The sweetness of His grace.
Acquaint thyself with God !
In Jesus and His cross Read there that love which makes all loss
But gain, all gain but loss. Acquaint thyself with God
In childhood's joyous prime ; So shall thy life a foretaste prove
Of heaven's long summer-time.^
III.
The True Good which comes from Acquaintance with God.
1. Eliphaz was only thinking, on Old Testament lines, that prosperity in material things was the theocratic reward of allegiance to Jehovah. But we have a better meaning breathed into his words, since Jesus has taught us what is the true good for a man all the days of his life. Acquaintance with God is, not merely procures, good. To know Him, to clasp Him to our hearts as our Friend, our Infinite Lover, our Source of all peace and joy, to mould our wills to His and let Him dominate our whole selves, to seek our well-being in Him alone — what else or more can a soul need to be filled with all good ? Acquaintance with God brings Him in all His sufficiency to inhabit otherwise empty hearts. It changes the worst, according to the judgment of sense,
^ Hymns by Horatius Bonqr, 162.
no ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD
into the best, transforming sorrow into loving discipline, inter- preting its meaning, fitting us to bear it, and securing to us its blessings. To him that is a friend of God,
All is right that seems most wrong If it be His sweet will,
^ Good — a little word, but how pregnant ! What manifold treasures are wrapped up in it ! Spectrum analysis has revealed wondrous things to us concerning God's starry hosts; but who will analyse for us this single word " good " as it comes from the Father's lips and leaps from His heart ? ^
^ The infinite goodness which I have experienced in this world inspires me with the conviction that eternity is pervaded by a goodness not less infinite, in which I repose unlimited trust.^
2. " Thereby good shall come to thee." Good of every kind, and especially of the best kind. In fact, the state itself is the good begun. No good can ever come to a man from without, in the shape of possession of any kind, which can for a moment be compared with the blessedness of being good. There is a beautiful prayer in one of the Psalms to this effect. " Do good, 0 Lord, unto those that be good." That short sentence is a religious philosophy as well as a prayer. For until a man is good, good of the highest kind God cannot do him. He can fill his veins with health, and his coffers with gold, and his rooms with pictures, and his gardens with flowers, and his fields with fruits, and his life with comfort and outward peace ; but one thrill of the holy peace of this text, and of the Saviour's legacy, he can never have, so long as he is unthankful and evil. These things are just hung about him, or thrown in his way ; they are not in the man himself.^
^ The beginning of religion seems to me to be, first, resig- nation, and, secondly, trust in God. " 0 rest in the Lord." This is a true word for the departing one as well as for the survivor. " The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, and there shall no torment touch them." "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto you." It is weak and wrong to rebel against the order of nature, which is also the will of God, or to seek to know things which no one has ever known. Sympathy is a precious help, but om- chief support must be the thought of God.*
^ J. E. Robinson. 2 E. Renan, Recollections 0/ my Youth, 329.
3 A. Raleigh, The Way to the City, 237. * B. Jowett, Life and Letters^ ii. 449.
Songs in the Night.
Literature.
Bardsley (J. W.), Illustrative Texts, 133.
Matheson (G.), Leaves for Quiet Hours, 51.
Melvill (H.), Sermons at Gamhridge, 21.
Oosterzee (J. J. van), The Year of Salvation, ii. 504.
Eobertson (S.), The Bope of Hair, 28.
Spurgeon. (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxvi. (1880), No.
1511 ; xliv. (1898), No. 2558. Wagner (G.), Sermons on the Book of Job, 260. Church of England Magazine, x. 169 (Grant).
Songs in the Night.
But none saith, Where is God my Maker, Who giveth songs in the night?
Job XXXV. 10.
1. Some men are always disposed to look at the bright side of life, and others at the dark. The tempers and feelings of some are so cheerful and elastic that it is hardly within the power of ordinary circumstances to depress them; while others are of so gloomy a temperament that the least adversity serves to confound them. But if we can divide men into these classes, when reference is had simply to their private affairs, we doubt whether the same division will hold, we are sure it will not in the same proportion, when the reference is generally to God's dealings with our race. In regard to these dealings, there is an almost universal disposition to look on the dark side, and not on the bright ; as though there were cause for nothing but wonder that a God of infinite love should permit so much misery in any section of His intelligent Creation. Few are ready to observe what provision has been made for human happiness, and what capacities there are yet in the world of ministering to the satis- faction of such as prefer righteousness to wickedness.