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TUE
SOUL
DRAWING
NEAR TO GOD.
ESERM.
Y..
vance
thine honour:" The
soul grows weaned
from
self
at
such
at. a
time; it breaks out of
the narrow
circle
of
self,
when
it
gets nigh to
God.
If
it thinks
of
the mi-
nistry or
of
ordinances,
"
Lord, let
that
ministry
be
for
the
advancement
of
thy
name
!
Lord, let these ordi-
nanees
be
for the
increase of
thy.glory
in
the
world, for
the
advancement
of
grace
in
my
.heart,
and
bring
me
nearer
to
heaven
!
If
it
thinks
of
the
kingdom, or the
parliament,
powers
or
princes
in
this
world,'
it
is
with
this
design,
that God
may
be glorified in
the courts
of
princes,.
and
in
parliaments, and honoured
in
armies
and
nations
known
and unknown."
Thus
the
soul always
keeps within sight
of
.God
:
it
still keeps
all
its designs
'within
the circle
of
God, and
aims still
at
the
glories
of
its
Heavenly Father.
If
it
thinks
of
life
or
of
death,
".
I
would
not
ask
life, says
the saint,
but
to glorify thee.;
nor
death,
but
to glorify
thee
better, and
to enjoy More
of
thee."
Thus
when the
soul
is
near-to;
:God,
it
is
in
a
divine
light
that it
sees all
things,
it
is
still
with
a
'design
for
God;
and
when
it indulges the thoughts toward any
creature, it
is
without turning aside
a.
moment
from its
God. Thus carnal
things
are taken into the
mind,
and
spiritualized
by
the presence
of God,
the
infinite
.Spirit,
when
the
soul
approaches
so
near
to
his
seat.
VI. There
will
then.
be a
fixedness
of heart
in duty
without wandering, and
liveliness
without
tiring.
At
other
times
of
common
and usual'
worship, when
the
saint
is
in
too
formal
and too cold
a frame,
the,'heart
roves
perpetually, and
is
soon
weary; but
when
we
get
near
to God,
then
we
have
a little
emblem
of heaven
within
us,
where they worship
God
day
and
night, with-
out interruption,
and without
weariness.
When
we
wait
upon
God
at
this rate,
we are
sill
mounting
up
higher
and
higher, as with eagles'
wings
;
we
walk first
without
fainting, and
then run without
wearying,
at
last,
we
fly
as
an
eagle,
and make haste
to the
fuller
possession
of
Our
God;
Is.
xl.
St.
The
soul
is
then
detained
in
the
presence
of
God
with overpowering
delight,
and
it
can-
not
be
taken
away from the
object of
its
dearest
satisface
tion.
This
is
a
joy
above
all
other
joys, above all the
joys
of
sense,
above
all
the joys
of
the intellectual world
that
are not
divine
and
holy.
There
are
seme..pleasure4