t sin, destroying the sinner
who remains in it, and as Mercy freeing His people from it. Judgment and
Mercy ever go together. Of the elements of nature there is none of such
spiritual and mighty energy as Fire: what it consumes it takes and
changes into its own spiritual nature, rejecting as smoke and ashes what
cannot be assimilated. And so the Holiness of God is that infinite
Perfection by which He keeps Himself free from all that is not Divine,
and yet has fellowship with the creature, and takes it up into union
with Himself, destroying and casting out all that will not yield itself
to Him.

It is thus as One who dwells in the fire, who is a fire, that God
reveals Himself at the opening of this new redemption period. With
Abraham and the patriarchs, as we have said, there had been little
teaching about sin or redemption; the nearness and friendship of God had
been revealed. Now the law will be given, sin will be made manifest, the
distance from God will be felt, that man, in learning to know himself
and his sinfulness, may learn to know and long for God to make him holy.
In all God's revelation of Himself we shall find the combination of the
two elements, the one repelling, the other attracting. In His house He
will dwell in the midst of Israel, and yet it will be in the awful
unapproachable solitude and darkness of the holiest of all within the
veil. He will come near to them, and yet keep them at a distance. As we
study the Holiness of God, we shall see in increasing clearness how,
like fire, it repels and attracts, how it combines into one His infinite
distance and His infinite nearness.

3. But the distance will be that which comes out first and most
strongly. This we see in Moses: he hid his face, for He feared to look
upon God. The first impression which God's Holiness produces is that of
fear and awe. Until man, both as a creature and a sinner, learns how
high God is above him, how different and distant he is from God, the
Holiness of God will have little real value or attraction. Moses hiding
his face shows us the effect of the drawing nigh of the Holy One, and
the path to His further revelation.

How distinctly this comes out in God's own words: 'Draw not nigh hither;
put off thy shoes from off thy feet.' Yes, God had drawn nigh, but Moses
may not. God comes near: man must stand back. In the same breath God
says, Draw nigh, and, Draw not nigh. There can be no knowledge of God or
nearness to Him, where we