III.
The Superiority of Faith over Sight.
1. Walking by faith we are better able to appreciate Christ's power. — ^We have a juster conception of Christ's power, its spiritual nature, its universality, its unfailing energy, than His contemporaries could have had. To us He is no mere wonder- working magician, but the wielder of that spiritual force which still raises the dead soul to life, gives strength to the palsied will, and casts out the unclean spirit ; the power which is made perfect in weakness, and which is able to use the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. Not even the disciples could, during our Lord's lifetime on earth, have understood Christ's power as we understand it.
^ A poor boy lay dying. The night I saw him was cold and gloomy without, the house within was small and poor. On that ^ Huskin, Modem Painters, it ( Works, iv. 116),
^ COR. V. 7 141
bed he had Iain for months without a murmur, suffering severe bodily pain. Around him were signs of blood as if he lay wounded on a battle-field. From that pale face, lighted up only by blue eyes serene and quiet, I heard these words the night his spirit met his Saviour, and they were worthy of the greatest warrior, " I am strong in Him." Yes, child, stronger than all the fleets and armies of Europe.^
2. We are, better able to appreciate Christ's love. — His con- temporaries saw that the Lord was loving; but they naturally read into His life the limitations of which they were conscious in their own, and did not realize the universality of His love. They expected it to be limited by racial antipathies. " How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria," said the stranger to Him at the well of Sychar. They expected that He would shrink back from contact with sinners. "This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him." His con- temporaries could not so denude themselves of their ordinary conceptions of humanity as to realize that the love of Jesus transcended all human limits, embraced every member of our race, and yearned with special earnestness over the prodigal and the lost. But we, who have never known Christ after the flesh, have some glimpse of the breadth and length and depth and height of that love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
Again, as regards that supreme instance of His love, the offering of Himself for the sins of the world — what was it to those who saw it, to John and Mary, and to those who " stood afar off beholding " ? What were the struggling thoughts to which that spectacle gave rise ? That He was irmocent, that He, the most loving of men, was suffering the cruellest of deaths, that history was repeating itself, and the Jews were slaying their greatest and best, that they themselves were losing their friend, their spiritual helper, so that henceforth life would be dark and sad to them. But how little did they realize that that crucifixion was the great crisis in the world's history, yes, and the great crisis, too, in the history of every individual soul. How little did they realize then the meaning of His own words, " I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." How little did they know that * Norman Macleod, Love the FulfiUmg of the Lmoy 24.
142 WALKING BY FAITH
that was a voluntary offering of the God-man, who gave Himself for the life of the world. Afterwards, it is true, they learnt all this; but, remember, they were taught it not by sight, but by faith, and faith alone can draw the inspiring doctrine from love, that whosoever abideth in love abideth in God and God in him.
^ You cannot see Christ, but you believe that He is true, loving, faithful, touched with sympathy when you suffer; that He knows all about you, and loves you with a love personal, deep, tender, strong, everlasting. You know, too, that He has all power, and that all His power is yours to support, keep, bless, deliver, protect, save you. You know that He has all wisdom — wisdom that never errs, that never counsels rashly, indiscreetly, short- sightedly— and that all this wisdom is for the guidance of your life, the ordering of your steps. As we think along these lines the unseen Christ becomes very real to us.^
3. We are better able to realize the abiding presence of Christ. — This was the lesson the Lord was teaching His followers during the forty days. To those who had known Him by sight, He had appeared as bound by the limits of space and time. But the forty days gave the disciples wider views. What would be the effect of His appearing suddenly, when least expected, now in Galilee, now in Jerusalem ; revealing Himself to them now as they sit in the room with closed doors, now as they take their evening walk, now as they cast their nets in the Galilean lake ? Must not the belief have sprung up in them that their Master might at any moment grow into sight out of the empty space — that, in fact, seen or not seen, He was always beside them, viewing their every action and hearing their every word ? His Ascension has made that belief the property of all His followers. The Christian is never troubled now with the thought that Christ cannot be in two places at once. Simultaneously, it may be, to those who lie dying in some far-off battle-field, to those who cling to wrecks in lonely seas, to the mother who sits bereaved beside her dead child, the presence of the Lord is vouchsafed. They realize that He is there, and are calmed and comforted. It is only through His Ascension that the promise has been made good, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."