, the very embodiment in Himself of
what the two words stand for.

The law, the old Mosaic law, was not a statement of the _full_ message
of God. That was given much earlier. It was given to all. It came
directly. It was given first in Eden, in its flood; and then
continuously to every man wherever he was. It was given within each
man's own heart, and through the unfailing flooding light in nature
above and below and all around. The tide of its coming has never ceased
in volume nor in steadiness of flow; and does not cease. That tide came
to flood in Jesus. And that flood has never known an ebb.

But men's eyes got badly affected. They didn't let the light in, either
clearly or fully. The light was there, but it was not getting in.
Something had to be done to help out those eyes. So the law was given.
It was merely a mirror to let a man see his face, what it was like.

Here's a mother calling to her little son, "Come here and let me wash
your face." And he calls out, "It isn't dirty." "Yes, dear, it is very
dirty, come at once." "Why, no, mother, it isn't dirty; you washed it
this morning." And the child's tone blends a hurt surprise and a settled
conviction that his mother is certainly wrong _this_ time about the
condition of his face.

And if the mother be of the thoughtful brooding kind, she says nothing,
but gets a hand mirror, and holds it before the child's face. That will
always get a child's attention. And the boy looks; he sees his dirty
face reflected. The blank astonishment on his face can't be put into
words. It tells the radical upsetting revolution in his thought on that
subject. How could it have happened that his face got into that
condition! And the washing process is yielded to at least; possibly even
asked for.

That's what the law did and does. It showed man his face, his heart, his
need. It brings upsetting revolutionary ideas regarding one's self.
There it stops. That's its limit. Then the Man who in Himself is grace
and truth does the rest.

The Spokesman of God.

Then John quietly, deftly draws the line around to the starting point in
that first tremendous statement. He completes a circle perfect in its
strength and beauty and simplicity, as every circle is. If we follow the
order of the words somewhat as John wrote them down, we find the bit of
truth coming in a very striking, as well as in a fresh way. "_God no
one has ever, at any time, seen_."

That seems rather startling, doe