November 27
Companions of the Way (Evening)Lo, Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument, for they hear Thy words but they do them not.
WE are to look for God in events and deeds. We are to know that nothing can compensate us for the loss of the open vision of God's working in history and in life about us,—not ecstasy of worship, nor orthodoxy of doctrine. To confine our religion to these latter things is to become dull towards God even in them, and to forget Him everywhere else. And this is a fault of our day. . . . So much of our fear of God is conventional, orthodox and not original, a trick caught from men's words and fashions, not a part of ourselves, nor won, like all that is real in us, from contact with real life. In our politics, in our conduct with men, in the struggle of our own hearts for knowledge and for temperance, and in service—there we are to learn to fear God. . . . It is where we feel life most real, that we are to look for Him.
GEORGE ADAM SMITH
THE PRESENCE OF GOD