204 THE LASH OF THE LAW
that wrath of God at which he shuddered ? The sacred historian shall tell us why he sent for Paul, and communed with him often. "He hoped that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him." All that was meanest, all that was basest, all that was most unrighteous in the man had revived again, and in all its old strength and malignity.
■fj If we take a bit of phosphorus and put it upon a slip of wood, and ignite the phosphorus, bright as the blaze is, there drops from it a white ash that coats the wood, and makes it almost incombustible. And so when the flaming conviction, laid upon our hearts, has burnt itself out, it has coated the heart, and it will be very difficult to kindle the light there again.1
T[ The great bell of Moscow, the largest bell in the world, was cast more than two hundred years ago, and has never been raised, not because it is too heavy, but because it is cracked. All was going well at the foundry, when a fire broke out in Moscow. Streams of water were dashed in upon the houses and factories, and a tiny little stream found its way into the bell-metal at the very moment when it was rushing in a state of fusion into the colossal bell-mould, and so the big bell came out cracked, and all its capacity of music was destroyed. The historic incident pre- sented itself as a symbol of our thought. Here is a divinely-given impulse, like soft and molten metal, just flowing into the mould of our first thought, and hardening into noble and steadfast decision. And an insidious doubt or compromise is allowed to have its way, and trickle in at the vital moment when impulse is just shaping into the image of the divine likeness, and all is spoilt, and the bell of heavenly impulse does not ring out the music of a redeemed and sanctified life. It is this intrusion of the com- promise that works such destruction in our spiritual life. Life would abound in heavenly bell-music if we took every divine impulse and offered it the mould of a ready and willing decision. " Teach me to do Thy will."2
Take my feet, and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee.
2. What is a convenient season ? It is a season when you can do a thing just as easily as not. When a friend asks you to do something, if convenient, you answer : " Oh yes ; it is entirely convenient. No trouble at all." That is what is meant by a convenient season. Well, does a convenient season ever come to 1 A. Maclaren. 2 J. H. Jowett.
ACTS xxiv. 25 205
repent ? It never does. A man has to put himself to great inconvenience when he makes the change.
The Apostle spake of judgment just,
And certain unto men as death; Prince Felix felt as if the thrust
Of deadly arrows stayed his breath: " I'll hear thee at convenient time,"
He said, his terror to dissemble ; But when can guilt conveniently
Invite the truth that makes it tremble ? *
3. " Go thy way" said Felix. If only we could be sure that a voice was God's, we would obey it swiftly and gladly ; but the pain of life is that its silences are so long, and so seldom broken by a voice which we can with confidence welcome as divine. But is that voice so very rare ? or is it not rather that we have not schooled ourselves to understand the language in which it speaks ? For it sometimes speaks as a rising terror in the heart. "Go away," cries Felix, in a sudden access of terror. It is to Paul that he is speaking, but what are those awful words but a tragic farewell to God — the God who was pleading with him through the mighty presence of Paul ?
T| The peasants of southern Eussia say that an old woman was at work in her house when the Wise Men of the East, led by the star, passed on their way to go and seek the infant Saviour. " Come with us," they said. " We are going to find the Christ so long looked for by men." " Not now," she replied. " I am not ready to go now ; but by and by I will follow on and find Him with you." But when her work was done the Wise Men had gone, and the star in the heavens which went before them had disappeared.2
TJ There are two sworn enemies of my soul. Their names are Yesterday and To-morrow. Yesterday slays his thousands. What he seeks to do is to plunge me down into darkness and despair. " You have had your chances," he says, " such golden chances, and you have trampled them all under foot. There will be no more priceless opportunities for you." Ay, but To-morrow slays his tens of thousands. He has recourse to just the opposite expedients from those of Yesterday. Brave vows and valiant promises that will never be fulfilled ; good resolutions that may lull my conscience into sleep, — these are his deadly weapons.