i PET. i. 21.
“Who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from
the dead, and gave Him glory: that your faith and hope might
be in God.”
How is it that men will not give up seeking after God?
For this simple reason, that they cannot. The eye, if
there were no light, would strain after light. The soul of
man will not rest or be satisfied without God. Not that
the soul of man pursues this quest intelligently and con-
sistently. But the fact remains, that men will have some
God, and rather than have no God, they will make one for
themselves. The Apostle Peter says of those who had been
Gentiles, but were now Christians, that it was through
Christ they were led to a belief in the one living and true
God, not a belief in His existence and unity merely, but
such a belief as enabled them to trust and hope in God.
I. This belief, inclusive of trust and hope is a consum-
mation of the utmost importance, worthy of the most
costly and persistent efforts of the Church. Some may
consider it a matter of no importance whether the nations
worship the one God that is, or the many gods that are
imagined to be. We had better let them alone. Neither
is Baal God, nor is Jehovah God. Any god outside nature
or outside of consciousness is but a fiction. But taking the
Christian hypothesis that there is a God living, loving, and
holy, it can be no longer a matter of indifference what and
how we worship. The endeavour to bring men through
Christ to that belief in God of which the apostle speaks, is
the most practical to which we can guide ourselves.
II. The conviction that it is only through Christ that
this consummation can be effected. “Who by Him do
believe in God.” Nature, even scientifically studied, will
not suffice to restore men to the one living and true God.
It is through the redemption of Christ that we are enabled
to put faith and trust in God. The wayfaring man of grief
is now King of kings and Lord of lords. On His head are
many crowns, and in His hand the sceptre that rules many
worlds. Believing this, we have no difficulty in believing
also that He shall have spiritual dominion from sea to sea
and from the river to the ends of the earth.
John. Kennedy, D.D.