"The Spirit of God Moved"
By Max Hill
"IN the beginning . . . the Spirit of God moved." When the earth was "without form, and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep," it was God's Spirit that moved, that brought a change. "Moved"—"brooded," one good translation has it. Then there was but the waste, watery material of the earth to be moved, to be formed and divided and made into a fit dwelling-place for the creatures of God's hand. As soon as there were other objects upon which to move, that same Spirit of God moved upon them. Above all, man came under its influence; and from the wonderful day of creation to this hour—until the close of time, and on into the limitless cycles of eternity—the Spirit of God moves. By the movings of the Spirit Enoch "walked with God: and he was not; for God took him"—took him into heaven with Himself. The Spirit of God makes men the friends of God. The Spirit of God in the heart leads men into the presence of God. Noah heard the voice of the Spirit, and preached the gospel to his generation; preached it to jeering multitudes whose very thoughts were only evil continually; preached it when the very years seemed to mock him; preached when friends and relatives spurned the message and turned to the round of pleasure and wickedness; preached in the power of that moving Spirit of God till the Flood came and answered his faith. Abraham was moved to go out from his father's land to a better country, where he and his posterity might serve God aright; and, never doubting, he followed the Spirit's leading, gained the wonderful title of "father of the faithful," and came into possession, by faith, of an inheritance that will one day be the blessed abode of all the ransomed. Thus were the patriarchs and prophets of old guided by the Spirit. By its movings the course of life was marked out, secrets were revealed, the future was made plain as a written scroll. By it the sick have been healed, the dead raised to life, the powers of darkness repelled and defeated. It has led through fire and flood, through sufferings of cross and sword, through trial and death, always to victory—the guide, the teacher, the comforter. Its very last work in this world, and for this world, is definitely told. With the bride of the Lamb, the church of God, it gives the last gospel invitation, "Come." The part of man is to yield to its influence. The rewards of obedience richly repay the sacrifice.