God' without any other cause than | Himself.” Yet underneath all his thinking lay the broad foundation of j New Testament truth, for he ex plains that by “Himself” he means “God that made thee, and bought thee, and that graciously called thee to thy degree.” And he is all for simplicity: If we would have reli gion “ lapped and folden in one word, for that thou shouldst have better hold thereupon, take thee but a little word of one syllable: for so it is better than of two, for even the shorter it is the better it accordeth with the work of the Spirit. And such a word is this word God or this word love.” When the Lord divided Canaan among the tribes of Israel, Levi re ceived no share of the land. God said to him simply, “ I am thy part and thine inheritance,” and by those words made him richer than all his brethren, richer than all the kings and rajas who have ever lived in the world. And there is a spirit ual principle here, a principle still valid for every priest of the most high God. The man who has God for his treasure has all things in one. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in one all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost noth ing, for he now has it all in one, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever. O God, I have tasted Thy good ness and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace; I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the triune God, 1 want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, 1 pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “ Rise up, my | love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and fol low Thee up from this misty low land where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ name, amen. END.
plicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship and that servile imita tion of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly and the peace of God scarcely at all. If we would find God amid all the religious externals we must first determine to find Him and then proceed in the way of simplicity. Now as always God discovers Him self to “ babes” and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress and come with the guileless candor of childhood. If we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond. When religion has said its last word, there is little that we need other than God Himself. The evil habit of seeking God-and effectively prevents us from finding God in full revelation. In the “ and” lies our great woe. If we omit the “and” we shall soon find God and in Him we shall find that for which we have all our lives been secretly long ing. We need not fear that in seeking God only we may narrow our lives or restrict the motions of our ex panding hearts. The opposite is true. We can well afford to make God our all, to concentrate, to sacrifice the many for the one. The author of the quaint old English classic, The Cloud of Un knowing, teaches us how to do this. “ Lift up thine heart unto God with a meek stirring of love; and mean Himself, and none of His goods. And thereto, look thee loath to think on aught but God Himself. So that nought work in thy wit, nor in thy will, but only God Him self. This is the work of the soul that most pleaseth God.” Again, he recommends that in prayer we practice a further strip ping down of everything, even of ou r t h e o l o g y . “ For it sufficeth enough, a naked intent direct unto The King's Business/May 1957
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