Phineas F. Bresee - A Prince In Israel - Media Sabda Org

It began to come in upon me that God is Spirit, that He will be found in spiritual realms, that He
is to be known in the Spirit; that it is vain for me to search for Him among the mountains, or to
march through the centuries to find Him; that, if I found Him, if I came to know Him, it would be
in the depths of my own Spirit. It was then that I heard these words of revelation, "Be still, and know
that I am God."
There is knowledge which does not come through the eye, or ear, or sense of touch; that does not
come from sense or memory, or imagination, or conscience, or judgment. I do not say that it comes
without them, or any one of them. But no one of them seems to be the real avenue of it.
There seems to be a direct way to human consciousness--a way by which the Spirit-man comes
to know spiritual personalities. How much sensuous and mental faculties may be avenues, it is
difficult to tell. How much a super-sensuous and intellectual avenue is opened up to the human spirit,
may be difficult to tell. But that into our consciousness comes knowledge of Spirit personality-- other
than self--there seems no room for doubt.
When the child Samuel heard again his name called, it was not the ear that caught and conveyed
the sound. When Isaiah saw that vision and heard those words, there was something more and other
than eyes and ears and sense of touch, which revealed it to his inner consciousness. The same was
true when Moses stood on Sinai, or on Pisgah's brow, and saw the promised land; when John saw
heavenly visions on the Isle of Patmos; and when Paul was lifted to the third heaven, and heard
words that were unutterable.
An Open Vision
God has a way of manifesting Himself directly to the spirit of man. The pure in heart shall see
God--not as a matter of the future; but the very condition of a pure heart is an open vision of Him.
The knowledge of Him is as mysterious as the way of knowing Him; it is even more so. How
those who have known Him have tried to tell it! They have only been able to say, "The mystery so
long hid, has been made known unto me by the Spirit."
The longing to know Him finds large expression. David cries out, "As the hart panteth after the
waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." Paul said, "I count all things but loss, that I
might know him." Augustine said, "The heart is restless till it rests in Thee." Charles Wesley said,
"In vain thou strugglest to get free, I never will unloose my hold."
But when men come to tell what the knowledge itself is, they are silent. John says of that supreme
manifestation of Him, "We saw his glory." Paul says, "I heard." There are some things we know that
we can give expression to, or describe. There are other things which we can only describe by telling
their effect upon us. The knowledge of God seems to be of this class. When men undertake to tell
us, they merely begin to describe how they themselves felt.