1 R. F. Coyle.
120 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
This human cry is often a challenge to God. " There is no God, or if there is He does not care." It is really God's challenge to us. " God has been preparing His answer ; just as in the hidden laboratory of nature the coal has been slowly prepared for the world's need of warmth ; just as, nursed in secret stores, electricity has been prepared for the world's need of light and speed ; just as, in the slow working of history, the fundamental answer to all problems was prepared in the Incarna- tion, so year after year, by quiet influences, by teaching, by a mother's prayers, by school sermons, by an education given only to a few, God has been slowly preparing His answer to this cry, and you, my brother, are the answer.
So when the cry from below is heard, the ear opens to the call from above. And then the human cry becomes more articulate and insistent. Moses heard the cry of his countrymen, and struck a blow for them. But on the first intimation of danger he fled. Then God came and sent him down into Egypt to deliver them, and he was no longer afraid of the wrath of the king.
IT Let me tell you of a man I knew in India — George Bowen by name. He was a classical scholar of distinction, and was at home in four of the principal languages of Europe. For years he revelled in poetry and philosophy, in romance and controversy, in all those languages. He was, besides, a fine musician; could compose as well as perform. In his early manhood Bowen was a philosophic sceptic and a rank pessimist. At last, however, there came to him a great experience, which made him feel the need, and ultimately see the truth, of immortality. From that point he was led on, until one night he sat down and wrote these words : " If there is One above all who notices the desires of men, I wish He would take note of the fact, that if it please Him to make known His will concerning me I should think it the highest privilege to do that will wherever it might be and whatever it might involve." It was a cry out of darkness, and not long after that Jesus Christ came to George Bowen. There soon grew up in him a new sense of obligation to humanity. He was led to leave wealth for poverty, to turn from the society of the cultured and friendly that he might care for the needs of the ignorant and prejudiced, to renounce a luxurious home for a mud-walled hut. He went to India, and for forty years, witliout one single change, he dwelt among the people of that land. Persecution, epidemic, the fierce enervating heat could not drive him away from the crowded streets of Bombay.
ISAIAH 121
He was consumed with a passiou for bettering the people amongst whom he lived, and he laid down his life on their behalf.^
2. Is the Divine Call irresistible, then ? No, it is not irresistible, even when it is heard from above. God's " state is kingly : thousands at His bidding speed, and post o'er land and ocean without rest " — but they are all volunteers. He has no pressgang in His employ, and He accepts no pressed service.
1. A man may hear it as if it were irresistible. Such an one was Paul, who could say : " Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel." Such an one was Eichard Baxter, of whom Dr. Jowett said : " As the people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, so did the people of Kidderminster repent at the preaching of Baxter " ; and of whose book — The Saints' Best — a recent writer remarks : " The book glows through and through with the red heat of sacred flame, at which the soul catches fire." Such an one again was Brainerd, who prayed that he might become a flaming fire for God. Such an one was Alexander Duff, who, both in India and in Scotland, kindled to a sacred passion the congregations who listened to his burning words. And such an one in our own time was James Gilmour, who, when urged by his friends to desist from labours which were consuming him, cried : " I cannot be silent ; the fire of God is on me."
2. A man may resist it, but it is never the same with him afterwards. If the call has come and been rejected, there is a steady loss of life. For no one can lay hold on life by shirking its opportunities. And the loss is none the less tragic that it is unrecognised. For —
When we in our viciousness grow hard — 0 misery on't ! — the wise gods seel our eyes ; In our own filth drop our clear judgements ; make us Adore our errors ; laugh at's, while we strut To our confusion.
IF In a stirring article entitled " Is Life worth Living ? " Pro- fessor James remarks : " If this life be not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a game of private theatricals, from which one may with- draw at will. But it feels like a real fight." And he concludes by urging that our attitude on this matter is necessarily one of faith.