at the beginning. Each truth has
its own order; we cannot join the way of life at any point of the
course we please; we cannot learn advanced truths before we have
learned primary ones. "Call upon Me," says the Divine Word, "and I
will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou
knowest not[5]." Religious men are always learning; but when men
refuse to profit by light already granted, their light is turned to
darkness. Observe our Lord's conduct with the Pharisees. They asked
Him on what authority He acted. He gave them no direct answer, but
referred them to the mission of John the Baptist--"The baptism of John,
whence was it? from heaven or from men[6]?" They refused to say. Then
He said, "Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."
That is, they would not profit by the knowledge they already had from
St. John the Baptist, who spoke of Christ--therefore no more was given
them.

All of us may learn a lesson here, for all of us are in danger of
hastily finding fault with others, and condemning their opinions or
practices; not considering, that unless we have faithfully obeyed our
conscience and improved our talents, we are no fit judges of them at
all. Christ and His Saints are alike destitute of form or comeliness
in the eyes of the world, and it is only as we labour to change our
nature, through God's help, and to serve Him truly, that we begin to
discern the beauty of holiness. Then, at length, we find reason to
suspect our own judgments of what is truly good, and perceive our own
blindness; for by degrees we find that those whose opinions and conduct
we hitherto despised or wondered at as extravagant or unaccountable or
weak, really know more than ourselves, and are above us--and so, ever
as we rise in knowledge and grow in spiritual illumination, they (to
our amazement) rise also, while we look at them. The better we are,
the more we understand their excellence; till at length we are taught
something of their Divine Master's perfections also, which before were
hid from us, and see why it is that, though the Gospel is set on a hill
in the midst of the world, like a city which cannot be hid, yet to
multitudes it is notwithstanding hid, since He taketh the wise in their
own craftiness, and the pure in heart alone can see God.

How are the sheep of Christ's flock scattered abroad in the waste
world! He came to gather them together in one; but they wander again
and faint by th