Finding Our Rest in God
x | Finding Our Rest. mn God
X Finding Our Rest in God For all his stress on sacrifice, the strongly practical bent to his Christianity and his sense that God was to be found in the clouds as much as in the sunshine, George Matheson was ultimately possessed by a secure and confident faith that the destiny of the human soul was to find its rest with God. He was haunted by that powerful image in Psalm 84 of the sparrow finding a home and the swallow a nest while humans longed to find their dwelling place with the Lord. Again and again in the writings that appear on the following pages he portrays man alone among God's creatures in being somehow restless and unfulfilled on this earth. This is particularly the theme of his meditation ''Human Unrest'' and his poem '"The Unfulfilled
Desire''.
| The later meditations concentrate more directly on the heavenly home that Our Lord is preparing for us. They contain some striking phrases, like the suggestion that the furniture in the celestial city will be homely rather than gorgeous, an idea that echoes Dame Julian of Norwich's stress on the homeliness of Jesus in her Revelations of Divine Love.
This section and indeed this book ends with George Matheson's masterpiece of devotional writing, ''O Love that wilt not let me go'', in
which he draws together so many of his favourite themes and images — self-sacrifice, the promise of the cloud and rain, the depth and infinity of the ocean and the resting place that the weary human soul finds in God.
Human Unrest "'As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.'' Psalm 42:1
All things live in their own element — the cattle on the plain, the fish in the sea, the bird in the air. Thy element is God. Thou art the only creature in this universe that art not now in thine element; thou art an anomaly in the order of creation. The sparrow hath an house and the swallow a nest for herself, but thou longest, faintest; thou hast not found a resting-place in all the tabernacles of time. Thou art the least happy of all creatures. The bird carols in the air all the day, but thou hast not a day quite undimmed by tears.
Why is it thus with thee? Wherefore art thou less happy than the beast of the field? Is it because thou hast fewer resources? Nay, it is because thy resources are greater, because they are too great for the world that environs thee.
It is because thou art not living in thine element, and the element in which thou livest is not adequate to thy powers. Thou hast capacities for boundless flight, and thou art chained within a limited area; thou art made for God, and thou art narrowed to the dust.
No wonder thou art not happy; it is thy greatness makes thee unhappy. If thou hadst been a bird of the air thou wouldst have carolled like him, but because thou art more thou hast no unclouded song. And yet thou wert made for song. Thou wert not only made for song in a future world, thou wert designed for it here.
Thou art promising thyself joy in regions beyond the grave, but the only element that can give thee joy is on both sides of the grave. Thy joy is God, and God is here as well as there. The atmosphere of the Divine surrounds thee now.
Thou needst not wait for death to reach it; thou canst soar into it at any moment.
Say not that others have their portion here, but that thou hast thy portion hereafter; is not thy portion eternity, and is not eternity now as well as then? Thy portion is here, my soul, — on the threshold of thy life, at the door of thy being; it is 77 the earth, though it is not of the earth. Why shouldst thou pant any more? The river that makes glad the city of God can make glad the cities of men. Thou canst find thine element as easily as the hart findeth the water brooks. ''Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.''
Moments on the Mount
The Unfulfilled Desire "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall gives thee the desires of thine heart.'' Psalm 37:4
Father, my heart has never found Its perfect goal below; It beats in vain upon the ground Against the cold and snow; It has no chance to reach its home Save in a kingdom yet to come.
2 All other things beneath the sky Receive their kingdom here; There is a splendour for the eye, A music for the ear; But my heart's cry for perfect love Waits to be heard in heaven above.
' 3 Why should my heart alone be void If earth to man be all!
Why should Thy bounty be alloyed By one unanswered call!
Wings help the bird's desire for flight; Why should my soul be left in night!
4 Thy wings are coming, O my heart!
Thy want of them on earth Itself is promise that thou art Prepared for higher birth.
The need this world has so denied Is bound above to be supplied.
5 Thou hast not found thy sphere in life — Only thy hemisphere; One half thy globe is mist and strife; The other must be clear.
Thou shalt be rounded in the day When God shall wipe thy tears away.
6 Within thy breast thou canst not plant A flower of fadeless breath, For some are chilled by frost and want, And all must yield to death; Thou waitest for a higher hour To lend thee room to wield thy power.
7 Sure as the eye demands its beam, Sure as the ear its voice, So surely on thy path shall gleam The freedom of thy choice; And thou to whom earth was not given Shalt meet thy counterpart in heaven.
Sacred Songs
The Ground for Spiritual Anxiety "Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light?'' Amos 5:20
The prophet is speaking to men who have a good religious creed but are living a bad life. They are committing every vice under the sun and praying for the day of the Lord. Amos says they are praying against themselves — asking something which, to them, would be darkness and not light. He does not mean that when the day of the Lord comes the wicked will be prevented from seeing it. His words imply the contrary. He says distinctly that if the day of the Lord came tomorrow it would embrace under its dome the bad as well as the good. But he says that to the bad and to the good it would have a different appearance. Both would look on the same thing, but they would have a contrary perception; what was light to the good would be darkness to the bad.
To a selfish man there would be no place in the universe so miserable as heaven. What makes heaven day to Jesus would make it night to Judas — the reign of love. I have been often struck with the question Hosea puts to selfish people, ''What shall ye do in the day of the feast of the Lord?'' He does not say they will get no place at the table; he asks what interest they will have in the proceedings when they sit down.
How will they appreciate a banquet where every sentiment proposed will be commemorative of sacrifice, and every plaudit raised will be a tribute to the Lamb that was slain! It is not
enough to be free from so-called adverse circumstances. The deepest adversity is solitude of soul — the want of harmony with one's environment.
It is not enough that I am untouched by the lightning; I must be touched by the sunbeam. I would rather be struck by lightning than struck by nothing, for the soul is dead that slumbers, and the chords that never vibrate are the saddest chords of all.
My Father, prepare me for the place of Thy rest!
I often speak as if the question were whether Thou wilt let me in. O no, that is not, that never was, the question! Thou hast never separatedthe good and the bad by locality. I doubt not that the wise and foolish virgins entered by the same outward gate; the door that was shut upon the foolish was an inward door. Hast Thou not told me that the man without the wedding garment got in with the white-robed multitude! It was after his entrance that he felt his want. I have no fear that I shall ever be driven from Thy presence; but I wish to enjoy that presence, to bask in it, to sing in it. I fear to stand by the crystal river and have no eye for its clearness.
I dread to walk in the green pastures and have no sense of their richness. I am afraid to be at the concert of multitudinous voices and have no ear for their sweetness. I tremble to be enrolled in the league of pity and have no heart for its kindness. I dread not the thunder nor the earthquake nor the fire; I dread the circumstances of the blessed without their spirit of blessedness — the harp without the heart, the
wing without the wish, the song without the soul, the labour without the love. Save me, O
Father, from an uncongenial heaven!
Rests by the River
4. The Preparation of Man's Dwelling-Place "In My Father's house are many mansions...
— I go to prepare a place for you."' John 14:2
We have here the telescope and the microscope.
The one reveals the vast places of the universe — the many mansions of the Father; the other fixes upon a unit in the void, ''I go to prepare
-a place for you.'' Often have I been startled by the vastness of that sea in which my little life is moving; I seem but a speck amid myriad waves. Yet, it is not the distance that startles me. If you could give me wings by which ina moment I could reach the end of the universe, it would not bring me one step nearer rest.
I want to know what its at the end of the universe. Is there a human soul there? Is there anything that can respond to my spirit? Is there aught that can love when I love, weep when I weep, joy when I joy? Is there a pulse of sympathy that can answer to the pulse of my heart? Is there a place prepared for me? I cannot get that place by going over the bridge; I can only get it by some one going over before me.
What I want is a heart already there, a kindred soul to meet me, a human life to greet me. The 'going before'' is itself the ''preparing.''
I want no gorgeous furniture in my room of the Father's house. I am afraid the furniture may be too gorgeous. I want something homely — like home. I seek an old glance of the eye, an old ring of the voice, an old clasp of the hand. I seek the ancient sympathy that has linked man to man, the earthly love that has knit heart to heart, the
human trust that has bound life to life. I seek in eternity the image of time; that is the place
I would have prepared for me.
Searchings in the Silence
5. God's Dwelling-Place "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.'' Colossians 2:9
''Where does God live?"' asks the little child; ''Oh that I knew where I might find Him!"' cries the earnest man. We are all seeking Thy dwellingplace, thou King of kings. We have not yet found a palace large enough to contain Thee. Some have sought Thee in the water, some in the air, some in the fire, because the water and the air and the fire are to us boundless things. Yet it is not in the boundless that Thou desirest to be found; it is in the limited, the broken, the contrite. The heaven of heavens cannot contain
Thee, but the broken and the contrite heart can; it is there Thou delightest most to dwell.
Thy brightest glory is not in the stars, but in the struggles of a conquering soul. Thy temple is the heart of Him whom men have called the Man of sorrows. Thy fulness dwells in His emptiness, Thy wealth in His poverty, Thy strength in His weakness, Thy joy in His sorrow,
Thy crown in His cross. Within that temple meet harmoniously the things which to the world are discords — perfection and suffering, peace and warfare, love and storm; the lion and the lamb lie down together.
There would I seek Thee, O my God. Within these sacred precincts, where all things are gathered into one, where middle walls of partition are broken down, where jarring chords are blended in one symphony of praise, there would I seek and find Thee. Under the shadow
of that cross, where death meets life and earth is touched by heaven, my finite soul would lose its finitude and be one with Thee. My night would vanish in Thy day, my sorrow would melt in Thy joy, my meanness would merge in Thy majesty, my sin would be lost in Thy holiness.
The veil which hides me from Thee is the shadow of my own will; when the veil of the temple shall be rent in twain I shall see the place where Thy glory dwelleth.
Moments on the Mount
6. The Preservation of Personality in the Christian Life "That God may be all in all.'"' 1 Corinthians
15:28
Am I, then, to be lost in God? Is my whole personal life to be absorbed and overshadowed in the light of the Infinite One? Am I to have no more separate being than one of those myriad drops which compose the vast ocean? If so, then my goal is death indeed. If my personality is to melt into the being of God as a cloud melts into the blaze of sunshine, then, surely, is God not my life but my annihilation. He can no longer say of me, ''Because J live, thou shalt live also."'
Nay, but, my soul, thou hast misread the destiny of thy being. It is not merely written that God is to be all, but that He is to be all in all.
His universal life is not to destroy the old varieties of being; it is to pulsate through these varieties. His music is to fill the world, but it is to sound through all the varied instruments of the world. His sunshine is to flood the universe, but it is to be mirrored in a thousand various forms. His love is to penetrate creation, but it is to be reflected in the infinite diversities of the hearts and souls of men.
Thou speakest of losing thyself in the ocean of His love, but this is only poetically true. Love is an ocean where no man permanently loses himself; he regains himself in richer, nobler form. The only ocean in which a man loses himself is self-love; God's love gives him back his life that he may keep it unto life eternal.
Thou art not thyself until thou hast found God.
Wouldst thou truly behold thyself? then must thou with open face behold as in a glass His glory. Thou wilt never become a power to thyself until God has become all in thee; thou wilt never really live until thou hast lived in Him.
Forget thyself, my soul. Forget thy pride and thy selfishness, thy cares and thy crosses, thy world which thou bearest within thee. Unbar the doors of thy being to the sunshine of that other Presence that already stands without, waiting to get in. And, verily, thy forgetfulness shall make thee strong, thy surrender shall make thee mighty, thy dying unto self shall make thee alive for evermore. Thy form shall be beautiful when it is gilded by His light, thy voice shall be melodious when it is tuned by His music, thy heart shall be on fire when it is quickened by His love; thou shalt be everything when God shall be all.
Moments on the Mount
Self-surrender 'Tf any man be in Christ, he is a new creature"'
2 Corinthians 5:17
O Love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee; I give Thee back the life I owe, _ That in Thine ocean depths its flow May richer, fuller be.
2 O Light that followest all my way, I yield my flickering torch to Thee; My heart restores its borrowed ray, That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day May brighter, fairer be.
3 O Joy that seekest me through pain, | I cannot close my heart to Thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain, And feel the promise is not vain That morn shall tearless be.
4 O Cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from Thee; I lay in dust life's glory dead, And from the ground there blossoms red Life that shall endless be.
Sacred Songs
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Oh ove ai wilt not let me go, _ _ Trest my weary soul i in Thee.
"Tan Campb ell radley' s account of the life ond _ work of George Matheson brings the blind minister 7 bac k to life and places him alongside Thomas — halmers and George MacLeod as another gia
_ the Church. 'There is a rich treasury of writir _ of this period and Mr Bradley has enlightened
_. _ with this succinct and telling selection"
"RT. HON. DAVID STEEL, MP
"John S Stansfield used to tell of 2 a boy, invite C hoose the hymn for evening prayers, who d a , Doctor, the one about the red flowe:
! s that vivid i Heats t iat most of us lang 1 ge and often mystical i in 'conception, ean ay a part of our Christian heritage."
_ BISHOP TIMOTHY 'DUDLEY-SMITH
_ oe De Gs ci UK Canada
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