HIS PURPOSE AND HIS WAYS
MAX I. REICH
THE FRIEND, TWELFTH MONTH 24, 1914
When the saints of olden time spoke of union with God as the highest bliss possible to man, they
did not imagine that this union was a mere vapory sentiment or a subtle form of self gratification.
They meant something very practical and real. Union with God really consists, according to their
doctrine, in union with His will. Only as a man sinks out of his own willings and desirings into the
Divine appointments for him, whatever form those appointments take, can it be said that he is in
very truth inwardly united to God. God and His will are one and the same when we leave
theological speculations out of the question. For God is Love, and by His will we mean all that
His holy love permits to affect our daily lives. Now when we speak of the will of God we must
distinguish between the two elements that are found wrapped up in that will. There is the Divine
purpose for man and there are His ways of accomplishing His purpose. It is not difficult to
recognize the Divine purpose as His will for us, but the temptation has ever been present to
murmur against His ways as if they were outside His will. The Divine purpose was early disclosed
and has never been given up: "Let us make man in our image and after our likeness." There will
never be any compromise on this point. The Father of our spirits will never take lower ground
concerning us. And if that image has been marred through sin, in Christ Jesus, the love of God has
purposed to restore it for those whom His love has succeeded in conquering. But the methods
Divine love employs to realize His holy purpose concerning us may be very different and vary
constantly. They, too, form part of His Will, whatever His ultimate end may be. Think by way of
illustration of the children of Israel. God purposed to bring them out of Egypt into the land
flowing with milk and honey. But it was not part of His purpose that forty years of weary
wilderness wanderings should lie between their coming out and their going in. "There are eleven
days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir, unto Kadesh-barnea." (Deut. 1:2.) The forty
years were necessitated by the exigencies of their state and thus came within the circle of His
ways with the children of Israel towards the accomplishment of His purpose for them.
It is a wonderful rest to the soul to discover the will of God in His ways of providence. By the
time any event touches our lives, it might be an act of wrongdoing on the part of another, it has
become His will for us, though wrong can never be of His originating. Joseph discovered this
secret in his day, and it sweetened out his long years of mysterious suffering at the hands of
others. "It was not ye that brought me hither but God." "Not ye but God" was the noble attitude
of faith that made him more than conqueror in his deepest distress. And so our blessed Lord:
"Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." "If it be Thy way it shall be my way." And in
this also He has left us an example that we should follow His steps.
Therefore let us see in everything that is permitted to come into our lives a call into a deeper life
in God. Whether the dealings of God mean poverty or plenty, loneliness or congenial society;
pleasure or pain; dark days or sunshine; roses or thorns; honor or dishonor; to be as it were a
polished shaft in the hand of the Lord, or to be hidden in His quiver: to see others reaping the
fields we have sown, while we are neglected and forgotten; to be tossed on stormy seas while
others are sailing on smooth waters; union with God is rendered possible as we come into heart
union with His will, to go on from submission to it to acquiescence in it, and from acquiescence to
positive delight. Then the language of the dear saints of former generations will not seem
hyperbolic to us when they declared "the will of God" to be their "anchor ground;" their "spirit's
silent, fair abode;" their "fortress hill;" the "sweetest yoke," and "lightest burden" they ever bore.