2. But this grand revelation did not disclose itself fully and clearly until they lost Enoch, The full significance of a noble life is scarcely ever, perhaps never, realized until we have lost it. " Whence hath this man these mighty works ? This carpenter of Nazareth we know ; bis brothers and sisters live next door to > Robert C. Y. Meyers.
i6o WALKING WITH GOD
us." Ay, He was too near them. They had not yet seen the majesty and the grandeur of Him, and even to His disciples He said, " It is expedient for you that I go away." As who should say, " I am too near to you now. I must get further away before you can understand me, and receive the mighty Spirit that shall reveal all things to you," The prophet is only half understood as we rub shoulder to shoulder with him. He talks to us as one of ourselves, and we do not know the mighty spirit that speaks to us and inspires us until he has passed away to the glorious crown of the mighty. And so God glorifies Himself in His servants by their death as well as by their life. It is for Him to choose. It is for Him to determine by which we shall glorify His name the more. For us the one purpose, the one ambition should be, to leave the strongest, deepest impression we can upon the world, to leave it the grandest inspiration possible. If that can be done best by our life, then God grant that we may live. If it can be done best by our death, then death were glorious.
in.
FoK God took him.
" God took him." In the Epistle to the Hebrews, following the translation of the Septuagint, it is said, " Before his translation he had witness borne to him that he had pleased God well." Does not the writer here imply that God took him, because He was well pleased with him ?
^ A little girl was once talking with another little girl about Enoch. The second little girl had never heard of him, and so the first, who was rich in Bible stories, told her by her mother, made up a version of the story of Enoch which has a very beautiful suggestion in it. Said the little girl to her friend, "God was accustomed to take walks with Enoch, and one day they went further than usual, and God said, ' Enoch, you are a long way from home ; better come in and stay with Me ' ; so he went, and has stayed ever since."
Came the relief. "What, Sentry, ho!
How passed the night through thy long waking?" " Cold, cheerless, dark, — as may befit
The hour before the dawn is breaking."
GENESIS V. 24 161
"No sight? no sound?" "No; nothing save The plover from the marshes calling,
And in yon western sky, about An hour ago, a star was falling."
"A star? There's nothing strange in that." "No, nothing; but above the thicket
Somehow it seemed to me that God Somewhere had just relieved a picket."*
" God took him " means Victory. This is the thought which persists in one's mind after one looks at the picture of Enoch. Eemembering the context, and how the biography of Enoch stands out in unique grandeur amongst those of the other men who died, we cannot miss the purpose of the sacred writer. We may say that the Old Testament saints met death with grim resignation, but we cannot say with hope. The desire of escaping death, or "overleaping Sheol," is constantly re-echoed by the Psalmists. Here we have a foreshadowing of that complete victory which can only be won in Christ.
(1) Now, we know that for us death is inevitable. Christ has not taken away death, but He has passed through it.
Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than He went through before; He that into God's kingdom comes
Must enter by this door.*
(2) But Christ has conquered the power of death h/ taking away its sting. St. Paul says, " The sting of death is sin . . . but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. xv. 56, 57).
(3) And we must never forget the principle which these words of St. Paul teach us — our share in the conquest. Christ has taken away the sting of death. God will give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us learn our lesson from Enoch : he began his walk with God on earth. " By faith Enoch was translated."
^ I do not know to what extent The Pilgrim's Progress is read at the present time, but I never return to it without wonder at
» Bret Harte. * Richard Bai<tef.
CEN.-NUM. — II
i62 WALKING WITH GOD
the genius and insight which it displays. I should be delighted to quote the whole of its wonderful closing scenes, but those who are familiar with them will be grateful to me for two paragraphs which I quote, especially for the last sentence, with its very direct bearing on the value and power of faith in the last crisis, and because of their reference to the subject of this chapter.
" Now I further saw, that betwixt them and the Gate was a Eiver, but there was no Bridge to go over ; the River was very deep ; at the sight therefore of this River the Pilgrims were much stunned, but the men that went with them, said, You must go through, or you cannot come at the Gate.