This is the philosophic conception upon which the Confession of Faith rests, the Christian affirmation, "I believe in God." It enables us to say, "This Thinker from whom we know thought, this holy One from whom we know righteousness and good, this infinite Affection from whom we know love, this eternal Personality, unseen, unreachable by man in his searching after God, surely will manifest himself in his own time and in his own way, to his creatures, and indeed has so manifested himself.1

With this conception, which finds its answer in every human heart-for there has never been a civilization so degraded but there has been this longing after God and this indestructible belief that God was revealing himself in thunder, in lightning, in the strange life of the forest, the sea, the mountain, the waterfall-the Christian turns to the Bible, seeking the facts and details of revelation.

At once a remarkable thing confronts us. Everywhere, whether in barbarism or in civilization, in the wilds of Africa, or in the refined and polished communities of the Greeks, man has always been a seeker after God, if haply he might come to him and find him. But when we open the Bible we are struck with the fact that there is no evidence that these men of the Old Testament were seekers

1 See Note 8,

after God. On the contrary, they were men under compulsion. They speak as they are moved. They have not sought God that they might have something to say of him, but God has sought them and compelled them to give utterance to the truth which he has revealed. Moses protests against being sent as God's messenger to Pharaoh, or to his own people. He says, "I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." Jeremiah pleads that he is but a youth from an unknown village: "Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child." David says, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me thus far?" So always from Noah to Malachi. What is the meaning? Everywhere else gropings after God; and here, all of a sudden, men hastening to tell what they have received from God and what they know about him! They do not always obey; indeed we find them in continual revolt against the revelation they have received; but the revelation is there, the record is true to the facts. The majestic righteousness of the Holy One of Israel stands over against the oppressive sense of man's nothingness. "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" "O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me." "Thou understandest my thought afar off." "Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon

me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" This is the cry.1

Shall we not come, then, with something of confidence to this old book, with its unique voice, with its solemn, distinctive place in the world's history, if we would know something of the unseen God, and what he is, if he is ever to reveal himself?

We open it. "In the beginning God"

Then

follows the story, not simply of what God did, but of what God has shown himself to be. God created. And the very word by which God is described, "Elohim," what does it mean? "The awe-inspiring One." The God before whom all men tremble has manifested himself. God, our Creator! Then follows the long record of the names by which these early men who received the revelation sought to make known to others the God who had spoken to them. He spoke to Moses at the burning bush, and Moses said, "What is thy name?" Fix the revelation in some form such that men may lay hold of it, and that I may carry it as the eternal truth to the people. And God said, "I AM THAT I AM." "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." "Jehovah," the living One. And now the He

1 See Note 9.

brew scholars tell us that that is not the whole of the meaning of that strange word. It is not the living, but rather "the becoming One"-the One ever advancing, showing ever more and more of himself. God, the awe-inspiring One, he created. He manifested himself progressively to his people, a personal presence, revealing more and more of himself as they were able to receive it. As we go on with the story, we find other names: Adonai, the Almighty; Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts; Jehovah Tzidkenu, the Lord our righteousness; the Holy One of Israel; and so on, until we come to the revelation in which the Alpha and Omega, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, manifests himself as Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, Saviour, Friend.

Now, the answer the Christian gives to those who ask his confession, is, I believe in God; about whom so little can be said, before whom the heart instinctively shrinks in its helplessness, but who through all the ages past has been seeking to manifest himself to his children, and whom the holy men of old, the chosen ones of Israel, were permitted to know as the Creator, Preserver and bountiful Benefactor of all; the personal God of the believer, the Ruler of his chosen people, infinitely tender in his compassions, and the final Judge before whom all shall appear. We

1 See Notes 10, 11 and 12.

can stand with that poor outcast woman of the Old Testament story, by the spring in the desert, as she called the name of the place Beer-lahai-roi, "The well of the living one who seeth me." That is the Christian's testimony. "I believe in God." Not the Church, not the well, not the flame of fire, not the quaking mount, and not the divided sea, but every place in life is the place of "the God who sees me." That is my confession. That is the source of the ideal and the impulse by which all my nature shall be brought to work out a manly life. That is the confession to which the deepest springs of my heart shall be open in enduring emotion. In him I know my soul shall be satisfied when I shall see him as he is, and shall awake in his likeness. And, for our testimony to the world in its easy indifference, its selfsufficient knowledge of nature, we seem again to be standing on Mount Carmel, at the time of the evening sacrifice, with all the priests of Baal in their pomp and triumph, and the king on their side; and over against them, alone, the prophet of the Lord, with the simple prayer, "Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people. may know that thou, Lord, art God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again." And out of the shivering mount, God answered Elijah in the whirlwind and the fire.