It is in relation to the highest truths that it is most important constantly to recognize the limitation of our knowledge and the imperfection of our expression of it. It is these truths of which it is most necessary to remember that we apprehend them only as " through a mirror," express them only as " in a riddle " ; learn only by slow degrees to recognize a little better what the image means, to understand a little more fully the depths of mystery wrapped in the words of the riddle. How many an error has sprung from the assumption that human language could be a full and adequate expression of Divine realities, in forgetfulness of St. Augustine's warning, Verius cogitatur Deus qiiam dicitur, et verius est quam cogitatur ; for "when we have said all that we can say concerning Him, we have said nothing worthily." How many an assault upon the Christian faith has been based upon the assumption that infinite truths could be compressed into the moulds of human words ! Yes, and how often the defenders of the Faith have exposed themselves to attack by letting it be thought that this was their belief, this the position which they were bound to maintain at all hazards.
^[ Take for an example the nature of God. The very attributes of God are an enigma to us. What is infinity ? What is omni- science? What is omnipresence? What is eternity? Each is a riddle. Take the character of God. Is it not all shadowed forth to us in the Scriptures, in the Old Testament at all events, in dark sayings ? " It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart " (Gen. vi. 6). Take the mode of our redemption. We firmly believe in the truth of an atonement made for sin by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. But is not every word in that statement an enigma? Who can explain, unless he would " darken counsel by words without knowledge" (Job xxxviii. 2), the precise mode and
i CORINTHIANS xm. 12 375
principle of that work of Christ, which is yet a sinner's one hope ? Take the operation of the Holy Spirit. Who can tell us how the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of men ? " Thou nearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit " (John iii. 8). Take the process of the future judgment. Who will say that a thousand objections which he cannot answer might not be urged by human ingenuity against each part of that doctrine? We know it ; but it is " in a riddle " ; it is as a dark saying. Or take, once more, for an example, the whole conception of heaven, of the future life of the saved; and 0, ten thousand times more, of the future life of the lost. The revelation is made to us, made on the authority of God, but made to us also in human words, and therefore also made "in an enigma."1
I) Evermore it remains true that we see darkly. It is necessary; it is part of our education; we do not require to know much just yet — a little here goes a long way. I do not need to know the metaphysical nature of God, or the state and occupa- tions of the dead, or the destiny of the heathen, or how rnany^ shall be saved, or how long the world is to last under present arrangements, and when the great historic drama of our planet will enter upon another act, or what rising hierarchies of angels there are, and what they look like, and what they do, and how they subsist: all this is irrelevant to my condition. We see darkly, but we see enough. We feel that there must be reality behind these appearances, that behind the universe must be a Mind that made it; behind time must be eternity; behind the carnal kingdoms of this world, the kingdom of eternal love that shall one day replace them ; behind man's soul, with its hankerings and hungers and thirsts and clamours, a God who can satisfy them ; behind all the sin of the world, a salvation from it.2
ii. Then.
" Then face to face."
No doubt there is a verbal reference here to the words spoken of Moses : " If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches ; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold " (Num. xii. 6-8). We have the same contrast
1 C. J. Vaughan. 2 J. S. Jones, Seeing Darkly, 22.
376 THE PARTIAL AND THE PERFECT
here : " Now we see through a glass, in a dark speech . . . but then face to face." We shall all have that sort of communication with God Himself, which, alone of all men, the mediator of the first dispensation was privileged to enjoy in his day.