Our Lord Jesus Christ has become to the world in which we live the angel of the Presence, the Presence that saves. In Him God has laid bare His own heart and shown us the Divine that indwells. Never again can we think of God except in terms of Jesus. This is really the most tremendous thing that has ever happened in the long, slow, toilsome, painful unfolding of the spiritual consciousness of the human race. Time was when men could think of God as strong but not as kind, but they cannot do that now. It is a God of love or none.
(2) A promised presence. — God's presence is promised and promised for ever, for all time and in every experience. The text teaches us this. The angel of His face is none other than the angel of the covenant in whom God's pledge to be with His people for ever is redeemed. Turn back to the ancient Scriptures and hear Him give this pledge to Jacob : " Behold, I am with thee, and wiU keep thee in all places whither thou goest, ... for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." Hear His promise to Joshua : " I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." Hear His promise through Isaiah : " I the Lord will hear thee ; I the God of Israel will not forsake thee. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. And even to your old age I am He ; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you ; I have made, and I will bear ; even I will carry, and will deliver you." And then hear the pledge of Jesus Christ : " I will not leave you comfortless : I will come to you. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
2. The angel of His Presence saved them. The power of such a thought of God always with us, and most of all in our times of weakness and trial and trouble, must be a redeeming delivering, upbearing power.
IT vSome time ago a friend took me to his country house, where.
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amidst other interesting things, he showed me the method by which his household and other households near it were supplied with water. He had located an inexhaustible supply, pure and good, at a great depth underground. How far it extended he did not know, but beyond his property, at any rate. He had sunk a shaft, and had placed above it an iron reservoir which would open for inspection at any time, a conspicuous object on his particular piece of property. It stood on a raised platform so that any one could easily see it and gaze upon its contents. From that reser- voir pipes were led under the turf to all the rooms where water was fitted, though there were fields between, and there it gushed forth freely at any level the moment the taps were turned on. It is not an inappropriate symbol to me of our relationship to our blessed Lord and Master. The life of God is like that water supply underlying all our being, nourishing and sustaining it as the underground springs nourishing my friend's fields and gardens, without which they would be neither fields nor gardens, but only deserts. Without God there would be no humanity to go wrong ; without God not for one moment could you draw your breath in the thinking of a thought, good or ill. There it was all the time, only hidden underground. Jesus Christ has drawn it from the depths and made it immediate. He is like the visible reservoir from which the pipes are laid that convey the Water of Life to every heart.^
II A little boy of mine came home one day bearing the marks of battle. Of course it was very wrong, but let me tell you fathers and mothers, the boy who does not sometimes get into a scrimmage and come out on the right side is not likely to do much in this world! My boy came home, and, of course, I rebuked him — only officially. I found he had been in conflict with a boy much bigger than himself. I said, " Were you frightened, Arthur ? " He said, " No." I said, " You ought to have been. The boy was bigger than you." " I wasn't, dad," he replied. " You see, Norman (his big brother) was only just round the corner ! " It is a grand thing to have a brother in reserve ! Oh, my brothers, reverently I can tell the poorest, vilest, weakest man in London that if only he will set his face toward the light, though all the powers of heU give him battle, he has a big omnipotent redeeming Brother, not round the corner, but in the heart ! ^
(1) His Presence must save us, first of all, from the sense of meanness, littleness, unworthiness which embitters life and makes sorrow doubly hard to bear. The Presence of God must
iR. J. Campbell. "A. T. Guttery.
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bring a sense of dignity, of elevation into our existence. It was a great king who once said, " Where I sleep, there is the palace." The life that has the Presence of God in it can be neither trivial nor unworthy.