p. 13 | Too Little Alone With God

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Feb 12, 1914

Too Little Alone With God

WE are far too little alone with God, and this, I am persuaded, is one of the very saddest features in our modern Christian living. It is work, work, work—at the best, some well-meant, Martha-like serving; but where, where are the more devoted Marys, who find the shortest, surest way to the heart of Jesus by ceasing very much from self-willed, self-appointed toils, and sitting humbly at his feet, to let him carry on his blessed work within ourselves? If the Mary-like method were carried out more, it might abridge considerably the amount of work apparently accomplished, but it would incomparably enhance the quality. What though we should lose a hundredweight, and get instead of it only a pound—if the hundredweight lost were only lead, and the pound got were pure gold?

God is not looking for great men. He can use small men. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings he ordains strength. He is not looking for many men; he can get along with a few. He once said that there were too many, but he never said that there were too few. But he does want men; he has taken man into partnership in his work, and does not seem disposed to work without him. When the judgment is to be averted from Jerusalem, he tells the prophet: ‘Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.’—Methodist Times.