God's Search for Man

God is seeking to find us even as the sun is always searching for our windows. We sometimes speak as if the search were on our side. We forget that there is the persistent pursuit of the human soul by God. The English poet Francis Thompson emphasized this truth in his great poem The Hound of Heaven, where God is called the Celestial Huntsman.

This poem grew out of Francis Thompson’s own experience. At eleven years of age he had been sent to college with the expectation that he would prepare for the ministry. His indolence, however, made his father decide that Francis should become a medical doctor.

But his years at medical school were disastrous and he acquired the love for opium and laudanum that brought his life to the brink of ruin. He drifted into London until he became a ragged and unkempt beggar with no shirt beneath his coat and bare feet in broken shoes, living in the slums of that great city. He led a starving life, picking up odd jobs occasionally, blacking boots, selling matches, or holding horses. Kindness was shown to him by a poor girl and he met the poets Master and Mrs.

Wilfred Meynell. By their tender understanding and Christian winsomeness they brought him through Christ into the love of God. Thompson was redeemed, became a writer of Christian poetry. In The Hound of Heaven he pictures his soul fleeing from the pursuit of Christ, the divine lover.

At long last Christ caught up with Thompson and held him a spiritual captive.