f creation, the source and power of all existence. The
beautiful trees, the green grass, the bright sun, God created that they
might show forth His beauty, His wisdom and His glory. The tree of one
hundred years old--when it was planted God did not give it a stock of life
by which to carry on its existence. Nay, verily, God clothes the lilies
every year afresh with their beauty; every year God clothes the tree with
its foliage and its fruit. Every day and every hour it is God who maintains
the life of all nature. And God created us, that we might be the empty
vessels in which He could work out His beauty, His will, His love, and the
likeness of His blessed Son. That is what God is for, to work in us by His
mighty operation, without one moment's ceasing. When I begin to get hold of
that, I no longer think of the true Christian life as a high impossibility,
and an unnatural thing, but I say, "It is the most natural thing in
creation that God should have me every moment, and that my God should be
nearer to me than all else." Just think, for a moment, what folly it is to
imagine that I can not expect God to be with me every moment. Just look at
the sunshine; have you ever had any trouble as you were working or as you
were studying or reading a book in the light the sun gives? Have you ever
said, "Oh, how can I keep that light, how can I hold it fast, how can I be
sure that I shall continue to have it to use?" You never thought that.
God has taken care that the sun itself should provide you with light; and
without your care; the light comes unbidden. And I ask you: What think you?
Has God arranged that the light of that sun that will one day be burned up,
can come to you unconsciously and abide in you blessedly and mightily; and
is God not willing, or is He not able, to let His light and His presence so
shine through you that you can walk all the day with God nearer to you than
anything in nature? Praise God for the assurance; He can do it. And why
does He not do it? Why so seldom, and why in such feeble measure? There is
but one answer: you do not let Him. You are so occupied and filled with
other things, religious things, preaching and praying, studying and
working, so occupied with your religion, that you do not give God the time
to make Himself known, and to enter in and to take possession. Oh, brother,
listen to the word of the man who knew God so well, and begin to say: "My
soul, wait thou only upon God."

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