We have already come across the same apparent paradox, covering a deep
truth, in the former sections of this series of petitions. I need only
remind you, in reference to this matter, that the knowledge which is
here in question is not the intellectual perception of a fact as
revealed in Scripture, but is that knowledge to which alone the New
Testament gives the noble name, being knowledge verified by inward
experience, and the result of one's own personal acquaintance with its
object.
How do we know a power? By thrilling beneath its force. How are we to
know the greatness of the power but because it comes surging and
rejoicing into our aching emptiness, and lifts us buoyant above our
temptations and weakness? Paul was not asking for these people
theological conceptions. He was asking that their spirits might be so
saturated with and immersed in that great ocean of force that pours from
God as that they should never, henceforth, be able to doubt the
greatness of that power which wrought in them. The knowledge that comes
from experience is the knowledge that we all ought to seek. It is not
merely to be desired that we should have right and just conceptions, but
that we should have the vital knowledge which is, and which comes from,
life eternal.
And that power, which thus we may all know by feeling it working upon
ourselves, though it be immeasurable, has its measure; though it be, in
its depth and fulness, unknowable and inexhaustible, may yet be really
and truly known. You do not need a thunderstorm to experience the
electric shock; a battery that you can carry in your pocket will do that
for you. You do not need to have traversed all the length and breadth
and depth and height of some newly-discovered country to be sure of its
existence, and to have a real, though it may be a vague, conception of
the magnitude of its shores. And so, really, though boundedly, we have
the knowledge of God, and can rely upon it as valid, though partial; and
similarly, by experience we have such a certified acquaintance with Him
and His power as needs no enlargement to be trusted, and to become the
source of blessings untold. We may see but a strip of the sky through
the narrow chinks of our prison windows, and many a grating may further
intercept the view, and much dust that might be cleared away may dim the
glass but yet it _is_ the sky that we see, and we can think of the great
horizon circling round and round, and of the infinite depths above
there, which neither eye nor thought can travel unwearied. Though all
that we see be but an inch in breadth and a foot or two in height, yet
we do see. We know the unknowable power that passeth knowledge.
And let me remind you of how large importance this knowledge of and
constant reference to the measureless power manifested in Christ is for
us. I believe there can be no vigorous, happy Christian life without it.
It is our only refuge from pessimism and despair for the world. The old
psalm said, 'Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honour, and hast given
Him dominion over the works of Thy hands,' and hundreds of years
afterwards the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews commented on it
thus, 'We see not yet all things put under Him.' Was the old vision a
dream, was it never intended to be fulfilled? Apparently so, if we take
the history of the past into account, and the centuries that have passed
since have done nothing to make it more probable, apart from Jesus
Christ, that man will rise to the height which the Psalmist dreamed of.
When we look at the exploded Utopias that fill the past; when we think
of the strange and apparently fatal necessity by which evil is developed
from every stage of what men call progress, and how improvement is
perverted, almost as soon as effected, into another fortress of weakness
and misery; when we look on the world as it is to-day, I know not whence
a man is to draw bright hopes, or what is to deliver him from pessimism
as his last word about himself and his fellows, except the 'working of
the strength of the might which He wrought in Christ.' 'We see not yet
all things put under Him'--be it so, 'but we see Jesus,' and, looking to
Him, hope is possible, reasonable, and imperative.
The same knowledge is our refuge from our own consciousness of weakness.
We look up, as a climber may do in some Alpine ravine, upon the smooth
gleaming walls of the cliff that rises above us. It is marble, it is
fair, there are lovely lands on the summit, but nothing that has not
wings can get there. We try, but slip backwards almost as much as we
rise. What is to be done? Are we to sit down at the foot of the cliff,
and say, 'We cannot climb, let us be content with the luscious herbage
and sheltered ease below?' Yes! That is what we are tempted to say. But
look! a mighty hand reaches over, an arm is stretched down, the hand
grasps us, and lifts us, and sets us there.
'No man hath ascended up into heaven save He that came down from
heaven,' and having returned thither stoops thence, and will lift us to
Himself. I am a poor, weak creature. Yes! I am all full of sin and
corruption. Yes! I am ashamed of myself every day. Yes! I am too heavy
to climb, and have no wings to fly, and am bound here by chains
manifold. Yes! But we know the exceeding greatness of the power, and we
triumph in Him.
That knowledge should shame us into contrition, when we think of such
force at our disposal, and such poor results. That knowledge should
widen our conceptions, enlarge our desires, breathe a brave confidence
into our hopes, should teach us to expect great things of God, and to be
intolerant of present attainments whilst anything remains unattained.
And it should stimulate our vigorous effort, for no man will long seek
to be better, if he is convinced that the effort is hopeless.
Learn to realise the exceeding greatness of the power that will clothe
your weakness. 'Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created
these things, for that He is strong in might, not one faileth.' That is
wonderful, but here is a far nobler operation of the divine power. It is
great to 'preserve the ancient heavens' fresh and strong by His might,
but it is greater to come down to my weakness, to 'give power to the
faint,' and 'increase strength to them that have no might.' And that is
what He will do with us.