Because mine eyes can never have their fill Of looking at my lady's lovely face, I will so fix my gaze
That I may become blessed, beholding her.
Even as an angel up at his great height Standing amid the light,
Becometh blessed by only seeing God.^
IV.
The Visible Invisible.
1. " The young man saw : and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire." We hear no more of the Syrian host.« It was blotted out by God's host.
^ Have you ever held in your hand one of those puzzle cards which has something clearly evident upon its surface, but which requires you to find something in it that is not so evident ? I had one of these cards sent to me ; it had printed on it the sketch of a garden, and underneath this printed matter the words, " Here
^ Phillips Brooks.
* Daute, Canzonicrc ix., tr. by D. G. Rossetti.
2 KINGS VI. 17 489
is a garden, but where is the gardener ? " I took that card, and I held it right way up and wrong way up, and edgeways and lengthways, and upside down, and I would have turned it inside out if I could, but I could not find that gardener, and was just about to give up the task when suddenly by some accident I got the right angle and saw his features begin to form until, whereas before I could not see anything but the garden, now I could see nothing but the gardener ; he filled the whole card and dispelled his garden.^
^ God has taught the human heart to idealize. For nothing can exceed or equal the power of love to see the ideal, and be gripped and swayed by it. The neighbour sees a freckled-faced, short-nosed boy, but the mother sees only a face of beauty, and out of its eye looks a man who is going to help to shape and maybe shake the world. The inspector at Ellis Island sees only a ■ couple of bundles being tugged and lugged along by some skirts and a bright-coloured shawl, but the young husband impatiently waiting at the gate, whose hard-earned savings have brought her over, sees the winsome maiden whose face still holds him in thrall.2
2. The Syrian host was still there, but God's host was between. So is it that the army of God camps between the trusting soul and its enemies. We have seen the armies of sorrow encamp around a good man. One after another, as in the case of Job, messages of bereavement have come to his sorrowing ears, and we have looked to see how he would take it. We have wondered if he would be able to bear up under it, or whether his heart would grow hard and bitter, and sorrow would capture his soul and break down his faith. But as the hosts of sorrow gathered about his head, we have rejoiced to see that his faith grew stronger and his eye grew brighter with the hope of heaven. His countenance became more mellow and tender and sympathetic ; it glowed with "a light that never was on sea or land," and he seemed to have a glimpse of that city which Abraham beheld, " whose builder and maker is God." What is the secret of it ? Inside the army of sorrows that encompassed him were encamped the angels of God.
*[l I have seen a man who has been rescued from terrible sins and cruel appetites beset by a legion of devilish lusts and
1 C. A. Berry.
* S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Home Ideals, 17.
490 THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE
temptations that clamoured for his soul, and I have wondered if he would be able to beat them down and go on his way with steady step towards heaven. And I have rejoiced as I have watched and witnessed that, despite all the howling and barking of the wolves of temptation, the man grew stronger, his face firmer, his eyes shone with a loftier courage, and his brow was glorified with higher ideals. Then I knew that the secret of it was that between him and the howling pack of devilish temptations were encamped the hosts of God's angels.^
3. And now there is no room for fear, for the presence of the horses and chariots of fire means two things.
(1) It means first of all that as long as a child of God is on the path of duty, and until that duty has been fulfilled, he is inviolable and invulnerable. He shall tread upon the lion and adder ; the young lion and the dragon shall he trample under his feet. He shall take up the serpent in his hands ; and if he drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt him. He shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flieth by day ; of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor of the demon that destroyeth in the noonday. A thousand shall fall at his right hand, and ten thousand beside him ; but it shall not come nigh him. The histories and the legends of numberless marvellous deliverances all confirm the truth that, when a man fears the Lord, He will keep him in all his ways, and give His angels charge over him, lest at any time he dash his foot against a stone. God will not permit any mortal force, or any combination of forces, to hinder the accomplishment of the task entrusted to His servant. It is the sense of this truth that, under circumstances however menacing, should enable us to bate no jot of heart or hope, but still bear up, and steer onward. It is this conviction that has nerved men to face insuperable difl&culties, and achieve impossible and unhoped-for ends. It works in the spirit of the cry, " Who art thou, O great mountain ? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain ! " It inspires the faith as a grain of mustard seed which is able to say to this mountain, " Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea," — and it shall obey. It stands unmoved upon the pinnacle of the Temple, whereon it has been placed, while the enemy and tempter, smitten by amazement,