Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1912-08-15

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times apart. Az
k@ personalities, each
recognizes that
there Is some obligation to seek each
other, yet the obligation on Gods
part to seek man is somewhat diff
cult to understand. Man obviously
ought to seek God, he ought to be
asking the question, Where shall. l
find him." but God anticipates man
in this search and comes frequently
and asks, as in the text, Where art
thou" This being the case, there is
presented for our consideration in the
text as q whole: ID God seeking man;
CD Man keeping away from God, by
hiding or otherwise; (3) The soul
experience that compels him to move
to God.
l. God is seeking man. This is not
the normal situation, for man ought
to be seeking God with the whole
heart, everything else being as moth
Ing In comparison. God is seeking
man, not with the intent apparently
that he sought Adam in the Garden
of Eden, which was for the purpose
of reproof, OF punishment. God not
only is seeking man, but wishes to be-
sought for by man, as the hymn writer
Faber so beautifully sings:
God loves to be longed for. h. loves to.
be sought.
For he sought us himself with such
longing and love!
And he died for desire of us, marvellous
thought!
And he yearns for US now to be with
his above"
There is not a man away from God
but for whom God longs. n will go
any distance to find.
There were ninety and nine that safely
lay
In the shelter Of the fold,
But one was out on the hills away
Far off from the gates of gold
Away on the mountains wild and bare
Away from the tender Shepherds care.
3" Lord, thou hast here thy ninety and
Are they not enough for thee?
But the Shepherd made answer: This Of
mine
Has wandered away from me-.
And although the road be rough and
steep
I go to the desert to find my sheep"
2. But just as prominent as the
search of God for man is mans con-
slant refusal to be found. AS AdaSa
fed from the Lord, as Jonah tried t
get away from the obligation to-
preach at Nineveh, as the prodigal
fled to a far country and wasted his
substance in riotous living, so man
does today. Touched by the Spirit of
God, the church, through its many
agencies, is putting forth effort 10
reach man. It's doors have always,
been open, and rarely is the church
found that does not welcome all
classes to it's services. In recent
years Gods people are going out after
men in all places where they may be.
found. The. gospel is preached in
places not dedicated to divine wor-
ship-in tents, on street corners, and
elsewhere, and it is difficult for a man
within christendom to get beyond the
invitation of the gospel. and yet he
will not yield to It,.
8. But there is a reason for this as.
suggested in the text; it is the con-
seriousness of shame, Il was naked and
I hid myself" 1t must be conceded
that there are multitudes who do not
seem to have God in n of their
thoughts, they live apparently as the
beasts of the field, they seem to have
no consciousness whatever that they
are more than creatures Of a day,
mere ephemera. But the man or
woman who may be beguiled to read
these words is not such a person. In
some way he senses God. He has an
intuition, as we might say, which prob
ably teaches him his personal respon-
sibility.
Is that a misfortune? Far from 1t.
It is the dawn Of hope. It is the soul
pain that tells Of possible return to
spiritual health secured through per-
feet communion With God. Grateful
should the man be who thus becomes
uneasy, yea, faces God and talks with
him. In this day the grace OF God is
seeking man, not to reprove him only.
not to punish him, but to bless him;
he il not willing that any should per
ish.
It may be said that the man who
is discovered by God, discovers, or
finds. himself; he comes to himself
as the prodigal did, and is then not
far from starting back to the Fathers
house. As the cry recently has been
with many Back to Christ" we
might say that the cry should now
rather be Back to God"