The Knowledge of God 95 us acquainted with His being, personality and moral attributes; but it does not exhaust the theme. It leads us along a road, lighted by visions and prophecies, until it opens into another and clearer road; to wit, “The Incarnate Word of God”. And this fifth road, the Incarnation, is the way which all truth-seekers must pursue i f they would finally arrive at a just and saving knowledge of God. I t is here that we meet Christ, bringing the message from the throne. He comes into our world with the express purpose of making God known to us; as it is written, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him”. He is called the Word, because He is the medium of com- munication between the Infinite and the finite; as it is written, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” : that is to say, the Incarnation is the articula- tion of the speech of God. In the Scriptures we have a letter from God ; but in the Incarnation, we have the coming down of God to unveil Him- self before us. The soul of sinful man is like a child lost among strangers, wild-eyed, lips trembling, eyes searching vainly for a familiar face. Ah, here the mother comes ! And the child is sobbing out its .happiness on her breast. “Cuddle doon, my bairnie!” So is it when the sinner finds Christ; or shall we not rather say, when Christ, the seeking God, finds him ? If, then, we are ever to learn theology it must be as dis- ciples, sitting in a docile attitude at the feet of Christ. He, as the incarnate Son, is our authoritative Teacher. What, therefore, has He to say about God ? As to His being, He has little or nothing to say; for the obvious reason that God’s being is the substratum of Christ’s entire doctrine, without which it would be as insignificant as a painted ship upon a painted ocean. Moreover, all His
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