The One Great Reality

By Louisa Clayton

Do you believe in God? Is He real to you? Here is one test. When you pray, do you experience His Presence? Is He so close to you that it is like speaking into His ear?? Louisa Clayton uses the example of the telephone, where we don’t speak until we know someone is listening on the other end. A modern example would be with the mobile, or cell phone, where we chat away, blissfully unaware that we have lost the signal and no one can hear us ‒ until we wait for a response. How can we know and experience the presence of God in our prayer time and in our daily lives?
This is a wonderful and challenging book for all of us who are seeking a closer experience of life with Jesus. Louisa Clayton has a direct and challenging way with her words, coupled with an understanding and sympathy that we don’t always get it right!
Louisa writes, To have personal knowledge of God is the secret of assurance and happiness, and to put real trust in Him changes our whole life, for then we can say, “I have a wonderful God!”
This is an illustrated edition with eleven original photographs illustrating the ten chapters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Tree Publishing
• Release date: Nov 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781913950064

Book preview

About the Book

Do you believe in God? Is He real to you? Here is one test. When you pray, do you experience His Presence? Is He so close to you that it is like speaking into His ear?? Louisa Clayton uses the example of the telephone, where we don’t speak until we know someone is listening on the other end. A modern example would be with the mobile, or cell phone, where we chat away, blissfully unaware that we have lost the signal and no one can hear us ‒ until we wait for a response. How can we know and experience the presence of God in our prayer time and in our daily lives?

This is a wonderful and challenging book for all of us who are seeking a closer experience of life with Jesus. Louisa Clayton has a direct and challenging way with her words, coupled with an understanding and sympathy that we don’t always get it right!

Louisa writes, To have personal knowledge of God is the secret of assurance and happiness, and to put real trust in Him changes our whole life, for then we can say, I have a wonderful God!

This is an illustrated edition with eleven original photographs illustrating the ten chapters.

The One Great Reality

By

Louisa Clayton

First published in 1916

This eBook is from the first British edition

This illustrated edition ©White Tree Publishing 2021

eBook ISBN: 978-1-913950-06-4

Published by

White Tree Publishing

Bristol

UNITED KINGDOM

More books on www.whitetreepublishing.com

Contact mailto:[e-mail]

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this abridged edition.

Scripture quotations from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown's patentee, Cambridge University Press.

CONTENTS

Cover

About the Book

About the Author

Publisher’s Note

1 GOD, THE GREAT REALITY

2 GOD, OUR FATHER

3 THE SON OF GOD

4 THE SPIRIT OF GOD

5 THE VOICE OF GOD

6 THE HANDS OF GOD

7 THE WORD OF GOD

8 HAVE FAITH IN GOD

9 THE CHURCH OF GOD

10 THE KINGDOM OF GOD

About White Tree Publishing

More Books from White Tree Publishing

Christian Nonfiction

Christian Fiction

Younger Readers

About the Author

Louisa Clayton ran various Bible Classes and was the author of Christian books, some appearing in serial form in Christian magazines.

Because Louisa Clayton mentions China several times in her writing, we initially identified her as the wife of Arthur Sowerby, where she kept her maiden name. The couple were missionaries in China, returning on furlough just before the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 when many of their fellow missionaries and friends were massacred.

It turns out that this is not our Louisa Clayton. In one of our copies of The One Great Reality, in her dedication Louisa gives her address as 3 Somerville Gardens, Tunbridge Wells, which is in Kent. Using this information to carry out further research, we are now able to correct this page.

Louisa was born in 13 February 1845 in Stella Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland and died on 1 February 1931 in 3 Somerville Gardens, Tunbridge Wells, Kent at age 86.

Her father, William Clayton Clayton, a Barrister at Law, was initially called William Clayton Walters, changing his name after the death of his maternal aunt, making generous donations to various Christian groups. William Clayton was the author of Notes on the Sign or Sacrament of Holy Baptism, published in 1835.

The family obviously moved around a lot. In the 1851 Census Louisa was age 6. living in Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex with her parents and three brothers: Edward age 13, William age 11 and Albert age 8. In 1861 the family was in Terrace Road, Hampton, Middlesex. In 1871 and 1881 in Bishop’s Downs House, Speldhurst, Kent. By 1871 Louisa was the only sibling living with the family. In the 1891 Census Louisa’s father William was 91, and her mother Esther Elizabeth was 90.

Louisa ran Bible classes for mothers and also for men and women. At White Tree Publishing we would love to add to this information. If anyone has some reliable details, we can add them here for the benefit of new readers.

The following notice appeared in the Times on 3 Feb 1931:. CLAYTON - On Sunday, Feb. 1. 1931, at 3, Somerville-gardens, Tunbridge Wells. Louisa Clayton, daughter of the late William Clayton Clayton, Barrister, in her 86th year. Funeral Rusthall Church, Tunbridge Wells. Thursday, 12.15 p.m.

Louisa Clayton’s published books are:

* The London Medical Mission ‒ c1873

* The Story of Mission Work among the French in Belleville, Paris ‒ c1878

Loving Messages ‒ c1884

Heart Lessons ‒ c1885

Wilderness Lessons ‒ c1885

The Three Fs ‒ c1886

The One Great Reality ‒ 1916

Eternal Realities of The Present Life ‒ ?1928

*Note: We need confirmation that these two titles, although listed on a bibliography website, are by our Louisa Clayton.

Publisher’s Note

Some edits have been made to Louisa Clayton’s original book, using updated words in places, and breaking long sentences and paragraphs into shorter lengths. Also, Louisa left out many of the Bible references to quoted verses. In keeping with all White Tree Publishing non-fiction books we have added these, so the reader can easily check the verses in a version of their own. The version used here is the one quoted by Louisa Clayton, the King James Authorised Version.

There are 10 chapters in this book. At the end are advertisements for our other books, so this book may end earlier than expected! The last chapter (10) is marked as such. We aim to make our eBooks free or for a nominal cost, and cannot invest in other forms of advertising. However, word of mouth by satisfied readers will also help get our books more widely known. When the book finishes, please take a look at the other books we publish: Christian non-fiction, Christian fiction, and books for younger readers ‒ a range of over 100 books available from White Tree Publishing. More details on the website www.whitetreepublishing.com .

Keep an eye open for two more titles by Louisa Clayton from White Tree Publishing in 2021.

Chapter I

GOD, THE GREAT REALITY

Portion of Scripture ‒ Hebrews 11:1-6

God is the one great Reality. Will you close your eyes for a moment and say those words over again very slowly so as to let them burn into your inmost heart and soul. The Word of God tells us that The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true (1 John 5:20). This means that we may personally know Him that is Reality.

In the wonder of that moment when we first know that God is real and that God is near, then we cry out, My God, how wonderful Thou art! To have personal knowledge of God is the secret of assurance and happiness, and to put real trust in Him changes our whole life, for then we can say, I have a wonderful God!

To know God is Eternal life. To know Him fully, brings life more abundantly. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10). To know Him, with no veil between, is glory ‒ life!

If you look again at the 6th verse of the 11th chapter of Hebrews you will notice a very clear statement: it says, "He that cometh to God must believe that He is, or to put it in other words, the person who draws near to God must believe that there is a God."

Do you believe in God? Is He real to you? Here is one test. When you pray, do you experience His Presence? Is He so close to you that it is like speaking into His ear?

It was this text, He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him which first awakened a worldly gentleman named Brownlow North to think about his soul. God’s Spirit showed him that he had never really believed in God, and that all his former religion was worthless ‒ for without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:16).

As soon as he had really learnt to know God, he devoted all his life to preaching the Gospel. He told everyone that the first thing we need is to believe there is a God. Many of his friends who were rich and well educated were thus brought to a personal knowledge of God for the first time. He that cometh to God must believe that He is really there. Have you ever been conscious of the Presence of the living God? You must make sure that He is near before you can really pray.

We have an illustration of this in the telephone. You first say Are you there? In any case you make sure that the person to whom you wish to speak is listening at the other end. Although you cannot see anyone [writing in 1916] you know they are holding the receiver so as to hear what you say.

When you begin to pray, always pause for a moment and remember that you are speaking to God. Do not say a word until the Holy Spirit puts you into direct communication with God. The Psalmist was quite sure that God was really listening to his prayer, for he says, I love the Lord because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because He hath inclined His ear unto me therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live (Psalm 116:1-2). And again, I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice, and He gave ear unto me (Psalm 77:1). It is in this way we realise that there is a God ‒ a personal living God.

I asked a Christian one day if he had prayed about some work which was offered to him, and his reply was, Yes, I am on the telephone. Can you say the same? As soon as you have spoken, you keep it to your ear to listen for the answer. Many people pray without expecting to get an answer. They are like children who knock at a door and then run away before it is opened. The prophet Micah says, I will wait for God, my God will answer me (Micah 7:7). Yes, he expected to get an answer.

The Lord Jesus says, When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret (Matthew 6:6). When a child wants to tell their father something very private they whisper it in his ear. We make many of our phone calls in private. There are many things we say