John 1:18 No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. of God: — In the Greek legend she who desired to see the deity in his splendour is instantly reduced to ashes. In the Hindoo mythology when Brahma, the supreme, shoots down a pillar of light between the two contending deities, Siva and Vishnu, one deity wings his way upwards for a thousand years with the speed of lightning, but cannot reach its summit; the other wings his way downwards with the speed of lightning for a thousand years yet cannot find its base. Christian theology has felt this no less clearly that God in His own Being is incomprehensible. There is a picture of the vision of St. , who, when he was writing a treatise on the Trinity, saw a child trying to empty the ocean with a shell into a little hole in the sand. "What art thou doing?" asked the saint. "I am trying to empty the sea with this shell into this hole," answered the child. "But that is impossible," said Augustine. "Not more impossible, O Augustine, than for thee in thy treatise to explain the mystery of the Trinity." (Archdeacon Farrar.)As regards God, our soundest knowledge is to know that we know Him, and our safest eloquence concerning Him is silence, when we confess without confession that His glory is inexplicable, His greatness above our capacity or reach. (Hooker.) Parallel Verses KJV: No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. |
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