The shadow of a great rock ? Samson will do in the days of youth ; Samuel in manhood, when patriotism is the divinity ; Isaiah as the years pass, and the patriot finds that there is a God of the Gentile as well as of the Jew. But there is no refuge for a whole wide world of weariness except in the love of Him who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Eock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.
iii. The Strong in Modern History.
Our own English history, and the history of Europe and America are full of the records of how destructive winds have swept across national life, and have left multitudes in bondage and ignorance. One of these awful winds — the wind of oppression — swept across the Southern States of America, and held the poor negroes in the bondage of mental ignorance and physical servitude. It had been tearing its way over the wretched negro for many generations. But at last there came a man whose name will be held in eternal honour,
i86 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
William Lloyd Garrison, who put himself between the negro and the wind, and other men, awakened by his example, went and stood by his side, notably that grand old Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier. These men breasted the wind, ever confronting the vicious greed of the wealthy slave-owner. They came over to our own country, they faced the hisses, the scorn, and contempt of the cotton merchants in Lancashire and Yorkshire — men whose profits would be diminished by the liberation of the slaves. They confronted, nay, they took their stand on, the great principle and eternal truth of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and the grand issue was the emancipation of the negro and the slave. They were hiding-places from the wind and coverts from the tempest.
1. The name of Alfred the Great will always shine brightly in our national history ; and, much later, there was " a man " who wore no regal crown, but who was the greatest and best of all the kings. Oliver Cromwell was a real hiding-place and covert to this land in the days when the crowned king was unworthy to rule. In him, God raised up " a man " who risked everything in the defence of the liberties which we still enjoy. What a hiding-place from the wind and what a covert from the tempest he was to the little company of persecuted saints in the valley of Piedmont ! The Duke of Savoy had determined to extirpate the Protestants ; but Cromwell heard of his cruelties, and resolved that he would do all that he could to rescue them from their persecutor's power. He sent for the French ambassador and told him to let his master know that he must have those persecutions stopped immediately. His Majesty replied that Savoy did not belong to him, and that he could not interfere with the Duke. " Nevertheless," replied Cromwell, " if you tell the Duke that you will go to war with him if he does not cease persecuting the Protestants, he will soon stop his butcheries. If you will not do that, I will go to war with you ; for, in the name of the Lord of hosts, I will defend His persecuted people."
2. Paul, Augustine, Wycliffe, Luther, Knox, Wesley, and Whitefield have exerted power which it is difficult to measure. We are interested in the men themselves. From some points in their teaching we may possibly dissent ; of some features in their character we may disapprove ; but candour compels us to recognise
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the impression they made on their own times, and on those which have followed after.
3. When keen and blighting winds sweep over human life — winds of evil influence and foolish doctrine, laden with poisonous germs that pollute the moral atmosphere, and spread around a ruinous infection ; when fierce tempests rage, in which wild passions are let loose, threateniug to carry men away as with a flood from noble enterprise and lofty principle and patient service — these men of noble character have been as a hiding-place and covert to which distressed souls have fled for refuge, and in whom they have found the refuge that they sought. The very know- ledge that they were there, unmoved in their holy purpose and their glorious faith, has been itself a strength to many a soul. And they have brought refreshment and encouragement to many a fainting heart, have revived the drooping energies of many a life, have kept alive a faith in goodness and a longing to be good, have been indeed a constant source of highest inspiration, doing for multitudes of their fellows what the copious and fertilising rivers do for^the parched and barren laud.
H I remember when I was in Italy a sight that moved my English sympathies very much. It was during the visit of President Loubet to Eome. In the procession, a military procession, with dazzling uniforms and military gewgaws, I saw one carriage containing a group of grizzled veterans wearing red shirts. It flashed upon me at once that these old fellows must have been the followers of Garibaldi, so with English audacity I went up and stopped the carriage and asked them whether it were so. The old men were pleased. They asked me what countryman I was, which was not just obvious at the moment, and I told them. " Ah," said one of them, " in that trying hour England was the friend of Garibaldi." England was. Why ? Because he was a man. Victor Emmanuel was seated upon the throne of a united Italy almost against his will by a man who knew how to do and dare. While politicians were scheming and plotting and hesitating. Garibaldi landed and trusted the patriotism of his countrymen. These old men told me they had followed him in all his campaigns, had marched with him to victory, had seen Emmanuel crowned first king of modern Italy. He was only king ; their hero, almost their god, was Garibaldi. The utterance of his name, the wearing of his uniform, was to them an incentive to higher manhood, and they looked indeed men.^