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THE KING’S BUSINESS
not do to sing by-and-by; I guess they will sing a different kind of tune soon. They can sing nowadays any rollicking, drink ing songs; but they will not sing them when they come to die; they are not ex actly the songs with which to cross Jor don’s billows. It will not do to sing one of those light songs when death and you are having the last tug. It will not do to enter heaven singing one of those un chaste, unholy sonnets. No; but the Chris tian who can sing in the night will not have to leave off his song; he may keep on singing it forever. He may put his foot in Jordan’s stream, and continue his mel ody; he may wade through it, and keep on singing still, and land himself safe in heaven; and when he is there, there need not be a gap in his strain, but in a nobler, sweeter strain he may still continue sing ing His power to save. There are a great many of you that think Christian people are a very miserable set, don’t you? You say, “Let me sing my song.” Ay, but, my dear friends, we like to sing a song that will last; we don’t like your songs; they are all froth, like bubbles on the beaker, and they will soon die away and be lost. Give me a song that will last; give me one that will not melt. Oh, give me not the dream- ster’s gold! he hoards it up, and says, “I’m rich” ; and when he waketh, his gold is gone. But give me songs in the night, for they are songs I sing forever. Again: the songs we warble in the night are those that show we have real faith in God. Many men have just enough faith to trust God as far as they can see Him, and they always sing as far as they can see providence go right; but true faith can sing when its possessors cannot see. It can take hold of God when they cannot discern Him. EVIDENCE OF COURAGE Songs in the night, too, prove that we have true courage. Many sing by day who are silent by night; they are afraid of thieves and robbers; but the Christian who sings in the night proves himself to be a courageous character. It is the bold
A h ! beloved, how despicable our trouble* and trials will seem when we look back upon them! Looking at them here in the prospect, they seem immense; but when we get to heaven, we shall then, “With transporting joys recount The labors of our feet.” Our trials will seem to us nothing at all. We shall talk to one another about them in heaven, and find all the more to con verse about according as we have suffered more here below. Let us go on, therefore; and if the night be ever so dark, remem ber there is not a night that shall not have a morning; and that morning is to come by and by. And now I want to tell you, very briefly, what are the excellences of songs in the night above all other songs. In the first place, when you hear a man singing a song in the night—-I mean in the night of trouble—you may be quite sure it is a hearty one. Many of you sang very prettily just now, didn’t you? I wonder whether you would sing very prettily, if there was a stake or two in Smithfield for all of you who dared to do it? If you sang under pain and penalty, that would show your heart to be in your song. We can all sing very nicely indeed when every body else sings. It is the easiest thing in the world to open your mouth and let the words come out; but when the devil puts his hand over your mouth, can you sing then? Can you say, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” ? That is hearty singing; that is real song that springs up in the night. The nightingale singeth most sweetly because she singeth in the night. We know a poet has said that, if she sang by day, she might be thought to sing no more sweetly than the wren. It is the still ness of the night that makes her song sweet. And so doth a Christian’s song become sweet and hearty, because it is in the night. LASTING SONGS . Again: the songs we sing in the night will be lasting. Many songs we hear our fellow-creatures singing in the streets will
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