To be near unto God - pagina 92

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after the water brooks, so panteth soul after thee, O God," And here it is the direct opposite: ''Turn thee away from me, that soul may refresh itself." On the one hand intense longing for the joy of the presence of God, and on the other hand the crs^ of agony for deliverance from God's presence. Does it not seem, at first, that

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the one

is a malediction against the other? This bitter wail of David does not stand alone. In the book of Job we find an even still more painful expression for this crushing consciousness of the presence of the Lord, when, as if to pour out his consuming anguish in fullest measure, he

despairingly exclaims: "Thou puttest my feet in the stocks and thou settest a print upon the roots of my feet" (13:27 Marg. read). By itself there is nothing strange in this feeling. Even godless people are familiar with this agonizing dread. When mortal danger suddenly overtakes them, they handle, as it were, with their hands the power of God which presses upon them. In case of shipwreck in the open sea it is seen again and again that godless sailors who but a few moments before over their wine-cups were making light of everything that is holy, suddenly terrorstricken, spring from their seats with the cry: "O God, God," and pale with fear, struggle for their lives. And aside

from these, with ordinary people who do not mock at religion but live without God in the world, when serious sickness comes upon them, or some other disaster overtakes them, we see the same effect. The}^ also suddenlj^ become aware at such a time that they have to do with the terrible unknown power of that God whom they

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