As Brother Lawrence had found such comfort and blessing in walking in the Presence of God, it was natural for him to recom- mend it earnestly to others ; but his example was a stronger
158 DELIGHTING IN THE LORD
inducement than any arguments he could propose. His very countenance was edifying; such a sweet and calm devotion appearing in it as could not but affect all beholders. And it was observed that in the greatest hurry of business in the kitchen, he still preserved his recollection and his heavenly-mindedness. He was never hasty nor loitering, but did each thing in its season, with an even, uninterrupted composure and tranquillity of spirit. " The time of business," said he, " does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquillity as if 1 were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament." ^
2. Delighting in the Lord implies sympathy with His mind and character. It means that His pure and holy character is the absorbing object of thought, that in the contemplation of it the mind is free from all suspicions, all hard thoughts and rebellious feelings ; that, while it dwells on this high theme with reverence and with awe, it also finds in it a source of deepest joy.
^ Five years before he left us, one who has since his death been much in men's minds had an illness which was of a very critical character. For some days he said nothing, and he was supposed to be quite unconscious. After his recovery he referred, one day, to this, the presumably unconscious, part of his illness. " People thought," he said, " that I was unconscious, but the fact was that although I could not speak I heard all that went on in the room, and I was well occupied." To the question, " What were you doing ? " he answered, " By God's mercy, I could re- member the Epistle for the fourth Sunday in Advent, out of the Philippians, which begins, ' Rejoice in the Lord alway.' This I made a framework for prayer ; saying the Lord's Prayer two or three times between each clause, and so dwelling on the several relations of each clause to each petition in the Lord's Prayer." How he did this he explained at some length, and then added, " It lasted me, I should think, four or five hours." To the question, " What did you do after that ? " he answered, " I began it over ^gain. I was very happy : and, had it been God's will, did not wish to get better." *
3. Delighting in God means holding close communion with Him. Communion is that quiet, intimate, tender intercourse with
^ Brother Lawrence, Tlic Practice of the Prtsenee of Ood. ' H. P. Liddoii, Passiontide Sermons, 271.
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God in which we may ask nothing, confess nothing, and cease even from thanksgiving. We simply speak face to face with God as a man speaks to his friend. Communion may pass beyond speech into a calm and absorbing and yet strangely wakeful silence. God is not content always with silence only. He loves, we may truly believe, to hear the human voice rising and falling in the accents of prayer. Samuel's childish treble when he cried, " Speak, Lord ; for thy servant heareth," was sweeter to Him than the perfect music of a boy's clear young voice in a choir to its leader. God misses " His little human praise," with its doubt and fear trembling in every tone, when we pray only with the inner whisper of our thought and meditation. But there are times when the spirit of prayer may be too swift and too tender for words. Every man is a possible mystic in the best sense of that word, for every man may enter into that intercourse with God in which the hours pass by in the silence of a perfect con- fidence.
^ Wesley, in his Journal tells us again and again that when worn and ill he cast himself without words on the bosom of God. Chalmers declares that, when greatly wearied and distressed in mind, he gave himself up to quietism, and was much refreshed. These were both men of strong practical wisdom, and not moody and dreamy recluses. We must not think that when Christ con- tinued " all night in prayer to God " He stretched out the arms of His petitions and thanksgiving in words which fell upon His own ear. We can be sure that His time was passed in still meditation. He rose into a rapture in which there was no speech, a silence that was felt and loved of God. To Him the Father was
A presence felt the livelong day, A welcome fear at night.^
^ I see that every good and wise man who is held up to my admiration and imitation in the Bible desired nothing less, and could be satisfied by nothing less, than communion with God. Every word in the Book of Psalms, in the Gospels, in the Epistles, and in the Prophecies tells me this. They wished to know God, not in a vague, loose sense, but actually to know Him as a friend. Starting with no preparatory notions of God, but ready to receive everything He told them, they welcomed each new dispensation only because it told them something more of God,;