January 21

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek. Psalms 27:8

THIS in the Scriptures stands for the whole of religion, and for two reasons: First, Because it is with him we have principally to do. He is the greatest and the best of beings. We are most importantly related to him, our principal dependence is upon him, our principal expectations from him, our principal connections with him. He is our Creator, Proprietor, Preserver, Benefactor, Governor, and our Judge.

Secondly, Because before we can have anything to do with him we must find him. Essentially God is nigh unto us, for “in him we live, and move, and have our being.” He is about our path, and is acquainted with all our ways-

“Oh, may these thoughts possess my breast,

Where’er I roam, where’er I rest;

Nor let my sinful passions dare

Consent to sin, for God is there.”

But, morally and Spiritually considered, sinners are away from God, and God is away from them. We all left him criminally, and he left us penally. So that we who sometimes were “afar off,” and were living without God in the world, have been “made nigh.” Our first and chief concern, therefore, is to find God. Where shall we find him if we do seek? Why, in heaven. Hence we are taught to address him as “our Father, who art in heaven.” But if ever we get there, and before we get there, we must find him-Where? In the Son of his love. Without him, God is a consuming fire. In him he is reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. He is to be found in his house; he has promised to be there, and his people have seen the goings of their God and their King in the sanctuary.

God is to be found-and they have found him- in his “palaces for a refuge,” at his table, at the family altar, and in the devotions of the closet.

“Where we seek him he is found,

And every place is hallowed ground.”