To be near unto God - pagina 263

poor are frequently treated with far more consideration by those of assured position, than by those When a subject apof lower social standing. proaches his king, as a rule he is surprised by the kind treatment which he receives. And since the Lord God is highly exalted above every one of us, it is no contradiction, but entirely along the same line, that when he turns himself to his creature, he refreshes and comforts it by an holy. Divine familiarity.

Sacred reserve therefore becomes us in our approach to God. Familiarity with the Eternal must alwaj^s proceed from the side of God, and ma}' never be presumed upon by the creature. When man makes bold to ignore the boundary' of reverence, God repulses him. For then man exalts himself at the expense of the loftiness of his Lord. This interrupts the secret walk ^vith God. At last he retains nothing but vain beating in the air after the Infinite, after a higher Being, a higher blessing, a name without content, a sound that volatilizes; and he has lost his Father and his God. The Our Father puts us under solemn restraint. By grace we are permitted to invoke God as our Father. But for the sake of reverence it follows at once art in heaven, in order that, as the Catechism warns us, no one should think of God in an earthly way. :

Who

That God is the Lofty and Holy One who dwelleth on high, and that there is a secret walk with him, because he humbleth himself to behold the things in the earth, creates of itself a twofold endeavor to overcome the distance that separates him from us. One is, that God comes 255

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