From life's enchantments,
Desire of place.
From lust of getting
Turn thou away and set thy face
Toward the wilderness.
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The tents of Jacob
As valleys spread,
As goodly cedars
Or fair lign aloes, white and red,
Shall share thy wilderness.
With awful judgments,
The law, the rod.
With soft allurements
And comfortable words, will God
Pass o'er the wilderness.
The bitter waters
Are healed and sweet;
The ample heavens
Pour angel's bread about thy feet
Throughout the wilderness.
And Carmel's glory Thou thoughtest gone, And Sharon's roses. The excellency of Lebanon Delight thy wilderness.
Who passeth Jordan
Perfumed with myrrh.
With myrrh and incense?
Lo! on His arm Love leadeth her
Who trod the wilderness.^
But magnificent as was the sign, the thing signified trans- cended it. In vain would the Divine presence have been shown to them in that miraculous cloud and glory, if there had been no inner sense of the Divine presence in their hearts. It is in the communion between Moses and the Divine Leader of the host that we are admitted into the true sanctuary of that people's strength. Just so far as their spirits went with Moses in this prayer, in this yearning for the inner presence and guidance of God, did they march joyously and triumphantly on their way ; and when that failed, the visible cloud of splendour helped them no longer; they dropped like blighted fruit from the living tree, and their carcases fell in the wilderness.
' Anna Bimstoa. GEN.-NUM. — 20
3o6 LIFE IN GOD'S PRESENCE
2. The lot of Moses was an unenviable one. He was about to quit the familiar ground, the old home of his exile, the mountain region of Horeb, The path onward lay through unknown deserts, and would most surely be beset by daring and experienced foes. It was a prospect before which even a soul of such heroic mould might quail. Would God go with him, not in a pillar of cloud, as the national leader, but as friend, companion, comrade of his spirit ? Let him have that promise, and he would go bravely on, God had cast the lonely lot of this man amongst a people utterly uninstructed and unintelligent, unable to understand, indisposed to reverence his thoughts, and ever breaking in on the meditations and communings on which the fate of unborn ages was hanging, with their sensuous outcries, "Hast thou brought out this whole nation into the wilderness, that it may perish with hunger ? " Here was a man, moreover, who had deeper thoughts about the Divine nature and character than any other man of his day ; to whom the meaning of life and the sacredness of duty were more plain. For had he not entered into the inner court of the Divine presence, and gazed on the glory which no eye but his had prevailed to look upon, and talked with God face to face, as a man talketh with his friend? And see him there, among a people who clung to the outer court, for it was less dreadful than the inner ; who had no conception of the solemnity of a Divine command, except when it was enforced by plagues ; and who assailed him, when he came forth from this Divine communion, with the very glory on his countenance, full of that "favour" which is the life of men and peoples, with scornful questions about graves ! Never, perhaps, was man so lonely.
^ Supreme excellence is always lonely — the great ruler, statesman, warrior, all tread a solitary path, all alike have secrets which no other may or can share. In some degree this is true of every man. Each one travels on a solitary way. " What man knoweth the thoughts of a man ? " — his hopes, his fears, his yearn- ings, his aspirations ? God has given men their own lives to live ;
And bade betwixt their shores to be The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.
Many of our experiences are unique, unanticipated, incom- municable. " All alone we live," and " all alone we die." God's presence means companionship, and in that companionship is
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safety and strength. He knows all the way from the beginning, and with Him there can be no loneliness, no surprise, no disaster. He gives strength to walk the most lonely and difficult path.*
3. What are some of the lonely experiences of life which will be cheered by this wonderful Companionship ?
(1) There is the loneliness of unshared sorrow. — Is there any- thing more solitary than sorrow that can find no friendly ear ? Sorrow which has an audience can frequently find relief in telling and retelling its own story. How often the bereaved one can find a cordial for the pain in recalling the doings and prowess of the departed ! It is a wise ministry, in visiting the bereaved, to give them abundant opportunity of speaking about the lost. The heart eases itself in such shared remembrance. Grief is saved from freezing, and the genial currents of the soul are kept in motion. But when sorrow has no companionable presence with which to commune, the grief becomes a withering and desolating ministry. "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old." Ay, there is nothing ages people like the loneliness of unshared grief. And there are multitudes of people who know no friendly human ear into which they can pour the story of their woes. The outlet manward is denied them. What then ? Is the desolation hope- less ? " My presence shall go with thee." The story can be whispered into the ear of the Highest. The Companionship is from above.