' Thou Life within my life, than self more near, Tliou veiled Presence infinitely clear, From all illusive siiows of sense I flee, To find my centre and my rest in Thee '
(Worship Stmff, line l.'iOff.).
i. Rich and glowing as such experiences are, they are bj' no nutans exclusively mediated through isolation. The NT, indeed, enforces and illustrates the truth that the (irescnce of God is often most vividly apprehended when a community of dis- ciples, whether they be few or many, meet in His name for fellowshi]), praise, and edilicatiim. There are collective experiences to which the recluse is a
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PRIDE
stranper, and the monk, wliether he live in a cell or walk the tields instead of joining with those who assemble themselves together, shuts himself olF from some of the highest possibilities. Tlie early Christian churches, though comprising many who were but 'babes in Christ' and were far from maturity in ethical and spiritual matters, were happy in the united exercise of their gifts and in the reality of the Divine presence wliich charac- terized their meetings for worship. In marked contrast to the OT nothing i.s said in the NT of church buildings, hardly anything about the con- duct of worship, and there is a striking absence of regulations regarding rites and ceremonies. But the real thing is there — the presence of God, without which the most magnificent architecture, the most elaborate ritual are a vain show. We remember how St. Paul would liave the Corinthian Christians worship in such a fashion that if tlie man in the street chanced to drop in to one of their services he should be ' reproved by all . . . judged by all,' so that the secrets of his heart should be made manifest, ' and so he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is among [or in] you indeed' (1 Co li'-"-). Sucli an event is indeed connected by the Apostle with 'prophecy,' or, as we should call it, preaching, but It is not only, perhaps not mainly, the sermon that thus overwhelmingly convinces the outsider of the presence of God in a people. Nor is it the observance of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, although therein, whatever be their varying con- ceptions of its mode and form, disciples of Christ frequently discern the Real Presence more fully than in any other act of worship or experience of everyday life. There is the sense of prayer and of fraternal union, the atmosphere of devotion and of brotherly love. These, added to a preaching of the Word of God which is alive and powerful, piercing and exposing, cleansing and comforting, are the signs and tokens of the presence of God in a community, and are visible not only to those within but to those without the circle.
3. Finally, there is in the NT consciousness a strong and eager forelookin" to a higher experience still. The experience of believers on earth, while strengthened and uplifted by a sense of the presence of the Saviour through His spirit in the heart, and by the operation of His saving grace, yet lacks the precision and definiteness of a real personal presence. It is better than the objective fellowship of Jesus with His disciples which was limited by the disatilities of the flesh, for as He was then ivith them. He is now in tliem (Jn 14'") ; but it is not the perfect communion for wliich the soul craves in its highest moods. The Parousia or Second Coming of the Lord shaped itself to the imagination of primitive believers as a quasi- physical appearance of the Lord in glory and great power ' in the clouds ' and with a retinue of ' holy angels' (1 Th 4" ; cf. Rev V ' He cometh with the clouds ; and every eye shall see him ' ; also Mt 16'^'-). In the later writings of St. Paul this cruder anticipation is spiritualized. He speaks of death as a door into the nearer presence of Christ (Ph 1^ ' to be with Christ ; for it is very far better'); he is 'willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord ' (2 Co 5') ; and he warns his readers that all must ' be made manifest before the judgement-seat of Christ' to give an account of their earthly life (v."). In St. John this process of spiritualization is carried still further. There is no mention of any spectacular or objective Parousia. The ' Comforter ' is promised as Christ's representative presence with His disciples after His departure to the Father (Jn 14'«), while He remains with the Father, and make.s preparation for the time when
His followers will rejoin Him, that where He is there they may be also (Jn 14'"'). It may be said that while the hope of the Second Coming of Christ in the earlier sense has never died out of the Christian Churcli, the normal Christian atti- tude throughout the ages has been rather that mirrored in St. John than that suggested in 1 Th 4'«" or 1 Co IS""-. Believers hold firmly that while they have fellowship with Christ m the flesh, this is but a dim foretaste of the perfect fellowship that awaits the redeemed with their Saviour in the eternal world. We know nothing of the details of the life beyond the grave; it is enough to know that there Christ reigns even more surely and triumphantly than here, and that where He is there will be blessedness and fullness of life (Jn 10'°), and a ' joy unspeakable and full of glory' (IPP).