That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. Acts xvii. 27.
These words of Paul disclose a condition of things everywhere apparent, though it may not be readily perceived. In all ages and in all climes, men have had an intense desire for God, a hungering for Truth; yet they have not been able to see what Truth is, nor have they been able to find their heavenly Father. Groping through innumerable faiths, religious rites and ceremonies; seeking Him under a thousand guises; they still find that all their attempts to discover Him result only in leading them farther from Him. What renders this sad condition all the more painful to behold, is the fact that they persistently look in the wrong direction. God is not a being far away; but is ever near to our thought and feeling, simply waiting to be disclosed. He is ready to be expressed to us in divine love and power that shall cause the world to be transformed, from a wilderness, to His kingdom on earth; where "they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest."
There are two facts that meet us in the words of the text, of practical application to the age in which we live. The first, is the recognized fact that men possess a distinctly and profoundly religious nature;— this, not simply in one age and country, but in all ages and among all classes and conditions of men. This fact includes John Chinaman, the rude Hottentot, the cannibal of the South Sea Islands, as well as the fair-haired Caucasian dwelling in what we term a Christian country. The second fact is, that this deep, religious nature, which all mankind possesses in common, cannot be taken as affording positive evidence of religious character.
