2. The singing of the song has a quick effect upon the listener. When the prisoners heard Paul and Silas sing in the prison at midnight, they hearkened, they sat up on the pallets, and tried to catch the strange sounds. They rose and crept to the door of the inner dungeon and bent their heads towards it, eager to catch every word. There they stood, an awe-stricken group, listening breathlessly in the darkness. They had often heard singing in the prison before. But never before had they heard in prison strains like these. There was something holy and heavenly in them, which overawed and melted them. As they listened, strange feelings and memories stirred in them.^
^ There is an exquisite sketch written by the hand which penned the immortal story of Rob and his Friends, of a quaint old character of other days, well known to Dr. Brown, because he was his father's beadle. The sketch (entitled "Jeems the Doorkeeper ") is written with the love and humour of which the author's heart was full ; and among other traits of his humble friend he gives this touching one. He had been married in his youth, but after a year his wife and their one child died together ; but always afterwards he kept up the practice of family worship, though quite alone, giving out the psalm and the chapter, as if his dear wife had been there. He lived in a high storey in the Canongate, and his voice, in the notes of "Martyrdom" or "Coleshill," sounded morning and evening through the thickly
^ S. D. Gordon, Q^det Talks mi Service, 206.
^ Canon H. Scott Holland, Personal Stvdies, 28.
3 J. Stalker, The New Song, 175.
126 SONGS IN THE NIGHT
tenanted " land " ; and many a careless foot was arrested and many a heart touched by that strange sound.^
I heard a voice in the darkness singing
(That was a valiant soul I knew), And the joy of his song was a wild bird winging
Swift to his mate through a sky of blue.
Myself — I sang when the dawn was flinging
Wide his guerdon of fire and dew ; I heard a voice in the darkness singing
(That was a valiant soul I knew).
And his song was of love and all its bringing And of certain day when the night was through;
I raised my eyes where the hope was springing, And I think in His heaven God smiled, too.
I heard a voice in the darkness singing (That was a valiant soul I knew).
3. The midnight song is a powerful witness in favour of our religion. There are times when the heart has to fill the place of the eye. We see nothing ; the sky is dark ; yet we are not dis- mayed. There is no ray of light upon our path that we can discern, no opening in the cloud, no rent in the gloom. Yet somehow the heart sings — sings in the shadow, sings in the silence. And at these times we are to take the song as the substitute for the sun. We are to impute to the heart's singing all that is wanting to the eye's vision. The song is itself to be our revelation. " If it were not so, I would have told you," says the Lord — would not have suffered you to sing. The heart's joy demands a contradiction if it be not true. If my soul says " Yea," and Grod does not say "Nay," the "Yea" is to prevail. The silence of God is vocal. If hope cries, and He answers not, hope's cry is to be itself the answer, for He has sent me a wing instead of a star ; He has given me a song in the night.
Her child is crying in the darken'd room ! The mother hears, and soon with her arms She clasps her darling, banishing alarms,
Dispersing with her presence fear and gloom. 1 J. Stalker, The New Song, 179.
JOB XXXV. lo 127
And does thy Heavenly Father turn aside Unheeding, when thy cry to Him ascends From depths of night? Nay, comfort He extends.
Thy heart is strengthened and thy tears are dried.
Thy voice can reach Him, crying in the night, Afraid and desolate, scarce knowing why: Lo ! thou art not forsaken, He draws nigh !
Be still, sad heart, for He will give thee light.^
^ Una, In Life's Garden, 92.
The Treasuries of the Snow.
JOB-PS. XXX. — 9
Literature.
Bompas (W. C), Northern Lights on the Bible, 99.
Burrell (D. J.), The Spirit of the Age, 203.
Collyer (R.), Nature and Life, 43.
Gunsaulus (F. W.), Paths to the City of God, 136.
Hind (T.), The Treasures of the Snow, 11.
Jordan (D. A.), Sunday Talks on Nature Topics, 103.
Lambert (J. C), Three Fishing Boats, 117.
Leader (G. C), Wanted a Boy, 60.
McCook (H. C), The Gospel in Nature, 82.
Talmage (T. De Witt), Sermons, v. 311.
Church of England Magazine, Ixx. (1871) 285 (Thursfield).
Clmrchman's Pulpit : Septuagesinia Sunday, Ixii. 287 (Perry).
Homildic Review, lix. 66 (Fry)
»30
The Treasuries of the Snow.
Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow?
Job xxxviii. 22.
1, The references to snow in Scripture are few, as might be expected in a land where snow seldom or never fell. But even though the writers may never have felt the cold touch of the snowflake on their cheek, they had in sight two mountains the tops of which were suggestive. Other kings sometimes take off their crowns, but Lebanon and Mount Hermon all the year round and through the ages never lift the coronets of crystal from their foreheads. The first time we find a deep fall of snow in the Bible is where Samuel describes a fight between Benaiah and a lion in a pit ; and though the snow may have crimsoned under the wounds of both man and brute, the shaggy monster rolled over dead and the giant was victor. But the snow is not fully recognized in the Bible until God interrogates Job concerning its wonders, saying : " Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow ? "