ulse to pursue God originates with God, but
the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all
the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: "Thy right hand
upholdeth me."

In this divine "upholding" and human "following" there is no
contradiction. All is of God, for as von Huegel teaches, _God is always
previous_. In practice, however, (that is, where God's previous working
meets man's present response) man must pursue God. On our part there
must be positive reciprocation if this secret drawing of God is to
eventuate in identifiable experience of the Divine. In the warm language
of personal feeling this is stated in the Forty-second Psalm: "As the
hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O
God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come
and appear before God?" This is deep calling unto deep, and the longing
heart will understand it.

The doctrine of justification by faith--a Biblical truth, and a blessed
relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort--has in our time
fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such manner as
actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of
religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may
now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without
embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be "received" without
creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man
is "saved," but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is
specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with
little.

The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders of His world; we
Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His
Word. We have almost forgotten that God is a Person and, as such, can be
cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able
to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by
another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and
loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be
explored.

All social intercourse between human beings is a response of personality
to personality, grading upward from the most casual brush between man
and man to the fullest, most intimate communion of which the human soul
is capable. Religion, so far as it is genuine, is in essence the
response of created personalities to the