Expositions of Holy Scripture: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and NumbersMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Pentateuch -- Commentaries; Bible. Pentateuch -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
That is a sweet, simple, easily intelligible, and yet lofty way of
putting the notion which we bring into a more abstract and less
impressive shape when we talk about communion with God. Two men
travelling along a road keep each other company. 'How can two walk
together except they be agreed?' The companion is at our side all the
same, though the mists may have come down and we cannot see Him. We can
hear His voice, we can grasp His hand, we can catch the echoes of His
steps. We know He is there, and that is enough. Enoch and God walked
together, by the simple exercise of the faith that fills the Invisible
with one great, loving Face. By a continuous, definite effort, as we
are going through the bustle of daily life, and amid all the pettiness
and perplexities and monotonies that make up our often weary and always
heavy days, we can realise to ourselves that He is of a truth at our
sides, and by purity of life and heart we can bring Him nearer, and can
make ourselves more conscious of His nearness. For, brethren, the one
thing that parts a man from God, and makes it impossible for a heart to
expatiate in the thought of His presence, is the contrariety to His
will in our conduct. The slightest invisible film of mist that comes
across the blue abyss of the mighty sky will blot out the brightest of
the stars, and we may sometimes not be able to see the mist, and only
know that it is there because we do not see the planet. So unconscious
sin may steal in between us and God, and we shall no longer be able to
say, 'I walk with Him.'
The Roman Catholics talk, in their mechanical way, of bringing down all
the spiritual into the material and formal, about the 'practice of the
presence of God.' It is an ugly phrase, but it means a great thing,
that Christian people ought, very much more than they do, to aim, day
by day, and amidst their daily duties, at realising that most
elementary thought which, like a great many other elementary thoughts,
is impotent because we believe it so utterly, that wherever we are, we
may have Him with us. It is the secret of blessedness, of tranquillity,
of power, of everything good and noble.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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