To be near unto God - pagina 372

last drop of saliva is dried up, and the swollen throat with difficulty allows the breath to pass through. With such a thirst it becomes a serious, and ever more anxious longing for moisture, and passionate craving for water; and he alone who so understands it, fathoms the depth of the longing after God's presence, which is so often expressed by the congregation in worship of song or reading of the Psalter, without real appreciation of the panting of the hart after water brooks. In

like

manner, who knows anything now, of

"thirst-

ing after righteousness" such as a St. Paul, a Luther or a Calvin knew it? Even when the cup filled with righteousness is placed before us, much is made of the fact that more than one stretches out a heavy hand for it, and slightly moistens the lips

with

it.

But

thirsting after

it,

calling for

it,

go without it, a weeping after God, where do we see it? There are still those who thirst, but has not their number diminished? And is not this very lack of real thirsting after God and after righteousness the banal danger of our times? This is occasioned by sin. Sin is the cause that, unless God shows mercy, the stimulus of this inability to longer

At times it requires scarcely operates. Such grace strongly to revive it again. grace operated in the days of the apostles, and again in the days of the Reformation. In these times this thirst operates, 0, so weakly; and 0, among so few; and even with these, so faintly. Let us be grateful to God, if at any time in our own heart we perceive something of this real Thousands upon thirsting after the living God.

thirst

special

thousands

live

and

die,

364

without

ever

having

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