To be near unto God - pagina 113

themselves, to feel his lov^e; that He regenerated them, but that conscious faith did not reach the fuller knowledge of his name. This led to the unusual condition that God worked inwardly with his power, but that in spite of it doubt filled the heart and mind. We have all known certain people who were not able to believe, but whose noble qualities of mind and heart were both interesting and refreshing. They were frequently far more attractive than many confessed believers. They were flowers in the bud, which could not come to bloom, but even then the half-opened bud exhaled sweet fragrance. Inwardly they were consumed with longing after God, but they did not understand their own desires. They did not know that they already belonged to God, though at times they were conscious of nameless drawings after him. And they do not pray, but others who can, pray for them: Lord, seek this thy servant, seek this thine handmaid. For every utterance of their lives proves that they are thy servants. They are children of the family of faith. Onl\' they have not as yet discovered their Father. And as long as this is not a prayer from the lips alone, but from the heart, it is heard both in behalf of ourselves and of those the burden of whose salvation the Lord has laid upon us. For then God seeks them, and finds them, and gives himself to be found of them. How this takes place no one can tell. To this end God uses at one time a man's natural lot in life; at another time a written thought which he drives home, or some striking word which he makes us hear. To this end he works by means of affliction that heavily burden, the heart; by

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