Article August 26, 1911 Issue

A LESSON FROM STARLIGHT

KATHARINE J. SMITH.

When Truth first challenges the resisting ardor of the human will, there sometimes comes this hard question to prove the student: If God is of purer eyes than to look upon inquiry, why did He send a predestined and proclaimed Redeemer to save the human race from its obvious evil? When we cast a backward glance upon the defeated major confusions and contradictions with which we have had many a wrestle, we can but remember that none was greater than our ignorance of God, and our sense of remoteness from Him.

The Bible offers many conspicuous examples of the living faith and inspiration possible to those who claimed communion with the divine presence. In Genesis we read, "Enoch walked with God." Abraham, in his ninety-ninth year, listened to the covenant from the almighty God, who presently "left off talking with him." Job, erstwhile willing to believe by the hearing of his ear, declared, "But now mine eye seeth thee." The Master, whose every word must find vindication in the ultimate demonstration of Christian Science, said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Following these testimonies and declarations comes the word of St. John the beloved, sage and divine, who twice declares, "No man hath seen God at any time."

John, the exalted and revered witness of Christian progression, was far from declaring sudden apostasy, nor was he admitting discouragement when he chose to include this startling statement primarily in his gospel and later in his first general epistle, nor did he make of little account or accidental the veracity always synonymous with the sacred names of Enoch, Abraham, Job, and Christ Jesus; he was warning a throng of new-made Christians whom he benignantly addressed as "little children," whose faith was menaced by the false prophets of personality, strife, and selfishness. He knew that the unrecognized lack of this throng was love, and that its presence could alone enlighten their ignorance.

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A LESSON FROM STARLIGHT

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