THE KING’S BUSINESS
818
flock stand still till He has saved the weak est one. SIN IS ITS NAME Did we but know the name for our pain we should call it Sin. What do we need, then, but Christ the Son of God, the Heart of God, the Love of God? He will in very deed give us rest. He will not add to the great weight which bows down our poor strength. He will give us grace, and in His power { all our faintness shall be thought of no more. Some of us know how dark it is when the full shadow of our sin falL upon our life, and how all the help of earth and time and man does but mock the pain it can not reach. Let no man say that Christ will not go so low down as to find one so base and vile as he; Christ is calling for thee; I heard His sweet' voice lift itself up in the wild wind and ask whither thou hadst fled, that He might save thee from death and bring thee home. There is no wrath in His face or voice, no sword is swung by his hand as if in cruel joy, saying, “Now at last I have my chance with you.” His eyes gleam with love: His voice melts in pity: His wbrds are gospels, every one. Let Him but see thee sad for sin, full of grief, because of the wrong thou hast done, and He will raise thee out. of the deep pit and set thy feet upon the rock.
may yet take place and be developed and supervene in immortality. How do we talk? Thus: “The survival of the fittest.” It is amazing with what patience and mag nanimity and majestic disregard of cir cumstances we allow people to die off. When we hear that thousands have per ished, we write this epitaph on their white slate tombstones: “The survival of the fittest required the decay of the weakest and the poorest.” We pick off the fruit which we think will not come to perfec tion. The gardener lays his finger and thumb upon the tree, and he says, “This will not come to much”—he wrenches the poor unpromising piece of fruit off the twig and throws it down as useless. In our march we leave the sick and wounded behind. That is the great little; the majes tic insignificant, the human contradiction. We go in for things that are fittest, strong est, most promising, healthy, self-com plete, and therein we are wise. God says, “Not a lamb must be left out—bring it up : not a sick man must be omitted from the great host. Bring them all in, sick, weary, wounded, feeble, young, illiterate, poor, insignificant, without name, fame, station, force—all in: gather up the fragments that nothing be lost.” Let us go to that Shep herd—He will spare us and love us, He will gather us in His arms and make the whole
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker