Drawing Nigh to God

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 2, 1872

Drawing Nigh to God.

The divine instruction, “Draw nigh to God,” seems very simple, yet it is wonderful. Shall we draw nigh to the Infinite? Shall we approach the throne of Omnipotence? Shall polluted sinners come into the presence of spotless purity? What wonderful condescension is manifest in the command, “Draw nigh to God.” It is too wonderful for us to comprehend; and still it but opens to the soul the supply of its greatest need. It needs instruction, life, purification, communion,—all of which can only be found by coming to God for them. Can the soul bear exposure to the all-searching eye? Can it bear the divine illumination which will show its own appalling character? If shielded by divine forgiveness, can it at last render due gratitude to a sin-pardoning God? Shall not its incompleteness provoke the wrath of him that sitteth upon the throne? Remembering that our completeness is in him who hath redeemed us with his own blood, we may rest secure in him. Hence our approach to God may be in peace and with the most absolute confidence.

There is abundant reason why we should draw nigh to God. We need to be instructed, purified, quickened, and strengthened. All these are found in God through Christ. We need peace and communion to allay our soul’s fear and satisfy the cravings of intelligences formed for holy companionship and immortal existence. We find these, through Christ, in our Father’s presence. In him we find beauty, love, usefulness, happiness, and elevation in the scale of existence. This drawing nigh to God, though averse to the fallen nature of man, accords entirely with his primitive condition; hence he who is stirred by the Spirit banished by the fall, is deeply moved with longing to approach the author of that Spirit,—and well he might be, for there is peace, and true wealth, and salvation in no other. All are lost that stay away from God.

How happy is the condition of him who draws nigh to God and there abides continually. Notice that there is no command to his children to depart from him. There they may abide—there rejoice. What sunshine does his presence afford! What a glorious hope in the light of his countenance! What strength is imparted by his vitality! What consuming of sin, what purifying in his presence! In the sunshine of his grace, irrigated by the streams of life, how does every virtue flourish, and every heavenly fruit grow and ripen. What comfort, what happiness, what security, is afforded! What triumph over sin, what victory over death, and what a glorious hope of immortality cheers him who thus draws nigh to God! Useful in life, victorious in death, he shall at last be richly endowed with eternal life in God’s presence, where there is fullness of joy, and at his right hand, where there are pleasures for evermore.—Religious Telescope.