John 1:46

The Duties of Heavenly Citizenship towards Infidelity.

I. The heavenly citizen must first be deeply convinced of the truth of the proposition, Magna est veritas et prævalebit.In "contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints," his contention will be rather to persuade men than to defend God; not, Uzzah-like, to imagine that he will uphold that which is tottering. This reflection will free him from timidity as to any supposed conflict between science and revelation. "Without Him was not anything made that was made." The investigating faculty of man is the boring tool, whereby the glories of the living God are dug out of His mines, and in the reverent pursuit of natural science the thoughts of God become visible.

II. Those who know the secret of the Lord will lead the anxious doubter away from systems, controversies, and debates, into the presence of the Lord Himself. Philip of Bethsaida, in the history before us, illustrates the true method. He had found Jesus, had recognised in Him the Christ God's answer to the hunger and thirst of humanity; such a knowledge evidences its reality by its self-communicativeness. He rushes to his friend, without preface, argument or explanation; he says, "I have found the Christ." He knows what he has found; he can at least invite trial; he is not afraid to subject the blessed truth, which was flooding his whole being with its vivid light, to the most searching analysis, the closest investigation. "Philip saith unto him, Come and see." Here is the one absolute, irrefragable Christian evidence: the power of Jesus Christ to satisfy every human instinct, to fill the heart to overflowing, to save to the uttermost, to elevate the affections, to perfect the nature, to ennoble the character, of fallen man. Inasmuch as the best sermon is a life, our life should so witness that men should be compelled to acknowledge that "the life we live in the flesh we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us."

Canon Wilberforce, Christian Commonwealth,Oct. 29th, 1885.

References: John 1:46. T. Islip, Christian World Pulpit,vol. x., p. 42; W. M. Arthur, Ibid.,vol. xxxi., p. 316; Preacher's Monthly,vol. viii., p. 351; J. Hamilton, Works,vol. vi., p. 453; F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of St. John,p. 43.

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