^ Eastern people have a very skilful way of drinking from a flowing stream without stopping in their running. They throw the water up into the mouth. An Eastern traveller writes : " In an excursion across an Arabian desert, some of the Arabs, on coming to water, rushed to it, and, stooping sufficiently to allow the right hand to reach the water, they threw it up into their mouths so dexterously, that I never observed any of the water to fall upon the breast. I often tried to do it, but never succeeded."
376 THE BROOK IN THE WAY
1. Jesus found refreshment in quiet communion with nature. In one of his letters Nathaniel Hawthorne speaks about bathing himself in " the refreshing waters of solitude and open-air nature," and there is no season of the year in which we may not find this source of rest and refreshment for the mind and heart. The creation may always be our recreation. To be in love with this beautiful world is to be at the secret source of many a noble pleasure. To have a mind and heart open to the highest impressions of the natural universe, to be able to enter into the life of a summer or a winter day, to enjoy a night of stars, to feel the beauty of a flower, the grandeur of a storm, the spell of the wide waters or the high mountains, is to have abundant means of recovery and renewal always nigh at hand whenever we feel the need of calling ourselves off for a time from the excitement and strain of the daily conflict. It is true that nature does not yield the sympathy which the passionate human heart requires, but insensibly she helps her lovers to bear their burdens and to find rest in God. We are quickened and comforted by outward things more than we know. The sun and moon and stars, unaffected by our little controversies, rebuke and soothe us as we gaze on their tranquil glory. The mountains bring peace, and our fretfulness is carried away by the rushing river at our feet. Not only in the synagogue did Jesus find refreshment, but in the lilies of the field, in the sunset sky, among the hills, and by the Lake of Galilee.
^ In his suggestive journal, Amiel, describing a country walk taken when a dark and troubled mood was upon him, thus writes : " The sunlight, the green leaves, the sky, all whispered to me, ' Be of good cheer and courage, poor wounded one ! ' " We are all at times poor wounded ones, needing all the refreshment and healing we can find. And,
What simple joys from simple sources spring!*
By the avenue, on to the mansion,
There runs a clear stream all the way, Pursuing my path, I can see it. And list to its roundelay ; Still gleaming and glancing. Still laughing and dancing, It carols along all day.
1 J. Hunter, The Angels of Qod, 32.
PSALM ex. 7 377
In summer its rippling music,
Delight and refreshing instils, In winter, by torrent-notes swollen, Its songs all the dreariness fills ; Still leaping and bounding, Its echoes resounding. With rapture my soul it thrills.
And precious my " Brook by the way " is,
As Homewards I journey along, New life in His depths I discover, New courage I take from His song; In gloom and in gladness, In sunshine and sadness, He is my Salvation strong ! ^
2. One of the richest streams that water the desert of life is that of social sympathy and helpfulness, whereby we give and take of the rich solace of brotherly love. To feel that the world is a little better for our being, that, when the little light of our life goes out, it will not have altogether failed to light some other fire of warmth and helpfulness ; that some lives will go onward a little stronger, and more hopeful, for something we have been, or said, or even tried to be, this is a brook of consolation which becomes the more precious the nearer we draw to the isolation of death. Wretched is the man who has missed this brook of gentle human ministry in life's way, and recognized too late how much of his soul's life he has lost in saving it.
Nor, that time, When nature had subdued him to herself, Would he forget those Beings to whose minds Warm from the labours of benevolence The world, and human life, appeared a scene Of kindred loveliness: then he would sigh. Inly disturbed, to think that others felt What he must never feel.
^ George MacDonald says ; " To know a man who can be
trusted will do more for one's moral nature than all the books
of divinity that were ever written." The beauty of the outward
world is full of Divine lielp, but there is more beauty and more
' T. Cra-nrford, Horcte Serenae, 71.
378 THE BROOK IN THE WAY
inspiration in living excellence than in tlie fairest natural scenes. Wonderfully refreshing is the heart's speech of the truly wise and good, but more beneficent is the brave thought wlien it becomes the brave deed, and more life-giving the Divine Word when it is made flesh and dwells among us. How rich the quickening and renewing influences which come from the presence and example of men who lift clearly before us the nobler ideals of life ; from the memory of the faithful dead ; and from the biographic page —