June 11

Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? - Micah 6:6.

OF all questions this is the most important and interesting; where shall we find an answer? The world cannot satisfy the inquiry, for the world by wisdom knew not God. Philosophy cannot; it says, It is not in me. Nature says, It is not in me. Providence says, It is not in me. But God has “magnified his word above all his name;” and this blessed book contains the revelation of the mystery; and in words so ample, and in a manner too simple and plain to be misunderstood, tells us that “no man cometh unto the Father” but by him who has announced himself as “the way, the truth, and the life.” We can only come before the Lord and bow before the Most High as we exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us consider this exalted privilege. For “it is with him we have to do” mainly and principally, in the concerns of the soul and eternity. He is not only the greatest and the best of beings, but we are most intimately and perfectly related to him. We derive everything from him; we depend upon him; we are responsible to him. He is the fountain of life, and he must be to us the supreme good. Let us view man in three states with regard to this privilege.

First, We may view him before the fall, and in his original condition. Then he was one altogether with the Lord. He wore his image. He lived in his presence. He enjoyed his smiles, and carried on continual intercourse with him; and he was no more afraid to meet him than a child is afraid to meet the tenderest of fathers and the most endeared of mothers. But ah! how is the “gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed.” This condition was broken up by sin.

Let us, therefore, Secondly, View him in his fallen state; there we see him in a state of alienation or distance from God, in which he is “far off,” penally and morally from God; for when man departed from God in the way of obedience, God departed from man in the way of favour. When the angels sinned they were banished from heaven; when Adam and Eve sinned they were banished from Paradise; and when the Jews transgressed the commandments of the Lord they were exiled from Canaan. All these things are designed to show us that the tendency of sin is to separate between God and us, and hence results our degradation and wretchedness: for, says God, “Woe unto you when I depart from you.”

Thirdly, View man in his renewed state. Here we behold him no longer “without God in the world.” He now feels his need of God. Now he returns to him from whom he has deeply revolted, with weeping and with supplication, saying with the Church, “O Lord, other lords beside thee have had dominion over me, but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.” He not only inquires how he may come before the Lord, and seeks after the enjoyment of this privilege, but he finds him, to the joy and to the rejoicing of his soul.