406 RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE: PERSONAL 



God is, then he has to be reckoned with; he knows my downsitting 

 and mine uprising. There is not a word on my tongue or a thought 

 in my heart, but, behold! he knows it altogether. And if he 

 knows, what a power this thought should be to purify the he art r 

 and to touch the motives and purposes of life to sincerity. "Search 

 me and try me," said one to God. There are few who would care r 

 few who would dare, thus boldly to challenge Almighty God; few 

 who could fling their lives open to the scrutiny of his eyes; and 

 none who could do it with any success at all, but one who all the 

 time was saying to his heart, " Nevertheless I am continually with 

 thee." 



Besides securing inner sincerity, this sense of the presence of God 

 is fitted to impart peace and steadfastness to the life; for the 

 God who is evermore present is a God who cares, not a force, 

 but a Father. When the clouds begin to sweep across our sky, it is 

 not enough to believe that God is; if the heart would be at peace 

 we must believe that he is love, and that the rushing of the storm 

 is but the mighty voice of that love. Now this peace amid the 

 blows and buffets of fortune, this power to sleep quietly in the boat 

 when the storm is raging, belongs truly to no one but the man 

 who has faith in God. The man who has none is tossed about by 

 every wind; he is vexed by fears and misgivings. He looks out 

 into the dark future; and as he stands on the verge of the unknown, 

 he trembles, if he thinks at all. He does not know what the days 

 will bring; but he knows very well that they are sure to bring pain 

 and sorrow and surprise and death. He knows that he will one 

 day have to leave those whom he loves: he will leave them, or 

 they will leave him, and go away to the silent land. His heart is 

 disquieted by fear, fear of the coming days, fear of the coming 

 night, when he shall work no more. 



Now, how will these doubts and fears be met by the man who 

 believes in God? When they smite him, as smite him they will, 

 they will not be able to hurl him to the ground; for, in the pro- 

 foundly personal language of the Bible, he knows that the Lord 

 will hold him up. He says to his heart, " Nevertheless I am con- 

 tinually with thee; nevertheless thou art continually with me." 

 He is content with God, and he knows that in some mysterious 

 way his God is working all things together for his good. In the 

 same night in which he is betrayed he is able to give thanks, 

 because he knows his life is always in the hands of his Father, 

 " Peace I leave with you/' said Jesus, with you who believe in 

 God, and who believe also in me. And this was no vain word. 

 He who spoke of this peace knew well whereof he spoke. When 

 cruel mobs were thirsting for his blood, when he was confronted 

 with all the majesty of imperial Rome, when certain death on the 



