There is power waiting for you for all the great crises of your lives which call for special, though it may be brief, exertion. Such crises will come to each of you, in sorrow, work, difficulty, hard conflicts. Moments will be sprung upon you without warning, in which you will feel that years hang on the issue of an instant. Great tasks will be clashed down before you unexpectedly which will demand the gathering together of all your power. And there is only one way to be ready for such times as these, and that is to Jive waiting on the Lord, near Christ, with Him in your hearts, and then nothing will come that will be too big for you. However rough the road, and however severe the struggle, and however swift the pace, you will be able to keep it up. Though it may be with panting lungs and a throbbing heart, and dim eyes and quivering muscles, yet if you wait on the Lord you will run and not be weary. You will be masters of the crises.
Holiness does not consist exclusively in heavenly contempla- tion and prayer. The breathing of the pure air of heaven is essential for the saints, that they may be able to " run " in the way of God's commandments, and not grow iveary in the race. There must be something very deficient in that holiness which is
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characterised by slothfulness and lack of effort. We are told to " follow holiness " (Heb. xii. 1 4). The word " to follow " signifies pursuing an enemy, or pursuing in the chase. Let us learn to be as intent upon holiness as the soldier is intent upon pursuing the enemy. Let us be as eager to pursue holiness as the hound is to follow the fox, or the hare, or the stag.
Have you ever noticed how the servants of God in the Bible — from Abraham and David to Philip in the Acts — when- ever they were told to do anything, always ran. It is the only way to do anything well. Eun. A thousand irksome duties become easy and pleasant if we do them runningly — that is, with a ready mind, an affectionate zeal, and a happy alacrity.
If In Indian Wigwams and Northern Camp-fires, by the Eev. E. E. Young, we are told that amongst the brigades of Indians who annually left Norway House for the Mackenzie Eiver and Atha- basca districts with supplies, and to bring back furs, the Christian brigade was always the first to return. The men themselves attributed it to their observance of the Sabbath as a day of waiting upon God. According to their account of one trip the brigades kept together until the first Saturday. Then those from the Christian mission chose a place for their Sunday camp, and spent that day in rest and worship. Next day they started early, refreshed by their rest, and on Thursday had passed the others and camped as the head brigade. Next Sunday they rested again, and the others passed them and camped a few miles farther on. " We were up very early on Monday morning, and came up to the others while they were at breakfast. With a cheer we rowed by, and they did not catch up to us again. . . . We were three days down on our way home when we met the other brigades going up." They rested every Sunday during the trip of two months, yet were home a week before those who pushed on every day. These Indians were no larger or stronger than others, but in waiting upon God they renewed their physical as well as their spiritual strength.
VT. They shall walk and not faint.
Is this the same as saying that we shall have the power of steady perseverance, of patient endurance under protracted trial "i Did the prophet put this last in his brief summary because patience is one of those Christian graces that has its perfect
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work the latest — because the bearing of the Lord's burden is often a much more difficult thing than the doing of the Lord's work ? And was it because He would encourage us by the assurance that even that power, difficult of attainment as it is, shall yet be ours through prayer ? Thank God for the assur- ance, for we greatly need it ! " They shall break down under ^jj* the trial," suggests the devil. " No," says the prophet, " th&y^T f shall bear up bravely." That is, if in the great warfare it is not i^ theirs to be conspicuous in the battlefield, they shall receive power to be loyal in the barracks. If on the seas of Christly activity it is not theirs to lead the squadrons of exploration, they shall at least be vigilant in the roadstead, and alert about the shore.
The flight into the heavenlies, and the vigorous putting / forth of effort, will fit us for the ordinary walks of life. If all our religious exercises do not make us better husbands to our wives, better wives to our husbands, better parents to our children, better children to our parents, better masters and mistresses to our servants, and better servants to our masters, what are they all worth ? We are then but " clouds without water," and trees " whose fruit withereth." Without doubt the highest attainment is put last — it is the climax of holiness : " They shall vmlk, and not faint." If there is not holiness in little things, what can we expect in great things but mere paint and veneer, and what is artificial ? But there is nothing bo likely to produce true saintship in the home and the quiet walks of daily life as prayer and much waiting on God, as well as much valiant fighting and vigorous running, and deliberate setting aside every weight.