NOT SECRECY, BUT REVELATION.
JESUS CHRIST had no secrets. "In secret have I said nothing," was His emphatic declaration. He was Himself a revelation of God to man as far as the finite is capable of comprehending the infinite. It is sin and not secrecy that keeps men from knowing God. Before man sinned, God appeared to him, and talked with him as a friend and acquaintance. He does not do so now, not because of His desire to be hidden from man, but because of His mercy. No sinner could look upon God and live. Redemption completed will restore man to his former privileged condition. "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God." As a rule, secrecy is the antithesis of honesty, and a society whose workings are known only to its members is not for the good of other people. Therefore a secret society can not be Christian; for God's society, the church, is organized for the special purpose of doing good to others. Any so-called church that has not this object primarily in view is not a church of Christ. God hides only that which would be hurtful under the circumstances. "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now," said Jesus to His disciples. But these things were to be revealed unto them through the Word, by the Spirit. And so it is that many things are revealed in the Word of Christ that are hidden to those who do not believe, or will not search out. "The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." With regard to the coming of the Lord, the great deceiver does, and will, delude many with the idea that He comes in secret; that He comes when people die; or that He appears to a few in secret places. So He gives His disciples warning, and through them this warning is to go to the world: "Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth; behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." Jesus Christ is "the Light of the world," and He does not hide His light under a cover; nor are his disciples supposed to do so. Imparting to them His light, He says: "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill can not be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men [not the inner circle], that they may see your good works, and glorify [not the society, but] your Father which is in heaven." When Christ came into the world, He found it all lying in wickedness (1 John 5:19), and, in order to relieve this sad condition, He organized the church, and gave its members His Word for their guidance, to be interpreted by His Spirit. He gave no intimation of any other organization, to be governed by any other ritual. He said to His church, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Of His Word He says that it is able to make us "wise unto salvation," and to thoroughly furnish us "unto all good works." So that the works done under the teaching of any other ritual are not good works. He has established but the one way of bringing men "out of darkness into His marvelous light." And that way is open and above board. It is all in the light. Christ is the way, and "in Him is no darkness at all."