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TOPIC: MacDuff, John - The Christians Pathway (31 days) (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: Day 3
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"I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." Psa_16:8
It is a very solemn and emphatic statement which is made by the apostle Paul, when he says in one of his epistles—"Having no hope, and without God in the world." This is the state not merely of those in Pagan lands, whose understanding is darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the blindness of their hearts—but of all the unregenerate, without any exception of rank or character. There is a dreadful spirit of atheism pervading the minds of the great mass of mankind. Follow them wherever they go, and the conviction is forced upon every impartial observer, that this is their true condition. Upon all their feelings and sentiments, all their purposes and pursuits, all their dealings in public, and all their social fellowship in private, may be inscribed, "Without God in the world." They have no sense of the divine presence; no realizing impression of Him, in whom they live, and move, and have their being. They live as if they were indeed the inhabitants of a forsaken and fatherless world; as if it were the result of mere accident, and that whatever transpires, whether in the history of nations or individuals, had no other cause than that of blind, unaccountable chance. Were the wretched dogma of the atheist demonstrated to be true, they could hardly exclude all sense of Deity more completely from their minds than is done by them at present.
With the pious Psalmist it was quite the reverse. He realized the presence of God continually; he felt that He was ever near, encompassing his path and his lying down, and besetting him behind and before. He endured, like Moses, as seeing Him who is invisible. If he looked up to the heavens, he saw Him there; if he surveyed the earth, he found Him there; if he retired into the secrecies of his own bosom, he felt Him there. God was emphatically in all his thoughts. And those thoughts were not a source of pain to him—but of the highest and purest pleasure. They were the congenial atmosphere of his spiritual being. They were the moral element which his soul inhaled, and by which he was invigorated, refreshed, and comforted.
Reader, do you know what it is to have a habitual sense of the presence of God? Is the desire of your soul to His name, and to the remembrance of Him? Is it your grief that you are living so far from Him; that you do think so little of Him; and that you have no more to do with Him? O, be anxious to possess an abiding consciousness of the great truth—that the eye of God is ever upon you! "You, God, see me," was the solemn—yet sweet and supporting conviction of Hagar; and may you realize the same devout feeling. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing—set the Lord always before you. Having Him at your right hand, whatever difficulties and dangers may surround your path—you shall not be moved.
It is a very solemn and emphatic statement which is made by the apostle Paul, when he says in one of his epistles—"Having no hope, and without God in the world." This is the state not merely of those in Pagan lands, whose understanding is darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the blindness of their hearts—but of all the unregenerate, without any exception of rank or character. There is a dreadful spirit of atheism pervading the minds of the great mass of mankind. Follow them wherever they go, and the conviction is forced upon every impartial observer, that this is their true condition. Upon all their feelings and sentiments, all their purposes and pursuits, all their dealings in public, and all their social fellowship in private, may be inscribed, "Without God in the world." They have no sense of the divine presence; no realizing impression of Him, in whom they live, and move, and have their being. They live as if they were indeed the inhabitants of a forsaken and fatherless world; as if it were the result of mere accident, and that whatever transpires, whether in the history of nations or individuals, had no other cause than that of blind, unaccountable chance. Were the wretched dogma of the atheist demonstrated to be true, they could hardly exclude all sense of Deity more completely from their minds than is done by them at present.
With the pious Psalmist it was quite the reverse. He realized the presence of God continually; he felt that He was ever near, encompassing his path and his lying down, and besetting him behind and before. He endured, like Moses, as seeing Him who is invisible. If he looked up to the heavens, he saw Him there; if he surveyed the earth, he found Him there; if he retired into the secrecies of his own bosom, he felt Him there. God was emphatically in all his thoughts. And those thoughts were not a source of pain to him—but of the highest and purest pleasure. They were the congenial atmosphere of his spiritual being. They were the moral element which his soul inhaled, and by which he was invigorated, refreshed, and comforted.
Reader, do you know what it is to have a habitual sense of the presence of God? Is the desire of your soul to His name, and to the remembrance of Him? Is it your grief that you are living so far from Him; that you do think so little of Him; and that you have no more to do with Him? O, be anxious to possess an abiding consciousness of the great truth—that the eye of God is ever upon you! "You, God, see me," was the solemn—yet sweet and supporting conviction of Hagar; and may you realize the same devout feeling. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing—set the Lord always before you. Having Him at your right hand, whatever difficulties and dangers may surround your path—you shall not be moved.