The Point Pleasant register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, W. Va.) 1909-1939, 1910-11-16
Enoeh, Man Who
Walked With God
By REV. c a. S. DWIGHT. D. D.

Tcst-And Enoch walked with God:
and he was not: FOR God took h!m.-Gcn.
God has many distinguished serv.
ants whose dignity is all derived
from their heavenly Master. The
names and histories OF many OF these,
as portrayed in the Sculptures. are
coupled with. tell-tale epithets or brief
characterizatoas. which have now
become familiar as household words
that r significant OF the peculiar
aptitudes and achievements OF the
e TO whom they are applied. OF
one man In the Bible = phrase is used
applied elsewhere TO one other. Noah)
which Is strangely suggestive and
wonderfully inspiring-for It IL sad
OF Enoch that he walked with God"
All men, good and bad. walk In the
sight OF Cod and all good men may
be said 10 walk before or in the pres
c Of God-Euided by his eye.
shone upon by mis- glory. and SUI.
rounded by tokens OF his love-but OF
that primal. pre-eminent man Of an
early rude age 1t Is declared that he
walked with Cod which must mean
something very illustrious, and denote
a nightly almost. II not quite. unex.
ampled in the whole course of human
history.
The character Of snoeh. Is viewed
through the heightened vistas Of the
varying ages. seems to shine with a
pure white light almost, II not quite,
unearthly. It's CLEAN was never light.
ened on mau9made affairs, the sheen /,
not dimmabie by earth-born mists or
garish glare or historic ~contraven.
tons. We cannot know Just what
Q the psychologist qualities Of this
holy, happy man, but We may be sure
of n thing. that his character was
singularly pure. far. above that Of his
fellows or the unexampled honor Of
walking with God" and OF being
translated without hint or hurt OF
death would never have been given to
him. Be- e holy. for l am holy" must
have been fulfilled IN marye.ous de.
gree in Enoch's case. He was a sinner.
as were others of his contemporaries.
but somehow, In close contact With
the fires OF the Divine holiness. the
dress OF his own humanity was burn
ed away SO that even before he was
caught aawy to paradise, he became
detached from earth and filed with
the very spirit Of heaven.
Enoch walked with God IT appears,
as a plophet. God may have revealed
to him in quiet, tender converse many
wonderful secrets OF his plans. What
did Enoch see in prophecy? Who
knows but that in those ecstatic 300
years there may have passed be.
fore his vision, revealed by the d.
rect will and wish OF Jehovah. the
outlines Of redemption-the coming
history Of the ages, exhibited as it
were. In an elongated panorama, all
illustrating the wonders OF grace and
centering about the cross, whose dis.
tant CLEAN Enoch.s quickened eyes
may have clearly SEEM Paul, in a
later age. was taken up into the third
heaven why may Enoch not have
been granted the vision Of a redeem
ed earth? We cannot saoy that 1t was
so-but We may wonder whether such
dreams and visions did no come to
that holy and unique man.
We ara told. at any rate. in the
epistle OF Jude, Of a wonderful vision
wh:ch Enoch had Of the consumma-
ton OF human history. when the Lord
will come with ten thousand OF his
angels to visit a dire punishment on
ungodly mein-a message which seems
to have been a quotation from or an
adaptation of, a prophecy in the Book
Of Enoch, which last is a collection o:
a~pochryphal stories regarding mony
matters in nature and in life which
the chruch has declined to introduce
into the canon, and does not receive
as veritable Scripture. The general
truth holds good at all events that
the nearer n walks with God and
the more transparent is the moral
nature of any believer the broader
and grander is the vision which such
a \ enjoys of eternal things-for in
the highest ranges of Christian ex
perience being is seeing.
There is need today for. the trans.
parent, guileless, r~everent, meditatiye
Enoch-like type Of character frame
or fashion of moral being which may
seem, indeed. quite foreign to the
"zeitgeist" or prevailing spirit Of the
times. Yet in a rushing age, more. If
anything. than IN any other. ra men
need the close converse with their
Maker to KEEP them poised amid so.
cial agftations steadily against the
assaults of temptation, and clear.
eyed amid the whirl and swirl of
numberless worldly distractions. It
should not be thought, because Enoch
lived in a simple age. that, therefore.
he enjoyed exceptional opportunities
for being religious, while In this char.
acteristically worldly day 1t is quite
out of the question to maintain a
cpfr{+uoI fro,aa r-hu