Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-10

" w AV0kN 0O
condemned persons dread the executioner. |
They stand like Israel trembling at b foot
Oh Sinai; they have not come unto Mount
Zion and the blood of %sprinklinp, which
speaketh better things than that Of Abel.
uou is stlll to them exceeding terrible, so
ena5 5ney fe ar and quake. Even though
tney are His CHI ildren, they are not able to
INT up their faces unto their own Father.
Ihey haunt the outer courts of the sanct.
uary, but into the most holy place they
40 not dare to enter: they see the smoke of
the burnt-ofering, but they have not
learned to feed upon it, and so to have happy
communion with God. These people nav
De safe, but they are not happy: they may
be saved from sin, but not from sorrow.
Faith, ii it were stronger, would effectual.
ly slay and bury servile fear.
WHAT IT IS TO DEL1GHT IN GOD.
Let us mediate q while upon what is
here meant by delighting in the Almi lightly.
The man who experiences this delight is
glad that there is q God. That atheistic
philosophy which makes the whole world
to be q chance production which grew of
itself, or developed itself by some innate
force, is a very dreary piece of fiction to
the man who delights himself in the AL
mighty. I tremble at any teaching, re-
ligious or scientific, which seems to place
God further off than we have believed Him
to be. To draw Him nearer to me, and
myself nearer to Him, is the innermost
longing of my soul. Do you not feel the
same? know you do if you have a child
like spirit towards Him. We delight see
God in the shadow of every passing cloud,
In the coloring of every opening flower, in
the glitter of every %dewdrop, in the twink
ling of every star. The Lord is personally
at work in oil the processes of nature. aud
natural laws are simply the Lords usual
method of operation. Our God is so near
US that in Him we live, and movo, and
have our being. Beloved, the thought of
God is to the souls of those who know and
love Him the most delightful that can cross
the mind. To put God away from us is
injury to our happiness, as we'll as trea-
son to our duty; but to get nearer and
clearer views of His omnipresence, His
omnlscience, His omnipotence, is to in
crease the joy of our heart.
Practically put, this delight in the AL.
mighty shows itself in the Christian when
nothing else remains to him. If b. be
stripped OF everything, he cries: "The
Lord is my portion" When the cupboard
is bare, and the garments are worn out,
and poverty stares the man in the face, he
says: "My God is such a satisfactory and
Insufficient portion that I am rich and
increased in goods while possessing moth
ing but my God" The same is true when
such a man is surrounded with every
earthly comfort, for he still feels: "The
Lord is my portion" The saint begs
vehemently of his God that he may not
have his portion in this life. If God were
to multiply his stores beyond his power to
count them, he would be dissatisfied unless
IN all these he saw his Fathers covenant
love. One saint, who suddenly became
poor, was still as happy as ever, for he
said: "When I had abundance, 1 saw God
in all things, and now that 1 have lost nv
property 1 see all things in Cod" These
are equally blessed states of mind. 1t
were we'll to combine them, and see God in
all things, and all things in God, at the
Same time! So it should be with the be-
lever. "Why," saith he, "these earthly
comforts never were my delights;
these were not my daily mama, but only
little stay-bys for the time; sips of sweet
ness while I pass through the barren
wilderness" The Lord was and is my
chief portion, my well of comfort, the rock
of my salvation. If we make props of our
outward joys, we shall fall when they are
taken away: but if we rest wholly upon
the foundation of Divine love, altogether
apart from external things, we shall never
be moved. Happy is the Christian who
can practically enjoy delight in the AL
mighty by making Him to be his all in all,
all the day, and every day.
"Delight myself in the Lord" This will
| give you pleasure in the midst of pain. Do
you know what it is to have many aches
and sufferings, and perhaps a throbbing
head, and yet to feel that you have anoth-
er self which has no pains, because it
dwells in God, where all is calm and quiet?
You felt that it would be a great mercy to
be released from this painful life; and yet
you lave not raised the question with your
God, but lave waited His good pleasure.
Faith has made you feel: "Wherever I
am, whatever I feel, so long as God is near
me. and His sweet love fills my bosom, I
will greatly rejoice and triumph in the God
of my salvation"
This will show itself in your life, for it
| will be a pleasure to do anything to exalt
the name of God. 1t will gild your ordi-
nary conversation with Heavenly splen-
dor, if in it you adorn the doctrine of God
your Saviour in all things. You will march
70 Heaven beneath the spell of celestial
music, and the bliss of the gloriied will
| stimulate your spirits, when you can feel
that all is for God, and that God is all in
all to you. This is to delight yourself in
the Almighty. God give us to get into that
state, and to keep there till we leap to
Heaven, aud are in that state.
H NAME ALMIGHTY.
I call your attention to the special name
by which Eliphaz describes the ever
blessed God; he says: "Delight thyself in
the Almighty" Is it not singular that he
should choose a term descriptive of ON
impotence as the paramount cause of the
believers delight? God is love, and l can
readily understand how one might delight
himself in God under that aspect; but the
believer is taught to delight himself in
! God as strong and mighty. What a mercy
it is chat there is a power that makes for
righteousness!-that at the a of all