Article July 27, 1912 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from Rhinelander, S. G. Barnes, John R. Hunter, M. M. Pattison Muir, J. Herman Randall

[Bishop Rhinelander, Pennsylvania, in Living Church.]

First think of the blessedness which is promised to the pure in heart, namely, to see God. What does that mean? I think we are too apt to put off the idea of seeing God into the far-off future, as if it meant only a vision that was to come to us after death, in a strange life, full of new powers, where we shall not have to walk any more by faith. That indeed is our hope, because it is Christ's promise, but that hope must have some sort of foundation to rest on. Unless an earthly foundation is laid for it, there will be nothing on which the heavenly superstructure can be built. And Christ is thinking and speaking primarily of this earthly foundation. He means a present vision of God which shall be a preparation for the future. What then would it mean for us all to see God? You know the difference between looking at and seeing things. You know how we can get vague impressions of things without really seeing them at all; how we can be out in the glory of a sunset and be so absorbed in other things as to forget it; how we can witness a great act of sacrifice and not understand it; how we can kneel in prayer and not in the least realize what we are doing. That is looking at things but not seeing them. And so many men and women walk about this world just touching the appearance and not the reality of things. They move about as in a dream, as if they were present at a play.

Now to see God is to see through things to truth, to understand what things really mean. It is very practical; a matter of every-day experience. In everything, seeing God means simply realizing Him everywhere and at all times,—at His altar, at our bedside, in our prayers, in our dealings with our family and friends. It means bringing heaven down to earth, seeing our life as God sees it, walking by His side. You see faith does not mean trying very hard to believe things which do not seem true. Just the opposite. It does mean seeing the things which alone are really true. God is really there, whether we see Him or not. Faith simply means having our eyes wide open to the real facts. Faith for us means really seeing God.

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