Acts 17:27 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: 1. The expression "feel after" has reference to what they as God's blind offspring were doing; and "find Him," to what God, never afar off, wants to have them do. In one the deep longings of a nature made for God and religion is recognised; in the other a satisfied state of holy discovery and rest in God. 2. That religious nature and character should be distinguished is important in view of a great religious danger. It used to be the common doctrine that sinful man had no affinity for God, had only an anti-religious nature, and that nothing could be done for or by us till a new nature was given. Now piety is regarded as a sort of natural taste, and multitudes congratulate themselves on being better Christians than there used to be, on the ground of mere natural sentiment, because better reformers, etc. Where we shall be stranded in this shallowing process is too evident. Christianity will be coming to be more and more nearly a lost fact, and a vapid and soulless naturalism will take its place. I. WHAT IS IT TO HAVE A RELIGIOUS NATURE? Nothing more nor less than to be a man, a being made for God and religion. 1. We are so made as to want God, just as a child wants father and mother. Our nature may not consciously pine after God as an orphan for its lost parents; yet God is the necessary complement of all its feelings, hopes, satisfactions and endeavours. And it hungers none the less truly that it stays aloof from Him and tries to forget Him, even as the starving madman is none the less hungry that he refuses to eat. 2. This something in the soul, which makes God its principal and first want includes nearly its natural everything. It feels the beauty of God, and has the feeling of admiration towards Him. Reason gets no satisfaction till it culminates in Him. Even fear wants to come and hide in His bosom; and guilt, withering under His frown, would only frown upon Him if He were not exactly just. 3. Nor are these things less true under the perverting effects of depravity. Human nature as created is upright; as born or propagated a corrupted or damaged nature, but however much so it has the original Divine impress upon it. The religious nature stands a temple still for God, only scarred and blackened by the brimstone fires of evil. 4. Denying therefore that human nature is less really religious because depraved, it is not to be denied that there are times and moods in which it will be exasperated by the Divine perfections — i.e., when tormented by guilt and resolved on a course which God is known to oppose. But these are only moods. The religious nature has more constant than perverse moods, and is reaching after God in a certain way of natural desire all the while. II. WHAT IT IS TO HAVE A RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 1. Mere natural desire, want, sentiment Godward do not make it. What does it signify that the nature is feeling after God when the life is utterly against Him? If a man has a natural sense of honour does it make him an honourable man when he betrays every trust? Even a thief may have a good sentiment of justice, and be only the more consciously guilty because of it. 2. To answer the question two things must be understood beforehand. (1) That religious character is more than and different from natural character. It is that which lies in choice, and for which we are thus responsible. (2) That souls are made for God. They are to know Him and be conscious of Him. 3. Assuming these points it follows that man is never in religious character till he has found God, and that he will never find Him till his whole voluntary nature abandoning its own ends goes after Him and chimes in with His principles and ends. God can have no room to spread Himself in the soul when it is hugging itself. III. HOW EASILY, AND IN HOW MANY WAYS, THE WORKINGS OF THE MERELY RELIGIOUS NATURE MAY BE CONFOUNDED WITH RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 1. The admiration of God's beauty what is it, some will say, but love? Even the soul's deep throbs of want — what are they but its hungerings after righteousness? And so it comes to pass that religion is the same thing as mere natural sentiment; and the feeling after God substitutes the finding God. But it will not organise a church, or raise a mission, or instigate a prayer. It is exactly the religion of Herod, who heard John gladly and then murdered him. Pilate had the same religious nature, felt the greatness of Jesus, and ended in giving Him up. Felix had the same religion, and Agrippa, and Balaam: the world is full of it — sensibility to God and truth, coupled with a practical non-reception of all. 2. It results accordingly that there are always two kinds of religion; those which are the product of the religious sentiment more or less blind, and those which look to regeneration of character. The religion of the Athenians was of the former kind, as are all idolatries. What an appalling proof of the religious nature of feeling dimly after God, imagining that He is in the sun, the moon, snakes, beetles, etc. Look on these and see how man feels after God: does he therefore find Him? And what but hills of character are these idolatries? 3. Under the guise of Christianity too we may distinguish at least two kinds of religion corrupted by infusions of the same error. One is the religion of forms, where the soul is taken by them as a matter of taste; loves to play reverence under them; the other is a religion of sentiment fed by reason: feeling after God in the beautiful in nature, delighted with Christ's lessons of natural virtue; and praising Him as the finest of all great men. 4. Now the true gospel is that which brings regenerative power, and creates the soul anew in God's image. Any religion that has not this is, so far, a mock religion. The test question, therefore, is — have I found God in my religion? The life of God in the soul of man — that is religious character, and beside that there is none. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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: |
    |