^ One night, when I was a lad, lying in my bed at home, long ago, I awoke, and it was dark, and I heard a voice in the night — not a song, but I heard the voice of my mother as she lay upon her bed of pain. She was twenty-five years in the valley of the shadow of death. Her " light affliction " endured for a quarter of a century, but it was " but for a moment," seeing that it led to the ^ C. Jerdan, Pastures of Tender Grass, 41. ^ John Kelman, The Road, i. 150.
JOB-PS. XXX. — 29
450 THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW
"eternal weight of glory." I shall never forget how the sound of her voice floated into my dark room and my disquieted heart — " Yea, though I walk through the valley " — think of it rising in the air at two o'clock on a dark winter morning with the wind howling round your house — " Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; for thou art with me." ^
^ This verse is full of comfort ; its very terms are reassuring. Death has become, certainly to us Christians, that which the Psalmist imagined here — only a shadow. It is dark, cold, gloomy, terrible, but only a shadow. So said Archbishop Laud on the scaffold :*' Lord, I am coming as fast as I can. I know I must pass through the shadow of death before I can come to see Thee. But it is but umbra mortis, a shadow of death, a little darkness upon nature ; but Thou, Lord, by Thy goodness, hast broken the jaws and the power of death." ^
^ I knew an old soldier who had served throughout the Peninsular War and at Waterloo, a plain, simple-minded man who had lived a blameless Christian life, and whose most noticeable characteristic, perhaps, was the singular elevation of his spirit in prayer. As his strength declined and he wore slowly away, his cheerfulness increased, and he would talk with solemn gladness about what lay before him. Dying had ceased to trouble him ; he always called it " falling asleep." As I shook hands with him on the morning of his death, he said — and his face beamed with a most perfect serenity — " I have taken many a journey in my time ; this morning I am taking the pleasantest journey of all — I am going home to my Father's house." ^
I.
Courage.
"I will fear no evil."
1. Even when we know that Love leads us in, it is natural for our poor, weak human hearts to shrink and fear in the entering. Not the timid only, but those who are constitutionally brave. Not children only, but even strong men ; and sometimes strong
^ John McNeill, Regent Square Pulpit, i. 254. ^ W. C. E. Newbolt, Penitence and Peace, 116. ^ J. Culross, God's Shepherd Care, 100.
PSALM XXIII. 4 451
men more than children. "They feared as they entered the cloud " — bright though it was. Imagination peoples the darkness with shapes of terror. Somewhere or other there inay be danger couching invisible in the gloom, watching its opportunity, and ready to spring forth upon us without warning ; and even when there is none, our faithless hearts call up a thousand frightful possibilities ; and our fears are none the less distressing that they are vague and shapeless, but rather all the more.
^ David did not mean to say that he was devoid of all fear, but only that he would surmount it so as to go without fear wherever his Shepherd should lead him. This appears more clearly from the context. He says, in the first place, " I will fear no evil " ; but immediately adding the reason of this, he openly acknowledges that he seeks a remedy against his fear in contem- plating, and having his eyes fixed on, the staff of his Shepherd : " For thy staff and thy crook comfort me." ^
\ In the Manchester Art Gallery there is a famous picture by Briton Eivi^re, entitled " In Manus Tuas, Domine ! " of which the artist says : " I have failed indeed if the story does not carry some lesson to ourselves to-day, whatever be our doubts or fears." The message it conveys is the victory of faith. The picture re- presents a fair-haired young knight clad in armour, seated upon a white charger whose downcast head, quivering nostrils and quivering limbs denote intense fear. At the charger's feet there crouch three bloodhounds, also gazing before them in terror. Behind the knight is the forest glade through which he has passed, rich in green sward and sun-kissed paths, but the path in front is full of gloom and unknown terrors. In his fear the knight is at one with the trembling brutes, but he has that within him which raises him above them and gives him aid. It is faith. Lifting his sword before his face, it forms itself into a cross. " Into Thy hands, 0 Lord," he says, and goes forward. He conquers fear by faith, and by it, "though he walk through the valley of the shadow, he will fear no evil." 2