It is not enough to know that God exists, True itis a long step forward when man has come to see that the Sun, the Moon and the Stars are not, gods, but only the creatures of God: that the winds are not God, but His messengers; that the flaming fires are not God, but only His ministers. But the knowledge that God is a being apart from the world and independent of it.. Creator and not created—although that knowledge renders worship possible, will not of itself evoke it. Worship is not born in response to bare abstract ideas of the Supreme Being, however adequate or true they may be, Worship only comes when that being is revealed in a relationship to man, and this relationship and the manner of itis set forth in the qualifying clause, "I am the Lord Thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" Here we see the Creator not only revealed as God—a being that can be worshipped but in a personal [relationship to Israel, He is their God, a Saviour, and as such He inspires the worship He desires. Rejvelation and deliverance went hand jin hand. As we study the history of Israel, we see a growing revelation of the person of God and of His power, He is manifested as able and willing to deliver His people, ever in worship and communion. Each fresh instance of His saving power put fresh content into those words in which the first commandment is given to them, "I am the Lord Thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, thou shalt have no other gods before me." Surely this is not difficult to understand, Can we not look back and see that in a very real way our trials and our hardships, things we found so difficult to understand at the time, were in reality both a revelation and a blessing? How in many an hour of trial we learned to know God in a deeper and richer way, and our apparent loss was in reality great gain.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.