We may often pray for things, the possession of which would prove really hurtful to us, and the denial of which things, therefore, is the most gracious answer to our prayer. God alone can tell what is really good for us, and graciously reserves to himself the prerogative of determining whether the petitions which we offer be fit to be granted.
The duty of Christ as our prophet is to reveal to us the Father, as he saith, “Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him”; and again it is said, “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Now, how did Christ reveal to us the Father? Not by any set proofs of his existence, nor by any abstract discussions upon his nature or character, nor by didactic discourses, but by action; a mode of instruction as level to the comprehension of the meanest capacity, as to that of the loftiest; as intelligible to the peasant as to the philosopher.
