he natural tastes and
inclinations which God has given him, and with the intention that he
should find there subordinate guidance and impulse for his life,
still let him abide where he is called with God, and seek to increase
his fellowship with Him, as the main thing that he has to do.

I. Thus we are led from the words before us first to the thought that
our chief effort in life ought to be union with God.

'Abide with God,' which, being put into other words, means, I think,
mainly two things--constant communion, the occupation of all our
nature with Him, and, consequently, the recognition of His will in
all circumstances.

As to the former, we have the mind and heart and will of God revealed
to us for the light, the love, the obedience of our will and heart
and mind; and our Apostle's precept is, first, that we should try,
moment by moment, in all the bustle and stir of our daily life, to
have our whole being consciously directed to and engaged with,
fertilised and calmed by contact with, the perfect and infinite
nature of our Father in heaven.

As we go to our work again to-morrow morning, what difference would
obedience to this precept make upon my life and yours? Before all
else, and in the midst of all else, we should think of that Divine
Mind that in the heavens is waiting to illumine our darkness; we
should feel the glow of that uncreated and perfect Love, which, in
the midst of change and treachery, of coldness and of 'greetings
where no kindness is,' in the midst of masterful authority and
unloving command, is ready to fill our hearts with tenderness and
tranquillity: we should bow before that Will which is absolute and
supreme indeed, but neither arbitrary nor harsh, which is 'the
eternal purpose that He hath purposed in Himself' indeed, but is also
'the good pleasure of His goodness and the counsel of His grace.'

And with such a God near to us ever in our faithful thoughts, in our
thankful love, in our lowly obedience, with such a mind revealing
itself to us, and such a heart opening its hidden storehouses for us
as we approach, like some star that, as one gets nearer to it,
expands its disc and glows into rich colour, which at a distance was
but pallid silver, and such a will sovereign above all, energising,
even through opposition, and making obedience a delight, what room,
brethren, would there be in our lives for agitations, and
distractions, and regrets, and cares, and fears--what room for
eart