To be near unto God - pagina 362

some one consults his father about a business scheme with some man, the father's question in reply: ''Do you know him," will mean: Are you sure that he is honorable, reliable and trustworthy as to his business ability? This two-fold significance of knowing anyone personally must be reckoned with in Scripture and in knowledge of God. To know is always fundamentally an observation of difference. He who is not conversant with botany, only sees trees and shrubs; while he who observes the difference between oak and beech trees, oleander and rhododendron, jasmine and snowball, begonia and heliotrope, recognizes what he sees and rejoices

The same is true among peoit. In the business street of a foreign city we see nothing but people who pass us bj^ without speaking, while in our home town every one is familiar to us, and we even know the name sometimes of the smallest child. But this goes no further than the difference between A and B. We know people from one another. We know the difference between them. We do not mistake them in passing. Their appearance is familiar. in the wealth of ple.

We know

them

at first sight.

But

if

we mean

that closer and more intimate knowledge which enables us to form some idea of a man's character, inner life, endeavors and aims, another difference is at stake. Not the difference in clothing, facial features and outward appearance, but the distinct knowledge of a man's bearing, utterSuch knowledge becomes a ances and feelings. testing; an entering into the inward existence of such a person. Where it is told of Samuel that he did not yet 358

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