ST. JOHN (2) — 24
370 MY LORD AND MY GOD
commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." " God is love," and the Man who could not save Himself as He hung upon the cross could be nothing less than God.
^ If the conclusion that Jesus was God was based merely upon the fact of resurrection, I declare that it was not justified. Eesurrection did not demonstrate deity. The Hebrew Scriptures told of resurrection of certain men from the dead. Put these out of mind if you can. Thomas had seen three dead ones come to life during the ministry of Jesus. He had seen Him raise the child of Jairus ; he had seen the son of the widow of Nain given back to his mother after he had been laid upon the bier; and he had seen the raising of Lazarus, but he did not stand in the presence of Lazarus and say. My Lord and my God, because Lazarus was alive from the dead. If the confession was merely the result of resurrection, then I declare it was not justified. The fact that Christ was risen from among the dead is not enough to base the doctrine of His deity upon. But, as a sequence to all that had preceded it, I claim that he was justified. In that hour when Thomas became convinced that the One he had seen dead was alive from among the dead, there came back again to him with gathered force, focused into one clear bright hour of illumination, all the facts in the life and ministry that had pre- ceded that resurrection.^
^ Faith is not belief in fact, demonstration, or promise ; it is sensibility to the due influence of the fact, something that enables us to act upon the fact, the susceptibility to all the strength that is in the fact, so that we are controlled by it. Nobody can properly define this. All we can say is that it comes by the grace of God, and that failure to see the truth is not so lamentable as failure to be moved by it.^
* Q. Campbell Morgau. ' Mark Rutherford.
Believikg Without Seeing.
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Literature.
Bernard (J. H.), Via Domini, 165.
Bramston (J. T.), Fratribus, 104.
Butler (H. M.), University Sermons, 43.
Calthrop (G.), In Christ, 205.
Carpenter (W. B.), The Son of Man among the Sons of Meii, 117.
Carter (T. T.), The Spirit of Watchfulness, 111.
Gibbon (J. M.), Evangelical Heterodoxy, 106.
Hardy (E. J.), Doubt and Faith, 104.
Henson (H. H.), The Value of the Bible, 182.
Hoare (E.), Fruitful or Fruitless, 110.
Ingram (A. F. W.), Secrets of Strength, 52.
Jeffrey (J.), TJie Personal Ministry of the Son of Man, 276.
Jones (W. B.), The Peace of God, 138.
Little (J.), The Day-Spring, 146.
Macnutt (F. B.), The Inevitable Christ, 35.
Magee (W. C), Growth in Grace, 107.
Manning (H. E.), Sermons on Ecclesiastical Subjects, L 197.
Martyn (H. J.), For Christ and the Truth, 128.
Pearse (M. G.), The Gentleness of Jesus, 77.
Eyle (H. E.), On the Church of England, 125,
Stanford (C), From Calvary to Olivet, 157.
Stone (D.), The Discipline of Faith, 131.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), ii. (1862) No. 337 ; New Ser.
xiii. (1876) No. 1001. Williams (T. R.), Belief and Life, 99. Wright (D.), Waiting for the Light, 34. Young (D. T.), The Crimson Book, 53. Christian World Pulpit, xxviii. 180 (Frankland) ; lii. 52 (Gore), 307
(Barton) ; Iv. 230 (MacEwen) ; lix. 243 (Scott Holland) ; Ixii. 428
(Henson); Ixvi. 262 (M'Murtrie); Ixix. 102 (Mackintosh), 140
(Lyttelton). Church of England Pulpit, Ivii. 218 (Inge). Church Pulpit Year Book, ix. (1912) 82.
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Believing Without Seeing.
Jesus saith unto him, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. — John xx. 29.
1. These words of our Lord to Thomas add one more beatitude to those with which the Sermon on the Mount began. He had already taught to men the blessedness of humility, of meekness, of purity, of peace, not only in the beautiful phrases which we know so well, but chiefly by the example of His life. " Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. . . . Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. . . . Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers : for they shall be called sons of God." And now, when His earthly ministry is over, and when He is about to return to the majesty of His glory. He leaves as one parting benediction to those who love and follow Him, even to all who love and follow to the best of their powers the things that are good: "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." The benediction of faith ; it is one of the last messages of the Kisen Lord to His Church, and it brings fresh consolation and strength from age to age in correspondence with the varying needs and perplexities of mankind.
2. What is blessedness ? It is spiritual happiness. It is that deep calm of gladness which is spiritual in its origin and in its maintenance. This is the heritage of those who, not having seen, yet have believed. And it is the higher blessedness. It is con- trastive. Thomas had insisted on sight as an aid to faith. The concession was granted to him. He saw the Eisen One, and believing, cried in a passion of adoration, "My Lord and my God ! " And he was blessed. Every one who believes is blessed. But his was not the supreme blessedness. " Jesus saith unto him,