St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-09-03
Walking With God.

1t is evident that those who walk
with God must go where God goes.
The disciples who walked with Jesus
were led into many places into which
they never would have gone, and
through many experiences of which
they never would have known any
thing, but for Jesus leading them. 1t
is a truth which holds both for good
and for evil, as men account good and
evil, though from the Divine side all
that God gives is only good. TO walk
with God, then, means to go upon the
Mount of TRANSPORTATION, and by faith
behold Jesus in all the glory which He
had with the Father before the world
was. 1t means to go into the green
pastures and lie down by the side of still
waters, for there He leads His flock.
1t means to live life of peace and joy
in the Holy Ghost. But this is only
half of the truth. Do you see Je-
sus and His twelve disciples ploddlng
along the road, weary and hungry, and
faint with the heat and with thirst Do
YOU see them moving about among the
sick and troubled when it is time for
them to rest in sleepg Do you see them
ut night in prayer in the cold and dew
of the mountains? Do you see them ID
the tumult, the crowd hating them and
fairly gnashing on them with the teeth
Above all, do you see Jesus leading the
eleven into the Garden of Gethsemane,
and leading His three favOlite disciples
very far into that Garden Now, so
walked the Son of God, and those who
walked with Him must be prepared to
90 with him through sorrow, through
persecution, through trial.
The friendship of this world is enmi-
ty against God, and if you walk with
God You must surely expect to be led
from point TO point entirely regardless
of worldly considerations. For your
inspiration, your comfort and your hap
piness are entirely above this world.
He therefore will not lead you to an
earthly throne or to worldly success. If
He leads you so, this is merely incl
dental, and is in no wise the object of
His leading. If, therefore, your motive
is worldly in any form, you must seek
to accomplish it by other means than
by walking with God. 1t is true God
promises a higher life and a nObler hap
piness to those who walk with Him,
but that life and that happiness are not
of this world, and those who look to
Him for any form of worldliness are
doomed to failure in that one thing.
We read in the book of Daniel of the
persecution of three godly Hebrews by
throwing them into the burning fiery
furnace. So fearfully was it heated
that the very executiOners were burned
to death as they threw these men in.
But they were not burned. When their
enemies looked in to see their charred
remains, instead of that they saw them
living, loose, and walking about in the |
midst of the fire. Nor was that all. |
They saw with them also fourth, and |
the form of the fourth was like the Son
of God. 1t was a terrible place, that
furnace. Yet who would not have
walked there could he have walked
with Jesus
So it is also in many experiences of
life. If God leads us into severe trials
and deep troubles, the comfort is that
He walks with us and helps us to bear
them.
But once more let us ask, Where
will God lead those who walk with him
He will lead them to the eternal bliss
of those who dwell in heaven. Through
trials, through affections, through hu-
initiation, through Gethsemane, and,
perhaps, over Golgotha-but to heaven
at last. Indeed it is we'll to walk with
Him whose walk ends in heaven. 1t is
well to pass through every form of evil
in this world, sharing the sorrows of the
Son of God, and at the same time feel
ing His sustaining power, knowing that
the walk will soon carry us beyond the
reach of sorrows to the place where God
shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes.-Rev. Henry Ketchum in Christian
at Work.