66

are His," 1 Cor. vi. 20. Enoch, we read, "had this testimony that he pleased God," Heb. xi. 8, a noble testimony, intimating that he did not seek to please himself, as is natural to all, but that, "whether he ate or drank, or whatsoever he did, he did all to the glory of God," 1 Cor. x. 31. We have, in our day, much outward interest in religion. Many and loud are our boastings of the gospel light which we enjoy, and unexampled, confessedly, are the efforts made, both from the pulpit and the press, to disseminate the blessings of evangelical truth, but alas! where is the work actually performed, where the sacrifices made, where the self-denial exercised for the glory of God? "My Father," said Jesus, "worketh hitherto, and I work," John v. 17. God is always working, but those who profess to be His people content themselves either with talking, or giving a mite now and again to some religious society to do their work for them. This is certainly not walking with God. He does not keep his heart for Himself and give His tongue to us. He does not give grudgingly a pittance to some one who will be His deputy in ministering to our wants. He does not satisfy Himself with telling us from day to day how much He loves us, and never interesting Himself for us or our cause. No, God is ever active, earnest, practical, and He will not associate with Him, either here or hereafter, those whose love for Him, and for their fellow-creatures whom he loves, is not sufficiently ardent and impulsive to stimulate them to actual labors and conflicts in His service, and consequently against sin, the world, and Satan, whether in themselves or in those around them. And this leads us to remark that

[3.] Walking with God implies the publication of a faithful testimony against a godless world-of course, by our own example first, as the servants of God have ever done by their separation from it, and their evident citizenship in heaven, Phil iii. 20, but also by a constant and faithful declaration of the counsels of God against sinners, and a kind, yet honest exposure to them of their state and the perils to which they are exposed. This Enoch did in the course of his walk with God. Jude, referring to the evil ones of his day and the judgement impending over them,

imforms us that "Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgement upon all, and convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him," Jude 14, 15. To understand practically the manner in which Enoch identified himself with God in this matter, we have to consider

66

1. His prophetic office. "Enoch prophesied of these," by which we are to understand, as Peter tells us, that he spake not "by his own will," but as " a holy man of God, he spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost," 2 Pet. i. 21. God spoke in him, and what the Lord said to him, that alone he spoke, 1 Kings, xxii. 14. It does not appear that we are authorised to look for the spirit of prophecy now-nor is it needed. We have in the Scriptures a sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well that we take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in our hearts," 2 Pet. i. 19. The prophetic announcements of God's word concerning these latter days are becoming every year increasingly interesting; and as they were with the other scriptures written for our instruction, we cannot, with justice to God's wisdom and love, or to our own spiritual advancement, treat them with neglect. Jehovah moves onward through a clearly defined prophetic path, and we are not walking with Him unless our views of the future, and our steps towards it, are guided by prophetic light; and as God is in our day especially speaking to us in the language of events to which the prophecies are the only key, we can only fairly represent Him in our day and generation, when we are ready to give an answer to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us from the prophetic character and tendency of these very events, as we shall be enabled to do from a prayerful study of God's typical dealings with his people in past times, and the recorded revelations of His purposes regarding the latter days-on which days it is manifest Enoch's eyes were fixed, and in reference to which, his mind was in perfect accordance with the mind of God.

2. His expectation of Christ's coming in the end of "Behold he cometh with ten thousand of

this world. his saints." He too rejoiced to see Christ's day-not only His day of humiliation and suffering, but His day of resurrection glory-not only, observe, the day when He came to "tread the winepress alone," but the day when "He shall come in his glory, and all the boly angels with him," Mat. xxv. 31., and not only the angels, but " a great multitude of His redeemed ones, which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," Rev. vii. 9, who shall then "be caught up to meet Him in the air" as He descends to earth. Who can doubt that this triumphant return of the Son to the scene of His humiliation and sufferings, accords with the mind of God? St. Peter tells us that "the heavens must receive Him until the times of the restitution of all things," but that then "God will send Jesus who has been preached unto us," Acts iii. 19. 20. The expectation of His coming, therefore, is not only highly agreeable to Him, but to His father also; and no one can walk closely with God who does not "look for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the Great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ," Titus ii. 13. Enoch thus walked with God, entering cordially into his far off purposes which he had purposed in Christ Jesus," and exulting to behold in Him a new Head and Fountain of a new human race-the disappearance of sin, the abolishment of the curse, life from the dead, and new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," 2 Pet. iii. 13. Thus, reader, does it become us to accommodate ourselves to God's plans, which shall surely be accomplished, and "to wait for His Son from heaven," 1 Thess. i. 10., rather than to build our hopes upon the inventions of men which have no warrant of Scripture, and which will afford us no solid ground of hope in the day of necessity.

66

66

3. His proclamation of a judgement to come"To execute judgement upon all"—God calls upon every sinner to repent, "because He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised Him from the dead," Acts xvii. 31, and as God

66

66

declares Himself a rigorous judge to those who will not accept of Him in the relation of a Father and Friend, His servants must be prepared to warn the unruly" of coming judgement, as well as to comfort the feeble-minded" with the words of mercy and love, 1 Thess. v. 14. They must, like the great apostle, "reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgement to come," Acts xxiv. 25, before even the Felixes of this world, if perchance they may make some tremble for their sins, and the wrath of an offended God. Some there are who claim to be christians, and yet have so little of the spirit of Christ, as to desire and seek only their own spiritual welfare, regardless of the ruin that impends over the great mass of mankind. Little can such persons sympathize with the tears the compassionate Redeemer shed over the devoted city where bonds and afflictions awaited Him, and hence the general unfaithfulness exhibited towards the openly profane and godless, whom, perhaps, a word of tender warning and reproof spoken in season, might awaken from their perilous lethargy, and alarm them to flee to Jesus in time from the wrath to come. The law of God in this matter is enunciated in singular language: "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him," Lev. xix. 17, wherein it is implied that the indifference to the welfare of others must amount to hatred, which can behold human beings rushing down the broad way of destruction, and make no attempt to arrest their fatal career by a word of faithful and timely reproof; and yet such conduct is not only practised, but even defended- 66 Why should we interfere with others? We have enough to do to take care of ourselves "_" It is nothing to us "-" O, they would not listen to us"- They might think us intrusive ""They have their Bibles, and it is the duty of their ministers to warn them"- "It would not be polite to tell people what we think of them." These and sundry other pleas are offered for the neglect of a positive duty; but do those who invent them walk with God? Are they faithful as His servant Enoch was? The fact is, that the offence of the cross has ceased-christianity is now brought under the laws of etiquette and worldly refinement, and it would be con

sidered uncourteous and illiberal to infer that any of our acquaintances, however unscriptural their creed or ungodly their lives, were not very good christians, and must not be acceptable to God. To believe this, or to act as if we believed it, is to walk according to the course of this world-not to walk with God.

4. Walking with God, as representing the spiritual state of the person so employed, supposes"You

(1). Life. The being spiritually quickened. hath he quickened," says St. Paul to the believing Ephesians, "who were dead in trespasses and sins," Eph. ii. 1, a state of spiritual resurrection-" Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life," Rom. vi. 4. Of course, without life there could be no motion, and without spiritual life no walking with God.

(2.) Light. Spiritual illumination. "Ye do err, " said our Lord to the Sadducees, that is, wander from God the source of truth, "because ye know not the Scriptures nor the power of God," Mat. xxii. 29. "If we say," says St. John, "that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth," 1 John i. 6. None, therefore, can walk with God, who are not enlightened by His Holy Spirit and by the knowledge of His word.

(3.) Activity. I have already shewn that God is a worker, and they who are invited to walk with Him are offered the privilege of being fellow-workers with God, 2 Cor. vi. 1. That walking with God involves active service, may be shewn from many passages of Scripture for example, God said to Jeroboam, "If thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, &c., 1 Kings xi. 38, and Paul prayed for the Colossians "that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work," Col. i. 10. But the point is too obvious to need further illustration.

(4.) Progress going on unto perfection, Heb. vi. 1. The term walking supposes this: it means neither standing still nor retreating, but pursuing an onward course. The walk of the believer is from earth to heaven-from the carnal to the spiritual-from the world to Christ-it is like the "shining light that