It is clear that the period referred to in the second clause of our
text is the same as that referred to in the first, that 'yet a little
while' covers the whole space up to His Ascension; and that if there be
any reference at all to the forty days of His earthly life, during
which literally, the work 'saw Him no more,' but the Apostles 'saw
Him,' that reference is only secondary. These transitory appearances
are not of sufficient moment or duration to bear the weight of so great
a promise as this. The vision, which is the consequence of the coming,
has the same extension in time as the coming—that is to say, it is
continuous and permanent. We must read here the great promise of a
perpetual vision of the present Christ.
It is clear, too, that the word 'see' is employed in these two clauses
in two different senses. In the former it refers only to bodily sight,
in the latter to spiritual perception. For a few short hours still, the
ungodly mass of men were to have that outward vision which might have
been so much to them, but which they had used so badly that 'they
seeing saw not.' It was to cease, and they who loved Him would not miss
it when it did; but the withdrawal which hid Him from sense and
sense-bound souls would reveal Him more clearly to His friends. They,
too, had but dimly seen Him while He stood by them; they would gaze on
Him with truer insight when He was present though absent.
So this is what every Christian life may and should be—the continual
sight of a continually-present Christ. It is His part to come. It is
ours to see, to be conscious of Him who does come.
Faith is the sight of the soul, and it is far better than the sight of
the senses. It is more direct. My eye does not touch what I look at.
Gulfs of millions of miles may lie between me and it. But my faith is
not only eye, but hand, and not only beholds, but grasps, and comes
into contact with that to which it is directed. It is far more clear.
Sense may deceive; faith, built upon His Word, cannot deceive. Its
information is far more certain, far more valid. I have better reason
for believing in Jesus Christ than I have for believing in the things
that I touch and handle. So that there is no need for men to say, 'Oh,
if we had only seen Him with our eyes!' You would very likely not have
known Him if you had. There is no reason for thinking that the Church
has retrograded in its privileges, because it has to love instead of
beholding, and to believe instead of touching. That is advance, and we
are better than they, inasmuch as the blessing of those 'who have not
seen, and yet have believed,' comes down upon our heads. The vision of
Christ which is granted to the faithful soul is better and not worse,
more and not less, other in kind indeed, but loftier in degree too,
than that which was granted to the men who saw Him upon earth. Sense
disturbs, faith alone beholds.
'The world seeth Me no more.' Why? Because it is a world. 'Ye see Me.'
Why? Because, and in the measure in which you have turned away your
eyes from seeing vanity. If you want the eye of the soul to be opened,
you must shut the eye of sense. And the more we turn away from looking
at the dazzling lies with which time and the material universe befool
and bewilder us, the more shall we see Him whom to see is to live for
ever.
Oh, brethren! does that strong word 'see' in any measure express the
vividness, the directness, the certainty of our realisation of our
Master's presence? Is Jesus Christ as clear, as perceptible, as sure to
us as the men round us are? Which are the shadows and which are the
realities to us? The things which are seen, which the senses crown as
'real,' or the things which cannot be seen because they are so great,
and tower above us, invisible in their eternity? Which world are our
eyes most open to, the world where Christ is, or the world here? Our
happy eyes may behold and our blessed hands may handle the Word of Life
which was manifested to us. Let us beware that we turn not away from
the one thing worthy to be looked at, to gaze upon a desolate and
dreary world.