Spiritual Environment

 "The Lord is round about His people." Psalm 125: 2

       "The Lord is round about His people"; that is the same thing as to say "the Lord is the environment of His people;" to "be round about" is just to "environ." Now the environment is a very important thing. There is nothing so sad as to be unsuited to one's environment. When you take a fish out of the water, it dies. Why? Because the water is its environment. When you keep a bird from the open air, it pines. Why? Because the open air is its environment. When you debar man from God, he both pines and dies. Why? Because God is his environment. Man is the only creature in this world that does not know what is good for him - does not know his own environment. The fish darts from the hook that would draw it out of the water. The bird tries to escape from the snare of the fowler. But man is very easily led away from his water of life, from his native air. He quits the real water for a painted imitation of it, the real air for a bit of colored space. Therefore he is of all creatures the most miserable. He is not happy even when he has nothing to complain of. It is not enough to have nothing to complain of; I must have something to rejoice in. It is not enough to have no pain; I want pleasure. The lower creatures are not simply unpained; they are joyous; they dart in the water, they sing in the air, they roam in the forest -  they revel in the glories of the day. I am not like these.

       And yet, my soul, thou mightst be. Thou, too, hast an environment. Thou art more environed by thy God than the fish is by the water, than the bird is by the air. Thy God is all round about thee. Other creatures have mostly but one element; thy God can be found in all elements. His boundlessness is in the water. His infinitude is in the air, His majesty is in the forest; thou hast of all others the key to the most doors. Wilt thou not take the key, O my soul! Say not, "I shall be happy in heaven;" thy God is as much here as in heaven. Why speakest thou of the limits of earth! What thou needest from earth is not one limit less but one limit more. Wouldst thou be quite happy here and everywhere? Then must thou be limited by thy God, environed by thy God. Thy God must become thine element - the water of thy life, the air of thy freedom, the fire of thine enthusiasm, the land of thy possession. He must beset thee "behind" - in memory, ''before" - in prospect, ''beside" - in the pressure of the hand. He must be thy vanguard and thy rearguard, thy right and thy left, thy working and thy waiting, thy running and thy rest. Is it not written that, when He breathed on man, man became a living soul. Thou shalt only find thine environment when thou hast caught the breath of God!