it ought to be true, not as if it must be true; as if it might be true
in the region of thought, but could not be true in the region of fact.
Our very senses, filled with the things of our passing sojourn, combine
to cast discredit upon the existence of any world for the sake of which
we are furnished with an inner eye, an eternal ear. But had we once
seen God face to face, should we not be always and for ever sure of him?
we have had but glimpses of the Father. Yet, if we had seen God face to
face, but had again become impure of heart--if such a fearful thought be
a possible idea--we should then no more believe that we had ever beheld
him. A sin-beclouded soul could never recall the vision whose essential
verity was its only possible proof. None but the pure in heart see God;
only the growing-pure hope to see him. Even those who saw the Lord, the
express image of his person, did not see God. They only saw Jesus--and
then but the outside Jesus, or a little more. They were not pure in
heart; they saw him and did not see him. They saw him with their eyes,
but not with those eyes which alone can see God. Those were not born in
them yet. Neither the eyes of the resurrection-body, nor the eyes of
unembodied spirits can see God; only the eyes of that eternal something
that is of the very essence of God, the thought-eyes, the truth-eyes,
the love-eyes, can see him. It is not because we are created and he
uncreated, it is not because of any difference involved in that
difference of all differences, that we cannot see him. If he pleased to
take a shape, and that shape were presented to us, and we saw that
shape, we should not therefore be seeing God. Even if we knew it was a
shape of God--call it even God himself our eyes rested upon; if we had
been told the fact and believed the report; yet, if we did not see the
_Godness_, were not capable of recognizing him, so as without the report
to know the vision him, we should not be seeing God, we should only be
seeing the tabernacle in which for the moment he dwelt. In other words,
not seeing what in the form made it a form fit for him to take, we