150 LIFE AND LIGHT
Now the light comes just as we are ready to obey the will of the Most High. Abraham had to leave his home and go out, not knowing whither he went. Moses had to return from the home he had in Midian to the country where they had sought his life. The people of Israel had to journey into the great and terrible wilderness. The prophets had to pass through stern ordeals. The apostles must leave all and follow Christ. St. Paul must bow his neck under the yoke of Him whom a moment before he was persecuting, and say, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " And do we not know that the light of God is most fully in our souls when by Divine grace we are uprooting self-indulgence and self-will ?
^ To St. Francis of Assisi, as he set out to join the champion of the CI lurch, Walter de Brienne, intoxicated with the idea that he himself was destined to become a great leader, came a vision at Spoleto. " Francis," called the voice of God, " who can make thee the better knight, the Master or the servant, the rich man or the poor ? " " The Master," said Francis, " not the servant, the rich man, not the poor." Then said the voice : " But thou lea vest the" Master for the servant and the rich man for the poor." And Francis said : " What dost Thou will that I should do, 0 my Lord ? " And the Lord said : " Turn thee bade to thy own land, for the vision that thou didst see meant heavenly and not earthly equipment, and it shall be given thee by God and not by man." Obedient to the vision, Francis gave up all thought of rejoining the band of Assisan soldiers, and rode slowly home that day, revolving in his mind this grace vouchsafed of direction in the path of the Spirit. It must have been from this time that he felt it was to no mundane glory he was being guided, but rather to the glory which vanquishes the world. One wonders how the struggle shaped itself, how keen were the pangs which moved him, as one fair temporal hope after another took on the like- ness of a phantasm and trembled into nothingness at the potent presence of these unwonted and unseen realities. One wonders how his spirit stirred and shook as their amazing intervention became indubitable ; how the unequal contest agonized and astounded him; how, step by step, the spiritual gained upon the temporal, whilst his shrinking flesh cried aloud in the suffering of death. Only this we know : he obeyed, and, in obedience to the Will, he found the Way, the way of the Cross, Christ Jesus, from wliich he never swerved.^
' A. M. Stoddart, Fnmcis of Assisi, 71.
PSALM XXXVI. 9 151
Then fiercely we dig the fountain :
Oh ! whence do the waters rise ? Then panting we climb the mountain :
Oh ! are there indeed blue skies ? We dig till the soul is weary,
Nor find the water-nest out; We climb to the stone-crest dreary,
And still the sky is a doubt !
Let alone the roots of the fountain;
Drink of the water bright ; Leave the sky at rest on the mountain,
Walk in its torrent of light ; Although thou seest no beauty,
Though widowed thy heart yet cries, With thy hands go and do thy duty,
And thy work will clear thine eyes.^ * George MacDonald, A Book of Dreams {Poetical Works, i. 394).
Delighting in the Lord.
Literature.
Conn (J.), The Fulness of Time, 117.
Cox (S.), The Bird's Nest, 238.
Houchin (J. W.), The Vision of God, 31.
Mackey (H. 0.), Miniature Sermons, 1.
Maclaren (A.), Sermons Preached in Manchester, ii. 245.
Reynolds (H. R.), Notes of the Christian Life, 111.
Voysey (C), Sermons, viii. (1885), No. 32.
Christian World Pulpit, xxvii. 93 (H. "W. Beecher).
Church of England Magazine, xxxi. 139 (J. Ayre).
Delighting in the Lord.
Delight thyself also in the Lord ;
And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. — Ps. xxzvii. 4.
1. The anthem, " 0 rest in the Lord," taken from Mendelssohn's oratorio " Elijah," is composed of words which many persons imagine to be a text accurately quoted from the Bible. This is, however, nowhere to be found as Mendelssohn quotes it, but is a compilation of two separate verses. Scarcely any music could be sweeter to an anxious and weary heart than this pathetic song, " 0 rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him, and He will give thee thy heart's desire." It seems cruel to say a word to detract from the gracious comfort and hope conveyed by the words. Yet we shall be gainers and not losers by greater accuracy and truth, and shall find the promise "He will give thee thy heart's desire" none the less fulfilled. Mendelssohn's made-up text is amply true, was true for him in fact as it has been true to so many of us in our varied lives and in the fulfilment of our heart's desires. Yet there is a higher truth still, and to that the Psalmist gives expression here. " Delight thyself also in the Lord ; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."