God in the World
John xiv. 22 v.
“How is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world 1”
Jude was really asking a very common question — how can two men look at the same object and see differently? Yet, they can, and they do. You and I go up together into the temple of Nature — you, with a measuring-rod; I, with a prayer-book. You count how long it will take to walk round it; I how before a mys’ic presence. You estimate the weight of the corn — you buy and sell in the temple; / am thrilled with a sense of beauty, humbled by an impression of mystery. Yet, we have gazed on the same form. To both it has one size, one colour, one shape. Why do you call it the world, and I, the other world? It is because we have brought different worlds into the temple. We draw out of the vision exactly what we put in. You have put in the seats of the money-changers, and you get out the seats of the money-changers again, accompanied by a scourge of small cords. / have put in my belief in the omnipresence of beauty, and I get out its presence from this spot of ground. Nature has manifested herself to me as she has not done to the world.
Who shall see the beauty of Thy face, oh Lord? It is a beauty of the spirit, and can only be read by the spirit. It is not space that veils Thy brightness from any man; it is the thoughts of the heart. That which we call the world is within us; it is not in the air, but in the soul. The world of revelation is not beyond the grave; it is beyond the mire. Not by wings of angels, but by purity of heart, shall we find Thee. We speak of Thee as behind the veil; Thou art only behind the veil of selfishness. Rend the veil of selfishness, and we shall see Thee. We ask not change of place, but change of soul. We are now in the midst of Thine eternity; reveal Thyself, oh God. We are gazing on Thy palace, and we think it a stone wall; reveal Thyself, oh God. Reveal the Eternity in Time, the Spirit in Matter, the Gospel in Science, the Church in the World. Reveal the glory of common things, J the strength of weak things, the hope of erring things, the mystery of lowly things, lie veal that, as we journey through the way we call the world, we are, all the time, like Thy servant Abraham, wandering unconsciously in the Promised Land.