Practicing His Presence
Introduction
HOW GOD FOUND US AND USED US
DURING OUR EARLY YEARS IN CHINA
There are two men in church history who have written very practically and simply on the subject of the practice of the presence of Christ. Both have a strong testimony to the reality of walking almost continually in the awareness of the presence of Christ. In our quest to know the Lord as well as He knows us, we can wisely turn to the experience of these two men. One of these men lived in the seventeenth century, the other in the twentieth.
The first of these two men is Brother Lawrence (Nicholas Herman) of France, who died in February of 1691. The second is Frank Laubach, who went to be with the Lord in June, 1970.
This book combines, under one cover, all that we have of Brother Lawrence's words on the subject of living in the presence of the Lord, and it also includes a condensation of two works by Frank Laubach on the same subject. (Frank Laubach's words are drawn from two small booklets, Letters by a Modern Mystic and m Games With Minutes.)
We have very purposefully updated and rewritten the words of Brother Lawrence; the words of Frank Laubach have undergone only the slightest alterations.
Why rewrite the words of Brother Lawrence? Because most Christians who pick up his little book simply cannot understand many parts of it; the language is sometimes too archaic and the style too difficult to follow. We have therefore put his words and thoughts into more modern English. (The little booklet by him contained four conversations and sixteen letters. We have changed the "conversations" from third person to the first person.) You will still notice a flavor of his seventeenth century style even in this modified version; we have sought to leave in a slight hint of his own age.
As to the matter of condensing Frank Laubach's writing on the subject of Christ's presence, we wanted to omit from these letters discussions on other subjects and leave only that which is eternal. Perhaps by updating the words of Brother Lawrence he will be able to speak to the next century as well as he did to the past three centuries. And by condensing Frank Laubach's words, extracting the essence of his experience on this subject, perhaps he can speak to the Christian family with a message that will endure the centuries just as Brother Lawrence's words have.
As you read the writing of these two men, separated from one another by three hundred years, you will catch the similarity of their hearts and experience. (Brother Lawrence wrote in the late 1600's. Brother Laubach wrote in the early 1930's; Laubach wrote first as one seeking; then as one who had found.) Let us look just a little closer at the lives of these two men, for our purpose in producing this little book is to stir and challenge you to their testimony: living proof that it is possible to experience Christ continuously!
The Life of Brother Lawrence
Little is known of Brother Lawrence. We will tell you what we know. He was born Nicholas Herman in French Lorraine in 1611. Born into poverty, at age eighteen he was converted to Christ. He later became a soldier, and then a footman (a servant who opens the carriage door, waits on tables, etc.).* Still later, in 1666, at the age of about 55, he entered a religious community called the Carmelites, located in Paris. He became a "Lay Brother" among these barefooted devotees to Christ. It was among them he took the name Brother Lawrence.
He spent twenty-five years (t) in this community, dying there at age eighty in 1691. During those years he served mostly in the hospital kitchen. He became known, within the community, and later beyond it, for his quiet and serene faith, and for his simple experience of "the presence of God."
*In about 1651, it appears, he had some kind of turning in his experience with Christ. From that time on he walked in the presence of God.
Some believe, from evidence in his letters, he was a "Lay Brother" for 40 years rather than 25.
Eventually Brother Lawrence even received inquiries from people in other parts of France concerning how to have a similar reality in their own daily experience with Christ. Even church leaders sought him out for counsel and help. Little is left to us of what he said. We have a few brief letters by him plus four recollections called "conversations" written by other people who recalled for us what he had said to them. In 1692, a year after Brother Lawrence died, some of his letters were published. We decided to include in this book the preface to that first edition set in order by M. Beaufort, Grand Vicar to M. de Chalons (formerly Cardinal de Noailles) who recommended that these letters be published. This preface, now nearly three hundred years old, still reflects the simplicity of the man, and the esteem with which some held him.
Death has carried off many of the brothers of the order of the Carmelites Dechausses, in the last year. They died in the rare legacies of lives lived in virtue. Providence, it seems, has turned the eyes of men chiefly to the passing of Brother Lawrence.
Several people have seen a copy of one of Brother Lawrence's letters, and have wished to see more. In order to meet this request, care has been taken to collect as many letters as possible which Brother Lawrence wrote with his own hand.
Every Christian will find much in these writings to edify him. Those in the thick of the world will learn from these letters how much they have deceived themselves, looking for peace and joy in the false glitter of things that can be - seen ... yet which are so temporary. And those who are seeking the Highest Good will gain strength from this book to persevere in the practice of virtue. All readers, whatever your occupation, will find profit in this book for in it you will meet a brother busy as you are in outward activity . . . but a brother who, in the middle of all his demanding tasks, had learned how to wed contemplation to activity. For the past forty years our brother has hardly ever turned from the "Presence of God."
During the nearly 300 years since these letters were first published, there have been unknown thousands, perhaps millions of copies of them printed. Now they come to you in modern language with the hope that the message that he so beautifully dealt with has only begun to be known.
The Life of Frank Laubach
Frank Laubach was born in the United States on September 2, 1884 ... almost two hundred years after the death of Brother Lawrence. Forty-five years later Frank Laubach was serving as a missionary in the Philippines. Though he had done many commendable things by the time he was forty-five years of age, including a truly remarkable and faithful ministry among the Moslems in the southern Philippines, we would still have to confess he was a relatively obscure soldier of the cross.
It was at this time, at forty-five years of age, that Frank Laubach began the practice of abiding in the presence of Christ. It is so interesting to realize that forty years later, when Frank Laubach took what was for him a very short step out of time into eternity, he died - at the age of eighty-five - one of the most widely known and best loved men of the twentieth century.
To try to tell who Frank Laubach was or even to give a sketch of his life in a short space is simply impossible. From Signal Hill in the Philippines until his death at age eighty-five, on June 11, 1970, he lived one of the fullest lives ever lived by one of Christ's followers. He was one of the most traveled Christians of all ages; perhaps the most traveled man of modern times. He was known in virtually every land on earth. Countless honors were bestowed on him, though when once presented with a famous "Man of the Year" award he said humbly, "The Lord will not wish to count my trophies, but my scars."
He wrote over fifty books, several of them best sellers that had a world-wide influence. He was perhaps the greatest single educator of modern times. He has been referred to by many people as one of the most unique figures of this century. The accomplishments of his life are virtually endless. Nonetheless, the wellsprings of this incredible man's life can be traced back to that lovely, lonely little hill behind the shack where he lived on the island of Mindanao. Frank Laubach wrote down his experiences during these days in a series of letters to his father from which we have gleaned these writings. We sincerely hope that the words of Frank Laubach recorded here will become ageless and we prayerfully hope these words will endure as long as there are Christians left upon this earth to read them.