Scripture: "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee."—JOHN xvii. 3.
The knowledge of God is absolutely necessary for the spiritual life. It is life eternal. Not the intellectual knowledge we receive from others, or through our own power of thought, but the living, experimental knowledge in which God makes Himself known to the soul. Just as the rays of the sun on a cold win¬ter's day warm the body, imparting its heat to us, so the living God sheds the life-giving rays of His holiness and love into the heart that waits on Him.
How is it we so seldom experience this life-giving power of the true knowledge of God? Because we do not give God time enough to reveal Himself to us. When we pray, we think we know well enough how to speak to God. And we forget that one of the very first things in prayer is to be silent before God, that He may reveal Himself. By His hidden but mighty power, God will manifest His presence, resting on us and working in us. To know God in the personal experience of His presence and love is life indeed.
You have heard of Brother Lawrence. He had a great long¬ing to know God, and for this purpose went into a monastery. His spiritual advisers gave him Prayer Books to use, but he put them aside. It helps little to pray, he said, if I do not know the God to Whom I pray. And he believed that God would reveal Himself. He remained a long time in silent adoration, in order to come under the full impression of the presence of this great and holy Being. He continued in this practice, until later he lived consciously and constantly in God's presence, and experienced His blessed nearness and keeping power. As the sun rising each morning is the pledge of light through the day, so the quiet time waiting upon God, to yield ourselves for Him to shine on us, will be the pledge of His presence and His power resting with us all the day. See! that you be sure that the sun has risen upon your soul.
Learn this great lesson that the sun each day proclaims: As the sun on a cold day shines on us and imparts its warmth, believe that the living God will work in you with His love and His almighty power. God will reveal Himself as life and light and joy and strength to the soul that waits upon Him.
"Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us" (Ps. iv. 6).
"Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. xlvi. 10).
