," because He had determined to save others. Love alone made it imperative that He should die. Self-sacrificing love is the secret of all that the Saviour suffered. The sorrow of the Sinless, because of sin, culminated in the self-sacri- fice of the Saviour for the sinner. Self-sacrifice was at once both the condition and the crown of Christ's suffering. His kingdom is founded on self-sacrifice. In death He established His kingly right, and His cross led to the crown. Without the cross, Christ would have been without the crown. It was through the cross of self-sacrifice that Christ van- (^uished vice and gave virtue the victory. The cross of Christ is truth's trophy, virtue's victory, love's life and God's glory. The cross of Christ is the best exposition possible on His life. The light of His life would have blinded men with its very brilliancy, had it not been for the shadow of the 130 GLIMPSES OF GOD. cross. Men would never have understood the life of Christ had it not been for the explanation which His death gave of it. The world would never have learned the lesson which for three 3^ears He had been so busily enforcing in His life— self-sacrifice as the law of life — had it not been for the full ex- emplification of it made in His death. He had taught that he who would save his life must lose it, but the human heart could never have understood His meaning, save in the light of the triumph of re- deeming love in Christ's self-sacrifice. He taught men to forgive their enemies, but what man could have believed in the possibility of such a miracle of love, had it not been for the prayer, "Father, forgive them." The glorious achievements of Christ's cross of self-sacrifice alone could have moved men to embrace the principle of self-sacrifice as the con- dition and crown of all life. Nothing could have more perfectly illustrated his character and life, in principle and in aim, than His heroic death. The victory for which He lived could not have been se- cured, save by His own virtuous ddath. The cross of Christ satisfied the moral law by meeting its claims and increased its influence b}" proving its im- portance, the justice of its demands and the possibil- ity of giving it absolute obedience. The Author of the law came imder the law and satisfied the law, THF. rilKKF. IROSSKS. I3T The cross of Christ revealed the true character of (iod as the just yet merciful, ri^^-hteous yet lox-ini;- I^'ather. It formed a new link between the heart of humanity and the heart of holiness. The cross of Christ means for man reconciliation, re' before the prophecy would be fulfilled. What si^ns were there of His coming-? Moreover, ever}^ ache of his body and white hair in his head declared that his dissolution was near, and the devil would oft seek to employ his bodily weak- ness to weaken his faith. But faith's most fiery hour of trial is the one nearest faith's final triumph. Simeon's confidence remained unshaken and his faith firm. His fidelity to the divine promptings proved that his faith was unwavering, for faith alone can nourish fidelit}'. See him going to the temple on that memorable morn. The old man with his bent figure stooping gracefully like a shock of corn in its season, ripe and ready to be gathered into the garner; his silvery hair, a fitting emblem of the purity of his soul. Love lends light to his counte- nance and hope beams in his eye. Staff in one hand, the other linked for support in the arm of a friend, slowly he moves toward the temple gate. His friend would fain dissuade him from undertak- ing what was to him an arduous task. With trem- bling voice, in broken words full of emotion and the fervor of hope, Simeon replies, " My Father has promised that I shall not sec death until I have seen the ' consolation of Israel,' and I know that He is faithful. Moreover, He must be about to come. 214 GLIMPSES OF GOD. My house of clay is crumbling fast and the nearer the grave I am getting, the nearer is the approach of the Lord's Christ. I am more anxious than ever to visit the temple to-day, indeed, the attraction is so unusually strong that I am almost confident He is on the way and I must needs be in the temple to welcome Him. After waiting so long I must have the privilege in person of delivering up the keys to His safe keeping. Nothing could keep me home to-day. ' ' The temple is reached. Among its sacred shrines, what holy thoughts occupy his mind! He loves, oh how ardently, cver3^thing con- nected with that grand old temple. His memory runs over scores of years in which he has wor- shipped there. His comrades, where are they ? He seems to be the onl}' one left. Why has his life been spared ? Simply because the Lord is faithful and will fulfill His promise of permitting him to see the Lord's Christ before seeing death. He bows *his head and worships. Earnestly he pleads w4th Heaven that at last the " consolation of Israel " might come, the Saviour appear. The prayer ended, he lifts up his eyes, and his gaze is fixed upon two humble peasants bearing their child to present Him to the Lord. At the very sight, indescribable joy fills his heart and thrills his entire being. He knows not why, until the Holy Spirit whispers that the SIMEON AND THK SAVIOUR. 2t$ promise made so long ago is now redeemed, that the Messiah is in the arms of that peasant woman. He is anxious to believe the word, faith fighting l)ravely against unbelief. He moves forward, won- dering within himself if that little child is He who will redeem Israel. Is it possible that the conso- lation of Israel is that helpless babe? Is it true that of all humanity those two humble peasants were chosen of Heaven to nurse the Saviour of the world? Who would have expected Almighty power to be incorporated in such a frail frame? How greatly was his faith tried, but in spite of dark doubt he moves on until he has reached Mary, and bending over her shoulder he gazes upon the face of the child Jesus, and in the light of Heaven v/hich flooded that countenance his doubt disappears and the full light of faith fills his soul. There can be no mistake. He is indeed the long-desired One, the " consolation of Israel." Mary turns and looks admiringly on Simeon, who stands transfigured be- fore her, and whose eyes are still riveted by love on the child she loves so well. Heaven is in the old man's heart and his heart is in his eyes. Plesitat- ingly he asks, '' May I take for a moment thy child in my arms, my daughter? " Mary could hardly part with Him even for a moment, or trust to any one the treasure so sacred to her, but there is so much 2l6 GTJMPSKS OF GOB. of Heaven in the old man's face that she decides to grant his request. As he takes the child in his embrace, in tender tones he says: " My arms are indeed weak and feeble to hold such a weight of glory, but they never felt stronger than now. No harm shall befall Him. He has been enthroned in my heart for many long years, and at last I am permitted to embrace Him. What high honor! Heaven can grant me no greater privilege than to press the ' consolation of Israel ' to my heart. ' ' What a grand picture! Simeon making a cradle of his arms to rock the Creator of the world. The aged Jew^ and the child Jesus. The Old Covenant crowning the New. The Israelite transformed into a Christian. The last link of the Old Dispensation being forged by love into the New. The best of earth embracing the best of Heaven! Thus did Simeon succeed in his search for the Saviour. III. Simeon's success and song. The secret of Simeon's success is that he sought in the right spirit, season and sphere. He sought thus because he responded perfectly to the prompt- ings of the Holy Spirit. No soul will succeed in finding the Saviour save in this way; no soul will seek in this way without being rewarded with suc- cess. Implicit confidence in God and absolute obe- SIMEON AND THE SAVIOUR. 217 dience to the g-uidancc of the Holy Spirit are the two imperative conditions of success in findin'j the Saviour. The Holy Spirit is the only guide to Jesus, and to Jesus only does the Holy Spirit guide. He guides unto all truth, that is, truth in all its parts, but this He does only that the soul might be led into sympathy and conformity with the absolute truth — Jesus Christ. Simeon and the Spirit is the only explanation of Simeon and the Saviour. Sim- eon was so sensitive to the touch of the Spirit that he saw the Saviour during His first visit to the temple. This was the first time for any one to meet with Him there, and the first time in all probabil- ity in which it was possible for Simeon to meet Him. He who had sought diligently and devoutly for the Lord's Christ, reverently received, and rejoicingly embraced Him when found. The soul knows no greater serenity, satisfaction or suc- cess than to embrace the Saviour. When Simeon embraced the Saviour he held in his arms the sacri- fice for sin, and the secret of the soul's salvation was solved. Thus did Simeon literally " hold forth the word of life" and "lay hold on eternal life." It was then the Christian graces were made complete in the character of Simeon: his faith and hope were then crowned with the charity of Christ. Law and grace met inclose embrace; merCy and truth kissed 2l8 GLIMPSES OF GOD. each other. The soul is satisfied only when it em- braces Divine Love, and when satisfied it soars on the silvery pinions of praise to the heart of God. The moment vSimeon embraced Christ he " blessed God." Jesus influences thus all who receive Him. He leads all men to the Father and fills the soul with grateful praise to God. Every soul privileged to see the Son seeks the Father. Christ in the arms means peace in the soul, and peace in the soul means praises on the lips. Well may he sing who hath seen God's salvation. The secret and source of all song is the Saviour. Jesus is the inspiration of all music, and all who embrace Him are inspired to sing. Perennial praise streams in sweet song from the soul privileged to touch the Prince of Peace. The soul's pent-up joy in the possession of pardon, purity and peace must ever find vent in praise. The soul sings only when the secret spring of love is touched. The soul of song is the song of the soul ; the song of the soul is the song inspired by the Saviour. Such was the song of Simeon, and such is the song of every saint. The Saviour stirs the soul of the saint to song; the song of the saint stimulates the sinner to seek the Saviour. ■ Salva- tion is ever the subject of the saint's song and the sweet refrain of the song of every soul. Simeon's song is immortal, for it tells how his soul found salva- SIMEON AND THE SAVKrUR. 219 tion in the Saviour. To him, salvation and the Sav- iour were one and the same. The theology of Sime- on's song, if not exhaustive is comprehensive. It views salvation in relation to the individual, to the nation and to the world. It looks upon salvation as bringing "peace" to the individual, "glor}^" to the nation and "light" to the world. Thus Simeon's song- shows his spiritual •insight into the mystery of sal- vation to be keener and his outlook on the mission of the Messiah to be wider than that of any man previous to the Lord's death. The glorious results of Gospel salvation are compressed into the compass of his song. Salvation is shown to be from God, through Christ, for universal man. It is from God lie has " prepared " it; it is a conception of His mind and a product of His heart. It is the salvation of God in very truth, partaking of His nature and reveal- ing His glorv. God is in it, God is through it, God is for it, therefore Simeon says, " Mine eyes have seen TJiy salvation.'' It is through Christ; He is the salvation, — the means of deliverance, the Medi- ator, the incarnate love of God. It is for universal man ; it is a light to the Gentiles. As it is from God it could not be otherwise. A salvation which meets the needs of all classes and conditions of men can alone be a salvation from God. Thus Simeon had a glimpse of the universal Fatherhood of God, 220 CxLiMPSKS nv^ anr>. the universal brotherhood of man, and the nniversal fellowship of faith. If he viewed salvation from the Israelitish standpoint, he did so with Christian insight and catholicity. It is " prepared before the face of all people," " a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel." It is true sal- vation is considered as " the glory of Israel," but it constitutes the glory of Israel only as it uplifts the world from moral darkness into God's own light. True, the light starts from Israel, but the length of its circuit alone determines its lustre at its source. It is a glory to Israel because it is a light to the Gen- tiles. How well Simeon understood not only the universal nature of salvation, but its specific influ- ence and result. It is a " light " and a " glory." Light ever precedes and is the condition of glory. God saves through moral suasion and intellectual enlightenment. Salvation is a light from Heav- en, revealing the nature of God, of the soul, and of sin ; revealing the way of holiness, happiness. Heaven. What word more comprehensive of the work of salvation in the soul than " light? " Light not only reveals, but is pure and purifying. It* brings to life, and preserves in life. It is revealing, purifying, life-giving. No name is more suggestive and significant for the Saviour of man than " the light of the world. ' ' That which is light brings SIMEON AND IHE SAVIOUR. 22 1 "glory. " Glory is the crown of light. Salvation is in very truth the glory of God and man. The glory of any soul is to become a light to the world. To minister to the world's salvation is the glory of any nation. Israel, or indeed any nation, is indebted for all glory to " the light of the world." Emman- uel is humanity's " light " and '' glory." But the sweetest strain in Simeon's song is that which tells what salvation meant to his own soul. Indeed, his song owes its being and its beauty to what he experi- enced of redeeming love in his own soul. His song- only expressed the music with which his soul was filled when looking on the salvation of God. The keynote of his song is, " Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation. ' ' Simeon never appreciated eyes as he did when he looked on the face of the child Jesus. The eye is a prophecy of beauty, but the prophecy is never fulfilled until the beauty of holiness is seen in the Lord's Christ. It is then man beholds, un- dimmed and unmarred, the image of God in human nature, ineffable love incarnate in human flesh. To see God's salvation alone fills the soul with peace and the heart with the holiness which longs for Heaven. To see Him who " brought life and im- mortality to light," alone can so illuminate the dark territory of death as to enable man in peace to die. " Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace." 2 22 GLIMPSES OF GOD. The "now" marks the only time in Simeon's history when it could have been possible for him to depart in peace. He could never have been satisfied to die, until he had seen the Lord's Christ, neither could he have died in peace had he not seen the Prince of Peace. He ever longed to live until the Messiah came ; now he longs to die because he has seen the Lord's salvation. The superficial will be surprised at this, but the spiritually minded and he who is sensitive to things spiritual wn'll understand that it is of all things the most natural. Does the child long for home? Is it strange that rivers seek the ocean? AVhy should not the soul, in moments of supreme spiritual ecstasy, long to soar to the sphere wdiere it may commune with God, untram- meled by the limitations of time ? Simeon well knew that the world was never so promising a place in which to live as when the INIessiah had come to dwell in it. He would make the wilderness to blossom like the rose and prove Himself to be the "consolation of Israel." But he had read a mes- sage of love from his Father in the face of Jesus, which had made him long for home. He had seen all that was worth seeing when he had seen the Saviour. He saw so much of Heaven in the face of Jesus that his heart was already there. Moreover, he knew that He would be " spoken against," and SIMEON AND THE SAVIOUR. 223 that a sword would pierce the soul of Mary. He did not want to live to see his Lord ill-treated. He could not bear the thought of living to see Jesus the '' despised and rejected of men " and " led as a sheep to the slaughter." Every Christian would rather die than live to see his Christ crucified. '' Now Icttest Thou Thy servant depart in peace," " for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." This is the secret of a happy death. Jesus was horn that men might see Him, and in seeing Him lose their dread of death. Simeon held Jesus in his arms, and a little while after Simeon was " safe in the arms of Jesus." Simeon was permitted to hold the Saviour in his arms because the Lord had long been enthroned in his heart. Simeon died in the arms of Jesus because he had found the way into His holy heart. Simeon was the first to see Jesus as the Saviour of the world, and the first to die a Christian. For eternity, interest will be felt in him who was privileged to hold the eternal God in His embrace. When Christ came from Heaven to earth, Simeon left earth for Heaven. Christ came from Heaven to earth, that all who would believe in Him might go from earth to Heaven. Thus closes this noble life; Simeon " was not, for (iod took him." Earth can afford to lose Simeon, for Christ has come. Heaven had lost so much in thq 224 GLIMPSES OF GOD. departure of the only-begotten Son, that it gladly welcomed Simeon to the family circle. Christ was God's last message of love to the world; Simeon was the first message of love that Jesiis sent from earth to Heaven. If Jesus was Heaven's Christmas gift to the world, then was Simeon earth's New Year's gift to Heaven. Jesus sent Simeon to glory as a specimen of the work of redeeming love in the world. Simeon had so pressed Christ to his heart that he had pressed himself into the heart of Holiness and Heav- en, and this is the secret of salvation. He became so full of the glory of God when he embraced the Lord's Christ, that earth could hold him no longer, for Heaven alone was fit to be his home. THE UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIFTED HUMANITY. " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself." — Joiix 12: 32. Of all words that fell from the lips of Him who spake as never man spake, none are more startling or sugg-estive than the words of the text. It will, however, be impossible to understand their sionifi- eanee or appreeiate their strength until we are able to look upon the eross with the eye of the Jew, and thus realize what it meant to Jesus. We have be- come so accustomed to view the cross of Christ from the Christian standpoint, while permitting- all its glorious achievements to color our conception, that it is almost impossible for us to look upon it from the Jewish standpoint. For this reason, many are imablc to perceive the Heaven-born heroism, the calm courage, unequaled confidence and matchless love manifested in these words. To the Jew, to be crucified was to be doomed to eternal dishonor through the niost disgraceful cleath. Accursed in 226 GLIMPSES OF GOD. the estimation of the law and of the people was every one who was crucified. Rome usually thou^jht too much of her own dignity to disgrace herself by crucifying her most criminal citizen. No one un- derstood the cross, all in all, its shame and its suf- fering, better than did Jesus Christ. He knew what the Jew thought of it and understood that in cruelty and in disgrace it satisfied the cravings of His ene- mies. He realized what to be crucified meant — physically, mentally and nationally. He knew every inch of the way to the cross, and from the cross to the grave. He was fully conscious of all that He would have to endure in redeeming the world, yet when near His cross and with Calvary in full view. He utters these words so full of the assurance of triumph and victory. He does not seem to see the .shame of the cross, but literally turns the shame into glor}^ He shrinks not from the humiliation of the cross, but transfigures it into glorification. He seeks not to be delivered from the cross, but with the eagerness of love rushes on to embrace it as the means of up- lifting Himself and increasing His power to uplift humanity. He saw in the cross only truth's tri- umph and virtue's victory. What faith, hope and love! What divine self-forgetfulness! Not a sign of fear, although His soul was full of the anxiety of love. Not a word concerning the sacrifice, the UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIFTED IIU^L\NITY. 227 siifTerinor or tlic shame, but turnino- tlie sliadow of death into the clear lii^ht of mornini^- by explainin^g;- the efficacy of the Atonement in the words, " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself. " The cross cast its deep shadows all aloni;- the path of Christ. He carried it throuo-jiout ?Iis public life. He probably did not realize that He would be crucified, until the close of that mem- orable conflict in the wilderness, but ever since that time the weii^ht of the cross rested on His body un- til the weight of His body rested on tlic cross. How rough the road the Saviour trod! His hands and feet were torn by the thorns, and the blood He lost along His pathway clearly indicates the way the Master went. It was such a heavy cross, — the cross of humanity, to be carried so long over such rough places, with His flesh torn. His shoulder fur- rowed by the scourge until the cross touched the bone. What wonder that He should fall under its weight! It could not be otherwise if in truth He was man. But if His physical nature gave way un- der the strain He was morally strong enough to lead the crowd to Calvary. He ever walked before His cross, not after it. l^>vcn on the way to Calvary Christ was the conqueror, not the conquered. Suf- fering held no surprise for the Saviour; the cross covered no cruelty from Christ ; death had no secret 228 GLIMPSES OF GOD.. anguish, no unknown agony reserved from the Re- deemer. To die was not a new experience to Jesus; He had been through the struggle of death and se- cured the victory of the Resurrection before it had been possible for Him to bring back Lazarus to life. He crucified Himself in Gethscmane before it was possible for men to crucify Him on Calvary. He had pierced His own heart, else no sword would have been keen enough to pierce His side. Love alone could compel Him to die, and of His own free will laid He down His life. No heart con- scious of these things can fail to note the all-con- quering courage of Christ when He says, " And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Myself." In the verse preceding the text the Saviour speaks of vSatan's downfall, and in the text of His own up- lifting. He connects both with the cross and looks upon the crucifixion as the direct cause of one and the other. Jesus looks upon the cross not as a part of His humiliation, but rather of His glorification. He not only sees Himself uplifted from and through humiliation, but realizes in His greatest humiliation His greatest exaltation and glory. The measure of His humiliation is the measure of His glorification. Christ was not only glorified because He in love humbled Himself even unto death, but the moment He reached the lowest point in His humiliation He UPLlFTKl) CHRIS'l' AND UPLIFTED ftUMANlTV. 229 touched tho hio-liest point in His glorification. This is the reason why Christ connects the cross with His own uplifting. The Saviour speaks of the cru- cifixion as tlie time when He will be " lifted up," and clearly shows that His uplifting on the cross is a condition and a certainty that through the cross the world will be uplifted. Christ and man are both humbled under the cross, uplifted on the cross, and glorified through the cross. Humiliation under the cross, uplifting on the cross, glorification through the cross. The earth is where crosses are found; Calvary is where crosses are planted; Heav- en is where crosses arc lost. Earth has its cross, its Calvary, and its Christ; Heaven has its Christ, its crown, but no cross; Hell has its cross, but no Christ, Calvary nor crown. But we are in Calvary to-day in the uplifting of Christ and in the uplifting of the world. Jesus Christ is the first and final fact of the text, as He is ever the sun around which revolve in a rich galaxy all the glorious truths of salvation. He is the great moral magnet which draws humanity to Himself. The words " lifted up " and " draw " are synonymous, for it is the up- lifted Christ who draws. He draws to Himself, therefore to ''draw" is to uplift, so that our sub- ject is — The L^plif ted Christ and Uplifted I luDianity. The world uplifts Christ on the cross, and Christ, 230 GLIMfSES OP GOt). through the cross, uplifts the world. Humanity up- lifts itself in uplifting Christ, and Christ uplifts Him- self in uplifting humanity. Christ emphasizes His own uplifting on the cross as the only condition imperative to the uplifting of humanity, through the cross, and this brings us to consider, — I. CHRIST UPLIFTED ON THE CROSS. The civilized world is agreed that the darkest spot on man's character is the crucifixion of Christ. The world readily points to Calvary as the place where man is seen at his worst, and the church points to it as the place where God is seen at His best. The tragedy of the cross is an ever-recurring fact. In a physical sense, Christ was only crucified once in our world, but morally He is crucified again and again. The circumstances correspond very closely ; the characters surrounding the cross are ever the same. The spirit of the self-sacrificing Saviour, His for- giving love. His strength, sympathy and spiritual sorrow, are identical. So that the uplifting of Christ on the cross is not only important and instructive as something that took place nineteen centuries ago, but especially as that which is taking place to- day. The best portrayal of the world's attitude toward Christ in the nineteenth century is its atti- tude toward Him in the first century. The form UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIFTED HUMANITY. 231 of crucifixion may vary ; the fact and factor never. We do not know whether Christ was crucified in any other world, but we do know that if love declared it necessary that He should die, that the Christ of Cal- vary could not but lay down His life. Christ would die again in our world were it necessary, but it can nevermore be necessary, manward or Godward. The crucifixion of Christ on Calvary is a physical demonstration in time of a fact having a spiritual significance and an eternal counterpart. " The Lamb of God was slain from the foundations of the world," and John beheld before the throne "a lamb as it had been slain." If words have any meaning, then these undeniably teach that the Atonement, as a fact and function, in its relation to God and its re- lation to man, is eternal. If the crucifixion in a spiritual sense is an ever- recurring fact, then Christ must ever be as passible, in a peculiar sense, to pain, as He was when here upon earth. To make Him otherwise would be to make Him incapable of either sympathy or suffering, sorrow or sacrifice. If in His ascension He has become impassible, then in being glorified as the Son, He has become less real as a Saviour, which is impossible. ( )n the other hand, because He is passible to pain and pleasure He, in a unique manner, suft'ers as surely when men crucify Him afresh to-day as when He was crucified ^3^ GLIMPSES OF GOr). on Calvary. Would any one know how and why Christ is crucified to-day? Then let them study the history of the crucifixion nineteen centuries ago. Would any one know what unbelief and sin mean to Christ to-day? Then let them picture vividly before their minds the physical, mental and spiritual suffer- ings attending the crucifixion of Calvary. Let no one wonder at the cruelty of the Jew without also wondering at the cruelty of the Anglo-Saxon. Do not weep because of what was done unto Jesus in Jerusalem without weeping because of what He suffers in your home and heart. Think not for a moment that if Christ lived to-day He would be bet- ter received than in the first century, for His teach- ing would be so much in advance of this age that men would certainly crucify Him. We might seek to destroy Him in a different manner, but we would be moved by the same motive. We can not but be- lieve that the church, using the word for the eccle- siastical body in contra-distinction to the body of believers, would lead to-day as it did then in the attempt to put Jesus to death. Yea, verily, the church to-day is often putting Christ to open shame and crucifying afresh the Lord of Life. Thus, ever)^ fact and incident in connection with Christ's death on Calvary has for us a two-fold interest. Let us then look upon the way Christ was uplifted on the UPLIFTED CHRIST AISTD UPLIFTED HUMANITY. 23^ cross. The mock trial is ended. No single charge has been substantiated against the Saviour. The judge declares that he finds no fault in Jlim, and yet He is delivered up to be crucified. See Him led out to be scourged. A sight that ought to make man weep tears of blood. The Son of God, with His hands tied behind Him, receiving the ter- rible scourge about forty times on His bare back, each cutting through the flesh to the bone. . He was under the lash for about fifteen minutes. Many died under this cruel treatment. Oh how the blood oozes from His body I Roughly His garments are thrown over Him; a crown of thorns is plaited and placed on His holy head. A cross is laid on His shoulders and the crowd moves toward Calvary, They go but a little way, He silent, as a " sheep be- fore her shearers is dumb," when He falls under the weight of the cross on His bruised shoulder. Simon then comes forward to bear the cross. I thank thee, vSimon, for lending thy shoulder to bear my Saviour's, nay my own cross. Although Christ, through love, had made it His own, it was in truth our cross. Christ carried man's cross, and in a strange manner man carried Christ's cross. It must have helped Simon to bear it to know that Christ had carried it before, and especially inspiring must it have been to see Christ before him while he car- 234 GLIMPSES OP CxOD. ried it. I can not but believe that Simon was glad to help Jesus bear His cross. Who knows but that he might have been the recipient of one of Christ's many mercies? Simon but little thought how pre- cious and sacred was the cross he carried. He knew not that, figuratively speaking, it was the material out of which the chariot of mercy would be made in which He would go home to glory. Calvary is reached. Everybody is full of excitement, save Jesus. There is the hammer, there the nails. Now Jesus is uplifted on the cross. A nail is driven through His right hand, — the hand that had been opening the eyes of the blind, the hand that had been scattering seeds of kindness, the hand that had touched the bier of the son of the widow of Nain. The man who drove the nail but little thought that it had gone through the heart of God before it could have pierced the hand of Christ, and that evermore God's heart would be riveted by love to that cross. Another nail is driven through the left hand, then a large nail is driven through both His feet, — the feet that Mary washed with her tears and wiped with the hairs of her head; the feet that had been so busy bearing to and fro the treasury of love, and carrying Heaven's gifts of mercy to the povert)^- stricken world. The man who drove the nail but little thought that it would rivet the heart of hu- UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIFTED HUMANITY. 235 inanity at the feet of Jesus for evermore. And oh, wondrous sight! The weight of divinity hanging on those nails! Nay, 'twas love that held and riv- eted Him to that cross. Excruciating were the pains He suffered, and oh how cruel was His death! Gladly would we draw the veil over the sufferings of the Saviour. Though ostensibly many men may have suffered a more terrible and tragic death than did Christ, yet in reality, even from a physical stand- point, He suffered more in the article of death than was possible to any other, for the more spiritual the nature the more sensitive it is to all pain. We can not tell what Christ suft'ered or compare it with the suff'erings of men, until we can understand how much more spiritual He was than all men. But this is not all, nor, indeed, the most important. Were this all, the story of the cross would never have possessed its charm for the heart of humanity. There is no intrinsic virtue in physical suffering, but often much intrinsic evil. The physical suffering of Christ is impotent to accomplish any good, save as an expression of the w^ealth of divine love and a part of a supreme self-sacrifice necessary for salva- tion. The physical suff'ering of Christ is not to be compared with His mental and spiritual suffering. The strength and glory of His self-sacrifice are seen, not in His physical suft'ering, but in His spiritual 236 GLIMPSES OF GOO. sorrow. The supreme suffering possible to the Sin- less Saviour, because of sin, was spiritual sorrow. In a unique manner Christ suffered the aggregate of all that the guilty ought, and that the guiltless could suffer for all time. Though all the spiritual anguish and the remorse of the children of men be concentrated, yet it would not compare with the suffering of Christ. All that men have suffered in earth or in Hell, He experienced in the work of Atonement. Christ was love Incarnate; nothing can suffer like love, and to be " rejected and de- spised " is love's greatest suffering. We must re- member also the solitariness of Christ's suffering. He " trod the wine-press alone." He received no supernatural aid nor depended on any supernatural power in His spiritual sorrow and struggle for su- premacy over sin. It was as the Son of Man He suffered, — that is. He employed only those resources that are at the command of all men, and gained His victory only as man ma}^ conquer. Jesus died like every other man, only that death meant more to Him. No one hated death like Christ. Every- thing in Him was antagonistic to it. His heart, the home of holiness, could not but hate this enemy of all good. Increased complexity means increased responsibility. Therefore Christ's complex rela- tionship in life created crushing and overwhelming UPLIFTFT) CHRIST AND U pj,] I-'I'F.D HUMANITY. 237 issues in His death. Oh, how mueh depended on His death! Heaven and humanity are in the bal- ances. I am glad that death meant the same to Christ as it does to every man ; that he experienced all the agony and grief possible in death; that He knew how hard it is to part with the living and to feel the tenderest ties of love broken, while the spirit is ushered into the Great Beyond and over- whelmed by the reality of the Eternal. He suffered in the fullest degree the last and greatest agony possible to man. He experienced the worst death and conquered death at its worst. None but the Son of God could so suffer, or realize what it is to suffer so. The cross of Calvary was but the exter- nalization of the real cross on which Christ was cru- cified. As the real cross of Christ is the sorrow of the Sinless because of sin and the ingratitude of sinners, then the Crucifixion is an ever-recurring fact, and however much He may have suffered on Calvary, He suffers more to-day. Continually the nails are driven into His hands, and ever is the sacred side pierced. After the resurrection, Jesus asked Thomas to put his finger in the nail-prints and his hand in His side. This shows that the marks remained and that the sores had not healed. We believe that for eternity Christ will bear on His body these signs of sacrifice. They are the literal 230 GLIMPSES OF GOD. " marks of Christ." Many men reach the Saviour's heart through the pierced side to-day, but there is a worthier and wiser way. Thus is Christ up- lifted on the cross, and He hangs between Heaven and earth, apparently rejected and repudiated of both, — deserted of God, disowned of man, tmclaimed of time or eternity. What will the issue be? He is near enough to Heaven to lay hold on the hand of God, and near enough to earth to lay hold on the hand of man. Will He link them? Will He unite in His body the two worlds? Will His cross effect reconciliation and redemption, and in love leave God and man in close embrace? We can only know this when we understand the influence of the Atonement. Did the cross bring glory or dishonor to Christ? This naturally leads us to consider — II. THE CROSS UPLIFTING CHRIST. The cross has uplifted Christ in the estimation of Heaven and human it}^ It has increased the au- thority of Christ in all worlds. It was in view of the Atonement that He was able to say, " All au- thority is given unto Me in Heaven and on earth," and because of the cross He was able to say, '' I have the keys of Hell and of death." Without the Atonement, Christ would have been without the authority to forgive sin, consequently unqualified UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIFTED HUMANITY. 2 ^q to be the Saviour of the world. By means of the cross alone it was possible to enthrone Christ in the heart of man as He is always enthroned in the heart of God. As God-man, the Saviour's hi^^hest i^lory was attainable only throut^-h the merits of the Atone- ment, lie had so identified Himself with humanity that in a peculiar sense it was imperative that He should uplift the human race, or forever go down with it. Christ is crowned with a glory, through the cross, which otherwise would have been unat- tainable. As the Son of God, He was from eternity clothed with the greatest glory. But in order to save the world, He " emptied Himself," and thus laid aside His glory, which in a mysterious sense, as the Son of Man, He looked upon as something inac- cessible, save in the completion of salvation, consum- mate in His self-sacrifice. Throughout His public ministry He refers to the hour when the " vSon of ^lan would be glorified," and in the chapter of the text, when the Greeks desired to see Him, He said, " Now is the Son of Man glorified." He further- more prays that God might glorify Hini with the glory that belonged to Him before the world was. These references surely teach that Christ connected His glorification with the work of salvation, and not until He uttered the words " It is finished," rose again from the dead and was received unto Heaven, 240 GLIMPSES OF CxOD. was He crowned with the supreme glory which He had secured through suffering-. The Apostle says that " for the joy set before Him He endured the cross." This suggests that not only would the joy be impossible without the cross, but that as He was the Son of Man the attainable joy was an inspira- tion to suffer the cross. John sees Him crowned with many crowns. Without controversy these were laurels won in a lawless world, and tributes paid to Him as the Redeemer of the world by earth and Heaven. As He was man, it was true of Him, as of all men, that the way to the attainment of the highest and fullest life was through self-sacrifice. The law held good in the case of Jesus, as of all others, that " He who would save his life must lose it." Christ's greatest charm is His self-sacrificing life; the crown and consummation of His life is His sacrificial death. Christ's glory was assured when, though a Son, He " learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and being made perfect He be- came the Author of eternal salvation imto all them that obey Him. ' ' This learning must be understood to mean undertaking to do for others what was not necessary for Himself. As the Sinless, He was exempt from suffering. He was free from the claim of death. There was nothing in His character which rendered suffering necessary as reformatory or re- UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIFTED HUMANITY. 24I tributive. Thcrcfurc, death could ncvxT have gained ascendency over Him. But in order to save man, He vohmtarily suffered and died. Nevertheless, though as the Sinless He was exempt from suffer- ing, there was a moral necessity for Him as the Saviour to endure the suffering and the shame of the cross. He was made perfect as the Captain of our salvation through suffering. In order to be- come efficient as the Redeemer of men, it was nec- essary for Him to be educated through suffering and gain the ascendency over the heart of humanity through a pre-eminent and permanent manifestation of His power, not only to suffer but to save from suffering. In the God ward relation of the Atone- ment, physical suffering could not have been neces- sary. The spiritual sorrow of the Sinless, because of sin, as expressed in His humiliation, was probably all that could be essential. But in the manward rela- tion of the Atonement, physical suffering was impera- tive, for thereby alone could the sinful appreciate the sacrifice of the Sinless and secure due appreciation of the sense of sin. The death of the cross was at once the greatest and most accessible evidence of suffering. No other form of death could have so effectually and unmistakably furnished the neces- sary proofs of its voluntariness. Therefore, in no other way could He have so successfully secured the 242 GLIMPSES OF GOD. essential incentive to the faith of humanity. In order to become the object of the world's faith, it was necessary that the evidences of His voluntary suffering and atoning- death be within the reach of all men. This was pre-eminently secured in the death of the cross, because of its publicity and pos- sibility of proof. It was " not done in a corner." ]Moreover, the death of the cross was so gradual as to enable Him to preserve to the end the use of all His faculties. It furnished Him with the opportu- nity of proving the voluntariness of His death by giving up the spirit before the crucifixion could have succeeded in killing Him. He died in but half the time necessary to perish from the effects of the driven nails. He "bowed His head," and thus invited the King of Terrors, who otherwise would never have had courage to assail Him. When His side was pierced and His heart revealed, humanity stood spellbound at the revelation that He died on the cross, but not of the cross, a broken heart being the scientific cause of death. There is a sense in which it was binding upon Christ to suffer, which is emphasized in such words as " Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? " This " ought " implies a moral obliga- tion; the obligation existed inasmuch that Christ had pledged Himself to the work of redemption. UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPMFTKD HUMANITY. 243 Having- promised, the law made it imperative that He should redeem it. But the real " ouL^-ht " of all Christ's sufferings was the " ought " of love. Love was the foree which made His death imperative. Love can not but love, and as the cross was neces- sary to remove evil from the universe, Christ could not but die. He could not " save Himself," for He loved to save others. The cross of Christ was God's most potent method of condemning sin in the heart of the sinful and of revealing divine love in the work of salvation. The suffering of Christ on the cross alone successfully showed the sacrifice God made in spirit because of sin and in order to save the sinner. Had Christ not died. He would have been destitute of the most efficient power in His personality to influence the world for righteousness — sympathy. Though Christ's sympathy, in a moral sense, would have been perfect without the Jewish murder, yet without a physical demonstration the world would never have learned rightly to estimate it, and any enhancement to Christ's influence in the moral universe is without controversy a glory to Christ. Moreover, without tasting death, Christ's power of sympathy, in a physical sense, would not have been perfect, for there would ever be one stage of suffering common to man through whicli He had not passed. The greatest glory of Christ is success 244 GLIMPSES OF GOD. in the work of Atonement. Therefore, that which most enhanced salvation increased most His glory. In death He succeeded in bringing- the world to look upon sin with His eyes, judge it with His conscience, and hate it with the hatred of His holy heart, thus realizing in death what He had failed to realize in His life. It was the pierced side which revealed His heart, and His revealed heart pierced the heart of humanity. The crucified Jesus is alone the con- demnation of cruelty and crime ; the suffering Sav- iour is alone the efficient revelation of God's sense of sin and the secret of salvation. When the sinful perceives the suffering of the Sinless because of sin, and in order to save sinners, he sees the sublimity of salvation. In death alone could the life of the Sinless blossom into life for the dying sinner. The greatest triumph of saving grace is that the suffer- ing of the vSinless, while showing His supremacy, succeeds in making the sinner sensitive to the sense of sin and the suppliant for and subject of salvation. The cross glorified Christ, because it created the channel in which the ocean of divine love could flow in a perennial stream to the heart of humanity. That which best shows the character and the life of Christ to man most glorifies Him, and the cross is the holy of holies of His heart, with the veil rent asunder. To know Christ is to love Him; to love UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIFTED HUMANTTV. 245 Him is to live for His orloiy. Nowhere may Christ be so well known as on Calvary. In His life men saw what He was to others ; on the cross they saw what others are to Him. In life He showed how love could sacrifice ; in death He showed how love could suffer. In His miracles of mercy in life His divinity transfigured His humanity ; in the miracle of love in death His humanity transfigured His divinity. Given the incarnate Son of God, the Atonement could be; given the sinless Son of ^lan, the Atonement could not but be. It was necessary manward and Godward that Atonement should be made, and it was essential that Christ should suffer before man could appreciate the Atonement. The cross was the only bridge from earth over the chasm of Hell to Heaven which the Divine Archi- tect had erected and approved. In death, Christ proved the strength and safety of the bridge by putting His own weight to pass over it, and being proved strong enough to support divinity, then safe- ly could the weight of humanity be placed upon it. It might have been possible if Christ had volun- tarily died in the house of His friends at Bethany that the Atonement, in its Godward relation, might have been realized. But in its manward relation it could never have been realized so effectually as through the cross. All the interests of Heaven had 246 GLIMPSES OV GOD. been entrusted to Christ, and in a tmiqiie manner His all had been invested in the work of Atone- ment. The death of Calvary was the final effort of virtue to vanquish vice, and the victory of virtue was God's glory and Christ's crown. Thus the death of Christ, though intended by the hate of man to be His greatest shame, was made by God His greatest glory. " Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name ; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The cross has uplifted Christ. There is more moral magnetism in the death of Calvary than in any life. It is the cross that draws. It increased Christ's influence upon the soul and won the devotion of the human heart. Christ's hold would not have been half so great on humanity had it not been for the cross. More hearts have been moved in sympathy by the sight of the suffering Saviour and crucified love than by anything else. The cross is the greatest magnetic power of the world. Christ uplifted the cross, and the cross ex- alted Christ. He not only gained His crown through the cross, but He made the cross His throne, from which He rules in righteousness and governs in UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIFTED HUMANITY. 247 grace the whole universe. Many men who despised Jesus in His life have learned to love Him in His death. If enemies in cruelty outdid themselves in uplifting Him on the cross, it was friends who out- did themselves in love who took Him down from the cross and laid Him in the grave. Indeed the hands of enemies were never laid upon His bod}^ af- ter His death. He had become too sacred and glori- ous for any hand, save the hand of faith, to touch Him evermore, and after His resurrection no eyes, save the eyes of love, were privileged to look upon Him. Every step from the cross is a step upward and Heavenward. He was crucified between two thieves. He died amidst nature's groanings, the hisses and curses of His enemies, tlie sighs and sobs of His friends. He was buried with the rich and " rose again from the dead " amidst the music of na- ture's harp, the rejoicings of the redeemed, and the melody of the resurrection morn. It was in death He secured the right to a grave. The earth had not expected to entertain in its bosom the Sinless. Sin had given to the sinful a chartered right to a grave, and the Sinless had to borrow the grave of the sinful in order to secure His well-earned sleep in the silent sepulchre made ever sacred. If the cross was roughly prepared by the carpenters of Jerusalem for the Carpenter of Nazareth, whose 248 GLIMPSES OF GOD. hand had never made a cross for any one, His grave had been prepared by exacting love and made as meet as any grave could be made to entertain the temple that had entertained God. The glory of the resurrection and the glory of the Ascension would have been impossible without the cross. How different was His reception to Heaven and His re- ception to earth! No room for Him in the inn; no room for the royalty of Heaven. The earth seemed ill-prepared to receive Him. In many respects He was an unwelcome visitor. The door of the stable alone was open, and the manger was His first cradle. But after the work of salvation had been completed through the death of the cross, how royal a welcome home was given to Him in glory! The angels of Heaven could not remain there the morning of the Ascension. They formed the royal procession of the King of Glory, the Conqueror of Calvary. Every door in Heaven was opened and the very gates lifted up to give Him entrance. Willingly the command had been obeyed, " Lift up your heads, oh ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in." Em- manuel entered into His empire through the cross. It was on Calvary He was crowned. He triumphed more in death than He did in life. Samson killed more enemies in his death than he did in his life. UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIFTED HUMANITY. 249 The Saviour secured life to more men in d5^ing- than He did in living-. Christ without the cross would be Christianity minus its charm. Theology with- out the Atonement is God without power to pity. The glory of Christ is evermore inseparably con- nected with the cross. Take away the cross, and the clearest manifestation of Christ's glory will per- ish. Salvation without sacrifice, a Saviour without suffering, would be the same as happiness without holiness, or Heaven apart from both. The cross has uplifted Christ. III. CHRIST UPLIFTING THE CROSS. Previous to the crucifixion of Christ on Calvary, the crime of crimes and criminality's consummation was to be crucified. To the Jew, the disgrace of the death was more despicable than was any dishonor damaging to the life. Every crime could be con- doned, save the crime of the cross. But to be cruci- fied was an unpardonable sin. The words " Cal- vary " and " cross " brought a frown to the face, fear to the frame, and fleetness to the feet of the Jew. How great the transformation! How pre- cious is the word Calvary to us! To the Jew, Cal- vary was the most accursed spot of earth. To the Christian, it is Nature's holy of holies. They loathed and hated the cross. We love and reverence it. 250 GLIMPSES OF GOD. It is the subject of our glory and of our song. Was it not on the cross that Christ died? Is it not through the cross that we have life? Is it not of the cross that the choir of Heaven so sweetly sing ? Yea, from being an object of contempt the cross has become the object of the greatest reverence. The cross did not bring ignominy to His name, but His name brought glor)^ to the cross. Instead of being accursed, it is sacred to millions. To Catholics and Protestants, it is a sign of the most sacred service and a symbol of the spirit of self-sacrifice. It is worn by millions on their hearts, and treasured in the hearts of many more. It is the symbol of peace in the heart, penitence and piety in the soul, and purity and praise on the lips. So that instead of the cross bringing dishonor to Christ, Christ brought glory to the cross. Figuratively speaking, the nails driven into the Saviour's hands and feet carried life before them into the cross. By dying on the cross, Christ has uplifted and transformed it from an in- famous implement to destroy life into a glorious instrument through which life is saved. In the very city, in the very century in which Christ was cruci- fied, the cross ceased to be looked upon as the way of death, and became honored as the way of life. Even in a few weeks after Christ's crucifixion in Jerusalem, the place of all others where the cross UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIFTED HUMANITY. 25 1 was hated with the most cruel hatred, it became loved by thousands above all their treasures as the sublime symbol of what God suffered in spirit on account of sin and what the Sinless Son sacrificed to save the sinner. Thus the shame of the cross became the glory of Christ, and the suffering of Christ became the glory of the cross. The cross crowned the glory of Christ, and in dying upon it Christ crowned the cross with glory. It was neces- sary that Christ should uplift the cross before it was possible for Him, through the cross, to uplift the world. The cross was the agent, the magnet, the lever in the uplifting of humanity. ^len thought that when the nails were driven into the hands of Christ that once and forever He was cast out of the heart of humanity, and that the nails barred eter- nally the door against Him. Instead of that, men only placed in His hands the material with which He made a key to open the lock of the human heart. Yea, the cross is the kc}^ of love which opened the heart of God to man, and the heart of man to God. From a lifeless tree the cross has been transformed and made living and fruitful. It bears leaves that are ever green, " and are for the healing of the nations." It bears on its branches the richest fruit of love, to feed hungering souls. The tree of Calvary will live when every other tree 252 GLIMPSES OF GOD. will die. It will flourish for eternity on the banks of the river of life, bearing its fruit of love, to the delight of God, the glory of Christ, and the life of the redeemed. It will form one of the chief adorn- ments and attractions of the Paradise of God, the home of holiness. Thus do trees and men blossom at the living toiich of the Lord of Life. IV. THE UPLIFTED CHRIST, THROUGH THE UPLIFTED CROSS, UPLIFTING HUMANITY. Man uplifted Christ on the cross, the cross up- lifted Christ, Christ uplifted the cross, and Christ through the cross uplifts man. The text unmis- takably teaches that the purpose of the Atonement is the transformation of humanity into absolute con- formity with Jesus Christ. The moral aim of the cross is to make man like Christ in character and glory, and therefore in the highest harmony with holiness. Its motive is to uplift man into perfect obedience to the divine will, the realization of the divine purposes, and thus fill him with the life and glory of God. Thus salvation means conformity to Christ. Conformity to Christ is impossible save through the cross. The cross not only revealed God's ideal to man, but made its attainment and realization possible to man. The object of the cross is to draw man into conformity with Christ, and UPLIFTED CHKISI- AND UPLIFTED HUMANITY. 253 thus uplift fallen humanity to the highest attain- ment of holiness and happiness. Christ died, not to seal His teaching, not to reveal the nature of God nor of sin, not to satisfy the claims of the law, not to pay the debt of sin, but to uplift man. It is true that in His death He accomplished all this, for it was all necessary to man's salvation. But it was done as means to the end, and not as the end itself. He revealed the character and the love of God in order to win the heart of man. He met the claims of the law and paid the debt of sin, that it might be possible for holiness to pardon and love to save. Ikit this He did that He miglit " draw all men " unto Himself. The cross of Christ is the divinely- ordained lever to uplift humanity. For nineteen centuries the cross of Christ has been proving itself to be the power of God to uplift man intellectually, emotionally and morally. Intellectually, it has given the human mind its greatest inspiration. It has revealed truths which have revolutionized hu- man thought, and made knowledge accessible which illuminates the intellect of man with the light of God. Its teaching has solved some of the problems that had ever baffled the human intellect, and while satisfying the mind it has stimulated and sanctified thought. The intellectual thought of the world lias practically revolved around three questions: Whence 254 GLIMPSES OF GOD. am I? Why am I? Whither go I? On the answers to these questions depend the intellectual develop- ment of the world and the hope and happiness of humanity. The value of everything written or thought is commensurate to the light it throws upon these problems. Immanuel Kant said that it is the business of philosoph}^ to answer three questions: What may I know? What ought I to do? For what may I hope ? These are identically the questions that have ever agitated the human mind. That which gives the most satisfactory answers to these questions, therefore, must ever be considered as having rendered humanity the greatest intellectual service. To educate the intellect is to ennoble it. The cross of Christ is God's answer to these ques- tions; it alone satisfies the intellect and the heart of humanity. To the question, " What may I know?" the cross of Christ replies, "God." It reveals to man the holiness and love of his Father in Heaven, thus furnishing him with the only explanation of life and the key into the mystery of the universe. To the question, " What ought I to do? " it replies, " Love." The cross of Christ reveals the heart of God, and so teaches man that the way to live is to love. To the question, " What may I hope? " it replies, "For holiness and Heaven." The cross of Christ is the assiirance of God that holiness and UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIl'IF.D HUMANirV. 255 Heaven are attainable to humanity. Thus the in- tellectual world owes its light to the cross of Christ. The cross uplifts man emotionally. One of the strongest forces and most essential qualities in the uplifting of mankind is that of the emotions. Hu- man lov^e was never so intensified and sanctified as through the cross of Christ. On Calvary, love was revealed as the greatest power to uplift the world. The crucifixion was love's coronation. The cross of Christ has made humanity more sensitive to suf- fering and sympathetic with the sufi;erer. If love is the greatest factor in the life of the world, the cross of Christ is the life of love. The human heart has become so sympathetic that crucifixion as a method of capital punishment has been forgotten from the world. This is the influence of the cross of Christ. One inethod after another is being in- vented to put transgressors to death with as little pain as possible, and the day is not far distant when this method of legalized murder — capital punish- ment—will be forever abolished. When men have lived near enough to the cross of Christ to brcatlic the spirit of the prayer, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," capital punishment will be viewed as a relic of barbarism. Human sympathy seeks to alleviate suffering, to uplift the fallen, to provide for the perishing, to relieve the 256 GLIMPSES OF GOD. oppressed and to care for the dying with a self-sacri- fice unknown before the death of Incarnate love on Calvary. Is liberty taking the place of slavery, arbitration taking the place of war, charity taking the place of cruelty? This is but the influence of the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ is uplifting humanity morally. The most fatal blow that im- morality ever received was the death of the cross. The cross is the greatest moralizing force in the world. Wherever the cross is loved, there purity and morality are honored. Selfishness and sensu- ality are paralyzed in the presence of the self-sacri- fice of the Son of God. If the cross does not create in us a loathing of sin and a love of holiness, then there is no power in the universe of God that can so move lis. The cross has shown self-sacrifice to be the crown of life, and selfishness the ruin of the race. Are personal purity and national righteous- ness at a premium? Then the cross of Christ does uplift man. The cross of Christ uplifts humanity to the possible possession of eternal life. It cancels for the innocent and irresponsible the evil of collect- ive sin, and for the guilty it makes full and free redemption possible. It uplifts man to a right re- lationship with God, and consequently to all virtue and grace. It uplifts the guilty by justifying him, the unclean by sanctifying him, the dead by giving UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIFTED HUMANITY. 257 him life. It uplifts the soul to associate with the pure and sanctified — yea, God. Whoever is going to be uplifted through the cross must needs be up- lifted on the cross. Christ, through the cross, is uplifting humanity. Christendom is only a proof of the uplifting power of the cross. The cross is draw- ing to-day in all lands. Christ is verily fulfilling His promise of drawing all men unto Himself. He is the Saviour, not only of the individual, but of so- ciety ; the Redeemer, not of one nation, but of all the human race. The cross of Christ is to be the means of tiplifting *' all men." Humanity went down as a whole in its representative Adam, but came up as a whole in its representative, the second Adam. If we would rightly interpret the words of the text, it is imperative that we avoid with the greatest jealousy limiting in anywise the " all men." It means not the elect ; it means humanity. It speaks of the organic salvation of the human race. While the teaching of Christ Himself makes it impossible for us to believe in Universalism — the salvation of every man — nevertheless we rejoice to believe that Christ Himself teaches that though some may be lost, like the branches cut off from the vine, yet that the organic whole will be preserved through salvation. Thank God for racial redemption, a uni- versal salvation, a world-wide uplifting of man. 258 GLIMPSES OF GOD. Christ is drawing. He will draw until " all men " have been uplifted above everything mean, selfish and unholy, into the clear light of holiness, where with Christ they shall reign, filled with the same glory, enjoying the same victory, world without end. How glorious is the influence of the cross of Christ! It modifies for good every portion of Jehovah's vast empire, — material, mental, moral, terrestrial and celestial. Even Hell is better off because of the Atonement. The cross of Christ has an uplifting influence on the whole universe of God. How glorious, how wise, how beneficent. The cross of Christ is to be the center of the universe, the light and life of all, as the sun is the center of our solar system. If our world, through sin, had become out of sympathy with the moral aim of the universe, and struck a discordant note which marred the melody of the sublime symphony, through the cross it has enriched the music of the universe and perfected the melody of every world. Every creature in the vast dominion of God, according to his sensibility, suffered on account of sin. The higher the being, the keener the suffering. If the cross of Christ is but the outward manifestation of the sorrow and sacrifice of the spirit of God because of sin, then how greatly was He moved and influenced by it ! If God was thus influenced, of necessity all His UPLIFTED CHRIST AND UPLIFTED HUMANITY. 259 creatures must have suffered according:!;- to their sev- eral susceptibilities. Our world, therefore, lessened the aggregate happiness of the universe through sin, but, thank God, through the cross it has vastly contributed to the welfare of all created beings. All who suffered because of sin, of necessity partic- ipate in the joys of redemption. The good that befalls any world can not but affect the universe, for the same reason that evil can not be limited in its influence. The cross means a transformed hu- manity; a transformed humanity means a trans- formed earth ; a transformed earth means a trans- formed universe. The cross of Christ has increased the happiness of the imiverse. Jesus Christ is the universal Saviour, and conformity to Him is the goal of all intelligent created beings. The cross is the most invincible evidence of grace, the most per- fect expression of divine love, suffering unto sacri- fice, in order to save. Therefore, the cross must increase the aggregate happiness of the universe and the specific happiness of all created intelli- gencies. The better the God of love is known, the greater the happiness of His creatures. We thank God that the cross of Christ not only uplifts the world, but uplifts the universe, and that cosmic transformation is the aim and will be the crown of the cross of Christ. DATE DUE '"'^"^iiiiiii^ jBjm, ^'n "iiii CAYUORD PMIIXTEOINUS A.