To be near unto God - pagina 81

The angels before God's throne are pictured with wings as seraphs. The Holy Ghost came upon the Son of Man descending like a dove. The secret prayer of the troubled soul is that it That winged might have wings to fly away. creatures should be used as symbols to express what is most tender and affectionate in saintly character, and that boldest imagery should serve to portray what it is "to be near unto God," to make it, as it were, visible to our eyes and perceptible to our feelings, is entirely in keeping with It corresponds to the the order of creation. divinely appointed state of things. It appeals to us

as

altogether

But

natural.

must not be taken too

literally.

this

We

symbolism must be on

our guard lest sickly mysticism interprets holy mysteries to us in a material way. God is Everj^ effort to be in touch with him, Spirit. except in a purely spiritual way, avenges itself.

For it leads either to idolatry which makes an image of God from stone or precious metal, or it loses itself in pantheistic mud, wliich intermingles spirit and matter, and ends in sensual excesses, first defiling and then killing what spirituallj'

began.

But however necessary

it

is

to

maintain the

spirituality of our fellowship with God, it will not do to take spirituality to mean unreality. This, alas, is a common mistake and accounts for much spiritual barrenness. For then we only see what

before our eyes; nature round about us; the blue heavens above us; our body with its several parts; all which we consider real, because they have form, consist of matter, are tangible is

and have actual

existence. 77

Apart

and

distin-

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