the
Truth, and the Life."

VI

Christ Revealing the Father

"Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father and it sufficeth us.
Jesus saith unto him, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."--JOHN
xiv. 8, 9.

The longing of the universal heart of man was voiced by Philip, when he
broke in, rather abruptly, on our Lord's discourse with the challenge
that He should answer all questions, dissipate all doubt, by showing
them the Father. Is there a God? how can I be sure that He is? what
does He feel toward us?--these are questions which men persistently
ask, and wait for the reply. And the Master gave the only satisfactory
answer that has ever been uttered in the hearing of mankind, when He
said in effect, "The knowledge of God must be conveyed, not in words or
books, in symbols or types, but in a life. To know Me, to believe in
Me, to come into contact with Me, is to know the deepest heart of God.
'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou then, Show
us the Father?'"

I. PHILIP'S INQUIRY.--_It bore witness to the possible growth of the
human soul_. Only three short years before, as we are told in the
first chapter of this Gospel, Christ had found him. At that time he
was probably much as the young men of his age and standing. Not
specially remarkable save for an interest in, and an earnestness about,
the advent of the Messiah; his views, however, of his person and work
were limited and narrow: he looked for his advent as the time for the
reestablishment of the kingdom of David, and deliverance from the Roman
yoke. But three years of fellowship with Jesus had made a wonderful
difference in this young disciple. The deepest mysteries of life and
death and heaven seemed within his reach. He is not now content with
beholding the Messiah, he is eager to know the Father, and to stand
within the inner circle of His presence-chamber.

The highest watermark ever touched by the great soul of Moses was when
he said, amid the sublimities of Sinai, "I beseech Thee, show me Thy
glory." But in this aspiration Philip stands beside him. There is a
close kinship between the mighty lawgiver and the fishermen of
Bethsaida. How little there is to choose between, "Show me Thy glory,"
and "Show us the Father." Great and marvellous is the capacity of the
soul for growth!

_It truly interpreted the need of man._--"It sufficeth us." From
nature, with all her voices that speak of God's power and