Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1917 — GOO EVER PRESENT [ARTICLE]

GOO EVER PRESENT

Christian Finds Happiness in the Words, “I Will Be as the . Dew Unto Israel.” The dew is one of the most impressive symbols of spiritual things we have Jn the whole realm of nature. In this respect it is like the starry firmament. What jnan can look up into the heavens at night jylthojit some sense df the divine? He must be a man'of coarse sensibility who can meditate upon the mystery of the dew without some quickening of the spiritual sense. Consequently this symbolism is common not only among the Hebrew people but also among the pagans and among us who live in the Christian environment; in all lands and in all ages. Men’s interpretations have not always been correct; but in them all we see the ever-present Idea o*f the di- . vine. Underneath many and varied superstitions there lies an essential and .permanent truth.—Turning from these Imaginations, let us gather, the divine significance of the symbolism from the Word of God. The first and principal meaning of the symbol is: Cod’s personal presence. Though invisible, he himself is actually and ever near us. the supply of our life. “I will be as the dew unto Israel.” The elements that make the dew are in the atmosphere that enfolds the parched vegetation The plants breathe it and live in it even before it takes Its visible form. I can imagine a thirsty flower whose petals are abouf to wither crying out, “Oh, carrle down from the mountain and the *fei©ud, thou sweet dew, and save my beauty.” But the dew does not fall from heaven, nor from the clouds. It Is simply the moisture suspended in the air and, under certain conditions, condensing in the refreshing water drops. Even so our richest blessings lie not far away from us in point of space and time, but are with us here aqfi now. Man Slow to Learn. This fact we are slow to learn. We are stirred with big’desires and strive with mighty -effort to secure from afar what is right in our presence, ours even now if we -would only believe it. In nature we know It is the outward circumstance that determines the quality of the plant. The palm will not lift its fronds in the Arctic cold. Adirondack mountains. Wheat will not ripen in the Scottish highlands or- on the tundras of Siberia. But man is not so dependent. If he only will, he can be happy, great and good anywhere. It is altogether a matter of inward qualiiication, choice, desire, energy, faith. If he will only look net afar off, but just here, he will discover that he is encompassed \vtth blessing, “like the dew.” We see the principle illustrated all about us In varied ways. What triumphs an unfaltering will has made over the most unfavorable conditions 1 Even in matters intellectual it is true. “This is the victory that overcemeth the world, even our faith.” Witness the triumph of stuttering Demosthenes with pebbles in his mouth talking to the sen; and blind Huber investigating the mysteries of the beehive; and 'deaf Beethoven composing the inimitable Sonatas; and Helen —; Keller, blind, deaf and dumb, charming the world w r ith her original thought and amazing us with her speech. Never say “Fate is against- me.” The infinite God who has placed you where you are. is as the dew unto you. V Spiritual Blessings Everywhere. What I have said of the dew of his presence in o'Ur outer life is specially true of our inner life. Spiritual blessings enfold us as the moisture in the atmosphere, even before they become evident in the dewdrops. They are already provided for us in, Christ; - iton, the gift of the Holy Ghost, all those virtues that' arise out of the indwelling of the Spirit, the fullness of promise, the life eternal, are already ours by Christ's act. If we do not realize them it is because we do not believe that we have them. Hence the force of that peculiar condition which Jesus states in order that we may realize them in expeciegpe: pray, believe that iVereJeive them, and ye shall have thtm!” The Spiritual Canaan Is already yours by God’s free gift; now make it yours by conquest. The point we are trying to make dear in this feature of the symbolism IS that the heavenly treasure does not lie off in some distant Mecca w’hlch we can reach only by a long and painful pilgrimage, or at the tomb of the Savior w’hlch w’e rescue from the Turk in bloody battle. It is here at your door. Ilemember lioweirs song of the fioly Grail. The knight sought the holy cup afar and_long, and hy_dire suffering, but found it not till he returnee! home in despair and paused at the gate to draw a cup of water for a poor beggar. The beggar was the glorified Christ; the common cup Was the Grail. —Rev. A. H. Tuttle, BrD. ~ ~