rtainty? Why should we live so remote from the centre of things, and
have to grope our way to life and light, clouded by doubts, beset by
misleading and disturbing influences? "_Show_ us the Father," we are
tempted to say with Philip--show us the Father and it sufficeth us. Show
us the Supreme. Show us the eternal One who governs all. Take us but
once to the centre of things and show us the Father in whom we live.
Take us for once behind the scenes and let us see the hand that moves
all things; let us know all that can be known, that we may see what it
is we are going to, and what is to become of us when this visible world
is done. Give us assurance that behind all this dumb, immovable mask of
outward things there is a living God whose love we can trust and whose
power can preserve us to life everlasting.

To Philip's eager request Jesus replies: "Have I been so long time with
you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen
the Father; how sayest thou, Show us the Father?" And it is thus our
Lord addresses all whose unsatisfied craving finds voice in Philip's
request. To all who crave some more immediate, if not more sensible
manifestation of God, to all who live in doubt and feel as if more might
be done to give us certitude regarding the relation we hold to God and
to the future, Christ says: No further revelation is to be made, because
no further revelation is needed or can be made. All has been shown that
can be shown. There is no more of the Father you can see than you have
seen in Me. God has taken that form which is most comprehensible to
you--your own form, the form of man. You have seen the Father. I am the
truth, the reality. It is no longer a symbol telling you something about
a distant God, but the Father Himself is in Me, speaking and acting
among you through Me.

What do we find in Christ? We find perfection of moral character,
superiority to circumstances, to the elements, to disease, to death. We
find in Him One who forgives sin and brings peace of conscience, who
bestows the Holy Spirit and leads to perfect righteousness. We cannot
imagine anything in God which is not made present to us in Christ In any
part of the universe we should feel secure with Christ. In the most
critical spiritual emergency we should have confidence that He could
right matters. In the physical and in the spiritual world He is equally
at home and equally commanding. We can believe Him when He says that he