^ Simeon, bravely patient, outlasts the time of silence : while the winds of God blow where they list, and gently stir the surface of his soul, breathing deep to sources of emotion, springs of thought, centres of will, and faculties of being, which all re- ceptive and expectant wait for impulses of life, co-operant with the touch of the Divine. Intuition waits on growing consciousness : things seen afar become defined in detail : thought expands, impression greatens into form and shape : the Christ hath come, the morning breathes, the shadows flee away. Thus there comes a day when he is led under the impulse of the Holy Ghost into the Sanctuary of God. There he sees, he feels, he holds the Christ in likeness of an infant come, the Babe of Bethlehem. He bows before the Vision of the Lord : joyous yet awed he sings of Glory and of Light, Salvation for the World and Israel's Hope enthroned. And so he saw not death but Christ : and holding Him passed into Life, and felt within his soul the waters rise which satisfy, and fail hs not but spring eternally.^
^ A. Daintree, Studies in Ho^e, 76, ST. LUKE — 5
66 A TOUCHSTONE OF CHARACTER
^ The first pastor of Craigdam — Eev. William Brown, ordained in 1752 — was enough to give character to any church. . . . His grandson, Principal Brown, remembers an old man describing a service conducted by the first minister of Craigdam at Knock, near Portsoy. One thing in the sermon which came to him and was indelibly imprinted upon his memory was the vivid and fervid way in which the preacher used the historical incident of Simeon holding the child Jesus in his arms : — " There did not appear to be much in the old man's arms, and yet the salvation of the world was dependent upon what was there — all was wrapt up in that Jesus held by Simeon." Then, holding out his own arms as if embracing that which Simeon esteemed to be so precious, Mr. Brown with tearful urgency of voice cried to the people assembled — " Have you, my freens, taken a grip o' Jesus ? " ^
Simeon the just and the devout,
Who frequent in the fane Had for the Saviour waited long,
But waited still in vain, —
Came Heaven-directed at the hour
When Mary held her Son ; He stretched forth his aged arms,
While tears of gladness run:
With holy joy upon his face
The good old father smiled, While fondly in his wither'd arms
He clasp'd the promised Child.
And then he lifted up to Heaven
An earnest asking eye ; *' My joy is full, my hour is come ;
Lord, let Thy servant die.
At last my arms embrace my Lord;
Now let their vigour cease; At last my eyes my Saviour see,
Now let them close in peace !
The Star and Glory of the land
Hath now begun to shine ; The morning that shall gild the globe
Breaks on these eyes of mine ! " ^
' J. Stark, The Lights of the North, 288. 2 Michael Bruce.
ST. LUKE II. 34, 35 67
2. Simeon looked far into the future, and saw the final goal of Christ's mission. He regarded Christ's coming as " a light to lighten the Gentiles," and the consolation and glory of Israel. But he also foresaw its nearer and more immediate effects. This Child, he says, who is to be the light of the Gentiles and the glory of Israel is also to be as a rock over which many will fall and on which many will rise, a signal for strife and gainsaying, a sword piercing and dividing the very soul, even where the soul is purest, and a touchstone revealing the inward thoughts of many hearts and showing how evil they are. Now, large as the contradiction looks between these two conceptions of the immediate and the ultimate results of Christ's influence on the world, is there any real contradiction between them ? For if the Light is to shine into a dark world, or a dark heart, it must struggle with and disperse the darkness before it can shed order and f ruitfulness and gladness into it. In such a world as this there can be no victory without conflict, no achievement without strenuous effort, no joy without pain, no perfection except through suffering.
An Appointed Test.
"This child is set for the falling and rising up of many in Israel."
The expression is figurative and suggests to our minds a stone or step in a man's pathway, which becomes to him, accord- ing as he treats it, either a stumbling-block over which he falls, or a means of elevation by which he rises to a higher plane, and which is so placed before him that he cannot avoid it.
1. Jesus Christ is thus inevitable. He is obtrusive. He is there. He forces Himself upon our attention as every universal fact and law must. He is set as fixedly in the firmament of our spiritual and moral life as the sun is set in the heavens. He rides into every world of human interest and concern just as gloriously as the sun comes over the mountains at the break of day. You tell me you know nothing at all about astronomical law. You believe what wise men tell you about the stately march of the seasons and the procession of the planets in regular orbit, and you