^ 1 Jan. 1878. Marine Parade, Brighton, 6 a.m. When one thinks of the immensity of time and of the Christian hope that there is endless existence before us, one is perplexed that this infinity of time should take its character from a few years that seem to bear no proportion to it. One observes, however, that in the time here by far the greatest portion is determined by certain hours or it may be minutes.
In itself a thought, A slumbering thought, is capable of years —
says Byron, and certain it is that all our lives are under the influence of moments when fresh convictions dawned on us, or when we made some important resolution, or when we passed , through some special trial. With moat of us the-grea^r paiji o£- onr liff} Reemf^ merely wagted^ We eat, drink, and sleep, join in meaningless chit-chat, pay calls and the like. Others get through an immense amount of work ; but at times we have glimpses which show us that life consists neither in chit-chat nor in work, and that even the latter needs something in it, but not of it, before it can be good for anything " in the kingdom of heaven." Perhaps the scanty moments we give to prayer may in importance be the chief part of our existence.^
' Life and Remains of the Rev. R. H. Quick, 70.
PSALM cxxxix. 23, 24 163
2. fjOd sftf^frchfiS iia-Jiy thA^rpfR'pryn.a'ihi.mip.st JTp. Jgyg ii.ptyifi. ifs —Jt.
is_jD^QuiL.dirties_^and notjin^ that _the.-irjuLe .self is
searched^ancLkno\jn^ Think of those servants in the parable who received the talents. Could you have gauged their character before they got the talents ? Were they not all respectable and honest and seemingly worthy of their master's confidence ? But to one of the servants the master gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, and what distinguished and revealed the men was the use they made of their responsibility. They were not searched by what they had to suffer ; the men were searched by what they had to do. They were revealed by what their master gave, and by the use they made of what they got. And so is it with all of us to whom God has given a task, a post, a talent — it is not only a gift to bless our neighbour ; it is a gift to reveal us to ourselves.
^ See, I hold a sovereign in my hand. It appears to bear the image and superscription of the King. That is mereljL-an op^cal ill^i^ It bears my oivn image and supeHcription. I have earnedTlt, and it is mine. But now that it is mine, the trouble begins. For that sovereign becomes part of myself and will henceforth represent a pound's worth of me ! If I am a bad man, I shall spend it in folly, and accelerate the forces that make for the world's undoing. If I am a bad man, that is to say, it will be a bad sovereign, however truly it may seem to ring. If I am a good man, I shall spend it in clean commerce, and enlist it among the forces that tend to the uplift of my brothers. Yes, gold is very good if we are very good, and very bad if we are very bad. Here is the song of the sovereign —
Dug from the mountain-side, washed in the glen. Servant am I or the master of men ;
Steal me, I curse you;
Earn me, I bless you; Grasp me and hoard me, a fiend shall possess you;
Lie for me, die for me;
Covet me, take me, Angel or devil, I am what you make me ! ^
3. God-searchea us \y hrirwiai^ uemJ^ue7Uie&lp '^eq.rujinn
Zt^s._T^oubles and temptat^ns^ are p;re|t diapQV(^rPrt"/,J^""^f "
^ F. W. Boreham, MonrUains in the Mist, 62.
i64 THE SEARCHER OF HEARTS
chara^t^^. Our passions and special inclinations may lie like some minerals, far down, and we may bore long and find no trace of their existence, but by and by we may pierce deeper, and a thick seam of evil may be found. Or our nature may, like a break- water, stand long, and seem secure, unharmed by many a gale, but some fiercer storm, some stronger onslaught of temptation, may overthrow it, or some single stone may be dislodged, or some joint weakened, and the sea works its way in, and the whole is upset, dashed, and pounded to ruin. So you may resist long, and come unscathed through much evil, but it comes with fiercer power at some time, or it dashes upon you suddenly or unexpectedly, advancing upon you not like the long roll of the ocean, with steady force, but with a quick impact, a sudden surprise — as temptation came to Peter — and your power of resistance is destroyed.
, ^ Just as engineers are not satisfied with respect to the soundness and durability of iron girders or links of ships' cables merely because these look well, but proceed to test them by pressure, and ascertain the amount of strain they will bear, and the weight they will sustain, so by the rough handling of the world's vexations and by the strain of trouble and sorrow you must be tried, to show what you really are: whether your temper patiently endures this provocation, whether your pride will submit to that mortification, your vanity to that slight, your passions to that force of temptation, your faith to that severe disappointment, your love to that heavy sacri- \^fice.