June 28
Thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. — ISA. Ix. 16.
We all know the difference between hearsay and sight. We
June 23.
may have read books of travel that tell of some scene of great
natural beauty or historic interest, and may think that we understand all about
it, but it is always an epoch when our own eyes look for the first time at
the snowy summit of an Alp, or for the first time at the Parthenon on its
rocky height. We all know the difference between hearsay and experience.
We read books of the poets that pourtray love and sorrow, and the other
emotions that make up our throbbing, changeful life; but we need to go
through the mill ourselves before we understand what the grip of the iron
teeth of the harrow of affliction is; and we need to have had our own hearts
dilated by a true and blessed affection before we know the sweetness of
love. Men may tell us about it, but we have to feel it ourselves before we
know.
To come still closer: we all know the dift’erence between hearing about a man and making his acquaintance. We may have been told much about him, and be familiar with his character, as we think; but, when we come face to face with him, and actually for ourselves experience the magnetism of his presence, or come under any of the influences of his character, then we know that our former acquaintance with him, by means of hearsay, was but superficial and shadowy. “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see Thee.” Can you say that? If so, you understand the text. “They shall no more teach every man... his brother, saying, Know the Lord, and make acquaintance with Him” — as if He were a stranger — for “all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.”
There is all the difference between knowing about God and knowing God; just the difference that there is between dogma and life, between theology and religion. We may have all the articles of the Christian creed clear in our understandings, and may owe our possession of them to other people’s teaching; we may even, in a sense, believe them, — and yet they may be absolutely outside of our lives. And it is only when they pass into the very substance of our being, and influence the springs of our conduct — it is only then that we know God.