2 COR. I. 20 45
life and death, and to answer with a hesitating "Amen," that falters and almost sticks in our throat. Build rock upon rock. Be certain of the certain things. Grasp with a firm hand the firm stay. Immovably cling to the immovable foundation ; and though you be but like the limpet on the rock hold fast by the Eock, as the limpet does ; for it is an insult to the certainty of the revelation, where there is hesitation in the believer.
^ The sensitive paper, which records the hours of sunshine in a day, has great gaps upon its line of light answering to the times when clouds have obscured the sun ; and the communication of blessings from God is intermittent, if there be intermittency of faith.i
In happy ease I cried: "0 sweetest Dusk That ever pressed a kiss on weary eyes ! Bless now mine ears with murmur of thy name And noble origin." Then answered he : " My father's name was Night ; from the embrace Of Life and Death he sprang, and wed with Eest; I am their offspring Promise, and whene'er I meet with Faith, then is Fulfilment born."^ • 2. Qur Amen is through Him, He is the Door. The truths which He confirms are so inextricably intertwined with Himself that we cannot get them and put away Him. Christ's relation to Christ's gospel is not the relation of other teachers to their words. We may accept the words of a Plato, whatever we think ,of the Plato who spoke the words. But we cannot separate Christ and His teaching in that fashion, and we must have Him if yeu are to get it. So faith in Him, the intellectual acceptance of Him, as the authoritative and infallible Eevealer, the bowing down of heart and will to Him as our Commander and our Lord, the absolute trust in Him as the foundation of all our hope and the source of all our blessedness — that is the way to certitude. And there is no other road that we can take.
^ Not long ago, in Further India, an aged Christian convert, a man of eighty years, a surviving disciple of Adoniram Judson, was found dying, by a missionary visitor. His once strong mind was shaken by age and weakness; his thoughts failed and
* A. Maclaren, The Wearied Christ.
• A. Bouston, Tlu Porch of Fa/radise, 12.
46 THE YEA AND THE AMEN
wandered ; but when they were pointed to Christ, they settled and were clear again. When asked about his own faith in his Redeemer, his answer was strong in its simplicity : " / have hold of Him with both my hands." ^
Mf ^g fill n a Vppp near Him our faith will bring us the present experience and fulfilment of the promises, and we shall be sure of them, because we have them already. And whilst men are asking, " Do we know anything about God ? Is there a God at all ? Is there such a thing as forgiveness ? Can anybody find anywhere absolute rules for his Ufe ? Is there anything beyond the grave but mist and darkness ? " we can say, " One thing I know, Jesus Christ is my Saviour, and in Him I know God, and pardon and duty and sanctifying and safety and immortality ; and whatever is dark, this, at least, is sun-clear. Get high enough up and you will be above the fog ; and while the men down in it are squabbling as to whether there is anything outside the mist, you, from your sunny station, will see the far-off coasts, and haply catch some whiff of perfume from their shore, and see some glinting of a glory upon the shining turrets of " the city that hath foundations."
Tl Bunyan's stepping-stones are Scripture promises. There are other stepping-stones. Tennyson speaks of making "stepping- stones of our dead selves to higher things," and many a man, learning self-respect through failure, has blessed God for these. Again, there are yet other stepping-stones. There is a certain valley in the North where a rude path, hardly distinguishable at the best of times, leads through dangerous moss-hags, right across the centre of a morass. In rainy weather the track would be wholly obliterated but for the little foot-prints of a band of children who go to school that way. Many a traveller has found his path safely through the Slough of Despond by following in the children's footsteps. But after all there are no such stepping- stones as God's promises. A white boulder is a poor enough object until you see it shining in a morass ; then it means life and safety. So the promises of God, that have often seemed but wayside facts of no particular interest, shine suddenly with the very light of salvation when we see them in the Slough of Despond.^
1 H. 0. G. Moule, Christ is All, 106. * John Eelmau, The Road, i. 21.
The Triumph of the Vanquished.
Literature.
Burrell (D, J.), The Church in the Fort. 276.
Cross (J.), Old Wine and New, 161.
Hodge (C), Princeton Sermons, 314.
Jones (J. D.), The Gospel of Grace, 172.
Kelman (J.), Redeeming Judgment, 224.
Maclaren (A.), Creed and Conduct, 375.
Maggs (J. T. L.), The Spiritual Experience of St. Paul, 43.