What distinguished the holy men of old, those who had obtained a good report through faith and lived overcoming lives in their day and generation, was that they sought and realized this mystic Presence. That made all the difference with an Enoch, an Abraham, a Joseph, a Moses, a Samuel, an Elijah. And time would fail me to record all their names and achievements. They lived their earth lives in the same Presence in which the men of Galilee afterwards walked for three years, when the invisible One became visible to mortal eyes. And the self-same Presence is ours to know today, closer to us than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.
But let me briefly point out some of the accompaniments of such an experience: (1) To have "God with us" is the secret of Rest. Moses might have shrunk from the huge undertaking committed to him to direct and train an erstwhile slave nation in a waste howling desert for forty years. But before the toilsome and dreary march began, he was reassured by the Divine promise: "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." (Ex. 33:14.) The Spirit of Christ that was in him imparted to him the virtue of the same good into which our Lord afterwards called the weary and puzzled men and women of Galilee in those deathless words:--"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The presence of God sweetens and lightens and ennobles the most disagreeable task.
(2) To have God with us is the secret of courage. Walking through the valley of deepest darkness, the soul rallies itself in the Divine Presence. The shadow of death might veil His face, but faith exclaims: "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." Whether it be danger threatening ourselves, or those dearer to us than the apple of our eye, the gloom deepening as we enter the gorge, faith's resource is in the ever present One, with us still as when He led us into green pastures and beside still waters. For He is not a cold, philosophical abstraction, an abstruse, metaphysical principle, or an impersonal power; He is a loving Being, with a heart to feel and a hand to help. And if He takes away "things," it is to give us more of Himself.
(3) To have God with us is the secret of separation from evil. "For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not in that Thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth." (Ex. 33:16.) Rules and regulations have their place in providing a wholesome hedge around the precious flock of God. But with the best discipline there are many instances of sickly or underfed sheep jumping the fence. The Divine Presence is the surest preservative in a world of evil. As to the prophet Zechariah came the vision of an unwalled Jerusalem, yet inviolate, because Jehovah Himself would be a wall of fire around her and the glory in the midst of her, so the true people of God are kept from contamination, not because of any fancied superiority over other men, after the fashion of the Pharisee, or because they are world weary and hide themselves in some monastic cell, but because they find in the Lord that which fills their hearts and which leaves no room for "the pleasures of sin." Evil passions are swallowed up in the purer and mightier passion kindled by the love of God.
(4) To have God with us is the secret of attraction. There are centrifugal and centripetal forces in the spiritual sphere as in the realm of the outward. And so the same Divine Presence which keeps away the evil attracts the good. As with the godly King of Judah, after the separation of the northern tribes from the dynasty of David, "they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him." (2 Chron. 15:9.) If the highways to Zion are deserted, and there is a great forsaking in the midst of the land, and the desolate houses are multiplied: if we have to mourn over closed meeting houses, a falling rate of membership, and sparsely attended gatherings for worship and discipline; there is one sure remedy: the presence of God. What the Church at large, and the Society of Friends in particular, needs today, is not more and better organization, more money to be put into the treasury of the Lord, more highly trained leaders, equipped with the learning of our modern age; in all these directions there seems to be no lack; but a more powerful demonstration of the Divine. That will draw as nothing else can.
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things...do: and the God of Peace shall be with you."