2. It seems a backward step as we read the story; and perhaps we, who no longer have anything like the miraculous intervention and manifestations of Divine power, may look back with a lingering and longing desire that our life had been cast in the days when the more visible and tangible tokens of the Divine glory were manifested in the world. We envy those who lived in the days when manna fell from heaven and the water came forth from the smitten rock, when the Jordan was cleft in twain, and men, without striking a blow, felt that the Divine arm was outstretched on their behalf. They had the miracles ; we have the commonplace. They were privileged to behold the extraordinary manifestations of God; we live in a world where there seems scarcely any manifestation of Him at all. But so far from this transition from the extraordinary
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to the ordinary being a step downwards in the education of human beings, it is distinctly a step upwards. If we will contemplate life from three great standpoints we will see that that is true. Our life is real and strong in proportion as it is filled with a clear conception of God, in proportion as it is full of spiritual vigour within, and in proportion as it is energetic towards those whom we meet abroad. In those three relationships life finds its perfection.
0, where is He that trod the sea,
Q, where is He that spake, — And demons from their victims flee,
The dead their slumbers break; The palsied rise in freedom strong.
The dumb men talk and sing, And from blind eyes, benighted long,
Bright beams of morning spring.
0, where is He that trod the sea,
0, where is He that spake, — And piercing words of liberty
The deaf ears open shake; And mildest words arrest the haste
Of lever's deadly fire, And strong ones heal the weak who waste
Their life in sad desire.
0, where is He that trod the sea,
0, where is He that spake, — And dark waves, rolling heavily,
A glassy smoothness take ; And lepers, whose own flesh has been
A solitary grave. See with amaze that they are clean,
And cry, " 'Tis He can save ! "
0, where is He that trod the sea, —
'Tis only He can save; To thousands hungering wearily
A wondrous meal He gave: Full soon, celestially fed,
Their rustic fare they take; 'Twas springtide when He blest the bread
And harvest when He brake.
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0, where is He that trod the sea, —
My soul ! the Lord is here : Let all thy fears be hushed in thee;
To leap, to look, to hear, Be thine : thy needs He'll satisfy :
Art thou diseased, or dumb ? Or dost thou in thy hunger cry ?
"I come," saith Christ; "I come."^
(1) The transition from the extraordinary to the ordinary is a step upwards in our conception of God. — The thought which under- Kes our regret when we say that we wish we had lived in the days of more marked interposition and manifestation of God is this — that, somehow or other, wherever there is a marvellous or miraculous manifestation of God there is an opportunity of knowing Him which is denied to us in' this marvellous and marked fashion. We want to be back in the old day of miracle, and we want the Divine made known to us through His marvels. What is that but saying, " 0 Lord, Thou hast made the world, and Thou hast made the world according to order, and laws govern that world. Break Thy laws that we may know Thee ! Interpose and break up the ordinances of Thine own creation in order that we may understand Thee." But surely that is to demand almost an impossibility ! It is an admission that we have but little conception of the Divine working at all. Or, to put it in another way, suppose that God were to yield to our prayer and that we were to have these constant manifestations of Him, that we should still have the manna falling about our habitations, that we should have every Jordan that interposed an obstacle between us and our desire cleft asunder by miraculous force. What then ? We can see immediately what would be the result. That which happens constantly ceases to be extraordinary from the nature of the case ; and there would be no more reason for believing in God because of such frequent manifestations of a startling character, for they would no longer be of the very character which we plead is their essential power, they no longer would have any startling features, but would become the common- place of life. And what then would be our inheritance in God ? We should have an occasional God, not a permanent one; and
^ T. T. Lynch, The Rivulet, 42.
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there would be substituted for the God that is about our path and about our bed, the God who only occasionally comes down to manifest Himself in our life.
^ We are enlarging our thoughts when we lay aside the demand for the miraculous and the marvellous — we enlarge our thoughts of God when we say, " God is not only in the startling things, but also in the commonplace things of life ; God is not only in the cleft rock, He is also in the quiet hill and in the soft meadow ; He is not only in the cloven sea or the Jordan struck asunder, but also in the little burn that babbles at our feet; He is not only in the sweep of an archangel descending into our midst, He is in the face of the little child that climbs upon our knees for kisses; He is not only in the fire which falls down from heaven, He is also in the faces of the sick and the weary, and the needy that demand our assistance." ^