^ R. Stephen, Divine and Human Influence, i. 262.
i6o THE SEARCHER OF HEARTS
us the experience which makes this psalm intelligible, and forces us also to cry, " (^JLord^ thou JhAstsearchedjnei and kQOj?mm
^ It is a fact well known to seamen that objects under water,
such as shoals and sunken rocks, become visible, or more visible,
when viewed from a height ; and it is customary at sea, when a
sunken object is suspected of lying in a vessel's course, but cannot
be seen from the deck, to send a man aloft, when the higher he
can climb the mast the farther will his vision penetrate beneath
the waves. From the top of a lofty cliff the depth is seen better
still; whilst the elevation of a balloon enables the spectator to
see most perfectly beneath the surface, and to detect the sunken
mines, torpedoes, and the like which may be concealed there.
ii Now, just as there is an optical reason why the depth is best
; penetrated from the height, so there is a moral reason why the
holy God best kncvs the plagues and perils of the human heart.
, He who from the pure heaven of eternal light and purity looks
V down into the depths of the heart is cognizant of its defects long
*" before they report themselves in the creature-consciousness.^
% Colonel Seely, shortly before he resigned office as Secretary of State for War in the spring of 1914, unfolded in the House of Commons the Supplementary Army Estimates ; and, speaking of the vote for the Army Air Service, he gave a striking instance of the range of vision from a height. From an aeroplane up 5000 '' feet in the air one could see, he explained, quite clearly every detail of the landscape. An airman could perceive from that not only the roads and the hedges beneath, but, for instance, whether there were two horses or one attached to a cart going along a road. Persons could be seen walking in the streets of a town. " How easy then," concluded the War Secretary, " to see any troops ! Thus the commander of an army without aeroplanes — other things being equal — is doomed if faced by a force with aeroplanes, for every movement of the enemy's troops, except at night or in a fog, can be watched and reported by the air scouts."
3. The,.^galffii8t \3[M.aaJi5fiM-^^»Q^J=lP-^<^ gjGaiT.h him, fixlly, f airlyjiS iiaeaili^^^ Xha-Wiard JH^b is rpnrjp.red " ^£arch."-is a.. Viv.^ very emphajic and picturesque Q.ae> It m^an^ to, dig deep. Qod. '^* ' ' ■ ijL£Ifty-fii -^8 it_^r£*.to_make-a-aeyfttioa into the Psalmisi,.^!nd lay / barejiis inmost nature^ as mfin dg ia.aj;ail way .cutting, la^tjiier layer, _going pyftr dfipppj^' down tjill Jiha. hed-tock— is -j^acl^d. '''Search .ijie "— fUgJnjY^ t^^p, hrincr t,]]R dopj)-l^p[T pa^jia to ligfht— ' W. L. Watkiuson, The Fatal Barlcr, 101.
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PSALM cxxxix. 23, 24 161
" ajid know myJieait-!.' ; thp- <^p.p|ivf? 9t "^y r^^^'J^^^^'ty. T"y '^vw^^f sell
Tbia» pxaver is algo a,Ti expression of absolutip wi1Hngness>-ta^ ^^'jteOL^Jjo the^searching process. God i^ ^yftpygffftnt^d, i,n t.hp. tp.xt as seeking into Ji,e--seGf^§^xiijiga^^ Ctod-jaay '**'^
]^iiqw. but that tlie^man isayLkllDWc By His Spirit He will come into the innermost corners of our nature, if this prayer is a real expression of our desire. And there the illumination of His presence will flash light into all the dark corners of our experience and of our personality.
11 Mfiiyjiay applaud or reyile^nd make a man think.c[ifferei3tly of himself , ijwt Hejudggth of j.jman accordidgJiQ^iis SSfi£fiiygaIk-"^ UiiSL.dMei^*' is-tiie A^ork of_ self-exammation ! Even to state to you, imperfectly, my own mincf, I found to be no easy matter. Nay, ^t... u£a>ul -jayv ," I.Jadge ^jmfc-mina^own selt-ior he^Jhat jU-dgfitilL-Tne m |,fie-XQ^d," That is, though he was not conscious oT any allowed sin, yet he was not thereby justified, fnrj^pd mighf. ^roeim-sometking^of Hdl^h* kej^s noL^ware. How needful then the prayer of the Psalmist, " Search me, O God, and try my heart, and see if there be any evil way in me." *
./
II.
The Tests to which we aee Subjected.
1. \^e are searehed_and knawn— by th£.MlM2JLandjt^dy pjHssinSL ^^"- ^ qfJJjL&^ye^irs. — There is a revealing power in the flight of time, just \v"^+' because time is the minister of God. In heaven there will be no ^^^ more time ; there will be no more need of any searching ministry. There we shall know even as we are known, in the burning and shining of the light of God. But here, where the light of God is dimmed and broken, we are urged forward through the course of years, and the light of the passing years achieves on earth what the light of the Presence will achieve in glory. He^is-a wise father wio kn_owsJiis child, but he is a wiser child who knows himself. Tin tf^i^tec^ by actual contact wjti^ t.hp wnrlfl, wftjlrpniri niir drp.a.rn ^JhfiLBiinshiue- of Jhejuorning. -^^M^t^AJCjpJiies Jife with alUts Jl^jidLxfi^lity, ivith^ pi Jh.?_lSarSj_and
* Life and Letters of tlte Bev. Hem'y Martyn, 28. PS. CXIX.-SONG OF SOL. — II
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i62 THE SEARCHER OF HEARTS
Wg^t^JMLr^Lndjyi the swift_flicrlit ot,tinie^au4j^-y, " Q Xi2tdiJhou hast, searched lae, and J^gLOwn jpe." We may not have achieved anything splendid. Our life may have moved along in quiet routine, not outwardly different from the lives of thousands. Yet, however dull and quietly uneventful, God has so ordered the flight of time for us that we know far more about ourselves to-night than we knew in the upland freshness of the morn. Brought into touch with duty and with man, we have begun to see our limitations. "We know in^jieasnre what we-iiajinaL-do ; thank God, we know in a measure what we can do. And underneath it all we have discerned the side on which our nature leans away to heaven, and the other side on which there is the door that opens on to the filthiness of hell. It does not take any terrible experience to reach the certainty of power and weakness. The common days, which make the common years, slowly and inevitably show it. So by the pressure of evolving time — and it is God, not we, who so evolves it — fg»j Jjetter^jy^^Jpr worse.=^ia[e com^-to- .say^ " Q Lord, thoujiast-searched mCj and kjiimn me." -