The Penn's Grove record., 1912-08-16

&#A GOu are Often
times apart AS
kM 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 I
n htm?" but God anticipates man
In this search and comes frequently
and asks, as In the text, Where art
thouY This being the case, there is
presented for our consideration In the
text as a whole: % God seeking man;
(2) Man keeping away from God, by
hiding or otherwise; (3) The soul
experience that compels him to move
to God.
1. 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 no sought Adam in the Garden
OF Eden, which was for the purpose
OF reproof, or 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. he loves to
be sought.
For he sought US himself with such
longing and lovel
And he died for desire Of US, marvellous
thought!
And he yearns for US now to be With
his above"
There is lot a man away from God
but for whom God longs, and 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 tende Shepherds care.
Lord, thou hast here thy ninety and
nine;
Are they not enough for thee7
But the Shepherd made answer: This Of
mine
Has wandered away from me.
And although the road be rough and
steep
l go to the desert to find my Sheep"
q. But just as prominent as the
search of God for man is mans con-
slant refusal to be found. AS Adam
fed from the Lord, as Jonah tried to
get away from the obligation to
preach at Nineveh, as the prodigal
fed 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 to
reach a Its doors have always
been open, and rarely is the church
found that does not welcome all
classes to its services. In recent
years Gods people are going out after
men in all places where they may be
found. The gospel is preached in
ship-in tents, on street corners, and
elsewhere, and it is difficult for a nan
within c~hristendom to get beyond the
invitation of the gospel. and yet he
will not yield to 1t. What sad testi-
monies We have to mans rejection of
Gods search through his agencies
mentioned above! 1t Is said that
there are no more church members
in San Francisco today than there
were twenty-five years ago., although
the population has more than doubled,
and the city contains scores of Chris
tian churches, all of which are striv-
ing earnestly for the lost. Thus still
do VIZ have mar keeping himself
away from God, sometimes endeavor
ing to hide himself from God, but in
whatever way, refusing to let God
find him.
3. But there is a reason for this as
suggested in the text; it is the con-
seriousness of shame. Il was naked and
l hid myself" 1t must be conceded
that there are multitudes who do not
seem to have God in any 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 beguiied to read
these words is not such a person. In
SOHAO "ot LIZ CCh0CS 0OA- ~ mas al
intuition, as We might say, which prob
ably teaches him his personal respon-
sibility. He catches himself thinking
of the possible God, and of his per
sonal relationship to him. He even
finds himself experiencing a sense Of
shame because of the guilt of his life.
Is that a misfortune? Far from it.
1t is the dawn of hope. 1t 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, lot to reprove him only,
Eot to punish him, but to bless him;
be is not willing that any should per
ish.
1t may be said that the mar 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" VS.
might say that the cry should now
rather be back to God"