But consider, further, not only to what, but hy what, is the revelation. By sight ? or word ? If by sight, then to eyes which see justly. Otherwise, no sight would be revelation. So far, then, as your sight is just, it is the image of God's sight.
If by words — how do you know their meanings ? Here is a short piece of precious word revelation, for instance — "God ia love."
* Statius, translated by W. E. A. Axon.
58 IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
Love ! yes. But what is that ? The revelation does not tell you that, I think. Look into the mirror and you will see. Out of your own heart, you may know what love is. In no other possible way — by no other help or sign. All the words and sounds ever uttered, all the revelations of cloud, or flame, or crystal, are utterly powerless. They cannot tell you, in the smallest point, what love means. Only the broken mirror can.
Here is more revelation. " God is just ! " Just ! What is that ? The revelation cannot help you to discover. You say it is dealing equitably or equally. But how do you discern the equality ? Not by inequality of mind ; not by a mind incapable of weighing, judging, or distributing. If the lengths seem unequal in the broken mirror, for you they are unequal ; but if they seem equal, then the mirror is true. So far as you recognize equality, and your conscience tells you what is just, so far your mind is the image of God's ; and so far as you do not discern this nature of justice or equality, the words, " God is just," bring no revelation to you.^
IF I have often imagined to myself the large joy which must have filled the mind of Aristarchus of Samos when the true con- ception of the solar system first dawned upon him, unsupported though it was by any of the mathematical demonstrations which have since convinced all educated men of its truth, and con- straining belief solely on the ground of its own simple and beautiful order. I could suppose such a belief very strong, and almost taking such a form as this : — It is so harmonious, so self -con- sistent, that it ought to be so, therefore it must be so. And surely this is nothing more than might be looked for in regard to spiritual realities. If man is created for fellowship with God there must exist within him, notwithstanding all the ravages of sin, capacities which will recognize the light and life of eternal truth when it is brought close to him. Without such capacities revelation would in fact be impossible.^
A fire-mist and a planet,
A crystal and a cell, A jelly-fish and a saurian.
And caves where the cave-men dwell. Then a sense of law and beauty,
And a face turned from the clod, — Some call it evolution.
And others call it God.
' Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. i. §§ 11-13. ' Thomas Erakine of Linlathen.
GENESIS I. 26, 27 59
Like tides on a crescent seabeach,
When the moon is new and thin, Into our hearts high yearnings
Come weUing and surging in; Come from the mystic ocean,
Whose rim no foot has trod, — Some of us call it longing,
And others call it God.
T. Capacity for Redemption.
The possibihty of redemption after man had sinned is as great a mark as any of the image of God impressed upon him. When man has fallen he is not left to himself, as one whose fall is a trifling matter in the great economy of God's creation. It was because His own image had been impressed on man that God undertook to redeem him ; it was because that image, though defaced, had not been wholly destroyed, that such redemption was possible. Yes — thanks to God — we are in some sense in His image still; much as we incline to sin, yet we feel in our hearts and consciences that sin is death and that holiness is life. Much as we swerve from the ways of God, yet our consciences still tell us that those ways are ways of pleasantness and paths of peace ; foolishly as we have behaved by seeking happiness in breaking God's commands, yet our hearts testify to our folly and our better judgment condemns us. Here then are the traces of God's image still, and because these traces remain, therefore there is hope for us in our fallen condition. God will yet return and build up His Tabernacle which has been thrown down ; and it may be that the glory of the latter house will through His infinite mercy be even greater than that of the first.
^ There is a story in English history of a child of one of our noble houses who, in the last century, was stolen from his house by a sweep. The parents spared no expense or trouble in their search for him, but in vain. A few years later the lad happened to be sent by the master into whose hands he had then passed to sweep the chimneys in the very house from which he had been stolen while too young to remember it. The little fellow had been sweeping the chimney of one of the bedrooms, and fatigued with the exhausting labour to which so many lads, by the cruel cusbom of those times, were bound, he quite forgot where he was, and flinging himself upon the clean bed dropped