choir through such tender passages as “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.” In his memoirs his biographer writes, “Out of his sorrows came a deeper and even more assured contact with human ity. Sir Malcolm Sargent found the strength to live and to endure suffer ing in the music of God’s Word.” There are many hard and bitter experiences for us, too. Life is sure to deal us many heavy blows. Peter says, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold testings; but the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” * In salvation,God does not ask forour hope in whatHe will do, but our faith in what He has done. * * * FIRST A N D LAST WORDS Frequently we have heard the old saying, “That’s a dog in the manger.” This interesting expression pictures one who selfishly deprives others of things he himself doesn’t actually want, but re fuses to let others have. The illustration comes from a dog lying in a manger filled with hay, for which it does not care or even have an appetite. Yet let the ox, who does eat hay, try to get some of it and the dog will bark and nip the poor animal preventing it from enjoying the food for which the canine has no craving. A similar picture is given to us in the Bible in talking about the Pharisees who had no inclination to re ceive salvation themselves, and who were determined to keep others from en joying the benefits of it, too. Why would a person let a field and its fruits go to rot rather than letting someone else benefit by it? Why does a stingy miser heap up riches when he will never have sufficient days to spend his hoard, all 26 * *
SEEING BY KNEELING A visitor to the famed Copenhagen Cathedral in Denmark stood admiring the famous statue of Jesus by the noted sculptor, Thorwaldsen. The tourist tried to get some distance back from the figure so he could see it, it was so tall. A Dan ish citizen kindly suggested, “Friend, you won’t be able to see His face until first you kneel at His feet and look up." The American followed the advice and knelt down at the foot of the statue. Now he got the perspective that had made Thorwaldsen’s work a masterpiece. In so doing the traveler remarked, “I can see His eyes looking down at me.” What an important lesson for all of us. We need to bow at the feet of Christ today that we may see His face. * * * A self-managed life is a self-damaged life. * * * M U SIC THROUGH M ISERY One of the most outstanding British musicians in recent years was Sir Mal colm Sargent. His famed recording of Handel’s “Messiah” continually receives unde acclaim. He was a man with a light step and a ready smile. To look at him one might think, “There’s a person whom life has treated well.” Such an as sumption, however, would be wrong. Just when his career seemed off to a successful start he collapsed with tuber culosis. He battled for his life while fac ing financial ruin. Finally, upon return ing to the world of music, Pamela, his beloved thirteen-year-old daughter, was stricken w ith polio. Desperately he searched for medical help but there was little doctors could do. One night at the concert hall, just as he was about to begin a performance of “The Messiah,” he was handed a note, which struck in consolable grief to his heart. It read, “Your daughter Pamela is dying.” With tears in his eyes he walked to the plat form and raised his baton for the over ture. He directed the orchestra and
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