He walked and tapped the pavement with his cane, Scenting the world, looking it full in the face.
^ A. Rowland.
230 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
He turned up, now, the alley by the church, That leads nowhither ; now, he breathed himself On the main promenade just at the wrong time : You'd come upon his scrutinising hat, Making a peaked shade blacker than itself Against the single window spared some house Intact yet with its mouldered Moorish work, — Or else surprise the ferrel of his stick Trying the mortar's temper 'tween the chinks Of some new shop a-building, French and fine. He stood and watched the cobbler at his trade.
He glanced o'er books on stalls with half an eye, And fly-leaf ballads on the vendor's string, And broad-edge bold-print posters by the wall. He took such cognisance of men and things, If any beat a horse, you felt he saw ; If any cursed a woman, he took note ; Yet stared at nobody, — you stared at him, And found, less to your pleasure than surprise, He seemed to know you and expect as much.
The town's true master if the town but knew ! We merely kept the governor for form, While this man walked about and took account Of all thought, said and acted, then went home, And wrote it fully to our Lord the King.
God's Waiting Ones.
Literature.
»^anks (L. A.), Hidden Wells of Comfort, 182.
„ Sermons which have won Souls, 297.
Bentley (S.), Sermons on Prayer, 79.
Brown (H. S.), Manliness, 111. "^
Gollancz (H.), Sermons and Addresses, 304. Halsey (J.), The Beauty of the Lord, 276. Holland (W. L.), The Beauty of Holiness, 133. Howells (W.), in The Welsh Pulpit of To-day, 120. Jones (J. D.), Elims of Life, 140. ' Jowett (J. H.), The Silver Lining, 131. Kennedy (J. D.), Sermons, 215. Knight (G. H.), Divine Upliftings, 15. Laidlaw (J.), Studies in the Parables, 257. Levens (J. T.), Clean Hands, 6. Lewis (A.), Sermons Preached in England, 77. Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Isaiah i.-xlviii. 276.
„ The Unchanging Christ, 12.
Morgan (Q. H.), Modern Knights-Errant, 94. Reynolds (H. E.), Light and Peace, 163. V/Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xv. No. 876 ; xxix.
No. 1756. Stuart (J. G.), Talks about Soul-winning, 31. Thomas (J.), Myrtle Street Pulpit, in. 84. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), ix. 784. Wilmot Buxton (H. J.), Led by a Little Child, 64. Christian World Pulpit, iii. 84 (Anderson) ; v. 337 (Binney) ; vii. 219
(Beecher); xxiv. 308 (Heard); xlix. 276 (Tymms) ; Ivii. 129
(Campbell). Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., iii. 166 (Vaughan). Examiner, July-December 1904, 538 (Jowett). Homiletic Review, xlviii. 300 (Beaton). Presbyterian and Reformed Review, v. 89 (Huizinga).
GOD'S Waiting Ones.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run, and not be weary ; they shall walk, and not faint.— xl. 31. ^■
In speaking to the heart of Jerusalem the great prophet of the Exile spoke a word which will always be in season to them that are weary, and to such as are engaged in great undertakings. An earlier prophet had seen a vision of dry bones, the emblems of a dead people, to whom he was commissioned to promise a renewal of national life. He had spoken to these dry bones ; the Spirit of God had breathed upon them ; and as the heavenly wind swept through the stifling valley of death the scattered bones came together, joint to joint, and flesh came upon them, and breath came into them, and they stood up a great army. Now the new prophet has to speak to the awakening people in the early hours of their reviving national life and aspirations, and he has to comfort them amongst the fears which imperil the great enterprise for which they have been revived. And all through this chapter he deals with them. There is the profound sense of guilt, and he deals with that, assuring them of forgiveness.
There is the dread of the great heathen empires which have broken and seem unbreakable, and he deals with that, and shows how these great kings and judges and empires are but as dust in the balance and their gods are silent. Yes, he has to speak to them in the beginnings of their rethinking out the situation. They are alive many of them, but most of them are only just alive; and as the sensations experienced by those who are coming out of a swoon are practically the same as the feelings of those who are sinking into one, the prophet pictures some of
234 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
these men as lying prone upon the ground, prostrate and motion- less, and the clammy dews of faintness upon their brows. They are unable to rise, and as they lie there he bids them at least lift up their eyes and look up into the heavens and consider these things. Who hath created all these things ? Hast thou, Jacob, not known ? Hast thou not heard ? The Everlasting Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. . . . He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.