Nothing to conceal.
I. A CONTRAST. What religion is there that can bear the light of day as Christianity can? The false needs to be arranged and beautified and kept ever in one particular light. Jesus could expose everything if necessary. What a contrast to the life in the temple at Jerusalem! There was not a priest who could afford to have all his doings brought out and set before men. This ought to be part of our power when we are dealing with false religions. The more they are searched into, the more their abominations are exposed. The more Christianity is searched into, the more transparent and attractive it becomes. Not that everything is clear to the intellect, not that there is absence of mysteries; but these mysteries, whatever they are, lie open for everybody to contemplate them and be the better for them. The mysteries of heathendom are only priestcraft when one gets in behind them. Christianity is symbolized by the contents of the ark. That ark was sacred, not to be touched with heedless hands; but once it was opened, nothing lay there but the commandments, every one of which uttered forth the condemnation of everything false.
II. AN EXAMPLE. That openness which was in Jesus must be in all his followers. All true Christian assemblies are perfectly open places, except when, in charity and kindness to individuals, the door is closed; and even then the closing of the door is known to all, and why it is so. Those entrusted with the propagation of Christianity have nothing to conceal. Their aim is the good of men; their method is by persuasion and appeal; they draw all their topics and their teaching from a book which is as open to others as to themselves. None of the first apostles needed to conceal anything; there was no false step, no dubious word of their Master to gloss over or keep in the background; and similarly we have nothing to apologize for. We need not to proclaim a mere ideal for the acceptance of men. Our real is better than the best ideal our imagination can fancy.
III. A CAUSE FOR GLORYING. Difficulty is taken out of our way. We feel that since all is open and clear and satisfactory now, it always will be so. We find nothing to be ashamed of, nothing contradictory, in our experience of Christ in time. And similar surely will be our experience in eternity. "Whatever record leap to light," Christ will be the same. Whatever testimonies be unearthed, there will be nothing awkward to get over.—Y.