When we say,
'Prepare to meet thy God,' we mean 'Prepare to die;' as if we did not
meet our God every time we had the choice between doing a right thing
and doing a wrong one--between yielding to our own lusts and tempers,
and yielding to the Holy Spirit of God. For if the Holy Spirit of
God be, as the Christian faith tells us, God indeed, do we not meet
God every time a right, and true, and gracious thought arises in our
hearts? But we have all forgotten this, and much more connected with
this; and our notion of this world is not that of Holy Scripture--of
that grand 104th Psalm, for instance, which sets forth the Spirit of
God as the Lord and Giver of life to all creation: but our notion is
this--that this world is a machine, which would go on very well by
itself, if God would but leave it alone; that if the course of
nature, as we atheistically call it, is not interfered with, then
suns shine, crops grow, trade flourishes, and all is well, because
God does not visit the earth. Ah! blind that we are; blind to the
power and glory of God which is around us, giving life and breath to
all things,--God, without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground,--
God, who visiteth the earth, and maketh it very plenteous,--God, who
giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not,--God, whose ever-
creating and ever-sustaining Spirit is the source, not only of all
goodness, virtue, knowledge, but of all life, health, order,
fertility.
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