God's quiet communion with
him through the organs God Himself has created in every one of us. For
all time, whether before or after Christ, these are the chief
grounds and foundations of faith in God. So it was in the Old
Testament--"stand in awe and sin not," "commune with your own heart
upon your bed and be still," "be still and know that I am God." So
with Christ, "for the kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation,
but the kingdom of heaven is within you," and so with Paul, "the
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the
children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ." "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, ... that he would grant you according to the
riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the
inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, to the end
that ye being rooted and grounded in love may come to apprehend with
all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to
know the love of Christ."
God's guidance of his life, first of all, produces in a man a great
sense of stability. "I have set the Lord always before me: because he
is at my right hand I shall not be moved." He who has found God so
careful of him, he whom God hath regarded as worth speaking to and
counseling and disciplining, will be certain that he shall endure,
provided he is sure of his own loyalty. The life so loved of God, so
provided for, and in such close communion with the Eternal is not, can
not be the creature of the day, and this assurance stands firm in face
of even death and the horrible corruption of the body. The psalmist
refuses to believe that he is to dwell in the horrible under-world
forever--either himself or any of God's believers. "Thou must not,
thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol, thou must not, thou wilt not
suffer thy loved ones to see the pit." To this man it is incredible,
and our hearts bear witness to the truth if we have had any experience
of God's blessing and guidance. To this man it is incredible that the
life God has cared for and guided and spoken to and brought into such
intimate communion with himself can find its end in death. Those whom
God has loyally loved and who have loyally loved God--for this
word badly translated "holy" in the psalms really has that actual
significance--those whom God has loyally loved and who have loyally
loved God shall never die. As
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