The heart which boldly faces death Upon the battlefield, and dares Cannon and bayonet, faints beneath The needle-point of frets and cares. The stoutest hearts they do dismay — The tiny stings of every day.
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And even saints of holy fame Whose souls by faith have overcome, Who wore amid the cruel flame The molten crown of martyrdom, Bore not without complaint alway The petty pains of every day.
Ah! more than martyr's aureole, And more than hero's heart of fire, We need the humble strength of soul Which daily toils and ills require. Sweet Patience, grant us, if you may, An added grace for every day.
IV.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They who wait upon the Lord shall obtain a marvellous addition to their resources. Their life shall be endowed with mysterious but most real equipment. They shall obtain wings. We do well when picturing the angel presences to endow them with wings. At the best it is a clumsy symbolism, but all symbolisms of eternal things are clumsy and ineffective. And what do we mean by wings ? We mean that life has gained new powers, extraordinary capacity ; the old self has received heavenly addition, endowing it with nimbleness, buoyancy, strength. We used to sing in our childhood, " I want to be an angel." I am afraid the sentiment was often poor and unworthy, and removed our thoughts rather to a world that is to be than to the reality by which we are surrounded to-day. But it is right to wish to be an angel if by that wish we aspire after angelic powers and seek for angels' wings. It is right to long for their powers of flight, their capacity to soar to the heights. We may have the angels' wings. Wing-power is not only the reward of those who are redeemed out of time and emancipated from death, and who have entered into the larger life of the unseen glory, but it is the prerogative of you and me. " They that wait upon the Lord . . . shall mount up with
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wings." Waiting upon the Lord will enable us to share the angels' fellowship, to feed on angels' food, and to acquire the angels' power of wing. " They shall mount up with wings as eagles."
The saints of God are mountaineers, mounting up to higher and purer air than can be found on earth. Their " citizenship is in heaven." Their great delight is to be with the Lord on the mount ; they are glad to be able in heart and mind to sit with Jesus Christ in the heavenlies, holding communion with their Father and His Son Jesus Christ, through the ever-present and powerful influence of the Holy Spirit. The eagle mounts up with remarkable rapidity, and is noted for its swiftness of flight. God asks Job, " Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?" (Job xxxix. 27). Solomon speaks, too, of this swiftness of flight, " Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not ? For riches certainly make themselves wings, like an eagle that flieth toward heaven " (Pro v. xxiii. 5). Saul and Jonathan were "swifter than eagles" (2 Sam. i. 23). So when we have the Spirit of God with us, we are able in an instant to wing our flight away from things of time and sense, and enter through the veil into the very presence of the Most High. We must take no credit or glory to ourselves for this, for as of old with His literal Israel, so now with His spiritual Israel, the Lord " bears us on eagles' wings, and brings us unto Himself " (Ex. xix. 4).
1" I will tell you about the eagle's nest. The eagle makes a nest of thorns, and over the thorns the eagle puts some very soft things — some wool or some down over the thorns. And there the eagle lays its eggs, and when the eggs are hatched, the little eagles come out into the nest, and there they stay. And when it is time for the little eagles to fly, what do you think the old eagle does ? With his great talons he scratches off the soft wool and the down, and then the thorns prick the little birds, and they must fly because the thorns prick them. And so they fly away, and fly away because the thorns prick them. And what do you think the old eagle does then ? He is such a kind old bird. He comes and puts his great wings under the wings of the little birds, and helps them to fly ; and so the young eaglets can fly very high, because their father, the old eagle, helps them with his great wings to fly away. And then they go up, and up very high ; and if you have ever seen a great bird — a great hawk, or a
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kite, or an eagle, as I have seen an eagle, it is very beautiful to see how it flies. It goes up very high, and it makes great circles round and round, and goes very fast, and yet you hardly see it move its wings. It seems almost to go without flapping its wings. It is so grand, so large a circle, and it does it so quietly, so quietly, up very high and round and round. ^