All who wish to know God truly must put themselves to school under
Christ the Master. A wonderful school it is. Little children are at
home in it and the greatest minds among men find in it always something
new to learn. The wonder of the school and the power of it lie not
only in the personality of the Teacher but in the fact also that He
Himself is what He teaches. What Jesus Christ was God is. The
revelation of God we possess in Christ is a revelation that is personal
and complete. "This is life eternal to know Thee the only true God and
Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent."
This does not mean that the knowledge of God--or even of God as
Father--is the exclusive possession of Christians. A long line of
Hebrew prophets, called and inspired by the spirit of God, revealed
God's Name and will and attributes in different ways and in different
portions to generation after generation of His chosen people. It was
the special privilege of Israel to receive the oracles of God. Christ
Jesus, Whose coming the prophets foretold, took over the revelation of
God that each had given, corrected it where it had been misapprehended,
endorsed it, set it in order, and completed it. In the fulness of the
knowledge of God that had been given them Israel stood unique among the
nations. Nevertheless other races had some knowledge of Him also. God
has not anywhere or at any time left Himself without witnesses. In our
classical studies we heard of Jupiter or Zeus "Father of men and of
gods". Greeks of old in their philosophic search for unity, Hindoos in
their longing for absorption into the divine, Chinese in the moral
precepts of Confucius, Mohammedans in the constant call to prayer which
they obey, all bring before us religions that are sincere in their
adhesion to one or other of the great truths about God which they have
discovered.
I stood one night on the deck of a ship on the ocean. The moon was at
the full and was shining in a cloudless sky. The light penetrated
everywhere. No part of the wide expanse of water was beyond its reach,
and yet straight before me was a broad pathway of light reaching as far
as I could see. So bright was this pathway, that compared with it on
this side and on that all else seemed to be in darkness.
Some rays of the knowledge of God are recognized in all the great world
religions. Along the line of the prophets of Israel the light of God's
self-revelation shone with special brightness, sometimes waxing it is
true and sometimes waning, until the day dawned and Christ the Sun of
righteousness arose.
This is what St. Paul means when he tells the Christians at Corinth
that God Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
their hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ.