Part 1 (2/2)

Through lack of use he lost the power of _speaking_ the old words. His tongue grew thick. It lost its cunning. And so gradually almost all the old meanings were lost.

G.o.d has always been eager to get to talking with man again. The silence is hard on Him. He is hungry to be on intimate terms again with his old friend. Of course he had to use a language that man could understand.

Jesus is G.o.d spelling Himself out so man can understand. He is the A and the Z, and all between, of the Old Eden language of love.

Naturally enough man had a good bit of bother in spelling Jesus out. This Jesus was something quite new. When His life spoke the simple language of Eden again, the human heart with selfishness ingrained said, ”That sounds good, but of course He has some selfish scheme behind it all. This purity and simplicity and gentleness can't be genuine.” n.o.body yet seems to have spelled Him out fully, though they're all trying: All on the spelling bench. That is, all that have heard. Great numbers haven't heard about Him yet. But many, ah! _many_ could get enough, yes, _can_ get enough to bring His purity into their lives and sweet peace into their hearts.

But there were in His days upon earth some sticklers for the old spelling forms. Not the oldest, mind you. Jesus alone stands for that. This Jesus didn't observe the idioms that had grown up outside of Eden. These people had decided that these old forms were the only ones acceptable. And so they disliked Him from the beginning, and quarrelled with Him. These idioms were dearer to them than life--that is, than _His_ life. So having quarrelled, they did _worse_, and then--softly--_worst_. But even in their worst, Jesus was G.o.d spelling Himself out in the old simple language of Eden. His best came out in their worst.

Some of the great nouns of the Eden tongue--the _G.o.d_ tongue--He spelled out big. He spelled out _purity_, the natural life of Eden; and _obedience_, the rhythmic harmony of Eden; and _peace_, the sweet music of Eden; and _power_, the mastery and dominion of Eden; and _love_, the throbbing heart of Eden. It was in biggest, brightest letters that _love_ was spelled out. He used the biggest capitals ever known, and traced each in a deep dripping red, with a new spelling--s-a-c-r-i-f-i-c-e.

<u>Jesus is G.o.d, following us up.</u>

You see, the heart of G.o.d had been breaking--_is_ breaking over the ways things have been going down on this planet. Folk fail to understand Him.

Worse yet, they misunderstand Him, and feel free to criticize Him. n.o.body has been so much slandered as G.o.d. Many are utterly ignorant of Him. Many others who are not ignorant yet ignore Him. They turn their faces and backs. Some give Him the cut direct. The great crowd in every part of the world is yearning after Him: piteously, pathetically, most often speechlessly yearning, blindly groping along, with an intense inner tug after Him. They know the yearning. They feel the inner, upward tug. They don't understand what it is for which they yearn, nor what will satisfy.

For man was made to live in closest touch with G.o.d. That is his native air. Out of that air his lungs are badly affected. This other air is too heavy. It's malarial, and full of gases and germy dust. In it he chokes and gasps. Yet he knows not why. He gropes about in the night made by his own shut eyes. He doesn't seem to know enough to open them. And sometimes he _will_ not open them. For the hinge of the eyelid is in the will. And having shut the light out, he gets tangled up in his ideas as to what _is_ light. He puts darkness for light, and light for darkness.

Once man knew G.o.d well; close up. And that means _loved_, gladly, freely.

For here to know is to love. But one day a bad choice was made. And the choice made an ugly kink in his will. The whole trouble began there. A man sees through his will. That is his medium for the transmission of light.

If it be twisted, his seeing, his understanding, is twisted. The twist in the will regulates the twist in the eye. Both ways, too, for a good change in the will in turn changes the eyes back to seeing straight. He that is willing to do the right shall clearly see the light.

But that first kink seems to have been getting worse kinked ever since.

And so man does not see G.o.d as He is. Man is cross-eyed G.o.dward, but doesn't know it. Man is color-blind toward G.o.d. The blue of G.o.d's truth is to him an arousing, angering red. The soft, soothing green of His love becomes a noisy, irritating yellow. n.o.body has been so much misunderstood as G.o.d. He has suffered misrepresentation from two quarters: His enemies and His friends. More from--which? Hard to tell. Jesus is G.o.d trying to tell men plainly what He is really like.

The world turned down the wrong lane, and has been going that way pell-mell ever since. Yet so close is the wrong lane to the right that a single step will change lanes. Though many results of being in the wrong lane will not be changed by the change of lanes. It takes time to rest up the feet made sore by the roughness of the wrong lane. And some of the scars, where men have measured their length, seem to stay.

The result of that wrong turning has been pitiable. _Separation from G.o.d_, so far as _man_ could make separation. There is no separation on G.o.d's part. He has never changed. He remains in the world, but because of man's turning his face away, He remains as a stranger, unrecognized. He remains just where man left Him. And any one going back to that point in the road will find Him standing waiting with an eager light glistening in His eyes.

_No_! That's not accurate. He is _a bit nearer_ than ever He was. He is following us up. He is only a step off. Jesus is G.o.d eagerly following us up.

<u>The Early Eden Picture.</u>

But one will never get to understand this Jesus until he gets a good look at man as he was once, and as he is now. The key to understanding Jesus is man, even as Jesus is the key to G.o.d. One must use both keys to get into the inner heart of G.o.d. To get hold of that first key one must go back to the start of things. The old Book of G.o.d opens with a picture that is fascinating in its simplicity and strength. There is an unfallen man. He is fresh from the hand of G.o.d, free of scar and stain and shrivelling influence. He is in a garden. He is walking hand in hand with G.o.d, and working side by side with G.o.d: friends.h.i.+p and partners.h.i.+p. Friends in spirit: partners in service.

The distinctive thing about the man is that he is _like G.o.d_. He and G.o.d are alike. In this he differs from all creation. He is G.o.d's link between Himself and His Creation. Particular pains is taken by repet.i.tion and change of phrase to make clear and emphatic that it was in the very image of G.o.d that man was made. Just what does it mean that we men were made in G.o.d's likeness? Well, the thing has been discussed back and forth a good bit. Probably we will not know fully till we know as we are known. In the morning when we see Him we shall be like Him fully again. Then we'll know.

_That_ morning's sun will clear up a lot of fog. But a few things can be said about it now with a positiveness that may clear the air a bit, and help us recognize the dignity of our being, and behave accordingly.

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