The Stillness of Great Relationships

* Be still, and know that I am God.”” — Psa.m xlvi. 10.

I THINK it is permitted us to reverse the order of the Psalmist’s words, and. we shall gain an additional aspect of the inspiring truth. When we know that He is God we shall most certainly be still, and we shall find quietness in mind and heart. The consciousness of a vast relationship is the very secret of a noble and fruitful stillness. I remember walking across the intervening mile between Loch Lomond and Loch Long. Loch Lomond is an inland lake, and when I left it its waters were disquieted and boisterous, lashing the shores with angry waves. Loch Long is an arm of the sea, and its waters were perfectly calm, and I could look through its lucid depths and see the seaweed rooted on the rocks beneath. And the life of the soul, when it is like a small, measurable lake, is easily disquieted, and little disturbances toss it into convulsions. But when the soul knows God, when it recognises its vast relationships, when it feels the tidal flow of the infinite within the waters of the breast, it has the secret of a great calm, and the little things leave it undisturbed. When the soul knows God it can be still.

We can move quietly among our common sorrows when we have the royal consciousness of relationship to God. For one thing, when we know God, the-sorrow assumes another size, and takes on another colour. We sorrow, but not as those who have no hope. The soul has a great vista, and we do our thinking in royal areas, and we are not imprisoned in the immediate chamber. A sorrow looks one thing when it is set in the inch: it looks quite different when it is set in the infinite. The soul is quieted in the controlling sense of a vast relationship.

And once more it is the man with the big consciousness who can quietly set about the humblest tasks. We sometimes say that little men can do the little things. Perhaps we ought not to be so sure about it. Perhaps it requires royal greatness to do little things as though they were great things. We read of some little men who would not wash one another’s feet. ‘‘ And Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God: He laid aside His garments, and took a towel, and girded Himself,” and began to wash the disciples’ feet. But mark that marvellous consciousness. ‘‘ Jesus knowing... took a towel!” The little men were not great enough to do it. They were all disturbed and feverish in small, personal ambitions. Not one of the dwarfs would kneel to the service. If they had known the Lord, their souls would have been quieted and ready for any ministry. “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” And this quietness is born of a sacred knowledge of the Lord. “This is life, to know Thee.’

iii