How wise, how gracious that' it should be so ! One firmament of gloom, spanning our whole life-time, would be intolerable. One long heavy chain of grief, with which we could never get familiar, and on which we could never learn to look calmly ; or one linked succession of griefs, ever tearing open old wounds and adding new ones, would wither up existence and blight life before its prime. Man's nature could not bear it ; man's heart would sink under it, unless made totally callous by some un- natural process, or sustained by daily miracle ; in which case grief would cease to be grief, and there could be no such thing as trial or chastisement at all.
Hence, He who " knoweth our frame and remembereth that we are dust," not only " stayeth his rough wind in the day of his east wind;" but often, for a season, bids both be still, and breathes on us onljr
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with the freshness of the mild south. For thus has he spoken, " I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth ; for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made." (Isa. lvii. 16.) Such then is God's purpose concerning us, and such his reasons for it. The purpose is a gracious and a tender one ; no less so are the reasons for it. He tells us, that though he does, at seasons, contend with us, yet he will not prolong the contest be- yond a certain time or limit ; for in such a strife, who could stand before the Mighty One ? " In measure when it shooteth forth thou wilt debate with it " (Isa. xxvii. 8) ; that is, he will set bounds to the sorrow and the smiting which cannot be over- passed ; he will say to them, even in their fiercest course, (< Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." For were he to allow that tide to roll on unhindered, who, even of his own chosen and beloved ones, could
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withstand its rush, or sustain themselves amid its deepening waters ?
Yet let us not forget what the sorrow has done for us while it lasted ; and what the night has been, though dark and sad.
It has been a night of grief, yet a night of blessing ; a night in which there may have been many things which we could wish forgotten, yet many more which we should wish to be remembered for ever. Often, during its gloom, we called it " wearisome," and said, (i When shall I arise and the night be gone ? " (Job vii. 4.) Yet how much wras there to reconcile us to it ; nay, to fill us with praise because of it ! It was then that the Lord drew near, and the world was displaced, and self was smitten, and our will conquered, and faith grew apace, and hope became brighter and more eager, and the things that are unseen were felt to be the real and the true : Jeru- salem that is above was seen by us as out proper home.
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It was then that we had " songs in the night" (Psa. xlii. 8.) Our u reins in- structed us in the night seasons." (Psa. xvi. 7.) It was " in the night that we re- membered the name " of our God, (Psa. cxix. 55,) and " desired him with our souls " (Isa. xxvi. 9) ; " meditating on him in the /r/#/^-watches." (Psa. lxiii. 6.) It was " in the night " that " he led us with a light of fire." (Psa. lxxviii. 14.) It was in the night that " the dew lay upon our branch," (Job xxix. 19,) and with the dew there came down the manna; for the manna and the dew fell together, (Num. xi. 9,) so that out of the bosom of the darkness there came at once nourish- ment and freshness. It was then that we were taught sympathy with a groaning creation, taking part in its " earnest ex- pectation," and waiting for resurrection even as it is looking out for restitution ; it was then that we were taught to know our high office, as those who have the first-
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fruits of the Spirit, " to lead (as one has written) the choir of all-complaining na- ture ; " for it was then that the Spirit's power came forth upon us to tune the chords of our manifold being, that they might give forth the true note of mingled hope and sadness, peculiar to creation in its present low estate; and when we were fretting under the touch, and perhaps, with sentimental weakness, talking of broken strings and a blighted life, the hand of the great Master-tuner was upon us, giving to each rebellious chord its proper tension, that from the re- tuned instrument there might come forth that special harmony which he desires to draw from it in this present age — that special harmony by which he is to be glorified on earth, until Eden comes again and the wilderness blossoms as the rose.*
* Thus even the philosophic German could express (he apostolic thought respecting creation, and give utterance to his sympathies : " When I stand all alone at night in open nature, I feel as though it were a spirit
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