An Unwritten Word of God

For He hath said, I -will never leave thee nor forsake thee. — Heb. xiii. 5.

Wheee has He said so? If the cliapter-and-verse theory be insisted upon there is no proof that these precise words were ever uttered by God. Yet if the doctrine be withdrawn from the Bible, the Bible will be, impoverished by the withdrawal of its richest solaces. There are luovdsy too, marvellously like the very words of the text: for example, ‘’ I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of (Gen. xxviii. 15): will not fail thee nor forsake thee (Deut. xxxi. 6, 8): “I will not fail thee nor forsake thee” (Josh. i. 5). There are words spoken to the soul in secret. The heart remembers them, attests them, clings to them with tenacious love. There are loaraylirased revelations, — holy doctrines’ expressed in the words which. the heart loves raost; translations made by the heart itself; seed-revelations grown into blooming flowers of assurance. Such unwritten promises are really indelible for they are written on the living tablet of the heart, and absorbed by the very being of the soul. The inkwritten Bible must perish; the heartengraven Word shall abide through the waste of ages. Let us take it, then, as the most assured fact in spiritual history that God never forsakes the man whom he has undertaken to guard and nourish, — it is the unwritten and eternal law which comes out of the very nature of the Divine Being: to discuss it would be to doubt it: we may not analyse it, but we may, for our comfort and hope, trace its practical applications and advantages.

I. This word is Sufficient — because God has spoken IT. We say of some men,” their word is their bond.^^ Shall we say less of the Living One, of whose eternity our life is but a spark?

II. This word is Insjpiring — because it pledges the PEESONAL T”ELLOWSHiP OF God. I will never leave thee: not, angels shall be sent to thee, etc. Enoch walked with God. To Moses God said, ‘^ Certainly I will be with thee.^^ To the Church Jesus says, ‘’ I am with you always,^ etc.

III. This word is Complete — because it embraces ALL TIME:” I will NEVER leave thee/^ The child becomes free of the parent: the apprentice is liberated from his bonds: the hireling fulfils his day, — but union with God is perpetual, and its joy is an ever-augmenting sum.

ly. This word is Condescendiig-^hecsLU&e it is personal IN ITS APPLICATION. It is not a pledge given to the universe as a whole; it is spoken to the individual heart, and is to be applied by each heart according to special circumstances. The whole exists for the part, as well as the part for the whole. “All things are yours.” Every flower may claim the sun.

Y. This word is Assuring — because it is redundant IN” its expression. “I will never leave thee,” would have been enough for a merely technical bond: more is added: we have word upon word, so that the heart cannot escape the golden walls of protection and security. Love does not study terseness. It must be emphatic; it must be copious.

Regarding this promise as Sufl[icient, Inspiring, Complete, Condescending, and Assuring, what should be its practical effect?

1. We should inquire whether ive are entitled to apply it to ourselves. It is not for all men. The question is one of sinritiial character. Are we the children of God?

2. Being entitled to it, ive should live as if we truly realized if: not gloomily: not self- trustingly: not fretfully: but joyously, devoutly, thankfully.

3. Living as if we realized it, we should ask what we can do m return. “Glorify God in your body,” etc. ‘^ Were the whole realm of nature mine,” etc. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice,” etc.