Age, Pain, and Sorrow dropped the veils they wore,
And showed the tender eyes
Of angels in disguise, Whose discipline so patiently she bore.
The past years brought their harvest rich and fair,
While Memory and Love
Together fondly wove A golden garland for the silver hair.
How could we mourn like those who are bereft,
When every pang of grief
Found balm for its relief In counting up the treasure she had left ? —
Faith that withstood the shocks of toil and time,
Hope that defied despair,
Patience that conquered care, And loyalty whose courage was sublime;
1 J. Strachan. Hebrew Ideals, i. 75.
i CORINTHIANS ix. 25 279
The great deep heart that was a home for all,
Just, eloquent and strong,
In protest against wrong; Wide charity that knew no sin, no fall;
The Spartan spirit that made life so grand,
Mating poor daily needs
With high, heroic deeds, That wrested happiness from Fate's hard hand.
We thought to weep, but sing for joy instead,
Full of the grateful peace
That followed her release; For nothing but the weary dust lies dead.
Oh, noble woman ! never more a queen
Than in the laying down
Of sceptre and of crown, To win a greater kingdom yet unseen,
Teaching us how to seek the highest goal,
To earn the true success;
To live, to love, to bless, And make death proud to take a royal soul.1
1 Louisa May Alcott.
Trust in God and do the Right.
■Sx
Literature.
Aitken (W. H. M. H.), Temptation and Toil, 91.
Banks (L. A.), The Great Promises of the Bible, 112.
Boyd (A. K. H.), Counsel and Comfort from a City Pulpit, 251.
Brooke (S. A.), Short Sermons, 269.
Caulfield (S. F. A.), The Prisoners of Hope, i. 76.
Cuckson (J.), Faith and Fellowship, 283.
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, v. 41.
Faithful (R. C), My Place in the World, 157.
Farrar (F. W.), The Silence and the Voices of God, 101.
FraseT (J.), Parochial Sermons, 167.
Hutton (J. A.), The Fear of Things, 81.
Jones (J. D.), Elims of Life, 92.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., iii. 93, v. 234.
Lushiugton (F. de W.), Sermons to Young Boys, 22.
Mantle (J. G.), God's To-morrow, 67.
Moinet (C), The Great Alternative, 105.
Mursell (W. A.), The Waggon and the Star, 49.
Robinson (W. V.), Sunbeams for Sundays, 49.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1. (1904) No. 2912.
Stalker (J.), in The World 's Great Sermons, ix. 167.
Vauglian (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit) ix. (1872) No. 749.
Christian World Pulpit, xlviii. 142 (Wickham) ; lxix. 298 (Dale) ;
li. 217 (Gore). Churchman's Pulpit : Ninth Sunday after Trinity : xi. 129 (Field), 134
(Boyd), 137 (Rice), 140 (Cotton). Clergyman's Magazine, vii. 25 (Griffith) ; xv. 18 (Rogers) ; New Ser.,
vi. 95 (Proctor). Methodist Times, June 2, 1910, p. 6 (Hutton).
28a
Trust in God and do the Right.
God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.— I Cor. x. 13.
1. The reason for our confidence that every temptation can be overcome is that God is faithful. " God is faithful," says the Apostle, " who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it." Notice, the Apostle does not give as his reason for confidence that man is strong, but that God is faithful. Men who have faced temptation confiding only in their own strength have come to grief. It- is the men who, distrustful of self, have leaned upon God who have come off more than conquerors.
2. Should we be disposed at any time to doubt this, we may reassure ourselves by remembering how God's faithfulness is guaranteed.
(1) God cannot be true to His purpose of grace and yet allow us to be overcome by the sheer weight and pressure of evil without a possibility of escape. For what is the purpose which we see revealed in the gift of Christ? It is that we may be saved from sin ; and salvation from sin implies that we shall be strengthened against the temptations by which it seeks to pre- vail. God is faithful to His purpose, and His purpose is to save and keep all those who put their trust in Him. He never departs from this. He has it always before Him. It is the end to which He makes everything subordinate. He is never off His guard, never asleep, never too busily engaged to attend to the wants of the very least of His children. Sin can lurk no- where without being detected by His all-seeing eye. It can
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284 TRUST IN GOD AND DO THE RIGHT
devise no stratagem without being clearly visible to Him. Still less can it strike down or fatally wound any who look to Him for help.
(2) But not only would it be inconsistent with His purpose of grace were God to suffer overwhelming evil to assail us, it would also place Him in contradiction to Himself. His nature is to love goodness supremely, and He has pledged Him- self by the gift of His Son to leave nothing undone to give it the victory. But if He were to stand aside, and see us beaten down by sin without interposing ; if He were to allow temptations to muster in irresistible force; this would not only defeat His manifested purpose, but destroy His character for holiness. The very fact that God is good, that He loves and cherishes with a compassionate eye every movement of a human soul to purity and truth, involves His doing everything that wisdom, and power, and pity can do to make us triumphant over sin.