Through thee, my soul has spread her folded wings.^
III.
Experience of God.
1. The Psalmist is content to ground his deepest trust on experience. "They that know thy name" means "They that know thy fame." Faith is not credulity. It is built, says the Psalmist, on the law of averages — on a study of the census, " Thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee." We shall never get a living faith until we get back that view. We rest our faith on the command of God ; we should rest it on the name of God — on the fame of God. " They that know thy name shall put their trust in thee " — it is experience interpreted by faith.
^ There are two suggestions contained in Watts's picture of " Faith " which we do well to recall. First, in his figure there is nothing languishing, mediseval, or sacerdotal. The conventional type is that of a languishing woman gazing upward, with senti- mental pose of head and expression of countenance. Instead of this he has represented her as a powerful and resolute figure
^ Pere Lacordaire, O.P., The Foundation of the Reiyn of Jesus Christ. 2 Katrina Trask.
PSALM IX. lo 257
belonging to our common humanity, not to the cloister or the Church, And by this he reminds us that faith is the conquering principle in all walks of life. It is not merely in order to possess the things above, but also to conquer the things beneath, that faith is essential. In all the ranks of life it is ordained that we must walk by faith and not by sight. The second thought is that faith is a heroic, not a passive virtue. The characteristic act of faith is to lift up the eyes toward Heaven, but also to fight the evil things of earth. So Watts has represented her as holdincr the sword in her lap, and while she lets the waters wash her feet they wash away the blood of conflict. To gain faith we must fight, not meditate, not languish, and to make faith victorious we must make it the active principle of our lives.^
At midnight, when yon azure fields on high Sparkle and glow without one cloudy bar. The radiance of some " bright particular star "
Attracts, perchance, and holds my watching eye.
That star may long have vanish'd from the sky ; Yet still its unspent rays, borne from afar, Come darting downwards in their golden car^
Proof it once glitter'd in the galaxy.
So in my heart I feel a healing ray Sweetly transmitted from a Star divine, Which once illumed the coasts of Palestine :
And though its beauty beams not there to-day, I know that Star of old did truly shine, Because its cheering radiance now is mine.^
2, Our fathers proved the worth of their religion. One of the healthiest facts of human nature, and of human life, has ever been that spirit of reverence for the past which links genera- tion to generation, and practically makes the race one. Perhaps this was most strongly developed among the Jews. For noble precedent, for inspiring motive, for reassurance, for guidance and strength, the Jew always appealed to his fathers. In battle he invoked "the God of his fathers"; in exile he sighed for the " land of his fathers " ; in travel he carried with him " the bones of his fathers " ; and in death he spoke of being " gathered to his fathers." The destruction of that veneration for the past which 1 J. Bums, Illustrations from Art (1912), 124. 2 g_ Wilton.
JOB-PS. XXX. — 17
258 KNOWING AND TRUSTING
binds the generations together, is equalled in point of misfortune only by that somewhat ruthless spirit which questions the testi- mony borne by honest men who have preceded us. What is that testimony ? It is that the religion of Jesus is a grand reality and not a human dream ; that the Bible contains a Divine and all- satisfying revelation of God ; that it is not a fabrication or an imposture ; that the heart of man is weary till it find rest in Christ ; that there is such rest in Christ ; that in the cross of the Crucified One there is hope for all, comfort for all, heaven for all. Some of the best literature we are familiar with to-day comes from the days of " our fathers." What are we to say then to the testimony they bore ? They have gone — they went all too soon — like the advance-guard of an army, across the bridge which spans the gulf. They shout back to us that the bridge is safe. What are we to say ? Oh, not because they were religious will we be religious too ; but surely we will go long before we speak .ill of the bridge which bore them over ! ^
^ We call Him the " God of our fathers " ; and we feel that there is some stability at the centre, while we can tell our cares to One listening at our right hand, by whom theirs are remembered and were removed; who yesterday took pity on their quaint perplexities, and smiles to-day on ours, not wiser yet, but just as bitter and as real ; and who accepts their strains of happy and emancipated love, while putting into our hearts the song of exile and the plaint of aspiration.^