so far as to see how much
more wonderful it is to have a faith in which, with wonderful
simplicity, God says "I Am," than merely to have a religion which
affirms "He is," and we should have been glad that at any time there
were men to whom God spoke for Himself. But we should not have
supposed that the statement had any bearing on our life and existence,
or that it solved, or put us in the way of solving, some of the
questions that perplex us. Perhaps the principal reason for this lies
in the words of Jesus Himself: "Ye do not understand the scriptures nor
the power of God." And yet ought we not to be aware of this, that
every revelation of God involves a revelation about the creature, just
as the earth is affected by every potency and virtue in the sun?
Revelation is not merely information about God, without relation to our
own life and being. For instance: both the Spirit and the Scripture
combine to assure us that God is Love. Is that merely a piece of
theological information about God of which the universe is independent,
or does He not in the revelation spread His wide pinions over all
creatures that He has made and gather them together as a hen doth
gather her brood under her wings? Out of such a revelation the willing
soul discerns the New Jerusalem descend as a bride adorned for her
husband; the eager soul receives, the wayward soul returns, the
sorrowful soul is comforted. No revelation of God is possible that is
simply information without a bearing on my history, my existence, my
future. And so with our text we may say the "I Am" of God involves the
"I shall be" of the creature. If one comes to me and says, "I was your
father's friend," it may be either (i.) that my father is dead, or
(ii.) that there has been a change in the affection of the person
speaking; but if he comes to me and says, "I am your father's friend,"
he implies two things: the existence of my father and the permanence of
his own love for him; and the one just as much as the other. So when
God says, not "I was the God of Abraham," but "I am," etc., He is not
merely asserting His own existence and providence, but the continued
life of the faithful of ancient days. And so the "I Am" of God
proclaims the "I am" of the creature; the soul looks down the sloping
years and says of its prospect, "God is, and I am." And Christ's
answer to the Sadducee comes to this: "You are inconsistent in denying
the future life; you ought first to have