1 J. Drinkwater, Poems of Men and Hours, 5.
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A myriad worlds encompass ours;
A myriad souls our souls enclose; And each, its sins and woes and powers,
The Lord He sees, the Lord He knows, And from the Infinite Knowledge flowers
The Infinite Pity's fadeless rose.
Lighten our darkness, Lord, most wise;
All-seeing One, give us to see; Our judgments are profanities,
Our ignorance is cruelty; While Thou, knowing all, dost not despise
To pardon even such things as we.1
2. There are two things that may be said about this knowledge.
(1) It will be thorough. — It will be a knowledge through and through (for that is the meaning of the word). God is a heart- searching God. There is no secret so deeply buried in us but God sees it as in the light of day. Even such is the insight into His truth and character, into His word and works, into His ways and will, which is promised to those of us who shall be faithful unto death, in a world beyond the grave. It will be indeed a thorough knowledge.
(2) It will be comprehensive. — God has not only a minute insight ; He has also a large insight. He not only sees particulars ; He sees each one of us as a whole. You know how impossible that is for any one of us with regard to another. We see particular faults and particular virtues, but we are not able, in very many instances, nor ought we, to speak decisively of the character as a whole, whether for good or evil. But God sees this also. God could judge each one of us at this moment. He could say, Notwithstanding this fault, that man is my servant; notwithstanding that good quality, this man I never knew. And it shall be thus with our knowledge hereafter. Not only shall we believe and understand this item and that item, separately, of God's truth, but we shall see it all in its connection, in its combination, in its reconciling harmony, in its perfect unity. There will no longer be any spaces and gaps in our knowledge. There will be no longer crevasses and chasms, to be vaulted over
1 Susan Coolidge.
i CORINTHIANS xm. 12 385
on a staff of faith. " The crooked " will then have been " made straight," and " the rough places plain " (Isa. xl. 4) ; and " all flesh will see," as in one view, " the salvation of God " (Luke iii. 6). Then will not only wisdom be, as she ever has been, " justified of her children" (Matt. xi. 19), but also the ways of God will be universally and finally justified to men.
Knowledge — who hath it ? Nay, not thou,
Pale student, pondering thy futile lore !
A little space it shall be thine, as now
'Tis his whose funeral passes at thy door:
Last night a clown that scarcely knew to spell —
Now he knows all. 0 wondrous miracle!1
III. What shall we See and Know?
1. God. — Human knowledge, then, imperfect as it must necessarily be, is consecrated by the thought that it has for its goal the vision of God, of whose Being and Doing all that we can see and learn here is the reflection, " broken lights " piercing earth's mists from the central sun upon which no mortal man could gaze unveiled and live.
(1) The entrance on the next world must bring with it a knowledge of God such as is impossible in this life. In this life many men talk of God, and some men think much and deeply about Him. But here men do not attain to that sort of direct knowledge of God which the Bible calls "sight." We do not see a human soul. The soul makes itself felt in conduct, in con- versation, in the lines of the countenance ; although these often enough mislead us. The soul speaks through the eye, which misleads us less often. That is to say, we know that the soul is there, and we detect something of its character and power and drift. We do not see it. In the same way we feel God present in nature, whether in its awe or in its beauty; and in human history, whether in its justice or in its weird mysteriousness ; and in the life of a good man, or the circumstances of a generous or noble act. Most of all we feel Him near when conscience, His inward messenger, speaks plainly and decisively to us. Con- 1 Thomas B. Aldrich. I COR. — 25
386 THE PARTIAL AND THE PERFECT
science, that invisible prophet, surely appeals to and implies a law, and a law implies a legislator. But we do not see Him. " No man hath seen God at any time " ; even " the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father," is only said to have " declared him," since in Him the Godhead was veiled from earthly sight by that mantle of Flesh and Blood which, together with a human soul, He assumed in time.
But after death there will be a change. It is said of our Lord's glorified Manhood, united as it is for ever to the Person of the Eternal Son, that " every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him." Even the lost will then understand much more of what God is to the universe and to themselves, although they are excluded from the direct vision of God.