We connect her ministry with the brightest times in our history, when all is manifestly going well with us. We see it most clearly in what may be called the summer of the soul, when the sky is bright and the air balmy, and the flowers open their petals to the sun, and the grass grows upon the mountains, and the pastures are covered with flocks, and the valleys with corn. We see her presence in the home, when health and happiness are there, when she covers the table, and makes our slumbers light and re- freshing, and sweetens the intercourse of brothers and sisters, and
^ Sir Algernon West, Recollections, i. 304.
PSALM XXIII. 6 501
gladdens the hearts of parents with the welfare and well-doing of their children, and endows them all with health and strength.
And if sometimes Goodness veils her brightness and appears in such guise that men may not be conscious of her presence, in what may be called the wintry season of the soul, and there is less radiance on her countenance, and less music in her tread, and an apparently less liberal dispensation of her gifts; even then to the eye of faith her features are the same, and the same blessed ends are promoted by her gentle, holy ministry. There is the same kindness in her heart, although it be not so visibly manifested ; the same words of blessing on her lips, although the ear hears them less distinctly; the same expression on her countenance, although it be somewhat veiled; the same bene- factions bestowed by her hand, although they be not so sweet to the taste. A stronger faith would see the essential features under the dim disguise, and share in the Psalmist's assurance that Goodness as well as Mercy follows all the good man's steps.^
^ When Jacob looks at the coat of his darling son dedaubed with blood, a horror of great darkness falls upon his mind. He rends his garments. His anguish is pitiful. His hopes are crushed. The light of his life is gone out. He puts on sack- cloth, and mourns for his son many days. He " refuses to be comforted." He sees nothing before him but a set grey life, and then the dreariness of Sheol. He will follow his son into the darkness. His faith in God is not so grandly steadfast as that of Abraham, who believed that
Even the hour that darkest seemeth Will His changeless goodness prove.
Men of stronger faith have learned to answer even such questions as, " Is this thy sou's coat ? " without rending their garments and refusing to be comforted. Eichard Cameron's head and hands were carried to his old father, Allen Cameron. " Do you know them ? " asked the cruel men who wished to add grief to the father's sorrow. And he took them on his knee, and bent over them, and kissed them, and said, " I know them ! I know them ! They are my son's, my dear son's." And then, weeping and yet praising, he went on, " It is the Lord ! Good is the will of the Lord, who cannot wrong me and mine, but has made goodness and mercy to follow us all our days." ^
^ W. Landels. ^ J. Strachan, Hebrew Ideals, ii. 94.
502 PURSUIT AND PERMANENCE
(2) Mercy is closely allied to Goodness, and closely resembles her, as twin sisters frequently resemble each other, although she exercises her ministry chiefly under different circumstances, and in slightly different ways. She is less buoyant and radiant than the other, with more gravity and tenderness of manner. Her eye is tearful, as if she were ever ready to weep with those that weep, and her lips tremulous with pity. She has a noiseless step, and a soft, gentle touch, and a voice that falls like music on the dull ear of sorrow. With whispered consolation on her lips, and a cordial in her hands, her favourite haunts are chambers of sickness, or prison cells, or closets where souls groan in secret under heavy loads of sin and woe ; and there, in her mild accents, she bids the guilty be of good cheer because their sins are forgiven, and with her strong though gentle hand lifts the burden from the heavy laden, and with her fragrant ointment tenderly heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds. She is seen more frequently in the shade than in the sunshine, and exercises her ministry most when some darkly brooding sorrow hangs over the individual or the family or the nation's heart. When G-oodness puts on her veil, and works behind her disguise so that men know her not, then is Mercy often employed most actively in furthering her gracious designs. Her ministries are more specific than those of Goodness, and confined to a more limited sphere, a preparedness of heart being necessary to fit men for receiving them. But withal they are not less spontaneously, or freely, or cheerfully exercised.
The quality of mercy is not strain d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath.
Unpurchased, oftentimes unsolicited, Mercy pays her visits and impart her benefactions ; and those who have profited most by her ministry are sometimes those who never thought of her till they found her by their side.^