Newspaper Page Text
‘AND ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD”
topynjnr. 1912. by Amerr ar. Joum.il-Examin*.
Britain R: 3 t:t<s Itererved.
OUR short
verses of the
fifth book of
Genesis tell
us all that we
111.
• • know about
Enoch, the
father of Methuselah. In just
fifty-three words the story of
the old patriarch is told. Here
is the story:
“And Enoch lived sixty and
five years, and begat Methu
selah:
“And Enoch Walked with
God after he begat Methuse
lah three hundred years, and
begat sons and daughters:
“And all the days of Enoch
were three hundred and sixty
and five years:
“And Enoch walked with
God, and he was not: for God
took him.”-—Genesis, Chapter
5, Verses 21, 22, 23, 24.
* * ♦
A million minds read this
short Bible story in as many
different ways.
The simple mind sees the
old patriarch, walking with
God. as the simple-minded
painters of the old days
showed him.
Enoch leaned upon his
stick and walked beside a di
vine being, taller than he, but
made as he was, with hands
and feet, wearing a long white
beard, dressed in a flowing
mantle or toga.
The simple mind reads,
“Enoch walked with God.”
and sees two beings alike in
texture and in form walking
side by side. The picture on
this page is a reproduction of
an old painting —made by a
religious painter, .John Sad
dler, born in 1550 and dead
in 1600.
This painting shows (he artist’s conception
of the meaning of the text which says that
Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for
God took him. Here is Enoch disappearing
into the clouds, alter living three hundred and
sixty-live years.
* ♦ #
To the simple minds that read the Bible earn
estly Enoch is interesting principally because
he v,as the lather ol Methuselah, who lived
nine hundred and sixty-nine years.
!■ or men that think, having passed beyond
{iic ( oiidi.-h stage ot accepting literal meanings,
theie is not in all the Bible a passage more
suggestive, more hopeful than the simple
words. “And Enoch walked with God.”
There is no doubt as to the old writer’s
meaning. lor Amos asks, “How can two walk
together, except they be agreed?"
That Enoch, walked with God means that
Enoch, the simple old man. living the pastoral
life of the early Jews, looking in wonder at the
stars while watching his flocks at night and
contemplating in deep gratitude (he return of
the seasons, with rain and sun and fertility,
walked with God in his thought
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A// the Sons and Daughters of Men Can ‘"Walk with
God ’ in Proportion to Their Intelligence and Moral Devel
opment. Some of Us '‘Walk with God” in Simple Child
ishness of Mind, and Need All the Childish Beliefs for Our
Comfort. And Others, of Greater Spiritual and Mental
Power, Walk with the Creator of the Universe Through ’he
Depths of Space, and from Contemplation of the Highest
to the Lowliest in Creation. Only a Few Words Are Told
Us Concerning Enoch, Father of Methuselah. But HE
WALKED Wil H GOD, and His Life Was Holy and Happy.
As Enoch walked with the Creator, looking
up in simple faith and humble awe to justice
and power, as HE conceived God, so we all
may walk and live, “in agreement" with our
highest conception of the power that rules all
space, that regulates and controls through law
the distant suns gnd (he atoms of dust that
dance in a ray of sunlight.
A A A
Enoch walked with God. He saw his chil
dren growing up around him and realized that
goodness and (ruth are reflected in happiness
and peace.
He saw the storms that swept the hills, and
then the rainbow. His simple mind, perhaps,
i looked upon that beautiful bow as the pledge
of a promise not to destroy the earth with
flood, as simple Noah looked upon it. long
years after Enoch had gone.
Those that walk with God to-day see the
storm and the rainbow and see them differ
ently. but WITH GREATER REVERENCE
BECAUSE OF A GREATER INTELLIGENCE.
That brilliant bow in the heavens, presenting
all the wonderful colors of light, man knows to
be the inevitable expression OF LAW. He
■ knows that the storm, the thunder and the w ind
I are ail the results of law and rule unchanging.
A man walks with God, he sees at night the
great cosmic city, w hich is the Milky Way. the
city in which oar sun is one tiny lamp post.
By day. he sees the feeblest creature supply
ing its needs with the intelligence that it has.
You may read in your book at night of the dis
tances, (he \ast forms, the endless ages that
make up eternity and the cosmos.
In the morning you may uncover at vour
feel in the fields the nest of some tiny, shiver
ing mouse. M alking with God and seeing the
same power everywhere, you know that the
force and the law and justice which rule, inex
orable and unchanging, in the distant stars, rule
also in that tiny nest at your feet. The love of
I
that shivering little creature,’protecting its ow n.
is. in essence and in beauty, the same as the
power that rules forever throughout all space.
*♦ . *
z
Many are the men and the women that actu
w alk with God in this world. All are happy,
The text that we print here is one that fathers
and mothers might well read to their children.
Having read it, they might say to them • You
ab.vavs walk with God, sos there is a part of
God within you, the spark of that immortal
thought wh s ch rules this and all the worlds.
You walk w ith God in the fields and the city
streets and in your thoughts. The knowledge
that God is your companion, that eternal truth
is always at hand to he your inspiratv n, should
keep your feet in the right p tth end your
thought in the right direction.
A A A
Slowly through the centuries man has
walked unward from the depths of ignorance
and degradation, with his eyes toward the
heights and the stars, his thought interpreting
feebly but earnestly the great power that has
accompanied him from the first.
For ages past, which are but a speck in the
ocean of time, our race has walked with God.
And for ages untold and inconceivable, end
less eons of time, we as a race and as indi
viduals shall walk with God throughout the
endless eternity that lies before us.
It is for each of us NOW to choose the right
nafh and the right thought..
for there is no happiness out
side of duty and no real un
happiness within the realm of
duty.
The mother who, forgetting
self, cares for her children,
provides for the future gen
eration and teaches the hoys
and the girls kindness and
truth, walks with God.
The man whose life is worth
while because he can work for
another and for the (hildren
which she has given him, who
is content every day to go to
his work and return every
day. having done his duty bv
those that need him, WALKS
WITH GOD.
The man of great power -
whose mind ’eaves this earth
to explore the regions of the
unknown and brings hack new
truth, new knowledge, fresh
power for the hrman intellect,
walks with God.
A man walks with God
when, from love of country
and not for love of glory, he
goes upon the battlefield and
dies.
•
Newton walked with God in
th.e highest realm when his
marvellous brain studied the
laws that govern motion in
the universe and gave to his
fellows the simrfie formula
and made celestial mechanics
p’ain to them.
The artist, the musician,
those that have imagination
and especial power of thought,
walk with God when in pro
portion to their power they
exercise for His glory and the
betterment of humanity the
feeble spark of divine genius
planted within them.