THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD (ii).
He that would to others give
Let him take from Jesus still;
They who deepest in Him live
Flow furthest at His will.
I resume the rich subject of Secret Devotion, Secret Communion with God. Not that I wish to enter in detail on either the theory or the practice of prayer in secret; as I have attempted to do already in a little book which I may venture here to mention, Secret Prayer. My aim at present, as I talk to my younger Brethren in the Ministry, is far rather to lay all possible stress on the vital importance of the habit, however it may prove best in individual experience to order it in practice. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he"; [Prov. xxiii. 7.] and as a life worketh in its heart, so is it. And the heart of a Christian Minister's life is the man's Secret Communion with God.
Let us Clergymen take as one of our mottoes that deeply suggestive word of the Lord by Malachi, where the ideal Levi is depicted: "He walked with Me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity." [Mal. ii. 6.]
THE LORD'S EXAMPLE.
Remember with what a heavenly brightness that principle was glorified in the recorded life on earth of "the great Shepherd of the sheep," [Heb. xiii. 20.] who in this also "left us an example, that we should follow His steps." [1 Pet. ii. 22.] Never did man walk more genuinely with men than the Son of Man, whether it was among the needy and wistful crowds in streets or on hill-sides, or at the dinner-table of the Pharisee, or in the homes of Nazareth, Cana, and Bethany. No Christian was ever so "practical" as Jesus Christ. No disciple ever so directly and sympathetically "served his own generation by the will of God" [Acts xiii. 36.] as did the blessed Master. But all the while "His soul dwelt apart" in the Father's presence, and there continually rested and was refreshed, [John iv. 32, 34.] and there found the "meat" in the strength of which He travelled that great pilgrimage by way of the Cross to the Throne. Jesus Christ, our Exemplar as well as our Life, did indeed live behind His work, behind His ministry, behind His ministerial character, in the region of a Filial Communion in which His Father was His all in all for peace and joy, His law of action and His eternal secret of life. And observe, this habitual communion in the midst of active service did not at all supersede in His blessed experience the stated and definite work of worship and petition before and after the busy hours of service. "He was alone, praying"; [John vi. 57.] "He continued all night in prayer to God"; and at last, "He was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed." [Luke ix. 18; vi. 12; xxii. 41.]
All this is not only matter for wondering notice, as we read our New Testament. It is example, it is model. The Head is thus showing His members the way, the only way, to maintain a life among men and for men which shall be full of good for them, because itself ever filled with the life and presence of God.
TESTIMONY OF LUCIUS VON MACHTHOLF.