' 27t« Journal of John Woolmamy 29. • Memoir of Robert Herbert Story, 401.
PSALM xci. I 245
spiritual view and seek not our own will but the will of God. To seek the face of God in worship is the instinct of the soul which has become aware of itself and its surroundings. Life and death are the great preachers. It is they who ring the church bells. That instinct for God^ that instinct for the shadow, will never pass away. It may only become perverted and debased. The foundation — which is man's need for God, for guidance, for cleansing, for support, and that again is but God's search for man, God's overtures to man — the foundation standeth sure.
^ Whatever temple science may build there will always need to be hard by a Gothic chapel for wounded souls.^
"A little chamber" built "upon the wall," With stool and table, candlestick and bed. Where he might sit, or kneel, or lay his head
At night or sultry noontide: this was all
A prophet's need: but in that chamber small
What mighty prayers arose, what grace was shed, What gifts were given — potent to wake the dead,
And from its viewless flight a soul recall !
And still what miracles of grace are wrought In many a lonely chamber with shut door,
Where God our Father is in secret sought, And shows Himself in mercy more and more !
Dim upper rooms with God's own glory shine,
And souls are lifted to the life Divine.*
4. Th? secret place is not to be limited to a particular locality, but means nearness to God, the close fellowship into which tlic soul enters, the inner circle of communion in which the soul realizes vividly the Divine presence. Some may associate such communion with one locality, and some with another, according to their individual experience. But this matters not. The essential thing is the nearness of the soul to God, its entering into His presence with the full consciousness that He graciously regards it, and will hear its prayer and accept its homage, breathing its feelings and desires into His ear, and spreading all its case before Him. His is not that distant and formal inter- course whi^li one man may hold with another when, in the open ^ F. Paulsen, Ethics. * E. "Wilton.
h6 GOD'S INNER CIRCLE
and crowded places of the city, they have to restrain themselves because of being exposed to the observation of others ; it is that intimate and unrestrained intercourse which friend holds with friend when they meet in privacy, where no otlier eye sees or ear hears, and each communicates to the other not the things which are open to public observation, but the secret and hidden feelings of the heart. Reverently, although freely and confidently, does the worshipper in the secret place speak to God as a child to its father, giving expression to all his feelings, whatsoever they may be.
^ " Fellowship with the living God," says Andrew Bonar in his graphic little sketch of Samuel Paitherford, " is a little dis- tinguishing feature in the holiness given by the Holy Ghost. . . . Eutherford could sometimes say, ' I have been so near Him, that I have said I take instruments (documents by way of attestation) that this is the Lord,' and he could from experience declare, * I dare avouch, the saints know not the length and largeness of the sweet earnest, and of the__ sweety green sheaves before the harvest, that might be had on this side of the water, if we only took more pains.' . . . All this," adds Bonar suggestively, " is from the pen of a man who was a metaphysician, a controversialist, a leader in the Church, and learned in ancient scholastic lore."
Where is that secret place of the Most High ? And who is He ? Where shall we look for Him That dwelleth there? Between tlie cherubim. That o'er the seat of grace, with constant eye. And outspread wing, brood everlastingly ? Or shall we seek that deeper meaning dim, And as we may, walk, flutter, soar, and swim. From deep to deep of the void, fathomless sky ? Oh ! seek not there the secret of the Lord In what hath been, or what may never be; But seek the shadow of the mystic word — The shadow of a truth thou canst not see: There build thy nest, and, like a nestling bird. Find all thy safety in thy secrecy.^
5. How are we to maintain our life of fellowship with God ? How jire we to dwell in the Secret Place ? The Psalmist doubt- less would find guidance in the ways and ministries of the Temple.
^ Hartley Coleridge.
PSALM xci. I 247
(1) The spirit of reverence must be cherished. There was Lo be no tramping in the sacred courts. He was to move quietly, as in the presence of something august and unspeakable. And that is the very first requisite if we would dwell in the secret place — the reverent spirit and the reverent step. The man who strides through life with flippant tramp will never get beyond the outer courts. He may "get on," he will never "get in"; he may find here and there an empty shell, he will never find " the pearl of great price." Irreverence can never open the gate into the secret place.