EVERY CRISIS
COME--IN TELLING JESUS ALL."

CHAPTER II.

_THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD_ (ii).

_He that would to others give
Let him take from Jesus still;
They who deepest in Him live
Flow furthest at His will._

I resume the rich subject of Secret Devotion, Secret Communion with God.
Not that I wish to enter in detail on either the theory or the practice
of prayer in secret; as I have attempted to do already in a little book
which I may venture here to mention, _Secret Prayer_. My aim at present,
as I talk to my younger Brethren in the Ministry, is far rather to lay
all possible stress on the vital importance of the habit, however it may
prove best in individual experience to order it in practice. "As a man
thinketh in his heart, so is he" [Prov. xxiii. 7.]; and as a life
worketh in its heart, so is it. And the heart of a Christian Minister's
life is the man's Secret Communion with God.

Let us Clergymen take as one of our mottoes that deeply suggestive word
of the Lord by Malachi, where the ideal Levi is depicted: "_He walked
with Me_ in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity."
[Mal. ii. 6.]

THE LORD'S EXAMPLE.

Remember with what a heavenly brightness that principle was glorified in
the recorded life on earth of "the great Shepherd of the sheep," [SN:
Heb. xiii. 20.] who in this also "left us an example, that we should
follow His steps." [1 Pet. ii. 22.] Never did man walk more genuinely
with men than the Son of Man, whether it was among the needy and wistful
crowds in streets or on hill-sides, or at the dinner-table of the
Pharisee, or in the homes of Nazareth, Cana, and Bethany. No Christian
was ever so "practical" as Jesus Christ. No disciple ever so directly
and sympathetically "served his own generation by the will of God" [Acts
xiii. 36.] as did the blessed Master. But all the while "His soul dwelt
apart" in the Father's presence, and there continually rested and was
refreshed, [John iv. 32, 34.] and there found the "meat" in the strength
of which He travelled that great pilgrimage by way of the Cross to the
Throne. Jesus Christ, our Exemplar as well as our Life, did indeed live
behind His work, behind His ministry, behind His ministerial character,
in the region of a Filial Communion in which His Father was His all in
all for peace and joy, His law of action and His eternal secret of life.
And observe, this habitual communion in the midst of active service did