» J. W. Shepard. GEN.-NUM. — 6
82 FELLOWSHIP
the manifold busmess of religious societies, may usurp the place of religious worship, and the care for these things may leave scanty room for the inward communing of the soul with God. Experience seems to show that the use of inferior ways of calling forth religious earnestness tends to make us indisposed to centre our faith on God's own revelation of Himself in His Son.
iii. They hid themselves amongst the Trees of the Garden.
Adam and his wife hid themselves amongst the trees of the garden. What are the trees one hides among ?
1. One of the trees behind which we hide ourselves is the tree of Knowledge. "Ye shall be as gods," said Satan, "know- ing." That " knowledge puffeth up " was known to Satan before it was stated by Paul. Knowledge is the fruit of the tree that stood in the very midst of the garden; but knowledge is accompanied by its shadow in the shape of a consciousness of knowledge; and consciousness of knowledge is on the negative side of know-nothing. One single electric light extinguishes the stars, and the shining of the low-lying moon snuffs out all the constellations of the firmament. The garden of the Lord grows up at length into such prodigality of leaf and flower as to conceal the Lord of the garden.
2. Another tree behind which the face of the Lord becomes hidden from us is that of Wealth. The tree of wealth, like the tree of knowledge, has its best rooting in the soil of paradise. We should no sooner think of speaking a disparaging word of money than we should of knowledge. But as knowledge becomes conscious of itself and so loses consciousness of God, so wealth is absorbed in itself and forgets God. The sun lifts the mist that befogs the sun. It is not easy to become very learned without getting lost in the world of our own erudition. It is not easy to become very rich without becoming lost in the world of our acquisition.
3. Another tree in God's garden is the tree of RespeetaMHty. More evidently, perhaps, than either of the others, it is the outcome of heavenly soil. The Gospel has always displayed a surpassing power in diffusing ideals of excellent behaviour, in
GENESIS III. 8, 9 83
grappling with the coarser lusts of men, and taming them into habits of regularity and propriety. At the same time, when a man, by the impact of the truth, or by the pressure of sentiment, or by the fear of consequences, but without having been vitally renewed, has had just enough outward effect produced upon him to start in him an incipient and callow sense of goodness, such a man is of the very toughest material with which the Gospel has to contend. Such a little streak of conscious excellence when exposed to the convicting truth of God's Word, or power of God's Spirit, like a glittering rod pushed up into the electricity will convey off in silent serenity the most terrific bolt out of the sky that can be hurled against it. Dread respectability more than original sin.
In the ancient orderly places, with a blank and orderly mind, We sit in our green walled gardens and our corn and oil increase ; Sunset nor dawn can wake us, for the face of the heavens is kind; We light our taper at even and call our comfort peace.
Peaceful our clear horizon, calm as our sheltered days
Are the lilied meadows we dwell in, the decent highways we tread. Duly we make our offerings, but we know not the God we praise, For He is the God of the living, but we. His children, are dead.
I will arise and get me beyond this country of dreams.
Where all is ancient and ordered and hoar with the frost of years. To the land where loftier mountains cradle their wilder streams. And the fruitful earth is blessed with more bountiful smiles and tears, —
There in the home of the lightnings, where the fear of the Lord is set free, Where the thunderous midnights fade to the turquoise magic of morn. The days of man are a vapour, blown from a shoreless sea, A little cloud before sunrise, a cry in the void forlorn —
84 FELLOWSHIP
T am weary of men and cities and the service of little things, Where the flamelike glories of life are shrunk to a candle's ray. Smite me, my God, with Thy presence, blind my eyes with Thy wings. In the heart of Thy virgin earth show me Thy secret way ! ^
III.
The Reconciliation.
1. The first step towards reconciliation is taken, not by the creature, but by the Creator. It is not man who first seeks God and cries out, " 0 my Maker, my Father, where art Thou ? " but it is the great God and Father who tenderly inquires after His erring child. Christ's words, " Ye did not choose me, but I chose you," have an immediate reference to His followers, but they have also a general application to the race. Bede compares Christ's priority in choosing His disciples to God's priority in loving us. " We love, because he first loved us." Our love is a response to the appeal of His infinite, unmerited, and spontaneous love. He first loved us. When He made man. He did not leave him as a manufacturer might an article, without any concern respecting the future. Archbishop Trench says, " The clockmaker makes his clock and leaves it; the shipbuilder builds and launches the ship, which others navigate; but the world is no eurious piece of mechanism which its Maker constructs and then dismisses from His hands." " And the Lord G<xi called unto the man, and said unto him. Where art thou ? "