(1) Multitudes of religious men have felt, as they looked back upon the past, that their course was ordered from the beginning by an unseen hand, that a Providence has guided them into the paths which were prepared beforehand for them to walk in, and they have been enabled to perceive in the opportunities of life the calling of a Divine voice. They have felt, moreover, that this is the only intelligible interpretation of life ; and that without this revelation — for such it is — of its meaning, life would be chaos, and the secret of the future a dreadful and portentous enigma. The light by which they walk is 'the light which lighteth every man,' and they rejoice in the illu- mination which it sheds upon their path. Some of the most saintly lives that the world has seen have been lived in the strength of the conviction that the changes and chances, as others call them, of the years are but the unveiling of a Divine face ; and that tlie vision of God becomes brighter when seen through the mists of pain. This is the belief of those men and women among us who have the best right to be heard ; their spiritual emotions are not altogether born of their own patient hopes ; they are due to the stirring of the Divine Spirit, and the .stimulation of the Divine Life ; they are a revelation of the unseen.
(2) And to such souls there come rare moments of spiritual ecstasy and exaltation, when they are filled with an overpowering conviction of the pre- sence of God, of His Will for them, of His Will for others. Such a moment it was in the life of St. Peter when he reached the supreme conviction of his life, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the livnigGod' (Mtl6"5); and we have the highest of all authority for the source of his inspiration : ' Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.' Such a moment came to St. John at Patmos when, being 'in the Spirit on the Lord's day ' (Kev 1", cf. 42), he heard the Heavenly voice pronouncing judg- ment on the Churches, and saw in a vision the Heavenly figure which is always standing unseen in their midst. Such a moment came to St. Paul when tlie vision of the Christ at the gates of Damascus
changed the whole course of his career ; ' is pleased God to reveal his Son in me' (Gal li") is his de- scription of the experience. And again and again St. Paul refers the certainty of his convictions to the fact, which is for him indisputable, that they reached him by revelation. The ' mystery of Christ,' as he calls it, that the Gentiles are fellow- heirs of the gospel — this was ' made known ' to him ' by revelation ' (Eph 3-^). The gospel which he preached came to him, he writes to the Galatians, 'not from man, but through revelation of Jesus Christ' (Gal l^^). Such were the revelations of which he wrote, while there were yet others which he counted too intimate, too sacred, to commit to words, as when he says that he ' was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter' (2 Co 12-'). It was one of St. Paul's deepest convictions that to him were revealed at times from heaven thoughts greater than his own ; so sure is he of this that he is careful on occa.sion to explain that all his utter- ances have not the same supreme authority. ' The things which I write, they are the commandment of the Lord' (1 Co 14^^). So he says of one sub- ject. Concerning another, ' I have no command- ment' (7-^) is his prelude, although he concludes, ' I think that I have the Spirit of God ' (v.^o). But he is sure that the Divine message has been dis- closed to him in a fashion which may be sharply distinguished from the ordinary ways in which knowledge is acquired. Human wisdom is not identical with Divine wisdom ; so he warns the Corinthians, as he quotes the ancient words, ' Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man, whatso- ever things God hath prepared for them that love him' ; and declares, 'Unto us God revealed the.se things ' — not the secrets of the future, but the secrets rt the present — ' these things God revealed through the Spirit' {2'->- W).
These and similar passages show beyond doubt that the NT saints, and St. Paul in particular, were quite convinced that God at times reveals His secrets — His mysteries — to a devout and earnest spirit ; and that this revelation is consciously re- cognized by the soul as distinct from the discovery of a Divine purpose in life, or the assurance of Divine guidance, which are reached by patient striving after the highest things. The one is the experience of all good men ; the other is the portion of the saints, the elect to whom a fuller disclosure of the Divine will is made. It is the portion of the prophets, the ' seers,' to whom the ' word of the Lord ' speaks with an irresistible authority. Yet in both cases — in the ordinary and the extraordinary experiences alike — there is not only a movement of the human soul towards God, but a movement of the Divine love towards man. We generally keep the word ' revelation ' for the extraordinary or abnormal experiences ; and there is no objection to this restriction, provided we understand that in neither case does man's spirit act without response or without stimulation from heaven. But this it is essential to bear in mind. ' Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you' (Jn 15^*') are words of universal application.