drop when an iceberg is a league off over the sea, and scarcely visible.  We do not wish His company, or we are not in harmony with His thoughts, or we are not going His road, and therefore, of course, we part.  At bottom there is only one thing that separates a soul from God, and that is sin—­sin of some sort, like tiny grains of dust that get between two polished plates in an engine that ought to move smoothly and closely against each other.  The obstruction may be invisible, and yet be powerful enough to cause friction, which hinders the working of the engine and throws everything out of gear.  A light cloud that we cannot see may come between us and a star, and we shall only know it is there, because the star is not visibly there.  Similarly, many a Christian, quite unconsciously, has something or other in his habits, or in his conduct, or in his affections, which would reveal itself to him, if he would look, as being wrong, because it blots out God.

Let us remember that very little divergence will, if the two paths are prolonged far enough, part their other ends by a world.  Our way may go off from the ways of the Lord at a very acute angle.  There may be scarcely any consciousness of parting company at the beginning.  Let the man travel on upon it far enough, and the two will be so far apart that he cannot see God or hear Him speak.  Take care of the little divergences which are habitual, for their accumulated results will be complete separation.  There must be absolute surrender if there is to be uninterrupted fellowship.

Such, then, is the direction in which we are to look for the reasons for our low and broken experiences of communion with God.  Oh, dear friends! when we do as we sometimes do, wake with a start, like a child that all at once starts from sleep and finds that its mother is gone—­when we wake with a start to feel that we are alone, then do not let us be afraid to go straight back.  Only be sure that we leave behind us the sin that parted us.

You remember how Peter signalised himself on the lake, on the occasion of the second miraculous draught of fishes, when he floundered through the water and clasped Christ’s feet.  He did not say then, ’Depart from Me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ He had said that before on a similar occasion, when he felt his sin less, but now he knew that the best place for the denier was with his head on Christ’s bosom.  So, if we have parted from our Friend, there should be no time lost ere we go back.  May it be true of us that we walk with God, so that at last the great promise may be fulfilled about us, ’that we shall walk with Him in white,’ being by His love accounted ‘worthy,’ and so ‘follow’ and keep company with, ‘the Lamb whithersoever He goeth!’

SMITTEN IN VAIN