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1 Kings 19:11-12:
11And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
12And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice [a sound of gentle stillness (I Kings 19:12; R.V. Marg. Reading)].
To be near unto God is by no means always the same in every case, but like everything else that touches the deepest intimacies of life, it is with "one after this manner and with another after that." They who have drifted off in the stream of what they call practical religion, do not feel, or at least do not recognize this, and hence the barrenness in spiritual things, that attends their zeal for works. They are always interested in outside things. They toil and labor zealously for Jesus, but there is so little about them of the gentle stillness in which the hidden walk is enjoyed.
On account of our sin, there is always this fatal one-sidedness, even in holiest things. On one hand mysticism holding itself back in quiet reserve, unable to create a current in the stagnant waters of existence, and on the other hand, the busy worker who is never at rest, and who, in over-zealousness, has at length no more eye nor ear for the ardent intimacy of a saved soul with its God. And therefore the mystic has something to learn from the zealot, and the zealot from the mystic. Only from the impulse of both can soul-satisfying harmony flourish.
By itself, a mystical seeking of the Divine is by no means necessarily Christian. The heathen in Asia practise such mystical seeking even on a broad scale. And though Islam has largely lost it yet Islamism has practised it, and among the Sufi in Persia and the Dervishes in Asia Minor it is still known.
To bear the Christian stamp, nearness to God must be through the Atonement and relationship to the Mediator. "I and the Father will come and make our abode with him" (John 14:23).
This excludes ever deadening uniformity from the method of seeking after God, and of being near unto Him. In this holy domain imitation leads to nothing but self-deception. All mysticism of soul that seeks after God and finds Him, truly rests content in the fixedness and sameness of the unchangeableness of God, but the reflection of this Uniqueness in God, as it casts itself in the human soul, is never just the same, and never can be just the same in every case, because soul differs from soul in nature, disposition and utterance. And, as the very result of this, each soul has its own history from which its own needs and its own talents arise.
It is not correct therefore when from Elijah's experience at the cave you would infer that the Lord reveals Himself only in: "A sound of gentle stillness" (I Kings 19:12; R.V. Marg. Reading). The commission which Elijah received shows this. It was the commission to anoint Jehu, but to that commission was added these words: "Him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay." There has been no bolder fanatic than Jehu.
"Not in the fire and not in the storm, but in a sound of gentle stillness" by no means says that Moses did not find God in the fire at Horeb, nor David in the storm of persecution by Saul. It merely says that for Elijah, at that moment, and in that state of mind and heart in which he then was, the glow must first pale, and the storm in his heart must first spend itself, before he would be able to meet his God, and to receive his prophetic commission, in a sound of gentle stillness. On Carmel was fire and storm; and if ever and anywhere it was on Carmel that Elijah beheld the Majesty of the Lord.
The impossibility of making one rule with regard to being near unto God, which must be valid for all, extends so far, that a selfsame rule for the whole of life, even with one and the selfsame child of God is unthinkable.
He who is old and full of days has known the years of his manly strength, and back of these the years of his youth, and again, preceding these, the days of his childhood.
Now let him speak who during these four periods of his life has known something of the holy, hidden walk with his God, and he is bound to confess that in each one of these four periods of time it was altogether different. In general there was progress; even so; and yet in such a way, that now as man he can sometimes long again for the days when he was a child, and understand what it means that Jesus blessed the children and said: "Of such is the Kingdom of heaven."
It is, therefore, a profanation of what is holy when we who are older have no eye for the peculiar character of the soul-life of a child, and trample down this simplicity, this brightness, this enthusiasm of the child, under the weight of our heavy, insufferable forms. To train a child in spiritual things is first of all to start out from the faith that God also works in this child, at least can work, and that the Holy Spirit doeth this "as he wills" (1 Corinthians 12:2).
In the right sense one can not possibly be father, mother, older sister or brother, yea, even nurse-maid, and especially a teacher of children apart from this spiritual insight. Wrongly understood love for the child singes so much in the child heart that otherwise would bloom luxuriously.
And if it is so with the child, it is not otherwise with the lad and the young maiden. For every period in life there is a particular form of the soul-life, with its own needs. He who understands this educates, trains, supports and strengthens, leads and wins, souls for God. But he who insists on applying the model of his own soul's condition, checks and chokes the growth of other souls.
It is not otherwise with respect to the mighty difference which God has put between man and woman.
Surely, there are men who make you think of women, and there are women who make you think of men, and, especially among women in our times, an ambition gains ground not merely to develop oneself more independently, which is right, but also to obtain this development for oneself in a form like that of the man; which goes against the Divine ordinance.
But apart from these odd characters, every one feels that the soul-life of the woman bears another stamp, and is strung differently by God from that of the man. Perceptions, powers, feelings and talents differ.
The lily is not less than the palm tree, but it has another beauty, another glory received of God. The one sun of God's heaven works differently upon one than upon another plant.
And so it is with respect to being near to God, on the part of the man, and the being near unto God, on the part of the woman. It is the one Sun of righteousness. But it works differently in each case.
The mother, the father, who looks upon son and daughter alike, and does not deal with them differently, spoils, yea sometimes perverts so much in the child that, with more intelligent insight, could flourish gloriously.
Only father and mother together can suffice for the mixed family, and where father or mother falls away, the task of causing the difference in nature and disposition of son and daughter to come to its own is for the remaining one extremely difficult.
In the case of husband and wife, also, this applies, especially when one is farther advanced in the way of salvation than the other.
The godly wife who longs to win the still hesitating husband for God defeats her own purpose when she tries to graft her feminine soul-life upon her husband; and so, likewise, the husband who in order to win his wife for God drives her under the spiritual yoke of his own masculine life, is himself the cause of his bitter disappointment.
Surely, the husband should strengthen the wife spiritually, and accustom her to the storm and the fire, and the wife should chasten the husband spiritually, and accustom him to a sound of gentle stillness, but the main feature of the particular soul-life of each must remain inviolate.
The wife lives in nearness to God differently from the husband.
A similar difference presents itself with respect to the several different conditions in which we find ourselves.
Take the ecclesiastical conflict.
In this conflict there is now a period of necessary, unsparing, strong resistance against what aims to desecrate God's covenant. But afterwards, when victory has been gained, there is a time of rest and peace, and of quiet work for God's kingdom amid the struggle against sin and distress and misery. And how often it is seen that men who in this first period nobly persevered and were full of the Holy Ghost, in a succeeding period of rest and peace lost spirit, visibly weakened, and abandoned their former spiritual viewpoint.
And as it is in the struggle of the Church, so it is in the struggle of our own life, in the backward and forward movement of a mighty rise above our sin and the yielding in the face of too great temptation.
All this creates a difference of condition, of circumstances, of feelings, of experiences of soul; and woe to him who amidst all this has but one string to the harp of his soul.
Our heart has been strung by God with such wondrous richness, that for every turn in life our heart should be able to play another string to the glory of God and for the comforting of our inner man.
Elijah's example shows how God Himself reckons with this, and how, according to the nature of our condition, He approaches our heart from a different angle.
He alone who has a listening ear for this, who adapts and disposes himself to it, and who is inwardly so richly equipped that he seeks God at any gate which in such circumstances his Lord may open to him for holy approach, will feel that "to be near unto God" is not only continuous amid all circumstances, but will in every circumstance also most richly enjoy it.
Now in quiet meditation, now in bitter conflict; now going out, now coming in; but always vital, animating and vigorous.
The seeking on God's part to draw our soul unto Himself and to make it open itself before Him is alternative like the seasons of the year in which nature undergoes the workings of the sun.
And therefore he who spiritually knows but one season of year, becomes impoverished.
He who adjusts himself to the changes which God brings upon him is the wealthy child of the wealthy Father in heaven.
* * * * * * *This devotional classic offers 110 meditations on a single thought from Psalm 73: "As for me, it is good to be near to God." The author states, "The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality ... it must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."
The meditations reflect the blending of spiritual vigor with doctrinal loyalty so consistently expressed in the life of Abraham Kuyper. These are devotions with true substance, avoiding the extremes about which Kuyper adds a word of caution: "Stress in creedal confession, without drinking from the Living Fountain, runs dry in barren orthodoxy, just as truly as spiritual emotion, without clearness in confessional standards, makes one sink in the bog of sickly mysticism."
Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a Dutch political leader and Calvinist theologian. Elected to parliament in 1874, he became Prime Minister in 1901 and served in that capacity until 1905. As a theologian, he revived a systematic, orthodox Calvinism. He founded the Free Reformed Church and the Free University of Amsterdam. His other works include Principles of Sacred Theology, Lectures on Calvinism, and The Work of the Holy Spirit
Further information about Abraham Kuyper's life can be seen in the translator's "Biographical Note"; further information about To Be Near Unto God can be Abraham Kuyper's "Preface" to that book.
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