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:UYPER BV4811 .K89 1918
■uyper, Abraham,
'o be near unto
;od /

Into ($ah

th'L.

Eerdmans-Seyensma Co.

PUBLISHERS

GRAND RAPIDS. MICHIGAN

1918

TO BE NEAR UNTO GOD

1

"IT IS GOOD FOR ME TO BE NEAR

UNTO GOD."

When in holy ecstacy the Psalmist sings: '*!
love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice
and my supplication," he pours out his whole soul
in his song, but the love can not be analyzed.
To have love for God is a different and a much
weaker thing than to be able to say: '1 love
God." There is love for native land, for the
beauties of nature and for the creations of art.
From tenderness of heart we have love for suffer-
ing humanity. We are attracted by things that
are pure, true and of good report. And along this
hne of thought almost every honest soul can say
that he has love for God, and that this love
exceeds all other loves. Because from him and
through him all loveable things are, and He is
the highest good.

Love for God may be fine sentiment. It may
be sincere and capable of inspiring holy enthu-
siasm, while the soul is still a stranger to fellow-
ship with the eternal, and ignorant of the secret
walk with God. The great God may still not be
your God. Your heart may still not be attuned to
the passionate outburst of delight: I love the
Lord. For love of God in general is so largely
love for the idea of God. love for the Fountain of
life, the Source of all good, the Watcher of Israel
who never slumbers; in brief, love for him who,
whatever else changes, abides the same eternally.

But when the heart can say: I love the Lord, the
idea of the Eternal becomes personified. Then God
becomes the Shepherd who leads us, the Father
who spiritually begat us, the covenant-God to
whom we sustain the covenant relation, the Friend
who offers us friendship, the Lord whom we serve,
the God of our trust, who is no longer merely
God, but our God.

For many years we may have had love for God
in general and never have known him. He is
only known when love for him takes on a per-
sonal character; when w^e meet him in the path-
way of life; when He becomes a person in con-
trast with our own; when we enter into conscious,
vital and personal relation with him, so that He
is our Father and we his children; not merely one
of his children, but his child in a special way, in a
personal relation different from that of his other
children, even the closest relation conceivable in
heaven and on earth; He, our Father, our shep-
herd, our bosom-friend and our God.

He who has not entered into this can not under-
stand it. It extends farther than his reach. If,
however, he is religiously inclined, he soon real-
izes, on hearing about it, that if he might have
this love, it would be sweeter than that of which
he is now conscious. It makes him feel that he
lacks something and so may arouse in him a desire
for it. It may make him crave what would be so
beautiful to possess. This craving may prepare
him for better things. If there is to be contact
with God, it proceeds from both sides. God draws
near to us, and we to him. First afar off, then
closer by, until distance falls away and we meet
each other. The blessedness of this moment can

never be told in words. We then come near unto
God, and this comprises all the blessedness of
believing.

He who has not learned this secret may say
with his lips: It is good for me to hold me fast
by God (Ps. 73:27 Prayer-Book version), but he
can not grasp it. So he passes it by as though it
meant in general a pious frame of mind apart
from feeling the burning within of the spark of
true personal love. He worships God, he prays
for grace, but has no genuine love. But "To Be
Near Unto God" means such nearness to God as
to see him with the eyes, to be aware of his
presence in the heart, to hear him with the ear,
and to have every barrier removed that thus far
kept him aloof. "To Be Near Unto God" means
to be near him in one of two ways: either to
feel as though we were caught up into heaven, or
as though God had come down to us in our lone-
liness, sorrow or joy. The very word "near"
implies that there is much that separates us from
God, and makes us solitary. When God is far
away from us and we from him, it makes us
desolate. It also implies that we are not con-
tented; that we can not endure it; that our whole
heart goes out after him, and will not rest until
the last barrier is removed. For only when God
is near unto us and we are near unto him is there
blessedness again, which nothing can exceed, since
it is unspeakably good "To Be Near Unto God."
This exceeding blessedness can only be enjoyed at
rare moments here, but in the life to come it shall
endure. For in the Father's house above, we shall
be near unto God forever and forever.

The world ruthlessly crosses our efforts along

this line. Though it was not right, and never can
be, we understand what went on in the heart of
those who sought escape from the world, in cell
or hermitage, for the sake of unbroken fellowship
with God. It might have been efficacious, if in
withdrawing from the world they had been able
to leave the world behind. But we carry it in our
heart. Wherever we go it goes with us. There
are no monastic walls so thick, or places in forests
so distant, but Satan has means to reach thSm.
To shut oneself out from the world moreover, for
the sake of a closer walk with God, is to seek on
earth what can only be our portion in heaven. We
may escape many things in doing it. The eye may
no more see much vanity. But existence becomes
abnormal. Life becomes narrow. Human UE.ture
is reduced to small dimensions. There is no
imperative task on hand, no calling in life, no
exertion of all one's powers. Conflict is avoided.
Victory tarries.

But "To Be Near Unto God" in the midst of
busy avocations yields its sweetest blessedness
when it is cultivated in the face of sin and the
world, as an oasis in the desert of life. And they
whom the world has tried in most cruel ways to
draw away from God have achieved highest honors
and blessings. In spite of obstacles and worldly
opposition they continued to have trysts with
God, Jacob at Peniel, IMoses in Horeb, David
when Shimei cursed him, Paul when the people
rose in uproar against him. In the heat of con-
flict "To Be Near Unto God" is blessed.

And apart from conflict with the world, the flesh
and the devil, when clouds of adversity gather
overhead, when the heart bleeds with wound upon

wound, when the fig tree does not blossom, and
the vine will yield no fruit, then with Habakkuk
to rejoice in the Lord, because His blessed pres-
ence is more enjoyed in adversity than in seasons
of material prosperity, — this is the lesson of his-
tory in all ages.

But the ways of the world are cruel. Its cruel-
ties have assumed finer forms, but this refinement
has made them more intolerable. In former days
there was much that reminded people of the
sanctities of life, that made them think of higher
things, and kept eternity before their eyes. All
this is mostly gone. In the busy life of the world
today there is little to keep in memory the things
that are holy and eternal. In public life all
thought of God is ignored. In some places church-
bells are no more rung. Few days of prayer are
appointed. God's name is no more spoken. No
mernento mori any more reminds us of death.
Cemeteries are turned into parks. Sacred things
are scorned. That which in private conversation
and in the public press gives tone to theories is
the delusion that heaven reaches no higher than
the stars, that death ends all, that life without God
is more apt to bring prosperity than life in the
fear of the Lord. The habit of doing without God
in public life puts itself as a stream between God^
and the God-fearing soul. To hold fast by God,
against the current of this stream, takes strong
faith.

This modern cruelty of the world offers special
dangers to our young people and children. But
let us have courage. All things are known to God.
In tender compassion He will draw near to us, and
to our dear ones, that we and thej^ may be near

unto him. But in that case, satisfaction with half
measures must not be tolerated. If we do, vague
love for a far-away God will riiore than ever fail
us. The free and untrammeled life, that joj'fully
proclaims: I love the Lord, alone can save. For
it does not remain standing afar off, but seeks
access to the immediate presence of God, in per-
sonal contact of soul with the Eternal.

"THE SOULS WHICH I HAVE MADE."

There is a peculiar charm about the thing which
we have made. Not because of any intrinsic value
it may have, but just because we have made it.
The new beginner at the art of portrait-painting,
who practices his art by copying celebrated orig-
inals, will think more of his own copy than of the
more excellent original. Flowers which the young
lad plucks from his own little garden are much
more interesting to him than the boquet from the
florist. The country gentleman prefers vegetables
from his own grounds or hothouse, even if less
fine, to the produce imported from abroad. He
who writes for the press deems his own article,
published in some monthly or quarterly, the best
of the edition. This holds good in every depart-
ment of life. Produce raised ourselves interests us
greatly. Cattle bred on our own stock farm is
preferred to any other. We are more happy in the
house which we have built.

Of course, this implies some self-complacency,
which especially in youth is apt to breed conceit.
We grant that preference for our own work can go
too far, as when from sheer egotism it makes us

undervalue better works from other hands. This
is evident in mother-joy, which revels in play with
its own child, such as is impossible in play with
a neighbor's child. Self-delusion and selfishness
may at times be too evident in this joy of the
mother heart, but history and folklore in all lands
and times bear witness that there vibrates another
string in mother love than that of selfishness, the
sound of which can only be understood when it is
recalled that she bore the child. The mother is
conscious of a part of her own life in that of her
child. The two do not stand side by side as
Nos. 1 and 2, but the mother-life extends itself
in that of her child.

This trait is evident in every product of our
own, whether of our thought, of our manual labor,
or of our perseverance. And whether it is an
article which we contributed, or a house which we
built, a piece of embroidery which we worked, or
a flower which we planted, a hound or a race-
horse which we raised, there is something in it of
our own, something that we put upon it, a some-
thing of our very selves, of our talent, of our
invention, which makes us feel toward it as we
never can feel toward things which are not of our
own making.

And by this human trait God comforts the
hearts of sinners. This trait is in us, because it
is in God. Regarding this trait God declares that
it operates in the Divine Fatherheart in our behalf.
For where there is a soul at stake, God never for-
gets that He has made it. "For I will not contend
forever, neither will I be always wroth; for the
spirit should fail before me, and the souls which
I have made (Is. 57:16). As little as a mother

can allow her just anger with the child of her
own bosom to work itself out to the end, just so
little can God's wrath with a soul fully exhaust
itself, because He has made it. As a Father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear
him (Ps. 103). "Though a mother may forget
her sucking child, j^et will I not forget thee" (Is.
49:15).

The Fathername of Grod expresses this same
comforting thought. It implies not merely that
human fathers love, and that God loves too, but
that both the love of human parents and the love
of God spring from the same source, to-wit: that
God has created and made the soul that is in us.
That we are created after God's image implies that
God is conscious of the relation which He sustains
to us. The High and Holy One finds something
of himself in us, because we are his own products.
As his own creatures, we are objects of his Divine
interest. There is something of God in the soul,
because He has made it. It bears the Divine
stamp. There is something of God's power in it,
of his thought and creative genius, as there is in
nothing else. We are God's handiworks, no two
of which are ever exactly alike. Imagine that we
were gone, and the vast collection of the Lord
would no more be complete. From this the tie
between God and the soul is born, which makes
each of us a star in his firmament which the
Father of Spirits can not afford to lose. And
therefore the Lord seeks what is lost.

An artist who has paintings on exhibition in a
gallery and finds one of them gone, can not rest
until it has been traced and restored to its place
on the wall. In like manner God misses the

soul that has gone astray, because He has made
it. The beautiful parables of the lost penny, the
lost sheep and the lost son sprang in the mind of
Christ from the thought that God can not let go
the works of his hands. Therefore He does not
leave the souls of sinners indifferently as prey to
corruption. They are his handiwork. And this
constitutes the bitterness of sin.

If on entering the gallery one day the afore-
mentioned aitist saw that an angry intruder had
wantonly, under cover of night, cut his paintings
with a knife, his bitterness of soul would know no
bounds, not merely because these paintings had
been destroyed as treasures of art, but as works of
his own hands. This insult has been inflicted upon
God. The soul which He has made has been
inwardly torn asunder by sin and has become
almost irrecognizable. And as often as we yield
to sin, the soul is spoiled still further. It is every
time the continuance with uplifted hand of the
work of ruining the soul, which belongs to God,
because He made it.

The destruction of one's own soul, or of the
soul of his children or of others by example or
wilful temptation, is always the spoiling of a
Divine work of art, a creation of God, which
wounds him in his own handiwork, corrupting
the traces of himself in it. It is as though a child
is wounded and slain before his mother's eyes. It
is defiance of the maker's love for his handiwork.
It is wilfully giving offense, and grieving the maker
in his most sensitive point.

To him, therefore, whose heart is right, this say-
ing of the Lord, "The souls which I have made,"
has a two-fold meaning. First, the comforting

thought that, if we believe, God's anger with the
~ soul which He has made will not continue to the
end. And, on the other hand, it implies the help-
' ful warning that we should not poison the soul by-
continuance in sin, but that we should favor it,
and spare it, and shield it from corrupting influ-
ences, because it belongs to God on the ground
that He has made it. The confession that God
created man after his own image does not exhaust
the fulness of the thought in hand. The plummet
goes far deeper. The saving and uplifting power
of this confession is only felt when each morning
is begun anew with the vivid realization of the
inspiring thought that the soul in us is a work
of art, made by the High and Holy One, on which
his Honor hangs, over which therefore He watches
with holy jealousy; and that we can not ruin it
by sm except as we commit crime against that, to
which God sustains the peculiar relation of being
its Author and Maker.

Thus "The souls which I have made" does not
say anything more, save that we should realize
that . we are the children of God ; but it states it
in a more gripping way. It declares that he who
"■~ by sin denies his heavenly Father, violates God's
honor and grieves the Fatherheart.

"RICH IN GOD."

Jesus has appreciated the grave character of the
struggle in Jife between God and money. It may
be said that this struggle is even more violent
in Western lands than in the East, where he
preached and went about doing good, because

10

there the common necessities of life are more
easily procured than here. The large part which
money plays in life is too generally ignored. Aside
from wealth and love of simplicity., life unfolds
differently when there is a free hand financially
than when hard work for sheer sustenance of self
and family must fill the hours of day. The con-
centration of every effort upon making money may
soon degenerate into sinful passion, whereby the
money-slave ignores all sense of honor; although
by itself it is natural and free from blame that
utmost pains are taken to improve financial con-
ditions. Only think of how much there is at stake
in this matter, as regards the education of the
young, our own m.oral and spiritual development,
and the cause of God's kingdom in the earth.

Money is a great power, and in times of press-
ing needs the lack of it renders one painfully help-
less. Wherefore the influence of money upon an
unconverted heart can not be estimated. When
even godly people are caught at times in the
snares of money, what must be its banal force
with those who, though they know of more ideal
aims, have never made a definite choice of God
and of his Christ. Money and Satan mingle
freely in such minds, and this opens the way for
mammon. And though at first it may be tried
to keep money and mammon apart, the endeavor
soon proves futile. Money is a power in hand.
But before we know it, it soon becomes a power
over us; a power that rules over us and draws
us away ever farther and farther from high and
noble interests and makes slaves of us in the
service of mammon. Jesus foresaw all this. He
fathomed the disgrace and the shame of it. And
11

mov^ed with compassion for this 'gilded slavery
he called the people that flocked to hear him,
from money back to God.

This sharp antithesis alone should inspire us to
resist the tyranny of money. When we are truly
servants of God, money will be a servant to us.
When, on the other hand, we seek protection in
our own strength from the baneful influence of
money, and from its strong temptation, we meet
with dismal failure. Deeming that we are our own
master, we find that the power of money lords
it over us. Jesus therefore puts the two kinds of
riches in contrast with each other: riches in money
and riches in. God. Not that one excludes the
other. If we are rich in God, it is nothing against
us to be rich in worldly goods. For then we
will be well aware of the fact that we are but
stewards of the Almighty, and money will serv^e
both us and God. If we are rich in God and poor
in earthly possessions, we will be satisfied and
happy with the higher riches of the soul. But if
a man is poor in God, worldly wealth is but vain
and hollow mockery. Material riohes and sensual
pleasures do not ennoble and refine the soul.
Moreover at death they fall away, if not before,
and leave the soul empty and shorn. It is harder
still to be both poor in God and in worldly goods.
This provides nothing for the enlargement of life;
nothing to sustain and hold one up. It brings
bitter discontent alone, which feeds upon the
vitals and robs existence, heavily freighted with
carping care, of its latest possible charm.

To understand what constitutes riches in God,
imagine for a moment that all your earthly riches
had taken wings, and that bereft of all you had.

you are forgotten by those who once knew you. In
this utter forsakeness of soul ask yourself: What
have I left? What do I now possess? This will
be our state in the hour of death. We will go into
eternity alone. What will we take with us? We ^
must leave money and houses behind. We must
part even from our body. There will be nothing
to us but the soul, our spiritual self. Shall we be
rich then? If so, it can only be in spiritual goods.
When we die we are either rich in God or poor in
God. It will not do, therefore, to defer searching
self-examination. When I am alone with my soul,
what have I; what is there of me? Does my
money impart to me my worth as a man, or am I
something myself? Are there treasures stored up
in my heart? Apart from all material interests
has my personal self any significance worthy of
mark in God's sight, or am I actually nothing?

Let us not deceive ourselves. Apart from
covet eousness it is quite possible to enlarge one's
intellectual equipment, to cultivate the aesthetic
nature, and to excel in cleverness and in achieve-
ment. All this has worth of its own, and is not
acquired apart from God. But it belongs to the
life of this world, and loses its significance the
moment life on earth fails us. There remains of
it only so much as has imparted a higher and
nobler bent to our person, and has established
and broadened our character and our spiritual
powers, and thereby has become our property,
which can not be taken from us by either catas-
trophe or death.

And without more, even this will not do. Per-
sonality that is well developed, character that is
firmly established, inner strength of spirit and of

13

will-power can be of use to us only when we can
apply them to good and noble ends. Satan is the
'most strongly developed personality conceivable.
Any one can train himself in sin. Hence the ques-
tion remains: Have we developed the traits of
character, and powers of personality, which are in
harmony with the life of eternal blessedness? If
not, at death, they will be of no use to us. Hell
is full of strongly developed characters and culti-
vated talents. But they afford no pleasure, but
rather add pain to pain, because it all goes without
God, and increases no riches in him. Like sets of
fine sharp tools by themselves, they are utterly
useless. Thus the heart can only speak of pos-
sessions, when such powers and capacities have
been so trained that they will permit admittance
into heaven, will make us feel at home there, and
will enable us to exert heavenly influences there.

These heavenly properties are never acquired
save through fellowship with God. From God as
the Source, the powers of the Kingdom must
operate in us that will entitle us to heavenly
citizenship. In Christ we must be reconciled to
God. The Father must come and dwell with us.
For then the new life will be quickened in us,
which draws its nourishment from • heaven and
imparts higher powers, and fills the soul with all
the fullness of God. Thus to be rich in God is
to own God himself; to be a temple of the Holy
Ghost; to carry Him, the Holy and Glorious One,
in the heart wherever we go; and every evening
and every morning to be refreshed in the inner
man at the fountain of the Water of Life.

Many obstacles prevent the full enjoyment of
these blessings here. But this is the privilege of

14

being rich in God, that the more we become
detached from the world, the richer we become
in God. And when at last the world shall fade from
sight, the far more exceeding and eternal weight
of these riches will unfold itself to our eyes. For
this heavenly wealth will not waste, but ever
increase in glory. It will be interest upon interest
always in the very holiest sense. It will evermore
be the Fountain and never again the cistern. It
will be treasures that shall always exceed our
boldest expectations, because they are centered in
the Infinite.

In addition to all this, according to the Scrip-
ture, there is the inheritance of the saints in light.
The difference between these two is determined
by the difference between the inner and the out-
ward life. The riches in God have to do with the
inner life of the soul — already here in part, and
presently to be revealed in full. To this inner life
belongs an outward state. We do not have this
here. It only comes with the division of the
inheritance which is stored for us in heaven; even
the inheritance of glory, the companionship of the
saints made perfect,, and of all the holy angels.
The life in the palace of God's everlasting Light.
The fruition in glory such as here has never
entered the heart. No more sin. No more sorrow.
Eternally in Christ with God in fullest, largest
satisfaction of what in its noblest flush of anticipa-
tion the heart can expect or desire.

Rich in God, and therefore rich through God.
0, how deeply have we fallen that these riches in
God attract so few hearts ; and that they who have
won these heav^enly possessions still hunger at

15

times for the things that wean the soul from God
and must needs impoverish it.

"IN THE COVERT OF THY WINGS."

The profoundest question that governs true
piety relates to personal fellowship with God. In
the Psalms, which are the most beautiful utter-
ances of a devout mind, this Divine fellowship is
ever longed for and sought after. The tie is there
mentioned that binds us to God as the Creator
and Supporter of all things. The relation is there
stated, which he who fears ther Lord sustains by
faith to the Holy One. But these are not fellow-
ship with the Eternal. He who fears the Lord
does not rest until he has entered into such con-
scious fellowship with Him that there is mutual
knowledge between the two. Even the clear sense
that God knows him and that he knows God.

What we call friendly intercourse among men,
intimate fellowship, sympathy of heart with heart
in faithfulness and love, is the meaning of Ps.
25:14: "The secret of the Lord is with them that
fear him; and he will show them his covenant."
As close friends on earth go through life together
and reveal themselves to each other, and in this
intimate walk become the conjEidants of each
other's secrets, so it is told of the Old Testament
heroes of the faith that "they walked with God."
And although these are but figures and terms that
are borrowed from human experiences, and
although we ought not to use them ourselves when
we would speak of our fellowship with God except

with greatest reverence, it is equally sure that God
has pointed them out to us for this end.

To picture this Divine fellowship the Scripture
even borrows figures from animal life. Jesus illus-
trated his tender love for Jerusalem by the figure
of the hen that gathers her chickens under her
wings. David boldly declared before God that he
would not only dwell in the house of the Lord
forever, but that he would even make his refuge
"in the covert of God's wings." (Ps. 61:4.) And
why not? Did not God put this tender expres-
sion of fellowship in the world of winged creatures
as an intimation of what moves his own Divine
heart? And is not everj- suggestive and touching
instance of loving fellowship in the life of nature
a Divinely given help to make clear to us the
things which we observe and feel or only dimly
sense in the mystic depths of our heart?

But even the broad creation fell short of
material along this line. Wherefore the Lord has
put still another figure before us by which to illus-
trate this intimate fellowship with himself; even
that of dwelling together in one house. For the
house, or with nomadic tribes the tent, is not orig-
inal in the creation, but is mechanically con-
structed by human hands. With Jabal mankind
first came upon this find, whereby the social life
of man took an incredible step forward. The
home was foreshadowed in the creation. Jesus
pointed to the fact that foxes have holes, and
birds of the air have nests. And was it not a deep
feeling of want that expressed itself in the words
that He, the Son of Man, had no home * * *
indeed, no place at all of his own where to lay
his head?

17

Life can only be fully developed by our dwell-
ing together under one roof tree. The family home
is the nursery of love. It is the outward encircling
with the tie of the closer fellowship of life. Thus
we see that in Scripture the house or tent is given
us as an aid, by which fellowship with God
assumes a form and an outline that makes it
plain to us. God also has a house. And the idea
of dwelling in God's house beautifully indicates
~ the most intimate and tenderest fellowship with
God. Purposely, therefore, the tabernacle was
constructed in the wilderness. Presently it was
perpetuated in the Temple on Mount Zion. It is
expressly stated that in Horeb God showed Moses
the pattern of the same. Hence the Tabernacle
and the Temple were a pattern of what actually
exists in the heavens.

And in connection with this, the deep longing
is constantly expressed to be privileged to dwell in
the Tabernacle of the Lord. Rather be a door-
keeper in the house of God than dwell in the
palaces of the ungodly. "One thing have I desired
of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of
my life ; to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to
enquire in his temple." (Ps. 27:4.)

Tabernacle and Temple, however, were not per-
manent. They only served for a time. In the
broad development of the life of faith they were
transitory. When Jesus had come, it was said:
"Woman, the hour cometh, and now is, when ye
shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jeru-
salem, worship the Father, but when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and

18

m truth (John 4:21). This means worship with-
out symbols, without outward forms, directly
spiritually, from heart to heart. If then we are in
sympathy with David's ardent longing to dwell in
the house of the Lord, we must no longer apply
this to an earthly house or visible church. For
this only brings us back to the dispensation of
shadows. The temple of God is no more an
allegorical house of wood and stone, but the great
palace of our God in the heavens. For heaven is
God's dwelling place. There is the palace of his
glory, the Tabernacle of his Majesty. When Jesus
teaches us to pray: "Our Father, who art in
heaven," he detaches the soul from every material
thing, and lifts the heart on high, in order that
we should no more think of the Majesty of God
in terms of earth.

To dwell in the house of the Lord all the days
of our life means to be so vividly conscious of our
fellowship with the living God that every morn-
ing, noon and night our thoughts go out to Him,
that we hear his voice in the soul, that we are
aware of his holy Presence within, experience his
workings in our heart and in our conscience, and
that we carefully avoid the things which we would
not dare to do if God stood before us and spoke
to us.

The Psalmist goes still one step further, whereby
he clearly shows that through the shadows, the
faithful under the Old Covenant grasped the
higher reality. For he adds: "I will make my
refuge under the covert of Thy wings." It is not
enough to think of God's glory in the heavens, to
dwell in his holy temple, to walk among the

angels and the saints, who stand before the Lord.
God's house will afford the opportunity for fellow-
ship with him, but in it we will look for God him-
self. One must live with a person in his house in
order to enjoy his company to the full. But the
house without him is nothing. He himself
is the first interest there. Such is the case in
our search after fellowship with God. Sursum
Corda. Lift up your hearts. I will lift up my
heart to the trysting-place of thy holiness.

Even this is not enough, nor ever can be. To
find God we must dwell in his house. But there
"To Be Near Unto God" is the sole end and aim of
all godly desire and endeavor. To give vent to
this passionate longing David boldly exclaims: ''I
will make my refuge in the covert of Thy wings."
This is communion of spirit with Spirit. It
involves the sacred touch. To perceive and to
feel, to discover and to experience that nothing
separates us any more from the Lord; that his
arms are around us, and that as it were we cleave
unto God.

This is holy ground. It is not free from dan-
gers. Misapprehension can interpret this figura-
tive language literall}^, and in an unholy sense
materialize our Spiritual God. False mysticism
has shown what errors it may entail. Provided,
therefore, that we are on our guard, this figure
is aboundingly rich and supremely glorious. To
possess God, and to have made fellowship with
him a realitj' in life is beautiful, provided that it
always is in Christ. We, impure and unholy, are
brought by our Savior alone, into this tender com-
munion with God.

20

HE WILL REGARD PRAYER.

Does the Lord regard prayer only after long
delay? Is He not omnipresent? Is not the whis-
pered prayer known to Him before there is yet
a word in the tongue? Can the All-Knowing One
first stand apart, indifferently as it were, and only
gradually perceive that we pray, before he regards
what at first he ignores?

Such is the meaning of verses 16 and 17 of
Psalm 102. The Psalmist stands outside a closed
door. Out of the depth his prayer ascends. But
the thorn in the flesh is not removed. The Lord
does not hear his prayer. And the Arch-enemy,
who does not pray, and who does not know God,
is encouraged by Jehovah. God's covenant people
are repulsed. God hides his face. And the
Psalmist cries: "Hear my prayer, 0 Lord, and
from me. In the day when I call answer me
speedil}'.

This brings relief to his troubled mind. With
prophetic insight he anticipates the day when the
Lord will hear the prayer of his people, and
inspired by this thought he exclaims: "When the
Lord will regard the prayer of the destitute, and
not despise their prayer, then shall all the kings
of the earth fear him."

Thus the Psalmist v%-as still in that period in
which the Lord held himself deaf to his people,
and in which the moment tarried when he would
regard their prayer. And do you think that the
Psalmist did not feel and know the objections
that are suggested by the nature of the Divine
Being against this human representation? And

21

are we so far his superior that the thoughts which
arise in us were foreign to him? Who has ever
outlined God's omnipresence and omniscience in
terms of finer poetic imagery than he? Are not the
expressions in which we clothe our prayers for the
most part borrowed from his writing? Did not
he propound the question: "Shall he who planted
the ear, not hear?" And did not he confess in
Ps. 139: "There is not a word in my tongue, but,
lo, 0 Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou
hast beset me behind and before. Such knowledge
is too wonderful for me ; it is high, I can not attain
unto it."

The Psalmist has described the Divine virtues
in behalf of the saints of all ages, and the
mysteries of the Divine Being are nowhere more
clearly set forth than in the language of his songs.
And when this eminently-saintly man frequently
speaks of God — also with reference to this matter
of prayer — in this simple, human way, what can it
mean, save that the confidential terms of intimate
human fellowship have the same significance in
the secret walk with God. And that there are
moments when God disregards our prayers, but
which, praise his name, are succeeded by other
moments in which He does regard them?

You believe in Christ. You believe that his
saying is true: "He that hath seen Me, has seen
the Father; and how saj^est thou then, Show us
the Father?" On bended knee j^ou cum ess mm as
your Lord and your God. But what is the incar-
nation of the word except that God became man?
And what profit can this be to j^ou, unless you
realize that in Christ God has come close to j^ou
in a human way?

Before the days of the Bethlehem birth God
spoke to us in the human word, but in Christ God
is manifest in human nature. He reveals himself
to us as the son of Man. A human heart speaks
here in human language and in human ways. As
the Apostle John asserts: In Jesus they have not
only seen and heard what is God's, but have
touched, that is they have handled with their
hands, and have actually seen before their eyes
the eternal — Godlike in human manifestation and
in human form. Hence the whole Christian faith
and Christian confession rests upon the clear and
firm conviction that God has not willed himselt
to be lost to us in endless abstractions, but that
in our human nature, in human form and in human
language he comes to us ever more closely, in
order through the medium of our human heart to
establish affectionate and full fellowship with us.

Our Lord Jesus makes no high-sounding,
abstract statements of the infinite in the Eternal,
but shows us God as our Father, and calls us to
be his children, and with childlike confidence, in
a childlike way, and with childlike intimacy to
have fellowship with him. Let it be distinctly
understood that this rests on sober reality. That
this is not mere semblance but actual fact, since
God created us after his image. That thus, in
the face of a broad difference. Divine reality is
expressed in the human. And that, when the Word
became flesh, the fact that the Son of God became
Man, is directly connected with our creation after
God's image.

Would we undo all this, and create a distance
between us and God which would exclude all per-
sonal fellowship, by putting a whole system of

23

abstract ideas about the immensities of God in
the place of this heart-to-heart intimacy which
can not be cultivated with God except in a human
^way? Let us leave this to philosophers who do
not pray, and to theologians dry-as-dust who are
not children of their Father in heaven. But as
for us, let us love God with a devotion which
can only express itself in childlike fellowship with
him.

Moreover, in the practice of prayer we fre-
quently observe that experience confirms the word
of the Psalmist. At one time the heavens are open
to us, and as we pray, angels descend and ascend
to bring our petitions to the throne of grace. While
at other times our prayers are faint, our words
bound back as it were upon ourselves and every
door of approach to God is closed up against us.
At one time there will be an immediate hearing
and a direct answering, and at another time we
feel ourselves immured and thrown back upon our-
selves, and it seems that there is no living God to
hear us. And when the turn of the tide sets in,
and we perceive that the gate of heaven reopens,
and we feel that our prayer obtains free access to
the throne of the Almighty, then we understand
from our own experience what the Psalmist wrote
about the blessedness of the moment in which the
Lord regarded again the prayer of the soul that
was destitute.

Is now the solution of this apparent contradic-
tion as impossible as it seems? By no means;
provided we have eA^es to observe the part which
God plays in our prayer-life. When we deem
~that prayer is original with ourselves; when we do
not believe that the spirit of prayer goes out in us

from God, and we imagine that God's part in
our prayer only begins when he hears and answers
it, then indeed we face an insoluble riddle.

But if we take it in the other, truer way, and
make it clear to our mind that God has quickened
our prayer-life and that he directs and carries it,
the matter gleams with light. The farmer sows
the seed in the newly-ploughed furrows and leaves
it alone to do its work, and only returns to the
field when the dew of heaven and sunshine have
caused the seed to sprout and to send the blade
upward, and the corn to ripen in the ear, that he
might gather the harvest.

And such is the case in our prayer-life. Our
Father who is in heaven begins it by sowing the
seed of prayer in our hearts. And then follows
a slow process. The praj'er-life must develop in
us. Praj-er must ripen in the soul. And only when
this result has been obtained, and our prayer has
unfolded itself in that higher form, does the
heavenly Husbandman regard the prayer-life in us
and enrich it with abounding answers.

Such is the case with our prayer-life taken as a
whole. Through foolish petitions we arrive at
purified prayers. Through earthly prayers we
come to those holier petitions which have been
watered with the dew of heaven, and which scin-
tillate with light from higher spheres than ours.
But such is the case also with our individual
prayers. These, too, are not unfolded and ripened
at once. They also undergo a process in the soul.
They also spring from a root and only by degrees
develop themselves into prayers such as the Father
in heaven expects from his children. Prayers
which are not merely sounds in the lips but which

25

rise from the depths of the heart. Prayers which
fully harmonize with our own desires and inclina-
tions. Prayers in which not merely a passing
thought, but the whole person expresses himself.
Prayers in which the soul truly pours itself out
before the Holy One.

God allows us time for this. It can not be at
once. If he interfered at once no prayer-life could
be developed in us, and no single prayer could be
sanctified in us. Weeds that grow between our
prayers must first be rooted out. Every infectuous
insect that crept in must be destroyed. Prayer
must refine itself and sanctify itself and in a
heavenly sense through faith must be able to
mature. And therefore he leaves us to ourselves
for a time that through the fiery trial gold may
proceed from the ore.

And when at length our prayers are sufficiently
purified to be laid upon the Altar of the Almighty,
then he will regard them again. And we will
thank our Father in heaven that he has brought
us to the holy school of prayer.

"HEARKEN UNTO ME, MY PEOPLE."
'GIVE HEED TO ME, O LORD."

At one time it was thought that sound came
from the throat, that its power was limited, and
that it could only make our word intelligible at
short distances. No one could hear us, nor we
him, from a greater distance than our voice could
carry. When there was anything to say, messen-
gers were sent to carry it. When writing was

26

invented, communications were carried by letters.

All this, however, is changed. By this time it
is understood that the throat has no sound of its
own, but merely enables us to occasion vibrations
in the air. And that these vibrations find an
artistic instrument in the listening ear to receive
them. T\Tien we speak we transmit our thoughts
in these vibrations. They glide along air-waves to
the ear of him who listens. And through the ear
they wake the self-same thoughts in him.

Such is our speech. But this was not enough.
It was discovered that apart from voice and ear,
communication could be established at far greater
distances through electricity. This was first done
by means of visible signs, and thus the telegraph
originated. But later it was found that a similar
contact of throat upon the ear could be obtained
by means of an extended metal thread. This dis-
covery gave us the telephone. And at length we
have advanced still further and intelligible com-
munication is achieved independently by itself
through the air, and at distances of two or three
thousand miles without telegraph or telephone
wires, thoughts have been exchanged.

In this wise things have become realities which
at one time were entirely unthinkable. And he
who considers how quickly these ever-more won-
derful inventions have succeeded one another con-
jectures that still more can be expected and that
playing with and listening to each other at incred-
ible distances will sooner or later be the common
good.

This is an aid to faith. That the Lord is simul-
taneously "a God at hand" and "a God afar off"
(Jer. 23:23) expresses in the language of prophecy

27

that there are no distances with God; and that
he can speak to us and can hsten to our voice,
even though heaven is his throne and we kneel
here on earth. ,Yea, even when we whisper our
prayer under breath, so that he who stands by our
side can not hear it. And faith had no other
explanation for this than the question: ''Shall he
who planted the ear not hear? Shall he who
formed the voice not speak?" The confession was
accepted that God is everywhere present. And
this consisted in the fact that he is the All-
Knowing One. But there was nothing in this to
support and to carry the imagination.

All this has changed. Now that it is possible for
us with all our human limitations to extend our
voice from city to city and to make ourselves
intelligible to one another; now that we can
exchange thought at a distance of many thousands
of miles without wires or any such thing ; now that
the impression is general that this is but the
beginning of an inter-communication which shall
be developed still more, we can imagine how com-
munication can extend itself at length without
limit, and how the Lord our God who is the creator
of all these means, and has them at his disposal,
can from the Throne of his glory look down upon
us and can whisper to us in the soul. And how,
on the other hand also, when our voice, however
weak, goes out to him in supplication, it can be
heard by him. As regards the life of glory
among the saints in light it is ever more clear that
communion shall not only be possible from time
to time with a few, but that when once the lim-
itations of this life shall fall away and glory shall
begin, intimate communion shall be possible at

28

one and the same time among and with all the
redeemed of the Lord.

But even then it will all be the expression and
the working out of the fact of our- creation after
the Divine image. It will not be just in the same
way in which God communes with us, but it will
be communion in a similar way.

That we ourselves can speak with our fellow
men at such incredible distances, brings us nearer
to God in our prayer, and brings God nearer to
us when he speaks to us. And the "Hearken unto
me, my people," followed by the prayer: "Give
heed to me, 0 Lord," is more real to us than
before.

There is still another phase in our secret walk
with God, which we may call the phase of holy
rapture. It springs from the indwelling of the
Holy Ghost in us. As often as this indwelling
operates there is no distance. Then the Lord
speaks to us in the inner-chamber of the heart.
Then we perceive his sacred presence not afar off
but at hand. And our speaking to God is the
confidential whisper as in the ear. Such is the
case at the cool of the day when the peace
"which passeth human knowing" takes possession
of the heart and the sweet joy of being God's
child transports us into holy ecstacy.

But we can not deal with this now. We have in
mind the man who believes, but who through sin
and trial has lost in part the sense of being a
child of God, and finds himself distant from Ck>d.
Such spiritual conditions occur frequently with
those who are most saintly. Then it seems that
at first God does not hear us, and as though we

29

must entreat the Lord to listen again to the voice
of our supplications.

"Give heed, to me, O Lord," is the cry of him
who feels that God has paid no attention to his
prayer. In the same way when by Isaiah God
says: ''Hearken unto me, my people," it implies
that at first the people gave no heed to the speak-
ing of the Lord. Hence both belong to the phase
of temporary estrangement, when communion
between the soul and God has been broken by
sorrow or by sin. Then the means of communica-
tion must be connected again. Then in the par-
lance of the telephone God rings us up, and we
ring up God, and thus the broken connection is
restored. Union with God, fellowship with the
Eternal, is the great sanctifying and protecting
power which holds us up in the midst of all sorrow
and trials. Not that we are apart here on earth
below and that in our thoughts God is confined
to heaven above, so that we can remember him
on our knees but a few moments everj' day, but
constant, unbroken fellowship with Our Father
who is in heaven is the secret of the power of
childlike faith.

This was easier in earlier times when life was
less hurried and less busy. At present life is a
great strain on the nerves. It continually over-
whelms us with new impressions and sensations,
so that the quiet collecting of the soul before God
is ever less frequent. And it is chiefly because of
this that in these, our days, the secret walk with
God suffers loss.

But for this very reason the new inventions of
communication and interchange of thought pro-
vide a counterpoise. For they come to the help

30

of our imagination and impart more reality than
before to our effort to restore the broken connec-
tion. And thus the finds of science become sup-
ports to our piety. They help us to hearken unto
God, and our prayer, "0 Lord, give heed to me
and hear the voice of my supplication," borrows
strength from them in our approach to the throne
of grace.

7

"THAT WmCH I SEE NOT, TEACH
THOU ME."

The knowledge that we have of ourselves dif-
fers according to its source. We have acquired a
part of it ourselves, another part we have received
from God. When it is asked in what particular
these two parts of self-knowledge differ, call to
mind that as a rule we faithfully record the good
there is in us, while for the most part we must-
have the evil that is in us pointed out to us and
brought to our remembrance by God.

A child can understand this. When praise is^
offered, it is readily accepted. But a child resists'
blame. He is not conscious of wrong and lightly
passes it by. And he continues in this course until
the conscience is awakened and God teaches him
to become humble.

In later life this goes on more covertly. In
reality, however, conditions remain the same. The
heart is not carried on the sleeve as in childhood
years. Some people succeed in hiding their inner
life from the eyes of others. No sooner, however,
is the personal life disclosed to the ear of a friend
but the same result follows. A part of our self-
knowledge we have acquired ourselves. The other

part we have ignored, until through bitter experi-
ence it has been taught us by God. This differ-
ence is at times strikingly evident. For, as a rule,
we do not only fail of seeking instruction in
matters of conscience, but resist the same when
it is offered, and only consent to it when in the
providence of God it is forced upon us. In many
instances God is obliged — we say it reverently
to force this self-knowledge upon people all their
lives. They simply will not learn it and in every
way they seek to forget what God shows them
of themselves.

But there are men and women who in all
honesty seek a clear knowledge of themselves and
who desire nothing more earnestly than to know
the truth regarding themselves. Nathaniels, who
do not invite but shun flattery; who despise the
false image which they see of themselves in the
glass, and who can not rest until they know
themselves as thej^ truly are. When God speaks
to them in the conscience they lend him a willing
ear. They realize that God's lesson in the con-
science is a warning, and they do not fail to profit
by it. Now let higher, spiritual grace be added
to this, and the gains will still be greater. Not
only will they lend willing ears to listen when God
speaks, but they will also study the lessons which
God tries to impart to the conscience and attain
the high, spiritual level of the pregnant prayer:
"That which I do not see and discover in myself,
teach Thou me, 0 my God" (Job 34:32).

These two parts of human knowledge are abroad
everywhere. All through life there is a part of
knowledge which we acquire ourselves and a part
which God brings us. To see is to observe, and

32

ordinarily we call the first part of our knowledge
that which is acquired by observation. By the
side of this there is another part of knowledge
which man would never have acquired of himself,
and which God has taught him. This character-
izes human knowledge in general. Everywhere
and in all ages man observes, gains experience,
investigates and enlarges the scope of his finds,
and in this way, among all nations, arrives at
certain knowledge of nature and of life, and turns
it into profit. In this process one nation excels
another in keener sight and finer hearing, in
greater powers of invention and perseverance, and
consequently makes greater strides in develop-
ment. But in the main all knowledge is alike. It
is founded upon that what man sees. It is
acquired by observation. It is developed by
studious thought. Such is the case with the great
inventions, in which there is always something
mysterious; inventions which, though no one sur-
mises it at first, disclose to us almost entirely new
domains of knowledge, which unbelief attributes
to chance, but which he who believes gratefully
interprets from the Divine appointment. Thus
aside from the knowledge that is obtained through
what w^e see, another knowledge comes to us
because God imparts it to us.

High ideals, moreover, whether in individuals
or nations, form the strongest possible motives
that inspire the search after knowledge and truth.
He who has no sense of ideals may seek material
knowledge, but the knowledge of higher things in
human life leaves him cold and indifferent. A
money-wolf is an adept in the knowledge that
promises gain, but what does he care for the

33

higher knowledge of the nobler elements of human
hfe? Just as little as a deaf man cares for a
"Bach, or a blind man for the works of art by a
Raphael or Rembrandt, x^d what apphes to indi-
viduals applies to nations. When nations fail of
ideals, they degenerate into materialism and sen-
sualism, and shut themselves off from the higher
life. They make no progress themselves and can
not influence other nations for the better. Indeed,
they retrograde and drag other nations down with
themselves. This can differ in one age from
another with the same people. In the sixteenth
century the Netherlands fostered high ideals, and
exerted noble and inspiring influences upon all of
Western Europe. In the eighteenth century they
degenerated and carried no blessing to other
nations in any sense.

And whether a nation is swayed by high ideals,
depends on God. When he sends forth the breath
of nobler aims and purposes upon a people, desires
are quickened after the higher ends of life, and
people are lifted up by the knowledge of nobler
human existence. When he takes that breath
away, the understanding is dulled, and all nobler
knowledge fails. In an ideal sense God can draw
a people to himself and impart something of his
own Divine life to it. And He can withdraw and
leave a people alone to its own hurt. In the latter
case the loss of higher and nobler knowledge is
inexorable. And so we arrive at the same result.
By seeing and observing, a part of our knowledge
is in our own power. But the part of higher and
nobler knowledge God alone can impart.

As we apply this to ourselves we see at once
that this Divinely-imparted knowledge comes by

34

no means exclusively through the conscience.
Upon a far broader scale some of it comes from
the Divine counsel, and some from the relation
which he establishes between himself and us. We
are born of our parents and we find many things
in ourselves that remind us of them. But the
formation of our person, disposition, temper and
leading inclination are his work. When we dis-
cover in ourselves a thirst after higher knowledge, --
and a susceptibility to nobler ends, the impulse
born from this is a work of the Holy Ghost in
the soul. The results of the knowledge which we
have thus acquired are not obtained by observa-
tion, but by virtue of the higher impulse which he
quickens and maintains in us.

Circumstances pla}^ a part in this. We may
have a friend whose nobleness of character becomes
an inspiration. We may go through certain experi-
ences, and meet cultivated and interesting people
who stimulate us to court higher lines of thought.
We may have important duties laid upon us, high
responsibilities, or bitter griefs, wliich advance us
to more than ordinary heights. And again, it
is God alone who disposes all these things in our
behalf. But above everything else we can feel
the beginnings of a strong drawing of God in our
hearts when he leaves us no rest and weans us
from earthly vanities, and mystically inspires us
with a sense of necessity which compels us to take
deeper interests in the higher things of life and
makes us grow and expand in them with continual
refreshings. And if this is so, it is not we who

have raised ourselves up to God, but it is God

who has raised us up to heavenly places with him-
self. This mercy may have been shown to us

35

and not to some others. And why? This is a
mysteiy which we can not grasp. But the fact
remains. We have two kinds of knowledge.
Aside from that which is acquired by sight and
observation, there is that other and higher knowl-
edge which comes to us from God.

This knowledge unfolds most beautifully in the
soul that is subject to grace. Not every regen-
erate child of God advances to great heights of
learning. Some devout souls lack almost every
power of entering into the mysteries of the higher
life. Some cultivaie riiysticism along emotional
lines, but continue devoid of knowledge. Others
learn a great deal of the way of salvation, but
cultivate little interest in the higher and nobler
knowledge of human life. There are still others,
and this is most glorious, who are warm of heart
and of a deep mystical nature, and of clear
insight into the way of Salvation, who, in addition
to all this, reach the inner unfoldings, by which
their knowledge is extended to those nobler parts
of human understanding, which make them not
merely deeply religious, but men of high ideals.

Such people stand on the top of the mountain
of God's holiness. A light above the light of the
sun dawns on their horizon. Their knowledge
becomes that of the saints made perfect. They
are most deeply conscious of their entire depend-
ence upon God and of their longing for ever
larger knowledge of him and of themselves. And
this, their thirst, can only express itself in the
prayer: 0 my God, aside from what I see and
discover myself, teach Thou me. Instruct me
ever more in holy fellowship with Thee.

''SONGS IN THE NIGHT."

Night is a mj^stery. For most people sleep is a
going out from life, in order, in the course of
seven or eight hours, to come back to it. When
they fall asleep, they are gone. And when the
hour-hand on the dial points, say some seven or
more hours further on, they arise and resume their
part in life. There is at most an occasional
remembrance of a dream, but for the rest it is all
a blank. A third part of life is spent in sleep. At
thirty years of age a man has practically lived
but twenty. The remaining ten years have passed
away in unconsciousness.

But sleep serves a purpose. We retire weary
in body and mind and with new strength we arise.
As far as we know, we were inactive in sleep. We
did not think, nor observ'e, nor will, nor work.
This entire cessation of activity is the real
ordinance of night. As long as we are in health
and in full possession of our powers, and not over-
burdened with cares, we sleep, undisturbed by out-
ward things, in this way and in no other.

WTiy this has been so ordained, we do not know.
For though we say that we become weary through
work, that our strength is exhausted and demands
rest to recuperate, it means nothing. For at once
we ask: WTiy this exhaustion of strength? He,
after whose Image we are created, never wearies.
The heavenly hosts of angels do not sleep. Of
the new Jerusalem we read: ''There shall be no
more night." We can imagine a being, who does
not exhaust his strength and therefore needs no
sleep. Why God appointed life for us with the

37

continual exhaustion of its powers and their
restoration by sleep remains a secret. But though
no one understands it, this Divine ordinance has
not gone forth without a purpose and a wise dis-
posal. Does not the Scripture say that in the
night our reins instruct us, and does not this
impart an higher significance to sleep? Undoubt-
edly such was the case with David. But this is
by no means an ordinary experience. And even if
this were the case, yet for the sake of spiritual
instruction in the soul, this regularly returning
period of seven long hours would be out of all
proportion. Only think how large a part of the
day it is^irom nine o'clock in the morning until
four in the afternoon. And yet it comprises but
seven hours, and these we sleep away out of every
twenty-four.

This is modified bj^ sickness, by pressing cares
or old age, three causes which either shorten, dis-
turb or delay sleep, so that a part of the night is
sleepless. By either of these causes night obtains
a different significance, but only because sleep can
not be courted, or is too much interrupted or too
early ended. Hence dreams are not without some
significance. Dreams can discover us to ourselves.
They can suggest helpful thoughts of life. They
can afford us moments of fellowship with our dead,
which gives us melancholy delight. God can
reveal something to us in dreams. In spite of all
this, most dreams are forgotten on waking. And
when at rare times they leave a memory, nothing
but vague, vanishing and mixed images float before
the mind. Even the petition from the old evening
. song, "In sleeping let me wait on Thee; in dreams

38

be Thou my joy," does not determirie, save in
rarest instances, the content of our dreams.

This does not deny, however, that without our
knowing it, and even while we sleep the Spirit of
God ministers to our spirit and builds up our
inner life. Also, in connection with this, the
mystery of our existence by night includes certain
effective ministries of God. But we can not deal
with them, because they go on in our uncon-
sciousness. At times, on awaking, we may be able
to solve certain difficulties which troubled us the
night before, and he who fears the Lord will thank
him for this. But even then it is always a work of
God, which we do not understand, and of which
we can only say with the Psalmist (118:23), "This
is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes."

Our existence by night only obtains a conscious
significance when, through sickness, care or old
age our sleep is broken. With respect to this the
Scripture declares: "In the night our reins
instruct us." Says the Psalmist (77:6), In the
night I commune with mine own heart. Isaiah
adds (26:9), With my soul have I desired Thee
in the night. And Job declares (35:10), God is
my Maker, who giveth songs in the night. This
provides a school of learning which we should
take more seriously into account. Sleeplessness
is a trying experience, which affects all of the next
day. But it is a discipline which leads either to
sin or to glory. It all depends upon the manner
in which these sleepless hours are spent. If wake-
fulness leads to nothing but gloomy and peevish
complaint by day and to a rebellious turning over
of self on the bed by night, it works sin. But
when such sleepless hours are spent in the

39

endeavor to confirm and make more real the fel-
lowship with God, the inner life of the soul is
strengthened and upbuilt. Moreover, such godly-
motions are medicine against sleeplessness itself,
while rebellious restlessness fosters and prolongs
it. To fight God in such an hour makes restless-
ness, it gives rise to feelings of oppression and
renders sleep more and more impossible. While
fellowship with God at such a time brings rest and
calm to troubled minds and sleep to weary eye-
lids.

But this is only a by-product. The main point
is that a sleepless night is the time in which to
seek the Lord, and to test the word of the
Psalmist: "It is good for me to hold me fast by
God." The strenuous activities of life, the con-
stant noise on every side, and the absorbing occu-
pations of the mind by day, hold us off and
estrange us from God. But in the quiet hours of
night nothing at all diverts us. The darkness is
restful to the eyes. The stillness of night puts
the ear on the retired list. No work of any sort
engages us. Hurry has given place to calm.
Nothing, indeed, diverts. There is no one near
to trouble us or to detain us. All the conditions
are there for undisturbed fellowship with God.
Such hours of night invite us, more than any other,
to enter into the sanctuary of the Most High.
The midnight watch has something of Sabbath
stillness about it, which is inaugurated by the
evening reading of God's Word, and by the even-
ing prayer, when on bended knees the soul was
poured out before God. At length we are at rest.
And now the cares and anxieties of the day must
either be resolutely put aside or we must enter

upon such close fellowsliip with God that he
carries them for us.

All this, however, is not entirely in our own
hands. It is not enough that we think of God
and make our approach to him. Communion pro-
ceeds from both sides. Unless God draAvs near to
us, we can have no close fellowship with him.
To think: God is ever ready to wait on me, it
merely depends upon me whether or not I will
meet him, does not indicate sufficient humility
or sense of dependence. Thinking of God is not
fellowship with God. True fellowship is far more
devout and far more intimately personal. And as
often as w^e have true fellowship with God, it is
a grace and a benefit for which we owe him thanks.
It is not that we are so good and so devout as to
lift up our heart unto God. But it is rather
Divine Compassion that condescends to us to bless
us and to make us rich with the experience of his
presence.

If before sleep the latest feeling is one of delight
in the tenderness of the Lord, and if the first con-
scious thought on aw^aking in the morning of
itself goes out after God, the gain is very great.
This makes us to be accustomed to God, and pre-
pares us for the night of the grave, when there
shall be no more interruption in our fellowship
with him.

At night, on our beds, when we can not sleep,
we feel our helplessness. Much more so, indeed,
than when by day garments adorn our person,
when our word makes our influence a power and
when we labor to make or maintain our position
in life. We lie prostrate on our bed and stand
no longer upright. We are well nigh motionless.

41

And this very insignificance of our appearance there
renders us but the more fit to meet our Lord.

And then God becomes great to us. We reahze
his saying that he is Our Maker. His faithful-
nesses present themselves to us. The arms of
everlastmg compassion support and encircle us.
Sadness of heart gives place to joy. Anxious
thoughts become calm and glad. The soul
becomes attuned to the worship of the eternal
love of God. And when his Holy Spirit thus
ministers to our spiritual needs and imparts his
quickening touch, the hymn of praise rises from
the heart and with us it is literal fact that God,
our Maker, giveth us songs in the night.

'T CRY, BUT THOU HEAREST NOT."

To get no hearing, as one stands at the closed
door, and it is not opened, makes one anxious.
He then knocks harder, and when this brings no
reply, he calls, and calls louder and louder. And
when still no sound is heard, and there comes no
answering voice, fear strikes the heart lest some
accident has befallen child or brother whom he
knows is near.

To get no hearing, when in distress one has
called for help, and has waited and waited for a
response and it did not come, how often has it
turned courage into dismay.

To get no hearing 1 What restlessness it brings
when fear is harbored whether it is well with
child, or brother far off, and one writes and
wTites again, and no reply follows, and a telegram
is sent with prepayment for an answer and no
answer comes.

To get no hearing! It makes the heart faint

42

when a beloved member of the household is
seriously ill and we approach the bedside and call
the beloved by name, in a whisper first, and then
louder, till we find that the patient does not
hear us.

To get no hearing ! It is overwhelming m cases
of accident in mines or with a landslide in digging
trenches, when victims are, as it were, buried
alive, and one calls and calls again, and listens
with bated breath for some sound or answering
sign of life, and silence continues unbroken.

To get no hearing! It caused such an^dous
forebodings when, not many years ago, Martinique
was overturned by an earthquake and telegrams
were sent to the place of disaster to enquire after
conditions of things there and no telegraphic
signal was returned.

The prophets of Baal experienced this tense
anxiety on Mount Carmel when, "from morning
even until noon" they cried: 0, Baal, hear us.
And they leaped upon the Altar * * * and cut
themselves * * * with knives and lancets * * *
but lo ! there was no voice, nor any that answered.
(I. Ki. 18:26). And greater anxiety still filled the
hearts of the prophets of Baal when Elijah, from
his side, cried out: ''Hear me, 0 Lord, hear me,"
and obtained the coveted answer, and "the fire of
the Lord consumed the sacrifice."

But the saints of God in the earth have not
alwaj's been similarlv favored. Read the com-
plaint of Asaph in Psalm 83: "0, God, keep not
thou silence; hold not thy peace— as one deaf—
and be not still, 0 God." Or consider David's
distress which he voices in Psalm 28: "Unto thee
will I cry, 0 Lord my rock; be not silent^ — or as

43

one deaf — to me ; lest if thou make as though thou
hearest not, I become like them that go down into
the pit." And what is stronger still, call to mind
the Lama Sabachtani of Golgotha, echo of the
prophetic complaint of Psalm 22: ''0 my God, I
cry in'the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in
the night season also I take no rest."

And this is the difference between the religious
man of the world and the devout believer on
God. We have nothing to say of the man of the
world pure and simple. He does not pray at all.
He never cries to God, and never expects an
answer. But the people of the world are not all
like this. Many are not wholly irreligious. They
still observe religious forms. They have not
wholly abandoned prayer. It is mostly, it is true,
a mere matter of habit. To say grace at the table
before one eats, a so-called ''blessing," which
consists mainly of a ''whisper," and upon retiring
at night a short prayer of thanksgiving and sup-
plication. This kind of prayer is revived in daj's
of trouble, and in moments of anxiety, .when a
loved one at home is sick unto death, or reverses
in business bring a man low. Then the religious
man or woman of the world prays and calls. And
when prayer brings no help, and danger is not
averted, and no answer is granted, the seemingly
futile prayer falls heavily back upon the heart
embittered by disappointment.

The case is altogether different with the devout
believer on God. The saintly man of prayer seeks
his Father. From experience he knows that it is
possible here on earth to hold communion with
the Father who is in heaven. He has confident
assurance of the hidden fellowship with God.

Along the pathwaj' of life, which is sometimes
rough and thorny, he knows what it is to "Walk
with God." Blessed experience has taught liim
that in this secret fellowship communion is
mutual, so that he seeks his Father, but also that
the Father gives himself to be found of his
child. In such moments he can not say: God
is here or there, for he feels and perceives that
God is with him. He can not prove that God
talks to him, and j-et he hears the voice of the
Lord. This is not seemingly, but actually true.
It is no self-deception, but rich reality. And he
follows after the good shepherd, comforted by the
staff and the rod whithersoever they lead. With
the religious man of the world it is mere form,
devoid of heart. With the devout believer on
God it is sacred, blessed mysticism.

There is discipline in this holy mysticism. Fel-
lowship with God is not only broken once in a
while, but frequently. Once there was no repre-
sentation of invisible communication. But now
there is. since we are in touch with people thou-
sands of miles away from us. Xow we can speak
with others whose faces we can not see, but whose
voice we receive in return. So far have we
advanced that telegraphy permits communication
without wire or any visible, tangible guidance.
And now we understand how this communication
can be disturbed, interrupted and sometimes alto-
gether broken.

God's saints on earth have such mystical com-
munication with their Father who is in heaven.
They have a mystical telegraph, a mystical tele-
phone, a mystical means of communication with-
out wire or any material appliance. And as little

45

as a primitive man can understand our telegraphic
communication, so little can the man of the world
imderstand the mystical fellowship of the earnest
believer on God with the Heavenly Father, who is
both far off and close by. And the believer on
God understands how this fellowship can be inter-
rupted, and even entirely broken off. For there
are times when the soul calls and seeks God, and
nothing comes back; when no sign from above is
vouchsafed; when it seems that God is lost; when
everything remains silent; when no voice comes
and no answer.

Why God withdraws himself at such times can
be surmised, but can never be fathomed. The cry
from the cross: "My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?" holds us face to face with an
impenetrable mystery. But even here surmisals
maj^ serve an end. We awake in the morning and
our first thought is of God. This gives us the
blessed sense of God's nearness, and as at the
hand of God, we begin the day. But some other
morning this is different. We perceive nothing of
God. Our heart is not joined to the Eternal.
Pray as we may, there is no fellowship. 0 God!
hold not thyself as one deaf; why dost thou not
hear me? But religion operates. The loss of
Divine fellowship makes us ver>' unhappy. Some
sinful inclination of the heart has caused it. Some
secret sin has prevented it. The heart has been
troubled about many things that have excluded
the Lord from the inner life. And the loss of fel-
lowship is good. It makes us examine ourselves.
It makes us unite the heart again to fear his
name.

Bodily conditions, too, may interrupt Divine

communion. A headache may depress us and
prevent the mind from free utterance, or lessen
our sensitiveness. This also may act as a spur
to give the body rest and calm in behalf of fel-
lowship with God.

At times, hovv'ever, the failure of obtaining a
Divine hearing can not be explained from one
cause or from another. We find nothing that
accuses us. And yet God withdraws himself from
us. But even then conjectures regarding the cause
do not fail us. The believer on God sometimes
overestimates his piety. He enters upon terms of
familiarity with the love of God. He loses sight
of the distance that extends between him and God.
He takes it as a matter of course, as a something
that ought to be, that fellowship with God is his
portion. He even counts it at times as a mark of ,-
special holiness that he seeks Divine fellowship.

This can not be permitted. It makes common
what is, and always will be, holy grace. Experi-
ence teaches at such times that nothing strengthens
and deepens the appreciation of fellowship with
God as the temporary want of it. When for long
times the soul has had no hearing, and when at
length an answer comes from God, there enters
into this secret communion a still deeper blessed-
ness, and the soul bathes itself in the fulness of
the love of God.

10

'SEEK YE MY FACE."
It was common at one time for Christian people
to speak of their conversion with joyous pride. It
was said: '"At such and such a time I came to
know the Lord." Afterward this was changed.
Then it was said: 'Tn such and such a way I

47

came to know nwself," or, ''I was converted then
and there;" or, "Then and there I gave myself to
Christ;" "In this wa}' or in that I found my
Savior." And in whatever way it was expressed,
it always meant the narrative of personal relig-
ious experience.

Every form of expression has its own value. It
can scarcely be denied, however, that the older
way of saying, 'T have come to know the Lord,"
is in nowise less accurate, profound and fervent
than the later ones. Jesus himself declared : "And
this is life eternal, that they might know Thee
(John 17:3). and in saying this he confirmed the
complaint of Hosea (4:1) that "there is no knowl-
edge of God in the land."

It must be granted, however, that with the lapse
of time the sa5'ing, "I have learned to know the
Lord," has not proved satisfactory, because it has
come to mean intellectual and doctrinal knowl-
edge of God, apart from its mystical background.
For this knowledge of God has more than one
significance. He who knows nothing of the Divine
Being, attributes and works, can not be said to
know the Lord. But neither can he be said to
know him, who has not learned to worship him
in his Holy Trinity. In connection with this,
moreover, the saj'ing of our Redeemer should
never be lost from sight: "No man knoweth the
Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son
will reveal him (Matth. 11:27). This revelation
must include, without doubt, the light that shines
forth upon us from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But as readily as this is granted, it is maintained
with equal emphasis, that this does not constitute
the whole knowledge of God. True knowledge of

48

God includes a spiritual reality which far exceeds
mere intellectual acumen, and which merely
employs the abstractions of dogma and doctrine
as means by which to clarify impressions that are
received and to explain sensations of soul and
inner experiences. And this has gradually been
forgotten. Knowledge of God in the abstract has
been retained. It has come to consist largely of
the studies of formal and doctrinal expositions.
And the man who can most cleverly explain some
point of dogma is deemed to be best grounded in
knowledge of the Lord.

This could not permanently satisfy. And so the
experience of grace in the heart has gone over
into the other extreme and mysticism has begun
to interpret religion altogether, or nearly so, from
the work of redemption by Christ, in connection,
of course, with personal experience of grace. This
was undoubtedly^ a partial gain. This inward state
of soul warmly delights itself in the work of
Christ's redemption, and glories in the way of
salvation and is far better than a kind of Chris-
tianity that merely weaves webs for itself out of
doctrinal intricacies.

But this is not yet the highest. The oldtime
worthies were far more correct when they inter-
preted the knowledge of God to be both doctrinal
and mystical. At this viewpoint God himself
was always the central object of interest and
religion (i. e. the service of God) came to be
better understood. As we have been created after
God's Image, it is only natural and indeed neces-
sary, that in relation to God, our experiences
should be as nearly as possible like those which
we have in our relation of man to man.

49

There is language in nature and in the animal
world. But human language is altogether different
and far richer, even though no word is spoken.
The countenance speaks; it speaks through the
facial expression, but particularly through and by
the eye. Through the eye, as a window of the
body, we look into a man's soul. And through the
eye he steps forth from his soul to look upon,
examine and address us. Compared with the face
the rest of the body is dumb and inanimate.
Charms, indeed, are also effected by the hand. In
Southern lands it is customary to accompany and
emphasize every word with gesticulations. In
moments of great excitement the whole body for-
sooth is tense and expressive of emotion. Ail this,
however, does not deny that the farther one
advances in culture and self-control, the more
calm and composed the rest of the body remains
in order that the face may speak. For thereby
the expression of the countenance becomes far
nobler and much finer, A rough fellow in the
street speaks with both hands and feet. A king
from his throne speaks with his look and majesty
of face.

From this it necessarily followed that in our
speech regarding our relation to God, "the face of
God" appeared in the foreground, and that dis-
tinctions were made in that face between what
proceeded out of his mouth, what was expressed
by his eyes, and what breathes in anger from
his nose. In the nobler sense we disclose our-
selves by meeting each other face to face. Hence
of human fellowship with God it could not be said
otherwise than that the highest form of it is to
meet God face to face.

50

This can not be taken in a material sense.
Temptation leads to this and the Divine Father
has been pictured in the form of an old man. Even
Moses went astray in this direction when he
prayed for a sight of God's face. It was a bold
prayer. It brought this answer: "Thou canst
not see my face, for there shall no man see Me
and live" (Exod. 33:20). This, then, is impos-
sible. We should never think of our Holy God
in an earthly way. The metaphorical language
which is our only point of support in this matter,
remains enveloped in mystical darkness. A
visible face only accompanies what is corporeal.
God is Spirit. Hence no physical features can be
attributed to Him. In fact, when we look anj'-one
in the face so intently as at length to grasp, as it
were, his inner self, the external face is but the
means by which we obtain knowledge of his inner
existence. It can be imagined in the last instance
that all outwardness may fall away and the knowl-
edge of the person still be retained. But it is dif-
ferent with God. Physical means do not come in
between him and us. Only as God's Spirit enters
into us can our spirit enter immediately into the
spirituality of God. As a result we obtain an
equally vivid, and even a better, spiritual knowl-
edge of the Existence, Being and Nature of God.
Hence we only use figurative language that we
might explain this knowledge.

The main point is that we should no longer be
satisfied with an idea of God, and a scientific
knowledge of God, but that we should come into
touch with God himself, so that there is personal
contact vdth. him, as in and by our daily life he
discloses himself to us, and personal relationship is

51

established between the Living God and our soul.
The Scripture expresses this mystical knowledge
of God in various ways. It speaks of the ''secret
walk with God," of ''dwelling in the House of the
Lord," of "walking with God." And the Gospel
develops this into the rich and glorious thought
that "The Father comes and tabernacles with us."
But the most commonlj^ used term for this higher
knowledge is: "The face of God." The highest
tribute that distinguishes Moses from all the
prophets is that God "spoke with him face to
face as a man speaketh with his friend." The
meaning of "face" in this connection shows itself.
Hence when in Scripture the Lord meets us
with the exhortation, "Seek ye my face," it is
deeply significant. We can see a person afar off,
we can hear from him, we can become conscious
that he is near by without having yet gone to him
or having yet placed ourselves before him, so that
he looks at us and we at him. So there are times
in the life of the Christian when he feels impelled
to have no rest until he finds God; until, after he
has found Him, he has placed himself before Him ;
and standing before Him, seeks His face, and does
not cease until he has met God's eyes, and the
consciousness dawns full and clear that God looks
him in the soul, and that he looks God in the
eye of Grace. When this comes to pass, the mys-
tery of grace discloses itself.
11
"MY SOLITARY ONE."

When we consider how solitude affects people,
it may well be taken as a standard by which to
estimate them. This is shown most strikingly in

the case of the httle child, who, on being left
alone, first becomes frightened and then begins to
cry. If less striking, with adults as a rule, court-
ing solitude or shunning it is marked with suf-
ficient clearness to suggest something of their char-
acter. Some embrace every opportunity to escape
from busy surroundings and hide themselves in
solitude, while others feel oppressed when they
are alone, and only in company with others find
themselves again.

This shows itself in three ways. The most strik-
ing borrows its character from the choice that was
made at the fork of the roads of good and evil.
One must needs hide himself to do wrong. The
evil One works by night. But when wrong has
been done and the conscience has been aroused,
solitude is oppressive and diversion is sought in
company. In a somewhat less striking way love
or dislike of solitude shows itself in the difference
between meditative or more active dispositions.
One is more inclined to live within himself in
order to think and ponder seriously. Another lives
in externals. He runs and slaves, and enjoys
making a show of his several activities. This dif-
ference even shows itself among nations. One
people lives within doors, another, when possible
at all, lives in the street. In most cases this dif-
ference is accentuated by climate and settings of
nature. And finally this habit of seeking or shun-
ning solitude explains itself from the conscious
possession or lack of strength. DiflBident natures
are almost afraid of the face of man and draw
back with downcast eyes, while he who is clever
and full of energy mingles freely among all sorts
of people.

53

Solitude, moreover, is loved by men of study.
It lures the aged more than people of midlife. In
a run-down state of health, with weakened nerves,
people shrink from excitement. But this springs
from accidental causes and is no index of char-
acter. In connection with it, however, it is sig-
nificant that the Psalmist twice calls the soul "the
solitary One." Once in Ps. 22, the Passion-Psalm,
prophetic of Golgotha, v. 20: "Deliver my soul
from the sv»'ord. my solitarj- one from the power
of the dog;" and again in Ps. 35:17: "Rescue my
soul from their destructions, my solitary one from
the young lions."

The soul is "the solitary one." This is an index
of its greatness. An only child is more precious to
its parents than one of seven on which others
may pride themselves. When this only child dies,
the family passes out of existence, and the line
of succession is cut ofif. The soul exists inde-
pendently of property and of the body. However
much we are attached to our belongings, their loss
can be made good. And though the body will go
down into the grave, it can be restored in the
resurrection. But such is not the case with the
soul. The soul is the only possession which can
not be replaced. If lost, it is lost forever. For
this reason Jesus solemnly warns us not to fear
him who can kill the body, but rather to fear
Him who can destroy the soul. All loss can be
made good, but not the loss of the soul. And
here your self-consciousness separates itself from
your soul. Thou child of man, who viewest thy-
self and thinkest about thyself, in the midst of
this busy world you find yourself clothed upon
with a visible body which prospers with bounding

health or wastes away with disease. But there is
something more in you, something that is hidden
in your inner being; and that hidden something
is your soul, which you must love. For in death
you must return it in all honor and holiness to
God who gave it.

From this the sense is developed that the soul
is solitary. There is mutual approach between the
soul and the world. We have been endowed with
the capacities of sense, which like so many win-
dows, afford us outlooks upon the world, and place
us in communication with it. God imparted unto
us the capacity to feel and to sympathize, so that
even when we are alone we can share the feelings
of others, and at long distances of separation
rejoice with those who do rejoice, and weep with
those who weep. We have received the gift of
speech whereby the soul can express itself and the
soul of another can speak in our ear. Speech has
been committed to writing and thanks to this won-
derful invention, which likewise has been given us
of God, the soul can commune with preceding
generations and with contemporaries w^hom we
have never met. Moreover, we have a sense and
a knowledge of a higher world above, which makes
it seem at times as though angels of God descended
upon us, and from us ascended again. And the
highest of all is the gate of the heart through
which God can draw near to the soul and the soul
can go forth to God.

But in spite of all this the soul itself is solitary.
It remains apart from the world, from nature, from
angels and from God. And thus by itself it is
something, it has something, which remains its
own, pure and simple, and with respect to which

55

the inner solitariness can never be broken. And
one of two things is bound to happen: Either
the soul may be left too solitary or its solitariness
may not be sufiBciently appreciated.

The soul is too solitary when we are bereft of
our means of support and of the sweet companion-
ship of life. This is the solitariness of grief and of
forsakenness, which as burdens, weigh us down
and make us afraid. For the soul is disposed to
sympathy, to friendly intercourse with the world,
to give and to win confidence, to live as man
among men, and to spread its wings in spheres of
happiness and peace. When these are withheld,
when hatred repels, and slander persecutes, instead
of love that attracts and sympathy that refreshes,
shy and shivering the soul draws back within
itself. It can not unburden itself. It can not tell
what it feels. And shut up within itself it pines
away in loneliness and grief. Again, when the
joys of life take flight, and cares make heavy
hearts, when sorrow overtakes sorrow, and the
horizon narrows itself and the outlook becomes
darker and darker, and the star of hope sets
behind ever-thickening clouds — then, in distress-
ing lonehness, the soul is thrown back upon itself
and the solitary one pants for breath, and then
is the time for Satan to come in with the thought
of suicide.

As the soul can be troubled and distressed in
this way by too much solitude, it can also suffer
loss, when as the result of superficiality, thought-
lessness and want of seriousness, its solitude is not
properly estimated. At such times the soul is not
known, neither is it honored in its individual, soli-
tary and independent existence. Then the only

56

resort is endless rounds of diversion and recrea-
tion. But never a turning in upon oneself. Never
a collecting of the soul together for the sake of
quiet thought. Never a search after the soul for
its own sake. On the contrary the soul is kept
in a state of constant excitement. It is held cap-
tive to serve its environments. It is never per-
mitted to rest for self-examination and for finding
inward peace.

The world at large is divided into these two
great companies. On one hand they who are
wretched and distressed of soul and who pine away
in inner solitariness. On the other hand the
merrj^-making multitudes who are always hurried,
who are continually engaged with the art of
externalizing themselves and never have a thought
about their own solitary" soul.

The only medicine at hand for both these con-
ditions of soul is fellowship w^th God. For the
soul has its holy of holies as well as its holy place
and its outer court. The world does not come
nearer to the soul than this outer court. There
it remains, and has neither vision nor understand-
ing of the several elements that constitute the
soul.

Intimate, spiritual friendship makes closer
approaches to the soul. There are some congenial
spirits that understand us and see more clearly
through us, and who are therefore better able, with
tenderness, to sustain and to comfort us. But
even they do not enter into the holy of holies.
There is always a deep background into which
they can not come, and where the soul remains
in its solitariness.

He who alone can enter into this holiest and

57

most hidden recess of the soul is God by his
Holy Spirit. He alone can fully break this soli-
tariness of the soul. He alone can comfort him
who is caught in the snares of death. He alone
can save the soul of him who has long sought
diversion in the vain pleasures of the world.

"GOD CREATED MAN AFTER HIS
IMAGE."

All true religion and godliness springs from the
fact that we have been created after the Image of
God. Some of us have passed from the period in
the Christian life of "milk for babes" to that of
''strong meat for adults." We understand there-
fore that calling upon God and walking in the
ways of his laws do not by themselves constitute
true religion and godliness, and that the secret of
salvation is unveiled in all its fullness only when
we have fellowship with the Eternal and abide
under the shadow of the Almighty.

Outward forms of worship are not without value.
Provisionally they are the only thinkable ones.
Although they do not make sure of heaven, they
exert binding influences upon many thousands of
people which prevent the dissolution of society.
But the plant of spirituality outgrows at length
the outward form and goes on, in the words of
the Apostle, unto perfection. It comes to blos-
som in the very gleam of God's majesty. It is
fostered by the outshining of his glory and
watered by the dews from above. Thus it comes
to a personal knowledge of the Lord, as a man
knoweth his brother; to a dwelling of the soul in

58

the tabernacle of the Lord, and to the indwelling
of the Holy One in the temple of the heart.

This requires a new emphasis. Religious forms
change and pass awa}', but that which remains the
same under all skies, and which does not lose but
gain in strength to the end of life, is the blessed
communion of soul with the Father of spirits, so
that by night we retire with God, and at the dawn
of day we awaken with him, and that all the way
of our earthly pilgrimage we follow our good
Shepherd.

Moreover, the more intimate communion of
saints consists in this alone. It surely binds heart
to heart when we learn that others hold the same
faith as ourselves, that we belong to One church,
and that together we break One bread and drink
One cup. But in the great journey through life
to the courts of everlasting light companionship
is sweetest with those who, under whatever out-
ward form, have given us intimations that they
hve in communion with God.

This relates back to our creation. That is to
say, true religion and our capacity for genuine
godliness spring solely from our creation after
God's Image and after the Likeness of the
Almighty. This is not altered by the fact that
we have been conceived and born in sin. With-
out regeneration there is no true religion. In this
re-birth the fundamental trait of creation after
God's Image is revived again. The fact that we
have been born in sin can therefore be passed by.
The subject in hand is conscious, actual fellow-
ship with Our Father who is in heaven. And this
' depends upon the necessary harmony which of
itself prevails between the Original and what the

image shows of it. The sodality of the Original
and the image is felt and understood at once.
One can not be an image, or image-bearer and an,
exhibitor of the same apart from the relation that
binds him to the Original. If a picture is a good
likeness, it is this because the original is what the
likeness shows that he is. This is more striking
with a photograph than with a painted portrait
or with a face that is cut from marble. For with
these the artist painter or sculptor comes in as the
third factor between the original and the picture.
But not so with a photograph. By the operation
of light upon the sensitive plate the original here
dteates his own image and forms the features after
those of his own face. And what a person makes
in a photograph is an exceedingly weak imitation.
which only resembles from afar what God did
when he said: "Let us make man after our
likeness," and then created him so.

Intimate fellowship is only possible between
people of like mind. There is fellowship of a less
intimate sort. An impressionable mind communes
with nature when she is arrayed in her beautiful
garments of spring. This fellowship with plants
and flowers is more intimate than with the starry
skies. It is closer still with the horse we ride, with
the dog that greets us joyfully at the gate, and
the lark whose morning song charms wood and
dale. With stream and mountain, moon and star,
with flower and domestic animal, however, fellow-
ship is always from a distance. An animal may
look us in the face with marked expression, but
we do not understand it. Animal life is different
from our own. True fellowship only comes when
we get in touch with man. Even as St. Paul put

60

the question to the Corinthians, "What man
knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of
man which is in him?" (1-2:11). Man alone can
understand man. The more human we are our-
selves, the more fully will we understand the
truly human in others. Of course, always with
this difference, that the more nearly we are alike,
the closer will be our communion. A compatriot
comes closer to us than a foreigner. A member of
the family, a professional colleague, a peer in
society, one whose lot and experience in life are
similar with ours comes nearer to us than he
whose settings of life are in every way different
from our own. Like alone understands like.

The Divine saying, "Let us make man after our
image and likeness," implied of itself therefore
the Divine intention of creating beings who would
be capable of Divine fellowship and who would
be susceptible to this glorious . communion. If,
then, all true religion consists of this mutual fel-
lowship, it follows that when God created a being
after his likeness He thereby simultaneously
created religion.

God magnified his omnipotence in the works of
nature, and the more fully its early chaotic estates
refined and unfolded themselves, until the mur-
mur of waters bore fruition in the note of the
nightingale, the more majestic became the revela-
tion of the splendor of Divine Almightiness. The
whole earth is full of God's glory. But there is no
self-conscious and responsive fellowship between
all this and God. God stands above nature.
Nature is subject to His majesty, but it has no
knowledge or understanding of God and therefor©
no single note of thanksgiving, worship or com-

munion goes forth from Nature to God. There is
power in it everywhere, but there is no fellowship
of love in it.

And this is the Divine desire. God must needs
address his creation and obtain a response from it
in return. He must needs establish close, personal
fellowship and mutual communion with his crea-
tion. The eternal, knowing, loving, seeking
Father desires to be known, to be loved and to
be sought. The flame of religion must inwardly
gleam through the works of creation, even as in
the outward sphere the sun gleams throughout the
earth. But this is impossible and can not be
thinkable, except as God creates a being after His
own image and likeness — a being of his own gen-
eration, and who therefore is a child, who will
cleave to him as Father; a being whose distance
and distinction from his infinite majesty will be
unfathomably deep, but who, nevertheless, feeling
and knowing the Divine life in his own life, will
associate with God as brother with brother, and
who will thus be brought into secret and sacred
communion with him.

Religion, therefore, is not founded upon our
creation after the Divine Image for our sake, but
for the sake of God. Only our earnest endeavor
to cultivate this hidden communion with God will
fulfill the purpose for which he created us after
his likeness. For though it is true that this
glorious distinction of our creation in the likeness
of God renders us unspeakably rich and happy,
that it baptizes us into the Divine family, so that
we are children of the Most Highest, and are
thereby elevated to princely holdings in the
heavenly sanctuary, he who counts this the all

and all of this matter will utterly and dismally
fail. In this respect also that which is first in
rank and order is not what makes us happy and
blessed, but that which tends to realize God's
purpose. It is his purpose to be known and to
be loved; to be sought after and to be worship-
ped ; and to have the offerings of conscious, worship-
ful communion with himself brought to his altars
by his Creation. His purpose is not merely to
be great, but to be known, to be praised and to
be loved as such. And, therefore, God created
man after his Image and after his Likeness.

13

"NONE OF ME."

The new paganism, which is broadly on the
increase, differs from that against which prophets
and Apostles protested, in that it has no idols.
Speaking metaphorically it has. It is properly
said that a mother makes an idol of her child, a
wife of her husband. One worships his idol in
art and another in Mammon. However common,
though, this manner of speech may be, the thing
indicated is not idolatry proper, for this exhibits
visible idols. It builds temples and pagodas in
their behalf. It appoints priests, burns sacrifices
and orders public festivals in their honor. Ancient
paganism, with its visible idolatry, was personal.
Modern paganism soars in vague enchantments.

In Paris and in London, and as report has it, in
New York, societies have been formed that assem-
ble in pagan-like chapels and kneel and mutter
prayers before idols. But these do not lead the
new pagan movement. For the most part these
people have lived for some years in pagan-

63

Asiatic countries, and upon their return imitate
in Europe or America what they have seen in
Asia, and in which they took part while there.
This is but a little flaw on the surface of things
and has no significance in the great movement of
spirits.

The modern pagan movement, on the other
hand, is driven by an entirely impersonal object.
It has no thought of setting up idolatrous images.
It scorns idolatry proper which is still perpetuated
in India, China and Japan. But it is negatively
impelled by the denial of a living, personal God
and positively by doting on vague ideals, or else
on pleasure and money. This makes warfare
against modern paganism far more difficult than
that which Bible prophets and apostles waged
against the idolatry of anti"quit3^ Then name was
contrasted with name, person with person, image
with image. Not Baal, but Jehovah. Not Jupiter,
but the Lord of hosts. Not the image of the
great Diana, but Christ, the image of the Invisible
God. The personal character which paganism
derived from visible idolatrj^ made it imperative
to set up by the side of it an equally personal
object of worship. Thus Si on was contrasted with
Basan, Jerusalem with Gerizim; priest with priest.
And the living, eternal and adorable Jehovah was
contrasted with Moloch and Baal. Hence the
scornful description of idols. Ears have they, but
thej" hear not. Eyes have they, but they see not.
Mouths have they, but they speak not. They
who made them are like unto them. 0, Israel,
trust thou in the Lord (Ps. 115:6).

There is nothing of this now. In our times a
man dotes on humanity. Another man has a zeal

G4

for art. The higher forms of Hfe are loved and
appreciated. Multitudes engage in the chase after
pleasure and wealth, and obey the dictates of
passion. By way ot reaction this has resulted in
the fact that they who in other respects are faith-
ful Christians have abandoned far too greatly the
personal element in the living God, and in turn
dote on the beautiful ideas of mercy and love, of
peace and the higher good. But personal com-
munion with the personal God is no longer culti-
vated with that warmth of devotion and conse-
cration which was the secret of the heroic faith
of the fathers.

It is granted that the immortal ideal of love
and mercy indicates the essential nature of God.
But the trouble is that instead of saying, "God is
love" or "love is God," one forms an idea of love
for himself, transforms this idea into an ideal,
which eclipses God from sight. And estranged
from the living God, one dotes on creations of
his own thought. Applying this to Christ, we
reach the same result. In contrast with an image
of an idol, God has set up his Image in his
Only-begotten Son, as Christ is revealed in the
flesh. This relegates ideas and ideals to the back-
ground. And in the foreground, in clear and
transparent light, stands the Christ, the incar-
nated Word. All the enthusiasm with which
Christianity was carried into the world sprang
from this heaven-wide difference. The philos-
ophers of Greece and Rome doted on beautiful
ideals. The Apostles were enthused with love for
the living Christ, the tangible Image of the living
God. The secret of their power lay in this per-
sonal attachment of faith to the living Christ in

65

vety person. It was a heart-to-heart love that
conquered the world in that early age. Love, and
attachment to the Mediator between God and
man, worked the downfall of ancient paganism.
When St. Thomas puts his hand on the wound-
print in Jesus' side, sinks to his knees and
exclaims: "My Lord and my God," all the power
of personal worship of God in Christ reveals
itself. And by this alone the church of Christ
has become what it is.

This is also lost to us. First, this power was
weakened by a sentimental holding fast to Christ
as man. Thereby God, if not forgotten, was
obscured in his majesty. And now even Chris-
tians put back the person of Christ, and pay
homage to an ideal in Christ in order soon to
own a relation to this ideal which is stronger than
to the person of Christ himself. By admiration
of the ideal the faith is demolished.

This is the Lord's complaint in Asaph's Song,
Psalm 81:11: "And Israel would none of me."
It could not have been expressed more personally
than this. They love my creation. They enjoy
the world which I called into being. They admire
the wisdom which I have made to shine as light
in darkness. They dote on love and mercy, the
feeling and appreciation of which I implanted in
their breast. But me they leave alone. Me they
overlook. Of me they have no thought. To me
they consecrate no personal love of their heart.
With me they seek no communion. Me they do
not know. Personal fellowship with me has no
charm for them. They have everything that is
mine, but they would none of me.

This complaint is often overheard among us.

People will enjoy our belongings and take pleas^
ure with our goods. They will honor our ideas
and adorn themselves with flowers from our gar-
den. They will praise our deeds without stint, but
they hold themselves aloof from every personal
touch. No trace of affection for us can be dis-
covered in their heart. No sympathy for us can
be observed in anything they do. They show
no desire to have personal knowledge of us. The
reason for this, no doubt, in many cases, is to be
found with the person himself. We can admire a
man, honor him, praise his works and his life,
and yet say, "He is no man to invite personal
affection."

This, however, can not be the case with God.
He alone is adorable. He is the highest Good. He
is Love. In everything He is loveable and
eternally to be desired. And when in spite of all
this God complains, "They would have none of
]^e," it is directed against our heart and against
our faith. In words of deepest feeling it expresses
God's grief over our disregard of him. I alone
am He whom they should desire, and lo! they
would have none of Me. They do not love Me.
With heart and soul they do not cleave to Me.
To their personal affection I, their God, am not
the strong and all-else expelling center of attrac-
tion.

This is a complaint against everything that is
superficial, vague and unreal in our Christian life;
against weakened conceptions of religion; against
faithlessness of heart. Religious weakening shows
itself in lack of holy ardour, in the quenched fires
of nobler enthusiasm, and in the congealed state of
the waters of holy mysticism. This is partly a

67

personal wrong which springs from an overesti-
mate of self, from too much self-sufficiency, from
lack of dependence and fidelity. It is also an evil
of the times, a general, contagious disease where-
by one poisons another. It is apostacy on the part
of the world of spirits which diverts the heart
from the living God.

But this must be resisted. The struggle must
be begun against our own heart first, that it may
be restored to personal communion with the living
God. This struggle must be extended across the
entire range of our environments to repress the
false religions of vague and empty ideals, and in
their room establish personal affection for the
living God. This struggle must be continued with
unfailing faithfulness in public preaching, in devo-
tional literature and in ardent supplications to call
God back into our personal life. And finally this
struggle must be carried into the world at large
to call it back from idle fancies to sober reality;
from empty ideals to essentials; from religion to
the only object of worship, and from doting on
barren abstractions to the love of the faith that
directs itself solely and alone to Him who has
revealed himself in Christ as the personal, living
God.

14

A SUN.

A little child, especially when it is a girl, is
often said to be the sunshine of the house. But
however glad we may be, in dark hours of life,
to own such a little sun to brighten the home,
the joy of the Psalmist was far greater when he
sang, "The Lord is the sun of my life." -

68

We people of Western lands should be more
familiar with the tender and passionate language
of the poetry of Scripture. The music of the
Psalter is uplifting: For the Lord God is a sun
and a shield. The Lord will give grace and glory.
No good thing will He withhold from them that
walk uprightly (Ps. §4:11). It raises grateful
echoes in the heart. But, alas, they are not orig-
inal with us. Among rich and poor we speak of
a sunshine in the house. But who volunteers to
confess from long experience : The Lord has been
a Sun unto me all my days, and will be till I die.
The figure is still used, but mostly in a doctrinal
way, and almost exclusively in the limited sense
of "Sun of Righteousness." And righteousness has
the emphasis at the expense of the rich imagery
of the Sun. But this beautiful imagery of the
Sun contains a world of thought. It is more than
sheer comparison. For when we realize that God
is the Sun of our life, the joy of it brings us
nearer to him. It illumines all of life and lib-
erates us from abstract thoughts of him.

The sun is not to us what he was to the
Psalmist in the East. The Western mind can but
faintly surmise the sparkling radiancy of Eastern
heavens. The firmament that overarches the lands
from which Abraham emigrated and those which
God gave him for an inheritance glistens with a
sheen of heavenly brightness which makes our
heavens at noon seem wrapped in twilight. The
midnight sky which the shepherd's saw bending
over Bethlehem was prepared, as it were, for the
coming of the angelic hosts. And in a country
where stars enchant the eye by their dazzling
splendor and the moon puts the mind, as it were,

69

in a state of ecstacy, what must the sun be of
which the Psalmist sang: "His going forth is
from the end of the heaven * * * and there is
nothing hid from the heat thereof" (19:6). If
any idolatry ever was intelligible, it was not the
worship of images or of spirits, but the calm and
reverent adoration of the .wandering Bedouin, as
beneath such wondrous skies he beheld the stars
by night and the glory of the sun by day until
at length, swayed by ecstacy, he imagined that
this dazzling, majestic, all-pervading and govern-
ing sun was not merely a heavenly body, but even
God him.self.

This error was con-ected in Israel. The sun is
not God. But God is the sun of the inner life.
He has appointed the sun to benefit us in a thou-
sand ways, and chiefly to furnish us with a glor-
ious imagery, by which, amid the vanity and
emptiness of life on earth, to set forth in glowing
terms what God is to us. Comparing God with
the sun is not original with man. We have not
selected the sun as a likeness of God. But the
sun forecasts in nature what God is to all higher
human life. In the sunlight and in its effects God
illustrates what He is to moral and spiritual
human nature. And when in weary processes of
analytical studies of the Divine attributes and
Providence we reach at length some well-defined
but cold abstractions, and we are past all feeling,
it seems as if the glow of the higher life suddenly
takes hold of us, when all we know of God,
recapitulates itself in the single phrase of delight:
''The Lord is the Sun of my life." This sacred
imagery is peculiarly effective. It puts the per-
vading power of God in our life clearly before our

70

eyes. The sun is high above us in the heavens,
and close at hand as well, and around us on every
side. We feel his presence and seek protection
from it in the shade. We exclude him from our
chambers bv closing blinds. He is a power far oft
and close by. He imparts power to the soil, where
hidden from human eyes, it makes the seed germ-
inate and sprout.

And such is the case with God, both as to opera-
tions and antithesis. His throne is high above us
in the heavens. By His omnipresence God is close
by and all around us. He has access to the heart.
He searches its most hidden parts and there
operates with secret power. Whenever a holy
seed germinates within, or a virtue blossoms on
the stem of the soul, it is God, our Sun, whose
mighty power performs it. , , ,

Think for a moment that the sun were blotted
out from the skies and the whole earth would
soon resemble conditions of the North Pole.
Every plant and herb would die. Every color
w^ould pale. Snow and ice would cover the ground
as with a shroud. That such is not the case now,
that everything pulsates with bounding life and
exhibits color and sheen, that food springs from
the ground, and lilies adorn the field, and all
nature exliales the sweet breath of life is because
the sun radiates light and heat and as by magic
brings life out of death and turns barren wilder-
nesses into fruitful fields. , r>. j •

And what the sun is to mother earth God is to
the human heart. If the soul were abandoned of
God and deprived of his gracious inshimng and
inworking, life would soon perish from the heart,
the affections would lose all warmth and deathly

71

cold would chill the inner existence. No more
flowers would bloom in the garden of the heart.
No more sacred motion would stir the hidden
waters of the soul. Everything within would wither
and die. The heart would cease to be human, and
whether it is said, "With Thee, O Lord, is the
fountain of life," or "In Thy light shall we see
light," or "The Lord is the Sun of my soul," it
all means: With God the soul has life; without
God it is dead. The source of all life and of all
power is God. Everything, in brief, that makes
the sun unspeakabh' precious in the world of
nature God is to the heart and tt) all human life.
With Him we are aboundingly rich and radiantly
happy. Without Him we are poor and naked and
cold.

The sun, moreover, not only nourishes the
ground by his warmth, but by his radiant light
exhibits and colors life. When the evening
shadows lengthen everything assumes a dull and
nebulous aspect. But dawn brings friendly light,
by which all things assume proportions, distances
are measured, forms and colors are recognized.
And as it takes on brightness all nature speaks
to the heart. And God does all this for the inner
life. Where He is hidden from blinded eyes, life
is a somber grey, without point of departure, direc-
tion or aim. All knowledge and insight fails.
Courage to go on grows faint. Inspiration to
finish the course gives way. And nothing rests
save groping for the wall as one blind ; with-
drawing within oneself in cheerless, helpless soli-
tude ; the loss of knowledge ; the loss of self-
consciousness ; the privation of color and outline.
A life as in the graveyard, where weeds thrive,
72

snakes lurk about, and the shriek of the night-
bird startles. Until God rolls the clouds away, and
the sun rises again in the soul, and when as by
the touch of a magic wand everv'thing becomes
new, and light dispels inner darkness, and peace
with a friendly hand opens wide the door of the
troubled mind, so that by the light of God's
countenance the onward way is seen with heavenly
clearness, and the journey is resumed with fresh
courage, tne wniles the sun from on high cheers
and sanctifies the heart.

The image of the sun is also significant with
respect to the fact that the shining of God's face
upon the heart is not an unbroken brightness.
As day is succeeded by night, and summer by
winter, it has ever been the same in the lives of
the saints. There were times of clear, conscious
fellowship with the Invisible, when life from
hour to hour was as a walking with God. And
these were followed by times of overwhelming
activities which exhausted the mind, business
interests that absorbed the soul, and cares that
burdened the heart. This is a change in the
spiritual life as of day and night. It is well with
him who can say that his estrangement from God
in every twenty-four hours is no longer than the
hours of sleep. And aside from this almost daily
rise and fall in the intimacy of the fellowship with
God, this Sun withdraws himself and again makes
His approach whereby summer and winter follow
one another in the life of the soul. Undisturbed
and unbroken fellowship with God is not of this
earth. It awaits us in all its fullness only in the
realms of everlasting light. There always have
been and always will be changes here in our

73

spiritual conditions whereby some years harvests
will be far greater than others. Struggles whereby
the soul climbs upward from lower to higher view-
points— trials that bring the soul into depths of
darkness whereby for weeks and months the
higher life is buried, as it were, underneath heavy
layers of ice. The sun is not gone, but is covered
with heavy clouds. And this goes on until God's
time of help arrives. Then clouds scatter and are
driven away. Spring returns in the soul, the pre-
lude to glorious sunshine. And in the end we
thank God for the cold impoverishment of spiritual
winter, which makes spring and summer all the
more appreciated and enjoyed.

Another point of comparison should not be
ignored. Natural sunshine operates in two ways.
It fosters and warms the ground, causing germina-
tion and fruition. But it hardens the clod, it
singes leaves and withers blossoms. This touches
the conscience. When we glory in the Lord as
the Sun of the Soul, it implies that God's love
and grace can not be abused with impunity.
Hardening is an awful thing, but it came upon
Israel and is not infrequent now. When the
warmth of Divine affection is resisted, it does not
soften the heart nor make it tender, but attacks
spirituality in its outward expression and sears it.
This does not mean mortal hardening from which
there is no repentance. He whose spiritual estate
has come to this pass will not read these medi-
tations. But temporary hardening retards the
progress of spiritual life. This temporary hard-
ening by grace and Divine love is frequently
observed. It is then a sin which is cherished; it
is a sacrifice which is not willingly brought; it is

74

a step that will not be taken; it is an exertion
from which we shrink, or it is sin in some
material direction, or in the home, in public or in
church life which we seek to harmonize with the
privileges of Divine grace. But it will not do.
In God's mind it is unthinkable. And as long as
we persist in sin the sun will shine and sometimes
his heat will be so fierce that no fruit of the
spirit can ripen and the very intensity of the
grace of God will harden us. ''Thou Lord art the
sun of mj^ soul," is the language of faith with
which to enter eternity. Let us see to it that it
may not some day testify against us. "The fall
and rising again" has an application also in this
matter.

15

UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE
ALMIGHTY.

Ever\' creature is a thought of God. All created
things therefore are symbols of the Divine. To
hail winged creatures as symbolic expressions of
the life of God is not original with us. The
Scripture sets us the example. The devout believer
is accustomed to its figurative language and he
readily admits that it greatly cheers and blesses
him. What Jesus said in these figurative terms
regarding Jerusalem fell within the scope of com-
mon understanding. The hen with her chickens
is a symbol of divine compassion, which moves
even an outsider by its beauty and tenderness.
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have
gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings and ye would not"
(Matt. 23:37). But this word of Jesus has a

deeper meaning than even an outsider, who
admires it, thinks. It speaks of protection -and
compassion for the sake of which the little ones
are gathered together. It implies that the chickens
belong with the mother hen. And except they
return to her they can not be shielded against
cold and other dangers. The striking figure indi-
cates that the natural place of refuge for the
chickens is close by the mother hen. And that
they can only be safe and warm in her immediate
presence under the cover of her outspread wings.

This striking word of our Lord was borrowed
from the figurative language of the Old Testa-
ment, which also in turn explains it. The first
verse of Psalm 91: "He that dwelleth in the
secret place of the Most High, shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty," is an instance of
this metaphorical representation. It is the
epitome of what the Psalmist describes elsewhere
(61:4) : ''I will trust in the covert of Thy wings."
The same thought was expressed by the wings of
the cherubim covering the mercy seat on the ark
of the covenant. It is ever the same thought.
God has created the fowl that lovingly gathers
her brood under her wings that she might shield
and shelter them. And this beautiful figure is
held before us that we might seek refuge under
the shadow of the Almighty, and trust in the
covert of his wings.

This imagery is not borrowed from that which
moves in the waters, nor from that which glides
along the ground. It is almost never borrowed
from four-footed beasts, but mainly from winged
creatures that lift themselves above the earth, and
live, as it were, between us and heaven.

76

The angels before God's throne are pictured
with wings as seraphs. The Holy Ghost came
upon the Son of Man descending like a dove.
The secret prayer of the troubled soul is that it
might have wings to fly away. That winged
creatures should be used as symbols to express
what is most tender and affectionate in saintly
character, and that boldest imagery should serve
to portray what it is "to be near unto God," to
make it, as it were, visible to our eyes and per-
ceptible to our feelings, is entirely in keeping with
the order of creation. It corresponds to the
divinely appointed state of things. It appeals to
us as altogether natural. But this symbolism
must not be taken too literally. We must be on
our guard lest sickly mysticism interprets holy
mysteries to us in a material way. God is
Spirit. Everj^ effort to be in touch with him,
except in a purely spiritual way, avenges itself.
For it leads either to idolatry which makes an
image of God from stone or precious metal, or it
loses itself in pantheistic mud, wliich inter-
mingles spirit and matter, and ends in sensual
excesses, first defiling and then killing what spirit-
uallj' began.

But however necessary it is to maintain the
spirituality of our fellowship with God, it will not
do to take spirituality to mean unreality. This,
alas, is a common mistake and accounts for much
spiritual barrenness. For then we only see what
is before our eyes; nature round about us; the
blue heavens above us; our body with its sev-
eral parts; all which we consider real, because
they have form, consist of matter, are tangible
and have actual existence. Apart and distin-

77

guished from this is what we think, what we pic-
ture to ourselves, what we study out in our minds,
what we take as the abstract world of thought.
We interpret all this to be an unreal world, the
center of which is God. An infinite Being who
exists merely in our thought, in our mind, in our
idea, with whom there is no fellowship except
along the avenue of thought. But this provides
no mysticism for the heart; no uniting of heart
to fear the name of God; no experience of secret
fellowship with God. If God does not exist out-
side of our thought, the self-sufficient soul can
not come near to God, nor can it dwell in his
tent.

Every deeply spiritual life in Holy writ protests
against this danger. Such was not what Psalmists
and prophets experienced of God. They found
Him as the real living One who came near unto
them, and bare them on the arms of his ever-
lasting compassions. He was a God imto them
whose love they felt as a fire burn in the marrow
of their bones, with whom they found peace, com-
fort and rest for their weary soul as they realized
that He sheltered them in the covert of his wings
and allowed them to abide under the shadow of
the Almighty.

This thrice blessed state of mind and heart can
not be analyzed. It must be experienced. It must
be tasted. And having it, it must be guarded
lest it is lost again or interrupted. But it can not
be analyzed, interpreted or explained. That
would give place to the wedge of criticism and
chill the warmth that fosters it. The way to
obtain it is to learn that self-sufficiency deceives.
High-minded self-sufficiency is the canker which

78

gnaws at the root of all religion. It is the futile
dream of a little, insignificant world, of which
self is the great center, whose mind understands
everything, whose will controls everything, whose
money can buy everything, and whose power
carries everything before it. This makes self a
miniature god in a little temple. In this sinful
isolation one is, of necessity, icy cold, frozen away
from the living God and unfit to dwell under the
shadow of his wings.

If in all honesty we can say: Such is not my
case, because I feel my dependence, my lack of
strength and my utter helplessness, then that we
might have fellowship with God, we must unlearn
our sinful leaning on people. We need not neces-
sarily cut ourselves loose from every one. Far
from it. The faith of another strengthens ours.
The courage of another shames us out of coward-
ice. The example set by another can double our
strength. We are disposed to society both in mat-
ters of life and belief. But we must give up all
sinful dependence upon others. Dependence that
takes a man for more than an instmment ap-
pointed of God for our help, as long as he allows
it, is sinful. We must not build on man, in order
when human help fails to turn to the Divine. Our
help must always be from God, whether power to
save springs from ourselves or comes to us from
without. Even in this way, that when at length all
human help fails, nothing is lost. For the
unchangeable God always remains the same.

This assured confidence is maintained, as long
as we faithfully endeavor to eradicate, root and
branch, the doubt v/hich wearily makes us ask
whether salvation is for us. To entertain this

doubt, even for a moment, imnen^es and breaks
us down. Then we are like the little chicken that
anxiously looks around for the mother hen, and
not finding her anywhere, helplessly flies hither
and thither until snatched away by the hawk.
Then all confidence is gone; and gone the percep-
tion of one's calling in life; and gone the faith
that God has led us hitherto and shall lead us to
the end. Then all strength fails. And prophecy
is dumb in the heart. Until at length, in despair,
fellowship with Satan becomes more natural than
the secret walk with God.

The Psalmist not only glories that he rests in
the shadow of God, but also that he hides in the
shadow of the Almighty. This must needs be
added. Compared with the defenceless chicken,
the mother hen, which to save her young flies the
hawk in the face and chases him away, is the
symbol of a power that reminds us of Divine
Omnipotence. For else resting on the Fatherheart
of God avails nothing. He who rests under the
shadow of God's wings, but does not trust, puts
God to shame. It but fosters the fear that one
who is stronger than God can snatch us away from
under the Divine protection. When we are far
away from God, unbelief can be forgiven, in so far
as we fly to him for refuge. But when we
have once taken refuge with him, unbelief in the
heart is a fatal wrong. It profanes the love which
God looks for from us. The blessed peace, the
hallowed rest, the childlike confidence which God's
elect have always enjoyed, even in seasons of
bitterest trial, is not the result of reasoning. It is
not the effect of deliverance. It is solely and
alone the sweet outcome of taking refuge in the

80

secret place of the most High, of abiding under
the shadow of the Almighty, of knowing what it
means, "To Be Near Unto God," and of enjoying
it.

If then we have thus far been strangers to God,
let us not imagine, that in time of danger, when
thunder-clouds have gathered thickly overhead,
and all human help has failed, we ciin at once find
refuge in the shadow of the Almighty. This has
been tried in the hour of calamity by those of a
transient faith, but the effort has proved futile.
It is here the other waj^ The secret walk with
God is not found as a means of deliverance in the
hour of need. They who had found it in times
of prosperity and ease knew the wings under
which deliverance would be sure. And when they
came to be afflicted and grieved they found rest
and safe shelter under the wings of God. It is
not the case of a hen without chickens, which
spreads her wings for whatever would hide under
them. But it is her ovm brood, which she has
hatched, and for which she will risk her life, that
finds shelter and protection with her. This states
the case of the shadow under the wings of the
Almighty. They whom he will cover with his
eternal love are his own children. These are they
whom he calls and awaits. These are they that
are known of Him. They who are at home under
the wings of God shall in the hour of danger dwell
under the shadow of the Almighty.

16

IN THE WIND OF THE DAY.

There was no violence in the displays of nature
in Paradise. No other wind blew in the Garden.

81

of Eden than the soft suction of air, which m
warmer climates, occasions the morning and even-
ing breeze. Hence there is no mention in the
narrative of Paradise of a sudden rise of wind, but
of a fixed, periodical one, which is called "A Wind
of Day." And to Adam and Eve this wind of day
announced the approach of God.

This symbolism is still understood. Amidst the
luxuriant stillness of Paradise, where ever>'thing
breathes calm and peace, suddenly a soft rustle is
heard sounding through the foliage. Just such a
sound as we hear when, as we are seated near by
a woodland, some one approaches us through the
thickets, pushing aside the light twigs and making
the leaves tremble. At the same moment when
in Paradise that rustle is heard through the foliage,
a soft breeze plays on the forehead and it seems
that Adam and Eve feel themselves gently touched.
And with that quiet rustling and this refreshing
breeze there comes a word of the Lord to their
soul. And thus the representation arose that the
voice of the Lord came to them walking in the
garden in the wind of the day.

Thus the wind, as symbol and bearer of what is
holy, has gone forth from Paradise into all of
revelation. Of God it is said, Ps. 104:3, that he
'"Walketh upon the wings of the wind;" that he
'"Did fly upon the wings of the wind" (Ps. 18:10).
At Pentecost when the Holy Ghost came to the
church a sound was heard "from heaven as of a
rushing mighty wind'' (Acts 2:2). And when
Nicodemus received instruction regarding regen-
eration, the Savior purposely applied the smybol
of the wind to God the Holy Ghost. "Thou
hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell

82

whence it cometh, and wither it goeth," and such
it is with the ISoly Ghost.

In Northern lands like ours, where the wind is
an ordinary phenomenon, this impression is no
longer felt so strongly. But in the countries where
Revelation had its rise and weather conditions
were more constant, which makes the rise of wind
more noticeable, the sound of the wind has always
as of itself spoken of higher things.

Natural philosophy had not yet made a study
of atmospheric currents. As the gale arose with
dark clouds in the sky, and by its rumblings made
the forests to tremble, it was interpreted as coming
from above. It came from on high. It came as
a mysterious, inexplicable force. It was felt, but
it could not be handled. It was heard, but it could
not be seen. It was an enigmatic, intangible
power, pushing and driving everything before it.
And that power was conceived as operating
directh' from God upon man, without any middle
link, as though in the gale God with his majesty
bent himself over him. "The Lord," said Nahum
(1:3), hath his way in the whirlwind, and the
clouds are the dust of his feet."

The S3'mbol of the wind indicates the opposite
of that of the temple. For this speaks to us of
a God who dwells in us, as in a sanctuary; who is
not far off but near by; who has taken up his
abode in the heart, and who from its depths
rebukes, directs or comforts us. And so the temple
represents the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in
the Covert of the heart. It represents the candor,
tenderness and intimacy of fellowship. And
though the temple may have a veil in it, and
though at times fellowship with the indwelling

spirit may be interrupted, the renewal of love
never comes from without, but always from the
depth of the soul. It is always Immanuel, God
with us; in Christ with all his people; in the Holy
Ghost with his child.

And by the side of this is the symbol of the
wind. Softly the wind of day enters Paradise. At
first it is not. It arises unobserved, but always
from without. It comes to man who does not at
once perceive it. At first there is separation and
duality. The symbol of the wind represents man
as apart from God, and God as apart from man.
And the approach does not go out from man in
prayer, but from God in the wind of the day, by
which He betakes himself to man, presses himself
upon him, and at length entirely fills him. Both
of these have their right of being. Christian piety
m.ust reckon with both. He alone who allows both
of these simultaneously their full right lives in
vital communion with the Eternal.

The difference between God and us is so great
in every way that of ourselves we can never think
of God otherwise than as a Being who is highly
exalted above us. He has established his throne
in heaven and we in adoration kneel on the earth
as his footstool. This relation is expressed in the
symbol of the wind. From the clouds above the
wind strikes down upon us and at times we feel
the cutting effects of it in the very marrow of our
bones.

There is also a free communion between God
and his child which annihilates all distance; which
abrogates every separation, which presses after
intimate union, and that relation is expressed in
the symbol of the temple. Our heart is a temple

84

of the Spirit. God himself dwells in the inner-
most recess of the soul. The temple stands for
the overvN'helming wealth of all-embracing love;
the gale remains the symbol of the Majesty of
God. And only when both of these operate
purely, each within its own domain, there is the
most exalted worship of God's majesty, together
with the most blessed enjoyment of his eternal
Love.

Thus the pendulum of the inner life of the soul
moves ever to and fro. When we have given our-
selves for a time too lightly £.nd too easily to the
sweetness of mysticism, and in meditative com-
munion with God are in danger of losing our deep
reverence for his majesty, we must needs tear
ourselves away from this hazy mood in order that
we may the better recognize again the holy
supremacy of the Lord Jehovah in comparison
with the littleness and insignificance of our own
finite self. And when on the other hand we have
been for a time greatly affected by the Majesty
of God, so that we know full well that the High
and H0I3- One is enthroned in glory, but feel our-
selves deserted of God at heart, so that the soul
is menaced w^ith the loss of a closer touch upon
God, then likewise with an effort of the will the
frozen heart must be brought under the softening
influences of the eternal compassions, so that com-
munion with the eternal may be renewed and
enjoyed again.

But great is the gain when this motion to and
fro is not too forcible, and when the intimacy of
the ''Our Father" and the reverence of the ''Which
art in Heaven" follow each other rhythmically in
the daily experiences of the inner life. A purely

85

meditative life with too much tenderness in it
will not do. He who gives himself to this weakens
and enervates his spiritual nature, becomes unfit
for his Divine calling in the world, and loses even
the exhilirating freshness of his piety. With a
healthful state of heart this change is steady and
regiilar. There is the constajit and earnest appli-
cation to our work, with God above us, from whom
comes our strength, and in whom stands our help.
And then there is the search after God in prayer,
the meditation on his Word, and the inner tender-
ness which is produced by the motions of holy
love. Our God is a God both far off and near at
hand.

Thus the wind of the day has more than a
natural significance. Every day of life forms a
whole by itself. And in all the daily happenings
there is a plan and guidance of God. And so
there goes a wind of day through every day of
life. First there are hours when nothing speaks
to the heart. When everything loses itself in ordi-
nary occupations and it seems that this day has
no message for us. And then in the simplest event
sometimes there is something striking that rouses
the attention, that makes one think and one's
thoughts to multiply; something that a child calls
out to us, or a friend whispers in the ear; some-
thing that suggests itself from within or something
that we hear, something that was reported to us
or that happened at home or in the office ; in brief,
anything that brought color and outline into the
dullness of existence and proved itself for that
particular day, "the wind of the day" in which
God's voice was heard.

So the Lord goes out every day seeking after

us. So the voice of God follows us after through
all of life, to woo us, to interest us, and to win us
for Himself. Lost, therefore, is each day in which
the voice of God passes by us in the wind of the
day, but leaves us unmoved and indifferent. \^'Tiile
blessed in turn is each day in which in "'the wind
of the day" God comes so near to the soul that
the approach turns into communion, in the
intimacy and tenderness of which with fresh
draughts we enjoy again the unfailing love of God.

17

'THOU SETTEST A PRINT UPON THE
ROOTS OF MY FEET."

We are always repelled in Psalm 39 by the hard
words which David there addresses to God : Look
away from me, that I may brighten up. For can
we imagine a more unnatural prayer than this?

Man and God constitute the greatest antithesis.
And all true religion, springing from our creation
after the image of God, aims solely and alone to
put man into closest communion with God, or
where this communion is broken, to restore it.
And here the Psalmist, who still counts as the
Singer who has interpreted piety most profoundly,
prays and cries, not for the approach of God, but
that God will look away from his soul, that He
will leave him alone, give him rest, and so refresh
the last hours of his life before dying: "Hear my
prayer, 0 Lord, hold not thy peace at my tears,
look away from me, that I may brighten up,
before I go hence, and be no more." (R. V. Marg.
read.)

In Psalm 42 he said: "As the heart panteth

87

after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after
thee, O God," And here it is the direct opposite:
''Turn thee away from me, that my soul may
refresh itself." On the one hand intense longing
for the joy of the presence of God, and on the
other hand the crs^ of agony for deliverance from
God's presence. Does it not seem, at first, that
the one is a malediction against the other?

This bitter wail of David does not stand alone.
In the book of Job we find an even still more
painful expression for this crushing consciousness
of the presence of the Lord, when, as if to pour out
his consuming anguish in fullest measure, he
despairingly exclaims: "Thou puttest my feet in
the stocks and thou settest a print upon the roots
of my feet" (13:27 Marg. read).

By itself there is nothing strange in this feeling.
Even godless people are familiar with this agoniz-
ing dread. When mortal danger suddenly over-
takes them, they handle, as it were, with their
hands the power of God which presses upon them.
In case of shipwreck in the open sea it is seen
again and again that godless sailors who but a few
moments before over their wine-cups were making
light of everything that is holy, suddenly terror-
stricken, spring from their seats with the cry:
"O God, 0 God," and pale with fear, struggle for
their lives.

And aside from these, with ordinary people who
do not mock at religion but live without God in
the world, when serious sickness comes upon them,
or some other disaster overtakes them, we see the
same effect. The}^ also suddenlj^ become aware
at such a time that they have to do with the
terrible unknown power of that God whom they

have long ignored, and they tremble in their
hearts.

In ordinary' life we are sufficient unto ourselves.
We extricate ourselves from our little difficulties.
We have the means at command to provide
against special needs. We know how to rise
above simple adversities. And when they are
overcome, the triumph deepens the sense of our
self-sufficiency.

In the midst of all this we feel free, uncon-
strained and unencumbered. In the face of it all
we are our own lord and master. We feel our-
selves measureably opposed, but we push it aside
and bravely we continue the tenor of our way.

All this, however, changes when anxieties, dan-
gers and disasters overtake us, which overwhelm
us, which we have no strength to face, which noth-
ing can prevent, and in the midst of which we
become suddenly aware of our utter helplessness.
Then we feel that we are attacked by a superior
force that overpowers us, that casts us down, that
forces itself upon us and makes all resistance
ludicrous and futile. This superior force then pre-
sents itself to us as an unseen and unknown
opponent, who mysteriously cuts the tendon of
our strength, binds us as with bainds of death, dis-
tresses and perplexes us with mortal agonies, and
leaves us nothing but a cry of terror. And how-
ever much the world has been estranged from God,
even in the hearts of the most hardened sinners,
there is, in such moments, still some trembling in
the presence of the Divine majesty. There are
many who have no faith in God, but anxious fore-
bodings fill their minds, that they are yet to have
dealings with him. And their self-reproach, that

they have so long ignored him, adds to the t-error
of their fears.

But this apprehension of dread affects the godly
man most strongly when faith fails him, and God
momentarily lets him go. Then it seems that God
loosens his hold on the soul and at the same time
tightens his hold more firmly on the body. A
man like Job could not think of anything that
did not come to him from God. He had long
enjoyed the peace of God which passeth all under-
standing. And when the evil day came and loss
followed loss, he could only consider them as so
many arrows from the bow of divine displeasure
to grieve and mortally to wound him. And
because Job was inwardly pious, it could not end
with this. At first he thought that God in anger
stood far off, and with arrow upon arrow wounded
him from the distance. But he perceives that God
comes to him, and at length personally attacks
him. And when he feels that God has come upon
him, as man against man, that He attacks him
and is ready to throw him, his fear becomes more
striking. A tja'ant attacking Job and overcoming
him in order to render him helpless, might at most
put his feet in stocks. Now that God attacks
him, this can not be the end. He perceives that
God not only faces him and attacks him from
without, but that by his Almighty power God
enters into his inmost soul, goes through him
altogether, until at length he feels himself pene-
trated to his feet, even to the roots of his feet by
the Almighty One, and crushed beneath the
weight of His anger.

Only they who are truly pious can suffer this
mortal agony. Divine anger can only be felt in

90

this way by those who all their life have been
deeply impressed by God's power. For there is a
two-fold sense of God's presence, ^ow m b essed
fellowship with God. And again in the awful con-
sciousness of God's terrible presence m the fears
that assail us. And if we were dealt w'lth after
our sins and according to our deserts, this latter
fellowship would be our only portion, even fellow-
ship with God in his holy anger. This it will for-
ever be in hell. This is hell.

Here on earth diversion and all sorts of meai^
are at our command to put the thought of God
away from us. The ungodly enjoy this awful
privilege in life that they can sm, without being
troubled in their conscience for more than a few
moments at a time by the presence of Almighty
God They can put a screen between them^selves
and God and thus be far distant from him. But
not so in eternitv. There they stand continually
in the presence of God. This awful consciousness
of God's presence will be the worm that dieth
not and the fire that is not quenched.

It is different with those who here on earth
have known what it is to be at peace with God.
They have experienced divine grace. God with-
draws himself in their behalf in such a way that
He hides his anger from them and veils his
terrible majesty. Notwithstanding their sms. He
with himself, and without mortal fear, to have
fellowship with him. The screen of the vanities
of this world does not stand between God and
those who fear him, but Christ the Reconciler,
the Goel, the Mediator. And thus already here
on earth sweet and blessed communion with God
in Christ can be enjoyed.

91

But if momentarily faith fails us, and the shield
of Christ is taken away from before us, and in the
midst of afflictions we feel ourselves suddenly face
to face again with the naked majesty of God in
his anger, the agony of soul in God's otherwise
devoted children is more terrible than the children
of the world have ever experienced on earth. The
child of God is then caught, as it were, in the
snares of hell. Such was the case with Job. This
made him say: "0, My God, thou settest a print
in the roots of my feet." This made David pray:
"0 my God, look away from me, that I may re-
cover strength before I die." And this is grace:
that in such moments the Comforter comes to the
soul, that the shield of Christ is placed again
before us, and that God who made his anger burn
against us, reveals himself again to his tempest-
tossed child as Abba Father.

18

"MY SHIELD."

In the Dutch national hymn the words are still
sung by patriotic assemblages and in the streets,
"My Shield and Confidence, Art Thou, O Lord,
My God." And they but echo the Psalmist's song
(84:11): "The Lord is a sun and shield: The
Lord will give grace and glory: No good thing
will he withhold from them that walk uprightly."

As a means of defense the shield has passed out
makes it possible for them to become acquamted
of use. In our times battles are fought at great
distances, with cannons and rapid firing guns. And
safety is sought in lying on the ground or in
hiding behind breastworks. But even when David

92

wrote the Psalms archers were few and fighting
wa5 done by man against man at the close range
of eye to eye, of foot touching foot, and clashing
of swords. And such combats could not end until
one of the two assailants was bathed in his own
blood In such times the shield was ones lite.
Without a shield no man could meet another in
battle who carried one. Among the nations of
antiquity a shield therefore was the main thing.
Even as to this day it covers the African savage
when he makes an assault with his assagai l^or
the shield catches the arrow, breaks the blow ot
the lans and parries the stroke of the sword. When
many thousands in Jerusalem, who m their day
had used the shield and had saved their lives
thereby, joined in the songs of Zion and gloried m
Jehovah as the shield of their confidence, they felt
in singing, as we can never fully appreciate: What
it is, and what it means, to glory in God as a

A shield was a cover for the body. It was not
carried by another in front of the combatant, but
was carried by the combatant himself. It was
held with the left hand. It rested on the arm and
was reallv nothing else than a broademng of the
same. He who attacked with a gun involuntarily
raises his arm, with which, at the risk of having
it wounded, he covers his face and his heart. And
not to expose the arm in such encounters, and to
protect the larger part of the body, desire to save
life invented the shield. First the long shield
which covered the entire length of the body, and
then the short shield, or buckler, with which to
parry the stroke of the sword. But always in such
a way that the soldier carried the shield himselt,

! 93

that he >moved it now this way, then that, and
held it out against the attack.

"The Lord is my shield" does not say therefore
that God protects us from a distance and that he
covers us without effort on our part. ''The Lord
is my shield," is the language of faith. It springs
from the consciousness that God is near at hand,
that faith lays hold on him, that we use our faith
in God, that therewith we resist our assailant, and
that in this wa}'-, being one with God through
faith, we realize that we are covered with his
Almighty power.

In case of extremity a mother can stand before
her child and cover her darling with her own
bodj'. And then we can say that the mother is
a shield to her child. And God is the shield of
our little ones, who do not yet know him, and
who can not yet put faith in him. But this
sacred imagers^ was not borrowed from this. It
was suggested by the soldier who in many a hard
and bitter fight had used the shield himself to
the saving of his life. Indeed, the shield is to a
man what wings are to an eagle. With the trained
warrior the shield is, as it were, a part of his
bod}'. It is one with his arm. And his fate hangs
by his dexterit}' to use it. And so the Lord is
a shield to those who trust in him, to those who
believe, to those who in times of distress and want
know the use of the faith which never fails, and
who by faith understand that God directs their
arm.

The shield points to battle and to the struggle
against everything that threatens to destroy us.
God is our shield against contagious disease,
against the forces of nature, and against death by

94

accident. But this does not mean that we are to
sit down passively that God may cover us. The
imagery of the shield allows no such interpreta-
tion. On the contrary, that God is a shield against
disease and pestilence, against flood and fire,
means that with the utmost of our powers we
must apply every means of resistance which God
has placed at our command; that in prayer we
steel our powers to act, and that by faith we have
God for our shield, which we must turn against
our assailants.

This applies equally to the interests of the soul.
Weak interpretation does not cover the case. It
will not do to say that we must avoid sin. No,
we must strive against it. We must understand
that in sin a hostile power attacks us; that the
thinking, planning spirit of Satan lurks behind
that power; that unbeknown to us it forces itself
upon us and aims to kill the soul ; and that, unless
we have a shield to cover us, and skill to use it
dexteriously, it will surely overpower us. God is
surely more our shield in the struggle for the sal-
vation of the soul than of the body. But it means
that we ourselves must do battle in behalf of the
soul; that we ourselves must catch the eye of the
assailant; that we must raise the sword against
him, and lift up the shield to cover the soul. That
God is our shield in this spiritual battle means
that we reach out our hand after God, that we
employ every spiritual means of resistance at our
command, and that in doing so we discover that
God is the shield which by faith we hold up
against Satan.

We speak of an escutcheon, by which we mean

95

a shield on which the man who owns it has graved
his blazon. This is a sign of personal recog-
nition for those who know him, and it
announces who hides behind it. Thus the shield
expresses the person and becomes something by
itself. It becomes a personification. Great or
small powers of resistance are recognized by the
shield. And in this way God is the shield of those
who put their trust in Him. No human pride has
imaged on this shield a lion — or a bull's head. But
in deep humility, in trustful meekness, in looking
away from self and in confidence in his heavenly
Father the man of faith puts on this shield noth-
ing but the name of Jehovah. The Lord is my
shield : this is holding the name of the Lord before
the forces of nature and the powers of Satan. It
is showing the world, in characters of flame, that
we belong to the armies of the living God. That
we do not fight alone by ourselves, but that the
Hero, who leads us, is the anointed of the Lord.
And thereby we proclaim that the highest power
of every human soul is ours, even the invincible
power of faith.

Thus we see that this Scriptural imagery is
deeply significant. We already saw it in the con-
fession, that the Lord is the Sun of our life. But
here we see that God is our shield and our
buckler in the fight for the saving of our life. We
also learn that it does not mean anything to say:
God is my shield. But that the great thing is that
io every time of need and in every hour of battle
this holy shield is not left hanging on the wall,
but that it is put to use by a living, zealous and
an heroic faith.

19

''IMMANUEL."

Nothing is quite so much of an obstacle in the
way of communion with God as the saying of
Jesus to the Samaritan woman at Sychar: "God
is a Spirit, and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).
Our representations and thoughts begin with what
we see and hear, smell and taste, but we have no
hold on things that can not be seen and handled.
If in spite of this we want to talk of them and
imagine what they are like, we can but compare
things unseen with things seen. We know
that we have a soul, but no one has ever seen it.
The question where in our person the soul dwells
can only approximately be answered. Such is the
case with the spirit-world and the souls of the
departed. Good angels and bad alike are without
a body. They have neither form nor appearance
by which they can be observed. Whether _an
angel needs space, no one knows. Whether in illness
our sick-chamber can hold a thousand angels or
not, no one can tell. The difficulty only lifts itself
when they receive forms in which to appear to us.
As pure spirits, angels are not discerned. The same
applies to those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
The dead whose bodies are in the grave continue
in a purely spiritual state, until the coming of the
Lord. Meanwhile we can form no idea regarding
them. The same difficulty presents itself when we
try to lift up our heart 'to God. God does not
reveal himself to us in a visible form. He is .
invisible because He is Spirit and the Father of

97

spirits. Along the way of ordinary knowledge and
discovery we can not find God. Contact of soul
with God takes place in a spiritual manner. It
takes place of itself in Immanuel.

When in foreign parts we unexpectedly hear our
own language spoken we feel at home at once.
This is because we feel that this language is com-
mon property between us and our fellow country-
men. In it we live. By it they come closer to us
than others who only speak a foreign tongue. This
is still more strongly felt with regard to animals.
Highly-organized animals come very close to man.
There often is a remarkable understanding
between a shepherd or hunter and his dog, or
between a rider and his horse. But close as this
approach may be, an altogether different and far
richer world opens itself to us when we meet a
fellow man. He is flesh of our flesh, bone of our
bone, with a soul like our own. And this creates
fellowship which is far more intimate and tender,
especially when the people we meet are of like
tastes and aims of life with ours. There are
classes, social distinctions and other divisions in
the world of man. And if anyone would become
more closely acquainted with us and invite mutual
confidence, he should be one of our class and be
embarked, as it were, on the sea of life in the
same boat with us. And this is the meaning of
Immanuel.

In the Babe of Bethlehem God draws near to
us in our nature, in order presently in our lan-
guage, through the medium of our world of
thought and with the aid of our representations
to make his presence felt in the heart, in accord-

ance with the perceptions of which it is capable.
He draws near to us in our nature, so that in
order to find God we do not need to go out from
our nature and enter upon a purely spiritual exist-
ence. Desirous to bless us, God from his side
makes the transition which he spares us. We do
not go to him, but he comes to us. We need
not raise ourselves up to him, but he comes down
to us that afterwards he may draw us up to him-
self. He enters into our nature. He assumes it
and cradles in the Bethlehem manger with an
existence which human nature brings with it.
Here the distance between God and us is removed.
The tension and effort to understand it purely
spiritually is spared us. What we perceive is
human nature. What presently we hear is human
speech. What we observe are utterances of human
life. An unknown brightness plays and glistens
through it all and behind it all, a mysterious
higher something, a something altogether holy.
But now it does not repel, but it attracts and
charms because it approaches us in our own
human nature. The human nature of Immanuel
is not merely a screen to temper dazzling glories,
but the means and instrument to bring Divine life
unaffectedly and intimately near to the heart. It
is as though human nature in us unites itself with
human nature in Jesus in order to bring God into
immediate contact with the soul.

We do not say that this was necessary by
itself. The fact of our creation after the Divine
Image seemed to give us every requisite for fellow-
ship with God. But we must ever remember that
sin ruined this Image. In this weakened and

ruined estate nothing short of holy grace could
fill the gap. This was done in Immanuei, in the
coming of God to us in the garb of human nature.
Idolatry proclaimed the need of this when it
imaged the Lord of heaven and earth after the
likeness of a man. Hence Christianity alone can
undo idolatry and paganism, since in Immanuei it
presents the true Image of God anew. The result
itself has sealed this. In Christ alone pure fellow-
ship with the living God has been realized and
gloriously celebrated in Psalm and hymnody.
Apart from Immanuei we have philosophy about
God, denial of God, or at most idolatry and cold
Deism. In and through Immanuei alone there is
life in God and with God, full of warmth, eleva-
tion and inspiration. In Immanuei God draws
near to us in our own nature and through
Immanuei the soul mounts from this nature
spiritually up to the Father of spirits.

In Immanuei we have the way, but not the
goal. It begins with Jesus, but in the end the
Father himself makes tabernacle with us and the
day breaks of which Jesus said: "In that day I
say not unto you that I will pray the Father for
you, for the Father himself loveth you." Then
also the abundant activity of the Holy Ghost will
unfold itself, even of the Comforter who could
not come until after Jesus had been glorified.
Let there not be anything artificial therefore or
conventional in our seeking after God. No wilful,
premeditated going out after Jesus to have fel-
lowship with God. Immanuei brings us reconcilia-
tion, so that we dare to draw near again. He
brings the Divine in human nature so that we can
draw near again. We owe him the Word, the

world of thoughts and representations, the blessed
results of his work that are showered down upon
us, and the supply of powers of the Kingdom
which inwardly renew us. But underneath it all,
personal contact, real fellowship with God, is
always a hidden, spiritual motion, so that inwardly
we hear his voice and we can say with Job:
"Now mine eye seeth thee." This is fellowship
with God as man with man. As Jacob at Peniel.

20

"IN THE LIGHT OF THY COUN-
TENANCE."

In moments of intense joy the human face is
radiant. When the soul is depressed, the face is
sad, the eye is dark and it seems that instead of
showing itself in the face and speaking through it,
the soul has turned it into a mask behind which
to hide itself. We see a connection therefore
between joy and bright colors; between sorrow
and half-tints, until mourning expresses itself in
black.

The same antithesis meets us when we enter
the world of spirits. Satan is pictured in somber
colors, while good angels are always seen as
kindly appearances of light. In the house of many
mansions there is everlasting light ; for Satan there
is outer darkness. The righteous shall shine as
the sun in the firmament, clothed in garments of
light. On Patmos Christ appears to John in blind-
ing glory.

This beautiful thought of light as the expres-
sion of things that are pure and true and glorious,
was bound to present itself in the world of

101

worship by application to God's majesty. God is
light. In Him is no darkness at all. He dwells
in light unapproachable, and Father of lights is
his name. After the creation, therefore, when
"darkness was upon the face of the deep," God
could not appear in the created world without
first sending forth the command: ''Let there be
light," and then there was light. The majesty of
God revealed itself in a column of fire at the Red
Sea. i.nd in a cloud of light in Solomon's Temple.
When Moses was to be marked in a special w^ay
as the Lord's ambassador, his face shone with
blinding splendor. The Savior showed himself on
Tabor m light of glistening brightness. And in
the descriptions of the New Jerusalem the climax
of its splendor is that there shall be no more sun
nor moon there, for that by his benign presence
God himself shall lighten the world of glory.

Sacred art has long expressed this by represent-
ing the head of Christ and of saints surrounded
by an halo and their form in glistening robes. We
do not treat this here from its material side. It
is well known that certain people, who are strongly
impregnated with magnetism, are able to make
electric rays of light go out from their finger tips.
We need not doubt that radiancy of face in
moments of great joy is connected with natural
operations. But the source of this facial light is
not in the magnetic current, but in the spirit, in
the soul, and all the rest is used merely as vehicle
and means of direction.

He who watches a child, which never hides any-
thing, an enthusiastic child with rosy cheeks, in
such moments of great gladness, observes in the
outward play of countenance that the eyes dilate
102

and increase in brightness; that the facial color
heightens so that it shines through and radiates,
and that especially by great mobility the soul
reflects itself in the face. This reflection in part
is even permanent. Alongside of the noble coun-
tenance of self-sacrificing piety, there is the
brutish, dull, expressionless face of the sensualist.
In the case of young, delicate persons especially,
who have the fire of youth in their eye and whose
complexion is transparent, the expression of the
nobility of soul in the face is sometimes unsur-
passably sympathetic in its colorings.

Thus the sacred language which speaks of "walk-
ing in the light of God's countenance" (Ps. 89:15),
is naturally explained by life itself. With God
everything material falls away. But the rich, full
expression of the spiritual and the essential
remains. God can not step outside of his hiding
except as everything that reveals itself is majesty,
radiancy, animation and glor}'. That this may
also be a revelation in anger, is self-evident. But
this we let pass. We deal with the fact that there
is a soul which seeks after God, and finds God,
and whi<;h, happy in this finding, looks into his
holy face and drinks in everything it reads there.
This brings but one experience, which is that no
darkness proceeds from God but only light, soft,
undulating, refreshing light in which the flower-
bud of the heart unfolds itself.

This is the first effect. Gloomy people may be
pious, but they do not know the daily tryst with
God. They do not see God in the light of his
countenance, and do not walk in it. Even when
they who in other ways are brave and heroic get
dark lines in their face, it only shows that they

103

are out of the light of God's countenance and are
striving to regain it. Even among us a kind face,
beaming with sympathy, is irresistable and draws
out the light from the face of others, which
expresses itself first of all in a generous smile.

But this is much stronger with the Lord. We
can not look at God in the light of his coun-
tenance without having the gloom of our faces
give place to higher relaxation. For in the light
of God's countenance we know Him. When it
shines out, his spirit draws near to make us see,
observe and feel what God is to us. Not in a doc-
trinal way, not in a point of creed, but in utter-
ances of the spirit of unnamable grace and mercy,
of overwhelming love and tenderness, and of
Divine compassion, which enters every wound of
the soul at once and anoints it with holy balm.

The light of God's countenance shining on us
compasses us about and closes us in. It lifts us
up into a higher sphere of light. And as on the
wings of it we feel ourselves carried by the care,
the providence and almighty power of God. In
the light of God's countenance everything, our
whole life included, becomes transparent to us,
and through every Golgotha we see the glory that
looms up from it. The light of God's countenance
shines through us and leaves nothing covered in
us of the sins that are covered by grace. This
can not be otherwise, for the moment we are
aware that the light of God's face shines through
our person, all hiding of sin is futile. Differently
than X-rays, it shines through our whole heart
and life, including our past. Nothing is spared.
It is an all-penetrating light which nothing can
arrest.

104

Thus the hght of God's countenance ought to
frighten us, and yet — it does not. And it can not
do this, because it lays bare to us the fulness of
grace which is alive in the Father-heart of God.
When anyone does not believe in the entire for-
giveness of sm, God hides his face from him.
Only when faith in the atonement operates in full
does the light of the Divine countenance shine
upon, compass and penetrate us.

And then comes the "walking in that light."
Walking here implies that not only occasionally
we catch a beam of the light of the Divine coun-
tenance, but that it has become permanent for us.
That is, it is there for our good, even when we
do not think of it, and that we regain it every
time our soul longs for it. And so we continue
to walk the pathway of our life, from day to day,
in the light of the Divine countenance. No longer
inspired by our own phantasies, no more spurred
on by the ideals of the world, which have shown
themselves deceptive, and no longer with a dark
heaven above us, in which at most a single star
still glitters, but we go on by the light which is
above the light of the sun and by the outshining
of ever fuller grace in the light of the countenance
of God.

21

SEEK THY SERVANT.

The searchlight, projected from the tower across
city and plain, is a striking image of the flashing
of the All-seeing Eye. A bundle of white, soft,
clear light darts out into the darkness, with the
velocity of the twinkling of an eye, from a single

105

point as its source. 5i)reads itself over an ever-
widening surface across the connriy below, and at
once every object in the track of that light comes
out in clear sight. Nothing remains hidden. And
so the heart- and soul-searching light from the All-
seeing Eye above shines forth into the deepest
folds of the conscience.

But the Psalmist does not mean this seeking and
searching when he prays. "Seek, Lord, thy
Ser^'-ant." The figure which the Scripture here
uses is that of the shepherd, wandering among the
hills and seeking the lamb that strayed from the
flock and is lost. Thus the Psalmist himself
explains it (119:176): "I have gone astray like a
lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget
thy commandments." And this figure from the
country-life stands much higher than that which
is bon-owed from the searchlight. Here love is
the appreciation of having again what was lost,
the impotence to let go what belongs to the flock,
and the motive of the search, or rather the stim-
ulating, impelling passion of the heart.

And here is reciprocity. The lost sheep bleats
helplessly for the shepherd, and the shepherd
scans the mountain path to find it. The lost sheep
wants to be found and the shepherd wants to find
it. Its bleating is a call : "Seek me, 0 shepherd,"
and by bleating it co-operates in the finding.
Such is the Psalmist's cry: "Seek thy Servant;"
a prayer that he might be found, which is at the
same time an utterance of the soul that makes the
finding possible.

No child of the world prays this prayer, neither
the man who, far distant from God. is engrossed
in the pursuit of wealth, nor he who worships him-

self in his heart as his own idol. There is no ref-
erence here to the unconverted. He who here
prays knows that he has become God's servant,
that he has entered into the service of the
Almighty; that he has been with God, and that
he has strayed away from him. This is clearly
expressed in the image of the shepherd with the
lamb. That which has wandered away from the
flock has been with it. That which calls for the
shepherd has known him. ''Seek thy servant,"
is the direct prayer of the child of God who has
known his Heavenly Father in his love, and who
now for want of this love feels himself deserted
and sick at heart and longs again for the tender
enjoyment which he has tasted in the presence of
his God.

Do not misunderstand therefore the real mean-
ing of this cry of distress. It is not a call for
conversion, but for return. No unconverted soul
can do this. He who so calls fell away from a
love that had once been found and with all the
tender yearnings of that lost love he wants it
back.

This is of frequent occurrence. A man had
entered in through the narrow gate. He saw his
path sown with higher light. The feeling of the
new life filled his heart. Powers of the Kingdom
coursed through the arteries of the soul. He
understood what he lived for. The cup of recon-
ciliation was handed him full to the brim. He
rejoiced in his Savior. And in a most blessed way
the holy intimate life of fellowship with God in
Christ - unfolded itself within. But this did not
continue. Fog rose across the inner sky. From
following the right way it came to wandering, and

107

from wandering to wandering away. And then
everything became uncertain, restless and comfort-
less. Influences from beneath repressed holy influ-
ences from above. God seemed far removed from
him. The tie of faith in Christ which was once
so firmly strung, was weak. It was dark for the
soul and in this darkness the heart began to feel
lonely and forsaken, till it could endure it no
longer and longed after God again and tried to
seek him back.

But seeking was not followed by finding. No
signs marked off the path. Going this way and
now that the soul remained equally far removed
from God, or wandered at length still farther away
from him. When once we have been enriched
with the love of God it is not given us to play
with it; first to win it, then to let it go, and then
to take it back again at pleasure. He who has
known the Lord and afterward has forsaken him
does not of himself find him again. And so we
learn to know our lack of saving power. We can
not save ourselves. But we retain the deep con-
sciousness that we can not do without God; that
the want of his love creates an aching void in
the heart, until finally it becomes a matter of con-
viction: I can not seek God back, but God can
seek me again. And then follows the anxious
bleating of the wandering sheep. A call from the
depth of the soul upon God whom he has lost, the
prayer, the supplication: O God, seek thy
servant.

This longing desire to find God back takes a
wonderful hold sometimes upon the human heart.
There are those whom God allowed, while they
were yet children, and thus but partly known to

108

themselves, to feel his lov^e; that He regenerated
them, but that conscious faith did not reach the
fuller knowledge of his name. This led to the
unusual condition that God worked inwardly with
his power, but that in spite of it doubt filled the
heart and mind. We have all known certain peo-
ple who were not able to believe, but whose noble
qualities of mind and heart were both interesting
and refreshing. They were frequently far more
attractive than many confessed believers. They
were flowers in the bud, which could not come to
bloom, but even then the half-opened bud
exhaled sweet fragrance. Inwardly they were con-
sumed with longing after God, but they did not
understand their own desires. They did not know
that they already belonged to God, though at
times they were conscious of nameless drawings
after him. And they do not pray, but others who
can, pray for them: Lord, seek this thy servant,
seek this thine handmaid. For every utterance
of their lives proves that they are thy servants.
They are children of the family of faith. Onl\'
they have not as yet discovered their Father.
And as long as this is not a prayer from the lips
alone, but from the heart, it is heard both in
behalf of ourselves and of those the burden of
whose salvation the Lord has laid upon us. For
then God seeks them, and finds them, and gives
himself to be found of them.

How this takes place no one can tell. To this
end God uses at one time a man's natural lot in
life; at another time a written thought which he
drives home, or some striking word which he
makes us hear. To this end he works by means
of affliction that heavily burden, the heart; by

means of hard and perilous times, which try us to
the utmost; by contact with different people who
are met by the way; by impressions of angels
that hover about us at his command, and by his
secret workings in the heart. It is an embroider-
ing which God works upon the soul in all sorts
of colors and forms. But however different and
inscrutable these operations maj- be, the outcome
i.s assured. God seeks us. He finds us. And at
length we discover that we have been found. For
then God's presence in the heart is vitally enjoyed
again.

In the seeking of our God let us not hinder the
finding. Not merely doubt, but even the inclin-
ation to prefer doubt to assurance is sin against
the love of God. When the Lord seeks you and
laj's his hand upon your shoulder, do not draw
back. Kneel at his feet. Offer thanks to him
and worship.

22

STRENGTHENED WITH MIGHT.

It is no longer doubted that atmospheric con-
ditions vitally affect health. Fresh air builds up
and invigorates. They who breathe pure moun-
tain air have iron in the blood, while they who
live in low and marshy regions breathe air that
is impregnated with poisons from the swamps, so
that their strength is sapped and their vital
forces are weakened. It can not be otherwise.
With every breath we take in air with everything
it contains, and through countless pores in the skin
we absorb atmospheric elements which open the
way to influences that affect the constitution. The
pale and the anaemic are constantly advised there-
no ^

fore to seek fresh air and a healthy atmosphere.
In hot and sultry summer days we pant for the
relief which evening brings. And they who are
in easy reach of the shore revel in the cool
invigorating air of the sea.

And since we are two-sided, that is to say, since
we consist of body and soul, the atmospheric influ-
ence upon our physical health finds a counterpart
in the effects of the moral character of our sur-
roundings upon our moral development. This,
too, is above question. Sad and joyous events
continually show that low moral standards in life
injure character, while moral and healthy environ-
ments quicken our own moral sense. In education
the light and shadow sides are largely dominated
by this atmospheric influence. The secret of
mother influence upon the early formation of
character is largely due to the fact that childhood
days are almost entirely spent in her constant
presence. The moral life also has laws of its own.
It expresses itself in acts and in events. It re-
flects itself in writings and in conversations. But
apart from all this, moral life is still something
else. It is even a sort of moral skj'-, a moral at-
mosphere which is either healthy and bracing,
poisonous and hurtful or neutral and weakening.
However strong our character may be, the in-
fluences of this moral atmosphere work out our
spiritual benefit or bane.

Nor is this all. Not only does the air which we
breathe affect our bodily health, and not only does
our moral environment shape our moral life, but
a personal atmosphere also affects us strongly.
Close fellowship with world-minded people clo-^e
fellowship with people who are worldly-mmded and
111

oi little elevation of character degrades us. Daily
intercourse with people of nobler disposition, of
more seriousness of thought, and of holier aims in
life, spin- us on to better things ourselves. A good
man is like a good genius to us. Pure environ-
ments hold us back from things that pull us down.
We notice this particularly in the case of men of
sterling qualities and women of dominant spirits.
They exert a power of attraction upon each other
which tends to make them alike. One is stronger
than the other, and the stronger is bound to mould
the weaker into likeness with himself. Imitation
is a fundamental trait of human nature and grad-
ually and involuntarily the weaker inclines to do
and to be like the stronger, which extends some-
times even to the inflection of the voice and to
the manner of conversation. And this personal
influence leads of itself to religious influence,
which is entirely apart from the moral. At heart
all religion is personal. Moses put his stamp upon
all Israel. The Gospel has been carried into the
world by the Apostles. Augustin inspired the
Middle Ages. Luther and Calvin are spiritual
fathers of the Reformation. And to this day in
every community, large or small, where a strongly
inspired, religious life dominates, the persons can
be pointed out from whom this healthy, bracing
atmosphere has emanated. Fire in the heart of
one strikes fire in the heart of the other. A devout
Christian life wins the souls of its associates for
God.

Now we reach the highest round of the ladder,
of which as a rule too little account is taken. We
may breathe mountain or sea air. We may drink
in the moral atmosphere of our environment. We

112

may partake of the inspiration that goes forth
from a finely-strung nature among our fellow men.
But the highest of all, the influence of which for
real strengthening of heart far exceeds all others,
is the secret walk with God. Paul prays for the
Ephesians (3:16) that they might be strengthened
with might by his Spirit in the inner man. This is
the highest and holiest atmosphere that can and
ought to inwork on us. Imagine that our Lord
were still on earth and that every day for a month
we could be with Him, we would breathe an
atmosphere of exalted and holy living, which in
an altogether unequalled way, would strengthen us
with might in the inner man. It was the privilege
of the Apostles, exceeding every other, to spend
three years in this holy atmosphere, and look, with
what strength in the inner man they went out
into the world. This is impossible now. Jesus is
no more known after the flesh. But through him
we have access to the Father, and through him
we can have daily, personal, secret fellowship with
God.

If we think that everything ends with the brief
moment of prayer, we remain but a short time in
this holy atmosphere. Average prayer, as a rule,
does not cover more than half an hour out of
every twenty-four. This is not the way the Scrip-
ture takes it. David sang: "I will dwell in the
house of the Lord for ever," (Ps. 23:6). Both
before and since this royal harper the saints who
have sought and found and known and enjoyed
the secret walk with God have always understood
that it means repeated thought of God, constant
lifting up of soul to him, considering all things
with an eye to him who loves us, ever dwelling

113

near unto him, continual consciousness of his
holy, encouraging and inspiring presence, personal
realization of God's nearness on every side, with
all of life immersed, as it were, in the glory that
shines out from the Divine Being, and feeling in
the heart the throbbings of the Father-heart of
God. Churches that are so conditioned are alive.
They may be pure in doctrine but without this
they are dead. Preachers who bring this to their
congregations are embassadors of God. They who
have no eye for this because the heart does not
go out after it, are tinkling cymbals.

When ''to be near unto God" is our joy and our
song; when we dwell in the house of the Lord,
and the secret walk with God is daily our delight,
we experience the mighty, strengthening influence
of the holy atmosphere above, which angels
breathe and from which departed saints drink in
the never-fading freshness of their soul. Then the
powers of the Kingdom flow into the inner man.
Heavenly ozone ministers to the soul. Spiritual
power restrains what is unholy and impure in us.
Draughts from the Fountain of Life make the
breast swell with fresh vigor and vitalit}'. Even
as in the Holy Ghost God himself touches us, and
inspires us to render nobler exhibits of power.

The whole social fabric of daily life would won-
derfully change if every soul could breathe this
holy atmosphere. Alas, for sin. When the
anaemic is advised to try mountain or sea air he
at once craves the means to do it. But when it
is said, "Get away from your environments, seek
the company of those of higher moral worth,"
someone may be moved, but the larger numbers
continue their pleasure in their own evil ways.

114

And when the matter is pressed, and it is said,
"Cultivate the secret walk with God and drink in
the atmosphere of the life above," no one responds,
except as God draws him. And if we are privil-
eged to know this secret fellowship, it but shows
what excellent grace has been bestowed upon us.
Let us therefore with St, Paul bow the knees unto
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that this
glorious privilege maj^ be not taken from us, but
that from this secret walk abounding might may
continuall}' be granted to strengthen us in the
inner man.

23

"TO WHOM IS THE ARM OF THE LORD
REVEALED?"

No thought lifts us more securely'' above the
power of material interests and above the tempta-
tion of the appetites than the confession, "God
is a Spirit;" from which of itself the second flows,
that he who worships Him can not and must not
do so except in spirit and in truth. This excludes
from God and from the worship of his name
everything that is material, sensual or what is
bound to form. God is a Spirit. This liberat-es
the soul from every chain that might bind or
oppress it contrary to its nature; always on
condition, of course, that God, who is Spirit, is
worshipped in spirit and in truth with all the
love of the heart. That God is Spirit brings all
idolatry to naught, ail creature-worship, and dis-
misses every sensual horror which idolatry brought
with it and which hastened the downfall of the
nations of antiquity. Not to analyze the riches

115

of this all-dominating thought too closely, the fact
that God is Spirit lifts human life above the whole
visible world and exalts the spirit within us to
the high spheres of the invisible world where God
dwells in light unapproachable. For if God is
Spirit, he is altogether independent of this visible
creation. He was, before the mountains were
brought forth. There was an eternity when noth-
ing material was as yet created; so that in depen-
dent relations all visible things occupy a secondary
place ; physical death does not end all ; existence
can be prolonged, though for a while we are only
spirit ; and we can revel now in the supreme riches
of the thought that if needs be we can despise the
whole world and yet occupy high spiritual vantage
ground and be spiritually rich in God.

But however strong and superlatively rich the
confession is that God is Spirit, it, too, has been
corrupted by sin. We see this most clearly when
we think of Satan and the world of demons. Some
people who deem themselves civilized and highly
cultivated may hold Satan and his demons as
mere fabrications of weak minds. They who
believe, correctly hold that with respect to this
matter also Jesus knew more than they who pre-
tend to be enlightened. In the '"Our Father" he
taught us to pray: "Deliver us from the evil
One," and he wove the good rule into it when he
furthermore made us pray: "Thy will be done
on earth as it is in iieaven." 'Tn heaven" must
mean: by thy angels. And angels are pure spirits
without bodies. If Satan was not evil by creation,
which can not be otherwise, if originally he was
a good and a brilliant creature of God, who felt
himself at home in the world of angels, it must

116

be confessed that he, too, is a spirit and that his
demons are spirits. This does not make sin purely
spiritual, neither does it exclude sin from the
world of matter. But it means that all sin, mclud-
ing voluptuousness and drunkenness, originates in
the spirit, and that the Psalmist was correct when
he prayed: Keep back thy servant also from pre-
sumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over
me ; then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent
from the great transgression (19:13).

Nothing offends more greatly therefore than
that in the social world immorality is taken to
consist exclusively - of intemperance, debauch or
A'oluptuousness, and that its attendants of scorn,
bitterness, anger and revenge are seemingly no
blots on the good name of celebrated people
Along this line the glorious confession that God
is Spirit is abandoned to pantheism, while
presumptuous pride leads at length to such high
esteem of self as to make one dream that he him-
self is God. This has given rise to the monstrous
idea, even among devout souls, that with the "new
man in the spirit" all responsibility can be dis-
owned for sins of sensuality which "the old man"
has committed. And this in true is entirely the
same error as that which is revived again in the
school of Maeterlinck that the pure soul within
is not stained by sensual misdeeds of the body.

Holy Scripture subverts all this by impressing
upon the soul that God is Spirit and that all the
workings of God are the personal doings of One
who is everywhere present with us. God is a Spirit,
upon the soul that God is Spirit, and that all the
pervading the whole creation; not a vague work-
ing, elusive and inapprehensible. No, thrice no.

He is a God who is our Heavenl}- Father, who
speaks to us, who hears our prayers, in whose
breast throbs a heart full of Divine compassion.
He IS a personal God, who companies with us as
a friend, who turns in with us for the night, and
who allows us to dwell in his holy tabernacle.
The works of God are constantly described there-
fore as personal acts, in connection with which
references abound to the face of God, to the
mouth of the Lord, to the ear which he inclines
toward us, to the footsteps of the Holy One, to
the hand which is over us in blessing, and to the
arm of strength with which the Lord breaks all
forms of opposition. All this is in part personi-
fication, by which what is found in man is applied
to God. But there is more to it than this. He
that planted the ear, the Psalmist asks: Shall he
not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not
see? (94:9). The eye and the ear, the hand and
the arm are but bodily manifestations of our
inward powers, which God has so made, because
he created us after his image. When we say that
God hears, sees, speaks, blesses and fights, it is
not said so, metaphorically, after the manner of
men, but by it is asserted that all this is original
in God and that it only appears in us after his
image. When the Scripture speaks of an arm of
the Lord, it means that there is not merely a
vague outflowing of power from God, but that
God governs his indwelling and outgoing power,
that he directs it to definite ends, that he uses
or leaves it unused according to his good pleasure,
and that when God employs his power to protect
or to oppose us, it is equally much, and in a
still higher sense, a personal act, as when we lift
118

up our arm to protect a child or to ward off an
assailant.

When the prophet Isaiah asks (53:1): To
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? and the
question in turn is put to you : Is the arm of the
Lord revealed to you? it does not mean in a
vague general way whether you believe that there
is a God, and that there is a power of God, and
whether you believe that this power is operative.
But rather whether in your position and in your
experience in life 3^ou have discovered that
Almighty God has personal dealings with you, that
as God he has turned himself in person to your
person, and has come in contact with you as a
man comes in contact with his friend or with his
assailant, and whether in this strictly personal rela-
tion you have discerned the arm of the Lord lift-
ing itself up to cover and protect you, or turning
itself against you to assail and cast you down.

This is what most lives lack, even among those
that confess Christ. They lack what is recorded
of Moses: that he endured as seeing him who is
Invisible. They do not understand what is told
of Jacob, that he wrestled with God as with a man.
They have vague impressions that there are certain
influences, operations and powers abroad, but they
do not see the Holy One, they have no dealings
with God as with a Father who comes to his child,
looks it in the face with his eyes, listens to it
with his ears, puts his hand on it and covers it
with the arm of his power. The}' praj' to God
and praise him, but they do not meet him in the
way. They do not feel his presence with them by
night. They do not feel his holy breath upon
their cheek. And they do not see the "arm of

119

strength" which is all their assurance and salva-
tion. It can not be insisted upon therefore with
sufficient urgency that Bible reading be made a
more serious business; that we wean ourselves
from the false tendency to take everything in
Scripture metaphoricall3^ God's word is a lamp
before our feet and a light upon our path, because
it alone engraves these two things upon the heart:
that God is Spirit, and that, as Our Father who is
in heaven, this God meets us in the way and deals
with us as a man with his neighbor; invisible and
yet seen.

24

THAT THEY MIGHT KNOW THEE.

''This is life eternal, that they might know Thee,
the only true God" (John 17:3). No human word
can express a deeper thought or higher aim than
this. It was not spoken by a seer to men, but by
the Son to the Father. And it must be heard
anew by him who would seek God, since it has
been put on record for this purpose.

No prayers of our Lord during his more than
thirty years' life on earth, in Joseph's home at
Nazareth, in mountain or desert place, by day or
night, have been recorded in the Gospels, save a
few sentence prayers and the cry of distress in
Gethsemane. In John 17, however, the high-
priestly pra3'^er of our Savior has come down to
us in all its sublime grandeur. He who gave us
the Scripture to guide us on our pilgrim journey
has ordained that this prayer of Jesus to the
Father should awake an echo in our own praying
heart.

120

If all the prayers of our Savior had been pre-
served m writing, it would have been an inex-
haustible treasure. First, the child-like prayers of
his early life, which already at the age of twelve
showed such Divine traits that even in its still
undeveloped form it breathed perfection and
apprehended it. Then the period in Jesus prayer-
life from youth to manhood spent in retirement
and in preparation for the great work of our sal-
vation. Then the closing period of three years, so
brief and quickly passed, but which is by far the
richest, because of the storms that raged and
which were battled through at the pains of who
can say how many long hours spent in agonizing
prayer.

Nothing of all the riches of these prayers has
been handed down to us save this one. "I thank
Thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy
sight." And in the high-priestly prayer, this
sacred diadem which has been handed down to ug
unchanged and unabbreviated, we discover what
is at heart the same thought: "This is eternal
life, that they might know Thee, the Only True
God." In Matth. 11 it is not the prudent and the
wise, but babes. In John 17 it is not the world,
but them whom Thou hast given me out of the
world. In both instances it is the knowledge of
God; that which has been revealed of the Holy
and the Highest. And what is to be adored in it
all is the Divine good pleasure.

This is prayer: Not criticizing what is holy,
but taking it in, drinking it in. And by the

121

entrance of the Holy One into our life, not merely
to live forever, but to have a life which in its own
nature is eternal.

When something stirs in a secret place and
something proceeds therefrom, there is life. The
pregnant mother feels life when she is aware of
motion within, and then knows that presently
life will be born from her. So it is with us. Wlien
everything is still within, when no voice is heard
from the soul, and nothing stirs in our inmost
parts, who can know whether the soul lives? We
may live along with the life of the world and be
affected by it, even as the motion of the sea
leaves no single drop at rest, but communicates
its own restlessness to it. This, however, is not
a life of one's own. It is no inner impulse the
momentum of which springs from oneself.

Moving along with the rise and fall of the
world's life may develop warmth within, may
enrich one intellectually, may deepen the affec-
tions and widen experience, but it has no root of
its own, no individual impulse and therefore it can
not convey permanent possession. And when at
length death removes us from this restless life of
the world, this purely impersonal life that has
been lived with others, is shaken off and nothing
remains. Real personal life, on the other hand,
springs from a Divinely implanted seed, which
inwardly germinates and unfolds. But, for its
proper growth, it continually asks for food after its
own kind. If it fails of this, it languishes and
withers. Abundance of provisions, which are not
meet, do not help it. It can not assimilate nor
digest them. Insofar as they enter into it they
only pervert it. Getting food after its own kind

122

only once in a while, in small measures, does not
help it. To reach full development it must con-
stantly be fed with food convenient for it.

This is "eternal life" for the soul. Not only
life hereafter, but an unfolding here of the inner
self, according to its disposition, nature and des-
tim-. In this process everything that poisons the
blood of the inner life is expelled, and every need
of it is met. And the supply for this inner feeding,
strengthening and sanctifying is so constant, per-
manent and essentially eternal, as to insure per-
fect fruition. This is eternal life for the inner
self of man created after God's image.

According to the teaching of our Lord, the soul
only finds this food for eternal life in the eternal
God. The Lord is my portion, my everlasting
good (Ps. 16:5). What can my heart desire on
earth beside Thee? (Ps. 73:25). God is the
highest good. In Thy light we see light. With
Thee is the source of my life (Ps. 36:9).

Everything comes to us from God. We owe
him thanks for everything we have. Every good
and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of
lights. From him, through him, and to him are
all things. But the end and aim is, and ever shall
be, that God shall be all and in aU.

It is beautiful to confess that our God is Lord
of lords and King of kings. That he appoints,
allows and governs all things. Far greater, how-
ever, is the confession that God the Holy Ghost
enters into us and dwells in us, and chooses us for
his temple, and makes intercession in us and for
us with groanings that are unutterable.

In this alone the heart finds rest. Everything
that grace bestows are but radiations of glory and

123

love. The burning hearth of all love and glory
is in God himself. Every drop of the water of
eternal life is refreshing, but the Fountain from
which these waters spring is the loving heart of
the Eternal. Throughout the entire Scripture
therefore, and throughout the whole Church, and
in every saintly soul, the confession of passionate
delight: It is good for me, it is my blessed lot
"to be near unto God," may always be heard.
Him seeks the eye. Him desires the heart. And
only and alone when the soul has found its
highest good in God, can the germ of the personal
life in us revive from its withered estate, and begin
to develop and to unfold, until from the half-
opened bud expands the blossom of everlasting
life.

This can not be otherwise on account of the
nature of the soul. We have not made it our-
selves. The world has not determined its char-
acter. It has not become what it is by chance.
God alone has planned what the human soul
should be. Hence its nature is what he appointed
that it should be. And so it continues to be
whether it is the soul of a Judas or the soul of a
St. John. It can develop itself in holiness, it can
also degenerate in sin and become corrupt. But
whether it unfolds in glory or in corruption, both
are what they are by virtue of the nature of the
soul as God has planned it. Every creative plan
has gone out from God. A plan for the stars in
the firmament, fOr the corn in the ear. for the
lark that sings among the branches, for the angel
that sings the Holy, Holy, Holy, in the sanctuary
above. But the nature, the essential character of
the human soul, was planned and ordained of God

124

to be different from the nature of everything else.

With charming clearness the Scripture defines
the nature of the soul in this single phrase: that
we are created after the image of God. This
includes everything. From this everything explains
itself. From this it comes that the soul can never
have its "highest good" save in Him after whose
Image it originated. The opposite truth no less
holds good that everything that turns the soul to
another good than God as the highest, wounds,
corrupts and poisons it. It is painful to see that
the nations with their seething multitudes have no
understanding of this. But it is more painful to
see that even among serious-minded people many
lay hold on everything else but God. Most pain-
ful of all is the sight of many religious people
who follow after everything that is good, but show
that they have never tasted the "highest good.

But our blessed Lord does not despair. In
heaven he continues to intercede for his saints
upon earth: ''Father, this is eternal life, that they
might know Thee, the only true God." And in
perfect accord with this is the disclosure, m con-
stantly new-born children of the Kingdom, of the
ardent life of the soul, which responds to this
prayer with a devout: Amen.

26

''SHOW US THE FATHER."

In this meditation also the main thought is the
striking word of Jesus: This is eternal life, that
they might know Thee, the Only true God. Its
meaning is too profound to be fully set forth at

125

one time. Therefore we come back to it now and
will presently do so again.

We have tried to explain what eternal life is.
We did not undertake to reduce it to a single
definition, neither have we subjected the idea to
close analysis. All we essayed to do was, to make
the life to be perceived in life itself, and to
explain that eternal life means more than mere
life without end. Mere endless life would drive
us to despair; eternal life, which is altogether dif-
ferent, inspires and rejuvinates.

And now to the point. It does not say that he
who knows the Father shall have eternal life. It
does not say: If you are religious and earnestly
seek to know God, your reward after death will
be eternal life. On the contrary it declares that
to know God is itself eternal life. The difference
is seen at once to be heavenwide. To interpret
eternal life as a reward for pains taken to know
God is superficial, mechanical and affected. The
thought that eternal life is itself the knowledge of
God is unfathomably deep. Eternal life as the
reward for knowledge is a part of school discipline.
First much study, much memorizing, much taking
notes of dictations, and then promotion from a
passing existence into an endless one. This makes
it all a sort of higher life-insurance, or turns it into
a course of mental gymnastics, into the study of
a work on dogmatics which is subtly composed,
every sentence of which is carefully constructed,
and which presents in an orderly way what in the
course of centuries has been systematized regard-
mg the Being, Work, Person and Attributes of the
Infinite. And when at length everything has
become dry as dust to the eye of the soul, and

126

when there is no more fragrance of Hfe percept-
ible anywhere, the reward of this barren, dead
knowledge is eternal life. All this falls away when
the saying of Jesus is taken as it reads: The
knowledge of God is itself eternal life. He who
has it, has already, here and now. eternal life. He
who dies without having found it here, will never
find it in the hereafter. No eternal morning will
dawn on him. And this interpretation, which
seems to us the only permissible one, affects us
like a power that pierces the conscience with the
question: Have you this knowledge? And it
urges us, now, before it is too late, to seek it
with all our might, until in thrilling ecstacy of soul
we feel the swell of the undulation of this eternal
life.

And now comes Philip with the naive request:
Lord, show us the Father (John 14:8). This was
childlike in its simplicity, but he chose the right
starting point from which to advance. He who
asks like this shows that he means it. and that he
is in earnest about it. He wants to know God, It
shows that he does not care for book-knowledge,
but for life-knowledge of God, And what is more
natural than that he begins by asking: Show me
the Father.

One of the defects of the religious life, as it has
come down to us from the Reformation, is that in
distinction from Rome it has been developed too
dogmatically. This could not be otherwise. Doc-
trine can not be sacrificed. But when it appears
too onesidedly in the foreground, there is some-
thing wrong. The same difference presents itself
between the Gospels and the Epistles: the latter

127

are in part controversial. In the Gospel the dis-
tinction occurs between the sermon on the Mount
and Jesus' controversy with the scribes. The first
period of the Reformation was better than the
later one. What rapture marks the language of
the Confession and the Office of Holy Communion
in distinction from the barrenness of later formu-
laries. First there are bounding floods of life, and
then we find drained river-beds with only some
weak rill coursing through the sand. We will
never know how greatly this has impoverished the
church.

But Philip knows nothing about these contrasts
and formularies. He faces the matter with child-
like simplicity. To him God is really the Eternal
Being. He longs for God. He seeks after him.
The prayer of his heart is that he might see God.
Hence the request: Show us the Father. When
reports go the rounds about a person and some-
one asks: Do you know him? nothing is more
natural, when you do not know him, than to say:
I have not even seen him. For seeing is of
first importance. An impression received through
sight speaks for itself. Both in Old and New Tes-
taments the desire to see God appears everywhere
in the foreground. With Moses when he prayed:
Show me thy glory, and Jehovah replied: No
man shall see my face and live (Exod. 33:18, 20).
And in I Cor. 13:12 St. Paul declares: But we all,
with open face beholding as in a glass the glory
of the Lord, are changed into the same image
from glory to glory. In words like these the life
of the Scripture beats and throbs. There is no
dry as dust there. Everything pulsates with

128

reality. All interests center in God, in the living
God, to see him, to behold him, and ardently to
rejoice in this life-giving look. When, therefore,
Philip asked: Lord, show us the Father, he made
the right beginning, and it sprang fiom his burn-
ing thirst after the living God.

But alas, God can not be seen with our outward
eyes. The reason for this is perfectly plain. We
can only see things, whatever they are, when they
present themselves as parts of the visible world
and are sufficiently limited to fall within the range
of our vision. No one can see the world as a
whole, but only in fragments and parts; now this
part, now that, as far as it falls within reach. But
even if we could see the whole world, we would
still be unable to see God, because the world is
finite, and God is infinite. The greatest idea that
can be formed of the world falls away into noth-
ingness compared with the infinite God. We can
only see what falls within our range of vision and
what has form and appearance. But God is Spirit,
and they who worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth. God can not be seen there-
fore outside of ourselves. To desire to do this is
to bring him down to our level, to give him a
form and to rob him of his spirituality. Here
idolatry comes in. It began when people "changed
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image
made like to corruptible man" (Rom. 1:23). It
did not spring from wickedness, but from piety.
Not the worst, but the best people from among
the nations built temples and placed an image of
God in them. Then the priests showed them
their God in an image which they had made.

129

They thought that they had thereby brought God
closer to the people, while in fact the miserable
image had caused all knowledge of God to be lost
to them. With every representation of God, God
himself is gone. Hence the searching warning of
St. John: Little children, keep yourselves from
idols.

Thus there remains the cry: Show us the
Father. The cry from the soul, that is not satis-
fied with a dogma and a creed, but wants God
himself; the truly childlike and devout heart that
thirsts for the living God. And side by side with
this remains the other fact, that no objective rep-
resentation of God is possible, and that He can
not be seen with mortal eye. He is the Invisible.
With every effort to represent him by an image
the Infinite is lost and man is exiled farther away
from God. And the reconciliation of these mutu-
ally excluding facts : that we are inwardly impelled
not to rest until we have seen God, and that by
representations of him we lose him altogether
lies in Jesus' answer to Philip: "He that hath
seen Me, hath seen the Father; and how sayest
thou then, show us the Father?" (John 14:9).

And how? There is an outward look and there
is an inward look. But we can not have this
inward look as single individuals. Not by our-
selves alone, but in our human nature. In the
Son of Man God himself appears to us in this
human nature. Through fellowship with the Son
of Man we see God, in Jesus, through Jesus, and
through the Holy Ghost we see him in ourselves.
Not the image of God in the temple of idols, but
the image of God in Christ.
130

26

HE THAT HATH SEEN ME HATH SEEN
THE FATHER.

There are sayings of Jesus that make one
tremble and stand back — unless he believes on
him. One of these is: He that loveth father or
mother more than me is not worthy of me
(Matth. 10:37). Imagine a man who would dare
to say anything like this in a public meeting.
Every hearer would take him to be insane. If a
man were to come into your home and in your
presence address your child like this, would you
not take sure measures to prevent him from doing
so again? But Jesus spake like this. And you
teach your child that this saying is true — because
you worship Jesus.

Such is the case with Jesus' answer to Philip:
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father (John
14:9). This rouses the same repellant feeling.
We would make a man, who spoke like this, harm-
less by securing him a lodging in an institution
for the insane — unless we honored and worshipped
God in him. There is no choice in this matter.
In any nation in whose public conscience there
glows a spark of religion, public opinion would
demand the arrest of a man of such blasphemous
pretensions. But to this striking saying of Jesus
on the contrary our own heart echoes consent —
because we worship him.

It all depends on this. The Sanhedrin and the
excited Jews in the courts of Justice at Jerusalem
acted consistently from their viewpoint, when they
took Jesus for a blasphemer and cast him out.

131

They did not worship him. As long as their eyes
were closed against the Divine majesty of Jesus
they could not do otherwise. Their sin was not
that they cast out Jesus, but that they did not
see God in Him. They talked a good deal about
God. But when God appeared to them in Jesus
they knew him not and denied that it was He.
And this is the case now. In times of refreshings,
when religious perceptions are clear, thousands see
God in Jesus who never did so before. In times
of religious decline multitudes abandon the faith
and take pleasure in heaping other honorary titles
upon Jesus than those that are his own. They
call him the ideal man, the model of true piety
the hero of faith, the martyr for a sacred cause.
These are altogether words, and only words, by
which to soothe the conscience and to evade the
issue at stake, which is, that with Thomas they
should kneel adoringly at his feet with the cry:
"My Lord and My God." In daring frenzy
Voltaire permitted the Uinjame to flow from his
reckless pen. But he was braver than these irreso-
lute spirits. At heart they are one with him.
They do not believe that they who saw Jesus
saw God. But they have not the heart to say
how this Jesus, who dared to say this, should be
estimated.

The highest act within reach of the spirit of
man is to see God in Jesus. The Deity of Christ
is generally accepted in childhood years. But as
time goes on it is given little or no thought. For
the rest this conviction is left as a foreign some-
thing in the conscience, without being worked over
and applied to the same in its later stages of
development. This should not be censured too

132

severely. Many can not advance beyond this.
Their mental grasp has no further reach. And
even from such a defective conviction childlike
faith can borrow moral strength. But the thrice
blessed, who have been initiated into a more
sympathetic and more ardent piety, can not rest
content with this. They think and contemplate;
they go through spiritual experiences; and by
these inner activities of the soul they enter into
this mystery more deeply than mere analytic
study of doctrine can effect. Seeing with the eye
of sense is not full, clear and perfect sight to
them. Without the eye of sense God saw purely,
spiritually and immediately, long before we ever
saw. And when in the creation after his Image
God endowed man with the power to see, of
necessity human sight was originally spiritual,
internal and immediate. Only because God also
clothed man with a body and placed him in a
world of sense, did He form the human eye
through which man can see this world. For this
alone, and for no other purpose, was the eye of
sense created. Consequently it can only see this
visible world. When the other far more compre-
hensive, invisible world is concerned, it has no
use. And, therefore, man was endowed with
another eye, even the eye of the soul, to which
as a subordinate instrument, the eye of sense only
renders auxiliary aid. There are two worlds:
one spiritual and one material. In connection
with these there are two eyes: one in the soul
and one in the body. And there is a two-fold
vision: immediate sight in the spirit and mediate
sight through mortal eye. An inward look and an
outward look. An imaginary seeing of which we
133

are so clearlj' conscious that nothing is more com-
mon than the saying: "You see that I am right,"
where seeing refers to what has been said or
explained, and not to anything shown to the eye
of sense.

From the nature of the case, therefore, to see
the Father in Jesus was no primitive act of the
eye of sense. God is a Spirit, and he who would
see the Father in Jesus, must see in him the Spirit
which is God. Spiritual seeing with the eye of the
soul alone is possible here. At first something
deeply spiritual is discerned in Jesus, even as in
other men of hoh' lives. Further looking into his
holy being brings to light that in Jesus this
spiritual excellence is of an higher type than in
anyone else. In him it is clearer, fuller, richer.
And this does not yet explain Jesus in' full. That
spirituality in him is nobler, richer and fuller
than in others, even in the best of men, does not
say enough. In Jesus an unfathomable depth dis-
closes itself, so that at length it must be acknowl-
edged that in him the spiritual lives and shines
more richly than was ever thought possible. It
exceeds human thought. It surpasses the think-
able. Of itself spiritual observation of Jesus
passes on into the infinite. Latest distinctions are
lost. From the background of his being shines
eternal perfection. Everything shifts before the
vision of the soul. Unconsciously the transition is
made from the finite into the infinite, until God
is discerned in Jesus and in wonder and adoration
we kneal at his feet and worship.

But this experience is not something apart from
what the eye of sense sees in the Incarnate Word.
In this examination the spirit of Jesus is not

134

detached from his personal appearance. The body
is not ignored that the soul may be discerned, but
Jesus is taken as he was, appeared, spoke and
acted. One appearance is faced, one perfect whole,
one mystery. Even as among us there are times
when a person becomes radiant and allows his
soul to shine through his face, in his eye, about
his lips, in his word and in his act, so that through
the outward appearance the person within is seen
— so it was with Jesus, only far stronger, and all
the time. His appearance must have been over-
whelming. The impression which he made must
have been full of wonder. When we think of the
soulfulness in his holy eye, the changes of expres-
sion in his face, and his modulated, sympathetic
voice, it is felt at once that his bodily appear-
ance was no hindrance to reach the Divine in him,
but was rather the vehicle by which to approach
it. It was as though, through Jesus, God himself
came out into thq visible world, inviting and
alluring all who saw him to admire and to worship
God in him. If at the time of Jesus' sojourn on
the earth, man had been what he was before the
fall in paradise, the perfect God would at once
have been recognized in Jesus. But with the
blinded eye of the soul sinful man could not do
this; it was impossible. God was there in Jesus,
but the world could not see him. The eye of
the soul had been bandaged. And only when God
himself had removed this bandage could man see
God in Jesus.

The eye of the soul is not something apart
from the soul. It is rather the sum total of all
its powers by which it perceives, becomes con-

13.5

scious, discovers and enjoys. Spiritual seeing is
feeling, perceiving, becoming aware of environ-
ments with all the latent powers of the soul. It
is the internal awakening of human nature, which,
created after the image of God, goes back to its
original image, has clear vision of the relation
between image and original, between image and
impression, imprints it upon its own sense of self
(self-consciousness) and thus learns to know God
with an inner knowledge. Only in this way has
human nature in Jesus apprehended God in full
and known him. Human nature in its totality
is not in every one of us, but only a variation of
it in one particular, definite form. In Jesus alone
human nature as a whole was embodied. He,
therefore, was called the Son of Man. Jesus was
not only God, but He alone of all men fully
apprehended and understood the Father. "No
man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he
to whom the Son will reveal him." By our-
selves, therefore, and if left to ourselves, no one
of us can apprehend God with the sense of the
soul, nor see him with the eye of the soul. Jesus
alone was able to do this, and is able to do so
still, but not we. Only when we go to Jesus and
enter into fellowship with him is the way to this
open to us, whereby we become living members
of this mystical body of which he is the head.
And then not only do we see God in Jesus, but
God also comes to tabernacle in us by the Holy
Ghost. Philip, have I been so long time with
you, and do you still say: Show me the Father?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father in
me and through me, your Spvior.

136

"WITH ALL THY SOUL."

When the question is raised whether there is
one that seeks after God, the Psalmist denies it
and bitterly complains: ''They are all gone
aside, there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
There is none that understandeth, there is none
that seeketh after God" (14:3). But was the
singer insincere when in the ear of the ages he
sang' so touchingly : "As the heart panteth after
the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee,
O God" (42:1). Or did Asaph dissemble a state
of soul, which would have been self-deceit, when
he said: "Nevertheless, I am continually with
Thee?" (Ps. 73:23). By no means. The question
meant whether by nature there was one man in
whose heart the magnetic drawing is after God,
even in such a degree as to overcome every
resistance and hindrance. The answer to this is:
no, and ever again: no. There is no such draw-
ing in the human heart. It has been corrupted
and crippled and is no longer what it was by
Divine creation, but what it has become by self-
delusion. The number of those who take religion
seriously is small, and much smaller yet the num-
ber of those who recover the true type of piety.
Take these, together with those who seem relig-
ious, and watch them and listen as they talk, and
we find them superficial and mechanical to an
amazing degree. We rarely meet with a seeking
soul that makes it a business to draw near to
God, and to find him. Even in prayer, in church
or at home, the question can sometimes scarcely

137

be repressed: Does this man or woman, when the
Amen has passed the hps, come away from God,
or has the soul, even in devotions, been as far as
ever away from him?

Undoubtedly there are always some who in
praj'-er and at other times seek fellowship with
God in their heart. Upon inquiry, however, we
learn that the magnetic drawing did not originate
with themselves, but that God drew them. We
do not know why Divine power operates in the
case of one and not of another. The fact remains
that as the magnet draws the steel to itself, God
can draw the soul. And when he does, the draw-
ing is irresistible, i^nd the soul seeks God
because God draws it.

Is the approach of the soul to God through the
understanding, will, feeling or imagination, or is
it through an inexplicable mysterious working
which we can not name? The answer differs
according to those who give it. The one attributes
it to intellectual and doctrinal knowledge of God;
the other to the fellowship of love; a' third to
submission of the will ; a fourth to visions ; a fifth
to inspirations, and the more people are asked,
the more widely the answers differ. Here dispo-
sition and temperament play the chief role. The
subtle, analytical investigator of ideas and defini-
tions entrenches himself in strong doctrinal con-
fessions; the man of action, in devotion to prac-
tical ends; he whose nature is finely strung, in the
note of pensive longing which he elicits from his
p'^irt'ons; and the imaginative mind, inclined to
fancies of every sort, in representations and
ingenious imagery. Every one after his own kind,
we may say. Such is the case now, and so it was

138

in times past. From ancient writings we see peo-
ple of the long ago live and move before us, and
things oi the past appear like things of the
present. All sorts of currents and schools and
tendencies of thought are ever abroad, one one
waj' and the other another. Unanimity there is
none. Seeking God with all the heart is unknown.

This shows that the preference for one method
of seeking God bars the way to other equally
efiicasious methods of doing the same, and that
God's children should freely employ all methods
in order to be wholly free in their communion
with the Eternal. God is not found by one power
of soul in distinction from another, but by all
the soul. God is not apprehended by human
knowledge, or will, or play of imagination, but by
the knowing, willing and thinking soul as a whole,
in its inner unity and soundness. Ray by ray
shines in, but all are caught in the focus of the
soul-life in process of becoming aware of itself
and of its environments, and the act of catching
all these rays is called faith.

Here, too, the diflaculty springs from the inward
ruin occasioned by sin, which is still esteemed too
lightly, because it is sought too exclusively within
the scope of morals. The injury worked by sin is
only fully known when its fatal effects are traced
in religion. Things become far more important
when it concerns our relation to God. For in con-
nection with this everything centers in the first
and great commandment: To love God with all
the soul and with all the strength. This is pos-
sible. The soul was created and equipped for this.
It can safely be said that when the soul operates
normally it can not do otherwise than direct itself

139

altogether and with all its strength to God. In
no other realm of life, therefore, does it show
more strongly than in religion how utterly
abnormal the soul has become by sin. And the
worst of it is, that in this matter of religion the
soul itself is so little conscious of it. He who
has committed a crime knows it, and finds no dif-
ficulty on his knees in confessing it before God.
With the finer forms of transgression in morals
this inner sense may fail us, but with the coarser
forms of sin the conscience almost always speaks
in every man. But when the first and great com-
mandment is violated, almost no one is conscious
of it. Thousands upon thousands every day deny
God all love, withdraw their whole soul from
him. rob him of all their strength, and thus in
the matter of religion they are hardened crim-
inals, who do not even know that they sin. Even
with the saved, who have confessed to love God,
the case is nearly the same. For some among
these give God only a small part of their soul,
work for him indifferently with only a few of
their powers, and as they kneel in prayer at night
are quite unconscious of the fact, that they have
broken the larger part of the first and great com-
mandment.

This fatal defect shows itself when the powers
of soul, which by reason of disposition and tem-
perament are most prepared to act, and which
therefore require the least sacrifice of self, are
given free rein. When a man who is naturally
intellectual becomes pious, he applies himself to
doctrine. If to know the only true God is
eternal life, he makes himself doctrinally strong.
He has nothing to do with knowledge of God

140

that is obtained along other Hnes than those of
close, analytical studies, and in these he is pro-
ficient. With utmost pains he traces what the
great thinkers have put into their several doc-
trinal systems regarding the Being, Work, Person
and Attributes of God. On this he ponders. To
him it appeals. He prides himself on it before
others. He really thinks that in this way he has
acquired the true knowledge of God. No, says
another, Jesus has said that he who doeth the
will of his Father who is in heaven, shall know
the glories of the faith. As a man of action,
therefore, he gives liberally of his means, labors
with zeal and enthusiasm, in which few equal
and none surpass him, brings willing offerings one
after another, and with all his strength devotes
himself to the interests of the kingdom — but he
has a dislike for all doctrinal niceties. He makes
no confe^ion with words. The all important
thing with him is confession in practical life. A
third has no interest either in doctrine or in
works, but is emotional. He, therefore, seeks his
strength in tender feelings, soulful utterances,
mystical perceptions of love, and thinks that in
these he comes closer to God. Imagination is
the part of fantasy with another who seeks to
establish his strength in visions and mystical rep-
resentations, and in the contemplation of the
things which his soul-eye discerns he is most
happy. Did not St. Paul glory in rare exaltations
of spirit and in being caught up into higher
spheres? Add to these, inspirations, suggestions,
experiences in which the soul is aware of sudden
motions, and so much more, and it is readily seen
that impressions and motions of soul differ

141

greatl3' when a man becomes inwardly athirst for
God.

The pity of it is that so far from realizing
that all these w^orkings, powers and exertions are
bound to express themselves in love of God, so
that loving God with all the soul may become
real, the children of God, for the most part, hold
themselves back within their own retreat, seek
God with only one power of their soul, and not
infrequently criticize a brother who seeks salva-
tion by the use of another soul-power than they
themselves employ. "With all thy soul," said
Jesus. "With a part of my soul," they reply.
And just because they are truly pious and sincere
of purpose, they do not tremble at the thought
of leaving the rest of their soul inactive for God.

I SAW ALSO THE LORD.

"And this is life eternal, that they might know
Thee, the Only true God." But then we must
not only know God intellectually, but with every
power at our disposal. As knowledge it must be
the result and summary of every observation and
perception. In connection wuth this at once the
question arises whether imagination, or more gen-
erally, the power of representation, plays a part
in this. A superficial mind inclines to answer this
Spirit means that all corporeity and materiality
must be excluded from it, no manifestation of
negatively. For God is Spirit. And if the word
God is possible in any way whatever. If all out-
ward divine manifestation is unthinkable, how
can we make a representation of God. We can

142

make forms and figures of idols after the manner
of heathen nations, but these are contrivances
pure and simple. And in this matter of knowing
God, which is eternal life, we have no interest in
cunningly constructed fabrications. We want
reality. Hence we would say that there can be
no representation of God, no outward manifesta-
tion of him can show itself, for the reason that
his absolute spirituality excludes every idea of
matter, form or dimension.

But however convincing this maj' seem, it does
not end the matter. How can we interpret
Isaiah's words in the narrative of his vision-call
(6:1)? Including the record of the vear in which
it happened he declares: ''I also saw the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and
his train filled the temple."

We leave the question unanswered whether
Isaiah saw some outside appearance, or whether
something presented itself to him in his inner
range of vision. It is enough that God mani-
fested himself to the prophet in such a way that
it enabled him to give a description of it in
writing. It was an appearance which took such
a forcible hold upon him. in connection with
which so many things took place, and which
resulted in such important prophecies, that it
affected all his after life.

We who in his inspirations and prophecies
honor the work of the Holy Ghost, can not take
this vision of his call as a meaningless product
of an unhealthy imagination. There was reality
in this v^ision, and an action on the part of God.
And we conclude that among the many means by
which God can make himself known to man, he

143

has also used observable representation, however
transient.

In the New. as well as in the Old Testament,
we read repeatedly of angel-appearances and of
appearances of the Messiah before his incarna-
tion. And are not angels spirits like God him-
self, incorporeal and immaterial? We hear
repeatedly that angels appear, and speak and act.
The angel that smote the armies of Sennacherib
stands in line with the angel that led Peter out
of prison. Before his incarnation the existence
of Christ was purely spiritual, but with him the
outward manifestation, and with it the clear rep-
resentation, went so far in ancient times that the
patriarch received him in his tent and enter-
tained him with a meal at his table. It is well
known that this is scoffed at, and that it is put to
the score of innocent fiction; but less superficial
psychology is not satisfied with this, and inclines
to attach to such an account a much higher, inner
value. When during his earthly ministry Christ
accepted the Old Testament records of such
appearances literally, including those which
referred to himself, and ratified them in their
immediate signification, what other conclusion can
we reach, than that a certain appearance and a
certain representation, of a Being which like that
of God is purely spiritual by itself, is not unthink-
able.

The Scripture always pictures this appearance
and representation in the religious hfe, with human
features. In connection with the Cherubim we
read of animal forms, of a lion and so on, which
serve to represent great power and glory. But in
every meeting with man the appearance of an

angel, of the Messiah, or as in Isaiah 6, of the
Eternal Being himself, takes place in human form,
in human dress, and with the use of human lan-
guage. With appearances of angels there is no
mention of wings, borrowed from the animal
world; of these we read in connection with
Seraphs surrounding God's throne.

The fixed application of the human form in this
connection is significant. The appearance of
spirits in human form is immediately connected
with the creation of man after God's image.
Christ himself is called the Image of the Invisible
God, "the express Image of his person." And we
are told that man is created after this Image, so
that there is a certain likeness between these two.
What then could have been more natural than
that the Eternal God, in order to reveal himself
to man, either by himself or by his angels, should
have passed over from himself to his Image, and
from his Image to man? The very thought that
there is an Image of God implies that it is a mis-
take to think that there can be no distinction and
no expression in a spirit. It shows that God's
life by itself is not an unbroken sameness, but
that it consists of an infinite yet undivided ful-
ness of distinctions, and that this varied life which
is continually present with him in his conscious-
ness, is to him the Image of his Divine Being.

In any case it is certain that when God created
man after his Image, this Image was there before
he could create man after it. And also that this
Image has always provided the way by which to
reveal himself to man in human form. This was
only completed in the fulness of time at Bethle-
hem, though it was foreshadowed in previous

145

appearances. In connection, therefore, with the
knowledge of God, which is eternal life, the imag-
inative life of our spirit must also be considered.

The key to this secret is, that spirit and matter,
God and the world, are distinguished from one
another in such a way that it can never be
ignored. For if we do we are, whether we will or
not, irresistibly drawn into Pantheism. While on
the other hand it can not be denied that God
has created the world, so that whatever there is
in the world can never express anything else than
what has been thought out by God, even the
Word from all eternity. Likewise as regards our
soul and body, it must be inexorably maintained,
that these are two, even in this sense, that after
death the soul continues its life in the disem-
bodied state until the resurrection. Though again
it should not be forgotten that soul and body
complement one another, and that the soul can
only reveal the fulness of its power through the
body.

This gives rise to a threefold realm of activity.
One is the realm of pure spiritual activity.
Another is the realm of activity through and with
the aid of the body. And there is also a mixed
domain, in which the spirit truly operates purely
spiritually^ but with data from the world of sense.

The use of images in spoken language can not
be reckoned with this. We know by these that
we mean something metaphorical, something out-
side of reality. When the righteous is said to be
as courageous as a lion, everyone understands that
it does not mean a real, devouring beast. But it
is different in dreams. Then we see people and
co-operate with them. We engage in conversa-

146

tion. We are attacked. And everything seems so
real to us that on awakening in fright, we find
it difficult to believe that the burglar who threat-
ened our life does not stand by our bed.

This impression of reality in what is imagined
is still stronger and much more acute in a vision.
One can almost say that visions are dreams
which one dreams not in sleep upon the bed, but
by day, while one is fully awake. And though
this vision-life is far more common in the East
than it is with us, yet it is a mistake to suppose
that it does not exist among us. Meanwhile an
appearance far excels in clearness and reality both
dream and vision. That we feel so little at home
in this realm is only explained from the fact that
science can not tell anything about these spiritua,!
operations. It lacks sufficient, certain data for
observation, and has not been able thus far to
enter this mysterious domain. Before this world
of real workings, it stands helpless. This encour-
ages unbelieving science proudly to deny the
reality of it, while believing science, confessing its
inability to grasp it, gratefully accepts what has
been revealed regarding it in Scripture.

We should be on our guard therefore lest we say
that in connection with our knowledge of God
the imaginative life has no message for us. The
intellectual man who asserts this, contradicts
Scripture all too boldly. The second command-
ment certainly binds us; that is to say, it for-
bids us to make an image of God, even in our
imagination. The imaginative life may operate
in behalf of the knowledge of God, when God
quickens it in us; as in the case of Isaiah's vision
of his call, or in the appearances to Abraham.

147

This forming of images has at last been per-
fected in the "human nature" of Christ. After
he had entered into glory, Christ appeared to St.
John on Patmos in his human nature and the
manner of this appearance has been committed
to writing for us. This is the only appearance
of Christ, given to the church, that may and
should govern our imaginative life.

To this we add that in a child of God even
here something of his Father is manifest. The
nobler the Christian life, the more this is visible.
The weaker the Christian life, the less apparent
it is. But when a Christian life is deeply spiritual,
they who are equally devout, see through it, as
it. were, something of the Image of the Eternal
God. From this it follows that if we are God's
children it is our high calling, not by our imag-
ination, but by the image-forming manifestation
of our entire personality to cause something of
the Father to be seen by those who are of the
household of faith.

29

'TF ANY MAN WILL DO HIS WILL."

In behalf of the knowledge of God there is
great power in conformity to his will. God
becomes known to us by studious thought, by
play of the imagination, by inner experience and
in other ways. But it can not be denied that he
also becomes known to us by the will. Within
the last fifty years the will has been put in the
foreground, by which to interpret many things
which no one associated with it before. An impor-
tant school of philosophy has emphasized the will

148

to such an extent that the significance of the
other activities of the human spirit has suffered
serious loss. The fundamental position of this
school is that the will alone determines things,
accomplishes things, creates reality, and makes
itself known as a power ; and that the more deeply
one studies the question the more irresistibly one
is forced to acknowledge that the will is the only
power that governs and employs all other powers.
This was confirmed by history. It is observed in
the present. In every department of life the man
of will exercises authority and overrides the weak.
From man we have learned the wonderful power
of will. Similar phenomena have been traced in
the animal-world, but too little is known of this
to build on. And so it has seemed safest to make
the power to will, as it showed itself in man, the
starting point.

But, of course, it could not stop with this. The
phenomenon of the will is too great, and its dom-
inance too prevalent, than that it can exist in man
otherwise than derivatively. In the original state
of things the will existed outside of man, and man
himself was the product of the great supreme
Universal- will that brought all things to pass.
What until now had been worshipped in the world
as God, or had been denounced as Satan, was
according to this school nothing but that Uni-
versal-will, the gigantic will-power by which
everything is what it is. The world shows any-
thing but wisdom and less love. It is but the
product of monstrous will-power. Hence the
unsatisfying condition of its life. And since in
us also, on a small scale, there is a will with
power of will, the supreme duty of human life

is to train the will, to develop it, to apply it to
mighty deeds, and with this strongly trained
human will to maintain ourselves in the face of
the Universal- will. Hence everything that is, and
everything that is called history, and life itself
is reduced to one power, and the only thing that
is supremely high and holy is our personal will.

That the philosophic school which oracled like
this is diametrically opposed to all religion, and
more especially to the Christian religion, needs
no demonstration. But it is noteworthy that the
Christian religion in the Christian church, simul-
taneously revealed an allied tendency, which like-
wise put the will in the foreground, and at length
subordinated every other utterance of the Chris-
tian faith to it. We mean that religious tendency
which interprets the confession with ever greater
liberality, which allows feeling and sentiment ever
less opportunity of being heard, and shows ever
more the need and inclination to exhibit Chris-
tianity solely and alone in works and display of
power, that is to say, in utterances of the will.
This idea and inclination was not born nor taken
from this philosophic school, but owed its rise
to an universal phenomenon, which shows itself
in human life. The healthful Reformation in
the ecclesiastical world was followed first by the
barren period of dogmatics in the 17th century,
and after that by the period of emotional religion
in the 18th century. As neither the one nor the
other proved satisfactory, and as it became
evident that between these two, Christianity was
losing strength, it naturally came to pass that
with the depreciation of subtle credal statements,
and an increasing distaste for weak emotionalism,

160

another extreme was reached in the effort to
realize the Christian spirit in acts of the will.
Not the hearer, but the doer of the law shall
be holy. Not every one that sayeth, Lord, Lord,
but he that doeth the will of my Father who is
in heaven shall be saved. If any one doeth
His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether
it be of God (John 7:17). In brief, in behalf of
this new effort, many clear and strong utterances
of Holy Scripture could be cited. Thus a tend-
ency found an open door in every direction, which
could boast of its meritorious exhibition of Chris-
tian works, but with this drawback always, that
it under-estimated both the confessional state-
ments of the church and mysticism.

The well-known fact that in the Christian
stmggle of the 19th century English Christians
stood in the front ranks, was a powerful aid in
this direction. The period of concise confessional
statements was dominated by Switzerland, France
and the Netherlands. The emotional period had
been brought into prominence by German and
French sentimentalists. But with the 19th cen-
tury England appeared in the foreground. Eng-
land with its matter-of-fact system, its commer-
cial spirit and cool determination of will. From
England the thirst after deeds crossed over to the
continent of Europe, and what this tendency-of-
will accomplished in the interests of philanthropy
and missions can never be fully appreciated. It
gave birth to a new life and encouraged the desire
to exercise power. It simultaneously put to
shame the barren and meagre results of intel-
lectual orthodoxy, and the weak and sickly fruit
of sentimental mysticism. It inspired a willing-

ness to give. It inspired a devotion and an energy
of faith such as had not been in evidence among
us since the daj^s of the Reformation. In the
Salvation Army, which is the most sharply defined
exhibition of this tendency and at the same time
its crudest expression, there showed itself a many-
sided activity in behalf of the poor and the unfor-
tunate which aroused sympathy even in unbeliev-
ing hearts.

The onesidedness, however, of this movement
is a matter of regret, since it incurred the danger
of abandoning justification by faith, and of putting
in its place salvation by good works. The center
of gravity was transferred too much from God to
man. The outward supplanted the inward life
of piety. And as on the part of unbelievers there
was great and self-sacrificing activity along phil-
anthropic lines, it soon became evident that peo-
ple of this "Gospel of works" felt themselves in
closer sympathy with unbelievers who shared their
ideal of works than with the confessors of Christ,
who fell short of it. And what cut more deeply
still is that real religion, which is the search
after fellowship with God, was undeniably more
and more lost in this Gospel of the Will. There
was too much lack of loveable, tender piety. The
delicate plant of devotion became more and more
mouldy. And both in preaching and in private
conversation the hidden walk with God, the quiet
ways of the secret of redemption, salvation by
faith and being hid in Christ received ever less
attention, until at length nothing more was heard
of it. Everything had to be doing, nothing but
doing. All that was asked for was facts and still
again facts. The method came in vogue to com-

152

pute these deeds in numbers, and from high figures
to infer that God crowned the work with blessing.
There were statistics of converts, of moneys raised,
of society memberships, of the hungry that had
been fed, of the naked that had been clothed, of
the sick that had been healed. And flattery on
account of such showing was not always unaccept-
able.

And when it w^as objected that Christianity in
this way was externalized, and that the knowl-
edge of God which is eternal life was relegated
to the book of forgetfulness, the answer was, that
this surmise rested upon a misunderstanding, since
true knowledge of God does not come through the
intellect, and not through emotion, but through
the will. He who doeth the will of God knoweth
the Eternal. This pretext will be examined in the
following meditation.

"INCREASING IN THE KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD."

He that doeth the will of God naturally grows
thereby in the knowledge of God. Of two per-
sons, the one who is careful and conscientious in
his confession, but careless as to his manner of
life, has less chance to know the Lord than the
other who is careful and conscientious in his man-
ner of life, but indifferent in his confession. The
so-called practical Christianity, the tendency
which seeks salvation in christian works, was
correct to this extent, that doing the will of God
is certainly one of the means which is indispen-
sable to him who would have a full knowledge
of God.

153

If the knowledge of God is eternal life, Divine
knowledge can not be something apart from life.
Do not forget, eternal life is not life hereafter.
It is a life which does not spring from the cistern,
but from the fountain. Such knowledge of God
which is itself eternal life is unthinkable, there-
fore, apart from practical life. When a will
operates in all our works, and when our works are
only good when they conform to the will of
God, it is evident that there is a connection
between the knowledge of God and the doing of
his will.

The ox knoweth his owner, Isaiah tells us, but
Israel does not understand. We would say: A
horse knows his rider. The draft-ox is not much
used among us. But how does he know his
owner, or the horse his rider? Certainly in part
by the eye and by the ear, but even more by
the manner in which they are treated. When the
rider comes up from behind, so that the horse
does not see him, and utters no word or sound,
so that the animal does not hear him, the thor-
oughbred knows his rider at once, and knows
immediately whether his rider or a stranger
springs into the saddle. A good riding-horse
knows the will of his rider. He knows it even
so well that at length horse and rider become one,
and on the field of battle the horse will do his
rider's wish, even with loosened bridle. Thus by
careful training the animal has obtained such
knowledge of his owner that to him it has become
a living subordinate instrument.

Likewise the child of God that has lived accord-
ing to God's will, and at the hand of that will
itself has conformed himself to it. has come

154

to an instinctive knowledge of God such as no
Catechism or Confession can impart. We do not
say that this knowledge thus obtained is the
only knowledge of God, nor that it is sufficient,
nor that it offers satisfactory clearness; all we
mean to say is: that doing God's will introduces
a trait of its own into the knowledge of God,
which is indispensable if that knowledge is to be
a living knowledge, and which can not be
replaced by anything else, be it understanding
or feeling. . , i u

Take the case of forgiving those who have
trespassed against us. As children of God we
well know that this is our duty. We know it
even so well that we are well aware that the
matter is not ended when we are outwardly kind
and return no evil for evil. Christian forgiveness
goes farther and deeper than this. It must be
honest forgiveness without any reservation. Our
greatest enemy must be forgiven. Those who
curse us we must bless. We must love those who
despitefully use us. Consider it carefully: we
must love our enemy. We must not show him
love that we might exhibit our generosity. Ihis,
in fact, can only humiliate him. No, we must
love him as ourselves. It is almost incompre-
hensible, yet such is the command. As it is
prayed in the Our Father: Forgive us our tres-
passes, as we forgive those who trespass against
us To forgive from love is the measure of the
forgiveness of sin which we ask of God for our-
selves. Not as though God could be bound to
our measure, or forgive us because we forgive.
That would be turning the Gospel around. But
it signifies that we dare not ask more of God than

155

what we know is in our hearts to do to our
debtors.

All this only shows that when in forgiving our
enemy we do the will of God, we learn to know
what it is to forgive, what it is to receive from
God the mind and the will to forgive, and what
it is to come to the knowledge of God as regards
his mind and will to forgive us. He who him-
self does not forgive, who in opposition to God's
will harbors hatred in his heart, and does not con-
form himself to God's will in this matter of for-
giveness, lacks this particular knowledge of God,
which makes it clear how God forgives him.

From this one example it clearly appears that
doing the will of God increases the knowledge of
God; not metaphorically, not unreally, but in
deed and in truth.

There is still something else to be learned from
this. The practical 'Gospel of Works" puts
special emphasis upon doing extra things; things
which are outside of he ordinary life. By pref-
erence, therefore, it speaks of "Christian works,"
by which it means things outside the ordinary
life of business, family and society, such as zeal
for missions, visiting the poor, care for the sick
and blind. And in part this interpretation is
instinctively correct. When Christianity goes out
into the world nothing of all this can stay behind.
It all belongs to it. True, genuine Christianity
can not be satisfied with inspiring ordinary life
alone. It brings with it all sorts of things which
remain unknown without it. Only it is a great
mistake to suppose that the roses that grow
against the wall are the main thing, and that the
wall itself can be left to fall into ruins.

No, the doing of God's will covers all of life,
the ordinary as well as the extraordinary, and
the knowledge of God's will in common life is far
finer, more intricate and more difficult than it is
in those extraordinary things. To know what
God's will is in our personal life, in our busmess
or profession, in the family with its several con-
nections, in society and in the world in general,
is a study that is never ended on this side of the
grave. To learn not only what God's will is m
it all, but to bend the mind according to it, and
to conform the life to it, even to its minutest
detail, is not only a daily study, but a daily
struggle, in which he alone triumphs who is led
by the Spirit of God.

He who appHes himself to this, who makes this
his daily task, learns to understand Gods will,
and with every victory gained increases also in
the knowledge of God. A knowledge which he
does not acquire with his understanding, but with
his whole personality. The more we begin to
*-el as God feels, and the more we become mimied
ao God is, the more truly do we become children
of the Father who is in heaven. For then we will
not think that we do the will of God, when only
once in a while there is heroic self-demal. tJut
we will understand that to do the will of God is
to be so changed of mind and inclination that we
ourselves wiU what God wills. And he who
attains unto this and is daily engaged in this, of
himself increases in the knowledge of God by
increasing in the knowledge of himself.
This wUl be plain when we remember that

Being and Will in God are not two, but one.

God's will is the crystal-pure expression of his

157

Being. Hence knowledge of God's will becomes
of itself knowledge of his Being. The one can
not be separated from the other. Only this: the
will of God can only be truly known in the way
of the will. To know the Ten Commandments
by heart, and to make a list from the Scriptures
of every utterance of God's will, does not justify
a man in the least for saying that he knows the
will of God. He may know it from memory, but
the will is within, and can only be known within,
by having the personal will enter into the will of
God.

He who in a book on the art of navigation has
read what a captain has to do in times of storm,
does not know what it is to pilot a ship into
a safe harbor. This is only known to him who
has himself been out at sea in command of a ship
in a storm and has brought it safely to port.

Likewise the knowledge of God's will is not
acquired by learning lessons in morality by heart,
but with the organ of our own will God's will
must be so understood that we ourselves fulfill
it. And thus only in the-way-of-the-will do we
come to that knowledge of God, which can only
be learned in this way.

We should not criticize therefore the Gospel
of works, as though it had no use. On the con-
trary, it is absolutely indispensable. Only it must
gain in depth. It must be applied to all of life.
It should also be clearly understood that so far
from being all the knowledge of God, the knowl-
edge of his will is only a part of it. Forsooth,
it is an indispensable part, but only in union
with the other knowledge of God, which is
obtained through the understanding, feeling and

158

imagination, does it form one whole. All these
together constitute that full knowledge of God,
which is eternal life. Only do not lose from sight
that the daily increase in the knowledge of God is
obtained solely and alone in the way of the will.
There is a two-fold will of God: the one is over
us, the other is concerning us. The will of God
over us determines our life, our career and our
lot in life. It was with reference to this will of
God that Jesus prayed: Not my will, but thy
will be done. But the will of God concerning us
shows us how to will, what to do and to leave
undone; and regarding this will of God we pray
in the Our Father: Thy will be done as in
heaven by the angels, so also on earth by me.
And it is this second, this last-named will of God
which if we li^'e m it, and conform ourselves to
it, unconsciously makes us increase day by day
in the knowledge of God.

31

"BESIDE THE STILL WATERS."

If there is a desire to know God, the will must
be studied still more closely. In the days of our
fathers the field, in which the will operates, was
not suflBciently plowed and harrowed. The great
question was whether the will was free or bound.
For the rest, even in preaching and in catechising,
the supreme significance of the will was ignored.
Is not even now almost the whole realm of the
will left fallow?

Of course this does not mean to say, that both
in the times of our fathers, and in our own past,
there has been no increase in the knowledge of

159

God through the will. How could this be other-
wise? The will does not come into action by
what is written about it in a book, or preached
on it from the pulpit. It is the Lord who inspires
the will to act, and in action to direct it for good.
It is he "who worketh in you both to will and
to do his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13), and how
could the Lord be bound to sermon or lecture?

We only mean that he who is so fortunate and
blessed as not only morning by morning and even-
ing by evening to be refreshed with a drop of
grace from the fountain of Divine Compassion,
but also to have time and insight to meditate on
holy things, does wrong when he neglects the
investigation of such an important component part
of the power of the soul as the will. This makes
poor; while to give one's mind to it makes rich.
For the will is inscrutably wonderful. In the
creation of the soul it constitutes a marvelous
piece of Divine workmanship, and it is so deeply
engraven a trait of the image of God, which
reflects itself in us, that to leave it unstudied
betokens lack of reverence and wonder. It is,
moreover, so mighty a tool that the thoughtless
use of it readily does harm.

We must also distinguish between times and
times. There is a time of childhood followed by
that of early youth, when we live by instinct, and
are not able to give a reason for the acts of the
will. But then there comes a time when the
troubled waters settle, and the mirror of the con-
sciousness becomes clear, and we begin to think.
Our age is farther advanced than that of our
fathers, because it is older. Earlier instinctive
life gradually becomes a conscious life. He who

160

takes no part in this transition is left in the rear.

The whole church will understand that she
loses power when she adheres to the old, without
harmonizing her insight into the past with the
claims of our clarified consciousness. She then
loses her touch upon life. Her preaching does
not join itself to what stirs and moves in the
world. She does not equip the faithful with
needed armor, and becomes herself the cause,
that in ever weaker positions in the conflict of
spirits she is incapacitated. Confess, in times
such as these, when in every way the will has
become the object of investigation and thought,
will it do for Christians to act as though the
knowledge of the will did not concern them?

Here we confine ourselves to our subject. It
is the aim of these meditations to bring the soul
into secret fellowship with God. This requires
knowledge of God, even that knowledge which is
itself eternal life. In that knowledge of God
we must increase. And this increase is more pos-
sible through the will than through the under-
standing. This is the point which we emphasize.
The holy apostle expresses it so clearly: ''Walk
worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, whereby
we shall be fruitful in every good work, and at
the same time increase in the knowledge of
God" (Col. 1:10),

He who bends his will so that at length he has
no other will than to forgive his debtor, comes
through his own will to the knowledge of the
compassionate God who forgives him. To God
forgiveness is no outward rule, which he applies.
To forgive proceeds from his will. And this will
to forgive proceeds from his Being. If we come

161

to will like this of ourselves, we become con-
formed to our Father who is in heaven. The
words of Jesus: Be ye perfect, as your Father
who is in heaven is perfect, are then realized in
us; they are realized in this particular; and con-
scious that we are of the family of God we
come to this knowledge of God, which is not a
lesson learned by rote, but which proceeds from
our divine relationship itself. Do we understand
the beauty and godliness of this?

All men are not alike either in mental capacity
or in the disposal of time. Some are able to
analyze all things and to study them out deeply
and accurately. But more by far can not do
this. We would not call them stupid for this
reason, but as a matter of fact few people can
make exhaustive studies of every part of our
glorious confession. They simply can not do it.
They have not the ability. Freedom of time also
differs greatly in given circumstances. The day-
laborer, who is away from home from morning
until night has little or no time' for the study
of sacred things, especially as compared with the
clergy or professors of Theolog>% who can devote
all day to it. And apart from time, opportunities
differ widely. Such study requires education,
books and retirement. And see the difference
between a farm-hand at the plow and a university
trained clergyman in his study, who is well sup-
plied with books.

If we take the knowledge of God as consisting
mainly of book knowledge; if we say that the
knowledge of God obtained in this way is eternal
life, are wc not cruel? For does not this imply

162

that eternal life is a right that belongs to the
man of study, and not to the swain who follows
sheep? And we know this can Dot be true. Tf
the knowledge of God is eternal life, the increase
in this knowledge must be for sale for something
which is at every one's disposal, the professor in
his study, the day-laborer at his work, the busy
mother in her home. This brings us of itself to
the will. Intellectual attainment is not enough.
Many students of great learning appear to have
no knowledge of God at all, while many hard-
working plain souls exhale the fragrance of eternal
life.

Here we touch the sensitive nerve of life itself.
In every person operates a will. It comes into
action every day. The will is in all and is active
in everything. The working, the action, the power
of the will, its impulse and passion may differ
widely, but without will there is no action, no
deed, no career in life. Every difference between
man and man here falls away. Every one faces
it daily for himself. In whatever high or low
position one finds himself, there is a will that
wills, a will that operates. It proceeds in a quiet
and peaceful way. It is not something apart
that is added to life. It is the urgency of life
itself that beats and throbs in every artery.
Softly, by the side of very quiet waters, this
action of the will continues all day long through-
out life. It is a never resting, but an ever newly-
fed stream of choice of will, decision of will,
action of will, continually, quietly rippling along,
bearing life company and partly carrying it.
Thus by these utterances of the will it is in the
power of every one to continuously increase in

163

the knowledge of God, and thereby to obtain ever
larger possession and fuller enjoyment of eternal
life, provided we separate this utterance of the
will less and less from the will of God and derive
it more and more from the will of God. Thus
every idea of cruelty falls away. Whether life is
limited or large, makes no difference. Even
though it wears on like the quiet flow of a gentle
stream, every day the knowledge of God can be
enriched by it, and we can increase in everlasting
life; a queen on her throne as well as the farm-
hand behind the plow, a professor in his study
who is no better than he who moves the shuttle
in the loom.

This goes softly, as by the side of very still
waters, and the glory of it is that it asks for no
extra time outside of the daily life. Every kind
of learning demands special time. The daily task
is broken up for it. Special time must be set
apart for it. On the part of many people this
is almost impossible. For most people's life is
a mill which never stops. But even this is no
drawback to the knowledge of God through "the
willing of the will." For the will never operates
outside of, but always in the life. Whether,
therefore, you walk behind a plow, or stand
behind the school-desk, or care for your children
at home, or nurse the sick, it is all the same. It
is all utterance and activity of will. And pro-
vided we do not oppose our will to the will of
God, and do not diverge from it, but bend our
will after God's will, it is all one process of
activity, whereby we increase in the knowledge of
God, in order through this knowledge to mature
in eternal life.

164

32

'WHO WORKETH IN YOU TO WILL."

By doing willingly what God wills us to do,
we increase in the knowledge of God; not in
barren book-knowledge, but in living soul-knowl-
edge, which is itself eternal life. This springs
from all sorts of causes, but not least from the
fact that our willingness is not born from us, but
is wrought in us by God. "He it is, writes the
apostle, who worketh in you both to will and to
do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). Hence
there is first the willing, after that the W9rking
through and according to our will, and while we
work this action of the will in the soul, it is God
who worketh it in us. It is self-evident that in
this connection this last distinction must be made.
Otherwise our willingness would merely be on
the surface, and the child of God, in good works,
would merely be a puppet moved mechanically.
This distinction should be clearly understood.
We ourselves will, not because of ourselves, but
because God so worketh in us, that now we our-
selves truly and actually will to do thus and not
otherwise. It takes some pains to see this clearly,
and it is easy to follow the advice not to con-
cern ourselves with the several distinctions. But
when we lend our ear to this advice of spiritual
sloth, we do ourselves a wrong.

Ask any physician how many distinctions he
makes in a single group of nerves, or how many
differences he observes in germs of disease in the
blood. And will it do, that so much pains are
taken in behalf of the body, which perishes, and
not in behalf of the soul, which is so much more
precious? But this tendency prevails. While

165

almost every one has some sort of a manuel,
illustrated if possible, from which to learn how
the body is constructed, nothing is read about
the soul. By far the larger numbers of people
do not investigate it, but speak at random about
the soul, and about the will, and the understand-
ing, and everything is in a chaos, and so most'
people continue all their lives strangers to their
own inner selves. Everything else can be described.
One is familiar with his house, village or city,
and sometimes also with foreign lands. But the
key to the chambers and vaults of his own soul
has never been found. And since lack of self-
knowledge is punished with meagre knowledge of
God, one deprives himself of his share in the
eternal life, which far excels all things else. We
therefore urge the remembrance of the distinc-
tion that has been made. When a martyr says:
I will die for the name of the Lord Jesus, he
must himself will to do it. It must be his own
act. But that he himself so wills it, does not by
nature spring from himself. It is wrought in him
by God.

To illustrate: Bring to your mind a ship. It
has an helm. Attached to the helm is the tiller,
and this is held in the hand of the boatswain.
If at sea the ship moves with the suction of wind
and waves, without being directed, every time
the ship turns the helm turns, and with it the
tiller, and with the tiller the hand and the arm
of the man. This is the image of a man without
a will. He is adrift on the sea of life. As the
wind and waves move, so moves he, subject to
the currents and influences from within and from
without, of inclinations and of circumstances. As

life moves him along, so he goes, and so turns
the rudder in his inner purpose, and the tiller,
and the hand that is upon it, i. e., his will. He
■is a man without a will. This is altogether dif-
ferent when there is direction in the ship. Then
the man at the helm directs the course. He
knows where he wants to go. And when wind
and waves take him out of his course, he resists
them. Then the hand takes firm hold on the
tiller, turns it, and with it the helm, directly
against wind and wave, and the ship that obeys
the helm- cuts the waves, not as tide and wmd
should will, but as the helmsman wills it. Such
is the man of character, the man of will-percep-
tion and will-power, who does not drift, but
steers. But there is still a third. On the bridge
of the ship, far away from the helm, stands the
captain. He knows the intended course, and as
on the bridge he stands much higher, he can see
far better whether the ship should turn to the
right or to the left. Then all the man at the helm
has to do is to listen for orders from the captain
on the bridge and to obey them.

Apphed to the soul, God is the captain on the
bridge, and the man at the helm is ourselves.
When with the tiller of he boat of our soul in
hand we but will what God wills, and turn the
helm to the right or to the left as God orders,
then there is no danger to be feared, and pres-
ently through wind and waves, the boat safely
reaches port. If this goes on for life, we become
accustomed to it; in the end we learn to know
ahead whether the captain on the bridge shall
order right or left; we come to know God's will
more and more as of ourselves ; and so the knowl-

edge of God brings us nearer to the haven of sal-
vation, i. e., to eternal life.

From the illustration we come back to the
matter itself. When God so works in us that at
length we ourselves will what God wills, the
process is not outward but inward. It is not that
we are here on earth below, and that far away
from us, and seated high above us in the heavens,
from immeasurable distances God imparts a
mechanical impulse to us. Far from it. God
enters our inmost selves.

To a certain extent this is even the case with
the captain on the bridge who calls to the mate
at the helm. For what is it to call? He who
calls makes air-waves to vibrate and these vibra-
tions extend themselves to the spot where the
man stands at the helm. Thus the vibrating air-
waves enter the ear of the mate, touch his
auditory-nerve, which communicates the motion
to his soul. Hence there is a direct, continuous
movement, which from the captain penetrates into
the soul of the mate. Thus the illustration covers
the ground.

But with the case in hand it is yet stronger.
When God worketh in us he is the omnipresent
One, who is both high in heaven and close at
hand. Even "close at hand" is still too weak a
statement, for God is in every one of us. There
is no part in our being where God is not omni-
present. This is the case with all men. But when
God deals with one of his children, this inward
presence is much closer and more personal, for
God dwells in such an one by his Holy Spirit,
If we believe that the Holy Spirit is himself
God, we understand that God himself tabernacles

168 -

in his child, that he has his throne in the
inmost recess of the child's soul, and thus has
fellowship with him, not from afar, but in the
sanctuary of his own person. There God worketh
upon us by day and by night, even when we are
not conscious of it. He is our Sculptor, who*
carves in us the image of himself, and makes us
more and more to resemble his own Being. Thus
he transforms us, and also the willing in us. It
is God who worketh in us, not only our emotions,
but also our willing, by transforming "the self
that wills."

When we understand it this way, it is plain
that there is a constant holy entering in of God's
will into our will, thanks to this purifying and
refining and transposing of our inmost selves.
This work goes on in us mostly unobserved and
unperceived, so tenderly and gently does God's
hand direct the task. But not always just like
this. Sometimes the sculptor must forcibly strike
off a piece from the marble, so that it crashes
and sphnters as it falls. These are our times of
violent inward struggles, when everything within
us quakes with the reverberations of moral shocks.
But whether it be gentle or whether it be violent,
it is ever the process of sculpturing. And the
sculptor works not after a model that stands
before him, but is himself the model. He forms
us after his own image.

This Divine labor in the realm of our will
brings us ever into closer resemblance to the
image of God. And to be more and more trans-
formed after the image of God only means that
God's will ever more deeply enters into om- will,
which in turn means an ever better understand-

169

ing of God, a better knowledge of him, and an
ever clearer insight into his will and purpose.
Thus we see that there is still another way of
learning to know God than learning about him
from books or sermons.

* Further on we will try to show that this knowl-
edge of God from books and sermons is also
indispensable, but we pass it by for the present.
It is eminently necessary that eyes that are now
closed against seeing God's work in the inner
life of the soul shall open to see this glorious
work. Without an understanding of the reality
of the life of the soul, and of God's work therein,
there is neither power nor outpouring of the
same, nor fruit of that power in the life. In that
case the Church is dead. It only echoes sounds
when it thinks that it sings Psalms of praise
unto God. Then the world pushes the Church
to a side, and not the Church the world. All
attention therefore must be centered on the will,
on the willingness, on the self that wills, and
upon God who in the self works the willing.

The poet in his songs prayed for feeling,
imagination and heroic courage. For feeling, will-
power and heroic courage let every child of God
supplicate the Father.

"WHAT I WOULD, THAT DO I NOT."

The distance that separates the noblest and
mightiest man on earth from God is immeasur-
ably great. We fully understand that it can
make us exclaim almost despairingly: "Why
should we seek after knowledge of God? Behold,

170

God is great, and we know him not. The most
we can do is to kneel in worship before the
unknown God."

This is what the doubters meant, who at
Athens had reared an altar to the "Unknown
God." They did not mean that besides the many-
gods, whose altars had been reared, there was
still another God, whose name they did not know
and to whom they brought their offerings as to
an unknown god. No, that altar to the unknown
God stood for a system and a viewpoint. By
that altar they meant to say, ''Our fellow-
citizens in Athens, who kneel before Minerva or
Jupiter are mistaken when they accept the
stories about the gods. All that is said to be
known of God is founded upon self-deception.
Of the Infinite himself nothing can be known.
There is an Infinite One, or at least there is
something Infinite. Who or what it is, is an
impenetrable mystery. Worship this Infinite as
the great Unknown. Do it with the confession of
ignorance. Candidly confess that all knowledge
of God is withheld. And then mysticism will
work wholesome effects. But let us not confess
to have what we have not. Let us not pretend
that we are introduced and initiated into the
knowledge of God. For this is self-deception.
It will only deceive others and is the key to
priest-craft.

This was the thought of that small group of
men in Athens. And among the ablest and
noblest of our race there are many who think
so now. From choice they call themselves
"Agnostics," Their aim and purpose is to have
it imderstood that they are by no means godless,

and least of all that they are irreligious; that
indeed they are most religious and that therefore
with deep humility they are frank to confess, that
the God whom we worship is One who by his
Supreme Majesty withholds his knowledge from
men.

However devout this may seem, their viewpoint
is essentially untenable. It is diametrically
opposed to Christian doctrine. What Paul
declared to the Athenians: "That God, whom ye
ignorantly worship, him declare we unto you,"
remains unchangeably the confession which we
hold in the face of these misguided people.
Surely, had not God revealed himself, no one of
us would have known him. But God has made
a revelation of himself. This is the glad tiding
which every true Christian makes known in the
world. Wherefore in the face of this seemingly
pious not-knowing of the Agnostics, we boldly
maintain the word of Christ: This is eternal
life, that they might know thee, the Only true
God.

There is also excess on the other side. There
are ministers and laymen who talk so familiarly
about God, without reserve or constraint, and
who speak to him in prayer so irreverently as to
arouse aversion. These are men and women who
have no actual fear of God in their heart, who
think that they know well-nigh everything about
the Most Highest, and who do not even faintly
perceive that all our speaking about the Eternal,
: nd all our speakina; to him. is nothing more
than stammering. Love truly casts out fear.
But fear must be there first, and love must

172

struggle against it. In this way only the victory
is gained of the child-like Abba Father.

When God is spoken of in a way which shows
that there has been no fear of God, nor love to
cast it out; that there has been no struggle and
consequently no triumph, there is no child-like
Abba, dear Father, but a pedantic show and pre-
tense of knowledge, which exhales no fragrance of
piety, but rather destroys the germ of vital
godliness. To avert this it is needful that our
knowledge of God is properly related to our
whole inner self, to our creation after God's
image, to our childship in the family of God,
and especially to our will and purpose. Purely
intellectual knowledge of God is a frozen criLst
of ice from under which the stream has run dry.

Another distinction must be observed. There
are two kinds of willingness. One just remains
what it is, the other is translated into doing. In
our days the inclination is strong to attribute an
inner excellence to the willingness that expresses
itself in doing. There is something bold and
almost brutal in the will-life of our times. All
one needs is to will. He who wills must dare.
Then let come what will. In every case the will
must express a power that can do everything.
''Where there is a will there is a way." And
under the lead of such men as Ibsen and others,
this will-effort has been driven so onesidedly,
that in their effort irresistibly to carry out their
own will many pride themselves on their indif-
ference to opposition.

Compared with these present-day heroes of the
will, a weakling like St. Paul cuts a very poor
figure. He candidly declares that he has known

173

moments in his life when he had to confess:
"What I would, that do I not; but what I hate,
that I do" (Rom. 7:15). This is an honest con-
fession, which age upon age has been shamefully
abused, that under the cloak of piety one might
continue in sin and keep the conscience quiet.
An abuse which shall be judged of God. But
apart from this abuse the language of St. Paul
is the honest description of actual life, which
declares that the ideal always stands above us,
and that we always have to mourn our inability
to reach it, and to make 't actual in life.

There is willingness of heart, and an effort to
realize it in life. This willingness of heart is for
the most part free. He who restrains evil ten-
dencies and conforms his will to the will of God,
fosters an holy aim. This involves conflict, but
only in connection with the remnant of the old
nature that is in us. As long as we stand aloof
from life, and take council with our heart, a
child of God will inwardly triumph, and finally
he will come to will only what God wills, and
find happiness in this harmony of his will with
the will of God.

Now, however, follows a still greater difficulty.
And that is: to carry into effect what we will at
heart, against the world, the flesh and the Devil.
In connection with this it continually happens
that with the best will of the heart we meet with
stubborn resistance; that we find no power in
ourselves to cope with it; and that in the end we
leave undone what we honestly meant to do and
still want to do. This tempts us all too often
to underestimate this inner willingness of heart.
What is the good, we ask, whether we foster the

174

best of intentions and cherish holiest purposes,
when at the time of trial we are bound to fail?
And this mood must be resisted. This is debase-
ment of self. It not only unfits one for the
battle of life, but severs the vital nerve which
binds one to his Divme ideal. Better faint ten
times and suffer the punishment of God's judg-
ment in the conscience than to have part with
the world in everyday sin without an accusing
conscience.

This inner willingness of heart to will what
God wills has supreme worth, even though as yet
strength fails to carry it into effect. For it is the
development of the life of God's child. It is
coming into closer fellowship with God. It is
the increase in the knowledge of God. It is a
discipline which keeps the conscience tender, and
the ideal bright, and makes progress in the way.

Of course the progress is greater when willing-
ness of heart is carried out in the deed, until it
becomes a part of life. For then the moral power
of faith operates, the nature of the hero awakens
and the power of the Almighty, which overcomes
the world, becomes manifest in us. But it does
not begin with this. It begins with the transpos-
ing of the willingness in the heart. This is fol-
lowed by the sad and painful experience that the
willingness is there, but that the doing still
tarries. In that stadium the strong and pene-
trating working of the conscience performs
wonders, for it brings us at length into the final
stadium, v.here from bare willingness what God
wills we are brought to the doing of his good
pleasure.

34

"NOT AS I WILL."

In the "Our Father," and in Gethsemane, it
is each time the same prayer: "Thy will be
done." But though the emphasis and the words
are alike both times, the meaning is different.
In the "Our Father" "Thy will be done" means:
"Thy will, O God, be done by me." In Geth-
semane it means: "Let thy will, O God, come
upon me. Let come to me what may, not as I
will, but as thou wilt" (Matt. 26:39). The latter
prayer brings a large part of the knowledge of
God which is eternal life. We increase in this
knowledge when our will conforms itself to the
will of God, so that we think, speak and act in
perfect harmony with his ordinances. Thus we
grow in the knowledge of God, because his will
then enters into us, whereby our will is trans-
formed, and conformity to the Image of God
becomes ever more apparent.

But there is another increase in the knowledge
of God which comes to us when we are willing to
suffer what God allows to come upon us, when
we adapt ourselves to what in his council he
has appointed in our behalf, and when we accept
the things that come to us therein not merely
without murmuring and complaint, but with
heroic faith. This increase in the knowledge of
God progresses differently and along lines of a
far more painful discipline. The stress consists
in this: That, accepting the will of God in our
lot, we bear it passively. When "Thy will be
done" means: "Let me fulfill thy will as the
176

angels fulfil it in heaven/' it stimulates our energy,
St r?^ up the will, and when we overcome sin the
heart overflows with the feeling of supreme joy.
But when "Thy will be done" means : "Let things
occur not as I desire, but in keeping with thy
plan," there is need of submission and resignation
that we might endure what God appoints and
allows. In the lower school of suffering at least
there is no development of energy at such a time,
but inward enervation; no stimuli to spur the
will, but cords that tightly bind it; no smile of
courageous heroism, but the tear of poignant
sorrow. It leads to deeper knowledge of God,
but as a rule in a far more trying way, through
dark mazes of many unknown and unsolvable
riddles. Problems that try one's mettle to the
uttermost, when it comes not merely to momen-
tary suffering of pain, but to the endurance of a
bitter lot, which begins early in life and ends
only with the grave.

This frequently happens in life. Here is a
woman who was a happy wife. Husband and
child were her daily delight. She was not irre-
ligious. Heartfelt gladness found frequent expres-
sion in thanksgivings and praise. "The love of
the Heavenly Father was great. He made her
happy and glad." But circumstances changed.
Great illness broke in upon her peace. Husband
and child were snatched away by death. And
now that everything is gone she can not be com-
forted. The grieved and deeply-wounded soul
rises up in rebellion against God. It has all been
self-deception. She feels that in every way she
has been misled. God can not be love. How

177

could a loving God cruelly cast her down from
the heights of her great happiness into the depths
of bereavement and woe? In perplexity of grief
her language becomes that of despair and of
defiant unbelief. "Speak no more of God to me.
Cruelty can not be love. There is no God."
And so the break of happiness in life becomes
the break of faith on God. She thought that she
knew the Lord. Now that he shows himself in
a different way from what she had imagined she
abandons all she ever believed. With husband
and child she also lost her God. And nothing
is left in the soul but the burned-out hearth
where the last spark has been extinguished.

This shows how hard in the school of suffering
the lesson is by which we increase m the knowl-
edge of God. When for the first time in life the
full weight of the cross is laid upon the shoulders,
the first effect is the opposite from that for which
it was imposed. It makes us numb and indif-
ferent, and all knowledge of God is lost. The
hymn of love was so beautiful. It sang itself as
it were in the soul. A God who is nothing but
love, who blesses and enriches our life and makes
it glad, who would not treasure such knowledge
of God. It is pleasing to us when love is
shown, and nothing but love. How blessed and
rich is the heart with a God who makes only
streams of love, happiness and peace to flow out
towards us.

But the day of adversity dawns, the day of
trouble and disappointment, the day of sickness
and bitter grief. "Where now is the love of my
God? Where the outflow of love from the Father-

heart? Not only has he not saved me my dying
husband and child, and left me praying without
coming to my aid, but he has brought these
sorrows upon me. He sent illness into my home,
and 0, it is almost too cruel for words, he has
torn my husband from my heart and has killed
my darling child." In the end this will lead to
another and a better knowledge of God, which
will make his doings plain. But the first feel-
ing of the heart is, that with God, as we imag-
ine and dream him to be, we can not get
along. We lose the God we had, and it takes
many bitter conflicts of soul before, purified in
our knowled<2;e of the true God, we embrace him
in place of the other.

Thus the first lesson is, that in everyday life
we learn to submit to an higher appointment
and bow before an Omnipotence against which
we can do nothing. This seems dreadful. But
it is the discovery in actual life of God as God.
When we have but just come into the way that
leads to the cross, we take ourselves as the main
object of interest. It is our happiness, our honor,
our future, and God is added in. We look on our-
selves as the center of things, and God comes in
to make us happy. The father is for the sake of
the child. And the Almightiness which is con-
fessed is but to serve our interests.

This knowledge of God is faulty through and
through. It turns around the order of things. In
all seriousness it makes self God and God our
servant. This false knowledge of God is entirely
overthrown by the cross. Cast down in grief and
sorrow we suddenly perceive that this great God

179

does not concern himself with, lis; that he does
not apportion or regulate the course of things
according to our desire; that there are different
motives in his plan, which have nothing to do
with our wishes; that if necessary his Might
crushes us on the spot; and that in the working
of the plan and of the might we are nothing
else, and nothing more, than particles of dust
that cleave to the wheel, and withered leaves
that are driven before the wind. Hence we must
submit. We must bend. We are utterly impotent
before it. And from the heavens in which we
beheld thus far only the play of light and clouds,
darkness descends upon the soul, thunder-claps
reverberate in the heart, and flashing lightnings
fill us with dismay. This is the discovery of the
reality of God, of his overwhelming Majesty, of
an Almightiness that absorbs everything we call
our own. And for the first time we realize what
it is to have to do with the living God. For
such is God. Now we know him.

And now begins the new effort of the soul to
learn to understand this true God whom we have
come to know in this way. Then we begin to
wonder, to query and to ponder why Almighty
God doeth thus and so. Then the troubled heart
seeks an explanation. It looks for it in its own
guilt and sin, in the after-effects of the past, in
the purpose for which the cross was laid upon
us, and in the fruit which it shall bear in the
unravelling of eternity. For long times it is
always the effort to find the explanation of God's
doings in ourselves. Until the soul makes further
progress and abandons the theory of Job's friends,

180

and like Job out of the whirlwind receives the
answer from God himself, and now learns to
understand that the government of God covers all
suns and stars, all hours and centuries, and causes
every creature to revolve itself about him, the
Eternal, as the one and only center, for the sake
of his majesty and honor; that therefore his
council and plan are as high as heaven, and far
exceed our compreheL ion; and that not the
verification of his Council, but the entering into
the life of it, whether through joy or whether
through sorrow, is the honor and self-exaltation
of the soul.

This breaks the passiveness which made us
numb, and awakens again the impulse to will-
ingly drink the cup; to drink it with heroic cour-
age and not allow it to be forced upon us. To
will to drink it even as Jesus willed to die on
Golgotha; with a broken heart to co-operate in
the work of God, and in this passive co-operation
with God, who slays us, to find eternal life. It
is even as the sentinel who lets himself be shot
down at his post, and in dying receives the look
of approval from his general, which exalts him,
because he knows, and now understands, that he
who exposed him to death, yet loved him.

35

"I LOVE."

At times there is something so overpowering,
extravagant and unreasonable in the early love of
a youth for the maiden of his choice, and of the

181

maiden for the elect of her heart, that we feel
that there is a mysterious, inexplicable power at
play. This is not always so with those who are
betrothed. Eccentric tension of the mystery of
love is rather the exception. Neither should this
doting, intoxicating love be associated with
sensual inclinations or voluptuous desire. 'The
ecstacy of love" in question here only shows itself
with those who are in love, and while it pervades
the soul and body both, even in our sinful state,
it* can well be free from sensual propensities.

When this rapture is equally warm and true on
both sides, the w^orld hears nothing of it. Near
families and friends alone are in the secret.
Frequently, however, it reveals itself in a tragic
manner, as when the young maiden discovers
that her ardent love finds no equally ardent
response in the heart of her lover. Scarcely a
day passes that the papers do not report the case
of some girl, in the home-town or abroad, who
was betrothed and passionately in love, and who
upon discovering that her lover was untrue to
her, found life itself too heavy a load to carry,
and preferring death to life sought it in suicide.

''Ecstacy of love" is a high-strung degree of
affection which takes the person whom it masters
out of his normal self and transports him into an
excited state of mind, which though it is not
insanity, shows signs that are similar to it. There-
fore we began by saying that it is outside of
reason. One who is in this state of ecstacy can
not be advised nor reasoned with. As Burger in
his Leonora tells the tale so graphically, for those

182

who so love, there is only one of two things
thinkable; either they must be loved with equal
warmth in return, or they can find no rest until
they find it in death.

This should not be taken too ideally. It does
not follow by any means that such a young
maiden stands exceptionally high as a woman.
Rather on the contrary not infrequently such
ecstacy takes hold of girls who are very ordinary
0''".erwise, sometimes even very egotistical. In
course of time also in many cases this ecstacy
entirely passes away and nothing remains save a
very ordinary, and sometimes a low-lived person.
In the ordinary sense it is not passion that over-
power^ such a girl. And this ecstacy may be best
explained as an inclination bordering on insanity
to identify her life with that of another. It is a
noteworthy phenomenon. An overpowering desire
in the heart, which when doomed to disappoint-
ment makes one quickly and resolutely seek death,
is an utterance in human life wliich deserves
attention.

The Song of Songs describes this ecstacy of
love, and aims to outline an image of the love
of the soul for God. The whole Scripture
stretches the canvas on which at length the Song
of Solomon embroiders the image in vivid colors.
Human marriage is the embodiment of the tie
that binds God and his people together, God and
the individual soul. Jehovah calls himself Israel's
husband, and declares that he has betrothed him-
self to Israel in righteousness. Infidelity against
the Iloly one is called a whoring in idolatry.

183

Thus it is ever the God-given love between hus-
band and wife, which in vivid imagery is the
standing expression of the love that binds the
soul to God. In the New Testament this is
applied to Christ. He, the son of God's good
pleasure, is called the Bridegroom of his Church,
and his church is the Bride, who invokes him.

When Jesus analyzes the great commandment
of love, he turns to the Eternal Being, and out-
lines this love in terms which describe the
ecstacy as in life. To love God with all the
heart, with all the soul, with all the mind and
with all the strength, what else is this than to
be entirely lost in, and consumed by, a higher
drawing, which makes us ignore every other con-
sideration, in order to know and to find and to
enjoy the object of our love, in which to lose
ourselves altogether? The deep significance which
the love between husband and wife should
always have, and which it frequently still has,
can only be explained from the fact that in this
love God has imaged forth the highest love
between himself and the soul.

This lends an holy and exalted character to
this high-strung love. This accounts for the fact
that when this love develops harmoniously and
nobly, it creates the purest happiness on earth;
that in its sensual degeneration it works ruin and
corruption; and that when suddenly and inhar-
moniously it takes hold of a receptive mind, it
wrests the intoxicated soul away from itself and
leaves it a prey to semi-frenzy. For back of it
all operates the higher love, which God has
formed in the tie between himself and his

184

creature, and it is only the sinful character of
our earthly existence that unites what does not
belong together, makes soul and body part com-
pany, and breaks the equilibrium of the inclina-
tions, so that what is best and holiest turns itself
into sensuality or frenzy. Like the snow-flake,
which comes down from the clouds pure white
but is soiled through contact with the impurity
of this world.

Nevertheless, if we would understand what our
love for God should be, we must come back to
conjugal love. In the authorized version Psalm
116:1 reads: ''I love the Lord." In the orig-
inal it only states: I love. We would say: I
am in love. It is an utterance of the soul when
it perceives that the power of love has irresist-
ibly taken hold upon it; when it feels itself
inwardly moved as never before, and driven by
an unknown inward pressure; perceives and knows
that this is love, and in ecstacy exclaims: "I
love, I love, I love." And as this wonderful inner
motion of the heart transports the maiden with
dehght, when this love directs itself to the young
man of her choice, so here the same irresistible
pressure operates, only in an entirely holy man-
ner, lifting the soul above every other thought
and directing it to God. With the young maiden
it was but the faint impression of the highest;
here it is the highest itself. Et-ernal love, which
at last moves the pure tie between God and the
soul to operate fully and harmoniously, and
makes the soul to love with all the intensity
which human powers can command.

This is not the mysticism of imagination. It is
185

not knowing God by the acts of the will. Neither
is it knowing God through the analytic studies
of confessional standards. It is the close approach
to God with the warm, tender feeling of the
throbbing heart that craves to be cherished; it is
to have longed and languished for what can quiet
the burning desires of the heart; to have tried
everything that can be tried; to have suffered
disappointment with it all, and now at last to
find the true, perfect and holy object of the love
of the heart; to receive God himself in the soul;
and in this love to be supremely happy.

The difference is perceived at once between
this love and what is commonly passed as loving
God. Who does not love God? Every one
indeed, who is not out and out an atheist. Why
should he not be loved? In him everything is
pure and holy and exalted. There is nothing in
him why he should not be loved, and every one
feels that he is worthy of the love of all. The
masses in general love God. They have nothing
.against him. In God they find their ideal of
what is beautiful, right and good. Therefore they
•can not do otherwise. Even as they love virtue,
and right, so tliey also love God. But in this
Platonic love glows no tiniest spark of personal
relationship and attachment. It is called love for
God, but God has no place in the soul or in the
mind. The inclination and drawing of the heart
do not go out after him. There is nothing in
this love of a burning thirst after God, such as
makes the heart pant after the water brooks.

By the side of this cool, measured, pseudo-love
of the world, which is heartless, the Scripture

186

places the utterance of tenderest piety that seeks
after God, and finds him, and is aglow with
warmest love for him; can not do without him;
of itself thinks of him; is continually busy with
him; and directs evers^ utterance of the soul to
him and to him alone. And in this love there
is a knowledge of God, which no analytical study,
no work of the imagination, and no power of the
will can bring us. It is to love, and in this love
itself to enjo}^ eternal life. And thus to know
God with an intimacy such al you would deem
would not be seemly in a creature. Until in the
hereafter every wall of separation shall fall away,
and God in us and we in him shall be the per-
fection of highest Love.

36

^'THOU HAST NOT LAID ME UPON
THINE HEART."

To the superficial mind nothing seems so easy
as to love. Of course, one loves himself. It is
not at all difficult to love God. The only trouble
sometimes is to love one's neighbor as oneself.
Even this is not because there is no will and no
power to love, but because at times this neighbor
makes it almost impossible.

This is altogether a mistaken view. To love
God is far more difficult than to love one's neigh-
bor. It can safely be said that where there are
ten who love their neighbor, there is at most only
one who is consumed with love for God.

Jesus, therefore, has put love for God in the

187

foreground as the first and great commandment.
There is less complaint in the Bible about lack
of brotherly love than about forgetfulness of God.
The Apostle shows that this was no Jewish exag-
geration, when in his epistle to the Romans he
reiterates the bitter complaint of the Psalmist
that: "There is none that seeketh after God, no,
not one." This does not exclude the fact that
love for God can be poured out in the soul. It
is frequently observed that this Divinely-out-
poured love which at first was small and weak,
afterwards became stronger and more tender.
But take a man by himself, as he grows up by
nature, not only among good-for-nothings and
criminals, but equally much among cultivated and
honorable people, there is no love in that man
for God. He does not seek God. Indeed, there
is no one who really loves God in the way in
which God requires it.

For a long time this seemed to be different,
but it was appearance only. Even at the begin-
ning of the last century it was still the rule among
the rank and file of our people to favor religion
And to abhor every form of atheism. Without
willing to be called pious, no one desired to be
known as irreligious, and on solemn occasions the
name of the Lord was always remembered. Are
people worse now than formerly? By no means.
They have emancipated themselves more gen-
erally. But on the whole people now are what
they were before. Only with tliis difference, that
now unbelief is preached more boldly from the
pulpit and university chairs, in the press and in
open meetings. Has this practice provoked a

188

single protest? Not at all. On the contrary, in
the course of an ordinary hfetime the faith has
been abandoned in ever widening circles, and
there is almost no more shame now in being
credited with atheism. Even this is nothing new.
The selfsame condition prevailed in Israel in the
days of its spiritual apostacy. This is convinc-
ingly shown when God himself through Isaiah
utters this reproach against his people: "Thou
hast lied, for thou hast not laid Me upon thine
heart" (Is. 57:11, Dutch version).

It is very necessary therefore to examine still
more closely what it is to love the Lord. Neces-
sary also for believers, since even among them
there glitters much that seems like the gold of
love, but which is no gold. The first step is to
realize that "to love God" is not the easiest, but
the hardest thing to which faith calls us. Ordi-
narily love is taken as willingness to consider
others and to do all we can to make them happy.
This is seen on every side where philanthropy
awakens. Love there directs itself first, most gen-
erously and easily, to the unfortunate, and it is
a matter of congratulation that this generously
interpreted philanthropy is carried, in these days,
on such large scales. This teaches us to bring
ofiferings, it invites devotion, it lessens much suf-
fering.

But with this aspect of love, we make no
advances with God. He is blessed forever more.
He is not in need of anything. In notliing is he
in need of us. We can furnish him no supply.
Pity, which gives rise to philanthropic love, can

189

never inspire us when it concerns the ever Blessed
One. Here another kind of love is required. A
love which springs from the perception that we
belong with God by reason of our origin and man-
ner of existence; that we are his creatures; and
that therefore we can have no reason for being,
no object for existenec. and no future desi.iny
except in him. The hollow idea that we have a
reason for existence in ourselves is robbery com-
mitted against God. It is the wheel which
detached from the wagon wants to roll on by
itself. And when a man has thus actually detached
himself from God, and from the heights of his
imagined independence has turned himself to God,
to love him as an outside something, and calls
that love, it is worse than caricature and
mockery. It is the outrage of love, which does
not make us holy, but accuses and condemns us
before God.

To love God is to abandon everything that
separates us from God, and every moment of
our life to live wholly for God. To love God is
to reconsecrate to God what became separated
from God. It is a motion in the soul which is
born in us, when magnetizing power goes out
from God. and draws u;* to God. A prossiu'e and*
an inclination in us, which leaves us no rest for
a moment; and every time pushes aside, or back
everything that separates or draws us away from
God, and thus leaves us free to hold communion
with God.

This is first observed in prayer. Take heed,
says the Apostle (I Pet. 3:7) that your prayers

be not hindered. You feel this yourself when you
want to pray, and cannot, because of the things
that stand between you and God. Your thoughts,
inclinations and feelings must first be detached
from them all. They must be driven out from
the mind. And then God comes back to you, and
you can pray again. And what happens in prayer
one moment must happen in every particular of
your whole life; for only then will true love for
God begin to awaken in you.

Jesus had this in view when he said: ''Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and
with all thy strength." These four together con-
stitute the inner organization of our spirit. These
four get implicated every time in egotistical or
worldly interests. And therefore they operate
wrongly. They separate us from the Holy One.
And this is love, that we detach all four from
these wrong connections and turn them, not in
part, but entirely, to God.

This is not really an offering. An offering is
something of our own, which we could keep for
ourselves, but which we freely give up to another.
Nothing is said of this here, and never can be.
Our heart is from God, our soul is from God,
our mind is from God, and all our powers are his
property. Hence we bring God nothing. We but
return what belongs to him. And when we do
this, and do it in such a way that our heart and
soul and mind and strength, all four, direct them-
selves to him, and serve him altogether, the sep-
aration is ended and love celebrates her triumph,

191

Then it becomes the shamefacedness of the thief,
who returns what he had stolen and makes no
boast of merit; but prays to be forgiven.

This is what the prophet calls "to lay God upon
the heart." Love is a tender, touching emotion,
which needs symbols. This gave rise in olden
times to the custom among lovers to wear each
other's picture on the heart. It meant that one
had given the other heart and hand, and that
now one wears this symbol on the heart as a
continual warning not to let the heart, thus
sealed, for a moment go out to another, but to
keep it faithfully for the one that is loved. And
to lay God upon the heart means that the choice
has been made, that the heart has been given to
God, and that now the symbol of God's name is
placed upon it, to seal the heart for God, and
closely to guard the heart for God and God alone.

The case remains always the same. It is not
to love God in order to bring him something,
but to lose self in God because we belong to him,
and because b}^ this consecration of ourselves
to him alone, can the end of our oxistenco be
realized. To do all this, not in the mechanical
form of a calculation, but through the losing of
self in the ecstacy of tenderest love, is the first
and great commandment; this is to know the
Lord, to feel oneself as a child with his Father,
and to be inwardly consumed by the love of God
which is poured out into our hearts. The ques-
tion remains, how many there are, even among
the pious in the land, who in this way have laid
God upon their heart?

192

37

"WITH ALL."

The commandment that ^.e shall love our neigh-
bor as ourselves is so strongly emphasized in these
days, that among the rank and file of people the
first and great commandment is more and more
forgotten. That it is everyone's calling first of
all not only to serve the Lord, but to love him —
who thinks of this?

This substitution of the second in the place of
the first commandment has captivated the popu-
lar mind to such an extent, that even among
believers love for God has lost much warmth and
tenderness. Appeals in the house of prayer for
charitable and philanthropic work get more eager
hearing than the far higher call of love for God.
This changing and turning about of the order
here is fatal. He who loves God will also love
his brother. But it does not hold true in every
case that he who loves his brother also loves God.
The first commandment guarantees the second,
but not the second the first. To be warmly
affectioned toward God, and cold toward a
brother, is unthinkable. But many men and
women are prominent in all sorts of charitable and
philanthropic works who are stone-cold toward
God, and who at times even deny his existence.

It is necessary,' therefore, that the counterpoise
be placed in the scale, and that throughout the
church the great commandment to love God be
solemnly impressed upon the heart. The voice
of this call should everywhere be loudly heard
again. And the preacher would have a right
understanding of his duty if week by week he

would bind this love for God upon the con-
science of his hearers, with such warmth and elo-
quence, that the whole congregation would be
impressed with his tender devotion to God, and
would be inspired by his zeal to such a degree
as to be itself revived in its love for God, with
the board of ofl&cials in the lead. The press also
should have a part in this. By means of these
meditations we seek to direct attention in every
possible way to the necessity of making, more
than has yet been done, communion with, and
knowledge of, and love for God, our daily busi-
ness. Sound creeds, a blameless walk, and good
works are undoubtedly indispensable. But the
marrow of all religion is fellowship with the
Eternal. And in this fellowship it is only love
for God in which the brightness of gold glitters.
And yet as soon as we press this love for God,
we face a very great diflBculty. It presents itself
in the two words, which stand at the head of
this meditation, or rather in the last of the two,
even in this painful word all. Would you love
God? Then, says Jesus, you must love him
with all your soul, with all your heart, and with
all your mind. And this, let us humbly confess,
is not achieved in this life by the holiest of saints.
Sin and the world have so estranged us from God
that sometimes it takes an utmost effort, even a
few times a day, apart from our regular prayers,
to lift up the heart to God in a conscious utter-
ance of love. Is it saying too much when we
add, that many prayers are said at home and in
church, during which the soul does not commune
with God? And when at times we did succeed
in having the soul go out in love to God, what

194

then was the degree of tenderness m the love,
and how long did this exaltation of soul con-
tinue? More yet, how often did it become m us
a thirsting after God? And suppose we have
come thus far, not every day, but most days
how far distant are we even then from loymg Uod
with all the heart, and all the soul, and all our
consciousness? For this all must also mclude all
the day, so that our love for God never escapes
us, even in sleep. ,

Naturally, a distinction must here be made.
Love for God can spring up m the heart, can
scintillate in the word, can restram sm and selt-
ishness, and inspire deeds of devotion and heroic
courage. But the inspiration of this love can
ver\^ well operate in us, while we may not be con-
scious of our love for God, nor of the reciprocal
working of God's love for us in our heart. J^rom
love for God a martyr can go into death, and m
the moment of dying be so abstracted by deadly
pain, or by the taunts of his executioners, that
for the moment tender communion of love with
God is impossible. It is equally true that busi-
ness or professional duties, intercourse with peo-
ple and the cares of daily life may so engage
our minds that with perchance a passing thought
of God, we are utterly unable to center our mind
on God. But though we keep all this out of
count, it is still the great commandment, to love
God with all the heart, with all the soul, and
with all the mind. And who of us has ever suc-
ceeded in doing more of this than a small part

of the whole? ^ • . . i r

But there is One who has not fainted betore
this first and great commandment, but no more

195

than one: even Christ. Jesus alone has fulfilled
the second commandment of love to fellowmen,
and with respect to this, be it at a far distance,
many saints have pressed his footsteps. But in
the fulfilment of the first and great commandment
Jesus stands incomparably alone. He alone has
loved God with all his heart, with all his soul,
with all his mind and with all his strength,
always, even unto the end, without one moment's
interruption. This is his crown of glory. Therein
is the life of the world. Think him away and
the whole world, with its thousand millions of
people, stands before God without one among
them who has kept the great, supreme and first
commandment. But he has come, and now there
is One from whose real human heart and real
human soul and real human consciousness pro-
ceeds this pure, full, unalloyed love for God, for
the joy of which. Almighty God has created all
mankind. This is the shield which is lifted up
upon us. This accounts for the fact that God
can still tolerate this world and bear it.

With us also this will come. Many of our
beloveds, who in the earth did not reacK it by
far, in the realms of everlasting light now bring
this perfect love-ofifering to God. And we shall
come to it when in death we shall fully die unto
sin and we shall be done with the world, and
shall know God even as we are known. That
is, if we fall asleep in Jesus, if in death there
shall be nothing left to separate us from him.

And that which makes us cleave to Christ is
just this: That we love God, that the love of
God has been poured out in our hearts, that the
love of God has operated in us, that with us

the love of God has come first, and that with all
our imperfections and shortcomings it has been
our deepest desire and will to have God's love
be our supremest inspiration, and that it has pre-
pared us for what is highest and best. And this
is the mystery of being a Christian, that as we
hide ourselves in the perfect love wherewith
Jesus has loved God, through the glow of his
love for God, we feel the spark of our love for
God burn in our own heart, and that, when it
goes out, Jesus kindles it again.

"WITH ALL THINE HEART."

Underneath, still deeper than the heart, lives
the soul. When God searches a person he tries
not merely the heart, but enters still more deeply
into his being. The Scripture expresses this
plastically by saying that after God has tried the
heart he also trieth the reins (Jer. 11:20) in
order to examine us in our inmost parts. In
moments of extreme tension it is felt, even among
us, that the heart is not yet all, but that we must
reach down to the marrow of our inmost self.
We see it in the case of Jonathan. When David
had sworn that he would alwa5"s be faithful to
him and to his house, Jonathan, deeply moved,
replied: "Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will
even do it for thee" (I Sam. 20:4).

In all seriousness the only element of worth
in the heart is that whidi comes into it from the
soul, and passes through it to the soul. What
goes on outside of the soul may indeed be very
attractive. It is less captivating when only the

outward appearance interests us. It is more
strongly attractive when we admire a man's cour-
age and energy, devotion and self-sacrifice. But
all this passes away. We do not assimilate it into
our life. As a rule, the emotions of the heart,
which do not touch the soul, do not rise higher
than the feelings, sometimes not higher even than
the pseudo-life of sentimentality. The function
of the heart onh' derives all real, abiding worth
from the relation which it sustains to the soul.

This does not imply bj^ any means that the
heart is a superfluity, and that the soul alone is
important. On the contrary the heart has been
given us of God as an absolutely indispensable
organ of the soul. That which stirs in the soul
can only come through the means of the heart to
that supreme perception and lofty utterance
which we glorify as love. In the great command-
ment, therefore, Jesus puts the heart in the fore-
ground. First: Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thine heart, and only then: Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul.

This could not be otherwise. Love does not
have its beginnings in the soul, but in God. It
comes to us from God. And only when this love
from God enters through the heart into the soul
does it awaken in the soul the life of reciprocal
love for God, which now presses from the soul
into the heart and makes us to love God. But
this last stage is only reached through he heart.
In the heart only is the flame ignited, and there
the fire of love burns. As long as love is con-
fined to the soul it partakes more of the nature
of worship. The heart alone breathes forth
tenderness and warmth. Only when we love God

198

with all the heart does this love begin to glow
in us with real human feeling.

Love of the heart is irresistible, mutual attrac-
tion. The Scripture speaks of it more than once
as: "a cleaving of the soul unto God." When
the magnet draws the steel so closely to itself
that there is even no more air between, the steel
cleaves unto the magnet. Hence when so tender
an affection springs up between people, that at
length everything that separated them falls away,
heart cleaves unto heart and soul cleaves unto
soul. In the same way there is no perfect love
for God until everything is removed that made
separation between him and us. And it also
applies to this love that our heart, and through
the heart, our soul cleaves unto God.

This is a strong and forcible expression, such
as the Scripture uses again and again. So strong
that we ask: Shall it ever be true with us? But
this is no question for the child of God. As a
rule, indeed, a mountain of hindrances rises
between the soul and God. In spite of this, how-
ever, every child of God has known brief
moments, in retirement and solitude, in which the
love of God drew him so strongly and irresist-
ibly, and God's blessed fellowship in Christ over-
whelmed him so blessedly, that really everything
fell away, and for the moment the cleaving of
the heart unto God was the only true expression
of what the soul enjoyed and felt towards God.
What is called power of attraction in nature,
in the spiritual is called love. Love is not some-
thing artificial, something studied, but is of itself.
WTien any one loves you, you feel it. You feel
whether the love which interests you, and draws

you, is strong or weak. And when a great love
directs itself to you, goes out after you, and
begins to affect you, you likewise feel the irre-
sistibleness of its drawing.

Jesus himself calls this outgoing of love ''draw-
ing." The Father draws his elect. Of himself
the Savior said I will draw all men unto me.
That is to say, I will play upon your heart with
such power of grace and love that you will come
with me, surrender yourself to me, and serve me.
There is ovenvhelming power therefore in this
love, but so far from violently inflicting injury,
it affects one most blessedly. As the sun draws
the flower-bud upward, and by his cherishing
warmth makes it to unfold, so this love of God
draws you up to himself, fills you with most
blessed sensations that make the heart to leap
with holiest joy. You drink in this love, or if
you like, it is richest enjoyment for the soul.
And in the wealth of this tested love of God,
pure and tender love for God awakens of itself
in your heart.

There is also love for the impersonal. We can
speak vaguely of love of nature, when it interests
us by its beauty and loveliness, or awes us by its
sublimity. We can love science, righteousness,
everything that is noble and of good report. But
all this is visionary love — love in general, which
finds no rest because the soul that personsally
lives and loves, can only find satisfaction in per-
sonal I'ove. For this reason there is something
tender already in the' love for a song-bird or
domestic animal. Here love concentrates itself
upon a definite object and there is a reciprocal
utterance. The attractiveness of a dog can be

200

very great, because there is personal response.
This is not the case with nature, nor with science
or jurisprudence; but it is with a dog that will
risk his life for you.

All this, however, is but the prelude of higher
love, and only with man it begins to speak in
richer language, and to reveal its higher nature.
And here, too, is ascent with differences. The
love of mother and child, of father and son, of
brother and sister, of friend and friend. Until
at last we come to holy wedlock. This may at
times be degraded by sin, but in its ideal inter-
pretation it is highest love on earth, and there-
fore it is stamped by God himself as the symbol
of the love that binds him to his elect.

But even in marriage love does not reach its
full fruition. According to its nature it is con-
scious of an impulse which rises higher still. And
when finally love begins to reach out after the
Highest Being, and j^ou feel that the spark of love
for God has been kindled in your heart by God
himself, j^ou perceive that love in you is now
where it ought to be, that it can rise no higher,
but also that it has no such desire, and that
therefore it is thrice blessed.

The conflict which then ensues is caused b\^ our
inequality with God. He is everything, we noth-
ing. He the High and Exalted One, we the vain
creatures of his hand. We owing him everj---
thing. He needing nothing. And therefore he
can take nothing at our hand. Among ourselves
love is mutual as between equals. No great per-
sonal love can develop between a strong man and
a small child. The little child can not rise to the
level of the fully developed man. Nor can he

201

descend to the child otherwise than by disin-
terested kindness.

And this is just what God has done for us. He
has done it in Christ. In Christ he has come
to us as man, to make the inequalitj^ equal, to
join himself to our life and in everything to
become like unto the brethren, only sin
excepted. This is the great myster>', by virtue
of which with those who have joined themselves
to Jesus, who believe in him and have become
one with him in soul, tiTie love for God can
develop itself independently of the hindrance of
inequality.

And if now j-ou say that Jesus gave 3'ou every-
thing, and that therefore you can put no crown on
his head which already he does not have, then
bring to mind that there is one thing left which
God alone can claim from his people, and that
this one thing is the love of the heart. But then
it must be love with all the heart, until the heart
shall yearn after God, as God's heart has yearned
after us.

^'WITH ALL THY SOUL."

If you begin to feel troubled and even guilty
that with the passing years you have made so
little advance in love for God, then examine with
more care than before the rule of Christ regard-
ing it. You have known the great command-
ment from childhood. You have learned it by
heart, and your conscience has admitted uncon-
ditionally that Christ is right. In your love for
God nothing can be wanting. With all the heart
and soul and mind and strength it must be

unbounded love. Everytliing must go for God
even as you have to look for everything to God.

But even this broad admission did not satisfy
Jesus. He did not say: Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God in everyi;hing. He has carefully
distinguished between the heart, the soul, the
mind and the strength. And did you do well to
ignore this? There was a purpose in this dis-
tinction. Our Lord has deemed this distinction
to be necessary for the whole church. It wa^ his
will that ministers of the Word should bind this
love for God severally with the heart, the soul,
the mind and the strength upon the conscience
of believers. It was his will that every child of
God should continually examine himself, whether
he practiced his love for God m this same four-
fold way.

True godliness would have rooted more deeply
and more firmly in the life of the church, if both
preaching and self-examination had been applied
more seriousl}' to the cultivation of this full,
warm love for God, and if it had derived more
vital strength from the keeping of this first and
great commandment. No holier power can ani-
mate us than love, and in all love the love for
God wears the crown. Love, therefore, is the
bond of perfection, provided it is not volatilized
into a vague conception of ideal love without
rule or object. Everything noble and exalted in
love that can be idealized and celebrated in song,
is only real, when it is a love that first loves God
and for his sake one's neighbor.

Attention is at once arrested by the fact that
in commending love for God, Jesus gives the
heart the first mention, and not the soul. We

203

would have done otherwise. The soul as the
center of our inner life would have been men-
tioned first, and from this we would have derived
love with the heart and mind and all our strength.
Jesus, on the other hand, begins with the heart
and then points to the soul, the mind and the
strength .

This difference between heart and soul is made
clear by the word of the Lord in Jeremiah 4:10
and 18. At one time Israel is told that the
terrible outpouring of God's wrath shall reach
unto the heart; and at another time that it shall
reach unto the soul, but with a sharply-outlined
distinction. When the troubles that come upon
Israel are described in their first stages of alarm,
it is said: ''This is thy wickedness, it is so
bitter that it reacheth unto thine heart" (4:18).
When suffering continues and the case at length
becomes fatal, it is said: "That the sword
reacheth unto the soul" (4:10). Thus the heart
is the seat of the emotions and sensations, and
the soul is the seat of life itself.

Applied to love, it is the heart that receives
the impressions of love and makes this ardent
feeling to flow forth. But love is clarified in the
soul, and the impulse of the passion of love
springs from the soul. Without the heart love
can not be enjoyed, neither can it be exercised.
But neither can love, which is thus enjoyed or
exercised, touch your self if there were not some-
thing deeper back and underneath the heart, even
the source of life itself, and if there were there
no operation of the tie that binds heart and soul
in one.

Without ears there is no liearing, and there is

204

no speaking without voice. But it is the soul
which employs the ear as an instrument to hear,
and which speaks in the voice, if the saying shall
be true. In the same way there is no drinking
in of love, and no exhibition of love, without the
heart; but it is always the soul that employs the
heart as instrument by which to enter, with its
deepest and most hidden life, upon the wealth of
love.

To be able to say, therefore, that we love God
with the heart, will not suffice. With the heart
one can feel sweetly moved by enticing love,
and become aware of reciprocal feeling of love
within, and be quite innocent of actual true love,
simply because the soul has no share in it.

This is strikingly evident in art. In grand
opera we listen to a touching recital of human
suffering. At the time we are deeply moved and
carried along. The sensations of anxious fore-
bodings, described in song, were sj^mpathetically
felt in the heart. We lived with the characters
of the plot and shared their suffering. But pres-
ently the play is over. For a moment the impres-
sion stays by. But an hour later everything
is forgotten and we continue our ordinary course
as though nothing had happened. The case is
not that the heart had not been moved, for even
shallow feelings touch it. But the soul had no
part in it, and therefore it did not touch us.

The same thing continually happens in life, A
mother can not detect a tear in the eye of her
child, but is at once almost moved to tears her-
self, and at the moment will do everything she can
to comfort her darling and help him to forget his
woes. But in many instances this does not go

205

beyond the confines of the heart. When the
child that wept, laughs again, everything is over.
Because the love for her child does not spring
from the depths of her soul, she does not know
how to love the soul of her child, hence she does
not save but spoil him.

So there is a love for God with the heart,
which is offended when the Divine honor is
attacked, and which takes pleasure in tender
feelings toward the Lord, but the object of it is
self and not God. There is love there, but not
the love that goes down deep enough to reach
unto the soul. Our self is in our soul. There it
stands before the face of our God. And there-
fore on the floor of the soul the question must
be decided whether God exists for our sake, or
whether we exist, solel}' and alone, for the sake of
God.

When we can say: As for me, the latter is
the case, it is glorious. But now the second ques-
tion arises: Do we consent to have it so from
submission, from the sense of our own unworthi-
ness, or from love? Would we exist for no other
purpose than for the sake of God, because we can
do no other? Or because we would not wish it
any other way, since God is our tenderest love
and our whole existence is lost in love for him.
If this be so, this love will be enjoyed through
the heart, and it will express itself through the
heart. The costly instrument of the heart was
given us for this purpose. But he who employs
this heart and plays on it in happy love, is always
self in the center of the soul, in the deep under-
ground of existence, where our person lives in
the holy presence of the Triune God.

206

Have you become aware of any such love for
God in your inmost self? If so, do you under-
stand what it means to love God in your inmost
self with all your soul? Not whether there are
times when this is so, but whether it has become
the fixed habit of your life. Not whether you
surrender yourself to the love of God with a
part of your soul, with a part of yourself, to the
end that you might be saved, and be forever
happy, but whether you give yourself to it, to
the end that you might glorify God forever. It
is not the division of the soul between yourself
and God which is required, in order that you may
commit continual robbery in the soul, and with-
hold from God part of your desires, part of your
future, and part of your self-consciousness. The
claim is terribly great. It is all comprehensive:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
soul. It means that there shall be no single
utterance of life in you except such as springs
from your love for God.

To do this, it may be said, we should be angels
and not men. And this is true, provided we say:
Not sinful men. But for this you have your
Savior who, as man, has fulfilled this perfect love
for God in your behalf. And if by a true faith
you fly to him for refuge, in spite of your lack
of love, you will have peace in your soul.

40

"WITH ALL THY MIND."

It is singular that the first and great command-
ment includes the claim : to love God with all the
mind. When Jesus holds the high ideal before

us, to love God with the heart and with the
soul, we understand it at once; for these are dis-
posed to love. But how can we love with the
mind? The mind has been given us to think, to
ponder and to understand. How can it be an
organ of love, an instrument on which love can
play its holy melodies? As a rule it does not
impress us, because in reading this command-
ment no attention is paid to it.

No account is made of it. The task of investi-
gating the several parts of this first and great
commandment is not taken seriously. In reading
it over hastily we take it to mean that we should
use the mind in the service of God, and leave
the heart and the soul the task to love. But this
is not so. It does not say that the mind must
serve God; that we must direct our thought to
God; that with the mind we must come to a
clear confession of God, nor how we should
direct the working of the mind to God. It
declares clearly and plainly that with the mind
we must love God. Jesus includes all religion in
the one great idea of love, which love must pene-
trate and pervade every part of our human per-
sonality. From the soul it must have dominion
not oiiiy in the heart, but also in the mind, and
must bring it to pass that all our vital forces are
led by this one supreme motive of love for God.

The mind here does not mean simply logical
thought, clear judgment and learned concepts,
but the whole glorious endowment of our con-
sciousness, including representation, imagination
and intellectual activity.

'Towers" are also a": work in nature. Far
stronger powers than in us. But though nature

208

is alive, it is unconscious. And though we are
aware of some consciousness in the more highly
domesticated animals, it is exceedingly weak with
the best of them. The glory of conscious life,
which is only perfect in God, is found in man
alone, because with respect to this also he has
been created after the Divine image. Conscious-
ness may not reach by far its highest develop-
ment in some people. With the insane it is sadly
disturbed. But the most unfortunate idiot clearly
shows the unspeakable greatness of the gift of
consciousness, of self-consciousness, and of a con-
scious life which even the ordinary man has
received from God. Hence we have no right to
estimate it as inferior to the heart. And all
religion that would confine the service of God
solely to the heart, and to good works, to the
exclusion of this glorious human consciousness,
cripples itself, robs God, and is bound to degen-
erate into pseudo-religion.

This shows at once that it is the Christian duty
of human science to direct itself to God, and that
not only a part of it, such as Theolog>', should
take the knowledge of God for its object, and
leave no path untrod in which it can enrich itself,
but that science as a whole, and everywhere,
should exhibit the glory of God. All science,
however much disciplined and learned, that leaves
God out of count, that awakens doubt about
his existence, or dares to deny him, is no science
but sin. It sins against the great commandment
that with all the mind we should first of all love
God. And since it is at variance with every idea
of love to pass its object by with indifference, or
to ignore it altogether, it follows that the scientist,

209

who in his science does not feel himself drawn
to God, and with his scientific knowledge, does
not before all else seek God and his glory, breaks
the great commandment. And this is the curse
that rests so heavily on the science of our times
that it does not feel in its veins the pulse-beat
of love for God, and that it behaves itself as
though the great commandment, to love Gk)d
with all the mind, had never been given.

The same applies to our doctrinal standards.
The priests of science are only few in number,
but every man is called to confess the faith. It
is not difficult to understand what this means.
Every man has a conviction, a system of prin-
cipal ideas from which he starts out, a world of
thoughts, however small, by which he lives, for
which he contends, and from which he acts. By
saying, therefore, that every man is called to
make confession, we mean that no man should
hold godless convictions of life, but that in every
life-view God should be the center; that this
world-view should cleave unto God, go out from
and return to him again; and that everything
else in this life-view must adapt itself to the love,
the ardent love, for God which it claims.

Not every man can make this clear for him-
self. In every other particular the world derives
its great ideas and representations from knowl-
edge that has been handed down by past gen-
erations. With its confession of the ages, there-
fore, the Church of Christ simply comes in as
an aid to the ordinary man. In the Church, with
respect to the knowledge of God, every man
receives the results of age-long experiences of
faith. And no national conditions can be healthy

210

and normal, save as the rank and file of the peo-
ple take the confessional standards of the Church
as the starting point of their views and convic-
tions of life. Hence it is ruinous to love for God
with "all the mind," when Christian confessions
are left out from a man's convictions of life, and
when it is falsely preached that everything
depends upon the mysticism of the love of the
heart and upon the act of the will. He who
drives this propaganda impoverishes the love for
God, by excluding from it all the mind, and does
not tread in the footsteps of Jesus, but diamet-
rically and directly opposes his supreme com-
mand.

With this, however, love for God with all the
mind has not yet reached its limit. Apart
from science and Christian confessions there is
the ordinary daily consciousness, the activity of
the mind in daily avocations, in social inter-
course, in plans we make, in lines of action which
we lay out for ourselves, in intentions which we
foster, in reading, in thoughts about persons and
affairs, in representations, in imaginations, in
appreciation of art and literature, in review of
the past and in outlook upon the future. All this
together forms the many-sided activity of our
consciousness; it is the daily sphere of activity
of all the mind; the school and workshop of our
thought, study and contemplation; and all this
can go on either without God, or continuously
and at every point it can be inspired and ruled
by the thought of God, and by the love of his
name.

With every one of us, therefore, Jesus claims
all this for God. It is his will that love for God

211

shall not only lead, direct and rule us in all this,
but also that from an inner impulse all this shall
form and clothe itself in the way which we know
and understand is well-pleasing unto God. Above
all else it is his will that we do this not from a
sense of duty, because we must, though of our-
selves we would like to do otherwise; and not
for the sake of escape from the wrath to come
or of earning heaven thereby; but from love,
purel}^ from love for God, because for the sake of
God we can no longer allow ourselves to use
this costly gift of our consciousness in ways that
will grieve God.

And though, as we think of all this, we may
realize that in actual life we are still far distant
from this high ideal, in reading and re-reading the
great commandment the true child of God will
be arrested in his course by this claim also, that
he must love God with all the mind. He will
seek to control his conscious life far differently
than before. And if he succeeds in making his
love for God more evident in all his thoughts
and in all his plans, the deeper experience of the
love of God will be his daily gain, and in his
inmost self secret fellowship with the Eternal will
become ever more sweetly known.

41
"WITH ALL THY STRENGTH."

Nothing is more grievous to a Christian soul
than the superficial fencing and boasting of love,
which is current in our loveless society life. This
play with what is highest in heaven and on earth
is especially tr3'ing, when in unbelieving and semi-

212

believing circles, especially by entire and partly
emancipated women, the high ideal of love is
used as a weapon with which to oppose the faith-
ful confession of the Gospel.

Love is then said to be "the whole of religion."
There is no need of anything more. The Old
Testament is by far too unmerciful. Paul was
too severe in his anathemas, and only saved his
honor by the hymn of love in I Cor. 13. Only
St. John, the apostle of love, is a man of whom
to be proud. That he should have asked for fire
to come down from heaven to destroy the enemies
of Jesus, is probably not true. His advice not to
show hospitality to one who denies the doctrine
of Christ (II John 10) occurs indeed in his
epistle, but these epistles are unauthentic. More-
over as devotees at the altars of love, they make
Jesus their boast. He never allowed himself to
be governed by anything save gentle, tender love.
At times, indeed, Jesus could be hard, even
sharp, in his retorts to the Pharisees, but these
Pharisees are the so-called orthodox Christians of
today, whom they themselves do not spare
because this is not necessary. These slaves of
the letter are outside of the law, outside there-
fore also of the law of love.

This false mania of love is inexorably con-
demned by Jesus in what he said about the first
and great commandment. Truly, love is of the
highest importance. It is the one and only thing
that is required, provided that it is conditioned
by this rule: That all your love goes out from
your love for God. That is to say, that in the
love-life love for God stands in the foreground,
and that it shall so dominate all of your love,

that you love him with all 3-our heart, with all
your soul and with all your strength. And as
though this does not state the case sufficiently
sharply and definitely, and as though to make
the last misunderstanding and misconception
impossible, Jesus adds a fourth claim and binds
it upon the conscience that this love for God
answers to the high ideal only when it is also
love for God with all the strength.

Hence Jesus does not do what many professed
christians do. He does not say: "God is love, but
you should also count with his holiness." No,
the Savior puts nothing above, and nothing along-
side of love. Love to him is all-sufficient. But
he objects, that in principle, this love counts only
with the neighbor. He demands and wills that in
our love, the love for God shall be the all-
dominating starting point. He will not let 3'ou
go until you understand that no boundary of any
sort may ever be put to this love for God, and
that therefore it must likewise be a love for him
with all your strength.

Love for God with all the heart, all the soul
and all the mind may be lost in sentiment or in
vague idealism, but when it is required that we
love God also with all our strength, the claim is
laid upon the actual life, the entire personal
existence and upon the whole outlay of personal
and vital powers.

Strength is what goes out from us as utter-
ance of the talents wherewith we are endowed,
of the powers and capacities that are at our dis-
posal, of the means at our command, of the influ-
ence we exert, of the time that is apportioned
unto us, and of the circumstances which call out

the exhibition of our strength. Jesus demands
that all the powers that are entrusted to us, on
the condition of responsibility to him who gave
them, shall be exercised in such a way that in
their working the love for God shall show itself
as the dominant element.

Do not take this in a sickly-spiritual sense.
The idea lies at hand that love for God really
only shows itself in our work and influence when
we apply our strength exclusively to religious
and spiritual things. For then it is imagined
that a clergyman loves God better than a la\vyer
or a physician; that a missionary is more devoted
to God than an editor or a publisher; that an
institution for the saving of unfortunates is nobler
than one for scientific investigation. In brief,
that love for God is more fully expressed by
service in the realm of particular grace, than by
life in the broader domain of common grace.

This is all wrong. God's greatness and omnip-
otence do not limit themselves to the more
restricted interests of the salvation of souls, but
pervade all human life. And with every one of
us, according to our talents and callings, love for
God must show itself with equal zeal and strength
in every department of life. An artist or sculptor
can and ought with equal consciousness and pur-
pose glorify God from love, as a missionary or a
philanthrophist. The humblest caUing is not
excluded here. A farmer, who is an elder or
warden in a church, must serve God from love
with all his strength in stable and granary as well
as in his duties as church official. A mother
in the bosom of her family has as sacred a call-
ing to love God with all her strength as a nurse

215

or as a woman missionary in the foreign field.
False dualism which relegates the mother or the
servant to common life and pronounces the nurse
sacred, does not feed the love for God, but
poisons it.

Three forms of sin in this connection lower
human life: Neglect, misuse and abuse of our
powers. In each of these sins love for God is
denied. No star has been placed in the firma-
ment but has been called to shine for God's
glory. God has imparted to no human soul a
grain of gold, but the brightness of it must appear
and glisten in his honor. But what the stars do
not do is done by indolent man. Many people
of conspicuous talent, instead of improving it for
God do nothing with it at all. Of course it would
require effort, sacrifice and self-denial to improve
each latent talent to the full. But when they are
not willing to make tliis effort, sacrifice and self-
denial for the sake of God, where then is their
love for God? Even among Christians God's
honor would be far more glorious, if instead of
being buried under mountains of self-sufficiency
and indolence, all the particles of hidden gold
could glisten in public sight.

The misuse of talents is different, but it is
equally sinful and loveless before God. Here no
efforts are spared; sacrifices are freely made; but
the object of it all is to secure position for onc-
self; to make good along material lines; to please
others; and to become rich, not in God, but in
public esteem. Very hard work is done, but from
selfish motives, and not for God's dear sake, and
for love of God. It is not working while it is
day, as a child from love for his Father, in the

sure confidence that he will supply all our needs,
but slaving for the sake of providing the means
oneself. It is for money and not for God.

And along this line the third sin io easily com-
mitted, even the yet worse abitse of one's talents
in the face of God and of his sacred claims. O,
who can count the men who might have shone as
stars of the first magnitude in honor of the Lord,
but who have abused their noble gifts in break-
ing down what is holy, in attacking the Word of
God, in opposing religion, and at length in the
daring attempt to eradicate faith in God from
the lives of others. Who does not know them,
the singers and the artists, who have abused their
glorious talents in behalf of wantonness and arti-
ficial tastes, and in drawing souls away from God.
How much wit has been abused in mocking at
holy things and in making them appear ridiculous.
What keenness of insight has degenerated into
cunning and tricky slyness for the sake of cherish-
ing lies and dishonesty. What maidenly beauty
and loveliness has been sinned away in the pas-
sion to please and to cherish impurity of purpose.
All this abuse has been banefuUy expressive of
enmity against God and not of love for God.

By the side of this neglect, misuse and abuse
of our gifts and talents, Jesus places nothing save
the love for God. He does not bind this claim on
the conscience of the worlds for the world does
not know true love, because it knows not God,
and all true love proceeds from love for God.
But he puts the claim in all its fulness and bound-
lessness upon you, who confess his holy name.
He will not let you go until the scales fall from
your eyes and you begin to see that you sin

217

your life awaj- as long as you do not know that
craving after the fullness of love for the Eternal
which can not rest until it loves God also with
all its strength.

42

"HE THAT LOVETH NOT KNOWETH
NOT GOD."

Knowledge of God is eternal life. Not that the
one is something which is added to the other,
for this knowledge is itself eternal life. This
knowledge of God, therefore, can not be limited
to what the understanding grasps or does not
grasp, or to what has been committed to memor}-.
Knowledge of God truly reflects an ever clearer
image in the mirror of our consciousness, but it
can never be outward, abstract or a barren jug-
glery with words. This knowledge comes to us in
virtue of our second birth, even as a child knows
his father and mother. In bold words, one might
say this knowledge is in the blood. It is a Divine
atavism. This knowledge is taken hold of in the
will, when the will takes hold of the will of God.
This knowledge continually increases in the secret
walk with God, and it matures in the life of
prayer. In the gloomy depths of sorrow and on
the sunny heights of joy and prosperity this
knowledge brings us ever nearer to the riches that
abide. It is a knowledge which comes of itself
continually from the stream of life to the sur-
face; which uses our person as its organ; and
which at times has moments when it seems that
"seeing face to face" as through the veil of the
sanctuary is already granted here.

This rich knowledge of God, ever more mature,

218

ever more full and overflowing with Divine sweet-
ness, must of course be apprehended in the clear
consciousness, and be poured over as it were mto
the doctrinal standards of the Church of Christ, and
into our personal confession. Unless this is done,
mystical corruption quickly enters in as well as
mania for hallucinations and weakening senti-
mentality. It fills one with sorrow, when in
Church and out of it barren school-learning is
seen in the place of Hfe, and the knowledge of
God is treated as though it were a corpse rather
than an inspiring, elastic hfe pervading the soul.
This is not in accord with, but diametrically
opposed to, Scripture. Hear the proclamation of
the apostle of the Lord: ''He that loveth not
knoweth not God, for God is love" (I John 4:8).
If this puts it strongly, the fact remains: that
by being most like God in what we do we enter into
the pure knowledge of God. With this in view
consider the forgiveness of sin, and you will under-
stand the mystery of this knowledge of God. The
chief question of your life and of your future
which concerns you personally is now and always
will be whether God forgives you your sin. This
is not the way in which it is presented m the
preaching of the day. For this makes the great
question of life to consist in ridding ourselves of
sin and in w^orking out our own sanctification.
And this is self-delusion. It is and always will
be even as St. Paul and Luther and Calvin bound
it upon the soul. The great question of life is,
how shall I be just before God? Forgiveness of
sin is the way to dying unto sin; not otherwise.
How we, who are in the midst of sin until we
die, can be called unto sonship with God, to dwell

forever in the Father-house above, this and this
alone is the mighty problem of life which imme-
diately touches our relation to God and our
knowledge of the Eternal. Thus the riddle of
the world and that of our soul always comes
down again to this one inquiry: Is there grace
for me also, and forgiveness and perfect recon-
ciliation?

It is exceedingly significant that in the Our
Father the brief petition for forgiveness links
itself as with an iron hand to the declaration,
that we ourselves forgive. "Give us this day our
daily bread," is immediately followed by the
praj-er for the daily bread of Divine forgiveness
for the life of the soul. And this is joined to the
honest and fully-meant declaration: As we for-
give those that trespass against us. In other
words : You must love, with that best love, which
makes you forgive, from the heart, those that
have wronged you. And he alone who loves like
this knows God. He alone knows God in this
his highest love, that though our sins be as
scarlet he will make them white as snow, yea,
though they have risen mountain-high, he casts
them into the depths of the sea.

Actually, therefore, in the Our Father itself is
expressed this significant thought which it seemed
so bold to utter, that we, by forgiving others,
learn to understand that, and how, God forgives us;
that is to say, that by loving others we learn to
know God in his love for us. And that he that
so loveth that he forgives his enemy entirely and
altogether from the heart increases in the knowl-
edge of God, learns to know God, and learns to
understand how God loves him.

220

Does this begin with you, so that you love
first, and that afterwards God loves you? Far
from it. Love never begins with you. Back of
the first stirrings of love that ever moved the
soul, it was God who put it there. Neither can
you ever forgive from yourself. You can forgive
in a way which makes your forgiveness itself to
be new sin to j^ou, but never in the way which
can release the soul. Frequently we hear of a
man of the world who forgives. Indeed, as such,
you have done this yourself from a sense of
superiority, in order to show that your enemy
was of too little consequence than that he could
ofifend you; or to make a show of your own
virtue in not carrying a grudge, and so to rid
yourself of him and to be at peace with yourself.

Such forgiveness, however, has nothing in com-
mon with real forgiveness, except appearance and
name. What the Our Father means on the other
hand is forgiveness from love, which is so warm,
honest and real as to make you feel: if God will
so forgive me I am saved. For then it is God
himself who has quickened this love in my heart,
who from his own love has made this love to
forgive flow into my soul, and who in my for-
giving of my enemy makes me to know his
eternal, compassionate and unfathomable love for
me, who was once myself his enemy, but now
his child.

At J;he sound of the Apostolic word: "He that
loveth not knoweth not God," the conscience as
a rule falls asleep with self-satisfaction. What
man is there who loves nothing and no one. Even
robbers have been known to love an animal, a
child or wife at great sacrifice of self. But what

221

is that? When it says: He that loveth not, it
means: He who does not Hve by love; he who
is not governed by love; he who does not rejoice
in love, and has no love that can endure the test
of fire. And love is put to this fiery test, not with
respect to those who are necessary to us, and
who are agreeable to us in life, but only with
respect to the man who stands in our way, whom
we can call our enemy. The genuineness of your
love therefore is only evident in forgiveness, even
in the forgiveness of him who has offended you,
who has opposed you, and who has embittered
your very life. To forgive such an one, not from
duty but from love, this alone is proof that there
is this love in you which makes you learn to
know God.

But you say, "This is impossible. I can forgive
for God's sake, and also because I myself am sin-
ful. I can forgive from the sense of Christian
duty, but not otherwise." And yet Jesus demands
it: Love your enemies, bless them that curse
you. Consider it well. Thou shalt love God with
all thy soul, with all thy heart, with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength. And the second
like unto it is: Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself; and he is thy enemy. Not only must
I love my neighbor also, but this second com-
mandment is like unto the first. When it is asked :
"How can this be?" we reply: only when you
love in your neighbor what there is of God in
him. Nothing more. Not his sin, neither his
%wong committed against you. These you should
rather hate. But even as you love nature because
it shows forth the power and glory of the Lord,
and an animal because it is wonderfully organ-

222

ized and endowed with instinct by its Maker, so
you should much more love your neighbor as
man, because God has created him after his image
and has endowed him with wonderful talents and
gifts.

If all this has been corrupted and spoiled and
has become hopelessly satanic, so that there is
nothing more of God in him, then love ceases
and turns into hatred, even as it should. Satan
also was a most wonderful creature, but he has
sinned awa}' his all, and therefore every child of
God hates this monster. But however deeply
fallen he may be, man in this life is never like
this. The murderer on the cross rejoices before
the throne. Jesus has renewed unto life those
who have wandered farthest away from the fold.
And this is the glory of the Gospel that in every
man, thus also in your enemy, there is a point
of connection where grace may enter in. By
this alone is the gospel our salvation. And he
who for God's sake heartily loves this remain-
ing spark even in those who have wandered
farthest r.way, loves with a love which learns to
know God in this his eternal love wherewith,
while we are yet sinners, he also loves us.

43

"CLEARLY SEEN AND UNDERSTOOD BY
THE THINGS THAT ARE MADE."

From of old the Church has pointed to nature
and to the Bible as the sources of our knowledge
of God; that is: the knowledge of God which
comes to us from without ; which can be expressed
in abstract ideas; and therefore has a place in

223

Christian creeds. This does not include experi-
mental knowledge of God, which comes to ii3
personally from spiritual experience, from com-
munion of saints and secret fellowship with God.

The knowledge of God which comes to us from
without is majestic. Confining ourselves to what
nature brings, the Reformed confession truly and
beautifully declares, that all creation is as a living
book, the letters of which are the creatures. But
the book of nature brings us no further than the
recognition of the attributes of God, his power,
wisdom, goodness, and so much more. It has
nothing to say about life in the spiritual king-
dom, of direction and rule by the Holy Ghost,
of making our will one with the will of God, of
having Divine love poured out into our hearts,
of drawing closer to him, who is love, or of
mystic contemplation.

The Confession is a banner with clear inscrip-
tions, which we lift up before the world in order
to declare the glory and majesty of him whom
we worship; but it is not the intimate communi-
cation of that knowledge of God which comes
from the knowledge of self and from one's own
experience.

In these meditations we have put this more
intimate knowledge of God in the foreground.
Devotional literature is not acceptable to the
world, because it speaks from and in behalf of
communion of saints and from spiritual experi-
ence to those who have enjoyed the same, or at
least know the yearning after it. But we have
repeatedly sounded the note of warning against
sentimental emotionalism in this sanctuary of
mysticism. So we come to the knowledge of God

224

from nature, not that we might interpret it in a
material sense, but rather that we might weave
it into our spiritual life.

In this respect also the erring soul frequently
impoverishes itself. It has been learned by heart,
and in general it is agreed, that Divine attri-
butes exhibit themselves in the works of nature.
From these we can infer that God is great in
power, in wisdom and in goodness. But now that
this is known, we are through with the book of
nature. The sum of the knowledge of God, which
it brought, is made out. So the book is put
aside, and there is no personal, lasting impression
of the majesty of God which nature was intended
to convey. No one looks for it. No account is
made of it. And there is almost a feeling of
impatience, when in behalf of their superficial
religion the men of the world appeal by preference
to nature. It saddens one to hear it said with
certain exultation, that the Church has served
its day, that the Bible has lost its significance,
and that there is a far richer religious joy "in
the temple of uncut wood."

But here the faithful are at fault. However
much they deserve praise for their love of the
Church of Christ, and however precious the
treasures are, that have come to them from the
Scripture, they should not have been indifferent
to the fact, that we are equally called to remember
that the invisible things of God, from the creation
of the world, are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, i. e. from nature,
even his eternal power and Godhead (Rom. 1:20).

There are three progressive stages in the know-
ledge of God. It begins with nature, it goes on

225

to man as created after God's Image, and finally
is made perfect in Christ, in so much as He is
the express Image of God's Person. And these
three do not stand loosely side by side, but
form, if we may say so, a climbing pyramid.
Nature forms the broad ground surface, it ascends
in the rich unfolding of human life, and reaches
its liighest point in the Incarnation of the Eternal
Word.

Christ is not clearly seen, nor understood
apart from the knowledge of man, and man is
not clearly seen and understood apart from a
sympathetic touch upon unconscious .nature.
Hence the faithful should always live under the
deep impression of the majesty of God in nature.
Believers must live the life of mankind, i. e.
history, over again in themselves. Onlj^ thus
can they obtain the clear, full, living impression
of Christ, who reveals God to them in the riches
of his grace.

In this way Almighty God began, and con-
tinues until now, the revelation of himself. First
in unconscious nature. When this was ended, as
a richer revelation of himself. He created man
after his own image and likeness. And when
man had corrupted his way, and in part had
worked out sin to its baneful end, as the richest
revelation of himself, God sent his Son.

These three links of the holy chain perfectly
fit into one another. First there is the material
world. In this world of matter man is created
from dust. And in our flesh and blood comes
the revelation of the Son of God, as man.

The starting point here is, that God is invisible.
Let us understand this well. In himself the

226

Eternal Being is not invisible, and we are de-
finitely told that once we shall see God face to
face. We shall know him, even as we are known.
Intellectual knowledge, and even spiritual know-
ledge is not the highest. The highest is vision;
clear, immediate sight. Seeing without inter-
medium; without mirror; seeing essential Being
itself. How this will be possible, is the mystery
of the life to come, although however latent,
the organ for this is even now present in the soul.
It is not given us to use it in the present. This
is the dispensation of limitations, of the finite,
and of the things that are bound to form, color
and dimensions. And since God is not limited,
and has no form, dimension nor end, He is, in
this dispensation, the Invisible to us. There is no
clear vision of God in this life. The question was,
how in this life, God could reveal himself to us
in his Majesty, even in such a way as w^ould cry-
stalize itself as a clear and fixed impression in us.
And God has realized this aim, 1st by revelation
in nature of his Omnipotence and Divinity in
dimensions, which give us the impression of the
infinite, even through we know they are finite;
this is what we call the sublime; 2nd by the im-
print of his life in the personal existence of man,
creating him after His image; and 3rd by the
restoration in full of this ruined and broken image,
and by showing it to us, in Christ.

Hence God himself is in and behind nature.
Hence nature is not a finished work of art, that
exists by itself outside of and apart from God.
But God himself gives us to see and to hear hia
Majesty in the starry heavens by night, in the
colors of light by day, in the wonders of the

vegetable and animal-world, in the splendor of
the sea, in the roar of the hurricane, sometimes
even in the rolling of his thunder. In all this,
is, and lives, the God Whom we worship. In the
throbbings of the life of nature throbs his own
Divine life. Whatever moves in creation, flows
through it, and addresses itself to us from it,
is the inner motion of God's own life. All nature
is nothing else than a living, throbbing veil
back of which God hides himself, and in whose
folds and undulations he reveals Himself to us,
clothed with Majesty. In the profound saying
of the Apostle: The Invisible God is not only
understood in nature, but is also clearly seen.
This clear sight is the all-important matter.
Though this screen, this veil, this investiture of
nature, God must be seen in his Omnipotence
and Divinity. We are not to look upon nature
as upon a dead palace which is beautiful by rea-
son of its vast variety of lines and forms, but
we must feel and know, that standing before the
firmament, the cloudy heavens and the varied
scenes of earth, we stand before God. That
it is He who presents himself to us in it all,
enters into us through it all, addresses us by it
all, and who throughout the length and the
breadth of it all gives us to behold the workings
of the fingers of his Majesty. It is God who
makes the lark sing for us. It is God who cleaves
the sea, so that its waters foam. It is God who
calls forth the sun from his tent, and at even-
tide directs his return ti.ereto. It is God who
every evening lights the twinkling fires in the
stars. It is God whose voice we hear in the
thunder. And only he who in all this, feels the

228

very life of God, and clearly sees in it all, the
Divinity of Omnipotence, understands the glory
of the Invisible.

''AND THE SECOND IS LIKE
UNTO IT."

God is invisible. He hides himself behind the
veil of nature. But the folds of it move in
undulations and in vibrations, frona which we
preceive that God behind it, is close by. In
everything that lives in nature, rustles, throbs,
and stirs itself, we feel the pulsebeat of God's
own life. The Scripture has nothing to say of a
dead nature, but in all sorts of ways it makes
us watch that we might hear ''the voice of God"
and his "footsteps" in nature. When the earth
trembles, it is because He is "wroth" and makes
*'the foundations of the mountains to shake."
In the darkened firmament "God bows the heav-
en and comes down." In the whirlwind "God
rode upon a cherub and flew." When "the deep
abysses of water" foam, it is God who ''rebukes"
them and drives them forth with "the blast
of his nostrels." The flashes of lightning are
arrows, which He shoots forth into the firmament.
When it grows dark the stars appear, because
God calls them, and behold not one faileth. He
drenches the mountains from his heights. He
sends forth the fountains, so that they walk
among the hills. He makes grass to grow for
beasts, and for man bread to come up from the
ground. It is He who cleaves the sea, so that
its v/aves foam. And he whose ear is spiritually

229

trained, observes how God as his good shepherd
goes before him in the waj', hears the sound of
God's rod and staff on the ground, and is com-
forted thereby.

All this is not for the sake of giving us a poetic,
vivid view of nature. Heathen poets have done
this. In nature also everything is for the sake
of religion, to reveal to us in it the glorious
presence of God, to bring us the fostering sense
that in nature everywhere the living and almighty
God is with us on every side, and to fill us with
the sublime impression of his Power, Divinity
and Majesty.

But this is not all. This self-same living God,
who in nature always envelops you and imposes
his presence upon you, reveals himself altogether
differently and far more richly in you as man,
whom He has appointed as lord over nature.
The revelation of his life in man is so wonder-
fully divine, that after having said: thou shalt
love God with all thy heart, with all thy soul,
with all thy mind and with all thy strength. He
transposes this great commandment into an
altogether different one: thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself, and adds to this second
commandment, that it is like unto the first; that
to love God in his majesty and to love God in
one's neighbor is one and the selfsame command-
ment. To love God in God himself and to love
God in man, or in one's neighbor, dififers in form
and in fulfillment, but as commandment it is one.

Vagrant wisdom forces the representation that
from dead matter gradually the plant evolved
of itself, presently from the plant of itself the
animal, and finally from the animal, man. This

230

wisdom has been christened with the name of
involution and Darwm is called the prophet of this
new evangel.

This whole system is nothing more than self-
miatuation of unbelieving thought. But there
IS this truth m it, that the whole creation seems
to have been built up as a temple in which man
should serve as priest. Everything in it points
to man. It calls for man. And when at length
man appears in this temple of nature, everything
that went before, appears to have served merely
as preparation for his coming. Man has lustlv
been called a world in miniature. The creation
on^y finds its end in man. Almighty God who
hides himself in nature as behind a veil, makes
personal revelation of himself in man, not onlv
m his power and majesty, but, what is far greater
as bpirit. In man there is self-perception, clear
consciousness thinking after God the thoughts
ot God. reye.ation of will, thirst after holiness,
the spark of genius, appreciation of the beautiful
premonition of eternal existence, the resumption
of being in one personal existence, the imprinted
mcreated knowledge of the Eternal Being, and
all this is m him, solely and alone because God
created him after his iamge

fK^f^u ''I'' ^u°T "" niaster-builder by the palace
that he has built, a poet from his poetic works.
a cogent thinker from his ^v^itings But the
^fffCi'^'^f.^^ him that remains is altogether
different, after you have seen in his picture the
features of hs face, the flaming of his eve, and
the expression of his person . . ^^

Such is the case here. The Divine Master-
builder and Artist first showed his works in nature

231

He comes a second time and shows his image in
man, the portrait of himself. Not in one individual.
This is impossible. But in man, as in the course
of centuries, he was bqrn, has lived and has died
by the millions. Among these millions there was
the hyssop and the cedar. In these occasional
instances of mighty personalities, who like cedars
have stood high above the ordinary rank and
file of men, the revelation of the Being of God
centered itself ever more clearly. And when
you take all the virtues, excellencies and rare
capacities together, which have characterized the
best and noblest of the sons of men, the grand
and overwhelming sum-total brings a revelation
of God, which far exceeds God's self-revelation in
nature.

This is still the case now. What would it not
have been, had not sin marred and ruined the
features of the Divine Image in man? Now
there is distvu'bance. The mirror in which the
image is reflected is ruined by a thousand cracks;
it is weather-beaten and blurred. Parts of lines
and features are still discernable, but no more
the image in the loveliness of its unity, nor in
the clearness of its tints. And when even so,
this image still interests and attracts, and ever
and anon fills "you with warm sympathy, what
must it have been to Adam, when in Eve he
beheld it in its original perfection, and how deep
must have been the fall in sin, which at once and
irrevocably marred and ruined it.

Experience of human baseness at times is very
disheartening, and makes it easier to become
misanthropic than philanthropic. But from the
course of centuries history retains what was best

232

in human nature, and bj' its magnilicent revela-
tion of noble human lives reconciles us again
unto man. There is the picture gallery of history',
of the heroes in common life and of the heroes
of faith, as the Apostle declares: (Heb. 12) "we
are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses," wherefore we should lay aside every
weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us."
This is revelation of God even yet in fallen man.
And if love awakens in you real drawing love
for man as man, it is in virtue of the glory that is
seen in man, the glory of God in human talent,
in human genius and in human heroism, pouring
out its raj^s in human love towards you.

There is something mysterious in your own self,
which is attracted by something equally myster-
ious in another, whereby you overlook his failings,
forgive his sins, disregard social differences, and
with the myterious power of love envelop him in
the hidden parts of his being. And though this
love can be spoiled and become itself a sin, it
is in love for one who loves you, that the warm
glow of Divine sympathy overpowers your heart,
and the mystery of love in the Being of God
reveals itself to you.

At first it is a matter of choice. In it beginnings
love is limited, narrow-hearted and repellant to
others; a gleam of light, which casts correspond-
ingly the darker indifference for others as a deep
shadow round about itself. This continues as long
as love is still held in the meshes of selfishness.
It is love from God, but it is not as yet love for
the sake of God. Love for a few whom we deem
worthy of our love, but it is not yet love for the
neighbor, i. e. for man as man, a creature of God

233

created after the Image of God. But the Spirit
purifies this love. Love for man must be hke
the love for God. There must be no di£ference
between these two, or else the love for man will
detract from the love for God in the heart.

Thus it becomes more and more a process of
distinction. Love of whatever of God there is
in man. Likewise hate of whatever of the Evil
One there is in man, with the serious purpose of
love to oppose it, until it is gone from his heart.
This is the way to discover whatever of God,
hidden and latent through it be, still glows in
other men's hearts, to encourage this spark and
not to tolerate its extinction. Until at length
this neighborly love reaches down to the latest
trace, which in eveiy man on this side of the
grave, even in those who have most deeply fallen,
still reminds us of his creation after the Image
of God, and of the possibility of its restoration.
Even as the lover of choice porcelains gathers with
great care the shards of the broken dish because
he appreciates their worth in the possible case
of their being glued together again. But even so
your love for your neighbor has become nothing
else than love for whatever of God there still
remains in him. The second commandment is
like unto the first.

45 '

"THE IMAGE OF THE
INVISIBLE GOD."

God is a Spirit. God is Invisible. But with
increasing clearness He reveals himself. There
are glimmerings through and back of the veil
284

of nature. In man, who is created after his Image,
he becomes more transparent. He is faliy seen in
Christ, who is the express Image of his Person,
the Image of the Invisible God (Col. 1:15).
Image and not picture. What has been sculptured
conveys more reality, than what has been pic-
ured jn lines and tints. It gives the full appear-
ance. In marble or in metal the image imitates
the massive form of life. The picture that is
drawn with the pencil or painted with the brush
conveys in turn warmth of life, glow of soul and
mobilitj^ of features, which cold stubborn marble
refuses to express. But the image is more im-
pressive. It is overwhelming by reason of its
greater reality and almost tangibility.

The Scripture therefore does not speak of the
portrait, but of the image of God, who is invisible,
and in this expression the whole action of religion
centers itself. God gives his image. Man cornipts
it. Man himself wants to make an image of God.
This is a heinous sin. In the end sin reaches its
utmost height, when Satan, as the Beast, the
Man of Sin, the Antichrist, erects an image of
himself, and demands the worship for it, which
is due alone to the *' express image of God's person"
i. e. Christ.

This revelation of God is not to be taken in
a figurative or metaphorical sense. On the con-
trary it is supernatural reality. Hence the saying
of Jesus to Philip: "He that hath seen me. hath
seen the Father". (John 14:9) and hence the hope
of glorv' for every child of God. that once he also
shall see Christ as he is, and that in seeing the
glorified Christ he shall see God himself face to
face. He shall not see Christ and afterwards and

alongside of him see God, but he shall see God
in Christ. In the iinregenerate. sin has made the
image of God unrecognizable. In Christ God gives
his image in all its ifullness and perfect clearness.
This was possible in our human nature, because
the Son was the Image of the Father from all
eternity, and as bj' the shadow of this Image our
human nature was formed from the dust of the
earth. He therefore who rests content with the
revelation of God in nature, depressed as it is by
the curse, or he who rests content with the revela-
tion of God in the natural man, who is dead in
sin, can not come to the true knowledge of God.
but must of necessitv fall away into idolatry or
false philosophy, ''No man knoweth the Father,
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will
reveal him" (Mat. 11:27).

Christ therefore remains the center of our Divine
worship, not only by what he spake, by what he
did, or what he suffered, but through his own Per-
sonal Self. The glory of the apostles lies in what
they have heard, and seen and handled of the
Word of life. Christ is not only the chief est among
the prophets, and the Head of the apostles, He is
himself the personal embodiment of everything
that is comprehended in the glory of our religion.
"In him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead
bodily." We name ourselves after Him. Salva-
tion is given us in his name. From his Person
and Name has gono forth the regenerating, life-
renewing power, which has changed the fashion
of this world. True Christianity is only where
he is woi'shipped. He rules not merely bv the
tradition of what he once was, spake, did and
endured, but by a real power, which even now,

236

seated as he is at the right hand of God, he
exercises over lands and nations, generations,
famihes and individuals. The course of the world's
history and the final destiny of every individual
life decides for him or against him. In loyal sub-
jection to him, the world will rejoice in peace,
turned against him, it will be troubled, and will
continue to be troubled, until it either returns to
him, or in rebellion against him works out its own
destruction.

And therefore every effort to weaken the
Christian religion and to detach it from Christ,
or to mingle it with philosophic and heathen
inventions must result in spiritual and moral
retrogression. He who in am^ wise puts the
supreme name of Christ on a line with that of
Buddha, Confucius or Mohammed, undermines
the Christian religion, and all religion, together
with the happy development of mankind, since
it all leads away from the knowledge of God,
falsifies it, and hastens its loss. And while to
know God is itself eternal life, to be enjoyed
here and in the hereafter, all alienation from
Christ, all beclouding of his Name is no search
after life, but after death.

Seeking Christ for the sake of salvation is the
beginning. But he who understands what salva-
tion is, will for its sake cultivate the knowledge
of God. Of a truth Christ is the surety that once
the soul will be free from sin; the guarantee that
no guilt of sin will any more distress us; the
promise that once the body will be restored in
glory; and no less the hope of a home in the
Fathers' house of many mansions; of sacred joy
in the realm of eternal light, and of endless

237

fellowship with all the saints of God; in brief,
of an inheritance that w^ill provide what no ear
has heard, no eye has seen, and has not entered
the heart of man. But all this is yet nothing
else than the glory of the palace and of those
who may enter therein. But the glory of salva-
tion is found in God alone. To own God; to
know him with clear-sighted understanding; in
humble w^orship to fellowship with him; that
alone is the heart and the soul of everlasting
salvation.

Hence there is salvation in Christ both because
he delivers you from sin, and because he
guarantees the inheritance among the saints in
light. But salvation in Christ is realized in full
only when in him, as the Image of the invisible
God, you lay hold on God himself, and in the
knowledge of God. which radiates from this Image,
you imbibe eternal life. Salvation is not prepared
by Christ, brought down to us by him, and into
which he shall once lead his own, in order that,
when all is done, he may retire from the scene.
On the contrary, there would be no salvatioD
even in the realm of glor>% if Christ would not
be forever there, as the One in whom God can be
seen and known and enjoyed.

But this does not tarry until we come to the
house of the Father on high. In the heavenly
life our knowledge of God will be made perfect,
but it is begun here. We have no bare promise
of future revelation, but there is a revelation of
God in Christ now within our reach. The Image
of God in Christ is sketched for us upon the
sacred page. God is a Spirit, and this self-revela-
tion of God in the eternal AVord is expressed for

238

us in the written Word. Atfer his ascension also
Christ lives in the Word. With it the portrait of
God's Image has gone out into the world. Its
presence lives among us. Thanks to the Word
we are so familiar with the person and appearance
of Christ, that he walks with us by the way. As
he moved among the people of his times, the
imagination brings him into our own surroundings.
And we take his word of the long ago to our-
selves, as through he speaks personally to us for
admonition, encouragement and comfort.

There is moreover not only a portrait of Christ
in the written Word, but powers, operations and
influences have gone forth from him, w^hich have
kindled fire in the human breast and have inspired
love, holy resolves and spiritual consecration, in
all ages to this day, the thought of which uplifts
and cheers, and as it were, brings close the very
breath of Christ to us. All this is not merely
the passive result of his appear'ance twenty
centuries ago, but in sober fact it is daily fed and
nourished by himself, and from him makes its
appeal to us. Every soul that is bom anew,
every holy thought that comes into the mind,
every good work which we are enabled to do, is
all the work of Christ through the wondrous
indwelling of the Holy Ghost. He would come
and take up his abode with us. And He is come,
and still comes every day and every night to
confirm this indwelling in the congregation of the
saints. He knows and calls us by name and adapts
himself to the needs of the heart. And so he, who
is the Image of the Invisible God, holds himself
before us, continues in us the work once begun,
and through ebb and flood tides makes the ocean

239

of God's unfathomable mercies glisten ever more
gloriously.

Thus there is a knowledge of God which we
learn and derive from Christ. But there is a
far greater knowledge of God which He himself
imparts, which He brings, and makes fully clear
to us in the hidden parts of the soul. The
mystical part of it is, that he who is the Image of
the invisible God, not only shows us this image,
and fascinates us with it, but he chisels this image
in us. Our inner life is made conformable to the
inner life of Christ. His image is imprinted upon
the saints of God. The highest knowledge of God
that we can obtain in the earth is, when the image
of God in Christ renews the image of God in us.

46

''HALLOWED BE THY NAME."
True knowledge of God does not come from
storing the memory. It only becomes this when
it finds its startingpoint in the things, which the
soul inwardly discerns and experiences. Every-
thing here must go out from personal contact
between us and God. There is no knowledge of
light possible for one who was bom blind. And
as long as we do not perceive and discover God
in ourselves, and are consciously affected by work-
ings that go out from him, true knowledge of God
is impossible. This is not felt by the sense of touch,
but in our own immediate spiritual perception,
so that not from reasoning, and not from what
others have told us, but immediately from our own
selves we know that God is and that God is great.
In times when defence of the faith called for

240

heroic sacrifice, our fathers steadily held this in
front. They insisted on the fact that God had
implanted the sence of himself in man (sensiis
divinitatis), and that this was the seed of all
religion (semen religionis). But when persecution
ceased, this real spiritual background of all true
knowledge of God was wantonly forsaken, and
far too much place was given to intellectual
abstractions. Abstract knowledge of the true God
superceded the knowledge which is eternal life,
with the necessary result that book-learning
supplanted true godliness, and that the life of the
church become enervated and weak.

The Church stood not alone in this. The retreat
from reality to the paper-world of abstract inven-
tions of the mind became noticeable in every
department of the higher life. Even art, and
with it poetry, became at length infected with
this evil virus. Forms, words, phrases, rhymes
and poetastry took the place of golden speech,
which springs up from the fountain of life itself.
This was inevitably followed by an equally one-
sided reaction, which brought nothing but emo-
tions, simple impressions, pure sensations, with
the necessary result that the consciousness was
dimmed, inner perceptions became vague, thought
became confused and utterances chaotic.^ Such
was the case in poetry and literature, and such
also in religion. Nothing remained except percep-
tions, sensations and impressions, which with un-
believers led to a return to polytheism, and made
believers lose themselves in sentimental Mj'Sticism.

For let it be well understood, all tihis is
dominated, in every domain, including that of
religion, by strong currents in all of human life.

241

Things are only right when the workings of the
emotions and of the intellect unite in proper
equipoise and in pure harmony. But sin can not
tolerate this. It continuall}^ breaks the equipoise
and banishes harmony, so that first, there is a
time when the intellect kills the feeling, and then
there is a period when the feeling sentences the
intellect to silence. And in the face of it all.
it is ever the sacred calling of preaching to form
just estimates of every abuse, and to jealously
urge the restoration of equipoise and of pure
harmony.

In these meditations on the knowledge of God.
we have first considered, therefore, the working of
the hidden fellowship from every side. We have
seen what the imagination, inspiration, the work-
ing of the will, love, the impressions obtained
from nature, from man, and finally from Christ,
contribute to the true knowledge of God. The
reality of the secret walk with God had first to
be made palpable. This was done the more easily
because it harmonizes with the trend of the age.

Emphasizing the reality of inner sensations
agrees with current notions of the times. Barren
trifling with ideas in religion has at length also
repelled the common mind. Men crave the things
that caji be felt and handled and immediately en-
joyed, and that can pleasantly affect the entire
personality. But it would be an unpardonable
fault, which would soon avenge itself, if this were
all. The Scripture does not allow it. The Church
enters its protest against it. Every child of God
asks for more.

In Scripture the significance of the name is
profound and far-reaching. The name of the

242

Lord calls us out from the flood of emotions to
higher and clearer consciousness. The feeling
is a gift of God. but the gift of consciousness
as a feature of the image of God in us far excels
it. Feeling can do no more than furnish the
material which the consciousness thinks upon,
classifies and transposes into clearness of form.
Even the plant is sensitive. In an animal feel-
ing is sometimes exceedingly fine. But neither
plant nor animal received the glorious capacity
of the higher consciousness, which enables man
to take in everj'thing. to sciiitinize and to estimate
things in their significance, to appreciate, and to
mirror them in his own thought. Consciousness
makes man a King. In feeling he suffers and
endures.

Consciousness has all sorts of forms. A form
for art. A form for the moral, and a form for
the religious life. But of all these forms it is
always consciousness first, in which man finds
himself back again, becomes capable of mighty
action, and lifts himself up to the spheres of
the eternal Word. One-sided absorption in
mysticism has therefore always ended in degene-
ration. Hence the Church must ever and anon
send out the sacred summons to elevate the trea-
sure of our religion to the height of our con-
sciousness. Mysticism without more is darkness,
and chaos. In our consciousness is the light.

In behalf of the knowledge of God this light
is first kindled b}' the Name of the Lord. This
is at once understood, when on our kness before
the Eternal, we first address him in general as
God. and then proceed to call him Abba, Father.
He who in addressing God quietly, with emphasis

243

and attention calls him: My dear Father, per-
ceives at once, that by this name a world of
thought passes through his heart, and that from
the high and holy places God comes nearer to
the soul. The name is what I call someone, and
I can only name him whom I know. The name
is immediately connected with the knowledge of
the person. It is the summary in a single word
of what comes before me in the person. And
though our human names are thread-worn, so
that they no longer express anything, yet we look
differently upon the man whom we hear addressed
by name, than upon the stranger who passes us
in the street.

This can be applied to God in a far higher
^ense, in so much as the Name of the Lord is the
expression of his Being. Call him by the covenant
name of Jehovah, by the patriachical name of
God Almighty, as child call him Father, or adr
dress him by the full name of Father, Son and
Holy Ghost, and the Name always expresses the
being. God's name is no human invention. God
has given it to himself and has revealed it unto
us. It conveys to us a summary knowledge of
God, and brings him closer to us. It carries him
into our consciousness, and explains him to us.

Without the Name of the eternal Being, relig-
ion and idolatry merge into one another; every-
thing terminates in a dark religious perception;
the ocean of polytheism presents itself to us;
and personal knowledge of the personal God is
more and more lost. But with the Name of the
Lord, distinction presents itself. Antithesis be-
comes plain between false and true religion. We
come personally to stand before the personal God,

244

and learn to know with whom we have to do.
provided alwa3^s that we do not allow this Name to
run dead in empty sound. Sin also accounts for
this. The ''Our Father" is said without any
thought of him, or of what the Father name im-
plies, as though it were a dead term. It is the
curse of custom,which by continuous repetition
dulls the spiritual consciousness. Thus there is
hasty, thoughtless and senseless use of sacred
sounds, until in a moment of seriousness you turn
in upon yourself, reverently repeat these holy
names putting your soul into them, and you be-
come surprised at the riches that glisten in them.
When this becomes the case, the Name of the
Lord is a torch that is lighted in the conscious-
ness, and from the darkness of the emotions,
gradually and of itself the liidden being of God
looms up before j^ou with ever increasing clear-
ness. Then you stand personally before God.
and his Name always explains as much of his
being, as at that moment the heart needs. And
thus thoughtful consciousness can not and must
not be content with stammering the Name. For
then the name becomes the occasion for think-
ing out what it implies, and for explaining God
as far as possible to the consciousness. Not
every one can do this equally well. The capacity
of the consciousness to absorb is very limited
with one, and wonderfully great with another.
Indeed there is no advance save as each one
acquires knowledge of God according to the mea-
sure of his consciousness. That we should in this
wise acquire knowledge of the things of the
world, and of the several departments of science,
and that with respect to the Name of the Lord

245

we should neglect the same, can never be allowed.
The name of the Lord must be hallowed. In-
difference with respect to this is irreconcilably-
opposed to the hallowing of God's Name.

47

''THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND

OF THE SON, AND OF THE

HOLY GHOST."

In our intercourse with the world and with
society, intimacy is wonderfully deepened by the
permission of calling a person by name. This
intimacy becomes closer still, when the family
name gives place to the baptismal name. Child-
ren do not know this transition. Rules of polite-
ness onl}' come in force when the shoes of child-
hood have been outgrown. These rules but intend
to heighten the unconventionality of childlife,
and to elevate it to nobler forms, which purposely
create a certain distance betw-een man and man,
and allow individuals to develop themselves more
freely. When in later years, however, closer
acquaintance leads to friendship, or association
in a common pursuit lessens the distance, and
titles fall away, and for the first time we call one
another by name, the method of intercouree
modifies itself entirely. We feel ourselves at once
drnwn closer together, and it seems that mutual
confidence but waits the chance to reveal itself.

As- a rule, the higher the station of the person
who allows us to call him by name, the greater
the leap from the estrangement to the more confi-
dential intercourse. It is great indeed when we
call a man by his family name. It is greatest
when we address him by his personal name.

246

Another difiference is, that among women, even
as with children, the personal, baptismal name
is used, and almost never the family name, while
among men as a rule the family name is in
vogue, and the use of the personal name indicates
a far higher degree of intimacy. While at length
in family life every more dignified title falls away,
and the use of the family- name has no meaning,
but everything hinges on the baptismal name, or
passes over into an entirely other sort of names,
which express the relation which one sustains
to the other. Until finally we come to the mother-
and father-name, and we speak of husband and
wife, and parents say: my child. These names
of common use in the family are more than sounds.
They express something essential in the mutual
relationships. They are somewhat on a par with
the names we give to a physician, clergyman, or
sexton, which indicate that we do not mean
their person but their office. But while with
the latter these persons, and the relation in
wliich they stand to us, separate themselves,
the father-name, the mother-name and the name
of ''my child" contain this excellent trait, that they
express simultaneously^ both the persons and the
relationships, and that in this way they indicate
the highest that a name can express. If then
after these observations we address God as Our
Father or as Abba, dear Father, we appreciate
more fully than before, the supreme privilege
which this Father-name confers upon a child of
God.

The names by which we seek to indicate the
Eternal, are not all equally intimate. The vague
name of God brings no approach. The mere

word God indicates a highly-exalted Being, that
far transcends mankind. But by itself it has no
meaning. It is exclusive and reveals nothing.
It does not indicate a single relationship. It
only becomes significant and vital, when we put
the word my before it. and speak of ''my God",
or of the "Covenant-God".

The same applies to the name: the most
High. In Scripture we find it used in circles out-
side of Israel. It occurs in connection with
Melchizedek, with Nebuchadnezzar, Isaiah 14:14,
in the heathen world where Daniel dwelt, and with
good and bad angels. In Ps. 82:6 angels are called:
children of the most High. Gabriel speaks of
the power of the Highest that shall overshadow
Mar>'. Demons likewise call Jesus: Thou Son of
God, most High (Luke 8:28). This is but natural.
This name of the most High merely indicates that
our God is exalted far above all created things.
But it is not a name that brings him closer to us,
or that initiates one into his secret fellowship.

It is altogether different when God reveals him-
self as the Almighty, as Jehovah and as Lord. The
patriarchs were permitted to call Him the Mighty
God. This indicates protection, a refuge in time
of trouble, surety of the given promise, a party
to the Covenant, who will break everj' form of
opposition in our behalf. Hence the rich develop-
ment of this name in the manifold references to
God as our high tower, our Refuge, our Rock;
as of a God in whose tent we may dwell, and who
is our hidding-place. It is all the unfolding of
this one idea : God is the Almighty One, who
watches over us to bless us.

The same is true of the Jehovah name. This

248

also is no hollow sound, but an expression of the
Being of God; even of that in him which we
need for our comfort in the midst of these chang-
ing scenes of life. Everything about us comes
and goes. We ourselves change continuously
with every changing thing around us. Scarcely
has spring given way to summer, before autumn
is at hand to pass on into the winter-sleep of
death. This antagonizes our inner being, which
calls for immortality; which longs to remain like
unto itself, and which at the bar of its own con-
sciousness maintains in old age identity with the
self of the child. But this change around us and
within us ceaselessly goes on. There is nothing
sure. It is all as the rocking of waves, on which
we are rocked and irresistibly driven along. And
in the midst of this restless ocean the wonderful
name of Jehovah: I am that I am, is the revela-
tion of the enduring, the abiding, the eternal, the
unchangeable, and becomes one with the name of
Rock. Thus the result of this name-revelation
is, that he to whom Jehovah has shown grace, and
who himself has laid hold on Jehovah, has in
God the fixed point, from whence he defies the
restless tossing of the waters on the sea of life,
and lays hold on eternity itself in the God whom
he worships. To know Jehovah it to have eternal
life.

The same is the case with the name: Lord. He
who only speaks of God says nothing of the
relation in which he stands to Him. But he who
says: Lord, our God, or God the Lord, bears
witness to a relation which he sustains to the
Eternal Being. He is His property and servant
From him he expects orders and ordinances. He

249

acknowledges that he should live for God, because
God is his Lord, so that he exists solely and
alone for the sake of God.

In this revelation of the Name, the love of
God that sought us and drew us, has made still
further progress. Israel was taught to know the
Father-name, which is by no means revealed
for the first time in the New Testament. When
God said to Malachi: If then I am a Father,
where is mine honor? this one saying clearly
shows that the sense and significance of the
Father-name was well-kno^^^l in Israel. Even the
antithesis with the child was understood in it.
Or was it not said of David: I shall be to him
a Father. And he shall be to me a son. Every
one feels that in the Father-name the Eternal
Being comes close to us. It is as though all
distance falls away, and as though by this name
God himself invites us to warm confidence, close
fellowship and intimate communion. The mother-
name would have done this still more tenderly,
but not so significantly, because the mother-name
is more closely associated with childhood and
early youth, while the father-name embraces all
of life. The Father-name of God moreover includes
both the tenderness of the mother-name and the
energetic confidentiality of the father-name.
"Though a mother may forget her sucking child,
yet will I not forget thee. (Is. 49:15)

The inner religious life awakens in all its rich-
ness and fullness only at the sound of the Father-
name. For now there is family life, continuous
dwelling with God, the outpouring of the heart,
the holding of oneself fast by God in confidence
and love, in the fellowship of prayer and in a

250

tenderness, which no longer hides anything. More
yet, the Father-name includes the name of the
child. With the Abba Father comes the surpris-
ing discover>^ that one is himself a child of God,
and with it is disclosed the nobility of our race,
the royal exaltation above everything that sur-
rounds us in the unconscious creation, and the
thought which tranforms all of life, that this is
not our real life, for that our real life is with
and by and in our God.

With this the last step is made possible. And
at length comes the full revelation of Father,
Son and Holy Ghost, of the one and threefold
Being. This at once establishes .the connection
of the relation which we sustain to God with the
Being of God itself. By itself the Father-name
might yet stand outside of the Divine Being,
and merel}' have been borrowed from, human
family life. In this case it would merely imply,
that as we are children of our father at home,
God also watches as a Father over us. But all
this becomes different at once. In his Being
God is eternally Father, and in this same Being
of God is the Son. Hence what is known on
earth in the family is only the image of what
eternally was in the Being of God. It is no
longer a comparision. The real is expressed in
the Father-name. Likewise when we are privi-
ledge to be called God's Child, this name is not
borrowed from comparision with the family, but
it comes to us directly from the image of God.
He is not merely called our Father, but he is
eternally our Father. We are not merely called
his child. We are his child, generated by him
and born from him.

251

This is salvation. Wherefore he who takes the
confession of the Trinity as a mere doctrinal
question, does not fathom by far what this revela-
tion of Father, Son and Holy Ghost implies.
Only the Triune God is the wealth and the delight
of the soul.

48

"WHO DWELLETH ON HIGH AND

BEHOLDETH THE THINGS."

IN THE EARTH.

He who seeks to live near unto God, and does
not know how to keep his distance from God,
commits sin. This is sadly evident at times in
prayer before others, and shows itself at once by
the use of "you" in place of "thee" and "thou".
In countries where the language contains two
forms o£ address, one more common and one more
dignified, it has always been the custom to use
the more common form in prayer. In France
we have the 'Notre Pere qui est aux cieux, ton
regne vienne"; and in German: "Unser Vater der
du im Himmel bist, dein Name werde geheilight."
In addressing his father a Dutch child always used
the terms du and dein, which in meaning lay in
between the vulgar Dutch "jou" and the dignified
"thee and thou." But this has been changed. To
address his father now otherwise than by "thee and
thou" would be considered a breach on the part
of the Dutch Child of the Fifth Commandment.
When thus in addressing an earthly father a whole-
some appreciation of language avoids the use of
vulgar terms, it betokens a want of sufficient
reverence before the Father who is in heaven, when
one tries to show a certain daring, in thus ad-

252

dressing the Highest Being. It betrays the tend-
ency to show how intimately the man who prays
holds converse with his God. And while this is
done at the expense of reverence towards God, it
leads to sin.

Both what is exalted and what is ordinary have
very naturally a certain trait in common. A king
on his throne is exalted, his butler is only ordinary.
Yet they have this in common, that their family
name is rarely used. As a rule they are spoken
of by name. In England people speak of King
George. Almost no one thinks of his family name
of Windsor. Likewise every one knows the butler
by his first name, while in case of a payment of
taxes his family name is frequently a subject of
inquiry.

This is because the exalted departs from the
ordinary measure of our life, and so does that
w^hich falls below it. As we read in Isaiah 57:15,
"For thus saith the high and lofty One that in-
habiteth eternity; I dwell in the high and holy
place, with him also that is of a contrite and
humble spirit". The lofty and the humble are
here mentioned in one breath. Our ordinary life
has certain measures, forms and dimensions,
certain well known figures and appearances. All
this together forms our human life. And it la
the sin of every thing that is called heathen,
that it brings the Almighty down to the level of
the human. Thus the heathen make an image
of a man, or of an animal, and kneel down to it,
and so destroy the incalculable difference between
human and Divine life.

In the face of it Holy Scripture discloses the
holy sphere of the lofty, i. e. of a life that goes

253

out far and high above our earthly, human hfe.
Nature gives us an impression of it in the firma-
ment that arches high above us, in the sky that
hastens upwards, and in the mighty thunder that
rolls through the dark hosts of clouds. In a
heavy thunder-storm, in the hurricane that rages
upon the great waters, in an earthquake which
makes the ground to vibrate under our feet,
with a volcano that vomits forth its lava, every
one feels that we have to do with powers that
exceed the limits of our human life. They are
the interpreters of the existence of a higher,
mightier world than ours. Wherefore all this takes
its place in what we call the lofty. It ascends
higher still when we lift up our soul and mind to
the world of angels and of the blessed in eternal
light. But higher still is the Most Highest, Our
God in his Majesty. And every portrayal which
God himself gives in prophecy of the palace of the
Divine King, and of the throne of his Omnipotence
above, lifts itself so high and far above all mea-
sure of our common life that of our own accord
we honor therein the Past in its completeness.
This must be so, in order that we might continue
to be man, and leave God to be God, and that
we might never lose from sight the distance at
which the Creator stands high above the creature.
When we realize this distance reverence attends
our worship, and in deep humility of spirit we
kneel before his lofty throne.

This same God who dwelleth on high, in the
lofty and holy places, also dwells with him that
is of a contrite and humble spirit. He humbleth
himself to behold the things that are in heaven,
and in the earth (Ps. 113:6). The laborer and the

poor are frequently treated with far more consid-
eration by those of assured position, than by those
of lower social standing. When a subject ap-
proaches his king, as a rule he is surprised by the
kind treatment which he receives. And since the
Lord God is highly exalted above every one of us,
it is no contradiction, but entirely along the same
line, that when he turns himself to his creature,
he refreshes and comforts it by an holy. Divine
familiarity.

Sacred reserve therefore becomes us in our
approach to God. Familiarity with the Eternal
must always proceed from the side of God, and
may never be presumed upon by the creature.
When man makes bold to ignore the boundary
of reverence, God repulses him. For then man
exalts himself at the expense of the loftiness of
hid Lord. This interrupts the secret walk with
God. At last he retains nothing but vain beating
in the air after the Infinite, after a higher Being,
a higher blessing, a name without content, a
sound that volatilizes; and he has lost his Father
and his God.

The Our Father puts us under solemn restraint.
By grace we are permitted to invoke God as our
Father. But for the sake of reverence it follows
at once : Who art in heaven, in order that, as the
Catechism warns us, no one should think of
God in an earthly way.

That God is the Lofty and Holy One who
dwelleth on high, and that there is a secret walk
with him, because he humbleth himself to behold
the things in the earth, creates of itself a two-
fold endeavor to overcome the distance that
separates him from us. One is, that God comes

255

down to us. The second is, that we lift up our
soul to him. It begins with the first. The second
follows. In Paradise after the fall God comes
down, to Adam, and this condescension on the
part of God goes on thoughout all Revelation.
This coming down is made perfect in the manger
of Bethlehem in behalf of our entire race. At
the great feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem God the
Holy Ghost comes down into human hearts.
This descent of God still continues with every soul
that passes from death into life. Then God comes
to take up his abode in the heart. Then he prays
for us, and in us with groanings that are unutter-
able, and he who dwelleth on high dwells at the
same time in the contrite heart.

Parallel with this runs the lifting up of our
soul to God. "Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my
soul" (Ps. 25:1). What we seek is "to dwell in
the house of the Lord," to take refuge in him
as our "high Tower," and to live our life apart
from the world in order to dwell with the Holy
One. "Seek the things that are above where
Christ is" (Col. 3:1) and to you will be given
"walks to w^alk among those that are above"
(Zech. 3:7).

When God comes down to you, the idol of
self, even as Dagon's image, must be thrown
down. But when this is done, and your spirit
is contrite, and you have come down from your
imagined heights to humbler perceptions of your-
self, the wall of separation falls down, the dis-
tance shortens, and the moment arrives when you
feel that God is with you in your own heart, and
that von cannot live otherwise than near unto
God.'

256

Reverence before the Almighty has always
proved itself most deep and most true with those
who stand nearest to the Lord. While on the other
hand they who have never entered into seeret
fellowship ^^^th God. have become more and
more devoid of all salutar\^ fear, awe and rever-
ence before the Lord our God. In many cases
they even profane his Holiness by reckless and
thoughtless use of his Name as an expletive.

It is grace, and grace alone, that the High and
Lofty One takes his finite creature into his con-
fidence, enters into secret fellowship with him,
admits him into his tent and visits him in his
heart. And they alone enjoy the delight of this
sacred privilege, who receive it in a thankful and
worshipful spirit. They have the promise that they
will be tranlated one daj' from this earthly into
the heavenly state, in order that in the high and
lofty Fatherhouse of God, they may dwell for-
ever with the Lord.

"BEFORE I WAS AFFLICTED I
WENT ASTRAY."

There is also an entirely personal knowledge of
God which comes to us through the ebb and
flood tides of sorrow and of joy. But this must
not be exaggerated. The idea that disappoint-
ment and soiTow as a rule open the soul to God,
and that suffering always makes perfect, is loudly
contradicted by experience. Undoubtedly great
disasters, which strike heavily and suddenly,
such as pestilence, storms that threaten ship-
wreck, destructive earthquakes, danger of death
in sudden illness, remind the thoughtless for a
257

monent, that there is a God with whom we have
to do. But as soon as the danger is past, it
takes but a little while for the faint impression
to wear away. After a deliverance from pestil-
ence, for instance, unblushing worldliness has
frequently shown itself more godless than before.
Everything was all right again. One was almost
ashamed that at heart he had been afraid. But
now one was master of himself again, and would
improve his chance to enjoy life, before the
possible return of similar ill luck. Or where they
did not take so wide a swing as this, and dis-
sipation was carefully avoided, the return after
disaster to old-time self-sufficiency was almost
systematic, and life was lived again, if not directly
opposed to, yet uithout, God.

And this was not always the worst. Great
adversities have frequently led souls, that shared
a general belief, into atheism. It was firmly held,
that if in the hour of need God were but invoked,
deliverance was sure. At the sickbed of husband
or child the prayer arose: O, God, save them.
But when this prayer evidently brought no relief,
and inexorable death dragged the loved one into
the grave, the whole soul rose up in rebellion.
If, prayer brings no help in distress, there is no
God. Or if there is a God, he can be no God
of love, and in bitterness of soul life is lived
in rebellion against God.

Suffering truly makes perfect, but only when
grace is known in the heart, and not with the
unregenerate child of the world. In sooth, suffer-
ing can be a means in the hand of God to bring
a wanderer to a stand, and to conversion, but

258

even then conversion is effected by the work of
Divine grace in the soul, and suffering in connec-
tion with this is merely an accidental means of
aid. As Job sat among the ashes his wife did
not hesitate to say to him; "Curse God, and die,"
And it is only the soul, which like that of the
Psalmist, is a subject of heavenly grace, that is
able, after deliverance from trouble, to confess
before God: "Before I was afflicted I went astray:
but now, being instructed, I keep thy word"
(Ps. 119:67).

In joyous and prosperous times conditions are
still worse. As a rule they who live at ease
are farther estranged from God, than they who
have to work for daily bread. The sharply
drawn antithesis betw^een the rich man and poor
Lazarus has been verified in all ages and among
all peoples. Radiant beauty, abounding health,
unbroken prosperity in one's career or business,
great happiness at home, abundance of material
wealth, so that care and trouble were unknown,
have almost never seemed able to foster true
godliness. They rather fortified a man in his self-
sufficiency, in the high estimate of his own self,
and drew the soul away from God, rather than
that by them the soul felt itself drawn toward
him. Such has been the case with individual per-
sons, with whole families and nations. When there
was peace, and national power grew so that the
people revelled in wealth, they went with equal
pace almost always spiritually backwards. When
the Dutch had to fight hard and long for spiritual
liberty, religion and public morals stood high.
But when in the 18th century gold streamed in
from every side, and wealth became the law of

259

life, the nation became decadent. The mighty
world-empire of Rome fared the same way.
Sobriety and restraint made it great, until luxury
and love of pleasure began from within, what bar-
baric invasions from without brought to a finish.
Even of South Africa it may be asked, if the gold
from its mines which suddenly cast treasures into
the laps of the people, did not hasten its present
estate.

There have been persons, families, and whole
generations, which from gratitude for material
blessings became more tenderly united to God.
But this was only because grace preceded and
accompanied prosperity. Solomon remains the
historic type of how even with God's children
prosperity can work a spiritual decline. They
are strong legs that can carry wealth, says the
proverb. And the exception is rare in which Satan
does not succed in the abuse of our prosperity
against him from whom it comes.

In joy and sorrow both however most helpful
means are offered to obtain deeper knowledge
of God; negatively in joy, positively in sorrow.
When in examining his wavs the child of God
discerns that in days of joy and plenty he incurs
the risk of becoming mechanical in prayer, of
fostering pride, of building more confidence on
himself than on God, and of being less persistent
in his secret communion with God, it will turn,
if he is sincere, the trend of his mind and heart.
As strongly as his heart inclined before at times
towards the goods of this world, he will now begin
to be afraid of them. It becomes clear to him
that God and worldly wealth do not agree, but
rather antagonize each other. He feels that wealth

260

itself is not at fault, for there was wealth in
Paradise, and there is nothing but wealth in the
Fatherhouse above, but that sin in our heart
poisons our wealth, and creates a power that is
hostile to God.

In this way God becomes more spiritual to
him, and in God, who is a spirit, he learns by
contrast to understand better than before the
price, the significance and the worth of the trea-
sure of the spiritual life. There have been men
and women among the saints of God who in the
midst of wealth have become richer in God, and
have been merely stewards of the goods entrusted
to their care in his Name, for the good of his
church and of his poor. The impulse to do good
sprang not mfrequently from the fear, lest their
wealth should draw them away from God.

But greater is the knowledge of God which is
learned in times of deep sorrow, when there was
previous spiritual knowledge of God in the heart.
Grievous affliction breaks the highness of self.
It makes us realize that there are powers over
which we have no control, and which can violently
attack our strength, our lot in life, our family,
our prospects of the future, and the loves of our
heart. We may call these powers death, sickness,
slander, anger, hatred, or what we like. But when
they come upon us, and succeed in threatening
or in breaking up our happiness, we feel that they
stand before us as powers in hostile array, that
they are independent of us, and that they have
far more power over us than we over them. And
this revelation of power is a revelation of the real
power, which God has over us and over the world.

As long as life runs a smooth course we know
261

about God, we worship him, and his spiritual
power is felt in the inner life of the soul. But
it is an altogether different matter when the
power of God is seen in the material, outward
life. For it is in this that affliction makes a breach.
It breaks it, and you see and feel and handle the
power, that comes into the life from without,
working havoc and distress. There is no power
with us to face it. And in our powerlessness
we discover that there is real power in God alone,
which great and strong is able to bring deliverance,
and to repulse the evil that is arrayed against us.

Thus life becomes an arena in which these
destructive powers work against us and our God,
and the saving power of God enters into the
combat on our side. At first we continue to take
part ourselves, but when it becomes most fierce,
we are incapacitated, at length we become alto-
gether passive, and we feel and perceive that God
and his angels fight for our salvation. When they
are snares of sin, by which Satan seeks to foil
us, this conflict is most exalted, most holy. In
the end we feel that all the angels and all the
devils watch intently to see, what will gain the
day in the soul; the power of sin or the power of
God.

This conflict maj' also bear an exalted character
with sorrow in the outward life, as bj^ means of
new affliction Satan seeks to do us harm, and
when in the end. by God's help, w^e may sing of
victory. For by this very struggle the soul learns
to understand more fully than ever before, that
in the thing which Satan brings upon us, the
appointment of God's love is carried out; that it
262

is the purifying process of the melting-pot; the
separating process of the winnowing fan; the
unfolding process of the power of faith; the
inspiring process of our spiritual heroism; the
loosening process of ties which we prized more
highlj^ than the tie which binds us to God; the
equipment with the whole armor of God against
still greater temptations to come; the anchoring
of the soul to the higher world; and the humbling
of self within us, in order that even in the heart,
God alone may be great.

And then it is no longer the question of highest
importance, whether we are delivered from our
trouble, or whether we are overcome by it.
If God brings deliverance, there is outward
triumph, which at times is sorely needed to exhibit
the splendor of the supreme power of the Lord
over death and pestilence, over slander and anger,
over Satan and fortune. But this deliverance is
not the main thing. If the exhibition of the
supremacy of God is deferred to the life to come,
we must rest content. The chief matter at
stake is, that the gold, that was darkened, may
glisten again; that we shall come forth from the
fiery trial with greater spiritual riches than we
ever had before; that Satan shall be the loser
by us and that God shall be the gainer; that
God shall more clearly and more intimately
be revealed to the soul in his reality, and that,
as from the soul of David, so from our soul,
may rise the word of testimony: "Before I
was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept
thy word." All glory to Thy Name.

"WITH THEE THERE IS FORGIVENESS,
•THAT THOU MAYEST BE FEARED."

There is still another way that leads to knowl-
edge of God. It is one that cannot be dealt with
save with most delicate care. We mean the awfal
way that leads through the depths of sin. A
single word of Jesus indicates it at once. To
Simon the Pharisee he said: "To whom little is
forgiven, the same loveih little" (Luke 7:47).
V/ith this word our Lord places two persons in
contrast with each other. On one side the most
honorable citizen of Nain, Simon, his host. And
on the other side a woman, who was known in
the little town a? one of ill repute, a public
sinner, as was the case. As her sins were many,
she had been forgiven more, and consequently she
loved more. The virtuous Simon, on the other
hand, who had sinned less, was forgiven less,
and consequently he loved less.

If love for Christ is one of the richest sources,
from which vital knowledge of God flows out
towards us. for this woman, the way of deep sin
thanks to the larger forgiveness, was the means
to attain fuller knowledge of God. He who only
strives after book-knowledge of God, can not
understand this, and will never be able to put
up with this vigorous word of Jesus. He on the
other hand who knows from experience that warm,
and upbuilding knowledge of God is fed and
carried most effectively by love for God, accepts
this word of Jesus gratefully, even though it
makes him shudder.

The contrast between the dark nature of sin

264

and holiness is so sharp, that for the moment
it takes a violent effort on the part of the soul to
understand that a deep way of sin can be one
that leads to richer knowledge of God. And it be-
hooves us to treat this aspect of the subject in
hand the more humbl}', because of those who, even
in our land, in a satanic way have misapplied this
word of Jesus, at times shamelessly confessing in
private: "I gloriously sinned again, after which
I had a blessed time of finding." Such satanic
sayings are nothing else than a slander on the
mercies of our God. But though this horrible
abuse of Jesus' word compels utmost carefulness,
the heavenly gold that glitters in this word, must
not be dimmed. It is and remains true, that
greater sin with greater forgiveness can lead to
greater love and thereby to a richer knowledge
of God.

This word alone offers us the key to the beat-
itude of the murderer on the cross, and to the
promise of Jesus, that presently with himself he
would be in Paradise. Fundamentally it is the
same as what David wrote in Ps. 130:4. "But
there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest
be feared." From the forgiveness of sin springs
tender attachment in the service of the Lord.
Sin, forgiveness, love, and from this love knowl-
edge of God, are the four beads in the one
sacred string.

The whole Gospel rests in fact upon this recog-
nition, and the saying of one of the heroes of
the faith in earlier days: "Felix culpa," which
means that there was something glorious in the
fall, can never be entirely ignored. The
angels of God have no knowledge of sin, hence

265

also they know no forgiveness. Hence again thej^
have no knowledge of the tender love which
springs from forgiveness received, nor of the richer
knowledge of God which is born from this ten-
derer affection. It is foreign to them, and there-
fore the apostle writes regarding this mytery that
they are desirous "to look into it." Undoubtedly
the revelation of the Being and Attributes of God,
as it came to us in the mighty work of the
Atonement is far richer, far more tender and
more striking than the first revelation in Paradise.
The grace, mercy and compassion of our God for
the Sinner give us a look into the Father heart
which apart from sin would never have been
possible. The knowledge of God which we receive
in and though Christ far exceeds all other knowl-
edge of him. And yet in the Scripture the
mission of the Son to this world is motived by
sin alone. Everj- deeply moved utterance of
love for God in old and New Testament springs
from the thrilling experience of the heart, that
the sei-^-ant and handmaiden of the Lord have
been redeemed from sin and delivered from misery.
And neither reconciliation and sanctification, nor
deliverance from misery would have been think-
able, had not sin engulfed the world. Even
now it is frequently seen that the cool sympathy
for God on the part of the unconverted differs
from the warm attachment to God on the part
of the redeemed in that the unconverted always
discount sin, while the redeemed always start
out from the knowledge of misery, that by reason
of the knowledge of sin they may arrive at the
knowledge of God.

266

Love for God apart from sin operates most
purely with the angels. And yet, however glorious
their love for God may be, it is a different and
a lesser love than that of the redeemed sinner
for his God and Savior. It is not for us to say,
how revelation would have unfolded itself, had
not Adam fallen and had not Christ come. This
much is certain, the rich knowledge of God's
boundless mercies is the highest knowledge of
God for us, and this is immediately connected
with the loss of Paradise in sin and misery.

This holds true with individuals. Many people
who call themselves Christians in these days
count little with the knowledge of sin. They were
religiously brought up, and have not fallen into
open sin. Hence sin does not oppress them, and the
need of reconciliation is no longer felt. The
Cross addresses them differently. Their Christ-
ianity is one of high ideals and good works.
The sad result is that they have less and less
mystical, tender and cherishing love for God, and
that the "Blessed is the man whose sin is covered"
(Ps. 32:1) indicates a state of happiness, which
is foreign to them.

There are others who have become deeply
versed in the knowledge of sin, either through the
terrors of the law, or by the fact that God
abandoned them to their sin. But at length
they came to a halt. A burning thirst after
reconciliation took hold of them. And having
found the same in their Savior they are now
filled with praise and adoration of the mercies
of the Lord. Their love for the God of unfathom-
able compassion is more and more increased.

And according to the greater measure of their sin,
they enter into a far richer measure of fellowship
with the Father who is in heaven, and of the
knowledge of his holy Name. A more brutal
outbreak in sin is not at all the necessary back-
ground of this experience. As in the case of
Luther, a deeper insight into ordinary sin can
create an equally burning desire after reconcilia-
tion. Of all the apostles St. Paul glories most
enthusiastically from the love of the redeemed,
because, having persecuted the church of God, he
felt himself to be the chief of sinners. And so
it still remains true, that he who has fallen deeply
into sin, and has come to a full and genuine
conversion, has attained the thirst after reconcilia-
tion and the gratitude of love for the same, in
such a measure of intensity, as to spread in a
surprising manner blessings everywhere, even to
the extend that at times one can envy him the
warmth of his inner life.

Shall we then sin, that grace, and with it
love and knowledge of God may increase? Far
from it. This question is diabolical. He who pro-
pounds it does not love God. He offers God's
love an insult in the face. But it does imply,
that it is safe for every child of God to look
more deeply into the sins of his own heart; not
to ignore his secret sins; ever and anon to apply
again the full atonement to all the breadth and
length of the sins of his heart; and thus to
become ever more deeply sensible of how end-
lessly much there was that needed forgiveness,
and that has been forgiven.

There are two ways that here present them-
selves. ■ One man minimizes ihis sin. He ia
offended when he is told of his guilt. He will not
hear it said that he is guilty in all sorts of ways.
He holds himself erect, and deems himself a
saint. This is the way to cover up one's sin,
and not to thirst after reconciliation ; not to return
thanks for reconciliation and love; and con-
sequently to remain far removed from the knowl-
edge of God. But there is also another way.
It is that of humbling oneself. In this way the
child of God distrusts himself. He is grateful
for having sin pointed out. to him. He investi-
gates ever more closely his heart, his past, and
the present state of his soul. And so there
is everytime new need of reconciliation, new joy
in forgiveness received, more love for the Merciful
One, and an ever deeper entering into the knowl-
edge of God his Savior.

Moreover he who as a Christian man imitates
Simon the Pharisee, and esteems himself to be
just, can not bear that one who is a ^'Sinner"
is addressed by Jesus. There is the exalted sense
of one's own saintliness, which has no place for
the compassion shown the prodigal who returns.

But when by a deeper knowledge of our own sin
we feel that we ourselves are small, and we refresh
ourselves each day with a new draught from the
cup of reconciliation, there will awaken in our
hearts something of the joy of the angels of God
over one sinner that repenteth, which is greater
than the joy over the ninety and nine who have
no need of repentance. For this is the Gospel of
Christ.

269

51

"I ACKNOWLEDGE ^lY SIN
UNTO THEE."

Although it is a Divine appointment, for which
it behooves us to give thanks, it is nevertheless
difficult for us, sinners, to realize that in the end
even sin is compelled to become a means of
leading us into deeper knowledge of God, and. of
making the majesty of the Lord to shine upon
us more brightl3^ That as the tempter of men,
Satan abuses this appointment of God, that in
a heaven-defying way he may mingle sin and
religion, does not in the least darken the glory
of this appointment. Neither can anyone say,
whether, in case Satan first, and after him Adam,
had not fallen, the Lord God would have opened
another wa}-, unknown to us now, by which to
lead us into an equally deep, if not a still more
intimate knowledge of his Name and Being.

All these reflections however do not advance
us a single step. We have been born in a sinful
world. We have to count with it. And this
being the case it is meet for us to thank God,
that he makes good to come out of evil, and
that he uses even sin to enrich the knowledge
of his Name and Being in the inner perception of
his child. Grace, conpassion and mercy, as revela-
tions of Divine love are more profound, than
Divine blessing in prosperity and Divine help in
time of need. But the knowledge of this grace
and compassion can only be kno%vn by him, who
has tasted the sweets of reconciliation, and who
can count himself not only among God's crea-

270

tures, but also among the redeemed. In Christ
there has come to us a knowledge of God's
name and being, such as has never been known
outside of him, but Bethlehem as well as Golgotha
find their cause alone in the salvation of sinners.

Even the knowledge of the Almighty power
of God has been greatly enriched by sin. Does
not the apostle say that the "exceeding great-
ness of his power, according to the mighty work-
ing of his strength (Eph. 1:19) was only revealed
to us in the resurrection of Christ and in the
regeneration of believers." In the re-creation there
was a greater exhibition of majesty and of al-
mighty power than in the creation. In causing
Christ to rise from the dead there was a mightier
unfolding of Divine strength than in the first call
from nothing into being. But there would have
been no resurrection without death, and no re-
creation without fall, and since both fall and
death find their starting point in sin alone, this
higher revelation of the Almighty power of God,
which shows itself in resurrection and in re-crea-
tion would never have come to us in this way,
had we not sinned. And in order to get the fiill
meaning of what this implies we must go down
still one step more, and come to acknowledge, that
in the hand of God sin becomes the means to
heighten, and make more clear, our inner per-
ception of the holiness of God.

Of course they who in their unconverted state
still walk in the way of sin, are here left out of
count. We only speak in this connection of the
redeemed, of those who have found eternal life
itself in knowing God. And how did the history

271

of sin in their case run? How runs it now? Two
classes of persons should here be kept apart.
Those who broke out into sin in an offensive
way, and the others who remained withm the
bounds of an ordinary sinful existence. Mary
of Magdala and Salome do not stand in one line.
Peter, who thrice denied his Master, passed
through an entirely different inward struggle
from John, who remained faithful to his Savior.
The spiritual experiences of the two differ in this
respect, that the sinner who went far astray can
sometimes in his conversion arouse the jealousy
of the sinner who remained within bounds. The
inner tumult of the first is far greater, his struggle
in the transition far more heroic. His glorying
in grace, when at last the burden of his guilt falls
from his shoulders, is much more abundant. The
prodigal who returns has something, which the
son, who remained at home, lacks.

He who deems however that the calm, ordinary
sinner can not drain the cup of grace to the
bottom, if we may so express it, is mistaken.
Even he who is guilty of the heinous sins of
drunkenness, immorality or dishonesty, runs the
great risk of counting these extravagant dis-
sipations as his real, actual sin, and of ignoring
the sinful nature back of them. It is repeatedly
seen, that such sinners who have been converted
from their former evil practices, entirely get away
from them, while for the rest they continue in
sin, without making any advances in sanctification
of heart and life. On the contraiy they who have
continued unblameable before the eyes of men,
have after their conversion, a much keener eye,
for the refined, hidden sins of the heart, and

272 .

as fruit of their faith the^' unfold a much richer
Christain life. The conveil from gross sins fre-
quently counts all his life long with the weight of
pounds alone, while the quiet convert weighs
with the assay-balance.

This is not true of all. Alas, there are not a
few who turn the fact itself that they remained
free from great sins, into a cloak in which they
make a fine appearance, and with their ordinary
sins of pride and quiet selfishness go on to life's
end, without ever putting up a serious fight
against them. But if we take the redeemed in
the narrower sense, the tenderness of conscience
with respect to sin even goes so far, that they
distrust their own examination of heart, and al-
ways end with the prayer that God will also
make known to them their secret sins, and for-
give them. For when the heart does not con-
demn us, God is greater than our heart, and he
knows all things, even those that hide in the
innermost recesses of the soul.

But in whatever way and measure the inner
struggle against sin awakens, it always begins
with a troubled conscience. And that which dis-
turbs us in this is always the voice of God up-
braiding us for sin. This is partly the case with
people of the world whose conscience at first is
never entirely extinguished. But with them the
voice of God in the conscience is not recognized.
They take it either as a troublesome resistance
on the part of their spiritual nature against the
the things which their carnal nature craves. So
they sear the conscience in order to go freely on
in sin. Or, they take it as an impulse of their
273

better self, and dream that they train themselves
in virtuous living. This results in a good deal
of social respectability and praise-worthy self-con-
trol. But it bears no fruit for eternal life, inso-
much as they claim the honor of it for themselves,
and withdraw themselves from God, with whom
they refuse to reckon.

The operation of the conscience is altogether
different with the redeemed. With them the
first effect of the troubled conscience is, that they
start back; that they become angry with the sin
which they have committed; that for all the
world they wish that they had never done it, and
that now they stand embarrassed and ashamed
before God. This gives rise to prayer. Amidst
the cares and labors of the day they are aware
that God opposes their sin, but there is much
diversion in general intercourse with people and
in work, and so they easily get away from the
sense of it. In distinction however from the
people of the world, they still pray. And at the
close of day when before sleep they are about to
bend their knees before God, they feel disturbed,
they shrink from prayer, they are conscious that
something lies in between their heart and God,
and they scarcely dare to appear before his face.

And then comes the moment of decision. If
they shrink back and omit to pray, the conscience
takes the soporific drink. And unless God inter-
venes, they are lost. Psalm 32 describes what fol-
lows: ''When I kept silence, my bones waxed old
through my roaring." But David did not faint.
He struggled on. However deeply ashamed he
was of himself, he bent his knees before God.

274

Verse 5 of this same Psalm contains the record.
"I said I will confess m}^ trangressions unto the
Lord." And so: I acknowledged my sin unto
thee. . , . And thou forgavest the iniquity of my
sin" When thus the soul holds on, and before God
on bended knee mourns sin, the blessing is sure to
follow. ''For this shall every one that is godly
praj^ unto thee in a time when thou mayest be
found. Floods of great waters may come. But
they shall not come nigh unto him."

And in this contrition of soul there is a recogni-
tion of the holiness of God with an intensity such
as has never been experienced before. It is no
longer a holiness of God which was reasoned out
and inferred from the given commandments;
neither is it a holiness which loses itself in vague
admiration of its own purity. It is the Holy One
who in our conscience presses himself upon us,
and who upbraiding our sins by his holiness,
makes us to test and to taste the same in the
bitterness of our self-reproach and penitence. The
holiness of God then presents itself in the light
which of necessity is formed by the striking con-
trast with the shadow of our sin. It reveals
itself as a power, which quick and quickening has
antagonized the death of our sin. In its absolute
judgment of a definite, concrete sin, it assumes a
definite, concrete form. And after it is understood
by us in this definite, concrete form, it lights up
as an immeasurable realm of holiness, over-
against the dark background of our sinful nature,
from which the particular sin sprang. This holi-
ness does not hover, as it were, over us. But it
cleaves unto us. And thus convicted of sin, and

under sentence of death, our soul comes into direct
contact, and immediate touch with the holy God.
It brings us living and striking knowledge of him,
with whom we have to do. The sin was terrible.
ButGod used it for this end: that through it
we should come to a better understanding of his
holiness.

52

"WHEN GOD SHALL JUDGE THE
SECRETS OF MEN."

They who conscientiously devote a portion of
their time to God, and try to know him, are few.
Prayer, church-attendance and good works can
be practiced without actual engagement with God.
In many prayers the soul fails of appearing before
God, and of having God appear to the soul.
Many people go to church and come home again,
without having met the Lord, or having been met
by him. Even though during sermon time the
mind was engaged with Divine things, by itself,
this was not being busy with God. And as to good
works, it needs scarcely be said, that we can fill
up an entire day with them, without so much as
devoting one thought to him, who inspired us to
do them. 0, there is little, actual business done
with the Living God.

Thus far we only had in mind confessing, be-
lieving Christians, who practice prayer, who live
for their church, and do good works. Think now of
the unchurched multitudes, who are not worldly
in any bad sense, but rather cultivate seriousness
of thought, who honor virtue and admire higher

276

ideals. And what do we find even with the noblest
and best of them, of a being busy with God? And
of those who live only for business, and after that
for pleasure, it must be confessed with shame,
that there are no dealings with God at all. Add
to this the people who are outspokenly wicked
and godless in society at large, and others again
who are indifferent to all higher interests, and we
see, that the number of those who give but a
small part of their time to fellowship with God is
very, very small.

It must also be felt, if we may so express it,
that in his love for the world, all this must be
very painful to God. For God so loved the world,
that he gave it his only-begotten Son. He imparted
unto it susceptibility to know him, and to love
him in return. Only a small part of this world
bears the Christian name. And in this small part,
that has been baptized, even there there are but
very few, who day by day turn their soul and
mind to him, and enter into his secret commun-
ion. All the rest pass by on the other side. They
are filled with other things. And the knowledge
of his Name and Being is scorned by them.

But according to the Scripture, this is certain,
that soon or late the moment comes for every
one, in which God shall compel him, to deal ex-
clusively, and with nothing else than, with him-
self alone. He has appointed a day for this.
And for whatever man this day breaks, in it he
shall have to appear before God, and God shall
overtake him with his Majesty, and shall take
such possesion of him, that he shall not be able
277

to think of anything save God. That day is
the day of judgment.

In the representation of this day of judgment
art has done much harm. As art it could not
do otherwise than work with the representation.
For this it borrowed its material and image from
an earthly court of justice, with the millions and
the millions that have ever lived on earth as
defendants before God's holy tribunal. It could
not do this otherwise, and this has been done in
a nmsterful way by more than one pencil or pen.
It should not be forgotten however, that it is the
outward representation of what is chiefly of a
spiritual significance. And the spiritual act in
judgment can not be pictured. So that when
infidelity came in, which denies the judgment,
it made use of the outward representation, by
which to turn the matter itself into ridicule, and
to show its impossibility. Where would there be
room for these millions and millions of people
to stand? How much time would it take to give
ench individual a hearing, even to the particulars
of every word and thought? It is said to be a
day, and for ever>^ family it would require more
than a year.

Our confession struck a truer note, when in view
of the spiritual nature of the judgment, it spoke
of it as the opening of the books of conscience.
With this understanding of it, the judgment is
a review, in one clear v^ision, of the whole life;
an immediate sight of totals, where before we
only reckoned with the unpaid accounts of each
moment. The judgment is a settling of accounts.
What wc owe God, and what is our due fo- deeds

done either good or evil, are recorded side by side.
This is the teaching of Scripture. For we must
all appear, "says the apostle," before the judg-
ment seat of Christ; that every one may receive
the things done in his body, according to that
he hath done, whether it be good or bad (2 Cor.
5:10). And every accountant knows what account-
ing here means, and what it implies, that in the
judment, God shall give us his • bill in toto,
accompanied with explanations, so that we shall
be convinced in the conscience that the account
is correct and just. We shall have the total re-
sult, the entire resumption of our life, from
childhood on, shown unto us with such certainty,
as to exclude every suggestion of doubt.

In our automatic counting-machines, the cipher
of whatever is put in, appears at once in sight.
The addition takes place of itself. This is the
image of our life. And he who throughout all
of life has refused to notice the cipher, that show-
ed itself each day, will in the judgment day
suddenly see the total amount, in which nothing
has been forgotten, and against which nothing
can be said. There will be an opportunity to
verify it, but this will do no good. A mistake
in this account is unthinkable. And with the
sudden clearing of the light of the conscience^
which will illumine all of life, there will nothing
rest, save the acknowledgement that God is just.
This is nothing to him, who believed and fell
asleep in Jesus. The end will reveal to him
also a terror-striking shortage, but on the opposite
side of the page will appear the atonement by
Christ, which covers everything. His judge is his
27»

Savior. And liberated from the curse, he enters
into eternal blessedness.

But this opening of the book of the conscience
will be terrible for those who died without* Christ.
Conversion will then be too late. There can be
no more hiding in Christ. Xo more* part can be
obtained in the atonement. There is nothing of
good to balance the immeasureable guilt. And
the sinner must faint under the weight of a
sentence, that is read to him in his own con-
science. And this will be the eternal pain in his
inmost self, of the worm, that restlessly gnaws,
without ever dying; and of the heat in his con-
science of the fire, that shall never be extin-
guished. There is no need of any torture from
without, to be added imto this. The fire itself
within is the eternal punishment, and this inner
consumption of self will be as a cancer, that shall
eat into all his being, and corrupt his entire
existence. Even as cancer on the outside occas-
ions no pain, but that which eats into the vitals
within, so will the punishment begin from the
conscience and go through all his existence.

This will be " the knowledge of God" on the
part of those, who here on earth, have not willed
to know the grace of God. This knowledge of
Divine grace is twofold. On one side, here on
earth, through faith, it is a knowledge of God
that saves. "This is eternal life that they may
know Thee, the only true God." But on the
other side there is a knowledge of God, which
only comes after death, in the judgment, but
which for this very reason brings no eternal
life, but eternal death. In the earth it was

280

lightly asserted, that there was no God, or
that nothing of him was known, or that there was
no need to concern oneself about him. But after
death one stands before this disregarded God,
feels the terror of his all-pervading presence, and
is no longer able, try what he may, to escape
from him. For this is not the end of the judgment,
that immediately after it, life can be continued
in the old forgetfulness, as though there were no
God. No, the self-destroying impression received
of God, at the moment of the actual judgment,
continues, and is never effaced again. It is
recorded of devils that they well know that God
is, and that they tremble. And all who in this
life have evaded God, will come in the judg-
ment, and after it, to the terrible discovery, that
they have been mistaken. They will see with
their own eyes, that God really exists and they
also will tremble.

Behind the veil of vi.-ible thinjrs in this life,
and back of the niit-ts of our earthly limitations,
one can cover himself with the pretence that God
is not seen, and thus persuade himself that there
is no God because willfullv he does not see
him. B 't all this ends wi Ji death. Then this
veil wii: be rent from the top to the bottom,
these mists will lift themselves, every pretence
will fall away, and the majesty of the Lord God
will appear, and disclose itself in all its glory.

The knowledge of God, which w^as not desired
in life, will then come of itself, and deluge the
lost. But it will be a repulsive knowledge, which
will not draw them toward God, but will make
them recoil from before his terribleness. And

281

wherever they may look, there will be nothing
behind which to hide from the sight of the
majesty of God. It then becomes the heat of a
sun which does not cherish, but sears. The Scrip-
ture calls it hell, and so it is, but only by what
God through his sacred presence makes it. If God
could be done away, or if one could withdraw him-
self from the Eternal, or hide from before his Face,
hell would be ended. But this is impossible.
God's holy presence will not cease to deluge the
lost, and that is eternal death. It is well with
him, therefore, who in this life has sought the
knowledge of God in Christ. After death this
knowledge will be for him the drinking in of
Divine sympathy. But w^oe to him who shall
only learn to know God in the judgment. For
him this knowledge will be nothing but horror.

53

"DYING HE WORSHIPPED."

In connection with the knowledge of what lies
beyond the grave the moment of dying is deeply
significant. The way in which we see others die,
and in which we die ourselves, contributes to our
knowledge of God. In this hour many things
that stood between God and the soul fall away.
We then stand on the threshold of the unseen life,
and the words of the Psalmist: "Our feet stand
within thy gates, O Jerusalem," are applicable to
the entering in through the gates of the new
Jerusalem.

Let us take dying in this connection in its real
true sense. Dying is an act. In our natural

282

birth we are passive. Life then only begins.
But when God has privileged us to reach the years
of maturity, and the end has come, the servants
and handmaidens of the Lord should not be
dragged out by death against their will, but of
themselves they should face it with a will. And by
the way in which they do this, they should reveal
the fruit of their labors of faith. The first Chris-
tians sang hj-mns of praise as they carried out
their dead. And St. Paul said: "For me to die is
gain, for to be with Christ is by far the best."^
Thus dying was the last struggle, but not of one
who defends his life against the waylayer. It was
much rather the struggle of the hero, who bravely
went ahead, in order jubilantly to come to God.
Indeed, we may not court death. It is our
bounden duty to guard our life unto the end.
Suicide is no dying, but self-destruction. Dying
is an exhibition of courage. Suicide is cowardice
It is failure. It is lack of daring to continue the
battle of life. It is desertion from the ranks.
But though until the end, as long as there is
hope and chance, nothing must be left untried
to continue God's serv^ice on earth until he issues
forth the call, — when it comes, the smile of sacred
joy is more in place than the heaving of a sigh.
He who believes has always confessed that he does
not belong here, but that his home is above.
Dying must make this real. In dying the seal
must be put upon all our life of faith. Dying is
nothing to a child of God save the entrance into
an eternal life. And this it can not be, unless it
is an act. We must not be overtaken, lifted up
and carried off. We must hear the call, and

283

answer in reply: ''Behold, here I am, Lord,"
and then bravely enter the valley of the shadow
of death and go through it, knowing that the
Lord awaits our coming, and that by his hand he
leads us through this darkness to the light.

Let it be said at once that such ideal dying
is rare. The woes and sorrows of death often
rob dying of its ideal, exalted and sacred character.
A state of coma not infrequently prevents con-
scious and willing dying as an act of the soul.
It even happens, alas, that a narcotic potion is
adminstered, whereby dying is degenerated into
a sleeping of oneself awa3^ As long however as
the person himself is irresponsible in this matter,
let not such an impossibility of dying manfully in
the faith on the part of a child of God be turned
into reproach. In this matter also God is
sovereign. As a matter of fact, the Lord fre-
quently withholds heroic dying in the full con-
sciousness of faith.

Care however should be taken not to condone
too much along this line. The Scripture always
avoids sentimentalism. It rarely pictures a death-
bed scene. In fact it only outlines the death of
Christ on Golgotha, and that of J;*<"ob. Of the
latter we are told that when he felt the end draw
near, he strengthened himself, and sat upon the
bed, and leaning upon the top of his staff, wor-
shipped, and blessed his sons (Heb. 11:21).

Jacob strengthened himself, that is to say, he
did not allow himself to be overcome by weakness
and regret, but struggled against it, took hold of
himself, and gathered together the last of his

284

waning strength, in order that in dying he might
glorify his God. He had no thought of caring
for himself, of being concerned about his own
spiritual estate, or about breathing forth his latest
breath. And when he blesses his sons, it is no
family affair, but an holy prophesying that through
his sons, as founders of the tribes of Israel, the
kingdom of God should come and flourish, and the
Messiah would arise. "Until Shiloh come!" this
was the zenith of his prophecy. He blessses his
sons, but in and through them his prophecy points
to the coming of the Kingdom of heaven. Hence
the Epistle to the Hebrews describes this as his
greatest act of faith. "By faith, Jacob when he
was djdng, blessed his sons and worshipped"
(Heb. 11:21).

We do not deny that in dying, darkness can
overtake the soul. Satan can be let loose to har-
rass our latest hour. But as a rule, we may say
that life is given us for the purpose of making
sure our faith, and that in dying the results of this
assurance must be shown to the glory of the Lord.
And therefore we should not allow ourselves in
dying passively to be overcome by weakness and
grief. In the article of death the will, the courage
and the elasticity of faith must still struggle
against the weakness of the flesh. In this holy
moment, the spirit, and not the flesh should con-
quer. Such was the case with Jacob. He strength-
ened himself in order to be able to die in a
godly manner. Had he not done so, in all prob-
ability he too might have passed away in a semi-
conscious state. But this he did not do. His
285

mighty spirit shook itself awake. In dying he
glorified God. In doing this he left a shining ex-
ample for every Christian to imitate.

There is a meeting with God in such dying,
which enriches Divine knowledge, both in the one
who is about to depart and in those who watch
at the bedside. It is generally reported, as a most
desirable way of dying, that one quietly and
peaceably fell asleep. This almost always means
that without giving any further signs of life, the
patient passed away in an unconscious state of
mind. This may very well be the case with
unbelievers also. Of those who die without Christ
it is continually said, that they died equally
quietly and calmly; even perhaps with less per-
turbation of mind, than many a child of God
that is harrassed by anxiety and doubt. Nothing
of a serious nature was said to them. They them-
selves made no reference to anything. The phy-
sician assured them that there was no need of
alarm. And so the patient passed quietly away,
without having known any terror of death. And
others, seeing this, were impressed that there is
really nothing to dying; it was all so quiet and
gentle. Then came flowers to cover the bier.
Visits of condolence are no longer paid. In this
way nothing connected with death is spoken of.
And when the funeral is over, ordinary matters
form the topic of conversation, but not the things
that are eternal. And thus the mighty lesson of
dying is lost. Death ceases to be preacher of
deeper seriousness. And the Lord of life and of
death is not remembered.

We, Christians, should not encourage this evil

286

practice. And yet, we do it, when imitating the
way of the world we say of such dead that they
"peaceably passed away." Not calmly and peace-
fully, but fighting and conquering in the Savior,
should be the dying bed in the Christian family.
He who has not the heart for this, but is careful
to spare the patient all serious and disquieting
thought, is not merciful, but through unbeHef he
is cruel.

In dying Jacob has worshipped. On the death
bed one can pray. One can pray for help in the
last struggle. Intercession can be made for those
that are to be left behind, and for the Kingdom
of God. By itself such prayer is beautiful. On
one's deathbed to appear before the face of God.
This last prayer on earth, when every veil drops
away, and the latest supplication is addressed to
God, who awaits us in the courts of everlasting
light. Such prayer teaches those, who stand by,
to pray. Such prayer exerts an overwhelming,
fascinating influence.

But Jacob did more. In dying he worshipped.
In dying he felt impelled to offer unto God the
sacrifice of Worship, and to render unto him praise
and thanksgiving and honor; to lose himself in
the greatness and majesty, in the grace and mercy
of God ; and thus to offer him the fruit of the lips,
better than he had been able to do in life. Such
solemn worship on the deathbed is the summary
of the worship which we have offered unto God
in life; except that now it is felt more deeply,
more intensely, immediately preceding the
moment, in which among angels and saints above,
we shall bring God the honor of his Name.

287

All the knowledge of God that has been acquired
before concentrates itself in such deathbed wor-
ship, and in that moment it is wonderfully illum-
ined, enriched and deepened. Now the dying
saint knows God more clearly than he ever did
before. He almost sees God face to face..

This worship also bears fruit in behalf of those
who watch and minister at the bedside. At a
deathbed, love is strongly aroused. The begin-
nings of mourning already struggle in the heart.
This makes it more receptive than ever, and the
impression which it receives at such a time is over-
whelming. Ordinarily it is taken for granted that
one believes. But frequently no indications of it
are seen. The contrary rather is suggested by
narrow-mindedness and sin. But when the
moment of dying has come, and children see it
of their father, a husband of his beloved wife,
that in this affecting hour the faith does not fail,
but is maintained; that at the gate of eternity
its language becomes more animated and forceful,
and it seems that one hears an utterance of the
soul after God, then the prayer of worship from
the lips of the dying brings you as it were in the
very presence of God, and makes you feel that
he is nearer at hand than you ever knew before.

Much dying would be far different than it now
is, had life been different; if in dying, faith would
waken up more fully; and if God's child would
understand that even in dying he has to fulfil a
duty, which he owes to God and to his fellowmen.
Then dying would be far more than now a preach-
ing of sacred reality, and the results of it would
be effective in life to the honor of God.

288

54

"GIVE YOURSELF TO FASTING
AND PRAYER."

It is a contradiction in terms, that while mem-
bers of the churches of the Reformation profess
to live according to the precepts of Holy Writ,
they do not fast. It is certainly a Scriptural rule
of life, not only in the Old, but also in the New
Testament. Christ himself fasted forty days and
forty nights. St. Paul exhorts the children of God,
that they give themselves not only to prayer but
also to fasting. What is possibly stronger still,
Christ has said, that there is a kind of evil spirits
that "goeth not out but by prayer and fasting"
(Matt. 17:21).

In the days of Jesus' ministry on earth the ques-
tion arose: "Why do the disciples of the Phari-
isees fast, but thy disciples fast not." Though it
may be inferred from this that in those days the
disciples did not observe the Jewish fasts, Jesus
settles the question by saying: "When the bride-
groom shall be taken away from them, then shall
they fast" (Mark 2:18-20). History shows that
from the beginning the Church of Christ has prac-
ticed fasting. We learn from Acts 13:2 that at
Antioch, where the followers of Jesus were first
called Christians, as they fasted and prayed, the
Holy Ghost gave them a revelation. It is well
known that in Roman, Greek and Nestorian com-
munions fasting is observed. It is also known that
in Reformation times, days of prayer went hand
in hand with fasting. Is it not therefore in con-
l,radiction with the significance which Scripture
and history attach to fastings, that among us fast-

289

ing is almost altogether abandoned. It is still our
habit, as it was in the days of Hosea, to say:
'•Our God, we Israel, know thee" (8:2). But when
Scripture shows that the Knowledge of God is
greatly advanced by prayer, and prayer by fast-
ing, is there not something lacking, when we, who
say that we know God, do not fast?

The answer is given in Is. 58:6. In the days of
Isaiah there was much fasting observed in Judah,
but by his prophet Jehovah declared that he
would not accept this kind of fasting. "Is it such
a fast that I have chosen; a day for a man to
afflict his soul? to bow down his head as a bul-
rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under
him? . . . "Is not this the fast that I have
chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, . . .
to deal thy bread to the hungry, . . . when
thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and
that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Then shall thy Hght break forth as the morning,
and thine health shall spring forth speedily."

This striking protest against dead formalism
has justly aroused among us a sense of aversion
to formal fasting. As a form, as a mere bodily
exercise, and as an exhibition before the world,
fasting does not sanctify. Indeed it can work
profanation. Hence Jesus' warning in the Sermon
on the Mount: "But thou, when thou fastest,
be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance. . .
but anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that
thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy
Father, which is in secret; and thy Father, which
seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly."

As strongly, however, as our blessed Lord de-
nounces formal, outward fasting, he commends

290

fasting of the right sort, and declares that it has
its reward of grace with God. We are only safe
therefore, when on one hand we oppose dead
formalism in fasting, and on the other hand bring
into practice the true fasting, which hsis been
appointed of God. And as we look back upon the
past, and look around us in the churches, we must
observe that dead, formal fasting has assiduously
been abandoned, and that real, religious, and
DiA'inely appointed fasting also has almost utterly
died out.

This leads to spiritual loss. We want eternal
life. "This is eternal life, that they might know
thee, the only true God." Nothing advances one
in this knowledge of the only true God like
prayer. And prayer becomes more fervent and
tender by fasting. Can we escape therefore the
fatal conclusion that by the disuse of fasting our
prayers become less fervent, and that we conse-
quently suffer loss in this ever ripening knowl-
edge of God, which is eternal life?

If this applies to ourselves and to our families,
does it not equally apply to our churches? And
when every time again we observe in our
churches, that there are evil spirits at large, which
can not be driven out except by fasting and
prayer, is it too much to say, that the disuse of
fasting is one cause, among others, that these
spirits continue to harrass the life of the church?

Should fasting, as a rule, on a given day of the
week be introduced again? By itself there would
be nothing against this. But it is to be feared
that before long it would end in formalism again.
Isaiah 58 and I Cor. 7:5 show that fasting, in the
spiritual sense, has a much broader basis than a

291

temporary abstinence from food. It aims to put |
an end to the dominion of the body over the soul,
and to restore the soul's dominion over the body.
You know yourself that everything that feeds and
pleases the body has a tendency to repress the
clearness and elasticity of the life of the soul.
The side of our life that is turned toward the
world rarely operates in harmony with the side of
our life that is turned toward God. When you
are alone you feel as a rule closer to God than
when you are in company. In the banqueting
hall ypu are farther away from God than in your
bedchamber. In the midst of the cares to in-
crease your wealth you enjoy less of God's pres-
ence ■'ban at the times when you give of your
money to the poor. You are closer to God when
you feed the hungry than when, with your family
or guests, you feast on choice foods and drinks.
In brief, experience confirms again and again, that
the less enjoyment you take in the world, the
more intimate is your thought of God. The more
you get apart from the cares and the joys of the
world, the closer becomes your walk with God.

Do not infer from this, that in order to know
God, you must withdraw entirely from the world.
This is what the Stylists thought, the recluses
and contemplative monks. This is wrong, because
"fasting and prayer" is indeed one of the means
by which to find God, but there are many other
means to this same end, which only present them-
selves in the midst of the busy life. We treated
these means in former meditations. We will come
back to them later on. But it must be a rule of
our life, not to leave untried a single means, by
which to grow in knowledge of the only true God,

292

and that therefore we have to serve God as much
in the midst of the world, and in the enjoyment
of his blessings in our families and surroundings,
as in our practice of "fasting and prayer." For it
can not be denied, that it is helpful and beneficial,
purposely, from time to time, to break away from
the overwhelming dominion of the body and the
world, and thereby make ourselves more suscept-
ible to the influences from above. To this end
one will be more impressed with the need of fast-
ing and retirement at set times. Another will
only come to it in moments of anxiety and deep-
ening seriousness. Let every one with respect to
this be sure in his own conscience. It may depend
on temperament and circumstances. Let no one
judge his brother.

But the practice itself has a right of being
introduced into the habits of life. Our first interest
is eternal life. This can only be tasted in an ever
deeper knowledge of God. This in turn is fed by
secret prayer. And secret prayer has need, that
in the face of the offensive dominion of the body
and the environments, the dominion of the soul
be strengthened by fasting rightly understood.
That sobriety in food and drink is an aid in this
direction, appears from the difficulty to pray,
which you find upon your return from a banquet-
hall. But this is merely the beginning of real
fasting. It is not only abundance of food and
drink, but extravagance as well in ornaments and
clothes, in diversions and satisfactions of the
senses, and in financial cares, voluntary or invol-
untary, that harmfully affect your approach to
God. Fasting, therefore, as an aid to sanctify
prayer and to make it more fervent, is by no

293

means alone the depriving of the body of food
and drink, but the withdrawal of self by generosity
from the dominion of money, by sobriety and sim-
plicity of life to liberate oneself from the power
of self-indulgence, and certainly also by seclusion
to escape the mastery of environment.

This is what the Lord declared, when he ex-
tended fasting to loosening the bands of wicked-
ness, and to feeding the hungry. From time to
time the soul must set itself free, cast away all
bands and become entirely itself. Then the gates
lift up their heads, then the door of eternity is
opened, and God makes his approach to us, and
our soul its approach to God, and the knowledge
of God, which is eternal life, blossoms in the
sanctuary of the heart.

55

''NO PRAYER COULD PASS
THROUGH."

When a child wants to ask his father for some-
thing, he first seeks him, and only when he has
found him, can he ask for what he wants. To
state his request before his father is found is
folly on the part of the child. Is not this an
instruction in prayer?

He who as a child of God would pray to his
Father in heaven, and in faith ask something
from him, must first make his approach to God.
He must first seek the Divine Presence. And
only when he has found the Lord, can he ask for
what he wants. This is little thought of in
prayer. We frequently observe that in our
294

prayers, and in those of others, there is more
speaking in the air, than prayer and address to
the living God. Can it be denied that in extem-
poraiy prayer before others, and even in pubHc
worship, there is more argumentation and reason-
ing, than real appeal to the most High, who is
clothed with Majesty.

Less can be said about secret prayer. Each man
knows only his own prayer, and what others may
tell him of theirs. But though we confine our-
selves to this, the complaints uttered in a brother's
ear about the barrenness of prayer, are such, as
to justify the fear, that the recital of words begins,
before the soul has consciously entered the pres-
ence of God. Frequent and long prayers encour-
age this habit. The eyes close, the hands are
folded, and one begins certain known formal
prayers, which though not irreverent, are out of
harmony with the very deep reverence which is
God's due.

The Scripture repeatedly shows that not every
prayer counts as such with God. It speaks of
moments in which our prayers are hindered. It
makes us hear the word of the Lord: "When ye
make many prayers, I will not hear" (Is. 1:15);
and it records the complaint of the prophet:
"that no prayer passed through unto God" (Lam.
3:44). Then heaven is as brass; there is no open-
ing and no disclosing; there is no access and no
entrance, and no spirit of prayer and supplication.

In Zion there was "an oracle of God's holiness."
When a godly Jew wandered in the mountains, or
dwelt by the Jordan, he turned himself in prayer
toward this oracle (Ps. 28:2). When Israel was in

295

exile, they prayed with their faces toward Zion.
As an after effect of this habit we still find in
many countries, that people do not pray at home,
but in churches. Such churches are open all day,
and in the solemn stillness of such stately edifices
one kneels down, unobserved and unknown, in the
expectation that in these impressive places the
presence of the Lord will make itself felt more
effectively.

This is unquestionably a great privilege for
those who live in crowded cities. He who has a
room at home, where he can lock the door, in
order to be alone with God, has no need of it.
But the great masses of people are not so fortu-
nate. At home they are almost never alone, it is
almost never quiet, and seclusion which is so help-
ful to prayer, can almost never be found.

Apart also from this difl&culty, it must not be
forgotten, that in Israel God himself had ap-
pointed such an oracle of his holiness, and had
directed the souls of the faithful toward it. It
was a means of cultivating real prayer. It every-
time reminded the godly Jew that in order to
pray he must first look to God with the eye of
the soul, and that before prayer, connection must
be made between the soul and God. To pray
without first finding God, and knowing that one
speaks to him, is really a caricature of prayer. If
we would pray we should know, that at that very
moment God attends to the voice of our prayer;
that he inclines his ear to our prayer; and that
he listens to the voice of our supplication. And
this spiritual perception can not be awake in the
soul, unless, before prayer, we consciously place
ourselves in the Divine Presence.

296

God's child always prays in Jesus' name. He
must do this, because irreconciled and unredeemed,
he would find no listening ear with God, But even
prayer in Jesus' name becomes a word without
meaning, when one does not first place himself
before the face of the Holy One, and feels that
of himself there is no approach to God, and that
he only appears before God in Christ.

In this connection the diflaculty is God's, omni-
presence. The- very perception of faith that God
is not bound to either time or place, but that he
is everywhere present^ accounts for the fact, that
one inclines to speak without first concentrating
his thoughts upon God, placing him before the
eyes, and seeking his presence until it is found.

In his Word God teaches us otherwise. For
though the Scripture reveals to us in most glorious
terms the omnipresence of God, in behalf of
prayer it can only mean, that wherever we are,
we are always and everywhere able to find God.
But it reveals with equal emphasis that in what-
ever place we are, we have to do with the living
God, who besets us behind and before, who com-
passes our path and our lying down, and who is
acquainted with all our ways (Ps. 139:5, 2). In
addition to this it always points us upward. We
must lift up our soul in prayer. Our prayerful
thoughts must direct themselves to the heavens,
where is a throne of grace, glorious with Divine
Majesty. It is the palace above whither our
prayers ascend. It is the living, personal God who
inclines himself to us and toward Whom our pray-
ing soul must turn.

The imagination can lend no help in this, for
God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must

297

worship in spirit and in truth. But he who knows
God as his Father who is in heaven, also knows
that in prayer he has no deahngs with a force
that extends and spreads itself everywhere, but
with his covenant God, his Lord and King, and
that he can not rest content until, in order to
pray, he has resumed his secret walk with God
and has obtained anew communion with his
Redeemer. Before the days of telegraph and tele-
phone this seemed far more mysterious than now.
From experience we know that there is communion
between people at immeasurable distances, which
is supported by nothing but a weak metal thread.
And even this thread has been ignored. There is
now a telegraphic communication without thread,
which in its vvondrous working has become a
beautiful image of praj^er. So-called telepathy
also comes to our aid. The authenticated facts
that persons at far distances can have fellowship
of soul with soul and communication of thoughts,
is an indication, that our soul can have like fel-
lowship with God, because, when the human soul
is able to do this, the means of spiritual fellow-
ship are infinitely much greater with God.

The point is that with respect to prayer we
must regard the indispensableness of this fellow-
ship, and that we must not pray, until we have
obtained this connection and fellowship with, and
approach to, God. When Jeremiah complains
that his prayer did not pass through, because God
had covered himself with a cloud, he shows that
he had sought this fellowship, and that he had
perceived his inability to obtain connection. As
when one stands before the telephone, and rings
up central, and gets no hearing because the wire

is broken, so he who prays stands at the gate of
heaven, and calls upon God for a hearing, and
seeks connection of fellowship, but gets no sign of
life in return. This but shows, that real prayer
can not begin until a hearing is obtained, and
connection has been established, and we know
that God has disclosed his face to us. If this
fails, prayer is hindered. The fault lies with us,
either because of sin, or because our thoughts
wander, or because we are engaged with worldly
concerns, or because the heart is not rightly
attuned, or because of the superficiality and ex-
ternality^ of the condition of the soul.

This does not disturb the man who prays from
sheer habit. He prays anyhow, whether he has
any feeling or perception of connection or not,
and even though he is aware that his prayer does
not pass through. He has said his prayers, and
that is the end of it. But the trul}^ godly man
at prayer does not behave like this. If he feels
that there is an hindrance, if he is aware that
there is a cloud between himself and God, he
turns in upon himself, he humbles himself before
God and seeks cleansing in the blood of his
Savior. And then connection follows, the gates of
heaven swing open to him, and in the end his
prayer passes through and ascends before the face
of the Holy One.

This is the sanctifying power of the conscien-
tious practice of prayer. At first there is no
prayer. But one does not rise from his knees
until prayer comes and access to the throne of
grace has been obtained. And in this very strug-
gle, sin is broken and grace in Christ is restored.

299

56

"TO WHOMSOEVER THE SON
WILL REVEAL HIM"

When we read in Romans 1 :20 that '"The invis-
ible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things-
that are made," and in Matthew 11:27 that "no
one knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal him," these
two passages seemingly contradict each other, but
not in fact. Every man can know God in all sorts
of ways. This was not only so in Paradise, but
still continues so in this fallen world, even in
those parts that are under the curse of heathen-
dom. The heavens declare the glory of God and
the firmament sheweth his handiwork, Day
unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night
sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor
country, there is no people known, even unto
the world's end, which does not . hear the voice
of the heavens. And not only does nature, which
pulsates with life, pour forth speech for every
one who does not purposel}'' stop his ear; but
there is a speech of God in the conscience,
that goes forth to every people and nation. It
is not recorded of the first created human pair in
Paradise, but of the heathen in the corrupted
age of the Caesars that they "shew the work of
the Law written in their hearts, their conscience
also bearing witness, and their thoughts the
meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another"
(Rom. 2:15). The form in which the knowledge
of God and of his Will expresses itself, may be
idolatrous and oftentimes offensive, but the ira-

300

pulse from which it proceeds, is never anything
else, then the mistaken interpretation of the
speech of God in nature and in the conscience.
This is the seed of religion of which Calvin bore
witness, the increated knowledge of God and
the given knowledge of God, which was ever
confessed by our fathers. This was not confessed
for the sake of glorifying man, who fell, but
contrariwise, to render the sinner inexcusable be-
fore God. Fallen humanity as such, and every
individual sinner in the same, stands deeply
guilty before God, because he whose eye is fully
open, and whose conscience reacts properly, per-
ceives the eternal power and Godhead of the
Lord Jehovah in himself, and everywhere around
him in nature and in history. Such being the
case, how are we to understand the words of
Christ, that no one knoweth the Father, save the
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
him?

It does not say, that no one can have any
knowledge of God save through the Son, but
that no one knoweth the Father, except he to
whom the Son has revealed him. Of Satan and
his angels it is clearly stated that they know God
and tremble. This could not be otherwise. Satan's
fall was nothing else than rebellion against God,
evil lust to dethrone the Almighty and to put
himself in his place. And how could this have
been thinkable, unless he had known the existence
and omnipotence of God? But every one under-
stands at once that although Satan knows God,
he has never known the Father. He who knows
the Father is comforted and reconciled. Satan,
on the contrary, whenever he thinks of God,

301

trembles. The knowledge of the Father maketh
rich, gives peace and eternal rest. The knowl-
edge which Satan has of God makes him tremble.
This is the difference between Satan and a great
sinner on earth. While the criminal can take a
sleeping draught to quiet his conscience and to
forget God, Satan can not do this. This sleeping-
draught of sin is impossible for him. His
perception of God's Almighty presence speaks to
him loudly from moment to moment, and there-
fore he trembles. From this the miserable estate
of the lost in the eternal fire is equally clear. The
ungodly in the earth can put their conscience to
sleep and as a rule live free from anxiety in the
midst of sin. There are those whose consciences
are so seared, that only now and then, in moments
of intense commotion, they feel the wrath of God.
and for the rest of the time live on in their sin,
without any disturbing fear of God, just because
they close their eyes and stop their ears. But
when once this life is ended, and they go into
eternity, this too will end. Then their eyes will
fully open, so that they will never be able to
close them again, and their ears v/ill be unstopped,
so that they will never be able to stop them
again. And with open ej-e and ear eternally
to be subject to the omnipotence of God will be
their miserable destinJ^

If no one can know the Father save as the
Son reveals him unto us, it is evident, that this
does not imply the general knowledge of God,
which is within human reach everywhere, but the
knowledge of God's everlasting compassion, which
the sinner can not share, until reconciled in
Christ he has become a child of God, and has

302

learned to know God as his Father, and himself
as this heavenly Father's child.

There is no mention here of a doctrine, which
is committed to memory or of a revelation that
has been given in so many words, which we
are to make our own, but of a knowledge which
spiritual experience of personal redemption and
reconciliation imparts to us. This certainly im-
plies a revelation to the understanding. ''We know
that the Son of God is come, and hath given us
an understanding, that we may know him that
is true" (I John 5:20). All revelation begins with
the Word. When the Christ appeared, he went
through the land preaching the gospel of the
Kingdom. The gospel itself is a glad tiding of
salvation which is to come, and of redemption
which is announced. But this preaching, this
glad evangel, these words of the gospel are not
enough. These can be learned by rote. These
can be committed to memorj', but they can
not bring us the knowledge of the Father. This
glad evangel by itself, even though we accept it
in its entirety, and without hesitation, never
brings us further than to say ''Lord, Lord!" It
is with this as in the days of Hosea, (8:2) when
all the people said: "Lord, we thy Israel, know
thee." even while the anger of the Lord was
kindled against them to the point of destruction,
just because they knew not God. Even if
therefore this doctrine, this message, this word
of the gospel was carried into the world first by
the apostles, and after that by preaching, and by
the Scripture, by itself it can not impart the knowl-
edge of the Father. This knowledge only comes,
when the glorified Christ through the Holy Spirit

303

imparts unto us the riches of his reconciliation,
when he seeks us out as sinners, and makes us
children of God. Only when Christ has made us
children of God, does the knowledge of the Father
become our blessed and glorious possession.

But again, Christ does not come to us for the
first time in the work of redemption. He is
the Eternal Word, which was before all things
with God and was God. All nature, with the
revelation of God which it contains is created
by him. He is the Word. No speech goes forth
from nature without him. Without the Eternal
Word nature would be dead and dumb, and
would have nothing to say to us. And not only
has nature been created by the Eternal Word,
and endowed with a b.nguage of its own, but we
ourselves, in the midst of nature, would not have
come into this world, but for Christ. The whole
scope of our human nature is from him. We too
have been created by him. Our whole spiritual dis-
position, and our capacity to overhear and under-
stand nature, have been implanted in us by him.
The same is true of our moral being. Christ has
given us our conscience. He is himself the con-
science of mankind. The fellowship of our hearts
with the moral world order, our perceptions of
good and evil, of right and wrong, of what fills
one with horror and inspires one through beauty,
of selfishness and love, of light and darkness —
these have all come to us from the Eternal
Word.

Hence it can not be said either that we know
God apart from Christ, or that only in and by
Christ this known God is revealed to us as
our Father. For the broad foundation of the

304

knowledge of God, on wiiich the knowledge
of the Father is built, comes to us from the
Eternal Word. The knowledge of the Father
is not a flower, that has been wafted down
from the heavenly regions, and has been tied
by Christ to the withered stem of human nature ;
but the withered state of our sinful nature has
been revived by him with a new life, and the
knowledge of the Father has been engrafted upon
the knowledge of God that comes to us through
nature, and through the conscience, by virtue
of our creation from the Eternal Word. Hence
these are not two kinds of knowledge, without
an inner relation, standing externally side by
side and joined together. But it is one knowledge
of God, which comes to us fiom the Eternal
Word, which arises in us through the instrument-
ality of nature and of the conscience, and
which in and through the redemptive work
of the Messiah is elevated and carried up to
the knowledge of the Father.

It is a detriment to the faith, therefore, which
avenges itself bitterly, when he who is converted
rests content with the work of redemption, as
though it comprises the sole glory of Christ, and
abandons the knowledge of God from nature and
the conscience to the world. He who, reconciled
in Christ, kneels as God's child before his
Heavenly Father, must let the light that has
appeared to him in Christ, operate reflexively
upon the revelation of God in nature and upon
the revelation of God in human nature, both
of which have their origin in Christ. St. John
begins his Gospel by pointing out the relation
which Christ sustains to the creation of the world,

305

to the creation of our own nature, and to the
creation of our own person. And this is the result.
Thanks to our reconciliation in Christ the voice of
God in nature and the voice of God in our con-
science obtain a different sound. They increase in
clearness and in significance. And by the opened
ear they are heard with a clarity which blends the
life of grace with the life of nature in glorious
harmony and turns the whole world, and all
history including our own lives, into one Mighty
revelation of the Father, whom we worship in the
face of his Son.

57

'1 AM CONTINUALLY
WITH THEE."

We may sit for hours by the side of a person
and hold no fellowship with him. In long railway
journeys we may spend several days in the com-
pany of others, and not so much as learn their
names, or know anything about them. On the
other hand we may be miles apart from a friend,
and be continually engaged with him, so that
we scarcely think of anything but of him, and
in spirit enjoy closest fellowship with his spirit.
It may sound strangely, but such is the fact.
A mother who has lost her darling child was never
so closely united in soul with the soul of her child
as during the first hours after death, when the
little one went far away from her.

Fellowship of soul with soul may be greatly
aided by personal presence, facial expression and
mutual exchange of thoughts, but is not dependent
upon them. In close fellowship of soul with soul

306

we crave personal presence. Human nature consists
of soul and body, and is only fully satisfied when
fellowship of soul with soul is accompanied by
physical presence. In the realm of glory, commun-
ion with God's saints will only be made perfect
by the sight of one another in the glorified body.
Fellowship among the redeemed in the Father-
house above, bears a provisional character until
the resurrection, and awaits perfection in the
return of Jesus. But however deeply significant
personal presence and sight may be, presence of
soul with soul does not depend on it. As God
created us we are able, though separated in the
body, to have close fellowship one with the other,
either by writing, telephone or telegraphy, and
also apart from all this, in a purely spiritual
way in feeling, perceptions, thoughts and imagina-
tion. Personal presence alone does not afford
human fellowship; for this is always fellowship
of spirit w^th spirit, of soul with soul, of heart,
with heart. And the question whether we live near
by a person or far away from him is not answered
by distance or proximity but only and alone by
spiritual nearness or estrangement. When parting
from a loved one for a long term of years, even
also at the last farewell before djang, we can assure
him: "I shall continually be with yon." And many
a mother with reference to her child, and many a
widow with reference to her late husband, have
literally fulfilled it. The child, the husband were
gone from the earth, but fellowship continued,
unseen, awaiting the re-union.

When Asaph sings in Ps. 73:23 ''Nevertheless
I am contimiallly with Thee" it can only be taken
in the sense of this spiritual fellowship. Locally

307

we are never separated from God. We can Qot
be anywhere and God not be near. He besets
us behind and before. Whither shall we go from
his Spirit, whither shall we flee from his presence.
We can not escape the presence of God. "If I
make my bed in hell," sings David, Ps. 139. ''be-
hold 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," God is never
away from us. He can not be away from us, neither
can we be away from Him. He is the Omni-
present One. And his almighty power is operative
every moment in every pulse-beat of the blood,
in every quiver of the nerves, and in every breath
we draw.

But this Divine Omnipresence does not con-
situte fellowship of our spirit with the Spirit of
God. Two things are necessary for this. First
that God makes his approach to our spirit and
reveals to us the tokens of his holy presence with-
in; and again, that our spirit opens itself to the
Spirit of God, allows him to come in, goes out
toward him, and in seeking him will not rest
until it finds him. The approach of the Spiiit
of God to our spirit may impart a mere superficial
impression, and no more. In this sense there is
scarely anyone who at sometime or other
in his life has not been aware of a certain impulse
from God in the soul. This has been perceived
in the midst of sin. It is different, however, when
the Lord God discloses himself to us, makes him-
self known, taking up his abode in the soul, and
annouces himself as the secret friend of the heart.
Then alone the secret walk with God becomes

possible, and He is sovereign to grant liis
fellowship to the soul or to withhold it. Let
him who received it, therefore, take thought,
that thereby he was granted a privilege
above all other privileges, a royal, heavenly and
Divine grace of highest worth. And that we take
this blessedness at this high worth will be evident
from the fact, whether we in turn unlock our
heart to the Eternal, and, not once in a while, but
continuously, seek to enjoy this inward, secret
fellowship with God.

In the song of Asaph in hand the word "con-
tinually" must be taken in its literal sense; not
from time to time; not once in a while; but con-
tinuously all the time without ceasing. He had
enjoyed the blessedness of fellowship with God,
but at intervals, from time to time. For a while
he lived ''near unto God," and for a while he
was away from God, and thereby his soul had
erred. He felt that he had wandered off, and
that he had been at the point of becoming
unfaithful to God's children. From this mael-
strom he only found deliverance when he returned
to the sanctuary of God and opened his soul
again to Divin© fellowship. This bitter experi-
ence of soul led him to change his course. Not
as had been his habit, to seek fellowship with
God in the midst of all sorts of distractions, and
then to wander away again from him, but from
now on, continually, all the time, without resting
and without ceasing to be with God. (Dutch
version: "I will then continually be with Thee").
Not from now on to be absorbed in holy medita-
tion in order through the imagination, representa-
tion and deep mysticism to lose himself in fellow-

309

ship with the Divine Being. For though, provided
it is applied with utmost care, such losing of one-
self in spiritual vision of the Infinite, as result of
private prayer, can have a value of its own. It
is not what continually being ''near unto God"
implies. It can not mean this because in
holy, mj'stical meditation the other operations
of our spirit are an-ested, with this result,
that we stand helpless in the face of our
work in the world, so that nothing can come of
doing God's will, while on the contrary, close
fellowship with God must become actual in the
full and vigorous revelation of our life. It must
permeate and give color to our feeling, perceptions,
sensations, thoughts, imagination, purposes, acts
and words. It must not stand as a foreign factor
by the side of our life, but be the glow that
casts it sheen upon our whole existence. This
can not be so with fellowship of man with man,
but only with the fellowship with God, because
in and from and to God are the issues of all holy
and of all creaturely utterances of life.

Asaph did not aim therefore at inactive
meditation, but at a fundamental tone, a fund-
amental temper of mind and heart, which con-
tinually lifts itself in praise and direct-s itself in
prayer, to God. An ejaculatory prayer is not
enough. It proceeds only occasionally from
the soul. While the requirement is, that at all
times our expectation in everything be from
God, and that our thanks are continually his
due; to let God inspire us and so to deal with
our faithful Father that it would at no time
affect us strangely if He were to appear to us.
Even as we have our self ever with us, and bring

310

it into every interest of life, so we should allow
the thought of God, the lifting up of the soul to
God, the faith on, and the love for, God uncea-
singly to operate in and with everything. . . This
prevents estrangement, and straying away, and
accustoms the soul to be continually "near unto
God." This is shown most forcibly by the fact
that he who so lives is at once aware of an
aching void within, the moment he wanders away
from God, which allows him no rest till fellow-
ship with God is restored.

58
"I HIDE ME WITH THEE."

The hen allows her chickens to run about freely
within her sight until danger threatens, and then
at once with raised wings, she clucks her brood
towards herself, and does not rest until the last
little one has crowded itself beneath her wings,
and animal-mother faithfulness covers all the
young innocents. But then the chickens do not
hide themselves yet with the mother hen. They
only do this when, seeing the approach of danger,
of themselves, and of their own initiative, they
flee to the mother hen in order to seek protection
beneath her wings. , , t j

The "Jerusalem, Jerusalem," which Jesus de-
claimed against Zion was doubly upbraiding in
its touching pathos, because it reproached Israel
either for not surmising danger, or in case it did,
for seeking defense and cover with men and not
with God. In time of danger the people should
have called upon God, and should have poured
cut their supplication for help and deliverance
unto the God of their fathers, and as soon as

311

the waters in the flood of destruction that came
upon the people began to rise, without waiting
for an answer to their cry, they should have
sought refuge with God. The people did not do
this. They trusted in their own strength and
underestimated the danger. And then instead
of the people calling upon God, God called upon
the people, saying "O Israel, flee unto Me, and
let Me be your shield." In this way God called,
not once but "many times." And Israel heard
that calling and clucking of its God, but hardened
the heart, and would not. And then the abandon-
ment became a judgment: "How often would
I have gathered thee, as a hen doth gather her
brood under her wings, and ye would not ; behold,
your house is left unto you desolate." And at
this judgment Israel did not weep with shame,
and self-reproach, but planted the cross of
Golgotha; and he who wept over his people,
was the Lord.

We are here confronted with all sorts of spirit-
ual conditions. One will be in danger, but as it
threatens he neither knows God, nor is known
of him. Yet in the face of shipwreck he will cry :
"O God, help me," though his voice is lost in the
storm. While another in the face of danger
will brave it without a thought of God. Still
another in time of stress will hear the warning
call of God, but will not heed it. But there
will also be those who, in the hour of grave need,
of themselves will flee to God, will call upon him
and hear his call, and who, before the soul is
delivered, find themselves safely hidden with
their God, shadowed by his wings and covered by
his faithfulness. And these are they from whose

312

soul in truth the call of confidence goes forth:
"I hide me Loid. with thee." (Ps. 143:9 marg.
reading).

Hiding with God is not dwelling in his tent,
or knowing the secret grace of the hidden walk.
Hiding never indicates a fixed condition, but
always something transient. We seek shelter
from a thunderstorm, in order presently, when
the sun shines again, to step out from our hiding-
place, and continue on our way. Little chickens
hide with the mother hen, when a water-rat is
around; but when it is gone, they run out again.
And the soul of him who knows God, hides with
his Father, as long as trouble lasts ; but when it is
overpassed, there is no more need of hiding.
Hiding in God is not the ordinary, but the ex-
traordinary condition of a single moment "Until
these calamities be overpast" (Ps. 57:1), or as
said in Is. 26:20, "Until the indignation be over-
past"

But even he who fears God, does not hide with
him in everytime of need. Trouble and care are
upon us all the days of our life. The cross must
be taken up each day anew. But as a rule the
child of God calmly pursues his way in the assured
confidence of Divine protection. He knows that
God fights for him, that God is his shadow, that
as his good shepherd he leads him, and that
when too violent an assult threatens, God covers
him with his shield. He then dwells with God,
and God does not leave him to himself. All
this is the daily, ordinary activity of faith, the
operation of God's faithfulness, and of the trust
of his child.

But hiding it still something else. It is something

313

connected with the hour of teiTor;when the water
has risen to the hps, when dark dread has
suddenly overtaken the soul, when there is
no way of escape, when dark night settles on
the heart, when faith no longer trusts itself.
Then there is an heroic taking hold of self, and
as in the moment of danger the child runs to
mother, and hides himself in her dress, so does
the soul fly to God, crowds close up to him and
hides with him. And in doing this the soul has
no thought of anything, nor time for making
plans, save only and alone to hide with God, to
be safe with him, to find deliverance with him.
If despair of faith were possible, hiding might
be said to be the act of despair. But though there
never is despair in faith, in great anxiety of mind
the child of God may despair of himself, of
help and deliverance from without, of the working
of the ordinary powers and gifts which at other
times are at command, and now gives up every
further attempt to resist because he feels that
the fight is too unequal, that the opposing force
is too strong and overwhelming, that he can
not stand before it, and dares not run any more
futile risks, and therefore throws pike and shield
aside, and helplessly takes refuge with God with
the cry: "O God, fight thou for me," and now
hides with God. After the chickens have crept
under the wings of the mother hen, the hawk
that was after the chickens no longer sees them,
but only the angry mother hen. When the child
takes refuge with mother, and hides itself in
her dress, the assailant has no longer to do with
an helpless child, but with the mother who, like
a lioness, fights for it. And when a child of God
814

hides with God the battle is no longer one between
him and the world, but between the world and
God. He who hides with God commits his cause
to God. He withdraws himself from it. All his
support and hope is the righteousness of his
Lord. And only when this has openly been
shown, he comes out from his hiding again in
order to finish his course.

Hiding with God therefore is no ordinary act
of the soul. It onl}- takes place amid circumstances
of utmost need and danger. Only when David's
spirit was overhelmed within him, and he was
forced to exclaim: ''My heart within me is
desolate" (143:4), so that he lay "in darkness
as those that have long been dead," was the
cry for help forced from his heart, whereby
he struck the key-note and found the word,
which only in momenj:s of like stress the soldiers
of the cross have echoed and re-echoed from
their own over-burdened spirit.

There is also a hiding with God in moments
of anxiety and need, which are occasioned by
ordinary' events in life. For though as a rule be-
lievers are not called upon, like David, to fight
the battle of the Lord, something of that battle
annouces itself in every famih^ life, and in every
individual career. The instances in worldly lives
of great perturbation of mind, which lead to
despair and suicide, are almost without number.
And it is noteworth}'- that what brings the wordly-
minded through despair to suicide, drives the
believer to hide himself with God. The man of
the world and the child of God both give up.
But while the worldly man seeks surcease in
self-destruction, just to get away from his troub-

315

les, the hope of eternal life dawns on the soul
of the believer, and he also seeks to do away-
with self, but bj^ expecting nothing more from
his own strength and powers, and by resigning
everything into the hand of God. Even as he
who is incurably ill, suffers dreadfully, is no
more able to endure it, and expects no more
help from medicine, yet holds out unto death,
because he can hide with God. So there can
be despair in the family on account of consuming
grief, bitter, sin, endless adversities, and lack of
bread. There can also be a grievance though
scorn and slander, so deep and cruel, that restora-
tion of honor is no more possible, and life be-
comes a burden. The cause of God may be
involved in all this, but as a rule it is not, and
all this dreadful darkness looms up from com-
mon life. But though the. battle for God may
have nothing to do with this, it is bound to
have a part in this, because these grievous troubles
make their wave-beats shake the faith in the
heart of God's child. And then it can not help
but become a battle of faith. A combat between
the power of the world and that which reveals
the faith. Fear would strike faith dumb, but
faith will cry out for help against it.

And in all such cases faith first struggles
against it, then tries to conjure the storm, then
battles as long as it can. But when finally it
is utterly disabled, and feels itself at the point
of defeat, it performs the last heroic act which
makes it triumph: it lets go, it gives up, in
order to commit its all unto the Lord, and then
the tempest-tossed and uncomforted soul hides
with God, and God binds up his sorrow.

316

69
"THOU DOST NOT HEAR ME."

True prayer calls for an answer from God.
But not all prayer is genuine. There is a great
difference between formal prayer of the lips and
earnest outpouring of soul in supplication. Form-
al prayer however should not be underestimated.
It implies a power that maintains prayer. And
though it tarries, a spark from above may sud-
denly come down into this dead formalism and
ignite the flame of true prayer in it. But though
it is unfair to say that he who prays in this mere,
formal way, had better not pray at all, it re-
mains true that cold and heartless prayer is in-
fected prayer, in behalf of which the man of
ardent prayer invokes the cleansing power of the
atonement.

If we would examine the true character of
prayer, we must distinguish it from the form, and
direct the attention to real supplication of the
soul; and then he who prays, awaits an answer;
such as in olden times was given in a revelation, in
a word spoken in the soul, in a vision, or appear-
ance of an angel; and in our times in the hearing
of our prayer, in an unexpected meeting, or in
a motion worked by the Holy Ghost within.
He who prays in a godly manner always awaits
an answer; not only when he asks for something,
but also when he worships, ascribes praise, or
gives thanks. In these holy exercises he does not
merely aim at reciting words in honor of God's
name and majesty but he asks God, whom he
worships, to accept his praises and thanksgivings.
The scripture speaks of them as offerings, and

317

calls them: "the calves of the lips" (Hosea 14:2),
or "the fruit of the lips" (Is.57:19) by which
to indicate clearly the significance of an offering
■which such prayer implies. From the account
of the first fratricide we learn that there is an
offering which God accepts and one which he
rejects. And nowhere has it been more clearly
shown than in Cain's anger and wrath, that with
ever}' offering the human heart awaits an answer
from God.

But it does not always come. And amid the
sorrows of heart and the distresses of soul nothing
is more grievous than this lack of an answer
from the Lord. Hear the complaint of Job
(30:20): "I cry unto thee, and thou dost not
hear me; I stand up, and thou regardest me not."
This is expressed still more strongly in Ps. 22,
where the Messiah exclaims: "My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me! 0 my God, I cry in
the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the
night season also I take no rest." Or as
it reads in Micah 3:7 "Then shall the seers be
ashamed . . . for there is no answer of God".

The failure of obtaining an answer from God
is by no means always the fault of the worshipper.
With the Messiah at least this is unthinkable.
Every one knows from experience that at one
time he was heard in spite of an accusing con-
science, and that at another time, when his prayer
had been earnest and sincere, no answer came.
In many instances, the hearing failed, because
prayer was a sin in our lips. Withholding of
an answer, on the part of God, can frequently
be explained from the sinful mood of the heart
during prayer. But sin on the part of a worshipper

318

is not the only cause of the failure to obtain an
hearing of prayer. The most devout saints in
Israel complained again and again that their prayer
was not heard, which was a source of deep grief
to their hearts; and their grief was proof that
their prayers had been earnest and sincere. The
Lama Sabachthani from the cross shows the height
which this sorrow of the human heart can climb,
and Golgotha makes it plain, more strongly than
anything else, that the withholding of an answer,
on the part of God, can be intentional.

The question in dispute on Carmel was an
answer from above. Both Elijah and the priests
of Baal acknowledged that if God is alive, and
man prays to Him, a sign of life must proceed
from the side of God, as an answer to prayer.
The priests sought this answer with Baal, and
Elijah sought it with Jehovah. From morning
even until noon the cry arose from a thousand
mouths; "O Baal, answer us," and they cut
themselves with knives and lancets, because no
answer came. Then Elijah also prayed and God
answered by fire. The question at stake was,
whether the God who was invoked was able to
answer. A God who is not, and who is not alive,
can not answer. Jehovah, who is alive in glory
could answer, and the fearful answer descended
in fire from heaven.

But ability to answer is not enough. God must
fJso be willing to answer; and the Sabachthani
is the most striking instance of the awful truth,
that at times God is intentionally unwilling, and
that he does not withhold his answer by chance
or by mistake, but in accordance with his counsel
and plan. Even when his child continues to

S19

call he refuses to hear; even when the saintliest
worshipper pours out his soul before him;
even when his own well-beloved Son cries
unto Him from the cross. This is the comfort
of the cry from the cross for every soul that cries
and gets no answer. Otherwise the silence of
Grod might bring the soul to despair. But when
it appears that even the prayer of God's own
Son remained unanswered, why should a sinful
suppliant complain or despair, when he, too, is
numbered with the Son of God.

Is this non-compliance on the part of God
mere arbitrariness? Far from it. Such an idea
is unthinkable in God. Even this Divine with-
holding of an answer to our prayer is outflow of
the love-life wherewith God compasses the soul
of his child. In our prayer-life there is danger
that we seek a gift from God rather than God him-
self. Prayer is almost always invocation of God's
help, of his assistance; of his saving and blessing
grace; but apart from ourselves, our own interests
and conditions of need, prayer seldom aims first
of all to have dealings with God himself. The
''Our Father" teaches the way. It instructs us first
to pray for the hallowing of God's name, for the
coming of his Kingdom, for the doing of his Will,
and then it goes on to the prayer for our daily
bread, for forgiveness of our sins and for our
deliverance from the Evil. But this is the misery
of our spiritual estate, that even in prayer we
rarely stand on the sacred height of the "Our
Father".

This wounds the tender love-life between God
and the soul. Prayer for provision in personal
need is natural, but it always springs from love

320

of self. God must lend help and assistance and
deliverance. And so it comes to appear at times
that God is and exists merely for our sakes, for
our benefit, to deliver us from trouble. But love
is different. Love for God in prayer is, that
first of all we are concerned with the things that
glorify God's name, God's honor and G;od's power.
If it be true that love alone maketh rich and ex-
alteth the soul, it is grace, and nothing but seeking
grace, when by temporary withholdings of answers
to our prayers God initiates us more fully into
the life of love, represses egoism in our prayers,
and in our prayer-life also quickens love.

Hence when an answer to prayer tarries, let
not the soul grow faint. Apart from the fact that
an answer is not immediately necessary, and that
it is frequently shown later on that in his own time
God granted the request, there is no reason why,
when God withholds an answer, we need to des-
pair. When saints in Old- and New-Testament
times were tried along this line, and our blessed
Savior endured it in the dark hour of death upon
the cross, why then should we be spared? The
very restraint on the part of God, when the soul
cries out to him, may be the token, that he loves
the soul more than we ourselves; that he wants
to raise the life of the soul and the life of prayer
to higher vantage grounds; that he desires to
initiate us into the deeper ways of love; and
that by not answering our prayer he prepares
us for a more glorious future, when we shall pray
more sincerely, supplicate more earnestly, and
receive a far more abundant answer. Even
among us it is frequently seen that a temporal
withdrawal from those whom we love is the

321

means to quicken tenderer love. How much the
more is this true of him, who himself is love
and who by putting a cloud between us and his
Majesty, leads us up to the higher and far
richer enjoyments of love.

60

"HIS WAYS ARE EVERLASTING"

With the passing of anipther year another
boundary-line in life is drawn. A new year is
brought into the course of time. It was 1903,
and so it continued for months and weeks and
days. It became 1904, and involuntarily we ask
what it shall bring us. Whether the year will
outlive us or whether we shall outlive it. This
of itself on the threshold of the new year
makes us to look up to our Father who is in
heaven, and ask little but trust much, to lay the
hand on the mouth and as a weaned child quielty
to wait what He will bring upon us, and upon
our beloveds.

The goings of the age are his, declares the
prophet (Hab. 3:6 Dutch Version.) God counts
and reckons with centuries, as on the dial of
the clock it is done with hours and minutes.
We are the little, needy ones who count with
the tenth part of a penny. God bathes him-
self as it were in the great eternities. There is
no comparison between our and God's reckoning
of time. With God it is the ever-flowing fountain
of the eternal; with us the dripping of the mom-
ents is heard in the ticking of the clock. While
waiting for it, five single minutes seem some-
times unbearably long.

This vast difference between us and God should

322

never be lost from sight. It is so wide that
we can not possibly explain the connection be-
tween our time and God's eternity, though we
know that there must be such a relation, and
that there is. When we die in Christ we
shall enter upon an eternity of everlasting joys,
but even this shall never be to us the eternity
of God. Though we shall live eternally, we
have had a beginning, but God never. "Before
the mountains were brought forth, (Ps. 90) from
everlasting to everlasting thou art God." And
this never applies to man. But, however incal-
culably vast the difference may be, between us
who live by hours, and God who disposes of the
goings of the ages, it is grace, that God divides
for us the portion of life, which we spend between
the cradle and the grave, into parts of years and
days, and that he subdivides these parts into
hours and minutes whereby our otherwise short
life obtains breadth, extension of duration and
richness of scope, which makes us bathe ourselves
in the little pond of our brief years as in an ocean.
We did not invent time, and its division into
j''ears and days; these are ours by God's appoint-
ment. "And the evening and the morning were
the first da3''," is the creative word that appointed
this order and division of time for us, before
man had appeared on earth. Sun and moon, the
rotation of the earth, and the pulsebeat of the
blood in our veins, have been made with the
view of solving human life into minutes and
seconds. And by this wondrous means, wonder-
ful in simplicity of appointment. Divine grace
and mercy have created for us, and about us, a
wealth of life in the past, now in the present,

323

and presently in the future, whereby our short
life appears to be almost endlessly long and great.
Even the single year that is past seemed so long,
that only a few of its significant days are clearly
remembered, and the new j^ear just begun makes
an impression as though it could never end.

Our God moreover, whose are the goings of
the age. has not only beautifully divided human
life, and thereby mightily enlarged it to our
idea, but he also pervades it continually with
his faithfulness and Fatherly care. From week to
week, and from day to day his mercy and love are
over us, new every morning and scintillating with
new brightness every evening. From hour to hour
he goeth before us on the way. In the subdivisions
of the hours into minutes and seconds the puke-
beat of the blood in the heart is his work, and
he notices every desire of the heart, that goeth
out after him. He is the Father of the everlasting
ages, who from sheer grace divides, for the sake
of enrichment, the life of his child even into small-
est parts, and pervades each division and subdivi-
sion with his grace to keep us and to protect us.

If God has so divided our life and entered it
with his grace, we should reach out from this time-
divided life after the goings of the age, and
elevate ourselves to the levels of the eternal. In
Revelation 10:6 we read that the angel who stood
upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his
hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth
for ever and ever .... that there should be time
no longer. Time is a form of existence given us
by grace, but it is unreal; eternity alone is real,
Our destiny lies in eternity and only from the
viewpoint of eternity can human existence, life

S24

and destiny be understood. Whatever the year
of life may be, it is never understood from itself.
Before God, all of human life, with all its years,
forms one plan, one end, one whole. This plan,
of our life did not begin at birth but traces its
lines back to the life of parents and grandparents.
In the forward direction this plan does not end
with death, but extends across death and grave
into the ages of eternity. It may even be said that
although we might live 70 or 80 years, this part
of life, lived on the earth shrinks into almost noth-
ing by the side of the tens of thousands of years
that await us in eternity. All of earthly life is
nothing but riding down the line to the first
station, where the real journey through the table-
lands of eternity begins.

Not to see this plainly and clearly, is the
main cause of discouragement which frequently
overtakes people in their passage through this
brief, earthly life. For a year of life can never
be understood by itself, and must be viewed in
connection with life in the hereafter, because it
is so and not otherwise before God, and can not
be explained in any other way. He who moulds
and forms and prepares us for eternity is the
Lord. In his works upon the heart, in his forming
of the person, as well as in his preparing of the
spirit \\'ithin us for eternity, the goings of the
age are also his. The standard here is not
what would give us pleasure and love for a mo-
ment; but what governs his appointments of our
life is what we are to become in the course of
centuries. On this long way he leads us now
through dark and deep places, and again through
sunshine on the mountains of his holiness, but

325

his plan and appointment always accompanies us.
And not what would smile on us this year, but
what 77iust happen with us, for the accomplish-
ment of his plan regarding us, determines what
the 3'ear will bring. And why it must be so and
not otherwise we can not understand now, but
we will in the hereafter. He who forgets this
has no peace. He who with all his soul enters
into the eternal activitj^ of God, rests, whatever
comes, in the Father's faithfulness.

If within the narrow confines of time we reckon
by the day and the week, and the heart turns
bitter everj^ time things go wrong and bring
nothing but disappointment, we become the prey
of uneasiness and gloom. Then complaint becomes
unceasing, and the habit of seeing all things black
overwhelms us. Then there is no heroism of
faith, no inspiration to face destiny and no
joy in God. Thousands and thousands spend all
their daj's in cold indifference or in hopeless en-
deavor. They are but a play-ball before the
wind of the day and sink far below the dignity of
man. Does not the prophet say, Eccles. 3:11 that
God hath set eternity in the heart? This but
means that God has given us power from amid
the whirling time-flakes all around us to lift
ourselves up to the sure levels of the eternal.

With eternity set in the heart let every child
of God bravely face the newly- opening year.
He knows that the God whom he worships owns
the goings of the age, and therefore disposes and
appoints human life purel}^ in accordance with
the claims of eternity. He prays that he may
have peace and jo3% for the heart craves happiness.
But if the year must bring him periods when

826

God puts him into the smelting-furnace, or adds
finer cuttings to the diamond of the soul, though
his eyes may ghsten with tears, he will nobly bear
up in the strength of faith; for he knows it is
necessary for his good; that it can not be other-
wise; and that if it were otherwise, his life would
forever be a failure. It is hard to undergo a painful
operation, but the patient willingly submits, and
pays large sums of money to the operator, because
he knows this drastic treatment alone could save
him. This states the case of God's child before
his Father who is in heaven. Not he, but God
alone must know, what is indispensable and necess-
ary for him this year, and what in view of his
permanent formation it must bring him. And
in case it appears that this year such a Divine
operation is necessary for him, he will not murmur,
neither will he complain, but he will submit him-
self willingly to God, yea, though the waves of
sorrow should rise ever so high, he will rejoice in
God, knowing that everything God doeth, must
needs be done, for the sake of God's honor and
his own highest good.

61

"PRAISE HIM WITH STRINGED INSTRU-
MENTS AND ORGANS."

The Scripture is most urgent in pressing
and driving the soul to God. It enjoins the
supreme command of sobriety and purity. It
urges us not to walk proudly but humbly. It
is no less inexorable in its warnings that we
guard ourselves in ever}' way against the killing
power of money, and that we sanctify our wealth

327

by large charities. But nothing of all this can
compare with the unsparing compulsion with
which the H0I3' Ghost in God's word relentlessly
drives us to worship, to seek Divine fellowship,
to have the soul appear before God.

The Scripture places itself at a standpoint that
is even more exalted than this. According to
its claim it is not enough that believers make
great the name of Him, whose property is majesty
and power in the most absolute sense. All men
must glorify God. Even this does not draw
the circle by far of what must praise the name
of the Lord. Together with man the Scripture
includes in this circle all heavenly hosts. "Praise
the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his,
that do his pleasure" (Ps. 103:21). All Cherubs,
archangels and Seraphim. And from the heavens
the circle descends to include within its bounds
inanimate creation. Not only must everything
that hath breath praise the Lord. "All his works
in all places of his dominion" must magnify his
praise. "Praise ye him, sun and moon; praise
him all ye stars of light. Praise the Lord, ye
snow and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his
word." (Ps. 148). Mountains and hills, cedar
trees on Lebanon, beasts and all cattle, creeping
things and the hosts of birds that sing among the
branches, must all make great the name of the
Lord, must all pour forth abundant speech. There
must be no people and no tongue where their
voice of praise is not heard. "0 Lord, our Lord,
how excellent is thy name in all the earth."

Thus, as man, we are called to praise the Lord,
in the midst of a creation from which a voice
goes forth, which invites us to praise God, and
328

returns an echo to our song of praise that re-
sounds among the spheres. It is no dead, silent
creation, stricken with dumbness, but a living
creation, that utters speech. And he whose ear
is attuned to understand this language of nature,
hears the harmonious flow of praise and adoration,
which it pours forth in perfect accord with the
adoring language of his heart. And between
these impulses of the heart, and undulations of
sound in the creation, the Scripture has laid
a tie in the emotional sphere of the world of
sounds, m the wealth of music, in life's treasure
of sanctified song. And psalm after psalm calls
on us not only to hear the voice of the Lord in
creation, and with our voice to glorify our God,
but also to praise him with organs and stringed
instruments (Ps. 150:4), with lute and harp, with
high sounding cymbals and joyful noise.

Organs and stringed instruments therefore are
not secondary, but indispensable factors in wor-
ship, a means ordered of God for fuller enjoyment
in his praise and adoration; that through the
world of music, too, the soul may come closer to
God. Grant that ascription of praise in the house
of prayer, consisting of unaccompanied voices,
can be solemn and impressive, even then this
human singing is music, and improves in merit
and effect when it is developed and cultivated by
art. Joyful noises from throat and harp both are
part of the harmony which God has put into the
wondrous world about us, and which now by the
throat, and now by playing on organ or harp, is
raised and set in harmonious action with the
world of the heart. And whether we strike metal,
or cause strings to vibrate, or by our breath drive

329

sound from flute or trumpet, it is always an im-
pulse in the soul which interprets itself in a vocal
utterance of the world of sound, which in all
spheres surrounds us. Neither singer nor harpist
creates the world of music. God created it. It
was there before the first man heard the first joy-
ful note of birds. It lies enfolded in the air which
is susceptible to vibration and undulation every-
where. And it is given us by voice, by vibration
of throat or by hand, to set this wondrous world
in motion. And when this is done through the
instrument, by throat or hand, it seems that the
undulation, the motion, the inward song of the
heart flows out in it, catches an echo from it, is
carried along, is relaxed, and enriched, by it.
Enriched in no small part by the fact that others
beside ourselves at the same moment undergo the
same emotions, experience like sensations in the
soul, so that our praise and worship, through song
and organ-play, flow together with theirs into one
mighty stream of adoration.

And because these vibrations and undulations
of music react upon us as a power from without,
and lose themselves in the infinite, it seems that
this splendor of harmony, when song is accom-
panied by stringed instruments, brings us into
fellowship with God himself, as praise and worship
from earth extends itself through the heavens, to
the spheres where angels play the harps of gold,
and where everything merges into one grand
symphony of worship around God's throne.

God has wonderfully adapted the human throat
and vocal chords to the world of harmonies, and
no joyful noise on earth excels that of the human
voice. It is a gift, unequally divided. In southern

330

lands people are endowed with finer voices than in
colder regions. In the same country the dif-
ference is wide between the discordant sounds of
the street and the rythmic, cultivated voice of the
artist singer. But with whatever difference, in
disposition the human voice is a joyful noise of
heavenly origin; and it shall only be heard in all
its puritj', and wealth of expression in the realm
of glory before the throne of God.

B}' itself, however, the human voice leaves a
gap for which God supplied an equally wonder-
ful complement in the instrument. A piece of
brass, a tightly-stretched hide, a horn from an
animal's head, even a reed cut by the riverside are
seemingly insignificant, and yet wonderful means
in their effect ordained of God to support the
human voice, to unite them in chorus and to bring
the human heart to co-operate and to harmonize
with the world of sounds that surrounds us.

But even this is not free from sin. The art of
music is mainly employed for the sake of man
and not for God. It seeks no higher calling than
to please the ear, to move the heart with untrue
emotions, and to feast upon a wealth of enjoy-
ment that is devoid of higher tendencies. This
sin was less evident with the Masters than with
a godless public, that uses purely for its own
pleasure the master creations which, composed for
the gloiy of God, inspire holy motives. This
accounts for the distaste among devout believers
for secularized music. And this is fair. Even
music is not innocent. Vitiated music is a power
that degrades. It counts its victims bj'- heca-
tombs. But it is not fair that on account of its
abuse, vocal and instrumental music should be

331

eliminated from the services of the sanctuary.
Far better offset abuse by the sanctified use of
voice and stringed instrument. The revival of
sacred music is always a sign of a higher activity
of life. Christian people who do not sing and
play for the glory of God ASTong themselves.

62

'IN SALEM IN HIS TABERNACLE."
Salem is the abbreviated form for Jerusalem.
''In Salem in his tabernacle" means in its first,
literal sense, that the tabernacle which was made
in the wilderness, and had been moved from place
to place, had finally been brought to the top of
Mount Zion, so that God's dwelling place was
within the walls of Jerusalem,

This sounds strangely to us. Involuntarily we
ask: How can God be omnipresent and at the
same time dwell in a given city, on a certain
mountain top, in a tabernacle or temple? If in
the old dispensation God had his tabernacle in
Salem, and his dwelling-place in Zion, was not
Israel more privileged than we? Have we then
retrograded instead of advanced? Is the Gospel,
which has no knowledge of Jerusalem on earth,
poorer than the ritual of shadows that could
point to the place of God's presence? Especially
when we read in the Psalms of "praise" that
"waiteth in Zion," and of a "doorkeeper" in the
house of the Lord, clearness of insight is greatly
to be desired. Though in early youth we may
sing or recite these sentences thoughtlessly, with
the growth of years we demand clearer under-
standing. This does not come by the study of
history. It all depends upon personal, intentional

332

fellowship with the living God, which is the heart
of all religion, upon the urgent desire of the soul
to be ever more and more in constant touch with
God. But here we always face an antithesis
which we can never solve, before which all science
stands helpless; even the antithesis between the
infinity of God and the finiteness of every creature.

The attempt to bridge this gap has been tried
in two ways. It has been vainly tried by man,
and it has been brought about by God. In vain
it has been tried by man in the way of the
heathen, who have- reduced the infinity of the
Almighty to the finite form of an image. The
result was idolatry which killed the spirit, and
which ended in the petrifaction of all religion.
But it has been brought about by God, who has
swept away all polytheism and idolatry by orig-
inally confining his service to one place, b}^ clear-
ing his temple on Zion of every image of him-
self, and by maintaining the spiritual character
of his worship ; and who, when the dispensation of
shadows had fulfilled its calling, gave us his temple
in the incarnated Word, and on Pentecost extended
this temple to his whole church, which is the
Israel of the new Covenant. Along this wondrous,
Divine way the end has been reached, that now,
without weakening in the least, the Divine Infinity
or Omnipresence, the children of God know that
they have to seek access to God in Christ; that
they can enjoy his fellowship in the communion
of saints; and that they see their hearts more and
more fashioned by the Holy Ghost into a dwell-
ing place of God.

The clear representation, which this brings us,
is, that the child of God, amid whatever dark-

333

ness or distress, is nowhere burdened with the
oppressive thought that God is far ofif and that
his presence can not be found in prayer. Wher-
ever he kneels down he knows that God is there;
that he is close at hand; that he listens to the
prayer; that he sees and understands his child,
and knows his way in every particular; and that
no heart-string can vibrate either with sorrow or
^vith joy, but God knows in advance what sound
it would emit. "There is not a word in my
tongue, but, lo, 0 Lord, thou knowest it alto-
gether. Thou compassest my path and my lying
down, and art acquainted with all my ways"
(Ps. 139:4,3). While on the other hand also
God's child is constantly under the mighty im-
pression of the majestj^ and supremacy of the
Lord. In his descent to us the glory and the holi-
ness of the Lord may never be lost from sight.
To this end the Lord has made it known, that
the same God who is ever close by everj^ one of
us, has his throne in the heavens, that there alone
he unveils his glorious majesty, and is for no
moment lost in the smallness, insignificance and
finiteness of our human life. Life above and life
on earth are distinctly separated, and not here,
but only when we shall have passed through the
gate of death, shall our eye see him in the fulness
of his glory, in the Jerusalem, that is above.

The transition lies between these two. The
transition in Christ, the transition in the com-
munion of saints, the transition by the indweUing
of the Spirit in our hearts; and this is the taber-
nacle in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion, his
presence with the Israel of God. It goes on over
and back. Christ in the flesh set in the heavens,
?34

the Spirit descending into our hearts, and as well
in Christ as in the Holy Ghost God Himself is
worshipped by us.

This is the mystery. The son of man, who is
one of us, who is our brother, who is closely re-
lated to us, and who in our nature has gone into
heaven, does not stand by the side of God, but is
himself God. The closest possible fellowship be-
tween God and man is thereby realized. On the
other hand, while Christ is for all, the Holy Spirit
descends and makes his dwelling in the heart of
every child of God separately. Thus he founds
a Salem in the hidden recesses of the soul, where
God himself indwells, where his Divine life in-
spires us, and where it becomes the source of all
our holier and higher emotions, sensations and
impulses. And these two operate upon, and com-
plement, one another. So that there is no fellow-
ship with Christ apart from the Holy Ghost,
and on the other hand there is no indwelling of
the Holy Ghost save on the ground of our fellow-
ship with God in Christ. Our nature in Christ
dwelling in the heavens, and the Holy Ghost
indwelling in our heart on earth. Thus God him-
self has laid the bridge of holy living, with one
pier anchored in the heavens, and with the other
resting in the center of our own human heart.

Even these two points of support, however, are
in need of union. This they find in the com-
munion of saints. Everyone knows for himself
how his fellowship with God is strengthened when
he is in touch with saints in the earth, and how on
the other hand this fellowship suffers loss, when
he has no other human contact than that of peo-
ple of the world. The deep joy of the sacrament

of the Lord's supper springs from the focus of
this fellowship. The holy supper bears witness to
him of the glory of Christ, but only in the con-
gregation, not without it. Hence no higher and
holier institution could have been given to men,
than when "in the night in which he was be-
trayed" Christ brake the bread and poured the
wine, and called the Holy Supper into being.
This is the centrum; here all lines become one,
along which fellowship is established between the
soul and God.

Nothing therefore is more heinous, than the sin-
ful doing of those who by quarrelling and by
passionate contention for the right of particular
views cause this fellowship of God's saints to
weaken and to grow faint. Our Savior gave us a
new commandment, even that we love one
another. This new love, which he commanded, is
the tenderest love that is thinkable on earth, since
it is in the flood-tide of this new love, that God
will draw near unto us, and lift us up to himself.
And what does he do, who, failing to understand
this new love, abuses the church and this holy
fellowship of love for the sake of propagating
his own particular views, but break down Salem,
destroy the tabernacle of the Lord, and as far as
he is able obstruct fellowship with God?

63
"THE NIGHT IS FAR SPENT."
After conversion we are in an intermediate state
until death. The night is far spent, the day is
at hand, but it is not yet noon. That only comes
when the glory of Christ shall break in upon all
spheres. Until that hour we are ever approach-

336

ing the day in its fulness, though in fact we walk
in twihght. It is light, but that light is dim.
Even after conversion we continue therefore pro-
visionally in a certain kind of sleep, and the con-
vert can only gradually escape its after-effects.
Such was Ihe case in the days of St. Paul, when
the change was far greater for the convert than
now. Speaking for himself and for the converts
at Rome the Apostle emphatically declares: "It
is now (i. e. so and so many years after their
conversion) — it is now high time to awake out of
this sleep (which was still upon us) for now is our
salvation nearer than when we believed." And
then he adds: "The night is far spent, the day is
at hand" (Rom. 13:11, 12).

This detracts nothing from the incontrovertible
truth, that he who came to conversion today, and
tomorrow falls asleep in Jesus, is sure of everlast-
ing salvation. But it does say, that he who after
conversion is given yet many years of life upon
earth, passes from the mists into ever clearer
light, gets farther away from the night, and is
conscious of the ever closer approach of the light
of day. In nature there is no sudden disappear-
ance of night, in order to give place with equal
suddenness to the day and the noontide sun.
There are transitions in nature from darkness into
dawn and from dawn into broad daylight. Tran-
sitions which are of longer duration in some parts
of the world, than in others, but which occur
everywhere. And so it is in the spiritual life.
The new convert does not become holy in his
purposes, tendencies and manner of life, all at
once. From "being alienated from the life of
God" he does not at once come into full fellow-

337

ship with God. Where it was night in the soul,
the sun does not immediately after conversion
stand at the zenith. Here also are transitions.
Beginning with a first ray of light; a first parting
of clouds; a first breaking up of mists until a glow
from higher spheres strikes the eye of the soul.
And then it goes farther and farther. From grace
to grace. More quickly with one, and with another
more 'slowly. First a waking out of the sleep of
error and sin. Then a shaking of oneself loose
from this sleep. Afterward a waking up. And
presently a going out into the light. And in this
transition we have the incessantly moving power
of the Christian life. Not to continue standing
where we stand, but going on, and going on ever
further. It is first a star that rises out of Jacob;
presently the sun of salvation is at the horizon;
and at length the sun, which sheds clear light on
those that wandered about in darkness. It is all
one course of triumph and victory for those to
whom the lack of such light would mean eternal
night, but it is a growing light, that ever rises
higher, and at every moment becomes brighter;
and Christian life would be worthless in this
world, if the eye of the soul, as it gradually be-
comes accustomed to stronger light of grace, did
not obtain thereby an ever clearer insight into
the riches of God's mercy.

This brings a threefold growth. Growth in
inner strength; growth in the more effective exhi-
bition of the powers of the kingdom; and growth
in fellowship with God, which is the heart of all
religion. There is growth in inner strength through
the fuller strength imparted from the heavenly
kingdom. The night is far spent, and light shines

338

ever more clearl}' in the soul. God shows this
favor in the personal life. Increasing brightness
in our personal skies. Less night and more day
in which ever more and ever clearer light is
sown on our pathway. As an effect of this inner
growth, there is greater exhibition of power. He
who must travel in the earh' dawn makes little
headway, but when clearer daylight illumines the
wa}^ he quickens his pace. Hence the exhorta-
tion of the apostle : "Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness, and let us put on the whole
armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the
day." For as long as light and darkness strive
for mastery in the soul, there is continual hesi-
tancy and slipping of the foot. But with more
light there comes more moral courage. We be-
come more animated, we become more bold in
holy undertakings, and more light shines out from
us upon others. Instead of tottering, the step
becomes firm; instead of work half-done, labors
are finished and made perfect. Nor is this all.
For however far we may be developed along
moral lines, development in piety is more sig-
nificant, and the rich gain which the clearer in-
shining of heavenl}^ light brings, is the growing
tenderness of our fellowship with God.

Dark night prevails in the human heart at large
through the oppression of error and sin. God truly
is, and he truly is close by, but though mankind
maj' feel its waj^ if haply it may find him, it
is not aware of him, it does not see him, and
discovers nothing of his holy presence. Thick
darkness compasses it about and makes it feel
oppressed, and the sense of uncertainty, and of
anxiet}', as a serpent of suspicion, creeps into the

339

heart. This thick darkness is the explanation of
all idolatry and of all heathen oppression. And
therefore Simeon rejoices m Christ as in "a light,"
so great, so beautiful, which having come down
from the throne of heaven, lightens the darkened
vision of the Gentiles. The densest darkness of
the peoples is that they know not God, that end-
less night excludes them from God, that no ray
of heavenly light illumines their pathway, and
that, without God in the world, they hasten on
to judgment.

Every convert therefore is called a child of
light. He does not merely walk in the light, but
from it he is born a child of God. Light in the
soul from above, even though but a single ray
is perceived, is inward wealth. It is peace in lieu
of distress, rest in lieu of care, trust in lieu of
despair, courage in lieu of inward faintness. This
light shines on his way, it makes him know his
own heart and the heart of his fellowmen, it
brings wisdom in place of self-conceit, and en-
nobles all human existence. But highest and
holiest of all, this light discloses to him more and
more the way of access to God; it lifts the ban
that separated and excluded him from God; and
now by degrees begins the tender, blessed life
which enters upon the secret walk with God,
which makes him aware of God at every step of
life's way, as his Father who loves him, and as
his Shepherd who leads him. This fellowship and
walk with God, this dweUing in the house of the
Lord, is not always the same that it provisionally
was, but it advances, it makes progress, gains in
intimacy, warmth and clearness. Not only is the
night, that hid God from the inner eye, far spent,

S40

but he gets farther and farther away from it. The
transition is continuous from night into clearer
day, until at length there is fellowship with God,
which the world neither knows nor understands,
but which to him is highest reality, the source,
the ever free-flowing fountain of the strength of
his life.

Many Christian people, alas, after conversion
love to remain in slumber, and consequently lose
the joy of this closer communion with God. They
are the sick ones among the brethren, from whom
no virtue can go out. There are others, however,
God be praised, who know nothing of standing
still, who enter ever more deeply into the secret
of the infinite, and now waken every morning with
God, labor all day long with God, and lay them-
selves down at night to sleep with God. And thej'
are the salt of the earth, and of God's church
among the saints, and they keep the church from
desecration and from languishing away in death.

64

"WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD."

Not only with individuals, but in broad and
influential circles denial of God breaks forth,
stalks abroad, and puts every mask aside. This
was different even twenty years ago. Individual
atheists openly boasted of infidelity, and thereby
aroused aversion, which with many turned into
abhorrence. Many people were done with religion
in any form, but to be taken for atheists was con-
sidered an insult. They were not atheists. They
had broken with traditional views of Divine things,
but the eye of their soul was open to the eternal,

341

so the}' said, and their heart still went out after
the unknown Infinite.

Now another step is taken. Even the appear-
ance of godliness can be laid aside. Atheists have
discovered that especially among cultivated
classes they are represented by more people than
they had dared to surmise. They observe that
when they confess their denial of God, public
opinion takes it calmly, and at times hails it as
an evidence of honesty. Even among the faith-
ful we have become so accustomed to the grow-
ing numbers of those who deny God that we are
scarcely aware of the trembling which it occa-
sioned in better days.

This is significant. When a child for the first
time hears his father or mother evilly spoken of,
he resents it. But when in the course of ten
years he has grown accustomed to such talk, and
can listen to it calmlj^, he has suffered moral loss.
This applies to a nation with respect to its
sovereign. When violation of royal dignity first
begins, indignation will be general. But when
this violation is continued, and royal defects form
the topic of daily public talk, people cease to be
affected by it. Respect for what is high becomes
outworn. And in the same waj'- a people has
lost something of the gold of its wings, when in
its best circles it has become so accustomed to
the language of atheism, that it raises no more
protest among them. Especially along this line
evil communications corrupt good manners. Here
a poison works unobservedly that extinguishes
higher aspirations and unnerves the elasticity of
confession.

"Without God in the world" is not the most

342

dangerous fofm of atheism. Many are atheists
from sheer indifference. They care for nothing.
Others are atheists, because in their career of sin-
ful pleasure the}^ will not brook trouble from their
consciences. Others again are atheists, because in
their own wisdom they are too proud to bow
before God. But each of these three groups main-
tains discreet silence about God, rather than that
from enmity it would seriously oppose the faith.
They live "without God in the world" but thej-
are no fanatics, who strive to banish God from
the world. When it comes to this, spiritual infat-
uation reaches its highest degree, and every pros-
pect of recovery is cut off.

That this atheistic fanaticism obtains public
hearing from time to time, and that tracts, bear-
ing the most shameful titles^ are broadcast through
the land, to slander faith in God and to make it
appear ridiculous, is most dangerous for the life
of a nation. For it betrays the presence of a
poison in national life that is bound to work harm
and to break national elasticity. Even among the
heathen, slander of the gods was made punish-
able; and almost every nation that was great at
first and then went down, shows in history this
sad process, that it began with wealth ; that wealth
produced moral decay; that moral decay led to
religious indifference; that then in more culti-
vated circles people lived "without God in the
world;" and that at length fanaticism broke out
against all religion, whereby at last the people
became wholly degenerate and were overtaken by
disgraceful ruin.

In the days of St. Paul like conditions of un-
godliness prevailed in Ephesus, and of the con-

343

verts there to Christ it is said that at one time
they themselves were without hope and without
God in the world (Eph. 2:12). And this states
painfully what we see all about us. With dif-
ferences in degree many live year after year who
think no more of God, and speak no more about
him; no more religious books are found in their
homes; they never pray, and their children grow
up without religion. Baptism is no more known.
They marry outside of the church. They bury
their dead as we bury a dog. Their lives without
God in the world, as such, are perfect.

But most people have not gone such lengths.
At marriage they can not dispense with the
solemnity of the church service. Many have their
children baptized. In times of serious illness they
still call upon God. Some do not consider relig-
ion superfluous in the education of children, and
allow their servants time to attend church. But
apart from these minor exceptions they live for
the rest altogether in the world without God.
And the worst of it is that they can live in this
manner year after year, and not feel unhappy
about it. The sense of need of communion with
a higher life is almost wholly lost from their hearts,
and they do not miss life with God. Living in
the world without God has become their second
nature. When it is over, all is done. No more
voice in the soul speaks of desire after higher
things. From one pleasure they go to another,
and however little religion we would measure out
to them, it would not satisfy them, but prove a
burden. The same tenor of mind and heart which
was abroad for two thousand years in the declin-
ing world of the pagan Roman Empire has made
344

itself master of these present-day out-and-out
people of the world. They still strive for higher
things. They are lovers of art. They are zealous
in works of philanthropy. They labor for general
culture as they understand it. At times they dote
with ideals that awaken the poetic talent in them.
But far from being led thereby to worship, this
higher, more ideal Hfe is the ground from which
they explain the superfluity of religion. Religion
may do for the lower classes of society. They
have outgrown it. To live without God in the
world they consider a means by which to secure
high places of honor in the life of this world.

Love alone can save the world from these con-
ditions. At Ephesus there were people who at
one time lived without God in the world, but who
by hundreds were turned to God, not by reproaches
and uncharitable criticisms, but by the love where-
with the apostles approached them. In this apos-
tolic love the reality of life in the world with God
was luminous. This thawed out hearts and cap-
tured them. This reality is not devoid of creed.
There is no greater witness for the truth and the
facts of the Gospel than St. Paul. This reality
of life with God is not without forms. Preaching,
Baptism and Holy Communion stand ever in the
foreground. But the power behind the creed and
the service of forms was the work of the Holy
Ghost, his indwelling in the heart, and life in
constant fellowship with God. If then the church
of God would raise a barrier in the way of in-
creasing atheism of our times, let her hold fast to
her confession, and honor the sacred services of
the sanctuary. But above all things else, let her
guard the essence that is behind these forms, and

345

cultivate with young and old the supreme reality
of life with God.

This requires effort. We must live in the world.
God only calls us out of the world at death. And
almost everything in the world draws us away
from God. Not only wealth and temptation, but
also the incessant activity of life, labor that is
strenuous, multiplicity of interests, much trouble
and sorrow. Among confessing christians there
are all too many, therefore, who count themselves
christians and can live for hours and for days at
times without a thought of God, who are dis-
tracted in mind even in their prayer, and who are
scarcely aware of what it means to be ''near unto
God" and Vvith him to live in constant fellow-
ship of the Spirit. This lack can not be made
good by sound creeds, nor by constant bearing
witness. Life with God in the world can not be
replaced by much activity and good works. The
lamp can not burn unless it is continually fed
with oil. Not in us, but in God alone is the power
and the might, that can break unbelief in the
world. And in this conflict we can only be instru-
ments in the hand of the Lord, when his power
inwardly animates us, when his Spirit inwardly
impels us, and when ''to be near unto God" and
in the midst of the world to live with God, has
become our second, our regenerated nature.

65

'T WILL WALK AMONG YOU."
Vital fellowship with God can not merely be per-
sonal. It must also be collective. Whatever touches
merely the world of our own heart is personal.
And whatever we go through with others, who are

connected with us by fixed ties, is collective.
There is a collective life of the family, of the
church, of callings and professions, and of nations.
And that there is vital fellowship with God in the
secret places of the soul, is not enough. In the
family also, in the church and in social life fellow-
ship with God must be a power. And it must be
expressed in this: that God walks with us and we
with God. Not only the first, but also the sec-
ond. It is not enough that personally and collec-
tively we have blessed experiences of continuous
outgoings of the soul after God. This can always
be the practice of communion with God from
afar. Walking together the highway of life de-
mands on the contrarj' that we go to God, that
God comes to us, that the holy meeting is mutual,
and that hand in hand with God we continue the
journey of life. When it has come to this with
us personally, we are in a christian way. When
it has come to this in our family, we have a
Christian home. When this is the case in our
church, we enjoy a church life, which is not
merely Christian in i.ame but in fact. And when
in social or state circles we have the same experi-
ence with those who are of like calling or con-
viction with ourselves, then here also the Chris-
tian banner not merely has been raised, but the
cause for which, together, we suffer and strive is
truly Christian.

To Moses and Israel the Lord expressed this as
follows: 'T will walk among you" (Lev. 26:12).
In the case of Abraham it is only said personally,
that he walked with God. But with Moses there
is mention of collective fellowship of God with
his people. Hence it does not say: 'T will be

347

with you, as shepherd of my people," but far
better: **I will walk in the midst of you" (Dutch
version). The Lord going forth with his people,
and at every step of the way the people being
conscious of his nearness and of their fellowship
with God.

This can be fellowship from both sides, a walk-
ing together of the way in holy love. But it can
also be a walking together in sin on the part of
man and in indignation on the part of God. *Tf
. . . ye will walk contrary unto me" said the
Lord, "then will I also walk contrary unto you,
and will punish you yet seven times for your sins"
(vs. 23, 24) . Contrariness is what we call antipathy.
We can walk with a man who is antipathetic to
us, whose presence is not agreeable, and whose
company is not desired. He who feels and observes
that God walks with him on the way, and still
inclines unto sin, feels constrained by the pres-
ence of the Lord. Even as a child, that is bent
upon mischief, does not dare to do it, as long as
father or mother is close by, but takes his chance
the moment father or mother is gone, so a Chris-
tian man does not dare to carry his sinful design
into execution, so long as he feels that God is
near. If only he could outrun God. But this is
impossible. He can close his eyes so as not to
see God, but even then the Lord continues to
reveal his presence in the conscience. This gives
rise to the unholy strife of willingness to sin, and
of inability to do it, because God stands in the
way. And if sin is not abandoned, contrariness
to God springs up in the heart, even the deeply-
sinful antipathy to the nearness of God. And
since there is nothing that so angers God, as the

348

desire, the tendency of the heart, not to seek, but
to be delivered from, God, the favor of God to
usward turns into holy antipathy. Thus the path-
way of life is walked with God in enmity and in
bitterness, and the Holy Spirit is grieved.

This does not happen with a child of the world.
He does not walk with God. He walks alone. He
perceives nothing, feels nothing, sees nothing of
the nearness of God. Hence he can not fall into
sin in this way. His sin bears another character.

But if we belong to the company of the re-
deemed, if we walk with people in whose midst
the Lord walks, all sinful living must be stopped,
or else, if it is yet continued, the terrible sin of
contrariness, of antipathy to God will spring up
in the heart. The inner life of the soul will be
corrupted, and presently all of the after-life on
earth. And the ill-omened deception is, that this
contrariness, this antipathy only shows itself, at
the point of some special sin. This gives rise to
these monstrous conditions, that in all other ways
a man may seek after God, may be zealous in
Divine service, may maintain devout habits of
prayer, but as often as this particular sin comes
in question, may lose at once all self-control, and
perceiving that God continues to walk with him,
may feel no longer comforted by thi^ blessed near-
ness, but merely hindered thereby in his sin. And
if the sin is still persisted in, the most terrible
contrariness follows, even the dreadful contrari-
ness of God.

The case is not the same with sin that is com-
mitted from lack of strength. For then when
tempted, the heart will seek refuge with God. We
are well aware at such times that Satan plans to

349

undo us, and we hold ourselves fast bj^ God for
protection against evil. And we may stumble,
but even in the act of it, refuge will be taken
with the unseen Companion who walks at our
side. He will be invoked for forgiveness and help.
And he who knoweth whereof we are made, will
show mercy and keep us from self-destruction.
Of course we must be fully bent upon following
God whithersoever he leadeth, and choose no
paths of our own with the expectation that God
will follow us. The goings of God, both past and
present, are altogether such as lead to the king-
dom of heaven, and result in making his Name
great.

What then are the goings of our life? What is
our aim in life? Whither doth our pathway lead?
As children of God we pray every day: "Hal-
lowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom Come, Thy
Will be Done;" and if this three-fold prayer is
not a mere form of words, but the compass of
our life, our goings will be identical with the
goings of God. Then we and God walk the same
wa--. in the same direction, with the same end in
view. He in infinite greatness, and we in the
insignificant littleness of our quickly-passing life.
But as individual drops we move along in the
wave-beat of the ocean of God. All of life then
moves itself in the direction of the mighty ap-
pointment of God, and in this way we can walk
with God, the whiles he walks with us, and from
both sides it is continued in the bond of holy
love.

But this is almost only possible in collective
fellowship. One only has ever trodden the wine-
press alone. Every other hero of the faith has

350

been upborne by the example, sympathy and fel-
lowship of what is called the people of God. This
is a sacred appellation, which no single group may
arbitrarily appropriate to itself, and which is only
real where God himself walks in the midst of
those who share his favor. We are at once aware
in family, in church and in society, whether pur-
poses and endeavors coincide with the goings of
God, or whether they are mere exhibits of out-
ward forms of piety. These mere outward forms
do not satisfy, they lend no support, they do not
bear one up. Rest is only found when it is per-
ceived that the presence of the Lord is a spiritual
reality in the family, in the church, and in society,
and that God himself walks in the midst of them.
Then it is not enough that God walks with us
and that we walk with him, but we feel that the
same is true of the wife, the husband, the chil-
dren, the brother or sister, the preacher, church
officials, societies and associations. We know it of
one another. We make the nearness of God
clearer and more real to one another. We are
not silent about it. We enjoy it together. Collec-
tively we receive from him the sacred impulse
with united forces to continue in his goings, and
to hold his name high. The Lord is then not
only close to the heart, but he is in the midst of
us. He is the common center of all our interests
and the tie that binds us together. It is then not
merely a pious frame of mind but a godly life, a
consecrated purpose, and zealous co-operation
from which that holy activity is born, which in
every department of life overcomes the world
and makes virtues to go out, which are not from
us, but which flame out in us from him who walks

2U

in the midst of us, because he is the source of our
light, of our strength and of the inspiration of
our hfe.

"THAT THOU MAYEST CLEAVE UNTO
HIM."

Sin nowhere makes more rapid advances than
in religion. Religion is the service of the Triune
God. It is the highest and best that enriches the
human heart. But the best is always the first
that is exposed to corruption.

Outside of Europe and America the Almighty
created and supports a thousand million persons
who continually die and are replaced, but who
in this coming and going are utter strangers to
the secret of salvation. Missionshave done some-
thing, but what are they compared with the thou-
sand millions of Asia and Africa, and the united
forces of Islam and Heathendom? These mil-
lions, especially in Asia, are by nature very sus-
ceptible to religious impressions, much more so
in fact than most of the nations of Europe. But
they choose their own way, and are dead to all
true knowledge of the way of the Lord. And as
often as God from his Throne looks down upon
those millions in Asia and Africa, there is never
an echo among them of the songs of worship and
praise of the heavenly hosts. They kneel down
before all sorts of things, but they never worship
the Triune God.

Compared with this darkness of night in Asia
and Africa, in Europe and America it is light.
There is scarcely a village in these parts of the
world, in which the sacrament of Baptism is not

administered, where there is no church of Christ,
large or small, and where there are not some
deeply spiritual souls that live very "near unto
God." This makes no secret of the fact however
that in thickly-populated centers and even in
larger villages the great majority of people are
either dead to the service of the Lord, or merely
adhere to it outwardly, and attach no single trace
of spiritual reality to it. When this lack of re-
ligion began to assume ever larger and more
unequal proportions, a gigantic effort was put forth
to purify Divine service, to reform and to trans-
form it, which at first worked admirably. But
now look at the Geneva of Calvin, the Saxony of
Luther, or at the Hague of William the Silent,
and confess whether we do not face new disap-
pointments, and whether the half of the popula-
tion of these places is not estranged again from
true religion. By means of the Reveille and of
the spread of infidelity Christian revival ensued,
which fortunately is making progress, but even
in the circles that have been revived, we feel
troubled again at the coldness, formalism and
manifest lack of sacred fire. Even when we con-
fine ourselves to the narrowest circle of the fam-
ilies that is still devoted to the service of the
Lord, and examine to what degree of heat the
spiritual arose and maintained itself in it, we are
constantly disappointed, and we ask again and
again whether that is all that is felt for, and con-
secrated to, our faithful God and Father. And
when at last we look at our own family, and
closer still confine ourselves to our own heart,
and ask ourselves what the inner life for and with
God is, in home and heart, and what it ought to

353

be for this faithful Father, who is not moved to
ask in despair, whether constant, inward, tender,
ever-in-grace increasing piety has not become
impossible for us?

This question can only in part be answered in
the affirmative. Sin works effects which ener-
vate and weaken, so that even in the most godly
circles true religion is most of the time at low
ebb, and only in rare moments of spiritual
tension does it rise to the fullness of flood-tide.
The result is disheartening. God looks down upon
this world morning by morning and evening by
evening, and continues his Fatherly care over his
fourteen hundred million of children of men, but
only here and there does the psalm of worship
and pure love arise before him from a tender,
devout heart.

But age upon age God continues in everlasting
love to entice us by his Word, to call us and to
draw us to this full, true and unshakable religion,
which finds its terse expression in the supreme
command that we shall cleave unto the Lord our
God (Deut. 30:20). It is the image of the child
at mother's breast, who literally cleaves to her,
and hangs on her, fosters himself in the warmth
of the mother-life, feeds himself at the fountain
of mother's breast, and cries when he feels him-
self separated from mother. And this supreme
command, that we must depend on God, and
cleave to him, protests in the name of the Triune
God against all mechanical religion, and against
every endeavor to reduce it to mere formalism.
It does not exclude thinking on God, but declares
that intellectual activity with God is not religion.
It includes the confes.sion of God, but denies the

S54

right to assert that religion consists of confession.
It posits the claim of an holy life, and of abound-
ing in good works, but deprives us of the illusion
that true piety can ever be satisfied with this.
It certainly demands high esteem for outward
forms of Divine service, but resists the error
which identifies forms with the essence of religion
itself. It is inconceivable apart from zeal for
God's kingdom, but it declares that though all of
life is spent for God, apart from love, we are mere
sounding brass or tinkling cymbals. It tolerates
no boast of true religion apart from personal
fellowship with God in the secret intimacy of
communion. And even when we can thank him
for the grace, that at times in earnest prayer this
heavenly fellowship with God in Christ was food
for the soul, it still declares, that this occasional
seeking after and visiting with God is not yet all
of true religion, because true religion demands,
that without break or interruption we shall cleave
unto God, and hang as it were on God. Such
dependence upon God imj)lies, that moment by
moment, we feel God's presence in the heart, and
that with all the powers of our soul we hold
ourselves fast by God.

But holiest saints confess, that such inward
spirituality is impossible in this life. The heart
is not attuned to it, and life round about us is
not adapted to it. Simple honesty demands that
this be openly and candidly confessed, provided
it be accompanied with self-accusation and shame-
facedness. Attainment of this highest good has
been tried. In every age there have been those
who for the sake of cleaving solely unto God
have renounced life in the world, and have with-

366

drawn themselves to cell or hermitage. But
though they could banish the world from the
cloister, they took their hearts with them, and it
was the heart itself that obstructed the way to
closer fellowship with God. This was possible in
Paradise, and has become such again in the con-
gregation of the saints made perfect above. But
it is not within reach here on earth. We may not
withdraw ourselves from life. We have here a
calling to fulfil, and to do service for our God.
We can not separate ourselves from the heart.
It is ever with us. But God knoweth what we
are made of. He remembereth that we are dust.
And he covers our guilt, of not reaching the un-
reachable, in gracious forgiveness.

Only we are not to rest content with this. We
must not resign ourselves to this. We must hold
the imperfection of our religion ever clearly before
our eyes. We must enter complaint against our-
selves, which will itself become the stimulus to
seek from day to day, and from week to week,
after closer fellowship with God. And here is
the difference between superficial and true religion.
The superficial worshipper understands that he
can never attain unto such an unbroken cleaving
to God, and so he continues his life calmly and
peacefully, without ever finding the secret walk
with God. All deeper and truer piety on the
other hand is grieved, that this fellowship of soul
with the faithful, loving Father is continually
broken. Whenever it perceives that it has lost
its hold on God, it trembles. It rebukes itself
and courageously strives to restore the broken
communion, until in the end, the moments of

356

life spent with God increase, and the moments of
separation from God decrease.

To cleave unto the Lord with all the heart
and soul and consciousness is then at first a
heavenly joy which ma}^ be tasted only once in
a whole month. Gradually it becomes a com-
munion of soul without which no week pa^es.
By degrees it becomes an elevation of soul which
repeats itself almost daily. Going on this way,
this happy joy in God returns several times a day,
so that even by night, upon waking, the nearness
of the Lord is consciously^ felt. And though even
so, the highest still remains beyond our reach,
cleaving unto God begins to occupy ever wider
room in our lives. And not intimacy with God in
solitude, but intimac}' with God in the midst of
our busy lives becomes the booty of the soul.
Then it is no more a singing after Asaph: "It is
good for me to be near unto God," but it be-
comes a singing like Asaph from blessed experi-
ence of heart.

67

''SAMUEL DID NOT YET KNOW THE
LORD."

When it is asked of a person whether we know
him, the meaning can be twofold. Casually, it
may mean whether we would know him if we
met him. With respect to his character it may
mean whether we understand him. He, who on
the eve of your departure for Java, entrusts an
important document to your care, for sbme one
living there, merely intends by the question
whether you know him, to prevent j^our handing
the same to the wrong person. When, however,
357

some one consults his father about a business
scheme with some man, the father's question in
reply: ''Do you know him," will mean: Are
you sure that he is honorable, reliable and trust-
worthy as to his business ability?

This two-fold significance of knowing anyone
personally must be reckoned with in Scripture and
in knowledge of God. To know is always funda-
mentally an observation of difference. He who is
not conversant with botany, only sees trees and
shrubs; while he who observes the difference be-
tween oak and beech trees, oleander and rhodo-
dendron, jasmine and snowball, begonia and
heliotrope, recognizes what he sees and rejoices
in the wealth of it. The same is true among peo-
ple. In the business street of a foreign city we
see nothing but people who pass us bj^ without
speaking, while in our home town every one is
familiar to us, and we even know the name some-
times of the smallest child. But this goes no
further than the difference between A and B. We
know people from one another. We know the
difference between them. We do not mistake
them in passing. Their appearance is familiar.
We know them at first sight. But if we mean
that closer and more intimate knowledge which
enables us to form some idea of a man's char-
acter, inner life, endeavors and aims, another dif-
ference is at stake. Not the difference in cloth-
ing, facial features and outward appearance, but
the distinct knowledge of a man's bearing, utter-
ances and feelings. Such knowledge becomes a
testing; an entering into the inward existence of
such a person.

Where it is told of Samuel that he did not yet

358

know the Lord (I Sam. 3:7), it means exclusively
this first outward knowledge; and not the deeper
knowledge of the Divine Being, which only springs
from secret communion. By night Samuel heard
himself called by name. He heard it as clearly
and plainly as though Eli had called him. But
he did not j^et know the difference between a
call by name from God and a call by name from
a man. Three times therefore he went to Eli,
saying: "Thou didst call me." And only when Eli
assured him, that he had not called him, and at
last told him that it might be a call from God,
a new light arose upon Samuel, and in that voice
he recognized the voice of God. The voice is a
wonderful mystery. Every person has his own
voice. Even in the dark we recognize father, hus-
band or brother at once by the voice. The wonder
is equally great that as each man and child has
a voice of his own, we are able to distinguish
between them. And so has the Lord a voice of
his own and it is for us to recognize the voice of
God in distinction from the voice of man. He
who does not understand this difference, does not
know the Lord as yet. He who understands it.
knows the Lord. This provisionallv outward
knowledge of God leads of itself to the more inti-
mate fellowship of the Lord, whereby gradually
the full, rich knowledge of the perfection of God
is attained, which is eternal life.

In this knowledge of God there is a twofold
dispensation. The first in Old and New Testa-
ment was the portion of patriarchs, prophets and
apostles They received a special revelation from
God. God spake with them in dreams, visions
and appearances, but also by internal address in

859

their hearts or by external address to their ears.
Of course this might have been continued, so that
we, everyone personally for himself, might have
heard the voice of God. But it has not pleased
God so to do. It has seemed good to him first
to give his revelation personally to prophets and
apostles, with audible voice or by visible appear-
ance, and lastly in the incarnated Word.

Afterward, however, this has changed. Revela-
tion given up to that time has been collected in
the Scripture, and therein it has become the com-
mon good of all believers, the permanent, endur-
ing treasure of the whole church of Christ. This
does not mean to say that now there is no more
secret fellowship with God, nor that God can not
give anyone now personal leading and direction;
but nothing more is added to revelation. To
revealed truth nothing more is added. And senti-
mental mysticism which dreams that this is yet
possible, has not been able these nineteen cen-
turies to add a single line to the Scripture.

The method of knowing the Lord has thereby
become different for us from what it was for
Samuel. For us the Word is the voice of God.
We do no longer hear ourselves called by name.
We receive no more by audible voices new light
from above. Nevertheless the same difference goes
on in our behalf. The Scripture speaks to every
man, but with this difference, that one does not
hear God's voice in it, because he does not know
God, while another in reading Scripture hears
God's voice from the same, because grace has
brought him to the knowledge of God.

This is hard to understand. You, who have
been permitted to grasp the mystery of the Word,

360

and day by day are subject of the blessed, mysti-
cal operation of the same, and thereby have come
to fixed, unshakable faith, you are amazed that in
many families the Bible has been laid aside; that
he who still reads it, finds nothing special in it;
and that you are bitterly resisted, when you
maintain that everyone is duty-bound to subject
himself to that Word. And yet nothing is more
simple. They who have broken with the Scripture,
do not know the Lord, They do not recognize
his voice, and do not perceive, that in the Scrip-
ture Almighty God calls to them and addresses
them. This makes the separation; this digs the
abyss; this divides in the same country one part
of the population from the other. This causes
bitterness, because they who do not know the
Lord, and do not hear his address nor his voice
in the Scripture, are baptized members of the
Church of Christ; they not only want to be called
Christian, but pride themselves on the fact that
they honor Christianity as a purely moral power;
so that they stand on higher vantage ground and
are more enlightened, than narrow adherents of
barren creeds.

This leads to ever sharper distinction between
people and people. They who do not know the
Lord, who do not hear his Voice, and reject his
Word, are not able to put themselves in the
place of their fellow-countrymen, who delight
themselves in the knowledge of the Lord, who
refresh themselves in listening to his voice and
who have in his Word the fixed ground of their
faith. "While on the other hand they who know
the Lord, may bear witness to the same, may
openly confess it, and defend the ordinances of

361

Grod; but they are not able to impart their faith
to others, and to open the inner ear of their
fellowmen to the holy mysticism of our God.

There is a difference here. Among those who do
not know the Lord, there are enemies of God
who have stopped their ears to ever}^ voice of
God; but there are also seeking, wandering spirits,
who envy you j'our faith, and who would thank
you if you might be the means in God's hand to
bring them to it. Of the first, Jesus said: "Give
not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast
ye your pearls before swine" (Matt. 7:6).
Nothing can be done with them but to resist
them; to suffer their scorn, and to show them the
power of faith. But of the others Jesus said:
"He who is not against me, is for me." On them
the service of seeking love must be expended.

They are the spiritually' sick, who wait for
spiritual nin-sing-of a twofold character. First that
we shall treat them ever}' one according to the
nature of his spiritual malady. John the Baptist
had a proper word for everyone that came to him,
and Jesus administered appropriate medicine to
every spiritual invalid. This implies the con-
demnation of those who deal with all unbeliever?;
alike, and who thereby show that they know
neither their way nor their time. And secondly
(his spiritual nursing posits the no less imperious
claim that as believers we shall spare them offense
Nothing is more repulsive and more continuously
offensive to those who have not faith, than the
unspirituality of believers, their formal profession
without moral and spiritual fruit, their zeal with-
out an holy background, their bold assertions
without corresponding seriousness of life. They

862

are inclined to accept the sacred mysteries, pro-
vided they but discover that sacred power goes
out from you. When thej- see no such power;
and perceive that fruit remains wanting; that
there is no higher seriousness of life; when they
hear on the contrary, of hypocrites who behind
fair exteriors prove themselves inferior in char-
acter to unbelievers, they are offended, and this
keeps them back from Christ.

Such was the case in the days of Samuel, when
Hophni and Phineas transgressed in holy things,
and Eli lacked moral courage to make seriou?
protest. Such is the case now when he who calk
himself a believer appears to be at heart a child
of the world. Then the struggle becomes very
fierce. O, that the children of God might under-
stand their sacred calling, to confess their faith
heroically, but above all else, by means of their
family life, of their social activities, and of their
seriousness of purpose; in brief, in all of life, to
be preachers of Jesus Christ.

68
"THEY MAKE HIM A WELL."
In countries like ours, where water abounds, it
is difficult to form an adequate idea of thirst.
Hence words of Scripture like "thirsting after
righteousness," or "thirsting after the living God,"
are ordinarily taken in far too weak a sense. On
a hot day, after a long walk, or in times of
feverish emotion, we may reach out eagerly after
a cup of cold water, but this is by no means yet
the thirst tliat overtakes people in mountainous
districts, when not metaphorically, but actually,
the tongue cleaves to the roof of the mouth, the

last drop of saliva is dried up, and the swollen
throat with difficulty allows the breath to pass
through. With such a thirst it becomes a serious,
and ever more anxious longing for moisture, and
passionate craving for water; and he alone who
so understands it, fathoms the depth of the long-
ing after God's presence, which is so often ex-
pressed by the congregation in worship of song or
reading of the Psalter, without real appreciation
of the panting of the hart after water brooks. In
like manner, who knows anything now, of ''thirst-
ing after righteousness" such as a St. Paul, a
Luther or a Calvin knew it? Even when the cup
filled with righteousness is placed before us, much
is made of the fact that more than one stretches
out a heavy hand for it, and slightly moistens the
lips with it. But thirsting after it, calling for it.
inability to longer go without it, a weeping after
God, where do we see it? There are still those
who thirst, but has not their number diminished?
And is not this very lack of real thirsting after
God and after righteousness the banal danger of
our times?

This is occasioned by sin. Sin is the cause that,
unless God shows mercy, the stimulus of this
thirst scarcely operates. At times it requires
special grace strongly to revive it again. Such
grace operated in the days of the apostles, and
again in the days of the Reformation. In these
times this thirst operates, 0, so weakl}^; and O,
among so few; and even with these, so faintly.
Let us be grateful to God, if at any time in our
own heart we perceive something of this real
thirsting after the living God. Thousands upon
thousands live and die, without ever having

364

known anything about it. How great then is the
grace that has been shown to us!

Prophets and Psalmists, Jesus and apostles lived
in a mountainous countr}'. This accounts for the
frequent references in Scripture to water and
thirst. ''With Thee is the fountain of life." "All
my springs are in Thee." ''Ho, every one that
thirsteth, come ye to the Waters." ''Whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst." Such is also the striking saying, re-
garding the valley of mulberries in Psalm 84.
Mulberries ripen most lusciously in hottest, sun-
niest spots. Thus the valle^^ of mulberries is the
image of those conditions in life, when everything
in us languishes, makes us apprehensive, and
chokes us with grief. When the heat of day and
the heat of battle make us pant for air and
breath, when we can do nothing more, and fear
overtakes us, lest, unless God helps us, we shall
faint by the way.

There is certainly abundance of water in moun-
tainous districts which flows down from the snow-
fields and leaps down in murmuring brooks. But
it is unequally divided. At one time it threatens
to drag one down in its wild course; while again
one travels a barren path for hours, without find-
ing a single drop. And then there is but one
relief, which is a tiny stream that trickles down
the mountain side. The traveler refreshes liim-
self with this, and as he goes on again, his burn-
ing thirst is quenched. Hence in the valley of
mulberries the Psalmist speaks of two forms of
relief. One is that in the midst of scorching heat
one comes unexpectedly to such a little stream.
The other is that rainclouds gather overhead,

365

which cast broad shadows, and so afford the
traveler protection from the heat of the sun.
Thus it is in the vallej'^ in the midst of the moun-
tains, and metaphorically for God's child in the
midst of troubles. When, languishing and hard-
pressed he can do nothing more. God is a foun-
tain to him, and it is God who stretches out
broadly the rain-clouds o^-er him, which cover
him with their shade. "When they pass through
the valley of mulberrv^ trees, they make him a
well; yea, the raincloud shall cover them with
blessings" (Psalm 84:6. Dutch version. vide
R. v.).

Thus to worship, in the living God and in his
Christ, the Fountain of life, has become our com-
forting manner of metaphorical speech. And in
order to grasp the rich significance of this meta-
phor, one should see for himself what, in moun-
tain villages, the village fountain or well is. In
these villages, which are mostly very small, there
is generally only one well, one fountain, in the
midst of the village. From this single fountain
ever}^ villager drinks. In the morning and at sun-
down every person comes to this well, to fill his
pitcher with water, and carry home the precious
supply. Horses and cattle are driven thither to
drink from this same well. Soiled clothes are
carried there, in order, after being washed clean,
to be taken back home. This makes the village
well the center of the entire village life. Every-
one gathers around it. At that well people meet
one another. There they converse together.
There the common life is lived. And thus the
whole community feels that this single well is
indeed the fountain of life, for the entire village.

If in such a place the Psahn is sung, that God is
the fountain of hfe, everyone understands it, the
dehghtful imagery appeals to them ail, and the
pregnant thought enters into every soul, that
without God we would perish in our miseries from
thirst, and that God alone is the center, in whom
all they who fear his Name are one, and together
live one life. ^

This has been brought closer yet in Christ. In
C'lii'ist the Fountain of life has been borne into
human life and into human nature. There are
no two fountains of life, one in God and the other
in Christ, but it is the one Fountain of Divine
life, which springs up in the Father, has come close
to us in the Son, and by the Holy Ghost flows
into our heart. When therefore Christ is not
surely worshipped as God^ and knees are not bent
before him as God, Christianity is gone. This
One Christ is the Fountain of life for the entire,
large village, if we may so express it, of the
Church of the Lord on earth. No one has the
water of life in his own home, but every morning
and every evening every child of God must go
out to this one fountain, which is in Christ, to fill
the pitcher of his soul against the long day and
the long night. This Fountain never disappoints.
It alw^ays flows. Water of life is there to be found
every moment with fresh supplies. There is never
a shortage of it for anyone. There is abundance for
all. And though our eye does not see it, invisibly
throughout the whole world every true believer's
thirst is quenched from this one Fountain.

Thereby this one Fountain of life in Christ is
and remains the center for the life of all people
and the fellowship for all hearts. All sorts of

distances and separations in society and churches
hold us apart; but spiritually and unseen, all that
are born of God, gather together day by day at
this One Fountain of life. And it is the one
Christ who from his abundance quenches the
thirst of all. And from being really one in Christ,
and from this real life from this one Fountain,
in spite of differences, beligvers on earth derive
each day anew, the power of unity by which to
realize and to work out the kingdom of heaven
on the earth.

But it must be an act of faith. It says: "They
make of him a well." It does not go of itself.
Thousands upon thousands, alas, come and go,
without ever having known, admired, and quenched
their thirst from, this Fountain. The act of faith
alone brings one into fellowship with this Foun-
tain. Christ wants to be accepted. By faith we
must make him our Well. It is with this also as
it is in the mountain village. Sometimes there
lives a rich man in such a village. He has dug a
well in his own yard for himself. He has no need,
therefore, mornings and evenings to go to the
village well. But the others, the poor people,
have no such well of their own. Hence it also
applies here: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
they go out after the Fountain of life, hence
theirs is the kingdom of God.

69

"BY MY GOD I LEAP OVER A WALL."

When God had created the first human pair,
no dangers threatened them in Paradise. Neither
the elements of nature, nor wild animals, nor
climate, nor any disease, exposed them to any

368

risks. All Paradise was with them. It was alto-
gether pleasure without burden. At one point
only they were in danger. That was their spiritual
estate. In this they were vulnerable. If the soul
fell down they were gone ; unless God saved them,
they were gone forever.

The curse, which came upon the earth imme-
diately after they had fallen, showed at once that
pandemonium had been let loose against them,
and that the whole creation, as it were, had entered
into conclave to destroy them. When we think
how absolutely helpless these two people stood,
almost without clothing and entirely unfortified,
in the face of these unloosed and raving forces of
world and nature, we feel at once that absolutely
nothing would have come of them, and that they
would have met death at once, if only in maw
of lion or tiger, had not from the side of God
secret, wondrous grace watched over them.

How human life saves itself now need not be
asked. We now face the evil and destructive
forces of nature strongly fortified in every way,
and it is an exception when a flood surprises, a
hurricane destroys, an epidemic works havoc, or
wild animals carry off human victims. But of all
the means of resistance, which are at our disposal,
Adam and Eve had none, and they were but with
each other. This makes it so wonderful that our
race was not at once destroyed, that it maintained
itself, that it increased and obtained the upper
hand. For many centuries indeed after Paradise
had disappeared, man was forced to wage war to
the death with the wild forces of destruction, and
to this day the names of a Nimrod and of a
Hercules are alive in the memory of nations, as

369

of heroes who knew how to restrain the monster
of destruction. Most people hve upon their com-
mon strength. WeakHngs hve beneath themselves.
But there have always been a few, who have
excelled themselves. And later generations have
honored these heroes as men, who have achieved
the superhuman, and who by efforts born from
almost superhuman inspiration have left behind
a blessing for the entire human race. When dif-
ficulty faced them as a wall, and others remained
standing before it, thej^ knew how to get over it,
and make a way for those who followed after.

When the fight with the monster of elements
and forces of nature had so far led to victory, that
with much caution and watchfulness, normal
human life became possible to a certain extent.
Satan set up men against themselves, and an
entirely new struggle was born, even of man
against man. The evil game of Cain and Abel.
To despoil each other of goods, to aim at one
another's life, to subject as slave another to one-
self. Now pandemonium no longer of nature,
but of human evil broke loose in the bosom of
humanity itself. The misery that has overtaken
our race by this second conflict is nameless. First
lust of robbery and murder among each other of
man against man, of house against house. And
from this, war of nation against nation, of people
against people. And then, again, heroes have
arisen. Men who excelled others and themselves.
A Samson and David, a Prince William and
Prince Maurice. Heroes, who, under high inspira-
tion have broken resistance and have delivered
their people. Again the Wall, against which every
other man dashed his head, but over which they
370

leaped. And thus came about deliverance of the
people. And thus the names of these heroes are
held in lasting honor. Not by our race as a whole,
but by the people whose deliverance they have
wrought.

Meanwhile a third struggle had begun. Not
against nature, and not against the lust of robbery
and murder of a fellowman, but the conflict be-
tween the kingdoms of the world and the king-
dom of heaven. The grace of God descending,
the light of God inshining, in order to bring the
children of men to the inheritance of the children
of God. And face to face with this, the power of
Satan, sin and world, to destroy the cause of God
in the earth. And again there have been heroes,
who, excelling others and themselves, have stood
their ground where others fainted. Again the wall,
which inexorabl}^ foiled the many, but over which
enthusiastically they leaped. A Noah, an Abra-
ham, an Isaiah, presently the martyrs and the
Apostles, and after them a Luther and a Calvin.
Again this same high inspiration. The wall at
last thrown down. And their names held in grate-
ful remembrance, not by a single people, and not
by the whole race, but by the generation of all
the children of God. At the center of this con-
flict was the Lion from Judah's tribe ; the supreme
Leader and Finisher of the faith, the Son of God
and the Son of Man, the vanquisher of death in
his glorious resurrection. Here God in him, he
himself God, and therefore the wall of sin and
death forever demolished b}' him, and the way
opened to everlasting peace.

Now consider our struggle. It is threefold.
There is the struggle against the forces of nature

in sickness and in threatening destruction; the
struggle for existence and a living. The struggle
against our fellowmen, when they do us wrong,
slander us and threaten our rights and liberties.
And thirdly the struggle against the powers of
Satan, sin and the world, in behalf of God's
glory, the cause of the Lord, and the soul's sal-
vation. From the combination of these three
powers that are arrayed against us spring all our
woes and miseries, all our sorrows and anxieties.
Man has a struggle on earth. It is not equally
severe in every case, but it frequentlj^ appears
that with some individuals it is a struggle against
hellish powers. In the face of it one stands
cowardly and powerless; larger numbers struggle
with little more than ordinary effort; but there
are always a few who face the fight with the
uncommon courage of heroes and they triumph
by faith. Again the wall; before which others
falter but over which they know how to leap.
They do it with their God and in his Name, and
leave a blessing behind them for all their house
and times.

What is the secret of the courage and power that
overcomes in the case of these heroes and hero-
ines? Of course they excelled themselves, that is
to say, they knew how to apply a power of will,
which reall}'' far outreached their own strength.
This high power comes not from without, but from
within; from their fixed heart, from their soul
taking hold of itself, from the spirit that is in
them. By comparison one perceives something
of this high tension in the man who runs amuck,
in the drunkard, in the insane, in the man who is
carried away by his passion. Everyone runs out

372

of the way of him who runs amuck, because it is
kno^vll that no one can face him. He is thrown
by a shot from a gun. Three officers of pohce
are unable sometimes to overpower a subject of
delirium tremens. It takes the straight-jacket at
times to render insane people powerless, which
shows what gigantic strength they are able to
develop. And in a fit of passion many an excited
person has withstood three men and thrown them.
All these are exhibits of human misery, but in
every one of them, there is gigantic development
of strength, because a something within was able
to cause such tension of spirit, and through their
spirit of their muscles, as passes all measure.

But even as such muscular tension can spring
from evil excitement and overe?:ertion of the
spirit, so by an inner tension of the Holy Spirit
the soul can double its strength, yea, increase it
threefold times. Not from human miserj' this
time, but from sacred exaltation for the sake of
resisting human woe. Then there is the wall
again. The wall of injustice perpetrated against
us, of trouble that overwhelms us, of sorrow that
can not be borne, of opposition that threatens
to undo us, of sin that aims at our descent into
hell. A wall that must be demolished, or broken
through, except we be lost Then heroic courage
must show itself. Not that of wild, ungovernable
tension, but the pure, calm, persistent courage of
the hero, who never gives in, and in God's strength
overcomes. Then we make true for ourselves what
the Psalmist sang (18:29): "By my God have I
leaped over a wall." And "by my God" does not
mean to say by the help of God, or by a Divine
miracle, but it signifies: With God in mv heart,

through this highest inspiration, which the inwork-
ing of the Holy Ghost alone can bring about in
mj^ soul, I know that it is God's will, and that it
must be done And then it is, if you like, a
miracle, for then you do and suffer that which
far supersedes your own strength. But the wall
yields, it breaks, and j'ou leap over. And on the
other side of it you kneel down to ascribe praise
and honor to him who has enabled j'ou to do the
superhuman.

70

''MINE EYES ARE EVER TOWARD
THE LORD."
In the Te Deum the church sings: "To Thee
all angels cry aloud: ... To Thee Cherubim
and Seraphim: continually do cry. Holy, Holy,
Holy: Lord God of Sabaoth; Heaven and earth
are full of the Majesty of thy glory." Contin-
ually, i. e. without ceasing, without pauses, always
the never-ending ascent of the hymn of praise
from angelic choirs before God. This unbroken,
continuous, unchanging and fixed permanency of
things is the peculiar characteristic of the world
before God's throne. In the house of the Father
there is no time, but eternity, and therefore there
is no breaking down of life in a night, no tran-
sition from morning to midday, but it remains
eternal morning. There is no standing still and
beginning again. No stopping and resuming. No
intermezzo of rest or relaxation. But life, ever
springing up and coming back to itself, without
waste of power, and consequently without need of
change. There is no more development, hence
transition from one condition into another is im-
thinkable. No break or disturbance mars the ful-
374

ness of the blessedness which is eternal, and
therefore the word "continually" in the Te
Deum expresses admirably the characteristic of
the super-earthly, of what is devoted to God, even
the kingdom of heaven.

It sounds paradoxical to us, when the apostle
exhorts us to: "Pray without ceasing," or to:
"Rejoice evermore," or to hear the Psalmist say:
'I have set the Lord always before me" (Ps.l6:8),
"Nevertheless I am continually with thee" (Ps. 73:
23), "Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord" (Ps.2o:^
15), but in connection with this unbroken note of
the higher life, he who is no stranger to the secret
walk with God, feels the sacred stress of this
"continually," "without ceasing," and "at all
times." For "continually" sometimes means:
"Now and then." A nurse in the hospital contin-
ually makes the round of her patients. But such
is not the meaning here. When the Psalmist
sings: "Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord," the
word in Hebrew does not mean "now and then,"
but "always and without ceasing." It means to
say : "The eyes of my soul are never turned away
from God, but are always looking toward my
Father who is in heaven." It means that in our
secret walk with God we do not bring God down
into time, but allow God to lift us up into the
eternal. Secret fellowship with God is the fore-
taste of the heavenly. It is not a musical instru-
ment from which tones are elicited from time to
time, and meanwhile remains closed, but a self-
playing organ that but waits for our ears to hear
its heavenly melodies.

Do not say, that prayer without ceasing, always
to be blessed in God, alwaj^s to be looking unto

the Lord, to set him always before you, and to
fix your eyes ever upon him, is simply impossible,
because from the nature of the case, human life,
surroundings, business cares and daily duties for-
bid it. For in this sense both David and Paul
knew well that life is not ceaseless devotion and
the world no monastery cell. But it was not
meant this way by either Psalmist or Apostle.
There are moments when on our knees we are
alone with God and pray. There are moments
when we retire to some secluded spot, in order to
lose ourselves in thinking on God. There are
moments when we sh^ke ourselves free from every
care and consideration of this life, in order to
engage ourselves solely and alone with the things
of the hidden life. It must be confessed that for
first beginners this is about the only form in which
they can imagine prayer, fellowship with God, and
looking unto him, to be possible. Life to them is
still divided into two parts. A life without God,
broadly extending itself in the world, and along-
side of this and apart from the world an exceed-
ingly limited life with God. They have grasped
something of the kingdom of heaven, but the life
of the world is still the real life to them, and as
an oasis in the wilderness of this worldly life,
there are moments in which they devote them-
selves to God. And as long as such is the case,
of course, prayer without ceasing, rejoicing ever-
more, and continual abiding with God, is impos-
sible. For then there is no indwelling in God,
but dwelling in the world, in order to go out from
it now and then for a few moments of interview
with God. Then prayer is brief. Thought of
God is momentary. Presently it ends. Eyes open

376

again to the world, in the life of which the rest
of the day is spent. Such is the existence of
him who out of every twenty-four hours of the
day spends eight in bed, more than fifteen in the
world, and altogether scarcely half an hour with
God. He has often tried to retire half an hour
for prayer and sacred meditation, but life is too
busy, it rushes on relentlessly, and even in
moments of seclusion thoughts wander too far
afield for serious concentration on holy things.
And under the spell of disappointment the effort
is all too readily abandoned.

Continuous, unbroken, unceasing fellowship with
God does not depend upon thought, and can not
be reached by the will, but springs of itself from
the inner motion of the heart. If the body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost, as we believe, so that
God dwells in us, God's nearness to us and our
nearness to him takes place of itself, whether we
think of it or not. God, the Holy Ghost, does
not come into the heart, presently to leave it
again. There is indwelling. There is a coming
once, in order to abide with us forever. And even
when we do not pray, or know not how to pray
as we ought, God, the Holy Ghost, prays in us
with unutterable groanings. The mother keeps
watch by the bedside of her new-born babe, even
though the babe has no sense of it whatever.
Hence the question only is, whether the inner
disposition of the heart attains gradually that
sanctification, that opening up to Divine things,
whereby we begin to feel and to perceive what
goes on in the secret chambers of our heart.

At first we live outside of the heart, and isolated,
it floats as a drop of oil on the waters of life.

377

But gradually there comes a disclosing- We begin
to live a little more with and in our own heart.
And when we enter our heart sufficiently deeply,
we find there God, the Holy Ghost, who has com-
passion on us. This of itself brings us to a life
of two phases; one outward and the other inward.
But though at first these two are strangers to
one another, they gradually approach each other,
mingle together and permeate each other, until
the point is reached when the inner life lends its
glow to all the outward existence, and when,
not the clearly conscious, but the fellowship which
is apprehended with the tentacles of the soul,
progresses more and more unceasingly.

This is at first pure, sacred mysticism, and
nothing more. But it does not keep itself at this.
Unconsciously, the eye of the soul begins slowly
to discover the clear reality that God dwells not
only in the heart, but that in the outward life on
e\'ery side he is the omnipresent, the all-directing,
Almighty and the all-provident Worker. And so
we begin to have an eye for God, who in all things,
and b}^ and through all things, presses upon us.
The note which arises from the depths of the
heart is echoed by all of the life in which we ful-
fil our calling. That which formerly drew us awaj'
from God in that life and threw us back upon
ourselves, now begins with wondrous allurements
to draw us more and more closely to God. And
not by reasoning, not with outspoken thought, but
in the immediate sensation of the life of the soul
itself God begins both inwardly and outwardly
to open the eye to his Majesty. It is true, sin
works interruptions again. But sin never rouses
hatred against itself more strongly in the heart
378

than when again and again it throws distractive
discord into the harmonj' of the Psalm of hfe.
And to break with sin, and to lose self again in
worship and blessed fellowship becomes of itself
the rising impulse of the heart.

71

"THY OVERSIGHT HATH PRESERVED
MY SPIRIT."

The spirit within us is that by which we live.
It is at the same time our breath of life and our
spiritual inner self. The spirit is what we are
above and besides the body. It is that whieh has
been breathed into the ''unformed lump" to make
us man, to make us live as man, to make us a
person among the children of men. "To yield up
the spirit," as a rule, is nothing but to die, to
breathe out the breath of life. When on the other
hand the apostle says, that no man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is
in him (I Cor. 2:11), the word "spirit" indicates
our conscious ego, our spiritual^ existence as man,
our inner personality.

Although this seems to be something entirely
different, in Holy Writ the breath of life, the
spirit which we yield up in d3'ing is never sep-
arated from our spiritual existence. Both our life
and our person are expressed by "spirit," and both
are called "our soul." When the Psalmist cried:
"0 Lord, deliver my soul," or rejoices: "Thou,
Lord, hast delivered my soul from death," it refers
in Psalm 116 to the saving of life, to deliverance
from danger, and not to spiritual redemption.
But our inner spiritual existence is also called our
soul. "As the hart panteth after the water brooks,

379

so panteth my soul after thee, 0 God. My soul
thirsteth for God, for the living God" (Psalm 42).
In verse 4: "I remember these things and pour
out my soul in me." Again: "Why art thou cast
down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted
within me." The Scripture makes no distinction
between our life and our spirit. In God's word
our life and our spiritual existence are one. In
Paradise God forms man from the dust of the
earth. But the material form is not man. He
only comes into being when God breathes life
into it. Then there is life, then there is human
life; and there is no human life except as utter-
ance of the life of a soul; and there is no life of
a soul apart from an ego, a person, a spiritual
being that hides in our heart. Any man can
sully this spiritual existence in himself, can sin it
away, corrupt it, but he can not shake it off, nor
lay it aside. Death does not annihilate it. It
abides, it continues to exist, even with the lost in
the place of perdition.

Man's spirit is his real self. All the rest is but
the house, the tabernacle, as the Apostle calls it.
The real, essential man is the spirit that dwells
in this tabernacle. The spirit in us is our ego,
our person, including our disposition, character,
consciousness, feeling, will powers, gifts and tal-
ents; in brief, everything that forms our inner
existence, constituting a particular being, bearing
a particular stamp, and expressing itself in a par-
ticular character. In Scripture it is always the
same antithesis. In Paradise it is the form which
is made of dust and the spirit which God breathes
into it. In Psalm 139 it is the unformed sub-
stance which, as a piece of embroidery, is curi-

S80

ously wrought, and in addition to this the ego
that was made in secret. And in Job 10:9-12:
''Thou hast made me as the clay; Thou hast
poured me out as milk, and curdled me Uke
cheese. Thou hast clothed me with skin and
flesh, and hast fenced (crocheted) me with bones
and sinews," and over and above all this "Thou
hast given me life," i. e. my spirit. What is
visible, and tangible, comes first, and into this
enters the invisible, that which exists in the secret
places of the heart, and that is our spirit. And
God does not abandon the spirit within us to
itself. It remains in his hand. It is ever under
his care. He watches over it. He has the super-
vision of it. And regarding this Job declares:
"Thy oversight hath preserved my spirit" (Job
10:12 Dutch version. See Marg. read. R. V.)

At first we know nothing of this Divine over-
sight of our spirit. The infant in the cradle is
utterly unconscious of mother's care. The sick
man in his slumber is not aware of the nurse at
his bedside. Only when in later years the eye of
the soul is opened to the supervision and faith-
fulness of God, we become slowly conscious of
this Divine oversight of our spirit. Provisionally
it is the discovery of the heavenly Father's super-
vision with respect to our outward life, and then
only on special occasions, when, for instance, we
have been delivered from sudden danger. We are
under the impression that life goes on of itself,
and that only in particular instances God con-
siders and looks after us. For many years prayer
and thanksgiving assume a warmer and more per-
sonal character only in moments of special need
or anxiety. The larger part of life is spent before

381

the calm and blessed feeling of assurance takes
hold of us, that bj^ day and by night, in ordinary
and in extraordinary circumstances we are watched
over, cared for and looked after by God.

We also come to discover that the inner life of
our soul is in God's hand. That he has charge of
it That his care is constantly at work in it.
That he has continual oversight of it. This dis-
covery arises first in the conscience. He who has
oversight not only takes care but also looks out,
examines, estimates values, exercises authority and
power, praises or blames. This aspect of God's
oversight of us is the first that comes to our
notice. As a rule this happens after a wrong has
been done, when we are painfully conscious of
Divine displeasure. Then we learn that God has
the oversight of us, that he regards the least sig-
nificant of our acts, and that in everything he
exercises care over our entire person, over what
we do and leave undone, over our inclinations and
desires, over our thoughts and words, yea, even
over the impulses of our imagination.

And when it has come to this, we know two
things. First, that God has the supervision of
our lot in life, of our adversity and prosperity, of
everything that happens to us, and that there is
a line drawn through our life which binds our
present to our past, and leads the present into the
future. We then know that we are creatures of
God, that we are his possession, his property;
that he disposes of us and not we of ourselves;
that the plan of our life has been drawn by God;
and that the course of life is in full accord with
it. But, secondly, we also know, that in our inner
life we are not our own lord and master, but that

382

our moral existence as man is constantly under
the supervision of this selfsame God, who judges
us at the bar of our own conscience, as often as
we go contrary to his holy will.

And from these two there arises graduallj^ the
still higher sense, that "God's oversight of our
spirit" bears not only an admonishing and a
judicial character, but also that of faithful care,
which we learn to adore in our lot in life. The
soul perceives that God not merely spies our inner
existence in order to estimate it, but that he is
continually active in it, that he constantly culti-
vates it, and ceaselessly devotes his care to it.
The apostle delineates this in the image of an
husbandman who guards the crops that grow in
the field which he has cultivated and sown. Thus
our soul is as a garden of the Lord, in which his
plantings germinate and bloom, which he fosters
by his sun, which he waters with his dew, which
he weeds and protects, and in which he causes
fruit to ripen.

We train the soul ourselves. Good and evil
influences affect us equally from the world of men
and spirits. But the constant activity of God in
the soul bears a far more significant character.
Though we do not observe it, God always has
access to our hearts. Even in our sleep he comes
\o us, in order to operate upon our inner life.
He prepares in us the powers which we presently
shall need. He disposes and orders in us the
powers which must be applied to a given end.
He is even now busy in preparing in us what is
to show itself in us ten or more years after. In
the inner hfe of the soul nothing escapes him;
sensations, tendencies, rising feelings, everything

is under his holy supervision. He revives in us
what is ready to languish. He bends straight in
us what threatens to become crooked. And as a
mother cares for her babe in outward things, so
does our faithful Father provide against every
difficulty and every need of our soul.

This is a work of God, which began in his
council, which was reckoned with in our ancestors,
which from the cradle has been accomplished in
us, and never ceases all the days and nights of
our lives. A work of God upon the soul, which
goes on when we are alone, and when we mingle
with the multitudes; which does not desist wlule
we are at work, and which, with a firm hand, is
directed to what God has determined by himself
to make of us now and forever. Our own plan
regarding our development and the formation of
character, as a rule does not extend further than
this brief life, but *' God's supervision of our spirit"
extends to all eternities, while it prepares in us
here, what will only unfold itself on the other
side of the grave.

This "oversight of God" is both guardianship
and training. It is the work of the Supreme Artist,
in preparing from the life of your soul an orna-
ment for the house of the Father above. This
activity of God upon and in the soul, this Divine
oversight of our spirit can be resisted, whereby
the Holy Spirit is grieved. But as workers to-
gether with God we can do our part. This is the
aim of the sacred impulse of childship, ever seek-
ing strength in the humble prayer of Psalm 138:
"Forsake not what Thy hand began,

O, Source of Life,

Grant Thy assistance."

S84

72

'EVERY ONE WHICH SEETH THE SON."

The one thing of all others among men is to
believe on Christ. The Scripture announces in
every way that God has given his only begotten
son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life. To this is added
with equal emphasis that he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God
abideth on him (St. John 3:16, 36). When asked
what the great work is, which we have to do in
obedience to God, Jesus answered: The work of
God which ye have to do, is, to believe in me.
Faith in Christ shall once bring abcut the division
in eternity, and this same faith leads to decision
here on earth. Not a certain general religiousness,
not personal pious inclination, and not a general
faith on God, but solely and very definitely faith
in Jesus, in its presence or absence, determines
eternal destiny, and decides the question already
here below whether one belongs to the flock of the
Good Shepherd, or whether he stands outside of it.

The whole Gospel hinges on this faith. The
entire Revelation of God — read it in Heb. XI —
from the days of Paradise was directed to this
faith in Christ. The sola fide, through faith alone,
is still in another sense than that in which Luther
used it, the fundamental thesis of all higher
human life. There are also all sorts of other
marks and signs and utterances of soul and rela-
tionships among men which indicate another
tendency in our life, or which can impart another
tendency to it. And all this can have worth and
significance, but only in a small circle, for a

385

limited time and in a given measure. Sympathy,
inclination, preference, affection, all blossom with
silvery blossoms, but never dominate all of life,
do not change the ground of existence, and have
no all-deciding and ever-abiding results. Faith in
the Son of God stands far above eveiything else
that flourishes in the world and acts as a uniting
and inspiring factor among men. All other things
are in part, lack the deep fulness of life, and are
as the grass that flourishes, and when the wind
passes over it, withers. What alone remains as
foundation of the inner life, what gives the tone
to life and forever guarantees life in endless un-
folding, is faith in the only begotten Son of the
Father, or as it was said in the prison at Philippi:
"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved." This is the all-embracing, all-permeat-
ing, and in itself complete and perfect happiness,
that endures unto the eternal morning.

We need not consider here what this faith is,
how it operates, wherein it consists. It is a
mystery which the church of Christ has tried
again and again to express in words, but which
she has never been able to state in all its fulness
and in so many words, so as to exclude all mis-
understanding. When the church outlined faith
too distinctly it led to cold and barren intellec-
tualism without spiritual fervor; when she entered
more deeply into the mystery of the hidden life
of the heart, she frequently crowned a scorching
mysticism, which presently volatilized in excite-
ment. But the sum and substance of it always
was, that a lost world, an undone human heart,
cried out for deliverance, and that age upon age
all human ingenuity, heroism, and tender compas-

sion had tried to provide it, but in vain, until at
length God brought it. He imparted it, not in
the form of a gift, but in a most holy person;
who was not one taken from among us^ but one
who came down from heaven ; and not as an angel,
which as God's servant and our helper stands out-
side of both Divine and human natures, but as
one sent from heaven and come down to us as the
only begotten Son of the Father, who having
entered into our nature, brought God himself to
our view. "Philip, he that hath seen me hath
seen the Father; and how sayeth thou then, show
us the Father" (John 14:9)

And therefore faith in Christ can never be any-
thing else than the highest, the one and only
thing. When God gives himself in Christ to the
world, and enters so fully into our human life
that this Son takes our nature upon himself, that
the Word becomes flesh, which angels hail as
Immanuel, God with us, the absolute and in itself
complete revelation of Divine compassion has
come to us. Hence it can neither go higher nor
farther, since the end of what is eternally com-
plete in itself has been reached. Nothing there-
fore transcends faith in Christ. Nothing can be
placed by the side of it. There is nothing with
which it can be compared. It transcends all
human thought. It can neither be substituted nor
excelled by anything else. Faith in Christ brings
salvation, or there is none; without Christ there
is no salvation for the lost world or for the heart
that in itself is lost.

For the rising of this star of faith in the life of
the soul Jesus demands an act on the part of the
soul. Not, as is self-evident, that any action of

S87

the soul can ever create faith in Christ, produce
it, imprint and implant it. The seed of faith is a
Divine sowing. Faith in Jesus is as much a gift
as Christ himself is. Faith is a work of Divine
compassion, wrought by the Holy Ghost. But all
faith in Christ has this peculiarity and necessity,
that it must be taken up into the consciousness,
and that therefore it enters into the consciousness
with irresistible power. Faith enters in as a sen-
sation, as an impelling force, as an inspiring prin-
ciple, and as a power which governs and changes
all of life. And in behalf of our consciousness
faith is bound to obtain a content, a form, an
appearance. It brings also emotions with it, even
unspeakable emotions of uncommon power. But
above and outside of all this, it also has an intel-
lectual content, which needs to be understood, a
content which fills itself with what we know from
the sacred Revelation, of the person of the Son
of God, of his life on earth, of his works, of his
words, of his sitting at God's right hand, and of
his continued activity from heaven. This is what
is learned by heart; there is memory work in it;
memory of names, facts, conversations; memory
of words and deeds, mortal sufferings and glorious
resurrection. Only memory does not cherish faith.
Ideas and faith are not essentially one. Learning
ignites no glow in faith. And therefore Jesus
declares, that in order to become ever clearer,
stronger and more inspiring, the one thing faith
needs is, that you see the Son of God. ''Every-
one which seeth the son, and believeth on him,
has everlasting life" (St. John 6:40). This seeing
of the Son of God alone brings the rapture of

388

soul, which maintains the glow of faith and makes
it to burn brightly.

The entire content of the memory must be
reduced from the memory to the unity of the
image of the Son of God. It must all be united
and brought together, in order to portray this
image in sacred purity to the eye of the soul.
And where this image makes itself perfect in you,
all inner pressure and sensation and all holy
emotion must fuse with this image in you, that
you may enjoy it. This living image of the Son
of God must impress you, and attract you, must
not let go of you, must engage you and bring you
into sacred ecstacy. Not as a knowing after the
flesh. It must be a spiritual vision, but always
such that the name of Jesus passes over into the
person of the Christ, and that from the person of
Christ the inner Divine being takes hold of you
and with magnetic power attracts you. No glori-
fication of Jesus, as in the days of Feith and Van
Alphen, which brings the words to the lips: "Oh,
were Jesus still on earth, at once I'd hasten to
him." That would be the descent from the high
to the low. The spiritual vision, the soul's seeing
of the Son of God stands incomparably higher
than what the disciples have ever seen and handled
in Jesus' person on earth.

The Apostle knows the Savior far better than
the disciple has ever kno^vn him. The Ascension
has not impoverished, but enriched us. And the
seeing of the only begotten Son of the Father
which nurses the faith, feeds and every time re-
freshes it again, is such conscious fellowship of
soul with the Lord of glory, that in and through
him, the Eternal Being himself is reached, and,

spiritually seeing the son with the eyes of the
soul, the child of God knows himself to be one
with the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
Hear the petition in the high priestly prayer:
"Holy Father, I pray thee, that they all may be
one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us; that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me" (St. John 17:21).

7S

"MY FOOT STANDETH IN AN EVEN
PLACE."

"My foot standeth in an even place," has a
threefold significance. It is the expression of
satisfaction on the part of the Sunday-child. It
is the cry of relief on the part of him who has
struggled hard and bitterly to succeed. It is the
calm utterance of higher peace on the part of him
who believes.

The imagery of the Psalmist is clear. A road
can bear a twofold character. It can be smooth
and even as a skittle ground, or macadam streets
in cities and towns; or it can be like what we find
in mountainous districts, where steep descents and
ascents are common and the unevenness of the
path brings weariness. With us, a stretch of sandy
or muddy road may retard travel, but in the main
our roads are even from north to south, so that
no image could be derived from them for the
pathway of our life. A way may seem long to us,
it may be lonely, or it may repel us by its filthi-
ness, but all this does not offer the antithesis
which level road and mountain path present.

The Scripture, on the other hand, originated in

S90

a mountainous country. The Psalmists have dwelt
and wandered in the mountains. Of itself, there-
fore, their fertile minds would borrow images
from life in the mountains by which to express
the antitheses of life. And so the easy walk, with
a light step, on a smooth, straight and even road
suggested of itself to them the image of a life of
which we would say, in the language of a sailor,
that ''everything went before the wind." On the
other hand, the exertion, which makes even breath-
ing difficult on the way where there is for hours
together a steep, downward grade and then for
hours again the grade is equally steep upward,
presented quite as naturally the image of a trav-
eler of whom the Dutch people would say again
in terms of the sea: "He can scarcely keep
his head above water." Hence in the expression:
"My foot standeth in an even place," the self-
sufficiency can assert itself of the man who has
succeeded in everything he undertook, who has
never known real adversity, and who, weaned from
carking care, has never seen anything but sunshine
on the pathway of his life.

These words, however, imply much more when
they become the confession of a man who, dis-
appointed every time, and foiled, saw all his efforts
end in failure, but who kept on trying, would not
give up, now fell and again climbed the steep
mountain side, until at length the point was
reached where the straight road through the high-
land stretched out itself before his feet, and pros-
perity began, imparting to him a happy existence
under the fulfilment of his ideals.

But the phrase: "My foot standeth in an even
place," attains its greatest fullness of meaning

391

when it becomes the expression of that assur-
ance of faith, which with spiritual elasticity, knows
how to overcome every difficulty of life on earth,
and now proclaims with Habakkuk (3:17):
''Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither
shall fruit be in the vines; and there shall be no
herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation."

Let the ''Sunday-child," as the man is called
who has never known reverses, be on his guard.
A life without cares, without troubles, without
sorrows and disappointments, easily spoils one.
Optimism undoubtedly cultivates a happy state
of mind, but it lacks power to strengthen char-
acter, to practice elasticity and to stretch it, and
to become richer in noble treasures of the mind.
But this is not the worst of it. It is far worse
that the "Sunday-child" is so prone to attribute
his good fortune to himself and to think that
they who vainly struggle, owe their misfortunes
to their simplemindedness. He is the man who
always has good insight, and a correct estimate of
things. Others allowed the right moment to go
by unimproved. He was always ready to act at
the proper time. And so his self-esteem increases,
which cultivates his pride, and chokes pity for
the sorrows and adversities of others. Or, in case
such a child of fortune is still somewhat relig-
iously inclined, he is easily tempted to regard
himself as a special favorite of God, whose path-
way, by reason of this Divine preference, was
always smooth, and he lives in the expectation
that in the providence of God his lot in life will
be prosperous to the end. And so it goes on with
growing conceit in the idea of one's own superi-

392

ority and of being a privileged character, until
there comes a turn in life, and the sun goes hiding
behind the clouds. Then everything collapses at
once. Then there is no power of resistance. Then
there is no disciplined strength. Then there is
nothing to hold him up and to enable him to cope
with his difficulties. And in the end he is lost in
self-perplexity, having neither courage to live nor
hope for the future.

This is entirely different with a man who is
beset with difficulties. Every new year of his hfe
brought him new troubles in the face of which to
maintain himself. With one it was the struggle
for existence with honor both of himself and
family, to be successful in his calling and to
accomplish what he began. With another it was
a struggle against slander and envy. With a third
it was a struggle for the sake of his conviction,
of his views, and of obtaining an entrance for his
ideas. Again, it was an endless struggle with
impaired health. And again it was sorrow; trouble
because of a child that brought disappointment,
or grievous affliction in the loss of a child or a
beloved wife by death. And though there are
cases where such troubled times give place to
sunnier days, there are others where literally for
many years it is one constant struggle with
anxiety, with never-ending disappointment, with
no outlook upon relief. This frequently brings
the bitter result that gloomy melancholy settles
upon the heart; that irascible thoughts acquire
the upper hand; and that haunted by the idea
that every opportunity of life is lost, the struggle
is abandoned, and emptied of will and courage,
the days are pined away in ever deepening gloom.

393

But there have always been others who have
persevered, who would not give up, who did not
abandon hope, and who by great pov/er of will
reached the point, where they could breathe again,
and opposition seemed broken. And thanks to
the practice acquired in the struggle, they put
forth a final, giant effort. And, indeed, they
overcame. Now they were through. Now better
days began. And with an inexpressible feeling of
blessedness, as far as this earthly life can bring
it, they exclaimed in a very different way: ''God
be praised, my foot standeth in an even place."

If this is already glorious, there is still a higher
viewpoint. There are times when one can not
row up against the stream of the ills of life.
These can take hold of one's life so deeply as to
continue with him unto the grave. Even he who
is most grievously afllicted has no guarantee that
better days will come. An outcome such as Job
obtained, to no one is assured. It may please
God to glorify the majestic grace of faith in a
life, on which the sun of happiness has never
shone. For poor Lazarus the hour of jo}'- only
came when he was carried by angels into Abra-
ham's bosom. We have no right to anything;
and he who is no stranger to the knowledge of
his sin will not demand from God happiness or
deliverance out of trouble. He may pray for it
and supplicate for it, but it always is: "Father,
if this cup can not pass from me; not my will,
but thine be donel"

But this is the glory, that wondrous faith not
only reveals its power when suffering is turned
into joy, but also, and even more, in suffering
itself, and most of all when the sorrow accom-

394

panies us to the grave, and the cross casts its
shadow across our path to the end. For this is
the glory of faith, that it discloses another, a
better way to us, a way on the heights of the
mountain of God's holiness, which excels the ways
of our earthly life, and dissolves all our sorrow,
misery and affliction of soul in an higher vision.
This way of faith passes not under the cloud
which prevents the sun from shining on our path.
He who travels this path has the clouds under
him, and enjoys the free shining of the sun of
grace. And then whether things in life succeed
or fail, whether the struggle must be begun anew,
or whether at last the struggle against what the
world calls fate, is too much for him — in pleasure
and distress, in sorrow and in joy, in prosperity
and in adversity — the soul maintains its equipoise,
the heart remains strong and fixed, and glorying
in faith he says: Whatever be my lot, my foot
standeth in an even place, which through faith,
God has disclosed to me.

74

"AN ABUNDANT REFRESHING."
Life in the world above bears an entirely dif-
ferent aspect from life on earth. In the realm of
glor3^ is no sin, and consequently jqo redemption;
no misery and therefore no deliverance. Neither
can there be the transition from doubt to faith,
from weakness to strength, from grief to comfort.
In brief, all that by sin and misery brings con-
stant changes, disturbance, transition, restoration
and higher exaltation in our life on earth, is ex-
cluded from the life eternal.
This process of continuous change was foreign

395

to life in Paradise, and when sin came in, Para-
dise was gone, and the curse overtook our earthly-
existence. Not as though deadly monotony pre-
vailed in Paradise, or that in heaven the absence
of all change about God's throne would occasion
a somber pall to darken the life of the blessed.
Without endless distinction no higher life is think-
able, and that richer unfolding of life before the
throne of God shall once exceed and excel every-
thing that we have known as higher development
of life on earth or have dreamed of in poetic
fancy.

But life in the hereafter can not be measured
by the standards of this life. It is of a different
sort. It bears a different character. It obeys a
different law. It interests and charms the senses
by an entirely different beauty, wealth and enjoy-
ment. On this very account it always is to be an
object of faith and hope, and does not lend itself
to forecasting in this life. And though Scripture
may employ images from the earthly by which to
convey to us an impression of the heavenly, every-
one feels that the fat full of marrow and unmixed
wine of the marriage-feast of the Lamb serve ex-
clusively to waken the sensation of festal joy,
and are by no means intended to indicate wherein
this heavenly delight shall consist. It hath not yet
been revealed what we shall be. It is enough for
us to know that it will be a life in endless joy
and glory. But how this joy shall once disclose
itself to us, and in what form it will present itself,
faith leaves with God. And all that the souls of
God's children can desire, in expectation of this
glory, centers itself in the Father who is in
heaven and his son Jesus Christ.

Here on earth sin characterizes all of life. It
does this by no means merely in the sense, that
sin is continuously committed night and day, and
that sin occasions ruin, but rather in this sense
that sin breaks human life, constantly removes its
supports and makes them change, and makes the
way of life not straight, but restlessly to go up
and down; now through deep places, again across
heights, now through light, then through dark-
ness; now marked by laughter, then by the weep-
ing of those who mourn. That there is pleasure
and pain; joy and sorrow; that there is strength
and health and again weakness and sickness; that
there is birth and death; a carrying to baptism
and a carrying out to the grave ; that there is total
exhaustion and revival of strength; that there is
corruption of soul and conversion; that there is
temptation and allurement after Christ; in brief,
that all of life reaches upwards and breaks into
endless antitheses, springs from the one all-
dominant fact of sin.

When it is once fixed in the mind that without
sin there would be no misery, no sickness and no
death in the earth, that it is sin which imprints
its stamp of rupture and of healing upon our
entire earthly life, it is exceedingly interesting
for once to picture human existence from the view-
point of this rupture. Without sin there would
be no judges to pass sentence, no physicians to
heal the sick, no clergy to preach God's Word, no
works of mercy, no church of God in the earth.
It must not be inferred from this, of course, that
this broken life which has burst into all sorts of
differences and antitheses, is the real life. Life in
holy harmony and unbroken unity stands infinitely

397

higher, and shall one day show itself to be our
true, real human existence, even as it is this
already for God's angels. But it does follow from
this that our earthly life must be continuously
tossed and shaken and move ever up and down;
and that it becomes richer, more interesting and
more significant in the measure in which we are
exposed to stronger tossings, and the up and
down movement of our existence assumes larger
proportions. These tossings in life are unequal.
With one they are far more serious and grievous
than with another. There are those who are
scarcely ever moved, and who in consequence
know but little elevation of life. But there are
others who are cast to the bottom of the deepest
abyss of suffering, but who as a result can have
most blessed walks on the mountains of God's
holiness.

Of this latter class one is continually the speaker
in the Psalms. This accounts on one hand for
the calls from depths of misery and for the com-
plaints that bands of death and hell strike terror
to his soul, and on the other hand for the jubilant
exultations on account of deliverance and redemp-
tion, which result in the grateful acknowledgment,
that God has brought him into a ver}' abundant
refreshing (Ps. 66:12 Dutch version).

Refreshing means the renewal of strength. A
fresh team before the wagon means one that
comes from pasture in the fulness of strength. A
fresh corps of troops means a battle array which
had no part yet at the front but goes out in
unimpaired vigor. So there is refreshing when
you come out of a period of deadly weariness of
soul, of utter loss of strength, of inner under-

398

milling, so that rejuvenated and renewed in
strength of life you feel by the grace of God that
you have been, as it were, given back to your-
self, in order, as though nothing had ever been
the matter with you, in full realization of Divine
grace, with renewed courage to take up the battle
of life again. This refreshing can bear a two-
fold character. It can be a refreshing from spirit-
ual fainting, but it can also be a refreshing from
discouragement with your lot in life. You may
have been near the valley of the shadow of death,
and now you walk again in lovely sunlight, which
illumines all of life. The feeling of oppression
and distress which trouble, adversity, bereave-
ment and suffering brings can weigh like a ton
upon the heart, and almost crush it. Most people
never learn what this means. They, too, drink
their cup, but to most people by far this cup is
not handed save by measure. They would have
no greatness of soul to endure it. But there have
alw^ays been a few, against whose breast the waves
of the bitter lot beat restlessly and unsparingly
and almost so pitilessly, that only their inborn
heroic nature protected them by God's grace
from fainting. Such a period can be long pro-
tracted, and the continuance of trouble and suffer-
ing is namelessly exhausting and fatiguing:. But
when finally there is a surcease, and sunny days
arrive, and the oil of gladness is given for mourn-
ing, it frequently pleases the Lord to impart to
such a sufferer of the Job-type such unknown joy
of life that the song of praise rises from the soul:
''O, my God, Thou hast brought me an abundant
refreshing."
It is more quiet, but still more blessed when

399

this abundant refreshing overtakes us spiritually.
Of course, this only overtakes him who exists
spiritually, who inwardly leads a spiritual life and
who can thirst after God as the hart thirsts after
the water brooks. The many thousands who live
in unconcern, without ever missing fellowship
with God, stand entirely outside of this. But
when you are aware of a spiritual life in the soul;
when you know what it is to be initiated in the
secret walk with God; when you have learned
every morning and every evening to draw real
strength from seeking and finding God; then life
divides itself for you into two sharply contrasted
sorts of days: days when rich in God, and living
close to him, you feel the soul within you leap
for joy; and other days, when the heavens seem
like brass, and you are thrown back upon your-
self, and nothing but darkness is perceived within,
and like lost sheep you feel that you have wan-
dered away from God. This may be the result
of committed sin, but it can also be that God
purposely leads you through darkness, to try your
faith and to operate on you more deeply with
unseen grace. So there may be days, and weeks,
and sometimes months that God hides his face
from you; that no star appears in the dark sky
of the soul; and that, feeling yourself forsaken of
God, you mourn within yourself with a sorrow
which the world neither knows nor understands,
but which cuts you sorely through the heart.

But this suffering is only for a time. In the
forsakenness you were not forsaken, but God was
operating on you with a grace, the fruit of which
you would only recognize and enjoy later on.
And when at length these days of spiritual dark-

400

ness are ended, and light shines forth again, and
God returns to reveal himself to you in the full-
ness of his grace, then for you also there is abun-
dant refreshing. And then you perceive and con-
fess that had not God led you through this depth
of forsakenness, you would never have experienced
such deep joy in your soul, as now became your
portion. Only after having led you through this
depth of darkness, was God able to bring you out
to such abundant refreshing.

75

"FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH."

To go from strength to strength is to grow, to
wax strong, to increase. It is not to remain what
we are, and mostly retrograde. On the contrary it
is to advance, to make progress, to become richer,
fuUer and more abundant in faith, in virtue of
which to become richer in godliness and in fruits
meet for repentance.

God shows this growth from strength to strength
in plants. When the oak first starts to grow, it
can be bent over with the hand, but when it
obtains size and becomes a full-grown tree, it is
able by its strength to resist the hurricane. The
same is shown in animals. The young colt which
at first is scarcely able to stand up becomes after
a few years the strong horse, after whose power
man estimates the power of steam, which laughs
at the heavily laden wagon, and with rider in
saddle leaps over wall and hedge.

But God shows this process more beautifully
in our own child. First the helpless babe, which
is fondled on the lap, and has to be carried on the
arm. Then the struggle with the difficulties of

learning to walk, until at last it succeeds when
the ankles have become stronger. And so the
growth goes on until full maturity is reached;
and then there is strength for a hard run, the bold
jump, the climb of a steep rock, the defiance of
weariness and fatigue.

All this is material. The growth of oak and
horse, and the growth of the child, with regard to
the body. But this increase of strength is not
confined to the material; from the visible it ex-
tends to the invisible. There is also develop-
ment in the human spirit. Development by train-
ing of the artistic talent, which was latent at first,
then made itself known, and gradually became
capable of mightier utterance. But there is also
development through training, education, and self-
exertion on the part of the thinking spirit to fur-
nish the store-house of memory ever more richly,
to clarify the insight into the world round about,
to grasp unity in multiplicity, to feel the relation
between dull reality and high idealism, and thus
to stand ever more strongly in spirit and might.
Always growing, ever increasing, with the excelsior-
flag around the shoulders climbing the mountain
steeps.

This development from strength to strength
becomes different, when we pass on from the
invisible in art, and the invisible of the under-
standing, to the domain where character unfolds,
and the moral man is formed and steeled. To
obtain strength of will and gradually to steel
this will power. To feel the waking up of the
sense of honor and to see it come to an ever
finer point. To see the bud of fidelity and honesty
unfold and blossom ever more beautifully. To

402

observe by the side of sense and love of truth
the rise of hatred against falsehood. To become
ever more deeply conscious of the sense of
justice, to see the seriousness of life increase.
0, it all presents the beautiful image of a going
from strength to strength in the inner personality.
In body grows the man, in understanding the
scholar, in character the person.

But even this does not express the meaning of
going ''from strength to strength" in the song of
the Psalmist. In the child of God there is still
another life; the life of Divine grace. In this
life also there must be advance, growth and
development. Here, too, the law must operate.
Not to remain what we are, but to go on and to
go further from strength to strength.

In the world of matter, growth has its measure,
its limit. In the acorn it is assigned how high
the oak which springs from it shall be able to lift
itself. At first it sprouts, then grows and gains,
but at last the limit, the measure is reached; and
then the oak may expand in thickness of trunk
and breadth of foliage, but there is no more gain
in height. Such is the case with animal growth.
From being little, it becomes large, expands and
becomes full grown. In the course of a few years,
however, sometimes after only a few months, or
even weeks, the measure of the animal is ex-
hausted, and its size remains what it is. The same
applies to the human form. Far more slowly than
animals man gradually reaches his growth in
height. This takes sometimes twenty and more
years. But at last the measure here, too, is com-
plete. Then there follow changes, fuller strength,
and expansion, but he gains no more in height.

403

With old people not infrequently there is shrink-
ing and diminution.

With the artist also there is a moment in hia
life when he has reached his zenith, and the full-
ness and richness of his expression of art rather
decreases than gains. In the intellectual domain
there may be a few whose minds at 70 or 80 years
of age are still fresh and green, and even excel in
depth and wealth of scope — but for by far the
most the boundary line is here drawn, beyond
which there is no more advance, and which indi-
cates the end of development. Only in the domain
of morals and of the unfolding of character this
limit by itself can not be shown. Love and con-
secration can ever increase. Solidity of character
can advance in strength even unto death. And
this claim is imposed upon the child of God. No
reaching of limit here on earth, but always a going
further and further. Even until death a going
from strength to strength.

But here our misery appears, which alas! ob-
trudes itself inexorably even upon the work of
grace. Observe it with yourself, watch it with
others. See it in a child of God, after an absence
of ten or twenty years. For then you ought to
see in him, and he in you, as with eyes, and
handle with hands, the ripe fruit of this ten or
twenty years' work of grace. And is it so? Can
it be truly said, that a child of God, who was con-
verted in early life, at 60 years of age is ten years
farther advanced in grace than he was at 50?
Do you feel and observe a doubling in the power
of grace when you meet again at forty years of
age him whom you lost from sight when he was
thirty? Do parents, after the measure of their

404

years, as a rule, stand so much higher? Is the
oldest child in the family always farthest advanced
in grace? Observe particularly certain defects in
character, certain well-known weaknesses and little
sins, that showed themselves unpleasantly in a
child of God, ten or twenty years ago. Meet-
ing such a brother or sister again after this interval
of years, is the change marked as a rule, and is it
observed with joy, that all these unpleasant sins
and defects are gone without leaving any trace?
Or is it not rather true that after twenty and
more years you find all too often in your acquaint-
ances and friends, yea, in your own children and
parents the same limited grace, which you
mourned in them before, and this gift of grace
as intricately bound up with the same thorns and
thistles as before? Moreover, when you consider
yourself, and examine your own life before the
face of God, are you not bound to confess with
shame, ■ that sometimes ten long years have ad-
vanced you no single step in spiritual growth, and
that the old weeds still flourish with old-time lux-
uriance in the field of the heart within?

What is the ordinary course of things? Is it
not that one becomes converted; that after con-
version he concentrates his mind and soul on holy
things, and in all sorts of ways acts differently
than before, and that in doing this he becomes
conscious of a rupture with his past and the be-
ginnings of a new life. At first it is even too
ideally strung, so that after a few brief years a
calmer state ensues. And this stage of the life of
grace in most cases becomes permanent. It re-
mains what it is, but growth there is none. One
feeds on what was gained as spiritual capital in

405

that first period of grace. There is considerable
increase in knowledge, as well as in spiritual ex-
perience and in spiritual wisdom, but there is no
acquisition of higher strength. Sometimes even
there is a relapse, which is not survived except
with much difficulty. And so there is consider-
able satisfaction. There is no striving after higher
things. And one remains what he came to be
until death.

We do not say that this is the case with all.
There are those, thank God, who bum as sliining
lights in the congregation, and who do not cease
all the days of their lives to drink deeply from
the cup of grace. But yet how different would
the revelation of the kingdom of heaven be among
the people, if all they who believe, who know
themselves to be children of God, from the hour
of conversion until the day of death, would cause
the call of progress to be sounded in the soul.
Who can say what it would be in the heart, in
the home, in the church of God with every one of
us if it were and ever continued to be, an un-
interrupted going forward from strength to
strength !

76

''BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART."

A truly sinless, pure heart is the precious pos-
session in the eyes of a child of God which he
always prays for, but which here on earth he
never obtains. They who stand outside of the
faith are not considered here. We fully grant
that they value purity of heart. We do not deny
that they strive after it. But what they mean
by it is something else. For the child of God

406

purity of heart is the means of seeing God. For
the others it is rather the way by which not to
fail of high moral character. And these two can
not be mentioned in the same breath.

"Blessed are the pure in heart" is a word of
Jesus, which was purposely spoken to the children of
God, as Matt. 5 :8 clearly shows. For it immediately
follows: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they
shall be called the children of God." And it is
self-evident that the seven beatitudes together
deal with the same class of persons. The peace-
makers, the pure in heart, they who hunger and
thirst after righteousness, they who are poor in
spirit, and so much more, are always that people
that puts itself under the guardian-care of Jesus
and desire to enter into the kingdom of heaven
which has come nigh.

Virtuous people, even moral idealists, are not
considered here. Undoubtedly there is much in
them that must be highly prized with respect to
this earthly hfe. But this is not reckoned with
now. They who have been initiated in the secret
of salvation, they who have passed from the
world into the kingdom of the Son of God's love,
alone are here considered. Purity of heart which
leads to seeing God is not anywhere conceivable
save in a child of God.

This is not said without a tremor. It is exceed-
ingly difficult to know who is, and who is not, a
child of God. There are those who are, but who
scarcely dare to confess it of themselves; and
others appropriate it to themselves who exhibit
little of its characteristics; while many more on
the other hand make themselves known in a
way that raises serious doubts whether their con-

407

fessed ''childship" is not "stolen goods". But apart
from this, it is certain, that the most faithful chil-
dren of God are continually engaged in bitter
combat, because there is still so much impurity
in their hearts, which every time again is a stain
upon their lives. Even this is not all. It must be
confessed that not infrequently two men or two
women stand side by side in life, one of whom
zealously works for Christ while the other rejects
him, and that, when the test is applied of purity
of heart and behavior, the confessor of Jesus is
put to shame by the denier of Christ. This is
grievous for the faith; and is to be mourned with
tears. It must not, however, be ignored. David
did not do so, neither did St. Paul. "The good
that I would I do not: but the evil which I
would not, that I do" (Rom. 7:19). And in all
ages this sore battle has been waged in the
church of Christ. Hypocrites, false brethren,
stand outside of this. They are not reckoned
with here. Among true confessors, age on age, the
same complaint has been current. It is even
worked out sometimes into a sinful system of the
old and the new Adam, even as Maeterlinck is
doing now from his viewpoint of unbelief. But
however it may be experienced, interpreted or ex-
plained, the phenomenon shows itself every time:
there is true, sincere confession, there is faith of
the right sort, and with it there is a hopeless
struggle with the impurity of the heart.

To be pure in heart moreover is mostly mis-
understood, as though it referred exclusively to
purity from sensual sin. The voluptuary is then
called unclean, the man who drinks to excess, the
epicure, the miser, the effeminate. And cer-

408

tainly these gross sins should first of all be
abandoned. But he who is free from these ex-
cesses is, therefore, by no means yet pure in heart.
Purity of heart embraces the entire life of the
soul. Pride, arrogance, dishonest practice, anger,
hate, falsehood, and so much more, including even
ordinary vanity and self-sufficiency make the
waters of the human heart muddy and unclean.
Whatever does not belong in the heart renders it
unclean. As a pond becomes unclean by what
passersby throw into it, so the human heart is
defiled by everything that God did not create in
it, but which has entered into it from Satan or
from the world. And the awful part of it is
that already at birth so many germs of impurity
were imparted unto it, which until death are never
wholly lost. That we live in a world which
strongly furthers the growth of these impurities.
That we mingle with people, who, inwardly
impure, accustom us, so long as it does not lead
to gross excess, to make light of this impurity in
ourselves, and of like impurity in them. This
weakens our moral sense, our moral judgment,
and makes us dream of a pure heart, the whiles
in many points we remain impure of heart.

If Jesus had meant that they only go out free,
who never caught their own heart in any impure
thought, inclination or sensation again, this beati-
tude would drive the soul to despair. For no one
is like this. The struggle with impure germs in
the heart continues until death. We make ad-
vances, but only by applying an ever finer test;
by detecting impurity in things which before did
not even suggest the thought of sin to us. The
more we advance in faith, the keener the eye of

409

the soul becomes in the discovery of sin, and for
this reason the more we shake ourselves free
from sin, the sense of guilt does not diminish, but
rather increases. The world does not understand
this, when it hears an angel of love and mercy
touchingly plead for forgiveness of guilt. But by
itself there is nothing strange in this.' They who
have far advanced in godly living now discover
sin in what before seemed to them perhaps even
virtue. Jesus knew this, and therefore this can
not have been meant. It does not say: Blessed
are they who have a pure heart, a heart without
sin, but: Blessed are they who are pure of heart.
In the heart the ego dwells, the person acts,
the child of God thinks, ponders, decides and
chooses. Hence there is a difference between what
the self finds in the heart, and what it there orders
and directs. And since no one dwells anywhere
else than in a heart that is inwardly defiled, and
from which all sorts of poisonous vapors arise, the
question regarding purity or impurity of heart is
only decided by the question, whether these cor-
rupting tendencies of the heart are regarded with
deep hatred and fiery indignation, or whether
there is sympathy with them, and they are
granted indulgence by the Will and by the Mind.
Frequent failure is not suflficient proof of impur-
ity of heart. The question is whether impurity is
resisted, whether it is striven against with all the
spiritual power one has at his command, whether
with the invocation of the help of God and of
his Christ and of his angels, everything that
threatens defeat is avoided, and the supplication
is continued: "Lead me not into tempation, but
deliver me from evil."

410

This alone is the point. In the heart self
must stand pure in battle array against the impiu*-
ities that proceed from the heart. When the dis-
tinction is ignored between the self that believes,
and the inequalities that prevail in the heart, you
are lost. For then you identify yourself with
these impurities. Then you sink away in the evil
waters of your own heart and are drowned in
your sinful inclinations.

If, on the other hand, in the inner chambers
of your heart you are bold', heroic and determined
in your stand of bitter hatred against your sinful
inclinations, as against your mortal enemy, the
heart may remain full of impurities until death,
but you are pure of heart, and by God's grace
you triumph again and again over the sin that
attacks you in the heart. Then Satan is not your
tempter, but God is your confederate. Then the
struggle which is never given up brings you the
closer to God, and in the midst of battle there
are moments when with the vision of the eye of
the soul, you see, as it were, your God.

77

"IN THE NIGHT I COMMUNED WITH
MINE OWN HEART."

Sleep and prayer have this in common that
both he who prays and he who sleeps closes his
eyes, and retires from light into darkness. But
they are not the same. He who prays will close
his eyes, in order not to be distracted by what is
seen around him. If possible he would stop his
ears in order not to be distracted by noises from
without. There is also prayer with others to
which other considerations apply. But by itself

one who prays seeks strength in retirement. This
is expressed in what Jesus told his disciples: ''But
thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet
and shut the door behind thee"(Matth. 6:6). And
he set us the example, as often as he withdrew him-
self for prayer into the solitude of the wilderness,
or into the loneliness of the mountains. Even in
Gethsemane the Lord seeks solitude for his last
agonized prayer, and leaves his disciples at a dis-
tance, that he might pray alone.

Insofar as this expresses a desire for rest and
quiet in prayer, it agrees with what we seek in
sleep. But with this the likeness ends. With
prayer we withdraw from the world that in our
fellowship with Almighty God we maj^ be more
fully awake to the higher order of things. In
sleep, on the other hand, we retire from the world,
in order to lose ourselves in unconsciousness and
in forgetfulness of self. At least, such it is, when
everything is normal. In Paradise it would
always have been so. But in stern reality prayer
and sleep are continually confused in a two-fold
way. They are confused in such a way that
prayer is overtaken by what belongs to sleep, and
when we lie down to sleep the soul passes into the
attitude of prayer. Not as though in prayer many
actually fall asleep. That this happens some-
times when prayer is too long, is granted. This,
however, is always exceptional. But what fre-
quently happens is, that he who with others
prays with him who leads in prayer, either allows
his mind to be diverted or unconsciously lets it
rest. And that the night, which was intended for
sleep, frequently ends in prayer, see it in the case
of Asaph, as in Psalm 77 R. V. 2, 5, he complains:

412

"My hand was stretched out in the night to my
God in prayer. Thou, Lord, held mine eyes watch-
ing. In the night I communed with mine own
heart; and my spirit made diligent search."

When we close our eyes for sleep, or for prayer,
we go out from light, by excluding the same, into
desired darkness. We do this with respect to
sleep, that with our spirit we may sink back
into the darkness of unconscious life; and with
respect to prayer, that, shut out from light of
day, we may seek in clearer conciousness the
higher light which shines around the throne of
God.

In nature, light is not disturbed by darkness, for
darkness is there of itself, and it is only by
increasing light that darkness is overcome. At
first there was no light, but darkness. "The earth
was without form and void and darkness was upon
the face of the deep;" and in that darkness Hght
broke forth by the creative word of God. And
when, later on, darkness again covers the earth,
it does not obtrude upon light from without, but
is there of itself, as soon as light withdraws itself.
This is so in the world of matter, and spiritually
it is not otherwise. There was darkness in nature,
and so it remained until God created light; and
so soon as God withdraws the Ught of sun, moon
and stars, darkness returns.

So in the mind of a new-bom child there is
at first entire unconsciousness and ignorance. This
continues until the light of the consciousness
awakens in the soul, and gradually gains in clear-
ness. But this clearness of the consciousness can
fade again into darkness. This happens when one
faints, or is hypnotized, in part also with the insane

413

and the dotage of old age. The same happens
moreover every night. Sleep is the passing of the
light of our consciousness into the twilight of
slumber, and finally into deep, sound sleep. At
night the light of day without, and the light of
self-consciousness within, set in darkness and un-
consciousness. It may even be said that the
more absolutely the light of the self-consciousness
passed out, the better and more healthy was
sleep. Not to know anything on waking of the
seven hours we slept, is the most normal opera-
tion of nature.

In paradise, before he fell, the first man slept
like this. So the young child still sleeps at
mother's breast. So the weary day-laborer of
little intelligence in part still sleeps. But such
sleep is no longer the rule. Our sleep is all too
frequently restless, either when physical causes of
sickness or excesses disturb it, or when the mind
is too excited to allow the self-consciousness to
pass into entire forgetfulness. And so we come to
dreams or to half or entire sleeplessness.

Dreamlife is a dark domain which has been in-
vestigated but little. It is enough that we know
what anxiety and agony it can occasion; how in
sinful imagination it can soil the consciousness;
how prophecies and premonitions sometimes loom
up in it; and also how God has used it more than
once as a means by which to execute his holy
Counsel.

Next to dreamlife, however, and more distress-
ing, is the woe of a sleepless night, when cares
keep the heart awake ; when the mind is too much
on a tension; when a task, which awaits us in the
morning prevents us from sleep, or when sickness

holds back the passionately longed-for sleep from
our eyes. Sleeplessness is a part of human misery,
which is foreign to younger years, but which in
later years few escape.

As in good prayer the mind excludes itself from
the world, but is the more clearly awake to the
higher world of thought, so it can also be in the
dream and in sleepless slumber. In sleep the mind
should sink away in forgetfulness, but on the con-
trary it lives the more intensely in terrifying or
in holy dreams. And in place of rest the mind
finds in sleepless slumber only a greater tension
and far more pressing and wearing activity. And
the Lord is also in this. Asaph expressed it with
fervent piety: "Thou holdest mine eyes watch-
ing."

This spiritual recognition, that it is not chance,
but the Lord who holds our eyes waking, shows
that dreamlife and sleepless slumber serve a pur-
pose. By means of them the Lord intends to do
something; and when at night the heart com-
munes with itself, and the spirit makes diligent
search, this, too, is a part of our life for which
we are responsible. Sin consists not only of
words and deeds, but also in thoughts, also in
what goes on in the mind. We are responsible
even for our dreams. Not for what happens to
us in our dreams, but for what we do in them.
We do not all have the same dreams. Every one
dreams according to the content of his imagina-
tion. And however little we may be lord and
master over our dreams, every one feels, that in
case our Savior has known a dreamlife, it can
not have been otherwise than perfectly holy. In
the night itself we can not make the dream dif-

415

ferent from what it is, but purifying our imagina-
tion and cleansing our thoughts will in time trans-
port our dreams into sinless domains.

Our responsibility for what our mind does in
sleepless hours of night is of necessity far greater.
For in the darkness of night our spirit can invite
the world, or it can meditate and ponder on holy
things. It can also toss itself about in us with-
out will and without aim. What our spirit then
must do in the darkness, is to open the door to
holy things and dwell in a higher world. Even
when in the midst of sleep there is a quarter of
an hour of wakefulness the mind can and should
engage itself with God. The first thought on
awaking must be again of God. "0 God, Thou
art my God: early in the morning will I seek
Thee" (Ps. 63:1 Dutch version). For him who
so understands it, sleepless slumber is a spiritual
gold mine.

In such sleepless nights many people have been
wonderfully enriched in spiritual things. Here
also is Divine mercy. Sleeplessness is occasioned
by our misery, but this misery also God by his
grace transposes into supreme mercifulness. In
such nights God has remembered his own with
such spiritual benefits that a night of sleep has
sometimes seemed a loss. Divine work goes on
through the hours of night in the souls of hia
elect in a way that glorifies his name.

78

"I WAIT FOR THEE ALL THE DAY
LONG."
The Spirit, with the Father and the Son, main-
tains all power, and causes it to work not only in

416

forest and wilderness on earth, but also in sun,
moon and stars. Wherever there is a creature,
the Spirit operates in it. Without the operation
of the Spirit no force of nature is even thinkable.
And this spirit, which thus operates in every
creature, is none other than the Holy Spirit, who
is to be adored in the Triune Being as the third
most holy Person. But this is the difference:
This Spirit is not known nor worshipped in his
holiness, as the Holy Spirit, save among creatures
who are themselves spiritual of nature, and who
have become conscious of their spiritual charac-
ter. Above, the angels of God; here on earth,
the children of men.

A star in the firmament is brute matter and has
no knowledge of holiness. A plant is without any
sense of it. And though Scripture attributes a
soul to an animal, and though it has certain
intelligence and power of will, an animal is out-
side of the sphere in which the holiness of the
Lord is acknowledged. The connecting sense of
the holiness of the Lord is found here on earth
in man alone. Not immediately upon birth. The
infant in the cradle lives only after the flesh. It
knows nothing as yet of holy sensations. Only
as it develops and matures, this sense is grad-
ually awakened. Even then it often takes many
long years, before the higher moral sense of the
holinesses of God awakens sufficiently for the con-
science to react forcibly against the unholinesses
of this world.

But even so, it is all as yet outside of the holy
sphere of our Pentecost. The church alone knows
the grace of Pentecost. It is the holy privilege
of the ransomed of the Lord. The world does

417

not know this grace and does not see it. It ha3
not even the faintest idea of what this grace
might be. For this very reason it should be
strongly guarded against, that on the ground of
this privilege, the church should imagine that the
Spirit does not operate in this as yet unregenerated
world, and that he is a total stranger at least to
the forces of nature in the material, unconscious ,
creation. This error is fundamental among those j
who are too mystical and over-spiritual. Hence 1
it must every time be confessed again and brought
to mind: The Spirit is in every creature. The
Holy Spirit works in every creature of rational
life. But the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, which
the miracle of Pentecost brings, is only known
and tasted in the church of Jesus Christ.

The working of the Spirit, the activity of the
Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of this Holy Spirit
must be collected in this mutual relation as in
one bundle. Or else the child of God mercilessly j
abandons the unconverted world, in direct con- 1
flrct with the prayer of the Lord: "I pray not
that Thou shouldest take them out of the world,
but that (in the world) Thou shouldest keep them
from the evil" (St. John 17:15).

And now the second point which should be care-
fully considered. On the day of Pentecost the
Holy Spirit was poured out for the first time and
once for all, and he has been in the church ever
since, never to leave her again, but to dwell in
and with her forever more. But .... and
this is all too frequently forgotten. What is in
the church is therefore by no means yet present
in everyone that is counted in the church. The
true church of the living God is the body of

418

Christ, the mystical body of which he is the Head ;
and in this mystical body the Holy Spirit dwells,
first in the Head, and from this Head, along all
articulations, tissues and veins inspires every one
who as a living member has been incorporated
in this Body, and lives in connection with this
Body. It is not an individual here and an indi-
vidual there, who each by himself receives the
Holy Ghost, and who now by uniting together
constitute the Body of Christ. A body does not
originate in such a way, that first there are the
members, and that afterward these individual
members are joined together into a body. The
body is conceived and born with the crust and
with the beginnings in it of every member that
later on is to come out from it. Even the beard,
which only covers the chin in later years, is not
brought to it from without, but grows from a
germ which the infant at birth brought with it.
And in this body is the life. Not in one member
by itself. An amputated leg is dead. Even an
arm that is still joined to the body can be ren-
dered as good as dead, and only becomes alive
again when from the body the blood flows into it.
And so it is with the Body of the Lord, which
is the Congregation of the Saints. The head of
that Body can not be touched. Christ is in
glory. The Holy Spirit never departs from Him.
And while Christ as the Head is inseparable from
that Body, the Holy Spirit, the life of the Church,
is always insured and guaranteed in that Sacred
Head. However nearly hfe may be extinct at a
given moment in the members of the Body, it
flows with irresistible pressure from the Head to
the members again. And even presently exercises

419

that wonderfully assimilating power again which
shows itself so gloriously in every reveille. Of
course, this Body is not identical with the visible
church. But the visible church also is not alive
save by the Holy Ghost, who, flowing out from
the Head of the invisible Body of the Lord, keeps
the church alive so long as she does not cut the
vital connection with the invisible Body.

And this is the effect of this indwelling of the
Holy Ghost in the church that he who is con-
nected with this church in an organic, spiritual
way, knows and tastes a fellowship with the Triune
Being, such as is not possible outside of it. There
is, indeed, a certain sense of the existence of God
among the unconverted. Also a certain feeling
of dependence upon a higher Power. The voice
of conscience is also heard in their hearts. When
advanced in years, they frequently think of what
is to come after death. But not with all. Far
from it. It can not be denied that the number
of those who have no more concern about God
than about their sin and about their future after
death is steadily on the increase.

But this does not deny that in Christian as
well as in heathen lands there are always many
people who still hold a certain general religious-
ness in honor. But what these people altogether
miss is not the working of the conscience, but
fellowship with the Holy Ghost. And fellow-
ship with the Holy Ghost is, of course, nothing
else than fellowship with God himself. Not the
fellowship of the flock with the Shepherd, not
outward submission to the appointments of God
in our lot of life, not an all-sided dependence
upon God, but fellowship with God in the sense

420

of the immediate meeting of the Ego of God and
the ego of the heart in the mysticism of grace.

We have heard of the holy Apostle, and in
reading his Epistles we have a certain fellowship
with the Man of Tarsus. But it would be some-
thing entirely different if we lived with St. Paul
for a whole year. This difference applies here.
You may have heard of God, of his wondrous
deeds, of his virtues, of his powers, and God may
still be a stranger to you. But fellowship with
the Spirit allows the soul to meet God personally,
to learn to know God personally, to associate with
the Eternal Being personally, and even as a child
with his father to hold converse with the Triune
God.

This is what waiting on the Lord brings you.
A friend meets friend and presently they part
again. But a child waits for his father because he
belongs with him and misses him when he is away.
And so it is in this fellowship with God through
the Holy Ghost. He who has come to know God
personally as his Father and has been initiated in
his secret fellowship, can not therefore always
continue therein. The many activities of daily
life do not allow it. The distractions of the world
prevent it. We cut it off continually by sinful
suggestions from our impure heart. And then the
Lord frequently withdraws this fellowship from us
in order to stimulate anew and make stronger the
desire after it. But, and this is the chararcteristic,
a child of God, who first enjoyed this fellowship,
and lost it, misses it, he feels the need of it, and
has no rest till it is found again; even on waking
from sleep in the morning, the first impulse is to
obtain this fellowship again.

421

Of two things one: either the child of God has
this fellowship, or he longs for it, he prays for it,
he waits for it all the day long (Ps. 25:5 Dutch
version). In conversion it is a seeking for what
was not as yet possessed. Afterward it is a seek-
ing back what has been lost. And here also it
apphes: ''He that seeks, shall find; he that
knocks, it shall be opened unto him."

''0 GOD, MY GOD."

The flower-bud of prayer unfolds slowly in the
soul of a child. Not that there is no certain
sacred inclination to pray in the heart at a very
early age. But while the bud is early set, the
question is when it will blossom. For many
months the young child was present when mother
prayed, but had no understanding of it, and not
infrequently disturbed mother's prayer by crying.
But at last the moment arrives when for the first
time in prayer it undergoes a peculiar sensation
and is impressed by what is holy. Tender mother
piety tries to confirm this impression. And before
long the child kneels down when mother kneels,
and when he is put to bed the first efforts are
made to teach him to pray himself. Then mother
folds the little hands, closes the eyes and says a
simple prayer. Ten, twelve words. And the dear
little one brokenly repeats them after her.

Here the form is ahead of the reality. The
impression of reverence and awe before the Divine
Majesty is there. A young child loves that first
praj^er. But the Eternal has not yet revealed him-
self in a clearly conscious form to the heart.

422

Hence a young child learns prayer to Jesus more
quickly than direct prayer to the Most High
God. He does not express in his little prayer
anything original. He only repeats something,
and when he first weaves something into his
prayer himself, it is not worship, but the request
for something that employs his childish attention.
It is all, however, a speaking into an unknown
Holy sphere that is above or around his little
bed. It is all along the line of a steady but slow
development, and prayer from his own impulse
to a God who is to be personally addressed, and
who, at least in a limited way, is personally
known, is little seen, as a rule, before the tenth
year. There are exceptions with children of five,
six or seven years of age, especially when they
die young. Ordinarily, however, the fuller un-
folding of the flower-bud into an own, personal
and conscious prayer, does not come much before
the twelfth year. Such is more apt to be the
case, when back of the tenth and twelfth year
there was a period of three or more unfavorable
years, in which the child was obliged to sit still
during long devotions, and when motherly tender-
ness of teaching prayer involuntarily turned into
a purely formal compulsion of keeping eyes closed
and hands folded.

What God himself performed in the child's
soul during those early years the holy angels
know, but we do not. Only in the end the result
becomes evident to us. And this begins to show
itself about the twelfth year. At that age it be-
comes evident whether a spiritual sense is awak-
ened in the heart, or whether indifference, if not
aversion to holy things has risen. If a spiritual

423

disposition of heart shows itself, it is about at
this age that God himself takes mother's task in
hand, and allures the lad or the young girl into a
first personal prayer, which is born from an own
impulse.

But from this on to the moment in which the
soul cries out: "O God, my God," the way is
long. Generally the kindly, tender brightness of
childhood prayer is not a little darkened when
the years of maturity are reached. From all sorts
of books and conversations an entirely different
world of thoughts has entered into the conscious-
ness, which, compared with the poetry of the life
of prayer, either appears bitterly prosaic, or if it
glistens in a choice collection of ideals, which may
encourage the cultivation of plans and intentions
and expectations, it does not focus them in the
worship of an Eternal, glorious Being.

These two currents, the current of the practical
and ideal life in its multiplicity, and the unity
of our life as it is focussed in prayer, antagonize
one another, and in this antagonism sometimes
prayer is forever lost. There are those, alas, who
were spiritual in childhood, and who in adult
years have entirely unlearned the art of prayer.
It also happens that prayer continues to be made
and increases in seriousness and depth, but that
the world is not brought into allignment with it,
and the life of the world remains unreconciled
by the side of it, until the soul is more and more
overcome by an oftentimes sickly mysticism or
by an overexcited spiritualism. But in the ordi-
nary way of piety this period of struggle is fol-
lowed by a period of spiritual fixedness. The

424

relation between the life of the soul and life in
the world has then been regulated. The little
boat no longer drifts with the caprice of wind and
w^ave-beat. A rudder has been provided, a com-
pass has been taken aboard, the lee-boards can
be let down sideways. And thus the soul can
direct its own course as it rides the waters of the
sea of life. Heroic devotion to one's task in life
goes hand in hand with an ever richer develop-
ment of the life of prayer.

The sphere of the life of prayer and the sphere
of one's calling in life begin more and more to
cover one another. Moments of true prayer mul-
tiply themselves, by as much as in the work itself,
the elevation of soul to God becomes more fre-
quent, and ejaculatory prayer occurs more often,
until at length a prayerful disposition of the soul
becomes more and more habitual. On the other
hand, secret praj^er is more and more introduced
into the daily task, and it is felt that prayer is
not bound to single holy utterances, but that our
whole existence with all its needs may be com-
mitted to God and may be sanctified in him.
Thus prayer grows in significance and begins, to
cast its benign shade over our entire life, and so
increasingly becomes the strength of our life.
"Fervent prayer is half the work," is first mechan-
ically quoted, but afterwards becomes blessed ex-
perience. And the moment draws nigh when
finally the "0 God, my God" becomes the clear,
pure expression of what the inner life of the soul
experiences and enjoys in its innermost and holy
emotions.

If it should come to the lips too readily, this
''O God my God" (Ps. 43:4) would be gross

egotism, and coveteous selfishness,
tuous claim of God for oneself. ''My God" with
no thought of others. This sin in prayer is won-
drously overcome in the "Our Father." This
alway prays: Not give me, but give us our daily
bread; not forgive me, but forgive us our debts j
not deliver me, but deliver us from evil. We
never stand before God alone, but always in the
fellowship of love with all God's saints. Hence we
must pray as a member of the Body of Christ, and
not as one who stands by himself alone. But the
"0 God my God" does not antagonize this in any
particular. It aims at something entirely dif-
ferent. It springs from the altogether different
idea that God cares not merely for all his chil-
dren, as a king watches over his million subjects,
but that the Ejng of Kings has this advantage
over all the princes of the earth, that he knows
all his children personally, that he understands
them thoroughly, that he sustains a peculiar rela-
tion to each of them, that he has given each a
calling of his own, that he has apportioned each
a separate task, that he trains each for a particu-
lar destiny in eternit}^ and that therefore he not
merely sustains a general relation to all, but that
in addition to this, he stands in a particular rela-
tion with each of them. This relation is so per-
sonal, that it is never the same with any one else.
He is Our Father, but as a father of seven chil-
dren is the father of all, and yet distinguishes be-
tween them, and adapts himself to each one,
according to his nature, disposition and character,
so the Lord our God is Father of all, and yet
Father in a special sense of each of us, in a
special manner, drawing near to us in a mystical

426

way, and revealing himself to us in mystical
sensations which have a character of their own
and bear an original stamp. He knows us and
we are known of him, such as is not possible with
another person who is differently constituted than
ourselves. He is the "One Sun," which glistens
differently in every dew-drop. Only this, the dew-
drop does not know it. God's child can know it.
And when this knowledge comes to him, he kneels
ciown before "God his God."

Distinguish carefully. From God's side this
peculiar relation, which is different with each of
his children, existed from the moment of concep-
tion and of birth; yea, already before conception
in the calling of the elect from eternity. The
difference lies only on our side. Years of our life
pass by when we indeed know God, and lead a
praj^er-life before his face, but only in a general
sense, which is still weaned from the particular.
We pra}' as others pray. We are one of God's
children, but we are not yet discovered to our-
selves as one such, in whom something special of
the Father is expressed. But from the general
gradually the particular separates itself. That
which imparts to us a character of our own, which
gives us our own 'calling and makes us to be a
particular person, begins to enter into special
fellowship with the Lord our God. And now it is
the unsearchable riches of our God, that he, who
created and elected every one of his children with
a particular disposition and with a proper calling,
will be and can be that special God to every one
of them as belongs to their nature and condition.
Not a general fulfilment for all alike, but for
every one of them that special fulfilment which

427

he needs. Not only the most-special Providence,
but also the most special self-revelation of his
Divine Majesty in the mirror of the life of each
soul. And when it comes to this, but also only
then, there rises from the heart of itself spon-
taneously the jubilant exclamation of worship:
^'0 God my God."

80

"THE LORD IS THY SHADE."

Not only the child, but also he who is older,
would rather look at pictures and prints, than
read; or in reading, at least, would like assistance
for his representation. Hence the preference of
our fathers for illustrated Bibles, and the new
demand for books and periodicals with illustra-
tions. For a long time there was little love for
illustrated books, partly because the plates were
poor and partly because the readers were over-
wise. But since we have become a little more
natural, and photography and photo-engraving in
less than a quarter of a century have improved
the illustration to unknown fineness and beauty,
the old love for seeing is revived again, and by
looking at pictures, our representation has been
uncommonly enriched. And now everything is
embellished with illustrations in a good way and
in a sinful way. The power in letting things be
seen is recognized again. Even newspapers seek
strength in this. At present it is still the picture
with the Word. Gradually it will become ever
more picture and ever less Word, until in the
end exaggeration will avenge itself and the more
just relation will return.

428

The main point with it all is, that our nature
has been so created and disposed, that it prefers
immediate sight. And that it carries this even into
the spiritual desire to see, rather than to arrive
at insight by exercise of thought, is not a defect
in us, neither is it a result of sin, but a Divine
instinct. Of the heavenly glory it is not prophe-
sied that the redeemed will be subtle thinkers,
but that they manifest themselves as children of
God in this particular also, that they desire to see
the Eternal Being, and that they surely shall enj oy
this clear, beatific vision.

Philip's request: ''Lord, show us the Father,
and it sufficeth us," v.'as but the naive expression
of this deep desire, and Jesus' answer to this
question shows, that the entire Christian reUgion
can be capitulated under this viewpoint of sight.
The Apostles gloried in the fact that they had
seen and beheld the Word of life. In prophecy
the vision had prepared the way for this seeing.
And when the apostles portray the glory that is
to come, they prophesy that now we see as in a
glass darkly, but that then we shall see face to
face, and that in this seeing we shall know even
as WG are known. Not reading, not reasoning, no,
but seeing, and clear vision shall constitute heav-
enly bliss. And John adds: "Beloved, it is not
yet made manifest what we shall be, but we
know .... that we shall be like him; for
we shall see him even as he is." This seeing is
cultivated by picture and print, and seeing spiritual
things is aided by the emblem — The Cross, the
All-seeing eye, the emblems of faith, hope and
love, The catacombs of the early Christians are
full of such emblems.

429

That nature, and life itself, is full of imagery,
is of still greater significance. The Bible, more
than any other book, employs it, by which to
show us the spiritual. Apart from picture and
print, and aside from the emblem, it is this
imagery which does not stand by the side of the
Word, but enters into the Word, and shows things
through the Word itself. The true vine, the good
shepherd, the Lamb of God, the sower who sows
the seed, and so much more, it is all imagery
borrowed from nature and from life, which God
employs in his Word, by which to bring the
spiritual nearer to us in greater clearness.

The Scripture does the same thing with respect
to the Most Highest, whereby to bring the view
of the Eternal Being closer to us. This Eternal
Being comes near to us in the imagery of: The
Lord is our Rock, the Lord is our High Tower.
He is our Shield. He is our Keeper. He is the
Father in the house of the many mansions. He
is our King, seated upon the throne of his glory.
And among these images is also this beautiful
one: "The Lord is thy Shade" (Psalm 121:5).
Isaiah uses it when on his knees in worship he
exclaims: "0 Lord, Thou art my God, . - . .
Thou hast been a strength to the poor, ... a
refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat,
for as heat through a thick cloud, so Thou shalt
bring down the noise of tyrants" (Is. 25. Dutch
version). And likewise reads the song of
Hamaaloth: "The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand" (Ps. 121:5).

This figure of speech is beautiful because it is
gentle and tender. It is not a revelation of power.
No strong arm here bares itself. There is scorch-

430

ing heat such as in the desert of the East can
prostrate life. And see, quietly and with majesty,
a thick cloud passes over the desert levels, and
sunlight no more blinds, and sunheat no more
burns, and the traveler breathes again, refreshed and
restored by the Divine shadow from above. Shade I
We sons of the West do not know the glory of
this short word to the man in the East. With
the exception of dog-days, the sun is no fierce
tyrant to us, to make life a burden. To us the
sun is a lovely something, which we seek. The
sun refreshes and cherishes us. We love his light.
But in the land where prophets prophesied and
psalmists sang, where Jesus walked about with his
disciples, everyone seeks by means of thick walls,
heavy hangings, high trees and long white gar-
ments, to escape the fierce tyranny of the sun. In
hot seasons everything there burns, glows, and is
scorched. And in level deserts man and beast
are helplessly surrendered to the heat of the sand
and the scorching rays from above. Everything
calls and prays for shade. And all this, applied
by metaphor to the struggle of. God's people, and
to the battle of life of his servants, inspired both
prophet and Psalmist to refresh Israel with the
glorious word of comfort: The Lord thy God
is thy Shade!

Thy shade against what? Against the heat of
the day metaphorically descriptive of the burden
of the daily task, of the heat and fierceness with
which startling opposition, adversity and perse-
cution overtake you. The, Lord is thy Shade is
allied with the other image: the Lord is thj-
Shield, but has another tendency. When you
have to do with an enemy, a persecutor, whom

431

3^ou know, whom you see before you, and whose
assault is upon you, you need a shield, and he
who in such threatening moments has sought his
shield with God, has always found it there. But
it is entirely different when heat brings burnings
which can not be grasped, which from the mys-
terious background of our lot in life, from covert
opposition, as an elementary force press them-
selves upon us from all sides, and make us dis-
tressed, and which we can not resist. Such is the
case with the Arab in the desert, when the heat
of the sun makes the sand burn under his feet
and the roof of his mouth to be parched. And
so it is with the people of God, when opposition
arises on every hand, when here it is water that
threatens inundation, and there it is the whirl-
wind that carries everything before it. And so it
is in the personal life when because of the will of
God, and for his sake, one trouble brings another,
and one is driven from trial to trial, and the heat
of battle steadily grows in strength and at length
you have to succumb.

And in such an hour when, as we would say,
the water comes up to the lips, but which makes
the Scripture, which is Eastern in its imagery,
speak of a scorching heat from the sun which
threatens utter prostration, then the Lord is the
Comforter, since he is then your shade which
covers you, and makes you breathe again. In
accordance with the sacred imagery this can be
done by means of a cloud which intercepts the
heat of the glowing swn, but it can also be done
in a more tender way. In the desert a father may
take the side of the sun and so make himself a
shade for his child that walks with him. And

432

this is what the Psalmist suggests, when he sings:
''The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand."
And thus the Divine tenderness of highest love
mingles itself in the comforting.

God leaves you not alone. The journey through
the wilderness can not be spared you. The heat
must burn. But the Lord looks after you. He
comes to you. His approach to you is very close.
He takes a stand between the heat of the sun and
you. He takes you by the hand. He covers you
with the shade of his majestic greatness. And so
you go on your way rejoicing, refreshed by God's
love and covered by his holy shade.

All this is poetry. We know it well. But
though it be such, this does not make it fiction.
There is that which no eye has seen and no ear
has heard and has not entered the heart of man,
but which, already, here God gives to be under-
stood, to be seen and to be enjoyed by those who
have been initiated into his secret walk. God can
be far removed from us. He can also be close at
hand. This depends on his grace. This depends
upon the inward condition of the soul. This much
is certain, that when he is close at hand and the
heat of the day threatens to bring prostration, then
he is your shade, and you feel the cool of it on
your right hand. The cooling effect which the
shade of God brings, must be felt. It must be
felt in the soul. And if you do not feel it, may
it not be because you are not near unto God?

81

"HE INCLINES HIS EAR UNTO ME."
The ear is inclined toward someone, either when
our hearing is impaired, or when he to whom we

433

listen has a weak voice, or when the distance is
too great that separates him from us. The first
is impossible with God. How should he, who has
planted the ear, not hear; how should he who has
created sound, and the hearing of it, not hear all
creaturely sound? Hence, when it is said of God,
that he inclines his ear to our prayer, it always
means a grace to usward, an act of Divine com-
passion, whereby the Majesty in the heavens
adapts himself to us, bows Himself down to us,
and seeking, meets us in the way.

True prayer is always clothed with deep
humility. There are all sorts of prayers. Prayer
that is said; words that are muttered thought-
lessly; prayer because the stated hour has struck;
prayer from sense of duty; prayer born from
need; prayer from deep longing after God;
prayer for higher, heavenly strength; prayer from
gladness in happy thankfulness; prayer for one-
self; prayer for others; prayer when on2 is alone;
prayer with others; spoken prayer; silent prayer;
— the form always changes, and each has its own
value. But in all true prayer, in which one can
not rest until he knows that God listens to his
prayer, the soul feels small, the person is con-
scious of weakness, and in his own estimation he
is as nothing, and less than nothing, before the
Triune God, and self is effaced in order that God
may draw us up to himself, that the heart may
be lifted up, and that we msiy have freedom of
utterance.

What is the world compared with the firma-
ment, and what are we who pray, compared with
the world in which we are one of more than a

434

thousand millions of living souls? There are a few
mighty ones who feel, and must feel, that they
are great in the world. Think of a Napoleon, or
of a Bismarck. But there is nothing of this in
the ordinary man who prays, whose name is
scarcely known outside of his village or town.
The mighty ones on earth have their own account
with God. We can not reckon with them here.
We deal here with the ordinary worshipper who
is scarcely known outside of his own little circle.
And what is such an one, if he bends his knees
before the Most High God, the Almighty Creator,
who maintains and governs this little world, and
the many thousand suns and stars which sparkle
and shine in the heavens that endlessly spread
themselves above us?

In all true prayer, therefore, i. e. with such
prayer with which in some measure at least the
soul thinks of the majesty and greatness of God,
he who prays can never be anything else than a
nothing in his own esteem, and be deeply con-
scious that his prayer is but a passing breath,
unless it pleases the Lord to incline his ear unto it.

This need springs from the insignificance of the
human voice, from the immeasurable distance, and
more still from the indispensableness of personal
inclination to him who prays. When we would
have prayer pierce the heavens, our voice is so
much the acme of weakness, that it makes no dif-
ference whether a leader in the house of prayer
raises his voice so as to make it resound through
the arches, or whether a sick man on his bed
breathlessly whispers his low prayer to God. Even
where no sound of voice is heard at all, the silent

435

prayer must be breathed from the soul. The voice
here avails nothing. We can compel a hearing
with men by speaking more loudly and boldly;
but when we would speak to "our Father in
heaven" the voice loses absolutely all significance.
Then the stentorian voice of the orator has no
advantage whatever over the weakest voice of a
child. And whether the shipwrecked man in his
extremity cries out his "0 God, help me" in the
face of the howling tempest, it is all the same.
Whether strong or weak, our voice avails nothing
here. The bleating of the lost sheep can make the
shepherd hear. Our voice can never move God
to hear us.

The voice in prayer is for our own sake and for
the sake of those who pray with us. Even on our
knees in solitude we feel impelled to express our
prayer in words. Clearness only comes into our
prayer by the means of words. It brings relief,
it unburdens the soul. The undulation of sensa-
tions within comes to rest in the whispered or
spoken word of prayer. A prayer without words
can cry out from the soul after God, but that
takes place instinctively and we do not even call
that prayer. Real prayer goes through our con-
sciousness. He who prays must know what he
wants to pray for. Hjs memory must be active.
He must think of the needs, for which he prays.
He must know the mercies for which he gives
thanks. He must be fully aware of the task in
behalf of which he invokes Divine help. From
the mysticism of the heart the praying soul must
come to be clearly conscious, and this comes to
pass in the word and through the voice, and this
makes prayer perfect. This shows itself still more

436

strongly in prayer with others. Then the voice
is the instrument which brings the prayer of him
who prays to the soul of those who pray with
him. He who leads in prayer must be like him
that plays the keys of the organ. His soul plays.
The soul of the others must sound with his. And
thus there is common prayer; a special grace
imparted to us by God.

Then comes the distance. When we want to
ask some one across a stream or lake for some-
thing, we naturally raise our voice, and it helps
us when he on the other side turns his ear toward
us, and by his hand back of it shows that he
listens, and tries to understand our call. And
what broad waters flow between us and God, when
we want to call on him. The whole world lies
between and all the absorbing interests of life,
and the immeasurable distance to the heaven of
heavens, where the Lord is enthroned in ever-
lasting light.

Our Savior commanded us not to begin prayer
by addressing the Holy Spirit within us, not with
calling upon the Omnipresent One, who compasses
our going and our lying down and whose hand is
upon us, but with a reverent invocation of "Our
Father who art in heaven," and the Heidelberg
Catechism says so beautifully, that we should do
this, in order not to think of the great God in an
earthly way. Of course, this is not all. By con-
tinuance prayer becomes more intimate. This
means that in prayer God gradually reveals his
holy presence to us and comes close to us. And
at length even enters our heart, when the Holy
Spirit prays with us and for us, and teaches us
how to pray. But to begin with this is sickly

437

mysticism. At first we face the distance. First
the soul must lift itself to higher things. Not
here below but above is the altar of the prayers
of the saints, which burns with incense before his
face. No more here below, but in heaven our
Savior is seated at the right hand of God, and
prays for us, and by his intercession supports our
prayer. First ''Lift up your hearts," the sursum
cor da, and then as we pray God in his majesty
graciously condescends to us.

And this true impulse of prayer expresses itself
in this, that prayer can sometimes become a call-
ing, a crying, a roaring, as the Psalmist says; and
only when we observe that God inclines his ear
to us, and regards us, and hearkens to our prayer,
does the praying soul find rest. When in prayer
we feel that the listening ear of God inclines itself
to us, the distance is bridged, and we know that
God has come near to us, and that we are near
unto God.

And so, at length, prayer reaches its highest bliss
in what in the third place we called the personal
turning of God to him who prays. Thousands
upon thousands call on God every morning and
every evening for help and for salvation. True,
the number of those who no longer pray is on the
increase. But still the numbers of those who in
times of need and stress cry after God for deliv-
erance are incalculably great. And now the point
is, to knc^ that among those thousands and tens
of thousands who are to be noticed, God also
looks on us, and that he knows that we, too, call
upon him. Among all these voices that cross each
other and mingle together to have our voice also
penetrate to the Almighty. If we may express it

438

in a very human way, to know, to perceive, to
feel, that we, too, come to our turn, and that for
us also there comes a moment of hearing — that
is what he who prays means, when he gives jubi-
lant thanks, that God has also inclined the ear to
his prayer.

Of course, this is not so with God. He does
nothing in turn. He hears every one who prays
immediately and all at the same time. But in our
human consciousness there is always in our prayer,
when it penetrates, a sense that God now turns
also to us, and inclines his ear to our personal
prayer. That he inclines to your prayer differ-
ently than to the prayer of others, because the
Most High God knows your particular life, under-
stands your personal nature, estimates your special
need o^ soul and therefore has stored up for you
an altogether particular hearing of your prayer.

And this is the glory of prayer. You call upon
God, and he knows you. He distinguishes you
as one among thousands. However insignificant
you may be, with whatever burden of sin you
come to him, he does not pass you by. He
despises not your supplication. He turns him-
self to you, and inclines his listening ear. And
when you perceive this inclination of God, prayer
becomes a seal to you of your election. With
close by you, but that eternally you belong to him.
kings and princes on earth, the mighty and the
great alone are admitted. To him, the King
of Kings, even the most forgotten and despised
have access. When you pray, and God inclines
his ear to your prayer, you are close to God, and
your Father who is in heaven, seals the fact to
you, that not only now you have his presence

439

''TAKE NOT THY HOLY SPIRIT
mOM ME."

The Holy Scripture speaks of a seeking of God's
face. "Blessed is the people that know the joy-
ful sound: they shall walk, 0 Lord, in the light
of thy countenance" (Ps. 89:15). But the Scrip-
ture speaks also of something more intimate, when
it comes to a mutual fellowship, when not only
the light of God's countenance shines on us, but
when also the soul lifts itself up to God. ''The
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him;
and he will show them his covenant" (Ps. 25:14).
But with the third round it goes still further,
when Almighty God not only makes his face to
shine upon us, and admits us to his secret walk,
but when he enters into our heart, makes it his
temple, and as Holy Spirit dwells in it. "The
Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which can not be uttered, and he that
searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of
the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the
saints" (Rom. 8:26-27).

This three-fold degree of fellowship should be
carefully distinguished. He who stands on the
first round of this ladder of fellowship has turned
away from the vanities of the world and has
accustomed himself to the light that shines from
above. He walks no longer in his own light, but
in the light of God's countenance. The darkness
is past. He knows in whom he believes. And
the people that thus walk in the light of the
Divine countenance, who enjoy this not merely
from time to time, but continuously, the Scripture

440

pronounces blessed. Then of itself and uncon-
sciously the second round is reached, the entering
upon the secret walk with God. Not that the
light of God's countenance shines on us all, but
in this way, that the soul has become a mirror,
from which this light is reflected. That God
shines on us, and that the soul shines out toward
God. This is the secret of the Lord which is
inwardly disclosed to us. But even this is not
enough. The intimacy of living near unto God
goes still further, enters in still more deeply, and
then it comes to this indescribable, this unspeak-
able, this impenetrable reality that the Lord God
unites himself in the Holy Spirit so closely with
our spirit, that he is not merely above and around
us, but that he is also in us, that he turns into
us, makes our heart his dwelling place, and that
in our inmost self he speaks to us and we to him.

This highest round is not reached at once. There
is progression here, a blessed development and
deepening, which is not acquired by all, and in
which provisionally, they who have reached it,
find themselves only now and then. This is
known as their most blessed moments; as a peace
of God which comes and goes again, and which,
when it is lost, is sought again anew. The break
can come from lack of spiritual training. It can
come through a superior power from without. But
in most cases it comes through sin. The latter
was the case with David, and therefore from his
desolate and "God-estranged" heart the prayer at
once arose: "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me"
(Ps. 51:11).

When we treat of the Holy Spirit, our finite
mind deals with mystery. Human language has

441

no words for it. Our conception here fails of all
analysis. We can believe, we can undergo sensa-
tions, we can enjoy, but here on earth, at least,
and in our state of sin the deep mystery of the
Triune Being of God can not be unveiled to us.
We worship Almighty God as our Father who is
in heaven. We worship the God of all grace in
the Only-begotten Son, whom he gave unto us,
whom he sent, and delivered in our behalf. And
we worship still more intimately the thrice Holy
One in the Holy Ghost, whom we possess as Com-
forter in our hearts. In whatever direction our
thinking and pondering moves, whether to the
world round about us, whether in the world of
our heart, it is always God whom we meet,
it is always in God that our searching gaze finds
its point of rest, it is always to God that our
worship and devout adoration lift themselves. It
is always God who overshadows us, and inwardly
fills us with his holy love. One and the self-same
God, one glorious and ever-blessed Being, one
Omnipotence which carries and knows us.

But it remains a mystery. A mystery which is
tender to our heart, rich in blessed enjoyment,
ever more intimately revealing itself to the seek-
ing soul, but far transcending all our thinking, all
our understanding, all our study and pondering.
It is the most real of all realities. It is the one
thing that stays by when once the world shall
fall away from us, and consciousness shall be
darkened in the haziness of death. It is the
secret of the Lord at which scorners laugh, which
leaves the world cold, awes the sinner and strikes
terror at his heart, but which, according to the
covenant of peace, is shown to God's child in the

442

stillness of solitude. It is the Holy Ghost him-
self who, entering into the heart of God's child,
sets the seal upon it of this Triune Mj'stery.

But for this reason fellowship with the Holy-
Spirit in us is exceedingly sensitive and tender.
Nothing must come in between, or it is gone. It
can not withstand anything or it is lost. It can
not bear any disturbance, or it has fled. Not
that the Holy Spirit withdraws himself and leaves
us to ourselves. On the contrary he remains in
the heart which he has chosen for his dwelling
place. Neither Satan nor the world can expel
him from his temple. And this is his Divine love,
that dwelling in us, he allows himself to be
grieved, to be offended, to be hurt and wounded
by our sin, and still continues his stay.

This does not seem to you to be the case. In
the hour of transgression, you feel that the Holy
Spirit became a stranger to you; that he went
far away from you; and that he could scarcely
be reached by your earnest supplication. He
truly continued to hold tenure in your heart, but
in the heart itself a wall of separation was reared
between your spirit and the indwelling Holy
Ghost. The door of the temple within was locked
by your own ego. You descended in your own
being to the deeper underground, above which
this temple raises itself. In this temple the Holy
Ghost was still enthroned, but you had no more
access to it. So all fellowship was broken. All
secret intercourse was cut off — your sin had
wound you round as a spider the fly. And while
the Holy Spirit, whom you grieved, in seeking
compassion reaches out after you again, you draw
yourself back in your own sense of guilt.

443

And even in such moments, faith that is not
understood, continues to shine through. After
his deep fall David felt the anxious estrangement."
He realized that as long as God looked upon his
sin, no restoration of fellowship was possible, and
therefore he prayed: "Hide thy face from my
sins, and blot out all mine iniquities" (Ps. 51:9).
He became inwardly conscious that his polluted
heart was bound to estrange him from God, and
therefore he pleaded in such touching and beauti-
ful terms: ''Create in me a clean heart, 0 God,
and renew a right spirit within me." He walked in
deep darkness, and so he prayed that the light of
God's countenance might pour down its beams
again upon him. But though he bruised his
guilty head against the wall of separation, in that
same striking moment the sense of faith was alive
in him, that behind that wall the Holy Ghost
still reached out to comfort him, and therefore
he prayed not: "Give me back thy Holy Spirit,"
but altogether differently: "Take not thy Holy
Spirit from me."

Thus the soul that is troubled and wretched
holds fast to faith. It does not understand this
in itself; it does not grasp this; but it feels that
grace does not let go, that grace is in God, that
God with his grace still operates within, and it
only fears that this grace, which is in God him-
self, might be removed from it. And against this
fear the soul prays, supplicates, cries: 0 God,
stay by me, stay in me. Let me not go forever.
And this supplication keeps on, in earnestness and
in sincerity, until at length in unspeakable com-
passion the door of the temple opens itself again.

444

And then the joy of salvation returns; the
meeting again between the soul that had deeply
grieved the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit who
rather than let go the soul of God's child, had
allowed himself to be grieved. It is well with him
who has experienced this with regard to his own
sin. He alone understands what it is to have the
Holy Ghost as his Comforter.

83

"KNOW YE NOT THAT YE ARE THE
TEMPLE OF GOD?"

In prophecy it is said, that God "turned aside
to tarry for a night" (Jer. 14:8). This figure is
borrowed from the wayfaring man who at sun-
down turns in to spend the night, and when, in
early morning the sun appears above the horizon,
he leaves the hospitable inn and pursues his way.
Applied to the Holy One of Israel, this means
that at times the prophets were aware of the
indwelling of the Spirit in the soul; but that it
was not permanent, that it was transient, and that
soon the God close by had become again a God
afar off. By the side of this experience of a God
who turns in to tarry for a night, and then leaves
the soul again, Jesus puts the promise, that on
the day of Pentecost, God the Holy Ghost, shall
come to the people of the Lord, and shall not go
away, but abide with them forever. St. John, in
his Gospel (7:39), states this forcibly, when he
says: "The Holy Ghost was not yet given, be-
cause that Jesus was not yet glorified." This
can not mean, of course, that the Holy Spirit did
not as yet exist, but signified that the Holy Ghost

445

had not yet taken up his abode in the church
permanently, because, only after his ascension,
Jesus would send the Comforter from the Father
to the church.

And so it must be understood when the Apostles
speak of the church as of a "Temple of God" and
as a ''dwelling place of God in the Spirit." "Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that
the spirit of God dwelleth in you" (I Cor. 3:16),
not merely signifies that the Holy Spirit turns
into the hearts of the saints, but much more and
much more strongly, that having entered the
heart, he abides there permanently; that he never
more leaves the heart that has once been enriched
with his indwelling, but according to Jesus' prom-
ise he remains there forevermore.

It indicates a new state of things, an entirely
different dispensation of the Spirit. What under
the old dispensation took place transiently, what
was an occasional descent from on high into the
hearts of a very few, under the new dispensation is
an age upon age indwelling in the whole church.
Under the old dispensation the separation between
God and man was maintained. The only dwell-
ing of God among men which was permanent was
in Zion. But under the New Covenant, in virtue
of the sacrifice of Golgotha, the wall of separation
has been done away for good; what separated
man from God has forever been brought to nought.
God has not merely come to his people, but has
come into his people. The temple of Zion has
ceased to exist, and in the place of it has come
the church of the living God. She is now God's
temple. God dwells in her.

446

Thus humanity is divided. There is the unre-
generated world, with which the separation con-
tinues, and which has no more temple on Zion.
And there are the people of the Lord, who are no
longer carnal, but live their hves in the spirit.
Among this people, in this Church of the Lord,
all separation has fallen away. She is more closely
allied with heaven than with the world. She has
become the permanent, abiding, the never-ending
dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

But care must here be taken. This does not
mean that God's spirit reveals his operations in
God's saints alone. He who says this, denies the
omnipresence of God, the Holy Ghost, and limits
his activities. The Holy Ghost is himself God,
and therefore there is nothing in God's creation
in which this Spirit does not operate. Not alone
in everything human, but in every creature, where
there is a working of the Son and of the Father,
there is likewise a working of the Holy Ghost.
With every other representation the unity of the
Threefold Divine being is lost. In creation itself
the omnipotence of God is evident; that is to
say, the omnipotence of the Father, as well as the
omnipotence of the Son, and the omnipotence of
the Holy Spirit. From the Father is the fullness
of power, from the Son the fullness of thought,
from the Holy Ghost the fullness of energy. There
is no force of nature, no organic working, no
Divinity evident in the richness and beauty of
nature, but the Holy Ghost glorifies himself in it.
And if this is evident in the inanimate creature, it
is much more strongly evident in the conscious
creature. To think of an angel apart from the
fact, that all talents and gifts which operate in

447

him, are derived from the Holy Ghost, is absurd.
The same applies to man. No general has ever
excelled, no poet has ever sung, no scholar has
ever reaped the admiration of the world, no
artist has ever enriched life with his creations,
but it was the Holy Spirit, who caused the spark
of genius to glow in him.

Such and not otherwise is the teaching of
Scripture. It even goes to far, that no gift of
the Spirit, and no talent among men has ever
been used against God, but it was the Holy
Ghost who not only apportioned this talent, but
also maintained it, and caused it to work. Hence
this is the awful judgment which awaits the man
who has misused his talent against God, that once
he shall know what it is, with a gift of the Holy
Ghost to have turned himself against God.

The indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the soul
is altogether different from these gifts. Entirely
apart from our gifts and talents we have a per-
sonal life. This personal life enables us to com-
pany with the three persons in the Godhead per-
sonally. As among men we company with one
another, so that they and we enter into conscious
fellowship, and undergo one another's influence,
mutually receive and return love, enter into their
thoughts and acquaint them with our own, suffer
their superiority, enter into covenant and rela-
tion with them, devote ourselves to them and
make sacrifices for them, so it is given man to
enter into personal intercourse with the Holy One,
in secret fellowship and in holy communion. This
indwelling of the Holy Ghost in us signifies, that
God not only allows himself to be sought of us,
but that he himself has come to us; that by

448

regenerating us he has enabled us to obtain per-
sonal fellowship with him, that he did not wait
till we had found him, but that ^e made the
approach to us and touched us not from with-
out but from within, and that m the deepest
secrecy of the life of the soul he estabhshed the
tie which made us to taste his presence m the
very roots of our being, m the deepest ground
of our sensations, in the immediacy of our first
perceptions and feelings.

This Divine fellowship does not depend on
natural gifts and talents, for he who is "^ost richly
endowed with genius may suffer the lack of it, and
the plainest among the plam may enjoy it to the
full. In humamty itself God has implanted the
disposition for this. Sm alone has disturbed it.
In regeneration God restores this disposition. Then
fellowship IS possible again. Then fellowship
comes again. Then in the deepest secrecy of hi.
soul man is one again v/ith God

This is the work of the Comforter. It is not
yet the heavenly state, which will be all joyous
when even the memory of our sm not only, but
of the fact of our ever having been sinners will
be taken from us, and will be cast into the depth
of the sea. Here we still feel that we undergo a
Divine, artistic operation. By having o^^ under-
standing darkened and by being blinded and for-
saken we are reminded again and again of the
antithesis between this glorious indwelling of thB
Holy Ghost, and the fact that we have been born
S sin With us the Holy Spirit continuously
reacts against our, sinful nature. And ^heref^^^^^^
here on earth he is and remains our .pomforter.
For this is the blessed comfort of a chdd of dust,

449

that while on one side he still sinks away in
misery, yet under it all and with it all he remains
conscious of the blessed presence of the Holy
Ghost. That the Holy Spirit does not go away,
that he does not allow himself to be sent away,
that he does not give us up, but continues to
dwell with us, and to take us as we are, is his
infinite, his Divine love. That he did not merely
"turn in to tarry for the night," but that he
abides with us forever, is our joyous bliss, and
the glorious richness of our comfort.

84

"ACCUSTOM NOW THYSELF TO HIM."

The exhortation that we should accustom our-
selves to God, carries a reproach that brings
shame. It is as though one would say to a child:
"Accustom yourself to your mother I" This might
be said with regard to a stepmother, stepfather or
stepbrother, but we do not accustom ourselves
to our own mother, who has carried us under her
heart. We love her with all the fidelity and
affection of the heart of a child.

We only accustom ourselves to what is strange
to us, or what by estrangement has become so.
When, therefore, we are exhorted to accustom our-
selves to God, it implies that our Father who is
in heaven has become a stranger to us; that this
estrangement is still a barrier in the way of our
fellowship with God; and that we should endeavor,
the sooner the better, to accustom ourselves again
to God, in order that this obstacle might be
removed.

460

-With God, of course, this does not mean, what
it does with us, when we speak of becoming
accustomed to one. We speak of it most fre-
quently when we first come in touch with some
one who acts strangely, a man of strong peculiar-
ities, who is unpreposessing. Then it is our duty
not to be repelled by him, but indulgently to seek
common points of interest with him, and to adapt
ourselves to his strange manner. We also speak
of accustoming ourselves to one, who either by a
difference in development is far above us, or who
by social difference has another outlook upon life.
For this makes a difference in inclinations and
sympathies, in mental activity and choice of voca-
tion in life. He is interested in what does not
interest you. And in the great drama of life you
play in an altogether different act from his. Thus
to accustom oneself to another, in all such cases,
means, that we restrain ourselves, that we smooth
down the sharp edges of our own character, and
that constrained by the dictates of love and the
necessity of social intercourse, we enter into his
life, in order to understand him, to sympathize
with him, and gradually to adopt him into the
circle of our affections.

All this of itself is entirely different with re-
spect to the Lord our God. With him we have
to do with our God and our Creator, with our
Lord and our King, with our Father who is in
heaven. Everything in him that appears strange
to us is our own fault, our own sin; it is sign
and token that we are wrong; that we are corrupt
461

in our sensations and feelings, and that we are
astray in the deliberations of our hearts. If we
were what we ought to be, there would be no
estrangement from God, and no need of the
exhortation to accustom ourselves again to God.
Hence the saying: "Accustom now thyself to
him," is a judgment that is passed on us, a com-
plaint against our mode of life, and at the same
time it is a sacred admonition to become a child
again in fellowship with our Father.

What is unbelief in these our days? From what
cause is the quiet, firm confidence in what God has
revealed unto us, shaken with many, even among
the faithful? One first speaks of impenetrable
secrets; then of problems which defy the under-
standing: gradually it is doubted whether revela-
tion is correct, until, at length, in the face of
Scripture and experience the human interpretation
of life is boldly posited as the only valid one.
What this amounts to is, that feeling strange to
God and to his Word, there is no willingness to
get accustomed to him, to his doings and to his
Word. On the contrary it is demanded that God
shall change him&elf and show himself to be con-
form to our thought. If we accustom ourselves
to him we must change and reform ourselves
until we are meet for God. But doubt and un-
belief demands that our confession of God shall
be modified in such a way, that it shall turn out
a God for us who shall suit us.

This struggle was not so sharp and bitter at
one time, because at least in its main outlines

452

the Bible interpretation of life was counted valid
in science, in public opinion, and therefore in edu-
cation, and in the better forms of social inter-
course. He who in those better days believed, was
carried by the general tenor of life, and there
was no occasion for offense, not even among
the younger people. But all this has changed.
Every fundamental idea about God, creation, the
fall, the Atonement, life after death and the last
judgment, which was once common property, has
been given up by science, has become uncertain
in public opinion, has been banished from educa-
tion, and dismissed as topics of conversation from
among more serious-minded people. And not this
alone, but gradually an entirely different system
of fundamental ideas has been put in place of it.
An altogether different confession has arisen, a
different catechism has found entrance. Broadly
ramified, the rationalistic interpretation of life now
stands in public opinion side by side with the
Christian Confession.

Thus to the estrangement from God which is
occasioned by sin, a second estrangement has been
added, which tempts us to adopt an interpreta-
tion of life, which openly conflicts with the plan,
doings and wisdom of God, as revealed in his
Word. Everything in God has thereby become
strange to many people. In no single particular do
they feel at home with God or in his Word. The
child has ceased to know his Father. Hence the
call : "Accustom now thyself to God" is most serious
and doubly significant. It now means: Disen-

4&3

gage yourself from the tie that binds you to the
wisdom of the world, and with all your mind and
heart enter again into the plan and most holy
thoughts of God.

Do not take this in a philosophical sense.
Interpret it practically in behalf of life. Especially
with regard to the mystery of suffering, to which
Eliphaz applied it, even though mistakenly, in
the case of Job. Suffering would be no mystery
amid the hardships of life, if it were always care-
fully measured out to individuals, according to
their misdoings against God or man. For then
nothing would be evident in suffering save right-
eous retribution, and for the rest every one's lot
in life would be alike. This thought certainly
implies the unchangeable fact of eternal retribu-
tion, in accordance with every man's deeds,
whether they be good or evil. The mistake,
hov/ever, is, that this retribution of eternal justice
is confused with the mystery of suffering here on
earth; so that suffering is taken individually, and
estimated by each personal manner of life and
behavior. This makes us stumble on the hard
fact, that we are offended at the godless man who
prospers, and even worse, that our soul smarts
with indignation at the sight of a true child of
God, a noble character, a faithful servant of
Christ, who, as we would say, did nothing wrong,
overwhelmed by waves of affliction. That men
might do so, we understand. When a tyrant
honors the godless, and harasses the children of
God, we think it dreadful, because it is always

454

God who allows it; but we can submit to this.
But that God himself inflicts this in sickness, and
by means of cruel death, is and remains at this
viewpoint a stumbling block which one can not
get over, and which has killed much rootless faith.
What accounts for this, save that God's thoughts
are entirely different from our thoughts, and that
instead of accustoming ourselves to his plan, we
stubbornly maintain our interpretation of suffer-
ing in opposition to him.

With God, individual retribution is connected
with the last judgment, and not with sentence
passed by an earthly judge, and far less still with
suffering, which he brings upon us. According to
the teaching of Scripture, sin is no evil that cleaves
to single individuals, but a poison that has
entered into our whole race. The creation of man
was not individual, but in it was created a race,
all mankind, which, in all ages and among all
nations forms one whole. Not a large number of
people that only afterwards by laws and other
w^ays are counted as one whole, but our human
race; from which individuals proceed, and to
which they belong as twigs and leaves to a tree.
And to save the race of man which he created,
God brought suffering into the world of men, as
an antidote for the poison of sin. With him suf-
fering is a cup of sacred medicine which he
administers not to the individual person, but to
our race, in order to counteract the poison of sin.
And now he selects priests and priestesses who
are called of him, to administer 'the sacrament of

455

suffering to the world. If he elected godless peo-
ple only for this purpose, they would harden
themselves against suffering, and the godly would
pride themselves on being spared. The medicine
would do no good. It would bring spiritual pet-
rifaction. It would bring loss for gain.

No, to bear suffering, he calls first of all upon
the best, the most godly, the most noble, his
prophets and his martyrs. Thereby the holy
operation of the medicine goes forth and accom-
plishes that whereunto he has appointed it. The
Cross explains it. God so loved the world, that
he gave it his only Begotten Son. Personally
Jesus stands entirely outside of sin. He is not
only the most godly, the noblest, the best of the
children of men, but he is the Son of Man, and
upon him comes the burden of suffering as upon
no other man. And from no suffering among
the children of men has there gone forth an opera-
tion unto salvation as from his Cross. And there-
fore, the Cross expresses the thought of God, the
appointment of God, the wisdom of God. Whoso-
ever would understand his own sorrows and the
suffering of the world, must accustom himself to
this appointment, to this thought and to this
wisdom of God. And he who does this has heav-
enly comforting, yea, he can give thanks that
the cup of suffering has not passed him by. He
feels that he is himself a priest, in order that
following after the One High priest, he may, in
the name of the Lord, administer the sacrament
of suffering.

456

86

"THE SPIRIT OF MAN IS A CANDLE OF
THE LORD."

To be near unto God is a luxury of soul which
by grace can be our portion also in unconscious-
ness. When a child of God that enjoyed the
secret walk is put under an anesthetic for the
sake of an operation, it does not break fellowship
between his heart and God. The same is true of
a swoon. In high fever when the heated blood
over-stimulates the brain, and delirium ensues,
the relation with God remains equally intact.
Even sleep, which for many hours deprives us of
self-knowledge, may not be taken otherwise, and
this entirely apart even from our consciousness
in dreams. And yet in each of these conditions,
from our side, as far as conscious life goes, being
near unto God is inactive. But consciousness of
fellowship with God is not, therefore, lost. Being
wakened by a gentle touch, it is felt again and
resumed. Consciousness of this fellowship has
only become inactive. It is with this as with
our capacity of sight. This, too, in sleep is not
gone, but its at rest. Electric light illustrates this
clearly. When the button is turned, everything
is light, and when it is turned again, everything
is dark. The power remains the same. It only
draws itself back from shining.

From God's side, on the other hand, fellow-
ship with the soul of his child operates contin-
ually; even under narcotic influence, in a swoon

457

and during sleep it maintains itself and acts. The
knowledge of this imparls rest, as one undergoes
an anaesthetic, and no less that peaceful feeling
with which at night we lose ourselves in sleep.
"Let me sleeping wait for thee; Lord, then sleep
I peacefully," as it was sung in Hernhutt. And
who can doubt but that the strength-imparting
and strength-renewing operations with which our
Father who is in heaven favors his children, are
yet more manifold and effective in sleep than by
day. The third part of our life, that binds us
to our couch, by no means serves the needs of
the body alone. It meets a higher end. Particu-
larly by night God builds his temple in our hearts.
This detracts nothing from the fact that, "To
be near unto God" only obtains its highest sig-
nificance, when with our clear consciousness of
day we hold blessed fellowship with God. When
we perceive, observe and know, that the soul is
near to God and God near to the soul; when,
humanly speaking, there is an exchange of per-
ceptions between God and us; when we, speak-
ing reverently, with the telephone call up God in
prayer, and far from on high the answer comes.
But consider well, that this calling and answering
are not exhausted by the words you stammer
and the ideas which thereby operate in you. A
mother has tender, affectionate communion with
the little one at her breast, apart from any word
and outside of any intellectual understanding.
That which operates in this fellowship and main-
tains it, is life itself, the drawings of the blood,

468

the thrilling of the feeling. And though, when
the child shall have become a youth and a young
man, this fellowship will express itself in words
and in ideas, the root of this communion, even in
later years, will reach deeper than the lips that
speak the word. What does not the look of the
eye convey, the expression of the face, a tear a.
smile, and how sweeth^ does not operate in and
under all this the commimion of the same blood,
the tenderness of hiding love?

All this is not unconscions, but constitute? part
of the consciousness. It ii as the fragrance of a
flower, as an atmosphere of love which we breathe
in. It is the perfume and the atmosphere of the
heart, which we drink in with full draughts. And
truly, you well know what the scent of a rose is,
and of an hyacinth; you are perfectly conscious
of it, even though the ablest botanist is not able
to analyze this perfume in ideas, nor to describe
it in words. Thus to be consciously near unto
God, means far more than you can understand, or
express in words. It is a becoming aware, a per-
ceiving, a feeling, which may not be attributed
to the nerves. That creates false mysticism. But
it is a perceiving and an expressing of self in a
spiritual v.ay, in the immediate union of your
inner sense with the life of God.

To make this plain the Scripture distinguishes
between the soul and our inner being. It speaks
on one hand of the heart and of the soul, and on
the other hand of something that lies far behind
and deep underneath the two. This is expressed

459

plastically in several ways, mostly by contrasting
the heart and the reins, and also by speaking of
the bowels, or as in Proverbs 20:27, by contrast-
ing the soul with "the innermost chambers of the
belly." Translating this into our language, "the
soul of man" here means our consciousness, and
the latter clause what we call: Our hidden inner
being. In this sense it is said, that "our con-
sciousness is a candle of the Lord that searches
our innermost being." Our consciousness is a
searchlight which God himself sends forth across
our entire inner being, in order that in its bright-
ness and clearness we should learn to know our
own inmost self.

Thus only are these words intelligible to us,
and unveil a deep, far-reaching thought, which
penetrates and appeals to us. Our consciousness
is not of our own making. To become conscious is
not our act. But all consciousness is an operation in
us which is quickened by God, and which is
maintained in us by him from moment to moment.
It is on a line with the sun. The sun is the light
in the world of nature, by which God enables us
to see, to observe and to investigate nature. And
in like manner the consciousness is a light which
is ignited by God in our personal ego; or
better yet, it is a light which God causes to shine
in the world of our innermost being, in order that
in this spiritual light we should examine and esti-
mate our own spirit. This light of our con-
sciousness is called a candle, because when we go
•down into ourselves, we begin with a sinking away

460

into pitch darkness, and in this black darkness
of our innermost being, God meets us with the
candle of our consciousness.

Of course, our consciousness is no candle, which
the Lord uses to search us. God has no need of
the hght of the sun by which to clearly see his
whole creation. In the deepest parts of the
earth, where no beam of sunlight ever enters, it
is light before God as the day. As David sang
in Psalm 139: "Yea, the darkness hideth not
from thee; but the night shineth as the day; the
darkness and the light are both alike to thee."
What is here true of the light of the world,
applies equally to the world of our inner being.
There, too, God has no need of a candle, where-
with to throw light upon us. In the darkness of
this hidden world also the darkness shineth as
the day. But we have need of this candle and
it is grace, that by the light of this candle of our
consciousness God lightens the darkness of our
inner being. We make artificial light. This makes
us think. We do this by reasoning. We do this
by our representations. And that can have its
use. But frequently this artificial light shines
falsely. It misleads. It never shines further in
than the surface. This artificial light of our own
pondering and musing never enters into what
Solomon calls, with such plastic, graphic power,
''the innermost chambers of the belly." And all
too frequently it blinds our eyes, so that we can
not see the light of the candle of the Lord with
the eye of the soul. Hence the so-called "civil-

461

ized world" for the most part is blind to the
light of God's candle in us.

The light of this candle of the Lord in us does
not argue, and does not analyze, but shows what
there is in us, lays bare our own being before the
eye of the soul, gives us self-knowledge, and cuts
off all self-deception. And it is the light of this
candle of the Lord which makes us clearly see in
the deepest underground of our being, the fibres
by which the root of our being has fellowship
with God; fellowship by reason of our creation
after the image of God; fellowship through the
blessed, glorious regeneration of our sin-corrupted
nature; fellowship through the Divine indwelling
of the Holy Ghost ; fellowship through the glorious
inworking of ever-increasing grace; fellowship
above all else through the tie that binds us to
Christ, and makes us members of his body.

The brightness of this light is always the same
in degree, but the effect of it gradually increases
in strength. At first there is still so much that is
wrong in the heart, so much dust of sin, that
covers the heart and renders brightest light invis-
ible to us. But gradually this vile dust flies away
before the breath of the Lord, and then the eye
comes to see what was hidden underneath this
dust. And thus it can not be otherwise, but that
the deeper the light can shine in, the more glor-
iously it becomes manifest to the eye of the soul
that we are bound to God with all the ties of
our life, and that our fellowship with God
embraces our whole life.
462

86

"1 IN THEM AND THOU IN ME."

The soul's nearness to God and our "mystical
union with Christ" belong together. All the
apostles placed the emphasis on this; and in their
writings the fathers of the Reformation, with
Calvin in the lead, always referred to the mystical
union with Christ as an indispensable factor in all
true religion. The temptation to which, alas, so
many yield, of staying on Golgotha, and of there
closing off their account with Christ, kills the
faith. The course of procedure is, that the con-
science awakens for a moment; that the weight
of sin burdens the soul; and that fear of judg-
ment strikes the heart. In such a moment the
consolatory thought of the cross arises invitingly
in the soul. If the atoning sacrifice is accepted,
one is saved. Nothing more is needed save only
to believe. And one is readily persuaded to do
this. To express this as sharply as the case allows :
One closes the bargain. And now he deems him-
self saved. He accepts it as a fact, that he is
assured of eternal life. He thinks that the aton-
ing sacrifice is glorious. It brings perfect salva-
tion. Thus Christ has become his Savior. But in
his conversation nothing is heard of a closer,
tenderer relation of the soul to Christ. In the utter-
ances of his spiritual life nothing is perceived that
refers to it. He is now saved, and that is the
end of it.

This, however, is nothing but self-conceit.
Nothing but spiritual egotism is at play in this.
Escape is sought from eternal punishment; one
wants to insure himself for eternal salvation. But

463

there is nothing indicative in this of thirst after
the living God; nothing of the child's longing for
his Father's house; nothing of sacred jealousy for
the honor of God's name. And from this, no
spiritual power can proceed. No religion can
operate in, nor go forth from, this. And what is
more, it can not be true, that in this wise Gol-
gotha can bring propitiation for the life of the
soul.

The Gospel does not preach this. It does not
explain the atoning sacrifice to us in this way.
The Scripture never attributes power of salvation
to Golgotha, except as the mystical union binds
our inner life to the life of Christ. It must be a
being buried with him in his death, in order to
rise with him unto life. They alone who have
become one planting with Christ, share the grace
which he obtained. They alone who have be-
come sheep of his flock, can come after the great
Shepherd of souls. It is not Golgotha which saves
us. He who saves us is Christ, who died on Gol-
gotha. You must become one with him, as mem-
ber of his body. You must be accepted and in-
corporated under him as your Head, before one
drop of grace can fall on you. In the Father you
must have been given to Christ, so that his glory
may be revealed in you. The mystical union
must have laid the tie of love eternally between
him and your soul. Yea, it must become Christ
in you, and the Father in Christ, so that through
this middle link your life of nearness to God can
become a reality. For so your Savior himself
464

prayed in his high-priestly prayer: Holy Father,
I in them and thou in me" (St. John 17 :2dh

If however, our mystical union with Christ
shall maintain its true religious character, and not
degenerate into sentimental Chnstolatry, this
relation to Christ must never be taken as an end
in itself. Christ is the Mediator, and there can
be no Mediator except for the sake of making our
approach to God possible. To be near unto God,
in sacred confidence to feel oneself to be close by
God to live here on earth in nearness to God
through faith, and once, after death, to serve
God eternally in the Fatherhouse above— that is
and remains the end and aim; and everything the
Scripture reveals to us regarding the Mediator-
ship of Christ, must result in this, and can never
rest in itself. Once Christ himself shall deliver
up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, that
God may be all in all. He who stops short with
himself, or has no further desire than to be num-
bered with God's people, arrests spiritual progress
in his own soul.

The ideal end at which we aim, may and can
not be less, than to enjoy God forever, and to
exist for no other purpose than to glorify his
name. And just because this is the ideal end, all
rehgion on earth is imperfect, which does not
already here bring us nearer to God, make us
dwell in nearness to him, and induce us to spend
all our strength and all our talent in his service.
Piety that consists in soothing emotion and in
spiritual recreation, lacks strength and inspiration.

466

And our piety only becomes energetic when we
love God with such perfect consecration, that we
know of no higher joy than to drink in his peace,
no greater recreation than to be near unto him,
and no holier ambition than to fight and to sufifer
for his holy name. And not even service of
Christ may detract anything from this. The
Savior himself has never desired or aimed at any-
thing else than to bring us to the Father. Who-
soever turns this into a sort of Christ-worship,
making him the end and aim, and thereby losing
from sight the approach to our Father who is in
heaven, does not honor Christ, but opposes him,
and does not confirm the mystical union with
his Savior, but tears away the fibres thereof.

This makes the union mystical, i. e. it is not
lost in emotions, sensations and meditations, but
rests in the nature of the soul. The feelings which
you cherish for Christ, the sensations wherewith
the Person and the gracious work of the Savior
afifect you, the thoughts concerning him on which
you ponder, and on which your confession is
based, truly possess supreme merit. They are
indispensable. All of your conscious life must be
saturated through and through with Christ. But
without more, this gives you no share in the
mystical union. That which is mystical in a holy
sense, lies deeper than the consciousness, and roots
in your being itself. Hence, the Scriptural teach-
ing concerning regeneration, the new creature, the
new man. There is not merely atonement and
forgiveness, and on your part confession, faith
466

and singing hj^mns of praise. No, Christ has
entered into our nature. This was possible, be-
cause our nature was created after the image of
God; and therefore that which shall take you
away from yourself and from sin, must touch you
in your own nature, in your very manner of
existence, it must bring about the change in your
person, in your outward life, and thus it will be
an holy and a Divine work, which does not take
place in your lips, nor in your brain, but in the
mystical underground of your being.

And this wondrous work is not directly brought
about by the Father, and in every one by him-
self, but is effected through Christ, is bound to
him as Mediator of all, and finds in this Mediator
its indestructible guarantee. For the tie which
Christ establishes between himself and us, is so
sacred, that he compares it with the tie that binds
him in his Divine nature to the Father. "I in them,
and Thou in me, 0 Holy Father, keep through
thine own name those whom thou hast given me,
that they may be one, as we are" (John 17:11).

No outward, mechanical representation should
be made of "the body of Christ." Among our-
selves we speak of the body, the corps, the cor-
poration of those who are like minded, who work
together for a given aim. They who belong to
it, are called members, and the management is
the head. But with the body of Christ all this
has a far deeper sense and a far more serious sig-
nificance. No one becomes member of the body
of Christ by making application, or by subscrib-
467

ing to a doctrine. No one is incorporated in this
body by a military oath. No one becomes a
member here, in order presently from choice, to
resign his membership. No, the body of Christ
is anchored in the soul, as an organism which
forms one whole, no part of which can ever be
alienated from it. It is invisible to the eye, but
known of God. Even an infant can belong to it
as an integrant part, before it has ever lisped the
name of Jesus. We do not join that body, but
God adopts us into it, incorporates us in it and
appoints each of us, as members of Christ, an
own, fixed place in it. At the same time our
calling and destiny are thereby forever fixed. In
this body we are fellow-members with other mem-
bers, not from our choice, nor from theirs, but
pursuant to Divine disposal, we and they form
a unity which never can be broken. And with
them all we are under Christ, as our living, quick-
ening and inspiring head, from whom alone
warmth of love is obtained. And our existence
as members in that body and under that Head
has no other aim than through the mediator to
bring us near to God again, to assure us of an
eternity in his holy presence, and thus to guar-
antee the highest end of our existence: even an
existence throughout everlasting ages for the sake
of the honor of the thrice holy God.

This is the mystical end, which the mystical
union with Christ serves as means, and therefore
Christ intertwines the tie that binds him to his
own with the tie that binds him to the Father

468

in the: "I in them and Thou in Me." A unity
sealed of God,

87

'TOR THE SPIRIT OF GOD RESTETH
UPON YOU."

It was a wonderful word which Jesus spake —
one which still pours balm into many wounds,
and revives courage when ready to faint; a, word
which has made heroes and martyrs, and has
strengthened and comforted them — when at the
end of the beatitudes he said: "Blessed are ye,
when men shall revile you, and persecute you,
and shall say all manner of evil against you
falsely, for my sake."

This word reaches farther than the prophecy,
that prison and martyrdom awaited the disciples.
These would be limited to certain periods in the
struggle of Jesus' church. But what is not bound
to any age, but always goes on, is the malice and
hatred, the mockery, scorn and disdain, from
which the world can not restrain itself, whenever
the Lord's people gather strength to oppose it and
courage to resist it. Persecution unto blood is
exceptional. This other persecution, which with
the lancet of scorn and abuse, strikes at the heart,
goes on in all ages. And therefore, this beatitude
of the Lord enters so deeply into our human life.
It betrays the tender sympathy of Jesus for what
awaited his own. It finds application, now here,
now there, every day. No day passes but it
imparts courage and comfort. It does not mean

that we should defiantly meet the world that is
offended at Christ, but it aims to inspire the dis-
ciples of the Lord to stand their ground when
they would retreat, and to remain unmoved in
the face of slander and disdain.

But do not forget that this word has its dan-
gerous side, because it has often been misquoted
and misapplied. This depends upon that which
in your actions and words makes people disdain
and persecute you, and to say all manner of evil
against you. It may be true zeal for the cause
of the Lord, but it may also be exaggeration,
eccentricity or loveless bigotry; or, worse yet, it
may be the gap that yawns between your con-
fession and practice, hypocrisy which, in part, dis-
figures your life. And even if in the latter case
the reason of resisting the world may be zeal for
the cause of Jesus, yet, in fact, so much of self
mingles with it that the ''for my sake" with which
Jesus conditioned his beatitude, only partially
applies to you. Yea, it may, and does happen,
that the mockery, disdain, and slander of the
world, is invited almost so exclusively by your
own sinful alloy, that even not a few of your
fellow-believers are bound to take the part of the
world against you, and far from calling you
blessed in Jesus' name, feel instinctively that your
example has hampered rather than helped the
cause of the Lord.

Understand this well. It does not mean to say
that you are only right, when the world honors
your loveableness of character, acknowledges

470

your honesty and uprightness, and pays homage
to what is called your philanthropic and ethical
nature. The world has demonstrated this dif-
ferently in the case of Jesus himself. When we
do nothing else in the name of Jesus than what
the world can praise, that which is characteristic
in our confession and in our life is gone. On
ethical grounds nothing could be said against the
Apostles of the Lord, and yet the world has dis-
dained them, and has not rested until it had
hounded them to the death. In our confession,
life and zeal there must always be that w^hich the
world can not tolerate, which offends it and com-
pels it to resist. Only, what may never be want-
ing, if the beatitude of the Lord may be applied
to us, is what Peter (1-4:14) states as follows:
"If ye be reproached for the name of Christ,
happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and the
Spirit of God resteth upon you." This must be
so. The Spirit of the Lord must rest upon you,
the Spirit of the Lord must speak both from
what you do and from what you leave undone.
It must not be against you, but against the Spirit
of the Lord, that the fierce anger of the world
turns itself. Then you are reviled for Christ's
sake, and from this disdain springs the blessed-
ness which your heart craves.

The question here again is whether you are
"near unto God," for when you are near unto God,
God is near unto you, and then the world turns
not against you, but against God, and only against
you, in the measure in which you are near unto

471

God, and God is found near unto you. The proof
of this is, that as soon as you let go your hold
on God, the world is ready at once to turn its
scorn into praise, and its disdain into applause.
There is undoubtedly hatred against the neigh-
bor in the sin of the world. This began with Cain.
But only insofar as the personal hatred of ego-
tism operates against one's neighbor, the fire of
this hatred is brought to burst out into flame by
the passion for personal profit, by material
interests, by the struggle for position, by willful-
ness and jealousy. This hatred of the world is
not turned against Christian people in particular,
but operates at large in the world itself.

But in the lowest parts of the sinful human
heart there is no hatred against the neighbor, but
against God. Thus it began with Satan, and thus
he has transferred it into the hearts of mankind.
This hatred against God may in a general way
express itself covertly, and only rarely turn into
open denial of God and blasphemy. But it
is this hatred, which propels the stream of the life
of the nations. The never-satisfied passion for
emancipation. The ambition to be one's own
lord and master, and to own no God as Lord
and Master above self. To be as God and to be
God himself, and unwillingness to bend the knee,
is the evil germ from which all sin grows. And
because the Lord's people oppose this, and loudly
plead for God's majesty, the world turns on these
people, to stop their mouth, to rob them of
influence, and to doom them to inactivity.
472

I

But the fire of this hatred only breaks out
fiercely and unsparingly, when the world perceives
that it is no more you who speak of God and
bear witness for him, but that the living God
himself speaketh in you, because he dwelleth in
you, and when for this reason it can strike in
you at God himself and at his Christ. When
the world perceives that the spirit of the Lord
rests upon you, it can not tolerate you, and
puts the choice before you between letting go of
God and its deadly hatred, which shall not rest,
until it has spiritually or morally destroyed you.

To be near unto God, so near, that he has
made your heart his temple and has come to you
with the Christ, in order to take up his abode
with you in the Holy Ghost, is glorious, blessed,
sweet mysticism of the soul; but there is more.
The heart can be no bushel to hide the light
that shines in you. When the Spirit of God truly
rests upon you, that light shines out, and he
who hardens himself against that light will come
not at once but gradually to discover, that you
are one who stands in contact with the living
God, and that he who has dealings with you,
of himself comes to have dealings with that
holy power which is the Lord's. And then opposi-
tion follows, not on account of secondary inter-
ests, not because of accidentals, but because of
what is highest and most glorious in you.

When Asaph sang of the blessedness of being
near unto God, his mind was engaged with this
antithesis between the world and God. This

473

antithesis can not be separated from the near-
ness to God. The nearer we are to the world,
the farther away we are from God. And the
nearer we are to God, the greater the distance
between us and the world. If it were possible
for us to go out from the world, after we have
come near unto God, there would no conflict
break out in the heart and no hatred in the world
against us. But this cannot be. '*I pray thee
O Father, not that thou shouldest take them out
of the world, but that in the world thou shouldest
keep them from the evil" (John 17:15). The
grave significance of the Cliristian position is,
that with God in the heart, life has to be lived
in the midst of a world, the heart and life of
which reacts against God. It has indeed been
tried, as Christian so to appear, that the world
hands out a passport and grants you an honorary
diploma as one who "though Christian, can be
tolerated;" but this seductive exhibition of favor
is not bought at anytime, save at the price of
dullijig the sharp edges of our confession.

If the world could make such separation be-
tween you and the God whom you profess and
whom you serve, that it could prosecute its
opposition to God without touching you, it
would readily do so. The world still feels itself
bound to 3-ou as man. But with true followers
of Christ, this can not be done. They are so
near unto God, that the eye of the world dis-
covers no more distance. And therefore it attacks
you personally by making the most of anything
wTong it discovers in you, by mocking at every

474

unsanctified utterance, which is observed in you,
and then falsely and slanderously saying all
manner of evil against you. To be near unto
God and to bear this trouble, belong together.
In such a way however that it must never be
courted; the world must never be incited to it
by your desire after the martyr crown. Only
what is altogether natural and springs up of itself
is inwardly true and has merit before God. And
then blessedness ensues not only later on but
is already tasted in the midst of oppression, and
then God's angels see and God's children perceive
already here, that in the midst of trouble the Spirit
of glory, the Spirit of God resteth upon you.

ONE AFTER THIS MANNER, AND
ANOTHER AFTER THAT.

There is an evil among devout friends of the
Lord, which must be resisted. In spiritual things
each desires to impose a law of his own upon the
other. Piety is said to be bound to a given
form. One's own way of piety must be the
standard for every one else. Minor differences
may be tolerated, but in the main the same sort
of piety must manifest itself in all God's children
alike. And so it follows that the piety which they
practice is the standard for all their spiritual
examination and- criticism.

That pride may have a part in this, can not
be doubted. But in this instance, at least at
476

the beginning, pride is not the motive. It is
rather that a beginning is made from the earnest
desire to belong to the people of God, partly as
an assurance of one's own salvation, but more
for the sake of taking an active part in the work
of sanctifying the name of the Lord, and of
advancing the interests of his Kingdom.

In the family circle, or outside of it, one meets
with those who carry the impression of tender
piety, and who are reputed in general to be very
godly. Such people are envied. 0, if one could
only himself be such. And so he sought their
company, watched them, observed what they did,
and what they did not do, listened to their con-
versation, and so gradually formed an idea of
what he himself should be, in order to be in-
itiated equally closely, as one of God's dear
children into his secret walk. Thereby a de-
finite type of piety was brought before his mind.
According to this fixed type, he sought to reform
his life in the world, his life before believers, and
his life before God. And when he finally succeded
in this, he rejoiced as one who had gained a prize,
was over-rejoiced when he became adopted by "the
pious" as one of their own, and now is fully con-
vinced that every one else must come in the self-
same way, must correspond to the selfsame type,
must have the selfsame experiences, yea, that
in their language and expressions they must
manifest the very thing which as an ideal had
long escaped the censor himself, but which at
length he had obtained.

476

Our fathers used to say, that this is putting
oneself in the place of the Word of God. Not
from oneself, nor from any saint whatever,
but exclusively from God's Word the stand-
ard must be derived which determines gen-
iune childship, and the true gold of our god-
liness. These censors did not deny this; only
they tried to show that God's Word posits the
claims and marks of true grace, which they
themselves imposed upon you, and which they
sternly applied in their own circle. But one
thing they forgot, and this became the cause of all
this injurious spiritual unnaturalness ; they did
not see, that God's word, as in every thing else
allows play-room in the spiritual life for very
great diversity, and in this very diversitj'- seeks
strength.

This does not mean to say, that the Scripture
acknowledges two classes of spiritual children.
There is but one class, but in this one true class
the Scripture aims at an almost endless diversity,
an ever new variegation, an ever surprising in-
dividuality, change and modification in all sorts
of ways; not only in the groups, but in each
separate child of God. It is with this as in the
world of flowers. The rose constitutes a class of
its own. No one will mistake a rose for a lily,
or take a field violet for a rose. To be a real
rose, it must exhibit certain characteristics, or
else it is not a rose. But what endless variety
there is between the monthly rose and the
swamp-rose, the tea-rose and the Alpine-rose.
477

What varieties again in each of these groups
what difference again in growth, leaf, color and
in fragrance. Does not every more richly devel-
oped rose addre^ us as a something by itself,
with a charm and beauty all its own?

Such is the case in the whole creation of God.
He calls every star in the firmament by name, and
this implies the expression of an own being.. And
on the earth every mountain-line differs, and every
animal, even every insect, as well as every veget-
able and food that springs from the ground.
And in like manner every one of the children of
men is "after his own kind;" every race, every
tribe, every people, every family and every
family-member differs from every other. No
mother is ever mistaken in her children. And
so it is also in the spiritual. The Holy Spirit
divideth to every man severally as he will, (I Cor.
12:11) or to express it still more strongly: one can
not be a standard for an other. Paul who was him-
self an Apostle refuses to be this. And he declares
with utmost emphasis: Every man, i. e. each
individual, hath his proper gift of God, one after
this manner, and another after that (I Cor. 7:7).

So it is, and so it must be, because our spiritual
life, if it shall be real, is not our work, but a
work of God. It is a difference as between writ-
ing and printing. Wliat comes from the press is
in all the copies of the same work precisely
alike. Every man's handwriting on the other
hand exhibits a character of its own. It is the
difference between the products of nature and the
478

factory. A factory manufactures after a fixed
model, everything alike; in nature in which God
works, everything differs and everything exhibits
a something of its own.

If now the spiritual life of piety is forced into
a selfsame mould, the work of man counteracts
the work of God; then there ensues spiritual
unnaturalness, painted flowers, but no real flowers ;
then no virtue goes out from it, and this sort of
imprinted piety does not bring one nearer to
God, but rather builds up a wall of separation
between the soul and God. Then there is
spiritual dullness, depression and gloom, whereas
God's children should glory in their freedom,
and by reason of this free, happy feehng of
the breaking of bands they should jubilate with
a song of angels in the heart. The lark which
meets the sun with a song, not the snail which
marks its slimy track on the hard clay, is the
image of the redeemed in Christ.

Only let not liberty here be mistaken for
license. Every bird sings with a voice of its own,
but received that voice from God. And so has
God, who created you, implanted and increated in
the hidden depths of your being that peculiar
something from which your character, your per-
son and likewise your own form of childship
springs. Everything in us also is organically con-
nected. The mingling of blood, the sensitive
life of nerves, the relation between understanding
and imagination, the stringing of the heart, the
embroidery of tendencies and sympathies, the

479

tone-scale of the conscience, susceptibility to
emotions and sensations, education, environment,
business, all this together puts a peculiar stamp
upon our whole spiritual being. One is after
this manner, and another after that. And in
connection with this the Holy Spirit divides his
spiritual gifts, without mistake, and not as we
would have it, or as another would suggest, but
even as he wills. Spiritual uniformity after a
given pattern is here unthinkable. As God
clothes the lilies of the field differently, so he
weaves an own spiritual garment for each one of
his children. Uniformity must be discarded, and
our spiritual robe must unfold itself singly before ^
God and men.

As every precious stone has a light of its own,
and no jasper can be an emerald, so in one's heart
the diamond of childship must sparkle with its
own brightness. Then only will the secret walk
with God be free, and rich, and broad, for only
so do we appear before our God and Father in
the form, in the spiritual robe, and with the
spiritual jewels, which he has given his children.
To draw near unto God is not going in with
the crowd, but it is the approach to God in this
own, this particular, this personal, this peculiar
way, which God has appointed for us. A mother
knows each of her children by their own voice,
even when she does not see them; and so does
our Father in heaven know each of his children
by their own voice, which he draws out from
the soul.

480

89

"A SOUND OF GENTLE STILLNESS."

"To be near unto God" is not alike in every
case, but, even as with everything else that
touches life intimately, it is with *'one after
this manner, and with another after that." They
who have drifted away in the stream of meth-
odism, have not realized this, at least they have
not acknowledged it, and hence the danger in
methodism of barrenness in spiritual things.
Always doing outside things, always zealous labor
and toil for Jesus, but so little sound of gentle
stillness, in which the secret walk is enjoyed.

Because of our sin there is always danger of
fatal onesidedness, even in holiest things. There
is sickly mysticism, which sits down by itself
and accomplishes nothing. And by the side of it
methodism, which is never at rest, and which in
being over-busy at length has neither ear nor eye
for the inwardness of the holy walk of a saved
soul with God. And therefore, the mystic has
something to learn from the methodist, and the
methodist from the mystic. Only from the im-
pulse of both does blessed harmony arise.

By itself a mystical search after the Divine
is by no means yet ' Christian. The heathen in
Asia practice it, even on a large scale, and though
it has mostly disappeared from Islam, it has been
practiced there, and it is still known among the
Sufi in Persia and by the Dervishes in Asia
Minor. But to bear the Christian stamp nearness
to God must be through the atonement and
relation with the mediator. "The Father and I

481

will come and make our abode with them" (John
14:23). And this excludes from the search after
God and from being near unto him, the always
killing uniformity. In this sacred domain imita-
tion leads to nothing but selfdeceit. All mystic-
ism of soul, which seeks and finds God, realizes
that there is fixedness and unvariable sameness in
God's unchangeableness, but the reflection of
what is Unique and Eternal in God, which is cast
into the human soul, cannot be and never is the
same, because one soul differs from another soul
in nature, disposition and utterance. For this
reason every soul has a history of its own, from
which special needs and talents arise.

Hence it is not corect to infer from Elijah's
experience at the cave, that the Lord only reveals
himself in ''A sound of gentle stillness" (I Kings
19:12 R. V. Marg-re<ading) . The commlission
that was given to Elijah, shows differently . He
was commissioned to annoint Jehu, to which was
added the saying: "Him that escapeth the Sword
of Hazael shall Jehu slay: And him that escapeth
from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay" (I Kings
19:17). There never was a bolder fanatic than
Jehu. Not in the fire, and not in the storm, but
in a sound of gentle stillness, does not say by
any means, that Moses did not find God in the
fire of Horeb, nor David in the storm of per-
secution by Saul. It only states, that for Elijah,
at that moment and in the mood in which he
found himself, the heat had first to be cooled,
and the storm in his heart had first to spend
itself, before he was able to meet God in a sound
of gentle stillness, and to receive his prophetic
commission. On Carmel it was fire and it was
482

storm, and if ever and anywhere, it was on
Carmel that Elijah beheld the presence of the
majesty of the Lord.

The impossibility of making a rule regarding
nearness to God, that shall apply to all cases,
extends so far, that a selfsame rule for all of
life, even with one and the selfsame child of God,
is unthinkable. He who is old and full of days
has known the years of manly strength, and back
of these the years of j^outh, and back of these
again the days of childhood. And let him
speak, w^ho during these four periods of his
life has known something of the sacred, hidden
walk with God, and he will confess that in each
of these four periods it was different. In general
indeed there was progress, but yet in such a way,
that now as man he longs at times for the return
of the days of his childhood, that he might the
better understand the saying of Jesus regarding
children: "Of such is the Kingdom of heaven."

This makes it such a profanation of the sacred,
when we parents have no eye for the peculiar
character of the life of the soul of a child, and
by our heavy oppressive forms ignore the sym-
plicity. the brightness and enthusiasm of the child.
The spiritual training of a child starts with
faith that God operates in the child, or at least
can operate in him. But at the same time, that
the Holy spirit doeth this "as he wills'' (I Cor.
12:11). Without this spiritual insight it is im-
possible to be a mother, father, older sister or
brother, yea, even a nurse-maid or a teacher of
children, in its higher sense. Love of children
wrongly applied blights so much in the heart
of the child which otherwise ^.ould bloom

483

luxuriantly. And as with the child, so it is with
the lad and the young daughter. In every period
of life there is an own form of life of the soul
with its own needs. He who understands this
pleases and disciplines, supports and strengthens
the child, and leads him to God, and so makes
gains for God. While he who always endeavors
to apply the model of his own condition of soul
to that of the child mars development and dwarfs
it.

It is not othenvise with the great difference
which God has ordained between man and woman.
There are men who make one think of a woman,
and among women in our times ambition gains
ground not only to develop themselves more
independently, which is right, but also to obtain
this development in a form like to man; which
goes against Divine appointment.. But apart
from these eccentricities, every one feels, and
knows that the soul-life of women bears another
stamp, and is differently strung of God, than the
soul-life of men. Perceptions, powers, feelings,
talents differ. The lily is not inferior to the palm-
tree, but is has received another beauty, another
glorj^ of God. The same sun in Go(l,s heaven
works different effects upon one plant than upon
another. ,

And so it is with regard to being near to God
on the part of the man, and being near to God on
the part of the woman. It is the one Sun of
righteousness which works differently upon each.
The mother, the father, who looks upon son and
daughter as one, and does not treat them differ-
ently sometimes spoils so much which with more
intelligent insight would bloom gloriously. Only

484

father and mother can suffice for the mixed
family, and where either of the two falls away,
the task of the remaining one of making due
allowance for the difference of nature and dis-
position of son and daughter is extremely dif-
ficult. This applies as well to man and wife
especially when one has made farther advances
in the way of salvation than the other. The
pious wife who longs to win the hesitating husband
defeats her own purpose, when she aims to
graft her feminine soul-life upon him ; likewise the
husband who for the sake of winning his wife
for God tries to drive her in the spiritual yoke
of his own masculine life, is himself the cause of
his bitter disappointment. The husband should
indeed strengthen the wife spiritually, and accus-
tom her to storm and fire,, and the wife should re-
fine the husband spiritually, and accustom him to
the sound of gentle stillness, but the fundamental
trait of the proper soul-life of each must remain
inviolate. The wife lives near unto God differ-
entl}' from the husband.

A similar difference characterizes the several
conditions in which we find ourselves. Take the
ecclesiastical conflict. In this struggle there is
a period of necessary and unsparing resistance
against everything that desecrates God's covenant.
But after victory is won, there comes a time of
calm and peace, of quiet work for God's King-
dom, in the struggle against sin, misery and woe.
And it is frequently observed, that men who in
the first period nobly persevered, and showed in
themselves men full of the Holy Ghost, in the
next period of rest and peace, visibly retrograded,
and deserted their former spiritual vantage-ground.

485

And as in ecclesiastical affairs so it is in the
struggle of our own life, in the difference be-
tween rising superior to one's sins and fainting
in the face of too great temptation. All this
creates a difference of conditions, of circumstances,
of sensations, of experiences of soul; and woe
to him who amidst all this, has only one string
to the harp of his soul.. Our heart has been
richly strung of God, and for every turn in life
the heart must be able to play another string,
for the sake of the honor of God and the com-
fort of our hidden man.

The example of Elijah shows that God himself
counts with this, and after the nature of our
state approaches our heart from different angles.
He alone who has a listening ear for this, who
adapts and disposes himself accordingly, and is
inwardly so richly disposed, that he seeks after
God at any gate which it may please God in
those circumstances to open for him, will not
only feel himself "to be near unto God," in all cir-
cumstances, but will also in every circumstance
enjoy it most richly. At one time in quiet
meditation, at another in bitter conflict, now
going out, then coming in, but at all times it
will be vital, inspiring and strong.

God's seeking to draw our soul unto himself
and to open it for himself, is changeable as the
seasons in which nature undergoes the workings
of the sun. And therefore he who spiritually
knows only one season of year, becomes impover-
ished. He who follows after, in the changes
which God brings upon him, is the rich child of
the rich Father who is in heaven.

486

90

"THOU DIDST MAKE ME TRUST WHEN

I WAS UPON MY MOTHER'S

BREASTS."

The secret walk with God is not only different
for one child of God than for another, but the
difference is inwardly connected with individual
disposition, character, nature and temperament.
Where there are two persons who live close to
God, one not only doeth it differently from the
other, but the way and manner in it of each,
is related with his condition and frame of soul
and even of body. To be near unto God can
therefore never be imitated. It is no lesson that
can be learned by heart. Every one must seek
his own way to God, until by Divine grace he
finds it. To be near unto God can never be any-
thing else than the outcome and the fruit of our
own personal spiritual life. If then it shall be
real, and no imitation, it is bound to assume a
form of its own, which entirely corresponds to
our nature, and which would not do for another.

Let this first of all comfort you and put you
at ease. It frequently happens, that a dear, true
but very plain child of God hears others tell
of a walk with God, which he can not grasp,
or that he reads of Augustine and others, who
communed with the Eternal Being in a mea-
sure and form that far, very far transcends his
own experience. This makes him doubt whether
he will ever himself come near unto God. Such
it can never be with him and yet, such the
hidden walk must be. In this way Satan detains
the souls of the humble. For it is not so. With

487

Augustine, that great spirit, it must needs be so
and not otherwise, and ^or this very reason it
never can and never will be so with the humble
and the plain. As it was with Augustine or Calvin
would not meet their case.

But next to this comforting thought, it con-
tains a strong stimulus and a spur. It imposes
the obligation to produce from one's own being
and in connection with one's own spiritual existence
and life of the soul an own form for the hidden
walk with God. It will not do to saj^: I can
never attain the height of an Augustine. Just
because j^ou are not an Augustine, it will not
do to imitate him. For you are called of God,
and you are bound, to seek from and for your-
self, this own and only path, by which you,
and no one else, can attain the hidden walk,
and continue in it. This does not mean to say
that there ma\' be no blessing in learning how
others have sought and found it, or that reading
what some great spirits have written about their
nearness to God maj^ not inwardly edify us.
Even the humblest poet can learn from Bilderdyk
and DaCosta. The humblest artist-painter can
profit by the works of Rubens and Rembrandt.
All this can be productive of great good. Only,
as 'one and the selfsame bread forms an own
blood in every individual constitution, and main-
tains an own life of the nerves, thanks to the
inner workings, so also it is one sacred material
on which many subsist, but alwaj'^s in this way,
that with every individual the inner spiritual
feeding has a process of its own, and leads to an
own result.

Not only in the case of Paul, but also of
488

Jeremiah and David the Scripture describes this
particular character of every individual's hidden
walk with the Eternal Being. Although Psalm 22
bears a strongly marked Messianic character, and
although this song of the most grievous woe
only attains its fullest significance in its applica-
tion to the Man of Sorrows, it would be mislead-
ing, if we did not take it as an interpretation of
David's own experience, and if we did not apply
it to the Psalmist first.

As St. Paul declares, Gal. 1:15, that it hath
pleased God to separate him from his mother's
womb, and to call him by his grace, and as it
reads in Jeremiah (1:5) "Before I formed thee
in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest
forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee," so also
David confesses that the Lord's interest in him
began before he was bom. "For thou art he,"
sang he in Ps 22:9, "that took me out of the
womb: Thou didst make me trust when I
was upon my mother's breasts: I was cast upon
thee from the womb. Thou art my God from
my mother's belly."

Entirely apart from the deeper significance of
these words when applied to the Messiah, it was
froni the life of David's own soul that this con-
viction sprang regarding his own walk with God,
and it should not be lost from sight, that entirely
apart from his calling as the elect servant of the
Lord, he apphes it altogether in a general sense
to the forming and creation of a human being.
"Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I
will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonder-
fully made, marvellous are the works; and that
my soul knoweth right well. My substance was

not hid from thee, when I was made in secret
and curiously wrought in the lowest part of the
earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet
being unperfect; and in thy book all my members
were written, which in continuance were fashioned,
when as yet these was none of them." Psalm 139:
13-16). This was said apart from David's special
calling in an altogether general way, and the
church has never hesitated, in singing Psalm 139,
to apply this to herself.

Thus, in order to form a just estimate of the
beginning and the development of our hidden
walk with God, we have to go back not merely
to our conversion, but back of this to our con-
ception and to our birth. The way in which
each one of us shall find his own, personal walk
with God, was written in God's book, in days be-
fore we were born.

If it is said that Jeremiah and Paul did not
state this fact in connection with their personal
initiation into communion with God, but very
distinctly in connection with their special call-
ings, one as prophet, and the other as apostle,
it is readily granted. But on the other hand it
is equally true, that for their callings, as prophet
and apostle, their own personal, spiritual develop-
ment was of hiehest significance. In their pro-
phetic and apostolic calling they had to fight
the spiritual fight. Their official life was not
lived outside of the life of their own soul. The
fact that before their conception God had fore-
ordained in them everything that they would
need for their calling, also implies that their
spiritual quickening, training and development had
been provided from God's side before their birth,

490

and that in their conception and in their birth
such a human person was called into being, as
would be able to enter upon such a spiritual
condition and to fulfill such a spiritual calling.
In whatever way therefore we take it, the three
strong declarations of David, Jeremiah and Paul
always contain this positive teaching, that already
before, as well as in their conception and birth,
the Lord God has ordained and created them in
such a way, both after soul and bod}^ that in
their spiritual and bodily creation every necessity
had been provided, which later on would fashion
them in this especial manner, and construct their
spiritual stature.

Applying this to ourselves, we should not
doubt but that our conception and birth, quite
apart from our own as yet unconscious condition,
was a work of God according to God's plan and
compass, and under his holy inworking. That
which characterizes the disposition of our soul, our
gifts and talents, our form of existence, and even
the particulars that concern our body, is no play
of chance, no arbitrariness, no fate, but the plan
and working of our Providential God. Hence
we are not made, as we are, in order that only
later on God might see what he might make of
us. No, everything here has been thought out.
everything here forms one whole, everything here
has been appointed from the beginning by an
omniscient, fore-seeing and almighty God with
a view to the appointed end, and directed at the
same time, at every point of the way, with
the view of obtaining that end.

If that final end is your eternal salvation, and

491

if the spiritual life of the soul, including the
secret walk with God, leads to this end, the
whole appointment regarding the form in which
you were to be born, both after soul and body,
was of necessity directly connected with what
you once will be as a child of God, and with
the particular wa}'' in which God will be willing
to receive you, in distinction from others, into
his holy, secret walk. If in your intercourse with
people, you daily meet with those who have much
in common vAth you, and you with them, but
never meet with a person of whom you can say,
in every particular: "He is just like me. He is my
exact double," there must be something in the
disposition of your soul and in your bodilj'
existence, which is different from that in others.
And this is not by chance, but after God's will
and appointment. And every pecuharity that
constitutes your person, is in turn no play of
the riches of nature, but has been so disposed and
not otherwise, because each of you have to seek
your secret walk with God in your own way and
after your own method; and that you might find
that way, and walk in it, you were in need of just
such a disposition of soul, and of such natural
temperament.

Thus are you free from people, even from
pious people who press their piety upon you.
But in everything, from your conception and
birth you are personally bound to God. For
consider and do not forget in Psalm 22 it says:
''Thou didst make me trust when I was upon my
mother's breasts." To make one trust, in such
a way, that the soul itself trusts, is to evoke an
inner working of the soul itself. David reckons

492

the life of his soul from the moment when as
infant he cradled at his mother's breast.

91

"AND WORSHIP HIM THAT LIVETH
FOR EVER AND EVER."

Prayer and worship are not the same. This is
felt at once when we consider the distinction
between religion in heaven and religion on earth.
Here on earth we are in all sorts of need and
misery. We endure a thousand anxieties. We
struggle with disappointment and adversity. And
every day our life is a concatenation of needs
that call *for fulfilment. This condition of
itself impels us to make prayer and supplication,
to invoke help and deliverance, to implore for
redemption and the grant of our desires. In
religion here on earth prayer, supplication, the
invocation of higher help is entirely in place.

This is altogether different in heaven. Un-
doubtedly in heaven also there is prayer, even
much prayer. Christ himself lives to pray for
us. But prayer in heaven, on the part of Christ
and of the angels and of the blessed, bears an
entirely different character from our praj^er on
earth. "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed
be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven," can also be
prayed above. The Kingdom of glory tarries.
The conflict between the power that opposes God
and Christ continues. The end is not yet.
And therefore it is natural that everything in
heaven invokes this end, and prays for the
coming of the Kingdom of glory.

It is also plain that in heaven prayer is made
in behalf of God's people in the earth. The
Scripture teaches this clearly with respect to
Christ. That the angels remember us in their
supplication is quite certain. And that the blessed
themselves unite with Christ and the angels in
prayer for the triumph of the Kingdom of God
in the earth, can scarcely be taken in question.
But though we follow along this line as far as
scripture allows, it is self-evident, that neither
the angels nor the blessed can join us in the
prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread, for-
gi\ J us our debts, and lead us not into tempta-
tion, but deliver us from the Evil." The blessed
may pray that they might be clothed upon, but
their state is not one of need, misery, lack and
want. They are blessed and drink with full
draughts from the fountain of bliss. And where
we are permitted to look at life in the heavens,
as in Revelation, we are told almost nothing else
of angels, seraphs and cherubim, and of the
blessed, save that they worship. Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is
full of his glory.

If then there is this difference between religion
above and religion on earth, that with us prayer
stands in the foreground, and worship in the
heavens, it is of utmost importance, that we
carefully consider the character of this worship.
Prayer is the search after God's nearness in our
behalf, that he might be gracious unto us. Wor-
ship is the search after God's nearness, in order
from our side to bring tribute unto God of praise
and honor, thanksgiving and glory. In principle
one is the opposite of the other. He who praj's

494

desires something from God. He who worships
desires that his soul and his whole being may
devote itself to God. He who prays intends
that something shall come to us from God. He
who worships intends that something from us
shall come to God.

That grace operates in worship, is self-evident,
but it is another kind of grace. It is grace, that
the infinite, almighty and self-sufficient God will
accept the magnifying of his name at the hand
of the creature. He is so infinitely exalted that
the creature can not bring him anything. And
though every voice of angel and every tongue
of man were to be silent forevermore, the Eternal
Being would be in need of nothing, and would
remain sufficient unto himself. And herein is
grace that the most High God, who is in need of
nothing, will take pleasure in the songs of praise
of angels and of men, and that he grants unto them
the sacred joy of showing forth his praises. All
worship, all thanksgiving, every hymn of praise
and every tribute of honor rests upon the founda-
tion of this to us impenetrable grace.

This worship and tribute of praise can at the
same time serve to make great the name of
God before our fellow-creatures, but in worship at
least this is not the intended aim. He who sings
the praises of God, can do this for the sake of
confessing his Holy Name before unbelieving
multitudes, and of winning them for God, but
worship is an holy utterance of soul, which takes
place between our soul and God, and can at most
adapt itself to the worship of fellow-believers.
In its highest utterance, worship can not be
mechanical. Worship only comes to pass when

495

the soul loses itself in God, when, in adoration it
marvels at his virtues and his works, and of it-
self breaks forth into praises even as the .Eolian
harp emits its dulcet strains, when the wind plays
on its strings.

Examine now the life of your own soul and
see, not whether there is more prayer in it than
worship, but whether, together with prayer, wor-
ship is accorded sufficient room of its own. And
then, alas, it must be the honest confession of
many, that in the life of prayer, worship con-
stitutes but all too meagre an element. We do
not say that most people do not worship also,
but we are bold to express the surmise that the
blessed joy of worship is but all too little known
and sought.

And this should not be so. He who seeks
the secret walk, he who desires to be near unto
God, should not in prayer be engaged almost
exclusively with himself or with his own interests,
but when kneeling before God, he should not
even lastly be busy with God. The knowledge of
God lies in worship, far more than in prayer. He
who prays for something, thinks first of all of
his own need and want, and he only loses him-
self in his God to this extent, that with God
there is power and might that can come to his
help in his need.. He, on the other hand, who
worships, loses himself in God, forgets himself,
in order to think of God alone, to let himself
be illumined by the lustre of God's virtues, and to
cause the reflex of God's greatness to be reflected
from his own soul, as it mirrors itself in his ador-
ing and spell-bound spirit.

Onl^- when the Kingdom of Glory shall have

496

been ushered in, shall we, on the new earth and
under the new heaven, together with all God's
angels, do nothing else. At present, need and
want continuously bring prayer to the lips. And
yet, woe be to him, woe be to her, who already
here, has not some knowledge of that real life,
which finds its blessedness in worship.

Let thanksgiving here be the training school.
The Reformed Confession takes the whole life
of a child of God as one of gratitude, and giving
thanks is the beginning and continuance of all
worship. 0, who would not daily pray for the
forgiveness of sins ; but it is dreadful when earnest
thanksgiving for pardon obtained on Golgotha
remains lacking or at least does not fill the soul.
So it is with our whole life. There is constant
need and want, and the pressure of soul from
the depths to call upon God, that he might be
gracious unto us. But is there ever a moment in
prayer, when there is no occasion as well, to give
thanks for grace obtained, and to honor him who
gave it?

Giving thanks is not yet perfect worship. It is
worship only with respect to what God has done
for us. But he who has learned to give thanks,
honest, affectionate thanks, comes of himself to
this yet far more perfect worship, which has no
other desire than to glorify the majesty of God.
With the heathen at times there was more worship
for idols than is found with us for the Holy One.
Is the admonition superfluous that we shall
accustom our children from the beginning not only
to pra3\ but also to giving thanks and to worship?
There is nothing so effective in bringing the soul
near unto God as worship„

497

92

"THE BODY IS NOT ONE MEMBER,

BUT MANY."

Christ is your King. He has been anointed
King not merely over Zion, the mountain of his
hohness; not merely King, after the earthly Zion
had been profaned, over God's kingdom in the
earth. No, Christ is also King over the persons
who are subject unto him. Our personal relation
to Christ can not be expressed in a single word.
It is many-sided. When we think of the guilt of
sin, which threatens doom, Christ is our Recon-
ciler. When we seek safety with Christ against
tha power of sin and of temptation, he is not our
Reconciler, but our Redeemer. Or when we look
to Christ for direction and guidance in the laby-
rinth of life, the selfsame Savior is not our
Reconciler, not our Redeemer, but our Shepherd,
who has gone before us in the way, and has left
us an example.

But even this does not exhaust our many-
sided relation to our Savior. For that self-same
Christ is also our glorified Head with the Father,
the Lord before whom our knee must bend, and
whom our tongue must confess; and therefore
the King who has incorporated us with his people;
whose subjects we have become; and in whose
palace we shall once be expected. The honorary
title of King is even so little accidental, that the
great plea on Golgotha is at length fought out
under it, and at the bar of Pilate the conflict
between the Emperor of Rome and the Anointed
One of God concentrated itself in the struggle for
the honor of Kingship. As announced to John

498

the Divine, in Revelation, the Lamb is not alone
our Reconciler and Surety, not alone our Redeemer
and Savior, and not alone the Shepherd and
Bishop of our soul. No, the Lamb of God — and
in this antithesis you feel what strikes and
irritates — the Lamb of God is also Lord of lords
and King of kings (Rev. 17:14). The Lamb with
the crown is the exalted, the holy combination of
self-effacement and dominion.

Your King! But in what sense? Is earthly
kingship here the real, the actual, and is the kingly
image of the earthly prince applied to the Savior,
merely by way of comparison, by which to express
his power and honor? Christ your King! Does
this title of honor merely serve to have you think
of Christ, as in a distant hamlet the man behind
the plow thinks of his sovereign in the royal resi-
dence? This is to him a secret and mysterious
power, expressed in the image on a coin, but for
the rest it is a power which remains foreign to
him, a power far off, of whose splendor and lustre,
of whose glory and pomp, he can form no faint
idea, but which he honors from afar. A sovereign
in the glorious palace, but who is unapproachable
by him, to whom he pays tribute because he is
his subject, and for whom, if he is pious, he inter-
cedes in his daily prayer.

And truly, there is likeness here. Christ also is
enthroned in a palace of glory, even in such a
palace, that all royal pomp on earth pales before
the splendor of its greatness. The subject of Jesus
also sacrifices for his king his child in Divine
service, his money in the labor of love, his strength
in what must be done in behalf of his kingdom.
This King also has his throne afar off, and here

499

on earth the King of God's kingdom can not be
seen. But with this the likeness ends. That
Christ is your king is as a figure of speech, so
httle derived from earthly princes that on the
contrary the kings in the earth are only image-
bearers of his glory, and that true, real, actual
kingship is never realized in a prince on earth,
but is known in Christ alone.

Head, Lord and King are but three rays of the
selfsame glory. Head points to the inner relation-
ship and sodality of your life, existence and inner
being, with the life, existence and being of your
Savior, Lord expresses that Christ owns you,
that you are his property, that you belong to him,
that he has redeemed you from the power of
Satan, and that he has bought you with his blood.
And only in this two-fold relation, because he is
your Head and Lord, he is also your King, who
has taken you up into his Kingdom, incorporated
you with his people, made you sharer in his lot,
and rules you by his royal law of life. You are
his subject, but only because thereby you are a
member of the body of which he is the head.

This seems at first hearing an enigmatical union,
but it is one which beautifully explains itself
when that body, and in it the significance of the
head, and what under the head every member is,
is clearly understood. Imagine man, to take a
perfect instance, as in paradise he came forth
from the hand of God. The clean, pure, beauti-
ful body, and in that body the several members,
in which it revealed itself, and its noble head, with
the fullness of facial expression, with the fine,
expressive features, with the animation that
uttered itself in them. Thus only can we have

500

the image before us of the body of Christ, of the
members in that body, and over all these mem-
bers, the glorious Head.

The image here, however, is not merely the
human body. Body in this connection rather indi-
cates in a broader sense what we more commonly
call an organism, even in the sense in which an
animal also is an organism, and the plant an
organism, and as we apply the figure of a body
or of an organism to all sorts of association of
man with man. Thus we speak of a corporation
(which is nothing else than a body) signifying
thereby all sorts of unions, societies and confed-
erations that are formed. So we say that the
family has an organic existence. So we speak of
the body of the state, and of the body of the
people. And for this reason, and in this connec-
tion, we call him who directs such a corporation,
the head of such a corporation, or the head of
the body of the state. It is even the rule to call
those who belong to such a society or body, mem-
bers of the society, or members of the church. To
become a member of a nation, is to become in-
corporated in that nation.

And this is the figure of speech which the holy
apostle applies to Christ and his people. The
organism of the plant also renders service here.
Did not Jesus say: "I am the true vine, and ye
are the branches?" And does not St. Paul speak
of having become one plant with Jesus? It is
always the one effort, to make it tangible and
clear, that Jesus' Kingship is no external dominion
over us from without, but that before we become
subjects of Jesus, we are linked into his life, and
that with the thread of life itself, if we may so

501

express it, we are bound to him; so that it is one
blood of hfe that circulates in him and in us; and
that it is one spirit of life that animates us and
him unto life. Yea, that as little as the head can
be moved from one place into another, but the
foot, the hand, the eye and the ear go with it —
so also every vital movement of our King of itself
stirs also in us, and puts us into motion with him.
Thus Christ is our King, because of itself and of
necessity the members follow the body, and the
body goes wherever the head directs it.

93

"LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY."

If the temper of the soul were harmonious, you
would never feel nearer unto God than in prayer,
and in prayer you would never be far away from
God. To pray and not be near unto God, rightly
interpreted, is impossible. And yet what prayer
is not made each day in every city and village,
yes, we may say in every house, again and again
in which the soul never for a moment comes under
the overwhelming impression of standing before
the face of God. Sin weakens our inner life in
all sorts of ways. Hence the mainspring of the
life of the soul can not properly operate as we
should ardently wish it might. Then we feel that
we can not pray. Yet we do not want to neglect
prayer. So we fold our hands and stammer our
petitions. But when the Amen has been said, we
feel discouraged by the lack of elevation and in-
spiration that has marred our devotions.

Apart from leading others in prayer, every one
must and can pray, and yet to pray well is an

502

exceedingly difficult art, or rather it is a sacred
action, which demands the utmost clearness,
urgency and readiness of soul. But to pray well
must never become art, or else it ceases to be
prayer. The disciples realized this, and when
they had witnessed once again the sacred act, that
Jesus, having gone a little distance from them,
had separated himself in prayer to the Father,
they were so impressed with the sense of their
own inability to pray that, on the return of Jesus,
one of them said unto him: "Lord, teach us to
pray, as John also taught his disciples" (Luke
11:1).

An over-spiritual child of God, in our days,
would perhaps have turned away such a request
with a rebuke. For everyone must pray of him-
self, and what value can a memorized prayer have
before God? But Jesus was not so over-spiritual.
He never prayed otherwise than of himself. But
he understood how difficult true prayer must be
for us who are sinners, and though his disciples
were to be the teachers and leaders of the church
in all ages, he appreciated the request that he
should teach them how to pray, and so he gave
them to pray the Our Father in his own heavenly
language.

He did not say: "Pray after this manner." He
did not give them the Our Father as an example,
how to pray. No, the Lord expressly said: "When
ye pray, say." John, too, had evidently given his
disciples such a formulary prayer. And so Jesus
also gave his disciples a prayer in a fixed form, a
prayer evidently intended and appointed to be
prayed by them all together. For the form is in

503

the plural: Our Father, our daily bread, our
trespasses.

In all ages, in all her forms, the Church of
Christ has been true to the Our Father. And in
our liturgy our fathers also have not only adopted
fixed prayers for public worship, but have always
ordered the use of "Our Father" in the congrega-
tion of believers. But since the eighteenth century
this has been discarded. Particularly from Scot-
land the influence has come in, to put everything
aside that had the appearance of a fixed form,
and to prescribe in church none other than the
free prayer of the leader. This aim was high.
But was it not too high, and has not over-
spirituality worked all too grievously an injury to
the spiritual?

Undoubtedly, the highest end is attained when,
independent of every aid, from the free impulse
of the Spirit, the soul lifts itself up to God, and
on the wings of the Spirit, spreads itself before
God in sacred, devotional language. Such glor-
ious moments are not infrequent in the prayer-
life. And it is plain that in such moments even
the Our Father is not sufficiently concrete to
direct the soul in its utterance before God. But
in all seriousness, how many among the great and
small in the congregation have risen to these
sacred heights. And, if there are such, how many
are the moments of a long day, when they are in
such sacred and exalted moods? We must needs
reckon with reality. And think not only of your-
self, but have a tender consideration for the poor
sheep in the church and in your own home, whose
spiritual standing is still low, and who yet needs
must pray, and for whom it is no less glorious

504

than for you, when in prayer they come a Httle
nearer unto God, and may perceive something of
his holy presence. How much higher did not the
apostles of Jesus stand than we, and yet for them
Jesus deemed a memorized prayer so little aim-
less or superfluous, that he himself gave them one.

It is true, every written prayer leads to abuse.
But would you think that Jesus has neither fore-
seen nor known, to what abuse even the Our
Father would lead? And yet he gave it to his
disciples. Nothing can be so holy, but our in-
firmity and sin will turn it to abuse. Baptism is
abused. The Lord's supper is abused. The
Scripture is abused. Must everything then be
condemned because of this? Prayer also places
a painful choice before us. Say that only the
Spirit's prayer from one's own soul is acceptable
before God, and forsooth, there will be no more
abuse. But, then, there will also be thousands of
families where no more prayer will be said, and
all remembrance of it will gradually be lost. But
restore the use in its fixed form, and of necessity
the muttering with lips will ensue, in which the
soul has no part. Not in every case, praise God,
but with many, and thus many a prayer is pro-
faned.

Standing before this choice, many incline to
say: "In that case let the rest go without prayer,
provided there are a few who pray aright. In
any case cut off the work of the lips, in which
there is no heart." And yet we may not say this.
What Jesus spake to his disciples excludes this.
Let us be more humble. Let us acknowledge, that
even the congregation of the Lord occupies too
low a viewpoint for what is so deeply spiritual,

505

and that, if prayer is to be maintained, if it shall
continue to be a power in the whole church, in
every home, for every member of that home, for
great and small alike, both must be practiced; as
well the prayer from one's own soul, as the written
prayer which all can pray, because all have been
instructed in its use.

Our praise in hymn and psalm would also be of
an higher order if every one of us were born poets
and if we never sang hymns from a book, but
always from our own inspiration and impulse.
But this we do not do. We can not. We are
no poets. And no public praise would be possible
if the same hymn were not sung together. This
also leads to abuse. Hynm upon hymn is sung
by more than one person in the congregation with
the lips, in which the soul has no part. But who
will for this reason banish hymns and psalms from
worship in God's house? This would be a reach-
ing out after overspirituality which would mean
death to public worship.

But there is still a more significant reason. Do
we not know from experience that when the soul
seeks to draw near unto God, nothing at times is
more helpful than to repeat to oneself some in-
spired verse from the Psalms, which we have
learned when a child, and which by its devotional
language of itself takes us out of our ordinary
world of thought and lifts up the soul to God?
When we wanted to pray, and prayer would not
come, has not the Our Father frequently been the
grateful means of bringing us into the prayerful
mood? The Scripture also is a formulary, and
always remains the same. And is not reading of
Scripture before prayer continually the means that

506

not only enables us to pray, but to pray in such
sacred terms as to carry the soul with them?

A twofold cause here operates. First, lan-
guage. Prayer and praise have a language of
their own. This language does not rise of itself
from every soul. There have been those who
were specially gifted with this. Is it not natural
that they, who sing after David, and who pray
in the words of Paul, feel that this helps and
elevates them, and brings them further than of
themselves they ever could have come? But
there is still something more. Words of prayer,
and elevations of praise, which from youth have
been with us in life, impart to our utterance of
soul a steadiness which strengthens, and makes
us inwardly devout. And when in addition to this
we realize that these wonderful words of prayer
and elevations of praise are not only familiar to
us, but that they are now, and have been in all
ages, the language of God's children, it is as
though some portion of the precious ointment of
Aaron has been poured out upon it all, the sweet
fragrance of which refreshes the heart.

The aim of the seeking always is to experience
under it all the blessed nearness of God. Well,
then, the Our Father also, when it is quietly, rest-
fully and solemnly said, opens the gate of heaven
to the soul. Psalm language of itself carries the
soul upward. Everything that lends our wander-
ing, and frequently impotent soul the support of
the sacred Word, lifts us up into a higher mood.
Moreover, everything in prayer and praise that
makes us experience the communion of all God's
saints and fellowship with our own more godly
past, places a protecting power by the side of the

507

power of the world that aims at keeping us far
distant from God.

The benediction also at the close of public
worship might easily be composed by each
preacher for himself. That this is not the case,
that in the benediction at least a fixed form has
been maintained, is a gain to be thankfully
acknowledged. Now the preacher can put noth-
ing into it of himself. He is forgotten thereby,
but just because he steps into the background,
the benediction affects us as a gentle dew of grace
which comes to us from God.

94

''AS IN HEAVEN."

For the soul ''to be near unto God" implies, that
we lift up ourselves with mind and heart from
our everyday surroundings into the sphere of the
Divine Majesty. This is what, in language of
Scripture, the Sursum Corda has become, namely:
the impulse to lift up soul and mind unto God
and to appear in the audience-chamber of his
holiness. In his infinite compassion God truly
comes down to us, to dwell with us, and with his
rod and staff to comfort us. This by itself brings
God near to us, but by no means always brings
our soul near unto God. The seeking love of
God can for long times be near unto our heart,
and can even be within it, while the heart is un-
conscious of it. An infant can be carried by God's
nearness, and have no sense whatever of the
Divine Majesty. In conditions of sickness, which
darken our consciousness of self, God's nearness
to his child is not removed. Even when in dying

508

our consciousness fails us, the nearness of God
continues to support the soul, which he has called
unto himself.

But however closely these two are allied, they
must always be carefully distinguished. Whether
God is near unto us, and whether we are near
unto God, is not the same. And in behalf of the
latter, not of the former, it is exceedingly impor-
tant that our mind be not too closely chained to
the world of visible things, but that we should
understand the sacred art of turning our mental
perception from this world into that which is
around God's throne.

The soul first learns this in prayer. And it is
noteworthy that in the short form of the Our
Father, Jesus repeatedly directs our thoughts to
the invisible world. At once in the address : "Our
Father, who art in heaven." According to the
Heidelberg catechism, this means that we should
not think of God in an earthly way. And this
IS correct, provided it is properly taken not as
a sound, as a word or as a term whereby to ex-
press something supermundane, but as an effort
of the soul, by which, at the very beginning of the
prayer, to free itself from the embrace of earthly
interests and to enter into the high and holy
spheres that surround the throne of God. The
prayer: "Thy kingdom come," carries the same
effect, since that kingdom can not be anything
else than the kingdom of heaven. Hence the
petition implies, that the powers of the kingdom
of heaven ought to permeate our life ever more
strongly.

Fellowship with life around God's throne, how-
ever, is most clearly expressed in the third peti-

509

tion: Thy will be done on earth among us as in
heaven among thy angels. Here the reference to
heaven is immediate. Here both the similarity
and the difference of life on earth and life in
heaven is simultaneously shown. Here Jesus
urges us. that in prayer, and in seeking the near-
ness of God, we should acquaint ourselves with
the world of angels and of the redeemed, in order
by our relationship with their world, to strengthen
our approach to God. Jesus urges us even so
strongly in prayer to bring our souls into contact
with the invisible world, that in the last petition
he makes us sensible of the inworking that goes
out upon us from the head of the fallen angels.
"Deliver us from the evil," is the petition which
reminds us that evil, that sin which springs up in
our heart, is fed and inspired by a higher power
from the invisible world, and that God alone can
deliver us from this deadly inworking. Is it then
too much to say, that in this brief prayer of six
petitions, Jesus leads us out from the earthly
sphere of visible things, and unveils to the sense
of our soul clearly and strongly the reality of the
invisible world? And all for the sake that we
might the more fully and the more intimately
enjo}^ "to be near unto God."

In Scripture, this communion with spirits from
the invisible world, is shown in more than one
instance to be inseparable from nearness unto
God. Only think of the vision call of Isaiah and
of the Revelations on Patmos. Isaiah not only
saw the Lord upon the throne, but also the
Seraphim around it, and he heard the "Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts," which with other
music rang through the arches of heaven. On

510

Patmos it was the same. There, too, the seer's
eye beheld the holy One, and also the Chenibim
who reveal God's majesty, and what is more,
from ''the elders," i. e. from the circles of the
blest, he heard the hymn of praise : "Thou, Lord,
art worthy to receive glory and honor and power I"

And so throughout the entire Scripture there
runs a golden line of heavenly light, which brings
the prayers and the hymns of praise of God'fl
people into fellowship with the songs of praise of
angels and the redeemed. It is not only that the
angels and the blest in unapproachable light, and
we on earth in our twilight, sing praises to the
Trinity, but that there is a connection between
the voices of angels and the tongues of men.
Indeed, sometimes it seems that we on earth but
echo what is sung around God's throne in heaven,
and that our heart only finds rest when there is
holy accord and blessed harmony between created
spirits above and the creature that on earth
thirsts after the nearness of God.

But this presents the question whether this
indispensable fellowship with God's angels and
the redeemed around the heavenly throne has not
been too much lost from sight in our circles.
That we should be on our guard against abuse in
this matter, is self-evident. Idolatry has not
improbably arisen from this search after inter-
course with the world of spirits. Even within
the church of Christ the search after this fellow-
ship has all too frequently drawn souls away from
the nearness of God, rather than introduced them
into his holy presence. Dealings of the soul, if
we may so express ourselves, with angels and the
blest, have tempted anxious souls all too often

511

to introduce intermediary persons between our
soul and God, to whom to look for help rather
than to God. It is plain, therefore, that for the
sake of correcting this abuse, safety was sought
in sobriety, and that with holy enthusiasm it was
undertaken not to allow oneself to be drawn away
in his prayer by anything, not even by angels,
from God himself and from immediate com-
munion with God. But it can not be denied that
by exaggeration this carefulness has led to the
other extreme. For is it not a fact, that in the
prayers of the church, in prayer at home, and in
personal supplication, the spirit-world is almost
entirely ignored, and that thereby all such prayer
has become antagonistic to the note which Jesus
himself has struck in the Our Father?

In the Our Father, Jesus brings our soul again
and again in touch with this higher world of
spirits, while from our pra3^er this communion
has almost entirely died away. For the sake of
avoiding the abuse of one extreme, one can easily
and of itself pass over into the other extreme, and
this is bound to injure the life of our soul. He
who dies, knows that he will not find God and
the Savior alone by themselves, but he will find
them surrounded by a world of saints. Not a
Father alone, but a Fatherhouse, and in that
Fatherhouse the many mansions, and in those
mansions, with God's angels, the saints that have
gone before.

And though we speak of this world of glory as
of the world above, because we can not think of
it otherwise than as being far exalted above this
guilty earth, we well know that this distinction is
not a separation, and that already here on earth

512

communioii with that world is possible. When
the Psalmist would praise God, he calls upon the
angels to praise and bless the Lord (Ps. 103) . There
is an host of the Lord that encampeth round about
them that fear God. Not only Satan, the head of
fallen angels, but good angels, too, are in com-
munication with our soul. And in moments of
blessed elevation of spirit the soul has been con-
scious of the nearness of the good spirits of God,
and it has seemed that they made us feel in a
more tender and more intimate way the nearness
of our God.

We undergo the same inworking for good or for
evil from men. One evil-minded person in your
environment can draw your soul away from God,
estrange every utterance of life from God, and
throw you back into your earthly, sinful shallow-
ness. On the other hand, one devoted child of
God in your midst can effect the exclusion of
every unholy suggestion from conversation, the
opening up of the soul, and the closer approach
to God.

Such is the case here. He who accustoms him-
self to enter into the life of the holy world of
God's angels, and already here on earth admits
the company of the saints into the circle of the
perceptions of his own soul will thereby not only
banish evil, but will himself attain a holier mood,
will feel himself supported in praise and prayer,
and will encounter far less difficulty in raising ham-
self from his earthly life to the nearness of his
God.

We were not created for solitariness. The
moment when, deserted of all, you have to fight
your fight alone, you feel that something un-

513

natural has come upon you. Not alone, but "With
all the saints," we will come to the knowledge of
our God, and if in eternity it will be the wonder-
ful exaltation of life together with all angels and
all saints to glorify God forever, why, then, should
we forsake and neglect the glorious power which
already here on earth can unfold in our prayer, if
by anticipation we live already here in the blesaed
communion, which awaits us up yonder. With all
God's saints we are one body in Christ, as our
head, but on earth we taste little of the fellowship
of the whole body of the Lord. On the other
hand, communion with saints and God's angels is
continually open to us. Blessed is he who not only
enjoys this in his own soul, but also knows how
to inspire thereby the nearness of his God.

95

"STRIVING AGAINST SIN."

One who in mature years, and in his right mind,
does not strive from time to time against some
sin or other, can scarcely be im^^gined. The
human heart is an impenetrable riddle. Even
with sneak thieves and drunkards we are often
amazed at a coy tenderness that shows disgust
with one or more sins, which in better circles are
altogether too frequently given free passage. But
repression of some striking sin, in the case of one-
self or of others, is by no means always yet what
the apostle calls the struggle against sin. Every-
thing here depends on what occasions the struggle
against this or that sin. One will resist such a
sin from concern about his health. This is often
preponderant with respect to sensual sin. Another

614

takes care of himself, because, in case his sin be-
came known, it would injure his good name. A
third strives against a temptation because indul-
gence would ruin him financially. A fourth puts
a mark against a given sin because in his narrower
circle of life it is sharply condemned. Only think
of Sabbath desecration. And in this way, by all
sorts of persons, one sin or another is resisted
from reasons that have nothing to do with the
real struggle against sin. With not a few, indeed,
there is no mention whatever of a conscious
motive, and all their striving against this or that
sin springs from a certain moral instinct, from the
judgment of public opinion, or from the desire to
be decent. In this way profanity has become notice-
ably less in our civilized circles, but far more be-
cause it is now considered coarse and uncivilized,
than from fear of the holy God.

All such resistance against all sorts of sin, how-
ever, should not be judged from the heights as
indifferent. Because of its very contagiousness
every open sin is most dangerous. Apart from its
guilt before God, sin by itself is moral sickness,
and everything that opposes the outbreak or
progress of this sickness is gain. Only the struggle
against sin in any form, without higher motive,
brings no spiritual gain. David's saying: "Against
thee, thee only, have I sinned," remains the funda-
mental rule. And only when we strive against
sin, because sin opposes God, does our struggle
obtain the holy, the higher character.

The struggle against sin, because sin strives
against God and God strives against sin, brings
us near unto God. The struggle then remains no
longer merely moral, but it becomes religious — an

515

expression of godliness, and at the same time a
precious means of cherishing nearness unto God.
See it in the life of nations and associations, how
waging a common war brings people together,
closely unites them, and makes connections for
the present and the future.

When France at length obtained Russia as an
ally, Russian sailors in Paris were almost carried
on hands. In the war of the Boers against Eng-
land every Dutchman felt his heart beat in sym-
pathy with that of his fellow countrymen in South
Africa. From fear of Russia- the English and
Japanese have become brothers. The same is seen
in the life of society and church. In times of
election unions arise between temporal allies,
which govern their entire future. It is seen in
every domain that nothing unites so closely, and
brings one so near to another, as the struggle
against a common foe.

The same applies to the struggle against sin,
when it is honestly carried, because sin is inimical
to God. For then God and you fight the same
fight. Then this fight of itself makes you join
yourself to God. Then you do not fight alone,
but with your God. With the weapons which
God provides for this warfare, under Christ as
your leader. And then nothing brings you so
near unto God, and keeps you there, as the life-
long continuance of the bitter fight against the
enemj^ of God, and of your own soul, and of the
soul of your loved ones.

And then it is not a life-struggle against one
particular sin, but against sin, i. e. against all sin-
ful influences, inspirations and workings, which go
out from Satan upon yourself and your entire

616

surrounding. Indeed, there are bosom-sins, and
it is no minor fault, when the heart is so little
known to itself, that no confession can be made
before God of the sin that most assaults and con-
quers self. And it cannot fail but that everyone
who takes his private life seriously is more par-
ticularly on his guard against certain definite sins,
and in his thoughts and prayers is more engaged
with these, than with other sins. His stniggle
directs itself most against that evil which over-
came and injured him most. And in memory
thereof the shame and sorrow because of defeat in
the struggle against this particular sin, will intrude
themselves most strongly upon him. It was this
sin which inflicted the most cruel wound, and left
behind the blackest mark.

But do not fail to observe the danger which
this implies. For is it not heart-breaking to see
the number of lesser sins in their character to
which even earnest Christians are stone blind?
And the burden of this guilt rests for no small
part upon this one-sided striving against a par-
ticular, great sin. Where a greater danger
threatens, all sorts of lesser dangers that might
harm are of themselves almost lost from sight.
When a loved one lies at the point of death, no
one inquires after the concerns of cellar and
kitchen. When a rynaway horse races through the
streets, no one is on the lookout for muddy places,
but makes himself scarce. When fire breaks out
in the house, no one attends to the draught from
an opei window. In saving a man from drowning,
no one is concerned about the incidental tearing of
clothes. When war breaks out, of itself all sorts
of other quarrels, however important, are silenced.

517

And thus a more serious evil will always cause
the struggle against a lesser evil to weaken.

And such is also the case with respect to the
soul. When the struggle is continued to resist
and to repel the particular sin which tempts one
the most strongly, a number of other sins have
almost free play and their progress is unnoticed.
He who perseveres in the main fight against
arrogance and pride, against sensual propensity,
or avarice, is thereby exposed to the danger that
little untruths, dishonesties, infidelities, bitter-
nesses, vanities, selfishnesses and so much more,
become almost a second nature, strike root in his
heart ever more firmly, and soil his inner life.
This is only discovered when at last the chief
enemy has been as good as worsted. Then tender-
ness of conscience begins immediately to work
with these erstwhile neglected sins, and one is
frightened at the sight of the luxurious growth of
weeds in the garden of the heart.

And to what cause can this sad outcome be
attributed save to this, that one struggled bravely
indeed to free himself from his worst enemy, but
utterly lost sight of the struggle against sin,
because God strives against it. It continued to be
an effort to set one's person free, to measure his
strength of spirit and will against the strength of
this particular sin; dissatisfaction with self, in
case of defeat, and the determination not to rest
until victory was gained. But all this went on
outside of the secret walk with God. Divine help
was invoked to worst the enemy of the soul, but
there was no awakening of soul to beat off, as a
poisonous adder, the enemy of our God. And,
therefore, such a struggle could not bring you

518

nearer unto God, but every time threw you back
upon j^ourself.

Should we then give up the struggle against
the sin that tempts us most, that we might resist
the numerous lesser sins? By no means. He who
leaves the main entrance to a fortress unprotected
merely to repel assaults at the side entrances, will,
when presently attacked from behind, have to give
up all further resistance. No, what you should
do, is, with an eye open to the moral danger that
threatens, by a far more serious exertion of
strength, the sooner the better to make an end
of the struggle against your chief sin, not by giv-
ing it free play, but by breaking with it once and
for all. Thus alone will 3^ou obtain a free hand,
in the Lord's strength, to bring spiritual harmony
in the further discords of the soul. That this is
possible is evident from the witness borne by many
a disciplined child of God, who at length has put
on the whole armor of God, and has triumphed
gloriously. The mistake is, that one makes his
leading sin his bosom sin, and then views it as
an evil which by some fatality he is bound to
resist until death. The enigma of our human
heart is, that we resist our main sin most con-
tinuously and at the same time cozen it. A
duality within, in which, through lack of heroic
action, we accustom ourselves to what is deemed
to be a necessity of life.

Then it is not the spirit within us, which, united
with the Spirit of God, fights in our soul the fight
of God against sin, for the sake of God, but a
ience. This evil, however, must be broken. It
must become a life-struggle against every sin
and against the sinful nature, for the sake of the

519

holiness of God. In order to come nearer unto
God, the child of God must take service under
Christ in the warfare which God himself wages
against Satan and his works, and thus obtain a
twofold result: that whereas hitherto he suffered
defeat, now he conquers, and that whereas he thus
far wandered away from God, now he knows him-
self to be near unto God.

96
"LIVE IN PEACE."

When Asaph wrote: "But it is good for me to
be near unto God," and thereby expressed in
words a deep utterance of soul, which age upon
age has found an echo in thousands of hearts,
life had many more advantages for those who
sought the Lord than it has for us now. In the
East, where Asaph lived, it is still the custom that
every event in life is put into relation with God;
that in everything God is remembered, and the
name of God is named. There is so much that
draws us away from God, and therefore, pious
usage prescribed, that from early infancy the child
should be trained to remember God in every event
of life. This is still the custom under Islam,
where it is overdone, even to the extent that it
must give rise to abuse.

But there is something attractive in the habit.
The call to prayer from the pinnacle of the
minarets has the same tendency. Where there
is so much that draws us away from God and
keeps us far removed, a counterpoise was sought
in life by which to bind the soul to God. The
Christian church did the same in the middle

520

ages. The ringing of bells, the stations of the
cross, crucifixes, and so much more, all tended to
quicken the thought of Christ. And in the age
of the Reformation our fathers tried to reach the
same end by putting prayer in between every-
thing, by multiplying church services, and by the
effort to sanctify every event of life in God. Not
only testaments, but also contracts of rents were
begun in the name of God. On coins the words
appeared, "God with us," or, as in the United
States of America, "In God we trust," and wher-
ever it was possible God's holy name was brought
to remembrance. An atmosphere prevailed in this
which was pregnant with something of the holy,
sometimes even too much so. To this was added
that in the days of Asaph and of our fathers the
religious undulation was far stronger, and relig-
ion occupied a far broader place in life.

But we have everything against us. In society
life the name of God is scarcely ever mentioned.
No bells are rung. An entirely different world of
thoughts fills minds and hearts. He who tries
to keep up sacred usages is criticized as being
old-fashioned, if he is not scorned. A life divested
of God and his name is most desired. And as
regards religious undulation, it still continues in
small circles, but the tidal wave of life goes,
purely materially, for money and sensual pleasure.
In such a time "to be near unto God" requires a
double effort, and nothing should be neglected,
neither positively nor negatively, that here may
have effect. Positively every means should be
persistently applied to engage the soul with God
each day for a longer period of time and with
greater intimacy; and negatively by opposing and

resisting everything that hinders or prevents our
communion with God.

Does the church of Christ understand the great
interest that is here at stake? Can it be said,
that an effort is in evidence, at least within the
church, to pursue this exalted aim? As one means
"to be near unto God," the Apostle indicates a
''life in peace." His exhortation runs: "Be of
one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and
of peace shall be with you" (II Cor. 13:11). And
yet this peace is continually broken. Let us be
well understood. It does not say, that there may
no differences arise, nor that with every difference
safety must be sought in indifference. Paul did
not do this. No, the point in question is the
spirit in which differences are faced and settled.
A twofold impulse may have play. On one side
the holy impulse, in the face of differences to be
doubly on our guard, that love shall suffer no
less, and that no unholy word shall escape our
lips or pen. But also on the other side the un-
holy impulse, in the face of differences to allow
one's bitter mind free play, to give one's passion
to annoy free rein, and to inflict whatever pain
one can. With the first, one puts himself in an
atmosphere of love and peace. With the second,
one breathes an atmosphere of bitterness and
anger.

In the church it is the same as in the family.
Between husband and wife, between parents and
children, and between children among themselves,
differences continually arise. It can not be other-
wise. Interests, insights and endeavors run in
opposite directions. But see the difference be-
tween one family and another. In the family

522

that is of a noble mind, a limit is put upon these
differences, a spirit of love prevails, which of
itself opens a way of escape. And where love
dwells, the Lord commands this blessing, that
hearts remain united. But next to this, alas, how
many families there are in which pains are not
spared to measure out the difference as broadly as
possible, to put the sharpest arrow, as long as it is
not poisonous, on one's bow, and where again and
again husband and wife, parents and children,
brothers and sisters face one another like furies.
This is always the same antithesis which we have
indicated. This* sinful earth brings us no world,
no family or church, without differences or dis-
putes. But it all depends whether a dispute in
family or in church finds an atmosphere of love
and peace, or one of bitterness and anger.

And now the Apostle points out that cherishing
the atmosphere of love and peace is not only a
Christian duty, which brings gladness and com-
fort into life, but that it Js also a necessary
requisite for the cultivation of life in fellowship
with God. A child of God can, and indeed must,
be near unto God. and live in communion with
God. even amid conditions of restlessness and
strife. He who perseveres obtains this blessed
end. But, 0, it is made thereby unspeakably
much more difficult. Where the atmosphere that
surrounds us is charged with evil electricity, and
the tongue can not be held in leash, and discord
rends the robe of love, and the passion of strife
breaks loose, everything draws the heart away
from communion with its God. There the peace
of God, that passeth all understanding, can not
fill the soul. There is no calm there and no in-

523

ward restfulness to lift oneself up from this
earthly sphere into the world above, and to enjoy
the bliss of nearness unto God. And then in two
ways harm is done. First, you fail of one of the
most precious means of being near to God; and
again you become subject to the dominion of an
element that inserts itself with separating effect
between you and your God.

A gently tempered mmd can, with respect to
this, be a blessing to a whole family, to a whole
community; and a mind that is poisoned with the
bitterness of gall can spoil the tone and spirit of
an entire family and an entire community, and
make godliness therein to suffer bitter loss. Of
every thoughtless and unholy word, and also of
every bitter and irritable frame of mind, account
must once be made before God. For do not for-
get, that nothing trains the mind and heart so
effectively as the custom and the habit which
form and govern the condition and the mood of
heart and mind.

If you have once acquired the habit of holding
yourself back and of self-control, and when Satan
places poison into your hands, at once to reach out
for the alabaster box of precious ointment, the
struggle becomes gradually easier, the effort to
encourage stillness more lovely, and the joy of
having cultivated peace and love increasingly rich.
If, on the other hand, you give way to your
sharpness, to your passion, to your bitterness of
mind, you lose more and more the power of self-
control, and create for yourself and your sur-
roundings unspeakable harm and wTong.

The peace of which the apostle speaks has noth-
ing to do with sentimentalism, with lack of cour-

624

age to speak, with being blind to wrong practices.
Mere sentimental goodness is no sacred art, but
cowardice. But this is sacred art: to stand strong
and courageous, in everything, and yet so to take
hold of things, deal with them, and settle them,
that no unholy spark starts fire in your own mind,
and that you do not disturb for a moment the
inward peace of those who are around you.

He whose piety is more appearance than reality,
cares for none of these things. But he who strives
unto the end in every way to keep sacred his
secret walk with God, and to be continually near
unto God, can offer no resistance to the stress of
this apostolic word. He feels in his own soul that
the atmosphere of love and peace makes him
dwell near unto God, and therefore he flees from
the sphere of strife and unrest, because it draws
him away from God.

"A DECEIVED HEART HATH TURNED
HIM ASIDE."

The world, our environment, our business, yea,
and what not, as a rule leads us away from God.
This means that it takes definite effort, in the
midst of daily activities, to keep our thoughts and
utterances of soul directed toward God. There
have even been whole days of which at night on
bended knee, it had to be confessed that the mind
and soul had not once been lifted up to God. To
picture this in brighter colors than the case war-
rants, will not do. Thus and not otherwise is
the sad reality with many whole days of life in
which God has had no remembrance. We were

525-

too busy, too overwhelmed, too much diverted
and preoccupied than that at night we could retire
with the blissful experience of how good it was "to
be near unto God."

This is, of course, exclusively a result of the
sinful character of our earthly life, for by itself
there was no need that anything should draw us
away from God. God does not stand by the side
of things. He is in all things. From him, by him,
and to him. Diversion is a necessity when too
onesidedly and too exclusively our spirit has been
engaged with one thing. This is noticed by the
staring eye, the exT)ressionless face, and the con-
stant return to the same subject. And the
specialist recognizes the danger of this. When
the soul and the mind are directed to one thing
too onesidedly and too continuously, so that one
thinks of nothing else, forgets everything else, and
involuntarily keeps busy with the selfsame thought,
there is the beginning of mental disorder, and
diversion is the proper medicine.

This is not the case with thinking of God. In
the created world a number of things stand side
by side of one another, each with their own claim,
and our mind is normal when in just .proportions
we pay proper attention to them all. If this order
is broken, by thinking too much of one thing,
and too little of the other, equilibrium is gone
and the spirit fails at length in its own confusion.
God, on the other hand, never stands by the side
of a created thing. It should never be ninety
parts of our attention for the creature and ten
parts for God. Neither should it be ten parts for
the world and ninety parts for God. In the full
one hundred parts of everytliing God is to be

526

worshipped. Jesus emphatically declares: Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy strength,
with all thy soul and with all thy mind. In the
same way the one hundred parts of our strength
should be operative in created things. But both
should proceed so as to enter into and permeate
each other, and together constitute one blessed
life. Thus it is in the Fatherhouse. Thus it was
in paradise. Thus it sometimes is here for the
space of one brief moment. But as a rule it is
so no longer. There is division. There is distraction.
The struggle of godliness is to oppose this division,
to resist this distraction, and j'et, at least parts
of each day and parts of each night, "to be near
unto God."

What divides and distracts should be justly
estimated. With respect to this, Adam is still
inclined to put it upon Eve, and Eve to charge
it to the serpent. The world, the many activities
of life, the diversions of the moment are held
accountable for our distractions and life without
God. One is busy from early morn till late night,
and in dead weariness one falls asleep, sometimes
before prayer is said. There is no time for God
and for his service. There may be for those who
quietly remain at home, but not for the man of
business. And so life is ever held accountable,
the restlessness and noise, the ever-enticing world.
Or complaint is made of the body. One does not
feel well, headaches, fevers and other troubles
keep the spirit bound. Only there is almost no
complaint of one's own soul. And against this
Isaiah enters his striking accusation: Your de-
ceived heart hath turned you aside.

Surely the world has come in with its entice-

527

ments, life with its activities. Thereby you have
allowed your heart to be deceived. But it is not
the world, nor its activities, but your deceived
heart that has turned you aside. It has even
turned you aside to this extent, Isaiah adds, that
your soul can no longer save itself, i. e. it can no
longer escape from its own intoxication. Isaiah
declares this regarding the man who has an idol
for himself. A tree has been taken home. The
knotty parts have been cut off, and of the smooth
part the poor soul makes an idol. And it is not
the idol that is at fault, but the idolatrous thought
in the soul, which had captivated the heart, before
he made his idol. That piece of wood, that idol
is but the expression of what went on in his heart.
Not the idol, but his deceived heart turned him
aside, even so effectively'' that at length he no
longer sees the difference between a piece of wood
and God. Or, as the prophets put it: "He is
turned aside so far that he can not come to dis-
cover that there is a lie in his right hand" (Isaiah
44:20). This selfsame evil operates, not only
among the heathen, but, if in another manner,
among Mohammedans, Jews and Christians. It
is a human evil. An immediate outcome of our
sinful nature.

How does this show itself? Very sharply and
clearly, as soon as a magnet operates upon the
heart, which attracts, interests and holds the
attention, and which involuntarily and of itself
again and again stimulates the soul and the
senses, fills the thoughts, animates conversation
and brings one into a fanatical state of mind.
This does not mean the tension and activity of
spirit, when duty, business, the course of con-

528

versation, etc., arrest the attention to itself. On
the contrary, in this case lack of attention and
neglect of due examination of the interest at stake,
is a fault; and may even be a sin. No, the idol-
atrous turning aside of one's inner self only be-
comes apparent when this magnet continuously
draws, and even without occasion, and when the
drawing does not operate from without, but from
one's own heart.

There are people who, when they come to
you, you instinctively know in advance what they
will talk about. There is but one thing that fills
their minds. One interest to which they are con-
tinually awake. With one it is money, the idea of
becoming rich, of increasing gains in every way.
With another it is pleasure and the desire to
shine. With a third it is art, music, a concert, a
piece of literature, a museum, so long as it is dedi-
cated to art, and makes an artistic showing. With
another, again, it is a scientific problem which
constantly pursues him. With another, again, it
is politics, or society gossip, or the hunt, or sport.
In all this, spiritual sickness is symptomatically
present as soon as one particular interest, even
apart from special occasion, of itself engages the
attention, animates and preoccupies, and renders
one dense and unsympathetic with respect to
other things.

For then there is one-sided concentration of
mind upon one given point. This one thing is,
then, the main thing, to which everything else is
rendered subservient. This means to say that
this one thing takes the place with him, which in
a normal condition of soul, is only accorded to
God. And thus it becomes idolatrous. It is the

529

one absorbing subject of thought. One never get5
through talking about it. No sacrifice is deemed
too great in its behalf. One devotes himself to it
with all his soul and mind. Nothing higher is
known and respected. With respect to it even
brotherhoods are formed, insomuch as one is in-
terested only in those who live in behalf of the
same interest and are absorbed by the selfsame
thing. With those who live like this the equilib-
rium is broken, and the highest place, which is
God's right to fill, is occupied by this other thing,
which they love with all their heart, and with all
their mind, and to which they devote themselves
with all their strength.

Now, it is self-evident, that being magnetized
in this idolatrous fashion, does not occur with
Christians in this literal sense. This neither can
be so, nor is it so. He with whom this is the
case may announce himself as a Christian, but a
Christian he is not. But from this it by no means
follows, that the child of God is not exposed to
this danger. It is even confessed, of those who
have most earnestly sought after the secret walk
with God, that no sin was so constantly at the-
door of their heart as this inclination to allow
themselves, by the workings of their own heart,
their soul and their mind, to be turned away from
God to creaturely things or creaturely thoughts.
To be full of the Holy Ghost means, that the
desire of the heart, which goes out after God and
holy things, is constant. He with whom this is
the case does not need to repress other things
from his thoughts in order that he might think ot
God. Involuntarily he thinks of God, and of othef
things only by special effort.

530

But what continually occurs, even among Chris-
tians, is the very opposite, to-wit: That of itself
all sorts of other things are subject of thought,
and that only by determinate effort the soul is
engaged with God. If, now, these are every time
other, alternating things, the danger is not so
great. For then it is not one given thing that
captivates the heart, and the worship of God
stands high above every other interest. On the
other hand, however, the danger is great when the
heart allows itself to be turned aside onesidedly
to one given thing or to one special sort of things,
which enthuse us and engage the heart, for then
they are apt again and again to take the place
in the heart which belongs alone to God.

You can not be near unto God and have part
in his secret walk, when involuntarily and of itself
magnetically you are every time turned aside
again to things that are finite. For then the
heart has deceived itself and the deceived heart
has turned you aside. And, therefore, when you
struggle, and feel that your life is not one that is
near unto God, then cease to complain onesidedly
of the world, of your environment and of your
busy life, as though these alone turn you aside
from God. Rather turn in upon yourself. Spy

our thoughts, conversations and perceptions.
\nd when you see that not alone, and not even
aostly from without, but from these thoughts
within there arises the diverting working, which
disturbs your fellowship with God, and prevents
you from living near unto God, then cast down
this idol within and destroy it.

There is no room for Christ and Belial in one
and the selfsame heart. Or do you not know,

531

with St. Paul: "Do ye not know your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you?" (II Cor, 13:5).

''WHATSOEVER YE DO, DO IT HEARTILY,
AS TO THE LORD."

God, in his word, opposes every tendency and
every effort to break up life into two parts; one
for ourselves and one for God. He allows no
division, no separation; no six days of the week
for us and Sunday for God. No unconsecrated
life interspersed with consecrated moments. No
unhallowed existence through which at distances
a sacred thread is interwoven. No life apart from
religion marked here and there with piety. No,
the claim of Scripture on this point is absolute,
and though it seems strange to us, the claim
remains: 'Tray without ceasing;" in everything
give thanks; rejoice in God always; and: "What-
soever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord"
(Col. 3:23).

To Thessalonica Paul WTites: 'Tray without
ceasing. Rejoice evermore. In everything give
thanks" (I Thess. 5 : 16, 17, 18) . To the Philippians :
"Rejoice in the Lord always" (Phil. 4:4). And to
those at Colosse: '"Whatsoever ye do, do it
heartily, as to the Lord" (Col. 3:23). There is no
respite given. No compact made with you. God
takes no pleasure with anything less than all of
your life. Where faith becomes the rule of life, its
dominion aims to be absolute. No finds, no ex-
cuses, no half-measures are tolerated. He who
would live this life as a child of God, as a servant
of Jesus Christ, inspired by the Holy Ghost, must

532

be led and carried in everything by faith. He who
divides and makes distinctions robs God of a part
that is God's. If you would love God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind
and with all your strength, every subterfuge is
closed off, and the all-claiming and all-demanding
character of faith is founded in Love itself.

Every division works injury to your life, and
to your religion. He who makes division here, and
does too much for religion, neglects his family or
his calling. And he who divides and is not pious,
gives the lion-share to the world, and with an
avaricious heart deducts from what he pretends to
set aside for God in strength, time and money.
He who would have the blessing of nearness unto
God and of going through life in secret fellow-
ship with God, can not cultivate it spasmodically.
With him God must be known in everything he
undertakes to do. God must be the sole end and
aim, God must be entreated and given thanks.
This can not be done in a formal way with closing
of eyes and folding of hands and muttering of
words, but in the inmost chamber of the heart
and in that hidden recess of self-consciousness
whence are the issues of life as well as of prayer.

This is opposed by the idea that a clergyman
•can continually turn this fellowship with God into
a reality in life, but not a business man; that
the man or woman who is zealous for missions,
philanthropy or evangelization, stands in holy
service before God, but not the father and mother
in the family. The work of a clergj-man, mis-
sionary or nurse is then called consecrated labor,
and the work performed by the gardener, merchant
or seamstress is said to be secular. This false rep-

533

resentation of the matter has worked much injury
to piety and to vital godliness.

It goes without saying that he Who ministers
in the sanctuary is of itself more closely engaged
with holy things, and enjoys an uncommon priv-
ilege, of which he shall give an account before
God. Nor can it be denied that at the exchange
and in the shop it takes more effort and victory
over self to continue in everything near unto God.
This is a greater struggle in which God knows
what we are made of, and is mindful that we are
dust. But by the side of this stands the fact that
ministering in the sanctuary brings with it in no
small measure the danger of becoming accustomed
to holy things, and of handling the same more and
more with unholy hands, whereby judgment is
made so much the heavier. In best churches and
in most excellent missions also evil times returned
again and again, in which priests and priestesses
profaned the sanctuary, and when not from among
them, but from among plain patrons and working
people and shop-keepers and merchants the new
action arose, which restored the holy to honor. A
pious preacher, a godly missionary, a consecrated
nurse, and likewise a truly godly warden, elder or
deacon, represents a glorious power. But it is a
mistake to think that of itself the more conse-
crated calling brings true godliness with it. Young
preachers of tender consciences, have frequently
been bound to confess that they were put to
shamo bv the godliness of manj^ a plain member
of their congregation.

534

Moreover, it must be granted that in our ex-
tremely defective condition certain definite and
special consecration of a part of our life, of our
strength and of our money to religious activities
and interests is necessary. You can not serve God
all the days of your life in such a way but that
the day of rest retains its supreme significance.
You can not continue near unto God in every-
thing you do in such a way, but that the particu-
lar moments of direct prayer, of worship in the
Word, and of thanksgiving and praise continue
to be a need of the heart. Neither can you prac-
tice justice and compassion in everything in such
a way, but that setting apart of special gifts for
the service of God is appreciated by you as a
sacred duty.

In the Jerusalem above this duality also shall
fall away. The church triumphant in heaven
shall not stand in, nor by the side of, the life of
glory, but shall be that life itself. But such it is
not as yet here. It can not be otherwise but that
here this duality continues. The church is some-
thing else than the family or the shop. The
mighty antithesis between things of this world
and things of the Kingdom demands this. But
this may never allow religion, piety or godliness
so to withdraw itself within the sacred domain as
to become a churchly life with godliness by the
side of a life in the world without godliness. God-
liness may find a more exalted utterance within
the sacred domain, and impart strength for daily
636

life, but to be true and genuine, it must be a
golden thread that maintains its glistening bright-
ness throughout all of life.

It all depends on whether you truly believe
that God is almighty, the Creator of heaven and
earth. Whether you believe and consider that
ever}'- material you handle is his creature; that
every article of food and drink on your table is
his creature and his gift; that your body and all
your senses are his embroidery; that every force
of nature with which you come in contact, is his
omnipresent working; that every circumstance
you encounter has been appointed you by God;
that every relation in which you are placed by
blood, by marriage, by appointment or choice,
has come to you under and by his providential
plan; that your every exigency and difficulty has
been put in your way by God; that every task
or duty to which you are called comes to you
from God and has a definite significance in his
government; that you can not think of anything
so high or so low on earth but it all forms a
link, great or small, in the chain of his dispo-
sitions; that no joy is enjoyed and no suffering
suffered, but God measures it out to you; in
brief, that nothing can be thought of in heaven
or on earth, and nothing can exist, but God, who
created heaven and earth, maintains and governs
it, has a holy purpose with it all, in everything is
God who disposes and ordains, and who in all
things uses his people, which includes you, to
carry out his counsel. To make an exception of

536

anything whatever with reference to this, is
unbelief.

When, therefore, the Apostle says: "Whatso-
ever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord," he says
nothing but what immediately flows from your
confession that you believe in God the Father
Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth. For
then there is nothing in your personal life, or in
your family life, or in your study and work, or
in anything you do, that would separate you from
God, and that should not rather, provided it is
rightly interpreted, lead j^ou to God. You can,
indeed not sin as to the Lord. Sin separates, breaks
fellowship and throws you back upon yourself.
But for the rest, whether you stand behind the
counter or work at your trade; whether you sit
in your office; whether you lose yourself in study
or devote yourself to art; whether you are at
home or in other company — it all can and must
be one working, one activity with strength
imparted of God, in things Divinely created, for
a purpose which God has ordained.

Hence the question is whether your faith, not
in the mysteries of salvation, no, but your faith
first of all in God as Creator of heaven and earth
floats with you as a drop of oil on the waters, or
whether it permeates all of your life and is applied
by you to everything. In case of the latter there
is no division anywhere, and the man who plows
and sows, the carpenter at the bench or the stone-
layer, the mother who cares for her children and
her home, in brief, every man and woman, in any

537

position of life whatsoever, never labor apart
from God, but always in his creation and iii his
service.

Then to be near unto God, the fellowship with
the Eternal, the secret walk with him who know-
eth the heart, is no sweet-smelling savor by the
side of life, but the breath of life itself, spreading
its sweet perfume upon your whole existence.
Then in everything you are glad, because the
majesty and the grace of God breathes upon you
from everything and in everything. Then, in
everything, you pray, not with the lips, but in
the heart, because, in whatsoever you do, you feel
your deep dependence upon his Almighty power.
Then in everything you give thanks, because all
trouble is outcome of his grace. And every
adversity is intended to stimulate you, with the
aid of ever more grace, to greater exertion of
strength. Then everything will be done heartily,
i. e. not mechanically, not slavishly, not of neces-
sity, but willingly and gladly, because in this way
you are permitted to do it in his service. And
thus you attain that high level of existence where
godliness and fulfillment of duty are one, because
whatsoever you do, in quiet and restful nearness
unto God, you are permitted to do as to the Lord.

99

"HOW EXCELLENT IS THY NAME IN
ALL THE EARTH."

One of the last hallelujah psalms closes with
the mention of the children of Israel, as "the
538

people that is near unto God." It says in full:
"He hath exalted the horn of his people, the
praise of all his saints; even of the children of
Israel, a people near unto him" (Psalm 148:14).
The distinction that is here made is, that not only
the individual soul may find itself in closer fellow-
ship, in more intimate communion, in more con-
stant walk with God, but also that this, in a
much vaguer sense, of course, may be true under
given circumstances of a large number of persons,
and even of a whole people.

To a certain extent this can be said of a rural
population in distinction from the population of
cities. The story of ''the temple of uncarved wood"
remains herewith under sentence of its own un-
reality. For in its hypocrisy it never was any-
thing else than the poetic, pious talk of those
who would rather take a walk on Sunday than go
to church. We mean the fact, which has been
observed in almost every country, that the rural
population, taken as a whole, has remained more
devoted to religion than the great masses of city
people, at least among what are called protestant
that have become estranged from all home relig-
ion and from public worship. It can even be said
that this serious phenomenon increases in propor-
tion to the increase of city population.

This does not mean to say that in these great
cities there is no remnant of devout people. These
city people, indeed, are sometimes very influential,
and in many ways their piety is of a higher type
than rural piety, especially in strength of purpose

539

and elasticity. This is the result of greater friction
and of more intense competition. He who in
such cities still cherished the sacred traditions of
the fathers, did so under protest. He had to suffer
for it, and to struggle in behalf of it. But he who
maintained himself in the conflict, came out of it
better disciplined, fortified and strengthened, and
felt himself better equipped against unbelief and
indifferentism. But apart from these relatively
always small exceptions, it can not be denied that
in rural districts reverence for religion is more
firmly rooted, and that in city life this reverence
wanes; especially where there are great indus-
tries, much commerce, and much speculation at
the exchange. Indeed, among factory owners and
hands, among merchants and oflSce clerks, among
members of the exchange and capitalists there are
also truly pious children of God, but they are
white ravens among the black flock.

That which co-operated to bring this about is
manifold. What with weather and wind, harvests
and failure ^f crops, with cattle and land plagues,
people in rural districts are far more directly de-
pendent upon the works of God than people in
the cities. With respect to industrial interests.
and mechanical inventions man is the more prom-
inent agent who exercises power. In rural dis-
tricts temptation also is less brutally on exhibition.
Evenings there are shorter and people rise earlier.
People know each other more personally, which
makes the discipline of public opinion more effec-
tive. The membership of a church is smaller,

640

which allows the supervision of the church to be
more general. And so there are many causes that
co-operate, but among these the principal cause
always is: Life in the country itself, and the
consequent influence of nature, of the visible crea-
tion of God which surrounds the countryman.
From this it can be inferred that he who seeks to
be near unto God loses a notable capacity, when
he does not open eye and ear to the impression
of the nearness of God, which the visible creation
can impart.

The need of this opening of eye and ear is
evident from the large number of city people who
in summer go to the country, but who go only
for pleasure and fresh air, and return as estranged
from God as when they started. But as a matter
of fact, the city man misses nature. Parks and
boulevards offer some compensation, but the great
masses, especially working people, only return
home at dark. The starry heavens truly also
glisten above our cities, but among those who
walk the busy streets in the evening, who lifts
his eyes on high to see who has created all these
things, who bringeth out their hosts by number,
and calleth them by name?

In our villages nature is all around, whether it
is desired or not. It forces itself upon the inhab-
itants. In cities, on the other hand, people are
shut off from nature and only they who seek it
above or outside of the town find it. In the coun-
try God's voice addresses us from within and from

541

without. In the city alone from within, while the
human voice makes itself loudly heard in all sorts
of ways to hush the voice of the Lord, even in
his starry heaven and in his thunder. They who
are advanced in years, and whose life's task is
done, not infrequently seek the country again to
make good what they have lost. In most cases,
however, susceptibility to understand nature has
been lost, and so they remain isolated from their
surroundings.

Now, compare this with Scripture. Man has his
origin in a glorious paradise, where all nature
addresses him in a pure language of God. Even
after the fall so much excellence remains in
broken nature that the invisible things of God
are understood from created things, both hi?
eternal power and divinity (Romans 1:20). "The
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firma-
ment showeth his handiwork. Day unto day
abundantly uttereth speech, and night unto night
sheweth knowledge. There is no people or land,
where this voice of God is not heard" (Psalm 19).
Excellent is his name in all the earth. The voice
of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory
thundereth. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The
voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars, even the
cedars of Lebanon (Psalms 29). And so it goea on
through all the Psalms. Read and read again
Psalm 104. And at the end of the Psalter we
have a striking description of nature in Psalms
147 and 148. And even before the Book of the

542

Psalms is Job with his wondrous descriptions of
the Behemoth, the horse and the pleiadea. It is
all one mighty call in the greatness and beauty
of nature to behold the glory of God.

And when in Scripture we come to the preach-
ing of the Son of Man, it is again the self-same
call: 'Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow!" "Behold the fowls of the air;" it is light
thrown upon the mysteries of the Kingdom bor-
rowed from what is seen in the sower and the
shepherds; and at the close of his ministry there
is the touching comparison of Jerusalem with the
hen that gathers her chickens under her wings.
The glow of nature scintillates throughout all of
Revelation. God's ancient people was a rural peo-
ple. The holy land, which God had appointed for
his people, was then, though no longer now, a
fertile field of unequalled beauty. The new earth
under the new heaven shall be a return of para-
dise. The wilderness shall blossom as the rose.
And when our times are familiar with the glori-
fication of the artist-painter, because of the beau-
tiful scenes which, with depths of color and life,
he works before our eyes — what dullness of the
spiritual eye it betrays when at the same time it
is blind to the thousand-fold more enchanting
glory in the handiwork of our God, who is the
chief est artist of all.

It affects one strangely, therefore, to find so
little, if any, appreciation of the beautiful in
nature among Christian people. Undoubtedly the
voice of the herald of Peace far excels the many

543

voices of nature. "In his temple," says the
Psalmist, after having described the power of God
in nature, "in his temple doth everj'one speak of
his glory" (Psalm 29:9). And in the Hallelujah
song of Psalm 147 it is said that Israel is highly
exalted above primitive peoples, because the Lord
hath made known his word unto Jacob. And in
closing it declares: "He hath not dealt so with
any nation: Neither have the heathen knowl-
edge of his laws." In the congregation of believers,
where the word is rightly proclaimed, there is a
spiritual beauty which far outshines the beauty
of nature.

But shall we be onesided on this account and
allow the half to be lost? According to our con-
fession God is known in two ways. Surely from
his Word, but also from the creatures, which are
letters in the book of creation, to make us know
the might and majesty of God. Christian con-
fer nces, devotional meetings, devotional books,
are all very excellent, but must on this account
the great book of creation remain closed to the
eye of the soul? It all goes for the sake of
impressions, impressions oq the collodion-plate of
the heart. For the sake of impressions which far
excel the impressions of daily life, and those which
we receive from men.

We may not, and will not, live under the
impression that the Divine can ever be reduced to
the measure of the human. We will not lower and
lessen God after our dimensions, but lift up our-
selves to the measure of the majesty of God. Not

544

a God after our image, but we created after the
image of God. And this you will not get from
■ books, and not from travel, and not from acquaint-
. ance with men. For all this only confines you to
the limit and to the measure of our small propor-
tions, and is altogether different from a rising or
a setting of God's sun; altogether different from
the flash of lightning or from the thunder that
rolls in the clouds; altogether different from the
I glory of the starry skies that arch themselves
I above you; altogether different from the great
i forests, or the lion that roars for prey.
I In nature we have the sublime, and in the
i sublime we have the Divine utterance of what is
\ superlatively beautiful and glorious. The high and
i the lofty: even a majesty which infinitely sur-
: passed the small dimensions of human economy
and of human A.orks, so that you may know and
understand that you are not in touch with the
bungling works of man, but with the glorious,
sublime art of the Creator of heaven and of earth.
Truly, the beautiful in nature can not disclose to
you the way of salvation, and its spiritual mys-
teries. For this purpose God in compassion has
given you his Gospel. But what the outshining
of God's majesty and divinity in nature effects is:
that it binds and expands and elevates all your
ideas to an higher sphere than what your sight
, can give you; that it lifts you up from the insig-
nificant-human to the Divinely-great; in brief: to
• what is exalted! And that in this way it brings
the High and Lofty One nearer unto you.

100

THOU TRIEST MINE HEART, THAT IT
IS WITH THEE."

Many causes can interrupt the secret walk with
God. The most mysterious to the pious mind is,
that God withdraws his face, in order, by the
want of it, to make you thirst more strongly after
it. The most common is, that earthly interests
so engage the attention and keep it absorbed that
the soul is ensnared by them. And the most offen-
sive to the soul is that actual sin came in the way,
which not only broke your fellowship with God,
but continued to prevent the return to the near-
ness of the Holy One.

Actual sin alone has mention here. A word, a
deed, of which you felt, when you faced it, that
it would be a sin to you, and which you failed to
evade. A sinful tendency, a sinful mood, especially
a sinful desire, can seriously affect the fellowship
with God, but the working of it is different. For
on this side of the grave this sinful inclination
will stay by us, but provided it is not cherished,
this by itself will not prevent the secret walk
with God. The secret walk with God is always
in Christ, from which it is evident that we do not
come to God as one who is holy, but as one who
in himself is a sinner. But it is different with a
sin that has been committed. Then there was
consent, permission and the doing of it. Then at
once the light of God's benign countenance was
gone. Then on the side of God it become dark,

51f>

and the inclination to flee from God was stronger
than to be near unto God.

We perceive this change in our spiritual atti-
tude clearly, at once and in the most painful way,
when it was a sin that tempted us; a sin which,
once committed, startled us, and for which we
would give anything if the stain of it could imme-
diately be removed from our soul. When, if we
may say it in an ordinary way, it was a bad ain.
For nothing shows our low moral viewpoint ao
sadly as our general ignorance of our minor daily
sins, neglected duties, unlovelinesses, expressions
of egotism, pride and vanity; small untruths,
little dishonesties, and much more of the same
kind.

This is still entirely different from what David
calls "secret faults." They are faults which may
stain the garment, but so little as to escape our
notice. This refers to unknown sins, and which
only with later development of soul, will be rec-
ognized by us as such. But we know the sins
which we say are "not so bad." We have be-
come accustomed to them and therefore they
have ceased to trouble us. Our soul no more
reacts on them. And of this sort of sins it is cer-
tainly true, that they hinder the secret walk with
God, but do not prevent it. They do not break
what once existed. But they affect the hidden
walk with God to this extent, that it becomes
sporadic, remains fellowship from a distance, and
that we fail of the fuller enjoyment of the same.

Interruptions by sin in fellowship with God are
only possible when, as a rule, you are near unto

647

God, when you know him in all your ways, and
have been initiated into the secret of salvation,
and then commit a sin which startles and frightens
you, and brings a dark cloud to your sky, and you
are thrown back upon yourself, and you feel that
you have no more part in the lovely walk with
God.

In Psalm 32 David speaks of such a break, and
frankly confesses that this condition was con-
tinued because he kept silence. "When I kept
silence thy hand was heavy upon me day and
night." But at length he broke this silence, "I
said, I will confess my transgressions unto the
Lord." And when he has done it, the break is at
once removed. Now he seeks and hnds God
again, and so he sings: "For this shall every one
that IS godly pray unto thee in a time when thou
mayest be found. Thou compassest me with joy-
ful songs of deliverance." Yea, now he meets
with God again, and God does not repel him nor
hold him back. But he hears it sweetly whispered
in his soul : "I will instruct thee ; I will guide thee
with mine eye."

And in this Davidic experience of soul lies the
only true diagnosis, and the only effective medi-
cine. When we were so weak, nay so wicked, as
willingly and knowingly to commit a sin, the first
impression which it made on us was that we
wanted to hide from God, that we were afraid of
appearing again before his presence, and that with
the bitter remembrarice of our sin we drew back
^vithin ourselves. Not from enmity, but from

548

fear. Not from lack of will, but from shame. We
\\ell knew that we must get back to God, but we
postponed it. We wanted to pray, but we allowed
time to intervene. We kept silent. And in this
oppressive silence, which so sorely weighed upon
the soul, we got farther and farther away from
God.

This is the diagnosis, i. e. the explanation of
the wound from which at such a moment the soul
bleeds. The only true medicine is immediately to
break your silence, seek solitude, kneel down, and
without sparing yourself confess plainly and can-
didly your sin before God, call upon him for for-
giveness, yea, implore him that he take not his
Holy spirit from you.

This takes pains. At such a time 3^ou must do
\-iolence to yourself. You feel the sharpness of
God's anger, and back of it you must grasp his
mercy. But the outcome of this is always sur-
prising. It is just as David said. It breaks at
once the ban which sin put upon the heart. Some-
thing in the soul gives way, and liberation follows,
deliverance, reconciliation, and God comes near in
faithfulness as Jesus pictured it in the shepherd
with the lost sheep. It seems as though in such a
moment God draws nearer than ever to convince
you of his infinite compassion.

Satan whispered within : "Stay away . from
God," but your Father in heaven called out to
you: "No, come unto me, my child." In this
approach of your sin-confessing heart to God, and
of God to your soul, the interruption falls away,
649

and it is good for you, unspeakably good, to be
near again unto God.

And what is the secret of this healing work of
the soul? Is it not stated in Jeremiah's words:
"Lord, thou knowest me, thou seest me, thou triest
mine heart that it is with thee" (Jer. 12:3 Dutch
version). That which makes the utterances of
Psalmist and prophet so striking is, that they
interpret all of life within the scope of battle for
or against God. Battle against God on the part
of Satan. Battle against God on the part of un-
holy, worldly powers. Battle against God's holi-
ness on the part of every sin They do not speak
the weak, cowardly language of a self-developing
and degenerating moral life, but they relate every-
thing to God, as the center of all things. It is all
a battle of sin and unrighteousness against God,
and a battle cf God against all unrighteousness and
sin. It is an age-long battle, from the days of
paradise on, which will not cease until the end of
the ages, when God in Christ shall triumph over
the last enemy. And we are all involved in this
conflict, and have our part in it. When we sin,
it is on the side of Satan against God. When we
live by faith, it is on the side of God against
Satan.

This is the interpretation of life as given by
prophets and apostles. And this should be the
profound and striking interpretation of life on the
part of all God's children. And what is a sin
which we commit? Even this: that in an evil
moment we strengthen the forces of evil against

B60

God, and that in co-operation with Satan we
oppose God. And if this be the case what is it
to make confession of sin, save that so soon as
you realize this, you at once step out from among
the ranks of Satan and return to the battle lines
of God, imploring mercy, that you may be counted
worthy again to fight under his banner, and again
to join forces with him?

And now the heart appeals to the omniscience of
the God of all compassions. Did you mean to
desert the ranks of God and to join the forces of
Satan? No, no; and once again, No. You did
not mean to do it. The thought of such an evil
did not rise from within yourself. You allowed
yourself to be taken unawares. You slipped with-
out realizing the dreadful wickedness of your deed.
And now as you perceive that this is the sin that
you committed, you appeal to God. In the in-
most recess of your heart there was no desire to
desert God. And your sorrow of soul, your re-
morse, your self-reproach is, that in the face of it,
you have incurred the guilt of an act of enmity
against God. And, therefore, you plead with him
and ask him, the all-knowing, whether as he tries
your heart, he does not see, and does not know,
that in its deepest depths, as against Satan, it is
with him.

101

"GET THEE BEHIND ME. SATAN!"

It can not be denied, that in former times,
especially in the middle ages, too much was made
661

of Satan by dragging him, as it were, rightly or
wrongl}', into everything. But does it not seem
that now we rather incline to the other extreme,
and forget, if not deny, the very existence of the
Evil One? With this denial, self-conceited free-
dom in matters of belief makes singular shifts
with the Gospel of our Lord. For then it is said
that one frees himself from the Old Testament,
but for this very reason adheres the more closely
to the Gospel. These wavering spirits are not
concerned with Moses but with Jesus, and fre-
quently do not hesitate to criticize you, who hold
to the whole Scripture, as being too Old-Testa-
mentish and consequently only half Christian.

But see how these people, who are so loud in
their praises of the Gospel, themselves deal with
it. It is true that Satan has almost no mention
in the Old Testament, and that he is broadly
dealt with in the Gospel. And not this alone, but
in his words as well as in his works, Jesus con-
tinually shows that he reckons with Satan. Only
think of the temptation in the wilderness, of the
constant casting out of devils, of the great con-
flict of evil spirits against the Savior, how he
understood that all his sufferings and death was a
struggle with this Prince, and how, without multi-
plying instances, in the short "Our Father" he
added the petition as a final prayer for all his
people: "Deliver us from the Evil."

All this, however, will not do. The half friends
who have put the Old Testament aside, in order
to adhere solely to Jesus and his Gospel, do not

552

hesitate to dismiss this whole matter of Satan's
influences, part and parcel, from their Gospel.
And with respect to this it is evident again, that
every such effort aims not at forming the mind
and thought after the Gospel, but at moulding
the Gospel after their own world of thought.

With respect to this they who, while more faith-
ful to the Gospel do not deny but forget the real
workings of Satan, are not free from guilt. Or is
it not extremely rare, that in spoken or written
address, in psychology or in revelations of the
inner life, the Evil One is reckoned with as a real
factor? It should be carefully observed, that like
a thief, Satan is most pleased when his presence
and his work are not noticed. In circles where
his existence is denied or ridiculed, his hands are
altogether free to murder souls according to his
liking. But that he can be so strangely forgotten
by those who are more inclined to believe the
Gospel, offers him the finest chances to poison
souls. We may be sure that in all this denial and
in all this forgetting of the actual existence of
Satan, a trick of Satan himself operates. When
the mighty spirit of Christ moved the waves of
the sea of life in Palestine, Satan did not succeed
with this for a moment, and Jesus compelled him
to show himself. But now he succeeds in keeping
himself in hiding, and unseen and unnoticed, from
the ambush, to inw^ork his character, and conse-
quently with better effect.

How the working of Satan proceeds is not re-
vealed unto us in its particulars. We only know

553

that the world of men is not the only world of
conscious beings. There are myriads of other
spiritual beings who are known as spirits, angels,
cherubim, seraphim, etc. It is also certain that
this world of spirits is not separated from our
world of men, that it exists by the side of it,
and is in all sorts of ways related with it and
inworks upon it. And in the second place it is
additionally revealed, that in this world of spirits
the antithesis between holy and unholy has broken
out, even earlier than here on earth, and that
from this world of spirits it has entered into our
world of men.

Hence there is a certain alliance between good
spirits and good men, and also a conspiracy be-
tween unholy spirits in the invisible world and
unholy spirits in the visible world. Joy among
good angels of God over one sinner that repenteth,
and smiles of derision among evil spirits when the
effort to bring about the fall of a lost man meets
with success. It is all one conflict, one warfare,
one struggle with Christ as the Head of holy
spirits here on earth and outside of this world
against Satan, who is the head of all unholy
spirits among men and among devils.

All this is clearly, broadly and exhaustively set
forth in the Gospels, Epistles and in Revelation.
We know this, we believe this, and are obliged to
direct our doings and non-doings in accordance
with this. But how these workings of unholy
spirits upon the world of men proceeds, is wrapt
in shadows, so that only some vague features give

554

direction to our thoughts. This much, however,
is certain, that a threefold working severally de-
lineates itself with sufficient clearness. There are
workings from the unholy spirit world, which,
without definite attack, of themselves find a
vehicle observable by us, in public opinion, cus-
toms and habits of life, and sinful human nature.
This is the common, the everyday recurring, the
ever continuing process which, as it were, is in
the very air, and of which we all undergo a cer-
tain influence. There is a second working which
is better defined when one of the many evil spirits
makes itself master of the spirit of a given com-
pany of people or of the spirit of a given indi-
vidual. Sometimes several wicked spirits do this
at once. Bring to mind the parable of Jesus
(Matt. 12:45). And, then, there is a third, still
more definite, yea, even the most definite working,
when Satan does not employ the agency of one
of his adherents, but when he prepares himself
for battle, in order to make a leading assault in
the world of spirits.

In accordance with the spirit of the times, and
of persons, the first, second or third working ap-
pears more conspicuously in the foreground. This
is seen in the days of Jesus. The main dispute
had then to be settled, and all three of these
workings were strongly evident. Satan himself, in
array against Jesus and his apostles, evil spirits
arrayed against chosen victims, and the ordinary
workings among the rank and file of the people.
Escape there was none. Hiding would not do.
656

The conflict was in the open. Altogether differ-
ent from now.

Even in those days, however, Satan tried to hide
himself. We refer to this for our instruction.
Peter, with his sensitive nature and excitable
mind, was used as instrument. "His 5esus to
die on the Cross! Never!" Love for Jesus was
the motive of antagonizing this dreadful thought
in Jesus. And so we read: "Then Peter took
him, and began to rebuke him, saying, 'Have pity
on thyself! This shall not be unto thee!' " (Matt.
16:22). The working of Satan was concealed in
this. Peter did not realize it. But Jesus saw
through it at once, and in turn rebuked the dis-
ciple, who was adrift on his feelings instead of
resting on the prophesied plan regarding the man
of sorrows. "Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou
savourest not the things that be of God, but
those that be of man." Thus Satan did not gain
a hair's breadth. Jesus unmasked him at once.
Even with his attack from the ambush he could
make no advance against Jesus.

But this event is of infinite value to us. It
shows that a direct attack of Satan can lurk in
loveliest forms of devotion, when apparently no
evil intent is at play, even when we have the
impression of walking very tender ways. This
does not say, that Satan ever attacked you per-
sonally. It is very possible that he confined him-
self in this to the use of one of his subordinate
spirits. It is even possible that as yet he has
never influenced you otherwise than by his gen-

556

eral workings in the spiritual atmosphere. But
the incident with Peter shows that you might be
mistaken. That there might have been an attack
of Satan when you did not in the least suspect
it. And in any case, that the daily prayer:
'"Deliver us from the Evil!" is no superfluous
wealth for anyone of us.

Thinking of a temptation that was endured,
the question sometimes rises long afterward,
entirely objectively: Was not this a direct attack
of Satan on my heart, and was it not God who
delivered and saved and preserved me? It is not
always in the temptation to some particular great
sin. See it in the case of St. Peter. He deemed
rather that he was doing good. But this is cer-
tain, that the greatest obstacle in the way of the
world of evil spirits is your seeking and striving
to be near unto God, to live in his secret fellow-
ship, to choose your path in life and to follow it
unto the end, in conscious communion with God.

And for you, on the other hand, there is no
safer stronghold in which to hide and safeguard
yourself against these unholy influences than in
being much in close nearness unto God. For this
reason Satan is ever on the alert to interrupt this
fellowship with God in your heart. That you
seriously seek this hidden walk with God, is
reason enough for Satan to venture an attack on
you in a particular way, by no means always to
allure you into a great sin, but very frequently, as
in the case of Peter, by imparting unto you divert-
ing workings of the affections.
657

Be, therefore, on your guard. As soon as you
become aware of spiritual coolness, as soon as you
perceive that this, that or the other thing renders
it difficult or prevents you from being, and con-
tinuing, near unto God, then consider what in-
fluences you are becoming subject to, what un-
noticed inworkings take place in your soul. Shake
yourself free from them all. And do not rest
until you have found your hiding place close by
the heart of God. Hesitation, procrastination will
not do. Jesus broke the spell immediately, and
at once repulsed Peter with the words: "Get thee
behind me, Satan!" Brief, forceful and aggressive!
Thus only the snare breaks, and you can escape.

102

"OH, THAT THOU WOULDEST REND
THE HEAVENS."

Ascension day is a Divine memorial day. It is
the glorious memorial day of our Savior. The
work of redemption which was to be accomplished
on earth was now finished. Not only his bearing
of the form of a servant; not only the way of the
man of sorrows; not only entering in upon eternal
death, but also the sojourn of forty more days on
earth, in order to consecrate his apostles to the
holy, gigantic task, which awaited them from
now on.

These forty days again were a sacrifice of love
brought by Jesus. The glory of heaven allured
him. The place at the right hand of God called
658

and wooed him. The crown awaited him. But
yet he tarried. He still remained in the sphere
of this world. Not because it attracted him. On
the contrary, between the risen Savior and the
world, which was still submerged in misery, every
tie of connection was severed. With respect to this
world he had ceased to dwell in its midst. He had
died unto this world, and his resurrection had not
restored him unto it, but only to the circle of his
saints. And so there was something anti-natural
for him in this forty days tarrying on earth. He
no longer belonged to it. He had become estranged
from it and it from him. Even though he still
tarried in it, the world would see him no more.
He would still be in it, but out of all connection
with it, no longer belonging to it, but to an
higher sphere, into which he had actually entered
by his resurrection.

But Jesus loved his disciples. The touching
parting wuth them in Gethsemane, the parting
with Peter in the court room, the parting with
John on Golgotha, could not be final. Not the
world, but they must see him after his resurrec-
tion. They must be initiated into their new rela-
tion to their Lord. Regenerated in his resurrec-
tion itself they must receive the apostolic anoint-
ing. They must be prepared for the transition
into the new relation, when they would be alone
on earth and their Master in heaven. And for
this purpose Jesus had brought this last sacrifice,
that he did not ascend to heaven immediately
after his resurrection, but only weeks afterward,
669

and that for those many days he forewent the
glory which awaited him on God's throne.

But this could not last. The end must follow.
It was an holy pause in his glorification, entered
upon from love, but which of necessity had to be
as short as possible. It could not, and was not,
permitted to be a continuous intercourse with his
own. That would not have answered his purpose.
It would not have accustomed them to the parting
that was to follow. And therefore there was noth-
ing but an occasional appearance in order to with-
draw himself again. At first more frequently, then
more rarely, in order presently at Damascus and
on Patmos to reveal himself but for a fleeting
moment. In between these lies the final parting.
The last meeting on the Mount of Olives, with
Gethsemane at its foot, Jerusalem stretching itself
behind it, and back of Jerusalem Golgotha and
the cave from whence he rose. Jesus had given
them his last command. The moment of parting
was at hand. And then from the top of the Mount
of Olives he lifted himself from their midst, and
ascended so that they saw it, higher and ever
higher, until a cloud received him out of their
sight, and angels from the spheres of light came
down, who gave them the last word of comfort:
"He is gone away from you, once to return. Once
the whole world shall be his."

Where those heavens are, whither Jesus went,
remains a mystery to us. We look for them above,
and all Scripture tells us, and our own heart
returns an echo to it, that the heaven of glory
must arch itself above us. It is an increated need

560

of our soul to look for God's throne not in our
proximity, nor yet underneath, but above us. The
heavens are God's throne and the earth is his
footstool. We look up to the heavens, from whence
light comes to us, where God's stars twinkle in
the firmament, from whence rain descends to us
and waters the earth and spreads blessing all
around us. But dimensions here do not count.
The heavens of our God are not of our materiality,
they do not count with our distances, they are
not comprised in the measure of the finite. Once
they will open themselves to us from a direction
where we did not expect it. They will not be
where we surmised it. But in unknowTi glory
they will open their gates to us. And into this
glory, when he ascended, Jesus has entered.

"Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens!" ex-
claimed Isaiah (64:1) in great distress of soul. For,
taken in its deepest sense, our niisery consisted in
the fact, that by its sinful degeneracy our world
was shut off from the heaven of our God. The
holy above and the unholy round about us and
in our own heart. And then there was every time
a looking up to heaven above which seemed like
brass, and whose closed gates and windows scarcely
allowed our prayers to pass through. We were
disposed to that heaven. We were designed for
it. Only a life in communion with that heaven
could impart the Divinely intended lustre to our
existence here on earth. We were not able to
climb up to those heavens, in order to unlock
their gates. All we could do was to look up to
561

that heaven, stare at it, and call to it and sup-
plicate, that our God, or he who alone could do
it, would rend those heavens, and afford us access
again to them.

And this prayer has been answered in Chriat.
First in that he descended from heaven, and then
in that he ascended thither again. By the latter
far more strongly than by the former. For, surely,
when Jesus was on earth, there was always an
opened heaven above him, and angels of God
ascended and descended above the Son of Man.
But only by Jesus' ascension has communion be-
tween heaven and earth been established on a
broad scale, durably and permanently. He
ascended, not as he descended, but he carried up
our human nature in himself. He came to us
from heaven as the Son of God, but as the Son
of Man he returned into heaven. His ascension is
no break of fellowship with his own, but rather
an anchoring forevermore of the tie which binds
him to his saints on earth. This fellowship is even
wonderfully mutual. He our Head, und in him
our life hidden with God, but on the other hand,
he, our Savior, taking up his abode in the hearts
of his own and staying near them with his
majesty, his grace and with his spirit. And now
there is not a moment more of interruption, far
less of a breaking of the tie which binds our
earth to heaven, but in the sacred mj'ster^^ we
have an ever continuing, living, holy outpouring
of light and brightness, of power and might from
on high, and by the side of this, in an equally

sacred mystery, a restless ascent of our faith, our
love and our hope up to the throne of glory.

By his ascent up to heaven Jesus has not be-
come farther removed from us, but he has come
nearer by. What now vibrates and lives and
operates is fellowship between the King of glory
and his saints on earth, no longer confined to the
upper room, no more limited to a mountain in
Galilee, but beaming forth throughout the whole
world, wherever there are souls which he redeemed
and saved and who, in supplication, go out to him.

It is now an invisible, unobservable, but a force-
ful and systematic operative Divine regiment
which Christ as our Head makes valid in all the
earth. In the wilderness Satan showed Jesus the
kingdom of this world and mirrored to him a
diabolic authority over them all. Jesus refused
this, and for what he then refused he now received
as crown upon his work of Redemption the spirit-
ual and Divine government over all peoples and
nations. Thus he perfects over all this world,
wonderfully and majestically, the gradual prepara-
tion of spiritual conditions which will once bring
about the consummation, in order that then he
may establish his eternal kingdom, in all its com-
pleteness, in this selfsame world, from which he
ascended.

Thus have the heavens been rent, thus have the
windows and gates of heaven been opened, never
to be closed again, nor even to be veiled. He who
with his prayers now stands before a heaven of
brass, has no one to blame but his own unbelief

563

and lack of spirituality. But for him, for her.
who believes, the heavens are opened, and from
thence pours forth into the darkness of this world
and into the darkness of our own heart, a soft,
blessed glow of light, love and Ufe. And the soul
that is cherished thereby, has already now "walks
above" among the saints of God, and with the
smile of joy on his face, he sees the approach of
the hour when, having finished his earthly course,
he, too, shall enter upon the fulness of that glory.
The early Christians realized this, and therefore,
clothed in white garments, they carried out their
dead who had fallen asleep in Jesus amid songs
of joy. We, at a greater distance from the Mount
of Olives, follow other customs, only, let it never
be with less fixedness of hope in the heart in be-
half of our beloved ones who have fallen asleep.

103

"WITH ALL SAINTS."

In your most pious frame of mind, and urgent
longing of soul to be near unto God you may not
claim the Lord your God for yourself alone. This
is a sinful abuse which is readily committed by
passionate devotion. In the "Our Father" a
plural is used, where we, when left to our own
impulse, would readily use a singular. It does not
say: "My Father," but "Our Father," who art in
heaven, and the plural "us" is used in the Lord's
prayer to the end. This does not mean that we
may not use the singular in our devotions. In
664

the "Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani" Jesus quoted
Psalm 22 and of itself there could be no plural used
whenever the Son of God practiced fellowship
with the Father. Jesus as such stood entirely
alone, in holy isolation. And though it may not
be in that exalted and peculiar sense, in which it
was the case with Jesus, yet with us also condi-
tions arise and experiences of soul, which isolate
us, and of which at least we do not know that
we have them in common with others. Then it is
a personal condition, from which we call upon
God, and it is natural that we use the singular
and say: *'My God" and "my Father."

This, however, should not be the rule, it should
not be the common tenor of our prayer. Of itself
this is not so when we pray together. But it
must not be so in our quiet, solitary and personal
prayer. In case of common need, even when we
pray alone, we feel instinctively that this is not
permissible. In times of shipwreck this has spon-
taneously shown itself. If among the more than
one thousand miners who perished at Courrieres,
there were those in that dreadful subteranean hell
who knew how to pray, it probably was not
thought otherw^ise. And when recently Vesuvius
vomited fire and sulphur, they who were devout
did not remain at home to pray each by himself,
but all gathered together for prayer in the churches.

Such is the case with all men before God, in
the common need of sin and misery. This com-
mon need may assume a special form in each
individual case. Sin may bear a special character

565

and the misery of life may make itself known in
a particular way to each of us. This, however,
does not take away the fact that all sin and misery
flows from one common source, that it makes us
sharers of a common lot, and that it should move
us unitedly to call upon God for redemption and
deliverance.

If such is the case with our supplication from
the midst of danger, it is the same with respect
to our thanksgiving for grace received and with
our prayer for safe-keeping by this grace. Every
one's salvation and deliverance is from Bethlehem
and Golgotha and the opened grave. One and
the selfsame Satan seeks to work harm into the
grace of all, and the safe-keeping of all by the
grace of God proceeds from the inworking in our
hearts of the same Holy Spirit and from the same
glorious government of Christ as our King. If
thus in sin and misery we share a common lot
with all mankind, in the sphere of grace we share
a common lot with all those whom the Father
has given to Christ. Our spiritual attitude in
holy things therefore neither can nor should be
any other save that we know and feel that we
approach God "with all saints" and that with all
the saints together we stand before our God.

Consider that the Apostle says: "With all
saints" (Eph. 3:18). Some godly people well
know fellowship with the godly in their own town,
but they forget that the godly and the saints are
not the same, and this they leave out of account.
This does not say that it is not good and excel-

566

lent to be daily in spiritual touch with such in
one's town, in order to strengthen the faith and in
behalf of mutual edification. Only, common fel-
lowship with the godly is altogether different from
the sense of sharing a common lot "with all
saints." With "the saints" the Scripture does not
speak of subjective, personal piety, but of objec-
tive sanctification through and in Christ. 'The
saints" are the redeemed, they who have been
drawn unto eternal life. Not your choice, but the
choice of God here counts. Not a fellowship with
those whom you think are godly, but sharers in
a common lot with those who have been effec-
tively called of God.

Thus the circle of the saints is not narrow, not
provisional, not local, but it is a* multitude which
no one can number, in all parts of the world,
here and up yonder, from the daj^s of Paradise
until now, and from now on to all eternity. As
we sing in the Te Deum: "The holy church
throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee."

Hence, "with all saints" means fellowship with
all those who have been and will be redeemed by
the blood of Christ in your immediate surround-
ings, in your^, whole land, in your church, in other
churches, in other lands, both in the present, in
the past and in the future. It is the whole "body
of Christ" with all its members, not one excepted.
With the patriarchs and prophets, the apostles
and martyrs from of old, with your redeemed rela-
tives and family members and acquaintances, who
have gone before into eternity, with those who

• 567

still continue with you, with those who grow up
frcm among the children of the church, and those
who are still hidden in the seed of the church, or
who are brought into the church from without.
No one whom God has included, may we exclude.
And that this refers not merely to your salvation,
but also to your fellowship with the Triune God,
and to your being near unto God, clearly appears
from what the apostle writes so enthusiastically,
that "with all saints" ye may be able to com-
prehend what is the breadth, and length, and
depth and height in the mystery of the grace of
God.

This exposition of the sense of your sacred fel-
lowship is deeply significant with respect to prac-
tical ends. When you accustom yourself to re-
duce the multitude, which no one can number, to
the few Christian people whom you personally
know as members of your own church, your sacred
horizon becomes very small and naiTOw. Then
the people of God slink away to a few hundreds,
and all the rest of the world appears to you like
lost masses. If, on the other hand, you think of
the wide circle of all God's saints, those at hand
and those afar off, of the present and of the past,
of those on earth and of those in heaven, and of
those who are yet to be bom, then all the saints
of the old Covenant at once come nearer, then
there is life in fellowship with apostles and
martyrs, then there is an innumerable multitude
of brothers and sisters above, and from the rising
generation and from those that will come after
668

them, we look for a continuous increase of the
body of Christ.

Then discouragement and depression give place
to a feeling of triumph and of endless glory.
Your case then stands no more alone and by it-
self, but thousands have shared it with you, and
still other thousands have been far worse con-
ditioned than you, who nevertheless have entered
upon eternal life. You experience also the glor-
ious effect of the magnitude of the work of grace.
You do not belong to an insignificant, forgotten
society, but to a multitude without end, a vast
company which no one can number, which now
already stands before God, or is on the way to
the Fatherhouse, or presently is to be born from
the almightiness of God. Then God and the work
of his grace assume proportions of infinite great-
ness to the eye of the soul Everything little
and circumscribed falls away, and the pilgrim
journey is continued, not with sighings and with
complaints, but jubilantly in the salvation of
God and even here with the standing of the feet
in the gate of the heavenly Jerusalem.

And this is the frame of mind that prepares
you for the secret walk with God, and causes you
to be near unto God. As long as it is only a per-
sonal dealing with God, as though you together
with a few other Christian souls sought a hiding
place with God, the majesty of the work of grace
is lost to you, and with it the majesty of his
Divine Being. The straits of your own soul's
condition and of the outward needs limit also the
length and breadth, the height and depth of the

569

majestic doings of God. Thus your own insig-
nificance is readily transferred to the Eternal.
But when you feel that you are a living member
of the whole living body of Christ, that you are
one of the multitude that can not be numbered,
that you are related to all the saints above, to
all God's saints in the whole earth, and to all
the saints among the children, and among your
children's children, then the pinnings of the sacred
tent are put out widely, your outlook is enlarged,
your love is extended to thousands upon thou-
sands, your faith is deepened and your hope
begins to glisten with all the radiancy of glorious
victory.

The heart of our God is so wide of conception,
that nothing estranges you farther from this
Fatherheart than your owtq narrow-heartedness.
In the Te Deum it is sung:

"The glorious company of the apostles praise

thee.
The noble army of martyrs praise thee."

Sometimes the desire comes upon one that he
might have lived in the da3^s of Isaiah, and that
he might have companied with St. John, and
might have witnessed the heroism of martyrs in
the face of death. And then one thinks that all
this is lost in an unapproachable past. Then, live
in the sense of communion "with all saints," and
they all will come nearer to you. They all are
your brothers, with whom you are included in the
one body of Christ. And the nearer you come
to this company of God's saints above, the nearer

570

you will feel yourself in the presence of God, who
hath included you "with all saints" in the self-
same bundle of life.

104

"THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST,

AND THE LOVE OF GOD, AND THE

FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLY GHOST

BE WITH YOU ALL."

The apostle from whose hand the richest
epistolary legacy has come to us, was in the habit
of opening and closing his epistles with a bless-
ing. The one he used in opening was almost
always: "Grace be with you and peace from God
our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ." And
the prayer with which he closed mostly read:
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you
all." It was truly exceptional, when at the close
of his second epistle to the Corinthians he so far
departed from his usual way, that he expanded
his prayer, and said: "The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellow-
ship of the Holy Ghost be with you all." This
closing prayer is particularly noteworthy, because
the church of Christ almost everywhere has used
it as the apostolic benediction at the close of pub-
lic worship. Millions upon millions of times these
sacred words, so rich of content and so tender of
purport, have been repeated, after the departure
of Paul, and it is for a large part now that con-
gregations of believers return home from the place
of worship under the impression of these words.
571

In this habit of St. Paul of opening and closing
his epistles with a benediction one can observe
the aftermath of the manner of the East, and on
this ground take it merely as a phrase, and merely
as a formula of good breeding, which as such has
no spiritual significance, at least to us. But is not
this unspeakably superficial? Is it true that from
of old, and even to this day, it is customary with
people in the East, in meeting and in taking leave
of one another, to use fairly lengthy formulas of
salutation, and this salutation and farewell con-
sists mostly of prayers for blessings from on high.
But how can it follow from this, that such prayers
are nothing but empty phrases? Is not through-
out the whole Scripture the selfsame use in appli-
cation? Did not our Lord himself appear to his
disciples with the salutation of blessing: ''Peace
be unto you!" And again has not this constant
use in the apostolic writings given rise to the
adoption of this ancient custom as a true integral
part in mutual Christian fellowship? Adopted not
merely in the church of the East, but transferred
to the church of the West, and there also conse-
crated by the usage of nearly twenty centuries?
And if, moreover, as for instance in Jacob's bless-
ings of his sons, even prophetic revelation has
employed this benediction, by which to throw a
beam of light upon the future, is it not super-
ficial and thoughtless, to see in such a prayer for
Divine favor, nothing but words and sounds, and
to deny it all real significance?

By the side of blessing stands the curse, and
this also in Scripture is deeply significant. Not in

572

every case. Not the curse of hated and anger.
Not base meanness, which uses the curse as a
poisoned weapon to wound. But the curse of him
who is authorized to pronounce it, the curse of a
father, or of a mother, or of one who is clothed
with spiritual authority. Such a curse was vaHd
as spoken under supreme responsibility, under
inspiration from above. And such a curse came
true. And where by the side of the curse there
stands an equally sharply outlined address of
blessing, which also derives its words and signifi-
cance from the person, from the position and the
occasion whereby and under which it took place,
it is evident, that in this most noteworthy phe-
nomenon of blessing and of curse, there hides a
spiritual utterance for which in our Western lands
and in our unspiritual times appreciation and re-
ceptivity have all too far been lost. Of the curse
there is almost nothing left among us, save the
blasphemous language of profane persons who
abuse the holy name of the Lord as expletive and
as an expression of anger. And of the prayer of
blessing little else remains than good wishes at
New Year, at a birthday, or at the solemnizing
of marriage.

But in this mighty difference between a wish
and the ancient address of blessing the weakened
and abated character-trait of our utterance of life
delineates itself. Even upon the deathbed little
more is heard of such blessing of one's children.
At present the only particular of a death that is
mentioned is, that the patient passed away quietly

573

and calmly, i. e. without any perceptible death
struggle. In most cases nothing more is heard.

In the face of all this the church usage has
stood firm, and the congregation of God gathers
in the sanctuary with the holy salutation and re-
turns homeward with the address of blessing from
the Lord. For this closing benediction the con-
gregation even stands, or kneels, and reverently
bows the head, and in quiet seriousness listens to
the words of blessing, presently closed with the
Amen. This is most encouraging, and the minister
of the Word will do well to heighten this last act
of dismissal by restful, calm and solemn tone.
The preceding utterance of the words: "And
now, receive the blessing of the Lord," is an
introduction which tunes the heart and mind and
consecrates and exalts. For what else utters itself
in this salutation and final benediction than the
glorious perception that the church of the living
God stands in living contact with an higher order
of things from what this world offers, and with
him who has founded his throne in it. He who
stands in the faith knows that he lives in a two-
fold world. In the common world together with
unbelievers, and in the higher world with the
saints around God's throne, with the good angels,
with his Savior and King, and in Christ with his
Father and his God.

These two worlds are dove-tailed into one
another. From the higher order, grace, peace and
life, power and might have come down into this
visible world ; they have attached themselves, and
now cleave in Christian lands to all sorts of

674

Christian ordinances and usages. But the real
meeting of these two spheres takes place only in
believers, who still live in this visible world, and
yet carry the higher world in their heart; the
latter expressing itself in their communion with
the Holy Ghost. And as often as this preponder-
ance of the holy in believers comes to a clear
expression through the word, there is the holy
salutation, and presently at parting, the address of
blessing.

But this gives rise in life to a twofold sphere.
The sphere of the unbelieving world, and the
sphere that is breathed upon from the higher
order of things. You are at once aware of this
by the difference in your feelings as you move
among children of God, or among children of the
world. In both circles, in both spheres a dif-
ferent tone prevails, different language, different
love. With the children of the world the flower
of one's inner nature inclines to close itself up;
with the children of God this calix opens itself.
This is no reason that one should withdraw him-
self from the visible world. On the contrary, God
has given us here our calling and our work. We
should even be on our guard, not to lift ourselves
up in spiritual pride before the children of the
world. What better are you than they, and what
is your higher life other than pure grace? You
should never be unmindful even to give yourself
to this world, like your Savior to serve it, to
bless it with your love, and to work for its good.
But our spiritual saving of life is always to be

575

fully aware of the antithesis between the world
and the higher order of things, and always to
foster fellowship with that higher order of things,
to strengthen it, to feed it, and to remove every-
thing that might hinder or weaken it out of the
way. This power and ability does not come to us
from ourselves, and not from one another, but
solely and alone from God. That which main-
tains our vital connection with that higher world
is exclusively the grace of Christ, the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. And for
this reason, as often as the congregation assembles,
the minister of the Word salutes it with this
assunince. and at the clo.se dismisses it with the
same in the name of the Lord.

To be near unto God is the vital strength of
all believers. That alone and nothing else. He
wh J wanders away from God, and becomes
estranged from him, weakens himself, disturbs his
inner life, and is lost again in the world. On the
other hand he who continues to be near unto God
and lives in secret fellowship with God, drinks in
the powers of the kingdom each morning anew,
lives in spiritual realities, and is breathed upon
from on high. And this salutation of blessing
an I this dismissal with blessin^- is the constantly
repeated a^urance from the Triune GoJ that his
grace, his love and his fellowship continue to in-
cline toward you: that God will be near unto
you, in order that you may be near unto him,
and that it is your sin alone that deprives you of
this blessed communion.

576

105

I, THE LORD THY GOD, AM A JEALOUS
GOD."

Say to my people," said the Lord to Ezekiel:
I know the things that come into your mind,
pvcry one of them" (Ezekiel 11:5). Hence also he
knows what should, but does not, come into it.
\- itiier the all-seeing eye nor the all-hearing ear
he Holy One of Israel are ever impeded. The
. it of that eye penetrates into everything, and
no vibration escapes the hearing of that ear. In
one of the marble tombs at Syracuse the tyrant
Dionysius was able to build a wondrously far-
carr>'ing echo, that he might overhear the con-
versations of his captured opponents. Even now
this echo clearly returns the crackling of a sheet
of paper at a distance of several hundred feet,
and as the stor>' runs, nothing kept tliese prisoners
in check like this so-called "ear of Dionysius."
They could not put it out of mind. They thought
of it with every word. It ruled their spirit and
their life. .

This is what these wretched prisoners did for
the sake of the ear of a man. And what do we
do about the holy ear of the all-hearing God?
What do we do for him who does not only see
and see through everything we do, but to whom
also every word is known before it passes over
our lips. Yea, who moreover scans the thoughts,
which we will never put into words, and who is
aware of every impulse, every motion every
vibration, which will never crystallize itself within
us into a thought, but which nevertheless comes
into our mind. He who does not believe, experi-

677

ences no impression, no influence, no governing
power of that all-knowing and all-hearing char-
acter of the perceptions of God. He acts, speaks,
thinks and allows his inner life to operate as
though there were no God who watches him, who
overhears him, and whose eye inwardly searches
him.

He who believe.? can not act thus. With hiiu
the fear of the Lord is identified with every awak-
ening in the life of his soul; and when he thinks
of God. he refrains from the evil deed for the sake
of God's holy will; he shrinks from the unbe-
coming word, suppresses the unholy thought, and
repres.ses everything sinful or demoniac that would
enter into his spirit. But alas, his soul is far from
being alwaj'S as fully awake as this. During long
periods of his life, his faith, as it were, slumbers.
Then he does not think of God. He does not
concern him.self about God. And he is almost
indifferent to what God observ^es in his inmost
life, of his doings and of his omissions, and all this
leads to sin, until the conscience begins again to
operate, and God awakens him. Is, then, our life
of faith from fear only? No, it is through that
fear from love. From Horeb it was announced to
the people of God: "I, the Lord thy God, am a
zealous, i. e. a jealous God, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children" (Exodus 20:5).

It is our ble.s.sed privilege, that we may be near
unto God. that we may enjoy his presence and
his fellowship, and that we may taste his secret
walk. But to our spiritual perception responds a
perception from the side of God. To him who
loves us more tenderly than a father, it is a
Dvine delight, when his child is mindful of him,

thinks of him, goes out to him, and seeks his holy
fellowship. On the other hand Gods love is
wounded when his child can forget him, and not
think of him, and be engaged in mmd with
everything save him; when, as far as it depends
on us, he is the forsaken one. For, m order
deeply and strongly to impress upon the heart
the outgoing of the Fatherheart of God after
love's fellowship with his child, God m his word
does not shrink from representing this love to us
in the image of conjugal affection . ^^ , • i

In the description of connubial love m Ezekiel
16 it is constantly declared that God hath be-
trothed himself unto Israel. In the image of^ the
church as bride, the passionate love which umolds
in the relation of husband and wife, is repeatedly
applied to God and his people As a bride lives
solely and alone for her bridegroom so must
God's people live solely and alone for God. And
as desertion on the part of the bride or wife
deeply offends the heart of the bridegroom or
husband, wounds and bruises it, so that envy
arises irresistibly, even jealousy burning like hre
so the Lord our God declares that he is moved
by holy envv when his people can forget him
when his redeemed ones can wander away and
desert him in his love. Yea, then, even the anger
of quick jealousv can not be restrained. -Who
visiteth the iniqmty of the fathers upon the chil-
dren unto the third and fourth generation
Thus to be near unto God has its terrible other
side He who is not near unto God, is near unto
something else, inclines his heart to something
else gives his love to something else. And this
provokes Divine jealousy. Whether in that case

579

you pawn away your love to your own self, or to
a man as your idol, to the world, or to demoniac
spirits, the Scripture always and unconditionally
condemns this as a drawing away of self from
God, as a violation of faithfulness to God, as a
wandering away from the Holy One, and as a
desertion from him who alone is worthy of all love.
There is here no neutral ground. It is always
engaging the heart with something, surrendering
the heart to something, or a coming into the mind
of something which does not reach out after God,
but after God's creaturely competitor, and which
within the sacred domain of Divine love is on this
account an enemy and an opponent.

And this arouses holy jealousy. Not, indeed, as
though there were passion in God, but in place
of it there is sensitiveness in God, which with
respect to power of operation, far exceeds all
human passion. With conjugal love only what is
known and observed ofifends, but there is so much
that is not known and that consequently does not
offend. With wedded love there is also mislead-
ing and deception. But even this does not offend
so long as it is not known. No bridegroom on
earth can scan his bride to the roots of her inner
life. This leaves a wide margin which is not
taken into account.

But all this is unthinkable in the case of the
Lord your God. In all you do and leave undone,
in all your thoughts and speech, in all your inner
ponderings and perceptions, nothing escapes him.
He enters, restlessly, more deeply into your inner-
most being than the brightest beam of light into
the bedding of the stream. And here no mislead-
ing avails, no presentation of self other than you

580

are, and no hypocrisy. His all-penetrating glance
puts every cover aside. And these two taken to-
gether account for the fact, that sensitiveness in
Divine love is far more strongly moved to jeal-
ousy, than strongest human passion can ever
arouse brooding envy.

When we are not remembered by our friends it
troubles us. But it troubles the bridegroom far
more grievously when he perceives that his bride
is filled with other thoughts than of him. Tender-
est love demands that we are continually engaged
with one another, that during temporary separa-
tion we live together in thought, and that while
the separation lasts, we cherish no other desire
than to meet one another again, to be near one
another again, and in each other's company to feel
rich and happy and blessed. Apply this to your
love for God, to your confession that it is good
for you to be near unto God. For this love, too,
IS unique. It is no love by the side of another
love, but one which far excels, and is bound to
govern every other attachment, every other affec-
tion, every other union of soul. It is not loving
wife, child, church, country and God, but it is
loving God alone, and from this love have the
cherishing affections flow forth, with which you
also love your wife and child, your church and
native land.

And is it then too much for God to ask, that
you will always be engaged with him, that you
will always think of him, will always let the heart
go out to him. and that you will repress every-
thing that enters into your mind to lead you away
from him and to induce you to forsake him? Is it
not God's jealousy of your love, your honor, your

681

highness and your glory? And is it no violation
of yourself and of your God when you discard
this holy urgency of love, and play with it, and
for the sake of religious recreation spasmodically
return to it, only to withdraw yourself presently
from it again, that in your innermost soul you
may engage yourself with all sorts of things except
God?

The wound which this inflicts upon his holy
love would not be so grievous if God could for-
get you for a time, even as you forsake him.
But God can not do this. Before there is yet a
word in your lips, behold, he knows it altogether.
As God himself declares: "I know the things that
come into your mind, every one of them." Thus,
also, let us repeat it: does he know every one of
the things that ought, but do not come into it.
He knows and mourns every moment that you do
not think of him, that you are not engaged with
him, that you do not seek him, do not desire his
nearness, and shamefully live apart from his
secret walk. And when in spite of all this you
still sing with the multitude: "But it is good for
me to be near unto God!" is there then not
something of a provocation on your part which
offends and which is bound to wound God?

And if this is the reverse of what it is to desire
to be near unto God, confess, does there not
spring from this an entirely unthought of new
impulse to make your seeking after God's near-
ness an ever deeper reality in your life? As long
as you view nearness unto God from your side
alone, you can comfort yourself for any temporal
loss of it by considering the compensating, un-
speakable riches of the single moments of its

582

enjoyment. But when you consider nearness unto
God, thinking of God, being engaged with God,
from the side of God who loves you, an entirely
different note mingles itself in this love-song.
Then you can not and will not grieve the Holy
spirit. Then it is not your soul alone which seeks
God, but far more yet, it is God who awaits the
love of your soul. It is your God who with holy
'jealousy is angry every moment that you with-
draw yourself from his seeking love.

106

'THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES."

Times differ. They are not age upon age, one
monotonous sameness. They are rather contin-
uous succession and restless change. And even of
a century, which has just closed, and which as
"the nineteenth century" almost imagined itself
to have been the discoverer of the abiding light,
it can be said in the words of the Psalmist
(Ps. 102:26) : "It shall wax old as doth a garment,
and shall be changed." From this difference fol-
lows the "difference of signs," not unlike the dif-
ference in weather. Sea- and landman, who are
both dependent on the weather for sailing and
agriculture, have learned from their youth up
how to observe these signs. Not as wonderful
signs that had never been seen before. But even
as the preacher at Jerusalem taught: "That which
has been is now; and that which is to be hath
already been" (Eccl. 3:15).

For the most part these "signs of the times"
show themselves even as the signs in weather,
solely in different degrees of strength with which

583

ordinary phenomena appear, and consequently in
their mutual relation. Whether in the evening the
sky shows itself bright or dull red, depends upon
the greater or lesser density with which mists or
vapours place themselves between our eye and
the red glow of the setting sun. And so in the
world of spirits, an entirely distinct constellation
exhibits itself, according as the cloud of religion
pervades life with full weight or remains sus-*
pended, light and extremely transparent, over the
waters of life.

The difference in this respect between age and
age is evident. In the age of the Reformation
the vast plea of religion filled almost all of life.
In the court room, in the cabinet of princes, in
public opinion, in the pulpit, in the market place
and especially in the family, religion was more
than anything else the decisive factor. From
every side it appeared in the heavens clear, fiery
red. Now compare with, this the eighteenth cen-
tury. How dull its red was then. All its bright-
ness had waned, all warmth of religion was with-
drawn to a single mystical group, and in public
life religion was debased to trivial reasoning, to
ignorant self-conceit, laughter and scorn. Then
came the nineteenth century, brought to higher
seriousness by revolution and Napoleonic wars,
and in the religious domain it furnished us three
signs: 1°, in the Christian domain and in a very
limited circle the Reveille; 2°, as a new find the
quickly exhausted modern theology, and 3°, by
the side and on account of this, in the broad
domain of science, endless doubt and proud
materialism, and among the upper classes, cold
unbelief, a break with all religion.

684

In our twentieth century, however, the table
turns again. There is once more a reveille, but
not in the Christian domain. It is far more a
reveille of mystic, religious feeling, entirely inde-
pendent of Christianity, for the most part re-
jecting the way of truth and seeking ways of its
own, and thus of itself falling back into ways
which man had discovered in earlier times.
Spiritism, theosophy, Buddhism are now the
desired articles. A few, though these are excep-
tions, even turn to the Crescent again. What is
not observed, is return on a broad scale to the
Man of Sorrows. People want to become relig-
ious, but they must be allowed to remain anti-
clerical. In the eighteenth century the slumber-
ing. In the nineteenth the pouring out of the
spirit of deep sleep. In the twentieth century a
gradual awakening of religion, but still dozing in
false, mystical dreams. The Christ and his Cross
are passed by.

The Pharisee does not observe such "signs of
the times" (see Matthew 16:3). He thinks and
continues to think that everything within his
narrower circle is good and sound, and everything
outside of it evil and unholy. And he does not
surmise even from afar the influence which the
change in the spirit of the times exerts upon him
and upon his circle. The true disciples of Jesus
do not do so. They know better. They feel
and understand that in the spiritual domain also
the waters of life continually merge into one an-
other. They notice it in themselves and in their
famihes and in their associates; they see how the
general conditions of spirits work effects on every
side. And with every new change they ask them-

585

selves what criticism this demands at their hands,
and what duty this lays upon them.

They maintain their stand. They do this by
the grace that is within, and by the spiritual
impulse that operates in them. Though they
should have to die for Jesus, they can not for-
sake his Cross. With ties that can not be loosed
the Cross lies bound on their heart. They feel
themselves as in an oasis, around which as far as
e.ve can see grins the grey spiritual barrenness
of the desert. In this oasis they rejoice. There
they drink from the fountain of life and enjoy
the bread, and shade of palm trees. They make
their children enjoy it with them. They give
thanks, they glory, they jubilate. But nothing in
them makes them boast of it. God Almighty has
brought them to this oasis. Not because of any
good there was in them. They know themselves
in no particular better than anyone else. Each
day, rather, they dress again the bleeding wound
of their own heart. It is grace and nothing but
grace. Grace, which in its entirety, never was any-
thing but grace. ,

But the desert, round about this oasis, still con-
cerns them. The sand waves from it fly upward.
The hot wind travels ihrough it. And they who
wander in this desert, are they not in many
instances their fellow countr5-men3 not infre-
quently of their own family? Sometimes their
own friends. And apart from this, what talent,
what civic virtue, what noble sense glistens among
these wanderers. Much that is low, much that is
common, much that is rough, it is true. Such are
the masses, but all are not such. And praj'er in

586

behalf of these wanderers, involuntarily, ascends
from their troubled hearts.

Even in the deepest parts of their inward life
they undergo the noticeable influence of this
change in the signs of the times. To be near
unto God and to continue there is far easier when
everything around you warmly calls for the honor
of God, than when the spirit of the times opposes
eveiything holJ^ This was the holy secret of a
long period in the middle ages, the secret also of
the fifteenth and a part of the sixteenth century.
Almost everything pressed after God's nearness.
Rehgion was the atmosphere which was breathed
of itself. Hence the overpious traditions from
both these periods. But the thermometer has
since gone down. First it became cool, then cold,
then shivery. Everything broke down, everything
obstructed the way when the soul went out to
seek God's nearness. O, so much that blossomed
before, now froze. Hence the search after God and
approach to his nearness demanded effort before
unknown. It became a struggle. A climbing with
hands and feet in order to ascend the holy moun-
tain. And in addition to this, what mists still
interv'ene that cut off the outlook, what effort it
still takes to keep oneself standing above it. And
above all, what painful distance extends between
this high mountain top and the world below at
the foot, which is still your world, and into which
your daily task calls you.

True, there is gain. That which results from
this continuous, serious, and holy effort, ' goes
deeper, is more enjoyable, and affords tenderer
blessedness. He who in spite of current and
storm drops anchor in the harbor, has higher joy

587

than he who has drifted with weather and wind
and tide. But it brings weariness. It wears on
the mind. And the aftermath of this exhaustion
involves the danger that the spirit of the world
outwits j^ou, and makes you dread still more a
new course, which is attended with danger, per-
haps of death. If, then, forsooth, being near
unto God at such times is more blessed, the
joy of it is less permanent. And more times fol-
low of wandering away and of estrangement in
between.

This unfavorable change in the signs of the
times also brings new duties. The captain who
safely made the harbor through curretit and
storm, can not be indifferent to the other sailors,
who, less fortunate than himself, outside still
struggle with death. Or, he who has reached the
oasis, and quenches thirst and feasts, should
not be indifferent to the long caravan that still
wanders amid mortal dangers in the desert. And
you, who by grace, and nothing but grace, re-
fresh yourself in the nearness of God, you should
not, can not, if rightly disposed, be selfishly indif-
ferent to the thousands and thousands who, lost in
byways, do not know Christ, do not understand
the cross, and therefore live without God in the
world. No hardness therefore for them, but Divine
pity of soul. No pity that spitefully scorns and
repels, but pity that by courage invites, and as a
sacred magnet attracts. Never hide nor cloak
your religion. Never indulge in guilty silence or
behavior as though you were one of them. Never
practice cowardice that deems itself love. . But
understand them. Enter into . their, condition.
Show them not your own wisdom, but your heart.

588

Always let them feel that you care for their
eternal welfare.

In order that you may do this, do not separate
yourself, but take part in actual life. Be at home
in what the things of the world, under God's
providence, provide of interest and beauty. Al-
ways keep open a space where you can meet
worldly people, discover yourself to them, and
talk with them. Truly, their estrangement can
become ill will and resistance. A moment may
come, when, by forgetting yourself, you might
turn the holy into ridicule. And then breaking
away may become duty. But even as on the way
to the cross your Savior ever had his eye on the
world, and on the cross still prayed for forgiveness
for those who knew not what they did, so should
the eye of your seeking love be upon, and your
prayer continue in behalf of, those who have
wandered from the fold of God. In this seeking
love and in this prayer you will have the surest
sign that you are not mistaken, but that you your-
self in all reality are near unto your God.

107

"WHEN I WAS A CHILD."

Our secret walk with the Eternal does not fol-
low a fixed, uniform model. That which presents
itself in this exceedingly holy and deeply spiritual
domain in an imitated form, arouses the suspicion
of insincerity. Even in human fellowship all
friendship of a more intimate sort struggles to
free itself from the stress of conventional usage.
Uniformity only prevails, and only may prevail
in human intercourse when contact in broader

circles is superficial, which brings the kindly smile
to the face, but does not evoke it from the heart.
Our life with God can not subject itself to the
mechanical. Even as in nature, the utterance of
life in the spiritual realm is organic. And as
every tree unfolds a different leaf, and every stem
a flower-bud of its own, so every human heart
discloses itself to God in its own way, sings an own
song unto God in an own tune, and in the secret
walk with the Almighty tastes an intimacy of
enjoyment which corresponds to the proper need
of its own inner existence, and can not be enjoyed
in just that way by any one else.

If anywhere, the apostolic word applies here:
"With one after this manner, and with another
after that." Sex exerts influence on this, and
temperament, conditions of life, nationality,
nature, disposition and character. And even
where these data show themselves almost exactly
alike in the members of the same family, there
is yet such a great difference in what is personal
that two brothers or two sisters only very rarely
exhibit entire likeness of appearance in their
mystic, religious nature.

A sharply marked difference with respect to
this shows itself not only between two or more
persons; a similar difference also shows itself with
the selfsame person. Your own sacred sensations
in your search after nearness to God are by no
means always of like nature. It is evident that
they differ moreover in degree of distinctness of
impression. But that is not all. They also dif-
fer in character and nature. They are altogether
different in moments of intense joy from what
they are in moments of dire need and great

690

anxiety. Robust health or wasting disease imparts
an altogether different stamp to your inner exist-
ence. After victory over self in the hour of
temptation your fellowship with God is of an
entirely different nature from what it is after
fainting in sin and fall. Under all this the heart
is always the selfsame organ, but entirely different
combinations of registers are opened every time,
and constantly changing is the chord. And this
continuous changing and becoming different must
every time be pointed out, because death reigns
supreme in imitation, in sameness, in uniformity,
and rich, full, blossoming life of godliness only
revels in endless variety and uniqueness.

One difference can not be emphasized suffi-
ciently: to-wit, the difference in age. The apostle
describes it so accurately: "When I was a child,
I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child" (I Cor. 13:11). But it did
not continue so. Later it was altogether different:
"When I became a man, I put away childish
things." Consider carefully that the apostle men-
tions this difference between the existence of a
child and that of a man, when he treats of the
personal knowledge, which we have of our God.
The working of this difference, of course, is far
more delicate. For the sake of brevity the apostle
merely places the child by the side of the full-
grown man. It needs but a reminder, however,
that the lad and the young girl exist differently
from the youth and the young maiden. That the
man in the strength of his life is different from
the man in his declining years, and that at the
end of the pilgrim journey the grey old man
again presents an own image with own needs of

591

soul. And all these transitions in age and con-
ditions of soul exert of themselves a necessary-
influence upon our communion life with God.
What comes, develops itself from what went
before. Thus with the regular, undisturbed de-
velopment of person there is a continual enrich-
ment, strengthening and deepening of personality.
Moreover every new phase of life adds to what
went before a ne\Miess of utterance, even in such
strong measures that the old man finds it difficult
to think himself back in the threatening struggle
of passions, in which he had to defend or to
recover his fellowship with God. But though
modification, change and reforming of the secret
walk goes on until the end, Christ himself indi-
cated that with respect to this there is a striking
difference between the child and the man, which
lends an altogether proper type to the inner
existence of each; and neglect to recognize this
radical difference frequently ruins fundamentally
the Christian training.

Provided the family and other surroundings
do not from the first choke the seed of religion
in a child, the mind of the child is religious. Not
by pretension, but by receptivity for holy impres-
sions and by silent reverence for the Eternal
Being. To teach a child how to pray, when it
is done under Christian guidance, and in no
mechanical way, is a beautiful and tender delight
of soul. This is not so because of his knowledge
of the holy. But because even when the child
can not yet read, and is far less able to follow the
catechism, let alone to understand it, he stands
instinctively related with the world of hidden
things. He can give himself no account of this.

592

He is not conscious of it, and therefore can not
explain it. But it is evident even from his fear
in the dark, or at strange sights and sounds.

This fear shows that the child knows and per-
ceives the existence of another world from that
which he sees with his eyes. Hence his faith in
the reality of the phantoms that create his fear.
This sense of the existence of a mysterious world,
and the perception that this mysterious world
can unveil itself, immediately governs the mind
of the child. His delight in fables and fairy tales
is directly connected with this, and imparts to
the soul of the child that intensity and depth
which addresses you so alluringly from his eye.
And by this same trait the child instinctively
opens his heart to religion. It is an unseen work-
ing that goes out from the unseen world upon the
heart of the child. It is God himself who plaj's
the tender harp in the child heart. This natural
religiousness of the child is more closely related
with the life of the blessed than the religion of us
who are full grown. With us a whole world of
thought, of reasoning and consequent doubt enters
in between, which is only lifted out again at our
death. Hence the word of Jesus, that "to become
as a little child" is regeneration of our person
which alone admits us into the kingdom of heaven.

Nothing therefore is more cruel and painful
than to see a child abandoned to leading and
training which has no understanding of this, and
which treats the child as a small adult. This
kills and destroys the childtype in the childheart.
Cruel and painful is the artificiality which teaches
the child to pray, but with a voice without tender-
ness, as a something that must be done, without

593

praying with the child, so that the child feels
more disturbed in his religious impulses than led
and helped. It is equally cruel and painful, in
the presence of the child, to be unsympathetic,
rough and hard in holy things. This hurts the
heart of the child, and then it does not take long
for the tender germ of religion in the heart of the
child to be choked. It is cruel also to let the
years of childhood pass without training the child
in holy things, and to think that religion will
come somehow to him later on. The early years
of life are the appointed time in which to let the
foundation of all religion, which is fellowship with
God, crystallize in the heart of the child.

In the childheart there is natural receptivity
which, when it is led and trained in a reverent
way, imparts a bent to the heart whose effects
will be beneficial for all of later life. On the other
hand, if this is not cultivated, and this first recep-
tivity is destroyed, even though the religious
sense may awaken later on, it may always lack
that fervor and tenderness which Jesus demands
in our childlikeness.

This danger can only be averted by bringing
the child at once, in his own way, after his nature
and type, into fellowship with God himself. The
child should learn to know sacred history, the
sacred truths of the faith, and hymns and sacred
songs. All this is excellent. But this will not
avail unless first of all the child's instinctive per-
ception of a mysterious world unfolds into an
immediate perception of his fellowship with the
all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipresent God.

B04

108

"MAKE ABODE WITH HIM."

The sublime note of joy with which the apos-
tolate went out into the world, concentrated itself
in the confession: ''The Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us." The Gospel did not first
come in Bethlehem, it resounded already in Para-
dise, and both Moses and the prophets are ignored,
when the gospel of grace is said to have begun
with the Apostles. Nay, rather the Israel of the
Prophets had the selfsame Gospel as we. You
need but turn to the writings of New Testament
evangelists and apostles to find yourself again and
again referred back to the Old Testament, to see
the proof of the truth drawn from this ancient
source, and to find sharply outlined, and to us fre-
quently surprising, indications that the treasures
of the new covenant have been deposited ages
ago in the old covenant, even though at first in
germ form.

No, the difference and the antithesis between
what lies before and after Bethlehem consist in
something else. There is undoubtedly a positive
and an absolute difference between the gospel
before and after the manger cradle. But this dif-
ference does not consist in greater or lesser riches
of the Old or New Testament gospel. No, the
old and new covenant only differ in this respect,
that the Old Testament lacks the reality of the
New Testament. This was generally indicated by
speaking of the dispensations of shadows and of
fulfilment; but this statement is far too weak.
The difference can be expressed more accurately
by- saying, that in the Old Testament the image

5^

is shown, but in the New Testament the reality
itself has appeared in the person of Christ. "The
law, which is given by Moses" (John 1:17) does
not refer to the ten commandments. The law
here is the name of the whole Old Testament,
taken as an instruction, a revelation, a word of
God addressed to Israel. This word, revelation,
instruction which God gave in figure, began to
assume a form with Moses. But when Bethlehem
sees the birth of the Holy Infant, something
entirely different appears. It is no more instruc-
tion and announcement, but it is truth that is
given. And in this connection truth means what
we call reality. The image is not the truth, the
shadow is not the truth. Image and shadow in
themselves are unreal. That which is true only
comes, when in tangible reality he appears, whose
image has been seen from afar, and whose Divine
shadow has fallen upon Israel.

Therefore the Apostles emphatically declared
that they had seen Jesus, that they had heard
him, that they had handled him. They empha-
sized the fact that now the Word has received
flesh, i. e. reality in the earthly. This empha-
sized no less the fact that Jesus has been foretold
that he has appeared at times, and that he has
vanished again, but that at last he has come in
full reality, and that from Bethlehem to Gol-
gotha he has dwelt among us.

To dwell in a place is really and permanently
to tarry there. Not merely to come, but also to
stay. Not to turn in for the night a single time,
but continuously and permanently to reveal one's
presence in one. place. God. dwells in heaven and
his abode is in the light. But though the Scripture

declares that God dwells in the high and lofty
place, it immediately adds that this same God
looks down upon the children of men on earth.
Heaven and earth are not intended to be sep-
arated, but to form a higher unity, so that the
Lord our God dwells siinultaneously both in
heaven and on earth. It began like this. God
dwelt in Paradise and originally the fellowship of
man with God and of God with his creature was
very real and unbroken. The separation only
came when by sin man expelled God from this
earth, drove him out of his own creation and
from fellowship with his own most exalted crea-
ture. But God takes no pleasure in this. Expelled
by sin, he returns in seeking grace. "Adam, where
art thou?" is the call of God, with which he re-
turns, and claims his world again.

At length God regains his abode on the earth.
Provisionally in the cloud, in the column of fire
and in the tabernacle, but fully symbolical on
Zion. "This is my habitation. This is my rest,"
said the Lord, "here will I dwell" (Ps. 132:14).
Zion by the side of Bashan indicates that God is
still expelled from the world at large, but that in
Zion he has prepared a place of rest for himself,
an oasis of grace, a habitation of his^ own. This
sacred symbolical return of God to this world
prophesied age upon age in advance the glorious
Bethlehem event. And when at length the full-
ness of time is come, and the Babe is born in
Bethlehem, God no longer dwells symbolically in
Zion, but in full reality in Christ. And therefore
the Apostles preach with so much delight that
God has been revealed in the flesh, and that re-

597

vealed in the flesh, i. e. in reality he has dwelt
among us.

Hence Bethlehem is the real and actual return
of God to earth, in order here on earth permanently
to dwell with us and among us. This is the restora-
tion of what was real in Paradise. And does this
end with Golgotha, or if you please, with the
ascent into heaven? By no means. For God to
dwell on earth is only possible in the fullest sense
through Golgotha and the Ascension. Between
Bethlehem and Golgotha there was real dwelling
of God upon earth, but in the most extremely
limited sense. A dwelling which was confined to
one people, and which among that one people was
limited to the narrow circle of those who followed
Jesus. The promise, however, ran, that God
would dwell on earth among all peoples, in all
parts of the world, and that he would be approach-
able from age to age by every soul that feared
him.

And this full, extended, unlimited, permanent,
ever continuous, and ever self-expanding dwelling
of God among the children of men was only pos-
sible when Jesus was no longer seen and heard,
and handled among one people, in a narrow circle,
but when he was elevated to the throne of grace
and glorified. From thence he could extend his
working to every people and to every heart. For
this reason he declares in the hearing of his dis-
ciples: "It is expedient for you that I go away,"
and also adds: "When I shall have gone away, I
shall come again, and with the Father make my
abode in you" (John 14:23).

Thus there is a threefold dwelling of God on
earth. First, symbolical in Israel on Zion. After

that the reality of the flesh, when Jesus walked
about on the earth. And now, in the third place,
the dwelling of God among us and in us in all
parts of the earth. Our heart is made a dwelling
place of God in the Spirit. Our heart is the real
Zion, and therefore our redeemed human heart is
the temple in which he dwells. Sin expels God.
In grace, God resolves to come back and to dwell
again among us and in us. This constitutes all
the mysticism of real, godly religion. Religion
does not begin with this. It rather begins with
an outward confession; with knowing God only as
one who lives above, and is always conscious of a
fatal distance between self and the Most High
God.

But grace for grace gradually works modification
in this, and makes internal what began with being
external. To have the Spirit, is to have God him-
self in one's own heart, to carry him about in
one's own soul, and the new commandment of
brotherly love is nothing but the commandment,
that as you carry God about in your own heart,
you should discover that same God dwelling in
the heart of the brother, and that you should join
heart to heart, because that selfsame God fills the
heart of each. But although this is so, most peo-
ple are afraid to face it. Though God dwells in
their heart, they every time put him back into
the corner of their heart. Thus they become
aware again of distance, and for the greater part
withdraw their heart from God. And this is the
sin of the saints.

But grace holds on. God will not let you go.
From the corner of the heart in which you hold
him back, he comes every time again to capture

699

a part of your heart, till at length you throw up
your hands, open your whole heart to him, and
now experience with joy that he really in Christ
has made his abode in you. This is the contin-
uous Christmas gospel. Not a Christmas gospel
that remains standing by the manger, but such
an one as passes over from the manger into your
own heart. First the jubilant note of the aposto-
late : "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us." And then the song of praise on the part of
God's saint: "The Word was made flesh, and has
taken up his abode in mine own heart."

109

"WHOM HAVE I IN HEAVEN BUT
THEE?"

Refreshment of grace is particulaily rich when
also in departing from this world the soul is priv-
ileged to be near unto God. On the death-bed
highest bliss has often been enjoyed. Many have
departed, not only strong in faith and in higher
clearness of mind, but also with the foretaste of
heavenly joy. No rule can be made for this.
A blessed death-bed is not alwaj^s the reward of
holier-mindedness and of deeper spirituality. A
death bed that enhances the glory of God has not
infrequently been the portion of one who in life
had wandered far away from his Lord. And on
the other hand painful distress has been witnessed
on the part of those who for many years had
known the secret walk with God.

As a rule this depends upon all sorts of things
that have nothing to do with a devout frame of
mind and heart. First upon age, temperament,

600

the nature of disease, degree of weakness, state of
nerves, freedom of speech or diffidence, and upon
the longer or shorter period of dying. In part, it
also depends upon the physician. Whether he con-
ceals the certainty, or at least the probability of
the approaching end, or whether frankly and hon-
estly he acquaints the patient with the exact state
of things. Again it depends upon family and
friends, and upon those who care for the sick,
whether they are spiritually inclined, and assist
the patient in holy meditations, or whether they
provide so-called diversion and vex him with
multifarious earthly concerns.

If it happens that all this co-operates for good,
and that he who is about to appear before God
lies for a few days at least with a waiting heart
at the gate of eternity, watching for its opening
unto him, and meanwhile bearing witness to the
power of everlasting life, sometimes in terms
which far excel ordinary speech — then special
grace operates in such a dying person. The Lord
truly imparts this special grace to comfort his
dying saint, but mostly to glorify himself, and to
cause a testimony of striking power to go out
from so glorious a death-bed.

The desire to pose as a saint is a sin which in
its more refined forms cleaves to all religion. It
has even been observed in martyrs. This desire
would be more generally in evidence if the Lord God
did not prevent it by weakness and disease. And
in this prevention of making a show of one's piety
we are bound to appreciate grace. But some-
times dying grace shows itself in a higher form,
'when . soniething of almost prophetic inspiration
takes hold of a dying saint. This was strongly

601

evident in the case of Jacob the patriarch. But
though in lesser measure, occasionally such higher
inspiration is still witnessed among us when it is
not merely a dying in faith, not merely a falling
asleep in Jesus, but when fully awake and with
open eye it is a triumphant passing through the
gate of eternity. In such a case there is clear
consciousness, and from it a holy testimony, be-
cause he who dies knows and feels until his latest
breath, that he is near unto God.

But from this it may not be inferred that a less
triumphant death implies that the soul was de-
prived of God's nearness. Bodily weakness all too
often affects the mind, so that little is observed
from without of what inwardly takes place in the
spirit. God is able to do, O, so much in and for
the soul of which a third person can have no
knowledge. When an infant is carried from the
cradle to the grave, no one can say that God
was not able to minister grace to him. But no
one saw anything of it. The little one himself
knew nothing about it. The same can take place
in sleep. Would anyone say, that while we sleep,
God's ministry is excluded for seven or eight
hours from our heart? In great sickness some-
times one can be unconscious for several days
together. Would God, then, all those days stand
powerless before this disabled soul? The point
in case of the infant, in sleep or in sickness is,
that gracious ministry can take place on the part
of the Holy Ghost, which through physical causes
can not be observed from without, but remains
concealed within.

This physical hindrance occurs in most cases by
far when the end draws near. Most strongly ixj

the case of those who die unconsciously in a
swoon; sometimes very strongly with the sick,
whose pulse is almost gone, and whose breath can
scarcely be felt. And of these no one may say
that, on account of this, their soul passed away
in secret, and was estranged from God. Omnip-
otence and grace are able to do in holy secrecy
what can not be observed by human eye or ear.
The consciousness of him who died depended
from the nature of the case upon the strength
that still operated in his brain. But suppose the
brain refused, should the inner life of the soul
on this account be deprived of grace? Presently
the brain shall refuse to function altogether, when
without a clouded mind the soul shall know and
glorify God. "To be near unto God" in dying, even
if not discerned by any outside person is nothing
else than already an entrance here in part upon
that which after death becomes altogether and
wholly so; the beginning of the new condition,
when separated from the body, entirely incor-
poreal, our person is and companies with God.

But apart from this, while we continue our
pilgrim journey on earth, the Divine ministries in
behalf of the dying are deeply significant to us
as a memento mori. This is what Asaph's mes-
sage implied: ''Whom have I in heaven but
Thee?" (Ps.73:25). By itself this means to know
nothing in heaven but God. which is quite the
same as to love God with all the mind and soul
and heart. But Asaph's question puts the matter
still more clearly before us. The struggle of our
heart on earth is, that it goes out after all sorts of
things, including God. This struggle is laid upon
us, inasmuch as God himself has related our heart

603

to all sorts of persons on earth, and has endowed
it with powers to appreciate the glories of nature,
and has imparted all sorts of inclinations and call-
ings to us, which go out after visible things. The
Stylist who withdraws his ej'es from all earthly
things, so that with nothing about him but air
he might seek after God, evades the struggle and
becomes unnatural. The holy art of the child
of God is to possess things that are seen and
handled in such a way, that he can truly say, that
nothing on earth pleases him but God. This only
means to say, that he only regards all visible
things as things which are of God, and exist for
the sake of God, and must serve God. Thus his
pleasure in God embraces and includes all these
other things. But in such a way that they are
only considered insofar as they are subjected to
God, and as they reveal his Divine power.

Whether in deed and in truth this is the case
with us, becomes evident only in dying. For
then all these things fall away from us, and God
alone remains. It has been tried to transfer
earthly desires into heaven, by picturing all sorts
of other persons and means of enjoyment there
by the side of God. Mohammedans go farthest
in this. But among Christians not a few regard
heaven first of all in connection with their own
dead, that there they might resume with them
the former life. Thus even in heaven they imagine
a whole world again by the side of God. This
confuses the spirits. For he alone who in dying
expects nothing in heaven but God, shall also find
in the Fatherhouse, through and under God, that
other holy fellowship. But this shall have no

604

other purport than the better to glorify the God
and Father of all in Christ.

This same thing must here be applied to our
secret walk with God. We must frequently ask
ourselves: If you had nothing, absolutely noth-
ing aside from God, would your soul be perfectly
satisfied? When you seek and endeavor and
strive to be near unto God, is it that you might
rest in him with all your heart, or is it perhaps
merely that you might find in him the helper,
who can give you all sorts of other desired things
after which your heart goes out really the more
stronglj'^? Let no one complain that he who has
God and him alone, has nothing but God. For
he who has God in him has everything. But that
3'ou might test the sincerity of your own personal
piety, you should know for yourself whether you
are so concerned about God, that though all other
things are added, you are intent upon him alone.
Or, whether your heart really seeks the other
things, and in addition to them God, through
whose help you might obtain them the more
surely. Or finally, whether you want to become
a partaker of God and with him of the other
things?

And in behalf of this test, anticipation of the
hour of death has uncommon value. That you
imagine to yourself the moment when everything
on earth shall fall away from you, and as far as
you are concerned, shall cease to exist. That
whether, when you enter upon the thought that
you will have nothing in heaven forever but the
Triune God, it lifts your heart up to the highest
foretaste of holy joy, in the sense that in all
honesty you can say that it is good for you "to
605

be near unto God", because you have nothing
beside him in heaven, and because you desire
nothing beside him on earth, all the days of
your pilgrim journey that still remain.

110

"AS THE HART PANTETH AFTER THE
WATER BROOKS."

More than twenty centuries have not been able
to darken the golden glow of the immortal song
that has come to us in Psalm 42. And with all
the bitter estrangement from God that character-
izes human life, the priests of art still unite with
the redeemed of the Lord in giving the song of
"The hart that panteth after the water-brooks"
a place which is far above every other l)Tic that
voices the deep longing of the human heart after
the fountain of all blessing. The passion that
thrills in this Psalm, the enthusiasm that breathes
in this glorious song is striking. Our most blessed
experience is "To be near unto God." And in the
face of distraction and temptation, our fainting
soul can turn away from the world unto God, in-
asmuch as a voice whispers within that he who
forsakes God robs his own heart of peace.

We have often turned to God and have knocked
at the door, to be admitted again to the secret
walk with God, after we had made the discovery
in hours or days of wandering, that the joy of the
world is vain and that its glory is deceptive. At
another time we have, as it were, allowed our
heart to be taken to God by one who "holy and
humble of heart" allured us back to God. At
another time again, either a wounded heart or

606

some great anxiety, or want in which we almost
perished, impelled us to seek aid and comfort with
God in his holy nearness. The paths by which
the heart comes to God wind themselves through
all the parts of our life. And however often they
are abandoned, these paths every time disclose
themselves anew. But in all this there is no play
of sacred ardor. In such moments if left to itself
the heart would rather not incline toward God.
And it is either an inward necessity or a stimulus
from without, that drives the half-unwilling and
self-suflBcient heart to God.

But in this Psalm the heart drives itself. Irre-
sistible longing after the living God arises not
from without, but from within the heart itself.
It is not from an accidental circumstance, not from
a cause which operates from elsewhere, not from
the promptings of conscience, not from urgency
of need, neither from prudence nor calculation,
but from the new nature itself, from the regen-
erated nature of the heart, that the longing after
God, the sense of inability to do without God,
the impetuous hastening after the living God,
springs. Even Augustin's exclamation: "My heart
is restless, till it rests in thee," pales before this
fervor. For here it is thirsting. Here it is thirst-
ing after the living God, even as a man or a brute,
whose blood through exhaustion is dried up, not
merely calls for moisture, but cries out aloud for
the same, as far as the parched palate and husky
throat still allow this to be done with audible
sound. The figure is borrowed from the animal-
world, where mention is impossible of a moment's
consideration, pious purport or intentional call-
ing. From the hart, which exhausted and dis-

607

abled cries as in despair, because having at last
reached the stream-bed finds that there is no
water there, and which now, from the mere
impulse of nature, because it is ready to suc-
cumb, and is unable longer to go without drink,
breaks the air with its desperate cry for water
in the dried-up bedding; because presently it must
faint if water does not come.

This impulse of nature, this passionate desire,
this almost dying of thirst after God on the part
of the soul, this consuming longing after the living
God, is the exalted, striking, enchanting char-
acter of this Psalm, which at the same time puts
us to shame. For how many have been the
moments in your life when, without the pressure
of need, or solicitation from another, or sting of
conscience, from a purely natural impulse of soul
you have thirsted after the living God? You feel
and appreciate, in listening to these moving tones,
in singing yourself this glorious song, that not only
at times, but always, this ought to be the state
of the heart; that God created you for this pur-
pose; that his plan concerning you intended such
glorious longing in you after God; that every
time this plan ceased to operate in you, you fell
from the heights of your nature; and that you
sin against grace, when at least in your reborn
nature this pressure, this thirst, this intense long-
ing for the living God can be silent.

As through exhaustion blood cries for water,
and utterly fails unless relieved, so we have re-
ceived a nature from God which, normal and
unhurt, must cry after God or faint. Piety which
at times imagined that it already stood strong
and secure, here feels itself sink away, because it

608

has so seldom attained unto this passion, this
consuming longing after God. It is your holy
exaltation, a solemn seal upon your human nobility,
that your nature has so been created that such
may be the case and can be. It is at the same
time a deep humiliation that this nobility of
higher origin so rarely exhibits itself in the full-
ness of its strength. But it is also a stimulus
which leaves you no rest, which makes you turn
in upon yourself and think, and which, under
these changing perceptions, makes the thirst after
the living God to be felt, and as soon as it is felt,
makes its quenching to be experienced in 0, such
a blessed way, because God draws near unto your
soul.

"So panteth my soul after Thee, 0 God.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God."
That 'iiving" also is here an image of nature.
There is stagnant water, which is dead, and be-
comes marshy and poisonous, and is unfit to re-
fresh man and animal. The hart therefore panteth
not merely after water, but after the water-
brooks, i. e. after the fresh, murmuring, flowing
water that lives. *'And thus," says the Psalmist,
"panteth my soul, yea thirsts my soul after the
living God." Not merely after a confession of
God, not merely after a representation of God,
not merely after a reminder of God, not even
after a Divine majesty, which far removed from
the soul stands before it as a God in words or in
phrases, but after God himself, after God in his
holy outpouring of power and grace, after God
who lives, after God who in his life inclines him-
self toward you, who with his life pervades you,

and who in holy manifestations of love reveals
himself to you, and in you, as the living God.

You realize that here all learning falls away;
all dogma, all formularies, everything that is ex-
ternal and abstract; everything that translates
itself into words, that in the word it may dry up
and wither. It is not your idea, not your under-
standing, not your thinking, not your reasoning,
not even your confession, that can quench this
thirst. This ardent longing goes out after God
himself, until in your soul's transport of love, you
feel in your own heart the warmth of the Father-
heart of God. It is not the name of God, but God
himself whom the soul thirsts after, and of whom
it can not bear to be deprived; God himself in
the outshining of his life. And this outshining of
his life must permeate you. It must be assimi-
lated in the blood of your soul.

The Psalmist sought this in the Sanctuary. He
was from Israel. And in Israel the clear, rich,
full enjoyment of God's presence was confined
to Zion. God had chosen Zion as the place where
he would give himself to be enjoyed in this full-
ness by his people. At that time the life of the
world drew itself too mightily away from God.
Idol upon idol filled the world. And therefore
the presence of the Lord was symbolically cen-
tered between the cherubim on Zion. To trans-
fer this to the congregations in church-buildings
in our behalf is to cut the nerve of this Psalm.
For though there is indeed much in our sanctu-
aries that draws us to God, and much in the
world and even in our homes that draws us away
from God, this again would prove itself to be
the stimulus from without. And what this Psalm

610

intends, is thirst in the heart itself, which from
the blood of the soul cries after God,

Zion is not your prayer cell. Zion is not your
church building. Zion is not even your Christian
association. What Israel found on Zion symboli-
cally is for us reality in Christ; in your Vindi-
cator and King, himself God, to whom be glory
both now and forever, Amen.

He who is redeemed is in Christ, and Christ is
in him. As living member he has wonderfully been
incorporated in the mystical body of Christ. His
regenerated nature has most intimately become
one with Christ, and in this mystical life with
Christ alone, the heart that thirsts after God,
drinks in the life from God, And therefor "'to be
near unto God, *'yea. the drinking in of the life of
God with all the passion, all the thirst of our
soul, is not bound for us to any place, to no
presence of others, to no day, to no altar and to
no priest. Every place, wheresoever, can at any
moment become a Zion to us. It but depends on
this one thing: that God is approached in him in
whom alone there is access, and who ever iiveth
to make intercession for us (Hebr. 7:25).

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DATE DUE

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DEMCO 38-297