To snatch a glimpse of heaven. When the river from the garden can refresh the heated way ?
Let but Thy stillness stealing
Impart its sweet revealing, And through the fire I'll walk with Thee in coolness of the day.i
4. If you would know God, you must study Him in the person, x'^nd the character, and the life, and the work of His Son. As Christ Himself expresses it, Christ is " the Word." And as a man's words represent and declare the man, — so that you cannot know the man, the invisible mind of the man, but by the words he speaks, — so Christ represents and declares the invisible Father.
^ George Matheson, Sacred Songs, 6.
JOB XXII. 21 105
^ For us Jesiis Christ is the Eevealer. What men know of God apart from Him is dim, shadowy, indistinct; it lacks certainty, and so is not knowledge. I venture to say that there is nothing between cultivated men and the loss of certain knowledge of God and conviction of His Being but the historical revelation of Jesus Christ. The Christ reveals the inmost character of God, and that not in words but in deeds. Without Him no man knows God; "No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." ^
^ This morning I arose a little after seven o'clock, in possession of my reason and of my health, and not without aspirations of soul towards the communion of God ; but poor and heartless when compared with those experiences of the Psalmist, whose prayers prevented the dawning of the morning, and his meditations the night-watches; and my soul being afflicted with downwardness, and wandering of spirit, and coldness of heart, towards the God of my salvation, in the morning, which is as it were a new resurrection, it was borne in upon my mind that it arose in a great measure from my not realizing with abiding constancy the Mediator between me and God, but breaking through, as it were, to commune with Him in my own strength — whereby the lightning did scathe my soul, or rather my soul abode in its barrenness, unwatered from the living fountain, in its slavery unredeemed by the Captain of my salvation, who will be ac- knowledged before He will bless us, or rather who must be honoured in order that we may stand well in the sight of the Father.^
5. What do we lose if we have not this personal acquaintance with God ?
(1) Without acquaintance with God our thoughts of Him will be false thoughts. We shall have no just view of His real character. Some think Him harsh, stern, tyrannical. They regard the law as severe, and its penalties as unjust. They say that His government is arbitrary, and He Himself unworthy of confidence. Therefore, when they are disappointed, baulked in their expectations, denied their hearts' desire, when trouble finds and sorrow lays a heavy hand upon them, they curse God. " Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do." How mournful is the lament of Jesus : " 0 righteous Father, the world hath not known thee " ! The world had not understood God, and ^ A. Maclaren. 2 2;i/e of Edward Irving, i. 255.
io6 ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD
men had misrepresented Him ; had charged Him with folly ; had blasphemed His holy name ; had taken it in vain ; had wandered far into the darkness of unbelief. But Jesus knew the T'ather, and therefore, though His face was marred more than any man's, and His form than the sons of men ; though He was the " man of sorrows and acquainted with grief " ; yet with the shadow of the cross heavy upon Him, He kept bright in His faith and serene in His trust ; and He could pray, " 0 righteous Father, the world hath not known thee : but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it : that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them."
*[j None can have low thoughts of Thee, but they that know Thee not.^
^ From Tungwa we went to Makuta. One afternoon I was strolling about the town. Seeing some women making pottery, I went over to them and sat down under the gables of the house, for the sun was hot. We soon changed the subject of conversation, although they were much interested in what I told them of making pots in England. Then we talked of the work at Tungwa, and how some there had learned of Jesus and were trusting in Him. I was speaking of the love of G-od, and how anxious He was to change our hearts and to fit us to go and live with Him in the Blessed Home above ; how ready He was to help and bless all who sought Him, when the sister of one of the Tungwa lads who had been with us some time, and is now a member of the Church, spread out her hands and cried most pathetically, " Oh God ! where are You, that I may know You ? " My eyes fill up even now, somehow or other, as I think of her cry. We talked on for some time, and I tried to assure her that He was very near, and would hear her whenever she spoke to Him. Then we talked of Jesus and His great love, and the other women joined in, much interested, and wished that there was some one to teach them at Makuta.^