“Is God In the Camp?”

"Is God In the Camp?"

(No. 2239)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 17, 1892,

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL
9, 1891.

"And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the
camp. And they said, Woe unto us! For there has not been such a thing
before" 1 Samuel 4:7.

ISRAEL was out of gear with God. The people had forgotten the Most High
and had gone aside to the worship of Baal. They had neglected the
things of God and, therefore, they were given up to their enemies. When
Jehovah had brought them out of Egypt, He instructed them how they were
to live in the land to which He would bring them, and warned them that
if they forsook Him, they would be chastened. His words were very
plain–"If you will not, for all this, hearken unto Me, but walk
contrary unto Me; then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and
I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins." In fulfillment
of this threat, the Philistines had been Divinely permitted to make
great havoc of the idolatrous Israelites and to hold them in cruel
slavery.

The only way for them to get out of their trouble was to return to God,
who, by His judgments, seemed to say, "Hear you the rod, and who has
appointed it." The only cure for their hurt was to go back with
repentance and renew their faith and their covenant with God. Then all
would have been right. But this is the last thing that men will do! Our
minds, by nature, love not spiritual things. We will attend to any
outward duty, or to any external rite–but to bring our hearts into
subjection to the Divine will, to bow our minds to the Most High and to
serve the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul–the natural
man abhors! Yet nothing less than this will suffice to turn our
captivity.

Instead of attempting to get right with God, these Israelites set about
devising superstitious means of securing the victory over their foes.
In this respect, most of us have imitated them. We think of a thousand
inventions, but we neglect the one thing necessary. I may be addressing
some who, at this time, are passing through sore trials and who,
therefore, think that they must have forgotten some little thing in
connection with external religion, instead of seeing that it matters
little what outward observance they may neglect, so long as they do not
possess the faith, without which, it is impossible to please God! They
forgot the main matter, which is to enthrone God in the life and to
seek to do His will by faith in Christ Jesus. Get right with God!
Confess your sin! Believe in Jesus Christ, the appointed Savior! Be
reconciled to God by the death of His Son–then all will be right
between you and the Father in Heaven. We cannot bring men to this,
apart from the Spirit of God.

In this sermon I shall have to show you how often and in how many ways
men seek other methods of cure than the only one, namely, to take the
case to God. They heal their hurt slightly. They cry, "Peace! Peace!"
where there is no peace, and adopt a thousand devious devices rather
than accept the only remedy provided by the Great Physician for
sin-sick souls. Instead of seeking to become right with God, these
Israelites thought that if they could get the Ark of the Covenant,
which had been the symbol of Jehovah's Presence, and bring it from the
tent of Shiloh into the midst of their camp, they would then be certain
of victory. So they sent and fetched the Ark–and when it came into the
camp, they were enthusiastic as if their banners already waved over a
victorious host! They lifted up their voices so loudly that the earth
rang, again, with their shouts, while the Philistines, hearing their
exulting shout and finding out the reason, were greatly afraid. With
fearful hearts and trembling lips, already counting that all was lost,
their enemies turned to one another and said, "God has come into the
camp. Woe unto us! For there has not been such a thing before."

In considering this subject, we will think, first, of the great mistake
which both Israel and the Philistines made. In the second place, we
will consider the great truth of which their mistake was a caricature.
God does come into the camp when

His people go forth to fight in His name. And when He really comes, the
tide of battle is turned. When I have spoken on these two things, I
shall close, as God shall help me, by speaking upon the great lessons
which lie almost upon the very surface of the narrative.

I. First, then, let us consider THE GREAT MISTAKE which both the
Israelites and Philistines made. The Israelites, instead of seeing to
God, Himself, went to Shiloh to fetch the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark
was the sacred place where God revealed Himself in the days when His
people truly served Him. But it was devoid of power without the
Presence of Him who dwelt between the cherubim. The Israelites were
mistaken, for they shouted long before they were "out of the woods."
Before they had won any victory, the sight of the Ark made them
boastful and confident. The Philistines fell into an error of a
different kind, for they were frightened without any real cause. They
said, "God has come into the camp," whereas God had not come at all! It
was only the Ark with the cherubim on it–God was not there.

The mistake they made was just this–they mistook the visible for the
invisible. It has pleased God, even in our holy faith, to give us some
external symbols–water, bread and wine. They are so simple that it
seems, at first sight, as if men could never have made them objects of
worship, or used them as instruments of a kind of witchcraft. One would
have thought that these symbols would only have been like windows of
agate and gates of carbuncle through which men would behold the Savior
and draw near to Him. Instead, some have neither looked through the
windows nor passed through the gates, but have ascribed to the gates
and the windows that which is only to be found in Him who is behind
them both! It is sad, indeed, when the symbol takes the place of the
Savior!

Man is by nature both an atheist and an idolater. These are two shades
of the same thing. We need, if we worship at all, something that we can
see. But a God that can be seen is no God–and so the idolater is first
cousin to the atheist. He has a god which is not god, for he cannot be
a god if he can be apprehended by human senses. This Ark of the
Covenant, which was but a chest of wood covered with gold, with angelic
figures on the lid, was simply a token of the Presence of God with His
people. But these Israelites transformed it into a sacred object, to be
highly reverenced, to be worshipped and, as it appears, to be trusted
in. The elders said, "Let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord
out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it comes among us, it may save us out
of the hand of our enemies." They ascribed to the Ark what could only
be done by God, Himself!

This is the tendency of us all. Anything which we can see, we pine
after. Hence we lean upon the arm of flesh! We trust in man, though it
is written plainly enough, "Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and
makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord." Yet, we
still need some symbol, some token, something before our eyes–and if
it can be something artistic, so much the better! We lay hold of
something beautiful that will charm the eyes and produce a kind of
sensuous feeling and, straightway, we mistake our transient emotion for
spiritual worship and true reverence! This is the great mistake that
many still make–they think that God has come into the camp merely
because some outward religious rite or ceremony has been observed–or
because some sacred shrine has been set up among them.

These Israelites fell into another mistake which is also often made
today–they preferred office to character. In their distress, instead
of calling upon God, they sent for Hophni and Phinehas. Why did their
hearts turn to them? Simply because they were priests and the people
had come to hold the sacred office in such superstitious reverence that
they thought that was everything! But these young men were exceedingly
great sinners against the Lord–they were not even moral men, much less
spiritual men! They made the House of God to be abhorred and dishonored
the Lord before all Israel. Yet, because they happened to hold the
office of the priesthood, they were put in the place of God.

Dear Friends, this is a kind of feeling which many indulge. They think
they shall be saved if they have a Levite for their priest! They
imagine that the worship of God must be conducted properly because the
man who conducts it is in the Apostolic succession and has been duly
ordained! You shall see a man eminent for the holiness of his life, for
the disinterestedness of his character, for the fidelity of his
preaching, for his power in prayer, for the blessing that rests upon
his ministry in the conversion of sinners–but he is counted a mere
nobody because he lacks the superstitious qualification which deluded
men think is so necessary! Here are Hophni and Phinehas, two of the
grossest sinners in all the land of Is-rael–but then, you see, they
are in the line of Aaron and so they are trusted–and, indeed, are put
in the place of God!

Now, God forbid that we should say a word against the house of Aaron,
or against any who speak the name of the Lord whom God has truly called
unto His work! But, Beloved, this work is not a mere matter of
pedigree–it is a question of the abiding Presence of God with man and
in a man! Unless God is with the minister whom you hear, to what

purpose do you listen? If the leader of the Church is not one who walks
with God, where will he lead you? "If the blind lead the blind, both
shall fall into the ditch." The blind man may wear a badge on his arm
to show that he is a certified guide, but will you be saved from the
ditch simply because he belongs to the order of guides and has his
certification with him? Be not led away by any such vain notion! Yet
this is the error into which many have fallen in all ages of the
Church.

But these people who faced the Philistines made another mistake–they
confused enthusiasm with faith. When they saw the Ark, they shouted so
that the earth rang again. "These are the kind of people I like," says
one, "people that can shout." If that is all you need, why do you not
go among the bulls of Bashan and make your home in the midst of them?
They can make more noise than any mortal men can make. These Israelites
shouted, but there was nothing in their noise any more than there is in
their modern imitators! Anyone who had passed the camp of Israel, that
day, might have said that they had "a bright, cheerful, happy service;
just the kind of service the people like–you know–nothing dull about
it." Listen! How the glad sound rises! Surely these people must have
great faith! No, they had not a scrap of the real article! They were
mistaken all the time and, shout as they might, they had very little to
shout about–for in a short time their carcasses strewed the plain! The
Philistines put an end to their shouting.

Now, Beloved, when you are worshipping God, shout if you are filled
with holy gladness. If the shout comes from your heart, I would not ask
you to restrain it. God forbid that we should judge any man's worship!
But do not be so foolish as to suppose that because there is loud noise
there must also be faith! Faith is a still water–it flows deep. True
faith in God may express itself with leaps and shouts–and it is a
happy thing when it does–but it also sits still before the Lord and
that, perhaps, is a happier thing, still. Praise can sit silent on the
lips and yet be heard in Heaven. There is a passion of the heart too
deep for words. There are feelings that break the backs of words–the
mind staggers and trembles beneath the weight of them! Frost of the
mouth often comes with thaw of the soul and when the heart's great
deeps are breaking up, it sometimes happens that the mouth is not large
enough to let the torrents flow–and so it has to be comparatively
silent. Do not, therefore, make the mistake of confusing enthusiasm
with faith in judging the externals of worship! Otherwise you may fall
into a thousand blunders!

He may worship God who shouts till the earth rings, again, and God may
accept him, but he may worship God as truly who sits in silence before
the Most High and says not even a word. It is the spiritual worship
which is most acceptable to God, not the external in any shape or form.
It is the heart that has fellowship with the Lord and it needs little
in the way of expressing itself–neither has God tied it down to this
way or that. It may find its own methods of utterance so long as it is
truly "moved by the Holy Spirit."

Another mistake these people made that day was this–they valued
novelty above Scriptural order. "The Philistines were afraid, for they
said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! For there
has not been such a thing before." The Israelites probably made the
same mistake, fixing their hope on this new method of fighting the
Philistines which they hoped would bring them victory. We are all so
apt to think that the new plan of going to work will be much more
effective than those that have become familiar–but it is not so. It is
generally a mistake to exchange old lamps for new. "There has not been
such a thing before." There is a glamour about the novelty which
misleads us and we are liable to think the newer is the truer. If there
has not been such a thing before, some people will take to it, at once,
for that very reason. "Oh," says the man who is given up to change,
"that is the thing for me!" But it is probably not the thing for a
true-hearted and intelligent Christian, for if, "there has not been
such a thing before," it is difficult to explain if the thing is a good
one, because the Holy Spirit, who has been with the people of God since
Pentecost, and who came to lead us into all the Truth of God, has not
led the Church of God to this before.

If your new discovery is the mind of God, where have the Holy
Scriptures been all these centuries? Believing in the Infallible Word
and the abiding Spirit, I rather suspect your novelty–at least I
cannot say that I endorse it until I have tested it by the Word of God.
"Oh, but we had such a meeting! There never was the like of it," you
say. Probably you ought to pray that there may never be the like of it
again, for, after all, the meetings in which hearts become broken
before God–and in which men believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the same
Savior who saved their forefathers, who have entered into Glory–are no
novelty! Those meetings in which men come and give themselves up to
God, where "the great transaction" is done, where they become the
Lord's and He becomes theirs, are very old-fashioned things–they have
been before.

"We have heard with our ears, O God. Our fathers have told us what work
You did in their days, in the times of old." And if we could only see
the same, we would not ask to be able to say, "There has not been such
a thing before." Philistines may like a thing that has not been before,
but we like the thing that has been since the days of Pentecost, the
things that come from Him who is "the same yesterday, and today, and
forever"–the workings of that God who changes not, "with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning." Let Him work His blessed will
and if He chooses to send a new thing on the earth, we will glorify His
name! But because there are new things in the world, we will not
ascribe them to Him, for they may come from quite another quarter. We
remember that, "Lo, here is Christ, or there!" was the cry against
which our Lord warned His disciples! Concerning such a cry, the Savior
said, "Believe it or not." To you, dear Friends, I would say–"Stand
fast by your great Leader, the blessed, unchangeable Christ, and by the
faith once and for all delivered to the saints, or else you will be on
the road to a thousand blunders!"

The mistake made on that battlefield is a mistake which nowadays is
frequently imitated. It assumes many forms. We fall into their error
when we confuse ritual and spirituality. Now, every form of religion
has its ritual. The Quaker, who sits still and does not say a word, has
a ritual so far. And he that has a thousand rites and ceremonies has a
ritual so much farther. But if I have gone through the general routine
of the worship of my Church and then think that I have done something
acceptable to God, while yet my heart has not communed with Him in
humble repentance, or faith, or love, or joy, or consecration, I make a
great mistake! You may keep on with your religious performances for 70
years or more. You may never miss what our Scotch friends call, "a diet
of worship." You may not neglect a single rubric in the whole
ritual–but it is all nothing unless the soul has fellowship with God!
Godliness is a spiritual thing, for, "God is a Spirit; and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."

So far as our forms or worship help us towards this spiritual
communion, they are good, but no farther. "Oh, well," says one, "I
never worship beneath a cathedral roof. I am quite content to meet with
a few friends in a barn." Do not suppose, my Friend, that the
meagerness of your accessories has necessarily secured true worship! If
you have met God in the barn, it is well. And if your brother has met
God in the right spirit, I care but little for your barn, and I care
even less for his cathedral. What does it matter how you have garnished
your offering if it is not a living sacrifice, acceptable to God by
Jesus Christ? A dead thing must not be brought to the altar of God!
Remember, that under the Jewish law, they never offered fish upon the
altar because they could not bring it there alive. Everything brought
to God as a sacrifice must be alive. Its blood must be poured out warm
at the altar's foot. Oh that you and I might feel that lifting of the
soul to God and that buoyancy of heart which true spiritual worship
alone can bring to us! May our ritual, whether we have much or little,
be our guide to God and not our chain to hold us back from God!

We fall into the same blunder that the Israelites and the Philistines
made if we consider orthodoxy to be salvation. We have secured much
that is worth keeping when we have, intellectually and intelligently,
laid hold on that Divinely-revealed Truth of God, "the Gospel of the
Grace of God." But we have not obtained everything even then. O Sirs,
if it were possible for you to believe every word of Christ's teaching.
If it were possible to hold with only an intellectual faith the
teaching of the Apostles, rejecting all besides, and to hold it with an
accuracy so great that in no jot or tittle you had made a mistake, it
would profit you nothing! For "except a man be born again, he cannot
see the Kingdom of God." He may understand these things so as to be a
theologian, but he must have them worked into his soul by the Holy
Spirit so as to make him a saint, or else he has not really understood
them at all!

Unless these are your meat and your drink, they are nothing to you.
Unless you find Christ in them, you will find in them your ruin–they
shall be the "savor of death" to you. Remember, it was a beautiful tomb
in which the dead Christ was laid, but He left it, and there was
nothing there but grave clothes after He had gone. And, in like manner,
the best-constructed system of theology, if it has not Christ in it,
and if he who holds it is not, himself, spiritually alive, it is
nothing more than a tomb in which are trappings for the dead! It is
nothing better than a gilded ark, without the Presence of God and,
although you may shout and say, "God is come into the camp," it will
not be so.

We fall into the same error if we regard routine as security and think
that because we have often done a thing, and have not suffered for it,
therefore it will always be well with us. We are all such creatures of
habit that, at length, our repeated actions seem to be natural and
right. Because sentence against their evil works is not speedily
executed, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them
to do evil! But though Pompeii may slumber long at the foot of
Vesuvius, at length it is overwhelmed. It behooves every one of us to
try our ways and specially to call in question things

which have become a sort of second nature to us. This is the fault of
which Peter gives warning concerning the scoffers of the last days who
will say with regret to the blessed Truth of Christ's Second Advent,
"Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." The
Apostle says of such, "they are willingly ignorant" and, therefore, are
they willfully ignorant of the terrible and unalterable doom that
awaits them at the coming of their Judge!

Thus, like the Israelites, we may shout as we see the Ark of the
Covenant, although our sins have driven the Lord far from us! Or, like
the Philistines, we may say, "God has come into the camp," and yet He
may not be there at all in the sense in which they meant. Thus I might
continue to illustrate my text, but time would fail me and I have yet
to speak upon two other points.

II. Having considered the great mistake these people made, I will draw
your attention, in the second place, to THE GREAT TRUTH of which their
mistake is a caricature. Though what the Philistines said and what the
Israelites thought, on this occasion, was false, it is often true. God
does come to the camp of His people and His Presence is the great power
of His Church. O Brothers and Sisters, what joy comes to us at such a
time! I will briefly sketch the scene that takes place when God comes
into the camp.

Then the Truth of the Gospel becomes vital. The Doctrines of Grace
have, then, with them, the Grace of the Doctrines! Then is Christ not
only to us the Truth, but He is also the Way and the Life. The Gospel
then becomes a sword with two edges and it does marvelous execution.
The Word of God then shows itself to be both a hammer and a fire,
smiting and melting those upon whom its power is proved. Whoever
preaches the Gospel, when God has come into the camp, speaks with
power! He may have little eloquence and less learning–but if God is
with him and if his heart is all aglow with Divine Love–he will speak
with power and the people will say, "Surely, God is in this place, and
we know it."

When God comes into the camp, new life is put into prayer. Instead of
the repetition of holy phrases in a cold, feeble, lifeless fashion, the
soul empties itself out before the Lord like water flowing from a
fountain! And men and women cry mightily unto Him, laying hold upon the
horns of the altar–and they come away with both hands full of Heaven's
own blessing–for they have prevailed with God in mighty wrestling!

By the Presence of God in the camp, fresh energy is thrown into
service. There is a way of serving the Lord in which men do the proper
thing while they are fast asleep. I am afraid much of our service for
God is done while we are asleep and that it is accompanied by a kind of
celestial snoring, instead of being performed when our spiritual
faculties are all alert and the whole man is wide awake. But when God
comes into the camp, how He shakes men up and awakens the slumberers
from their dreams! What a quickening, what a vivifying, the Presence of
God gives! I remember a picture on the Continent that strangely
represents the Resurrection. Some of the people who are pictured as
being raised from the dead have some of their bones coming together.
Others have their heads covered with flesh, but the rest of the body is
a skeleton. Nothing seems complete in this strange, wild conception of
a mad artist. But there are hundred of Christian people who seem to be
spiritually in as incomplete a stage as those people were supposed to
be! They are, I hope, quickened from the dead, but they are not yet
fully alive into God! Some of them are still dead in their head–their
intellect has not yet been sanctified. Some of them are dead at their
hands–they cannot get them into their pockets, or if they manage so
much as that, they cannot get them out again! Some of them are dead at
heart–they seem to know things very well with the brain, but not to
feel them in the soul. But when the Lord comes to us with power, He
makes us alive all over–every part of the man is quickened with a
Divine energy! Then men really work for Jesus and work successfully,
too.

When God comes into the camp, His Presence convinces unbelievers.
Sinners turn to the Lord on the right hand and on the left in so
marvelous a way that our weak faith is often quite astonished! The last
persons in the world that we expected to be converted come to our
services–and there find Christ! And many who have been hearers for
years, but seem harder than the lower millstone, become soft as wax to
the Divine Word! When God comes into the camp, the Holy Spirit
convinces men "of sin, of righteousness, and ofjudgement." The arrows
of conviction fly fast and far–and pierce the hearts of the enemies of
the King–and the slain of the Lord are many!

The Presence of God, moreover, comforts mourners. When God comes into
the camp, those who are troubled and tried begin to wipe away the tears
of sorrow and feel strengthened to bear their burdens. Or, better
still, they cast their care on Him who is so manifestly near! Our
hearts are also cheered by seeing anxious sinners turn their eyes
towards the

Cross of Christ. Then Jesus reveals His love to them and they perceive
it–they fly into His arms and find salvation there! Oh, what joyful
times we have had of late in talking with many who have yielded
themselves to Christ and taken Him to be all their salvation and all
their desire! May God stay in the camp with us till every sinner that
comes within our ranks and many, also, who are outside, shall come to
Jesus and be saved!

When God is in the camp, His Presence infuses daring faith–feeble men
begin to grow vigorous, young men dream dreams and old men see visions!
Many begin to plot and plan something for Jesus which, in their timid
days, they would never have thought of attempting! Others reach a
height of consecration that seems to verge on imprudence. Alabaster
boxes get broken and the precious ointment is poured out upon the
Master's head, even though Judas shakes his moneybag and cries, "To
what purpose is this waste?" Adventurers for God are raised up–men
like the Portuguese navigators who passed the Cape of Storms and called
it, afterwards, the Cape of Good Hope! Men begin to mission the slums,
the lodging houses, the dark streets and, after a while, those very
places become happy hunting grounds for other Christian workers!
Because God is in the camp, many take up the work which, at first, only
the truly brave Believer dared to try!

The fact of God being in the camp cannot be hidden, for in a delightful
way it distils joy into worship. People do not think sermons dull when
God is in the camp! And Prayer Meetings are not, then, called, "stupid
affairs." The saints enjoy fellowship with one another and when
Christian people meet each other, and God is in the camp, they have
many a happy word to exchange concerning their Master. Many such
seasons we have enjoyed! It has been with us as with the people
mentioned by the prophet Malachi–"Then they that feared the Lord spoke
often, one to another: and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a Book
of Remembrances was written before Him for them that feared the Lord,
and that thought upon His name." They had such holy talk that God,
Himself, turned eavesdropper to listen to what they had to say! He
liked it so well that He put it down and He thought so much of it that
He said He would preserve it–and a Book of Remembrances was made for
them that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name. May there be
many more such Books of Remembrances in our day!

I cannot tell you what innumerable blessings come to the camp of the
spiritual Israel when God is there! I hope that we know a little of
this, even now, and I am sure we want to know a great deal more of it.
It is hard work preaching when God is not in the camp. It must be
slavery to teach in the Sunday School when God is not in the camp. And
any of you seeking souls must have a heavy drag on your spirits when
the Lord is away. We might pray on Sabbath mornings, indeed, every day,
and before every duty, but, "If Your Presence goes not with us, carry
us not up from here." But if the Lord is in the camp, then the wheels
no longer drag heavily, but, like the chariots of Amminadib, we fly
before the wind! Everything is done gladly, happily, thankfully,
believingly, when "God is come into the camp." May He abide in our
midst and may our eyes be opened to see Him!–

"Thrice blest is he to whom is given The instinct that can tell That
God is in the field, when He Is most invisible."

III. Now, in closing our meditations upon this passage, let us try to
learn THE GREAT LESSONS which this incident teaches us.

The first lesson is that which I have been insisting upon all
through–the necessity of the Divine Presence. Dear Friends, you
acknowledge this. There is not one among us who does not know that the
Holy Spirit is necessary to effect any work. But I am afraid that it is
something which we know so well that we have put it up on a shelf–and
there it lies unheeded. But it must not be so with you, my Brothers,
nor with me. We must pray in the Holy Spirit, or else we shall not pray
at all. And we must preach under the influence of the Holy Spirit, or
else we shall chatter like sparrows on the windowsill in the
morning–and nothing will come of the chattering. Only the Holy Spirit
can make anything we do to be effectual! Therefore never begin any work
without the Holy Spirit and do not dare go on with the impetus that you
have gained, but cry again for the Holy Spirit. The "amen" of the
sermon needs to be spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit just as much
as the first word of the discourse–and every word between the first
and the last. Let all your service for God be in the Spirit, or else it
is all good for nothing.

Learn, next, that we should do all we can to obtain the Presence of God
in the camp. If there are any preparations which we can make for His
coming, let us set about them at once! You who are out of Christ must
not think that there is anything for you to do before you receive
Christ. All the doing has been done–

"Jesus did it, did it all, Long, long ago."

But I am now addressing the people of God and if we would have God to
come very near to us, we must prepare the way of the Lord and make
straight in the desert a highway for our God. What can we do to obtain
the Presence of God in our midst? My time has so far gone that I can
only give you a few hints as to what we ought to do if we want to
secure that end.

We must confess our helplessness without God and honestly mean the
confession. The first thing that is required of us is to bemoan the
fact that, by and of ourselves, we can do nothing, even as our Lord
said to His disciples, "Without Me, you can do nothing." The sooner we
recognize this Truth of God, the better! Our half-doing is our
undoing–but when we cease from self, then we make way for God.

We must, next, have a universal desire for the Presence of God with us.
I mean by that, that every Christian man and every Christian woman must
agonize with God that He would come into the camp–not merely some few
of us desiring it, but all of us vehemently crying unto the Lord,
"Come, Lord, and tarry not."

We must also be very careful in our lives. God will not come to an
unholy Church. The sacred Dove will never come to a foul nest. There
must be a purging and a cleansing, or else He will not come.

Moreover, there must be a conscientious obedience to His Word, a strict
adherence to His Truth, His Doctrine, His Precepts–to the whole of
Christ's Rule and Law. He will not prosper us unless we are careful to
follow every step that He has taken. God help us to have this
conscientious care, this coming out from those who may not be thus
careful, according to His Word, "Come out from among them, and be you
separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will
receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be My sons
and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

If we desire this special sense of God's Presence, there must be
unbroken union. The Spirit of God does not love fighting. He is a dove
and He will not come where there is constant strife. We must be as one
man in our love to one another. It was when the disciples were "with
one accord in one place" that the Holy Spirit was given on the day of
Pentecost–and thus it is in all our Pentecostal seasons. Often a stone
seems to lie at the well's mouth of our choicest blessings–and it
cannot be rolled away "until the flocks are gathered together."

To crown all, there must be a hearty reliance upon God and a childlike
confidence in Him. I would recommend you either believe in God up to
the hilt, or else not believe at all! Believe this Book of God, every
letter of it, or else reject it! There is no logical standing place
between the two. Be satisfied with nothing less than a faith that swims
in the deeps of Divine Revelation! A faith that paddles about the edge
of the water is poor faith and is not good for much. Oh, I pray you, do
believe in God and His Omnipotence!

Such are the conditions of obtaining the blessing of God's abiding
Presence. If these things abound in us, we shall be able to shout
without making any mistake about the matter, "God has come into the
camp."

When God does come to us, we should seek by all means to retain His
Presence. How can this blessing be secured?

First, by humble walking with God. If we grow proud because we are
honored by our King's company and begin to think that there must be,
after all, something in us to attract God to us and cause His face to
shine upon us, we shall not long have the Lord among us! Seek, then, to
be lowly in His Presence.

Next, let much grateful praise be given to Him from loyal hearts. If
God is saving sinners, let us give Him the Glory of it. If He is at
work among us, let us not go and talk about what we have been doing,
but let us tell to men and angels, too, what HE has done! Let us never
dare to handle God's jewels as if they were our own.

Moreover, there must be perpetual watchfulness. If God is with us, He
may give us a great victory and yet, tomorrow we may be defeated
because Achan has hidden the goodly Babylonian garment and the wedge of
gold. Unless we are sober and vigilant, we may sadly have to mourn that
the Lord has withdrawn His Presence from us. There is a fierce light
that beats around His Throne. "Our God is a consuming fire." Who among
us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings? The Scriptural answer is, "He that walks
righteously and speaks uprightly." May God make us men of such caliber
as can endure that heat!

And lastly, there must be an individual fellowship with God on the part
of each one of us. It is hard work for the whole Church to walk with
God every day and all the day. But if each member will see to it that
his own personal life is

right, the Church, as a whole, need fear nothing. Let us, each one,
look after his own life and see that all is right there. Then the life
of the Church will soon be at flood tide, and when we go forth to the
battle, the Philistines will know for sure that, "God is come into the
camp." May God speedily raise us all up to this point of personal
consecration!

Dear Friends, we are having sinners saved in our midst–pray for them!
Some are struggling towards the Light of God–seek to help them! If you
meet with any such, love them and cherish them as a father does his
child. I cannot speak longer. Your hearts must tell you what to do. Go
on serving the Lord. May He abide with us in power forevermore! Amen.

Portion Of Scripture Read Before the Sermon–1 Samuel 4.