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diff --git a/25141.txt b/25141.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b522128 --- /dev/null +++ b/25141.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3240 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** 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 + + + + + + + + The Pursuit of God + + + + "Then shall we know, + if we follow on to know the Lord: + his going forth is prepared as the morning." + + HOSEA 6:3 + + + + + by A. W. Tozer + + + introduction by + Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer + + CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS, INC. HARRISBURG, PA. + + + COPYRIGHT MCMXLVIII BY CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS, INC. + + _Printed in United States_ + + + + +Contents + + + Introduction 5 + + Preface 7 + + I Following Hard after God 11 + + II The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing 21 + + III Removing the Veil 33 + + IV Apprehending God 49 + + V The Universal Presence 61 + + VI The Speaking Voice 73 + + VII The Gaze of the Soul 85 + + VIII Restoring the Creator-creature Relation 99 + + IX Meekness and Rest 109 + + X The Sacrament of Living 117 + + + + +Introduction + + +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! + +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 + + Where cross the crowded ways of life + Where sound the cries of race and clan, + In haunts of wretchedness and need, + On shadowed threshold dark with fears, + And paths where hide the lures of greed ... + +But even as Dr. Frank Mason North, of New York, says in his immortal +poem, so Mr. Tozer says in this book: + + Above the noise of selfish strife + We hear Thy voice, O Son of Man. + +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. + +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 +a Kempis, von Huegel, 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 felt the nearness of God while reading them._ + +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. + + _Samuel M. Zwemer_ + +New York City + + + + +Preface + + +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. + +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 accompany faith in Christ, that +wonder which has all but fled the Church of God in our day. + +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. + +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. + +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, +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." + +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. + +Sound Bible exposition is an imperative _must_ 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 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. + +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. + +A. W. Tozer Chicago, Ill. June 16, 1948 + + + + +I + +_Following Hard after God_ + + My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth + me.--Psa. 63:8 + + +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. + +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. + +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 _drawing_ that God takes from us every vestige of credit for +the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but +the outworking 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." + +In this divine "upholding" and human "following" there is no +contradiction. All is of God, for as von Huegel teaches, _God is always +previous_. 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. + +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 not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is +specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with +little. + +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. + +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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + + Shoreless Ocean, who can sound Thee? + Thine own eternity is round Thee, + Majesty divine! + +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: + + We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread, + And long to feast upon Thee still: + We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead + And thirst our souls from Thee to fill. + +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. + +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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in +this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at +all. + +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. + +When religion has said its last word, there is little that we need other +than God Himself. The evil habit of seeking _God-and_ 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. + +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. + +The author of the quaint old English classic, _The Cloud of Unknowing_, +teaches us how to do this. "Lift up thine heart unto God with a meek +stirring of love; 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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +_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._ + + + + +II + +_The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing_ + + Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of + heaven.--Matt. 5:3 + + +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. + +But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of +God a potential source of ruin to the soul. + +Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and +"things" were allowed to enter. 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. + +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 +_things_, 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. + +Our Lord referred to this tyranny of _things_ 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." + +Breaking this truth into fragments for our better 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 +_self-life_. 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." + +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 _things_. 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." + +Let me exhort you to take this seriously. It is not to be understood as +mere Bible teaching to be stored 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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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 made up his mind. He would offer his son as God had +directed him to do, and _then trust God to raise him from the dead_. +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." + +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." + +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 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." + +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. + +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 _he possessed nothing_. 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. + +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. _Things_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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? + +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. + +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 +_things_ 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. + +Let us never forget that such a truth as this cannot be learned by rote +as one would learn the facts of physical science. They must be +_experienced_ 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. + +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 +for us; just one and an alternative, but our whole future will be +conditioned by the choice we make. + +_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._ + + + + +III + +_Removing the Veil_ + + Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by + the blood of Jesus.--Heb. 10:19 + + +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." + +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 _heart_ 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 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. + +God formed us for Himself. The _Shorter Catechism_, "Agreed upon by the +Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster," as the old _New-England +Primer_ has it, asks the ancient questions _what_ and _why_ and answers +them in one short sentence hardly matched in any uninspired work. +"_Question_: What is the chief End of Man? _Answer_: 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." + +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. + +Yet who can flee from His Presence when the heaven and the heaven of +heavens cannot contain 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 +_manifest_ 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." + +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. + +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." + +The interior journey of the soul from the wilds 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. + +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. + +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. +_God wills that we should push on into His Presence and live our whole +life there._ 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. + +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 _Jehovah was there_; 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 _judicial_ possessions and for the most part we bother ourselves +very little about the absence of personal experience. + +Who is this within the veil who dwells in fiery manifestations? It is +none other than God Himself, "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. + +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. + +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, +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. + +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 _eternal_, 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 _immutable_, 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 _omniscient_, 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 _is_, +and none of the limiting and qualifying terms used of creatures can +apply to Him. _Love_ and _mercy_ and _righteousness_ are His, and +_holiness_ 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 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. + +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. + +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: + + Only to sit and think of God, + Oh what a joy it is! + To think the thought, to breathe the Name; + Earth has no higher bliss. + + Father of Jesus, love's reward! + What rapture will it be, + Prostrate before Thy throne to lie, + And gaze and gaze on Thee! + +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: + + I love Thee so, I know not how + My transports to control; + Thy love is like a burning fire + Within my very soul. + +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: + + O Spirit, beautiful and dread! + My heart is fit to break + With love of all Thy tenderness + For us poor sinners' sake. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 and we grow old and tired in +the outer courts of the tabernacle. What doth hinder us? + +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 _a veil in our hearts_? +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. + +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 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. + +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 +_are_, and therein lies both their subtlety and their power. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +_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 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._ + + + + +IV + +_Apprehending God_ + + O taste and see.--Psa. 34:8 + + +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 _must_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The Bible assumes as a self-evident fact that men can know God with at +least the same degree of immediacy 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 _taste_ and see that the Lord is good." +"All thy garments _smell_ of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the +ivory palaces." "My sheep _hear_ my voice." "Blessed are the pure in +heart, for they shall _see_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +What do I mean by _reality_? 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. + +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) _for every purpose of human life +we are permitted to act as if there were_. 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 when he closed +his eyes the night before. So he lives and rejoices in a world of +reality. + +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. + +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. + +Another word that must be cleared up is the word _reckon_. 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 _there_. + +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 things are there (or rather we should say _here_) inviting +our attention and challenging our trust. + +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. + +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. + +At the root of the Christian life lies belief in the invisible. The +object of the Christian's faith is unseen reality. + +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 material, between the temporal +and the eternal; but between the spiritual and the real, never. The +spiritual _is_ real. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +_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._ + + + + +V + +_The Universal Presence_ + + Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from + thy presence?--Psa. 139:7 + + +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. + +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 reason for this to be the fear +of being charged with pantheism; but the doctrine of the divine Presence +is definitely not pantheism. + +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. + +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 _they_ are and must eternally be _other than He_, +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. + +What now does the divine immanence mean in direct Christian experience? +It means simply that _God is here_. 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. + +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. + +"In the beginning God." Not _matter_, for matter is not self-causing. It +requires an antecedent cause, and God is that Cause. Not _law_, 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 _mind_, 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. + +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 _being_ and God's _seeing_ 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 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." + +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. + +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 _manifest_ 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. + +Always, everywhere God is present, and always He seeks to discover +Himself. To each one he would reveal not only that He is, but _what_ 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. + +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. + +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 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 +_experience_. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +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 a 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. + +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? + +I venture to suggest that the one vital quality which they had in common +was _spiritual receptivity_. 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 _did something about it_. 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." + +As with everything good in human life, back of 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: + + My unassisted heart is barren clay, + That of its native self can nothing feed: + Of good and pious works Thou art the seed, + That quickens only where Thou sayest it may: + Unless Thou show to us Thine own true way + No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead. + +These words will repay study as the deep and serious testimony of a +great Christian. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 Spirit: these and +such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious +malady of the soul. + +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. + +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 Christians are not fully agreed, but that is not of +too great importance to us now. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +_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._ + + + + +VI + +_The Speaking Voice_ + + In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the + Word was God.--John 1:1 + + +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 _God is +speaking_. He is by His nature continuously articulate. He fills the +world with His speaking Voice. + +One of the great realities with which we have to deal is the Voice of +God in His world. The briefest and only satisfying cosmogony is this: +"He spake and it was done." The _why_ 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +The Word of God is quick and powerful. In the beginning He spoke to +nothing, and it became _something_. 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 _said_ accounts for the _so_. The _so_ is the _said_ +put into the continuous present. + +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 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. + +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." + +This universal Voice of God was by the ancient Hebrews often called +Wisdom, and was said to be 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. + +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. + +When God spoke out of heaven to our Lord, self-centered men who heard it +explained it by natural 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. + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +Whoever will listen will hear the speaking Heaven. This is definitely +not the hour when men take kindly to an exhortation to _listen_, 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. + +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 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. + +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 _should_ 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 _say_, "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. + +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 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 _Word_. +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. + +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 _now speaking_. The prophets habitually +said, "Thus _saith_ 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. + +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 +_thing_ which you may push around at your convenience. It is more than +a thing, it is a voice, a word, the very Word of the living God. + +_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._ + + + + +VII + +_The Gaze of the Soul_ + + Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.--Heb. 12:2 + + +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. + +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 creed. Further reading will not affect these +points except to enlarge and strengthen them. Our man is finding out +what the Bible actually teaches. + +High up on the list of things which the Bible teaches will be the +doctrine of _faith_. 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. + +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. + +Now if faith is so vitally important, if it is an indispensable _must_ +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 after the nature of faith. What _is_ +faith? would lie close to the question, Do I _have_ faith? and would +demand an answer if it were anywhere to be found. + +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. + +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 _in +operation_, _not_ what it is _in essence_. It assumes 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 a Kempis, "I had rather exercise faith than +know the definition thereof." + +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. + +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). + +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). + +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 _looking_ and the _believing_ 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 _faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God_. + +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 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). + +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. + +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. + +I would emphasize this one committal, this one 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. + +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. + +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 +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 +_out_ instead of _in_ and the whole life falls into line. + +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. + +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. + +"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?"[1] So wrote Nicholas of Cusa four +hundred years ago. + +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. + +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, 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."[2] + +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. + +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 to +accident or mechanical failure: but _looking_ 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. + +Since believing is looking it can be done _any time_. 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. + +Neither does _place_ 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. + +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. + +Many have found the secret of which I 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. + +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. + +Someone may fear that we are magnifying private religion out of all +proportion, that the "us" of the New 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. + +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. + +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 _summum bonum_ +indeed. "There is the source of all delights that can be desired; not +only can nought better be thought out by 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."[3] + +_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._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Nicholas of Cusa, _The Vision of God_, E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New +York, 1928. This and the following quotations used by kind permission of +the publishers. + +[2] _The Vision of God_ + +[3] _The Vision of God_ + + + + +VIII + +_Restoring the Creator-creature Relation_ + + Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above + all the earth.--Psa. 57:5 + + +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. + +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 bringing back to normal of the +Creator-creature relation. + +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. + +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 fixed point. "I am that I am," says God, "I change not." + +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. + +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. + +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 thou hast created all things, +and for thy pleasure they are and were created." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Our break with the world will be the direct outcome of our changed +relation to God. For the world of 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 _above_, 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. + +"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 problem at its center, and +everything else must follow along. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +"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. + +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. + +Now set over against this almost any Bible character who honestly tried +to glorify God in his earthly 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. + +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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +_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."_ + + + + +IX + +_Meekness and Rest_ + + Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.--Matt. 5:5 + + +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. + +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 imaginings; 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 we do, it is what comes to us when we cease to do. His own +meekness, that is the rest. + +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 _pride_. 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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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 himself is over. He has found the peace which meekness +brings. + +Then also he will get deliverance from the burden of _pretense_. 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. + +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 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. + +Another source of burden is _artificiality_. 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. + +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 _what we +are_ will be everything; 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. + +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. + +_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._ + + + + +X + +_The Sacrament of Living_ + + Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to + the glory of God.--I Cor. 10:31 + + +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. + +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. 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. + +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." + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 sin bearer; they were never the result of +moral uncertainty or spiritual maladjustment. + +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. + +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 placing the responsibility where it +belongs. He is not ashamed of the work of His own hands. + +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. + +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. +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 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." + +That we _see_ 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 _sense_ 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _God is +holy_. 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. + +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_ 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 everyone 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." + +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. + +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 _legality_ 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +It does not mean, for instance, that everything we do is of equal +importance with everything else we 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 _can_ be as holy an act as the winning of +a soul. + +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. + +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 _why_ 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 +saying, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is +full of his glory." + +_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._ + + + + + + +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.txt or 25141.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. 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