REMNANTS OF TIME. 493 whether dwelling in flesh or not, their wishes are exprest in a very different manner, nor do they seek and long to find out an absent God. If we ascend up to heaven and enquire there what are the wishes of those blessed spirits, we shall find that their enjoyments are so glorious and their satisfactions rise so high in the imme- diate presence, of God amongst them, that they have nothing of this nature left to wish for : They know that their God is with them, and all their wish is, what they are assured to enjoy, that this God will be with them. for ever. If we descend to the regions of hell where God reigns in vengeance, we shall hear those unhappy spirits groaning out many a fruitless wish, " O that I knew where I might avoid him, that I might get out of his sight, out of his notice and reach for ever. I feel his dreadful presence, and O that it were possible for me to be utterly absent from him and to find a place where God is not !" If we take the wings of the morning, and fly to the utmost parts of the eastern or the western world, we shall find the lan- guage of those ignorant heathens, " O that I knew where I might find food, and plenty, and all sensual delights !" but they lend not a wish after the great God, though he has been so many ages absent from them and their fathers. He is unknown to them, and they have no desires working in them after an unknown God. If we tarry at home and survey the bulk of mankind around us, the voice of their wishes sounds much the same as that of the heathen world, " O that I knew where I might find trade and merchandise, riches and honours, corn, wine and oil, the neces- cessaries, or the superfluous luxuries of life !" but God is not in all their thoughts. If they frequent the temples and attend the sea- sons of worship, they are well enough satisfied with outward forms without the sight of God in them. There is no natural man that with a sincere longing of soul cries out, " O that I knéw where to find him !" As for the children of God that live in tile light of their Fa- ther's countenance, they walk with him daily and hourly, they behold himnear them by the eye of faith, and they feel the sweet influences of his gracious presence ; their highest ambition and their dearest wishes are, "O that he might abide for ever with me, and keep me for ever near to himself !" The words of this scripture therefore can only be the lan- guage of a saint on earth in distress and darkness, when God who was wont to visit him with divine communications, and to meet him in his addresses to the throne of grace, has withdrawn him - self for a season, and left the soul to grapple with many difficulties alone. ti3
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