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SEEK AND FIND
A DOUBLE SERIES OF SHORT STUDIES
OF THE
BENEDICITl.
CHRISTINA a ROSSETTI.
Treasure hid in a field." — St. Matthew xiii. 44.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE.
LONDON:
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS;
4, ROYAL EXCHANGE ; AND 48, PICCADILLY.
New York: Pott, Young, & Co.
o^
X
PREFATORY NOTE.
In writing the following pages, when I have con-
sulted a Harmony it has been that of the late Rev.
Isaac Williams.
Any textual elucidations, as I know neither Hebrew
nor Greek, are simply based upon some translation ;
many valuable alternative readings being found in the
Margin of an ordinary Reference Bible.
C. G. R.
885154
THE BENEDICITE.
The Praise-Givers are
O all ye Works of the
Lord, bless ye the Lord :
praise Him, and magnify
Him for ever.
O ye Angels of the
Lord, &c.
O ye Heavens, &c.
O ye Waters that be
above the Firmament,
&c.
O all ye Powers of the
Lord, &c.
O ye Sun, and Moon,
&c.
God's Creatures,
God saw every thing
that He had made, and,
behold, it was very good
(Gen. i. 31).
Who maketh His
angels spirits ; His min-
isters a flaming fire (Ps.
civ. 4).
Thou, even Thou, art
Lord alone ; Thou hast
made heaven, the heaven
of heavens, with all their
host (Neh. ix. 6).
God divided the waters
which were under the fir-
mament from the waters
which were above the fir-
mament : and it was so
(Gen. i. 7).
Whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers :
all things were created by
Him, and for Him (Col. i.
16).
O give thanks unto the
Lord ; for He is good.
To Him that made great
lights : the sun to rule
by day : the moon to rule
by night : for His mercy
endureth for ever (Ps.
cxxxvi. 1-9).
Christ's Servants.
The Word was God.
All things were made by
Him ; and without Him
was not anything made
that was made (St. John
i- I, 3)-
When He bringeth in
the First-begotten into the
world, He saith. And let
all the angels of God wor-
ship Him (Heb. i. 6).
He that descended is
the same also that as-
cended up far above all
heavens, that He might
fill all things (Eph. iv.
10).
They which came out
of great tribulation, and
have washed their robes,
and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb.
The Lamb which is in
the midst of the Throne
shall feed them, and shall
lead them unto living
fountains of waters (Rev.
vii. 14, 17).
Jesus Christ : Who is
gone into heaven, and is
on the right hand of God ;
angels and authorities and
powers being made sub-
ject unto Him (i St. Pet.
iii. 21, 22).
The light of the moon
shall be as the light of the
sun, and the light of the
sun shall be sevenfold, as
the light of seven days,
in the day that the Lord
bindeth up the breach of
His people (Is. xxx. 26).
The Praise-Givers are
O ye Stars of Heaven,
&c.
O ye Showers, and
Dew, &c.
O ye Winds of God, &c.
O ye Fire and Heat, &c.
O ye Winter and Sum-
mer, &c.
&c
O ye Dews, and Frosts
God's Creatures,
Praise Him, all ye stars
of light. Let them praise
the name of the Lord :
for He commanded, and
they were created (Ps.
cxlviii. 3, 5).
The Lord shall make
bright clouds, and give
them showers of rain
(Zech. X. 0-
By His knowledge the
clouds drop down the dew
(Prov. iii. 20).
Lo, He that createth
the wind. The Lord, The
God of hosts, is His name
(Am. iv. 13).
Praise the Lord from
the earth, fire (Ps. cxlviii.
7,8).
The Lord said in His
heart. While the earth re-
maineth, cold and heat
shall not cease (Gen. viii.
21, 22).
Thou hast made sum-
mer and winter (Ps. Ixxiv.
17)-
Saith the Lord of hosts.
The heavens shall give
their dew (Zech. viii. 11,
12).
He scattereth the hoar-
frost like ashes (Ps.
cxlvii. 16).
Christ's Servants.
When Jesus was born
in Bethlehem of Judea,
there came wise men from
the east to Jerusalem, say-
ing, Where is He that is
born King of the Jews?
for we have seen His star
in the east, and are come
to worship Him (St. Matt,
ii. I, 2).
When ye see a cloud rise
out of the west, straight-
way ye say, There cometh
a shower ; and so it is
(St. Luke xii. 54).
It is the voice of my
Beloved that knocketh,
saying. My head is filled
with dew, and My locks
with the drops of the
night (Song of Sol. v. 2).
He commandeth even
the winds and water, and
they obey Him (St. Luke
viii. 25).
The fire shall try every
man's work of what sort
it is (r Cor. iii. 13).
when ye see the south
wind blow, ye say, There
will be heat ; and it com-
eth to pass (St. Luke xii.
55).
It was winter. And
Jesus walked in the tem-
ple in Solomon's porch
(St. John X. 22, 23).
Now learn a parable of
the fig-tree ; When her
branch is yet tender, and
putteth forth leaves, ye
know that summer is near
(St. Mark xiii. 28).
In the morning the dew
lay round about the host.
And when the dew that
lay was gone up, behold,
upon the face of the wil-
derness there lay a small
round thing, as small as
the hoar frost on the
ground (Ex. xvi. 13, 14).
The Praise-Givers are
O ye Frost and Cold,
&c.
God's Creatures,
O ye Ice and Snow, &c.
O ye Nights, and Days,
&c.
O ye Light and Dark-
ness, &c.
O ye Lightnings, and
Clouds, &c.
By the breath of God
frost is given : and the
breadth of the waters is
straitened (Job xxxvii. lo).
Who can stand before
His cold (Ps. cxlvii. 17)?
Christ's Servants.
He casteth forth His ice
like morsels (Ps. cxlvii.
17)-
He saith to the snow,
Be thou on the earth (Job
xxxvii. 6).
Seek Him that turneth
the shadow of death into
the morning, and maketh
the day dark with night :
The Lord is His Name
(Am. V. 8).
There is no God beside
Me. I form the light,
and create darkness (Is.
xlv. 5, 7).
The Lord is the true
God. He maketh light-
nings with rain (Jer. x.
10, 13).
Dost thou know the
balancings of the clouds,
the wondrous works of
The Lord is my strength
and song, and He is be-
come my salvation. The
floods stood upright as an
heap, and the depths were
congealed in the heart of
the sea (Ex. xv. 2, 8).
They heard the voice of
the Lord God walking in
the garden in the cool of
the day. And the Lord
God said unto the serpent,
I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her
seed (Gen. iii.8-15).
Behold, I lay in Zion
for a foundation a stone,
a tried stone, a precious
corner stone, a sure foun-
dation. And the hail shall
sweep away the refuge of
lies ^Is. xxviii. 16, 17).
His raiment became
shining, exceeding white
as snow (St. Mark ix. 3).
Behold, I cast out de-
vils, and I do cures to day
and to morrow, and the
third day I shall be per-
fected (St. Luke xiii. 32).
He went immediately
out : and it was night.
Therefore, when he was
gone out, Jesus said. Now
is the Son of Man glori-
fied (St. John xiii. 30, 31).
I am the Light of the
world (St. John viii. 12).
It was about the sixth
hour, and there was dark-
ness over all the earth
until the ninth hour (St.
Luke xxiii. 44).
As the lightning com-
eth out of the east, and
shineth even unto the
west ; so shall also the
coming of the Son of
Man be (St. Matt. xxiv.
27).
The Praise-Givers are
O let the Earth bless
the Lord : &c.
O ye Mountains, and
Hills, bless ye the Lord :
&c.
O all ye Green Things
upon the Earth, &c.
O ye Wells, &c.
O ye Seas, and Floods,
&c.
O ye Whales, and all
that move in the Waters,
&c.
God's Creatures,
Him which is perfect in
knowledge (Job xxxvii.
i6)?
The earth is the Lord's,
and the fulness thereof
For He hath founded it
upon the seas, and estab-
lished it upon the floods
(Ps. xxiv. I, 2).
Who hath weighed the
mountains in scales, and
the hills in a balance ?
Who hath directed the
Spirit of the Lord, or be-
ing His counsellor hath
taught Him (Is. xl. 12,
13)?
God said. Let the earth
bring forth grass, the herb
yielding seed, and the fruit
tree yielding fruit after his
kind, whose seed is in it-
self, upon the earth : and
it was so (Gen. i. 11).
I the God of Israel. I
will open rivers in high
places, and fountains in
the midst of the valleys :
I will make the wilderness
a pool of water, and the
dry land springs of water
(Is. xli. 17, 18).
Worship Him that made
the sea (Rev. xiv. 7).
The Lord sitteth upon
the flood ; yea, the Lord
sitteth King for ever (Ps.
xxix. 10).
God created great
whales, and every living
creature that moveth,
which the waters brought
forth abundantly, after
Christ's Servants.
Behold, He cometh
with clouds (Rev. i. 7).
We, according to His
promise, look for new
heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth right-
eousness (2 St. Pet. iii.
13)-
Mary arose in those
days, and went into the
hill country with haste
(St. Luke i. 39).
If a man have an hun-
dred sheep, and one of
them be gone astray, doth
he not leave the ninety and
nine, and goeth into the
mountains, and seeketh
that which is gone astray
(St. Matt, xviii. 12)?
Jesus said. Make the
men sit down. Now there
was much grass in the
place. So the men sat
down, in number about
five thousand (St. John
vi. 10).
Jacob's well was there.
Jesus therefore, being
wearied with His journey,
sat thus on the well (St.
John iv. 6).
Jesus went unto them,
walking on the sea (St.
Matt. xiv. 25).
The people of the prince
that shall come shall de-
stroy the city and the
sanctuary ; and the end
thereof shall be with a
flood (Dan. ix. 26).
As Jonas was three
days and three nights in
the whale's belly ; so shall
the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in
The Praise-Givers are
O all ye Fowls of the
Air, &c.
O all ye Beasts, and
Cattle, &c.
O ye Children of Men,
&c,
O let Israel bless the
Lord, &c.
O ye Priests of the Lord,
bless ye the Lord : &c.
O ye Servants of the
Lord, &c.
God's Creatures,
their kind : and God saw
that it was good (Gen. i.
2l).
I am God, even thy
God. I know all the fowls
of the mountains. The
world is Mine, and the
fulness thereof (Ps. 1. 7-
12).
God said. Let the earth
bring forth the living crea
ture after his kind, cattle,
and creeping thing (Gen,
i. 24).
Thus saith the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel ;
I have made the earth,
the man and the beast
that are upon the ground
(Jer. xxvii. 4, 5).
How excellent is Thy
lovingkindness, O God !
therefore the children of
men put their trust under
the shadow of Thy wings
(Ps. xxxvi. 7).
I am the Lord, your
Holy One, the Creator of
Israel, your King (Is.
xliii. 15).
The priest's lips should
keep knowledge, and they
should seek the law at his
mouth : for he is the mes-
senger of the Lord of hosts
(Mai. ii. 7).
No weapon that is
formed against thee shall
Christ's Servants.
the heart of the earth (St.
Matt. xii. 40).
He said unto them.
Cast the net on the right
side of the ship, and ye
shall find. They cast
therefore, and now they
were not able to draw it
for the multitude of fishes
(St. John xxi. 6).
Behold the fowls of the
air : for they sow not,
neither do they reap, nor
gather into barns ; yet
your Heavenly Father
feedeth them (St. Matt,
vi. 26).
The ox knoweth his
Owner, and the ass his
Master's crib (Is. i. 3).
He was there in the
wilderness forty days,
tempted of Satan ; and
was with the wild beasts ;
and the angels ministered
unto Him (St. Mark i.
13)-
Thou art fairer than the
children of men (Ps. xlv.
2).
Blessed be the Lord
God of Israel ; for He
hath visited and redeemed
His people (St. Luke i.
68).
He breathed on them,
and saith unto them, Re-
ceive ye the Holy Ghost :
whose soever sins ye re-
mit, they are remitted unto
them; and whose soever
sins_ ye retain, they are
retained (St. John xx. 22,
23)-
If any man serve Me,
let him follow Me ; and
10
The Praise-Givers are
O ye Spirits and Souls
of the Righteous, &c.
O ye holy and humble
Men of heart, &c.
O Ananias, Azarias, and
Misael, &c.
God's Creatures,
prosper; and every tongue
that shall rise against thee
in judgment thou shalt
condemn. This is the
heritage of the servants
of the Lord, and their
righteousness is of Me,
saith the Lord (Is. liv. 17).
The way of the just is
uprightness : Thou, most
upright, dost weigh the
path of the just. With
my soul have I desired
Thee in the night ; yea,
with my spirit within me
will I seek Thee early
(Is. xxxvi. 7, 9).
Ye shall be holy men
unto Me (Ex. xxii. 31).
Thus saith the high
and lofty One, Whose
Name is Holy; I dwell
in the high and holy place,
with him also fhat is of
a contrite and humble
spirit, to revive the spirit
of the humble (Is. Ivii.
15).
Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abed-nego, fell down
bound into the midst of
the burning fiery furnace.
Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-nego, came forth of
the midst of the ftre (Dan.
iii. 23, 26).
Christ's Servants.
where I am, there shall
also My servant be : if
any man serve Me, him
will My Father honour
(St. John xii. 26).
Ye are come unto mount
Sion, and to God the
Judge of all, and to the
spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Jesus the
Mediator of the new cove-
nant (Heb. xii. 22-24).
My soul shall be joyful
in my God ; for He hath
clothed me with the gar-
ments of salvation (Is.
Ixi. 10).
Christ is all and in all.
Put on therefore, as the
elect of God, holy and
beloved, humbleness of
mind (Col. iii. 11, 12).
Did not we cast three
men bound into the midst
of the fire? Lo, I see
four men loose, walking
in the midst of the fire,
and they have no hurt ;
and the form of the fourth
is like the Son of God
(Dan. iii. 24, 25).
THE FIRST SERIES
CREATION.
ALL WORKS.
" Whence then cometh wisdom f and where is the ;place
of understanding ? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all
living. God understandeth the way thereof and He
knoweth the place thereof And unto man He said,
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to
depart from evil is under standijtgP JOB xxviii. 20-28.
I Not to fathom the origin of evil, but to depart
ffrom evil, is man's understanding. Its origin is
inscrutable by us: but depart from it we can.
And if at the very outset we lack wisdom, St.
James (i. 5) prescribes for us a remedy : " If
any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that
giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not ;
and it shall be given him : " Amen, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. He helping us, let us
bring love and faith to our study of the Bene-
dicite.
" God saw every thing that He had made, and,
behold, it was very good" (Gen. i. 31). A work
is less noble than its maker: he who makes a
good thing is himself better than it : God excels
the most excellent of His creatures. Matters of
14 SEEK AND FIND.
everyday occurrence illustrate our point : an
aHiist may paint a lifelike picture, but he cannot
endow it with life like his own ; he may carve
an admirable statue, but can never compound a
breathing fellow-man. Wise were those ancients
who felt that all forms of beauty could be but
partial expressions of beauty's very self: and who by
clue of what they saw groped after Him they saw
not. Beauty essential is the archetype of imparted
beauty ; Life essential, of imparted life ; Good-
ness essential, of imparted goodness : but such
objects, good, living, beautiful, as we now behold,
are not that very Goodness, Life, Beauty, which
(please God) we shall one day contemplate in
beatific vision. Then shall fully come to pass
that saying : " They that eat me shall yet be
hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be
thirsty" (Ecclus. xxiv. 21); only with a hunger
and thirst which shall abide at once satisfied
and insatiable. Then, not now : now let us turn
to a spiritual signification the prayer of Agur:
" Remove far from me vanity and lies : give
me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with
food convenient for me '^ (Prov. xxx. 8). If even
St. Paul might have been exalted above measure
through abundance of revelation (2 Cor. xii. 7),
ALL WORKS. 15
let US thank God that we in our present frailty
know not any more than His Wisdom reveals
to us : not that man's safety resides in ignorance
any more than in knowledge, but in conformity
of the human to the divine will. See the
Parable of the Talents, St. Luke xix. 12-26;
where the sentence depends on the fidelity of the
servants, rather than on the amount of the trust.
The divine bounty and mercy are good: the
divine justice and chastisements are good also.
The decree being good, that creature which fully
and simply executes the decree is also good.
Wherefore every obedient creature, whatever its
particular act of obedience whether in judgment
or in mercy, may by and for that act render praise
to God.
As regards our own impressions, we often make
mistakes between mercies and judgments, putting
bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter (Is. v. 20).
Saints and sinners alike are liable to fall into
such errors. Jacob said, "All these things are
against me " (Gen. xlii. ^6), at the very moment
when step by step his reunion with Joseph was
drawing nigh. Balaam carried his point (Num.
xxii. 34, ^^), but what a death he died, and what
an end was his ! (Num. xxiii. ic : xxxi. 7, 8.)
l6 SEEK AND FIND.
ANGELS.
^^ Are they not all itiinistering spirits, sent forth to
minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? "
Heb. i. 14.
"Spirits;'" therefore, in the scale of natural
creation higher than man ; for we see that Jesus
Himself was made a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death (Heb. ii. 9) : " minister-
ing spirits;" and therefore in the kingdom of
grace of exceeding dignity by virtue of God-
likeness, " For even the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister" (St. Mark
X. 45). Nor is it except through' the grave and
gate of death that the redeemed shall attain
to equality with the angels (St. Luke xx. 35, 36).
Nevertheless, we see the first made last, and the
last first ; inasmuch as Christ took on Him not
the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham
(Heb. ii. 16), and is not ashamed to call us
brethren {v. 11), and has made us members of
His body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Eph.
V. 30.)
Since we believe that even in this life we
dwell among the invisible hosts of angels, — since
ANGELS. 17
we hope in the life to come to rejoice and worship
without end in their blessed company, let us col-
lect what we already know of these our unseen
fellows, that by considering what are their
characteristics, we ourselves may be provoked
unto love and to good works (Heb. x. 24).
They rejoice. When earth was created " the
morning stars sang together, and all the sons of
God shouted for joy" (Job xxxviii. 4-7). Their's
is joy of a generous sort; contrary to envy,
grudging, covetousness.
They are greater than man in power and
might ; but withal modest and gracious, for they
bring not railing accusations [2 St. Peter ii. 9-
11). This teaches us moderation, reverence.
They are of light, not of darkness (see 2 Cor.
xi. 14) : and we by faith must become children
of light (St. John xii. 36). Thus we read of St.
Stephen, how in the victory of his faith " all that
sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw
his face as it had been the face of an angel "
(Acts vi. 15).
They are strong. St. John the Evangelist
speaks of "a strong angel proclaiming with a
loud voice." And what proclaimed he? Vir-
tually, the inferiority of all in heaven and in
y
1 8 SEEK AND FIND.
earth and under the earth to the only Lord God
Almighty, the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus
Christ (Rev. v. 3-7). In such a comparison
even unfallen angels are chargeable with folly
(Job iv. 1 8) : what then must we be ?
They justify God in his judgments. The same
St. John, when in vision he beheld rivers and
fountains turned to blood, "heard the angel of
the waters say. Thou a|t. righteous, O Lord, which
art, and wast, and shalt be, because Thou hast
judged thus " (Rev. xvi. 4-7). Eliphaz the Te-
manite, also, when a spirit passed before his face,
" heard a voice, saying. Shall mortal man be
more just than God?" (Job iv. 12-19). And
thus faithful Abraham, whose children we are
if we be of the number of the faithful (Gen. xv.
6 ; Gal. iii. 6, 7), in faith not in doubt worded
his appeal to God : " Shall not the Judge of all
the earth do right ?" (Gen. xviii. ^^5).
To us, a younger and feebler generation,
creatures of clay and ready to die (death being
the wages of sin, Rom. vi. 23), the angelic aspect
is not without terror. " His countenance was
like the countenance of an angel of God, very
terrible," said Manoah's wife, while as yet she
understood not fully of whom she spake : but the
ANGELS. 19
fear thus inspired was a holy fear not contrary
to holy courage, for the latter virtue shines in
her subsequent words (Judges xiii. 6, 23).
Angels are superior to many natural laws which
bind us: recognised or unrecognised they may
appear as from empty space, they may vanish yet
remain present. Till the angel summoned fire
out of the l"ock, Gideon divined not with whom
he conversed (Judges vi. 31, 22): the angelic host
encompassed Elisha before his servant's eyes were
opened to discern it (2 Kings vi. 17). And Holy
Scripture, as a tender nurse feeding babes with
milk, draws from our very inferiority a rule and
encouragement of righteousness : " Be not for-
getful to entertain strangers : for thereby some
have entertained angels unawares "' (Heb. xiii.
2). Their nobler essence is exempt from possi-
bilities of damage which beset us : one angel
ascends in a flame (Judges xiii. 20) ; one shuts
the mouths of lions (Dan. vi. 22) ; one stands
on earth and sea (Rev. x. 2).
Yet let us not think of them, any more than
of ourselves, more highly than we ought to think
(see Rom. xii. 3). He in Whose sight the heavens
are not clean or the stars pure (Job xv. 15 ;
XXV. 5), He Who has placed the sand for the
20 SEEK AND FIND.
bound of the sea by a perpetual decree (Jer.
V. 22), has appointed to His holy angels no less
their sphere and their limits. Unto the angels
God hath not put in subjection the world to come
(Heb. ii. 5) : angels desire to look into things
which Evangelists were privileged to preach (i St.
Peter i. 12) : it is by the Church that the manifold
wisdom of God becomes known to principalities
and powers in heavenly places (Eph. iii. 10).
Thus we behold man in his turn ministering to
angels. And even a distinction in man's favour
has been traced as perhaps latent in Is. vi. 6, 7 :
for that seraph by whose agency God purged the
sin of Isaiah, took with tongs the live coal which
the prophet's bare lips endured to touch.
HEAVENS.
" Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My Throne P
Is. Ixvi. I.
" / saw the Lord sitting on His Throne^ and all the
host of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on
His lefty I Kings xxii. 19.
" Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot
contain TheeP i Kings viii. 27.
The heaven and heaven of heavens contain not
God : themselves are but an outcome of His
mind and will. Before the heavens were, as
HEAVENS. 21
truly as before the brief day of Abraham, God was
(Prov. viii. 27; St. John viii. 58). Before the host
of heaven came into being at His word, God was,
Almighty in power (Ps. xxxiii. 6, 9). Before
heaven His throne was set up, God was, the
Blessed and only Potentate (i Tim. vi. 15).
Blessed be God Eternal, Immortal, Invisible ;
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, One God, Blessed
for ever. Amen.
Now we wait to know as we are known, to see
face to face : yet already have there been vouch-
safed to mankind many glimpses into the land
that is very far off. Even under the elder dis-
pensation of types and figures such glimpses
were accorded to certain favoured prophets and
righteous men.
Thus Jacob fleeing from his father's tents,
lighted in a dream on the house of God and
gate of heaven (Gen. xxviii. 10-17). Moses
in setting up God's Tabernacle was admonished
to copy the heavenly pattern shown to him in the
mount (Ex. xxvi. 30): and already with more
than threescore persons he had been admitted
to contemplate a divine vision (xxiv. 9-11)*
Micaiah, before he faced wicked Ahab, beheld
the celestial court and understood the divine
22 SEEK AND FIND.
counsels (i Kings xxii. 19-22). In the year
that King Uzziah died, Isaiah gazed upon the
Throne of God and the worshipping Seraphim
(Is. vi. 1-4). To captive Ezekiel the heavens
were opened, and he saw visions of God (Ezek.
i., &c.). Daniel in visions upon his bed beheld
the Session of the Ancient of Days, beheld the
Judgment set and the Books opened ; and saw
One like the Son of Man come with the clouds
of heaven (Dan. vii. 9-14).
Heaven is the habitation of God's house, and
the place where His honour dwelleth. Heaven
jis the presence of God : the presence of God,
then, is heaven. Is it heaven to us, this secret
place of the Most High, wherein the saints dwell,
this shadow of the Almighty under which His
elect abide ? (Ps. xci. i). If it be not heaven to
us, yet whither shall we flee from His presence ?
"If I ascend up into heaven^ Thou art there:
if I make my bed in hell, behold. Thou art there "
(Ps. cxxxix. 7, 8). We may refuse to set foot on
the ladder which leads from earth upwards, to
mould ourselves as tabernacles of God after our
divine pattern, to contemplate and adore our
heavenly King, to receive and understand His
counsels, to worship with Seraphim, to learn with
WATERS ABOVE THE FIRMAMENT. 23
Prophets: yet, whither shall we flee from His
presence ? Not until the King Himself shall say,
"Depart from Me" (St. Matt. xxv. 41), not until
that most awful moment shall any of us be blotted
out of His presence. " From Thy wrath, and from
everlasting damnation, Good Lord, deliver us."
WATERS ABOVE THE
FIRMAMENT.
" The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firma-
ment sheweth his handywork." Ps. xix. i.
Since many of the " Waters that be above the
firmament " are named one by one further on in
the Canticle, let us for the moment dwell on the
firmament itself, " the sky, which is strong, and
as a molten looking glass-" (Job xxxvii. 18).
To our eyes it appears blue, sometimes deepen-
ing towards purple, sometimes passing into pale
green ; purple, an earthly hue of mourning, and
green our tint of hope. One colour seems to
prophesy of that day when the sign of the Son of
Man shall appear in heaven, and all the tribes of
the earth shall mourn (St. Matt. xxiv. 30) : one,
to symbolize that veil of separation beyond which
24 SEEK AND FIND.
faith and love discern our ascended Lord, and
whereinto hope as an anchor of the soul sure
and stedfast entereth (Heb. vi. 19, 20). Remote
from either extreme stretches the prevalent blue,
pure and absolute : thus the sky and its azure
become so at one in our associations, that all fair
blue objects within our reach, stone or flower,
sapphire or harebell, act as terrene mirrors, con-
veying to us an image of that which is above
themselves, as "earthly pictures with heavenly
meanings." And although the atmosphere is in
reality full of currents and commotions, yet to
our senses the sky appears to stand aloof as the
very type of stability ; overarching and embosom-
ing not earth and sea only, but clouds and meteors,
planets and stars. Beneath it and within it all
moves, waxes, wanes, while itself changes not :
setting before us as by a parable the little-lofti-
ness of the loftiest things of time ; " there be
higher than they" (see Eccles. v. 8). Yet has
the unchanging sky no final stability, but at its
appointed hour it shall be rolled up as a scroll
and shall pass away (Is. xxxiv. 4 ; Rev. vi. 14).
Thus while all the good creatures of God teach
us some lesson concerning the unapproached
perfections of their Creator, that which they
POWERS. (ZS
display is a glimpse, that which they cannot
display is infinite. " They shall perish, but Thou
shalt endure " (Ps. cii. 26).
POWERS.
" Do all to the glory of God.'^ i COR. x. 3 1.
One order of elect spirits we designate Powers,
but these have virtually been considered under
the head of "Angels of the Lord." Perhaps
under the head of " Powers " may not improperly
be classed what are termed Forces.
And I think it will even answer our purpose
if we here go no further than to recal a few
familiar facts and agents which bring home
unmistakably to our consciousness the existence
of powers at work all around us, however these
may oftentimes elude our senses: of powers
which working in harmony bear witness to that
"great First Cause" Who ordained and Who
rules them. " Lo, He goeth by me, and I see
Him not: He passeth on also, but I perceive
Him not ^^ (Job ix. 11).
Electricity: the dangerous element of the
storm, announcing its awful passage by lightning
flash and thunder-clap, yet in speed outstripping
26 SEEK AND FIND.
both light and sound : electricity, of strength to
rend trees, shatter rocks, and destroy life, has
nevertheless become man's servant ; available in
the physician's hands for treatment of disease, and
in the telegraph and telephone for communication
of intelligence. " Thou madest him to have do-
minion over the works of Thy hands " (Ps. viii. 6).
Steam, that is^ water.: water, the very symbol
of instability. *' Unstable as water, thou shalt
not excel " (Gen xlix. 4), said dying Jacob, moved
by the Spirit of prophecy: or if we study an
alternative rendering of his words, " Bubbling up
as water,^' we may still perhaps trace the same
idea of instability, inasmuch as what is easily
excited does very commonly as easily subside.
Yet as man^s servant, and in the form of steam,
water acquires power not merely to upheave, but
to wield and to apply with the utmost delicacy of
touch, masses of enormous weight; and puts
forth a sustained swiftness outspeeding the horse
and his rider, though not the eagle or the carrier
pigeon.
Light and heat, to our apprehension the great
vivifiers of the material world, are in like manner
brought into subjection by man : under whose
regulations one effects a permanent record of
POWERS. 27
beauties which themselves consume away like a
moth (Ps. xxxix. 11); while the other enables
us to transfer tropical vegetation to temperate
zones, and to make fruits ripen, and animals exist
and even propagate in alien climates.
Or, to lift our thoughts above the sphere of
man's dominion, — gravitation, attraction, re-
pulsion : whereby the earth we dwell on and the
celestial luminaries her companions occupy their
assigned abodes and fulfil their prefixed courses :
whereby the tide flows and ebbs in accordance
with the moon's phases ; whereby alone the
planets escape not from their prescribed circuits
and the apple falls.
Wonderful and awful are those forces which
launch, arrest, guide, compact, dissolve, the mem-
bers of the material universe. Yet more wonder-
ful, more awful, are those intellectual faculties
which shrined within mortal man, guage height
and depth, deduce cause from effect, and track
out the invisible by clue of the visible: thus
a certain master-mind by the aberration of one
celestial body from the line of its independent
orbit, argued the influential neighbourhood of
a second luminary till then undiscerned.
In a more or less degree every one of us in-
28 SEEK AND FIND.
herits this awful birthright of intellectual power.
With Esau we may despise and squander our
birthright (Gen. xxv. 39-34), with Reuben dis-
grace and forfeit it (i Chron. v. i) ; but ours
it is : and so far as the tremendous responsibility
originally involved in its possession is concerned,
ours it must remain, though shorn of every privi-
lege and bringing on us a curse and not a
blessing.
Let each of us take heed that it bring on our
own self a blessing and not a curse : for be our
past what it may, by God's grace we may yet be
trained in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord. And then shall this intellectual power
entrusted to us become verily and indeed a
*' power of the Lord." Not all knowledge is
good : as Isaiah declares to " delicate '^ Chaldea,
" Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath per-
verted thee" (Is. xlvii. i, 10). Ignorantly with
Eve we may learn shame (Gen. iii. 6, 7 ; i Tim.
ii. 14); or deliberately with Solomon study
wisdom, madness, and folly ; but to increase
knowledge which is not true wisdom, increaseth
sorrow (Eccles. i. 17, 18). Let us to-day be
content to remain ignorant of many things while
we seek first the kingdom of God and His right-
SUN AND MOON. 29
eousness : to-morrow, if not to-day, knowledge
and all other good things shall be added unto
us (St. Matt. vi. ^^ ; i Tim. iv. 7, 8 ; i Cor.
xiii. 12). Let us not exercise ourselves in matters
beyond our present powers of estimate, lest amid
the shallows (not the depths) of science we make
shipwreck of our faith. To-day is the day of
small things (see Zech. iv. 10) : let us to-day be
content with the small things of to-day, knowing
assuredly that all they who are Christ's are made
one with Him Who is the heir of all things
(St. John xvii. 21 — 23 ; Heb. i. 2). Thus shall
our path be as the shining light, that shineth
more and more unto the perfect day (Prov. iv. 1 8),
while we go from strength to strength until
every one of us appear before God in Zion
(Ps. Ixxxiv. 7).
SUN AND MOON.
" God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the
day^ and the lesser light to rule the night. ^^ Gen. i. 16.
Both lights great : one exceeding the other :
both good. Such a graduation of greater and
less, both being acceptable to Him Who made
them, pervades much if not the whole of the
30 SEEK AND FIND.
world in which we live: sun and moon, man
and woman; or to ascend to the supreme in-
stance, Christ and His Church. I, being a woman,
will copy St. Paul's example and " magnify mine
office" (Rom. xi. 13). Probably there were in
his day persons who rated the Apostle of the
Gentiles, as such, far below the Apostle of the
Jews (i Cor. ix. 1-6; Gal. ii. 8), and one aspect
of truth may have been honoured by such an
estimate : yet was not the estimate exhaustive, for
it was not one which embraced the entire field of
God's Love towards His human family. What
said God Himself when hundreds of years before
He spake of Christ ? " It is a light thing that
Thou shouldest be My Servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of
Israel : I will also give Thee for a Light to the
Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My Salvation unto
the end of the earth " (Is. xlix. 6).
_( In many points the feminine lot copies very
closely the voluntarily assumed position of our
Lord and Pattern. Woman must obey : and
Christ "learned obedience" (Gen. iii. 16; Heb.
V. 8). She must be fruitful, but in sorrow : and He,
symbolised by a corn of wheat, had not brought
forth much fruit except He had died (Gen. iii.
\
SUN AND MOON. 3 1
i6; St. John xii. 24). She by natural constitu-
tion is adapted not to assert herself, but to be
subordinate : and He came not to be ministered
unto but to minister; He was among His own
" as he that serveth " (i St. Peter iii. 7 ; i Tim.
ii. II, 12; St. Mark x. 45; St. Luke xxii. 27).
Her office is to be man's helpmeet: and con-
cerning Christ God saith, " I have laid help upon
One that is mighty" (Gen. ii. 18, 21, 22; Ps.
Ixxxix. 19). And well may she glory, inasmuch
as one of the tenderest of divine promises takes
(so to say) the feminine form: "As one whom
his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you""
(Is. Ixvi. 13).
In the case of the twofold Law of Love, we are
taught to call one Commandment "first and
great," yet to esteem the second as " like unto
it^' (St. Matt. xxii. 37-39). The man is the
head of the woman, the woman the glory of the
man (i Cor. xi. 3, 7). " There is one glory of
the sun, and another glory of the moon" (xv. 41).
It used to be popularly supposed that " the moon
walking in brightness " (Job xxxi. 26) is no more
Nthan a mirror reflecting the sun's radiance : now
/careful observation leads towards the hypothesis
\ that she also may exhibit inherent luminosity.
3^ SEEK AND FIND.
But if our proud waves will after all not be stayed,
or at any rate not be allayed (for stayed they must
be) by the limit of God^s ordinance concerning
our sex, one final consolation yet remains to
careful and troubled hearts : in Christ there is
neither male nor female, for we are all one (Gal.
iii. 2S).
In the Old Testament history two miracles are
recorded as having suspended planetary law : one
having been wrought during the Jewish conquest
of the land of promise (Josh. x. 12-14) ; the other
long afterwards, when Israel had ceased to be a
kingdom and Judah was dwindling towards a
penal captivity (2 Kings xx. 8-1 1). The first
miracle concerned divers nations, the second an
individual trembling saint ; one asserted the
Divine supremacy, the other exemplified the
Divine compassion. If we learn from all such
portents that the nations are before God as a
drop of a bucket and as the small dust of the
balance (Is. xl. 15), that He will by no means
clear the guilty (Ex. xxxiv. 7), that He doth not
willingly afflict the children of men (Lam. iii.
33), and, not least, that He far better than our-
selves knows whether lengthened or shortened life
be our best blessing, for on this point Hezekiah's
SUN AND MOON. ^^
subsequent fall through pride makes a sad sug-
gestion [z Chron. xxxii. 24-26), we shall have
learned enough ; even if we never fathom the
physical conditions of miracles. A miracle is a
Divine suspension or reversal of natural law : and
surely our conception of a natural law and of
a miracle will be adequate when we come to
realise them as Job (xl. 19) was instructed to
estimate behemoth : " He that made him can
make His sword to approach unto him."
If we be docile disciples of that Master Who
judgeth not according to the sight of the eyes
(Is. xi. 3), then by the defects as well as by the
aptitude of our natural faculties He will instruct
us. It is merely to our sight that the sun
obliterates the stars, the sun being in truth of
inconsiderable bulk when compared with many
of them: yet by reason of its nearness to our
eyes it fairly puts them all out, until only an
act of recollection can during the daylight hours
summon before our consciousness the ever-pre-
sent, ever-luminous multitudinous lights of the
sky. When the glare of this world dazzles the
eyes of our soul, such an act of recollection is
what we need; bringing home to our conscious
love the presence of Him Who is ever present,
D
34 SEEK AND FIND.
and Who is pledged to be our very present help
in trouble (Ps. xlvi. i). Moses " endured, as see-
ing Him Who is invisible" (Heb. xi. 27): yet
the Law, his portion, was not glorious, as com-
pared with the excelling glory of the Gospel which
we have inherited (2 Cor. iii. 6-1 1). Shall we
who possess more aim at less ?
Faith accepts, love contemplates and is nou-
rished by, every word, act, type, of God. The
Sun, to our unaided senses the summit of His
visible creation, is pre-eminently the symbol of
God Himself: of God the giver, cherisher, cheerer
of life; the luminary of all perceptive beings;
the attractive centre of our system. The Sun,
-^ worshipped under many names and by divers
/ nations, is truly no more than our fellow-creature
/ in the worship and praise of our common Creator;
t yet as His symbol it none the less conveys to us
a great assurance of hope. At the voice of one
man it stood still, in the strait of another it retro-
graded : thus we see illustrated the prevalence of
prayer, and the strong grasp of man's sore need
upon the succouring strength of Him Who made
him. Elias, at whose word rain was withheld
or granted, stands not alone as our encouraging
example (i Kings xvii. i ; St. James v. 17, 18).
STARS. ^^
Abraham's entreaty prescribed the limit of So-
dom^s doom (Gen. xviii. ^3-32). One said to
Jacob, " Let Me go : " but Jacob denied Him
except He blessed him, and prevailed (Gen.
xxxii. 24-30). The Lord said to Moses, " Let
me alone : " yet Moses let Him not alone, and
Israel was saved (Exod. xxxii. 7-14).
'• The Lord God is a sun and shield : the Lord
will give grace and glory: no good thing will He
withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord
of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee"
(Ps. Ixxxiv. II, 12).
STARS.
"Behold the height of the stars ^ how high they are ! "
Job xxii. 12.
There is something awe - striking, over-
whelming, in contemplation of the stars. Their
number, magnitudes, distances, orbits, we know
not : any multitude our unaided eyes discern is
but an instalment of that vaster multitude which
the telescope reveals ; and of this the heightened
and yet again heightened power bringing to light
more and more stars, opens before us a vista
D 2
3^ SEEK AND FIND.
unmeasured, incalculable. Knowledge runs apace :
and our globe which once seemed large is now
but a small planet among planets, while not one
of our group of planets is large as compared with
its central sun; and the sun itself may be no
more than a sub-centre, it and all its system
coursing but as satellites and sub - satellites
around a general centre; and this again, — what
of this ? Is even this remote centre truly central,
or is it no more than yet another sub-centre
revolving around some point of overruling at-
traction, and swaying with it the harmonious
encircling dance of its attendant worlds? Thus
.while knowledge runs apace, ignorance keeps
head of knowledge: and all which the deepest
students know proves to themselves, yet more
convincingly than to others, that much more
exists which still they know not. As saints in
relation to spiritual wisdom, so sages in relation
to intellectual wisdom, eating they yet hunger and
drinking they yet thirst (£cclus. xxiv. 21).
Deep only can call to deep: still, we who
occupy comparative shallows of intelligence are
not wholly debarred from the admiration and
delights of noble contemplations. We can marvel
over the many tints of the heavenly bodies, ruddy,
STARS. 2>1
empurpled, golden, or by contrast pale; we can
understand the conclusion, though we cannot
follow the process by which analysis of a ray
certifies various component elements as existing
in the orb which emits it; we can realise men-
tally how galaxies, which by reason of remoteness
present to our eyes a mere modification of sky-
colour, are truly a host of distinct luminaries ; we
can long to know more of belts and atmospheres ;
we can ponder reverently over interstellar spaces
so vast as to exhaust the attractive force of suns
and more than suns.
And we can make of what we know and of
what we know not stepping - stones towards
heaven, adoring our Creator for all that He is
and that His creatures are not; adoring Him
also for what many of our fellows already are,
and for what we ourselves are and may become.
We shall not run to waste in idle curiosity if we
bear in mind that " knowledge puffeth up, but
charity edifieth" (i Cor. viii. i), and that whoso
understood all mysteries and all knowledge, not
having charity would be nothing (xiii. <i).
The innumerable number of the stars will profit
us while we bear in mind that, though we know
not, God telleth their number and " calleth them
38 SEEK AND FIND.
all by their names" (Ps. cxlvii. 4). Their mate-
rial light will become to us light spiritual, if,
because " they that turn many to righteousness "
shall shine " as the stars for ever and ever "
(Dan. xii. 3), zeal burn within us not for our own
righteousness only, but for our neighbour's also.
The awful familiar heavens now by fixed laws
exhibiting motions, influences, aspects, pheno-
mena (now, but not for ever after this present
temporal fashion), are even now night by night
instructing pious souls who watch and pray and
wait for their beloved Lord.
" Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and
Orion " (Amos. v. 8).
SHOWERS AND DEW. 39
SHOWERS AND DEW.
" He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass :
as showers that water the earth." Ps. Ixxii. 6.
" My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall
distil as the dew : because I will publish the Name of the
Lord.'' Deut. xxxii. 2, 3,
" Your goodness is as a morning doted, and as the early
dew it goeth away.'' Hos. vi. 4.
" There shall be an overflowing shower in Mine
anger." Ezek. xiii. 13.
^^ His favour is as dew upon the grass." Prov. xix. 12.
Of the two great cleansers, water and fire,
water is eminent for its sweet refreshing virtue
and its power to renew without destroying. It
offers indeed occasional aspects of terror : but to
us it more ordinarily comes as a gentle channel
of comfort. Nor can any form of it be found
gentler than dew, or much brighter than a sunny
shower crested by a rainbow. The words " I do
set My bow in the cloud" (Gen. ix. 13), sealed
the hope of the world.
Showers and Dew in Holy Scripture are
treated of in so many ways that they become
connected with grace and works, promises and
threats, duty and privilege, punishment and re-
40 SEEK AND FIND.
ward : above all they appear before us as types of
God the Holy Ghost in His relation towards
men and His dealings with them. One mention
of rain or of dew will oftentimes suggest a
double meaning, the literal and the spiritual.
Such points strike us in one or other of the
texts already quoted: while numerous kindred
texts remain to which I attempt no allusion, and
a few more which I proceed to cite.
The blessing of the dew of heaven invoked
alike on Jacob and on Esau (Gen. xxvii. 28, 39),
may have received its accomplishment according
to the measure of faith in him who was nourished
by it (see Heb. iv. 2): and have brought down
natural dew only on the natural man ; but on the
spiritual man dew both natural and spiritual,
thus anticipating the Gospel promise, " Seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness ;
and all these things shall be added unto you"
(St. Matt. vi. 33). — In Gideon's fleece drenched
with dew we may recognise the Jewish Church full
of grace, and in the dry floor the Gentile world not
yet admitted within the covenant : in the same
fleece, dry amid the dew-moistened floor, we
behold Israel cast off and the Universal Church
adopted and sanctified (Judges vi. 36-40). —
SHOWERS AND DEW. 4T
Elijah, whose inspired word ruled the dew and
rain (i Kings xvii. i), seems a figure of the
Church with her awful delegated authority to
bind and to loose (St. Matt. xvi. 19: see also
Rev. xi. 6). — That wisdom of the Lord by Whose
" knowledge the clouds drop down the dew "
(Prov. iii. 19, 16) is that same Wisdom or Word
of God (St. John i. i) Who sends the Comforter
to His Church (St. John xv. 26).— He Who hath
the dew of His youth (Ps. ex. 3) is surely He
Who by His Prophet Isaiah (xxvi. 19) proclaims,
" Thy dead men shall live, together with My
dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing,
ye that dwell in dust ; for thy dew is as the dew
of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."
He is the same God to whom Jeremiah appeals
for drought-wasted Jerusalem : " Are there any
among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause
rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not
Thou He, O Lord our God? therefore we will
wait upon Thee : for Thou hast made all these
things" (Jer xiv. 22). And perhaps with that
sacred jealousy which thus claims the desired
boon as exclusively God's gift, not to be con-
ferred by " vanities of the Gentiles," or even by
" heavens," we may without presumption connect
41 SEEK AND FIND.
a yet higher meaning: and remember that the
outpouring of the Holy Ghost would not have
been vouchsafed, except Christ our God had
ascended up where He was before (St. John xvi.
7 ; Acts i. 4-9).
The things of God are " fair as the moon, clear
as the sun," but are also " terrible as an army
with banners" (Song of Solomon vi. 10): for to
us they are matters of life and death, and we who
once have heard can never again be as though we
had not heard. If We must give account of each
Word idly spoken (St. Matt. xii. ^6), surely so
likewise of each word idly heard : our Lord
Himself charges us, " Take heed how ye hear "
(St. Luke viii. 18). No knowledge will make us
wise, no gift . will enrich us, no lavished grace
even will avail us aught, if we ourselves bring
not our own wills to co-operate with the Will of
God for our salvation. " For the earth which
drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and
bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is
dressed, receiveth blessing from God : but that
which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is
nigh unto cursing ; whose end is to be burned "
(Heb. vi. 7, 8).
WINDS. 43
WINDS.
"//■^ bringeth the wind out of His treasuries P
Ps. cxxxv. 7.
What God brings out of His treasury cannot
but be a treasure : our treasure if He blesses it to
us. Amen.
Precious and beneficent is wind in the material
world. It stirs up, purifies, winnows, casts aside :
it is antagonistic to stagnation, to corruption :
it brings heatj and likewise cold ; it carries clouds,
and dries up humidity. Invisible, intangible,
audible, sensible, it has a breath so gentle as
scarcely to bend a flower, and a blast stronger
than the strength of the sea (Ex. xiv. iji), stronger
than the strength of the solid earth (1 Kings
xix. 11).
' Throughout the Old Testament the wind is con-
tinually spoken of as an agent of the Almighty,
working out His will and fulfilling His pleasure,
whether by obedience to His general law or by
accomplishment of His special mandate. Yet
we also observe it quoted as a symbol of vanity
and failure.
r
19
44 SEEK AND FIND.
The first mention of the wind (in our Autho-
rized Version, for a previous instance occurs
among the literal marginal readings, Gen. iii. 8)
brings consolation : " God made a wind to pass
over the earth, and the waters asswaged " (Gen.
viii. i). This initiatory step towards a renewed
gift of life seems to connect itself with the pri-
meval call of order and life out of chaos : " The
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters "
(Gen. i. 2) : and shows us the wind as a symbol of
God the Holy Ghost ; a symbol authorised by
our Lord's subsequent words : "The wind bloweth
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither
it goeth: so is every one that is born of the
Spirit " (St. John iii. 8). Perhaps it is not mere
fancifulness which seeks to trace such sacred sym-
bolism in the prophecy of Elisha, " Ye shall not
see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley
shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both
ye, and your cattle, and your beasts " (2 Kings iii.
9-22). The natural water which then quenched
thirst and preserved life, recals to our minds that
" living water " concerning which we are assured
that whosoever drinketh thereof shall never thirst,
but it " shall be in him a well of water springing
WINDS. 45
up into everlasting life :" while even the enumera-
tion of " cattle " and " beasts " as among those
that should drink, by reminding us hov/ Jacob,
his children, "and his cattle," drank from the
well of Sychar (St. John iv. 5-14), helps to
quicken our attention to the main subject of
either narrative. As in Holy Baptism the " in-
ward and spiritual grace " while revealed to faith
remains hidden from sense, so in Elisha's day the
mysteriously supplied water seems to have been
ushered in neither by sight nor by sound: and
surely its noiseless coming ^' by the way of Edom,"
and its blood-red aspect, turn the eyes of our
grateful love to Him Whom a later Prophet be-
held coming from Edom, red in His apparel,
mighty to save (Is. Ixiii. i, %) ; the same Who
neither strove, nor cried, nor made His voice
heard in the street (Is. xlii. i, 2, ; St. Matt, xii.
15-19), and out of Whose Side flowed for us both
Blood and Water (St. John xix. 34).
In the Song of Songs (iv. 16) the Bride invokes
the winds to aid her in preparing delights for the
Bridegroom : « Awake, O north wind ; and come,
thou south ; blow upon my garden, that the spices
thereof may flow out." I once met with a very
beautiful comment on this concurrence of the
4^ SEEK AND FIND.
north and south winds to elicit spices from the
one garden : both the chastisements and the in-
dulgences of our Divine Father are alike vouch-
safed to us for the one purpose of rendering our
hearts fragrant with love of Him. Thus else-
where we read: "Whom the Lord loveth He
correcteth" (Prov. iii. 12) ; " Behold, I will allure
her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak
comfortably unto her" (Hos. ii. 14). Well may
the Song of the Beloved touching His Vineyard
make appeal to man himself: " What could have
been done more to My vineyard, that I have not
done in it ?" (Is. v. 1-4.)
In Ezekiel's (xxxvii. 1-14) Valley of Vision
the wind plays its awful part, quickening the re-
constructed men of the " exceeding great army.'^
To him a revival of hope for fleshly Israel, that
"sinful nation^' (Is. i. 4) which yet once more
would reject God and be rejected of Him : to us
a type of hope concerning the immortal elect
Israel, a picture of the resurrection of the just in
the day of the restitution of all things ; " If the
Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the
dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by
His Spirit that dwelleth in you " (Rom. viii. 11).
WINDS. 47
On the other hand, vanity, failure, even destruc-
tion, stand connected with the wind : and perhaps
we may trace a clue to some portion of this latter
connexion in the fact that wind possesses no
independent existence, but is a variable con-
dition of the atmosphere, a transitory state of a
permanently existing element. That air which
becomes wind when with a terrible blast it dashes
as a storm against the wall (Is. xxv. 4) is no
longer wind when at rest : we can no more fill
our coffers with wind (see Prov. xxx. 4) than
satiate our hearts with idols (Is. xli. 29). Wind
is commotion, disturbance : it is not anything
which of its own nature can abide. Job likens
his desperate speeches (vi. 36) and his dwindling
life (vii. 7) to wind ; and complains in the bitter-
ness of his soul, ''Thou liftest me up to the wind ;
Thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest
my substance '^ (xxx. 2%)* To Solomon the cir-
cuits of the wind were vanity (Eccles. i. 2, 6) : he
compares profitless work to labour for the wind
(v. 16) : he points his exhortation to active faith
by the admonition, " He that observeth the wind
shall not sow" (xi. 4). Isaiah makes confession,
"Our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away " (Is. Ixiv. 6). Jeremiah announces ''A dry
4^ SEEK AND FIND.
wind, not to fan, nor to cleanse '' (Jer. iv. ii, 12) ;
and a wind to eat up all the pastors of the doomed
nation (xxii. 22). Israel who sowed the wind
must reap the whirlwind (Hos. viii. 7). Ephraim
feeding on wind and following after the east
wind, increaseth lies and desolation (xii. i).
Thus He who made the weight for the winds
holds them as it were in the balance before our
eyes, to teach us alike by good and by evil that
fear of the Lord which is wisdom (Job xxviii.
23—28). Wherefore we remembering how " mercy
rejoiceth against judgment ■" (St. James ii. 13),
thank God send take courage, strengthening our
good hope by one final text of consolation. For
Isaiah describing the Church under the figure of
a cherished vineyard, " a vineyard of red wine,"
promises that she shall take root, blossom, bud,
and fill the face of the world with fruit ; and ten-
derly adds, " In measure, when it shooteth forth,
Thou wilt debate with it : He stayeth his rough
wind in the day of the east wind'* (Is. xxvii. 2-8).
FIRE AND HEAT. 49
FIRE AND HEAT.
" The fire that saith not, It is enough.''^ Prov. xxx. i6.
" The burden and heat of the day." St. Matt. xx. 12.
We are all familiar with certain opposite effects
of heat, how at one time it develops and fosters
life, at another precipitates decay; and of fire,
how it softens some substances but hardens others.
For my immediate purpose fire and heat need
not be discussed separately, but may, as in fact
they must, be viewed as oftentimes involved in
each other. Nor need we at present concern
ourselves with any question touching self-existent
fire.
Fire is that one amongst the so-called four
elements which feeds on food foreign to itself.
Fire feeds not on fire. Springs run into rivers,
and all rivers into the sea, which yet is not full :
in both cases a larger body of water is thus re-
plenished by water, not by aught other than water.
Not so with fire, at least under its familiar aspects:
fire exists by feeding upon combustible matter ;
when nothing alien remains for it to consume,
it of its own nature expires. " Where no wood
is, there the fire goeth out " (Prov. xxvi. 20).
E
50 SEEK AND FIND.
Fire seems to our apprehension more noble
than water : water cleanses the surface indeed,
but fire purges the very substance. A corpse may
lie slowly corrupting in water ; fire makes a
speedy clearance of it and its corruption : the
Deluge once purified the world for a period only ;
fire will purify it once more and that for ever.
(Gen. vi. ^-j ; 2 St. Peter iii. 5-13.)
Choice substances are they which withstand
and wax more precious by the action of fire:
'^gold, silver" not '^wood, hay, stubble." The
application of heat alters and is thought to im-
prove the tint of some stones (i Cor. iii. 12, 13).
God Almighty is, we are told, "a consuming
fire, even a jealous God" (Deut. iv. 24). And
we read in the Song of Songs (viii. 6) : ^* Jealousy
is cruel as the grave : the coals thereof are coals
of fire, which hath a most vehement flame."
While the Psalmist says : " How long, Lord ?
wilt Thou be angry for ever ? shall Thy jealousy
burn like fire? " (Ixxix. 5). Now to give the answer
to this momentous question appertains to our-
selves, not to any other creature in heaven or on
earth : we, our very selves, may either make the
pile for fire great, or may withdraw fuel from that
flame. God hath deigned to invite each one of
FIRE AND HEAT. 5 1
US : " My son, give Me thine heart " (Prov. xxiii.
26): the heart offered as a whole burnt-offering
to Him becomes fuel not to His consuming
jealousy but to His undying love : " God is love "
(i St. John iv. 8), "He is like a refiner's fire"
(MaL iii. 2). Hearts only which are thrones of
idols are the fuel of His holy jealousy : " Man, or
woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth
away this day from the Lord our God, to go and
serve the gods of these nations ; . . . The Lord
will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord
and His jealousy shall smoke against that man "
(Deut. xxix. 18, 20). "They have moved Me to
jealousy with that which is not God. ... A fire
is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the
lowest hell" (xxxii. 21, 22).
If then in that day when God will utterly
abolish all idols (Is. ii. 18) we would not our-
selves as foul temples of idols be also abolished,
we must now search our own hearts lest in truth
they be shrines not of God but of some idol.
That which we prefer to God is our idol : be it
our friend or ourself, a false shame or a false fear
or a false heroism, whatsoever it be, our idol it is
if we obey it rather than God (see Acts iv. 19;
V. 29)..
E 2
5a SEEK AND FIND.
And if we entertain any, even ever so faint a wish
to cleanse our hearts, the extreme stress of the diffi-
culty shows itself here : for how can we sacrifice
to that which we love not or love less, that which
only or supremely we love? We cannot, except
God bestow grace : but by His grace we can do
all things (Phil. iv. 13). Let us take Him at His
word : " My grace is sufficient for thee " (2 Cor.
xii. 9), " Ask, and ye shall receive " (St. John xvi.
24). No saint but has had the choice to make,
and many a saint has made it in an agony beyond
that of loss of hand or foot or eye : but now they
are comforted (St. Mark ix. 43-48).
Nor does our sole comfort in this matter stand
over till that day when all tears shall be wiped
away, and there shall be no more sorrow or pain
(Rev. xxi. 4). We must tolerate indeed neither
truce nor compromise with our idols, be they
what they may : yet are some idols of their own
nature noble, although others are base. Idolatry
of self, or of money, or*of a bosom sin, is simply
base, and must simply be extirpated : to idolize
a friend is but to love disproportionately one
whom Christ Himself loves far more. In such
a case we may pray not to love our friend less,
but rather to love our God more. We are to love
FIRE AND HEAT. ^3
one another as Christ loved us (St. John xiii. 34),
and that was with self-sacrifice even unto death
(1 St. John iii. 16): it is enough, yea, it is the
very mind of Christ (see i Cor. ii. 16), if while
we thus love our neighbour we can truly cry
out to God : " There is none upon earth that
I desire beside Thee" (Ps. Ixxiii. 25). Then will
our obedience attain to a heavenly harmony, while
we fulfil the Great Commandment, and that
Second also which is like unto it (St. Matt. xxii.
^y-^g) : then all which we deny ourself or another
/ will be not lost but laid up : then if nothing re-
mains which we may lawfully give, at least our
prayers can ascend on behalf of the friend who is
as our own soul (i Thess. v. 23 ; Deut. xiii. 6).
And assuredly the second place in a Christian's
heart is warmer and nobler than is the first in an
idolater's : " Is not the gleaning of the grapes of
Ephraim better than the vintage of Abi-ezer?"
(Judges viii. 2.)
Concerning idolaters we read that they " shall
have their part in the lake which burneth with fire
and brimstone : which is the second death " (Rev.
xxi. 8): and one whose writings are honoured
throughout Christendom has said, "What shall
the infernal fire find to feed upon but thy sins?"
54 SEEK AND FIND.
When our spirit recoils and fails before " the fire
that never shall be quenched" (St. Mark ix.
43-48), let us not (God sustaining our feeble
endeavour), — let us not lose ourselves in "mist
of darkness-" (see 2 St. Peter ii. 17), in doubt or
in despair: but rather let us then and there by-
faith, by supplication, by doing with our might
whatsoever our hand findeth to do (Eccles. ix. 10),
cast out of our hearts the infernal fuel.
He Who walked with His three faithful ser-
vants in the literal furnace of fire, and the fire
had no power upon their bodies (Dan. iii. 19-27),
is the same Who saith to His Church : " When
thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be
burned ; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee"
(Is. xliii. 2). To each of His redeemed He is
abundantly ready to make good this His promise ;
yea, even when the earth shall be burned up, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat (2 St.
Peter iii. 10).
" Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy ? are we
stronger than He.?" (i Cor. x. 22.)
WINTER AND SUMMER. ^^
WINTER AND SUMMER.
" Lo, the winter is past:' SONG OF SOLOMON ii. ii.
" The summer is ended" JER. viii. 20.
Winter and summer are unlike at a thousand
points. Winter has bareness, cold, the aspects
and circumstances which produce and result from
these : summer has exuberance, heat, and all their
delightful train. In one thing they are alike :
both " pass," both " end." Their likeness is abso-
lute, their unlikeness is a matter of degree merely.
For the bareness of winter is yet not without
many a leaf, and its coldness is warmed and
brightened by many a sunbeam : the exuberance
of summer brings not forth the treasures of other
seasons, nor does its heat preclude the blast of
chilly winds. Both pass, both end. Winter by
comparison lifeless, leads up to spring, the birth-
day of visible nature: summer, instinct with vi-
tality, ripens to the harvest and decay of autumn.
Winter at its bitterest will pass : summer at its
sweetest must end. It is emphatically " while
the earth remaineth" that summer and winter
shall not cease (Gen. viii. 22) : in the better
5^ SEEK AND FIND.
world which is to come we find no trace of
either ; not of cold, and expressly not of heat
(Rev. vii. i6); and though leaves and fruit
appear (xxii. 2), no mention is made of flowers,
so characteristic of the summer we love. Just
because we love it and revel in it, summer is
steeped for us in sadness : at the longest its
days shorten, at the fairest its flowers fade ; next
after summer comes autumn, and autumn means
decay. Winter even while we shrink from it
abounds in hope; or ever its short days are at
the coldest they lengthen and wax more sunny.
Winter is the threshold of spring, and spring
resuscitates and reawakens the world. Winter
which nips can also brace : summer which fosters
may also enervate. There is a time for all things
(Eccles iii. 1), all things are double against each
other (Ecclus. xlii. 24), and God hath made all
things good (Gen. i. 31), for all are His servants
(Ps. cxix. 91).
The seasons of the waxing and waning year
have an obvious parallel in the periods of our
mortal life ; a parallel so obvious that it need not
be drawn out in detail, for to speak of one series
is to describe the other. Also the privilege and,
so to say, the duty of both are the same : " all are
DEWS AND FROSTS. 57
His servants/' Alas, with which of us has it
fully been so, or even now is it so to the full, be
it the spring or summer, the autumn or winter
of our course ?
" If it bear fruit, well " (St. Luke xiii. 9).
DEWS AND FROSTS.
" The rod and reproof give wisdom.^'' Prov. xxix. 15.
Dews have already been considered in com-
pany with showers. Frosts coupled with dews
naturally recal to our minds such brief nightly
frosts as usher in and wind up the true winter;
and most of all they suggest that exquisite form
of frost, hoar frost.
Hoar frost seems to me to be one of those
things which emphatically bring out before our
eyes God's love displayed in the lavish beauty of
creation, and in the relish which accompanies
a bracing discipline. The charm appears, in a
sense, gratuitous : one can imagine all necessary
operations of the visible world conducted to a
flawless issue, without that world suddenly as-
suming a crust of silver which converts each
58 SEEK AND FIND.
veined leaf and spider's web into a noticeable
wonder of intricate beauty, and which clothes
the bare season with its own exclusive robe of
honour. Independently of a keen temperature
this special form of beauty is not vouchsafed:
and thus even beauty hints to us the bright side
of salutary pain, the much comfort of ennobling
discipline. Moreover, this choice aspect invests
the outset of the day as well as its decline ; it
cheers us under the first assault of rigour : should
the weather turn to mildness and by its mildness
solace us, with the advancing hours this particular
bloom of beauty vanishes.
The agents whereby God administers remedial
discipline are oftentimes the same whereby He
inflicts the penalty of sin : as in the two following
instances : —
" In the day the drought consumed me, and
the frost by night " (Gen. xxxi. 40).
" Cast out in the day to the heat, and in the
night to the frost " (Jer. xxxvi. 30).
The discipline of Jacob, the doom of Jehoiakim ;
the living man and the corpse enforce jointly one
solemn lesson. That which lives, however faulty
it be, may be amended: that which is dead is
done with for good or for evil. Drought and
DEWS AND FROSTS. 59
frost, wronged affection (Gen. xxix. 25), disap-
pointment (xiviii. 7 ; xxxvii. ^^), all the ills his
flesh was heir to during the " few and evil " days
of Jacob's pilgrimage (xlvii. 9), sufficed by God's
grace to transform him stage by stage from a man
unbrotherly even amongst mere men (xxv. 29-34),
into a prince of God mighty to prevail (xxxii. 28),
into a saint worshipping upon his death -bed
(xlvii. 31 ; Heb. xi. 21), and bequeathing a bless-
ing to his children (Gen. xlix. 1-28). Neither
the Roll of the Book, nor the added words (Jer.
xxxvi. 20-32), nor the foresight of a refuse burial
in heat and frost and without lamentation (xxii.
18, 19), availed anything (so far as we are in-
formed) towards the conversion of Jehoiakim's
guilty soul ; and therefore the doom which over-
took his desecrated body makes us afraid.
Our Lord the Wisdom of God hath said : " Be
not afraid of them that kill the body, and after
that have no more that they can do. But I will
forewarn you Whom ye shall fear: Fear Him,
which after He hath killed hath power to cast
into hell ; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him "
(St. Luke xii. 4, 5).
6o SEEK AND FIND.
FROST AND COLD.
" Out of the south cometh the whirlwind : and cold out
of the north." Job xxxvii. 9.
" The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the
deep is frozen." Job xxxviii, 30.
On the whole we may, I think, consider cold
as representing to us defect, inferiority. Brief
are its praises in the Bible, although the Bible is
written with all the instinctive imagery and
sentiment born of the glowing south and sun-
brightened east, of parched uplands and thirsty
deserts. A few texts, however, can be cited
in favour of cold.
Cold is enumerated amongst other boons in
the indemnifying charter granted to our globe
after the Deluge (Gen. viii. izi, 22). Solomon
likens faithfulness to the cold of snow, and good
news to a draught of cold water (Prov. xxv.
135 25): while to the value of "a cup of cold
water " bestowed in faith, we have the testimony
of " a Greater than Solomon " (St. Matt. x. 42 ;
xii. 42). And according to our Authorized
Version (for a different reading appears in the
FROST AND COLD. 6 1
margin) a lapse from God to idols is compared
by Jeremiah with the folly of a man who should
forsake the snow of Lebanon or the cold flowing
waters of another source (Jer. xviii. 13-15).
In the adverse sense, Job (xxiv. 7, 8) pities
the poor bare and houseless in the cold : the
Psalmist and the wise king alike allude to its
severity (Ps. cxlvii. 17 ; Prov. xx. 4; xxv. no) :
the Prophet Nahum points a simile by help of
its rigour (Nah. iii. 17): St. Paul specifies it in
the catalogue of his afflictions (2 Cor. xi. 27), and
his historian speaks of it as augmenting their dis-
tress in the island of Melita (i^cts xxviii. 2). Pass-
ing on to figurative applications, we find in our
Lord's own words " The love of many shall wax
cold" (St. Matt. xxiv. 12): while His awful
message to the lukewarm Church of Laodicea,
" Thou art neither cold nor hot : I would thou
wert cold or hot^-* (Rev. iii. 14-19), leaves us in
no doubt of its drift.
In the physical world life and heat go together,
death and cold ; the day and heat, the night and
cold ; light and heat, darkness and cold.
Seas and rivers, salt water and fresh, teem
with life; not so ice itself. In the polar seas
creatures sport either upon or else under the
^2 SEEK AND FIND.
frozen surface ; not within its actual substance.
Extreme cold dwarfs the human race, and com-
paratively few are the fruits and flowers which
flourish in strongholds of perpetual ice.
Yet frost and cold, no less than fire and heat,
are invoked to render blessing, praise and magni-
fication to the Lord their Ordainer. And thus
we light upon a truth humbling to pride, but
a very crown of rejoicing to humility. He Who
is good (St. Mark x. i8) hath done all of His free
good will (Ps. cxv. 3) : His creatures' lot, be it
what it may, cannot but be the outcome of His
love, and therefore the least and last of us may
confidently affirm " The lines are fallen unto me
in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly heritage"
(Ps. xvi. 6). To be inferior is not necessarily
to be evil ; nor does man's estimate fix the in-
trinsic value of any object. Silver was nothing
accounted of in the days of Solomon, all whose
drinking vessels were of gold (i Kings x. 21):
yet, " The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,
saith the Lord of hosts " (Hag. ii. 8), putting no
difference between them. In the Parable of the
Sower we find " thirtyfold" accounted a goodly
increase, though sixtyfold is a better, and though
a hundredfold excels both (St. Mark iv. 8, 20).
FROST AND COLD. 63
The poor widow indeed cast into the Temple
treasury more than all, yet did many that were
rich cast in much (xii. 41-44).
Again; to be inferior once is not of necessity
to be inferior always or finally : " Many that are
first shall be last ; and the last first " (St. Mark
X. 31). The prior blessing devolved on Shem,
father of the first Israel : yet now Japheth, earthly
stock of the second Israel, dwells in the other's
tents (see Gen. ix. 26, 27). Reuben was firstborn,
Judah became chief (i Chron. v. i, 2). Leah
was hated, Rachel beloved (Gen. xxix. 18, 30, 31) ;
yet Jacob made his grave with Leah (xlix. 29-31).
Joshua was but Moses' minister (Ex. xxiv. 13);
yet Joshua, not Moses, entered the promised
land (Deut. i. 37, 38). Ruth (ii. 13) was not so
much as like one of the handmaidens of Boaz ;
nevertheless she was exalted over them to be-
come his wife (iv. 13). Instances may be mul-
tiplied from Sacred History, from profane, from
experience gathered in our own circle, in our
own home. " I returned, and saw under the sun,
that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to
the strong " (Eccles. ix. 11).
Be it, however, as seems indeed indisputable,
that certain things are and must remain posi-
64 SEEK AND FIND.
lively and permanently inferior : it may still
transcend our present faculties to decide authori-
tatively which is which. Our Master says ex-
pressly : " Judge not according to the appearance,
but judge righteous judgment " (St. John vii. 24) ;
and taught of God St. Paul bids us " Judge
nothing before the time, until the Lord come"
(i Cor. iv. 5). Much stands over until His
coming, and all our decisions and previsions
will not bias the verdict of that day.
" Thou knowest not the works of God Who
maketh all " (Eccles. xi. 5).
ICE AND SNOW.
" Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow ?
or hast thou seen the treasures of the hailf" Job
xxxviii. 22.
The beauty of snow needs no proof. Perfect
in whiteness, feathery in lightness, it often floats
down with hesitation as if it belonged to air
rather than to earth: yet once resting on that
ground it seemed loath to touch, it silently and
surely accomplishes its allotted task ; it fills up
chasms, levels inequalities, cloaks imperfections,
arrests the evaporation of heat, nurses vegetation ;
ICE AND SNOW. 65
it prepares floods for arid water-courses, and
abundant moisture for roots and seeds. Snow,
as we are familiar with it, is uncertain in its
arrival and brief in its stay ; having done its
work it vanishes utterly, becoming as though it
had never been. Not so in northern regions
and on mountain- ranges where it occupies a
permanent habitation : there it wraps itself in
mist or overlooks the clouds, and thence not
in silence but in thunder it rushes down upon
the valleys. The beauties of snow are not ex-
hausted when we have watched it afloat in air,
or heaped in dazzling whiteness on the earth,
or even when we have beheld it on mountain^
heights flushed with pure rosiness at the fall of
day : the microscope is required to reveal to us the
exquisite symmetry of its crystals, starry, foliated,
mimicking with minute perfection features of the
firmam.ent and of the flower-bed.
In symbolic analogies we find snow suggestive
both of guilt and of cleansing. The whiteness of
leprosy, that loathsome type of more loathsome
sin, is *'as snow" (Ex. iv. 6; Num. xii. 10;
a Kings v. 27) : while in the other sense Psalmist
and Prophet bring forward material snow as a
standard of spiritual purification ; David saying,
F
66 SEEK AND FIND.
" Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow "
(Ps. li. 7), and Isaiah, " Though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Is. i. 18).
Job also in one of his passionate appeals cries
out from instinctive feeling if not from close
reasoning, " If I wash myself with snow water,
and make my hands never so clean "
(Job ix. 30) ; thus attributing to " snow water "
an exceptional purifying virtue.
Ice, viewed as hail, seems exclusively, or almost
exclusively, in the inspired Text, to be or to repre-
sent a weapon of God's wrath and righteous
vengeance; and this is its aspect whether we study
prophets or historians, the Old Testament or the
New. Following a scheme of chronology which
makes Job a contemporary of Moses, we hear
about thirty years before the Exodus this purpose
of the hail indicated to Job by Almighty God
Himself; "Hast thou seen the treasures of the
hail, which I have reserved against the time of
trouble, against the day of battle and war?"
(Job xxxviii. 22, 23) ; and the earliest hailstorm
recorded in Holy Scripture is that which
scourged Egypt with its seventh plague, " The
Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt " (Ex.
ix. 23), and to which passages in the Psalms
ICE AND SNOW. (i"]
refer (Ixxviii. 47, 48 ; cv. 3:z, 33). So also in the
wars of Joshua the hail fought on God's side,
and slew more of the army of the Amorites than
did the sword of the children of Israel (Josh.
X. 11). David, again, celebrating his deliverance
from his enemies, and especially from Saul,
describes his troubles under figure of a flood
ready to engulph him, and his rescue as achieved
by a manifestation of the Divine Presence, amid
mighty convulsions of nature, " hail stones and
coals of fire" (Ps. xviii. 4-17). Isaiah (xxviii.
2, 17; XXX. 30; and presumably xxxii. 19), and
Ezekiel (xiii. 10-14 ; xxxviii. 22), name hail in
their prophecies of vengeance : Haggai mentions
it among the agents of an unavailing Divine
discipline (Hag. ii. 17): St. John thrice beholds
it in awful vision (Rev. viii. 7 ; xi. 19 ; xvi. 21).
If the weapon be mighty, mightier is He Who
wields it : nevertheless, if it be good to tremble
before God's judgments, it is yet better to con-
fide in His mercy and love. Let us, not neg-
lecting the performance of either duty, add to
both humility; and carry our heads as it were
low, in memory of that wheat and rye which
not being grown up escaped unscathed, while
the forwarder flax and barley were smitten.
F 2
68 SEEK AND FIND.
^' Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the
dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of
His Majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be
humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be
bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day " (Is. ii. lo, ii).
NIGHTS AND DAYS.
" The evening and the morning were the first day^
Gen. i. 5.
There is something full of hope^ noble and very
consolatory in this sequence of evening and morn-
ing, night ending in day, not day in night ; night
introducing to the opportunities and capabilities
of day, not day hastening downwards to the
recess and obliteration of night : we behold, as in
\ a lovely figure, the death-stricken life which we
I lead in this world's twilight, passing out of itself
'' into the immortal life of heaven's noon; that
noon attained, our probationary course is fulfilled
1 and finished. In the literal order of creation,
first darkness was : then " God said, Let there be
light: and there was light" (Gen. i. 3). " The path
of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more
and more unto the perfect day " (Prov. iv. 18).
I
NIQHTS AND DAYS. ^9
Nevertheless, because this world is fraught
with the confusion and ruin, with the dis-
jointedness (so to say), the disproportion, the
reversals of blessings into curses and life into
death brought about by the Fall, it is no
marvel that while " evening and morning " com-
pose the entire day of our hopes, morning and
evening make up the recurrent days of our
duty ; labour before repose, watchful effort before
sleep. "There will be eternity to rest in," one
answered to whom a friend suggested relaxation
on this side of the grave. Still, although we
must do with our might whatsoever our hand
findeth to do, because we are hastening to that
grave where there is neither work, nor device,
nor knowledge, nor wisdom (Eccles. ix. lo),
there is yet a certain fretting anxiety which may
beset us in our daily round of duty, but which
has no promise of a blessing. To be «' careful
and troubled about many things '■ is not " need'
ful " (see St. Luke x. 38-42) : " It is vain for
you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the
bread of sorrows : for so He giveth His beloved
sleep" (Ps. cxxvii. 2): or as some read: "For
he giveth to His beloved (what others labour hard
for) even in sleep."
70 SEEK AND FIND.
In matters spiritual as well as natural night
wears a genuine glory, though one different from
the glory of day. There are many nights, besides
that great night of the Passover and the Exodus,
no less than there are many days, " to be much
observed unto the Lord" (Ex. xii. 21-42. "The
Lord went before them by day in a pillar of
a cloud, to lead them the way ; and by night
in a pillar of fire, to give them light." Ex.
xiii. 21). — A night began, a day completed. Lot's
deliverance (Gen. xix. 1-3, 23. "Just Lot."
2 St. Peter 2-7). — Jacob wrestled by night, and
triumphed about daybreak (Gen. xxxii. 22-31.
" I held Him, and would not let Him go." Song
of Sol. iii. 4). — On the prefixed day when Jericho
should fall, Israel rose about dawn to compass the
city seven times (Josh. vi. 15, 16, 20. " Take away
her battlements ; for they are not the Lord's."
Jer. v. 10). — On one day which had not its like
before it or after it, five kings of the Amorites
were subdued (Josh. x. 6-16. " Kings of armies
did flee apace." Ps. Ixviii. 12). — Gideon won a
victory for Israel before the sun was up (Judges
viii. 11-13. "Joy cometh in the morning."
Ps. XXX. 5). — Samson arose at midnight and dis-
mantled Gaza (Judges xvi. 3. " Except the Lord
NIGHTS AND DAYS. 7 1
keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."
Ps. cxxvii. i). — By night Samuel received his
first revelation, and not until the morning did he
deliver his first prophecy (i Sam. iii. 2-18.
"If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord
will make Myself known unto him in a vision."
Num. xii. 6). — The idol Dagon, degraded during
the night, was discovered in its abjection in the
morning (i Sam. v. 2-4. "To whom will ye
liken Me, and make Me equal, and compare Me,
that we may be like .? " Is. xlvi. 5). — By night
Solomon made his patriotic choice and received
the promise of a threefold blessing (i Kings iii.
5-14. " Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,
and the man that getteth understanding. Length
of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand
riches and honour.^' Prov. iii. 13, 16). — About
the time of the evening sacrifice Elijah reasserted
the Sovereignty of God (1 Kings xviii. 36-40.
" Thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation/-*
Is. xvii. 10). — By night Dothan was encompassed
by a hostile host, and on the morrow a vision of
horses and chariots of fire strengthened a trembling
faith (2 Kings vi. 13-17. "The angel of the
Lord encampeth round about them that fear
Him." Ps. xxxiv, 7). — Towards twilight Syria
yM SEEK AND FIND.
was routed by the bodiless sound of a great host
(2 Kings vii. 6, 7. " The wicked flee when no
man pursueth/* Pro v. xxviii. i).— By night the
destroying angel smote the army of Sennacherib
(2 Kings xix. 35. " Sennacherib, which hath sent
to reproach the Living God" Is. xxvii. 17.) —
From morning until midday Ezra and his as-
sistants taught the Law to the children of the
restored captivity (Neh. viii. 2-8. " O Israel,
return unto the Lord thy God." Hos. xiv. i). — -
One sleepless night of King Ahasuerus opened a
door of hope to downcast Israel (Esth. vi. 1-13.
" The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord,
as the rivers of water : He turneth it whither-
soever He will." Prov. xxi. i). — Daniel's one
night in the den of lions glorified God and
edified man (Dan. vi. 16-27. "The roaring of
the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the
teeth of the young lions, are broken." Job iv. 10).
In a night vision Daniel beheld the Judgment, the
end of wickedness and establishment of Christ's
kingdom (Dan. vii. 2, 9-37. " In a dream, in
a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth
upon men, in slumberings upon the bed ; then He
openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their in-
struction." Job xxxiii. 15, 16). About the time
LIGHT AND DARKNESS. y^
of the evening oblation the Archangel Gabriel
preached Christ unto him (Dan. ix. 21-27. "The
word spoken by angels was stedfast." Heb. ii. 2).
— The sun was risen when Jonah, deploring his
withered gourd, received a revelation of God's
inexhaustible mercy (Jonah iv. y-u. " The Lord
is good to all : and His tender mercies are over
all His works." Ps. cxlv. 9).
Truly " Day unto day uttereth speech, and
night unto night sheweth knowledge " (Ps.
xix. 2).
LIGHT AND DARKNESS.
" Tke darkness and the light are both alike to Thee.''*
Ps. cxxxix, 12,
We are so habituated to think of light and
darkness in reference to sacred symbolism or our
own personal convenience and profit, that perhaps
the last aspect under which they are likely to pre-
sent themselves to our mental eye is as " both
alike." Yet thus and not otherwise David de-
fines them as appearing in the sight of God : thus
therefore must they in very truth be, at least
within the limits of the import of this passage.
" Both alike :" both His ordinance ; both, as
74 SEEK AND FIND.
concerns His purpose, talents alternately and
equally committed to us for use, and not for
abuse or for neglect. So long as time is
with us, light or darkness and the opportu-
nities and responsibilities attached to either
must be with us too : we cannot set down our
load even for a moment and recover our
strength, though God in His mercy may spare us
not a little (see Prayer Book, Ps. xxxix. 15) and
tenderly lighten our burden by infusing into us
His own all-sufficient energy (Is. xli. 10).
The sensation of pleasure is associated with
light and with darkness : each in its turn brings
what we need, and prepares us for the coming
boon to be brought round by the other. Yet, as
regards the instinctive sensation of pleasure, there
seems a broad line of demarcation to be drawn
between the two pleasure-sources. Light cheers
healthy bodies and souls which go forth as bride-
grooms, and as giants rejoice to run their course,
responding unhesitatingly to the words of Solo-
mon, " Truly the light is sweet " (Eccles. xi. 7),
and desiring no more darkness than is subservient
to the renewal and conservation of vigour. On
the contrary, in sickness or in sorrow we some-
times trace a craving for darkness, of which pos-
LIGHT AND DARKNESS. 75
sibly Hezekiah's turning his face to the wall may
furnish an instance (Is. xxxviii. 2). Violence
(Judges xvi. 21), disease (perhaps Lev. xxvi. 16.
and Deut. xxviii. 65), old age (Gen. xxvii. i),
blinding the eyes, have power to bring about
irremovable darkness but not irremovable light.
While, in extreme misery, both light and dark-
ness lose their charm : " In the morning thou
shalt say, Would God it were even ! and at even
thou shalt say, Would God it were morning!"
(Deut. xxviii. 67.)
Darkness no less than light is named as the
abode of God. He dwelleth " in the light which
no man can approach unto" (i Tim. vi. 16):
'' He made darkness pavilions round about Him"
(2 Sam. xxii. 12). The cloudy pillar of His
presence appeared both as darkness and as light
(Ex. xiii. 21 ; xiv. 20). " Darkness, clouds, and
thick darkness " invested Mount Sinai, when the
Lord gave Israel His Covenant, speaking out of
the midst of fire (Deut. iv. 11-13): then the
people stood afar off, while Moses alone " drew
near unto the thick darkness where God was"
(Ex. XX. 21). On the contrary, when in company
with a chosen few, the representatives of the
chosen nation, Moses was summoned before the
7^ SEEK AND FIND.
Divine Presence, then they all beheld " as it were
the body of heaven in his clearness " (Ex. xxiv.
1, 9, lo). We read in a Psalm (civ. i) that the
Lord covereth Himself " with light as with a gar-
ment." To Moses He said, " I will appear in
the cloud upon the Mercy Seat" (Lev. xvi. 2):
and when at the dedication of the first temple
Solomon witnessed how the overwhelming cloud
of His Presence filled the sacred house, he spake,
saying, " The Lord said that He would dwell in
the thick darkness" (i Kings viii. 10-12): in
accordance with which intimation it has been
pointed out that the Mercy Seat within the Veil
must have inhabited unbroken darkness save on
the single annually recurrent Day of Atonement.
As regards the human race, mercies and judg-
ments alike have been accompanied by light and
by darkness ; faithful mercies (Lam. iii. 22, 23)
and righteous judgments (Ps. xcvii. 2). "An
horror of great darkness " fell upon Abram when
he received a direct revelation concerning his
posterity (Gen. xv. 12-17). The plague of dark,
ness which paralysed Egypt was simultaneous with
the light vouchsafed in the land of Goshen (Ex.
x. 21—23). The return of daylight revealed to
trembling Judah that by night the strength of
LIGHT AND DARKNESS. 77
Sennacherib had vanished as a dream of the dark-
ness (Is. xxxvii. ^6.)
The Prophet Micah (ii. i) in a single verse
denounces a misuse both of darkness and of light :
"Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work
evil upon their beds ! when the morning is light,
they practise it, because it is in the power of their
hand." Job also (xxiv. 14-16) speaking in
general of those who know not the Almighty,
says of Some : " The murderer rising with the
light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night
is as a thief. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth
for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me : and
disguiseth his face. In the dark they dig through
houses, which they had marked for themselves in
the daytime : they know not the light."
But the moment we pass from the region of
plain fact into that of symbolism, all is changed :
light stands for good, and darkness for evil. " God
is light, and in Him is no darkness at all"
(i St. John i. 5). " The Lord is my light and
my salvation " (Ps. xxvii. i). " In Thy light shall
we see light " (xxxvi. 9), " Light is sown for the
righteous" (xcvii. 11). "Thy word is .... a
light unto my path" (cxix. 105). "The people
that walked in darkness have seen a great light '*
78 SEEK AND FIND.
(Is. ix. 2), which light was Christ (St. Matt. iv.
12-16). "A light to the Gentiles " (Is. xlix. 6),
none but Christ (St. Luke ii. 32) : Whose Church
ever builds on the promise, " The Lord shall be
unto thee an everlasting light " (Is. Ix. 19 ; St.
John i. 1-4).
When we turn from Light Divine to that dark-
ness which is its opposite, the great unbridged
gulf seems to open at our feet. Fallen angels are
reserved in everlasting chains under darkness (St.
Jude vi). The Christian soldier wrestles against
the rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph. vi.
12). Certain sinners are as "wandering stars,
to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for
ever (St. Jude xiii). The kingdom of the beast
is prophesied of as becoming full of darkness
(Rev. xvi. 10). The land of the shadow of death,
not then lit up by the radiance of Christ's resur-
rection, was even in the eyes of saintly Job (x.
20-22) "a land of darkness, as darkness itself;
.... and where the light is as darkness." The
" outer darkness " of condemnation resounds with
weeping and gnashing of teeth (St. Matt. xxv. 30).
Besides kindling of hope and quickening of
fear, we may I think gather one other blessing
from such a study of light and darkness, — a holy
LIGHT AND DARKNESS. 79
prudence which not exercising itself in matters
too high for us (Ps. cxxxi. i) rejoices to recognise
the best aspect of such influences as surround us,
and never loses sight of the revealed truth that
all things work together for good to them that
love God (Rom. viii. 28). Cherishing such a
spirit we shall learn neither to trust in any crea-
ture nor to despair of any soul, but doing what
lieth in us to leave the result to that Master to
Whom each servant standeth or falleth (Rom.
xiv. 4) ; we shall " in every thing give thanks "
(i Thess. V. 18), and shall intercede all the more
earnestly for our dear brethren because we know
that some who were darkness have been made
light (Eph. V. 8). And indeed wherein differ we
from them ? if by God's grace so great a mercy is
true of us as that we be children of light and not
of darkness (i Thess. v. 5). St. Augustine has
illustrated a kindred lesson : One prayed, Lord,
take away the ungodly man : and God answered
him, Which?
"Blessed be the Name of God for ever and
ever: He revealeth the deep and secret things:
He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the
light dwelleth with him " (Dan. ii. 20, 21),
8o SEEK AND FIND.
LIGHTNINGS AND CLOUDS.
" He Said, O my Lord, send, I pray Thee, by the hand of
him whom Thou wilt send" Ex.. iv. 13.
God does truly " send " by whomsoever and by
whatsoever He will ; nor is there aught great or
small, conscious or unconscious, righteous or
wicked, that can say Him nay. Hesitating Moses
was overborne (Ex. iv. 1-17), hardened Pharaoh
wrought out the purpose for which he was raised
up (ix. 16), fugitive Jonah was arrested and
brought back to deliver his message (Jonah i. 1-4 ;
iii. 1-3) ; a dove and olive leaf conveyed news to
Noah (Gen. viii. 11), ravens fed Elijah (i Kings
xvii. 6), an arrow shot at a venture fulfilled Ahab's
doom (xxii. 34). At the divine behest clouds
amass or disperse their abundant waters, and
lightnings answer, Here we are (Job xxxviii.
34, 35)-
Clouds were a creation of the Second Day, the
day of division, that only day of which indivi-
dually it is not recorded that God saw its work
to be good : " God said, Let there be a firmament
in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the
waters from the waters" (Gen. i. 6-8. For a
LIGHTNINGS AND CLOUDS. 8 1
general approval of the work of the second day,
see V. 31). Nevertheless, when this division was,
as it were, for the moment withdrawn, and the
fountains of the great deep being broken up and
the windows of heaven opened all waters from
every source converged, it was for the destruction
of all living creatures that drew breath and
moved upon the earth, except of those few indi-
viduals whom God had shut into the ark (Gen.
vii. 1 1-24). May not this suggest that while
unity and concord are according to the Divine
Mind (see Rom. xv. 5, 6 ; i Cor. xiv. '>^'>^\ yet for
us to aim at unity by disregarding barriers of
divine appointment would produce not union but
confusion? The Church does well to lengthen
her cords and strengthen her stakes (Is. liv. 2),
but for the sole purpose of nursing at her side
faithful sons and daughters who come to her
(Ix. 4) : she could not, if she would, do so for the
sake of spreading the skirt of her protection over
those who have neither part nor lot in the un-
changeable Truth. Her laxity might destroy
herself; but could not blot out or modify one jot
or tittle of the Faith, could not save even one
person whose name shall not be found written in
the Book of Life (Rev. xx. 12, 15). Though
G
83 SEEK AND FIND.
Coniah had been the signet upon the Lord's right
hand, yet God would have plucked him thence
(Jer. xxii. 24). A sacred chamber was prepared
by Eliashib the Priest for Tobiah the Ammonite :
yet by a zeal according to knowledge that cham-
ber was cleansed, and all trace of the alien
obliterated (Neh. xiii. 4-9).
To ancient Israel a cloud veiled and indicated
the Presence of God, and led their Exodus (Ex.
xiii. 2i)' It interposed an impenetrable shield
between them and their pursuers (xiv. 19, 20).
It regulated their journeyings in the wilderness
(Num. ix. 15-22). It hallowed the tabernacle
(Ex. xl. 34) and the first temple (i Kings viii. 10) :
speaking of it, St. Paul tells us that all the Jewish
Fathers were under the cloud, and were baptized
unto Moses in the cloud (i Cor. x. i, 2). Great,
high, availing, was the succour to them of this
blessed outward Presence : more great, more high,
more availing, is the succour conveyed to our-
selves by the Church's two Sacraments of general
necessity ; for by their due reception that same
Blessed Presence which was and which remained
outward to the Jews, to faithful Christians be-
comes inward, entering and fortifying the strong-
hold of heart and will. " As ye have therefore
LIGHTNINGS AND CLOUDS. S^
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
Him"(Col. ii. 6).
In Holy Scripture clouds are often referred to
both as to their natural aspects and their figura-
tive analogies. The Book of Job abounds in such
passages. Job himself alludes to the gloom of
clouds (iii. 5), their evanescence (vii. 9), their
capacity, consistence, impenetrability (xxvi. 8, 9),
their transitory habit (xxx. 15) : his friends refer
to their loftiness (xx. 6; xxxv. 5), their density
(xxii. 13, 14), their copious overflow, extension
and thunder, office of obscuration (xxxvi. 2,^-^^),
their exhaustible and variable nature^ commence-
ment and fashioning, gravitation (xxxvii. 11-16).
Even in the all-silencing answer from the whirl-
wind clouds are summoned to bear tremendous
witness (xxxvii 8, 9, 37).
Two quotations from the Prophet Hosea
(vi. 4 ; xiii. 3) embody an awful lesson. '' O
Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? ... for
your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the
early dew it goeth away. — They" [the idolaters of
Ephraim] " shall be as the morning cloud, and as
the early dew that passeth away." Though it is
for the heinous sin of idolatry that sentence is
pronounced, yet this strict sequence of beginning
G2
84 SEEK AND FIND.
and end, the end adjusted to and reproducing in
some sort the beginning, while it redoubles hope
to all who remember from whence they are fallen
and repent and do the first works (Rev. ii. 5),
renders doubly hopeless the prospect of any who
make no effort to redeem a wasted past. Christ
once died to save us : but who now shall, who
now can save us if we will not save ourselves ?
" How often would I . . . and ye would not "
(St. Matt, xxiii. 37) : these are our Lord's own
words. Consider also the words of David, " As
he loved cursing, so let it come unto him : as he
delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him"
(Ps. cix. 17): of Solomon, " The backslider in
heart shall be filled with his own ways : and a
good man shall be satisfied from himself" (Prov.
xiv. 1 4) : and the prophecy of Ezekiel (xxxv. 6),
" Sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall
pursue thee," comparing with it the witness of
the angel of the waters, " They have shed the
blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given
them blood to drink " (Rev. xvi. 6).
Two natural clouds appear in the historical
portion of the Bible, and both are connected with
signal Divine mercies. The first introduces the
rainbow with its time-long promise (Gen. ix.
LIGHTNINGS AND CLOUDS. 85
12-16): the second at Elijah's prayer revived
hope in drought-worn languishing Israel (i Kings
xviii. 41-45).
Of lightning we read comparatively little in the
Inspired Text, unless we may venture to connect
with it that " Fire " which was on various occa-
sions sent on some direct celestial errand. The
creation of lightning is twice alluded to in Job
(xxviii. 2.6 ; xxxviii. 25), where also it is spoken
of as combined with thunder (xxxvii. 2-5) ; else-
where, with rain (Ps. cxxxv. 7 ; Jer. x. 13, repeated
at li. 16). Thunders and lightnings attended the
promulgation of the Mosaic law (Ex. xix. 16; xx.
18). The living creatures of Ezekiel's vision
(i. 13, 14,) resembled lightning both in splendour
and in speed : and Daniel (x. 5, 6) by the river
Hiddekel beheld "a certain Man^' whose face
was " as the appearance of lightning."
Belonging to the other and more mysterious
class, we read of fire consuming the sacrifice
upon the altar of the tabernacle (Lev. ix. 24), and
centuries later upon the altar of Solomon's temple
(2 Chron. vii. 1) ; devouring Nadab and Abihu
in their presumption (Lev. x. i, 2) ; breaking out
in the camp at Taberah (Num. xi. 1-3) ; destroy-
ing the unconsecrated offerers of incense (xvi.
85 SEEK AND FIND.
^^) ; certifying the acceptance of David^s offerings
in the threshingfloor of Oman (i Chron. xxi. 26) ;
descending upon Elijah's sacrifice (i Kings xviii.
38), and once and again at his word slaying the
opponents of God (2 Kings i. 10, 12).
" By these, my son, be admonished " (Eccles.
xii. 12).
EARTH.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth. And the earth was without form and voidP
Gen. i. i, 2.
It has been suggested by a deep and reverent
thinker of the present day that a period of un-
defined duration, undefined but vast, intervenes
between the statements of these two verses. In
this period one creation perished : the " earth ■" of
the first verse became the " earth without form
and void " of the second. Under such a suppo-
sition our actual earth is wholly or in part a
reconstruction of wrecked and ruined material
already existing ; and those traces of organisms
\ which science recognises and which seem impera-
tively to demand a far longer period of formation,
, existence, decay, than the inspired Mosaic record
appears to contemplate, are accounted for.
EARTH. 87
Nor perhaps need this explanation of obvious
phenomena exclude that second theory which
interprets the days of creation not as days of
twenty-four hours each, but as lapses of time by
us unmeasured and immeasurable: lapses which
like the ascending notes of the musical scale step
upward by harmonious gradation from depth to
height, from height to height yet higher, each suc-
cessive phase of creation based upon but excelling
that which preceded it. Only how, in accordance
with this scheme, are we to dispose of the Seventh,
the Sabbath Day ? For man was created on the
sixth day (Gen. i. 26-31) : where then did he pass
the first Sabbath? if, that is, we regard that
seventh day as equalling in duration the preceding
six, and as having begun and finished as it were
in the verse (Gen. ii. 2) that names it. Adam
and Eve did surely not spend it in the Garden of
Eden, for then must we imagine an aeon of inno-
cent obedience to have preceded the Fall : neither
can they have reached its close in the thorny and
thistly world of the curse, for even Adam's nine
hundred and thirty years of life (Gen. v. 5) would
bear no proportion whatever to the associated
periods.
A third alternative seems required. And
88 SEEK AND FIND.
though unrevealed truth may possibly, and if so
may safely continue unrevealed to our apprehen-
sion until all time dwindle to a mere eye-wink
because the eternity which ends it itself ends not,
yet to study such data as are vouchsafed us ought,
by exercising our intelligence even if not by en-
larging our knowledge, to invigorate our faith.
As to each of the six days of Creation we are
told that "the evening and the morning-" made
it up (Gen. i. 5, &c.) : no such clause defines the
seventh day, of which we simply read that it was
the day of God's own rest from His ended work,
and as such was blessed and sanctified by Him
(Gen. ii. 2, 3). Thus we are assured of its com-
mencement and character, while of its completion
and termination no hint is afforded : wherefore
of its completion and termination we necessarily
know nothing. And why should our knowledge
break ofT short at that particular moment ? Diffi-
dently and reverently we may still fairly suggest
that we for the present know nothing, perhaps
because there is as yet nothing to be known.
We are unavoidably in the region of suppo-
sition, not of assertion, the Bible not having
pronounced explicitly on the matter in hand.
Suppose, for an instant, the great first Sabbath
EARTH. 89
to have ended ages ago : what followed ? what
second week opened ?
Or pursuing an opposite conjecture: is it im-
possible that this current period of mankind's
probation, this in which we now are all living
and dying, is that very primeval Sabbath still in
progress, still incomplete ? but in the foreknow-
ledge of Almighty God and in fulness of time to
be completed. x
There certainly seems to be a sense in which j
God does for the present stand aside and, as it;
were, keep in the background, while man plays\
his part according to his own inherent free will.]
Not that with " fools " we must conceive of God
as neither seeing nor regarding (Ps. xciv. 7, 8) :
rather must we ever bear in mind His revelation
to the Prophet Isaiah (xviii. 4), *' I will take
My rest, and I will consider in My dwelling
place."
I think that such a train of thought, so far as it
may lawfully be indulged, augments instead of
abating our sense of the sinfulness of sin. Each
sin thus stands out as a distinct sacrilege, for it
desecrates the hallowed day of God's own Sab-
bath : " Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it
holy (Ex. XX. 8) : " Thou hast despised Mine holy
90 SEEK AND FIND.
things, and hast profaned My Sabbaths " (Ezek.
xxii. 8). All the earth becomes holy ground (see
Ex. iii. 5) on which none but a very dove's foot
is meet to rest : " My dove, My undefiled," says
the Beloved tenderly extolling the Bride (Song of
Solomon vi. 9) : Be ye ... . harmless as doves,"
says to us the Beloved of our souls (St. Matt.
X. 16).
"Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said,
Surely the Lord is in this place ; and I knew it
not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful
is this place ! this is none other but the house of
God, and this is the gate of heaven '■' (Gen. xxviii.
i^, 17).
MOUNTAINS AND HILLS.
" Before the mountains were settled^ before the hills was
I brought forth." Prov. viii. 25.
These are words of that uncreated Wisdom
(Prov. viii. 22, 23) which crieth unto the sons
of men, " O ye simple, understand wisdom "
(vv. 4, 5), and without Whose aid our study of
heights and depths will remain barren as the
literal mountain tops. " I will lift up mine eyes
MOUNTAINS AND HILLS. 9 1
unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord, which made
heaven and earth" (Ps. cxxi. i, 2).
On the whole, though with allowance for excep-
tions, we may say that mountains stand con-
nected both in the Inspired Word, by our natural
instinct, and in simple fact, with much that is
noble, beneficent, even holy. The mountaineer
is characteristically hardy, abstemious, fearless,
indomitable, a lover of freedom, a patriot : liberty
overwhelmed in the valleys flees as a bird unto
the hills, makes her nest in a rock, and maintains
herself impregnable. We need not look so far
off as to Bethulia in the days of Nabuchodonosor
and Judith (Judith iv. 6-8): our own Welsh
mountains held out of old against world-subduing
Rome.
Mountains bestow, valleys receive: snowy
heights form a water-shed for the low-lying fer-
tility which engarlands their base. Moreover
they bestow necessaries not in mere naked suf-
ficiency, but in forms which make hill-streams
and waterfalls rank among the beauty-spots of
this beautiful world: such streams descend with
murmur, tumult and thunder, in crystal expanses,
in ripples, leaps and eddies, in darkness and
gZ SEEK AND FIND.
light, in clearness and whiteness, and foam and
foam-bow.
Mountain ranges and rocks abound in mineral
wealth, in metal, precious ore, marble. They
produce also gems and choice stones, though not
indeed abundantly: were these abundant, they
would forfeit their conventional value and be
estimated according to their mere utility or
beauty; as we now estimate wheat and vine, a
daisy or a bluebell.
One of our holiest writers has warned us :
"Not all that is high is holy:" but this form of
statement argues that such a connexion is usual,
while both the historical narrative and symbolic
drift of the Bible tend to establish its validity.
So numerous in the sacred text are the allu-
sions to hills and mountains that a very scanty
selection from them must here suffice. Those
mentioned by name have in many cases, and as
regards our own associations, a distinct perso-
nality almost amounting to individual character.
The solidity of Ararat underlying the Ark
suggested hope to the bereaved human family,
many weeks before the tops of the mountains
were discernible by their eyes [Ggu. viii. 4, 5) —
Mount Moriah beheld the obedience of faithful
MOUNTAINS AND HILLS. 93
Abraham (xxii. :j, 9, 10), the acceptance of
penitent David (i Chron. xxi. %6\ and the ex-
ceeding magnifical structure of the first Temple
(2 Chron. iii. i). — Mount Seir blessed as the
inheritance of Esau with merely a secondary
blessing (Gen. xxvii. 39), and at length falling
under the awful denunciation, " When the whole
earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate " (Ezek.
XXXV. 14), is nevertheless mentioned by Moses
(Deut. xxxiii. 2) and by Deborah (Judges v. 4) in
close connexion with the Divine Presence. — At
Mount Horeb Moses was ordained " a ruler and
a deliverer" (Ex. iii. i, 10; Acts vii. 2,5)'- from
the smitten Rock in Horeb water welled forth
for thirsty Israel (Ex. xvii. 6) : to " Horeb the
Mount of God" Elijah journeyed in his de-
spondency, and there girt up his loins afresh to
run the race set before him and finish his course
with joy (i Kings xix. 8-19). — On "the top of
the hill" the uplifted hands of Moses prevailed
against the host of Amalek (Ex. xvii. 9-13).
— From Mount Sinai the law was given (xix.
i8-ao ; XX. I, &c.). — The grave, that only landed
inheritance which fell to the lot of Levi (see
Numb, xviii. 20-24 ; Josh. xiii. 14, '^'^)^ the grave
of Aaron was on Mount Hor (Numb. xx. 25 —
94 SEEK AND FIND.
28). — Balaam, veritable Prophet though rebellious
sinner, came forth " from Aram, out of the moun-
tains of the east" (xxiii. 7). — Moses, who had
implored a sight of " that goodly mountain, and
Lebanon" (Deut. iii. 35), was permitted from the
top of Pisgah to gaze upon the Promised Land
(xxxiv. 1-4). — In the days of Joshua Mount
Gerizim and Mount Ebal bore witness to the
blessedness of obedience and the curse on
disobedience (xi. 26-29; xxvii. 11-26; Josh,
viii. 30-35). — Mount Ephraim stands connected
with the palm-tree of Deborah (Judges iv. 5),
and with a consolatory promise to the restored
captivity (Jer. 1. 19). — From Mount Tabor de-
struction swooped down upon Sisera and the
host of Jabin (Judges iv. 14-16). — Jephthah's
most noble daughter poured forth her lamenta-
tion on mountain heights lofty and pure like
herself (xi. o^"]^ 38). — In Mount Gilboa Saul
reaped as he had sown (i Sam. xxxi. 6-10) : yet
would David's charity have covered there the
multitude of his sins (2 Sam. i. 21). — Cast down
but not destroyed, David wept and prayed ac-
ceptably as he climbed Mount Olivet: Shimei
cursing along the hill's side obtained indeed a
curse, but one that lighted upon his own head
MOUNTAINS AND HILLS. 95
(xv. 30, 31 ; xvi. 13 ; i Kings ii. 44, 46}.—
Rizpah on her rock showed forth love strong
as death (2 Sam. xxi. 8-10). Mount Carmel
witnessed the overthrow of Baal worship (i Kings
xviii. 17-40). — Hermon and Mount Gilead re-
joice in fatness (Ps. cxxxiii. 3 ; Song of Solomon
iv. i): fruitful Lebanon stands crowned with
dignity and beauty [2, Kings xix. 33 ; Jer. xxii. 6 ;
Hos. xiv. 5-7): yet Zion shines with a more
glorious grace (Ps. Ixxxvii. 3 ; cxxxii. 13).
Now since vain it is and worse than vain to
seek beauty in the Bible, apart from sanctification,
let us wind up with one more text, but that a
practical one; and if by God's grace we form
ourselves upon its pattern, then shall we be
delivered from the extreme terrors of that day
when the clefts of the rocks and the tops of the
ragged rocks shall afford no shelter (Isa. ii. 20,
ai).
" Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ?
or who shall stand in His holy place ? He that
hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath
not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn
deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from
the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his
salvation (Ps. xxiv. ^-$).
g6 SEEK AND FIND.
GREEN THINGS.
" He spake of trees^ from the cedar tree that is in
Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the
waliy I Kings iv. 33.
This master-student was King Solomon the
Wise. But it needs no Solomon to enter into
the inexhaustible cheerfulness of " all green
things," an expression which we may fairly inter-
pret as including the whoJe vegetable creation ; a
little child can delight in a flower, a speechless
baby can notice one. Fancy what this world
would be were it prevalently clay-coloured or
slate-coloured ! Fancy what it would become if
it went on supplying all that is necessary, but not
our necessaries in their actual familiar garb of
beauty! Suppose we no longer had cornfields
and orchards, but a magazine of " constituents,"
gluten, starch, saccharine matter, what not: no
longer leafy branches for shade and leafless
branches for fuel, but fogs and clouds for the one,
and combustible gases for the other! While as
the case stands our study of " all green things "
I
GREEN THINGS. 97
may fitly become a study of beauty and pleasure,
an exercise of thankfulness.
Spring and autumn are distinctively the sea-
sons of foliage. True, foliage superabounds in
summer: yet spring is its birthday, when the
cramped and torpid world wakes and expands to
renewed delight ; in autumn it falls and vanishes
in a marvellous glory of tints which for a moment
take the place of perished flowers. Thus spring
and autumn are, as it were, the sunrise and
sunset of foliage; summer is its comparatively
monotonous noon ; winter its night, soberly be-
studded with evergreens.
The first vegetable production mentioned in
the Bible is grass : " God said. Let the earth bring
forth grass" (Gen. i. ii): and once more thou-
sands of years afterwards we find it particularised
as His gift in answer to prayer, " Ask ye of the
Lord rain in the time of the latter rain ; so the
Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them
showers of rain, to every one grass in the field "
(Zech. X. i). Between these two texts it is many
times alluded to ; often as emblematic of the
vanity of man's brief life, or of his liability to
destruction (Numb. xxii. 4 ; 2 Kings xix. 26 ; Ps.
xc. 5, 6 ; cxxix. 6, 7 ; Isa. xl. 6, 7 ; li. 13), some-
H
98 SEEK AND FIND.
times as representing a flourishing human fertility
indicative of spiritual vitality (Job v. 25 ; Ps. Ixxii.
16; Isa. xliv. 3, 4).
" Every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and
good for food " (Gen. ii. 9), grew in the Garden
of Eden : but one only of those still accessible to
us is named, and this one, the fig tree, connects
itself not with man's innocence, but with his
fall (iii. 7). Subsequently however the same
tree appears and reappears associated with plenty
(Numb. xiii. 23), sweetness (Judges ix. 10, 11),
security (i Kings iv. 25), hospitality (i Chron.
xii. 40), reward (Prov. xxvii. 18), revival (Song
of Sol. ii. 13), healing (Isa. xxxviii. 21); more
frequently than with destruction or discriminative
judgment (Isa. xxxiv. 4; Jer. xxiv ; Hos. ii. 12;
Nah. iii. 12).
We may doubt whether " thorns and thistles "
grew at all within the precincts of Eden : at any
rate they characterise the outer world of the
curse (Gen. iii. 17, 18), and congruous with this
circumstance are the after mentions of them
(as Judges ix. 14, 15 ; Job xxxi. 40 ; Song of
Sol. ii. 2; Isa. Iv. 13; Jer. xii. 13; Hos. x. 8).
Yet Hosea shows us that our heavenly Father
most willingly turns our curse into a blessing,
GREEN THINGS. 99
making of thorns not our scourge but our safe-
guard (Hos. ii. 6, 7): or if our scourge still much
more our safeguard, as in a figure was specially
the case with St. Paul (2 Cor. xii. 7).
The olive tree, which the ancient and modern
world have agreed in adopting as an emblem of
peace, appears first in the Sacred Text in the shape
of a leaf plucked off and borne by a dove in token
of peace renewed (Gen. viii. 11): thus uniting an
eminent symbol of God the Holy Ghost (St. Luke
iii. 3^), that Divine Spirit Whose fruit is " love,
joy, peace" (Gal. v. 2,2), with a figure of the
blessed peace which is His gift.
Noah's vineyard (Gen. ix. 2,6) and next in
succession Abraham's grove (xxi. ^^), are the
earliest Scriptural examples of trees planted by
men. Not (as we may devoutly believe) by man,
but by God Himself was that " thicket" planted
which caught and held fast the vicarious ram of
Abraham's accepted sacrifice (xxii. 13).
Isaac dwelling in Gerar sowed, and that same
year by the Divine blessing reaped a hundredfold
(xxvi. 6, 12). Sooner or later it may be, yet
always surely, all God's faithful children will
celebrate their harvest home: " He that goeth
forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall
H 2,
lOO SEEK AND FIND.
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his
sheaves with him " (Ps. cxxvi. 6) : but those only
will be accounted faithful who have themselves
been as good ground responding to the good seed,
and bringing forth in due season a hundredfold,
or sixtyfold, or thirtyfold (St. Matt. xiii. 23).
" Plenty of corn and wine " formed merely a
portion of that birthright-blessing (Gen xxvii.
27-29) which Esau, little realising what he
did, bartered for a few lentiles (xxv. 29-34).
Lentiles reappear to refresh David and his fol-
lowers after their flight from Absalom (2 Sam.
xvii. 27-39), to witness the heroism of Shammah
(xxiii. II, 12), and to supply one ingredient
to the famine-ration of Ezekiel (Ezek. iv. 9) :
remaining thus permanently associated with
urgent want or mortal risk.
A humble beloved Deborah had her " oak
of weeping" (Gen. xxxv. 8, margin), a nobler
Deborah her palm-tree of shelter (Judges iv. 5).
The oak of Jabesh (i Chron. x. 12), and of
Absalom (2 Sam. xviii. 9-15) alike recall death:
whilst the living righteous on earth assimilate
(Ps. xcii. 12), and in heaven have to do (Rev.
vii. 9), with palms. If we compare the oaks of
Holy Scripture with the palm trees, I think the
GREEN THINGS. lOI
former seem on the whole rather of the earth
earthy, the latter heavenly: yet precisely hence
may we draw a lesson against pressing symbolism
and our own guesses too far, for Jericho the
accursed (Josh. vi. i, 17, 26) was ,the City of
Palm Trees (Deut. xxxiv. 3). ., .• : '"i i ',• ,
To pursue our subject throu;5hout the; Sacred
Canon would demand not one section; "biit a
volume: a few more points must suffice us. I
think the fragility of flowers is dwelt upon more
conspicuously than their loveliness (Ps. ciii. 15,
16 ; Isa. xxviii. i). The fading habit of a leaf is
often adverted to (Isa. Ixiv. 6 ; Jer. viii. 13), and
that even when unfading prosperity is promised
(Ps. i. 3 ; Isa. vi. 13). The joyful aspect of vegeta-
tion pervades the Song of Songs : while a tree's
pathetic tenacity of life deepens the sadness of
man's mortality (Job xiv. 1-12).
Various plants or portions of plants assume
an important part in the Sacred History. Such
are the burning bush at Horeb (Ex. iii. 2), the
tree of Marah (xv. 23-25), the grapes of Eshcol
(Numb. xiii. 23), the quickened almond rod of
Aaron (xvii. 8), the pole of the brazen serpent
(xxi. 8, 9), the flax stalks of Rahab (Josh. ii. 6),
the oracular mulberry trees (2 Sam. v. 22-25),
IO!J SEEK AND FIND.
king David's house of cedar (vii. 2), and much
more the cedar of Solomon's Temple (i Kings v.
5-10), the queen's spices, being a sort of first-
fruits brought from Gentile Sheba (x. i, 2, 10),
the meal and oil of the widow at Zarephath
(xvii. I2r-,i6), the drenched wood of Elijah's
sacrifice (xviii. ^^, 34), the pulse of Daniel and
his felloes (Dan. i. 11-16), and the gourd of
Jonah (Jonah iv. 6— 11).
This last, the gourd, turns our eyes inward
upon our own selves, our own brief life, our own
inevitable death. The gourd born in a night
perished in a night, and became as though it had
never been. Even so, and yet not so, we : born
and cut off in time, we must none the less fulfil
our eternity; once loaded with the responsibility
of life we can never shift it off, never repudiate
our identity, never force our way back into the
nothingness whence we emerged. This present
temporal stage of our existence is a stage of
possibilities, alternatives, hope, fear: that word
" never " belongs to our next eternal stage, and
ringing the knell of fear rings impartially the
knell of hope likewise. Flesh and blood shrink
from a final irreversible " never." Christ carry
us scatheless through that last day when the tree
WELLS. 103
must lie as it has fallen (Eccles. xi. 3), and all
souls shall be weighed in just balances.
'' Thus saith the Lord ; Cursed be the man that
trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and
whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he
shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not
see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the
parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land
and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that
trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord
is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the
waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the
river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but
her leaf shall be green ; and shall not be careful
in the year of drought, neither shall cease from
yielding fruit " (Jer. xvii. 5-8).
WELLS.
^^ Blessed is the man whose strength is in Theej in
whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through
the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the
pools. They go from strength to strength^ every one of
them in Zion appeareth before God." Ps. Ixxxiv. 5-7.
In the foregoing passage particular words may
appear obscure, but as to the drift of the whole
I04 SEEK AND FIND.
we are not left in any doubt: we behold the
Jewish pilgrim on his road to the Tabernacle, that
Tabernacle where sparrows and swallows found a
cheerful home; how much rather he, a son well
beloved. He might or might not be one who
had already seen the Divine sanctuary with his
actual eyes ; but to the eyes of his heart it could
not but be familiar, to his heart of hearts an
object of longing desire, of craving love : " My
soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of
the Lord." To such an one so love-possessed
and love-absorbed, the Vale of Baca, whether a
vale of " mulberry trees " or of " misery" (compare
margin of Authorised Version with Prayer Book
translation) would be a convenient road ; for the
water of its well would suffice for his wants,
and it would lead him straight home. What
more could he require, or what more would it
be worth his while to desire? (Ps. Ixxxiv.)
At one period of time such as these were the
simple facts in the history of thousands of devout
Jews. To all time and to all Christendom they
remain as a parable. Each Christian is now that
pilgrim : this world is his Vale of Baca, to one
man a place mainly of sweet fruits, and to another
more markedly a stony tract of suffering ; to both
WELLS. 105
alike the king's highway leading straight home to
heaven, and furnished with at the least a suffici-
ency of necessaries — " bread shall be given him ;
his waters shall be sure" (Is. xxxiii. 16). He
starts from a well, the blessed water of Baptism :
refreshment as of water goes along with him, the
copious dews and showers of grace: his own
tears for sorrow and (alas !) for sin help to fill the
pools: Christ the spiritual rock follows him, of
Whom he drinks (i Cor. x. 4), and while drinking
he yet is thirsty : sometimes the loving Lord
leads him beside still waters (Ps. xxiii. 2: "waters
of comfort " in Prayer Book translation), some-
times through deep waters which yet cannot
drown him (Isa. xliii. 2) ; yea, he rejoices amid
their roar and swelling, for he is a citizen of that
city which shall not be moved (Ps. xlvi. 1-5).
And thus he goes home.
Without adverting to spiritual analogies, a
mere natural well has about it something re-
ligious if we make it a " memoria technica" re-
calling to our minds many a merciful providence
of olden times. How God cared for Hagar and
Ishmael ready to perish (Gen. xxi. 19), — answered
the prayer of faithful Eliezer (xxiv. 10-27), —
cheered the children of Israel in their Exodus
I06 SEEK AND FIND.
(Ex. XV. !27), — provided water for His people
(Numb. xxi. 16-18), — baffled the schemes of
Absalom (2 Sam. xvii. 17-20), — accepted the
libation of David (xxiii. 15—17). We may go
a step further, and thanking Him may take
courage in extremity (because of Hagar), resort
to Him in perplexity (Eliezer), trust Him in
enterprise (Elim), sing to Him in prosperity
(Beer), look to Him in danger (the trusty mes-
sengers), offer our desire to Him in temptation
(the water of Bethlehem). He was an apt scholar
in the school of Christ who has left us this say-
ing : " There is no creature so small but it may
represent to thee the love of God."
" Understanding is a wellspring of life unto
him that hath it" (Pro v. xvi. 22).
SEAS AND FLOODS.
" When that which is perfect is come^ then that which is
in part shall be done away" 1 COR. xiii. 10.
These words in which St. Paul treats of
partial knowledge, incomplete revelation, imper-
fect sight- childhood (i Cor. xiii. 9-12), though
each of those is good and not evil in its allotted
sphere and during its assigned period,— seem in
SEAS AND FLOODS. IO7
some sort applicable to the sea also, according to
St. John's vision of the final consummation of
all things : " I saw a new heaven and a new
earth : for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away ; and there was no more sea (Rev.
xxi. i). Equally, the sun and moon appear then
to be, if not obliterated, at the least superseded :
" The city had no need of the sun, neither of the
moon, to shine in it : for the glory of God did
lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof ■'^
{v. 23).
At first reading " there was no more sea," our
heart sinks at foresight of the familiar sea ex-
punged from earth and heaven ; that sea to us so
long and so inexhaustibly a field of wonder and
delight. " Was Thy wrath against the sea . . . ?
The overflowing of the water passed by : the deep
uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high"
(Hab. iii. 8, 10).
Whatever mystery may attach to this subject,
various plain points are, I think, open to our
j consideration. The Inspired Volume seems
written rather for our instruction as regards
ourselves, and consequently as regards the visible
: creation in reference to ourselves, than from
I a more general purpose of enlarging our know-
To8 SEEK AND FIND.
1 ledge touching matters wholly extraneous; and
many a subject too wide or too deep for our
grasp may yet teach us an unmistakable lesson.
" No more sea ■" does not exclude from the
presence of the Throne " a sea of glass like unto
crystal " (Rev. iv. 6) ; or, be it the same sea or
not, " as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire "
whereon the victorious redeemed take their stand
(xv. 2). Thus we shall not lose the translucent
purity of ocean, nor yet a glory as of its myriad
waves tipped by sunshine ; no, nor even the
volume of its voice, when all God's servants up-
lift their praises " as the voice of many waters "
(xix. 5, 6). What shall we lose ? Not our friends,
for the sea shall give up its dead (xx. 13), when
earth also shall no more hide her blood or cover
her slain (Is. xxvi. 21). What shall we lose?
A barrier of separation : for the exultant children
of the resurrection find firm footing and stand
together upon their heavenly sea, — bitterness and
barrenness : for the pure River of Water of Life
flows between banks crowned with fertility, and
even now its refreshment is for whoso thirsteth
and whosoever will drink (Rev. xxii. i, 1, 17).
Troubled restless waters we shall lose with all
their defilement (Is. Ivii. 20), and with waves that
SEAS AND FLOODS. IO9
toss and break themselvess against a boundary
they cannot overpass (Jer. v. 22), and with the
moan of a still-recurrent ebb, " The sea is not
full '^ (Eccles. i. 7). We feel at once that the sea
as we know it, a very embodiment of unrest, of
spurning at limits, of advance only to recede, that
such a sea teaches us nothing concerning that rest
which remaineth to the people of God (Heb.
iv. 9) ; who having pressed toward the mark and
obtained the prize (Phil. iii. 14) enjoy their final
felicity in a heaven which can be no heaven at all
except to persons whose wills and whose affec-
tions are at one with the will and love of God.
" There was war in heaven " (Rev. xii. 7) would
be repeated to all eternity, could we conceive it
otherwise.
Floods, whether defined as rain-born or snow-
born torrents, noisy and destructive in their day
but dwindling to nothing as time goes on, or as
any river or other body of running water especi-
ally in its moments of turbulence or of overflow
(as we read how " Jordan overfloweth all his
banks all the time of harvest," Josh. iii. 15: see
also the imagery of Is. viii. 6, 8 ; Jer. xlvi. 7, 8 ;
xlvii. ij), in either case some of the associations
which invest the sea attach equally to floods.
no SEEK AND FIND.
" He bindeth the floods from overflowing ; and
the thing that is hid bringeth He forth to light.
Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea ? or
hast thou walked in the search of the depth?"
(Job xxviii. ii ; xxxviii. i6).
WHALES AND ALL THAT MOVE
IN THE WATERS.
^^Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee j and the
fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee : or speak to the
earth J and it shall teach thee : and the fishes of the sea
shall declare unto thee" Job xii. 7, 8.
We may, even without travelling inland or
skywards, meet with specimens of all these our
instructors (the earth, of course, only excepted) on
the surface or under the surface of the waters.
For, to instance merely a few readily remembered
animals, icy seas abound in " sea monsters " that
" draw out the breast " (Lam. iv. 3), whales, wal-
ruses, seals ; aquatic birds, such as swans and gulls,
are at the least as truly at home on or immedi-
ately above the water, as in the higher regions of
air or on land ; fishes, even so-called flying fishes
and those exceptional individuals which we are
ALL THAT MOVE IN THE WATERS. Ill
certified traverse fields and mount trees, have still
their head-quarters in the liquid element ; while
a myriad of inferior animated creatures wriggle
in wet mud, burrow in wet sand, or take up their
station between high and low water-mark. I
think however we may hold it as true for the most
part that such breathing beings as inhabit two or
even three elements show at their best rather in
the water than on the land : seals, for instance,
are awkward on land, at ease in the water ; so in
a degree are swans, ducks, geese ; but when from
earth we turn to air we notice that seagulls, if
not all the aquatic fowl, are magnificent flyers as
well as good swimmers. As to a crocodile, I will
not pretend to decide in which habitat he shows
to most advantage.
What then is the lesson which these creatures
of many aspects and many grades are to teach us?
Perhaps a study of that whole twelfth chapter of
Job from which my initial-text is taken may lead
us to answer not incorrectly: they protest that
God Almighty is, in the ultimate tracking back-
wards and upwards of all secondary causes, the
One only Maker and Doer. When once we
recognise this truth, not as a prison wall to be
kicked against, but as an immovable foundation to
112 SEEK AND FIND.
be built upon, foes may continue to harass us from
without, but the battle of life within is already
half won, the rebel within being subdued, and the
traitor within silenced ; for not that which cometh
from without defileth a man, but that which pro-
ceedeth from within. (See St. Mark vii. 14-23.)
The Old Testament has its one prominent his-
toric fish, the "great fish" of Jonah (i. 17 ; ii. 10;
St. Matt. xii. 40). In those Books which our
Church, adhering exclusively to the Hebrew Canon,
segregates under the designation of Apocrypha,
there appears a second noteworthy fish, and this
like the former overruled to effect purposes of
mercy, the medicinal fish of Tobias (Tobit vi.
1-8, 16, 17; viii. 1-3; xi. 7-13). We read that
the fish of the Nile perished in the first plague of
Egypt (Ex. vii. 19-21). How popular amongst
the Jews were fish as food we may infer from
certain murmurs of emancipated Israel in the
wilderness, and perhaps from a consequent speech
of Moses (Num. xi. 4, 5, 22 : see also Song of
Solomon vii. 4) : long afterwards we notice fish
among the goods brought on the Sabbath Day to
the Jerusalem market by men of Tyre, and
prohibited by Nehemiah (xiii. 16-21). The Nile
and some if not all of its live tenants having
ALL THAT MOVE IN THE WATERS. II3
been idolised in Egypt, we discern a special ap-
propriateness in that clause of the Second Com-
mandment which forbids to the chosen nation all
images of aquatic creatures (Ex. xx. 4 ; Deut. iv.
15-18) : nor did Israel at the Exodus leave behind
all temptation to fish- worship ; in the Holy Land
they encountered it once more on their own
borders, the Philistine idol Dagon, on which in
the days of the Judges a summary divine ven-
geance fell, bearing the semblance of a fish-man
(i Sam. V. 1-4).
Fishes proper are, I think, as a class and to
human instinct among the least sympathetic of
living creatures. Their surface is comparatively
cold and hard ; their eye corresponds. Which of
us, even supposing such a chance to occur, — which
of us would feel drawn to fondle a scaly slippery
person ? Beholding fishes so cold, so clean, so
compact, one might fancy them destitute not of
souls only but of hearts also. Yet have they an
abundance of good gifts whereby to honour God
and cheer man. Gold or silver or a humming-
bird does not surpass the vivid lustre and delicacy
of their changeable tints ; their motions are re-
plete with strength and grace ; their swiftness
is a sort of beauty ; their outlines present unnum-
I
114 SEEK AND FIND.
bered curves and angles of harmony or quaintness;
their bulks varying between the vast and the
minute are all alike fashioned according to indi-
vidual capabilities and requirements. If, descend-
ing below fishes, we contemplate certain minor
marine organisms, the opulence of beauty and
defect of sympathy strikes us anew. Sea anemones
are perfect sensitive-flowers to the eye, but clammy
and uncomfortable to the touch: shells may on
the surface rival roseleaves and rainbows, but
many times they ensconce only an uncomely
tenant without features, without intelligible ex-
pression. If on the contrary we make fish our
starting-point along the upward instead of the
downward scale, immediately much becomes dif-
ferent : and among the sea mammals we recognise
an ugliness more beautiful than insipid beauty ;
clumsy contours ennobled by an expression which
seeming to proceed straight from their hearts cer-
tainly comes straight to ours.
Little do we know of the scope or the future of
our brute fellow- creatures : nay, what do we know
so as to fathom it even of their actual present ?
Familiarity with what they are and what they do
proves to us that they exert memory, intelligence,
affection : but we do not ourselves possess facul-
ALL THAT MOVE IN THE WATERS. II5
ties whereby to define the limits of all they are
and all they are not. One thing however is
absolutely clear: they are entrusted to man's
sovereignty for use, not for abuse. If land may
cry out and furrows complain against a tyrannical
owner (Job xxxi. 38, 39), if the Holy Land emptied
of inhabitants enjoyed a compensation for those
Sabbaths whereof lawlessness had deprived her
(Lev. xxvi. 34, ^^ ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 20, 21), much
more may not life wantonly destroyed and nerves
without pity agonised enter a prevalent appeal
against men who do such things or take pleasure
in them? (See Rom. i. 28-32: "inventors of
evil things, . . . unmerciful.") God weighed the
claims of the " much cattle " of Nineveh, as well
as of the human infants (Jonah iv. xi.) : if we
honestly weigh the claims of all our sentient
fellow-creatures, I think we shall forbear to adopt
some pretty fashions in dress, and to follow up
some scientific problems. Ours is indeed the law
of liberty, nevertheless a law it is and we shall
be judged thereby (St. James ii. 12) : it is at our
own peril that we make it an occasion to the flesh
(Gal. V. 13), or a cloak of maliciousness (i St. Pet.
ii. 16). At first sight actions may appear tran-
sient, done and done with; but accumulating
I 2
Il6 SEEK AND FIND.
experience bears a contrary witness. We have
seen that a fiery destruction perpetuated instead
of obliterating many details of Pompeian social
life ; and we are now assured that sounds can
not only be registered, but also stored up and
reproduced. Alas for us, if when the fashion of
this world passes away (i Cor. vii. ^i) and partial
knowledge is done away (xiii. 9, 10), the groans
of a harmless race sacrificed to our vanity or our
curiosity should rise up in the judgment with us
and condemn us.
" O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast "
(Ps. xxxvi. 6).
FOWLS OF THE AIR.
" Ok that I had wings like a dove /" Ps. Iv. 6.
Happy was King David in this his aspiration,
more happy it may be than he at the moment
realised, for dove's wings are the very wings
accessible to faithful souls, and this in a higher
sense than he seems here to have contemplated
where he longs for the wicked to cease from
troubling him and where being weary he longs for
rest (Ps. Iv. 1-8). Not in his day had the Holy
Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove
FOWLS OF THE AIR. II7
and lighted upon the Divine Head of our race
(St. Luke iii. 22) ; nor indeed were the special
privileges of Christians open even to David, the
man after God's own heart (i Sam. xiii. 14),
Now all things are ours, if we are Christ's (i Cor.
iii. 31-23). We who in Holy Baptism have been
made temples of the Holy Ghost (St. John i. ^^ ;
I Cor. vi. 19) need not fall short of one dove-like
grace. Our souls on wings of prayer and praise
may soar into heaven and converse with our
ascended Lord (Phil. iii. 20), the eyes of our heart
may become meek and modest (Song of Sol. iv.
i), the voice of our inmost spirit pouring forth
supplication may be all desire and purity, mourning,
tenderness, and trust (Song of Sol. ii. 14 ; Ezek.
vii. 16). If our treasure be in heaven, there will
our heart be also (St. Matt. vi. 21): and the
whole Communion of Saints Militant, upborne
on wings of the Spirit, do in will truly fly home
thither as doves to their windows (see Is. Ix. 8).
Not one dove-like saint^ not the feeblest, need
despond as to reaching his journey's end : the
flood which had drowned a world proved impotent
to cut off one literal dove from a window of
refuge or an olive leaf of encouragement (Gen.
viii. 8-1 1 ).
Il8 SEEK AND FIND.
Earth has its winged population, and heaven
likewise (Is. vi. o, ; Ezek. i. 5, 6; see Dan. ix. %\).
*' The wings of the wind " (Ps. civ. 3), " the wings
of the morning " (cxxxix. 9) alluding possibly to
fresh breezes upspringing at dawn, are phrases
full of noble beauty. " They that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount
up with wings as eagles" (Is. xl. 31) is a promise
within reach of us all. Solomon has instructed
us both in earthly prudence and in heavenly
wisdom by help of wings (Prov. xxiii. 5 ; Eccles.
X. 30). Wings are even employed in Sacred Writ
to convey to our apprehension instances of Divine
perfection and condescension (Ex. xix. 4 ; Deut.
xxxii. II, i^; Ruth ii. 12; Ps. xvii. 8). Above
all these last texts, but in varying degrees this
whole body of texts and facts taken together
might, I think, predispose us to imagine that in
the kingdom of irrational animated nature, birds,
not beasts, would occupy the higher place ; birds,
as winged, corresponding with angels ; beasts, as
wingless, with men : yet we find the direct con-
trary to be the case. Perhaps without presump-
tion we may in this discern a homage to the Son
of God's veritable humanity, a sort of parable of
two most blessed texts : " He took not on Him
FOWLS OF THE AIR. II9
the nature of angels; but He took on Him
the seed of Abraham" (Heb. ii. 16): "Christ
Jesus: Who . . . was made in the likeness of
men " (Phil. ii. 5, 7).
Bible birds, like angels, appear to be divided
into agents sometimes of God's mercy, sometimes
of His wrath ; at other times they even seem to
represent emissaries of evil. Thus there are
the raven and dove of Noah (Gen. viii. 6-12):
the turtle-dove and young pigeon, with the mo-
lesting fowls, of Abram^s sacrifice (xv. 9-1 1) : the
birds of the chief bakers dream, and of its fulfil-
ment (xl. 16-22): the unblessed quails (Num. xi.
31-33) : the birds of prey baffled by Rizpah's
maternal love (2 Sam. xxi. 10) : the ravens com-
missioned to feed Elijah (i Kings xvii. 2-6).
Long before the mission of Moses we find the
distinction between clean and unclean birds
known to, and observed by, Noah (Gen. viii. 20).
By the Levitical Law some fowls were appointed
for sacrifice (Lev. i. 14-17; v. 7-10; xii. 6-8),
while others, as unclean, were prohibited even for
food (xi. 13-19,46, 47 ; Deut. xiv. 11-20 contains
an almost identical list). Birds were appro-
priated to the ceremonial cleansing of lepers
(Lev. xiv. 4-31), and of leprous houses (vv. 49-53),
120 SEEK AND FIND.
as well as to other purifications, as in the case of
a Nazarite's involuntary defilement (Num. vi.
9-11). The blood of fowls, as of beasts, is strin-
gently forbidden for human aliment (Lev. xvii.
13, 14). The Divine injunction, with its de-
pendent promise, touching a sitting mother-bird
(Deut. xxii. 6, 7) is framed so strikingly on the
model of " the first commandment with promise "
(Ex. XX. i2>i Eph. vi. 2, 3), that while it quickens
our perception of the honour due in all cases to
the parental character, it surely also authorises
and invites, sanctifies and blesses human tender-
ness towards the dumb creation. Portions of
the book of Job, of the Psalms, of the Song of
Songs, of the Prophets, with indeed many other
parts of the Bible, ought to be studied before we
can hope to grasp our subject in its breadth and
length : any attempt to exhaust it here being pre-
cluded by copiousness of text.
" Whence then cometh wisdom ? and where
is the place of understanding ? Seeing it is hid
from the eyes of all living, and kept close from
the fowls of the air. God understandeth the way
thereof, and He knoweth the place thereof. . . .
God my Maker, Who giveth songs in the night ;
Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth.
BEASTS AND CATTLE. 131
and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven
(Job xxviii. 20-23; xxxv. 10, 11).
BEASTS AND CATTLE.
" Behold now behemoth^ which I made with theeP
Job xl. 15.
Whichever animal behemoth may be (for dif-
ferent theories have been propounded as to his
identity) one thing, if I mistake not, is clearly
conveyed to us by that vivid figure of speech, " he
drinketh up a river, and hasteth not " ; and that
thing is the power, competence, ease, of his exist-
ence: he meets and provides for his necessities
without strain of effort ; he is even serenely con-
scious of inherent resource adequate to the supply
of all his contingent wants, and " trusteth that he
can draw up Jordan into his mouth."
Let us take behemoth, made with us and
"chief of the ways of God," as head and type
of the whole brute family : and, in the entire
passage which describes his endowments and
habits (Job xl. 15-24), there can, I think, be
traced that instinctive and faultless mastery of
all that irrational creatures can be called upon
122 SEEK AND FIND.
either to be or to do, which contrasts obviously
and utterly with the birthright of fallen man ;
who has to undo and do, unmake, make, and
become, in the very teeth (so to say) of flesh and
blood and human possibility. Not so, doubtless,
with Adam in his primeval righteousness; but
with each one of us his children, and most of all
now under the Gospel Dispensation, thus it is :
"The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent take it by force" (St. Matt.
xi. 12). To resist unto blood, striving against
sin, seems mentioned in the Epistle to the
Hebrews (xii. 4), as no portent, but as the matter
of course lot of many a Christian. To endure
unto the end is simply the qualification for salva-
tion (St. Matt. xxiv. 13). To overcome must
precede enthronement (Rev. iii. 21). The in-
numerable white-robed palm-bearing multitude
whom St. John beheld in vision " came out of
great tribulation (vii. 9, 14). Reason and free
will, those exalted gifts, may and must be a ladder
leading from earth either heavenwards or hell-
wards; a ladder inaccessible to the beasts that
perish (Ps. xlix. 20 ; Eccles. iii. 21), but inevit-
able by man ; at the outset of life man's foot is
planted midway upon that ladder ; and up or
BEASTS AND CATTLE. 1 23
down it he must go, for here we have no abiding
place (i Chron. xxix. 15). How imminent our
danger, how vast our alternatives, how critical,
how momentous our position, words cannot
exaggerate for they cannot even express : in-
voluntarily we are standing in a poised balance,
involuntarily we are made like a wheel (see Ps.
Ixxxiii. 13), never continuing in one stay.
It shames us to observe how very much nearer
the whole tribe of irresponsible beasts comes to
the Apostolic summary of King David's career,
who served his own generation by the Will of
God and fell on sleep (Acts xiii. ^6), than do a
multitude of our responsible selves. We shall do
wisely to study Agur's portrait of ants and conies,
locusts and a spider (Prov. xxx. 24-28) : and when
we have reformed our conduct by theirs, — though
truly we may find it a lifelong business to acquire
the prudence, industry, and temperance of ants ;
the harmonious unity of locusts ; the self-help
and self-elevation of spiders ; not to speak of the
provident master-building of conies (compare St.
Matt. vii. 24, 25), — when by these we have re-
modelled our doings, then we who as Christians
are a nation of kings and priests (i Pet. 2-9 ;
Rev. i. 6), may go on to add grace and dignity to
124 SEEK AND FIND.
our demeanour by considering lion, greyhound,
and he-goat (Prov. xxx. 29-31).
Beasts and cattle correspond with our wild and
domesticated animals. The duty of kindliness
towards either class is enjoined in Holy Scripture
not only by merciful enactments in the Mosaic
Law (Ex. XX. 10 ; Deut. xxv. 4), and by Solomon
in his surpassing wisdom (Prov. xii. 10), but
most persuasively of all by examples of Divine
Providence such as we gather from the Books of
Job (xxxviii. 39-41; xxxix), and of Psalms (Ixxxiv.
3 ; civ. 10-31 ; cxlvii. 9). Before the seventh
plague " destroyed " Egypt a warning was vouch-
safed which ensured the safety of cattle as well as
of men (Ex. ix. 19; x. 7). The Prophet Joel (i.
18-20; ii. 21-22) noticing the poor beasts in
their misery, encourages them by a promise of
plenty.
Of the many animals which play their part in
the Old Testament history some few at least must
not here be overlooked. The ram caught in a
thicket by his horns, in connexion with which
occurs the first mention of a lamb (Gen. xxii.
7, 8, 13). The camels which knelt while Eliezer
prayed (xxiv. it, 12). Balaam's ass (Num. xxii.
21-^^)' The young lion roaring against Samson
BEASTS AND CATTLE. 125
(Judges xiv. 5, 6). The milch kine that drew the
Ark and lowed as they went (i Sam. vi. 7-12).
The lion and bear of David's first memorable
victory (xvii. 34-37) The oxen of Perez-uzzah
(2 Sam. vi. 6). Absalom's mule (xviii. 9). The
lion which slew the disobedient Prophet, but
spared the ass (i Kings xiii. 23-29). The dogs
executing judgment upon Ahab (xxii. 38), and
upon Jezebel (2 Kings ix. ^^, ^6). The two she
bears that avenged Elisha's insulted sanctity
(ii. 23, 24). The lions devastating Samaria
(xvii. 24, 25.) The horse of Mordecai's opening
triumph (Esth. vi. 7-1 1). Job's riches first and
last (Job i. 3; xlii. 12). The lions powerless
against Daniel but mighty against his accusers
(Dan. vi. 19-24). The fasting beasts in the
great national repentance of Nineveh (Jonah
iii. 7-8).
Every one of these creatures has a lesson for us,
and divers of them set us an example. But vain
it is and worse than vain to con a lesson yet not
learn it, to relish an example yet not follow it.
Now this is a danger to which students of the
Bible are eminently exposed. The Word of God
is so full of charm, so deep, so wide, so inex-
haustibly suggestive, that for the mere delight's
I
12,6 SEEK AND FIND.
(sake one may imbue oneself with its letter and
sharpen ingenuity to display subtilty in its appli-
cation, without a vestige of love in the heart
or of grace in the soul. A thing ever so good
knd in itself permanently good may be wrested by
men to their own ruin : the sun ceased not to
shine, or the moon to walk on in her appointed
brightness, despite the incense of their votaries
(Job xxxi. 2,6-2,8 ; z Kings xxiii. 5) ; St. Paul, a
very emporium of superhuman gifts, and speaking
with tongues more than the whole Corinthian
Church (i Cor. xiv. t8), yet avowed the necessity
of standing ever on his guard lest having preached
to others he himself should be a castaway (ix. 37).
If we be Bible students we must not deem
ourselves too safe to need watchful prayer against
the temper of Ezekiel's hearers : " Lo, thou art
unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath
a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instru-
ment : for they hear thy words, but they do them
not " (Ezek. xxxiii. 32).
CHILDREN OF MEN. 127
CHILDREN OF MEN.
" Behold^ to obey is better than sacrifice.^''
I Sam. XV. 22.
At length we quit the company of all creatures
higher or lower than Man, and come upon our
own flesh and blood, our own capabilities and
duties. We must now cease to look for symbol
or analogy : we must study plain examples and
plain warnings. And yet not altogether so : for
still many times we may discern the lower person
or event prefiguring a something transcending
itself; of which one instance is pointed out to us
in the Epistle to the G-alatians (iv. 21-31).
Mankind is so classified in the Benedicite as
to assist us in dividing and referring to those
" things new and old " which are stored up for
our behoof in the Treasury of Truth (St. Matt,
xiii. 52). I think that as "Children of Men"
are distinguished from " Israel," we may fairly
under the present head regard man in his merely
natural relations to God ; not having the Law,
but being many times a law unto himself, and
occasionally exhibiting a righteousness which
128 SEEK AND FIND.
rebukes those who both have and break a more
explicit law (Rom. ii. 14, 15, 2,6, 37). Thus con-
sidered, a multitude of texts seem either directly
or by suggestion to bear upon his case whether of
vice or virtue.
" I made a covenant with mine eyes " (Job
xxxi. i). God Himself attested Abimelech's
integrity in a matter in which both Abraham and
Sarah needed excuse (Gen. xx. 1-16): while the
first Pharaoh mentioned in Holy Writ, and (pre-
sumably) a second Abimelech, evinced a like
rectitude under very similar circumstances (xii*
14-20; xxvi. 6-11). — "We are sure that the
judgment of God is according to truth against
them which commit such things" (Rom. ii. 2).
Laban, outside the Divine covenant, when he
substituted Leah for Rachel (Gen. xxix. 20-26),
acted not otherwise than elect Jacob had done
when he simulated Esau (xxvii. i, 15-27) : in one
case the darkness of a father's blindness, in the
other the darkness of night, covered the decep-
tion. — " Love worketh no ill to his neighbour :
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law " (Rom.
xiii. 10). On the occasion of their long deferred
reconciliation, if Jacob equals " profane " Esau, he
does not to our perception excel him (Gen. xxxiii.
CHILDREN OF MEN. 1 29
1-16; Heb. xii. 16). — "That ye may put dif-
ference between holy and unholy " (Lev. x. 10).
The Pharaoh of Joseph's day respected sacred
persons and property (Gen. xlvii. 1% : unless the
marginal alternative reading of " princes " for
"priests" affects the sense); ^' If I did despise
the cause of my manservant ; . . . what then shall
I do when God riseth up?^' (Job xxxi. 13, 14) :
and deferred to Joseph's oath and filial piety
(Gen. 1. 6) — " Kings shall be thy nursing fathers,
and their queens thy nursing mothers'' (Is. xlix.
23). Pharaoh's daughter adopting Moses in her
womanly compassion, was exalted unawares to be
nursing mother of the Church (Ex. ii. 5-10) — " I
will speak of Thy testimonies also before kings,
and will not be ashamed " (Ps. cxix. 46). The
magicians of Egypt confessed the finger of God,
and that openly, to their hard-hearted terrible
monarch (Ex. viii. 19) — "The Lord is good,
a strong-hold in the day of trouble ; and He
knoweth them that trust in Him" (Nahum i. 7).
Among the servants of Pharaoh some feared the
Lord's Word, though others regarded it not (Ex.
ix. 20, 21) — "Ye did run well; who did hinder
you ....?" (Gal. v. 7). A mixed multitude went
up with Israel out of Egypt : but afterwards they
K
130 SEEK AND FIND.
both together fell a lusting in the wilderness (Ex.
xii. 38 : Num. xi. 4-6) — " The spirit of counsel
and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear
of the Lord " (Is. xi. 2). Jethro the Midianite was
moved to give wise counsel to Moses, wholly in
subordination to God's Will (Ex. xviii. 17-23) :
^' We will go with you : for we have heard that
God is with you" (Zech. viii. 23) : and Hobab
enjoyed the option to be " instead of eyes " to
journeying Israel (Num. x. 29-32) ; an option of
which he seems to have availed himself (see
Judges iv. 11) — "As he delighted not in blessing,
so let it be far from him " (Ps. cix. 17). Balaam
rich in gifts but scant of grace became like sound-
ing brass or a tinkling cymbal (Num. xxii.
-xxiv. ; xxxi. 8-16 ; Mic. vi. 5-8 ; i Cor. xiii. i)
— " If the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do.?^' (Ps. xi. 3). Rahab's faith pre-
served her and her's in the downfall of Jericho
(Josh. ii. 1-21; vi. 22-25; Heb. xi. 30-31). —
" Put them in fear, O Lord : that the nations
may know themselves to be but men " (Ps. ix. 20).
The inhabitants of doomed Gibeon, moved by
fear, snatched themselves from imminent death :
« I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of
my God, than to dwell in the tents of wicked-
CHILDREN OF MEN. I3I
ness " (Ps. Ixxxiv. 10) : and their policy was at
the least so far blessed to them that an irrevocable
sentence kept them and their descendants within
hearing of the truth (Josh. ix. 3-^27). ''Thus
saith the Lord God ; As I live, surely Mine oath
that he hath despised, and My covenant that he
hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his
own head" (Ezek. xvii. 19). Moreover a breach
of the league once for all contracted with them
was avenged by a three years' famine in the reign
of David, and was not atoned for except by seven
deaths (^ Sam. xxi. 1-9) — " The froward is
abomination to the Lord : but His secret is with
the righteous " (Prov. iii. 32). One luminous
flash of knowledge makes one hope for other
unrecorded excellences in that Midianitish (or
allied) soldier who interpreted his fellow's dream
(Judges vii. 13, 14) — " Honour thy father and
mother; which is the first commandment with
promise " (Eph. vi. 2). Ruth's filial self-devotion
proved the stepping-stone to her adoption into
the line of our Lord's ancestry (Ruth i. 16, 17 ;
iv. 13-17; St. Matt. i. i, 5, 16) — "Hear ye the
rod, and who hath appointed it" (Micah vi. 9).
The Philistine priests and diviners gave sound
advice to their stricken countrymen (i Sam. vi.
K 1
132 SEEK AND FIND.
1-9) — " Distributing to the necessity of saints ;
given to hospitality " (Rom. xii, 13). The King
of Moab extended hospitality to Jesse and his
wife, while David was but a persecuted fugitive
and captain of malcontents (i Sam. xxii. 1-4) —
" If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye
shall not vex him " (Lev. xix. ^^), Achish
evinced national impartiality in acknowledging
the supposed adherence of David (i Sam. xxix.
3-10) : to whom Nahash, king of the children of
Ammon, likewise showed kindness (Referred to
2, Sam. x. 2) — "A lover of good men" (Titus
i. 8). Hiram king of Tyre " was ever a lover of
David : " he blessed God for the wise devotion of
Solomon, and was privileged to co-operate
in building the first temple (i Kings v.) —
*•' Wisdom is the principal thing ; therefore get
wisdom : and with all thy getting get under-
standing" (Prov. iv. 7). The Queen of Sheba
came from afar to hear the wisdom of Solomon ;
as also did a vast concourse of strangers (i Kings
x. i-io, 24) — "The blessing of him that was
ready to perish came upon me " (Job xxix. 13).
Pharaoh's kindly generosity afforded a home to
Hadad the fallen prince of Edorti (i Kings xi.
14-22) — " He that receiveth a prophet in the
CHILDREN OF MEN. 1 33
name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's
reward" (St. Mat. x. 41). The widow of
Zarephath sustained Elijah during the famine,
and received her son raised to life again (i Kings
xvii. 8-24) — " He answered and said, I will not :
but afterward he repented, and went " (St. Mat.
xxi. 29). Even thus did Naaman the Syrian_, a
mighty man of valour, great with the king his
master, and honourable (conjectured to be the
" certain man " of i Kings xxii. 34), but a leper.
Truly God waited to be gracious Who left him
room for repentance, and after he had calmed
down from his rage cleansed him. In him a
natural lovableness seems to have prepared his
heart to respond to the Divine love : but for the
" little maid's " fervent good will (and she a
captive and a foreigner) he had never been di-
rected to a healing prophet ; but for his servants'
remonstrance he had returned to his Abana and
Pharpar loathsome as he started thence (2 Kings
V. 1-23) — '' No man can serve two masters " (St.
Mat. vi. 24). Yet such was the sacrilegious
service rendered by that mingled population
which the King of Assyria transplanted into the
Holy Land : of which " service " the very truth
has recorded, " They feared the Lord, and served
134 SEEK AND FIND.
their own gods. . . . They fear not the Lord "
(2 Kings xvii. 24-41) — " Cursed be he that doeth
the work of the Lord deceitfully'-' (Jer. xlviii.
10). Pharaoh-necho King of Egypt made haste
on an errand of God (2 Chron. xxxv. 20-22) —
"By me kings reign, and princes decree justice"
(Prov. viii. 15). Cyrus King of Persia, of whom
God Himself said " he is My shepherd, and shall
perform all My pleasure " (Is. xliv. 28), decreed
the rebuilding of the temple (2 Chron. xxxvi.
22, 23) : Darius completed the work (Ezra vi.
1-15) : Artaxerxes endowed and protected it
(vii. 11-26). Additional instances of royal good
deeds or virtue we find in the king's kindness
to his cupbearer (Neh. ii. 1-8) : in the gratitude
of Ahasuerus (Esth. vi. i-ii), and perhaps in his
readiness to neutralize his own arbitrary act of
tyranny (viii. 8 : for the original act, see iii.
8-1 1): in Nebuchadnezzar's confession of faith
and promotion of the three children (Dan. iii.
28-30), and in the self-abasement whereby he
glorified God (iv.) : even, we may hope, in Bel-
shazzar's last recorded act in fulfilment of his
plighted word (v. 7, 29, 30) : to these I scarcely
dare add, yet dare I not omit, the degree of
sympathy with goodness and of faith evinced
ISRAEL. 135
SO haltingly by Darius (vi. 14-28). Daniel,
indeed, seems to have had a special gift of
winning hearts ; witness his early influence over
Ashpenaz and Melzar (i. 8-16) — Our concluding
examples shall be of repentance. " Once have I
spoken ; but I will not answer : yea, twice ; but
I will proceed no further '-' (Job xl. 5). These
words of Job himself show us the final disposition
of his three friends (xlii. 7-9) : while, " Is not
this the fast that I have chosen ? " (Is. Iviii. 6)
brings up into our ears the mighty prevailing cry
of Gentile Nineveh (Jonah iii. 5-10).
" That be far from Thee to do after this manner,
to slay the righteous with the wicked : and that
the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far
from Thee : shall not the Judge of all the earth
do right ? " (Gen. xviii. 25).
ISRAEL.
" The Holy Seed shall be the substance thereof. ^^
Is. vi. 13.
This holy seed and substance of the Church is
truly her first and last, her beginning and end,
her root and fruit. This and only this is the clue
1^6 SEEK AND FIND.
to God's inexhaustible mercy set against and
exceeding man's unexhausted sinfulness : mercy,
rejoicing against judgment (St. James ii. 13),
rejoices as a giant to run its course.
The Church of old was indestructible because
it was fore-ordained in fulness of time to bear
Christ: the same Church of this last time (i St.
John ii. 18) abides indestructible because it is the
body of an ever-living Head (Ephes. i. 22, 23).
/Though fruitless branch after fruitless branch be
I broken off, though graft after graft prove barren,
\ yet these bear not the root but the root these:
' wherefore the True Vine ceases not to flourish,
even if sometimes it be as a root out of a dry
ground (see Rom. xi. 17-24; St. John xv. 1-8;
Is. liii. 2). Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but the words of God the Word pass not away
(St. Matt. xxiv. ^^) : God the Word Who Him-
self endureth for ever in heaven (St. John i. i ;
Ps. cxix. 89, Prayer Book translation), endureth
no less for ever in His Church (St. Matt, xxviii.
20), which thus becomes immortal with His
personal immortality.
Therefore all depends on Christ, nothing on
anything except Christ. The firstfruit being holy,
the lump also is holy; the root being holy, so are
ISRAEL. 137
the branches (Rom. xi. 16); we are accepted in
the beloved (Eph. i. 3-6).
Whilst we are bound to receive all truths and
(so far as our endowments of nature and of grace
will carry us) to understand and rejoice in them,
those truths themselves (thank God) abide wholly
independent of our feelings, conceptions, mis-
conceptions. They are no more affected by our
views concerning them, than are the objects of
sight by our gaze. The Bible itself records how
various saints and sinners alike have formed
erroneous judgments on matters of fact. Thus
Eve appears to have hailed the birth of Cain as
the birth of the promised champion : yet was
even her younger son Seth no more than the
forefather of Christ, and that at a distance of
more than seventy generations (Gen. iv. i, 25 ;
St. Luke iii. 23-38). — Eight persons at the
utmost seem to have credited the announcement
of the flood, until it came and took all the rest
away (Gen. vi. 5, 8 ; vii. ^-2^ ; St. Matt. xxiv.
37-39; I St. Pet. iii. 19, 30). — The builders of
Babel counted on consummating a city and a
tower, and on the contrary they themselves
dropped asunder like bricks cemented by un-
tempered mortar (Gen. xi. 1-9; see Ezek. xiii.
138 SEEK AND FIND.
10-14). — " Surely the Lord's anointed is before
Him," said Samuel, commissioned to anoint
David, but looking at Eliab (i Sam. xvi. 6, 7). —
" I, even I only," reiterated Elijah, while yet
there were left seven thousand in Israel (i Kings
xix. 10, 14, 18).
Blessed, awful, is this gift of indestructibility
inherent in the Church : it ensures to the whole
body corporate the issue of beatitude, but it
assures not to any one individual soul the attain-
ment of that issue. Some must attain : each
might : we, by God's help, will.
If we do truly will with that indomitable will
which takes the kingdom of heaven by force
(St. Matt. xi. 12); then when thus we seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, the
promise stands sure to ourselves that all needful
things shall be added unto us (vi. 31-33). Only
the standard of what is needful depends not on
our judgment, but on God's: many things will
never be allotted to us ; many will be withdrawn
from us ; of many we shall have to strip ourselves,
as did the Israelites of their ornaments by Mount
Horeb (Ex. xxxiii. 4-6). There are so many
things which are, as we know, incompatible with
the better life and land. We who brought
ISRAEL. 139
nothing into the world, cannot either carry any-
thing out of it (i Tim. vi. 7) : all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the
eyes and the pride of life, being of the world,
with the world and its lust and its fashion pass
away (i St. John ii. 16, 17 ; i Cor. vii. 31); and
though the gates of New Jerusalem shall not
be shut at all, yet shall nothing that defileth or
worketh abomination or maketh a lie in any wise
enter in (Rev. xxi. 25, 27). Much moreover that
is not sinful, but is merely transitory, familiar,
endeared to us, ends with this life: flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (i Cor.
XV. 50) ; the children of the resurrection neither
marry nor are given in marriage (St. Luke xx.
34-36) ; prophecies will fail, tongues cease, know-
ledge vanish away, for we know in part and
prophesy in part, and that which is in part shall
be done away (i Cor. xiii. 8-10). What else?
Tears, death, sorrow, crying, pain : these also
pass away (Rev. xxi. 4). Let us thank God and
take courage.
" Israel shall do valiantly" (Num. xxiv. 18).
140 SEEK AND FIND.
PRIESTS.
" Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness.^^
Ps. cxxxii. 9.
Circle within circle, height above height,
horizon beyond horizon : whichever illustration
we resort to, such is the lesson taught us by
revelation and by experience, from without and
from within. While an indefinite if not an in-
finite number of difficulties besets any attempt
to classify all creatures in an accurately graduated
scale, at the same time trenchantly discriminating
class from class, yet the broad distinctions be-
tween inorganic and organic, lifeless and living,
irrational and rational, assert themselves at once
and for ever. Some denizens of, so to say, the
border lands of these several kingdoms may puzzle
a philosopher by equivocal features and inex-
plicable resources ; but the bulk of each population
remains distinctively and unmistakably defined.
And thus far nature and grace work alike: neither
endowments of nature nor gifts of grace are be-
stowed equally upon all individuals, of whom
every one is responsible up to but not beyond the
limit of personal capacity. The particular talents,
PRIESTS. 141
be they few or many, entrusted to each creature
are the sole talents in reference to which that
same creature will be called to give account.
" Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall
be much required " (St. Luke xii. 48) : " If there
be first a willing mind, it is accepted according
to that a man hath, and not according to that he
hath not" (2 Cor. viii. iz).
The visible creation culminates in man (Gen.
i. 1-28). The race of man, refounded by Noah,
is bound up in the persons of his three sons ; of
whom one, Shem, receives the first privilege
(ix. 18, 19, 36), From his progeny Abram and
his descendants are singled out for an exceptional
blessing (xii. 1-3): yet this, passing by Ishmael,
lights upon Isaac only (xvii. 15-21); and again,
disregarding Esau who aforetime had despised
and forfeited his birthright (xxv. 29-34), is con-
firmed exclusively to Jacob (xxvii. 27-29, ^^ ;
xxviii. 3, 4 ; Rom. ix. 10-13). With Jacob a new
order commences: all his sons become heads of
tribes, and thus heads of the one only sacred
nation (Gen. xlix. 1-28) ; yet are they not all on
an equality : Levi is sanctified for the ceremonial
service of God, and has God for his sole inheri-
tance (Deut. X. 8, 9) ; amongst the Levites one
I4il SEEK AND FIND.
family is consecrated to the priesthood (Ex. xxviii.
i) ; amongst the priests one individual is exalted
to be high-priest (Lev. viii. 12 ; xxi. 10).
That law of duty which demands that we
should be with all our might whatever God
makes us, has its counterpart in the law which
forbids our constituting ourselves other than He
is pleased to make us.
This negative law Eve broke when she post-
poned obedience to knowledge (Gen. iii. 1-6),
— the company of Korah, when they burnt in-
cense (Num. xvi, i-ii, 35-40), — Saul, when he
offered sacrifice (i Sam. xiii. 8-14), — Uzzah,
when he put forth his hand to touch the ark
[2 Sam. vi. 6, y ; see Num. iv. 15), — king
Uzziah, when he essayed to minister in the
sanctuary (2 Chron. xxvi. 16-21).
That other law was infringed by Eli the high-
priest and judge, when he honoured his sons
above God (i Sam. ii. 27-30; iv. 18).
The stringency of these laws, the penalties by
which over and over again their breach has been
avenged, bring home to our hearts no less than
to our consciences the awful guilt of obstructing
or seducing or intimidating any person in the
discharge of his duty. " What is Aaron, that
PRIESTS. 143
ye murmur against him ? " asked Moses remon-
strating with Korah. Not his who at his own
peril carried out the law, but His who imposed
the law was the majesty assailed : " Let us break
their bands asunder, and cast away their cords
from us " (Ps. ii. 3. See also the history of the
disobedient prophet, i Kings xiii. 8-30).
Many points of the mosaic law indicate how
■absolute and venerable an authority was vested
in the Jewish priesthood, and how pure a sanc-
tity was demanded of its consecrated members.
Passage after passage shows us the priest offering
sacrifices and oblations for the congregation
(Lev. i. ii. iii. &c.) : discerning and cleansing
from leprosy (xiii. xiv.) : making atonement not
for himself only, but for all the people (xvi.):
restricted in personal mournings (xxi. 1-5): con-
ducting the ordeal for jealousy (Num. v. 12-31):
partaking with the altar; receiving the first-
fruits and other hallowed offerings, with the
tithe of the tithe (xviii. 8-19, 2^-2g): pronoun-
cing sentence between litigants (Deut. xvii.
8-13): guaranteeing victory (xx. 2-4): consti-
tuted guardian and promulgator of the law
(xxxi. 9-13).
Who is sufficient for such things ? Even the
^
144 SEEK AND FIND.
high-priest of that dispensation was bound to
offer for sins, not for the people only, but for
himself also (Heb. v. 1-4). Nor could those
typical sacrifices ever take away sins, of which
a memorial had to be made again year by year
continually (x. 1-4, 11). All creation groaning
and travailing in pain together waited then for
the beginning of redemption, as we ourselves
and all creatures are now waiting in hope for its
consummation (Rom. viii. 18-23).
" Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into Thy
resting place, Thou, and the ark of Thy strength :
let Thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with
salvation, and let Thy saints rejoice in goodness "
(z Chron. vi. 41).
SERVANTS OF THE LORD.
" Behold^ as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of
their masters^ and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand
of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God,
until that He have mercy upon us." Ps. cxxiii. 2.
Watching, waiting, looking forward and
upward, in such an attitude did the saints of
the elder dispensation serve God. Prophets and
SERVANTS OF THE LORD. 145
kings desired to see things they saw not, and to
hear things they heard not (St. Luke x. 24) : their
eye was not satisfied with seeing, nor their ear
filled with hearing (Eccles. i. 8). Those who
were persuaded of the promises received them
not then and there (Heb. xi. 13), but received
only some representation or at the utmost some
foretaste of them (see St. John viii. ^6) : many
entered the Holy Land and feasted on its milk
and honey, who hungering and thirsting with a
hunger and thirst which no earthly dainties could
appease, still desired a better country, that is,
a heavenly (Heb. xi. 16), still craved for the wine
and milk which are priceless (Is. Iv. i). If no
trumpet from without, yet ever and anon an
alarm from within, renewed the summons, "Arise
ye, and depart ; for this is not your rest " (Mic. ii.
10). Solomon, beyond any who arose before or
after him, seems to have inherited and exhausted
the temporal blessedness of his race : yet surely,
though it was his sin alone which cursed his
, blessings (see Mai. ii. i), it is nevertheless of the
, very essence of all temporal boons that what
1 they are illustrates what they are not, and can
/jnever be. Even had his heart been perfect
with God as was David's (see i Kings xv. 3) it
L
14^ SEEK AND FIND.
would no more, it would then far less, have been
satiated by a world summed up as "vanity of
vanities " (Eccles. i. 2). It was not the wise
king, himself a freeman of the sacred common-
wealth, it was the wisdom-craving Queen of
Sheba, who standing without and gazing as an
alien upon the beloved nation became over-
whelmed by the glories and felicities of their
lot (i Kings X. 1-9).
We ourselves (only not, thank God, as aliens,
but as members of the sacred household) con-
templating the state of God^s family may take
up her very words and repeat, " Happy are these
Thy servants/' But wherein does our happiness
consist? Not in riches, not in pleasures; these
may be given as part of any lot happy or unhappy,
and equally may be withheld : man's happiness
/consists now as of yore in choosing, doing, suf-
/ fering, God's will. Our elder brethren, " Israelites
indeed " (see St. John i. 47), waited with a great
patience and a great longing for the first Advent
(Is. Ixiv. I, 3; Mai. iii. i; Acts xxvi. 6, 7): even
so we if we be " Jews inwardly" (Rom. ii. 29)
wait for the second (2 Tim. iv. 8). We must set
our faces to go up to Jerusalem, which is above
and free and the mother of us all (Gal. iv. 26) :
SERVANTS OF THE LORD. 147
and following in the steps of that Divine Son
Who for our sakes took upon Him the form of a
servant (Phil. ii. 7), we likewise may sometimes
have to set our faces as flint amid scorn and
hatred (Is. 1. 7 ; St. Luke ix. 51), while we make
haste forward to keep our eternal Pentecost in
the Holy Jerusalem (see Acts xx. 16). " Behold,
we count them happy which endure," says
St. James (v. 11): and such is the happiness
that consists with the exile, absence, pilgrimage,
of this our day of small things. Let us not
despise this day and its burden, lest to-day
despising our birthright we to-morrow miss our
blessing. " To-day if ye will hear His voice,
harden not your heart " (Ps. xcv. 7, 8).
When as samples of Old Testament servants
of God we select some (since we cannot discuss
all), who evidently and eminently have prefigured
Christ, at the least in some point of their career,
we shall many times find them characterised by
that very uncompletedness (if I may term it so :
for I mean a different thing from the defect
named incompleteness) which we have been
considering. Abel prematurely slain by his bro-
ther (Gen. iv. 8) : Isaac^ whose self-oblation was
perfect in will but not in deed (xxii, 9-1 :^):
L %
148 SEEK AND FIND.
Jacob, whose prevailing power with God was
purchased by a bodily blemish (xxxii. 34-28,
31, 32): freeborn Joseph sold into bondage and
permanently made servant to Pharaoh, before he
could become the pillar of his father's house
(xxxvii. 28, ojS\ xli. 33-41): Moses arrested
on the threshold of Palestine, yet pre-eminently
that prophet like unto the Prophet greater than
he (Num. xx. 12; Deut. xxxiv. 1-5; xviii. 15-
19): Barak a deliverer of his nation, yet not
obtaining the honour of his act (Judges iv. 9) :
Jephthah also, brought very low in the flush of
triumph (xi. ^i^ : and Samson a blind slave
at the hour of his victorious death (xvi. 28—
30) : David forbidden to build the Temple
(i Chron. xxii. 7, 8): Josiah, like unto whom
was there no king before him, neither after him
arose there any like him, taken away in his prime
from the evil to come (2 Kings xxii. 18-20;
xxiii. 25, 29).
Notwithstanding that for some of these strait-
nesses we may discern a secondary cause in the
sin or infirmity of the suffering saint ; yet do they
all serve to illustrate the universal law of short-
coming here, to be made up for elsewhere. " Is
any thing too hard for the Lord.^" (Gen. xviii.
SERVANTS OF THE LORD. 149
14). Eternity will show. Even time has already-
sufficed to confer on " righteous Abel," and that
by the lips of the Omniscient Judge, a name better
than of sons and of daughters (St. Matt, xxiii.
^^) : to reveal Isaac invested with an unique glory
of Christ-likeness (Heb. xi. 17-19): to endear
to his spiritual posterity Jacob's example of self-
sacrificing persistence (Hos. xii. ^-6): to eman-
cipate Joseph who passed ages ago through the
gate of death (Gen. 1. %2-2,6 ; Exod. xiii. 19 ;
Josh. xxiv. 33): to open the promised land to
Moses (St. Luke ix. 30, 31) : to attest the dignity
of Barak, of Jephthah, of Samson (Heb. xi. 32) :
to record the name of David not on any Temple
made with hands, but on that one Temple made
without hands Whose Builder and Maker was
God ; " I Jesus .... I am the root and the off-
spring of David ; " " Hosanna to the Son of
David" (Rev. xxii. 16 ; St. Matt. xxi. 9 ; see also
St. John ii. 21): to publish the Holy Spirit's
own witness to the Divine acceptance of Josiah
(Jer. xxii. 15, 16).
What then has eternity yet to show ? —
" Since the beginning of the world men have
not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath
the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He
150 SEEK AND FIND.
hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him
(Is. Ixiv. 4).
SPIRITS AND SOULS OF THE
RIGHTEOUS.
" Have the gates of death been opened unto thee ? or
hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?"
Job xxxviii. 17.
To us Christians the land of the shadow of
death is no longer the dominion of the king of
terrors, but rather a tiring-closet for the bride
of the King of kings. There having put off the
corruptible and the mortal she prepares to put
on incorruption and immortality (i Cor. xv. 5;^,
^'^\ meanwhile making melody in her heart to
the Lord. We seem to hear her singing a psalm
of thanksgiving, the very psalm of her risen
Saviour : " The lines are fallen unto me in plea-
sant places. My heart is glad, and my glory
rejoiceth : my flesh also shall rest in hope. For
Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. Thou wilt
shew me the path of life " (Ps. xvi. 6, 9-1 1 ;
Acts ii. 22-28).
We may still reverently ask, " I have put off
my coat; how shall I put it on?" (Song of Sol.
SPIRITS AND SOULS OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 151
V. 3) ; but it must be with the enquiring mind of
faith, not with the cavilling mind of doubt. We
may search what or what manner of time the
Spirit of Christ testifies beforehand touching the
Resurrection, but it must be with the joyful con-
fidence of Abraham, when he also heard of life as
it were from the dead : alike in laughter, he and
Sarah were unlike in the motive of their laughter
(Gen. xvii. 17 ; xviii. 12-15; Rom. iv. 18-21).
) Mankind, though still no further advanced than
(to see through a glass darkly (i Cor. xiii. 12),
may, on comparing its later with its earlier gene-
rations, say thankfully, "Whereas I was blind,
now I see " (see St, John ix. 25). Perhaps the
tone of the Old Testament is nowhere more
startling at first sight, than in a few passages
on the subject of death : for that here and there
a text does baffle interpretation and challenge
faith, cannot be denied : though love even then
never fails to find a clue by its own intuition
of the love of God, resting and rejoicing now
in what it shall know hereafter. Thus does- deep
respond to deep at the noise of the waterspouts,
for " many waters cannot quench love, neither
can the floods drown it " (Ps. xlii. 7 ; Song of
Sol. viii. 7). If an ordinary believer trembling
15^ SEEK AND FIND.
on the brink of the grave were now to lament as
saintly Hezekiah of old lamented (Is. xxxviii.
lo — 2,6) it would at the least surprise us.
But we (thank God) can never be called upon
to realize what it was to precede, not to follow,
Christ into the valley of the shadow of death.
Once for all our Good Shepherd has gone before
His own sheep : whenever now He puts them
forth it is only to go home to Him along the
very path which He has already trodden (see
St. John X. 4). Of old it was far otherwise.
Think what it may have been for Abel to pass
(as it seems) first of the whole human family into
the veiled world ; and after him went forth each
soul in individual loneliness, much as Abraham
who knew not whither he went (Heb. xi. 8) : it
needed a David, and him under inspiration, in
such a transit to "fear no evil" (Ps. xxiii. 4).
True it is that Moses showed at the bush that the
dead rise (St. Luke xx. ^y, 38) : but if some in
Israel were slow of heart to interpret that text,
what are the mass of ourselves in comprehending
many another .? To be alone was never indeed at
/ any period the lot of a faithful soul ; but to fedalo^
/ has been, and is, one besetting trial of man : how
A keen is this trial and in a sense how unsuited
SPIRITS AND SOULS OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 153
to our constitution we may deduce both from
a TDivine sentence true of Adam even in his
original innocence (Gen. ii. 18), and also from
a Messianic psalm (Ixxxviii. 8, 18), from a Mes-
sianic prophetic vision (Is. Ixiii. ^S), and from
words uttered by our Lord Himself in fore-
sight (St. John xvi. 32) and in the crisis (St. Mark
XV. 34) of His atoning passion.
Of actual glimpses into the realm of departed
souls the Old Testament affords us very few.
Once and once only do we behold a saint reappear
from his grave : " An old man cometh up ; and
he is covered with a mantle. And Saul per-
ceived that it was Samuel. . . . And Samuel said
to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring
me up?" (i Sam. xxviii. 14, 15). From these
words we gather, yet at most by implication, that
the elect soul was dwelling in a quiet abode and
cared not to be disquieted. Thus Job (iii. 17 —
22) also spoke when he thought to rejoice ex-
ceedingly and be glad if only he could find a
grave : " There the wicked cease from troubling ;
and there the weary be at rest." A second
utterance of disembodied Samuel shows him, as
in the days of his mortality, so then once again
moved by the spirit of prophecy (i Sam. xxviii.
154 SEEK AND FIND.
19). The dead, however, are as a rule they who
characteristically "go down into silence" (Ps.
cxv. 17): not any of themselves^ but Isaiah
xiv. 9 — 11) and Ezekiel (xxxii. 21) only, acquaint
us with that mighty stir in the underworld which
greeted the fallen king of Babylon, and that
voice out of the midst of Hades which spake
to overthrown Egypt.
But when from the intermediate state we turn
faithful eyes towards the final beatitude, all be-
comes flooded no longer with mist but with
radiance : that which baffles our vision is not
darkness but light, — light not dubious though
partly undefined. Thus has it been with the
Church of God from Abel downwards (Heb.
xi. 4-14, &c.) : thus will it be to the end of time
(i Cor. XV. 51-54). Full quotations become im-
possible by reason of abundance: but over and
over again we recognise the one glorious hope
of immortality persisting in patriarchs, singing
in psalmists, rejoicing in prophets (e.g. Job xix.
25-27 ; Ps. xlix. 15 ; Is. xxvi. 19 ; Hos. xiii. 14).
We know that this mortal life is the sufficient
period of our probation, we know that the life
immortal is the sufficing period — if we may call
eternity a period — of our reward : let us not
HOLY AND HUMBLE MEN OF HEART. 1 55
fret our hearts by a too anxious curiosity as
to that intermediate state which hides for the
moment so many whom we love and whom we
hope to rejoin, for even now we know that " the
souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and
there shall no torment touch them " (Wisdom
iii. i).
HOLY AND HUMBLE MEN OF
HEART.
" This commandment which I command thee this day,
it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far ^^" Deut.
XXX. II.
Thank God that in the way of holiness way-
faring men, though fools, shall not err (Is. xxxv. 8).
The ground of praise we must now consider is
simplicity itself, is within the reach of all, is an
union of " things lovely " endeared to noble
hearts (see Phil. iv. 8), is an indisputable point of
likeness to our heavenly Father (" Be ye holy ;
for I am holy ; " i St. Pet. i. 16 ; Lev. xix. 2) :
and to our Divine Brother ("I am meek and
lowly in heart;" St. Matt. xi. 29), is the key of
contentment here and of exaltation hereafter.
By the word holiness we understand two things :
I5<5 SEEK AND FIND.
one involuntary, the other voluntary ; one acci-
dental (so to say), the other inherent ; one a pri-
vilege, the other a grace. This grace is what
God requires : without it, all else which has been
granted us of office, privilege, gift, will but increase
our condemnation. Under the Jewish dispensation
the inferior sort of holiness was lavished on the
chosen race : but the higher holiness consisted
then as it remains now, as it has been and will
be ever, in the voluntary harmony of each human
; will with the Divine Will, in (if we dare say so)
the personal likeness of each human character to
l^the Divine Character.
In the loftier sense it does not seem that even
a single personage of the Old Testament is
throughout the historical record pronounced holy :
at least, I can recal no such instance as occurring
in the Authorized Version. Of course all I mean
is that the particular expletive is not used con-
cerning individuals : for the fact of their holiness
is often " fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and
terrible as an army with banners" (see Song of
Sol. vi. lo). But the first man we find verbally
designated as "holy" was that last of Jewish
saints, John Baptist (St. Mark vi. ijo) : and in him
the more than prophet (St. Luke vii. 26) ter-
HOLY AND HUMBLE MEN OF HEART. 157
minated the goodly fellowship of those prophets
whose privilege was restricted to standing without
while they listened for the bridegroom's voice, or
as in the holy Baptist's unparalleled case heard it
(see St. John iii. 2^g). Noah, Ruth, Job, were
just, virtuous, perfect, and upright (Gen. vi. 9 ;
Ruth iii. II ; Job i. i) ; but of none of them is
the word " holy " used ; no, nor yet of Lot, whom
we know as " just Lot .... that righteous man "
(2, St. Pet. ii. 7, 8). Of all such terms « holy "
seems the highest, the most spiritual ; the rest
appear to be lower steps of the same ascent:
these certify the conduct, the other vouches for
the heart. Perhaps without rashness we may
quote Lot himself as exemplifying the inferiority
of righteousness as compared with holiness. He
in his own person was a good man^ with so
genuine a love of right and loathing of wrong,
that his residence among sinners was a source of
unceasing vexation to his soul : but no zeal of
God's sanctity consumed him ; he remained
while he loathed : and when rescued with a high
hand from imminent destruction his enthusiasm
for his own salvation carried him no further than
"little" Zoar, itself all but included within the
penal fire, instead of winging his feet up the
158 SEEK AND FIND.
appointed mountain of safety (Gen. xix. 13-23).
But for the verdict of an inspired apostle I think
we might have doubted whether in very truth
Lot was even so much as righteous.
For holiness we must rather look to Abraham^
Moses, David, Elijah ; yet not for unflawed holi-
ness even to them : to David perhaps least of all,
yet was he the man after God's own heart
(i Sam. xiii. i4)_, and God alone could slake the
thirst of his soul (Ps. Ixiii. i ; cxliii. 6). Enoch
stands solitary in the glory of his acceptance
(Gen. V. 24 ; Heb. xi. 5), Melchizedek in the
mystery of his august individuality (Gen. xiv.
18-20; Heb. vii. i — 4); of these twain we know
nothing amiss ; nor yet of Daniel, but for his own
self-accusation (Dan. ix. 20). Still, Solomon
avers that " there is no man that sinneth not "
(i Kings viii. 46), and centuries later St. John
instructs us how " if we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves " (i St. John i. 8) : One, and
One alone, there is "Who did no sin" (i St.
Pet. ii. 22).
All that is spiritual within us, that is noble,
that is aspiring, yearns after holiness even while
we offend seven times, yea, seventy times seven.
What is the dissatisfying element in all we have }
HOLY AND HUMBLE MEN OF HEART. 1 59
Whence derives that recoil of pleasure which
deals a pang, that influence of beauty which steeps
us in sorrow ? Each of these becomes on occa-
sion a weapon sharper than any two-edged sword
(see Heb. iv. i:^): and we might almost adjure
our misery in the words of Jeremiah (xlvii. 6, 7),
" O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it
be ere thou be quiet ? put up thyself into thy
scabbard, rest, and be still ; " but, " how can it be
quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge?"
We only can quiet it (and that at God's time,
not at man's) by first yielding ourselves to the
legitimate influence of each good creature, and
learning from it the lesson they all are framed
to teach. Their beauty from without rebukes us
until from within ourselves there responds to it
that beauty which returns after penitence as a
clear shining after rain (see 2 Sam. xxiii. 4),
"beauty for ashes" (Is. Ixi. 3). All creation
begins by enforcing a negative lesson : " The
depth saith, It is not in me : " nevertheless in that
negative is latent an affirmative : Not in me,
then elsewhere. While we praise God because
" He setteth an end to darkness," let us con-
fidently crave His Spirit in searching out all
perfection (Job xxviii. 3, 14).
l6o SEEK AND FIND. .
If humility is before honour (Prov. xv. 33), no
less inevitably does it underlie holiness. And
here we find an accessible vantage ground on the
road heavenw^ards. Holiness overawes while it
attracts. He Who is "glorious in holiness" is
likewise "fearful in praises^' (Ex. xv. 11): and
Joshua protested even to the chosen race newly
settled in the land of promise, " Ye cannot serve
the Lord : for He is an holy God ; He is a jealous
God ; He will not forgive your transgressions nor
your sins" (Josh. xxiv. 19). Humility on the
other hand is all attraction : it is one ground of
our Saviour's claim to our confidence : " Come
unto Me, .... learn of Me ; for I am meek and
lowly in heart," He says and draws us to Him-
self (St. Matt. xi. 28, 39). If we cannot at once
be holy, let us at once be humble : if we cannot
at once be humble, let us at once aim at becoming
humble. To be humble is delightful, for it is
to be at peace and full of contentment : to be-
come humble is far from delightful, but it is
necessary and it is possible. If we sincerely,
persistently, prayerfully, desire this good estate,
humility will not be denied us; it may even
be lavished upon us : but perhaps in the whole
range of graces there is not one likely to be
HOLY AND HUMBLE MEN OF HEART. l6l
vouchsafed us by a more trying process. When
we ask to be humbled we must not recoil
from being humiliated : when we ask God to
humble us we must not wince if His instrument
of discipline be some individual no better than
ourselves. Humility, like all other graces, was
not fully exemplified till He assumed it Who is
'' the Chiefest among ten thousand " (Song of
Sol. V. lo), and for whose dearest sake no height
or depth ought to seem to us unattainable. Even
before His Advent His saints, like dulled mirrors,
shone here and there with an image of some
of His virtues : thus we discern humility com-
bined with unselfishness in Abram (Gen. xiii.
8, 9), with magnanimity in Moses (Num. xi.
1^ - 29), with filial piety in Ruth (iii. 5, 6),
with friendship in Jonathan (i Sam. xxiii. 16, 17),
with meekness in David (2 Sam. xvi. 5-13). This
blessed humility is a grace specially open and
adapted to us sinners : by it aged Eli, who was
our warning, became also our example (i Sam.
iii. 18) ; by it Hezekiah, having come to a better
mind, refused not to be comforted under the
foreseen consequences of his own folly (2 Kings
XX. 12-19 ; % Chron. xxxii. 24-26, 31).
"Thus saith the high and lofty One that in-
M
l62 SEEK AND FIND.
habiteth eternity, whose Name is Holy ; I dwell
in the high and holy place, with him also that is
of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the
spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart
of the contrite ones " (Is. Ivii. 15).
ANANIAS, AZARIAS, AND
MISAEL.
" W/ien ihou walkest through thejire, thou shalt not be
burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee"
Is. xliii. 2.
Once and again God has made " a new thing "
(see Num. xvi. 28-30) to vindicate His outraged
majesty, it may be by the overthrow of a sinner,
it may be by the deliverance of a saint. The
prophetic promise of Isaiah becomes history
through the faith of the three children.
Yet their faith foresaw not whether so great
a promise was about to be fulfilled to them :
God's ability to rescue them they asserted, but
His will concerning them was not at once re-
vealed. Only their own will was made up :
on that the fiery furnace already had no power
(Dan. iii. 16-18; and see v. 27). Like David's
ANANIAS, AZARIAS, AND MISAEL. 1 63
" three mightiest '^ (i Chron. xi. 19) they went in
jeopardy of their lives : and in the same spirit
and the same steps a weak woman also walked
when Queen Esther summed up all, saying, " And
if I perish, I perish " (Esth. iv. 16).
The history of Ananias, Azarias, and Misael
is recorded for us authoritatively in the Canonical
Book of Daniel (i. 3-^0; ii. 17, 18, 49; iii. i,
&c.) : and receives edifying and devotional ad-
ditions, including the " Benedicite," from the
Apocryphal " Song of the Three Holy Children."
Studying this narrative, we shall, I think, find
that the three heroic saints we are now at last
contemplating did in their own persons in some
sort represent every class of those fellow men
whom in the Canticle they invoke to render a
tribute of praise to God.
As '^children of men/' they exhibited the noble,
natural endowments of beauty and intelligence,
probably of constitutional temperance and courage.
As " Israelites," they eschewed unclean meats and
abhorred idols. As " Priests," being, though not
of the Levitical stock, yet of a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation (Ex. xix. 6), and springing
moreover from that tribe of Judah whence arose
the " Priest for ever after the Order of Mel-
•M 2
164 SEEK AND FIND.
chisedec" (Heb. v. 6; vii. 14), — as priests they
offered their own bodies to God as an acceptable
whole burnt-sacrifice. As " servants " they kept
their Lord's commandment (Ex. xx. 5), and
zealously maintained His honour. We may surely
even think that like unto "spirits and souls of
the righteous," so far as an act of self-devotion
would carry them, they did, though not in deed, yet
in will disembody themselves, and in the fiery
furnace chant not discordantly among the hea-
venly choirs : having first by " humble " confession
given God the glory, and by " holy " confidence
laid hold upon His unfailing strength.
Their light shines before the Church for ever :
as candles set upon a candlestick they give light
to all that are in the house ; as a city set upon
a hill they cannot be hid (St. Matt. v. 14-16).
Heroic among heroes, and saintly among saints,
upon them has descended the blessing of their
great forefather : " Judah, thou art he whom thy
brethren shall praise " (Gen. xlix. 8).
" Let us now praise famous men " (Ecclus.
xliv. i) : yet while we praise God with them and
for them, let us take the more earnest heed that
in will at least we labour to be made like unto
them; for those only who resemble them are
ANANIAS, AZARIAS, AND MISAEL. 1 65
worthy to praise them ; and any who have praised
and not emulated — the " almost persuaded "
heroes and saints (see Acts xxvi. 28) — must one
day be condemned out of their own mouths.
'' Glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the
Name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles
of the sea " (Is. xxiv. 15).
THE SECOND SERIES.
REDEMPTION,
ALL WORKS.
" Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon
thou standest is holy ground^ Ex. iii. 5.
To go on from Creation to Redemption is to
penetrate as it were out of the Holy Place into
the Holy of Holies. Contemplation takes pre-
cedence of discussion, thanksgiving of enquiry:
many things continue to be expedient, but the
one thing needful is to love (see St. Luke x.
41, 4^).
First and last all has depended and will ever
depend upon Christ " the First, and with the last"
(Is. xli. 4). "All things were made by Him. . . .
The world was made by Him" (St. John i. 3, 10).
"All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord,""
sings David (Ps. cxlv. 10); but this prophecy,
still indeed unaccomplished, did least of all come
to pass in the mortal day of Jesus Christ : "He
came unto His own, and His own received Him
not " (St. John i. 11).
As we now for the second time follow the
series of inorganic creation or of irrational
creatures enumerated in the Benedicite we shall
170 SEEK AND FIND.
indeed discern our Lord's absolute mastery over
them; but we shall sometimes observe that the
parable whereby they teach is one of warning
rather than of example ; their subjection appear-
ing to be of constraint and not willing. Not
merely all the inhabitants thereof, but the earth
itself is dissolved ; and Christ alone bears up
the pillars of it (Ps. Ixxv. 3). In judgment upon
man, or in sympathy with him, all is disjointed,
unstrung, enfeebled ; all faints, fails, groans,
travails in pain together (Rom. viii. 22) : " Cursed
is the ground for thy sake" (Gen. iii. 17), gives us
the key to much of that mystery of misery which
environs us on our right hand and on our left.
And Christ, on Whose sinless head our sins
were made to converge, willed also that on Him-
Uelf should centre the shortcoming, failure, dis-
/appointment, which balk us at every turn. He
Who in life chose to have " not where to lay His
head" (St. Matt. viii. 20), chose in His life-
procuring Passion to be rejected or left alone,
voluntarily or involuntarily, by His whole crea-
tion. For when the Lord Himself came out of
His place to rebuke Satan (see Is. xxvi. 21 ;
Zech. iii. 2), Michael the Archangel, with all his
hosts, kept silence before Him (see St. Matt, xxvi .
ANGELS. 171
53^ 54); light vanished, the sun became blotted
out (St. Luke xxiii. 44, 45); lover and friend
were put away, and acquaintance hidden out of
sight (Ps. Ixxxviii. 18) ; the heaven above His
head became as brass (Deut. xxviii. 2^ ; St.
Mark xv. 34), and the earth under Him as iron
incapable of fecundity ; for rather than give rest
to the sole of His foot she sent up a lifeless
tree whereon He should hang between earth
and heaven, one like the awful tree of St. Jude's
{v. 12) prophetic Epistle: "Without fruit, twice
dead, plucked up by the roots."
His self-humiliation is the measure of His
exaltation. His self-emptying of His replenish-
ment (Phil. ii. 5-1 1). What should be the
measure of our gift to Him? His to us: self
for Self, all for all.
" We love Him, because He first loved us "
(i St. John iv. 19).
ANGELS.
" Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength^
that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of
His word.''^ Ps. ciii. 20.
As all lovely tints engarland the sun at his
rising, come to light while he runs his course,
iyi SEEK AND FIND.
turn the rain in his path to a glory, and rally
around him when he sets, so the blessed host of
heaven waiting on their Lord appeared and
vanished, stooped to earth and returned into
heaven. The times we behold them thus em-
ployed convince us of the many more times, or
rather of the unbroken continuity of time during
which their service of love went on, and their
care was exercised for Him, Who being their
Creator deigned to become their Fellow Creature.
Thus from the presence of God came forth the
Archangel Gabriel to predict the birth of the
great Precursor (St. Luke i. i i-3o), and of that
greater One Who should come after (26-38).
An Angel was God's messenger to reassure and
guide our Lord^s putative father (St. Matt. i.
20, 21). One Angel announced Christ's birth to
certain shepherds, when suddenly a multitude of
the heavenly host visibly and audibly praised God
(St. Luke ii. 8-14). At the word of an Angel
the holy family fled into Egypt, and afterwards
returned to the land of Israel (St. Matt. ii. 13, 14,
19-31). Angels ministered to our Lord in the
wilderness (St. Mark i. 13) ; and are honoured in
our remembrance each time His lips full of grace
made mention of their order (St. Matt. xiii. 37-50 ;
ANGELS. 173
xvi. 27 ; xviii. 10 ; xxiv. 31,36 ; xxv. 31 ; xxvi. ^^ :
St. Luke xii. 8, 9 ; xv. 10 ; xvi. 2:2 ; xx. 36 : St.
John i. 51 : Rev. iii. 5). At the pool of Beth-
esda the Great Physician supplemented the min-
istry of His servant (St. John v. 'Z-S). In the
Garden of Gethsemane the Creator was strength-
ened by His creature (St. Lukexxii. 43). Angels
overwhelmed sinners, and encouraged saints, at
the empty sepulchre (St. Matt, xxviii. o^-y ; St.
John XX. 11-13 ; St, Luke xxiv. 4-7) : bore pro-
phetic witness to the truth on the Mount of
Ascension (Acts i. 10, 11: presumably, the
speakers being evidently of exceptional cha-
racter) : ministered to the Church at sundry times
and in divers manners (Acts v. 19, 30; viii. 26;
X. 3-7; xii. 7-1 1 ; xxvii. 23, 24: the Book of
Revelation moreover abounds with their sacred
words and deeds); and will attend the Second
Advent when their Lord and ours returns to judge
the world (i Thess. iv. 16 ; 3 Thess. i. 7). How
terrific is their delegated power to punish, man-
kind has already seen in the case of Herod (Acts
xii. 31-33): what their celestial aspect is, those
rebels beheld who set themselves against St.
Stephen (vi. 15).
Angels neither sin, nor mourn, nor die. We
■174 SEEK AND FIND.
who sin and mourn and must die, how much
shall we love that dear Lord Who wedded to
Himself not their nature but ours ? (Heb. ii. i6 ;
Eph. V. 2,2-^2). They to whom little is forgiven
may perhaps plead somewhat in excuse if they
love only a little : but we ? The manifold sinner
is forgiven much and loves much : "Her sins,
which are many, are forgiven ; for she loved much"
(St. Luke vii. 40-47).
HEAVENS.
" ^esus Christ, . . . Whom the heaven must receive until
the times of restitution of all things.^'' Acts iii. 20, 21.
Heaven and earth ahke, God and man alike,
await that which is not yet but shall be hereafter.
The heaven and earth of to-day await a fire, after
which there shall be new heavens and a new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness {% St. Pet. iii.
7, 13). Christ waits to come again and receive
us unto Himself, that where He is there we may
be also (St. John xiv. 3). We, what are we wait-
ing for ? Some of us avowedly and honestly are
waiting for heaven ; yet even thus the heaven
which some of us are waiting for may, alas!
scarcely be that very heaven promised and pre-
pared for us by our loving Lord {y. 2).
HEAVENS. 175
Reverently be it spoken. Our Lord's notion
of heaven seems in great part to be that He and
we should at last and for ever be together.
" With us " is still that which with desire He
desires (see St. Luke xxii. 15). His "sheep"
and His " other sheep " shall have eternal life and
shall not be plucked out of His hand (St. John x.
14, 16, 38). Face to face with death thus He
spake out of the abundance of His heart :
" Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast
given Me, be with Me where I am ^' (xvii. 24).
And surely to Himself no less than to His saint
is that faithful promise made : " To him that
overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My
throne" (Rev. iii. 21). As the life is more than
meat and the body than raiment (St. Luke xii.
2,^\ so is this ineffable union more than all
the glories, beauties, pleasures, which attend it.
Other, if not alien, is one widely popular
\ scheme of heaven. Made wise by experience
we start with negatives: earth has, heaven will
not have, tears, pain, sorrow, reverses, death, sin
(Rev. iii. 12; xxi. 4, 27); assuredly not sin,
V which entails the bitterest of all misery, breeding
fear and self-loathing. War is banished ; doubt
also and antipathy ; weariness, with both sleep
17^ SEEK AND FIND.
and sleeplessness. *' No more sea " (xxi. i)
puzzles us : but we bridge over our non-sequence
by exclaiming, " No more separation." We who
have lacked friends count on sympathetic inter-
course ; we who have lost friends, on reunion :
we shall regain and never more lose those beloved
ones who for the present are buried out of our
sight. All this we realize, we grasp, we yearn
after : much of this we have already enjoyed, and
may then again enjoy securely.
Yet all this analyzed, what does it all amount
to ? It is heaven without God : for in such a
conception God is not first and foremost; peer
or second He will not be, " Thou shalt have no
other gods before Me" (Ex. xx. 3). If this by
itself would satisfy us, it needs but a step further
to avow that could Adam and Eve after the one
fall have remained harmoniously together in their
garden of Eden, cut off from God, but eating and
living for ever (see Gen. iii. 2iz), their lot would
have been after all not amiss. As inevitable as
the truth, that where our treasure is there our
hearts will be also (St. Matt. vi. 2^1), so inevit-
able is it that wherever our hearts are there
must in truth be abiding our treasure.
If we would reinstate God, our jealous God
HEAVENS. 177
(Ex. XX. 5), as our All in all in heaven, we must
begin by making Him our All in all on earth.
To which end no road can be surer than a con-
templation of Christ our Way (St. John xiv. 6),
Who in very truth is God Almighty brought
home, made clear, endeared to man (2 Cor. iv. 6 ;
Col. ii. 9 ; I St. John iv. 15, 16 ; see v. 20) : such
as the Divine Son is not, that the Divine Father
is not (St. John xiv. 9-1 1, so also in the Athan-
asian Creed : " Such as the Father is, such is the
Son : and such is the Holy Ghost ") ; terrors
should not overwhelm or distract even the
feeblest disciple. If the contemplation of God's
glory is able to change us into the same Image
from glory to glory (2 Cor. iii. 18), well may the
contemplation of His love so change us from
love to love (i St. John iv. 19).
It may help us to long for the heaven that
shall be if with a special reference to our Lord's
present Ministry of Mercy we take pains to
consider the heaven that now is. In the act
of ascending He blessed His own, thus and not
otherwise was He parted from them (St. Luke
xxiv. 50, 51); which last sound of blessing struck
audibly to man's ear the key-note of that pre-
valent mediation, that unflagging intercession,
N
178 SEEK AND FIND.
which appearing in the Presence of God for us
Christ now and ever exercises (Heb. vii. 2^ ; ix.
II, 12, 15-24). We are His care, we His object :
though of God Omniscient we dare not say, " His
engrossing care, His absorbing object/' yet even
such words in the degree that we could apprehend
them would still fail to convey to us the breadth,
length, depth, height, of His heart towards each
one of us (Eph. iii. 17-19). An individual who
claimed in some sort of vision to have beheld
Him, described Him as looking at every one
with love : wherein we find a parable for our
instruction. Shall He so look at us, while we
look with love at all things lovely that are in
heaven and earth except at Him ? " But what, is
thy servant a dog, that he should do this great
thing?" (see 2 Kings viii. 13).
Of old some saw in Him no beauty that they
should desire Him, and hid as it were their
faces from Him (Is. liii. 2, 3). Not so St.
Stephen who saw Him and was transfigured into
the divine likeness (St. Luke xxiii. 34 ; Acts vii.
55j 5^) ^o) *5 or St. Paul who saw Him and re-
ceived not grace in vain (i Cor. xv. 8-10); or
St. John who saw Him and having first fallen
at his feet as dead, at last answered, " Even so,
WATERS ABOVE THE FIRMAMENT. 1 79
come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. i. 17; xxii. fjo). We
who have to walk by faith and not by sight, and
by so walking may obtain all the greater blessing
(St, John XX. 29), must gaze on Him steadfastly
if darkly until the day of seeing face to face (i
Cor. xiii. 12). St. Peter is addressing not an ex-
ceptional group of saints but a vast multitude of
Christians when he writes : —
" Jesus Christ : Whom having not seen, ye
love"(i St. Peter i. 7, 8).
WATERS ABOVE THE
FIRMAMENT.
" We know that all things work together for good to
them that love GodP RoM. viii. 28.
As in the former series of studies, so now
again I reserve instances of " waters " for subse-
i^aent sections, and here take the " firmament "
as our text.
In one very solemn passage Christ Himself
took it in some sort for a text. The Pharisees
desired of Him a sign from heaven : and " He
answered and said unto them, When it is even-
N %
l8o SEEK AND FIND.
ing, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky
is red. And in the morning, it will be foul
weather to-day: for the sky is red and lowring.
O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the
sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the
times ? " (St. Matt. xvi. 1-3).
Thus we learn that to exercise natural per-
ception becomes a reproach to us, if along with
it we exercise not spiritual perception. Objects
of sight may and should quicken us to apprehend
objects of faith, things temporal suggesting things
eternal. Our just and tender Lord Who accepts
good will without regard to ability (see % Cor.
viii. 12), stands ready to sanctify and utilize
every sense and faculty we possess (see Rev.
iii. 20). Natural gifts are laid as stepping-stones
to supernatural : the nobler any man is by birth-
right, if keen of insight, lofty of instinctive aim,
wide of grasp, deep of penetration, the more is he
able and is he bound to discern in the visible
universe tokens of the love and presence and
foreshadowings of the will of God. It is good
for us to enjoy all good things which fall to
our temporal lot, so long as such enjoyment
kindles and feeds the desire of better things
reserved for our eternal inheritance. The younger
WATERS ABOVE THE FIRMAMENT. l8l
fairer than the elder (Judges xv. 2), the best wine
last (St. John ii. 10), these are symbols calculated
to set us while on earth hankering, longing,
straining, after heaven.
If inherent in all beauty is a subtle influence
whereby it may sadden in the very act of delight-
.ing us, this influence resides certainly not least
efficaciously in beauties of the sky. We watch
the ever-varying heaven overhead, and all its
changes still leave it essentially unchanged and
unchangeable: it seems to kiss earth and ocean
at the horizon, but we know that for ever it
cannot be touched, nor can the foot of the world-
spanning rainbow be found amongst us. Not
these, or such as these, are our real heaven, or
even our bridge to reach heaven : " there is a
path " but no fowl knoweth it, nor hath the
vulture's eye seen it (Job xxviii. 7).
Yet it is no lesson of "vanity of vanities,'^
of barren dreaming or desire (see Eccles. i. 2, 14)
which our Divine Master draws from the sky.
The Pharisees whom He is addressing made a
practical use of their sky-study, and for this they
are not blamed : on the contrary, they had but to
take an onward and upward step, to pass from
the region of sight into the region of faith, and
iSz SEEK AND FIND.
they then would have discerned that such " a sign
from heaven " as they challenged had actually
been vouchsafed to them, " He that came down
from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in
heaven " (St. John iii. 13).
What they missed we may appropriate.
" From all blindness of heart, Good Lord,
deliver us."
POWERS.
" T/ie devil^ taking Him up into an high mountain^
shewed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a
tnoment of time. And the devil said unto Him^ All this
power will I give Thee, and the glory of them : for that
is delivered unto me." St. Luke iv. 5, 6.
Around the Almighty Creator we behold the
universe come into existence in obedience, har-
mony, perfection (Gen. i. ; Neh. ix. 6 ; Rev.
iv. 11). Around the Almighty Redeemer earth
and its inhabiters though weak (Ps. Ixxv. 4, Prayer-
Book version) rage in impotent rebellion (Ps. ii.
I ; xlvi. 1-3, 6). One stronger than they holds
them as slaves, plies them as tools, wields them
as weapons against their Maker and Master : all
the foundations of the earth are out of course
POWERS. 183
(Ixxxii. 5); and not man alone, but the blind
forces of nature also seem to surge and swell
against Him to Whom the nations are as a drop
of a bucket, and Who taketh up the isles as a very
little thing (Is. xl. 15).
As God saw fit to curse the passive ground for
Adam's sake (Gen. iii. 17), so it pleased our
Divine Saviour to suffer many things not from
sinners only, but from inanimate or irrational
nature also : though ever and anon He vanquished
her opposition or enriched her niggardliness,
" Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further '■' (see
Job xxxviii. 11).
Christ, we are taught, was born in the winter,
a season impoverished of leaves, flowers, fruit,
sunshine, when the voice of birds is silent (see
Song of Sol. ii. 11-13). The inn which housed
other Israelites housed not Him (St. Luke ii. 7).
Desert places which for His precursor brought
forth locusts and wild honey, spread no table for
Him (St. Matt. iii. 1-4 ; iv. i, 2). The water
of Jacob's well remained, at least for a while,
inaccessible to Him : and He, whose first miracle
supplied wine to His friends, Himself sat patiently
athirst (St. John ii. i-ii ; iv. 6-1 1). A village
where Samaritans dwelt at home shut its doors
184 SEEK AND FIND.
against Him: and He who of old had avenged
His insulted prophet by fire, Himself journeyed
meekly elsewhere in search of hospitality (St.
Luke ix. 51-56; % Kings i. 9-12). Earth which
furnished holes and nests for foxes and birds,
provided no resting-place for Him (St. Luke
ix. 58). The barren fig-tree mocked His hunger
with leaves only (St. Matt. xxi. 18, 19). On all
these occasions irresponsible nature, involved in
the curse of man's guilt and sometimes directed
by his will, hid as it were her face from her
Maker: while in one instance alone did He
pronounce upon her a sentence of immediate
punishment. But other occasions there were
when contrariwise He vouchsafed to assert His
absolute dominion over His creatures ; " Thou
hast scattered Thine enemies with Thy strong
arm. The heavens are Thine, the earth also is
Thine ^' (Ps. Ixxxix. 10, 11). Thus He stilled the
tempest (St. Mark iv. 35-39), He raised the dead
(St. Luke vii. 1 1-15 ; viii. 49-55 ; St. John xi. 38-
44), by His word He cast out devils and assigned
to them their habitation (St, Mark v. 3-15).
" God hath spoken once ; twice have I heard
this; that power belongeth unto God" (Ps. Ixii.
11). Great, unfathomable is the mystery of
POWERS. 185
powers set in array against God." " Shall the
ax boast itself against him that heweth there-
with ? or shall the saw magnify itself against him
that shaketh it ? as if the rod should shake itself
against them that lift it up, or as if the staff
should lift up itself, as if it were no wood "
(Is. X. 15). St. Paul tells us of principalities,
powers, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness,
which wrestle with God's elect (Eph. vi. 12,)
whom whoso toucheth, toucheth as it were the
apple of the eye (Zech. ii. 8 ; see Deut. xxxii. 10).
Yet more awful are our Lord's own words at the
moment of His arrest : " This is your hour, and
the power of darkness " (St. Luke xxii. ^^).
" He that is not with Me is against me :" " He
that is not against us is on our part" (St. Matt. xii.
30; St.Markix. 40). Neutrality is impossible; and
were it possible, woe to that man who there took
up his position : " I would," says Christ to luke-
warm Laodicea, — " I would thou wert cold or
hot " (Rev. iii. 15) ; neutral Meroz brought upon
itself a curse and not a blessing (Judges v. 23).
All created powers great or small, visible or in-
visible, — every man's powers, — my own, — must
run their course, must attain the end towards
which in very truth they are directed, must con-
l86 SEEK AND FIND.
sciously or unconsciously effect the purposes of
God (see 2 Cor. vi. i ; Acts iv. 27, 28). Free
will, that one power which God Himself reSises
to coerce, free will it is that renders possible our
self-destruction; and that on the other hand
furnishes us with the one solitary thing which
as a king we can give unto our all-giving beloved
King (see 2 Sam. xxiv. 23, 24). Creatures devoid
of free-will abide safe and blessed within the
will of God ; but they cannot withhold, and there-
fore they cannot genuinely give. Would we,
if we could, choose by once for all foregoing
choice to offer for ever after unto the Lord our
God of that which doth cost us nothing ? This
were to love mistrustfully, if to love at all :
Christ help us to trust entirely because we love
much.
Jesus said : " All power is given unto Me in
heaven and in earth " (St. Matt, xxviii. 18).
" Now unto Him that is able to keep you from
falling, and to present you faultless before the
presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the
only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen "
(St. Jude 24, 25).
SUN AND MOON. 1 87
SUN AND MOON.
" Joseph dreamed a drea7n, . . . and he dreamed yet
another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold,
I have dreamed a dream more j and, behold, the sun and
the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to m<?."
Gen. xxxvii. 5, 9.
In the Patriarch Joseph we recognise, first, the
best-loved son of Jacob, secondly, an eminent type
of Christ: to him, therefore, under both these
aspects, his prophetic dream had to be fulfilled.
Its fulfilment to himself, in his own natural
person, can be clearly traced through the course of
his subsequent history, when the actual sustenance
of his father and his brethren having lapsed into
his hands to be granted or withheld, Jacob who
had rebuked him for his words, and his brethren
in whose hearts they had rankled (Gen. xxxvii.
10, 19, %6), were reduced to exert their utmost
endeavours to remove his supposed suspicions
and conciliate his favour. Rachel indeed had
then passed out of this familiar sphere of hunger
and thirst (xxxv. 19), but such was already the
case when Jacob expressly included her in his
protest: perhaps we may consider that her
1 88 SEEK AND FIND.
humiliation was virtually involved in that of her
husband, or of her younger son (long supposed
to be her sole surviving offspring) Benjamin.
More however does it import us to grasp and
revere the type than to account for the narrative.
When Joseph stands before us as a figure of Jesus
Christ, the mystery of the dream and its interpre-
tation shifts its ground, the mysterious element
ascending to a higher level. It is no marvel
to behold moon and stars, His mother and His
brethren, do obeisance unto Him: but the sun
does obeisance also ; hereby the Incarnation
appears dimly intimated, the Godhead abasing
itself to the Manhood, the Creator clothing Him-
self with the creature, and subjecting Himself
to the laws which rule creation ; yea, in fulness
of time the divine Father delegating to that
Only-begotten Son, Who for ever abides Very
Man no less than Very God, the sovereignty and
administration of the universe (St. Matt. xxv.
31-33; xxviii. 18; St. John v. 26, 27; Heb.
ii. 8).
Amongst our Lord's recorded sayings we find
the sun mentioned as an agent of God's bounty
(St. Matt. V. 45) : a symbol of persecution (xiii. 6,
21) : a similitude of the consummated glory of the
SUN AND MOON. 1 89
righteous {v. 43) : an exhibitor of signs in the
latter days (St. Luke xxi. 25). Of the moon,
if I am not mistaken, His sacred lips make no
mention except as of a sign-giver, and then always
in conjunction with the sun: perhaps without
over - fanciful ness we may deduce hence that
because the moon in its earthward aspect appears
as the very embodiment of change and exercises
as two of its main functions the ruling of tides
and the occasional eclipse of the sun, therefore its
spiritual lesson for ourselves is one of warning
rather than of example. Its very changeableness
bids us lay hold on that which is unchangeable :
" Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy
youth, . . . while the sun, or the light, or the moon,
or the stars, be not darkened "*' (Eccles. xii. i, 2).
" They shall perish^ but Thou shalt endure " (Ps.
cii. 26).
Sun and moon were alike privileged to do
homage to their Maker at His Crucifixion : for
the darkness which hid the one brought not to
light the other (Amos viii. 9 ; St. Luke xxiii. 44,
45). Besides this phrase, "The sun was darkened,"
there is, I believe, only one other mention of
either luminary in the Gospel narrative of the
events of our Lord's life, St. Mark (i. 32-34) and
190 SEEK AND FIND.
St. Luke (iv. 40, 41) both speaking of a certain
memorable sunset at which Christ healed the sick
and the possessed. But in St. Matthew's account
(xvii. I, 2) of the Transfiguration, the sun is in-
vested with a double glory by the effulgence
of our Lord's face being likened to it : so also
the Psalmist (Ixxxiv. 11) spake of the Lord God
as a sun and shield, and the prophet Malachi
(iv. 2) was inspired to style Christ the Sun of
Righteousness. Moreover, under such an aspect
the beloved disciple, " in the Spirit on the Lord's
Day," beheld once again that very Alpha and
Omega, Son of Man (Rev. i. 10, 11, 13, 16), and
Word of Life v/hom his hands had handled (i St.
John i. i) and on whose bosom he once had
leaned (St. John xiii. 23).
In the first Book of the Old Testament a
prophetic dream brings into association sun,
moon, and stars ; in the last Book of the New,
" a great wonder in heaven " shews us the same
association : " A woman clothed with the sun,
and the moon under her feet, and upon her head
a crown of twelve stars '' (Rev. xii. i). Here
the sun and stars no longer bow down, but confer
dignity and majesty. And what of the moon ?
Subordinate as she seems, yet is she the very
SUN AND MOON. 19!
foundation on which all stands ; her charac-
teristic instability reappears transmuted into
a characteristic stability. Perhaps, while we
keep silence before the loftier personifications
which this passage suggests, we may at the same
time not irreverently draw from it a comforting
lesson of hope : foreseeing the day when every
faithful soul shall reappear clothed in the glorious
righteousness of Christ (Gal. iii. 27 ; Phil. iii. 8, 9)
" above the brightness of the sun " (see Acts
xxvi. 13) ; when in the full Communion of Saints
all stars of all magnitudes shall shine and sing
together (see Job xxxviii. 7), the splendour of
each being the common splendour of all (i Cor.
XV. 41, 42), Christ the Saint of saints, the true
all-enlightening Light, glowing in all, over all,
beyond all (Heb. iv. 14, 15 ; St. John i. 9 ;
2 Thess. i. 10; Rev. iii. 12); when even the very
moon of our probation, its imperfections, changes,
eclipses, shall be seen to underlie and to uphold
the perfected and stable structure of our sal-
vation.
" Who hath wrought and done it, calling the
generations from the beginning? I the Lord,
the First, and with the last ; I am He " (Is.
xli. 4).
192 SEEK AND FIND.
STARS.
" One star dijffereth froj7t another star in glory. ^^
I Cor. XV. 41.
The starry host, like ever- wakeful eyes, more
aptly, perhaps, than any other member of the
visible creation, represents to our apprehension
the Divine Omnipresence and Omniscience. All
who dwell upon earth are not in appearance only,
but in fact shut out alternately, periodically, by
the invariable revolutions of our globe, from the
sun's aspect. In like manner, as regards earth's
many faces, the moon's proper rotation hides
and reveals her alternately. On the contrary,
from all stars simultaneously no man is ever
excluded, except by such merely apparent exclu-
sion as may be brought about by daylight or by
mist : be our hemisphere and our zone which it
may, be the stars at a given moment discernible
or indiscernible by our vision, yet seen or unseen
a multitude of their celestial host abides ever
above every horizon ; our planet poised as a very
small thing amid their magnitudes, as a very
obscure thing amid their splendours.
STARS. 193
Viewed thus, the sun and moon by a sort of
parable connect themselves with one chosen race,
the stars with the world-wide brotherhood of
man ; those with an exclusive Church, these with
the Church Catholic. He was a prophet not
of the Jews, but of the Gentiles, who foretold the
star that should come out of Jacob (Num. xxiv. 1 7)
and they whom a star guided to our Lord's infant
presence were Gentile worshippers (St. Matt. ii.
i-ii); with whom, though we possess not boxes
of sweet odours to break at Christ's sacred feet,
let us who also are of Gentile origin bring hearts
full of more fragrant love as our offering ; thank-
ing Him that He calls not Himself a sun (though
divers moved by the Holy Ghost have so desig-
nated Him by a figure, or compared Him as with
a similitude : Mai. iv. % ; St. Matt. xvii. i ; Rev.
i. 16), but that He hath said : " I am the root and
the offspring of David, and the bright and morn-
ing star" (xxii. 16).
At the proclamation of which divine title well
may all morning stars sing together, and all sons
of God shout for joy (see Job xxxviii. 4-7) : for
Christ being chiefest abideth among His ten
thousand (Song of Sol. v. 10), according to His
own most gracious word, ^'Father, I will that
O
194 SEEK AND FIND.
they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with
Me where I am ; that they may behold My glory "
(St. John xvii. 2^4). The number of the true
Israel shall be as the number of the stars, by man
numberless (G^n. xv. 5 ; Rev. vii. 9). They that
turn many to righteousness shall shine as the
stars for ever and ever (Dan. xii. 3). To him
that overcometh and keepeth Christ's works unto
the end will the Lord the Righteous Judge give the
morning star (Rev. ii. 36, 28 ; see 2, Tim. iv. 8).
Thus He deigneth to gather us around Him if as
servants yet also as friends (St. John xv. 14, 15 ;
Rev. xxii. 3, 4) ; thus He is not ashamed to call
us brethren (Heb. ii. 11, i:z): for thus shall it
be done unto the man whom the king delighteth
to honour (St. Matt. xxv. 34 ; see Esth. vi. 11).
Stars are lit as beacons everywhere in sight of
the whole world : a beacon betokens danger as
well as safety ; height involves depth. " Let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall,"
St. Paul writes to his Corinthian converts ( i Cor.
x. i:^) ; and elsewhere we read, " Pride goeth
before destruction^ and an haughty spirit before
a fall" (Prov. xvi. 18). In Holy Scripture the
stars and pride, and the downfall of pride, appear
connected together in two awful texts (Is. xiv.
STARS. 195
ia-15; Ob. 3,4), and St. Jude {v. 13) denounces
certain sinners under the figure of " wandering
stars, to whom is reserved the blaclcness of dark-
ness for ever." The Prophet Amos (v. 8, 36)
names two constellations in exhorting his hearers
to seek God, and alludes to an idol-star in sum-
ming up their defection : and the second of these
texts is quoted by St. Stephen in that first tre-
mendous oration — the first on record after the
woes and condemnations uttered by our Lord
Himself — which thundering against apostate
Israel, won for its speaker the Christian Proto-
martyr's crown (Acts vii. 42, 43, 51-60).
How evident is the manifestation of God's
goodness and glory in the starry host of His
creation, is twice expressed or implied in the
Book of Job (ix. 7, 9 ; xxxviii. 31, 32). He the
very eternal Deity Who alone can bind the sweet
influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of
Orion, is that very Christ, Who holding seven
stars in His right hand, once revealed Himself to
St. John's adoring contemplation (Rev. i. 13,
16, 20). And in that strong right hand not
" angels " alone (bishops of churches) are clasped :
each sheep also and each lamb of His flock nestles
in safety there, whence no man shall ever pluck it
O 2
19^ SEEK AND FIND.
(St. John X. 37-30). As in the future glory, so
in the present grace, stars are of unequal magni-
tudes and lustres; but the least is no less than
a star precious to Him Who made it, and the
greatest is no more than a star whose splendour
is His free gift. We indeed can, — but no other
strength on earth or in heaven or in hell can
dislodge us from His hold : and unless we our-
selves wrest our exclusive power to our own
destruction, the very justice of God against our
sins will be powerless when set against the dues
of Christ's atonement (see Is. liii. 10, 11 ; Zech.
ix. II ; Rom. viii. 31-34). Only because the
infatuated king of Judah by refusing to hear, and
persisting in disobedience, had already wrenched
himself out of the divine safeguard, did God at
length swear concerning him : " Though Coniah
.... were the signet upon My right hand, yet
would I pluck thee thence " (Jer. xxii. 31-24).
Let us watch and pray and take heed to our
most sure word of prophecy, until the day dawn and
the day star arise in our hearts (2 St. Peter i. 19).
Let us not be as vain stargazers who can neither
deliver others nor themselves (Is. xlvii. 13-15).
*' Anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou
mayest see '" (Rev. iii. 18).
SHOWERS AND DEW. I97
SHOWERS AND DEW.
^^ If any man have ears to hear, let him hear"
St. Mark iv. 23.
Leaving dew to be considered further on,
where it reappears combined with frost, I will for
the present confine myself to a few remarks con-
nected with showers.
He Who spake as never man spake (St. John
vii. 46) deigned many times to take for His text
or illustration some common every-day object,
making thereof the key to unlock a mystery or
the goad to urge His hearers to a duty (see
Eccles. xii. 11). Thus, concerning "the face of
the sky and of the earth," we find Christ appeal-
ing to an experience which men admit and act
upon as convicting them of sin in remaining
ignorant of matters more momentous : the shower
which they foretell rebukes them for those signs
of the times which they discern not (St. Luke
xii. 54-56)-
, This nineteenth century of ours seems beyond
1 all previous centuries to be a period of running to
and fro, and of increased knowledge (see Dan.
J 98 SEEK AND FIND.
xii. 4). Now therefore presumably, in at any rate
no less a degree than heretofore, must men be
liable to the risk of at once knowing and not
knowing: knowing many things, while ignoring
the one thing needful (see St. Luke x. 41, 42);
adding knowledge to knowledge, but not as
St. Peter bids us adding it to virtue, and least
of all adding it through virtue to underlying faith
(2 St. Pet. i. 5). And whilst the high and deep
men of to-day abide pre-eminently exposed to
so great a peril; lesser persons, including many
nimble-witted individuals of our lesser sex, run
their parallel and proportionate risk by adding
flowers of superficial knowledge to a rooted
ignorance, the play of a fanciful luminous iri-
descence to the crest of a dense mental mist.
Yet since charity always edifieth, although
knowledge oftentimes pufifeth up (i Cor. viii i),
neither the least instructed person nor the most
learned need miss his own appointed " showers of
blessing " (Ezek. xxxiv. 26) : for while knowledge
is and must remain exceptional, charity lies ever
accessible to us all. Our loving Master desires to
add true wisdom, be it to man's knowledge or
to his ignorance : whichever of the twain is ours
we have but to carry it to Him ; and He Whose
SHOWERS AND DEW. 199
first-called Apostles were unlearned and ignorant
men (Acts iv. 13), but Who afterwards elected to
the same apostleship the erudite and eloquent
St. Paul, — He only and He amply is both able
and willing to make us wise unto salvation.
And along with heavenly wisdom all else shall
in good time be added to us: that which He
doeth and we know not now, we shall, please
God, know hereafter (see St. John xiii. 7). It
may never indeed in this world be His pleasure
to grant us previsions of seers and forecastings of
prophets : but He will assuredly vouchsafe us so
much foresight and illumination as should suffice
to keep us on the watch with loins girded and
lamps burning ; not with hearts meanwhile failing
us for fear as we look for those things that are
coming upon the e^rth, but with uplifted eyes and
uplifted heads, because as they come to pass our
redemption draweth nigh (St. Luke xii. 35-38 ;
xxi. 25-28).
A cloud and a shower, then, become memen-
toes to stir us up to spiritual alertness and dis-
cernment. Familiar objects continually set afresh
before us, and once for all through association
Divinely commended to our notice, they incite us
not merely to study signs of yet weightier import,
200 SEEK AND FIND.
but also to observe modesty and accuracy in all
our investigations, whether of matters momentous
or trivial : for we notice how not every cloud is
the cloud in question, nay, nor even every cloud
in the west; it must be a rising as well as a
western cloud to be the precise cloud of our
Lord's discourse. And if two characteristics
must tally to establish so unimportant an iden-
tity, many prayers and careful pondering, a loving
fear as well as a reverent love, will do well to
regulate our investigation of matters spiritual,
future, eternal (consider Job xxxii. 6, 7; Ps. cxxxi;
Prov. XXX. 5, 6 ; St. John xxi. 33 ; Rom. xii. 3).
" If any man think that he knoweth any thing,
he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know"
(i Cor. viii. 2),
WINDS.
'•^ Awake^ O north wind; and come, thou south j blow
upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow outJ'^
Song of Sol. iv. 16.
Every wind from every quarter fosters growth,
so long as it be simply of God's sending, and
be met according to His Will: a north wind
WINDS. 201
braces, a south wind matures; both conducive
towards the final overflow of spices. So Solo-
mon by the wisdom of his inspiration tells
us. Experience reads us a modified and en-
larged lesson ; how man may neutralise or
actually reverse his allotted blessings, whether of
discipline or of indulgence: thus we see that
St. Paul's fellow-travellers adhering to their own
opinion rather than to his admonition, were
misled by the softly-blowing south wind, and
maltreated by the tempestuous north-eastern
Euroclydon (Acts xxvii. 9—21). Our Divine
Teacher has Himself deigned in His parable of
the Two Foundations (St. Matt. vii. 34-27) to
draw for us a spiritual lesson from certain natural
facts, showing us that our outward circumstances
become good or evil not. of their own essence,
but in strict accordance with whatever good or
evil responds to them from within ourselves:
while His simile of " A reed shaken with the
wind" (xi. 7), and the words of His fore-
runner who spake of Him as of One " Whose
fan is in His hand" (iii. 12), equally with the
parable point to the testing, sifting office of
wind.
Throughout our Lord^s personal history the
202 SEEK AND FIND.
winds never, I think, appear except in opposition
to Himself or to His disciples. Thus on one
occasion "a great storm of wind" put in jeopardy
the boat wherein He slept (St. Mark iv. ^^-
39) : and during a portion of a second voyage the
wind rendered toilsome the Apostles' rowing
(vi. 45-48), and for a moment beat down the
faith of St. Peter (St. Matt. xiv. 28-32). Yet
" the wind " is that sacred figure whereby Christ
instructed Nicodemus in the mystery of regener-
ation (St. John iii. 8) : in harmony with which
gracious intimation " a sound from heaven as of
a rushing mighty wind " announced the descent
of God the Holy Ghost upon the infant Church
(Acts ii. 1-4). Unlike indeed and empty, never-
theless by its emptiness suggestive of a future
fulness, was that " great and strong wind " of
Elijah, wherein "the Lord was not" (i Kings
xix. 11): or at the least it becomes thus suggestive
to ourselves when we read, though in a different
divine context, " For the Holy Ghost was not
yet given ; because that Jesus was not yet glori-
fied" (St. John vii. 37-39).
Three Apostles instruct and edify the Church
by help of an illustrative wind. St. Paul exhorts
to unity and steadfastness of faith leading up to
WINDS. 203
perfection in Clirist (Ephes. iv. 13-15) : St. James
(i. 5, 6 ; iii. 3-5) to confidence in prayer, and
government of the tongue : while St. Jude
{vv. 10-13) unveils to the faithful the actual state
and overhanging doom of certain arrogant sin-
ners.
Ezekiel (xxxvii. i-io) in the valley of vision
was commanded to summon breath from the four
winds, after which with mortal eyes he looked
upon a resurrection. St. John the Evangelist
" in the Spirit " beheld how at the opening of the
sixth seal " the stars of heaven fell unto the earth,
even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when
she is shaken of a mighty wind" (Rev. i. 10;
vi. 12, 13). Our Blessed Saviour connecting
indissolubly in our memories the wind, the fig
tree, and the end of all things, promises that His
elect shall be gathered together " from the four
winds,"' and to this promise appends a parable
drawn from the fig tret (St. Mark xiii. 24-39).
Thus common things continually at hand, wind
or windfall or budding bough, acquire a sacred
, association, and cross our path under aspects at
I once familiar and transfigured, and preach to
/ our spirits while they serve our bodies : till not
prophets alone and sons of prophets, but each
204 SEEK AND FIND.
creature of time bears witness to things which
, concern eternity, and without speech or language
makes its voice heard : " I have an errand to
1 thee Unto which of all us ? . . . To thee "
(see 2 Kings ix. 5).
FIRE AND HEAT.
"Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.^''
Job v. 7.
If any ordinary person had been called upon
to express the inevitableness of human suffering,
I suppose there are many other similes he would
have been at the least as likely to select as this
one which, although proposed by Eliphaz the
Temanite, we may reverently surmise to be
according to " the mind of the Spirit " (see Rom.
viii. 27). Such a person might, for instance,
have said : " Man is born to trouble, as water
flows downward.*' Either form would have con-
veyed a truth. But this of our own framing
would dwell upon the depressed side of misery :
that other, recorded by inspiration, takes into
1 account the elevating energy which, by God's
I mercy, constitutes earthly suffering a lever heaven-
/wards: and therefore we thankfully and con-
FIRE AND HEAT. 2,0^
fidently accept these words of Eliphaz, as written
that we through patience and comfort of the
Scriptures might have hope (xv. 4). Christ''s
mortal life, beyond all other human lives, ex-
emplifies our text.
The natural element of fire appears once only
in our Lord's history; and that once, on the
night of His passion, connecting itself with
(surely) one of the keenest pangs dealt to His
loving human heart. For that night being cold
the servants of the high-priest and the officers
kindled a fire, and as they clustered around its
kindly heat St. Peter stood among them: and
anon the great and strong blast of temptation
brake in pieces the very " rock " in the presence
of the Lord (St. John i. 41, 42, ; St. Matt. xvi.
18; see I Kings xix. 11): "Simon Peter stood
and warmed himself. They said therefore unto
him. Art not thou also one of His disciples?
He denied it, and said, I am not" (St. John
xviii. 15-27). " Behold, all ye that kindle a fire,
that compass yourselves about with sparks : walk
in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye
have kindled. This shall ye have of Mine hand ;
ye shall lie down in sorrow" (Isa. L 11). These
words of Isaiah which with their context our
2,06 SEEK AND FIND.
Church appoints as the Epistle for Tuesday in
Holy Week, when taken along with that most
sacred context, seem to prophesy the moment,
circumstances, consequences of the denial. " The
Lord turned, and looked upon Peter .... And
Peter went out, and wept bitterly" (St. Luke
xxii. 6i. 62).
Fire is one of the chief symbols of the Divine
Presence, and especially of God the Holy Ghost :
the Apostles being " all with one accord in one
place .... There appeared unto them cloven
tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of
them. And they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Spirit gave them utterance " (Acts ii. 1-4).
Such an emblematic connexion underlies many
mysterious acts and events, no less than many
words Divine or inspired. As fire was prepared
in Abraham's hand for Isaac's sacrifice (Gen.
xxii. 6), so was it through the eternal Spirit that
Jesus Christ offered Himself without spot to God
(Heb. ix. 14). Moses beheld a bush burning
with fire and not consumed (Ex. iii. 2) ; which
type hastened to its fulfilment when the mys-
tery of the Incarnation was revealed to blessed
St. Mary in the words, " The Holy Ghost shall
FIRE AND HEAT. 207
come Upon thee" (St. Luke i. ^^). Israel's
Exodus and ensuing journeys were guided by the
Lord in a pillar of a cloud and of fire (Ex. xiii.
21, 22; Numb. ix. 15-22); and centuries after-
wards are thus alluded to by the Prophet Isaiah
(Ixiii. 14), " As a beast goeth down into the
valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest."
When the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai to
institute the Law, He descended in fire (Ex.
xix. 18). The fire which consecrated the ini-
tiatory sacrifice in the Mosaic Tabernacle (Lev.
ix. 24), in the threshingfloor of Oman (i Chron.
xxi. 26), and in Solomon^'s Temple (2 Chron.
vii. i), was God's gift to man, not man's gift to
God; and before ever it was kindled upon the
first legal altar of burnt offering, Aaron was com-
manded never to suffer it to become extinct
(Lev. vi. 13): in correspondence with which law
of the perpetual fire, we Christians have St. Paul's
injunction, "Quench not the Spirit" (i Thess.
V. 1 9), as upon the altar of our own hearts. Fire
from heaven reasserted to apostate Israel the
exclusive divinity of God (i Kings xviii. 36-39) ;
speaking as it were to every man in his own
tongue wherein he was born, for all men alike
could understand its language (see Acts ii. 3-8).
208 SEEK AND FIND.
Jeremiah (xx. 7-9), discouraged and heartsick,
resolved to keep silence : but the Divine afflatus
was " as a burning fire shut up " within him^ and
he could not forbear. In the visions of Zechariah
(ii. 4, 5) it was revealed to him that the Lord
will be to Jerusalem " a wall of fire round about,"
and " the glory in the midst of her." Malachi
(iii. I, 2) closing the Canon of the Old Testament,
uses " a refiner's fire " as a similitude of Christ.
Then like a flaming torch caught from hand to
hand of those who " run all " (see i Cor. ix. 24),
" the voice of one crying in the wilderness " takes
up the word after some four centuries of silence,
and St. John Baptist proclaims Christ now ready
to be revealed, as One Who shall baptize " with
the Holy Ghost, and with fire " (St. Matt. iii. 3,
II; Is. xl. 3). Finally and supremely and in
apparent correspondence with the words of His
forerunner, we have our Lord's own utterances
" I am come to send fire on the earth ; and what
will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a
baptism to be baptized with; and how am I
straitened till it be accomplished!" (St. Luke
xii. 49, 50).
When the two " sons of thunder " (St. Mark
iii. 17) proposed to call down fire from heaven to
FIRE AND HEAT. 209
consume certain Samaritans, their Teacher (and
ours) rebuked them, saying, " Ye know not what
manner of spirit ye are of" (St. Luke ix. 51-56).
In which pregnant words of merciful reproof
we may perhaps reverently discern a latent sug-
gestion that there is indeed a " spirit " whereby
we may lawfully invoke " fire " on our opponents :
for if the Holy Spirit burn and shine within our-
selves, deep cannot but call to deep (see Ps. xlii.
7), our love cannot but appeal to the answering
Divine love, and we shall pray for those who
'' despitefully use us " (St. Matt. v. 43-48) that
on them as on us God^s Spirit may descend like
fire to purge away all evil and ripen all good.
" If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst,
give him drink : for in so doing thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head " (Rom. xii. 26).
Blessed is the burning fiery furnace of our trial,
though heated one seven times more than its
wont, if so be that the Son of God walk therein
with us, and we with Him (see Dan. iii. 19-25;
I St. Pet. iv. 12, 13). Blessed is a lifelong wil-
derness of drought, of fiery serpents and scor-
pions, if so be we go up from such a wilder-
ness leaning upon our Beloved (see Deut. viii.
15; Song of Sol. viii. 5). Blessed are the
I
i2IO SEEK AND FIND.
burden and heat of this day of our probation
(St. Matt. XX. 12), if only we accomplish the day's
work in its day ; " the night cometh, when no
man can work" (see St. John ix. 4): but to all
who "sleep in Jesus" (i Thess. iv. 14) it will be
no more than a night whose shadows flee away
at daybreak (Song of Sol. ii. 16, 17). And
when once that day of days, that supreme birth-
day has set in, we know how it will fare with
such as have worked faithfully and borne faith-
fully : " They shall hunger no more, neither thirst
any more ; neither shall the sun light on them,
nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the
midst of the Throne shall feed them^ and shall
lead them unto living fountains of waters: and
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes '*
(Rev. vii. 16, 17).
WINTER AND SUMMER.
" In summer and in winter shall it be^ Zech. xiv. 8.
In the passage (vv, 4-1 1) which includes the
foregoing sentence, the Prophet Zechariah is un-
derstood to speak of Christ's Kingdom: one,
universal, indestructible, quickened with an inex-
haustible life. And because the seasons are
essentially fugitive, for were they not fugitive
WINTER AND SUMMER. iJII
they would not be seasons, — their flight enhances,
so to say, the permanence around which they
ceaselessly circle : just as our Lord's inherent sta-
bility is brought home to us rather by His walking
on the sea than on the land.
Christ's gracious lips have mentioned both
summer and winter ; and although concerning
each an intermediate secondary reference can be
traced, the paramount connexion as regards both
appears to be with a future many centuries re-
mote from those to whom He spake : " Pray ye
that your flight be not in the winter " (St. Mark
xiii. i8) : " Behold the fig tree, and all the trees ;
when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of
your own selves that summer is now nigh at
hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things
come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God
is nigh at hand" (St. Luke xxi. 29-31). In
these two passages summer wears an aspect of
beauty, hope, promise ; winter one which forebodes
aggravated affliction, straitness, trial ; each season
maintains its natural character whether of severity
or of indulgence, while both equally have to do
with the perfecting of God's elect : equally, yet
not equally, for while hope is developed without
let or stint, fear becomes limited and soothed by
P 2
mZ SEEK AND FIND.
the enjoined protection of prayer : and hence we
gather that we may lawfully deprecate the ex-
tremity of suffering even under God's own
chastening hand, so long as we do so after
Christ's pattern of ultimate and absolute submis-
sion : " Father, if Thou be willing, remove this
cup from Me: nevertheless not My Will, but
Thine, be done" (St. Luke xxii. 42). In old
times Baruch appears to have aimed, or at least
to have desired amiss, by hankering after private
prosperity in the day of his nation's downfall (Jer.
xlv.) : on the other hand, the ardent aspiration
of Jabez though emphatically of a personal drift
found acceptance (i Chron. iv. 9, 10).
Concerning one event only of our Saviour's
life does the Gospel in definite terms state the
season at which it occurred : " It was at Jeru-
salem the feast of the dedication, and it was
winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in
Solomon's porch." Then follows one of those
awful passages in which the gainsaying Jews
think to proceed to extremity against Him Who
spake as never man spake ; after which we read :
"They sought again to take Him: but He escaped
out of their hand, and went away again beyond
Jordan" (St. John x. 22-40). Christ therefore
WINTER AND SUMMER. Ct,I^
in His own sacred Person knew what it was
to flee in the winter, and hence we learn how in
this point, as in all points, sin excepted, He can
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities
(see Heb. iv. 15). In the order of the Church
year, moreover, the memorial of His flight into
Egypt occurs in the winter, on the Feast of the
Holy Innocents, December 28 (Gospel for the
Day). " In all their affliction He was afflicted "
(Is. Ixiii. 9).
Of those Festivals which are at once personal to
Christ and of the first magnitude, Christmas Day is
celebrated in the heart of winter. Ascension Day
being movable may or may not fall in summer.
But regarding Ascension Day for the moment as
a summer feast, we behold as in a parable how
Grace reverses the decrees of Nature ; for we see
winter bestow, and summer take away. Thus,
at a first glance; a second penetrating deeper
discerns that in the Kingdom of Grace all alike
is grace, all alike is gift ; the gift is eternal, its
withdrawal is merely temporary and partial.
*' Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end
of the world (St. Matt, xxviii. 20).
" I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again,
a 14 SEEK AND FIND.
and receive you unto Myself; that where I am,
there ye may be also " (St. John xiv. 2, 3).
DEWS AND FROSTS.
" Who hath begotton the drops of dew f ... And the
hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered itf" Job
xxxviii. 28, 29.
Dew and hoar frost thus once associated in the
Divine challenge to human reason, reappear in
some sort of association when God's gift of " the
corn of heaven " (Ps. Ixxviii. 2,^) to His hungry
people appealed to their faith : for we read how
the manna, itself as small as the hoar frost, was
accompanied by a fall of dew (Ex. xvi. 13, 14) :
and again, though in a different sense, we find
manna connected with iciness in the Book of the
Wisdom of Solomon (xix. %i) where we are told
that the flames melted not "the icy kind of
heavenly meat, that was of nature apt to melt."
Now as that ancient " bread from heaven " typi-
fied our " True Bread from heaven " (St. John vi.
3i~35) ^^ ^^ ^^ marvel to behold it surrounded
by auxiliary types of divers kinds. That dew
which ushered in the manna prefigures Baptism
DEWS AND FROSTS. 215
paving the way to Holy Communion (see also
St. Mark xiv. 13, 14, where a similar significance
has been traced), the gift of the Spirit leading to
and effecting our union with Christ (i Cor. xii.
i:z, 13); whilst the manna falling upon the dew
(for so Num. xi. 9 may apparently be understood)
indicates how it is in such hearts as are temples of
the Holy Ghost that Christ vouchsafes to dwell
(see I St. John iv. 13). Corn, wine, and dew
(that is, water), elements of the two great Chris-
tian Sacraments, are united by Moses in pro-
phesying the secure blessedness of Israel (Deut.
xxxiii. 28) ; and in the words, " Let there be no
dew" David invokes utter barrenness upon the
mountains of Gilboa [2 Sam. i. 2,1).
In the Song of Songs (v. 2,) the listening Bride
hears the voice of the Beloved, saying : " Open to
Me, My sister. My love, My dove. My undefiled :
for My head is filled with dew, and My locks with
the drops of the night." This verse by its tone
of exclusion and privation recalls to our loving
memory His life Who had not where to lay His
head (St. Matt. viii. 20) ; and Who when others
went home to their own houses, Himself resorted,
for a night's rest apparently, to the Mount of
Olives (St. John vii. 53 ; viii. i, 2),--His death
V
2l6 SEEK AND FIND.
Who lay in the grave, and even that last bed was
not His own (St. Matt, xxvii. 57-60), through
more hours of night's dewy stillness than of day's
splendour, — His resurrection Who when at even-
ing He came to His Apostles found them not
awaiting Him with open arms and in trembling
hope, but congregated together with doors shut
for fear of the Jews (St. John xx. 19). Truly our
Redeemer bought with a great price His right to
re-quicken us : "1 will be as the dew unto Israel :
he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots
as Lebanon. . . . They shall revive as the corn,
and grow as the vine : the scent thereof shall be
as the wine of Lebanon" (Hos. xiv. 5, 7). And
what He has thus done for us lays on us a charge,
yea, rather confers on us the possibility and the
privilege that we should in some sort and from
the depth of our unworthiness love as He loved,
and sacrifice ourselves as He sacrificed Himself
(St. John xiii. 34 ; i St. John iii. 16). Whoso
hath freely received must freely give (St. Matt.
X. 8). Christ holds up before our mental eyes
Himself in all the loveliness of His perfect bene-
ficence: and when He has charmed our heart
through our eyes He rests not satisfied with our
idle admiration or inoperative love ; but says to
FROST AND COLD. 217
each one of us, "Go, and do thou likewise" (St.
Luke X. 37). He Who is as dew to us may justly
exact that we may in some small measure make
ourselves as dew to our brethren.
"And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the
midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as
the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for
man, nor waiteth for the sons of men" (Micah
V. 7).
FROST AND COLD.
" The children of Israel went into the midst of the sea
upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto
them on their right hand, and on their left." Ex. xiv. 22.
When Moses celebrates the Jewish Exodus in
a glorious song of triumph and uses the expression
" the depths were congealed " (Ex. xv. 8), I sup-
pose that we must construe his words not literally
but figuratively ; that we must not imagine the
Red Sea momentarily ice-bound, but rather up-
held and withheld in all its liquid volume. In
either case the Will of God ruled the raging of the
sea according to the Divine good pleasure, and
worked in contradiction of the established law of
ai8 SEEK AND FIND.
nature. That which achieved salvation for the
elect race was a miracle : but here, let us observe,
the miracle ended : the destruction of Egypt was
wrought simply by the withdrawal of a special
providential guard, which withdrawal left nature,
so to say, free to produce her own inevitable
result. Thus the natural rule, destroyed; the
supernatural exception, saved : and as in the types
we are contemplating, so also does it appear in
the yet vaster transactions of which those are
typical. The first man Adam had freely and
fully, so far as in him lay, consummated the ruin
of his posterity (see i Tim. ii. 14) ; when God
Almighty made a new thing (St. Luke i. ^^),
sending the Last Adam, the Second Man, the
Lord from heaven, to redeem the human race
(Rom. V. 12, 18, 19; I Cor. xv. 21, 22, 45-49).
Divine justice had pronounced the incontro-
vertible death-doom (Gen. iii. 17-19 ; Ezek. xviii.
4), when Divine mercy rejoicing against judgment
annulled that doom by one meritorious and
plenary fulfilment (Is. liii. 4-12; St. John xix.
28-30 ; I St. Peter ii. 21-24). And though the
'root and existence of evil remain to our present
faculties involved in impenetrable mystery, yet its
[growth and aftercourse exhibit many times a sadly
FROST AND COLD. 219
intelligible sequence of cause and effect : drunken-
ness ends naturally in physical and mental wreck,
selfishness in isolation : no miracle is needed here,
or is wrought. Moreover sin of its own nature
not only like the upas tree emits a poisonous in-
fluence ; like the gourd (see Jonah iv. 10) it puts
forth rapidity of growth ; it is like the letting out
of water (Prov. xvii. 14), or the first spark of
a conflagration (St. James iii. 5, 6). In every
sinner there resides the power of self-destruction :
God alone possesses and reserves to Himself
(Is. xlv. 20-25) the power to save even one
solitary sinner. " O Israel, thou hast destroyed
thyself; but in Me is thine help" (Hos. xiii. 9).
"God be merciful to me a sinner" (St. Luke
xviii. 13).
Once only in our Saviour's history is any
mention made of either heat or cold, — on that
cold night (St. John xviii. 18) of His most com-
fortless Passion when all creation appearing for
the moment leagued together against Him, the
apostolick " rock " shifted like sand (St. Matt. vii.
26, 27 ; xvi. 18; xxvi. 69-74): the sons of thun-
der with all their companions feared and fled
(St. Mark iii. 17 ; St, Matt. xxvi. ^6) : more than
twelve legions of angels held back (see v. ^;^) :
^20 SEEK AND FIND.
yet a few hours, and the sacred nation repudiated
Him (xxvii. 30-25): the imperial nation con-
demned Him (St. Luke xxiii. 24) : His power
challenged by blasphemy forbore to be stirred up
(St. Matt, xxvii. 39, 40 ; see Num. xxiv. 9) : His
royalty scoffed at by malice remained unvindi-
cated (St. Matt, xxvii. 41-44) : and then, even
then beyond all precedent did He assert Himself
as the Strength of Israel Who doth neither lie
nor repent (i Sam. xv. 29), as the One that
sweareth to His neighbour and disappointeth
him not though it be to His own hindrance (Ps.
XV. 5 Prayer Book version) ; for then He fulfilled
God^s promise made " in the cool of the day '^ to
lost man in a lost paradise, and with His own
bruised heel bruised the serpent's head (Gen. iii.
8, 15)-
" Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from
our sins in His own Blood, and hath made us
kings and priests unto God and His Father ; to
Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
Amen " (Rev. i. 5, 6).
ICE AND SNOW. 221
ICE AND SNOW.
"A/y brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and
as the stream of brooks that pass away; which are
blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is
hid: what time they wax warm, they vanishP Job vi.
15-17.
These words of Job, spoken in his desolation,
befit a desolation yet more utter and more patient
than his, even the desolation of our Lord Jesus
Christ when in the Garden of the Agony all His
disciples forsook Him and fled. As the troops of
Tema looked and found nothing (Job vi. 18, 19),
as David looked on his right hand and beheld, but
there was no man that would know him (Ps. cxlii.
4), so the sinless Son of David, every man being
scattered to his own, was left alone (St. John xvi.
32 ; St. Mark xiv. 50-52). And just as ice and
snow promise to thirst an intensity of refreshment
beyond the refreshing virtue of mere water, so
they may remind us in particular of St. Peter's pro-
testations: "Although all shall be offended, yet
will not I. ... If I should die with Thee, I will
not deny Thee in any wise" (vv. 29, 3!): pro-
222 .SEEK AND FIND.
testations which at first falsified attained never-
theless at last to fiilfilment: "Jesus answered
him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now;
but thou shalt follow Me afterwards " (St. John
xiii. ^6) : and again after the three denials and
threefold renewal of the Apostolick commission :
"This spake He, signifying by what death he
should glorify God" (xxi. i8, 19).
Ice and snow are figures to us of evanescence,
of that which passes away. If aught which en-
dures or which is eternal be likened to snow, it is
on occasion of its brief revelation to mortal eyes :
thus on the Mount of Transfiguration three
Apostles beheld the effulgent raiment of Christ
" exceeding white as snow " (St. Mark ix. 3) ;
thus in the Isle called Patmos St. John " in the
Spirit " fell as dead at the feet of Him Whose
head and Whose hairs " were white like wool,
as white as snow" (Rev. i. 9-17; see also Dan.
vii. 9) ; thus moreover (to descend to an inferior
connexion) the Roman guard and the faithful
women when gathered around the empty sepul-
chre in Joseph's garden encountered an angel
whose raiment was white as snow (St. Matt,
xxviii. 1-5). That celestial sea which St. John
beheld before the Throne of God, that solid sea
ICE AND SNOW. 333
whereon the victorious host of the elect took
their stand, was "" of glass like unto crystal," was
" as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire " (Rev.
iv. 6 ; XV. rz), but was not of ice.
Symbols, parables, analogies, inferences, may
be fascinating, must be barren, unless we make
them to ourselves words of the wise which are as
goads (Eccles. xii. 11). Let us imitate the practical
example of that virtuous woman who '*^ is not afraid
of the snow for her household : for all her house-
hold are clothed with scarlet" (Prov. xxxi.
10-31) : and copying her we shall become trust-
worthy, loving, prudent, diligent ; we shall go in
advance of those whom we require to labour with
us (consider much more the example of the Good
Shepherd Himself: St. John x. 4, 11); we shall
demean ourselves charitably, decorously according
to our station ; we shall reflect honour on those
from whom we derive honour ; out of the abun-
dance of our heart our mouth will speak wisdom ;
kindness will govern our tongue, and justice our
enactments ; — thus shall it be with us even now,
and much more in the supreme day of rising up
the Day of Resurrection, then our nearest and
dearest who never cease to love us shall bless and
praise us; we shall still have somewhat in our
224 SEEK AND FIND.
»
hands, because our works have followed us (Rev.
xiv. 13 ; see Acts ix. 39) ; and being ready we
shall enter with praise through the door before it
be shut (St. Matt. xxv. 10; i Cor. 4, 5).
Yet so long as each of us gives all diligence to
make her own personal calling and election sure
(2 St. Peter i. 10), it will do us no harm to recognise
in this saintly spouse a figure of the Church : that
great Mother and Mistress (Gal. iv. 26) who
because her whole family is washed and beautified
in the Blood of Christ (Rev. vii. 13, 14) has no
need to fear any transitory creature; who through
the burden of her day of probation looks forward
to the day of praise ; who even now amid many
sins and many shortcomings, knows that less for
her love's sake than for His own the Heart of
her Divine Husband safely trusts in her and
accounts that she doth Him good and not evil all
the days of her life (see % Cor, xii. 9 ; Rev. iii.
7-13).
"As in water face answereth to face, so the
heart of man to man " (Prov. xxvii. 19).
NIGHTS AND DAYS. 225
NIGHTS AND DAYS.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday^ and to-day.
and for ever." Heb. xiii. 8.
When it pleased God the Son Who inhabiteth
eternity (Is. Ivii. 15), Who changeth not (Mai.
iii. 6), with Whom, because He is One with the
Father (St. John x. 30), we know that there is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning (St. James
i. 17), Who is that Wisdom which was before
creation (Prov. viii. i, 22), that Word which in
the beginning was with God and was God (St.
John i. i), when it pleased the Son of God to
become no less truly the Son of man, then the
Infinite restricted Himself within limits, the
Unchangeable assumed growth, the Eternal was
born in the fulness of time (Gal. iv. 4).
Being made man the Divine Son claimed no
exemption from the conditions and lot of His
brethren (Heb. ii. 9-18). He dwelt as we dwell
in this actual familiar world of fluctuations, on
this sphere of alternate light and darkness, amid
the recurrence of our seasons, the ebb and flow of
our tides, the commotion of our winds ; a rising
Q
22,6 SEEK AND FIND.
and setting sun, a waxing and waning moon,
ruled over His days and nights as over ours
(see Gen. i. i6).
In reference to our Blessed Lord we may divide
the subject of nights and days into two series
of instances : the literal nights and days of His
earthly career; the night or day, symbolic or
otherwise^ whereby He from time to time illus-
trated a lesson.
His nativity took place in the night. An
ancient pious tradition connects with that event
Isaiah's words (i. 3), " The ox knoweth his owner,
and the ass his master's crib," and supposes that
the dumb animals, housed along with their Creator
in the wintry stable, found ways of evincing their
love and doing homage to Him Who had made
Himself smaller and weaker and more helpless
than themselves. On the same sacred night one
angel announcing Christ's birth to certain shep-
herds, a multitude of the heavenly host proclaimed
the glory of God and blessedness of man (St. Luke
ii. 8-14). We may conjecture the adoration of
the Magi also to have taken place by night, as
a star guided them (St. Matt. ii. 9-1 1): at any
rate, the flight of the holy family into Egypt
commenced by night {v. 14). — Our Lord's fast in
NIGHTS AND DAYS. I'X'J
the wilderness was prolonged throughout forty-
days and forty nights (iv. 2). — At even many
sick and possessed persons were brought to Christ
that He might heal them ; and in the morning
a great while before day He betook Himself to
solitude and prayer (St. Mark i. ^l—'^^^ '• so also
St. Luke (vi. 12, 13) informs us how Jesus passed
a whole night in prayer ; then when it was day
He summoned the disciples, and from amongst
them ordained His twelve Apostles. — By night
Nicodemus, a smouldering spark of faith and love
warming his heart, resorted [to the Great Teacher
(St. John iii. i, 2) : it needed another and yet
more critical moment not of night but of dying
day to fan that spark into a conflagration (xix.
39-4:z). — In the night Christ walked upon the
sea, and embarking with His Apostles "imme-
diately the ship was at the land whither they
went"(vi. 16-21). — Certain nights towards the
close of His blessed ministry He passed not in
Jerusalem but on the Mount of Olives (St. Luke
xxi. 37) : and of these the last and greatest was
that night of His most sacred Passion begun
indeed and ended within the city, but fulfilling
its hour of darkness in the Garden of Gethsemane
(St. Mark xiv. 26, 32-42) : in the course of which
228 SEEK AND FIND.
same night our loving Lord washed His disciples'
feet (St. John xiii. 1-13) ; instituted the Blessed
Sacrament of His own Body and Blood (i Cor.
xi. 2^-2^) ; was betrayed by Judas (St. John xiii.
21-30); then after the Agony and Bloody Sweat
of His solitary thrice - repeated prayer in the
Garden (St. Luke xxii. 39-44), He was led back
a prisoner to Jerusalem (St. John xviii. 12, 13) ;
was thrice denied (St. Luke xxii. 54-60) ; was
blasphemed (St. Matt. xxvi. 59-68) ; was mocked
(St. Luke xxii. 6^-6^).
When we have no indication to the contrary
we may fairly assume most of the recorded events
of our Lord's history to have taken place by day.
I will pass by " all the time that the Lord Jesus
went in and out among ^' men (Acts i. 21), until
we come to the day (a literal day) of His death.
St. Luke (xxii. 66-71) certifies us how "as soon
as it was day " the Jewish Elders, Chief Priests,
and Scribes, convened in supreme council, rejected
their Messiah (Acts ii. ^6). St. John (xviii. 28-
30) notes that it was still " early " when they
bowed their stiff necks at a Gentile tribunal
rather than suffer Him Who saved others to live.
Nevertheless, in will though not in deed their
awful crime had been consummated or ever dawn
NIGHTS AND DAYS. !Z2g
broke upon the world : and at noon before the eyes
of that assembled world, represented by men of
divers languages and antagonistic races, the light
of that day " by a kind of harmony " (see Wisdom
xix. 1 8) became darkness (St. Luke xxiii. 44, 45) ;
while God shewed respect unto His covenant, and
habitations of cruelty filled the dark places of the
earth (Ps. Ixxiv. 20; see Gen. iii. 15; xvii. 1-8 ;
xxii. 15-18 ; 3 Sam. vii. 16, 17 ; Jer. xxxiii. 15-
26). And because the light within the once holy
nation had become darkness, how great a dark-
ness ! (St. Matt. vi. 23) that day which types had
foreshown (Gen. xxii. 13, 14; Lev. xvi. 2-34),
which prophecies had announced (Dan. ix. 26;
Amos. viii. 9, 10), to which all time had led up,
upon which eternity hung in suspense, — that day
brought to them of all men no spiritual enlighten-
ment, but rather accorded with the passionate
imprecation of Job (iii. 4), " Let that day be dark-
ness." And though God's mercy afterwards
moved many individuals to repentance and con-
version, yet as a nation the Jews have ever since
their one awful national choice changed place
with the Gentiles and seated themselves in dark-
ness (see Is. xlvii. 4, 5; Jer. xiii. 15-17). As
regards the Gentiles the case was reversed : to
230 SEEK AND FIND.
them who were in darkness the decree was even
then ready to go forth, " Shew yourselves " (Is.
xlix. 5-9 ; Acts X. 9-16 ; xi. 18) ; for the casting
away of Israel was the reconciling of the world
(Rom. xi. 15).
From such thoughts we turn naturally to spirit-
ual applications. Our Lord many times refers
to day and night whether in addressing His
disciples or the multitude; and draws attention
to one or other not only as regulating our ability
to fulfil an appointed task, but also as standing
for certain marked and momentous periods in
man's career. More or less in such a form we
have an encouragement to childlike trust (St.
Matt. vi. 28-34), — a sign and prophecy of Christ's
resurrection (xii. 39, 40), — the parable of the
labourers in the vineyard (xx. 1-16), — an exhorta-
tion to watchfulness lest the Second Advent
overtake us unawares (xxiv. 36-51 ; xxv. 1-13), —
a parable of spiritual growth (St. Mark iv. 26-29),
— a prophecy of unparalleled affliction (xiii. 19,
20), — a model of prayer (St. Luke xi. 3), — the
parable of the rich fool (xii. 15-21), — an intima-
tion of Christ's all-dominant will (xiii. 31-33), —
the rich man's self-indulgence our warning (xvi.
19-26), — a precept of inexhaustible forgiveness
NIGHTS AND DAYS. 2>^l
(xvii. 3, 4),— a prophecy of the Church's unap-
peased desire [v. 2,2), — a revelation of the inces-
sant prevalent appeal of God's elect (xviii. 7, 8), —
a lamentation over lost Jerusalem (xix. 41-44)^
— an example of diligence (St. John ix. 4), — a
counsel of prudence (xi. 9, 10).
A few memorable nights and days in the career
of certain New Testament Saints must not be
omitted in our study. Starting from Good
Friday we commence at the very Cross; and
while our Lord hangs thereon bleeding and
dying for love, we hear Him bid His first Chris-
tian guest meet Him in Paradise " to - day "
(St. Luke xxiii. 43). — " When the even was come"
Joseph of Arimathaea exchanged secrecy of fear
for boldness of love: and if behind him yet
scarcely behind him stood forth Nicodemus
(St. Mark xv. 42, 43 ; St. John xix. 38-42). —
Because obedience is better than sacrifice (see
I Sam. XV. 22; Eccles. v. i), the holy women
stemmed the tide of their craving desire "and
rested the Sabbath day according to the com-
mandment " (St. Luke xxiii. ^^, ^6). — On the
first day of the week while it was yet dark St.
Mary Magdalene sought the sepulchre, and out-
lingered all other lovers of Jesus save angels only ;
a^2, SEEK AND FIND.
with whom she held high converse, being as it
were the very bride of the Song of Songs (v. 9,
10) : " What is thy Beloved more than another
beloved, O thou fairest among women ? . . . . My
Beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among
ten thousand." And none but she out of whom
went seven devils was the first to behold our
risen Saviour (St. John xx. 1-18 ; St. Mark xvi.
9). — In the course of the great forty days of
Christ's life upon earth after His resurrection,
St. Peter's night of fruitless toil on the Sea of
Tiberias was followed by a morrow of miraculous
supply: when also the Good Physician Himself
probed and healed His servant's thrice-wounded
soul (St. John xxi. 1-6, 15-19). By night it
pleased God by the intervention of an angel
to release St. Peter from Herod's prison : on the
other hand, that same King Herod on the " set
day " of his worldly glory was smitten by an
angel, and brought down to a loathsome grave
(Acts xii. I, 5- 1 1, 3i-.'23). — St. Paul being at
midday turned from darkness to light, continued
fasting and sightless during three days (ix. 1-18;
xxvi. 13). By night his fellow Christians in
Damascus saved him from the exasperated Jews
(ix. 23-25; 2, Cor. xi. 3a, ^^). At midnight
NIGHTS AND DAYS. 2^^
in a Macedonian prison he prayed and praised
God : when suddenly an earthquake shook the
foundations and opened the doors (Acts xvi. 25,
2,6). By night the Lord stood by him and cheered
him in durance at Jerusalem (xxiii. 11). In the
long list of his Apostolick labours and sufferings
St. Paul includes a night and a day passed in the
deep [-z Cor. xi. 25); and out of the fulness of
his grateful heart proceeds one supreme prayer
for his beloved Onesiphorus : " The Lord grant
unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord
in that day" (2 Tim. i. 18). To all of us more-
over he has left an exhortation: "The night is
far spent, the day is at hand : let us therefore
cast off the works of darkness, and let us put
on the armour of light " (Rom. xiii. 12) ; he has
set an example : " I die daily" (i Cor. xv. 31) ; he
has bequeathed a warning : " The day of the Lord
so Cometh as a thief in the night " (i Thess. v. 2).
But why should we be as those who turn aside
by the flocks of Christ's companions ? (see Song
of Sol. i. 7). Let us turn again from all saints
to gaze once more upon the Saint of saints, and
so doing to draw from our study of nights and
days one last lesson. On the first Easter Day
not Apostles only were visited by their Saviour :
234 SEEK AND FIND.
but He walked with two less conspicuous dis-
ciples, He preached to them by themselves apart
from the world-wide human family, He broke bread
and revealed Himself to them (St. Luke xxiv.
13-35). Eight days later He revived the indi-
vidual faith of St. Thomas (St. John xx. 24-29).
One blessed morning He stood upon the familiar
shore of the Sea of Tiberias, and communed with
a chosen few (xxi. 1-22). During forty days He
showed Himself to the Apostles ; at the end of
which period He conversed with them, He led
them out as far as to Bethany, He blessed them,
and in their sight ascended up to heaven (Acts i.
i-ii ; St. Luke xxiv. 50, 51). Verily this is the
" same Jesus:" the same in immortal as in mortal
life, the same in fulness as in emptiness, the same
in royalty as in ministry. And because He is
unalterably the same, therefore to Him we also
continue the same, bone of His bone, flesh of His
flesh, brethren of one blood with Himself (Epb.
V. 30; Heb. ii. 11-16). His Church Militant
abides subject to the laws of time, of space : He
therefore for her sake conforms to times (Heb. x.
37 ; 2 St. Peter iii. 8, 9), deputes ambassadors
(2 Cor. V. 20), secretes Himself in Sacraments
(Gal. iii. 27; i Cor. x. 16), perfects His strength
LIGHT AND DARKNESS. 2^^
in our weakness (see 2, Cor. xii. 9). Now, for
even this present time is the time of love (see
Ezek. xvi. 8), now and during yet a little while
He conforms Himself to her conditions : but ere
long He will conform her to His own (i St.
John iii. 2), and receive her to Himself where
there shall be time no longer and no night
(Rev. X. 6 ; xxii. 5).
" Even so, come. Lord Jesus "' [v. 20).
LIGHT AND DARKNESS.
" Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it. Why
hast Thou made me thus f " ROM ix. 20.
It is not our least comfort that however evil
in the abstract may be utterly beyond our power
to command or to dominate, yet all that par-
ticular evil with which we come in contact we
can, God helping our endeavour, turn into good
so far as its influence over our own individual
self is concerned. Not that the nature of evil
is ever altered by any view taken of it ; but that
evil is capable of being utilised by man as his
starting-point, often as his stepping-stone, whip,
spur, towards perfection. Evil exists beyond all
33^ SEEK AND FIND.
question : and therefore we know that it must be
included among those "all things" which work
together for good to them that love God (Rom.
viii. 28). And the more unflinchingly we abide
by this truth, the keener will our spiritual faculty
become to discriminate good where at first we
seemed to discern unmixed evil. From the
simple avowal, " Before I was afflicted I went
I astray : but now have I kept Thy word ; -" it
/needs no great advance to testify, " It is good for
me that I have been afflicted ; that I might learn
Thy statutes" (Ps. cxix. 6"], 71). Three of the
beatitudes are indeed beatific, yet are so on the
very ground that their first stage is transitory;
eternize that first stage and it would become
penal : those who mourn, who hunger and thirst,
who undergo persecution, are blessed in their
sufferings but are not beatified until they have
ceased to suffer (St. Matt. v. 4, 6, 10). Our
Divine Pattern Himself " endured the cross,
despising the shame," for the joy's sake that was
set before Him (Heb. xii. 2).
As to light and darkness, light seems abso-
lutely, universally, eternally good ; darkness, at
the utmost, good only for a while and within
limitations. " I am the Light of the world," says
LIGHT AND DARKNESS. 237
the Very Truth speaking of ^Himself (St. John
viii. 12): and our Blessed Master's discourses
are so full of lessons drawn from light and dark-
ness named either separately or together, light
standing for good, darkness for evil, that here to
quote His sacred words at length becomes im-
possible. Two passages will suffice to illustrate
this point of our subject : " The light of the body
is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single^ thy
whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye
be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness ! '' (St. Matt. vi. 22,
23) : '' And this is the condemnation, that light
is come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should
be reproved " (St. John iii. 19, 20).
On the other hand, Christ's injunction to His
Apostles, " What I tell you in darkness, that speak
ye in light," (St. Matt. x. 27) seems to use dark-
ness as a figure expressing the secrecy which He for
a period saw fit to observe : here therefore no hint
of blame attaches to it ; while yet it maintains a
character rather of preparation and temporary
a^^S SEEK AND FIND.
discipline, than of positive advantage. Night
and darkness appear to have this in common ;
neither is good, except as an antecedent or as
a veil : " blackness of darkness for ever " is penal,
not sanative ; " there shall be no night " in the
New Jerusalem (St. Jude 13 ; Rev. xxii. 5).
Nevertheless, during our term of probation both
are expedient: what remains to us of this far-
spent night (Rom. xiii. 12) is our only time for
walking by faith and not by sight (Is. xlii. 16 ;
1. 10; 2 Cor. V. 7), for laying claim to the
treasures of darkness, for even darkness has its
treasures (see Is. xlv. 3), for recovering lost
ground (Micah vii. '8, 9), for eschewing and re-
proving all shameful things (Eph. v. 11, i:^);
while works of love will make our light rise in
obscurity, and our present darkness to be as the
noon day (Is. Iviii. 10). The Jews had a custom
that their men thanked God Who had created
them men and not women, while their women
thanked Him that He had created them as it
pleased Him : thus testifying that good as are
His gifts. His Will is better for each of us than
any gift. There are indeed " best gifts " for some ;
yet is there open to all " a more excellent way "
(i Cor. xii. 31): nothing, be it great or small,
LIGHT AND DARKNESS. 239
temporary or everlasting, is contemptible, so long
as it conforms to the will of Him Who made or
Who ordained it.
Light and darkness alike did homage to our
Lord at His Nativity, darkness of night giving
place to " the glory of the Lord " and the aspect
of jubilant auspicious angels (St. Luke ii. 8-14).
At the' Transfiguration light appears by itself as
a similitude of Christ's dazzling raiment (St. Matt,
xvii. 2>), Darkness beheld the forlorn disciples
alone upon a tumultuous sea, yet even then the
eye of their loving Master was upon them (St.
John vi. 16-18 ; St. Mark vi. 47, 48). As at the
Nativity darkness yielded to light, so at the
Crucifixion light yielded to darkness (St. Luke
xiii. 44, 45). It was within the period of dark-
ness (albeit from so supreme a dayspring the
shadows may haply have fled away) that Christ
rose victorious from the grave : for we read how " it
was yet dark " when St. Mary Magdalene arrived
at the empty sepulchre (St. John xx. i). Thus
light and darkness by turns were privileged to
wait upon Him Who bids them alternate.
Light and darkness environ the Church Mili-
tant: light only may dwell with the Church
Triumphant. St. John in vision gazed upon the
240 SEEK AND FIND.
Bride " and her light was like unto a stone most
precious : " he beheld her as that New Jerusalem
which the glory of God lightened, "and the
Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of
them which are saved shall walk in the light of
it," and "the Lord God giveth them light" (Rev.
xxi. 2, II, 23, 24; xxii. 5).
"Lighten our darkness, we beseech Thee, O
Lord ; for the love of Thy only Son, our Saviour,
Jesus Christ. Amen."
LIGHTNINGS AND CLOUDS.
" The word of the Lord was unto them precept upon
precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon
line; here a little, and there a little.^^ Is. xxviii. 13,
It seems impossible so to arrange the different
subjects of the Benedicite as to confine each to
itself. At every turn one, as it were, overlaps
the other : thus day trenches upon the sun and
light, night upon the moon and darkness ; to
elaborate a study of one is oftentimes to allude to
or to illustrate the others. Such is the case with
heat and summer, with cold and winter ; while
the several forms of water, and again of frost,
LIGHTNINGS AND CLOUDS. 24I
enumerated by Ananias and his fellows, tend
towards producing a similar result. Under this
condition of reiteration, therefore, we must seek
and work out our lesson : and when (in accord-
ance with the words of the son of Sirach) the
memorial of wisdom has become sweeter to us
than honey (Ecclus. xxiv. 30), we may, I think,
venture to trace the same truth as latent in the
parable of a Wiser than he : " No man also
having drunk old wine straightway desireth
new : for he saith, The old is better " (St. Luke^
V. 39)-
Our Lord employs lightning as a similitude of
two direct opposites. " I beheld Satan as light-
ning fall from heaven," He says, in connexion
with the wonder-working mission of the Seventy
(x. 17, 18): while He predicts His own Second
Advent in the words, " As the lightning cometh
out of the east, and shineth even unto the west ;
so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be "
(St. Matt. xxiv. 27 ; see also St. Luke xvii. 2,4).
This double application of the one figure invites
us to exercise a jealous circumspection in our
study of the symbolism of Holy Scripture. We
must make ourselves certain that we seize the
point, it may be the solitary point of resemblance ;
R
242 SEEK AND FIND.
all else, possibly, being discrepant or even an-
tagonistic (see the parable of the Unjust Judge,
St. Luke xviii. i-8). Nor is such a guard over
thought and feeling uncalled for in meditation
upon numerous and widely differing portions of
the inspired text : it is to the pure alone that all
things are pure (Titus i. 15), and we may even
slay ourselves by the letter of that revelation
whereof the spirit gives and nourishes life (2 Cor.
iii, 6; 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17).
If " sons of thunder " may be interpreted as
equivalent to " lightning," then " Boanerges " the
Divinely conferred surname of the two sons of
Zebedee (St. Mark iii. 17) reminds us not only of
their maturity in grace when they had learned to
speak as " oracles of God " (see i St. Peter iv. 1 1 ;
Job xxxvii. 2-5), but no less pointedly of their
original need to grow in grace ; for that early
ebullition of zeal which was ready to invoke fire
from heaven after the example of Elias, incurred
a rebuke : " Ye know not what manner of spirit
ye are of' (St. Luke ix. 54, ^^).
Of old it pleased God to constitute a cloud
one visible expression of His invisible presence.
Thus at the Transfiguration "a Bright Cloud,"
whence " a Voice " proceeded, and which over-
LIGHTNINGS AND CLOUDS. 243
shadowed " the Man Christ Jesus," gave token of
the presence of the All-Holy Trinity (St. Matt,
xvii. 1-5 ; I Tim. ii. 5) ; even as the Manhood,
the Dove, and the Voice, had already done at our
Saviour's Baptism (St. Luke iii. 21, 22). And
as the Cloud at the Transfiguration was a recep-
tive cloud (ix. 34-36), so at the Ascension
appeared (whether natural or supernatural) a
receptive cloud (Acts i. 9) : and as that former
cloud severed not Jesus from His faithful though
fearful disciples, so when " this same Jesus '*
(11) shall return ''with clouds" (Rev. i. 7; see
also St. Matt. xxiv. 30 ; St. Mark xiv. 62), it will
be to unite Himself for ever with all who "love
His appearing" (i Thess. iv. 16, 17 ; 2 Tim. iv.
8). And then, and it may be not till then, will
perfect love cast out fear (i St. John iv. 18).
Four times in the book of Revelation light-
nings, thunderings, and voices are mentioned
together: in connexion with the Throne of God
(iv. 5), or with a celestial altar of His worship
(viii. 5), or with His temple in heaven (xi. 19),
or with the judgment of great Babylon (xvi. 1 8).
And besides a passage already referred to (and
one other: xiv. 14-16), we find in the same
book two mentions of clouds: a mighty Angel
R 2
244 SEEK AND FIND.
descended from heaven " clothed with a cloud :
and a rainbow was upon his head " (x. i) : but
perhaps it even more imports to us that the two
unburied witnesses being raised to life again
" ascended up to heaven in a cloud "" (xi. ii, 12).
For herein appears our loving Lord's condescen-
sion towards men : He maketh the clouds His own
chariot (Ps. civ. 3), a cloud received Himself on
His way up to heaven, and at His word His two
faithful saints follow in like guise along the same
path.
All the world over, visible things typify things
I invisible. In other climes than ours men dwell
among vines, or behold the morning star at its
brightest, or constrained by excess of most noble
sunshine come to account wells and palm trees an
inestimable treasure. We ourselves inherit clouds :
and our " cloudy and dark day " (see Ezek. xxxiv.
12), will be blessed to us if it serves to remind us
of the great cloud of witnesses which compasses
us about (Heb. xii. i), and of that second Advent
for which we look, for which we ought to long.
"Thy kingdom come" (St. Matt. vi. 10).
EARTH. 245
EARTH.
" Thy Will be done in earthy as it is in heavenJ^
St. Matt. vi. lo.
In this petition of the perfect prayer we are
taught the object with which Earth was created,
and for the sake of attaining which it has ever
since the fall been tolerated. " Lo, I come to do
Thy Will, O God" (Heb. x. 9), sums up the
purpose of the Incarnation : and our own kinship
to Christ is established by our individual obedi-
ence, "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the
same is My brother, and My sister, and mother "
(St. Mark iii. ^^), In the Levitical law appoint-
ing the altar of burnt sacrifice, that first named is
'' an altar of earth " presumably untouched and
unpolluted by human workmanship or addition
(Ex. XX. 34, 25) : and while we bow to God's will
which for a period consecrated one nation among
all the families of mankind^ and hedged in one
land of promise from the broad expanse of our
globe, may we not reverently hope that in right of
this primitive altar of earth the whole earth was
tacitly even then claimed for God.? — in accord-
24^ SEEK AND FIND.
ance with a fundamental truth long afterwards
stated by " an Hebrew of the Hebrews " (Phil,
iii. 5) : " If the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also
holy" (Rom. xi. 16).
Small indeed by comparison was that portion
of earth's surface which was trodden by Hi/n
*'Who went about doing good" (Acts x. 38):
yet was not Judaea exclusively privileged ; for
Egypt entertained Christ as a sojourner (St. Matt.
ii. 13-15), and the coasts of Tyre and Si don were
brought for a moment within the outskirts of His
mercy (St. Mark vii. 34-31). But as regards
universality of dominion and benefaction, it
pleased the Lord of lords for a while to endure
straitness (see St. Luke xii. 50 ; St. John vii. 39) :
not until He was " lifted up from the earth "
would He draw all men unto Him (xii. 32) ; and
or ever He ascended up where He was before to
claim the heathen for His inheritance and the
uttermost parts of the earth for His possession
(Ps. ii. 8), He abode hidden "three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth " (St. Matt. xii. 40).
No marvel that the earth was veiled by darkness
and " did quake " (xxvii. 45, 51) before the coming
of so great a guest (see also Jer. iv. 23-28).
Our gracious Master's speech distilling as the
EARTH. 247
dew (see Deut. xxxii. i, 2) made the earth bring
forth spiritual food for our nourishment : that so
the human kingdom of God might, according to
the parable, grow, fructify and ripen to harvest
(St. Mark iv. 26-29). Christians are constituted
"the salt of the earth" (St. Matt. v. 13)— We
must not swear even by the earth, for that is
God's footstool [vv. 34, 35)-— Heaven, not earth,
must be our treasure-house (vi. 19-21) — The
Divine Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive
sins (ix. 6) : which power (thanks be to God) He
transmitted to His Church through St. Peter
(xvi. 18, 19) and all the Apostles (xviii. 18 ; St.
John XX. 21-23) — There is a peace which Christ
came not to send upon earth, and therefore for us
such peace would be no peace (see Jer. vi. 14) :
better are the sword, fire, division. He foretells ;
better they must be for us, because they are the
instruments of God's will (St. Matt. x. 34, ^^ ;
St. Luke xii. 49, 51), '* by the which will we are
sanctified '' (Heb. x. 10) — Two on earth who
pray in concord obtain their petition (St. Matt,
xviii. 19, 20) — Our supreme Father is in heaven,
not on earth (xxiii. 9) — All righteous blood shed
upon the earth will have to be accounted for
(v. ^^y see also Is. xxvi. 21) — Earthquakes and
248 SEEK AND FIND.
Other calamities " are the beginning of sorrows."
Men's hearts shall fail them " for fear, and for
looking after those things which are coming on
the earth ^' in the latter days ; days of decay, con-
cerning which we have our Lord's own awful
words: "When the Son of Man cometh, shall
He find faith on the earth?" Howbeit at His
coming the elect shall be safely gathered together
"from the uttermost part of the earth to the
uttermost part of heaven " (St. Matt. xxiv. 7, 8 ;
St. Luke xxi. 36 ; xviii. 8 ; St. Mark xiii. 27).
In the parable of the Talents (St. Matt. xxv.
14-30) the servant who ruined himself by sloth
lacked energy to trade with his one talent, yet
found ample to contravene his Lord's purpose:
he " digged in the earth " in order to hide his
Lord's money, as appears even on his own show-
ing. Among the various lessons of warning or
of encouragement conveyed by this plain-speaking
parable, we may, I think, discern as at least
latent one truth unsuspected by slothful but
patent to diligent persons: that sloth with its
vicious allies of unpunctuality, inexactness, delay,
idleness, half measures, baseless taking for granted,
guess-work, does sooner or later incur trouble
wholly unproductive and far more burdensome
EARTH. 249
than would have sufficed for a faithful discharge
of duty. The same broad principle applies to all
sin: if we view it as self-preservation, it is on
the contrary suicidal (St. John xii. 35); if as
self-indulgence^ it ends in desperate sorrow (Is.
xvii. 10, 11). Solomon the wise king has un-
masked for us the seductive sin of drunkenness
(Prov. xxiii. 29-32) : and well may we of this day
and this country lay his words to heart.
The parable of the Sower (St. Mark iv. 3-20)
turns mainly on the condition of the soil itself;
one somewhat similar occurring in the Epistle to
the Hebrews (vi. 7, 8) ; and another, by kindred
imagery inculcating patience, in the Epistle of St.
James (v. 7, 8) : — that of the Grain of Mustard
Seed brings forward the capabilities of the seed
sown (St. Mark iv. 30-32) : — that of the Wise
and Foolish Builders, the instability of mere
earth as a foundation (St. Luke vi. 47-49).
Of the entire human family. He alone Who is
" fairer than the children of men " (Ps. xlv. 2)
could lift up His eyes to heaven and say in the
full meaning of the words, without any allowance
to be made for human frailty or any abatement :
" Father, ... I have glorified Thee on the earth :
I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me
250 SEEK AND FIND.
to do " (St. John xvii. i, 4). Far otherwise did
St. John Baptist bear true witness concerning
himself; "He that is of the earth is earthly"
(St. John iii. 31 ; see v. ^^), and St. John the
Apostle testify as regards himself and all men ;
" If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our-
selves " (i St. John i. 8-10). Whoso hath borne
the image of the earthy, may indeed attain to
bear also the image of the heavenly (1 Cor. xv.
47-53) • ^^^ i^^ Christ's blessed person, before His
mortal put on immortality, truth in its absolute
integrity flourished out of the earth, with the
same Divine plenitude as righteousness looked
down from heaven (Ps. kxxv. 11). "I must
decrease," protested the holy Baptist (St. John
iii. 30) : and we also, each one of ourselves, must
decrease. Day by day we dwindle : dust we are,
and unto dust do we return (Gen. iii. 19). Yet
as it is by God's appointment that we have our
treasure in earthen vessels (^ Cor. iv. 7) we
become sure that an earthen vessel is suited to
the custody of a heavenly treasure : how should
it not be, when it pleased God the Son to be
partaker of flesh and blood ? (Heb. ii. 14). Our
vocation is arduous, but by His indwelling grace
it becomes not impossible (see i Cor. xv. 10 ;
EARTH. 'ZSl
Heb. xii. 28, 29 ; St. James iv. 5-8) : we must
and therefore we can transfer our affection from
things on earth to things above, and mortify our
members which are upon the earth (Col. iii. i-ii).
And if thus by a daily death and an ever-renewed
detachment we keep the word of Christ's patience,
\^ then have we hope that He will keep us from the
hour of temptation which shall come upon all the
world, to try them that dwell upon the earth: the
church of Philadelphia had "^a little strength,"
but He loved her and that strength sufficed (see
Rev. iii. 7-13). If our own strength at times
seems mere weakness, let us simply lean on Him
Who once for our sakes made Himself even as a
man that hath no strength (Ps. Ixxxviii. 4; St.
Luke xxii. 43): Who also hath declared that
His strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor.
xii. 9). '' Faint, yet pursuing ^' went Gideon and
his chosen three hundred (Judges viii. 4) : still
pursuing even in our faintness, let us press toward
the mark and the prize (Phil. iii. 14).
And our prize, what is it? In lieu of our
present earthly tabernacle, it is an eternal house
of God's building (2 Cor. v. i). It is the new
earth which shall abide, after this first earth shall
have passed away : yea, rather, it is He Himself
25^ SEEK AND FIND.
from Whose face this same earth and this present
heaven shall flee away (St. Matt. v. 5; Rev. xx.
11; xxi. i). It is Himself beyond all His gifts
(consider the parallel even in human love,
Ruth iv. 15 ; I Sam. i. 8 ; :2 Cor. xii. 14) : for
they who shall reign on that new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness (2 St. Peter iii. 13 ; Rev.
xxii. 5) were redeemed to God by the precious
Blood of Christ (i St. Pet. i. 18, 19; Rev. v.
8-10); and the "hundred forty and four thou-
sand " of whom we read especially as " redeemed
from the earth/'' have for their proper blessedness
to "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth "
(Rev. xiv. 1-4).
MOUNTAINS AND HILLS.
" / will get Me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the
hill of frankincense P SONG OF Solomon, iv. 6.
Frankincense and myrrh, Divine communion
and Divine suffering : verily the Hills and Moun-
tains of Christ's earthly life " smell as Lebanon "
(Hos. xiv. 6).
While He was yet unborn the hill country of
Judaea broke forth into singing before Him : an
MOUNTAINS AND HILLS. 2^3
unborn saint saluted Him, righteous Elisabeth
was inspired to acknowledge and praise Him,
Blessed Mary ascribed to God the glory (St. Luke
i. 39-55; see Is. Iv. 13). But this^ in its ex-
uberance of human love and unmixed joy, stands
alone among Christ's high places. Bethlehem,
seated on an acclivity, beheld Him born amid
exceptional privation (St. Luke ii. 2-7). When
at the Presentation He for the first time ascended
the hill of the Lord, it was indeed to be received
with rapture, but it was also to hear Himself
prophesied of as a sign which should be spoken
against [vv. 2^1-38; Ps. xxiv. ^-^). In Christ's
threefold temptation the world's snare was spread
on " an exceeding high mountain " (St. Matt. iv.
8, 9). At Nazareth, where He had been brought
up, His fellow-townsmen taking offence at the
very outset of His ministry " led Him unto the
brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that
they might cast Him down headlong" (St. Luke
iv. 16, 2^8, 2g). On a mountain he preached that
great sermon which opens, indeed, with eight
beatitudes, but winds up with a parable of most
solemn warning (St. Matt. v. i-io; vii. ^34-27),
On solitary heights His eyes prevented the night
watches that He might be occupied in unbroken
254 SEEK AND FIND.
prayer (St. Luke vi. la; St, Matt. xiv. 2^] see
Ps. cxix. 148). A mountain witnessed His sum-
mons of those twelve Apostles of whom eleven,
though devoted to their Master, were beset by
more or less of human infirmity : while the
twelfth was "a devil" (St. Mark iii. 13-15; St.
John vi. 70, 71). Seated upon a mountain Christ
saw that great company approach whom He fed
by a miracle: but to whose consequent desire
He would not condescend, and whom later He
rebuked for carnality (St John vi. ^-^, 15, 26).
Perhaps it was up the same mountain that the crip-
pled and afflicted were borne to Him for healing:
and surely He Who can now be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities, had then also a fellow-
feeling which enabled and constrained Him by
sympathy to share them (St. Matt. xv. 29, 30 ;
see Heb. iv. 15). When other Jews went every
man to his own house, "Jesus went unto the
Mount of Olives " there, it would appear, to pass
the night : " The Son of Man hath not where
to lay his head " (St. John vii. ^^ ; viii. 1,2; St.
Luke xxi. 37 ; ix. 58). On " the holy mount," sup-
posed to be Mount Tabor, three chosen Apostles
beheld His majesty when He received from God
the Father honour and glory : yet even there Moses
MOUNTAINS AND HILLS. Z^^
and Elias spake with Him of His decease, which
He should accomplish (St. Luke ix. ^8-35 ; 2, St.
Pet. i. 16-18). Descending the Mount of Olives
amid the Hosannas and palm-branches of His
momentary royal triumph, He beheld and wept
over lost Jerusalem (St. Luke xix. 33-42; St.
John xii. 12-15). Seated on the same Mount
He disclosed to four Apostles how great troubles
and afflictions should attend the destruction of
Jerusalem, and should precede His own second
Advent (St. Mark xiii. 1-27). There also in the
garden of Gethsemane He endured the agony and
bloody sweat of His saving passion ; and praying
with strong crying and tears, was heard in that
He feared (xiv. 26, 32; St. Luke xxii. 39-44;
St. John xviii. i ; Heb. v. 7). On Mount Cal-
vary He was crucified and gave up the ghost
(St. Luke xxiii. ^^, 46). Even after His resur-
rection, among those who met Him on the ap-
pointed mountain in Galilee " some doubted "
(St. Matt, xxviii. 16, 17); unless we may under-
stand some unexpressed interval to separate the
clauses of the text, making the latter portion of
general import. It has been conjectured that
this meeting on the mountain in Galilee may be
identical with that mentioned by St. Paul when
256 SEEK AND FIND.
"above five hundred brethren at once" beheld
our risen Saviour (i Cor. xv. 6). And though
He Who is " perfect God and perfect man " is
assuredly everywhere present : yet there is a sense
in which " He was parted from" His own familiar
friends when from hill-seated Bethany He went
up to His throne of glory (St. Luke xxiv. 50, 51).
All heroism, all excellence, all love, shadow
forth Christ. Who but He exhausts the meaning
of David's praise of Jonathan? "How are the
mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O
Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places
Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love
of women" (z Sam. i. 25, 26). It is indeed
David himself who most often stands as type of
his Son and Lord: yet Jonathan for this once
enters to complete the type ; for he sacrificed life
itself in a last effort to save his house and people,
even whilst he knew that the sceptre had passed
out of his family (i Sam. xxiii. 16, 17; xxxi. i,
2), the first Divinely-appointed Jewish dynasty
ending simultaneously with Jonathan's life, and
then and not till then the new and permanent
royalty being established in the person of David.
Not before Jonathan's death was SauFs utter
rejection as pronounced by Samuel brought to
MOUNTAINS AND HILLS. 257
pass : " Thou hast rejected the word of the Lord,
and the Lord hath rejected thee from being
king over Israel " (xv. 26) : in like manner did it
fare with the once consecrated nation, when at
length they filled up the measure of their fathers
by rejecting God the Word (St. Matt, xxiii. 29-
39; xxvii. 17-25; Acts xiii. 45, 46; Rom. xi.
20). Blessed be the holy and loving Divine
Spirit, who even in the least and humblest of
true Christians produces Christ-likeness. Blessed
be our loving Saviour, Who made Himself small
like us, that so He might make each one of us
great like Himself.
We Christians are that people to whom the
mountains and the little hills bring peace by
righteousness : for by them the King, the King's
Son, has vouchsafed to instruct us (see Ps. Ixxii.
1-3). The parable of the City set on a Hill brings
before us the edification of all within reach of
our influence not merely as a bounden duty, but
as the inevitable result of genuine discipleship
(St. Matt. V. 14-16). — Some persons (we are
taught by an instance in point) complain of lack
of power, who ought rather to confess lack or
defect of faith : faith in its germ may remove a
mountain ; but only faith, so advanced as to work
S
258 SEEK AND FIND.
by self-denying love, can expel certain devils
(xvii. 18-21; see i Cor. xiii. 2). — The parable
of the Lost Sheep sought on the mountains
(St. Matt, xviii. 12, 13) brings home to our hearts
that love of us which led our Master along weary
ways to seek and save us. The levelled valleys
and heights, the straightened crookednesses, the
smoothed rough places of Isaiah's prophecy and
St. John Baptist's mission (Isa. xl. 3, 4 ; St. Luke
iii. 2-6), declare how God's prevenient grace
rendered accessible the otherwise inaccessible
heart and will of ruined man ; but they neither
foreshowed nor prepared earthly ease for that
better David Who put His life in His hand when
the Lord wrought a great salvation for Israel (see
I Sam. xix. 5). True, our Redeemer's own path
was straight: "As the doves to their windows"
(see Isa. Ix. 8), with unwavering intention, with
inalienable affection, He came to seek and save
that which was lost; but man to whom He came
walked on frowardly in crooked paths (see Prov.
ii. 12-15). — Comparing St. Matthew xxiv. 16
(read vv. 15-22) with St. Luke xxiii. 30 (yv.
28-31), and Revelation vi. 16 (yv. 12-17), let us
elicit our last spiritual lesson from Mountains
and Hills. In those " days of vengeance," when
GREEN THINGS. 2^9
destruction overtook the earthly Jerusalem (St.
Luke xxi. 30-24), " the mountains " availed as a
place of refuge, although that tribulation had
known no parallel since the world began ; but in
the final day of God's wrath vain will it be for
us to begin to say to mountains, " Fall on us,"
or to hills, " Cover us ; " no miracle is promised
then for man's salvation ; and what earthly hiding
place can avail when earth herself shall flee from
the face of our Judge? (Rev. xx. 11). To-day,
while it is called to-day (Heb. iii. 13), the case is
different ; " now is the day of salvation " [2 Cor.
vi. 2), wherein we can yet " flee to the moun-
tains : " for even yet we can put our trust in the
Lord, the Rock of Ages (Isa. xxvi. 3, 4; see
marginal reading), and " they that trust in the
Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be
removed, but abideth for ever" (Ps. cxxv. i).
GREEN THINGS.
" Behold the Man whose name is the Branch"
Zech. vi. 12 ; see also iii. 8.
Three prophets speaking by inspiration named
God the Son under this sacred title or similitude
(Isa. xi. i; Jer. xxiii. 5; xxxiii. 15).
S 2
i6q seek and find.
God Who hath made all things and hateth
nothing that He hath made, is graciously pleased
to show us by many and various illustrations how
all the good which resides in any creature (be
that creature great or small, lofty or lowly) is an
outcome of Himself, and is in a more or less
degree a resemblance of Himself. Nothing can
be good without in some measure expressing its
all-good Author. Thus not sun and star alone set
Him forth : but the rock symbolises His unfailing
strength (St. Matt. vii. 24, 25); and is all the
more like Him when it yields refreshment (Ex.
xvii. 5, 6; I Cor. x. 4), or sweetness (Ps. Ixxxi.
16); when it destroys and supersedes the world
(Dan. ii. 34, '^^, 44); when it becomes the head
stone of the corner (Ps. cxviii. i% ; Acts iv. 10,
11). This last phase leads us to reverent con-
templation of the Divine non-exclusiveness. It is
man, it is you and I who are champions of " mine
which is not thine, and thine which is not mine."
He Who dwells in the amiable tabernacles (Ps.
Ixxxiv. i), and is altogether lovely (Song of Sol.
v. 16) delights: in bestowing not merely what He
hath, but even His very self on His beloved. He
is Head of a Body : Christians collectively make
up that Body, one by one they are its members
GREEN THINGS. z6t
(i Cor. xii. 27; Eph, iv. ii-r6; Col. i. 18). By
another figure His indwelling is that leavea
which, pervading, transforming the three measures,
of meal, cannot by any subtlety of manipulation
be separated from them (St. Matt. xiii. ^^). Or
if we interpret the same parable as foreshewing
the action of the Church within and upon the
world, then the leaven is the Church whose
elevating virtue is Christ working within her and
by her through the agency of His Spirit (see
St. Mark xvi. 15-20; St. John xiv. 15-18; xvi.
7-15 ; Acts i. 6-8 ; Rom. viii. 9, 10 ; i Cor. i.
26-31 ; 2 Cor. X. 4, 5 ; Rev. xi. 15).
Under a form of most sweet beauty the multi-
tudinous unity of a plant sets forth Christ and
His members. " I am the true Vine, and My
Father is the Husbandman .... I am the Vine,
ye are the branches " (St. John xv. 1-8). Every-
thing is held in common and (dare we say so.?)
for mutual solace and loveliness. Not, indeed,
that we bear the Root, but the Root us (see Rom.
xi. 18): yet it so bears us that it feeds its branches
with its very life, and lives in them as truly as
they live by it. Nor does it limit its gift to that
of a bare existence ; it clothes itself with them as
with an added honour; it makes their leaves
262 SEEK AND FIND.
comely by colour, and their tendrils a very grace
by delicacy; it invests them with the fruit which
cheereth God and man (see Judges ix. 12, 13).
In the day of God's Judgment well may Jeru-
salem and Judah, may heaven and earth be
appealed to (Ps. 1. 4) : " What could have been
done more to My vineyard, that I have not done
in it ? " (Is. v. 1-7). This Song of the Beloved
touching His vineyard needs however to be
studied by itself, as exhibiting the Church under
a different aspect from that most blessed one
expressed in the Divine parable of the Vine and
its Branches. We glean additional points of
warning and comfort from St. PauFs argument
concerning the Jewish and Gentile Churches
(Rom. xi. 16-24) couched under the kindred
similitude of a wild and a good olive tree:
blessed be God Who declares, regarding not
Churches only, but as we may devoutly hope,
believe, pray, regarding individual souls also:
" The branches were broken off ... . They also,
if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed
in : for God is able to graff them in again."
Our Lord is revealed to us under a variety of
similitudes culled from the family of " green
things." He is a Root of Jesse, the Root of David,
GREEN THINGS. 263
a Rod out of the stem of Jesse (Is. xi. i, 10; Rev.
V. 5 ; xxii. 16) : He grew up as a tender plant, as
a root out of a dry ground (Is. liii. 2) : He is that
Root of the righteous which shall not be moved,
and which yieldeth fruit (Prov. xii. 3, 13): He is
the Corn and Wine of type (Gen. xiv. 18), and
Psalm (Ixxii. 16 ; civ. 14, 15), and prophecy
(Zech. ix. 16, 17): He, Rose of Sharon and Lily
of the Valleys, is among the trees of the wood as
the Apple Tree whose fruit is sweet (Song of Sol.
ii. I, 3) : He is" as that almond rod of Aaron
which, being cut off budded, blossomed, and
yielded fruit (Num. xvii. 8); as that corn of
wheat which by dying becomes fruitful (St. John
xii. 34).
The history and the teaching of Christ, in-
cluding about twelve of His parables, bring before
us many plants and vegetable substances. In
His infancy He accepted the Magi's gift of frank-
incense and myrrh (St. Matt. ii. 11). His ministry
was ushered in by St. John Baptist's parables of
the axe laid to the root of the trees, and of the
winnowing of the wheat (iii. 10-12). The Divine
Master convinced Nathanael by the sign of the
fig-tree (St. John i. 47-49). He illustrated the
imminence of God's kingdom by fields white
254 SEEK AND FIND.
betimes to harvest (iv. ^^), In His Sermon on
the Mount He bids us " consider the lilies of the
field," and teaches us to estimate the tree by its
fruit (St. Matt. vi. 28-30; vii. 16-20; see also
xii. ^^', St. Luke vi. 43, 44; xii. 27, 28). On a
certain Sabbath He permitted His disciples to
pluck and eat of the corn, rubbing it in their
hands; and took thence occasion to lay down a
general principle for the charitable and reasonable
observance of God's hallowed day of rest (St.
Matt. xii. 1-8 ; St. Luke vi. i). His tenderness
of mercy fulfilled Esaias's prophecy, " A bruised
reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax
shall He not quench " (Is. xlii. 1-4 ; St. Matt. xii.
14-21). He employs "a reed shaken with the
wind " apparently as ati Embodiment of unlikeness
to St. John Baptist (xi. 7). Scrupulous tithes of
mint and such like are no equivalent for loving
obedience (St. Luke xi. 42 ; St. Matt. Xxiii. 23J.
Moved by compassion our Saviour compared the
multitude to an unreaped harvest (ix. 36-38 ; see
also St. Luke x. 2). When He would recruit
His exhaiisted hearers with an abundant feast,
He chose "the green grass" for their resting-
place (St. Mark vi. 34-44). By the similitude of
an uprooted plant He declared the doom of men
who go counter to the truth (St. Matt. xv. 12-14).
Faith, though it be but as a grain of mustard-seed,
can work miracles (xvii. 20; see also xxi. 21).
A sycomore-tree helped forward the salvation of
Zacchaeus (St. Luke xix. 2-9). Our gracious
Lord accepted one loving woman's oblation of
spikenard (St. Mark xiv. 3-9 ; St. John xii. 3).
Palm branches and branches freshly cut from the
wayside trees graced the Heavenly King's royal
entry into His capital city {vv. 12-15; St. Mark
xi. 8). Permanent barrenness is the doom of the
barren fig-tree {vv. 12-14, 20). Oil tlie night of
His Passion the Lord said, " I will not drink of
the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God
shall come" (St. Luke xxii. 18 ; see also St. Matt.
xxvi. 29). For our sakes Jesus wore a crown of
thorns and held a reed in His right hand (xxvii.
29, 30 ; St. John xix. 2-5). For us He bore His
cross along the way of sorrows {vv. 16-18) : where
as He went, being not unmindful of their
sympathy, He spake a last word of warning to the
daughters of Jerusalem, " If they do these things
in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? "
(St. Luke xxiii. 26-31). For us He tasted the
bitterness while He declined the lulling virtue of
a mingled cup (St. Matt, xxvii. 34 ; St. Mark xv.
266 SEEK AND FIND.
23), and meekly received vinegar reached up to
Him on a reed, or hyssop (St. Matt, xxvii. 46-49 ;
St. Mark xv. ^6 ; St. John xix. 28-30).
After this the end. Myrrh and aloes embalmed
His sacred body (St. John xix. 39, 40), and yet
more spices were prepared by love (St. Luke xxiii.
^6) when already it was too late to offer them. Yet
the love which would fain have offered, came not
itself too late for acceptance ; and whatever else
we cannot, love we also can bring. Because of
the savour of His good ointments Jesus' name
is as ointment poured forth : therefore let us love
Him (Song of Sol. i. 3). For love of us, all His
garments have come to smell of myrrh, aloes, and
cassia (Ps. xlv. 8) : for love of Him, let our prayers
ascend as incense (cxli. 2 ; Mai. i. 1 1 ; Rev. viii.
3, 4), and let our hearts, bringing forth the fruit
of the Spirit (Gal. v. 22, 23 ; Eph. v. 9), be as His
own inclosed garden (Song of Sol. iv. 12-16).
The day cometh when to each faithful soul He
will say : " The winter is past The flowers
appear on the earth. . . . The fig-tree putteth
forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender
grape give a good smell. Arise, My love, My fair
one, and come away " (ii. 10-13),
WELLS. 267
WELLS.
" Behold^ God is my salvation. . . . Therefore with joy
shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation^'
Is. xii. 2, 3.
This prophecy delivered about seven centuries
before the commencement of its plenary fulfil-
ment (St. Luke ii. 11) leads our thoughts to
Christ seated on Jacob's Well, and out of all
the millions of the human family making wise
unto salvation one solitary sinful woman (St.
John iv. ^-%6\ On a second occasion our Lord
vouchsafed to declare to a larger audience what
appears to be the same Theological mystery which
He had once revealed to her singly ; in sequence
to which second utterance the recording Evan-
gelist is inspired to add an interpretation of the
mystery (vii. 37-39).
This Divine revelation, which concerns the
Person and office of God the Holy Ghost, here
invites us to prayer and thanksgiving rather (it
may be) than to discussion ; we having already
in type and figure touched upon the same most
sacred subject. For if because God is in heaven
f
i6^ SEEK AND FIND.
and man upon earth, therefore man's words
should be few, his mouth not rash, neither his
heart hasty of utterance (Eecles. v. 2), most of
all must the self-restraint of a reverential silence
/ touching the deepest things of God befit one of
I that sex whom St. Paul suffers not to teach but
/commands to keep silence (i Tim. ii. 11, 12):
lest otherwise I and such as I should justly incur
the rebuke once rashly administered by Zophar
to patient Job (xi. 7, 8) : " Canst thou by search-
ing find out God ? canst thou find out the Al-
mighty unto perfection ? It is as high as heaven ;
what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what
canst thou know ? "
For the moment therefore fixing our attention
fiot upon the discourse itself but upon its acces-
sories, we behold our Lord exemplifying those
words of His own which are rather a beatitude
than a precept : " It is more blessed to give than
to receive" (Acts xx. ^^). To guide another
to the " living water " refreshed His weariness
beyond the power of any earthly food : He said
to His wondering disciples, " I have meat to eat
that ye know not of. ... . My meat is to do the
will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His
work" (St. John iv. 27, 31-34). Seated "thus ''
WELLS. 2,6g
on Jacob's Well He of whom Joseph presents
a type became, according to the blessing of that
patriarch, as " a fruitful bough, even a fruitful
bough by a well ; whose branches run over the
v^all " (Gen. xlix. 32) : for Jesus' love, overrun-
ning the partition which divided Jew from
Samaritan, proffered "living water" to her who,
even if she bestowed the common draught He
craved, seems not to have presented it with
gracious Oriental hospitality. Not so Syrian
Rebekah drew water for Eliezer and his camels
halting beside a well (xxiv. 10-20) : not so God
Almighty provided water for wayfaring Israel,
who sang, "Spring up, O well" (Num. xxi. 16-
1 8) : neither fared it so with David for whose
sake three men went in jeopardy of their lives
to slake his thirst with w^ter from the well of
Bethlehem (2 Sam. xxiii. .15-17).
These contrasted instances help us to realize
how in all things Christ hath the pre-eminence
(see Col. i. 18): be it height of holiness, be it
depth of anguish or humiliation, be it what it
may, no creature stands upon His level. Thus
Isaiah (lii. 14) foretells of Him, " His visage was
so marred more than any man, and His form
more than the sons of men : " and Jeremiah
^70 SEEK AND FIND.
speaking as it were in His Divine person appeals
even to our own judgment, " Behold, and see if
there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow " (Lam.
i. 12). In the course of Christ's mortal life ex-
ceptional if not unique hardships stamp Him as
singled out of Adam's progeny to experience
fully and to exhaust man's lot of suffering. At
His birth we see Him crowded out of human
habitation (St. Luke ii. 7). During at least
some period of His ministry He is less secure
of shelter than are foxes and birds (ix. 58). On
the night of His agony, the last night of His
life, anxiety and sorrow so often sleepless cannot
keep awake to watch with Him one single apostle
of the foremost three (xxii. 44,45 5 St. Mark xiv.
33-41). On the morrow, rather than that He
should live, a murderer escapes unscathed ; Jewish
priests claim heathen Caesar as their sole king;
Rome cedes a point to the clamour of her own
slaves (St. Luke xxiii. 13-25 ; St. John xix. 15).
Jesus Christ Himself is the long-predicted
Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness
(Zech. xii. 9-14 ; xiii. i ; St. John xix. ^^, 34 ;
Rev. i. 5) : He is that Alpha and Omega Who
" will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain
of the water of life freely^' (xxi. 6). And we
SEAS AND FLOODS. 27 1
who have heard with our ears, and whom our
fathers have told of this " Gift of God " (see
Acts viii. 18-20), "how shall we escape, if we
neglect so great salvation ? " (see Heb. ii. 1-4).
A fearful moment is drawing nearer and nearer ;
a fearful doom : " He which is filthy, let him be
filthy still" (Rev. xxii. 11): God grant that at
the last moment we be not, despite the Blood
shed and the Fountain opened, — God in mercy
grant that then we be not found stained with the
indelibility of Ethiopians or leopards (Jer. xiii.
23 ; see Eph. v. 25-27), and athirst with the un-
appeased craving of Dives (St. Luke xvi. 23-26).
" To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not
your heart " (Ps. xcv. 7, 8).
'' Whosoever will, let him take the water of life
freely "' (Rev. xxii. 17).
SEAS AND FLOODS.
"All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not
full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither
they return again^ ECCLES. i. 7.
These words form one of the illustrations
which Solomon gives of his proposition : " Vanity
(
?,"]% SEEK AND FIND.
of vanities ; all is vanity " [vv. i-ii) ; and being
written by inspiration, as such we are bound to
accept them. In the passage before us consum-
mate human wisdom and exhaustive worldly
experience combine to certify us that all which
begins only to end, and ends only to recom-
mence is vanity: thus is it with man's genera-
tions, with the sun and with the wind. Shall we
call such a beginning any true beginning, when
we can by no means call such an ending any true
ending? Growth and decay alternate, flux and
reflux ; the course run already must be run yet
again ; the goal is equally the starting-point : " the
thing that hath been, it is that which shall be ;
. . . . and there is no new thing under the sun."
" Vanity of vanities," as '^ Solomon in all his
glory " (see St. Matt. vi. 39) states and restates
it, amounts to so exquisite a dirge over dead hope
and paralysed eflbrt that we are almost ready to
fall in love with our own desolation ; and seeing
that " man walketh in a vain shadow " (Ps. xxxix.
7, Prayer-Book version) to become vain as that
shadow, and to drift through life without dis-
quietude, because without either aim or aspira-
tion.
Yet such a tendency in ourselves finds no per-
SEAS AND FLOODS. 273
manent parallel in the Preacher's sermon. He
gropes along dim paths, here and there we may
even fail to follow each step taken, but at last he
emerges into the broad unequivocal light of day :
"Let us hear," says he, "the conclusion of the
whole matter: Fear God, and keep His Command-
ments" (Eccles. xii. 13).
A Greater than Solomon is with us, and has
deigned to instruct us by things new and old (St.
Matt. xii. 42 ; see xiii. 52). By analogy of things
visible He has shown us things invisible. Speak-
ing as never man spake (St. John vii. 46) He
has rekindled human hope and aspiration: has
promised the wearied generations that an end
shall come, " Heaven and earth shall pass away :"
and with His own words which shall not pass
away has charged one and all of us to " watch "
(St. Mark xiii. 24-37).
This life is the prelude of the life to come, the
vigil of a feast. If as yet our reiterated cry,
" Watchman, what of the night ? " elicit only the
inconclusive answer " The morning cometh, and
also the night" (Is. xxi. 11, 12), let us not ac-
count it slackness but long suffering (3 St. Pet. iii.
9). Let us fear lest any of us should after all
come short of the long-promised rest : and while
T
2^74 SEEK AND FIND.
on our mountain of division we watch for day to
break and shadows to flee away, let us give the
more earnest heed to all which we have heard
(Heb. ii. i ; iv. i ; Song of Sol. ii. 17, marginal
reading).
" The sea of Galilee, which is the sea of
Tiberias" (St. John vi. i), though a lake rather
than a sea according to modern nomenclature, is
the chief sea of our Saviour's history. It He
rebuked (St. Mat. viii. 26 : " He maketh the
storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still,"
Ps. cvii. 2g). On it He walked (St. Mat. xiv.
24, 25 : "I am the Lord, your Holy One, the
Creator of Israel, your King .... Which maketh
a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty
waters" Is. xliii. 15, 16). From its depths He
twice summoned plenty (St. Luke v. 4-6 ; St.
John xxi. ^,6: " Blessings of the deep that lieth
under " Gen. xlix. ^^5), and once brought up an
individual fish to serve His purpose (St. Matt,
xvii. 27 : " Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that
did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and
all deep places " Ps. cxxxv. 6).
In one only (if I am not mistaken) of our
Divine Master's parables does the sea appear,
and then not actively but passively as a figure
SEAS AND FLOODS. 2,y^
of the inhabited world (St. Matt. xiii. 47-50), But
for the most part His mentions of the sea are emi-
nently emphatic. Thus there is an offender for
whom it were better to be drowned in the depth
of the sea (xviii. 6). Faith has power to pluck
up a sycamine tree and plant it in the sea: or
to cast thereinto a mountain (St. Luke xvii. 6 ;
St. Matt. xxi. 31). In their zeal, but not for
God's glory, the scribes and pharisees compassed
sea and land to make one proselyte (xxiii. 15).
In earth's latter days of distress and perplexity
the sea and the waves shall roar (St. Luke xxi.
25). Even that simple word of command to St.
Peter, " Launch out into the deep," is to our ears
full of Divine energy about to break forth into a
miracle (St. Luke v. 4).
As our Lord's history endears to us one lake,
so does it also one '^ flood " or river : that sacred
Jordan which cleansed not Him but was cleansed
by Him; and thereby became the representative
of the cleansing, healing, sanctifying waters of
Baptism throughout the whole earth. Above it,
as over the primeval waters, the Spirit of God
moved (Gen. i. 2, ; St. Matt. iii. 13, 16); and as
once " eight souls .... saved by water " re-
turning unscathed from the flood refounded the
T 2
276 SEEK AND FIND.
human family (Gen. viii. 15, 16 ; ix. 18, 19 ; i St.
Pet. iii. 20)5 so from the Jordan did He emerge
Who had healed the thenceforward healing ele-
ment, and in Whom the life of the whole race
was bound up (see Ex. xv. 2,^-26 ; 2, Kings ii.
21). If afterwards stones would have cried out
had disciples kept silence (St. Luke xix. 39, 40),
we may reverently think that now the voiceless
Jordan found a voice and, as it were, spake
through the mouth of St. John Baptist: "I have
need to be baptized of Thee^ and comest Thou
to me?" (St. Matt. iii. 14).
" The waters saw Thee, O God, the waters
saw Thee ; they were afraid : the depths also
were troubled " (Ps. Ixxvii. 16).
WHALES AND ALL THAT MOVE
IN THE WATERS.
" The fish of the sea, and whatsoever ^asseth through
the paths of the seas." Ps. viii. 8.
Between the three great families endued with
animal life, fishes might at a first glance appear
the creatures least allied to man, or in any
ALL THAT MOVE IN THE WATERS. %'JJ
way figurative of or congruous with him. The
element essential for habitation to the one, is
fatal to the other: and though a comparison of
both skeletons reveals to us modifications of an
identical structure, yet on the surface the two
living organisms have scarcely or have not a
limb in common. Nevertheless a study of the
Sacred Text brings to light, I think, in many
passages a close connexion which for our edifica-
tion the Creator of both has been pleased to
establish between the two.
Jonah's "whale," or "great fish," is a figure of
that "heart of the earth" wherein the Son of
Man abode three days and three nights; and
this "sign of the Prophet Jonas" is the solitary
sign granted by our Lord to the "evil and
adulterous generation" of His mortal day (Jonah
i. 17 ; ii. 10 ; St. Matt. xii. 38-40). And if it be
a figure of that place whither Christ our Head was
pleased to betake Himself; then must it equally
be a figure of that unknown region whither all
His members by turns resort, and whence as He
returned they shall return. As the fish vomited
out Jonah upon the dry land, so no less certainly
because of the Resurrection of Christ shall the
earth cast out the dead (Is. xxvi. 19).
27S ' SEEK AND FIND.
Although beyond a doubt He Who fulfilled all
righteousness in general (see St. Matt. iii. 15),
and Who in particular came not to destroy but
to fulfil the Law (v. 17-19), must each year have
partaken of the Paschal Lamb (Ex. xii. 3-1 r,
14: see St. Luke ii. 41-43; xxii. 7-16); and
although further there appears no reason to
question that habitually as to meat and drink
He fared as fared His countrymen (see vii. 34),
while we know that on occasion He sat down to
such feasts as grateful love spread for Him (see
for instance v. 27-30; St. Matt. ix. 9-1 1); yet
of animal food fishes only are specified as being
amongst the resources of His chosen company
(xiv. 17 ; XV. 34). When after His Resurrection
He condescended by eating before them to con-
vince His doubting disciples of His actual Bodily
Presence, the food they gave Him was still "a
piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb"
(St. Luke xxiv. 36-43). Moreover in one of
His discourses, when urging upon His disciples
the duty and privilege of prayer. He sets before
us by the example of an earthly father the ex-
celling love and bounty of our Heavenly Father,
and enumerates "a fish" among other "good
gifts " of this world (xi. 9-13).
ALL THAT MOVE IN THE WATERS. ^79
By miracle and ensuing promise (v. 4-10), and
by parable (St. Matt. xiii. 47-50), fishes are con-
stituted representatives of men; and the one
great recorded miracle wrought by Christ after
His Resurrection brings them again before us
in the same character (St. John xxi. 1-13) ; when
moreover they furnish the twofold feast laid, as it
would seem, by unearthly as well as by earthly
hands.
Besides all these, there is the fish from whose
mouth St. Peter was directed to take the sacred
didrachma (St. Matt. xvii. 2^4-27) ; and in con-
nexion with the fishy family, though produced by
a member of a far lower group, we find pearls
twice employed by our Lord as an emblem of
heavenly treasures (vii. 6 ; xiii. 45, 46).
Truly are there pearls to covet and pearls to
forego. If we be such women as adorn them-
selves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness
and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold,
or pearls, or costly array ; but with good works
(i Tim. ii. 9, 10) ; then shall we at length attain
to gaze upon the Bride in her beauty, the Lamb's
wife, holy Jerusalem, whose twelve gates are
twelve pearls (Rev. xxi. 9-12, 21.) And then?
" Blessed are they that do His Commandments,
a8o SEEK AND FIND.
that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and
may enter in through the gates into the city"
(xxii. 14).
FOWLS OF THE AIR.
" TJie voice of the turtle is heard in our land.''^
Song of Sol. ii. 12.
Christendom is that land wherein the true
dove- voice speaks,, the " still small voice " of God
the Holy Ghost. Faith certifies the blessed fact.
Meanwhile so overwhelmingly around the Church
swells the world's tumult of loud voices, which
whatever else they may profess to clamour for
do in truth require Christ to be crucified (see
St. Luke xxiii. 23 ; St. John vii. 19, 20, 25, 36 ;
Heb. vi. 4-6), that many a loving soul genuinely
weak and often to all appearance solitary, might
but for that assurance of faith sink into despair ;
and not only in season, but equally out of season,
might keep silence, yea, even from good words (see
2 Tim. iv. 2 ; Ps. xxxix. 3, Prayer Book). Now
although speech and war have no less than silence
and peace their appointed season (Eccles. iii. i,
7, 8), and woe betide him who saith, " Peace,
peace," when there is no peace (Jer. vi. 13-15),
FOWLS OF THE AIR. 2,Sl
yet silence and peace are and ought to be more
prevalently characteristic of ordinary Christians ;
peace must seldom be discarded from the manner,
and never from the heart (St. John xiv. 27 ;
xvi. ^^ ; Eph. iv. 1-3, ij6). We recognise quiet
blended with power in many of the Almighty
dealings: when Elijah's energy flagged, not con-
vulsed nature but " a still small voice " persuaded
him (i Kings xix. 4-18). Our Divine Pattern was
defined by prophecy as One who would not strive
nor cry in preparing to bring forth judgment unto
^victory (Is. xlii. 1-4 ; St. Matt. xii. 14-21). Even
a slight self-scrutiny discerns .that many times
^the true intrepid strength is that which sits still
(Is. XXX. 7, 15), while at all times it is that which
obeys (consider the example of Joseph, Gen. xxxix.
,9; the warning of Saul, i Sam. xiii. 7-13); it
needs unflinching self-mastery to go forth as sheep
among wolves, and cultivating a wisdom as of
serpents never to overstep the harmlessness of
doves (St. Matt. x. 16). The thought of any perfec-
tion, whether it flash forth into enterprise or shine
steadily in suffering, leads us up to adoring con-
templation of Christ.
In the Song of Songs (v. 12) the Bridegroom
is celebrated as one whose " eyes are as the eyes
a8;i SEEK AND FIND.
of doves by the rivers of waters;" and even after
an expositor has proposed to alter our Authorised
Version the "doves" remain, though as a symbol no
longer of tender delicacy but of vivacious energy.
Let us learn our lesson both ways and connect
a text with each meaning: "O Lord my God,
mine Holy One .... Thou art of purer eyes than
to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity "
(Hab. i. 13, 13); "His eyes were as a flame of
fire " (Rev. xix. 1 2).
No actual " fowls " appear in our Lord's history,
except the "pair of turtle doves, or two young
pigeons" of His blessed mother's purification
(St. Luke ii. 24) ; the doves of those two occasions
when the Lord coming suddenly to His temple
expelled its profaners (St. John ii. 13-17; St.
Mark xi. 15-17); and the crowing cock of
St. Peter's denial (xiv. 68, 72). But the allusions
to birds from our Divine Teacher's lips are
numerous.
In reference to His own sacred person He
declares how shelterless was the Son of Man in
comparison with " birds of the air " (St. Luke ix.
58) : and by the simile of a hen with her brood
expresses the exceeding tenderness with which
He yearned over His rebellious people (xiii. 34).
FOWLS OF THE AIR. zS^
— In His Sermon on the Mount, by example of
the fowls which " sow not, neither do they reap,
nor gather into barns," yet are fed by our
Heavenly Father, He encourages us to trust God
for our daily bread (St. Matt. vi. 2$, 2^6; see also
St. Luke xii. 24). — He upbuilds His apostles in
an indomitable courage by consideration of the
Divine individual care for sparrows (St. Matt. x.
29-3 1 ; see also St. Luke xii. 6, 7). — He bids us
all watch for His second advent, whereof the
hour is hidden from men and angels: it may
occur "at the cockcrowing," or at a different
moment (St. Mark xiii. 32-37). — On a certain
occasion He answered His disciples not directly
but figuratively: "Wheresoever the body is,
thither will the eagles be gathered together"
(St. Luke xvii. 37). — In two parables birds make
their appearance. In that of the sower they
represent the devil working the heedless hearer's
ruin (viii. 5, 12) ; in that of the grain of mustard-
seed, they seem, though less markedly, to exhibit
a character of good (St. Matt. xiii. 31, 32; St.
Mark iv. 30-32).
In the Book of Revelation (xviii. i, 2) we read
of an angel who "cried mightily fv^ith a strong
voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,
2S4 SEEK AND FIND.
and is become .... a cage of every unclean
and hateful bird;" such birds being apparently
not the same as the devils and foul spirits
mentioned along with them. If Babylon be a
figure of the world, then perhaps we may connect
such abominable birds as tenant her in her final
ruin with Solomon's statement: "Riches certainly
make themselves wings ; they fly away as an
eagle toward heaven " (Prov. xxiii. 5). Wings in
any case they have, indicative of their transitori-
ness : but not wings as of the noble eagle unless
we despatch them heavenward ; a caged carrion-
bird preying upon a corpse is like that corrupted
•treasure heaped together for the last days, which
shall eat into the flesh as fire (St. James v. 3).
To deliver us from such a doom our Saviour, our
Judge that is to be, has left us a rule which if we
obey, our possessions and our hearts together will
unfold wings as "of a dove covered with silver,
and her feathers with yellow gold " (Ps. Ixviii. 13),
and will even now take flight to that place
whither He is gone before: —
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon
earth : . . . but lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven : ... for where your treasure is, there will
your heart be also*' (St. Matt. vi. ;i9-ai).
BEASTS AND CATTLE. 385
BEASTS AND CATTLE.
" Moses said before the Lord, Behold, I am of un-
circumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto
mef Ex. vi. 30.
Thus even Moses (Ex. iv. 1-17) so far as
in him lay rejected an offered privilege and
missed an opportunity. Other such examples,
or rather warnings, are set before us in Holy
Scripture. It appears open to conjecture that
but for his own weak insistence the impending
" honour '"^ would have become Barak's own,
and no woman's (Judges iv. 6-9). Joash King
of Israel secured three victories and no more,
when he might have compassed the final over-
throw of his country's enemy : and as we read
that "the man of God was wroth with him,"
we suspect him of lukewarm scepticism {% Kings
xiii. 14-19). Happier than these, Esther (ii. lo-,
iv. 6-17; V. I, %) who ceased not to do the
commandment of Mordecai, did after hesitation
go in to Ahasuerus and by her people's rescue
secure likewise her own safety. Instances more
or less similar occur in the New Testament.
Who can estimate the vantage ground irretriev-
ably lost by St. Peter when our Lord said to him,
a86 SEEK AND FIND.
" O thou of little faith_, wherefore didst thou
doubt?" (St. Matt. xiv. 31): or again by the
same apostle and by the two sons of Zebedee
when they slept in the Garden of Gethsemane?
(xxvi. 36-46). St. Thomas had within his reach
but failed to grasp the blessing of those who not
seeing believe (St. John xx. ^^4-29). St. Paul
felt himself to be as " one born out of due time,"
and permanently at a disadvantage because of
yore he had persecuted the Church of God ( i Cor.
XV. 8, 9). Every moment brings its own oppor-
tunity, but no moment brings back a lost oppor-
tunity : a second chance may or may not be
conceded, but the first is gone beyond recall.
The Prophet Habakkuk (ii. i) sets us an example
of vigilance lest the critical moment should pass
unimproved: "I will stand " (he says)" upon my
watch, and set me upon the tower, and will
watch to see what He will say unto me."
What we apprehend at once as true of the pro-
minent turning points in a career, is no less true
of each choice we make ; is no less true of every
action in every life. If some be momentous and
others trivial, yet we ourselves cannot estimate
which is which: and therefore prudence as well
as obedience bids us do with our might whatso-
BEASTS AND CATTLE. 2,Sy
ever our hand findeth to do (see Eccles. ix. lo).
A special solemnity invests both the first and the
last step of any undertaking, be that undertaking
great or small : this of '' Beasts and Cattle " is the
last of one series of subjects in the Benedicite; and
this is my second and last time for dwelling upon it.
The glory of each creature resides in that aspect
under which it best serves to mirror its Creator.
The multiform family of living creatures which
treads earth in man's company has its crown of
dignity in that title of God the Son, " the Lamb
of God." Under such a veil was the coming
Saviour set before patriarchs (Gen. xxii. 7, 8) ;
before all Israel at the Exodus, and again under
the Law (Ex. xii. 3-13 ; xxix. 38-4^) ; before pro-
phets (Is. liii. 7 ; Ezek. xlv. 15). Thus, unveiled,
St. John Baptist identified and announced Him
(St. John i. 2^g, 36) ; the Ethiopian eunuch was
moved to love Him (Acts viii. 3^-39) ; St. Peter
dwelt upon His unapproached preciousness and
perfection (i St. Pet. i. 18, 19); St. John (xiii. 23)
the beloved disciple beheld Him in vision and
wrote concerning Him (Rev. v. 6 ; xxi. 22, 23 ;
xxii. 1-4). Before the wrath of that Name in the
great day of His wrath shall the men of this world
quake (vi. 15-17).
288 SEEK AND FIND.
Next in majesty stands our Lord's title "the
Lion of the tribe of Juda " (v. 5) : next, because
the "Lamb" is "of God," the "Lion" of a
human stock. The Athanasian Creed defines
such a point of the Christian Faith : " Equal to
the Father, as touching His Godhead : and infe-
rior to the Father, as touching His Manhood."
In our Lord's discourses we note the following
allusions to *' Beasts and Cattle.'' Dogs and
swine represent profane persons (St. Matt. vii. 6).
False teachers are as wolves in sheep's clothing
{v. 15). Strayed Israelites are spoken of as " lost
sheep:" while "dogs" denote the unreconciled
Gentile races (x. 6; xv. ^24, 26). The Twelve
Apostles are sent forth as sheep in the midst of
wolves (x. 16): and in like manner the Seventy
Disciples as lambs (St. Luke x. 3). Sheep divided
from goats stand for the righteous severed from
the wicked (St. Matt. xxv. 31-34, 41). King
Herod is "that fox " (St. Luke xiii. 31, 32): and
foxes in their holes (but brought forward simply
in the natural sense) are contrasted with the
houseless Son of Man (ix. 58). On two occa-
sions Christ rebuked pharisaical hypocrisy by
quoting the humane conduct of any owner to-
wards his ox or ass (xiii. 15 ; xiv. 5 ; see also on
BEASTS AND CATTLE. ^^89
th^ same subject St. Matt. xii. 11, 12): and once
more He named cattle incidentally when in^
structing His Apostles on the unprofitableness of
man's service (St. Luke xvii. 7-10). Twice He
mentioned the camel : once to express an exceed-
ing degree of difficulty, and once in denouncing
a scrupulous hypocrisy (St. Matt. xix. 2^4, where
however a different rendering would substitute
" cable " for " camel " : xxiii. 24).
But beyond all others of this class in frequency
and in tenderness are the figurative allusions to
sheep, lambs, a flock. Christ's graciousness makes
good the lovely prophecy of Isaiah (xl. 11): "He
shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall
gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them
in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that
are with young." It needed men's weakness in
combination with their Redeemer's strength to
accomplish another prophecy quoted by His own
sacred lips : " I will smite the shepherd, and the
sheep shall be scattered " (St. Mark xiv. 27 ; Zech.
xiii. 7). " I am the Good Shepherd," He reiter-
ates elsewhere ; and lavishes His love on the
flock for whom He came to die (St. John x. 1-30) :
while both St. Matthew (xviii. 12, 13) and St.
Luke (xv. 4-6), but in different contexts, record
U
2g6 SEEK AND FIND.
a tender parable of a lost sheep. Even after His
resurrection the Chief Shepherd (see i St. Peter
V. 4) recurs to the same dear familiar images in
giving a charge to St. Peter (St. John xxi. 15-17) :
in whose First Epistle (see besides two texts
already referred to, ii. 25 ; v. 1-3) we marvel not to
find a corresponding phraseology. Elsewhere in
our Lord's parables animals are referred to, but no-
where so prominently as in those of the Lost Sheep
and in others of the same class : see however the
Parable of the Good Samaritan (St. Luke x.
30-35), the Great Supper (xiv. 16-24), the
Prodigal Son (xv. 11-32), the Rich Man and
Lazarus (if indeed this be not a narrative of facts :
xvi. 19-31), the Marriage of the King's Son
(St. Matt. xxii. 2-14).
In the course of the Gospel history, quadrupeds
several times appear among the minor personages.
First in order of time comes the flock of the
wakeful shepherds on the night of the Nativity
(St. Luke ii. 8). Wild beasts shared the wilder-
ness with their Maker during the forty days of
His fast (St. Mark i. 13). Towards the opening
of our Lord's ministry. He purged His Father's
house, driving out sheep and oxen with their
owners (St. John ii. 13-17). In the country of
BEASTS AND CATTLE. 29 1
the Gadarenes He permitted the destruction of
a herd of swine (St. Mark v. 11-13). In His
one royal entry into Jerusalem He fulfilled a pro-
phecy delivered some five centuries before: " Re-
joice greatly, O daughter of Zion ; shout, O
daughter of Jerusalem : behold, thy King cometh
unto thee : He is just, and having salvation ;
lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt
the foal of an ass " (Zech. ix. 9 ; St. Matt. xxi.
1-7 ; St. Mark xi. 1-7).
And though it be far higher in significance and
in dignity than any of these, shall we not here
remember also the Paschal Lamb of each year of
our Saviour's mortal life ? — from that Passover
which when He was twelve years old He cele-
brated with His virgin mother and reputed father,
to that final supreme Passover which with desire
He desired to eat with His apostles before He suf-
fered (St. Luke ii. 41-43 ; xxii. 15).
" Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world " (St. John i. 39).
" O Lamb of God : grant us Thy peace, have
mercy upon us."
U %
292 SEEK AND FIND.
CHILDREN OF MEN.
*' What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know
hereafter:^ St. John xiii. 7.
It has been pointed out that, while marvellous
are the miracles of mercy which Jesus wrought,
still more marvellous are those which He wrought
not. We comprehend at once that as a good
tree naturally brings forth good fruit, and a sweet
fountain sends forth sweet waters (St. Matt. vii.
16-18; St. James iii. 11, 12), so Very Love must
beyond all question naturally perform works of
love : therefore what again and again He did to
relieve human suffering is miraculous not as the
outcome of His good will, but simply as a sus-
pension or contravention of established law;
what He did not is mysterious. Mysteries lie
deeper than miracles : they address and they tax
a higher faculty in whoso would apprehend them.
Many a miracle could in its own day be estimated
and attested by the senses: all mysteries ever
have been and at this day continue inappreciable
except by faith and love.
The secret things belong unto the Lord our
God: nevertheless so far as they are revealed
CHILDREN OF MEN. 293
they belong unto us also (Deut. xxix. 29). They
become as talents entrusted to us, and for which
we shall have sooner or later to give account (see
St. Matt, xviii. 23-25 ; St. Luke xii. 20 ; xvi. i, 2 ;
xix. 12, 13, 15).
Not least mysterious among mysteries appears
to us that lifelong self-restriction in observance of
which our Saviour ministered almost exclusively
to those of His own nation : for thus undoubtedly
in the main He did. True, He was as one who
hideth the ointment of his right hand, which
bewray eth itself (see Prov. xxvii. 16); His love
once and again coming out of its place (see
Mic. i. 3) to bestow uncovenanted mercies, and
to give unto the last even as unto the first (see
St. Matt. XX. 14) : but His so doing was the ex-
ception, not the rule. Wherefore? Our own
hearts suffice to respond with more than St. Paul's
emphasis of absolute conviction : Wherefore ?
because He loved us not? God knoweth! (see
2 Cor. xi. 11). Yet the question remains in
great measure still unanswered, and must so
remain. Man cannot reply to it fully, but God
is able to instruct souls by their own ignorance
no less efficiently than by any knowledge. When
out of the whirlwind He answered Job (xxviii.
294 SEEK AND FIND.
12, 28; xxxviii. i; xl. 4; xlii. 2, 6), we cannot
suppose that patriarch to have gleaned many
scientific facts till then unknown to him, and
the mysterious Providence which had so search-
ingly tried his faith and patience remained
mysterious still: but none the less did he then
and there find wisdom and the place of under-
standing, for he learned to say : " Behold, I am
vile; what shall I answer Thee?" and again,
" I know that Thou canst do every thing, and that
no thought can be withholden from Thee ....
I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
God's will respecting those who are outside the
Church's pale has not been revealed to us who
abide within : every duty of love, of intercession,
of corporal or spiritual mercy, we can discharge
towards them ; but judge them (thank God) we
may not and cannot ; though not seldom their
righteousness judges and shames our unrighteous-
ness (see I Cor. v. 12, 13; Gal. vi. 10; Rom. ii.
^3-^5^ 27-29)-
The Gospels comfort us with most blessed
instances of graces and gifts lavished in excess
of any definite covenant. Vividness of faith and
aptitude for love constrained the Magi to travel
westward in search of the Object of their costly
CHILDREN OF MEN. 295
worship (St. Matt. ii. i-ii). "Draw me," each
seems to say, " we will run after Thee " (Song of
Sol. i. 4) : and of sweeter influence than the un-
bound Pleiades (see Job xxxviii. 31) "His star"
drew them. The woman of Samaria, besides
sharing the errors of her nation, appears to have
become personally degraded : yet when to her
Jesus said, " I that speak unto thee am He," she
cavilled not at the word of truth; which there-
upon kindled within her a flame of charity towards
her own fellow-citizens ; and this shining before
men led some to glorify their heavenly Father (see
St. Matt. V. 16) by believing on His Christ ; other
converts afterwards being added to the first (St.
John iv. 16-42). That centurion who loved and
succoured God''s chosen people and by whom a
slave was most tenderly cared for, became in
matters spiritual as a Roman eagle gazing upon
the unveiled sun ; and attained to such a pitch
of supernatural insight that Jesus " marvelled at
him . . . and said . . . Verily I say unto you, I
have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
And I say unto you, that many shall come from the
east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven "
(St. Luke vii. 2-9 ; St. Matt. viii. 10-13). ^^-
29^ SEEK AND FIND.
ternal love wrought up one Syrophenician woman
to such indomitable persistence, that she could
bear a rebuff such as no second suppliant is re-
corded to have undergone : and thereby won from
her Saviour not only her heart's desire and the
request of her lips (see Ps. xxi. 2), but a word of
approval which was in itself a beatification (St.
Matt. XV. 21-28; St. Mark vii. 26). At that
Feast of the Passover, to which all previous
passovers had led up, and which was itself the
greatest and the last of all, certain Greek pilgrims
having come to worship with the sacred nation
in their sacred city, craved to " see Jesus : " and
though we are not informed whether at the
moment they obtained their request, it gave
occasion to the Divine discourse in which the
Saviour of mankind distinctly pledged Himself
to the whole human race: "I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, will draw all men unto Me"
(St. John xii. 20-33). Last of all we read of the
centurion, who at the Crucifixion glorified God,
saying, "Truly this man was the Son of God,"
" Certainly this was a righteous man." And they
also that were with him feared, and confessed the
Son of God (St. Mark xv. 39 ; St. Luke xxiii. 47 ;
St. Matt, xxvii. 54).
CHILDREN OF MEN. 297
The twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel
consists of what is, to all appearance, one un-
broken Divine discourse composed of three distinct
portions. Of these the first, the parable of the
Ten Virgins, addresses with special directness
such persons as practise or at the least profess a
devoted life, and urges them to a constant readi-
ness of preparation : the second, the parable of
the Talents, representing our probation under the
figure of a trust used or abused, may be claimed
by all alike who in any vocation are called to
know and serve God, and certifies each one
among us of the individual responsibility which
all lie under and which none can evade. The
third and concluding portion of the discourse,
quitting the parabolical form, speaks plainly of
the judgment which overhangs the whole world ;
proclaims a test, tried by which the arraigned
will stand finally or fall finally ; and first sets the
Judge before us, if so by any means we may be
prepared to be set before Him in that last awful
day.
In this revelation, all turns upon what each
man has done or has not done : motives are not
sifted, knowledge and ignorance alike seem to be
beside the question ; at least, no such matters are
298 SEEK AND FIND.
here on record as being gone into: "Ye have
done it/' "Ye did it not," sums up all. It
has been noticed that the righteous and the
wicked reply in the selfsame words: "Lord,
when saw we Thee . . .?" neither class seeming
to have formerly even suspected with Whom it
was that in the charities of daily life they had to
do. The duties alleged are moreover such as
are incumbent not exclusively upon Christians
as Christians, but upon all men as men: and
hence it has been argued that by this portion
of Holy Writ is revealed to believers God's
perfect will towards those who have not shared
their privileges.
This however we know not, neither can we yet
know. For the present we have nothing to do
with judging those that are without: only our
own selves we do well to judge (see i Cor. xi. 31),
and to judge trembling.
"For the time is come that judgment must
begin at the house of God : and if it first begin at
us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the
Gospel of God ? And if the righteous scarcely be
saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner
appear? "(i St. Pet. iv. 17, 18).
ISRAEL. 399
ISRAEL.
" Behold an Israelite indeed^ in whom is no guile I "
St. John i. 45-49.
I THINK we may understand these words of
our gracious Master not merely as attesting the
eminence of one particular virtue in one indi-
vidual saint, but as directing our attention
towards that same virtue as essential to the
character of every saint. The Israelite, we learn,
is guileless : the guileful man, then, is no genuine
Israelite, though he count and prove his gene-
alogy mounting in a straight line up from himself
to Jacob.
Guilelessness appears merely negative: yet it
does in fact nullify half the temptations which
beset us, and invite, if it does not involve, all the
graces we need. It accords with that "single''
eye which fills the whole body with light (St.
Luke xi, 34-36) : as was the case with Nathanael,
whom not even national prejudice could blind
when the truth met him face to face. Very few
facts concerning this early disciple are recorded,
but those few furnish for us a treasury of instruc-
300 SEEK AND FIND.
tion. The supposed stumbling-block, though not
in reality lying in his path, was neither removed
nor accounted for : where it had stood, there
it continued apparently to stand : but it bore
no proportion to the revelation vouchsafed, and
so it practically vanished. Thus we see that
guilelessness clears away exaggeration of feeling
as well as exaggeration of speech, and false
estimates as well as false aims. When all that is
false is abolished, then all that is true bursts upon
man in just proportion and flawless accuracy:
he sees himself as he is, simply because he desires
not to see himself otherwise than as he is : he
sees others also as they are ; most blessed of
all, he begins not by searching (see Job xi. 7-9),
but by affinity to find out God, according
to the Divine promise, " If any man will
do His will, he shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God " (see St. John vii. 1 7) ;
until even from man's remoteness apprehend-
ing Christ as He is "glorious in holiness,"
" altogether lovely " (Ex. xv. 11; Song of Sol.
V. 16), each '< Israelite indeed " recognises,
hails, follows, the Son of God and King of
Israel.
This word " Israelite indeed " strikes us in-
ISRAEL. 301
stantly as upbuilding, approving, truthful persons.
A second glance detects in it hope and encourage-
ment even for the untruthful, so long as they
loathe themselves and grudge no pain or shame
to put away lying and speak truth (Eph. iv. 25).
The first Israelite, so to say, the one, that is,
from whom all others derive their honourable
cognomen, was Jacob himself: for on him the
name of Israel was conferred not as a mere
appellation, but as a definition. The typical
Israelite, however many generations removed, we
may fairly presume still to be congruous with
the head of his house and source of his title:
but how did that forefather start in life ? He
began by driving with his twin brother so mean
a bargain, that we are almost tempted to brand
it as overreaching (Gen. xxv. 29-34) ; and he
went on to practise an elaborate deception upon
his blind old father in order to complete the
former transaction (xxvii. 6-^29). Neither to
Esau^s profanity (Heb. xii. 16) nor to Rebekah's
unscrupulousness may we condone Jacob's ill-
doing. And as deception had been his sin, so
in after-life was deception his retributive scourge :
making him husband of Leah (Gen. xxix. 18-25),
unwitting harbourer of idols (xxxi. 2^6-^'/)^ un-
^0% SEEK AND FIND.
consoled mourner for Joseph (xxxvii, 31- 35).
But there arose a crisis in his career when (if
indeed the good work had not long ago been
consummated) mortal fear like hail swept away
the refuge of lies : and he who once had hidden
himself under falsehood (see Is. xxviii. 15-17),
now in extremity felt that " Great is truth, and
mighty above all things" (i Esd. iv. 41). Con-
jugal and paternal affection purged and broke
up his heart (see Hos. x. 12-14): he resorted
not to subterfuges, but to honest, helpless prayer,
pouring forth the horror of his predicament to
Him Who heareth prayer (Ps. Ixv. 2). From that
moment he who had seemed the least of patriarchs
shot up into an unprecedented " Prince of God."
Abraham had prefixed and observed a limit to
his own urgent intercession (Gen. xviii. 2^-^2) :
Jacob grasped the spirit of God's will with such
unflinching faith as even to set at nought the
letter ; " Let Me go, for the day breaketh. . . .
I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me "
(see 2 Cor. iii. 6). The last taint of duplicity
has vanished from his conduct: he approaches
his elder brother under cover of a present, ex-
pressive of the deference due according to
the standard of his age and race, but he neither
ISRAEL. 303
suppresses nor distorts facts; for we have no
right to suppose that the motive which later
on he alleged for parting company with Esau
was other than a sincere one (Gen. xxxii.
3-29: xxxiii. I- 1 6). And several years after-
wards we notice a scrupulous rectitude in his
dealings with Pharaoh's unknown minister (xliii.
I2).i
With our Lord^s love of guilelessness, we may
surely connect His tender love of little children
(St. Markx. 13-16). At the worst, their faults lie
for the most part on the surface. At the best,
they themselves are almost as innocent as the
" lambs " He calls them (for they seem included
in St. John xxi. 15), and as the angels, than whom
by birthright they are not much lower (Ps. viii. 5).
That same gracious Master, Who bids us learn of
Him because He is " meek and lowly in heart ^'
(St. Matt. xi. 29), also invites us to emulate
one little child's humility and " become as little
children ; " nor will He by any means suffer us to
despise them (xviii. ij-6, 10). One may even
doubt whether the holiest mature Christian ap-
proaches so near to the Divine Manhood, as
^ The leading idea of the foregoing paragraph was suggested
to me.
304 SEEK AND FIND.
infants (though at an infinite distance) do to the
Divine Infancy.
If the example of a patriarch or of a true
Israelite, if the contemplation of a little child
fail to stir us up in pursuit of this virtue of guile-
lessness, yet one all-excelling pattern remains
to kindle and constrain us. Christ, " Who did no
sin, neither was guile found in His mouth "
(i St. Pet. ii. %2<), revealed Himself to St. Thomas
as "the Truth" (St. John xiv. 5, 6), spake of
Himself to the Jews as of a man who had told
them the truth (viii. 40), and confronted His half-
hearted judge with the aWful declaration, " To
this end was I born, and for this cause came
I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth " (xviii. 37).
"Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all
guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil
speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere
milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby : if
so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious "
(i St. Pet. ii. 1-3).
PRIESTS. 305
PRIESTS.
*' Ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of
God:' I Cor. iv. i.
"Ensamples to the flock:' 1 St. Pet. v. 3.
" Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He "
(Ps. cxxxv. 6). It pleased Christ of His gracious
mercy first in the course of His three years'
ministry to associate with Himself apostles (St.
Mark iii. 13-15; St. Luke vi, 13): then after all
power had been given Him in heaven and in
earth, to commit into their hands the administra-
tion of His own supernatural government (St.
Matt, xxviii. 18-20) : then by them to ordain and
consecrate other men as their fellow-labourers
and successors (as Acts xiv. 23) : and finally (for
that great day of Pentecost which followed the
Ascension belongs to *' the last days," Acts ii;
1-4, 14-18) by an unbroken chain of ordinations
and consecrations to hand on to each successive
generation the privileges and responsibilities con-
ferred upon that which preceded it (as 2 Tim. ii.
1 ; Titus i. 5). Thus the Christian Church of
our day has no more a cloke for (God forbid!)
any sin of apostasy, than had the Jewish Church
X
306 SEEK AND FIND.
of our Lord's own day (see St. Luke x. i6 ; St.
John XV. 30-22 ; Rev. iii. 1-6).
The Epistle to the Hebrews (ch. vii.) shows us
" Melchisedec, king of Salem, Priest of the Most
High God," as pre-eminently the type of Christ
as Priest. In the inspired narrative (Gen. xiv.
18-20) Melchisedec abruptly stands before us
unintroduced, unaccounted for; his whole dynasty
(so to say) initiated, bound up, terminating, in
himself: as an individual man wrapped in ob-
scurity; as a typical personage luminous. Read-
ing of him we identify One greater than he.
'f Without father, without mother : " the Begin-
ning without beginning, God Almighty, Christ
Himself, sole Priest ; " without descent : " Christ
" consecrated for evermore," the Alpha and
Omega (Rev. i. 8) of His own prevalent pro-
pitiation (i St. John ii. I, 2; iv. 9, 10), after
Whom none need come nor can come (see Heb.
X. 7, 10-14, 26-29). By representatives, by
agents (see 2 Cor. v. 20, 21 ; vi. i). He in heaven
carries on His work upon earth : but the channel
is in itself nothing ; that which replenishes the
channel is all in all ; " Neither is he that planteth
any thing, neither he that watereth ; but God that
giveth the increase " (i Cor. iii. 5-9). The Le-
PRIESTS. 307
vitical priesthood equals not this of Melchisedec,
to which itself paid tithes after a sort. It was
invested with no more than a temporary dignity
(Heb. ix. 1-26), and occupied an intermediate
or rather a simultaneous period in the midst of
that " continual " priesthood, whereof the type
preceded and the manifestation abrogated it ; but
whereof the essence "the same yesterday, and
to-day, and for ever'' (xiii. 8) infused into it as
into a conducting medium a prefixed measure of
grace.
Yet has the Aaronic priesthood, no less recog-
nisably than the other, both a real and a typical
majesty of its own. If all brotherly unity be like
the precious ointment which bedewed not Aaron's
head only but even the extremities of his raiment
(Ps. cxxxiii. I, 2), most of ail like it is that trans-
cendent brotherly unity in which Christ by His
Holy Spirit joins men with Himself, and by
special bonds joins with Himself those whom He
sends to minister in His name. Thus'we discern
a second aspect under which we adore Christ as
High Priest over and among a brotherhood of
subordinate priests : the whole and sole overflow
of grace derives from the Head ; yet it descends
not thence to the lay outskirt, except by inter-
X %
308 SEEK AND FIND.
mediaries contiguous to both. The very name of
Levi (interpreted ''joined") taken in connexion
with those pathetic words of Leah which ex-
plained why she conferred this name and no
other upon her third son (Gen. xxix. 34, with
marginal reading), reminds us that God in Christ
reconciles the world unto Himself (2 Cor. v. 18,
19); not that she should thenceforth abide afar
off as a trembling slave (see Hos. ii. 16, with
marginal reading), but that as a beloved bride
she should sit down with Him in His Throne
(Rev. iii. 21). So also spake Isaiah (liv. 5) by
the Spirit of prophecy : " Thy Maker is thine
Husband ; the Lord of hosts is His Name."
Awful then and by us venerable is the dignity
of each Christian priest (see St. Matt. x. 40 ; St.
Luke x. 16 ; St. John xiii. 30). His exclusive
prerogative it is to absolve (St. John xx. 22, 23),
to excommunicate and restore (St. Matt, xviii. 15-
18 ; I Cor. V. ^-^ ; 2, Cor. ii. 5-1 1), to consecrate
the most Blessed Sacrament of Christ's Body and
Blood (i Cor. X. 16; xi. 2^-2^)- To him emi-
nently, though not exclusively, it appertains to
administer the Sacrament of Holy Baptism (St.
Matt, xxviii. 19), to preach (2 Tim. iv. i, 2), to
act towards his charge as a disinterested provi-
PRIESTS. • 309
dent father (2, Cor. xii. 14), to keep in advance of
those he guides (the supreme example : St. John
X. 4; see also i Cor. xi. i ; i Tim. iv, 12), to lay
down life for the brethren (St. John x. 11 ; i St.
John iii. 16).
St. Peter and St. Paul have left rules for men
called to the heavenly office (see especially i St.
Pet. V. 1-4 ; I Tim. iii. 1-7). Liable to such a
standard, well may each priest re-echo St. Paul's
own request, " Brethren, pray for us " (i Thess. v.
25), and fall back upon that Divine assurance
which he also needed and built upon, " My grace
is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made
perfect in weakness " (2 Cor. xii. 9).
If Christian priests be such as type and revela-
tion declare, their claim upon ourselves and our
substance becomes obvious ; much more so when
the same revelation enjoins our duties towards
them of obedience (Heb. xiii. 17 ; see also Rom.
xiii. I, 2; I Cor. xvi. 15, 16), honour (i Tim. v.
17), love (i Thess. v. 12, 13), temporal main-
tenance (i Cor. ix, 7-14). And this for our
sakes rather than for theirs: for these are they
who travail in birth until Christ be formed in
their cherished "little children" (see Gal. iv. 19,
20) ; who feed the flock of God " not by con-
310 SEEK AND FIND.
straint, but willingly ; " who watch for our souls
"as they that must give account."
God grant that in His own great day of reck-
oning " they may do it with joy, and not with
grief."
SERVANTS OF THE LORD.
" After a long time the Lord of those sei^uants cometh, and
reckoneth with thetn.''^ St. Matt. xxv. 14-30,
The parable of which these words form a part
sets before us our own momentous inevitable
responsibility, and the end whereunto we are
^hastening. Since by nature we and whatever
may be in our hands dwindle, deteriorate, perish,
the prospect would appear formidable were we
bound to no more than the rendering back in-
tact of whatsoever trust had been confided to
us; but (at a first glance) overwhelm.ing does it
appear as it actually stands ; for in His day of
final account our Lord will demand His own
" with usury."
Yet when we consider that general if not
; universal law to which faith, reason, experience,
i bear united witness as ruling creation, — the law
SERVANTS OF THE LORD. 31I
\ whereby all ebbs or flows, waxes or wanes, around
jus ; while we set in the midst of all do and must
[.do likewise, — we discern that the only thing we
could not achieve would be to give back neither
less nor more than identically our original trust.
To demand this at our hands would be to require
* stability of beings constituted unstable (see Job
xiv. I, 2; Ps. ciii. 13-16): it would be even to
justify the very insinuation made by the "wicked
and slothful servant," " Lord, I knew thee that
thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast
not sown, and gathering where thou hast not
strawed."
Now as regards what really is incumbent upon
us, true it is that as in the parable so in that
which the parable represents, the Lord in no case
suffers loss ; his " one talent " returns to him un-
blemished and available ; but so far as the slothful
servant is concerned it has been wasted, and has
not prospered in that whereto it was sent (see
Is. Iv. 11); it has lain unproductive, whereas its
nature was to produce ; it becomes a lost talent,
in the same sense that we speak of lost time and
lost opportunities. Thus in reference to Judas
himself, his became a lost ministry and apostle-
ship : though in reference to the Church the com-
312 SEEK AND FIND.
pensating fiat went forth, " His bishoprick let
another take " (Acts i. 15-26).
He that shall judge us is very Love and all per-
fection (i St. John iv. 8; St. Matt. v. 48; see
St. John xiv. 9-1 1). Even in moments of keenest
fear and utmost heart-sinking, which of us after
all would dare to choose a fallible rather than an
infallible judge ? or would think to fare better in
other hands than in those which were pierced
to save us ? " They that fear the Lord will pre-
pare their hearts, and humble their souls in His
sight, saying. We will fall into the hands of
the Lord, and not into the hands of men :
for as His majesty is, so is His mercy " (Ecclus.
ii. 17, 18).
Nor in this anxious matter does our gracious
Master leave us comfortless: He succours and
befriends us at every turn.
His example helps us. He deigned to take on
Himself « the form of a servant " (Phil ii. 5-8) :
and not the form only but an obedience, toil,
responsibility, more humbling and more straining
to the whole man than ever He exacts from us.
As a servant the inspired word of prophecy points
Him out: " Behold My Servant, Whom I uphold'"
(Is. xlii. I ; St. Matt. xii. 17, 18) : and so did He
SERVANTS OF THE LORD. 313
delight to empty Himself of glory (see St. John
xvii. 4, 5) that He, " Who thought it not robbery to
be equal with God," made Himself not God's Ser-
vant only, but even a Servant of servants : saying
indeed to His apostles, " Ye call Me Master and
Lord : and ye say well ; for so 1 am ;" but else-
where saying to them, " Whether is greater, he that
sitteth at meat, or he that serveth ? is not he that
sitteth at meat ? but I am among you as he that
serveth " (St. Luke xxii. 2,y), thus pressing home
upon them the essential superiority of lowliness.
Nor does He bid them wash one another's feet
until He has first Himself washed them : nor
does He in humbling humiliate them, for He
rates them no lower than according to the
standard, "The servant is not greater than his
Lord" (St. John xiii. 12-17), that standard
in truth being " a perfect man, . . . the measure
of the stature of the fulness of Christ " (see Eph.
iv. 13).
Those whom one day He will judge as servants,
He first spares no pains to educate as servants.
From His blessed lips we learn how futile is the
attempt to serve two masters (St. Matt. vi. 2,4),
Again : " Blessed are those servants, whom the
Lord when He cometh shall find watching.'^
314 SEEK AND FIND.
The faithful and wise steward shall be richly
rewarded, but if he fall away he shall be taken
at unawares and destroyed (St. Luke xii. 35-46).
Punishment shall bear proportion to the know-
ledge sinned against {vv. 47, 48). Sinners are
the servants of sin (S. John viii. 34-36; see also
Rom. vi. 16-23). At best we are unprofitable
servants to God (St. Luke xvii. 7-10) : never-
theless great are the solace and glory which await
Christ's steadfast servant and follower (St. John
xii. 26). Nor does even that climax of honour :
"Henceforth I call you not servants; . . . but
I have called you friends" (xv. 14, 15) seem neces-
sarily restricted to those to whom it was spoken :
for the two qualifications on which it depends,
obedience and knowledge, are not the prerogative
of a few but the privilege of all (i St. John v. 3 ;
ii. 20).
In several of the Divine parables servants ap-
pear among the figurative personages. Five times
they pointedly represent God's ministers, whether
angels, prophets, or priests (St. Matt. xiii. 24-30;
xxi. 33-41 ; xxii. 2-14 ; St. Mark xiii. 34-36 ;
St. Luke xiv. 1 6-24) : besides which we have the
Steward who summons the Labourers in the Vine-
yard (St. Matt. XX. 1-16), and that Unjust Steward
SERVANTS OF THE LORD. 315
from whose unsanctified prudence is elicited
a lesson of holy prudence (St. Luke xvi. 1-9).
The Parable of Forgiveness (St. Matt, xviii. 23-35),
corresponding with the fifth petition of the Lord's
Prayer (vi. 12), establishes God-'s love and pity
towards our helpless selves as the basis of all
human charities and compassions, — that of the
Prodigal Son (St. Luke xv. 11-32) sets vividly
before us the joy, plenty, endearments, of the
heavenly family and household ; meanwhile warn-
ing us against an unsonlike, unsympathetic,
grudging spirit in our service, — that of the
Pounds (xix. 12-27 ; resembling that of the
Talents already quoted from) treats of man's
ability and accountability.
None but a liar and the father of lies (St. John
viii. 44) was he who sneeringly asked, " Doth Job
fear God for nought ?" (Job i. 9) : yet, as oftentimes
has been the case, the particular slander struck
root in a general truth : " To the righteous good
shall be repayed" (Prov. xiii. 21). Our last view
of '-The Lord's freeman . . . Christ's servant"
(see I Cor. vii. 22) is when he stands no longer
in exile upon earth, but at home in heaven.
Robed in white and holding in his hand a palm
he rejoices before the Throne of God, Whom he
^l6 SEEK AND FIND.
serves day and night in His temple (Rev. vii.
3,9-17), His blood has been avenged: his avoca-
tion is to praise God and rejoice (xix. 2, 5-7).
In " the holy city, new Jerusalem '" (xxi. 2) shall
be " the Throne of God and of the Lamb :" there
"His servants shall serve Him: and they shall
see His Face- and His Name shall be in their
foreheads. . . . The Lord God giveth them
light: and they shall reign for ever and ever
(xxii. 3-5).
SPIRITS AND SOULS OF THE
RIGHTEOUS.
" He said unto Jesus, Lord, remejnber me when Thou
contest into Thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him,
Verily I say unto thee. To-day shall thou be with Me in
paradise.^'' St. Luke xxiii. 42, 43^
" With Me '^ is a greater promise than " in
paradise: " and for our comfort the greater word
conveys to us a far more distinct idea than does
the less. We may ponder and doubt what sort
or what degree of boon is guaranteed by " in
paradise : " that bound up in " with Christ " is
evident and is enough. So^ I suppose, it may
SPIRITS AND SOULS OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 317
have been in the case of the Penitent Thief him-
self. That he already realized in some measure
what it was to be with Christ, how ennobling,
how absorbing, we are sure : that it kindled within
him a desire of renewed communion, is beyond a
doubt : yet how vividly or how vaguely he iden-
tified any feature of a local paradise, we can by
no means ascertain.
But did anything depend on his conception, or
rather does not all depend on the word of Christ ?
Even if, like Abraham, he went out not knowing
whither he went (Heb. xi. 8), he may well have
realized enough to say with David, " I will fear
no evil : for Thou art with me " (Ps. xxiii. 4).
And that much the most ignorant of ourselves
can by God's grace realize : which holding fast,
let us thank God and take courage.
This once only (I think) is it on record that our
Lord spoke directly of the intermediate state,
unless the awful narrative of what befell the
Rich Man and Lazarus (St. Luke xvi. 19-31) be
a history and not a parable. In either case that
narrative proves to us that our own intermediate
state will be blessed or penal in correspondence
with the tenor of our previous lives : and surely
"the vision" is written and made plain "that
3l8 SEEK AND FIND.
he may run that readeth it. For the vision is
yet for an appointed time, but at the end it
shall speak, and not lie : though it tarry, wait for
it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."
Thus prophesied Habakkuk (ii. 2-4), foreseeing
the end of an arrogant people : and his next
words equally accord with the characteristics of
the two typical personages exhibited for our
warning; "Behold, his soul which is lifted up
is not upright in him : but the just shall live by
his faith."
The widow of Nain's son (St. Luke vii. 11-15),
Jairus's daughter (St. Mark v. 32-24, 35-43)j
Lazarus of Bethany (St. John xi. i, 43, 44), re-
stored to life by Christ's omnipotent word, left
for us no message. They who return and they
who return not maintain towards us an unbroken
silence (see Ps. cxv. 17 ; Eccles. iii. 7): nor are
we told whether those many bodies of sleeping
saints which, after their Lord's rising again,
also arose out of their graves and went into the
holy city and appeared unto many (St. Matt,
xxvii. 52, S3)i were or were not empowered to
speak.
Christ Himself, our resurrection and our life
(St. John xi. 25), has not with His own lips
SPIRITS AND SOULS OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 319
revealed to us aught concerning His three days'
and three nights' abode in the heart of the earth
(St. Matt. xii. 40). To us, nothing. How much
He may or may not have deigned to reveal to dis-
ciples who conversed with Him, we know not :
only from St. Peter we learn that He went and
preached unto the spirits in prison, who in the
days of Noah had been disobedient (i St. Pet.
iii. 18-30; see also iv. 6).
Here and there, however, in St. Paul's Epistles
a gleam of light brings out some feature of the
veiled land. Yet when St. Paul relates how once,
whether in the body or out of the body even he
himself knew not : but God knoweth, — how he
once was " caught up to the third heaven ....
into paradise ; " he brings us no message thence,
for he "heard unspeakable words, which it is
not lawful for a man to utter" (2 Cor. xii. 2-
4). Elsewhere he writes : " To me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain ; " but he no further
defines that gain than as the being ^' with Christ ;
which is far better-" (Phil. i. 21, 23). The blessed
dead he denominates "them which sleep in
Jesus ^' (i Thess. iv. 14): and still Jesus' presence
is the whole and sole definition of Paradise.
From the Book of Revelation (vi.. 9-11) we
320 SEEK AND FIND.
learn somewhat regarding the abode, demeanour,
dignity, rest, of the noble army of martyrs : while
a second passage announces the blessedness of
"the dead which die in the Lord from hence-
forth : " they rest from their labours, and their
works do follow them (xiv. 13).
On these and other utterances of inspiration
many and elaborate conjectures have been based
as to the state of disembodied souls. But drawing
our own humble lesson from what the sacred text
here cited directly reveals or at the least seems to
1 imply, we learn that the approach to paradise is
by a way of labour, not of sloth : that if we would
meet our work there, we must first have wrought
it here : that there the saints rest : and most
blessed of all, that there they abide with Christ ;
and because with Christ also together.
" Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? and there
is none upon earth that I desire beside thee "
(Ps. Ixxiii. :z5).
" Them also which sleep in Jesus will God
bring with Him" (i Thess. iv. 14).
HOLY AND HUMBLE MEN OF HEART. 32 1
HOLY AND HUMBLE MEN OF
HEART.
" The Holy One and the Just" ACTS iii. 14.
" He humbled Himself. ^^ Phil. ii. 8.
" Come unto Me," says our gracious Lord :
" Learn of Me ; for I am meek and lowly in
heart" (St. Matt. xi. 38, 29). The injunction,
"Learn of Me,'^ implies the promise, "I will
teach ;'^ for God accepts us according to that
we have, and not according to that we have
not (see 2 Cor. viii. i!^), and consequently de-
mands no more than He is willing first to sup-
ply; but it does not define or limit the Divine
mode of teaching, and experience attests that
after divers manners does Christ instruct His
disciples.
Taking humility as our subject: He taught
His blessed Mother once and again by a check
(St. John ii. 4; St. Mark iii. 3i-35),-~Nico-
demus by his ignorance (St. John iii. 10), — the
Woman of Samaria by her depravity (iv. 16-
18), — the Sinful Woman by suffering her to be
despised (St. Luke vii. 39); — shallow per-
sons He taught by revealing the impartiality
Y
322 SEEK AND FIND.
and inevitableness of impending judgment (xiii.
1-5), — the Canaanitish Mother by delay, even
by apparent denial and contempt (St. Matt. xv.
22-26), — the Apostles collectively by pattern of
a little child (xviii. 1-4); and by His own
habitual (St. Luke xxii. 24-27) and exceptional
(St. John xiii. 12-17) example, — St. Peter indi-
vidually by a patient prophetic warning {vv. ^"j,
38). He likewise in abasement of pride and
exaltation of humility spake two Parables; that
of the Highest Room (St. Luke xiv. 7-1 1), and
that of the Pharisee and Publican (xviii. 9-14).
All these instances taken together illustrate
not the necessity merely of our acquiring humi-
lity, but the painfulness of the process whereby
it must be acquired. Yet surely necessity and
pain fall into the background, giving place to
aspiration and love, when our Master Himself
first performs the task He is about to set us.
As (according to a most poetical simile) a brim-
ming cup overflows, whether a pebble or a pearl
be cast into it, so does a heart full of love over-
flow not with pain, but with love, even if that
which stirs its depths be not a pleasure but a
pang.
Humility pervades the Apostolic Epistles. To
HOLY AND HUMBLE MEN OF HEART. ^2^
take one instance only ; the First Epistle of St.
Peter is a study of humility, submission, patience.
If in defiance of nature St. Peter, the dominant
Apostle, clothed himself with humility (see v. 5),
which of us need despair? Not one of us who
brings to the work a spark of that love which
blazed in his heart. Love_, the key of all per-
fection, is itself that perfection whereof it is the
key. Love it is which fulfils the first and great
commandment, and the second likewise (St.
Matt. xxii. 37-40; Rom. xiii. 8-10); these two
fulfilled, what room remains for transgression
or defect? Yet some things, which for the pre-
sent form part of our salutary discipline or our
bounden duty, must at length be abolished in
the triumph of love. "Let us fear," is our rule
to-day (Heb. iv. i); but the day approaches
when " perfect love " shall cast out fear ; "He
that feareth is not made perfect in love" (i St.
John iv. 18).
We learn from the Epistle to the Hebrews (xii.
9-1 1) how God chastens us for our profit, that we
may be partakers of His holiness ; and how such
chastening, seeming for the present grievous,
afterwards yields the peaceable fruit of righte-
ousness. These declarations send us back to our
Y 2,
3^4 SEEK AND FIND.
Lord^s words of tender invitation: "Take My
yoke upon you, and learn of Me ; for I am meek
and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto
your souls " (St. Matt. xi. 2^y Now if the pro-
mise of " peaceable fruit of righteousness," and of
" rest unto our souls/' suffice not to allure us, yet
one more motive remains ; for without holiness
"no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. xii. 14).
Shall we have travelled so far, to miss the goal
at last ? Shall we so often have gazed on Christ
with the eye of intellectual knowledge, it may
be even of intellectual faith, and never behold
Him face to face with the eye of love ? Every
eye indeed shall see Him, and they also which
pierced Him (Rev. i. 7) ; but they only who shall
be like Him shall see Him as He is (i St. John
iii. 2)>
" As He which hath called you is holy, so be
ye holy in all manner of conversation ; because it
is written. Be ye holy; for I am holy" (i St.
Peter i. 15, 16).
ANANIAS, AZARIAS, AND MISAEL. ^25
ANANIAS, AZARIAS, AND
MISAEL.
" We see Jesus^ Who was made a little lower than the
angels for the suffering of deaths crowned with glory and
honour J that He by the grace of God should taste death
for every man.^'' Heb. ii. 9.
Whatsoever we contemplate, this is the true
end of all contemplation : to " see Jesus : " " For
God, Who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ" (% Cor. iv. 6). The
undying glory which invests Ananias, Azarias^
and Misael, is that obedience of faith which
brought them into fellowship with the Son of
God, making them fellow-workers with Him to
edify the Church and convert the world: of
which wide conversion they then and there
reaped a sort of firstfruits ; for we read how
Nebuchadnezzar, who up to that hour had been
an idolater and a persecutor, then '^ spake, and
said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abed-nego .... There is no other God that
can deliver after this sort " (Dan. iii. 218, 29).
3^6 SEEK AND FIND.
Nor will the contemplation of any creature,
whether higher or lower than man in the scale
of creation, avail us anything, unless by help of it
according to its proper endowment and capacity
we discern Jesus, in Whom "dwelleth all the
fulness of the Godhead bodily"'' (Col. ii. 9) : " For
the invisible things of Him from the creation of
the world are clearly seen, being understood by
the things that are made, even His eternal power
and Godhead "' (Rom. i. 20). Otherwise we shall
be like Hagar familiar with the wilderness, but
unaware of the well of water (Gen. xxi. 14-19);
like Esau who appreciated lentils, but not his
birthright (xxv. 29—34) ; like Jacob who made
himself comfortable with stones, and awhile dis-
cerned not that he lay at the gate of heaven
(xxviii. 10-17); like Pharaoh's chief baker
whose guess was plausible, but fundamentally
incorrect (xl. 16-19); or, yet more hopeless, we
shall be like the delighted listeners to Ezekiel
(xxxiii. 30-32) who flocked after the poet and
ignored the prophet; like the hearers and not
doers (see St. James i. 22-24) of St. John Bap-
tist's mission, who, whatever eye they may have
possessed for beauties of nature and refinements
of breeding (see St. Luke vii. 24, 25), rejected
ANANIAS, AZARIAS, AND MISAEL. 327
the counsel of God against themselves, not being
baptized with the baptism of repentance (St.
Matt. iii. 11; St. Luke vii. 30).
Christ, our Judge and our only Saviour, keep
us from being numbered amongst those who,
standing on the left hand at the bar of judg-
ment, shall make answer, "Lord, when saw we
Thee ? " (St. Matt. xxv. 41, 44).
THE END.
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