John 18:38 Pilate said to him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them… He who asked it was the only man to whom the Redeemer vouchsafed no reply. All other inquirers after truth received a prompt and full response. The reason must be looked for in the character of Pilate, in the spirit and temper in which the question was propounded. Pilate was an educated Roman, and the age in which he lived was one of almost universal scepticism among educated Romans. Christianity to such a man could be, of course, only a new sect of Judaism, and Jesus only the deluded founder of a new heresy. Pilate has ever had his successor, and there is a remarkable likeness between this age and his in the prevalence of scepticism among the educated classes. It is now fashion. able to be a disciple of Comte, of Herbert Spencer and of Darwin. The conflict thickens around us, and the very conflict itself creates a class of men who treat all religious beliefs as equally harmless delusions. To these Pilate-minded souls there comes no reply to the light, flippant cavillings concerning ethereal verities. Pilate's cry is in the air to-day. It is repeated on every side, in treatise, novel, poem, magazine, journal. What is God? What is Christ? What is man? What, then, is the spirit in which the question must be asked to obtain a reply? I. IT MUST NOT BE IN PILATE'S SPIRIT — IN SCEPTICISM OR SCEPTICAL INDIFFERENCE. Such a spirit is wanting in the very first element to ensure success. It is like the act of a traveller, knocking at the gate of some deserted oracle of Isis or of Delphos, and demanding in derision a response from the dead divinity. In this light, what an absurdity — nay, what an insult — is the prayer-gauge of Professor Tyndall. In what does it differ from the wild experiment of Rousseau? He will cast a stone at a particular tree, and if it strikes the tree he will conclude that the Deity has accepted the test, has guided the universe, and that there is a God. If the stone misses the mark, he will conclude there is no God. He hurls the stone, which flies wide of the mark. There is no condescension to such a trifler. The cry of the flippant sceptic will never reach the heavens. "He that comes to God must believe that He is." II. IN THE SPIRIT OF AN EARNEST SEEKER OF TRUTH. "Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." Every one wishes to have truth on his side, but it is not every one who wishes sincerely to be on the side of truth. He that does shall most surely find the precious pearl. There is such a thing as honest doubt. There is the real perplexity of truth-loving minds grappling with some difficulty which they would fain remove. To such Jesus says, "If ye continue in My word ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord." The history of Christianity abounds with illustrations of this. In the latter part of the last century, Lord Lyttleton and Gilbert West agreed to write something in favour of infidelity. For this purpose Lyttleton chose the conversion of St. Paul, and West the resurrection of Christ. They were honest doubters, and, being honest, their studies ended in conviction. Both took up their pens and became champions of Christianity; Lyttleton produced a treatise on the conversion of St. Paul, "to which," says Dr. Johnson, "infidelity has never been able to fabricate a specious answer." West, a work on the resurrection of our Lord, of masterly power. How different the spirit of Strauss, Renan, Buckle, and Spencer! III. IN A SPIRIT OF WILLINGNESS TO FOLLOW IT, TO OBEY ITS VOICE, TO SUBMIT TO ITS GUIDANCE. Men, it is to be feared, are too often afraid to know the truth, lest it prove a hard master. They "love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." Unbelief in religion has its seat in the heart, and not in the head; in the will, and not in the understanding. And it will ever be found that in those communities and nations where the greatest corruption in morals prevails, there infidelity abounds. It was only a degradation like that of France in the days preceding her first revolution that could have produced the monstrous unbelief of those days. But to earnest souls, to honest hearts, to men who are willing to do God's will, willing to be changed, to be made pure, here is an infallible test. (Bp. Cummins.) Parallel Verses KJV: Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all. |
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