Who but has seen Once in his life, when youth and health ran high, The fair, clear face of truth
Grow dark to his eye ?
Who but has known Cold mists of doubt and icy questionings Creep round him like a nightmare, blotting out
The sight of better things ?
A hopeless hour, When all the voices of the soul are dumb, When o'er the tossing seas
No light may come,
When God and right Are gone, and seated on the empty throne Are dull philosophies and words of wind,
Making His praise their own.
Better than this. The burning sins of youth, the old man's greed, Than thus to live inane;
To sit and read.
And with blind brain Daily to treasure up a deadly doubt. And live a life from which the light has fled.
And faith's pure fire gone out.^
3. Despair. — Despair also ministers to silence, whether it be despair of ourselves or of others. Hopefulness is as necessary as faithfulness. Our Saviour is our great example here. He often seemed to fail in His efforts to teach the disciples and gather the multitudes, but He never despaired. The hardness of men's hearts would have silenced a testimony less Divine. To repel Him was but to give Him strength for a renewal of love's attack. It will be hard to keep silence when we indulge
' Sir Lewis Morris.
ISAIAH 471
in hopes concerning the children ; and of whom may we hope more fondly and freely ?
IT It is often disheartening work. We seem like the poor widow who was not heard ; we seem like the man to whom the selfish friend would not open the door. The stream of inter- cession trickles on, and no one seems to heed and no one seems to care. But if these things are true of which we have spoken, something does happen. Just as you dam up a stream in order to accumulate the water power, and for a long time the stream trickles on and the valley underneath remains dry and desolate ; but when you look out later you find the brown things have become green again, and the dead things alive, and you wonder what it means ; and you find that it means this : that the great tide of water has burst its bonds at last and is off down that valley on a work of blessing — so it is with the stream of inter- cession. It trickles on all the time ; the power rises — slowly rises — and some day men will look out upon the world, and they will see dry souls freshened with grace, and they will see heathen lands converted, and they will wonder what it means : but we shall know that the great tide of prayer has burst its bonds at last and is off down the valley on its work of blessing.
Man may be
And do the thing he wishes, if he keeps
That one thought dominant through night and day.
And knows his strength is limitless, because
Its fountain-head is God.^
4. Earnest endeavour. — The phrase " Take ye no rest " may be taken in its widest sense as an appeal for hopeful and con- fident perseverance in every kind of Christian work. There are tendencies in most men's hearts, which make such an appeal very necessary even in an age of evangelism. Disappointment with the visible results of work or with the apparent effects of self-discipline, the length of the interval which separates the harvest from the seed-time, the perfecting of the spirit from the remote moment of its conversion, — these things are sometimes apt to produce within us a degree of hesitation, often almost of suspicion, concerning religious prospects and forces, that is fatal to anything like persistent enthusiasm. And yet persistent enthusiasm, the having our spirits continually swayed or filled
' E W. Wilcox, New Thought Commmi Sense, p. 238.
472 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
with the Spirit of God, is precisely that which is essential to the increase of our own strength against sin, and to the Church's triumph. That, accordingly, is the prophet's first advice, " Take ye no rest," which is equivalent to saying. Never yield to despondency whatever the temptation, but remember the grace of God, and go steadily on day by day, smiting at every kind of evil within or without, entertaining no fears, giving no quarter to sin, never resting until the battle is over and the victory finally won.
^ We see the immense influence placed within our reach in daily life in making the life of others happy or miserable. Take that sick boy lying there down in East London. Who is it that has placed flowers by his side ? Who is it to whose visit he is look- ing forward every minute ? Who is it who has been to read to him so punctually day after day, to teach him to draw, and to help him to get through the long hours of his sickness ? It is some woman who, for the love of Christ and His little ones, has given up her beautiful home in the country, and, unnoticed and unknown, spends day after day in ministering to another for whom Christ died. He has caught from her her faith ; he believes now that Christ can save him because in a true sense she has saved him. If he stood on his individual base he would have died and despaired, but through his sister he lives and hopes. Oh ! the band of the Lord's ministering helpers. With shining garments, to the eyes of God, they move about the world. What should we do without them ? ^