46 HELP FROM BEYOND THE HILLS
not accomplish. Not in vain had he made frequent flight of spirit beyond the hills, and kept alive his fellowship with the Lord of Zion. What though he could not stay day and night in the sanctuary ? He who made it safe would come forth with him and be ever by him. The earthly figure was not fit to picture all the fact. The heavenly Guard, as Spirit Infinite, is in the threatened spirit. He fills and clears and lifts the life, so that the evil influences have no effect for evil. The godly man can live in Babylon, and be as safe from sin as if he were in Jerusalem, a priest at the altar and never outside the sacred walls.
^ When Dr. Wilberforce was enthroned as Bishop of Chichester, nis first sermon in his new Cathedral had as its text the opening verse of his favourite Psalm — the 121st. The sermon concluded with these words : " If I inquire from those who have preceded me the secret of their power, as, called unto their rest, they now throng up the steeps of light, each, with faithful finger, points to the motto of his life, * I will lift up mine eyes to the hills, whence cometh my help.' To the hills where the first faint rays of the coming dawn are seen; where echoes haunt and linger, caught from higher heights beyond, where air is pure and free and strong; to the hills lifted above the swamps and the miasma, above the low-lying lands of doubt and uncertainty, above the babble and the questioning, above ' the world's loud stunning tide,' up where they rear themselves towards the gathering of the solemn stars, where the night winds whisper, and the beat of angel wings is heard, where man can commune with his God, whence cometh help. To the hills, where the showers gather big with blessing, and fall drop by drop till the rills begin to sparkle and leap, and the tiny rivulets are swelling into the broadening river, refreshing hamlet and homestead, falling down into the plain and cleansing every city, sweeping onward with its gather- ing burden to the mighty sea, the broad fertilizing stream of the lifeof the Church of God." 1
When sick of life and all the world — How sick of all desire but Thee ! — I lift mine eyes up to the hills,
Eyes of my heart that see, I see beyond all death and ills Eefreshing green for heart and eyes, The golden streets and gateways pearled.
The trees of Paradise.^
» J. B. Atlay, Bishop Ernest WUberforu, 226. » Christina G. Rossetti.
Guardianship in Daily Life.
Literature.
Ainsworth (P. C), The Threshold Grace, 11.
Cox (S.), The Pilgrim Psalms, 44.
Gumming (J. E.), The Blessed Life, 94
McNeill (J.), Regent Squa/re Pulpit, ii. 249.
Melvill (H.), Sermons, 1854, No. 2241.
Moule (H. C. Q.), Thy Keeper, 63.
Piggott (W. C), The Imperishable Wwd, 120.
Pulsford (W.), Trinity Church Sermons, 50.
Scott (J. M.), Some Favourite Psalms, 126.
Smith (G. A.), Four Psalms, 127.
Wilson (J. M.), Sermons Preached in Clifton College Chapel, ii 147.
Christian World Pulpit, Ixxxiii. 107 (Q. E. Darlaston).
Presbyterian, Jan. 23, 1913 (J. R. M'Lean).
Guardianship in Daily Life.
The Lord shall keep thy going out and thy coming In, From this time forth and for evermore. — Ps. cxxi. 8.
1. We often make a mistake in endeavouring to associate these Old Testament hymns with great occasions in the history of God's chosen race, with the important events and crises through which they were called to pass, forgetting, as we do, that Israel, and God's servants of every age and place, need Him most of all, and need the uplift of every possible grace most of all, in the continuous processes of life's development and the humdrum experiences of an everyday world. It needs no great stretch of the imagination to believe that some Robert Burns of his generation wrote down these lines as the expression of his simple belief in the all-providing care of Jehovah and His sleepless watchfulness.
2. The very essence of the psalm is simplicity ; here you find no high flights of poetic imagination, no startling metaphors or fresh truth. And yet there is a warm glow in its message, and there is a fragrance in its simple trust, which have made it one of the best loved of all the psalms, to both Jews and Christians throughout the world. It is the song of a man who found life transfigured by a thought, a thought born out of his own experi- ence— that the God of the everlasting hills was no mere spectator of human struggles, no indolent Deity calming himself to sleep amid the perturbations of a universe and the unheeded cries of his creatures. It is the song of a man who had seen God's rain- bow on the dark background of the day's routine, and was assured that all is well. It is the song of a man whose ambitions were of a lowly character, and who was content to go out and in, to meet life's appointments, if so be that the Lord Himself would be his keeper. And what a power lies secreted in the heart of a song when a man can sing it with the emphasis of experience !