Which, for instance, was the happier man--which the man who was the more
recompensed in the earth this very day--the poor man who went for his
Sunday walk into the country, thinking of little but the sins and the
follies of the week past, and probably of the sins and the follies of the
week to come; or the man who went with a clear conscience, and had the
heart to thank God for the green grass, and the shining river, and the
misty mountains sleeping far away, and notice the song of the birds, and
the scent of the flowers, as a little child might do, and know that his
Father in heaven had made all these?
Yes, my friends, Christ is very near us, though our eyes are holden by
our own sins, and therefore we see Him not. But just in proportion as a
man walks with God, just in proportion as the eyes of his soul are opened
by the Spirit of God, he recovers, I believe, the privilege which Adam
lost when he fell. He hears the Word of the Lord walking among the trees
of the garden in the cool of the day; and instead of trying, like guilty
Adam, to hide himself from his Maker, answers, with reverence and yet
with joy, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.
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