Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 203, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1912 — Communion With God [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Communion With God

By Rev. J. H. Ralston

Stcnkty of Comapootlencs DepoxttMßt of Mo«b iarfMß, O»os>

TEXT—“And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him. Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice In Ihegarden, and I was afraid, because X was naked; and I hid myself.”—Genesis HI,-B, 10. The most godly men have found difficulty, at least at times, to preserve the close

communion with God which it is their /ight through Christ to enjoy. < This communion can only be secured by God and man coming Into personal conta ct. Facts of state and of experience readily prove to man that he and God are oftentimes apart. As personalities, each recognizes that

there is some obligation to seek each other, yet the obligation on God’s part to seek man is somewhat difficult to understand. Man obviously ought to seek God, he ought to be asking the question, “Where shall I find him?” but God anticipates man in this search and comes frequently and asks, as in the text, “Where art thou?” This being the case, there is presented for our consideration in the text as a whole: (1) God seeking man; (2) Man keeping away from God, by hiding or otherwise; (3) The soulexperience that compels him to move to God. 1. God Is seeking man. This is not the normal situation, for man ought to be seeking God with the whole heart, everything else being as nothing in comparison. God is seeking man, not with the Intent apparently that he sought Adam in the Garden of Eden, which was for the purpose of reproof, or punishment God not only is seeking man, but wishes to be sought for by man, as the hymn writer Faber so beautifully sings: "God loves to be longed for, he loves to be sought. For he sought us himself with such longing and love! And he died for desire of us, marvelous thought! And he yearns for us now to be with his above.” ■ There is not a man away from God but for whom God longs, and will go any distance to find. “There were ninety and nine that safely lay _ In the shelter of the fold. But one was out on the hills away, Far off from the gates of gold— Away on the mountains wild and bare. Away from the tender Shepherd’s care. “ ‘Lord, thou hast here thy eMiety and nine; , Are they not enough for thee? But the Shepherd made answer: ‘This ot mine Has wandered away from me. And although the road be rough and steep I go to the desert to find my sheep.* ” 2. But just as prominent as the search of God for man is man’s constant refusal to be found. As Adam fled from the Lord, as Jonah tried to get away from the obligation to preach at Nineveh, as the prodigal fled to a far country and wasted his substance In riotous living, so man does today. Touched by the Spirit of God, the church, through its many agencies, is putting forth effort to reach man. Its ’doors have always been open, and rarely is the church found that does not welcome all classes to Its services. In recent years God’s people are going out after men in all places where they may be found. The gospel is preached in places not dedicated to divine worship—in tents, on street corners, and elsewhere, and It is difficult for a man within christendom to get beyond the" invitation of the gospel, and yet he will not yield to it. 3. But there is a reason for this as suggested in the text; it is the consciousness of shame, “I was naked and 1 hid myself.” It must be conceded that there are multitudes who do not seem to have-God In any of their thoughts, they live apparently as the beasts of the field, they seem to have no consciousness whatever that they are more than creatures of a day, mere ephemera. But the -man or woman who may be beguiled to read these, words is not such a person. In some way he senses God. He has an Intuition, as we might say, which probably teaches him his personal responsibility. Is that a misfortune? Far from It It is the dawn of hope. It is the snulpaln that tells of possible return to spiritual health secured through perfect communion with God. Grateful should; the man be who thus becomes uneasy, yea, faces God and talks with him. In this day the grace of God la seeking man, not to reprove him only, not to punish him, but to blebs him; he Is not willing that any should perish. It may be said that the man who is discovered by God, discovers, or finds, himself ; he comes to himself “Ss the prodigal did, and Is then not far from starting back to the Father’s house As the cry recently has been with many "Back to Christ," wa might say that the cry should now rather be “Back to God.”