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loo ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD
Acquaintance with God.
1. The knowledge of God which the Bible insists upon as essential to peace and salvation, consists in personal or heart acquaintance with Him — such acquaintance as involves trans- formation of character and radical change of spiritual environ- ment, as well as change of relationship to God, thereby intro- ducing man into a new and blessed life of peace and enjoyment of all good. "Acquaint now thyself with him" — not with His works, not with His ways, not even with His words, life-giving and soul-uplifting though these be — but with Himself ! We must be on intimate terms with God. To know Him, as to know a ''■ man, we must " live with " Him, must summer and winter with ' Him, must bring Him into the pettinesses of daily life, must let our love set to Him, must be in sympathy with Him, our wills being tuned to make harmony with His, our whole nature being in accord with His. That is work more than enough for a lifetime, enough to task it, enough to bless it.
^ We and God have business with each other ; and in ^j}. opening ourselves to His influence our deepest destiny is ful- ^ ^ filled.1
^ When we speak of " knowledge of God," do we not always mean something very far short, from the nature of the case, of comprehension ? Surely we do. In one sense we never " know " God. In another, as all Christians believe, " This is Life Eternal, to know Thee, the only True God." Knowledge of God, in the sense of comprehending Him, is always impossiljle. Do we really comprehend even each other ? Do we not feel each other just as we feel God ? and then take our feelings to pieces and find that they include, or are based on, a recognition of certain qualities in the person who excites them ? And is not this recognition really knowledge — such knowledge as may be expressed in propositions ? And if so, how does it differ in kind — I admit that it differs enormously in degree — from the knowledge that we have about God ? Certainly our highest knowledge of God is only appre- hensive, yet it is knowledge, as far as it goes, and it may be set forth in propositions. Even the most shadowy Theism includes
^ William James.
JOB XXII. 2 1 lOI
at least one tremendous affirmative proposition — however this may be qualified. And this proposition makes this Theism a Theology as well as a Eeligion. Nor can I see any it priori difficulty in supposing that God may have furnished the mind of primitive man with some feeling or instinct about Himself — a feeling which would be irrational if not based on knowledge of some kind. Why should He have done this less easily than He has given all men the sense of right and wrong ? Does not this sense of right and wrong itself imply God ? Is it not a law ? and does not a law imply a Law-giver ? ^
2. Personal acquaintance with God is possible.
(1) Jesus Christ confidently and constantly affirmed the possibility of soul-saving personal acquaintance with God, and maintained that His disciples actually enjoyed such acquaintance or experimental knowledge. His appeals to His disciples were all based on the assumption that they knew God after a spiritual manner, and were thereby distinguished from the world which knew Him not. Indeed, so prominent is experimental knowledge of God as the basis of true discipleship in the Gospels, and especially in the Fourth Gospel, that it may be regarded as the supreme condition of eligibility to the privileges and blessings of the Kingdom of God.
(2) The Apostles confirm our Lord's teaching on this point. John's First Epistle is practically a positive affirmation and doctrinal setting forth of the great truth that all true believers personally and experimentally know God. " Hereby we do know that we know him." " We know that we are in him." " I write unto you . . . because ye know him." "He that knoweth God heareth us." " That we may know that is true." Paul says : " That I may know him " . . . " the Gentiles that know not God " — distinguishing between them and believers who do know Him. " I know whom I have believed."
(3) Further, good men in all the Christian ages, belonging to many lands, of various races and nationalities, while differing in regard to a thousand things, and perhaps having very little in common so far as material surroundings are concerned, have harmoniously testified, as a fact of experience, that they knew God. Men of purity of life, of force of character — distinguished
^ Life and Letters oj H. P. Liddon, 233.
I02 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD
among their fellows in many instances for probity, benevolence, intelligence, and usefulness — positively affirm with unswerving confidence, persistence, and absolute absence of unworthy motive that they know God; that they enjoy spiritual commerce and personal communion with Him ; that He constantly reveals Him- self in their consciousness and to their spirits in peace and power and answer to prayer.
*[[ God can reveal Himself, and can be known. Spirit with spirit can meet ; to a person a Person can speak. Had man's attitude remained normal his apprehension of God would have been continuous and, to the extent of its widening range, un- clouded. There are faculties in man which render him capable of this. But, as things are, the knowledge of God has been arrested and confused and sometimes destroyed. The light shining in the darkness has been as good as lost. Yet it has been universal, and hints of the truth have never been altogether absent from any age or race of men ; and in Israel a medium of revelation was found, chiefly in its great moral personalities — the prophets — which enabled God to let the real truth of His being and character shine forth with increasing clearness. In this way preparation went on for the final unveiling of God in Christ as Spirit, light, and love.^