SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13355, 8 December 1906, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.

Bt E. 3CTTABT.

" Where art thou?"—Genesis iii. 10. • This was God's pathetic cry directly man had broken the sacred, hallowed link ot intercourse between himself and God. God is necessary to man. and' man is necessary to God, for that which God Himself ordained —the highest of all conceptions—mutual companionship. At the commencement of our saered theme it, is well to take as a basis the fact that tho mystery of evil has been met by the still deeper mystery of God incarnate— failure is met by God's remedy. Neither his failure nor Satan's intrusion altered tho Divine intent, and thus wo know, in spito of sin, man's aspirations are Godward. No sooner had he fallen than God came down to meet him on his own level, " and the Lord tied called unto tho nia.ll, Where art thou?" God puts the pathetic question because, though Ho knows all, He also knows it is I host for man to make his own confession, I and tell it out to Him, for tho telling out 1 of what has happened will help to bring ! homo to man his utter dependence on God ; for His succour and deliverance now that he is suffering tho pangs of estrangement and the terrible sense of. broken fellowship. The sad confession is made, and the sad admission too, " I was afraid .... I hid myself." But God listened to all ho had to say, and his excuse, "The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me." L Now the Lord God turned to the offender; and yet another question full of pathos is heard: '.* What is this that thou hast done?" God will let tho woman speak for herself, too; Ho does not upbraid, lie is too grieved to tho heart, He knew the awful results of this first subtle attack of the enemy on those created for His companionship; but His omnipotence .and omniscience aro superior to the most deadly force of evil; and God tells tho woman her sin will necessitate atonement and sacrifice. But before Ho tells her sin necessitates suffering He tells her of His remedy. In their complex combination He remembers their frame; that which is, "of the earth" shall Ik? put off when it has served its purpose in being the covering in which Ho will readjust and purify their immortal nature. " The Lord God made—for Adam and his wife—coats of skins, and clothed them." He clothed them Himself with that which speaks of sacrifice and substitution. " He hath clothed mo with the garments of salvation ; Ho hath covered mo with the robe of righteousness." Sin always incurs in itself the instinct that it must be hidden tip; it was very strong in them: and they had sought for tho remedy in devices of their own: " they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron-." But God tells them they must turn away from themselves now in every respect, as only lie can put right what has gone wrong. He asks nothing but their agreement; He pledges His word. His almightiness, His character, and His love to restore them, if they will, in desire, bo of one mind with Him—if they will only let His mind to their law. In Adam's seed is shown the two phases of character —Self-sufficiency in one, and in the other Faith in God. They have not only had the same opportunity, bur the one wiio failed to catch God's meaning Ho deals with personally, and says, " If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?" or, as another rendering nuts it, "If thou offerest correctly." " Accepted in the Beloved" is still the Divine ground of acceptation. The perfect life, of Another —our Representative—making us "complete in Him," never in ourselves. When our eyes are once opened to see that in " the flesh dwelleth no good thing," and wo apprehend that we are not to look for anything good where God does not, there is then a great cessation from futile strain, and we begin to look where God look?. All down the ages we can trace God calling, and drawing, and educating man back to fellowship with Himself. God has impressed upon us our moral responsibility. He has inspired in our inner being a principle of life, a power of choice and will, whereby alone we can be made capable of holding companionship with Him. It is not by force, but by moral persuasion and personal choice. This relationship of Friend" the ElShaddai," tho All-sufficient—can only bo by a life regulated on tho principle of confidence established between God and us. We cannot walk with Him as a Friend,, and allow anything doubtful in the life! This is the root of broken fellowship and unbelief. We cannot have reserves if we want a tender, sensitive, reverent understanding and sympathy. "One'point reserved and intimacy ceases.". As Prof. Upham teaches, " The true hidden life, refusing to be characterised by tho fatal mark of inconstancy, has cast anchor in God, and its principles are the strong cable which holds it there." How long and patiently God has waited for man to enter into this meaning of hallowed fellowshipthis Divine instinct of union with Him. We see at last the perfect ideal in the man Christ Jesus.- As we traverse this solemn pathway with hushed feet wo get an insight into the inner life of Jesus as truly man, living amidst life's most difficult places—a partaker with us. in the combination of spirit tabernacling in the flesh: " He also in like manner partook of the same;" that for our sakes He might overcome; and He knows all it cost Him to conquer, and He has not forgotten His sojourn in the flesh on earth. He was the embodiment of God's highest purpose for us, and Ho has left a tracked pathway for our footsteps of fellowship with God. Amidst temptations, in tears, in conflicts, in weariness and sufferings, He traversed the way before us: " Who for the joy set before Him" of presenting us to God, endured bodily, mental, and spiritual suffering. He knew loneliness from lack of spiritsympathy and affinity of mind. He was sustained by living intercourse and spirit-union with God in the thick. of life's sorest, and keenest trials. He endured misrepresenta- ; tions of character, cowardice, and deser- : tion of His disciples: and tlioso of His | family circle, where He had passed His earliest years, failed to apprehend His Divine manifestations of life. Because His life was swayed by such unworldly aims, such pure instincts, such Godlike principle?, and such purity, there was nothing outward to attract, their senses, thev exclaimed. "Ho was beside Himself. ?>

" they stood without." They sought to interrupt Him. and demanded recognition hr elaims of kinship; As they -*0 grievously :■ failed to catch His meaning they put them- : a a selves in an "outside'' sphere, for only : :.... : fhev who enter into identification with ; ; J«us in the will of God can claim relation ship with Him: "For whomever shall do ; s the will of God, the same IS My .brother, and sister, and mother" (Mark m. ,31 to - Aro we the friends of the Lord Jesus! . 1 Do we share in the yearnings neatest Hn ,=. heart? Do we hunger to know something ; ; of " the fellowship of Ilia suffering*?" the purity of life, anil lip. are! motive? Do.we v -bar.- '"all tilings in common with Biro? Tin's i* true affinity it lies here: not in .--. sentiment. His way was not easy; it wo want to bo identified with Him wo shall not ; want to be different to our Master. Are we pressing on to be "as He, or are we earth-bound, too cumbered, too weighted, . too indifferent? ' . .: Jesus came into the very circumstances in which wo find ourselves, and with th«fiercest opposition on all bands, lie aid not assert Himself, nor fight for His rights; He , went to God. . When on the "seamy side of life there is domestic friction, or distractions press in upon us (not of our choosing), what do we do at those times? Like our Master, and " in these (lavs'' and at- such time*, do we go and toll God* or. do we use our own resources, and with our natural activity get rushed into the Bphero of friction? There '■ no circumstance and no temperament heTond the limit of His:power, and in Uio meanwhile the occasion, not in itself of lII* ordering, will be used as a means of purify ing us from dross, and of testing as to whether we are ready for the practical experience of identity with our Lord. Our life experiences would be more « perimentally real, convincing, and satisfactory. both to ourselves and others, •'• we let "the experience of tins Lord .Testis lw reprated again in us by His Spirit's power. To wall: in fellowship with God is not to bo exempt from fiery trials: ratliei do wo learn to see how essential it is to discern the tactics of the Adversary to break into our being "homed" in Cod. It is the Fot tress against which he schemes every possible device. To recognise Satan as t!>*> organiser of evil, as a bold foe though nor; omniscient, we need to be bold suppliant* at the Throne of Grace, and Power, ami Glory. Then we arc well fortified, ami si--' the battle is God's, and all we have to do is to maintain and cultivate habits of constant communion with God and of spirit- . consciousness of His Presence.