HOMILETICS. Vers. 12-18.-Prolonqerl comm·une with God. Prolonged commune with G0d i8 ~!.o soul's truest strengthening, and sweetest refreshment. Without it our spirits lang11isn- _ we grow weary all(\ foint--worlriliness creeps upon us--our thoughts and discourse tecvtIJIJ "of the eo.rth, earthy "-we have no life or liveliness in ourselves, and can impart ur,n'J to others. Mosc8' commune was abnormal, extraordinary, inimitable by us in its main features-its duration, locality, nearness of access, and completeness of isolation. B11t it may serve a.s a pattern to us in many respects, nevertheless. I. IN THE PREPArtATION FOR IT. Here we note (1) a. ready heart. "Moses rose up "--did not delay, did not offer objections, did not sa.y, " Suffer me first" to do this or that, but responded to the ea.II of God al. once. (2) A thoughtful regard for others. Moses instructed the elders how to a.et while he was a.way. "Tarry ye here"-" 8eek ye to Aaron and Hur, if ye have matters to do." (3) A willingness to help others towards the higher life, to carry them on with him, as far as he might. " Moses rose up, and his minister, Joshua. (4) A patient and reverential waiting. Summoner.I, called up, bidden to draw near, he yet rested for six days outside the cloud, longing to enter in, but withheld by a sense of unworthiness and a. fear of intrusion, fasting all the while, and seeking to prepare himself for the nearer approach by supplication and meditation. II. IN THE PLACE OJI' rr. A holy place-" the mount of God "-a place sacred from common uses-into which worldly thoughts could scarcely penetrate. We, who have no Sinai, have at any rate our churches, and other sacred buildings-some of them always open, not merely for public worship, but for private prayer and meditation- inviting us to enter in and draw nigh to God. In our houses we have, or may easily .nave, our oratories-spots reserved for prayer and praise, and sacred thought--sanc- tuaries in the desert of life-places in which all that we see will remind us of heavenly things. III. IN THE SECLUSION OF IT. The world was shut out. Relations, elders, people, left below in the plain-left with strict injunctions to remain-" Tarry ye here." Even the faithful Joshua parted from-and" the cloud" entered. The cloud-the awful clour.l -" thick darkness" (eh. x.x. 21); yet within the darkness a marvellous light. Such seclusion we cannot obtain-but we may obtain an approach to it. We may "enter our closet, and shut to the door" (Matt. vi. 6), and let it be known that we would be undisturbed ; or we may seek the solitude of a church at an hour when there is no public service, and no one present who will meddle with us; or we may, even at the present day, find solitudes in nature, deep woods, or lone mountain tops, or unfrequented glens, where we may feel ourselves secure from intrusion, and stand face to face with God, and know him near, and pour out our hearts before him. A modem poet, in one of his better moments, says-
" My altars are the mountains, and the ocean, Earth, e.ir, sea-ell that springs from the Great Whole, Who hath produced, and will receive the soul"-
and truly on any lone spot an altar may be raised, and worship offered, as acce_ptable. to God as any that is addressed to him "in pillared fanes, 'neath fretted roofs, 'mid stoned glass or sculptured monuments." Even in the whirl and bustle of a great city, solitude is not very far from us. Half an hour's journey by steamer or rail, and ten minutes' walk, may take us into still woods, or s!:.ady lanes, or on to open heaths, where we shall not see a fellow creature or hear a sound reminding us of man. IV. IN THE CONTINUANCE OF IT. "Forty days and forty nights!" As we cannot have the complete seclusion which Moses enjoyed, so neither can we look for such sustained ccrrur.une as his. We must eat and drink-we can rarely leave our worlilly 238 THE BOOK OF EXODUR. [m. xx1v. 12-IR.
work t.o ot,hers-fa.mily cle.ims, correspondence, business imperatively require our att.!'ntion--1<ix weeks' interruption of communication between ourselves and the outer "·orld would, in most ce.ses, break or tangle all t,he threads of which our life is composed. Hut ~till Rome prolonged periods of religious contemplation and commune between the ~011! and God arc needed, if the soul is to retain the vigour of its life, or its e.bility to be nf •crdce to others. ,Vith this view religious "retreats" have been devised, laRting ~ometime~ B week or ten days. Where men's duties allow of it, they me.y be well worth e. trial. The weary sr,irit may derive more refreshment from them the.n from the ordinary "holiday." The heart me.y be purified, the aspirations raised, the insight into doctrinal truth augmented, e.bm•e e.11, the love of God so intensified in the soul, by the suspension of a.II secular thought and the devotion of the whole mind to religion and won;hip, during the three, or five, or seven, or ten days of a "retreat," a.s would scarcely be possible, under the present conditions of our life, in any othe.r way.