There is a strain of loneliness infecting many Christians, which only the presence of God can cure.

The sovereign God wants to be loved for Himself and honoured for Himself, but that is only part of what He wants. The other part is that He wants us to know that when we have Him we have everything - we have all the rest.

Nothing in or of this world measures up to the simple pleasure of experiencing the presence of God.

It takes simplicity and humility to worship God acceptably.

So when we sing, 'Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,' we are not thinking of the nearness of place, but of the nearness of relationship. It is for increasing degrees of awareness that we pray, for a more perfect consciousness of the divine Presence. We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts.

For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth.

Let me never become a slave to crowds.