The Practicalness of the Spirit

And Pharaob said unto his servants, Can we find such a one ag this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?” — GEn. xli. 38.

have been a disqualification in the eyes of Pharaoh. Pharaoh was a worldling; how could he respect that which was unworldly? All his motives were guided by the interests of the hour, how could he welcome a man who belonged to the immensities and eternities? It is because eternity includes the present hour, and He who has the spirit of eternity has also the spirit of the time. Think you that an atheist master would consent to have an atheist servant? Nay, he would know that the temporal work would not be well done. He who would do well the temporal work must be beyond the time. No man can steer his way through the ocean of life whose eye is not on the stars. Wouldst thou be fit for thy service? then must thou be higher than thy service. Life would be too much for thee if thou didst not see ahead of it; thou art saved by hope. Thou canst not bea man of the world without a balanced mind, and a balanced mind is a mind at peace. God’s peace is not something to die with; it is something to live by. Without it thou art but half a man — unfit for Egypt, unfit for Pharaoh, unfit for the coming famine. With it, thou art more a man of the time than those who call themselves abreast of the age; he who would be abreast of the age must already have outrun it, for the world that now is, is lighted by the world to come. Spirit of Christ, fit me for the earth on which I dwell. I used to ask that Thou wouldst prepare me for death, Thy main province is to prepare me for life. I used to pray that Thou wouldst -make me ready for the things that are unseen and eternal; Thy summer is the ripeness for the things that are seen and temporal. I am growing more impressed with the solemnity of living than of dying. I am growing more impressed with the need of Thee in things common than in things transcendental. I am in want of Thee not to help me out of the world but to help me 7” the world. I need Thee both for the seven years of plenty and for the seven years of famine. Without Thee I cannot bear either the one or the other. Be Thou my pillar of cloud by day; be Thou my pillar of fire by night. Teach me my

THE PRACTICALNESS OF THE SPIRIT, vy)

nothingness in the hour of my prosperity; tell me in my adversity that I am something to Thee. Redeem from dust alike my evenings and my mornings that I may claim as Thy gifts not only angels and principalities but the world and life as well. The day of common work shall be the Lord’s day, when I can say like the man of Patmos, “I was in the Spirit.”