Our Unavoidable God

Walking With God by Costen J. Harrell (1928)

“The wrath of man shall praise thee.” Psalm 76: 10

God rules! Man may labor to set at naught his law, but notwithstanding, his providence orders the world. Sometimes when men sin most shamefully he turns their sin to his own glory. No crime among men can for dastardly meanness quite equal Judas’s betrayal of his Lord. Yet through the treachery of a disciple the depths of divine love were revealed on Calvary, and the fountains of grace opened wide for all mankind. God made the most dastardly crime to serve his end. We have often thought of how the goodness of man praises God, but we have not so often thought that he is so securely on his throne that he turns the wrath of man to his glory.
One of the persistent facts in the history of nations is that God is always taking control of the godless plans of men and using them to serve his purposes. The Romans built some twenty centuries ago an empire around the Mediterranean. They did it for no holy purpose. The empire was stupidly wicked. But the fact that the Western World, as it was then known, was unified under one government made it possible for the first missionaries of Christianity to reach the whole of the civilized world. Through the unity of the Roman Empire the Christian faith gained a foothold in the western World from which it has never been shaken. Down the highways, built for the swift movement of Roman legions, went the preachers of the cross proclaiming the gospel of the Nazarene. God used Caesar’s military map to spread the reign of the Prince of Peace.
The Mayflower which brought the Pilgrim Fathers to America “went on her next trip for a load of slaves.” Nevertheless, God through the iniquity of the slave-trade brought the black man under the influence of the gospel. Through his unchristian bonds the bondman learned of our liberty in Christ, and he may yet be the instrument of grace for the redemption of the Dark Continent.
The godless man suffers the consequences of his sin; he falls out of the line of God’s triumphant hosts. But our sovereign God will not let the sins of men prevent him from carrying out his purpose for mankind.
“Through the ages one increasing purpose runs,” and our wickedness cannot stop it. Alas for the man who rebels against God! His rebellion avails nothing except the loss of his soul, while the kingdom goes marching on. Nothing can dim God’s glory! Nothing can overrule his final purpose for mankind. He makes even the wrath of man to praise him. “Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and thought the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!”

WALKING WITH GOD / FOREWARD

Walking With God by Costen J. Harrell (1928)

This volume is not a plea for or an illustration of abbreviated pulpit discourses. Its genesis will best explain its purpose.
For some years it has been the custom of the author to prepare for his Church bulletin each Sunday a short interpretation of some phase of our Christian faith. Three purposes have guided him from week to week: to write briefly, so that the busiest might find time to read what had been written; to write simply, so that any reader might understand; to write vitally, so that every reader might be helped to a more intimate walk with God. From a much larger collection of material sixty selections have been made and sent forth in this little volume with the hope that they may do for a wider circle of readers what they were originally meant to do for the writer’s congregation.
The author acknowledges his indebtedness to his long-time friend, Dr. Alfred Allan Kern, of Randolph-Macon Women’s College, Lynchburg, who read the manuscript and made not a few suggestions as to forms of expression.
Costen J. Harrell.
The Study, Epworth Church,
Norfolk, Va., November 18, 1927.

Rooted In the Shadows

Walking With God by Costen J. Harrell (1928)

“He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was to come, he was there alone.” Matthew 14:23


Some months ago, in the late autumn, the writer was in the hothouse of one of our florist. We were in the cellar, and in the dimly lighted place one could see arranged in regular file long rows of flower pots. The florist explained that in these pots had been planted the bulbs for their winter flowers. It was best for them, he said, that they be rooted in the dark. Not in the glaring sunlight, but in the subdued shadows their life-giving roots were putting forth. They would be ready for the open day a little later. Then their gay colors would cheer many hearts. Then their sweet perfumes would laden the winter air. Rooted in the shadows to bloom in the light!
It is with human life as with flowers. How often it is recorded by the evangelists that Jesus retired from the multitude to a secluded place! He loved men and found joy in their companionship. He never wearied of ministering to their necessities. Matthew records that the Lord had spent a busy day. A great throng had followed him — five thousand in number, besides women and children. He healed them and taught them, and as the day was drawing to its close he miraculously fed them. What a wonderful ministry! “And when he had sent the multitude away, he went up into the mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.” Here is written one of the sweetest secrets of his life and labors. In the shadows of the evening the Divine Son was alone with his Father. Through retirement in the secret place he kept his life in tune with his Father’s will. In the quiet hour he prepared himself for the busy hour.
This same Jesus saith to us, “Enter into thy closet and … shut the door.” Life cannot come to its best if it is spent always in the rush of things. Every one needs to be alone at some time during every day. The needs of the spirit require a secret place where we may calm our souls in the presence of God, meditate on things worth while, think through our problems, sweeten our tempers, and warm our hearts in the love of God. Have a trysting place with God, and let it be said of you, “When the evening was come he was there alone.” Faith puts forth her tender shoots in the secret place.
There is reason to fear that we are forgetting how to meditate. The haste of our modern life militates against it. We love the garish day. Much of our Christianity is a sickly bloom because we have no quiet place in which the root of faith may grow. We meet the day’s temptations before we are ready for them. We undertake to lead others before we have mastered ourselves. We try to force the bloom before we have rooted ourselves in Jesus Christ. Return, O soul, to the secret place and linger there. A godly life, like the flowers, is rooted in the shadows to bloom in the light.