The Reverend C. M. Andrews in a column of The Hamilton Spectator Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

"And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And [God] said, Certainly I will be with thee" (Ex. 3:11, 12). How reluctant Moses was to accept the commission which God would lay upon him!

His first difficulty was his own unfitness, "Who am I that I should go and that I should be leader of the nation?"

Next he pleaded his ignorance of God. "When I tell the people that God has sent me, and they ask what is His name, what am I to say?"

And last of all there was his slowness of speech. "I am not a man of words."

But all his objections were overruled. He came to realize that it was not in his own puny strength, his own utter insufficiency that he was to go, but that God would go with him. He learned the truth about God, that He was a God of inexhaustible possibilities, ever revealing more and more of the wonder of His being in the experience of His people. ... He realized, too, that his own lack of eloquence would be more than compensated by the fact that God would be speaking through him. "I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say" [Ex. 4:12].

So Moses took up his commission and achieved greatness. ... I would like you to think with me about the elements that went to make up his greatness, elements which are still the secret of all true greatness, as much today as in that far-off age.

First he was deeply aware of the unseen and the eternal. ... Where an ordinary man would have seen sand and scrub, Moses saw holy ground. He put his shoes from off his feet. ... He realized that God was there. ... How can man retain his greatness, how can he live with dignity and nobility, unless he realizes that at the heart of all things is God and that he himself is a child of God?

Secondly, Moses came to realize that God had a purpose which He was working out. Along with his sense of God's presence there in the wilderness came that assurance. ... "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them" [Ex. 3:7, 8].

With the call that came to him at the burning bush, came also the assurance ... that a great Divine purpose was being worked out and that he, himself, was ... an agent of that purpose. ... P/>Sometimes I think that is one of the things that is very much lacking in life today. We are losing our sense of something big and important going on. Life for main' people has become utterly vague, meaningless, nothing more than a vague undetermined succession of events, just one after another. ... Do you remember the experience of the Psalmist, how perplexed he was over the apparent injustices of life? "When I thought to know this," he said, "it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God" [Ps. 73:16, 17].

It will be the same with us. We. must recover our sense of God; when we do that we shall at the same time realize ... that He is forever present.

The third clement in Moses' greatness was his own hesitance and sense of inadequacy. Yet when once this feeling was overcome, it was that very sense of unfitness that enabled him to take up the task in the right way, the only way that could possibly lead to success. He had already tried other ways, but they were wrong ways. He came to trust in and lean upon God; he came to realize that it was God and not he who would deal with Pharaoh; that it was God and not he who would bring the people up out of Egypt.

He went back to Egypt, not in his own right, not to claim leadership of the nation by virtue of his qualifications; he went back as the mouthpiece and instrument of God.

So must it be with us. We feel our own inadequacy, our own impotence before the baffling questions of today. That is one of our qualifications, for it will enable God to use us. So long as we are very sure of ourselves, so completely and utterly self-sufficient, even God can do nothing with us. But if in true humility and in utter self-surrender we put ourselves in God's hands, then He can use us—even us—to work out His own wise and loving purposes.

The age in which you and I live has been aptly described by someone as a time for greatness. There is no room in our world today for small-minded, mean-spirited people. The times demand great faith, great hope, great charity. ... We all have a part to play in these great days, which surely mark a turning point in history; there is a call to every man and woman to live nobly with true dignity, with true greatness; we can only answer that call as we recover our sense of God and of His great and glorious purpose, live ever in His sight and put our lives unreservedly in His hands.