THE REASON OF UNBELIEF.
By The Independent
JESUS, when in Jerusalem, in attendance upon the feast of the tabernacles, about six months before his crucifixion, said to the Jews in the temple: "And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not." John 8: 45. In the same discussion with caviling Jews, Jesus had previously said: "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Verse 12. Jesus, in both of these utterances, assumed to be an infallible truth teller, and so wise and competent in himself as to be "the light of the world." He was such, and such he was proved to be, not only by the wisdom with which he spake, but also by the miracles which he wrought as evidence that he had come forth from God. Nicodemus reasoned correctly when he said to him: "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." And yet the fact that Jesus spoke the truth, and that, too, with infallible certainty, is by him, in the first of the above-quoted passages, assigned as the reason why these Jews did not believe him: "Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not." It was the truth that offended them, and it was the truth which they refused to believe, because it was unwelcome. They did not love it, even if it were the truth. It rebuked and condemned their practice; and this was not pleasing to their feelings. Their own depravity stood in the way of faith, and made them cavilers against a ministry of truth to which the infallible God had annexed his seal. They treated that ministry as if it were false, and the words of Jesus as if they were idle tales. Their infidelity had its seat in their hearts. Light had come into the world in the person of Jesus; but they loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. A vast amount of the skepticism that exists among men is of the same character. One's reason in spiritual matters operates at an enormous disadvantage when it is turned aside by a deceived heart. His heart disrelishes the truth, and this fact shuts the eye of thought to what he ought to relish, and would relish but for his own perverseness. He who rejects the truth because it condemns him, is in a terrible predicament for himself.