Anoint my eyes that I may see Through all this sad obscurity, This worldly mist that dims my sight, These crowding clouds that hide the light
Full vision, as perhaps have they Who walk beyond the boundary way, I do not seek, I do not ask, But only this, — that through the mask,
Which centuries of soil and sin Have fashioned for us, I may win A clearer sight to show me where Truth walks with faith divine and fair.^
II.
The Invisible.
Elisha fell upon his knees and prayed, " Lord, open his eyes, that he may see." It is quite clear, then, that this keen-sighted young man did not see everything. Had there been nothing more to see, Elisha's prayer would have been mockery. The prophet's eyesight was no better than his servant's, and both looked out on the same hills and downs. But there were wonders there for the prophet that the prophet's servant had quite failed to find. And the distinguishing element was God.
^ It is the Unknown Quantity that troubles men, and gives them to feel that after they have completed their arithmetic their conclusion is wrong. Christ tells us of the rich man who made * Coillard of the Zambesi, 127. * Norah Porry.
2 KINGS VI. 17 477
a map of his estate, and drew it in beautiful and vivid and graphic lines, and had interesting plans for new barns and great store- houses ; and when it was all done, he said : " Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." But — then that Unknown Voice was heard — " but God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." The one thing that knocked all his plans into confusion was the Forgotten Factor.^
Let us look first at Christ invisible to our natural sight, and second at Christ invisible to our spiritual sight.
1, Christ Invisible our Glory. — Eeligion is nothing, if not an appeal to the invisible. It is based on the conviction of invisible spirit, and implies spiritual converse and communion. The un- tutored pagan associates with his idol or image some hidden being or power ; and while this does not prevent the materializing of religion, it raises it above mere fetishism or materialism. And for us the conception of the invisibleness of our Saviour is a very real help to spirituality.
(1) Christ invisible is a standing protest against a materializing conception of human nature. Man will worship ; but for him to worship at the shrine of the visible and material alone would be to enter into the spirit of the beast that goeth downward. Men take after what they worship, and are moulded upon their conceptions of the God they serve. For it is just " as He is, so are we in this world." And the converse also holds good — " as we ourselves are, so will we fashion the object we worship." Low conceptions here mean low conceptions of ourselves, of our nature, our life, and the nature, life, and claims of others.
The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon ! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon ; The winds that will be howling at all hours. And are up-gathered now like sleeping ilowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. — Great God ! I'd rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn, ^ L. A. Banks.
478 THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.^
(2) The conception of a Christ invisible is a standing protest against mere materializing of worship and religious ordinances. We have a twofold nature indeed, and both sides of it must engage in and be served and suited by worship. While we are "in the body" we need outward help to worship, yet "bodily service" profiteth little, and may be easily divorced from a worship in spirit. We have ever to guard against turning God's worship into a formality or parade of mere ritual and ceremonial observance. Eeligion, to be of any vital worth, must have a truly spiritual principle at its centre, so as to maintain a solid core of vital heat.
(3) Christ's invisibleness is a standing protest against a materializing estimate of His own life upon earth. The most materialistic view of that earthly life is to regard it as something detached from the ever-abiding life of His which is set forth in His own great word, " Lo, I am with you alway." Christ invisible is the assurance to us of His abiding life and action, still as real and true as any life and action of His on earth, when He walked on it in bodily form centuries ago. Christ invisible attests the ever-living, the ever-present, the ever-operative Lord and Kedeemer.
2. Christ Invisible our Shame. — It has been said that classi- fication of men in respect of religion will have to be changed, that no longer shall we divide them into Catholic and Protestant, Churchmen and Dissenters, Presbyterian and Methodist, but into men who see Christ and men who do not.