most natural thing in creation that God should have me every moment, and that my God should be nearer to me than all else.”  Just think, for a moment, what folly it is to imagine that I can not expect God to be with me every moment.  Just look at the sunshine; have you ever had any trouble as you were working or as you were studying or reading a book in the light the sun gives?  Have you ever said, “Oh, how can I keep that light, how can I hold it fast, how can I be sure that I shall continue to have it to use?” You never thought that.  God has taken care that the sun itself should provide you with light; and without your care; the light comes unbidden.  And I ask you:  What think you?  Has God arranged that the light of that sun that will one day be burned up, can come to you unconsciously and abide in you blessedly and mightily; and is God not willing, or is He not able, to let His light and His presence so shine through you that you can walk all the day with God nearer to you than anything in nature?  Praise God for the assurance; He can do it.  And why does He not do it?  Why so seldom, and why in such feeble measure?  There is but one answer:  you do not let Him.  You are so occupied and filled with other things, religious things, preaching and praying, studying and working, so occupied with your religion, that you do not give God the time to make Himself known, and to enter in and to take possession.  Oh, brother, listen to the word of the man who knew God so well, and begin to say:  “My soul, wait thou only upon God.”

I might show that this is the very glory of the Creator, the very life Christ brought into the world, the life He lived, and the very life Christ wants to lift us up to in its entire dependence on the Father.  The very secret of the Christ-life is this:  such a consciousness of God’s presence that whether it was Judas, who came to betray Him, or Caiaphas, who condemned Him unjustly, or Pilate, who gave Him up to be crucified, the presence of the Father was upon Him, and within Him, and around Him, and man could not touch His spirit.  And that is what God wants to be to you and to me.  Does not all your anxious restlessness, and futile effort, prove that you have not let God do His work?  God is drawing you to Himself.  This is not your own wish, and the stirring of your own heart, but the everlasting Divine magnet is drawing you.  These restless yearnings and thirstings, remember, are the work of God.  Come and be still, and wait upon God.  He will reveal Himself.

And how am I to wait on God?  In answer I would say:  first of all, in prayer take more time to be still before God without saying one word.  What is, in prayer, the most important thing?  That I catch the ear of Him to whom I speak.  We are not ready to offer our petition until we are fully conscious of having secured the attention of God.  You tell me you know all that.  Yes, you know it; but you need to have your heart filled by the Holy Spirit with the holy consciousness that the everlasting, almighty God is indeed come very near you.  The loving one is longing to have you for His own.  Be still before God, and wait, and say:  “Oh, God, take possession.  Reveal Thyself, not to my thoughts or imaginations, but by the solemn, awe-bringing, soul-subduing consciousness that God is shining upon me bring me to the place of dependence and humility.”