SERMON II. THE REVELATION TO ST. THOMAS. (FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT: FEAST OF ST. THOMAS.) ST. JOHN XIV. 5, 6. Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. ST. T. THOMAS is chiefly remembered for the part he played in that memorable scene after the Resurrection of our Lord, which is described in to-day's Gospel. His unbelief, or rather his deliberate suspension of assent to the truth which was before him, except upon certain narrow conditions which he laid down, led to a verification of our Lord's Resurrection, and to a confession of His true Divinity, in some respects more emphatic than any other in the Gospels. And in the same way the Apostle's question in the passage before us was followed by a most memorable result. St. Thomas seems to have been, by the temper of his mind, hesitating, reserved, critical; disposed to see difficulties, to ask for explanations, to require more proof when others acquiesced. It will be in your recollection that our Lord had begun His last discourse in the supper-room by dwelling on His approaching departure from the world. The disciples were not to be troubled at it. If they believed in God, they would also believe in Jesus Christ; and if He is leaving them, He tells them it was that He might prepare a place for them among the many mansions of the Father's House. Then He would return; whether by some great spiritual visitation, or in some catastrophe like the destruction of Jerusalem, or in that world-embracing event of which it was an anticipatory shadow. He would come again and receive them to Himself, that where He was they might be also. Meanwhile, the disciples knew at least the direction in which He was moving; and this knowledge would reassure their troubled hearts. "Whither I go "-these were His exact words-" whither I go, ye know the way." It is at this point that St. Thomas bursts in somewhat abruptly with his objection: "Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way?" The. language of our Lord about the purpose of His departure, which says so much to us, which brings our Father's House and its many mansions so vividly before us, had left no strong or distinct impression on the minds of men who were still on the threshold of faith, and to whom spiritual things were new. Our Lord seemed to be speaking of a work, while they were thinking of a place. And if they did not know to what place He was going, how could they know the way to it? In natural things this reasoning is cogent. Thomas did but express the obvious and superficial criticism upon a statement which could only be understood in the light of a higher truth than he had yet grasped. Probably a human teacher would have answered St. Thomas somewhat as follows: "I have already told you enough about the purpose of my departure to enable you to understand the direction which I must take. Your a Cf. St. John xiv. 4. The second κal and ỏídare in the Received Text represent an attempt to explain this condensed saying, by expanding it. knowledge of the way does not depend so entirely as you may think upon an exact idea of the goal to which I am moving. You may well wait for further knowledge, since you know enough for present purposes, whether of consolation or of duty." This would have been an answer sufficient in itself, and, as we may perhaps think, wholesome for a person in St. Thomas's state of mind. But our Lord, as was often His manner, especially as He is reported by the fourth Evangelist, did not answer the question; or, at least, He did not answer it directly. He seems to have looked at it, not as a question to be answered, but as affording an occasion for proclaiming a wider, grander, more comprehensive truth than was needed in order to answer it. The question is left on one side; it is only answered incidentally. Our Lord, before speaking again, would seem to have moved beyond the narrower issue which the question raises into a wider and sublimer field of contemplation, which is the subject of His next utterance. Jesus saith unto him, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." We may well be grateful to St. Thomas for eliciting this splendid revelation; and we shall not be wanting to the claims of his festival if we proceed to consider it somewhat in detail. I. Our Lord begins, "I am the Way." He is, of course, thinking of His own words, "Whither I go, ye know the way; " and of St. Thomas's question, "How can we know the way?" But while repeating the word "way," He gives it a new setting. Instead of saying, "I will show you the way," He says, "I am the Way." As we think over His words, we feel that, in this new and higher association, the word has grown sensibly in scope and meaning. In The employment of the figure of a way, or path, to describe the successive phases of human thought or conduct, the invisible track along which the spirit of man moves between birth and death, was more natural to the ancient world than it is to the modern. Before the Roman civilization, there were scarcely any carefully constructed public roads. Men journeyed from place to place as best they might, without the guidance of a settled track; they watched the heavens, or they noted any traces they could of former travellers across the Eastern deserts, or through the forests and mountains of the West. those early days, and for long after, the metaphor was too natural and too welcome not to be generally employed to describe any system of moral or religious guidance. Thus, to go no further, the later Stoics, and some Chinese mystics, and the Mohammedan Corân, each recommend a "way;" although, in the last instance, the word is undoubtedly borrowed from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. In the religious language of the Jews, it meant the path which a soul should follow in order to reach the true goal of its destiny; in order to be conformed to the Will of God. Thus the Psalmist speaks of "the way of the righteous," a "the right way,"b" the way of God's precepts," "the way of God's commandments," a "the way of God's statutes," e "the way of truth," "the way wherein I should walk," "the perfect way; "h and the Book of Proverbs of "the way of life; "i and Isaiah of "the way of the just," i "the way of holiness," " and Jeremiah of "the good way,' of peace; a Ps. i. 7. f lb. 30. C b lb. ii. 12. 8 lb. cxliii. 8. k Ib. xxxv. 8. d "the way "the one • Ib. 33. j Isa. xxvi. 7. m Jer. vi. 16. " b way, "a"the way to Zion,' "the way which God would show;" and Amos of "the way of the meek; "a and Malachi of "the way that the forerunner should prepare;" and Zacharias of "the way of peace," into which the Day-star from on high" would “guide our feet.” i 66 But of all the many passages in which the word occurs, perhaps the most vivid is that which closes the First Lesson for this afternoon's service, in which Isaiah, looking through and beyond historical events in a nearer future, predicts the faith and discipline of the Christian Church as a rule of life for redeemed humanity :— "And an highway shall be there, And a way, And it shall be called The way of holiness; The unclean shall not pass over it; But it shall be for those : The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. Nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, It shall not be found there; But the redeemed shall walk there : And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, And come to Zion with songs, And everlasting joy shall be upon their heads : And sorrow and sighing shall flee away."h Thus the expression, "the way," had a fixed and wellunderstood religious meaning. It meant a path uniting two worlds, the seen with the unseen, earth with Heaven; traversing regions through which, without such guidance, the thought and heart of man could not safely penetrate; and having definite characteristics of its own. The figure at once suggested the associations of righteous |