FRAGMENT It is a terrible thing when God’s presence, instead of being the home of our hearts, gives us terror and distress. I have no doubt that you will find hundreds of Christians who, instead of feeling away from home when they have got out of God’s presence, are at ease.

FRAGMENT We sometimes enjoy peace, we enjoy scripture, a hymn, or prayer, without realizing the presence of God; and then there is not the same power, or the same exercise of heart in it, It is very important not only to have a right thought, but to have it with Him. If you search your own heart, you will find that you may sing without realizing Jesus Himself.

FRAGMENT I find the constant tendency of an active mind, and even of work for the Lord, ever is to take us out of the presence of God. God’s presence puts us in our place, and puts Himself in His place in our hearts; and what confidence this gives, as well as the emptying of self in joy! Our great need is to keep in His presence.

FRAGMENT Activity, unless renewing itself in communion with Him, may be sincere, but will degenerate into routine, and is even dangerous; the soul gets far from God without knowing it.

FRAGMENT If you have the assurance that God has entrusted you with a certain service for Him, do not be troubled if you are set aside for a time. Profit by your present separation from the work to be much with Him. You will learn much of Himself during your temporary incapacity to serve Him.

FRAGMENT If we get near to the Lord, if we are in communion with God within the holy place, we see all the saints with His eyes, as dear to Him, objects of Christ’s delight, and the fruit of the travail of His soul. Then intercession for them is easy, and faithfulness to them becomes easy and gracious too.

FRAGMENT Getting out of God’s presence is the source of all our weakness as saints, for in God’s strength we can do anything. (From Pilgrim Portions:Meditations for the Day of Rest by J. N. Darby.)

The great name which characterizes the revelation of God in Christ is "Father." When near, or in, the Garden of Gethsemane the Lord Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven and uttered the wonderful prayer recorded in John 17. He said, ”’Father… I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world" (v. 6). We do well then reverently to inquire:What does the name of Father mean?

To begin with, it clearly means relationship. The knowledge of God as Almighty or as Jehovah did not involve this, which doubtless accounts for the way in which unconverted people use such a term as "Almighty God" in speaking of Him and instinctively avoid "Father." In their case the relationship does not exist.

Further, it means relationship of the closest kind. The correlative terms to Father are "children" and "sons," and both of these are used in the New Testament of Christians. The closeness of the relationship is further emphasized by the fact that it is real and vital and not something merely assumed. We are children of God inasmuch as we are born of God (John 1:12,13; 1 John 3:9,10).

But the crowning point in the revelation of God as Father lies in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as incarnate is the Son. He was ever "the Son" as the Second Person of the Trinity, but we refer to the place He took in manhood here (see Luke 1:35; Gal. 4:4). Hence in His advent there was the full setting forth of all that God is as Father in connection with all that He Himself is as Son; and the light in which we know God is as "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 1:3).

Much depends upon this, and we urge the reader to ponder it prayerfully until he makes it his own. Our tendency is to connect God’s Fatherhood merely with ourselves, with the result that we lower it until it becomes to our minds just a matter of the fatherly care that gives us food and raiment and the mercies of this life. All these things are indeed ours from our Father’s hand, but the Father’s thoughts and the Father’s love soar infinitely beyond them.

Connect God’s Fatherhood with Christ the Son_who is the worthy object of His love, and in whom a perfect response is given_and at once you have the key that opens the subject in its fulness. That is the standard! There you see the revelation in its perfection! We are indeed sons of God with "the Spirit of His Son" in our hearts "crying Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:6); but sonship is only ours as the fruit of God’s Son being revealed and redemption accomplished (Gal. 4:4,5). Only thus was that wonderful message made possible:"I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God" (John 20:17).

(From Foundations.)

I ask your attention to that tremendous theme, the Holy Trinity, and I am going to quote, as a starting point, the following text:"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen" (2 Cor. 13:14). This verse sets before us in a very definite way the unity of the Godhead and yet the three persons in the Holy Trinity. The truth of the Holy Trinity forms one of the great revelations of grace. I do not mean by that we never find the trinity in the Old Testament. We do, but not so definitely as in the New Testament.

The very first verse of our Bible does more than suggest a trinity in the Godhead. It positively affirms it. We read in Gen. 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." It is a well-known fact that the Hebrew word for "God" here is Elohim, and the "im" at the end of a Hebrew noun is the plural form. In Hebrew, as in some other languages, there are three numbers, singular, dual, and plural. The singular, of course, is one; the dual is two, and the plural signifies that the noun refers to three or more. The singular for God is El, or Eloah, the plural Elohim. There is no dual in this instance. So we read here, "In the beginning Elohim (the triune God) created the heaven and the earth." It has often been pointed out by scholars that while the word "God" is in the plural, the word "created" is singular, so this in itself suggests the wonderful mystery of the Trinity acting in unity_three persons in one God, acting together, in the creation of the universe. It is perfectly right to say we believe in God the Father, Creator of the heavens and the earth; it is also correct to say God by His Spirit made the heavens and the earth; and it is also correct to say that the Son was the Creator. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:1-3).

In the book of the prophet Isaiah there are two very prominent scriptures that bring the three persons of the Godhead clearly before us. In chapter 48, verse 16, we hear Messiah speaking. Throughout this section of the book the Spirit of God brings before us the coming and rejection of our Lord Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah, and in verse 16 Messiah, speaking through the prophet, says this:"Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I:and now the Lord God, and His Spirit, hath sent Me." We know that these words refer to the Lord Jesus Christ for we read in John 18:20 that He declared, "In secret have I said nothing," and this is the passage to which He referred. So here we are listening to the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah, the eternal holy Son of God who was to be manifested in the flesh. He says, looking on to the Incarnation, "And now the Lord God, and His Spirit [that is, the Holy Spirit], hath sent Me [that is, the Son]." So there you have the Trinity in the Book of Isaiah. It is often said that the Old Testament does not tell us anything about the Trinity of the Godhead, and some of our Jewish friends consider the doctrine of the Trinity as solely a Christian idea. But it is clear that here in Isaiah we have the three persons definitely indicated_ Messiah (the Lord Jesus Christ), God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

In a later chapter of this same book we have the three persons again definitely indicated. It is the passage that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself read in the synagogue at Nazareth and applied to Himself, saying, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:21). Now notice how the three persons come before us in this passage:"The Spirit [the Holy Spirit] of the Lord God is upon Me [that is, the Son]; because the Lord [that is, God the Father] hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Isa. 61:1). You will remember that when the Lord Jesus had read that far, He closed the book. When you look at the text in Isaiah, there is a comma following_He had not finished the sentence. Why didn’t He go on to the end of the sentence? Because the time of fulfillment had not come yet for "the day of vengeance of our God"; so our Lord Jesus put this whole present era of grace into that comma. The day of vengeance will not come until the day of preaching the Gospel ends.

Now as we link New Testament passages with these we shall see how completely they fulfill what we have set forth here prophetically in the Old Testament. Matt. 3:16 reads, "And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him; and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Notice what we have here. It is the Trinity:God the Father anointed Jesus (God the Son) with the Holy Spirit (the divine, eternal Spirit of God). And then the Father’s voice is heard saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight" (JND).

The Father and Son and Holy Spirit all had their part in the work of the cross. In John 10:17,18 the Lord Jesus said, "I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." We are told that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world and the propitiation for our sin (1 John 4:10,14). We also read that it was "through the eternal Spirit that He offered Himself without spot unto God" (Heb. 9:14). Here again in redemption the entire Trinity is involved.

The same is true in connection with the Incarnation. The Father gave the Son to become Man, the Son in grace stooped to be born of a virgin, and that virgin conceived by the Holy Spirit.

When we come to what Scripture reveals as to His resurrection, we read that He was brought again from the dead by God the Father (Heb. 13:20), and yet there is another sense in which He raised Himself from the dead. He said to His enemies, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). "He spoke of the temple of His body." Elsewhere, referring to the laying down of His life, He said, "No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10:18). Also, we are told in Rom. 8:11, "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."

Father and Son and Holy Spirit thus were all concerned in creation, in the Incarnation, in our Lord’s anointing as He went forth to preach the Word, in His death, and in His resurrection. And then when our Lord Jesus commissioned His disciples to go into all the world, He revealed clearly the truth as to the Trinity and He bade them to minister in that name. "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations [or make disciples of all nations], baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28:18-20). Thus, I am to stand before men as the representative, as the mouthpiece, of the Holy Trinity. I am not to come to men in my own name or the authority of any church, but the distinct command was to go and teach them, baptizing them, and all this was to be done in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

I want you to notice those connectives, "in the name of the Father, AND of the Son, AND of the Holy Ghost." The Word of God is wonderfully perfect. Ordinarily when we hear people attempt to quote this, they say, "in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." It is not that. It is "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Why are those "ands" put in? In order that we may see that while there is only one God, yet that one God exists eternally in three persons_Father and Son and Holy Ghost.

We have these connectives used in the same way in connection with man himself. People sometimes say, "I can’t understand the doctrine of the Trinity." Nobody asked you to understand it. Are you surprised you can’t understand God? Why you can’t even understand yourself! Think of the thousands of books of psychology in which scientists attempt to explain man. Yet not one fully explains our tri-partite nature. But we read in 1 Thess. 5:23, "And the very God of Peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." I know I am one personality and yet I know from this scripture I am tri-partite, and I realize it from my own experience but I can’t explain it. As I go to the Word of God I find the body is the seat of all merely physical appetites of every kind. I know from the Word of God the soul is the seat of my personality and seat of all natural emotions other than physical. It is my connection even with the lower creation. Animals themselves are said to have souls. (Gen. 1:20,21,24,30 JND). The spirit is the highest part of man, that part which gives him God-consciousness, thus distinguishing him from all lower creation. Animals with careful training have been taught to do many great and remarkable things in which they simply imitate man. But they have no sense of God. So then, man is spirit and soul and body. I can’t explain it, but it is true. Just so we can’t explain the Trinity of the Godhead, but God has declared it and I believe what He tells me.

The doctrine of the Trinity is denied by various groups, from different standpoints. As one example, some have insisted from olden days that God is simply a Trinity in manifestation. In the Old Testament, they say, it was the manifestation of God as the Father; when Christ was here it was the manifestation of God as the Son; and now it is the manifestation of God as the Holy Spirit. But that is absolutely contrary to the Word itself. It was the Lord Jesus Christ who came to reveal the Father, and while on earth spoke of coming from "My Father" and going to "My Father." He also spoke of sending the Holy Spirit, and it was the Holy Spirit who witnessed to the glorified, finished work of Christ the Son.

Believers say, "Our Father" and He is called Father by our Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father is a person, God the Son is a definite person distinct from the Father, and yet one with Him in essence. "My Father, and your Father . . . My God, and your God" (John 20:17). He spoke of the glory He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). Christ died for sins and we read that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. And on the last night Jesus said He knew He must depart out of this world unto the Father (John 13:1). It is nonsense to say that the Father and the Son are the same person_that He prayed to Himself, that He left Himself when He left the Father, that He went back to Himself. The Holy Spirit is also shown to be a distinct person. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself uses personal pronouns in connection with the Spirit_He, His, Him. He says, "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him:but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you" (John 14:16,17). There again you have the Holy Trinity. And then it is said of the Comforter, in John 16:8, "And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." He is said to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us (John 16:15). The Lord Jesus Christ said the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father:"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me" (John 15:26). And so throughout we see the three persons of the Holy Trinity concerned in our salvation and sanctification.

FRAGMENT
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky
and sea!
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

The following statement expresses the thought of at least some Jews concerning the Christian doctrine of the Trinity:"The chief and fundamental difference between Judaism and Christianity is that the former is committed to pure and uncompromising monotheism and the latter subscribes to the belief in the trinitarian nature of the Divine Being. Trinitarianism, that is to say, the belief in and worship of ‘God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit’ are as basic and important to all types and denominations of Christianity as they are contrary to all and everything Judaism holds sacred. To the unconditional monotheism of Judaism the doctrine of the Trinity is profoundly objectionable, because it is a concession to polytheism, or, at any rate, an adulteration of the idea of the One, Unique, Indefinable and Indivisible God" (Judaism and Christianity:The Differences, by Trude Weiss-Rosmarin, Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY 11379). To my Jewish friend who gave me this book to read, I sent the following response concerning the Unity and Trinity of God.

The classic statement of Jewish theology is the "Shema" in Deut. 6:4:"Hear, O Israel:the Lord our God is one Lord." There is more than one Hebrew word for "one." Two of these are ehad which can refer to a composite unity or "many which make one," and yahid or "only one." Ehad is used in such verses as those in Gen. 1 which refer to the evening and the morning being one day; and Gen. 2:24, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh"; and Num. 13:23, "And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes." Yahid is found in Gen. 22:2, "Take now thy son, thine only son." Now in Deut. 6:4 the word for "one Lord" is ehad, not yahid. The word implies that God is the united One or a composite Unity. Thus, the use of the word ehad in this passage would seem to allow the possibility of God as a Trinity.

Dr. Weiss-Rosmarin speaks of the doctrine of the Trinity as "a concession to polytheism … an adulteration of the idea of the One, Unique, Indefinable and Indivisible God." However, the Christian view of the Trinity is in stark contrast to the polytheism of Rome, Greece, etc., where the gods and goddesses were always at odds about something or other. We believe in one God who has chosen to make Himself known in three persons or modes of being (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). The three persons have always been and always will be in perfect harmony and unity of mind, spirit, motive, will, etc. There are no arguments, no disagreements among the persons of God. Also, there is no division of attributes among the three:all are equally omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, all-wise, infinite, transcendent, self-existent, loving, gracious, merciful, holy, righteous, etc.

Since I have been referring to the "persons" of God, let me clarify a problem of definition which perhaps has contributed to the Jewish-Christian conflict concerning the Trinity as well as dividing some groups of Christians from one another. This problem is illustrated by the following statement by Dr. Weiss-Rosmarin:"Judaism is an ethical monotheism not predicated on a person:the Ultimate is spirit, but not a person." I believe the confusion comes from equating "person" with "human body" in this context. In other contexts one of the dictionary definitions of "person" is, indeed, "a living human body." But when Christians speak of the three persons of the Trinity they are not thinking of God in three different bodies but as three separate individualities. In fact, until the Second Person came down to earth to take on a human body, they were all three "spirit-persons," not "body-persons." The use of the word "persons" in reference to the Trinity is perhaps unfortunate (because of its common connotation of a human being) and may be responsible for some of the confusion and conflict. However, on the other hand, "person" also conveys the thought of a rational being with intellect, emotion, and will; thus it is a most appropriate word to designate God in opposition to the notion that God is impersonal_a mere influence or synonymous with nature.

For these and many other scriptural arguments that could be put forth, I believe that the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is in full agreement with the Old Testament teaching concerning the Unity and Oneness of God.

"Be ye therefore followers [or imitators] of God" (Eph. 5:1).

"Worship God" (Rev. 22:9).

In order to be imitators of God it is necessary to know Him, what He is like, what are His attributes. Similarly, to worship God properly we must know something about Him. True worship does not consist of mindless repetition of "Praise the Lord," "Thank you, Jesus," or similar phrases, but of heartfelt appreciation of who God is and what He has done for us. "They that worship God must worship Him . . . in truth" (John 4:24).

There are many ideas held by people as to the nature of God. Some say God is an impersonal force or influence. Others say He is synonymous with what we call conscience. Still others view God as all of nature itself; that is, God is everywhere and is everything. These are all false ideas; the truth can only be found in God’s Word where He gives us a revelation of Himself.

God is a person; that is, He is a rational being with intellect, emotion, and will. (We must be careful in our use of the word "person" to make sure that the theological definition_"any of the three modes of being [Father, Son, and Holy Ghost] in the Trinity"_rather than the common everyday definition_"a human being, especially as distinguished from a thing or lower animal"_is understood.) Let us consider some of the Scriptural evidences that God is a personal being, having intelligence, emotion, and will.

God thinks, chooses. "He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4).

God has a will. "According to the good pleasure of His will . . . according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph. 1:5,11).

God has a purpose, good pleasure. "Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself" (Eph. 1:9).

God has power, authority. "That… He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth" (Eph. 1:10).

God imparts wisdom and knowledge. "Having made known unto us the mystery of His will" (Eph. 1:9). "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally" (James 1:5).

God loves, shows mercy. "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us . . ." (Eph. 2:4). "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16).

God has creative power. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:all things were created by Him" (Col. 1:16).

God speaks. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son" (Heb. 1:1,2).

Many of God’s characteristics and attributes are mentioned in Exodus 34:1-15. God (Jehovah) speaks (v. 1), writes (v. 1), stands (v. 5), proclaims (v. 5), is merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, not clearing the guilty (vv. 6 & 7), and is jealous (v. 14).

Thus, in summary, God is a personal being who thinks, feels, acts.

God’s attributes can be divided generally into two categories. First, there are the divine attributes which are His alone, such as being eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient. But while these attributes belong to God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) alone, we enjoy the many blessings that flow from God’s manifestation of these attributes; and as we receive these blessings and recognize the source of them, we worship God.

Second, there are the moral attributes which are not exclusively His but which He allows and encourages us to show forth as well. These moral attributes include holiness, goodness, longsuffering, love, and the like. God is perfect in His manifestation of these moral attributes and they are all in perfect balance and harmony with one another. Through new birth, the impartation of the new, Christ-like nature, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God’s redeemed children are privileged to manifest these moral attributes as well. He is our perfect example and absolute standard in every case, and we are exhorted to be "followers of God" (Eph. 5:1). We are also exhorted to manifest specific attributes and characteristics of God in our lives. For example:"Be ye holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16); "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us" (Eph. 5:2); "Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you" (Eph. 4:32); "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48); "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5).

In subsequent issues, if the Lord tarry, we shall consider some of these attributes of God as revealed to us in His Word.

Moses, when interceding for the people after their apostasy, asked God to show him His way (Exod. 33:13). He had seen the perverse ways of the people and some of God’s ways of patience with them, and his great desire was to know that way in its fullness. This was granted, as we read, "He made known His ways unto Moses" (Psa. 103:7). What can be more necessary for the child of God than to know His way? "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3). We may be sure if we are to walk with God, it must be in His way. He will never walk with us in ours. He has come down in grace to meet us in our deepest need, at our greatest distance from God. He has come down in the person of His Son, met the need, annihilated the distance, not that He should walk in our path but that we should walk in His. Thus only can we enjoy communion, testify for God, or in any way serve Him. Hence the absolute necessity of knowing His ways. In three scriptures we will consider three different views of those ways.

1. "Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known" (Psa. 77:19). Here we have the truth stated that God’s ways are past finding out. And who has looked at the book of providence without realizing this? Here, a faithful servant of the Lord is cut off by death. There, the head of the house is removed, leaving a helpless family without any human support. Bright earthly prospects are blighted, health is lost; yea, even to the little disappointments and surprises of each hour, we are compelled to say, "Thy way is in the sea." For surely God’s ways are in all these things. There is no step of the road but is His; no hour in which He leaves His people alone. It is just the failure to see God’s ways in the affairs of each day that leaves us dwarfs and babes. The effect of learning the lesson of God’s ways being in the sea is the knowledge of our helplessness. Provide as we may, all is in vain to guard us from unforeseen contingencies. Growing out of this will come a self-distrust, and a corresponding confidence in God. As long as we think we have a plain path, the eye will not be on our guide. It is in the passing through deep waters, through the sea, that all self-trust must go, and we must lean on Him alone. This is terrible to sight, even to the believer; it is impossible for the unbeliever, as the Egyptians found a grave where Israel found a way. What a sense of the reality of God’s presence it gives, thus to be thrown upon Him! How Peter learned the Lord’s presence as never known before when he began to sink in the waves of Galilee. As the eagle stirs up her nest, and the young cannot understand her apparent cruelty, so we cannot understand God’s ways in the sea.

II. But this brings us to the second verse, "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary" (Psa. 77:13). The psalmist had been in great trouble; all seemed black and hopeless, so that he cried out, "Will the Lord cast off forever? and will He be favorable no more?" (v. 7). This is the result of being occupied with circumstances and personal trials. He saw it as his infirmity, and turned to meditate on One who never changes. He learned His way, and it was in the sanctuary that he found that way. It is only in the presence of God that we can fully learn His ways. For us how that presence shines with the glories of Jesus! He Himself has gone into the sanctuary, has opened the way for us through the rent veil, and now we have boldness to enter also. What precious thoughts cluster about this truth! The sanctuary! the holiest! We have a right to be there, the precious blood is our title, the work of redemption is our ground. How solid! how secure! Thus the end is secure. The sanctuary is on the resurrection side_no death, no life on earth, no devil, no man can work there; it is beyond all these powers of evil. And there is our place. Ah! what matters it if the way be rough or long? The sanctuary is our future home, our present abiding place. We must leave our loads behind when we enter there. The worshiper in the tabernacle of old had his feet on the sand of the desert as he stood in the holy place, but we can be sure that he gazed not on that, but on the splendors before and about him. So for us, if by faith we are in the sanctuary, the way does not occupy us, but the One who leads us fills our eye. Yet it is in the sanctuary we learn God’s way. The light of that place must be shed on the book of providence if we are to read its pages aright. As the psalmist was well-nigh stumbled at the prosperity of the wicked until he went into the sanctuary (Psa. 73), so will we find much to make us wonder, perhaps to doubt, unless we go into the same quiet and holy place. Here, first of all, we learn what God’s perfect love means. It is a love that has bridged the distance between what we were in our sins and what we will be in glory_bridged this distance at a cost which only God’s love could or would have done. In the light of Jesus living, dying, risen, interceding for us, coming to take us to be with Himself, we can understand how Paul could call anything that might take place, "our light affliction which is but for a moment" (2 Cor. 4:17). In the light of the glory, how small the trials seem, how easy the way seems, to faith! But it is also in the sanctuary that we learn much of God’s thoughts and of true wisdom. It is the spiritual man who discerns. He is in communion with the Father and His Son. If the companion of wise men will be wise, how much more will one who enjoys fellowship with Perfect Wisdom understand! Many a dear child of God, with much of what is called common sense, fails to grasp the meaning of God’s ways, because he does not go into the sanctuary.

III. We come now to the results:". . .in whose heart are the ways" (Psa. 84:5). The ways are no longer only the dark ways of a providence we cannot understand, but of a Father whose perfect love and grace we know. The ways are in our heart, loved because they are His. The path is, as it were, transferred from the outward circumstances to the heart. Our true history is heart history. We are apt to think we would do much better under different circumstances, but the state of the heart is the all-important matter. So too for usefulness; God does not ask us to do great things, but to have His ways in our heart. We may be sure our Lord had God’s ways in His heart as much in the thirty years of His retirement as in His public ministry. So we may be laid aside, sick, helpless, apparently useless; but if in the heart we say, "Thy way, not mine, O Lord," we are doing true service which will bear enduring fruit. In this way the hostile scene around us contributes to our fruitfulness; the valley of Baca (of weeping) becomes a well.

How differently the same scene affects different persons! As the same soil sustains the noxious weed and the sweet flower, so the world contributes either to our murmuring or to our confidence in God. If His ways are in the heart, each sorrow is the means by which we grow, as the rough wind drives the ship nearer home. "Be careful [or anxious] for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." The word rendered "keep" is a strong one, meaning to "occupy as a garrison." What foe can come in when His peace thus fills the house and keeps the door? Nothing is said in this precious verse of the circumstances being changed. The heart is filled with God’s peace, and the circumstances will then only furnish occasion for the effects of its guard over the heart to be seen.

"Ill that He blesses is our good,
And unblest good is ill,
And all is right that seems most wrong,
If it be His sweet will."

So sings the heart in which God’s ways are. How blessed, how precious a portion, within the reach of all the Lord’s people!

May we all know more of God’s ways. (From Help and Food, Vol. 9.)

"They that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name" (Mal. 3:16).

We know that God sees everything, and that for every idle word men must give account; but there is one kind of conversation to which we may be sure that He is an interested listener. It is the conversation of those who fear and love Him, about the things of God. Very often a foolish timidity will keep Christians from speaking of those things which are nearest their hearts, and too often, it is to be feared, the things of God are not sufficiently near their hearts to fill them. How refreshing and helpful is godly conversation! Notice here that this is not an occasional thing, but they often spoke one to another. How is it when we come together? Is it worldliness, or worse yet, gossip, or even dwelling in a helpless way upon the faults of others, or is the mind so filled with God’s Word, and the heart so occupied with Christ’s things, that they form the staple and natural topics of conversation? If we were walking down the street and overheard some one mention the name of a dear friend of ours, we would involuntarily pause; and so with our blessed God, when He hears two of His children mentioning the name of His beloved Son, He listens to hear what they have to say of Him, and He remembers it too. Let us then not be afraid to speak to one another freely. There need be no formalism about this. If the heart is happy in Christ, it is natural and right that we should speak of Him.

(From Help and Food, Vol. 20.)