77. Fellowship Divine
Fellowship Divine
I TALK TO HIM.—”I talk to Him until I fall asleep,” Mme. Louise said, It was asked whether He answered her. “Oh yes,” she replied; “the ear of my heart hears His answer.” A converted heathen said, “I open my Bible and God talks with me; I close my Bible and talk with God.”
MEDITATION IN DEATH.—Foster the essayist’s natural tendency to solitary meditation never showed itself more strikingly than in his last hours. Aware of the near approach of death, he requested to be left entirely alone, and was found, shortly after he had expired, in a contemplative attitude, as if he had thought his way to the mysteries of another world. AS THE HART PANTETH.—Once a king, in crossing the desert in a caravan, was parched with thirst. The sands were strewn with the wrecks of caravans, the skeletons of men who had died of thirst, lying in that dread cemetery. The cry arose, “Water, water I there is no water!” It was a fearful moment. Eyes hopelessly looked up to the skies along the plain, while overhead was the red-hot copper sun. Then said one, “We must let loose the harts,—the light, fleet harts.” They bounded in all directions. Keen in their instinctive scent of water, the spring was found; and then, when they sat to rest beside the beautiful pool, the king took his tablets and wrote, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.”
HE REMAINS.—On every Mohammedan tombstone the inscription begins with the words, “He remains.” This applies to God, and gives comfort to the bereaved. Friends may die, fortune fly away, but God endures—He remains.
TALKING TO JESUS.—In the days of American slavery, a man said to a slave woman: “Did you ever go to meeting?” “Never but once,” she replied. “I walked five miles to go.” “So you ever hear the Bible read where you live?” “No.” “Do you ever pray?” “No.” “Do you know what prayer means?” “No; never heard tell of it before.” The visitor began to explain it to her by saying that prayer was just talking to God—speaking to the Lord Jesus. Her dark face lighted, the stupid look left it, and she exclaimed eagerly, “Talking to Jesus! I knows what dat means. When I’se here all alone I just tells de Lord Jesus all my troubles, and de darkness goes away. I don’t feel lonely no more.” “And do you love to talk to Him?” “‘Deed I do; it’s all de comfort I has. ‘Pears like He’s standing close by and hears ebery word I say.” WAS MOTHER’S FRIEND.—”What do you do without a mother to tell all your troubles to?” asked a child who had a mother of one who had none. “Mother told me whom to go to before she died,” answered the little orphan. “I go to the Lord Jesus; He was mother’s friend, and He’s mine.” “Jesus Christ is in the sky. He is away off, and He has a great many things to attend to in Heaven. It is not likely He can stop to mind you.” “I do not know anything about that,” said the orphan. “All I know, He says He will; and that’s enough for me.” WHO SPEAK WITH THE KING.—Animals could not converse with men unless they had a rational nature put into them; nor can men converse with God until, being made new creatures, they partake of the divine nature. Communion with God is a mystery to most. Not every one that hangs about the king’s court doth speak with the king; only those who are near to him by a peculiar relationship or privilege.