^ Sometimes in the country on a night in early summer you may shut the cottage door to step out into an immense darkness which palls heaven and earth. Going forward into the embrace of the great gloom, you are as a babe swaddled by the hands of night into helpless acquiescence. Your feet tread an unseen path, your hands grasp at a void, or shrink from the contact they cannot realize ; your eyes are holden ; your voice would die in your throat did you seek to rend the veil of that impenetrable silence.
Shut in by the intangible dark, we are brought up against those worlds within worlds blotted out by our concrete daily life. The working of the great microcosm at which we peer dimly through the little window of science; the wonderful, breathing earth ; the pulsing, throbbing sap ; the growing fragrance shut in the calyx of to-morrow's flower; the heart-beat of a sleeping world that we dream that we know ; and around, above, and inter- penetrating all, the world of dreams, of angels and of spirits.
It was this world which Jacob saw on the first night of his exile, and again when he wrestled in Peniel until the break of day. It was this world which Elisha saw with open eyes ; which Job knew when darkness fell on him ; which Ezekiel gazed into
^ Duncan C. Macgregor, George If. C. Macgregor, 111.
PS. xxv.-cxix. — 3
34 WAITING COURAGEOUSLY
from his place among the captives; which Daniel beheld as he stood alone by the great river, the river Hiddckel.
For the moment we have left behind the realm of question and explanation, of power over matter and the exercise of bodily faculties ; and passed into darkness alight with visions we cannot see, into silence alive with voices we cannot hear. Like helpless men we set our all on the one thing left us, and lift up our hearts, knowing that we are but a mere speck among a myriad worlds, yet greater than the sum of them ; having our roots in the dark places of the earth, but our branches in the sweet airs of heaven.^
(3) Nothing can give us greater courage than a sincere affection for our Lord and His work. Courage is sure to abound where love is fervent. Look among the mild and gentle creatures of the brute creation and see how bold they are when once they become mothers and have to defend their offspring. A hen will fight for her chicks, though at another time she is one of the most timid of birds. Gilbert White, in his Natural History of Selborne, tells of a raven that was hatching her young in a tree. The woodman began to fell it, but there she sat ; the blows of the axe shook the tree, but she never moved, and when it fell she was still upon her nest. Love will make the most timid creature strong ; and if you love Christ you will defy all fear, and count all hazards undergone for Him to be your joy. In this sense, too, perfect love casteth out fear ; it " hopeth all things, endureth all things," and continues still to wait upon the Lord.
^ In February 1894 she had two of the finest campaigns of her life — at Havre and Eouen. The turbulent beginning at Havre was graphically described by her friend the Princess Malsoff, who accompanied the Mar^chale in order to have a taste of the vie apostolique. " There was a great tumult in the ' Lyre Havraise.' The Mar^chale had come to publish the word of love and salvation. An immense crowd forced itself into the hall, and who would have dared believe that they had all come simply to present the world with the most scandalous, the most vulgar and odious spectacle that one can imagine ? When the Mar^chale rose with great dignity and cahn . . . she could not make lierself heard. Every word was interrupted ; one could see that it was a prepared stroke. One might imagine oneself to
' Michael Fairless, The Roadmender, 86.
PSALM XXVII. 14 35
be in an asylum. But she did not let herself be discouraged ; she persevered ; she walked straight into the midst of the infuriated crowd. She did not tame these wild beasts, but she came out victorious all the same. Tall, beautiful, calm, sustained by her divine conviction and with the strength of a great heart, she came back again and again — our admirable Mar^chale ! ... In the midst of this infernal and ridiculous tumult a few dite souls felt a noble enthusiasm for this young woman who battled alone against a hostile and wicked crowd. They came to grasp her hand, to express their admiration for her and their shame for those who had broken the simplest laws of hospitality, politeness, and civilization. Blessed be our Mart^chale ; in her the whole ArrrUe du Salut was personified that night in its strength, its faith, its persevering love." ^
The Master knows ; He can but see How willingly, how joyfully I would within His vineyard stay To bear the burden of the day. And yet He bids me stand apart With folded hands and longing heart. I see at morn the happy throng Pass by my door with jest and song. They seem so glad, they seem so gay. So ready for the busy day.