1 Calvin, Commentaries on tht Minor Prophets, li. 244,
332 A MEETING WITH GOD
These, contrition, confession, amendment, are the three parts of repentance.1
III.
1. But the text in its original setting bears no reference to death and judgment after death ; it is simply a warning of the destruction that was about to befall the kingdom of Israel. It is only natural that words so striking and so solemn should im- press themselves upon the mind and conscience of every one who reads them, and that each should take them as a message from God to himself. And so, when men read this text in the Bible, or hear it preached upon in the pulpit, it is to death and judg- ment, to the meeting with their God there, that their thoughts are generally directed. They suppose that the preparation commanded by these words, " Prepare to meet thy God," is preparation for that. But this reading of the verse, while not in itself incorrect, often leads to mistakes. "I shall have to meet my God there after death ; but death is still a great way off, and I need not now prepare." And so men quietly live on unprepared, and knowing that they are unprepared, presuming upon the chance of continued life, intending, when once they have reason to believe that their end is near, — intending then to prepare. They may be suddenly cut off without a moment's preparation ; the pains and anxieties of sickness may render them incapable of preparation. It is generally to very little purpose that men in the hour of death prepare to meet their God, when they have not in life prepared to meet Him. This is far from saying that such death-bed pre- paration is never sincere, or never accepted of God, but one must own that it is incapable of proof and verification. Surely pre- paration to meet our God is too serious and important a matter to be risked upon the thousand chances of our last hours and our capacity in those hours to make any preparation whatever. The fact is, that men make a great and miserable mistake in supposing that the only meeting with God for which they are to prepare, and indeed the only meeting with God that is possible, is that compulsory meeting with Him in the day of judgment.
1 A. J. Mason, Th« Faith of the Gospel,
AMOS iv. 12 333
2. In a manner sometimes unscriptural, God is frequently represented as at a great distance, seated on a throne in the highest heavens, entirely separate and apart from us now, but proposing at some future time to come and arraign us before His bar, that we may give account of ourselves to Him, and that our only meeting with Him will be on that occasion. Now let us remember God's omnipresence. " In him we live, and move, and have our being." " Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways." " Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? " Instead of having to meet God only at the day of judgment, we meet Him every day, or at any rate He meets us. Eemember the words of Jesus: "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." And again : " Behold, I stand at the door, and knock : if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
Thus to meet with God is not the terror of the future ; it is the privilege, the blessing, of the present. A Christian can say with truth and with thankfulness, "I meet my God every day of my life ; in prayer I speak to Him as a man speaketh to his friend. To me He is not a God afar off, whom some day I meet in judgment ; He is near me, He holds me by the hand, and leads me. No one is so near to me as He, so constantly with me as He. You need not tell me to prepare to meet Him. I met with Him long ago, and have been with Him ever since ; and, meeting Him here so much as my Friend, I am perfectly prepared to meet Him hereafter as my Judge. I know that I have often sinned. But when I met with Him He convinced me of my sin, but also convinced me of His willingness to forgive it, and impressed upon my mind the glorious truth, that His dear Son died to make atonement for my sin, and to make peace for me with Him. And so I asked Him to forgive me for Christ's sake ; I asked Him to receive me as His child ; I asked Him to remain with me to guide and help me. And He heard my prayer."
T| The text of Bishop Lightfoot's enthronement sermon was 11 And they shall see his face." The prayer which from the first he asked his Diocese to offer for him was —
" That the Eternal Presence, thus haunting him night and day,