diff options
Diffstat (limited to '25141-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 25141-h/25141-h.htm | 4105 |
1 files changed, 4105 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/25141-h/25141-h.htm b/25141-h/25141-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..641929b --- /dev/null +++ b/25141-h/25141-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4105 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Pursuit Of God, by A. W. Tozer. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + +/* .poem .pagenum {color: red;}*/ + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + font-variant: normal; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + .TOC td {padding: 0px 20px;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pursuit of God, by A. W. Tozer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pursuit of God + +Author: A. W. Tozer + +Release Date: April 23, 2008 [EBook #25141] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PURSUIT OF GOD *** + + + + +Produced by Free Elf, Colin Bell, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1> The Pursuit of God</h1> + + +<div style="width: 30em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><p><i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">"Then shall we know,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 13em;">if we follow on to know the Lord:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">his going forth is prepared as the morning."</span></i><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 22.5em;" class="smcap">hosea 6:3</span><br /><br /> +</p></div> + + + + +<p class="center"><span style="font-size: large;"> +by A. W. Tozer<br/><br/> + +introduction by<br/> +Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer</span><br/><br/> +CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS, INC. HARRISBURG, PA.<br/> +COPYRIGHT MCMXLVIII BY CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS, INC.<br/><br/> +<i>Printed in United States</i></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a><i>Contents</i></h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table class="TOC" border="0" style="padding: 20px;" summary="Contents"> + +<tr><td align="right"></td><td align="left"><i>Introduction</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"></td><td align="left"><i>Preface</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">I</td><td align="left"><i>Following Hard after God</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">II</td><td align="left"><i>The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">III</td><td align="left"><i>Removing the Veil</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">IV</td><td align="left"><i>Apprehending God</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">V</td><td align="left"><i>The Universal Presence</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VI</td><td align="left"><i>The Speaking Voice</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VII</td><td align="left"><i>The Gaze of the Soul</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VIII</td><td align="left"><i>Restoring the Creator-creature Relation</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">IX</td><td align="left"><i>Meekness and Rest</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">X</td><td align="left"><i>The Sacrament of Living</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td></tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Introduction" id="Introduction"></a><i>Introduction</i></h2> + + +<p>Here is a masterly study of the inner life by a heart +thirsting after God, eager to grasp at least the outskirts +of His ways, the abyss of His love for sinners, and the +height of His unapproachable majesty—and it was +written by a busy pastor in Chicago!</p> + +<p>Who could imagine David writing the twenty-third +Psalm on South Halsted Street, or a medieval +mystic finding inspiration in a small study on the +second floor of a frame house on that vast, flat checker-board +of endless streets</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i0">Where cross the crowded ways of life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where sound the cries of race and clan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In haunts of wretchedness and need,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On shadowed threshold dark with fears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And paths where hide the lures of greed ...<br /></span> +</i></div></div> + +<p>But even as Dr. Frank Mason North, of New +York, says in his immortal poem, so Mr. Tozer says +in this book:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i0">Above the noise of selfish strife<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We hear Thy voice, O Son of Man.<br /></span> +</i></div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>My acquaintance with the author is limited to +brief visits and loving fellowship in his church. There +I discovered a self-made scholar, an omnivorous reader +with a remarkable library of theological and devotional +books, and one who seemed to burn the midnight oil +in pursuit of God. His book is the result of long meditation +and much prayer. It is not a collection of sermons. +It does not deal with the pulpit and the pew but +with the soul athirst for God. The chapters could be +summarized in Moses' prayer, "Show me thy glory," +or Paul's exclamation, "O the depth of the riches both +of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" It is theology +not of the head but of the heart.</p> + +<p>There is deep insight, sobriety of style, and a +catholicity of outlook that is refreshing. The author has +few quotations but he knows the saints and mystics +of the centuries—Augustine, Nicholas of Cusa, +Thomas à Kempis, von Hügel, Finney, Wesley and +many more. The ten chapters are heart searching and +the prayers at the close of each are for closet, not pulpit. +<i>I felt the nearness of God while reading them.</i></p> + +<p>Here is a book for every pastor, missionary, and +devout Christian. It deals with the deep things of God +and the riches of His grace. Above all, it has the keynote +of sincerity and humility.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right;"> +<i>Samuel M. Zwemer</i><br /> +</p> + +<p>New York City</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Preface" id="Preface"></a><i>Preface</i></h2> + + +<p>In this hour of all-but-universal darkness one cheering +gleam appears: within the fold of conservative Christianity +there are to be found increasing numbers of +persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing +hunger after God Himself. They are eager for spiritual +realities and will not be put off with words, nor will +they be content with correct "interpretations" of truth. +They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied +till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living +Water.</p> + +<p>This is the only real harbinger of revival which +I have been able to detect anywhere on the religious +horizon. It may be the cloud the size of a man's hand +for which a few saints here and there have been looking. +It can result in a resurrection of life for many souls +and a recapture of that radiant wonder which should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +accompany faith in Christ, that wonder which has all +but fled the Church of God in our day.</p> + +<p>But this hunger must be recognized by our religious +leaders. Current evangelicalism has (to change +the figure) laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into +parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and +rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not +a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Carmel. But God +be thanked that there are a few who care. They are +those who, while they love the altar and delight in the +sacrifice, are yet unable to reconcile themselves to the +continued absence of fire. They desire God above all. +They are athirst to taste for themselves the "piercing +sweetness" of the love of Christ about Whom all the +holy prophets did write and the psalmists did sing.</p> + +<p>There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth +correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but +too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals +of the faith year after year, strangely unaware +that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, +nor anything unusual in their personal lives. They minister +constantly to believers who feel within their +breasts a longing which their teaching simply does not +satisfy.</p> + +<p>I trust I speak in charity, but the lack in our +pulpits is real. Milton's terrible sentence applies to +our day as accurately as it did to his: "The hungry +sheep look up, and are not fed." It is a solemn thing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +and no small scandal in the Kingdom, to see God's +children starving while actually seated at the Father's +table. The truth of Wesley's words is established before +our eyes: "Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a +very slender part of religion. Though right tempers +cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions +may subsist without right tempers. There may be +a right opinion of God without either love or one right +temper toward Him. Satan is a proof of this."</p> + +<p>Thanks to our splendid Bible societies and to +other effective agencies for the dissemination of the +Word, there are today many millions of people who +hold "right opinions," probably more than ever before +in the history of the Church. Yet I wonder if there was +ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower +ebb. To great sections of the Church the art of worship +has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that +strange and foreign thing called the "program." This +word has been borrowed from the stage and applied +with sad wisdom to the type of public service which +now passes for worship among us.</p> + +<p>Sound Bible exposition is an imperative <i>must</i> in +the Church of the Living God. Without it no church +can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning +of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such +way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual +nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words +that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +and until the hearers find God in personal experience +they are not the better for having heard the truth. The +Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men +to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that +they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His +Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of +the very God Himself in the core and center of their +hearts.</p> + +<p>This book is a modest attempt to aid God's hungry +children so to find Him. Nothing here is new except +in the sense that it is a discovery which my own heart +has made of spiritual realities most delightful and wonderful +to me. Others before me have gone much farther +into these holy mysteries than I have done, but if my +fire is not large it is yet real, and there may be those +who can light their candle at its flame.</p> + +<p> +A. W. Tozer<br /> +Chicago, Ill.<br /> +June 16, 1948<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="I_Following_Hard_after_God" id="I_Following_Hard_after_God"></a>I <i>Following Hard after God</i></h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>My soul followeth hard after thee: +thy right hand upholdeth me.—<i>Psa. 63:8</i></p></div> + +<p>Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient +grace, which briefly stated means this, that before a +man can seek God, God must first have sought the man.</p> + +<p>Before a sinful man can think a right thought of +God, there must have been a work of enlightenment +done within him; imperfect it may be, but a true work +nonetheless, and the secret cause of all desiring and +seeking and praying which may follow.</p> + +<p>We pursue God because, and only because, He +has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. +"No man can come to me," said our Lord, "except +the Father which hath sent me draw him," and it is +by this very prevenient <i>drawing</i> that God takes from us +every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse +to pursue God originates with God, but the out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>working +of that impulse is our following hard after +Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are +already in His hand: "Thy right hand upholdeth me."</p> + +<p>In this divine "upholding" and human "following" +there is no contradiction. All is of God, for as von +Hügel teaches, <i>God is always previous</i>. In practice, +however, (that is, where God's previous working meets +man's present response) man must pursue God. On +our part there must be positive reciprocation if this +secret drawing of God is to eventuate in identifiable +experience of the Divine. In the warm language of +personal feeling this is stated in the Forty-second +Psalm: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, +so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth +for God, for the living God: when shall I come +and appear before God?" This is deep calling unto +deep, and the longing heart will understand it.</p> + +<p>The doctrine of justification by faith—a Biblical +truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing +self-effort—has in our time fallen into evil +company and been interpreted by many in such manner +as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. +The whole transaction of religious conversion has been +made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be +exercised without a jar to the moral life and without +embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be "received" +without creating any special love for Him in +the soul of the receiver. The man is "saved," but he is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is specifically +taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be +content with little.</p> + +<p>The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders +of His world; we Christians are in real danger of +losing God amid the wonders of His Word. We have +almost forgotten that God is a Person and, as such, +can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in +personality to be able to know other personalities, but +full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be +achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and +loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of +both can be explored.</p> + +<p>All social intercourse between human beings is a +response of personality to personality, grading upward +from the most casual brush between man and man to +the fullest, most intimate communion of which the +human soul is capable. Religion, so far as it is genuine, +is in essence the response of created personalities to the +Creating Personality, God. "This is life eternal, that +they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus +Christ, whom thou hast sent."</p> + +<p>God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty +nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires +and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself +known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of +personality. He communicates with us through the +avenues of our minds, our wills and our emotions. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and +thought between God and the soul of the redeemed +man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.</p> + +<p>This intercourse between God and the soul is +known to us in conscious personal awareness. It is personal: +that is, it does not come through the body of +believers, as such, but is known to the individual, and +to the body through the individuals which compose it. +And it is conscious: that is, it does not stay below the +threshold of consciousness and work there unknown to +the soul (as, for instance, infant baptism is thought +by some to do), but comes within the field of awareness +where the man can "know" it as he knows any +other fact of experience.</p> + +<p>You and I are in little (our sins excepted) what +God is in large. Being made in His image we have +within us the capacity to know Him. In our sins we +lack only the power. The moment the Spirit has quickened +us to life in regeneration our whole being senses +its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. +That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot +see the Kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end +but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, +the heart's happy exploration of the infinite riches of +the Godhead. That is where we begin, I say, but where +we stop no man has yet discovered, for there is in the +awful and mysterious depths of the Triune God +neither limit nor end.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i0">Shoreless Ocean, who can sound Thee?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine own eternity is round Thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Majesty divine!<br /></span> +</i></div></div> + +<p>To have found God and still to pursue Him is the +soul's paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied +religionist, but justified in happy experience +by the children of the burning heart. St. Bernard stated +this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be +instantly understood by every worshipping soul:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i0">We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And long to feast upon Thee still:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.<br /></span> +</i></div></div> + +<p>Come near to the holy men and women of the past +and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after +God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and +wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season +and out, and when they had found Him the finding +was all the sweeter for the long seeking. Moses used +the fact that he knew God as an argument for knowing +Him better. "Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I have +found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I +may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight"; and +from there he rose to make the daring request, "I +beseech thee, show me thy glory." God was frankly +pleased by this display of ardor, and the next day called +Moses into the mount, and there in solemn procession +made all His glory pass before him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>David's life was a torrent of spiritual desire, and +his psalms ring with the cry of the seeker and the glad +shout of the finder. Paul confessed the mainspring of +his life to be his burning desire after Christ. "That I +may know Him," was the goal of his heart, and to this +he sacrificed everything. "Yea doubtless, and I count +all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge +of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered +the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that +I may win Christ."</p> + +<p>Hymnody is sweet with the longing after God, +the God whom, while the singer seeks, he knows he +has already found. "His track I see and I'll pursue," +sang our fathers only a short generation ago, but that +song is heard no more in the great congregation. How +tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking +done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to +center upon the initial act of "accepting" Christ (a +term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) +and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further +revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared +in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we +have found Him we need no more seek Him. This is +set before us as the last word in orthodoxy, and it is +taken for granted that no Bible-taught Christian ever +believed otherwise. Thus the whole testimony of the +worshipping, seeking, singing Church on that subject +is crisply set aside. The experiential heart-theology of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +a grand army of fragrant saints is rejected in favor of +a smug interpretation of Scripture which would certainly +have sounded strange to an Augustine, a Rutherford +or a Brainerd.</p> + +<p>In the midst of this great chill there are some, I +rejoice to acknowledge, who will not be content with +shallow logic. They will admit the force of the argument, +and then turn away with tears to hunt some +lonely place and pray, "O God, show me thy glory." +They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see +with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.</p> + +<p>I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing +after God. The lack of it has brought us to our +present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about +our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. +Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. +Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation +of Christ to His people. He waits to be +wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so +long, so very long, in vain.</p> + +<p>Every age has its own characteristics. Right now +we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity +which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its +stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world +of nervous activities which occupy time and attention +but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The +shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of +our worship, and that servile imitation of the world<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +which marks our promotional methods all testify that +we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the +peace of God scarcely at all.</p> + +<p>If we would find God amid all the religious externals +we must first determine to find Him, and then +proceed in the way of simplicity. Now as always God +discovers Himself to "babes" and hides Himself in +thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We +must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip +down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly +few). We must put away all effort to impress, +and come with the guileless candor of childhood. If +we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond.</p> + +<p>When religion has said its last word, there is little +that we need other than God Himself. The evil habit +of seeking <i>God-and</i> effectively prevents us from finding +God in full revelation. In the "and" lies our great +woe. If we omit the "and" we shall soon find God, and +in Him we shall find that for which we have all our +lives been secretly longing.</p> + +<p>We need not fear that in seeking God only we +may narrow our lives or restrict the motions of our +expanding hearts. The opposite is true. We can well +afford to make God our All, to concentrate, to sacrifice +the many for the One.</p> + +<p>The author of the quaint old English classic, <i>The +Cloud of Unknowing</i>, teaches us how to do this. "Lift +up thine heart unto God with a meek stirring of love;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +and mean Himself, and none of His goods. And thereto, +look thee loath to think on aught but God Himself. +So that nought work in thy wit, nor in thy will, but +only God Himself. This is the work of the soul that +most pleaseth God."</p> + +<p>Again, he recommends that in prayer we practice +a further stripping down of everything, even of our +theology. "For it sufficeth enough, a naked intent direct +unto God without any other cause than Himself." +Yet underneath all his thinking lay the broad foundation +of New Testament truth, for he explains that by +"Himself" he means "God that made thee, and bought +thee, and that graciously called thee to thy degree." +And he is all for simplicity: If we would have religion +"lapped and folden in one word, for that thou shouldst +have better hold thereupon, take thee but a little word +of one syllable: for so it is better than of two, for even +the shorter it is the better it accordeth with the work of +the Spirit. And such a word is this word GOD or this +word LOVE."</p> + +<p>When the Lord divided Canaan among the tribes +of Israel Levi received no share of the land. God said +to him simply, "I am thy part and thine inheritance," +and by those words made him richer than all his brethren, +richer than all the kings and rajas who have ever +lived in the world. And there is a spiritual principle +here, a principle still valid for every priest of the Most +High God.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>The man who has God for his treasure has all +things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied +him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment +of them will be so tempered that they will never be +necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, +one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for +having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, +all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose +he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in +One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever.</p> + +<p><i>O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has +both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am +painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am +ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, +I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; +I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy +glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. +Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to +my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come +away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up +from this misty lowland where I have wandered so +long. In Jesus' Name, Amen.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="II_The_Blessedness_of_Possessing_Nothing" id="II_The_Blessedness_of_Possessing_Nothing"></a>II <i>The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing</i></h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Blessed are the poor in spirit: for +theirs is the kingdom of heaven.—<i>Matt. 5:3</i></p></div> + +<p>Before the Lord God made man upon the earth He +first prepared for him by creating a world of useful and +pleasant things for his sustenance and delight. In the +Genesis account of the creation these are called simply +"things." They were made for man's uses, but they +were meant always to be external to the man and subservient +to him. In the deep heart of the man was a +shrine where none but God was worthy to come. Within +him was God; without, a thousand gifts which God +had showered upon him.</p> + +<p>But sin has introduced complications and has +made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin +to the soul.</p> + +<p>Our woes began when God was forced out of His +central shrine and "things" were allowed to enter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +Within the human heart "things" have taken over. +Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, +for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the +moral dusk stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight +among themselves for first place on the throne.</p> + +<p>This is not a mere metaphor, but an accurate +analysis of our real spiritual trouble. There is within +the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life +whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets +"things" with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns +"my" and "mine" look innocent enough in print, but +their constant and universal use is significant. They +express the real nature of the old Adamic man better +than a thousand volumes of theology could do. They +are verbal symptoms of our deep disease. The roots of +our hearts have grown down into <i>things</i>, and we dare +not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become +necessary to us, a development never originally intended. +God's gifts now take the place of God, and +the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous +substitution.</p> + +<p>Our Lord referred to this tyranny of <i>things</i> when +He said to His disciples, "If any man will come after +me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and +follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose +it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall +find it."</p> + +<p>Breaking this truth into fragments for our better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +understanding, it would seem that there is within each +of us an enemy which we tolerate at our peril. Jesus +called it "life" and "self," or as we would say, the <i>self-life</i>. +Its chief characteristic is its possessiveness: the +words "gain" and "profit" suggest this. To allow this +enemy to live is in the end to lose everything. To repudiate +it and give up all for Christ's sake is to lose +nothing at last, but to preserve everything unto life +eternal. And possibly also a hint is given here as to +the only effective way to destroy this foe: it is by the +Cross. "Let him take up his cross and follow me."</p> + +<p>The way to deeper knowledge of God is through +the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of +all things. The blessed ones who possess the Kingdom +are they who have repudiated every external thing and +have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing. +These are the "poor in spirit." They have reached an +inward state paralleling the outward circumstances of +the common beggar in the streets of Jerusalem; that is +what the word "poor" as Christ used it actually means. +These blessed poor are no longer slaves to the tyranny +of <i>things</i>. They have broken the yoke of the oppressor; +and this they have done not by fighting but by surrendering. +Though free from all sense of possessing, they +yet possess all things. "Theirs is the kingdom of +heaven."</p> + +<p>Let me exhort you to take this seriously. It is not +to be understood as mere Bible teaching to be stored<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +away in the mind along with an inert mass of other +doctrines. It is a marker on the road to greener pastures, +a path chiseled against the steep sides of the mount of +God. We dare not try to by-pass it if we would follow +on in this holy pursuit. We must ascend a step at a +time. If we refuse one step we bring our progress to +an end.</p> + +<p>As is frequently true, this New Testament principle +of spiritual life finds its best illustration in the Old +Testament. In the story of Abraham and Isaac we have +a dramatic picture of the surrendered life as well as +an excellent commentary on the first Beatitude.</p> + +<p>Abraham was old when Isaac was born, old +enough indeed to have been his grandfather, and the +child became at once the delight and idol of his heart. +From that moment when he first stooped to take the +tiny form awkwardly in his arms he was an eager love +slave of his son. God went out of His way to comment +on the strength of this affection. And it is not hard to +understand. The baby represented everything sacred to +his father's heart: the promises of God, the covenants, +the hopes of the years and the long messianic dream. +As he watched him grow from babyhood to young +manhood the heart of the old man was knit closer and +closer with the life of his son, till at last the relationship +bordered upon the perilous. It was then that God +stepped in to save both father and son from the consequences +of an uncleansed love.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +"Take now thy son," said God to Abraham, "thine +only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the +land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering +upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." +The sacred writer spares us a close-up of the agony +that night on the slopes near Beersheba when the aged +man had it out with his God, but respectful imagination +may view in awe the bent form and convulsive +wrestling alone under the stars. Possibly not again +until a Greater than Abraham wrestled in the Garden +of Gethsemane did such mortal pain visit a human +soul. If only the man himself might have been allowed +to die. That would have been easier a thousand times, +for he was old now, and to die would have been no +great ordeal for one who had walked so long with God. +Besides, it would have been a last sweet pleasure to +let his dimming vision rest upon the figure of his stalwart +son who would live to carry on the Abrahamic +line and fulfill in himself the promises of God made +long before in Ur of the Chaldees.</p> + +<p>How should he slay the lad! Even if he could get +the consent of his wounded and protesting heart, how +could he reconcile the act with the promise, "In Isaac +shall thy seed be called"? This was Abraham's trial +by fire, and he did not fail in the crucible. While the +stars still shone like sharp white points above the tent +where the sleeping Isaac lay, and long before the gray +dawn had begun to lighten the east, the old saint had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +made up his mind. He would offer his son as God had +directed him to do, and <i>then trust God to raise him +from the dead</i>. This, says the writer to the Hebrews, +was the solution his aching heart found sometime in +the dark night, and he rose "early in the morning" to +carry out the plan. It is beautiful to see that, while he +erred as to God's method, he had correctly sensed the +secret of His great heart. And the solution accords well +with the New Testament Scripture, "Whosoever will +lose for my sake shall find."</p> + +<p>God let the suffering old man go through with it +up to the point where He knew there would be no +retreat, and then forbade him to lay a hand upon the +boy. To the wondering patriarch He now says in +effect, "It's all right, Abraham. I never intended that +you should actually slay the lad. I only wanted to +remove him from the temple of your heart that I might +reign unchallenged there. I wanted to correct the perversion +that existed in your love. Now you may have +the boy, sound and well. Take him and go back to +your tent. Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing +that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, +from me."</p> + +<p>Then heaven opened and a voice was heard saying +to him, "By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, +for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not +withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I +will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which +is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the +gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations +of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my +voice."</p> + +<p>The old man of God lifted his head to respond to +the Voice, and stood there on the mount strong and +pure and grand, a man marked out by the Lord for +special treatment, a friend and favorite of the Most +High. Now he was a man wholly surrendered, a man +utterly obedient, a man who possessed nothing. He +had concentrated his all in the person of his dear son, +and God had taken it from him. God could have begun +out on the margin of Abraham's life and worked inward +to the center; He chose rather to cut quickly to the +heart and have it over in one sharp act of separation. +In dealing thus He practiced an economy of means +and time. It hurt cruelly, but it was effective.</p> + +<p>I have said that Abraham possessed nothing. Yet +was not this poor man rich? Everything he had owned +before was his still to enjoy: sheep, camels, herds, and +goods of every sort. He had also his wife and his friends, +and best of all he had his son Isaac safe by his side. +He had everything, but <i>he possessed nothing</i>. There +is the spiritual secret. There is the sweet theology of +the heart which can be learned only in the school of +renunciation. The books on systematic theology overlook +this, but the wise will understand.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +After that bitter and blessed experience I think +the words "my" and "mine" never had again the same +meaning for Abraham. The sense of possession which +they connote was gone from his heart. <i>Things</i> had +been cast out forever. They had now become external +to the man. His inner heart was free from them. The +world said, "Abraham is rich," but the aged patriarch +only smiled. He could not explain it to them, but he +knew that he owned nothing, that his real treasures +were inward and eternal.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging +to things is one of the most harmful habits in the +life. Because it is so natural it is rarely recognized for +the evil that it is; but its outworkings are tragic.</p> + +<p>We are often hindered from giving up our treasures +to the Lord out of fear for their safety; this is +especially true when those treasures are loved relatives +and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord +came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe +which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe +which is not so committed.</p> + +<p>Our gifts and talents should also be turned over +to Him. They should be recognized for what they are, +God's loan to us, and should never be considered in +any sense our own. We have no more right to claim +credit for special abilities than for blue eyes or strong +muscles. "For who maketh thee to differ from another? +and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +The Christian who is alive enough to know himself +even slightly will recognize the symptoms of this +possession malady, and will grieve to find them in his +own heart. If the longing after God is strong enough +within him he will want to do something about the +matter. Now, what should he do?</p> + +<p>First of all he should put away all defense and +make no attempt to excuse himself either in his own +eyes or before the Lord. Whoever defends himself will +have himself for his defense, and he will have no +other; but let him come defenseless before the Lord +and he will have for his defender no less than God +Himself. Let the inquiring Christian trample under +foot every slippery trick of his deceitful heart and +insist upon frank and open relations with the Lord.</p> + +<p>Then he should remember that this is holy business. +No careless or casual dealings will suffice. Let +him come to God in full determination to be heard. +Let him insist that God accept his all, that He take +<i>things</i> out of his heart and Himself reign there in +power. It may be he will need to become specific, to +name things and people by their names one by one. If +he will become drastic enough he can shorten the time +of his travail from years to minutes and enter the good +land long before his slower brethren who coddle their +feelings and insist upon caution in their dealings +with God.</p> + +<p>Let us never forget that such a truth as this can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>not +be learned by rote as one would learn the facts of +physical science. They must be <i>experienced</i> before we +can really know them. We must in our hearts live +through Abraham's harsh and bitter experiences if +we would know the blessedness which follows them. +The ancient curse will not go out painlessly; the tough +old miser within us will not lie down and die obedient +to our command. He must be torn out of our heart like +a plant from the soil; he must be extracted in agony and +blood like a tooth from the jaw. He must be expelled +from our soul by violence as Christ expelled the money +changers from the temple. And we shall need to steel +ourselves against his piteous begging, and to recognize +it as springing out of self-pity, one of the most reprehensible +sins of the human heart.</p> + +<p>If we would indeed know God in growing intimacy +we must go this way of renunciation. And if we +are set upon the pursuit of God He will sooner or later +bring us to this test. Abraham's testing was, at the time, +not known to him as such, yet if he had taken some +course other than the one he did, the whole history +of the Old Testament would have been different. God +would have found His man, no doubt, but the loss to +Abraham would have been tragic beyond the telling. +So we will be brought one by one to the testing place, +and we may never know when we are there. At that +testing place there will be no dozen possible choices<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +for us; just one and an alternative, but our whole future +will be conditioned by the choice we make.</p> + +<p><i>Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward +heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them +without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from +Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but +I do come. Please root from my heart all those things +which I have cherished so long and which have become +a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest +enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou +make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my +heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself +wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. +In Jesus' Name, Amen.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="III_Removing_the_Veil" id="III_Removing_the_Veil"></a>III <i>Removing the Veil</i></h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Having therefore, brethren, boldness +to enter into the holiest by the blood +of Jesus.—<i>Heb. 10:19</i></p></div> + +<p>Among the famous sayings of the Church fathers none +is better known than Augustine's, "Thou hast formed +us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find +rest in Thee."</p> + +<p>The great saint states here in few words the origin +and interior history of the human race. God made us +for Himself: that is the only explanation that satisfies +the <i>heart</i> of a thinking man, whatever his wild reason +may say. Should faulty education and perverse reasoning +lead a man to conclude otherwise, there is little +that any Christian can do for him. For such a man I +have no message. My appeal is addressed to those who +have been previously taught in secret by the wisdom of +God; I speak to thirsty hearts whose longings have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +been wakened by the touch of God within them, and +such as they need no reasoned proof. Their restless +hearts furnish all the proof they need.</p> + +<p>God formed us for Himself. The <i>Shorter Catechism</i>, +"Agreed upon by the Reverend Assembly of +Divines at Westminster," as the old <i>New-England +Primer</i> has it, asks the ancient questions <i>what</i> and <i>why</i> +and answers them in one short sentence hardly +matched in any uninspired work. "<i>Question</i>: What is +the chief End of Man? <i>Answer:</i> Man's chief End is +to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." With this agree +the four and twenty elders who fall on their faces to +worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, saying, +"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour +and power: for thou hast created all things, and for +thy pleasure they are and were created."</p> + +<p>God formed us for His pleasure, and so formed +us that we as well as He can in divine communion +enjoy the sweet and mysterious mingling of kindred +personalities. He meant us to see Him and live with +Him and draw our life from His smile. But we have +been guilty of that "foul revolt" of which Milton speaks +when describing the rebellion of Satan and his hosts. +We have broken with God. We have ceased to obey +Him or love Him and in guilt and fear have fled as +far as possible from His Presence.</p> + +<p>Yet who can flee from His Presence when the +heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +Him? when as the wisdom of Solomon testifies, "the +Spirit of the Lord filleth the world?" The omnipresence +of the Lord is one thing, and is a solemn fact necessary +to His perfection; the <i>manifest</i> Presence is another +thing altogether, and from that Presence we have fled, +like Adam, to hide among the trees of the garden, or +like Peter to shrink away crying, "Depart from me, for +I am a sinful man, O Lord."</p> + +<p>So the life of man upon the earth is a life away +from the Presence, wrenched loose from that "blissful +center" which is our right and proper dwelling place, +our first estate which we kept not, the loss of which is +the cause of our unceasing restlessness.</p> + +<p>The whole work of God in redemption is to undo +the tragic effects of that foul revolt, and to bring us +back again into right and eternal relationship with +Himself. This required that our sins be disposed of +satisfactorily, that a full reconciliation be effected and +the way opened for us to return again into conscious +communion with God and to live again in the Presence +as before. Then by His prevenient working within us +He moves us to return. This first comes to our notice +when our restless hearts feel a yearning for the Presence +of God and we say within ourselves, "I will arise +and go to my Father." That is the first step, and as the +Chinese sage Lao-tze has said, "The journey of a thousand +miles begins with a first step."</p> + +<p>The interior journey of the soul from the wilds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +of sin into the enjoyed Presence of God is beautifully +illustrated in the Old Testament tabernacle. The returning +sinner first entered the outer court where he +offered a blood sacrifice on the brazen altar and washed +himself in the laver that stood near it. Then through a +veil he passed into the holy place where no natural +light could come, but the golden candlestick which +spoke of Jesus the Light of the World threw its soft +glow over all. There also was the shewbread to tell +of Jesus, the Bread of Life, and the altar of incense, +a figure of unceasing prayer.</p> + +<p>Though the worshipper had enjoyed so much, +still he had not yet entered the Presence of God. Another +veil separated from the Holy of Holies where +above the mercy seat dwelt the very God Himself in +awful and glorious manifestation. While the tabernacle +stood, only the high priest could enter there, and +that but once a year, with blood which he offered for +his sins and the sins of the people. It was this last veil +which was rent when our Lord gave up the ghost on +Calvary, and the sacred writer explains that this rending +of the veil opened the way for every worshipper +in the world to come by the new and living way straight +into the divine Presence.</p> + +<p>Everything in the New Testament accords with +this Old Testament picture. Ransomed men need no +longer pause in fear to enter the Holy of Holies. <i>God +wills that we should push on into His Presence and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +live our whole life there.</i> This is to be known to us +in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to +be held, it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of +every day.</p> + +<p>This Flame of the Presence was the beating heart +of the Levitical order. Without it all the appointments +of the tabernacle were characters of some unknown +language; they had no meaning for Israel or for us. +The greatest fact of the tabernacle was that <i>Jehovah +was there</i>; a Presence was waiting within the veil. Similarly +the Presence of God is the central fact of Christianity. +At the heart of the Christian message is God +Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push +in to conscious awareness of His Presence. That type +of Christianity which happens now to be the vogue +knows this Presence only in theory. It fails to stress the +Christian's privilege of present realization. According +to its teachings we are in the Presence of God positionally, +and nothing is said about the need to experience +that Presence actually. The fiery urge that drove men +like McCheyne is wholly missing. And the present +generation of Christians measures itself by this imperfect +rule. Ignoble contentment takes the place of burning +zeal. We are satisfied to rest in our <i>judicial</i> +possessions and for the most part we bother ourselves +very little about the absence of personal experience.</p> + +<p>Who is this within the veil who dwells in fiery +manifestations? It is none other than God Himself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +"One God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and +earth, and of all things visible and invisible," and "One +Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God; +begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, +Light of Light, Very God of Very God; begotten, not +made; being of one substance with the Father," and +"the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, Who +proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with +the Father and the Son together is worshipped and +glorified." Yet this holy Trinity is One God, for "we +worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; +neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. +For there is one Person of the Father, another +of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the +Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy +Ghost, is all one: the glory equal and the majesty co-eternal." +So in part run the ancient creeds, and so the +inspired Word declares.</p> + +<p>Behind the veil is God, that God after Whom the +world, with strange inconsistency, has felt, "if haply +they might find Him." He has discovered Himself to +some extent in nature, but more perfectly in the Incarnation; +now He waits to show Himself in ravishing +fulness to the humble of soul and the pure in heart.</p> + +<p>The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge +of God and the Church is famishing for want of His +Presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills +would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that +God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness +and cause our hearts to be enlarged. This +would burn away the impurities from our lives as the +bugs and fungi were burned away by the fire that dwelt +in the bush.</p> + +<p>What a broad world to roam in, what a sea to +swim in is this God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. +He is <i>eternal</i>, which means that He antedates time and +is wholly independent of it. Time began in Him and +will end in Him. To it He pays no tribute and from it +He suffers no change. He is <i>immutable</i>, which means +that He has never changed and can never change in +any smallest measure. To change He would need to go +from better to worse or from worse to better. He cannot +do either, for being perfect He cannot become +more perfect, and if He were to become less perfect +He would be less than God. He is <i>omniscient</i>, which +means that He knows in one free and effortless act all +matter, all spirit, all relationships, all events. He has +no past and He has no future. He <i>is</i>, and none of the +limiting and qualifying terms used of creatures can +apply to Him. <i>Love</i> and <i>mercy</i> and <i>righteousness</i> are +His, and <i>holiness</i> so ineffable that no comparisons or +figures will avail to express it. Only fire can give even +a remote conception of it. In fire He appeared at the +burning bush; in the pillar of fire He dwelt through +all the long wilderness journey. The fire that glowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +between the wings of the cherubim in the holy place +was called the "shekinah," the Presence, through the +years of Israel's glory, and when the Old had given +place to the New, He came at Pentecost as a fiery flame +and rested upon each disciple.</p> + +<p>Spinoza wrote of the intellectual love of God, and +he had a measure of truth there; but the highest love +of God is not intellectual, it is spiritual. God is spirit +and only the spirit of man can know Him really. In +the deep spirit of a man the fire must glow or his love +is not the true love of God. The great of the Kingdom +have been those who loved God more than others did. +We all know who they have been and gladly pay +tribute to the depths and sincerity of their devotion. +We have but to pause for a moment and their names +come trooping past us smelling of myrrh and aloes and +cassia out of the ivory palaces.</p> + +<p>Frederick Faber was one whose soul panted after +God as the roe pants after the water brook, and the +measure in which God revealed Himself to his seeking +heart set the good man's whole life afire with a burning +adoration rivaling that of the seraphim before the +throne. His love for God extended to the three Persons +of the Godhead equally, yet he seemed to feel for each +One a special kind of love reserved for Him alone. Of +God the Father he sings:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i0">Only to sit and think of God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh what a joy it is!</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">To think the thought, to breathe the Name;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth has no higher bliss.<br /></span> +</i></div><div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i0">Father of Jesus, love's reward!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What rapture will it be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prostrate before Thy throne to lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gaze and gaze on Thee!<br /></span> +</i></div></div> + +<p>His love for the Person of Christ was so intense +that it threatened to consume him; it burned within +him as a sweet and holy madness and flowed from his +lips like molten gold. In one of his sermons he says, +"Wherever we turn in the church of God, there is +Jesus. He is the beginning, middle and end of everything +to us.... There is nothing good, nothing holy, +nothing beautiful, nothing joyous which He is not to +His servants. No one need be poor, because, if he +chooses, he can have Jesus for his own property and +possession. No one need be downcast, for Jesus is the +joy of heaven, and it is His joy to enter into sorrowful +hearts. We can exaggerate about many things; but we +can never exaggerate our obligation to Jesus, or the +compassionate abundance of the love of Jesus to us. +All our lives long we might talk of Jesus, and yet we +should never come to an end of the sweet things that +might be said of Him. Eternity will not be long enough +to learn all He is, or to praise Him for all He has done, +but then, that matters not; for we shall be always with +Him, and we desire nothing more." And addressing +our Lord directly he says to Him:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><i> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +<span class="i0">I love Thee so, I know not how<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My transports to control;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy love is like a burning fire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within my very soul.<br /></span> +</i></div></div> + +<p>Faber's blazing love extended also to the Holy +Spirit. Not only in his theology did he acknowledge +His deity and full equality with the Father and the +Son, but he celebrated it constantly in his songs and in +his prayers. He literally pressed his forehead to the +ground in his eager fervid worship of the Third Person +of the Godhead. In one of his great hymns to the +Holy Spirit he sums up his burning devotion thus:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i0">O Spirit, beautiful and dread!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My heart is fit to break<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With love of all Thy tenderness<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For us poor sinners' sake.<br /></span> +</i></div></div> + +<p>I have risked the tedium of quotation that I might +show by pointed example what I have set out to say, +viz., that God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and +completely delightful that He can, without anything +other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest +demands of our total nature, mysterious and deep as +that nature is. Such worship as Faber knew (and he +is but one of a great company which no man can number) +can never come from a mere doctrinal knowledge +of God. Hearts that are "fit to break" with love for the +Godhead are those who have been in the Presence and +have looked with opened eye upon the majesty of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +Deity. Men of the breaking hearts had a quality about +them not known to or understood by common men. +They habitually spoke with spiritual authority. They +had been in the Presence of God and they reported +what they saw there. They were prophets, not scribes, +for the scribe tells us what he has read, and the prophet +tells what he has seen.</p> + +<p>The distinction is not an imaginary one. Between +the scribe who has read and the prophet who has seen +there is a difference as wide as the sea. We are today +overrun with orthodox scribes, but the prophets, where +are they? The hard voice of the scribe sounds over +evangelicalism, but the Church waits for the tender +voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil and has +gazed with inward eye upon the Wonder that is God. +And yet, thus to penetrate, to push in sensitive living +experience into the holy Presence, is a privilege open +to every child of God.</p> + +<p>With the veil removed by the rending of Jesus' +flesh, with nothing on God's side to prevent us from +entering, why do we tarry without? Why do we consent +to abide all our days just outside the Holy of +Holies and never enter at all to look upon God? We +hear the Bridegroom say, "Let me see thy countenance, +let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice and thy +countenance is comely." We sense that the call is for +us, but still we fail to draw near, and the years pass<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +and we grow old and tired in the outer courts of the +tabernacle. What doth hinder us?</p> + +<p>The answer usually given, simply that we are +"cold," will not explain all the facts. There is something +more serious than coldness of heart, something +that may be back of that coldness and be the cause of +its existence. What is it? What but the presence of +<i>a veil in our hearts</i>? a veil not taken away as the first +veil was, but which remains there still shutting out the +light and hiding the face of God from us. It is the +veil of our fleshly fallen nature living on, unjudged +within us, uncrucified and unrepudiated. It is the close-woven +veil of the self-life which we have never truly +acknowledged, of which we have been secretly +ashamed, and which for these reasons we have never +brought to the judgment of the cross. It is not too +mysterious, this opaque veil, nor is it hard to identify. +We have but to look in our own hearts and we shall +see it there, sewn and patched and repaired it may be, +but there nevertheless, an enemy to our lives and an +effective block to our spiritual progress.</p> + +<p>This veil is not a beautiful thing and it is not a +thing about which we commonly care to talk, but I am +addressing the thirsting souls who are determined to +follow God, and I know they will not turn back because +the way leads temporarily through the blackened hills. +The urge of God within them will assure their continuing +the pursuit. They will face the facts however<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +unpleasant and endure the cross for the joy set before +them. So I am bold to name the threads out of which +this inner veil is woven.</p> + +<p>It is woven of the fine threads of the self-life, the +hyphenated sins of the human spirit. They are not +something we do, they are something we <i>are</i>, and therein +lies both their subtlety and their power.</p> + +<p>To be specific, the self-sins are these: self-righteousness, +self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, +self-love and a host of others like them. +They dwell too deep within us and are too much a +part of our natures to come to our attention till the +light of God is focused upon them. The grosser manifestations +of these sins, egotism, exhibitionism, self-promotion, +are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders +even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy. They are so +much in evidence as actually, for many people, to become +identified with the gospel. I trust it is not a cynical +observation to say that they appear these days to be +a requisite for popularity in some sections of the +Church visible. Promoting self under the guise of promoting +Christ is currently so common as to excite little +notice.</p> + +<p>One should suppose that proper instruction in the +doctrines of man's depravity and the necessity for justification +through the righteousness of Christ alone +would deliver us from the power of the self-sins; but +it does not work out that way. Self can live unrebuked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +at the very altar. It can watch the bleeding Victim die +and not be in the least affected by what it sees. It can +fight for the faith of the Reformers and preach eloquently +the creed of salvation by grace, and gain +strength by its efforts. To tell all the truth, it seems +actually to feed upon orthodoxy and is more at home +in a Bible Conference than in a tavern. Our very state +of longing after God may afford it an excellent condition +under which to thrive and grow.</p> + +<p>Self is the opaque veil that hides the Face of God +from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experience, +never by mere instruction. As well try to instruct +leprosy out of our system. There must be a work of God +in destruction before we are free. We must invite the +cross to do its deadly work within us. We must bring +our self-sins to the cross for judgment. We must prepare +ourselves for an ordeal of suffering in some measure +like that through which our Saviour passed when +He suffered under Pontius Pilate.</p> + +<p>Let us remember: when we talk of the rending +of the veil we are speaking in a figure, and the thought +of it is poetical, almost pleasant; but in actuality there +is nothing pleasant about it. In human experience that +veil is made of living spiritual tissue; it is composed of +the sentient, quivering stuff of which our whole beings +consist, and to touch it is to touch us where we feel +pain. To tear it away is to injure us, to hurt us and make +us bleed. To say otherwise is to make the cross no cross<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +and death no death at all. It is never fun to die. To rip +through the dear and tender stuff of which life is +made can never be anything but deeply painful. Yet +that is what the cross did to Jesus and it is what the +cross would do to every man to set him free.</p> + +<p>Let us beware of tinkering with our inner life +in hope ourselves to rend the veil. God must do everything +for us. Our part is to yield and trust. We must +confess, forsake, repudiate the self-life, and then +reckon it crucified. But we must be careful to distinguish +lazy "acceptance" from the real work of God. +We must insist upon the work being done. We dare +not rest content with a neat doctrine of self-crucifixion. +That is to imitate Saul and spare the best of the sheep +and the oxen.</p> + +<p>Insist that the work be done in very truth and it +will be done. The cross is rough, and it is deadly, but +it is effective. It does not keep its victim hanging there +forever. There comes a moment when its work is finished +and the suffering victim dies. After that is resurrection +glory and power, and the pain is forgotten for +joy that the veil is taken away and we have entered +in actual spiritual experience the Presence of the +living God.</p> + +<p><i>Lord, how excellent are Thy ways, and how +devious and dark are the ways of man. Show us how to +die, that we may rise again to newness of life. Rend +the veil of our self-life from the top down as Thou<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +didst rend the veil of the Temple. We would draw +near in full assurance of faith. We would dwell with +Thee in daily experience here on this earth so that +we may be accustomed to the glory when we enter Thy +heaven to dwell with Thee there. In Jesus' name, +Amen.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IV_Apprehending_God" id="IV_Apprehending_God"></a>IV <i>Apprehending God</i></h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>O taste and see.—Psa. 34:8</p></div> + +<p>It was Canon Holmes, of India, who more than twenty-five +years ago called attention to the inferential character +of the average man's faith in God. To most people +God is an inference, not a reality. He is a deduction +from evidence which they consider adequate; but He +remains personally unknown to the individual. "He +<i>must</i> be," they say, "therefore we believe He is." Others +do not go even so far as this; they know of Him only +by hearsay. They have never bothered to think the +matter out for themselves, but have heard about Him +from others, and have put belief in Him into the back +of their minds along with the various odds and ends +that make up their total creed. To many others God is +but an ideal, another name for goodness, or beauty, or +truth; or He is law, or life, or the creative impulse back +of the phenomena of existence.</p> + +<p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +These notions about God are many and varied, +but they who hold them have one thing in common: +they do not know God in personal experience. The +possibility of intimate acquaintance with Him has not +entered their minds. While admitting His existence +they do not think of Him as knowable in the sense that +we know things or people.</p> + +<p>Christians, to be sure, go further than this, at least +in theory. Their creed requires them to believe in the +personality of God, and they have been taught to pray, +"Our Father, which art in heaven." Now personality +and fatherhood carry with them the idea of the possibility +of personal acquaintance. This is admitted, I say, +in theory, but for millions of Christians, nevertheless, +God is no more real than He is to the non-Christian. +They go through life trying to love an ideal and be +loyal to a mere principle.</p> + +<p>Over against all this cloudy vagueness stands the +clear scriptural doctrine that God can be known in +personal experience. A loving Personality dominates +the Bible, walking among the trees of the garden and +breathing fragrance over every scene. Always a living +Person is present, speaking, pleading, loving, working, +and manifesting Himself whenever and wherever His +people have the receptivity necessary to receive the +manifestation.</p> + +<p>The Bible assumes as a self-evident fact that men +can know God with at least the same degree of imme<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>diacy +as they know any other person or thing that +comes within the field of their experience. The same +terms are used to express the knowledge of God as are +used to express knowledge of physical things. "O <i>taste</i> +and see that the Lord is good." "All thy garments <i>smell</i> +of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces." +"My sheep <i>hear</i> my voice." "Blessed are the pure +in heart, for they shall <i>see</i> God." These are but four +of countless such passages from the Word of God. And +more important than any proof text is the fact that the +whole import of the Scripture is toward this belief.</p> + +<p>What can all this mean except that we have in +our hearts organs by means of which we can know +God as certainly as we know material things through +our familiar five senses? We apprehend the physical +world by exercising the faculties given us for the purpose, +and we possess spiritual faculties by means of +which we can know God and the spiritual world if +we will obey the Spirit's urge and begin to use them.</p> + +<p>That a saving work must first be done in the heart +is taken for granted here. The spiritual faculties of the +unregenerate man lie asleep in his nature, unused +and for every purpose dead; that is the stroke which +has fallen upon us by sin. They may be quickened +to active life again by the operation of the Holy Spirit +in regeneration; that is one of the immeasurable benefits +which come to us through Christ's atoning work +on the cross.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +But the very ransomed children of God themselves: +why do they know so little of that habitual conscious +communion with God which the Scriptures +seem to offer? The answer is our chronic unbelief. +Faith enables our spiritual sense to function. Where +faith is defective the result will be inward insensibility +and numbness toward spiritual things. This is the +condition of vast numbers of Christians today. No +proof is necessary to support that statement. We have +but to converse with the first Christian we meet or +enter the first church we find open to acquire all the +proof we need.</p> + +<p>A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing +us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner +selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is +here waiting our response to His Presence. This eternal +world will come alive to us the moment we begin to +reckon upon its reality.</p> + +<p>I have just now used two words which demand +definition; or if definition is impossible, I must at least +make clear what I mean when I use them. They are +"reckon" and "reality."</p> + +<p>What do I mean by <i>reality</i>? I mean that which +has existence apart from any idea any mind may have +of it, and which would exist if there were no mind anywhere +to entertain a thought of it. That which is real +has being in itself. It does not depend upon the observer +for its validity.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>I am aware that there are those who love to poke +fun at the plain man's idea of reality. They are the +idealists who spin endless proofs that nothing is real +outside of the mind. They are the relativists who like +to show that there are no fixed points in the universe +from which we can measure anything. They smile +down upon us from their lofty intellectual peaks and +settle us to their own satisfaction by fastening upon us +the reproachful term "absolutist." The Christian is not +put out of countenance by this show of contempt. He +can smile right back at them, for he knows that there +is only One who is Absolute, that is God. But he knows +also that the Absolute One has made this world for +man's uses, and, while there is nothing fixed or real +in the last meaning of the words (the meaning as applied +to God) <i>for every purpose of human life we are +permitted to act as if there were</i>. And every man does +act thus except the mentally sick. These unfortunates +also have trouble with reality, but they are consistent; +they insist upon living in accordance with their ideas +of things. They are honest, and it is their very honesty +that constitutes them a social problem.</p> + +<p>The idealists and relativists are not mentally sick. +They prove their soundness by living their lives according +to the very notions of reality which they in +theory repudiate and by counting upon the very fixed +points which they prove are not there. They could earn +a lot more respect for their notions if they were willing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +to live by them; but this they are careful not to do. +Their ideas are brain-deep, not life-deep. Wherever +life touches them they repudiate their theories and live +like other men.</p> + +<p>The Christian is too sincere to play with ideas for +their own sake. He takes no pleasure in the mere spinning +of gossamer webs for display. All his beliefs are +practical. They are geared into his life. By them he +lives or dies, stands or falls for this world and for all +time to come. From the insincere man he turns away.</p> + +<p>The sincere plain man knows that the world is +real. He finds it here when he wakes to consciousness, +and he knows that he did not think it into being. It +was here waiting for him when he came, and he knows +that when he prepares to leave this earthly scene it +will be here still to bid him good-bye as he departs. +By the deep wisdom of life he is wiser than a thousand +men who doubt. He stands upon the earth and feels +the wind and rain in his face and he knows that they +are real. He sees the sun by day and the stars by night. +He sees the hot lightning play out of the dark thundercloud. +He hears the sounds of nature and the cries of +human joy and pain. These he knows are real. He lies +down on the cool earth at night and has no fear that +it will prove illusory or fail him while he sleeps. In the +morning the firm ground will be under him, the blue +sky above him and the rocks and trees around him as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +when he closed his eyes the night before. So he lives +and rejoices in a world of reality.</p> + +<p>With his five senses he engages this real world. +All things necessary to his physical existence he apprehends +by the faculties with which he has been +equipped by the God who created him and placed +him in such a world as this.</p> + +<p>Now, by our definition also God is real. He is real +in the absolute and final sense that nothing else is. +All other reality is contingent upon His. The great +Reality is God who is the Author of that lower and +dependent reality which makes up the sum of created +things, including ourselves. God has objective existence +independent of and apart from any notions +which we may have concerning Him. The worshipping +heart does not create its Object. It finds Him here +when it wakes from its moral slumber in the morning +of its regeneration.</p> + +<p>Another word that must be cleared up is the word +<i>reckon</i>. This does not mean to visualize or imagine. +Imagination is not faith. The two are not only different +from, but stand in sharp opposition to, each other. +Imagination projects unreal images out of the mind +and seeks to attach reality to them. Faith creates nothing; +it simply reckons upon that which is already <i>there</i>.</p> + +<p>God and the spiritual world are real. We can +reckon upon them with as much assurance as we +reckon upon the familiar world around us. Spiritual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +things are there (or rather we should say <i>here</i>) inviting +our attention and challenging our trust.</p> + +<p>Our trouble is that we have established bad +thought habits. We habitually think of the visible +world as real and doubt the reality of any other. We +do not deny the existence of the spiritual world but we +doubt that it is real in the accepted meaning of the +word.</p> + +<p>The world of sense intrudes upon our attention +day and night for the whole of our lifetime. It is +clamorous, insistent and self-demonstrating. It does +not appeal to our faith; it is here, assaulting our five +senses, demanding to be accepted as real and final. +But sin has so clouded the lenses of our hearts that we +cannot see that other reality, the City of God, shining +around us. The world of sense triumphs. The visible +becomes the enemy of the invisible; the temporal, of +the eternal. That is the curse inherited by every member +of Adam's tragic race.</p> + +<p>At the root of the Christian life lies belief in the +invisible. The object of the Christian's faith is unseen +reality.</p> + +<p>Our uncorrected thinking, influenced by the +blindness of our natural hearts and the intrusive ubiquity +of visible things, tends to draw a contrast between +the spiritual and the real; but actually no such contrast +exists. The antithesis lies elsewhere: between the real +and the imaginary, between the spiritual and the mate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>rial, +between the temporal and the eternal; but between +the spiritual and the real, never. The spiritual +<i>is</i> real.</p> + +<p>If we would rise into that region of light and +power plainly beckoning us through the Scriptures of +truth we must break the evil habit of ignoring the +spiritual. We must shift our interest from the seen to +the unseen. For the great unseen Reality is God. "He +that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that +he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." This +is basic in the life of faith. From there we can rise to +unlimited heights. "Ye believe in God," said our Lord +Jesus Christ, "believe also in me." Without the first +there can be no second.</p> + +<p>If we truly want to follow God we must seek to +be other-worldly. This I say knowing well that that +word has been used with scorn by the sons of this +world and applied to the Christian as a badge of reproach. +So be it. Every man must choose his world. If +we who follow Christ, with all the facts before us and +knowing what we are about, deliberately choose the +Kingdom of God as our sphere of interest I see no +reason why anyone should object. If we lose by it, the +loss is our own; if we gain, we rob no one by so doing. +The "other world," which is the object of this world's +disdain and the subject of the drunkard's mocking +song, is our carefully chosen goal and the object of +our holiest longing.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>But we must avoid the common fault of pushing +the "other world" into the future. It is not future, but +present. It parallels our familiar physical world, and +the doors between the two worlds are open. "Ye are +come," says the writer to the Hebrews (and the tense +is plainly present), "unto Mount Zion, and unto the +city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to +an innumerable company of angels, to the general +assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written +in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the +spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the +mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of +sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of +Abel." All these things are contrasted with "the mount +that might be touched" and "the sound of a trumpet +and the voice of words" that might be heard. May we +not safely conclude that, as the realities of Mount Sinai +were apprehended by the senses, so the realities of +Mount Zion are to be grasped by the soul? And this not +by any trick of the imagination, but in downright actuality. +The soul has eyes with which to see and ears +with which to hear. Feeble they may be from long disuse, +but by the life-giving touch of Christ alive now +and capable of sharpest sight and most sensitive +hearing.</p> + +<p>As we begin to focus upon God the things of the +spirit will take shape before our inner eyes. Obedience +to the word of Christ will bring an inward revelation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +of the Godhead (John 14:21-23). It will give acute +perception enabling us to see God even as is promised +to the pure in heart. A new God consciousness will +seize upon us and we shall begin to taste and hear and +inwardly feel the God who is our life and our all. There +will be seen the constant shining of the light that lighteth +every man that cometh into the world. More and +more, as our faculties grow sharper and more sure, God +will become to us the great All, and His Presence the +glory and wonder of our lives.</p> + +<p><i>O God, quicken to life every power within me, +that I may lay hold on eternal things. Open my eyes +that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; +enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou art good. +Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing +has ever been. Amen.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="V_The_Universal_Presence" id="V_The_Universal_Presence"></a>V <i>The Universal Presence</i></h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Whither shall I go from thy spirit? +or whither shall I flee from thy +presence?—<i>Psa. 139:7</i></p></div> + +<p>In all Christian teaching certain basic truths are found, +hidden at times, and rather assumed than asserted, but +necessary to all truth as the primary colors are found +in and necessary to the finished painting. Such a truth +is the divine immanence.</p> + +<p>God dwells in His creation and is everywhere +indivisibly present in all His works. This is boldly +taught by prophet and apostle and is accepted by +Christian theology generally. That is, it appears in the +books, but for some reason it has not sunk into the +average Christian's heart so as to become a part of his +believing self. Christian teachers shy away from its +full implications, and, if they mention it at all, mute +it down till it has little meaning. I would guess the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +reason for this to be the fear of being charged with +pantheism; but the doctrine of the divine Presence is +definitely not pantheism.</p> + +<p>Pantheism's error is too palpable to deceive anyone. +It is that God is the sum of all created things. +Nature and God are one, so that whoever touches a +leaf or a stone touches God. That is of course to degrade +the glory of the incorruptible Deity and, in an effort +to make all things divine, banish all divinity from the +world entirely.</p> + +<p>The truth is that while God dwells in His world +He is separated from it by a gulf forever impassable. +However closely He may be identified with the work +of His hands <i>they</i> are and must eternally be <i>other than +He</i>, and He is and must be antecedent to and independent +of them. He is transcendent above all His works +even while He is immanent within them.</p> + +<p>What now does the divine immanence mean in +direct Christian experience? It means simply that <i>God +is here</i>. Wherever we are, God is here. There is no +place, there can be no place, where He is not. Ten +million intelligences standing at as many points in +space and separated by incomprehensible distances +can each one say with equal truth, God is here. No +point is nearer to God than any other point. It is exactly +as near to God from any place as it is from any other +place. No one is in mere distance any further from or +any nearer to God than any other person is.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>These are truths believed by every instructed +Christian. It remains for us to think on them and pray +over them until they begin to glow within us.</p> + +<p>"In the beginning God." Not <i>matter</i>, for matter +is not self-causing. It requires an antecedent cause, and +God is that Cause. Not <i>law</i>, for law is but a name for +the course which all creation follows. That course had +to be planned, and the Planner is God. Not <i>mind</i>, for +mind also is a created thing and must have a Creator +back of it. In the beginning God, the uncaused Cause +of matter, mind and law. There we must begin.</p> + +<p>Adam sinned and, in his panic, frantically tried +to do the impossible: he tried to hide from the Presence +of God. David also must have had wild thoughts +of trying to escape from the Presence, for he wrote, +"Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall +I flee from thy presence?" Then he proceeded through +one of his most beautiful psalms to celebrate the glory +of the divine immanence. "If I ascend up into heaven, +thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou +art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell +in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall +thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." +And he knew that God's <i>being</i> and God's <i>seeing</i> are +the same, that the seeing Presence had been with him +even before he was born, watching the mystery of unfolding +life. Solomon exclaimed, "But will God indeed +dwell on the earth? behold the heaven and the heaven<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +of heavens cannot contain thee: how much less this +house which I have builded." Paul assured the Athenians +that "God is not far from any one of us: for in +him we live, and move, and have our being."</p> + +<p>If God is present at every point in space, if we +cannot go where He is not, cannot even conceive of a +place where He is not, why then has not that Presence +become the one universally celebrated fact of the +world? The patriarch Jacob, "in the waste howling +wilderness," gave the answer to that question. He saw +a vision of God and cried out in wonder, "Surely the +Lord is in this place; and I knew it not." Jacob had +never been for one small division of a moment outside +the circle of that all-pervading Presence. But he knew +it not. That was his trouble, and it is ours. Men do not +know that God is here. What a difference it would +make if they knew.</p> + +<p>The Presence and the manifestation of the Presence +are not the same. There can be the one without +the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware +of it. He is <i>manifest</i> only when and as we are aware +of His Presence. On our part there must be surrender +to the Spirit of God, for His work it is to show us the +Father and the Son. If we co-operate with Him in +loving obedience God will manifest Himself to us, and +that manifestation will be the difference between a +nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light +of His face.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>Always, everywhere God is present, and always +He seeks to discover Himself. To each one he would +reveal not only that He is, but <i>what</i> He is as well. He +did not have to be persuaded to discover Himself to +Moses. "And the Lord descended in the cloud, and +stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the +Lord." He not only made a verbal proclamation of His +nature but He revealed His very Self to Moses so +that the skin of Moses' face shone with the supernatural +light. It will be a great moment for some of us when +we begin to believe that God's promise of self-revelation +is literally true: that He promised much, but promised +no more than He intends to fulfill.</p> + +<p>Our pursuit of God is successful just because He +is forever seeking to manifest Himself to us. The revelation +of God to any man is not God coming from a +distance upon a time to pay a brief and momentous +visit to the man's soul. Thus to think of it is to misunderstand +it all. The approach of God to the soul or +of the soul to God is not to be thought of in spatial +terms at all. There is no idea of physical distance involved +in the concept. It is not a matter of miles but +of experience.</p> + +<p>To speak of being near to or far from God is to +use language in a sense always understood when applied +to our ordinary human relationships. A man may +say, "I feel that my son is coming nearer to me as he +gets older," and yet that son has lived by his father's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +side since he was born and has never been away from +home more than a day or so in his entire life. What +then can the father mean? Obviously he is speaking +of <i>experience</i>. He means that the boy is coming to +know him more intimately and with deeper understanding, +that the barriers of thought and feeling between +the two are disappearing, that father and son +are becoming more closely united in mind and heart.</p> + +<p>So when we sing, "Draw me nearer, nearer, +blessed Lord," we are not thinking of the nearness of +place, but of the nearness of relationship. It is for increasing +degrees of awareness that we pray, for a more +perfect consciousness of the divine Presence. We need +never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is +nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret +thoughts.</p> + +<p>Why do some persons "find" God in a way that +others do not? Why does God manifest His Presence +to some and let multitudes of others struggle along in +the half-light of imperfect Christian experience? Of +course the will of God is the same for all. He has no +favorites within His household. All He has ever done +for any of His children He will do for all of His children. +The difference lies not with God but with us.</p> + +<p>Pick at random a score of great saints whose lives +and testimonies are widely known. Let them be Bible +characters or well known Christians of post-Biblical +times. You will be struck instantly with the fact that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +the saints were not alike. Sometimes the unlikenesses +were so great as to be positively glaring. How different +for example was Moses from Isaiah; how different was +Elijah from David; how unlike each other were John +and Paul, St. Francis and Luther, Finney and Thomas +à Kempis. The differences are as wide as human life +itself: differences of race, nationality, education, temperament, +habit and personal qualities. Yet they all +walked, each in his day, upon a high road of spiritual +living far above the common way.</p> + +<p>Their differences must have been incidental and +in the eyes of God of no significance. In some vital +quality they must have been alike. What was it?</p> + +<p>I venture to suggest that the one vital quality +which they had in common was <i>spiritual receptivity</i>. +Something in them was open to heaven, something +which urged them Godward. Without attempting anything +like a profound analysis I shall say simply that +they had spiritual awareness and that they went on to +cultivate it until it became the biggest thing in their +lives. They differed from the average person in that +when they felt the inward longing they <i>did something +about it</i>. They acquired the lifelong habit of spiritual +response. They were not disobedient to the heavenly +vision. As David put it neatly, "When thou saidst, +Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, +Lord, will I seek."</p> + +<p>As with everything good in human life, back of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +this receptivity is God. The sovereignty of God is here, +and is felt even by those who have not placed particular +stress upon it theologically. The pious Michael Angelo +confessed this in a sonnet:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i0">My unassisted heart is barren clay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That of its native self can nothing feed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of good and pious works Thou art the seed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That quickens only where Thou sayest it may:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unless Thou show to us Thine own true way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead.<br /></span> +</i></div></div> + +<p>These words will repay study as the deep and serious +testimony of a great Christian.</p> + +<p>Important as it is that we recognize God working +in us, I would yet warn against a too-great preoccupation +with the thought. It is a sure road to sterile passivity. +God will not hold us responsible to understand the +mysteries of election, predestination and the divine sovereignty. +The best and safest way to deal with these +truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence +say, "O Lord, Thou knowest." Those things +belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God's +omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, +but it will never make saints.</p> + +<p>Receptivity is not a single thing; it is a compound +rather, a blending of several elements within the soul. +It is an affinity for, a bent toward, a sympathetic +response to, a desire to have. From this it may be gathered +that it can be present in degrees, that we may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +have little or more or less, depending upon the individual. +It may be increased by exercise or destroyed +by neglect. It is not a sovereign and irresistible force +which comes upon us as a seizure from above. It is a +gift of God, indeed, but one which must be recognized +and cultivated as any other gift if it is to realize the +purpose for which it was given.</p> + +<p>Failure to see this is the cause of a very serious +breakdown in modern evangelicalism. The idea of +cultivation and exercise, so dear to the saints of old, +has now no place in our total religious picture. It is +too slow, too common. We now demand glamour and +fast flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians +reared among push buttons and automatic machines +is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching +their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age +methods to our relations with God. We read our +chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, +hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by +attending another gospel meeting or listening to another +thrilling story told by a religious adventurer +lately returned from afar.</p> + +<p>The tragic results of this spirit are all about us. +Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance +of the element of fun in gospel meetings, +the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, +quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the +mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +Spirit: these and such as these are the symptoms of an +evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.</p> + +<p>For this great sickness that is upon us no one +person is responsible, and no Christian is wholly free +from blame. We have all contributed, directly or indirectly, +to this sad state of affairs. We have been too +blind to see, or too timid to speak out, or too self-satisfied +to desire anything better than the poor average diet +with which others appear satisfied. To put it differently, +we have accepted one another's notions, copied +one another's lives and made one another's experiences +the model for our own. And for a generation the trend +has been downward. Now we have reached a low place +of sand and burnt wire grass and, worst of all, we have +made the Word of Truth conform to our experience +and accepted this low plane as the very pasture of +the blessed.</p> + +<p>It will require a determined heart and more than +a little courage to wrench ourselves loose from the grip +of our times and return to Biblical ways. But it can +be done. Every now and then in the past Christians +have had to do it. History has recorded several large-scale +returns led by such men as St. Francis, Martin +Luther and George Fox. Unfortunately there seems +to be no Luther or Fox on the horizon at present. +Whether or not another such return may be expected +before the coming of Christ is a question upon which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +Christians are not fully agreed, but that is not of too +great importance to us now.</p> + +<p>What God in His sovereignty may yet do on a +world-scale I do not claim to know: but what He will +do for the plain man or woman who seeks His face +I believe I do know and can tell others. Let any man +turn to God in earnest, let him begin to exercise himself +unto godliness, let him seek to develop his powers +of spiritual receptivity by trust and obedience and humility, +and the results will exceed anything he may +have hoped in his leaner and weaker days.</p> + +<p>Any man who by repentance and a sincere return +to God will break himself out of the mold in which +he has been held, and will go to the Bible itself for his +spiritual standards, will be delighted with what he +finds there.</p> + +<p>Let us say it again: The Universal Presence is a +fact. God is here. The whole universe is alive with His +life. And He is no strange or foreign God, but the +familiar Father of our Lord Jesus Christ whose love +has for these thousands of years enfolded the sinful +race of men. And always He is trying to get our attention, +to reveal Himself to us, to communicate with us. +We have within us the ability to know Him if we will +but respond to His overtures. (And this we call pursuing +God!) We will know Him in increasing degree +as our receptivity becomes more perfect by faith and +love and practice.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +<i>O God and Father, I repent of my sinful preoccupation +with visible things. The world has been +too much with me. Thou hast been here and I knew +it not. I have been blind to Thy Presence. Open my +eyes that I may behold Thee in and around me. For +Christ's sake, Amen.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VI_The_Speaking_Voice" id="VI_The_Speaking_Voice"></a>VI <i>The Speaking Voice</i></h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In the beginning was the Word, +and the Word was with God, and +the Word was God.—<i>John 1:1</i></p></div> + +<p>An intelligent plain man, untaught in the truths of +Christianity, coming upon this text, would likely conclude +that John meant to teach that it is the nature of +God to speak, to communicate His thoughts to others. +And he would be right. A word is a medium by which +thoughts are expressed, and the application of +term to the Eternal Son leads us to believe that self-expression +is inherent in the Godhead, that God is +forever seeking to speak Himself out to His creation. +The whole Bible supports the idea. God is speaking. +Not God spoke, but <i>God is speaking</i>. He is by His +nature continuously articulate. He fills the world with +His speaking Voice.</p> + +<p>One of the great realities with which we have to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +deal is the Voice of God in His world. The briefest +and only satisfying cosmogony is this: "He spake and +it was done." The <i>why</i> of natural law is the living Voice +of God immanent in His creation. And this word of +God which brought all worlds into being cannot be +understood to mean the Bible, for it is not a written +or printed word at all, but the expression of the will +of God spoken into the structure of all things. This +word of God is the breath of God filling the world with +living potentiality. The Voice of God is the most powerful +force in nature, indeed the only force in nature, +for all energy is here only because the power-filled +Word is being spoken.</p> + +<p>The Bible is the written word of God, and because +it is written it is confined and limited by the necessities +of ink and paper and leather. The Voice of God, however, +is alive and free as the sovereign God is free. +"The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and +they are life." The life is in the speaking words. God's +word in the Bible can have power only because it corresponds +to God's word in the universe. It is the present +Voice which makes the written Word all-powerful. +Otherwise it would lie locked in slumber within the +covers of a book.</p> + +<p>We take a low and primitive view of things when +we conceive of God at the creation coming into physical +contact with things, shaping and fitting and building +like a carpenter. The Bible teaches otherwise: "By<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all +the host of them by the breath of his mouth.... For +he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood +fast." "Through faith we understand that the worlds +were framed by the word of God." Again we must +remember that God is referring here not to His written +Word, but to His speaking Voice. His world-filling +Voice is meant, that Voice which antedates the Bible +by uncounted centuries, that Voice which has not been +silent since the dawn of creation, but is sounding still +throughout the full far reaches of the universe.</p> + +<p>The Word of God is quick and powerful. In the +beginning He spoke to nothing, and it became <i>something</i>. +Chaos heard it and became order, darkness +heard it and became light. "And God said—and it was +so." These twin phrases, as cause and effect, occur +throughout the Genesis story of the creation. The <i>said</i> +accounts for the <i>so</i>. The <i>so</i> is the <i>said</i> put into the +continuous present.</p> + +<p>That God is here and that He is speaking—these +truths are back of all other Bible truths; without them +there could be no revelation at all. God did not write a +book and send it by messenger to be read at a distance +by unaided minds. He spoke a Book and lives in His +spoken words, constantly speaking His words and +causing the power of them to persist across the years. +God breathed on clay and it became a man; He +breathes on men and they become clay. "Return ye<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +children of men" was the word spoken at the Fall by +which God decreed the death of every man, and no +added word has He needed to speak. The sad procession +of mankind across the face of the earth from birth +to the grave is proof that His original Word was +enough.</p> + +<p>We have not given sufficient attention to that +deep utterance in the Book of John, "That was the +true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into +the world." Shift the punctuation around as we will +and the truth is still there: the Word of God affects +the hearts of all men as light in the soul. In the hearts +of all men the light shines, the Word sounds, and +there is no escaping them. Something like this would +of necessity be so if God is alive and in His world. And +John says that it is so. Even those persons who have +never heard of the Bible have still been preached to +with sufficient clarity to remove every excuse from +their hearts forever. "Which show the work of the law +written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing +witness, and their thoughts the mean while either +accusing or else excusing one another." "For the invisible +things of him from the creation of the world +are clearly seen, being understood by the things that +are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so +that they are without excuse."</p> + +<p>This universal Voice of God was by the ancient +Hebrews often called Wisdom, and was said to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +everywhere sounding and searching throughout the +earth, seeking some response from the sons of men. +The eighth chapter of the Book of Proverbs begins, +"Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth +her voice?" The writer then pictures wisdom as a +beautiful woman standing "in the top of the high +places, by the way in the places of the paths." She +sounds her voice from every quarter so that no one +may miss hearing it. "Unto you, O men, I call; and +my voice is to the sons of men." Then she pleads for +the simple and the foolish to give ear to her words. +It is spiritual response for which this Wisdom of God +is pleading, a response which she has always sought +and is but rarely able to secure. The tragedy is that +our eternal welfare depends upon our hearing, and we +have trained our ears not to hear.</p> + +<p>This universal Voice has ever sounded, and it has +often troubled men even when they did not understand +the source of their fears. Could it be that this +Voice distilling like a living mist upon the hearts of +men has been the undiscovered cause of the troubled +conscience and the longing for immortality confessed +by millions since the dawn of recorded history? We +need not fear to face up to this. The speaking Voice is +a fact. How men have reacted to it is for any observer +to note.</p> + +<p>When God spoke out of heaven to our Lord, self-centered +men who heard it explained it by natural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +causes: they said, "It thundered." This habit of explaining +the Voice by appeals to natural law is at the +very root of modern science. In the living breathing +cosmos there is a mysterious Something, too wonderful, +too awful for any mind to understand. The believing +man does not claim to understand. He falls to his +knees and whispers, "God." The man of earth kneels +also, but not to worship. He kneels to examine, to +search, to find the cause and the how of things. Just +now we happen to be living in a secular age. Our +thought habits are those of the scientist, not those of +the worshipper. We are more likely to explain than to +adore. "It thundered," we exclaim, and go our earthly +way. But still the Voice sounds and searches. The +order and life of the world depend upon that Voice, +but men are mostly too busy or too stubborn to give +attention.</p> + +<p>Everyone of us has had experiences which we +have not been able to explain: a sudden sense of loneliness, +or a feeling of wonder or awe in the face of the +universal vastness. Or we have had a fleeting visitation +of light like an illumination from some other sun, giving +us in a quick flash an assurance that we are from +another world, that our origins are divine. What we +saw there, or felt, or heard, may have been contrary +to all that we had been taught in the schools and at +wide variance with all our former beliefs and opinions. +We were forced to suspend our acquired doubts while,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +for a moment, the clouds were rolled back and we saw +and heard for ourselves. Explain such things as we +will, I think we have not been fair to the facts until we +allow at least the possibility that such experiences may +arise from the Presence of God in the world and His +persistent effort to communicate with mankind. Let +us not dismiss such an hypothesis too flippantly.</p> + +<p>It is my own belief (and here I shall not feel +bad if no one follows me) that every good and beautiful +thing which man has produced in the world has +been the result of his faulty and sin-blocked response +to the creative Voice sounding over the earth. The +moral philosophers who dreamed their high dreams +of virtue, the religious thinkers who speculated about +God and immortality, the poets and artists who created +out of common stuff pure and lasting beauty: how +can we explain them? It is not enough to say simply, +"It was genius." What then is genius? Could it be +that a genius is a man haunted by the speaking Voice, +laboring and striving like one possessed to achieve ends +which he only vaguely understands? That the great +man may have missed God in his labors, that he may +even have spoken or written against God does not +destroy the idea I am advancing. God's redemptive +revelation in the Holy Scriptures is necessary to saving +faith and peace with God. Faith in a risen Saviour is +necessary if the vague stirrings toward immortality are +to bring us to restful and satisfying communion with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +God. To me this is a plausible explanation of all that +is best out of Christ. But you can be a good Christian +and not accept my thesis.</p> + +<p>The Voice of God is a friendly Voice. No one +need fear to listen to it unless he has already made +up his mind to resist it. The blood of Jesus has covered +not only the human race but all creation as well. +"And having made peace through the blood of his +cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by +him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things +in heaven." We may safely preach a friendly Heaven. +The heavens as well as the earth are filled with the +good will of Him that dwelt in the bush. The perfect +blood of atonement secures this forever.</p> + +<p>Whoever will listen will hear the speaking +Heaven. This is definitely not the hour when men take +kindly to an exhortation to <i>listen</i>, for listening is not +today a part of popular religion. We are at the opposite +end of the pole from there. Religion has accepted the +monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster +make a man dear to God. But we may take heart. To +a people caught in the tempest of the last great conflict +God says, "Be still, and know that I am God," and +still He says it, as if He means to tell us that our +strength and safety lie not in noise but in silence.</p> + +<p>It is important that we get still to wait on God. +And it is best that we get alone, preferably with our +Bible outspread before us. Then if we will we may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +draw near to God and begin to hear Him speak to us +in our hearts. I think for the average person the +progression will be something like this: First a sound +as of a Presence walking in the garden. Then a voice, +more intelligible, but still far from clear. Then the +happy moment when the Spirit begins to illuminate +the Scriptures, and that which had been only a sound, +or at best a voice, now becomes an intelligible word, +warm and intimate and clear as the word of a dear +friend. Then will come life and light, and best of all, +ability to see and rest in and embrace Jesus Christ as +Saviour and Lord and All.</p> + +<p>The Bible will never be a living Book to us until +we are convinced that God is articulate in His universe. +To jump from a dead, impersonal world to a +dogmatic Bible is too much for most people. They +may admit that they <i>should</i> accept the Bible as the +Word of God, and they may try to think of it as such, +but they find it impossible to believe that the words +there on the page are actually for them. A man may +<i>say</i>, "These words are addressed to me," and yet in his +heart not feel and know that they are. He is the victim +of a divided psychology. He tries to think of God as +mute everywhere else and vocal only in a book.</p> + +<p>I believe that much of our religious unbelief is +due to a wrong conception of and a wrong feeling +for the Scriptures of Truth. A silent God suddenly +began to speak in a book and when the book was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +finished lapsed back into silence again forever. Now +we read the book as the record of what God said when +He was for a brief time in a speaking mood. With +notions like that in our heads how can we believe? +The facts are that God is not silent, has never been +silent. It is the nature of God to speak. The second +Person of the Holy Trinity is called the <i>Word</i>. The +Bible is the inevitable outcome of God's continuous +speech. It is the infallible declaration of His mind +for us put into our familiar human words.</p> + +<p>I think a new world will arise out of the religious +mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that +it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book +which is <i>now speaking</i>. The prophets habitually said, +"Thus <i>saith</i> the Lord." They meant their hearers to +understand that God's speaking is in the continuous +present. We may use the past tense properly to indicate +that at a certain time a certain word of God was +spoken, but a word of God once spoken continues to +be spoken, as a child once born continues to be alive, +or a world once created continues to exist. And those +are but imperfect illustrations, for children die and +worlds burn out, but the Word of our God endureth +forever.</p> + +<p>If you would follow on to know the Lord, come +at once to the open Bible expecting it to speak to you. +Do not come with the notion that it is a <i>thing</i> which +you may push around at your convenience. It is more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +than a thing, it is a voice, a word, the very Word +of the living God.</p> + +<p><i>Lord, teach me to listen. The times are noisy +and my ears are weary with the thousand raucous +sounds which continuously assault them. Give me the +spirit of the boy Samuel when he said to Thee, "Speak, +for thy servant heareth." Let me hear Thee speaking +in my heart. Let me get used to the sound of Thy +Voice, that its tones may be familiar when the sounds +of earth die away and the only sound will be the music +of Thy speaking Voice. Amen.</i> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VII_The_Gaze_of_the_Soul" id="VII_The_Gaze_of_the_Soul"></a>VII <i>The Gaze of the Soul</i></h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Looking unto Jesus the author and +finisher of our faith.—<i>Heb. 12:2</i></p></div> + +<p>Let us think of our intelligent plain man mentioned +in chapter six coming for the first time to the reading +of the Scriptures. He approaches the Bible without +any previous knowledge of what it contains. He is +wholly without prejudice; he has nothing to prove and +nothing to defend.</p> + +<p>Such a man will not have read long until his +mind begins to observe certain truths standing out +from the page. They are the spiritual principles behind +the record of God's dealings with men, and +woven into the writings of holy men as they "were +moved by the Holy Ghost." As he reads on he might +want to number these truths as they become clear +to him and make a brief summary under each number. +These summaries will be the tenets of his Biblical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +creed. Further reading will not affect these points +except to enlarge and strengthen them. Our man is +finding out what the Bible actually teaches.</p> + +<p>High up on the list of things which the Bible +teaches will be the doctrine of <i>faith</i>. The place of +weighty importance which the Bible gives to faith will +be too plain for him to miss. He will very likely conclude: +Faith is all-important in the life of the soul. +Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith +will get me anything, take me anywhere in the Kingdom +of God, but without faith there can be no approach +to God, no forgiveness, no deliverance, no +salvation, no communion, no spiritual life at all.</p> + +<p>By the time our friend has reached the eleventh +chapter of Hebrews the eloquent encomium which is +there pronounced upon faith will not seem strange +to him. He will have read Paul's powerful defense of +faith in his Roman and Galatian epistles. Later if +he goes on to study church history he will understand +the amazing power in the teachings of the Reformers +as they showed the central place of faith in the Christian +religion.</p> + +<p>Now if faith is so vitally important, if it is an +indispensable <i>must</i> in our pursuit of God, it is perfectly +natural that we should be deeply concerned +over whether or not we possess this most precious gift. +And our minds being what they are, it is inevitable +that sooner or later we should get around to inquiring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +after the nature of faith. What <i>is</i> faith? would lie +close to the question, Do I <i>have</i> faith? and would +demand an answer if it were anywhere to be found.</p> + +<p>Almost all who preach or write on the subject of +faith have much the same things to say concerning it. +They tell us that it is believing a promise, that it is +taking God at His word, that it is reckoning the Bible +to be true and stepping out upon it. The rest of the +book or sermon is usually taken up with stories of +persons who have had their prayers answered as a +result of their faith. These answers are mostly direct +gifts of a practical and temporal nature such as health, +money, physical protection or success in business. Or +if the teacher is of a philosophic turn of mind he may +take another course and lose us in a welter of metaphysics +or snow us under with psychological jargon as +he defines and re-defines, paring the slender hair of +faith thinner and thinner till it disappears in gossamer +shavings at last. When he is finished we get up disappointed +and go out "by that same door where in we +went." Surely there must be something better than +this.</p> + +<p>In the Scriptures there is practically no effort +made to define faith. Outside of a brief fourteen-word +definition in Hebrews 11:1, I know of no Biblical definition, +and even there faith is defined functionally, +not philosophically; that is, it is a statement of what +faith is <i>in operation</i>, <i>not</i> what it is <i>in essence</i>. It assumes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +the presence of faith and shows what it results in, +rather than what it is. We will be wise to go just that +far and attempt to go no further. We are told from +whence it comes and by what means: "Faith is a gift +of God," and "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing +by the word of God." This much is clear, and, to paraphrase +Thomas à Kempis, "I had rather exercise faith +than know the definition thereof."</p> + +<p>From here on, when the words "faith is" or their +equivalent occur in this chapter I ask that they be +understood to refer to what faith is in operation as +exercised by a believing man. Right here we drop the +notion of definition and think about faith as it may be +experienced in action. The complexion of our thoughts +will be practical, not theoretical.</p> + +<p>In a dramatic story in the Book of Numbers faith +is seen in action. Israel became discouraged and spoke +against God, and the Lord sent fiery serpents among +them. "And they bit the people; and much people of +Israel died." Then Moses sought the Lord for them and +He heard and gave them a remedy against the bite of +the serpents. He commanded Moses to make a serpent +of brass and put it upon a pole in sight of all the people, +"and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, +when he looketh upon it, shall live." Moses obeyed, +"and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any +man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" +(Num. 21:4-9).</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +In the New Testament this important bit of history +is interpreted for us by no less an authority than +our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is explaining to +His hearers how they may be saved. He tells them that +it is by believing. Then to make it clear He refers to +this incident in the Book of Numbers. "As Moses lifted +up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son +of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him +should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14-15).</p> + +<p>Our plain man in reading this would make an important +discovery. He would notice that "look" and +"believe" were synonymous terms. "Looking" on the +Old Testament serpent is identical with "believing" +on the New Testament Christ. That is, the <i>looking</i> +and the <i>believing</i> are the same thing. And he would +understand that while Israel looked with their external +eyes, believing is done with the heart. I think he would +conclude that <i>faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving +God</i>.</p> + +<p>When he had seen this he would remember passages +he had read before, and their meaning would +come flooding over him. "They looked unto him, and +were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed" +(Psa. 34:5). "Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou +that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of +servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as +the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he +have mercy upon us" (Psa. 123:1-2). Here the man +seeking mercy looks straight at the God of mercy and +never takes his eyes away from Him till mercy is +granted. And our Lord Himself looked always at God. +"Looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave +the bread to his disciples" (Matt. 14:19). Indeed Jesus +taught that He wrought His works by always keeping +His inward eyes upon His Father. His power lay in +His continuous look at God (John 5:19-21).</p> + +<p>In full accord with the few texts we have quoted +is the whole tenor of the inspired Word. It is summed +up for us in the Hebrew epistle when we are instructed +to run life's race "looking unto Jesus the author and +finisher of our faith." From all this we learn that faith +is not a once-done act, but a continuous gaze of the +heart at the Triune God.</p> + +<p>Believing, then, is directing the heart's attention +to Jesus. It is lifting the mind to "behold the Lamb of +God," and never ceasing that beholding for the rest +of our lives. At first this may be difficult, but it becomes +easier as we look steadily at His wondrous Person, +quietly and without strain. Distractions may hinder, +but once the heart is committed to Him, after each +brief excursion away from Him the attention will +return again and rest upon Him like a wandering bird +coming back to its window.</p> + +<p>I would emphasize this one committal, this one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +great volitional act which establishes the heart's intention +to gaze forever upon Jesus. God takes this intention +for our choice and makes what allowances He must +for the thousand distractions which beset us in this evil +world. He knows that we have set the direction of our +hearts toward Jesus, and we can know it too, and comfort +ourselves with the knowledge that a habit of soul +is forming which will become after a while a sort of +spiritual reflex requiring no more conscious effort on +our part.</p> + +<p>Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. +It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own +existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front +of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the +Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to +itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not +see ourselves—blessed riddance. The man who has +struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but +repeated failures will experience real relief when he +stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the +perfect One. While he looks at Christ the very things +he has so long been trying to do will be getting done +within him. It will be God working in him to will and +to do.</p> + +<p>Faith is not in itself a meritorious act; the merit is +in the One toward Whom it is directed. Faith is a redirecting +of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our +own vision and getting God into focus. Sin has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +twisted our vision inward and made it self-regarding. +Unbelief has put self where God should be, and +is perilously close to the sin of Lucifer who said, "I +will set my throne above the throne of God." Faith +looks <i>out</i> instead of <i>in</i> and the whole life falls into line.</p> + +<p>All this may seem too simple. But we have no +apology to make. To those who would seek to climb +into heaven after help or descend into hell God says, +"The word is nigh thee, even the word of faith." The +word induces us to lift up our eyes unto the Lord and +the blessed work of faith begins.</p> + +<p>When we lift our inward eyes to gaze upon God +we are sure to meet friendly eyes gazing back at us, for +it is written that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro +throughout all the earth. The sweet language of experience +is "Thou God seest me." When the eyes of the +soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in, +heaven has begun right here on this earth.</p> + +<p>"When all my endeavour is turned toward Thee +because all Thy endeavour is turned toward me; when +I look unto Thee alone with all my attention, nor ever +turn aside the eyes of my mind, because Thou dost +enfold me with Thy constant regard; when I direct my +love toward Thee alone because Thou, who art Love's +self hast turned Thee toward me alone. And what, +Lord, is my life, save that embrace wherein Thy +delightsome sweetness doth so lovingly enfold me?"<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +So wrote Nicholas of Cusa four hundred years ago.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +I should like to say more about this old man of +God. He is not much known today anywhere among +Christian believers, and among current Fundamentalists +he is known not at all. I feel that we could gain +much from a little acquaintance with men of his spiritual +flavor and the school of Christian thought which +they represent. Christian literature, to be accepted and +approved by the evangelical leaders of our times, must +follow very closely the same train of thought, a kind +of "party line" from which it is scarcely safe to depart. +A half-century of this in America has made us smug +and content. We imitate each other with slavish devotion +and our most strenuous efforts are put forth to try +to say the same thing that everyone around us is saying—and +yet to find an excuse for saying it, some little +safe variation on the approved theme or, if no more, +at least a new illustration.</p> + +<p>Nicholas was a true follower of Christ, a lover +of the Lord, radiant and shining in his devotion to the +Person of Jesus. His theology was orthodox, but +fragrant and sweet as everything about Jesus might +properly be expected to be. His conception of eternal +life, for instance, is beautiful in itself and, if I mistake +not, is nearer in spirit to John 17:3 than that which is +current among us today. Life eternal, says Nicholas,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +is "nought other than that blessed regard wherewith +Thou never ceasest to behold me, yea, even the secret +places of my soul. With Thee, to behold is to give life; +'tis unceasingly to impart sweetest love of Thee; 'tis to +inflame me to love of Thee by love's imparting, and to +feed me by inflaming, and by feeding to kindle my +yearning, and by kindling to make me drink of the +dew of gladness, and by drinking to infuse in me a +fountain of life, and by infusing to make it increase +and endure."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>Now, if faith is the gaze of the heart at God, and +if this gaze is but the raising of the inward eyes to meet +the all-seeing eyes of God, then it follows that it is one +of the easiest things possible to do. It would be like +God to make the most vital thing easy and place it +within the range of possibility for the weakest and +poorest of us.</p> + +<p>Several conclusions may fairly be drawn from all +this. The simplicity of it, for instance. Since believing +is looking, it can be done without special equipment +or religious paraphernalia. God has seen to it that the +one life-and-death essential can never be subject to the +caprice of accident. Equipment can break down or get +lost, water can leak away, records can be destroyed by +fire, the minister can be delayed or the church burn +down. All these are external to the soul and are subject<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +to accident or mechanical failure: but <i>looking</i> is of the +heart and can be done successfully by any man standing +up or kneeling down or lying in his last agony a +thousand miles from any church.</p> + +<p>Since believing is looking it can be done <i>any time</i>. +No season is superior to another season for this sweetest +of all acts. God never made salvation depend upon +new moons nor holy days or sabbaths. A man is not +nearer to Christ on Easter Sunday than he is, say, on +Saturday, August 3, or Monday, October 4. As long as +Christ sits on the mediatorial throne every day is a +good day and all days are days of salvation.</p> + +<p>Neither does <i>place</i> matter in this blessed work of +believing God. Lift your heart and let it rest upon Jesus +and you are instantly in a sanctuary though it be a +Pullman berth or a factory or a kitchen. You can see +God from anywhere if your mind is set to love and +obey Him.</p> + +<p>Now, someone may ask, "Is not this of which +you speak for special persons such as monks or ministers +who have by the nature of their calling more time +to devote to quiet meditation? I am a busy worker and +have little time to spend alone." I am happy to say that +the life I describe is for everyone of God's children +regardless of calling. It is, in fact, happily practiced +every day by many hard working persons and is beyond +the reach of none.</p> + +<p>Many have found the secret of which I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +speak and, without giving much thought to what is +going on within them, constantly practice this habit +of inwardly gazing upon God. They know that something +inside their hearts sees God. Even when they are +compelled to withdraw their conscious attention in +order to engage in earthly affairs there is within them +a secret communion always going on. Let their attention +but be released for a moment from necessary business +and it flies at once to God again. This has been +the testimony of many Christians, so many that even +as I state it thus I have a feeling that I am quoting, +though from whom or from how many I cannot +possibly know.</p> + +<p>I do not want to leave the impression that the +ordinary means of grace have no value. They most +assuredly have. Private prayer should be practiced by +every Christian. Long periods of Bible meditation will +purify our gaze and direct it; church attendance will +enlarge our outlook and increase our love for others. +Service and work and activity; all are good and should +be engaged in by every Christian. But at the bottom +of all these things, giving meaning to them, will be +the inward habit of beholding God. A new set of eyes +(so to speak) will develop within us enabling us to be +looking at God while our outward eyes are seeing the +scenes of this passing world.</p> + +<p>Someone may fear that we are magnifying private +religion out of all proportion, that the "us" of the New<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +Testament is being displaced by a selfish "I." Has it +ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned +to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? +They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each +other, but to another standard to which each one must +individually bow. So one hundred worshippers met +together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart +nearer to each other than they could possibly be were +they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes +away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social +religion is perfected when private religion is purified. +The body becomes stronger as its members become +healthier. The whole Church of God gains when the +members that compose it begin to seek a better and +a higher life.</p> + +<p>All the foregoing presupposes true repentance and +a full committal of the life to God. It is hardly necessary +to mention this, for only persons who have made +such a committal will have read this far.</p> + +<p>When the habit of inwardly gazing Godward +becomes fixed within us we shall be ushered onto a +new level of spiritual life more in keeping with the +promises of God and the mood of the New Testament. +The Triune God will be our dwelling place even while +our feet walk the low road of simple duty here among +men. We will have found life's <i>summum bonum</i> indeed. +"There is the source of all delights that can be +desired; not only can nought better be thought out by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +men and angels, but nought better can exist in +mode of being! For it is the absolute maximum of every +rational desire, than which a greater cannot be."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p><i>O Lord, I have heard a good word inviting me to +look away to Thee and be satisfied. My heart longs to +respond, but sin has clouded my vision till I see Thee +but dimly. Be pleased to cleanse me in Thine own precious +blood, and make me inwardly pure, so that I +may with unveiled eyes gaze upon Thee all the days +of my earthly pilgrimage. Then shall I be prepared to +behold Thee in full splendor in the day when Thou +shalt appear to be glorified in Thy saints and admired +in all them that believe. Amen.</i></p> +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Nicholas of Cusa, <i>The Vision of God</i>, E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., +New York, 1928. This and the following quotations used by +kind permission of the publishers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>The Vision of God</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>The Vision of God</i></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VIII_Restoring_the_Creator-creature_Relation" id="VIII_Restoring_the_Creator-creature_Relation"></a>VIII <i>Restoring the Creator-creature Relation</i></h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Be thou exalted, O God, above the +heavens; let thy glory be above +all the earth.—<i>Psa. 57:5</i></p></div> + +<p>It is a truism to say that order in nature depends upon +right relationships; to achieve harmony each thing +must be in its proper position relative to each other +thing. In human life it is not otherwise.</p> + +<p>I have hinted before in these chapters that the +cause of all our human miseries is a radical moral dislocation, +an upset in our relation to God and to each +other. For whatever else the Fall may have been, it +was most certainly a sharp change in man's relation to +his Creator. He adopted toward God an altered attitude, +and by so doing destroyed the proper Creator-creature +relation in which, unknown to him, his true +happiness lay. Essentially salvation is the restoration +of a right relation between man and his Creator, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +bringing back to normal of the Creator-creature +relation.</p> + +<p>A satisfactory spiritual life will begin with a complete +change in relation between God and the sinner; +not a judicial change merely, but a conscious and experienced +change affecting the sinner's whole nature. +The atonement in Jesus' blood makes such a change +judicially possible and the working of the Holy Spirit +makes it emotionally satisfying. The story of the prodigal +son perfectly illustrates this latter phase. He had +brought a world of trouble upon himself by forsaking +the position which he had properly held as son of his +father. At bottom his restoration was nothing more +than a re-establishing of the father-son relation which +had existed from his birth and had been altered temporarily +by his act of sinful rebellion. This story overlooks +the legal aspects of redemption, but it makes +beautifully clear the experiential aspects of salvation.</p> + +<p>In determining relationships we must begin somewhere. +There must be somewhere a fixed center against +which everything else is measured, where the law of +relativity does not enter and we can say "IS" and make +no allowances. Such a center is God. When God would +make His Name known to mankind He could find no +better word than "I AM." When He speaks in the first +person He says, "I AM"; when we speak of Him we +say, "He is"; when we speak to Him we say, "Thou +art." Everyone and everything else measures from that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +fixed point. "I am that I am," says God, "I change not."</p> + +<p>As the sailor locates his position on the sea by +"shooting" the sun, so we may get our moral bearings +by looking at God. We must begin with God. We are +right when and only when we stand in a right position +relative to God, and we are wrong so far and so long +as we stand in any other position.</p> + +<p>Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems +from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust +our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify +Him and to bring Him nearer to our own image. The +flesh whimpers against the rigor of God's inexorable +sentence and begs like Agag for a little mercy, a little +indulgence of its carnal ways. It is no use. We can get +a right start only by accepting God as He is and learning +to love Him for what He is. As we go on to know +Him better we shall find it a source of unspeakable joy +that God is just what He is. Some of the most rapturous +moments we know will be those we spend in +reverent admiration of the Godhead. In those holy +moments the very thought of change in Him will be +too painful to endure.</p> + +<p>So let us begin with God. Back of all, above all, +before all is God; first in sequential order, above in +rank and station, exalted in dignity and honor. As the +self-existent One He gave being to all things, and all +things exist out of Him and for Him. "Thou art worthy, +O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they +are and were created."</p> + +<p>Every soul belongs to God and exists by His pleasure. +God being Who and What He is, and we being +who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between +us is one of full lordship on His part and complete +submission on ours. We owe Him every honor +that it is in our power to give Him. Our everlasting +grief lies in giving Him anything less.</p> + +<p>The pursuit of God will embrace the labor of +bringing our total personality into conformity to His. +And this not judicially, but actually. I do not here refer +to the act of justification by faith in Christ. I speak of +a voluntary exalting of God to His proper station over +us and a willing surrender of our whole being to the +place of worshipful submission which the Creator-creature +circumstance makes proper.</p> + +<p>The moment we make up our minds that we are +going on with this determination to exalt God over +all we step out of the world's parade. We shall find +ourselves out of adjustment to the ways of the world, +and increasingly so as we make progress in the holy +way. We shall acquire a new viewpoint; a new and +different psychology will be formed within us; a new +power will begin to surprise us by its upsurgings and +its outgoings.</p> + +<p>Our break with the world will be the direct outcome +of our changed relation to God. For the world of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +fallen men does not honor God. Millions call themselves +by His Name, it is true, and pay some token +respect to Him, but a simple test will show how little +He is really honored among them. Let the average man +be put to the proof on the question of who is <i>above</i>, +and his true position will be exposed. Let him be forced +into making a choice between God and money, between +God and men, between God and personal ambition, +God and self, God and human love, and God will +take second place every time. Those other things will +be exalted above. However the man may protest, the +proof is in the choices he makes day after day throughout +his life.</p> + +<p>"Be thou exalted" is the language of victorious +spiritual experience. It is a little key to unlock the door +to great treasures of grace. It is central in the life of +God in the soul. Let the seeking man reach a place +where life and lips join to say continually "Be thou +exalted," and a thousand minor problems will be solved +at once. His Christian life ceases to be the complicated +thing it had been before and becomes the very essence +of simplicity. By the exercise of his will he has set his +course, and on that course he will stay as if guided +by an automatic pilot. If blown off course for a moment +by some adverse wind he will surely return again as +by a secret bent of the soul. The hidden motions of +the Spirit are working in his favor, and "the stars in +their courses" fight for him. He has met his life prob<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>lem +at its center, and everything else must follow along.</p> + +<p>Let no one imagine that he will lose anything of +human dignity by this voluntary sell-out of his all to +his God. He does not by this degrade himself as a man; +rather he finds his right place of high honor as one +made in the image of his Creator. His deep disgrace +lay in his moral derangement, his unnatural usurpation +of the place of God. His honor will be proved by +restoring again that stolen throne. In exalting God over +all he finds his own highest honor upheld.</p> + +<p>Anyone who might feel reluctant to surrender his +will to the will of another should remember Jesus' +words, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of +sin." We must of necessity be servant to someone, +either to God or to sin. The sinner prides himself on +his independence, completely overlooking the fact that +he is the weak slave of the sins that rule his members. +The man who surrenders to Christ exchanges a cruel +slave driver for a kind and gentle Master whose yoke +is easy and whose burden is light.</p> + +<p>Made as we were in the image of God we scarcely +find it strange to take again our God as our All. God +was our original habitat and our hearts cannot but feel +at home when they enter again that ancient and beautiful +abode.</p> + +<p>I hope it is clear that there is a logic behind God's +claim to pre-eminence. That place is His by every right +in earth or heaven. While we take to ourselves the place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +that is His the whole course of our lives is out of joint. +Nothing will or can restore order till our hearts make +the great decision: God shall be exalted above.</p> + +<p>"Them that honour me I will honour," said God +once to a priest of Israel, and that ancient law of the +Kingdom stands today unchanged by the passing of +time or the changes of dispensation. The whole Bible +and every page of history proclaim the perpetuation of +that law. "If any man serve me, him will my Father +honour," said our Lord Jesus, tying in the old with the +new and revealing the essential unity of His ways +with men.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the best way to see a thing is to look +at its opposite. Eli and his sons are placed in the priesthood +with the stipulation that they honor God in their +lives and ministrations. This they fail to do, and God +sends Samuel to announce the consequences. Unknown +to Eli this law of reciprocal honor has been all +the while secretly working, and now the time has come +for judgment to fall. Hophni and Phineas, the degenerate +priests, fall in battle, the wife of Hophni dies in +childbirth, Israel flees before her enemies, the ark of +God is captured by the Philistines and the old man +Eli falls backward and dies of a broken neck. Thus +stark utter tragedy followed upon Eli's failure to honor +God.</p> + +<p>Now set over against this almost any Bible character +who honestly tried to glorify God in his earthly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +walk. See how God winked at weaknesses and overlooked +failures as He poured upon His servants grace +and blessing untold. Let it be Abraham, Jacob, David, +Daniel, Elijah or whom you will; honor followed honor +as harvest the seed. The man of God set his heart to +exalt God above all; God accepted his intention as fact +and acted accordingly. Not perfection, but holy intention +made the difference.</p> + +<p>In our Lord Jesus Christ this law was seen in +simple perfection. In His lowly manhood He humbled +Himself and gladly gave all glory to His Father in +heaven. He sought not His own honor, but the honor +of God who sent Him. "If I honour myself," He said +on one occasion, "my honour is nothing; it is my +Father that honoureth me." So far had the proud Pharisees +departed from this law that they could not understand +one who honored God at his own expense. "I +honour my Father," said Jesus to them, "and ye do +dishonour me."</p> + +<p>Another saying of Jesus, and a most disturbing +one, was put in the form of a question, "How can ye +believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek +not the honour that cometh from God alone?" If I +understand this correctly Christ taught here the alarming +doctrine that the desire for honor among men made +belief impossible. Is this sin at the root of religious +unbelief? Could it be that those "intellectual difficulties" +which men blame for their inability to believe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +are but smoke screens to conceal the real cause that lies +behind them? Was it this greedy desire for honor from +man that made men into Pharisees and Pharisees into +Deicides? Is this the secret back of religious self-righteousness +and empty worship? I believe it may be. The +whole course of the life is upset by failure to put God +where He belongs. We exalt ourselves instead of God +and the curse follows.</p> + +<p>In our desire after God let us keep always in mind +that God also hath desire, and His desire is toward the +sons of men, and more particularly toward those sons +of men who will make the once-for-all decision to exalt +Him over all. Such as these are precious to God above +all treasures of earth or sea. In them God finds a theater +where He can display His exceeding kindness toward +us in Christ Jesus. With them God can walk unhindered, +toward them He can act like the God He is.</p> + +<p>In speaking thus I have one fear; it is that I may +convince the mind before God can win the heart. For +this God-above-all position is one not easy to take. The +mind may approve it while not having the consent of +the will to put it into effect. While the imagination +races ahead to honor God, the will may lag behind and +the man never guess how divided his heart is. The +whole man must make the decision before the heart +can know any real satisfaction. God wants us all, and +He will not rest till He gets us all. No part of the +man will do.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>Let us pray over this in detail, throwing ourselves +at God's feet and meaning everything we say. No one +who prays thus in sincerity need wait long for tokens +of divine acceptance. God will unveil His glory before +His servant's eyes, and He will place all His treasures +at the disposal of such a one, for He knows that His +honor is safe in such consecrated hands.</p> + +<p><i>O God, be Thou exalted over my possessions. +Nothing of earth's treasures shall seem dear unto me +if only Thou art glorified in my life. Be Thou exalted +over my friendships. I am determined that Thou shalt +be above all, though I must stand deserted and alone +in the midst of the earth. Be Thou exalted above +my comforts. Though it mean the loss of bodily +comforts and the carrying of heavy crosses I shall keep +my vow made this day before Thee. Be Thou exalted +over my reputation. Make me ambitious to please Thee +even if as a result I must sink into obscurity and my +name be forgotten as a dream. Rise, O Lord, into Thy +proper place of honor, above my ambitions, above my +likes and dislikes, above my family, my health and +even my life itself. Let me decrease that Thou mayest +increase, let me sink that Thou mayest rise above. Ride +forth upon me as Thou didst ride into Jerusalem +mounted upon the humble little beast, a colt, the foal +of an ass, and let me hear the children cry to Thee, +"Hosanna in the highest."</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IX_Meekness_and_Rest" id="IX_Meekness_and_Rest"></a>IX <i>Meekness and Rest</i></h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Blessed are the meek: for they shall +inherit the earth.—<i>Matt. 5:5</i></p></div> + +<p>A fairly accurate description of the human race might +be furnished one unacquainted with it by taking the +Beatitudes, turning them wrong side out and saying, +"Here is your human race." For the exact opposite of +the virtues in the Beatitudes are the very qualities +which distinguish human life and conduct.</p> + +<p>In the world of men we find nothing approaching +the virtues of which Jesus spoke in the opening words +of the famous Sermon on the Mount. Instead of poverty +of spirit we find the rankest kind of pride; instead +of mourners we find pleasure seekers; instead of meekness, +arrogance; instead of hunger after righteousness +we hear men saying, "I am rich and increased with +goods and have need of nothing"; instead of mercy we +find cruelty; instead of purity of heart, corrupt imagin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>ings; +instead of peacemakers we find men quarrelsome +and resentful; instead of rejoicing in mistreatment we +find them fighting back with every weapon at their +command.</p> + +<p>Of this kind of moral stuff civilized society is +composed. The atmosphere is charged with it; we +breathe it with every breath and drink it with our +mother's milk. Culture and education refine these +things slightly but leave them basically untouched. A +whole world of literature has been created to justify +this kind of life as the only normal one. And this is +the more to be wondered at seeing that these are the +evils which make life the bitter struggle it is for all of +us. All our heartaches and a great many of our physical +ills spring directly out of our sins. Pride, arrogance, +resentfulness, evil imaginings, malice, greed: these are +the sources of more human pain than all the diseases +that ever afflicted mortal flesh.</p> + +<p>Into a world like this the sound of Jesus' words +comes wonderful and strange, a visitation from above. +It is well that He spoke, for no one else could have done +it as well; and it is good that we listen. His words are +the essence of truth. He is not offering an opinion; +Jesus never uttered opinions. He never guessed; He +knew, and He knows. His words are not as Solomon's +were, the sum of sound wisdom or the results of keen +observation. He spoke out of the fulness of His Godhead, +and His words are very Truth itself. He is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +only one who could say "blessed" with complete authority, +for He is the Blessed One come from the world +above to confer blessedness upon mankind. And His +words were supported by deeds mightier than any performed +on this earth by any other man. It is wisdom +for us to listen.</p> + +<p>As was often so with Jesus, He used this word +"meek" in a brief crisp sentence, and not till some +time later did He go on to explain it. In the same book +of Matthew He tells us more about it and applies it +to our lives. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and +are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my +yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and +lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. +For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Here +we have two things standing in contrast to each other, +a burden and a rest. The burden is not a local one, +peculiar to those first hearers, but one which is borne +by the whole human race. It consists not of political +oppression or poverty or hard work. It is far deeper +than that. It is felt by the rich as well as the poor for +it is something from which wealth and idleness can +never deliver us.</p> + +<p>The burden borne by mankind is a heavy and a +crushing thing. The word Jesus used means a load +carried or toil borne to the point of exhaustion. Rest is +simply release from that burden. It is not something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +we do, it is what comes to us when we cease to do. +His own meekness, that is the rest.</p> + +<p>Let us examine our burden. It is altogether an +interior one. It attacks the heart and the mind and +reaches the body only from within. First, there is the +burden of <i>pride</i>. The labor of self-love is a heavy one +indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow +has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly +of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god +to which you must be loyal there will be those who +will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can +you hope to have inward peace? The heart's fierce +effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its +touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and +enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Continue this +fight through the years and the burden will become +intolerable. Yet the sons of earth are carrying this +burden continually, challenging every word spoken +against them, cringing under every criticism, smarting +under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another +is preferred before them.</p> + +<p>Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. +Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. +The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, +for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the +world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself +a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, "Oh, so +you have been overlooked? They have placed someone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +else before you? They have whispered that you are +pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt +because the world is saying about you the very things +you have been saying about yourself? Only yesterday +you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere +worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come +on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men +think."</p> + +<p>The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted +with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be +in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as +Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. +He has accepted God's estimate of his own life. He +knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared +him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time +that he is in the sight of God of more importance than +angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That +is his motto. He knows well that the world will never +see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring. +He rests perfectly content to allow God to place His +own values. He will be patient to wait for the day +when everything will get its own price tag and real +worth will come into its own. Then the righteous shall +shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father. He is willing +to wait for that day.</p> + +<p>In the meantime he will have attained a place of +soul rest. As he walks on in meekness he will be happy +to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +himself is over. He has found the peace which meekness +brings.</p> + +<p>Then also he will get deliverance from the burden +of <i>pretense</i>. By this I mean not hypocrisy, but the common +human desire to put the best foot forward and +hide from the world our real inward poverty. For sin +has played many evil tricks upon us, and one has been +the infusing into us a false sense of shame. There is +hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he +or she is without doctoring up the impression. The fear +of being found out gnaws like rodents within their +hearts. The man of culture is haunted by the fear that +he will some day come upon a man more cultured than +himself. The learned man fears to meet a man more +learned than he. The rich man sweats under the fear +that his clothes or his car or his house will sometime +be made to look cheap by comparison with those of +another rich man. So-called "society" runs by a motivation +not higher than this, and the poorer classes on +their level are little better.</p> + +<p>Let no one smile this off. These burdens are real, +and little by little they kill the victims of this evil and +unnatural way of life. And the psychology created by +years of this kind of thing makes true meekness seem +as unreal as a dream, as aloof as a star. To all the victims +of the gnawing disease Jesus says, "Ye must become +as little children." For little children do not +compare; they receive direct enjoyment from what they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +have without relating it to something else or someone +else. Only as they get older and sin begins to stir within +their hearts do jealousy and envy appear. Then they +are unable to enjoy what they have if someone else has +something larger or better. At that early age does the +galling burden come down upon their tender souls, +and it never leaves them till Jesus sets them free.</p> + +<p>Another source of burden is <i>artificiality</i>. I am sure +that most people live in secret fear that some day they +will be careless and by chance an enemy or friend will +be allowed to peep into their poor empty souls. So they +are never relaxed. Bright people are tense and alert +in fear that they may be trapped into saying something +common or stupid. Traveled people are afraid that they +may meet some Marco Polo who is able to describe +some remote place where they have never been.</p> + +<p>This unnatural condition is part of our sad heritage +of sin, but in our day it is aggravated by our whole +way of life. Advertising is largely based upon this +habit of pretense. "Courses" are offered in this or that +field of human learning frankly appealing to the victim's +desire to shine at a party. Books are sold, clothes +and cosmetics are peddled, by playing continually +upon this desire to appear what we are not. Artificiality +is one curse that will drop away the moment we kneel +at Jesus' feet and surrender ourselves to His meekness. +Then we will not care what people think of us so long +as God is pleased. Then <i>what we are</i> will be every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>thing; +what we appear will take its place far down the +scale of interest for us. Apart from sin we have nothing +of which to be ashamed. Only an evil desire to shine +makes us want to appear other than we are.</p> + +<p>The heart of the world is breaking under this load +of pride and pretense. There is no release from our burden +apart from the meekness of Christ. Good keen +reasoning may help slightly, but so strong is this vice +that if we push it down one place it will come up +somewhere else. To men and women everywhere +Jesus says, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." +The rest He offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed +relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what +we are and cease to pretend. It will take some courage +at first, but the needed grace will come as we learn that +we are sharing this new and easy yoke with the strong +Son of God Himself. He calls it "my yoke," and He +walks at one end while we walk at the other.</p> + +<p><i>Lord, make me childlike. Deliver me from the +urge to compete with another for place or prestige or +position. I would be simple and artless as a little child. +Deliver me from pose and pretense. Forgive me for +thinking of myself. Help me to forget myself and find +my true peace in beholding Thee. That Thou mayest +answer this prayer I humble myself before Thee. Lay +upon me Thy easy yoke of self-forgetfulness that +through it I may find rest. Amen.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="X_The_Sacrament_of_Living" id="X_The_Sacrament_of_Living"></a>X <i>The Sacrament of Living</i></h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, +or whatsoever ye do, do all to the +glory of God.—<i>I Cor. 10:31</i></p></div> + +<p>One of the greatest hindrances to internal peace which +the Christian encounters is the common habit of dividing +our lives into two areas, the sacred and the secular. +As these areas are conceived to exist apart from each +other and to be morally and spiritually incompatible, +and as we are compelled by the necessities of living to +be always crossing back and forth from the one to the +other, our inner lives tend to break up so that we live +a divided instead of a unified life.</p> + +<p>Our trouble springs from the fact that we who +follow Christ inhabit at once two worlds, the spiritual +and the natural. As children of Adam we live our lives +on earth subject to the limitations of the flesh and the +weaknesses and ills to which human nature is heir.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +Merely to live among men requires of us years of +hard toil and much care and attention to the things +of this world. In sharp contrast to this is our life in the +Spirit. There we enjoy another and higher kind of +life; we are children of God; we possess heavenly status +and enjoy intimate fellowship with Christ.</p> + +<p>This tends to divide our total life into two departments. +We come unconsciously to recognize two sets of +actions. The first are performed with a feeling of satisfaction +and a firm assurance that they are pleasing to +God. These are the sacred acts and they are usually +thought to be prayer, Bible reading, hymn singing, +church attendance and such other acts as spring directly +from faith. They may be known by the fact that +they have no direct relation to this world, and would +have no meaning whatever except as faith shows us +another world, "an house not made with hands, eternal +in the heavens."</p> + +<p>Over against these sacred acts are the secular ones. +They include all of the ordinary activities of life which +we share with the sons and daughters of Adam: eating, +sleeping, working, looking after the needs of the body +and performing our dull and prosaic duties here on +earth. These we often do reluctantly and with many +misgivings, often apologizing to God for what we consider +a waste of time and strength. The upshot of this +is that we are uneasy most of the time. We go about +our common tasks with a feeling of deep frustration,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +telling ourselves pensively that there's a better day +coming when we shall slough off this earthly shell and +be bothered no more with the affairs of this world.</p> + +<p>This is the old sacred-secular antithesis. Most +Christians are caught in its trap. They cannot get a +satisfactory adjustment between the claims of the two +worlds. They try to walk the tight rope between two +kingdoms and they find no peace in either. Their +strength is reduced, their outlook confused and their +joy taken from them.</p> + +<p>I believe this state of affairs to be wholly unnecessary. +We have gotten ourselves on the horns of a dilemma, +true enough, but the dilemma is not real. It is a +creature of misunderstanding. The sacred-secular antithesis +has no foundation in the New Testament. Without +doubt a more perfect understanding of Christian +truth will deliver us from it.</p> + +<p>The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is our perfect +example, and He knew no divided life. In the Presence +of His Father He lived on earth without strain from +babyhood to His death on the cross. God accepted +the offering of His total life, and made no distinction +between act and act. "I do always the things that please +him," was His brief summary of His own life as it +related to the Father. As He moved among men He +was poised and restful. What pressure and suffering +He endured grew out of His position as the world's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +sin bearer; they were never the result of moral uncertainty +or spiritual maladjustment.</p> + +<p>Paul's exhortation to "do all to the glory of God" +is more than pious idealism. It is an integral part of the +sacred revelation and is to be accepted as the very +Word of Truth. It opens before us the possibility of +making every act of our lives contribute to the glory +of God. Lest we should be too timid to include everything, +Paul mentions specifically eating and drinking. +This humble privilege we share with the beasts that +perish. If these lowly animal acts can be so performed +as to honor God, then it becomes difficult to conceive +of one that cannot.</p> + +<p>That monkish hatred of the body which figures +so prominently in the works of certain early devotional +writers is wholly without support in the Word of God. +Common modesty is found in the Sacred Scriptures, +it is true, but never prudery or a false sense of shame. +The New Testament accepts as a matter of course that +in His incarnation our Lord took upon Him a real +human body, and no effort is made to steer around the +downright implications of such a fact. He lived in that +body here among men and never once performed a +non-sacred act. His presence in human flesh sweeps +away forever the evil notion that there is about the +human body something innately offensive to the Deity. +God created our bodies, and we do not offend Him by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +placing the responsibility where it belongs. He is not +ashamed of the work of His own hands.</p> + +<p>Perversion, misuse and abuse of our human +powers should give us cause enough to be ashamed. +Bodily acts done in sin and contrary to nature can +never honor God. Wherever the human will introduces +moral evil we have no longer our innocent and harmless +powers as God made them; we have instead an +abused and twisted thing which can never bring glory +to its Creator.</p> + +<p>Let us, however, assume that perversion and +abuse are not present. Let us think of a Christian believer +in whose life the twin wonders of repentance +and the new birth have been wrought. He is now living +according to the will of God as he understands it from +the written Word. Of such a one it may be said that +every act of his life is or can be as truly sacred as prayer +or baptism or the Lord's Supper. To say this is not +to bring all acts down to one dead level; it is rather to +lift every act up into a living kingdom and turn the +whole life into a sacrament.</p> + +<p>If a sacrament is an external expression of an +inward grace than we need not hesitate to accept the +above thesis. By one act of consecration of our total +selves to God we can make every subsequent act express +that consecration. We need no more be ashamed of our +body—the fleshly servant that carries us through life—than +Jesus was of the humble beast upon which He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +rode into Jerusalem. "The Lord hath need of him" +may well apply to our mortal bodies. If Christ dwells +in us we may bear about the Lord of glory as the little +beast did of old and give occasion to the multitudes to +cry, "Hosanna in the highest."</p> + +<p>That we <i>see</i> this truth is not enough. If we would +escape from the toils of the sacred-secular dilemma the +truth must "run in our blood" and condition the complexion +of our thoughts. We must practice living to +the glory of God, actually and determinedly. By meditation +upon this truth, by talking it over with God often +in our prayers, by recalling it to our minds frequently +as we move about among men, a <i>sense</i> of its wondrous +meaning will begin to take hold of us. The old painful +duality will go down before a restful unity of life. The +knowledge that we are all God's, that He has received +all and rejected nothing, will unify our inner lives and +make everything sacred to us.</p> + +<p>This is not quite all. Long-held habits do not die +easily. It will take intelligent thought and a great deal +of reverent prayer to escape completely from the sacred-secular +psychology. For instance it may be difficult for +the average Christian to get hold of the idea that his +daily labors can be performed as acts of worship acceptable +to God by Jesus Christ. The old antithesis will +crop up in the back of his head sometimes to disturb +his peace of mind. Nor will that old serpent the devil +take all this lying down. He will be there in the cab<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +or at the desk or in the field to remind the Christian +that he is giving the better part of his day to the things +of this world and allotting to his religious duties only +a trifling portion of his time. And unless great care is +taken this will create confusion and bring discouragement +and heaviness of heart.</p> + +<p>We can meet this successfully only by the exercise +of an aggressive faith. We must offer all our acts to God +and believe that He accepts them. Then hold firmly to +that position and keep insisting that every act of every +hour of the day and night be included in the transaction. +Keep reminding God in our times of private +prayer that we mean every act for His glory; then supplement +those times by a thousand thought-prayers as +we go about the job of living. Let us practice the fine +art of making every work a priestly ministration. Let +us believe that God is in all our simple deeds and learn +to find Him there.</p> + +<p>A concomitant of the error which we have been +discussing is the sacred-secular antithesis as applied to +places. It is little short of astonishing that we can read +the New Testament and still believe in the inherent +sacredness of places as distinguished from other +places. This error is so widespread that one feels all +alone when he tries to combat it. It has acted as a kind +of dye to color the thinking of religious persons and +has colored the eyes as well so that it is all but impossible +to detect its fallacy. In the face of every New<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +Testament teaching to the contrary it has been said and +sung throughout the centuries and accepted as a part +of the Christian message, the which it most surely is +not. Only the Quakers, so far as my knowledge goes, +have had the perception to see the error and the courage +to expose it.</p> + +<p>Here are the facts as I see them. For four hundred +years Israel had dwelt in Egypt, surrounded by the +crassest idolatry. By the hand of Moses they were +brought out at last and started toward the land of promise. +The very idea of holiness had been lost to them. +To correct this, God began at the bottom. He localized +Himself in the cloud and fire and later when the tabernacle +had been built He dwelt in fiery manifestation in +the Holy of Holies. By innumerable distinctions God +taught Israel the difference between holy and unholy. +There were holy days, holy vessels, holy garments. +There were washings, sacrifices, offerings of many +kinds. By these means Israel learned that <i>God is holy</i>. +It was this that He was teaching them. Not the holiness +of things or places, but the holiness of Jehovah was the +lesson they must learn.</p> + +<p>Then came the great day when Christ appeared. +Immediately He began to say, "Ye have heard that it +was said by them of old time—but <i>I</i> say unto you." +The Old Testament schooling was over. When Christ +died on the cross the veil of the temple was rent from +top to bottom. The Holy of Holies was opened to every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>one +who would enter in faith. Christ's words were +remembered, "The hour cometh, when ye shall neither +in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the +Father.... But the hour cometh, and now is, when +the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit +and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship +Him. God is Spirit, and they that worship him must +worship him in spirit and in truth."</p> + +<p>Shortly after, Paul took up the cry of liberty and +declared all meats clean, every day holy, all places +sacred and every act acceptable to God. The sacredness +of times and places, a half-light necessary to the +education of the race, passed away before the full sun +of spiritual worship.</p> + +<p>The essential spirituality of worship remained the +possession of the Church until it was slowly lost with +the passing of the years. Then the natural <i>legality</i> of +the fallen hearts of men began to introduce the old +distinctions. The Church came to observe again days +and seasons and times. Certain places were chosen and +marked out as holy in a special sense. Differences were +observed between one and another day or place or person, +"The sacraments" were first two, then three, then +four until with the triumph of Romanism they were +fixed at seven.</p> + +<p>In all charity, and with no desire to reflect unkindly +upon any Christian, however misled, I would +point out that the Roman Catholic church represents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +today the sacred-secular heresy carried to its logical conclusion. +Its deadliest effect is the complete cleavage it +introduces between religion and life. Its teachers attempt +to avoid this snare by many footnotes and multitudinous +explanations, but the mind's instinct for logic +is too strong. In practical living the cleavage is a fact.</p> + +<p>From this bondage reformers and puritans and +mystics have labored to free us. Today the trend in +conservative circles is back toward that bondage again. +It is said that a horse after it has been led out of a +burning building will sometimes by a strange obstinacy +break loose from its rescuer and dash back into the +building again to perish in the flame. By some such +stubborn tendency toward error Fundamentalism in +our day is moving back toward spiritual slavery. The +observation of days and times is becoming more and +more prominent among us. "Lent" and "holy week" +and "good" Friday are words heard more and more +frequently upon the lips of gospel Christians. We do +not know when we are well off.</p> + +<p>In order that I may be understood and not be misunderstood +I would throw into relief the practical implications +of the teaching for which I have been arguing, +i.e., the sacramental quality of every day living. +Over against its positive meanings I should like to +point out a few things it does not mean.</p> + +<p>It does not mean, for instance, that everything +we do is of equal importance with everything else we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +do or may do. One act of a good man's life may differ +widely from another in importance. Paul's sewing of +tents was not equal to his writing of an Epistle to the +Romans, but both were accepted of God and both were +true acts of worship. Certainly it is more important to +lead a soul to Christ than to plant a garden, but the +planting of the garden <i>can</i> be as holy an act as the +winning of a soul.</p> + +<p>Again, it does not mean that every man is as useful +as every other man. Gifts differ in the body of Christ. +A Billy Bray is not to be compared with a Luther or a +Wesley for sheer usefulness to the Church and to +the world; but the service of the less gifted brother is +as pure as that of the more gifted, and God accepts +both with equal pleasure.</p> + +<p>The "layman" need never think of his humbler +task as being inferior to that of his minister. Let every +man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his +work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is +not what a man does that determines whether his work +is sacred or secular, it is <i>why</i> he does it. The motive +is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his +heart and he can thereafter do no common act. All he +does is good and acceptable to God through Jesus +Christ. For such a man, living itself will be sacramental +and the whole world a sanctuary. His entire life will +be a priestly ministration. As he performs his never so +simple task he will hear the voice of the seraphim say<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>ing, +"Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole +earth is full of his glory."</p> + +<p><i>Lord, I would trust Thee completely; I would be +altogether Thine; I would exalt Thee above all. I +desire that I may feel no sense of possessing anything +outside of Thee. I want constantly to be aware of Thy +overshadowing Presence and to hear Thy speaking +Voice. I long to live in restful sincerity of heart. I want +to live so fully in the Spirit that all my thought may +be as sweet incense ascending to Thee and every act +of my life may be an act of worship. Therefore I pray +in the words of Thy great servant of old, "I beseech +Thee so for to cleanse the intent of mine heart with +the unspeakable gift of Thy grace, that I may perfectly +love Thee and worthily praise Thee." And all this I +confidently believe Thou wilt grant me through the +merits of Jesus Christ Thy Son. Amen.</i></p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pursuit of God, by A. W. Tozer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PURSUIT OF GOD *** + +***** This file should be named 25141-h.htm or 25141-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/1/4/25141/ + +Produced by Free Elf, Colin Bell, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> |