those multitudes who followed our Lord about for awhile
but were dispersed by the test of hard sayings.

But Jesus can be found. He is found of all those who seek Him humbly and
sincerely, putting away self and desiring simply to be led: who do not
challenge Him with Pilate's scornful, "What is truth?" but rather say,
"Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief." He is easily found of those
who know where to look for Him. There is no mystery about that,--He will
certainly be in His Father's House. The surprise of Joseph and Mary that
He had thus dealt with them is answered by Jesus' surprise that they did
not certainly know where He would be: "Wist ye not that I must be in My
Father's House?"

In the House of God, the Church of God, is the ready approach to Jesus.
It is in the last degree foolish to waive aside the Church in which are
stored the treasures of more than nineteen centuries of Christian
experience as though it did and could have nothing to say in the matter.
A seeker after information as to the meaning of the constitution of the
United States would be considered a madman if he impatiently turned from
those of whom he made enquiry when they suggested the decrees of the
Supreme Court as the proper place to seek information. Surely, from any
point of view, the Church will know more about Jesus than any one else:
if in all the centuries it has not discovered the meaning of Him Whom it
ceaselessly worships there is small likelihood that that meaning will be
discovered by an unbeliever studying an ancient book! If the Church
cannot lead us to Jesus, and if it cannot interpret to us His will,
there is small likelihood that any one else will be able to do so. And
if during all these centuries His will has been unknown it can hardly be
of much importance to discover it now. If His Church has failed, then
His Mission is discredited.

For us who have accepted His revelation as made to the Church and by it
unfailingly preserved, who have learned to find Him there where He has
promised to be until the end of time, there is another sense in which we
think of His words as words of encouragement and consolation. There are
hours in life which press hard upon us; there are other hours when the
sense of God's love and goodness fills us with thankfulness and joy. In
such hours we crave the intimacy of personal communion: we want to tell
our grief or our joy. And then we take our way to the temple, and know
that we shall find Him