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Here God asks an important question: "Where art thou?"

1. Where are you? — are you in God's family or out of it? When you are baptized, you are put into God's family upon certain conditions — that you will do certain things; and it depends upon you how you live, because if you do not love God you cannot be God's child.

2. Supposing you are one of God's children, "Where art thou?" — near to thy Father or far from Him? — because some children are nearer to their fathers than others. Mary and Martha were sisters, and they were both Christians, but one was much nearer to Christ than the other. Mary sat at Jesus' feet, Martha was "troubled about many things." If we delight to tell Jesus everything, than we shall be near God.

3. Are you in the sunshine or the shade? If you follow Christ you will always be in the sunshine, because He is the Sun.

4. Are you in the path of duty? Are you where you ought to be? The path of duty is a narrow path sometimes a steep path. God could say to many of us, as He said to Elijah, "What doest thou here?" — thou art out of the path of duty.

5. How have you progressed? The surest way to know that we get on is to be very humble. When the wheat is ripe it hangs down; the full ears hang the lowest.

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)

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KJV: And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

WEB: Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"