r the vision of God, startled by every footstep,
intently listening till the very atmosphere shall become audible,
expecting an overwhelming spectacle? In all likelihood you will miss
all. The kingdom comes not with outward show. When men expected
Christ to come by the front door, He stole in at the back. Whilst
Philip was waiting for the Father to be shown in thunder and lightning,
in startling splendor, in the stately majesty that might become the
Highest, he missed the daily unfolding of the Divine Nature that was
being afforded in the Life with which he dwelt in daily contact.

_Philip's request emphasized the urgent need of the ministry of the
Holy Spirit._--"If ye had known Me". . . the Saviour said. "Have I
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?" They
failed to know the Father, because they failed to know Christ, and they
failed in this because they knew Him only after the flesh. They were
so familiar with Him as their Friend, His love was so natural, tender,
and human, He had become so closely identified with all their daily
existence, that they did not recognize the fire that shone behind the
porcelain, the Deity that tabernacled beneath the frail curtains.

Often those who dwell amid the loveliest or grandest scenery miss the
beauty which is unveiled to strangers from a distance. Certain lives
have to be withdrawn from us before we understand how fair they were,
and how much to us. And Jesus had to leave His disciples before they
could properly appreciate Him. The Holy Spirit must needs take of the
things of Christ, and reveal them, before they could realize their true
significance, symmetry, and beauty.

Two things are needful, then: first, we must know Christ through the
teaching of the Holy Ghost; and next, we must receive Him into our
hearts, that we may know Him, as we know the workings of our own
hearts. Each knows himself, and could recognize the mint-mark of his
own individuality; so when Christ has become resident within us, and
has taken the place of our self-life, we know Him as we know ourselves.
"What man knoweth the things of man save the spirit of man which is in
him?--but we have the mind of Christ?"

II. THE LORD'S REPLY.--"He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father."

He did not rebuke the request, as unfit to proffer, or impossible to
satisfy. He took it for granted that such a desire would exist in the
heart, and that His disciples would always want to