Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 190, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1916 — HIS PRESENCE HERE [ARTICLE]

HIS PRESENCE HERE

The “Vision of God” Is Not Hidden or Withheld From Mankind. I have been asked to speak to yoni upon the thought of the “Vision of God.” It is, I feel, most holy ground to. tread. Let us try to approach it in the< spirit of devout reverence. The subject is bound up with thet personal side of religious life. Alli vision is personal, whether it be an Image conveyed to the brain from thei retina of the eye or the conception conveyed by “the heart" to the Inner man. No two persons will see exactly the same .thing. They will view It at a different angle; or one is short-sighted and another long-sighted. The impression produced cannot be the same, and some are blind altogether, and can see nothing. So also it is with the spiritual vision. We must not all expect to see the same thing at the same time in the same way. We share with one another the blessings and privileges of corporate life In the church. But from the cradle to the grave there are deep things in life which we cannot share and whichi our powers tof expression could not, perhaps, communicate to others. There must be much loneliness In the spiritual life. The blessedness of “the vision of God” can only be fragmentarily Interpreted In words that fall short of actual experience, or in imagery that will convey no adequate meaning to another mind.

Visions That Were Alike. By “the Vision of God” I am not referring to that which, at ordinary times, Is a rare, 'and, at the most, a. very intermittent experience of spiritual life. The visions of the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, the visions of St. Paul and St. John were varied in chara*cter. But they were alike in this, that they represented no continuous condition of spiritual privilege, and, in a great measure, they seem to have been accompanied by a kind of suspense of mental activity. On a minor scale, I daresay something similar has occurred in the spiritual experience of a large number of people. It has been granted at times of deep spiritual contemplation, at moments of intense prayer, and on occasions of sore peril and anxiety. Slowly, very slowly, the divine will works out the accomplishment both of creative and of redemptive purpose. It is hard for man, in his short-lived hurry pf self-importance, to see any vision of God in the welter of warring nations. But he that can see God in the face of Jesus Christ has caught something of that vision which will transform his I conception of the universe, and enable him to look for the triumph of love toward'the human race above and behind the spectacle of the hideous carnage in the world’s most universal and most deadly war.

World's Need Today. We know, indeed, that there are those who exclaim that contemporary events only prove that Christianity is a failure, and that a new gospel is wanted. But it is not so much a revised gospel that we need as a purer and more humble spirit to receive and welcome the old one, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amid the ghastly orgy Of slaughter we crave, again and again, for that “Vision of God” which is the only source of true comfort, peace and, hope. All humanity in this hour of distress and bereavement seems to be stretching out imploring hands Godward. Where is the promise of his presence? Cannot even the Savior’s supreme brotherhood intervene? Man’s nature Is not altered; millions of years Intervene between the envy that prompted the first solitary, barbarous, murderous blow and the envy that has incited to the massacre of millions of the world’s most civilized and Christian peoples. The evil only differs in degree of sufferipg. “The Vision” is not hidden or withheld. High above the deluge of blood stretches the bow bf peace and its promise of mercy. Never, I dare to say, has the sacrament of the Lord’s own body and blood been so genuinely , hallowed to the believer’s heart as the appointed means for the renewal in the Inner life of “the Vision of God” as It has been during the agony and stress of this European conflict, in the hours of suffering, of aching suspense, and agitation. God is always with us. And If on earth there can be no vision of God in the fullness of the divine nature, there Is a wonderful promise for the future: “Beloved, now are we the children of God, and It is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that when he Is made manifest we shall be like unto him, for we shall see him face to fade” (I John 3:1,2). — Rev. Ralph Hall.