God often mingle in the same ex perience. Does every Christian have a claim to this conscious experience of overcoming his basic alienation and restoring a lost fellowship? While it may be true that some sen sible experiential aspects are re lated to individual capacities, and God may raise men by different paths, yet this variety does not in volve a fundamental divergency, and certainly there is a basic min imum experiential component for all souls in the state of grace. Many Christians believe without even realizing it, that God has been powerfully present in the past, and will be so in the future, but is somehow hidden in the present. However, God never leaves the world at any time without witnesses to the personal encounter and our century is no exception. Peter Mar shall never failed to emphasize the reality of this relationship: “ If God is a stranger to man, it is man’s fault, not God’s.” But even after fellowship has been experienced, many mistakes can occur. One of these is the failure to express to others what one has experienced, often resulting in spiritual indiges tion. Frank Laubach has expressed this very well: “ I must talk about God, or I cannot keep Him in my mind. I must give Him away in order to have Him. This is the law of the spirit world. What one gives, one has; what one keeps to oneself, one loses. Don’t open the gate too wide toward heaven unless it is opened equally wide toward the lowliest and neediest. Where the spirit of God is blocked, it becomes spiritual indigestion. Never ask God to give you more than you want to give to others.” It must also be remembered that while for some activity may be an escape from facing one’s own inner life, often Christ reveals Himself to a dedicated soul in spiritual endeav or. Schweitzer has expressed this beautifully: “He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside, He came to those men who knew Him not. He
speaks to us the same w ord : ‘Follow thou Me!’ . . . And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.” Is Christ Reality? The testimo nies are countless, but these will have no real meaning for you until through self-surrender to Christ you become a partaker of the hea venly Gift. It will involve a con stant challenge, a sacrificing of all impediments, a continuous search ing for the will of God through Scripture and through listening to the inner voice. The road is diffi cult, but full of rewards. What is more important, it is the only way out. And it ends in glory. Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him en dured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of God. What about the imposing catch words of rationalism and the soph istr ie s of self-complacent igno rance? Powerless to penetrate be yond the conceptual surface, they aim at disproving these profoundest experiences of the human soul. But compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, they stand re vealed in all their superficiality and irrelevance. A n d e v e n th e m a g n i f i c e n t achievements of modern science appear but incidental and unessen tial by comparison. For here, fi nally, the ultimate worth of man is established, as time touches eternity and man fulfills his destiny in meeting his Maker and King. And the searchers of Majesty shall be overwhelmed with glory. Even so, come, JLord Jesus. END.
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