Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/122

110 With the suddenness of a flash of lightning from above, and with infinite peace and infinite gratitude, his eyes had been opened; for the first time he had seen. For the first time in his life's dark gropings there had shone a little light.

"Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein."

Children, who argue not, who understand not, and yet who believe. At that moment he had realised the wondrous truth.

Christ's kingdom is not the creature of inductive reasoning; its being cannot be proved by argument.

Much that we see and hear is cruel, unjust, untrue. Nature alone is the witness of God, revelation alone that of the power of Christ. Miracles, prophecies, the law, the letter—what were these to unquestioning obedience, to devoted love, to trust in Christ? The one had nothing to do with the other. Theology was but a science built up on contradictions. If there was an all-powerful God, why were sin and misery and illness and injustice? Why were suffering millions only, after a short span, to die? Why did animals groan with the burdens of men? Why did He not reveal Himself in such a way as to exclude all unbelief and make eternity of damnation impossible? That is, that will be, to the world's end, the constant question, and only nature can give the answer. Since there is a world, and there are trees and flowers and times and seasons, for which thou canst not account—for canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion?—since thou thyself art but helpless organism, albeit a being with a brain and a throbbing heart, that hath