PSALM xcvii. II 281
we have had to make some daring sacrifice of worldly advantage, some loss of position or friends rather than be false to ourselves and our convictions, and then God has revealed to us the delight that He takes in a brave man and in moral courage, and He puts a joy and liveliness into our whole nature which the chances of fortune cannot steal and the frowns of the world cannot crush.
^ I know but one way in which a man who craves the light and cannot find it may come forth from his agony of doubt scathless ; it is by holding fast to those things which are certain still — the grand, simple landmarks of morality. In the darkest hour through which a human soul can pass, whatever else is doubtful, this at least is certain. If there be no God and no future state, yet, even then, it is better to be generous than selfish, better to be chaste than licentious, better to be true than false, better to be brave than to be a coward. Blessed beyond all earthly blessedness is the man who, in the tempestuous darkness of the soul, has dared to hold fast to these venerable landmarks. Thrice blessed is he who, when all is drear and cheerless within and without, when his teachers terrify him, and his friends shrink from him, has obstinately clung to moral good. Thrice blessed, because his night shall pass into clear, bright day.^
2. " Light is sown for the righteous," because only the right- eous can perceive and rejoice in the light. There are certain rays in the spectrum that are invisible to us, simply because our optic nerve is not sufficiently sensitive to respond to the rapidity of their vibrations. There are new colours awaiting those who can bring new eyes to them. So much of the joy in our life depends on our capacity to see the Divine purpose and meaning in the things that befall us. The comfort is there, but we cannot take it. We are like Hagar in the wilderness, wretched with thirst, while the fountain is there flashing back the sunlight before our blinded eyes.
^ There is a shining light ahead, and Evangelist points Christian to that. Every soul of man can see at least some light of hope ahead, shining in the direction of the God or Christ or ideal which is as yet obscure. It may be but the light of some possible duty, some sense of honour, some belief in life, some vague trust in the future. The point is not that the light is full, or even comprehensible. If it be clear enough to flee towards,
^ F. W. Robertson, Lectures, Addresses, and Literary Eemains, 49.
282
LIGHT AND GLADNESS
that is enough. For, here as elsewhere, "solvitur ambulando." "What is wanted is directed motion towards the light ; the rest will follow. So it conies to pass that one may be on the road to Christ when one cannot as yet see Him.^
He that walks it only thirsting
For the right, and learns to deaden
Love of self, before his journey closes,
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting
Into glossy purples, which outredden
All voluptuous garden-roses. . . .
He, that ever following her commands
On with toil of heart and knees and hands,
Thro' the long gorge to the far light has won
His path upward, and prevail'd,
Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled
Are close upon the shining table-lands.
To which our God Himself is moon and sun.'
3. If a man is to reap light, he must sow light. Every one of us makes his own future. If we would have the capacity for light hereafter, we must cultivate it now. There is a tendency in light to beget light, just as there is a tendency in the seed to bring forth thirty to a hundredfold. Believe and walk in the light you have, and it shall grow from more to more unto noon- day splendour. If in the darkness a man, loving the light, sow the seeds of light, further illumination shall come to him here- after.
^ " Curses come home to roost," says the proverb. No less do gentle speech and kindly acts come back to nestle softly in our hearts. Faber, the Koman Catholic poet, sings how he caught up a little child and kissed it and gave it new joy in the sense of having made a new friend. And then he adds :
I am a happier and a richer man.
Since I have sown this new joy in the earth:
'Tis no small thing for us to reap stray mirth,
In every sunny wayside where we can.
It is a joy to me to be a joy.
Which may in the most lowly heart take root;
And it is gladness to that little boy
To look out for me at the mountain foot.
> J. Keluian, The Road, i. 9. " Tennyson.
All His Benefits.
■83
Literature.
Brooke (S, A.), CJmst in Mndera Life, 351.
„ „ The Gosjiel of Joy, 67.
„ „ The Ship of the Soul, 16.
Brown (A. G.), in TJie People's Pulpit, No. 20.
„ (C. G.), ITie Word of Life, 141. Campbell (J. M.), Grow Old Along with Me, 19. Cross (J.), Knight-Banneret, 292. Drummond (H.), The Ideal Life, 145. Hall (F. 0.), Soul and Body, 73. Ilutton (J. A.), The SouVs Triumphant Way, 23. Iverach (J.), Tlie Other Side of Greatness, 119. Macmillan (H.), The Ministry of Nature, 321, Matheson (G.), Leaves for Quiet Hours, 213. Miller (J.), Sermons Literary and Scientific, i. 270. Morrison (G. H.), The Oldest Trade in the World, 103. Myres (W. M.), Fragments that Remain, 89. New (C), The Baptism of the Spirit, 278. Owen (J.), Tlie Renewal of Youth, 1. Pearce (J.), Tlie Alabaster Box, 141. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, vii. 17._ Ptobinson (W. V.), Angel Voices, 137. Selby (T. G.), Tlie Unheeding God, 216.