I Am with You

Matt. xxviii. 20.

f WO hundred years ago, there lived in the Carmelite Monastery in Paris, a simple-minded man, who, though a cook by profession, was one of God’s rarest jewels. At the age of eighteen, when wandering through a wood, in the depth of winter, the thought was suddenly flashed into his mind, that those very trees, which stood before him naked and bare, would ere long be clothed in all the glory of luxuriant leafage, quivering in the summer breeze. In a moment, he realized that God must be there; and if there, also

* Brother Lawrence.

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“3 Bm Mitb 20ou.”

everywhere; and he said to himself, “He is here, close beside me; and He is everywhere; so that I can never again be out of His holy presence.” This sense of the nearness and presence of God became thenceforth one of the formative thoughts of his soul; it never left him for long; and he carefully cultivated it, so that it moulded and fashioned his whole inner being.

It was a noble thought, and it would be of immense assistance to each reader of these lines to acquire an habitual experience of the same kind. But be - fore we can do so, we need a strong foundation on which we can build it up; and surely it would be impossible to find one more suited to our purpose than that contained in those precious words with which our Lord parted from His disciples: “Lo, I am with

YOU ALL THE DAYS, EVEN UNTO THE CON-SUMMATION OF THE AGE.”

How full of meaning is that present

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tense! It is not that He was with us, or will be with us; but that He is with us. We may not always see Him, or realize His presence; we may be blinded by our tears, or dazzled with the false glare of this evil world; we may even, like the Lord Himself, in moments of crushing sorrow, reckon ourselves forsaken, and cry out for fear, like startled babes in the dark, who do not know that their mother is sitting by their side; or, like silly children, we may look for our Friend through a reversed telescope, removing Him to an infinite distance by our way of regarding Him. But all this will not alter the fact that He is with us, pitying us, yearning over us, and awaiting the moment when, by a gesture — as to the two at Emmaus — or by the tone of His voice — as to Mary, weeping by the empty grave — He may make us start with the glad consciousness that He is near. Happy the soul which has learnt “5 Sm rnitb J2ou*°

to say by faith, when if cannot say by feeling, “Thou art near, O Lord.” (Psalm cxix. 151.)

“All the Days’* — in winter days, when joys are fled; in sunless days, when the clouds return again and again after rain; in days of sickness and pain; in days of temptation and perplexity — as much as in days when the heart is as full of joy as the woodlands in spring are full of song. That day never comes when the Lord Jesus is not at the side of His saints. Lover and friend may stand afar; but He walks beside them through the fires; He fords with them the rivers; He stands by them when face to face with the lion. We can never be alone. We must always add His resources to our own, when making our calculations. We may always imagine we hear Him saving, as Alexander did, when his soldiers complained of the overwhelm- “HU Ube 2>ass,” ing numbers of the enemy, “How many do you count Me for?”

Now, can we not somehow acquire the habit of recollecting this glorious fact, and of living in its mighty current? I think we may, if we follow these simple directions.

(1) We should never leave our prayer-closets in the morning, without having concentrated our thoughts deeply and intensely on the fact of the actual presence of God: there with us, encompassing us, and filling the room as literally as it fills heaven itself. I,t may not lead to any distinct results at first; but as we make repeated efforts to realize the presence of God, it will become increasingly real to us. And, as the habit grows upon us — when alone in a room; or when treading the sward of some natural woodland temple; or when pacing the stony street; in the silence of night, or amid the teeming crowds of daylight — we shall “3* am mitb 120U,”

often find ourselves whispering the words: “Thou art near; Thou art here,

O Lord.”

(2) Then again, we should try to recall the fact of the presence of God whenever we enter upon some new engagement; or sit down to write a letter; or start on a journey; or prepare to meet a friend. To the man of whom we spoke at the beginning of this chapter, the kitchen was as holy a place as a church. All his work was wrought in God. Daily he had sweet talk with Him, as he went about his humble service. He began every part of his duties with silent prayer. As the work went forward, he would lift up his heart again in prayer; and when it was finished, he would give thanks for help received, or confess the sin of his failure. Thus the fireside, with its pots and pans, its heat and smells, became like the gate of heaven to him; and his soul was as much united to God amid the tasks of the kitchen, as when he was in his private room.

By practice, remembering God as much as we can, and asking Him to forgive when we had passed long hours in forgetfulness of Him, this habit would become easy and natural to us — a kind of second nature.

(3) Then again, we might do much to fix this habit, by cultivating the practice of talking to God aloud, as we would to a friend, in the most natural way, and about the most trivial incidents of life. How much they miss, who only speak to God from their knees, or on set occasions! There must be such times for us all; but we may link them together by a perpetual ripple of holy and loving converse with Him, who counts the hairs of our heads in His minute microscopic interest in bur concerns;

It was surely thus that Enoch walked with God. Arid it was this which emabled Bishop Taylor to say, “I am a witness to the fact that the Lord Jesus is alive; that He is a person; and though invisible, accessible. I have been cultivating personal acquaintance with a personal Saviour for more than forty-three years.”

There are special times when we may fall back with an emphasis of comfort on this majestic consciousness. In prayer, Psalm cxlv. 18; in deep sorrow for sin, Isaiah 1. 8; in anguish of grief, Psalm xxxiv. 18; in hours of perplexity, Luke xxiv. 15; in days of peril, 2 Kings vi. 16; in the approach of temptation, Psalm cxix. 151, 152.

And we may ever count upon the ready help of the Holy Ghost, whose mission is to remind us of what we should otherwise forget, and to make to us what, through the imperfection of our nature, might become blurred and indistinct. This at least may be our comfort, in these days of our pilgrimage, that His presence is ever going with us, as it went with Moses; and that presence is manna and water, guidance and protection, deliverance and rest. “In Thy presence is fulness of joy. At Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”

“I AM WITH YOU ALL THE DAYS.”