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A Teacher come from God

N the gospel story we read that Nicodemus came

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to Jesus by night, and professed to recognise Him as a "teacher come from God." 1 It would seem, however, that Nicodemus was not prepared to accept without question all that he was taught. He forgot that a "teacher come from God" would almost certainly have much to say that would make demands upon the faith of those who became his disciples. True, the question which Nicodemus asked our Lord, "How can these things be?" might be understood as a request for some further explanation, and not as a refusal to believe; but from our Lord's reply we gather that Nicodemus was wanting in that faith which he ought to have had in one whom he recognised to be a "teacher come from God." "If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" Without entering into the consideration of the

1 St. John iii. I-12.

particular "earthly things" that our Lord referred to, we may learn two lessons from this conversation with Nicodemus. In the first place, if we profess to have found a teacher come from God, we must be prepared to accept on his authority certain truths concerning "heavenly things"-truths that belong to the spiritual world. Secondly, our ability to receive these "heavenly things" will, to some extent, depend on our realisation of the fact that there are "earthly things" which at present we are unable fully to understand, and therefore there may well be mystery in truths that belong to the "Kingdom of God." There are mysteries in the order of Nature that prepare us for mystery in the order of Grace.1

The application of this truth to the subject of the life after death is obvious. We can know nothing of "the life of the world to come" except from revelation. We know nothing of that life—not even whether there is such a life-from our own experience, or from the

1 The word " 'mystery" is from the Greek μów, meaning "to be shut or closed." The Mysteries were a most important feature in the ancient Greek religion. To those initiated a secret was confided, and they were forbidden to reveal it to the general public.

Probably it was of a character to suggest that more than was understood lay hidden in the secret. It was spoken, as it were, through closed lips (uusw) to the one initiated (μúστns), and the ceremonies, therefore, of initiation were тà μvστńpia-the Mysteries. The word does not occur in the purely Hebrew Old Testament Scriptures, except once in the deutero-canonical book "Ecclesiasticus." In the Alexandrian Greek book of "Wisdom" it occurs, and is frequently used in the New Testament. To the Christian the initiation is by Baptism. Our Lord said to His Apostles, "It is given unto you to know the mysteries

experience of those we have met. Science can tell us neither whence life comes nor whither it goes. The facts of what is called "Spiritualism" are so confused, and so mixed up with imposture, that they can form no sure foundation whereon to rest a well-founded confidence that there is a hereafter. Failing then to find any sufficient witness in the natural order for the existence of a future life, we ask, Is there any witness whom we are justified in listening to as a "teacher come from God"? Is there one who can truthfully say, "Yes, the life of the world to come is no vain dream. There is a hereafter; a spiritual world that 'flesh and blood'1 cannot inherit, but which is, nevertheless, the home prepared for the children of men. I speak that which I know, and testify that I have seen"? As Christians we answer without hesitation that we believe Jesus Christ to be such a teacher.

We are not now concerned with the proofs upon

of the kingdom of heaven." St. Paul writes to the Romans of the teaching of Jesus Christ as "the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest" (xvi. 25).

A “mystery” is therefore a truth or fact partially hidden. What is revealed leads to the knowledge that there is more which is beyond our understanding. The word " mystery" in the Bible is used invariably in the Greek sense, and is part of the "pagan residuum," since it depends on the pagan Mysteries for its full meaning. See GROTE'S History of Greece, part i. chap. i.; Myths of Aryan Nations, book ii. sec. ii. chap. xii. ; DÖLLINGER, The Gentile and the Jew; HATCH, Influence of Greek Ideas, etc.; and Dr. LIDDON's Sermon on Stewards of the Mysteries of God.

1 I Cor. xv. 50.

which our belief in Jesus Christ is based. "Christian Evidences" form a special branch of Apologetic Theology. We must here take for granted-what is admitted by all Christians - that our Lord is not merely "a teacher come from God," but that He is nothing less than God Incarnate-the Truth as well as the Way and the Life. It will, then, be allowed that whatever Jesus Christ has taught about a future life is true. The only question is, How can we know what His teaching is?

If we seek to learn what any of the great men of antiquity taught we naturally refer to their writings or to those of their disciples. Without these we should have nothing but the vaguest tradition to go upon. Jesus Christ, however, as far as we know, left no writings at all. The answer, therefore, that Christians will give to the question, How are we to know what Christ taught? takes a twofold form. Sometimes it is replied that our knowledge comes through the teaching of that Society which Jesus Christ founded—the Church; and sometimes, that we learn His doctrine from the study of the New Testament. A moment's consideration is sufficient to convince us that we have here not two distinct witnesses but a twofold aspect of the same witness. The New Testament was not written by Jesus Christ Himself, but is composed of a variety of documents written by those who were His disciples, and by the first pastors of His Church. The New Testament is therefore the product of the Church. It is her own

work, her own book, though none the less the Word of God. It is only through the tradition of the Church that we know what Books are part of the sacred Canon.

In other words the New Testament is nothing else than the teaching of the Church committed to writing -not systematised, but scattered throughout the sacred pages. It is then from the Church alone that we can really learn anything of the inner life and doctrine of Jesus Christ. The Church comes to us as an ambassador from her Lord, and gives the sacred Scriptures into our hands. We study these writings and learn from them that, when they were written, it was part of the teaching of the Church that her message was full and complete from the first; that her office was not to reveal fresh truths, but to explain, unfold, and elucidate a deposit of truth committed to her keeping by her Founder; and further, that God had so ordered it that all truths contained in this deposit should be also set forth in these New Testament Scriptures.1 Whatever the Church taught should always be capable of proof from these writings, so that what was not con

1 "The Church may not require 'as necessary to salvation' what is not read in Holy Scripture, or may be proved by it. This only implies the historical fact, that the same body of saving truths which the Apostles first preached orally, they afterwards, under the inspiration of God the Holy Ghost, wrote in Holy Scripture, God ordering in His Providence that in the unsystematic teaching of Holy Scripture all should be embodied which is essential to establish the faith. This is said over and over again by the Fathers." (An Eirenicon, E. B. PUSEY, D.D.)