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Night Scenes in the Bible.
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Irrie^ -^'Yi^
THE ITIGHT OF AGONY.
NIGHT SCENES
IN THE
BIBLE.
BT
Rev. DANIEL MARCH, D.D
AHTHOR OP "walks AND HOMES OP JESTJ8."
ZEIGLER, McCURDY & CO. ;
PHILADELPHIA, PA.; CINCINNATI, OHIO;
CHICAGO, ILL.; ST. LOUIS, MO.
SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
18G9.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
Key. DANIEL MARCH, D.D.,
In the Clerli's Office of the District Conrt of the United States, for the Ea,stern
District of Pennsylvania.
Westcott & Thomson,
Stereotypsrs, Philada.
PREFACE
The Bible is the oldest and the newest of books. It sur-
veys the whole field of time, and it looks farthest into the infi-
nite depths of eternity. It lends the most vivid and absorbing
interest to the scenes and events of the past, and it keeps us in
the most active sympathy with the time in which we live. It
gives us the most reliable record of what has been, and it 'affords
us our only means of knowing what is yet to be. It is so con-
servative as to make it a solemn duty to study and revere the
past, and it is so progressive as to be in advance of the most
enlightened age. It is strict enough to denounce the very
shadow and semblance of sin, and it is liberal enough to save
the chiefest of sinners. It is full of God, and must therefore
be read with a pure heart or its true glory will not be seen. It
is full of man, and must therefore always be interesting and
instructive to all who would know themselves.
The Bible is the plainest of books, and yet it has depths of
wisdom which no created mind can sound. It is set up as a
beacon to show all wanderers the safe way, and yet its liglit
shines forth from thick clouds of mystery and from abysses of
infinite darkness. It describes all conditions of life, and it
gives utterance to all desires and emotions of the soul. It has
a song of triumph for the victor and a wail of defeat for the
vanquished. It sparkles with the fervor and gladness of youths
6 PREFACE.
it celebrates tlie strengtli and glory of manliood, it bewails tbe
sorrows and infirmities of age. It exults in the mighty deeds
of kings and conquerors, it sympathizes with the poor and
lowly, it lifts up the fallen, it delivers the oppressed, and it
breathes the blessing of peace upon the quiet homes of domestic
life. It describes with startling clearness the seductions of
temptation, the conflicts of doubt and the miseries of skepticism.
It searches the secret chambers of the heart, and brings to light
its purest love and its darkest hate, its highest joy and its
deepest grief. It compasses the utmost range of thought and
feeling and desire, and it sounds the utmost depth of motive
and character and passion.
The composition of the Bible was extended through a long
course of years ; it was carried on under a great variety of cir-
cumstances ; it bears the impress of every diversity of individual
character. And yet the spirit of inspiration speaks with equal
fullness through all the times and circumstances and characters.
Thus in the Bible, God and man, earth and heaven, time and
eternity speak with one voice and teach the same truth. Thus
the Bible is made to be the one book for all ages and all nations,
for all classes of men and all states of society, for all capacities
of intellect and all necessities of the soul. It sets forth the
most spiritual and heavenly truths in the lights and shadows
of earthly scenes and human characters. To understand and
treasure up the truths we need to know something of the places
and the people that stand forth so prominently on the sacred
page. It will help us much to apply the lessons of inspiration
to the present time and to personal duty if we go . back in
imagination and sit with Lot at the gate of Sodom, and see
angels approach like common travelers in the calm light of the
evening, or if we walk with the two disciples into the country
and see Jesus joining our company on the way to Emmaus. It
PREFACE. 7
will help HS make all Scripture profitable for instrnetlon in
righteousness if we go a day's journey into the desert with
Elijah, and see him cast himself down in despair and wishing to
die, or if we listen to the praises sung by Paul and Silas at
midnight in the prison at Philippi.
It is with such views of the infinite variety and si)ecial adap-
tation of the Scriptures that the following sketches have been
written. The author has endeavored to explore a single vein
in this exhaustless and many-chambered mine, and to bring
forth some few golden grains for others to use and enjoy. He
has tried in a few particulars to read the past in the light of
to-day, and to show that the Bible is a fit emanation from the
one Infinite Mind, to w^hom all things are ever present and
with whom all have to do. From the Night Scenes in sacred
history he has sought to bring forth some rays of light to cheer
the dark hours of life, and to guide pilgrims on their way to
that land where there shall be no night.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
THE NIQIIT OF AGONY Frontispiece.
JACOB'S Nl(iHT AT BETHEL.,
65
THE NIGHT PASSAGE OF THE SEA 127
SAUL'S NIGHT AT ENDOR I47
NIGHT WATCH IN MOUNT SEIR 247
JESUS' NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN 326
THE NIGHT OP TEMPTATION 377
THE NIGHT OF FRUITLESS TOIL 433
ANGEL VISITS IN THE NIGHT 45I
MIDNIGHT IN THE PRISON AT PHILIPPI 459
PAUL'S NIGHT IN THE DEEP 49I
NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN ^oq
i
CONTENTS.
I.
THE LAST NIGHT OF SODOM. ^^^^
M.» and a„s*-Appoar.„c» and rcalUy-Things not what they soeM-U^^
electric f^rce-ltailway dlsaster-Death-angel m the n.ght^Slr. n„ man
S:^ a„w„.-la,lsib,e power, around u,-Eve„lng -ne-V,c,n,ty h
oity-Clucf u,on in the gato-Qa, throng-Sunset^Onental hfo-K.chea
ilhecity-Lu.ury of the people-Idloncss-Security-Angelsapproach-
Comron garb-TLen for travelcr,-IIo.pitality-Welcon>ea by Lot-
DeHded by the people-Clamorou, mob-The warning-O d man laughed
^ZinZm, safi-A word of a.arm-The departure-Angels has.en-
M«^i g enelTbe overthrow-Utter desola.ion-Cause of the ,udgme„.
„ ° , . rr_ „...!. _ThP r-hoice— Who the mocker— "N> ait
_Work° and want— Two words— The choice
a bad word— llastea— Look not behind
23
II.
ABRAHAM'S NIGHT VISION AT BEERSHEBA.
Voice in the night-Abraham an old man-A hard ---S-Q-t-t tria^
Lt-A>^e needs rcpose-The home at Beersheba-Qrove, altar ^^ els A
git h::.:hold-nerds, riches, only son-A pilgrim. ^ife-Th-derbo^
from clear sky-Fourfold severity-A father's g"«f-^«^^^f * .^'^^ ?''„,
Zl of an on'ly and beloved son-Seeming contradiction-Wea h noth ng
A bitter cry-l8 it a demon's voice-Tent scene-Isaac sleeping-Eastern
7atn-The stars of the ^orning-Sand-cloud from the desert-Human
sacrrficeT n the hill-tops-The grove of terebinth-No voice or face f
ang there-Abraham resolves to go-Mysterious Jo-ney-Se.e dep r
too preciou. to give to God-Nothing too precious for G<>^^^^° S^^;^;*; ,3
Prompt obedience easiest and best ^
10 CONTENTS.
III.
JACOB'S NIGHT AT BETHEL.
PAGE
A long journey — Hasty departure — No protection — The worst traveling com-
panion— Jacob timid, home-child — His mother's favorite — Shepherd life —
The wild man — Isaac's favorite — The two brothers contrasted — A boisterous
visitant — The parental longing for the absent — Common blessings unappre-
ciated— A child at seventy — The supplanter — Th*e hungry hunter — A reck-
less bargain — Cost of trifling gratifications — The profane person — Poor
pay — The stolen blessing — The garment of falsehood — Strange mixture of
fraud and faith — The flight — A brother's wrath — Washington in the wilder-
ness— A fearful fugitive — Shepherds, caravans, robbers — A solitary place —
Bethel at night — Lodging with jackals — A hard pillow and a heavy heart
— God's time to help — A sure covenant — The pathway of angels — The gate
of heaven — A better life begun — The memorial stone — No such thing as
chance — All for good — God's voice in common things^Way to heaven
always open — Heaven always near — Night storm in mid-ocean — Sailor-
boy's dream of home — The ship the house of God — The miner's Sabbath-
eve in Nevada — Work, work, rest — Bethel everywhere.! 63
lY.
JACOB'S NIGHT OF WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL.
Eras in Jacob's life — The Jabbok described— Wild, swift mountain stream — •
Neighboring country — Wild flowers — Oak forests — Twenty years before —
Now rich, brave, strong — God's host at Mahanaim — A wondrous life —
Heaven and earth nearer now — God's host still our guardians — God's
providence in every wind — Faith and science agree — Esau's band — Jacob
prepares to meet them — Adjusts his account with God first — The gre>atest
affliction the greatest mercy — Man must needs pray — All have time and
words — Presents to Esau — Alone in the darkness — Alone with infinite
power, truth, love — Source of strength, safety, peace — A fearful night — An
unknown antagonist — A real encounter — Long and desperate struggle —
Victory by self-surrender — The angel entreating — The mightiest man on
earth — " Give me Scotland or I die — Life a conflict — With whom to con-
tend— Disguised angels — Deep mysteries — God comes in the thick cloud —
A great school — Peace through conflict — Power with God — Worth of God's
blessing — Three steps of progress — House of God, host of God, face of God. 83
y.
THE LAST NIGHT OF ISRAEL IN EGYPT.
The birth-night of a nation — Sudden emancipation — Rome and the Hebrews —
Other ancient nations extinct — Hebrews still live — The first book of history
— The teachers of the world — The first great era in history — Night in Egypt —
River scenes — Princes and bondmen asleep — Night in the palace — Moses
heard for the last time — The shepherd's staflF and the sceptre — The plagues
CONTENTS. 11
> PAOB
ended— Pharaoh sleeps — The priests sleep — Slaves shall not go — Hebrews
awake — High expectation — All indoors — Ready to go — Awful suspense —
Midnight — The cry ? No. The rustle of palms — The lowing of Apis — Tho
great cry at last — The death-angel's stroke — Death everywhere — The groans
of ages — A free people on tho march — God in history — The great emanci-
pator— All in bondage^Immortal freedom — The highest rank — The great
inheritance — Slaves cling to their chains — The caged eagle — The eagle in
his mountain home — A sadder sight — The heir of tho univt ° — An un-
speakable destiny — Salvation very nigh — A day to be much observed — The
grandest march — Will you go? — Shipwrecked mariner — Beautiful island—
The prison-paradise — The escape — Ready for the voyage 103
VI.
THE NIGHT PASSAGE OF THE SEA.
A great landmark in the nation's life — Eflect on other nations — A distinctive
national idea — The scene of the passage — The sandy plain— The valley
between mountains — Entangled in the land — Encamping for the night —
Distress and dejection — First joy over — A sad night — The Egyptians appear
behind — An armed host — Sure of their prey — Wait till morning — "We told
you so" — Sublime faith — " Fear not" — Hard to hold their peace — A house
on fire — Terrible panic — Wailing of the Hebrews — How they came there —
The Shechinah guide — Faces the sea — Passes over the Hebrews — Darkness
to the Egyptians — A broad highway — The advance — The Egyptians aroused
— They pursue— A hard march — The cloud shooting forth lightnings — The
confused host — The meeting of the waters — Ourselves girt with infinite
power — Miracle and laws of nature — The truest philosophy — A prayerless
man — All things of God — Duty to God first — The Christian watchword,
" go forward" — Decision makes the man — Do your duty at any cost — Seas
divide before the advance of faith — " Go forward" revolutionizes nations,
the world — Light to one is darkness to another — The sea all must cross —
The safe guide 125
VII.
SAUL'S NIGHT AT ENDOR.
Tragic element in Saul's career — Celebrated in poetry and music — Strange con-
tradictions— Loved and hated — Contrasts of character — A hero and a cow-
ard— A prophet and a demon — Good and evil angel — The crisis at Gilboa —
Famous field — Joshua and Napoleon — Gideon and his Spartan band — A
great army — An unhappy king — Revolt of tribes — Forsaken — A hero trem-
bling— A dark path — The worst fate — Sunset on the battle-plain — Light
sought from darkness — The king in disguise — The night journey to Endor
— The witch's cave — The hag surprised — Her false pretences — Magical arts
— A degraded king — The host without a commander — Unsafe counsel —
" Whom shall I bring up ?" — An unexpected apparition — Who can call
spirits from the deep ? — A real man — The words of doom — Perhaps spoken
12 CONTENTS.
PAGB
in mercy — A giant prostrate — Return to Gilboa--The shock of battle-
Israel routed — The end of Saul — The last memorial — Seek counsel from tiie
right source — The shining path— The first law of a kingdom — The work for
all — "What is failure ? — The worst madness — Is wickedness ever profitable ? —
A good purpose— A plain path — How found — The open door — " Nearer,
my God, to thee." 145
VIII.
DAVID'S NIGHT AT THE JORDAN.
The third Psalm — When written — A sad night — Sudden surprise — The inner
calm — Absalom planning revolt — Arts to win the people — His splendid
bearing — An accomplished conspirator — His chariots and foot-runners —
The father blinded — Absalom crowned at Hebron — General revolt — No time
to lose — The darkest day in David's life — Order to leave Jerusalem — De-
parture from the palace — Descent into the Kidron — Pause at the last guard-
house— Fidelity of the Philistines — The loyal chief — A loud lamentation —
The hills and valleys weep — The ark sent back — Great men in their fall —
A great soul — The ascent of Olivet — A funeral procession — Pause to wor-
ship on the height — Last look at Zion — A fearful road — Utter desolation —
Shimei cursing — The dog left to bark at the king — Silence the best answer
— Arrival at the Jordan — Bivouac on the sand — Alarm at midnight — Pas-
sage of the Jordan — A morning song — Trust in trouble — Frou the throne
to the wilderness — What a young man could endure — Hard lot for an old
king — Hard for a high-tempered man — King Lear's imprecations — Con-
trasted with David's psalm — A hymn of trust for all time — A costly lesson
— A man more than a king — AVhatthe soul would say — Faith more precious
than science — " My Father's house" — The best knowledge — " Brother, come
home" — The sequel of the rebellion — David at Mahanaim — Stands in the
gate — Troops file before him — Thinks only of saving Absalom — " Gently,
gently with the boy Absalom" — His last word to Joab — The battle — Watch-
man on the tower — The bringer of tidings — " Shalom" — Is Absalom safe ?
The cry of parental anguish — The man greater than the monarch — Parental
love ever the same — Its power and persistency — Others forget — Parents
cannot — The Great Father's love — The Father before the sovereign — Voices
of God's paternal love — The universal prayer — The most acceptable dispo-
sition— The Fatherhood of God the great revelation , 163
IX.
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT.
Night In the desert — Solitude — Silence — Starlight — A lonely fugitive — Sick of
life — The mystery of existence — Job cursing his day — The greatest of the
prophets — A fearless and tireless man — His history — Elijah before Ahab—
A fearful oath — A messenger of wrath — Mystery about Elijah — No gene-
alogy— His return expected — Tishbite — Gilead — A wild region — The haunt
of robbers — A life of peril — Jacob wrestling — Jephthah — David's refuge —
CONTENTS. 13
PAQ*
Elijah's early life — A hardy mountaineer — A Hercules or a Samson — A
groat day's work — A long race — A child of the desert — Ever before Jehovah
— A marked man — The discipline of solitude — The man for the hour — God's
men of the time — Every man on his post — Israel's providential history —
The worship of nature — The gods of Sidon — The God of nature — A grand
contest — Elijah's court dress — " The hairy man" — The king defied — Elijah's
escape — The key of nature lost — Let Baal show his power — Who can give
rain ? — Great trial of Elijah's faith — A land of streams and fountains — A
fearful risk — Duty questioned — No scientific ground of faith — The word of
the Lord to every man — Be wise to-day — Always in the presence of Jehovah
— A sanctuary everywhere — IIonoral)Ie work — Go not out from the presence
of the Lord — Source of all evil — Lo ! God is here — Perpetual trisagion —
Tidings to Jezebel and the people — The drought begins — Shepherds,
ploughmen, vintagers mourn — Sky, sun, stars in mourning — Baal's altars
burn in vain — The earth, the grass, the harvests, the forests burnt — Cattle,
men die — Drought dries uj) all pity — Reason for the judgment — Something
worse than famine — Elijah appears again — His summons to Ahab — The
king awed by the pro])het — The gathering to Carmel — Great encampment
on the mount — The eventful morning — The scene of the gathering — Elijah's
2hallenge — People silent — The trial proposed — Priests of Baal begin — Their
frantic cries and demoniac daiico — Elijah mocks the idolaters — He takes
his turn — Awful expectation — Tlie fire descends — Seen afar off — The priests
of Baal slain — Prayer on the mountain — The little cloud — The tempest — A
fearful race — A cold bed — The man to meet Jezebel — The queen's oath —
The hero-prophet alaruieil — A wild and harried flight — To Beersheba, to
the desert — Desolation of the wilderness — Reaction in great minds — Peter,
Paul, Bunyan's Pilgrim — The young disciple — The business Christian —
The reformer — The successful minister: old, deserted, despondent — "It is
enough ; it is better to die than live" — Hard to be laid apide — Hard to fail
after success — The world can do without us — Work for all — The greatest
success was accounted failure — God's angel on the wing — Never say, " It is
enough" — Not the chief end of man to succeed 187
JONAH'S NIGHT AT NINEVEH.
When Jonah lived — The book written by him — His one prophecy — Long journey
to deliver it — Hardships and peril of the way — Danger when there — A
great and bloody city — No angel guard — Short respite — Utter overthrow —
"I cannot go" — A recreant prophet — Flight to Joppa — His mother's
" dove" — No hiding from God — A hard lesson to be learned — Word of the
Lord comes to many — It seems a hard message — They flee — The path of
perdition — Passage engaged — On board and asleep— Word of the Lord in
the wind — Dreadful sleep — Vengeance swifter than ships — Pagan prayers —
Awake, 0 sleeper! — Sharp suspicions — Helping transgressors does not pay
— Philosophy overboard — When wicked men like to hear prayer — Jonah no
coward — Early impressions — He is ready — Seamen airaid of him — Over-
board at last — A great calm — Beneath the bottoms of the mountains — The
14 CONTENTS.
PAGE
call of duty still loud — How kept alive in the sea-monster — Second com-
mission— Obedience now easy — He starts and travels on — His arrival — The
city described — His one cry of woe — The stricken multitude — A conquered
city — Jonah disappointed with success — Gives no consolation — He spurns
the Ninevites — His night of waiting for the destruction — Angry with him-
self and everything else — The strange plant — It is withered — Jonah's last
word — His probable repentance — No escaping* from God — Servants of God
always safe — Duty shunned is duty still — Law of duty supreme 223
XI.
THE NIGHT-WATCH IN MOUNT SEIR.
Night comes with the morning — Lights and shadows among mountains — Camp
of pilgrims — Watching for the morning — Effect of night among mountains
— Dawn — Morning among the hills — Changes wrought by light — Mists form-
ing— Darken the whole scene — Still the day is approaching — They press
on — Such the lot of man — An earthly paradise — Night and storm — A study
of human society — Hopes blasted — Yet the day will come — Peace through
conflict — Struggles of nations to be free — First success — Then again en-
slaved— Storms succeed the sunshine — Still the full day approaching — The
tide in the affairs of men — Man's work perishes — God's temple stands —
Light out of darkness — The pavilion of God's presence — Look to the cloud
for light — The hour before sunrise among mountains — After sunrise darker
— Happy to walk under clouds — The moment of greatest discouragement —
God's way dark from excess of light — Vale of Chamouny at evening — Sun-
rise on Mont Blanc — The veiled mountain most impressive — Do not be
afraid of mystery — Heroes and conquerors — The best days not in the past
— Christianity is progress — Appearances may be adverse — Yet the day is
approaching — The hour before dawn the darkest of the night — Perfect
through suffering — Hope and wait „ 246
XII.
THE NIGHT OF WEEPING.
Life a conflict of forces — Law of decay and reproduction — Harmony in contra-
diction— Appearance and reality at variance — Evening clouds — Thunder-
bolt— Morning mists promise a fair noon — The coldest day — The tornado —
The earthquake — The diamond — The eye — Infinite variety in uniformity —
Samson's riddle — The volcano — The rainbow — Paradox and mystery not
alone in spiritual life — The whole creation in travail — Struggle and conflict
in both — Faith grows by conflict — Life a battle and a march — Pain the
price of pleasure — Beauty from the tomb — Why all this ? — Why sorrow and
trial and tears ? — So ordained of God — Not ours to choose — Still it is so in
all other things — Everything costs — Self-denial not arbitrarily imposed —
The Supreme Giver can give rest only to penitent souls — Tears not a sign
of weakness — Christian building begins at ths foundation — Much in the
world to make one weep — " Streams in the south" — Husbandmen watching
for their return — The gladdening rain — The bird of Paradise — Never flies
CONTENTS. 15
PAGB
before the wind— Prosperity disarrays the soul's garments of beauty— The
beginning of strength— Worldling in a prayer meeting— He scoffs and is
weak— He weeps and is strong— A boy's fault^He donics it and is en-
slaved—He confesses and deplores and is free and noble— Blessed are they
that mourn • ^^^
XIII.
THE NIGHT FEAST OF BELSHAZZAR.
The last of the Babylonian kings— The race of the Chaldeans— Their profligate
young men— Luxurious habits— Testimony of history— No wonder that
Babylon fell— What kind of young men will ruin any city— Sure way to
destroy a nation— Rome, Constantinople, Venice— Delicate, self-indulgent
young men dangerous— Belshazzar an absolute monarch— Flattered, ca-
pricious, cruel— The banquet-hall— Fine arts flourish in a licentious age-
Rome— France— Naples— Debasement under the shadow of St. Peter's—
The greatness of Babylon— Bel shazzar's palace— Streets, walls, temples-
Nebuchadnezzar the mighty builder— Rawlinson's statement— Belshazzar
inherited too much— His head turned— Babylon besieged— Enemy with-
draw—City given up to riotous mirth— Feasting, illuminations, processions
—Belshazzar enters the banquet-hall— The scene at the board— Profanation
of sacred things— The vessels of Jehovah brought forth— The writing on
the wall— The interpretation— Belshazzar slain— How the city was taken—
Death will enter palaces— Last opportunities lost— The gay not always
happy— How to find joy in everything— What will lift the weight from all
hearts— Danger of wine-drinking— Heathen testimony— The universal wit-
ness—God here, God everywhere— Conscience a mighty power— What Bel-
shazzar's life is worth to the world— Weighed and found wanting— The
greatest thought
283
XIV.
A NIGHT WITH JESUS AT JERUSALEM.
Napoleon and Alexander at Tilsit— A memorable interview— Arranging the
destiny of nations— A more important conference— With less display-
Mighty words spoken— Time and place— The great feasts-Jerusalem
crowded— Number of sacrifices— The temple the chief attraction— The
choral service— The most impressive anniversary— Passover still kept-
Purging the temple— Power of Jesus' presence A day in teaching and
healing— Place of rest— A venerable listener— Testimony of the Talmud
concerning N'codemus- Private interview impossible by day— Resolves to
seek Je<^us by night-Leaves his house secretly— Goes out at the eastern
gate-Hesitates while seeking the house-Men still hesitate when seeking
Jesus-They inquire openly about other things-Inquiry is reasonable-
Nicodemus to be commended— The scene of the interview— Contrast be-
tween the two persons-The calmness of Jesus-The amazement of Nico-
demus-Thc foundation truth-When the millennium will corae-Life from
above needed-A great question-What the Bible say. about it-Hard
16 CONTENTS.
FAQS
names for hard characters — Testimony of history — .Toy of the new life —
What is true H:reatness ? — A glorious destiny — The highest work of angels
— Ileavenly messengers in humble abodes — The heir of the universe — A
great estate seeking an owner 303
XY.
JESUS' NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN.
Sublime pre-eminence of mountains — Impressive in every asnect and form —
Records of creative power — Hebrew language impersonates mountains —
Sacred scenes and associations of mountains — The Holy One in Mount
Paran — The chief things of the ancient mountains — Promise firmer than
mountains — Help from the hills — Herald of glad tidings on the moun-
tains— The mountains God's sanctuary — The mountains of Eden — Ara-
rat— Moriah — Sinai — Giving of the law — Elijah in Horeb — Mount Hor
— Death of Moses — These associations confirmed by Jesus — The mount of
temptation — Of the Beatitudes— Of the Transfiguration — Of the Crucifixion —
Of the Ascension — His nights of prayer among mountains — Preceded by a
long day of toil — No rest by day — At night he withdraws alone to the
mountains — He wakes and prays while others sleep — His common practice—
An impressive scene — He must be alone — Modes of living then — Monastic-
ism not encouraged — Retirement to prepare for public life — All great and
true reformers prepare for their work thus — Lofty views from the heights
of prayer — Light from the mount — Go up to the mount of God — The lofti-
est outlook — Traveler among mountains deceived by appearances — All
corrected by view from the loftiest peak — So with human policies and
opinions — Must be viewed from the mount of God — Prayer the most ra-
tional and elevating exercise 323
XVI.
A NIGHT STORM ON THE SEA.
The Sea of Galilee sacred — Reflections of a traveler on seeing it — Everything
speaks of Jesus — The shore, the waves, the shadows, the towns, the neigh-
boring heights — Now changed and desolate — The doom of Capernaum — One
thing the same — A night storm — The " torment" of the winds — Structure of
the banks and highlands — Sudden and strong winds — A fair day of teach-
ing— Feeding of the five thousand — A calm evening — The disciples caught
in a ptorm — A night of hard rowing — They are watched by Jesus from the
mountain — He comes to them on the water — Their terror — Natural fear of
spectres — Courage and fear of Peter— His rescue — The great deep of the
soul — Its agitations and conflicts — The Bringer of peace— Men afraid of
their best friend — Men aflaicted by the words of consolation — How to be
happy — Mistakes of the young and ardent — Jesus walks abroad in tha calm
and sunshine as well as in the storm — What a brave man should fear —
Jesus no spectre — The truest man — He would make true men — To be a
Christian is to be a true man — Whatever prevents following Christ is a
falsity — Only a few steps in the false way — A miserable comforter — A
CONTENTS. 1*7
PAOB
winter's night call upon a dying young mfin— " Too late"— A summer's
afternoon call upon a dying Christian— A hallowed room— His last word
" Victory'
341
XVII.
THE LAST NIGHT OF THE FEAST.
The feast of Tabernacles- Seven days of festivity— The immense multitude-
All out of doors— Jerusalem a forest— Offerings and libations— The annual
thankso-iving- The last night the climax of excitement— Hluminations—
Dancing and singing of devcut men- Orchestra of Levitcs— Chorus of
thousands of the people— "Th( great Hosanna"— Singing and dancing all
night— Silver trumpets hail :he dawn— Procession to the fountain of
Siloam— The song of Degrees— Water from the fountain poured out— The
enthusiasm of the multitude— The great rejoicing— The voice of Jesus heard
at such a time— A most startling and impressive cry— The cfToct of the
appeal— That voice still crying to the thirsty— Relief for the deepest need
—The fullest possible invitation— The world changed, the soul's necessity
the same— Destitution of man without a Saviour— The cry of the soul—
What all are seeking— Thirst a fit sign of greatest need— Dying soldiers-
Shipwrecked mariners— The crucified— Lost in the desert of Sahara— A
Deliverer appears— A glad escape from the desert to paradise— The picture
a reality — " Come unto me ' *"
361
XVIIL
THE NIGHT OF TEMPTATION.
A hard thing for Jesus to say-Hard for Peter to hear-His sincere attachment
—His great surprise— Does my Master tnist me so little ?— The occasion-
Night Tn the upper chamber— The last words of counsel and comfort— The
intercessory prayer— All devoted to him— All shall be oQ-endcd this night-
Peter's declaration— It was called for— He was not blamed for making it-
Good professions should be both made and kept-How Jesus' word was
fulfilled-His agony while they sleep-Peter follows afar off--He is pointed
at-He denies his Master-The hour strikes-Peter himself tells the story-
"Lead us not into tcmptation"-An aspi-mg young man-Leaves a Chris-
tian home-Begins life in the city-Does not fully commit himself for God
-There he mistakes-He falls-He is ruined by those whom he despises
and who despise him for yielding-A dreadful defeat-Fit words for every
youn- man-Power of No-An old man burdened and sorrow-stricken-
A haff centurv of suffering because he did not say, No-Nothing can undo
the past-A terrible lesson to the tempted-The way to destruction made
invitinc and beautiful-Geniu?. and art and wealth and invention enlisted
to adorn the broad way-" Destruction made easy"-Teraptation never the
voice of a friend-The mountain lake with two outlets-The child's sport
breaking the levee-The first transgressors-Beware of the beginnings of
evil-Requires effort to be good-The Simplon road-The Divine Excelsior. 375
18 CONTENTS.
XIX.
THE NIGHT OF AGONY.
PA^B
The approach to Jerusalem from the west — The pass of Beth-horon — Joshua's
victory — Christian traveler emerging from the p^ss — Rejoicings at the first
sight of Jerusalem — Many nations and languages take up the cry, " Jerusa-
lem, Jerusalem !" — The view blank and lifeless — The Hill of Zion greatly
changed — Olivet the same — Close to the city — Its paths, slopes, terraces
and trees — Noah's dove — The Shechinah — The oath of the Almighty — The
scene of the final judgment — No need of fable — Abraham's sacrifice —
David's place of prayer — His sorrowful ascent of Olivet — The three paths
— The footsteps of Jesus here — Bethany beyond — The triumph road — The
last prediction — The meeting with Nicodemus — The fruitless fig tree —
" The blood-drops of Jesus" — The favorite home of the Son of God — The
scene of the agony — Jesus comes forth with his disciples — His mysterious
sadness — His disciples amazed — He stops at the gate of the garden — Sepa-
rates himself from his disciples — Falls upon the ground — Fearful words of
the evangelists in describing his emotions — The second and third access of
the great agony — Strengthened by an angel — He is now calm and ready for
the sacrifice — We dare not analyze this mysterious conflict — It was borne
for us — He stood in the sinner's place — Dreadful to bear the full burden of
sin for an hour — How much more dreadful to bear it forever ?>^h
XX.
THE FIRST NIGHT AFTER THE RESURRECTION.
The two great facts in the Gospel history — The resurrection confirms all — The
two greatest days in the world's history — The darkest night, the brightest
morning — The disciples slow to believe — The rising from the dead still hard
to believe — The perplexities of the disciples — Two start for Emmaus at
evening — Leave the city at the western gate — A stranger joins them as they
walk — He draws from them the cause of their grief — Their hearts burn
while he speaks — He goes on with them up and down the steep and stony
road — The path described — The most desolate leading out of Jerusalem —
The sun has set and they reach the village — They beg the stranger to stay
— He blesses the evening meal — They see that it is Jesus, and he vanishes
out of their sight — They hurry back to Jerusalem in the darkness — They
find the band assembled with closed doors — While they are telling what
they have seen and heard, Jesus stands in the midst of them — Their terror
— Their joy — The first word of Jesus is. Peace — He comes back from the
unseen world to say, Peace — This the word that the world wants most to
hear — How the early Christians cherished the word — Jesus rose in his full
manhood — His resurrection the pattern of our own — We shall know each
other in the resurrection — The risen ones clothed with the beauty of immor-
tality— The blessed life a human and homelike reality -Ill
CONTENTS. 19
XXL
THE NIGHT OF FRUITLESS TOIL,
PAOB
The last chapter in John a second ending — AVhy written — The scene described
most sacred — Two pictures — The first, night on the Sea of Galilee — Deep
calm — The lake, the stars, the watch-tower — Shepherd's cry — Pleasure-boat
— Roman patrol — Seven men appear on the beach — Fishermen, yet masters
of the world — Peter, John, Thomas, Nathaniel and James characterized —
They push ofif and let down the net — Change their ground, toil all ni"-ht
and take nothing — They think and talk of their Master — Revive the asso-
ciations of the past — Cannot solve the mystery — Many toilers that take no- '
thing — Ambitious young man — Toils hard — Becomes very rich — Finds that
money will not buy what he wants — Poor-rich man dies disappointed —
Easy, self-indulgent young man — Means to enjoy life and take it easy —
Succeeds no better — What is success? and how attained ? — A young lady in
gay life — Wearies and distresses herself in vain to be happy — The noblest
aim of woman's life — Morning on the Sea of Galilee — Signs of the coming
day — Jesus walking on the shore — He directs the toil of the disciples, and
they succeed — They recognize him and are glad — A good lesson learned at
last — Jesus calls from the eternal shore — The night wanes — The morning is
breaking on the nations — The full day comes on apace 431
XXII.
ANGEL VISITS IN THE NIGHT.
View from the mountain-top — From the deck of the ship in mid-ocean — View
of the starry sky — Its impressions — Reflections in the dungeon, in the
crowd — Feeling that man and earth are everything — Men not the only
actors in the world — Thinking, observing and mighty beings all around us
— They sometimes have stepped forth into the light of day — Circumstances
in which angels have been seen and heard — They have taken part in man's
work — What they have done — How they have appeared — How much it
enlarges the range of our thought to know this — God's great empire —
Angels care little for earthly distinctions — They often find their friends in
lowly circumstances — The angel that came to Jerusalem visited a prison in
preference to a palace — Faith con^ucrates dungeons — Peter's chain and cell
— Bunyan's prison — The Wartburg — AVhen the whole earth will be holy — •
Peter slept soundly — A good conscience the best opiate — Glorious to be
waked from the sleep of death by the touch of an angel — Peter strongly
guarded — Thanks for his chains — Voltaire's boast — Thanks to the Star
Chamber — Peter's surprise — His silent obedience to ♦he angel — Passes
through guards and doors, not knowing how — Doubts whether it is him-
self— It is no dream — So will God's angel deliver the disciple of Jesus from
the prison of the body — His surprise on waking in heaven to find death
behind — Here we sleep and dream — The true life yet to come 448
20 CONTENTS,
XXIII.
MIDNIGHT IN THE PRISON AT PHILIPPI.
PAQE
Etr;inge sounds in a heathen prison — "Who were the singers? — The events of
the preceding day described — Paul and Silas by the river's side — Interrupt-
ed by the cries of a slave girl — She is delivered from the demon — Her mas-
ters enraged — A tumult excited — The apostles dragged into the city — The
magistrates interfere — They take it for granted that the strangers are to
blame — They are stripped and beaten with rods — Terrible severity of the
infliction — The rabble applaud — They are sent to prison — The jailer charged
to keep them safely — The terrible dungeon of the inner prison — Their pitia-
ble condition — The reception which Europe gave the first missionaries —
How the world treats its benefactors — The excitement of the day over —
Midnight in the prison — Voices heard in the dungeon — Not of wailing — A
psalm of victory — Surprise of the other prisoners — The earthquake — The
prisoners all unfettered — The despair of the jailer — Paul's assuring call
from the dungeon — He lifts them out of the horrible pit — His alarm for
himself — The most momentous inquiry — Evidence of a sound mind— We
have too many fears and anxieties — How to quiet them — Another expe-
rience of the dungeon — The Mamertine prison described — When built —
Paul said to have been confined there — His dreadful condition — The chill
and damp — The darkness and solitude — Deep beneath the ground — A friend
permitted to visit him — Dictates a letter to Timothy — What will he say ? —
His high aspirations, his great talents and experience — The splendors that
surround him in the city — Will he lament the loss of these ? — What will be his
last voice to the world? Complaint? Disappointment? No — A strain
of triumph — A coronation hymn — Tender-hearted still — He glories and
rejoices — Paul greater than Nero — The footsteps of Paul more venerated
than the palace of the Caesars — His memory brightens — His power increases
with the progress of time — How to make ourselves remembered 467
XXIY.
PAUL'S NIGHT IN THE DEEP.
Tales of shipwreck often told — Always interesting — Paul's the most suggestive
^— Our interest for the safety of the man — Hi!? dignity and composure — The
voyage — Sailing in his time — No chart, qu.idrant, chronometer or compass
— The ship large, heavy, unwieldy — One-masted — Stormy month — First day
of the storm — Frapping — Boat taken up — Cargo, except the wheat, thrown
overboard — The struggle with the tempest — All hope lost — Breakers ahead
at midnight — Sounding, anchoring — Waiting for day — Ship run on shore
— Broken in pieces by the waves — Passengers and crew thrown into the
breakers — All saved — A word that could not be broken — The post of duty
the right place when danger comes — The most precious freight the Mediter-
ranean ever bore — Paul's life, influence and reputation safe — All who trust
in Jesus escape safe to the heavenly shore — A great gathering — Out of
great variety of circumstances — All there — Unlike the gatherings of earth
— Family circles — Regiments return from the war — Storms on the sea —
COJSTENTS. 21
PAGB
Always some missing — Not so with tlie sacramental host — Whom to follow
as a guide — A largo and strong ship — A safe Pilot — Infinite riches easy to
acquire — A wonder of growth on the mountains — A greater wonder in the
heart — Hope for all — A man overboard — Cling to the rope — A great com-
pany and a glad song 489
XXV.
THE TEACHINGS OF NIGHT.
Day and night coheralds of the Divine glory — They never cease to proclaim —
The many voices of both — No excuse for not hearing them — A lesson from
tne night — The individuality of our being — Thoughts in a wakeful hour at
night — Alone with God — Night more impressive than day — Pastor Harms'
wakeful hours — Night fearful to the conscience-smitten — Involuntary con-
fessions of a criminal — His gi-eat mistake — Made to be social — Strong emo-
tions will declare themselves — Yet the night has deeper lessons — Jesus
retired to desolate mountains — Not nearest to God in the crowd — The mis-
take of the monks — A night alone on mountains — Solitude of the Alpine
heights — Awful impressiveness of the situation — "Why Jesus transfigured
on a mountain — Too much in society — Why God sends darkness — Ptetire-
nient of the soul needs not solitude — God's presence felt on the street —
Night on the battle-field — God and eternity felt to be near — Night in the
streets of a foreign city — Highest idea of human greatness — Night the
symbol of sorrow — God near in the cloud — We cannot always see our
Father — He covers us with his hand — The angel met in the way — When
we shall need a companion — The unerring Conductor 509
XXVI.
NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN.
Review — Light sought from darkness — Abraham in his tent — Lot at the gate of
Sodom — Jacob at Bethel and Penicl — Israel in Egypt and at the Red Sea —
Saul at Endor — David at the Jordan — Elijah in the desert — Jonah at Nine-
veh— Belshazzar's feast; — Jesus with Nicodemus — Jesus walking on the sea
— Peter tempted — Jesus in Gethsemane — Jesus at Emmaus and the Sea of
Galilee— Peter delivered from prison — Paul at Philippi — Paul shipwrecked
— All these things of earth — Light and shadow intermingled — Appointed
to lift our hopes higher — Earth has no home for the soul — This is the land
of the dying — The true life jet to come — Bible interpreted by our feelings
— What heaven is — This world smitten with curse — None in heaven — This
earth the dominion of death — No death in heaven — Here all weep — No
tears in heaven — Here all suffer — No pain in heaven — Here everything im-
perfect— In heaven even the just are made perfect — No night in heaven —
Here are mystery, ignorance and uncertainty — What can we know? — Long-
ings for light — Good and evil here strangely adjusted — Spiritual things
hard to giasp — Few hours of clear vision — Traveler in a defile of mountains
—Helped by whom ? — This mist shall all pass away— Perfect knowledge
bhall be given— Inspiration of such a hope — " No night shall be in heaven " 527
( last linM df Bahm.
And there came txvo angels to Sodom at even ; and Lot sat in the gate
of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed
himself with his face toxvard the ground ; and he said, Behold nozv, my
lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night,
and -wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and ^o on your zvays. . . .
And when the morning arose, then the angels kaste?ied Lot, saying: Es-
cape for thy life ; look not behind thee, neither stay thou i?i all the plain ;
escape to tlie mountain, lest thou be consumed. — Gen. xix. i, 2, 15, 17.
ISiGHT Scenes in the Bible.
THE LAST NIGHT OF SODOM.
AERY all night:" " Escape for thy life." The
€\\ \ words of man and the words of angels. The
J^ man, a master of courtesy and hospitality: the
^ angels, ministers of mercy and of vengeance.
The man° speaks of house and home and feasting and
rest: the angels speak of impending wrath and swift
destruction. The man persuades to the enjoyment of
a quiet evening in a luxurious clime, and promises the
return of a beautiful day : the angels would hasten
an escape from the scene of enchantment and delight
at the sacrifice of all earthly possessions. The man
speaks from mere feeling and a vivid impression of
things as they are passing before his eyes: the angels
speak of things as they are, and behind the calm and
peaceful aspect of the closing day, they see the fiery
tempest of the coming morn.
Such is the contrast between feeling and fact, shadow
26 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
and substance, appearance and reality. So unlike and
so allied to each other are the sensual and the spiritual ;
the earthly and the heavenly ; the aspect of peace and
safety, and the near approach of danger and destruc-
tion. Such is the difference between the judgment of
man, who is all involved in the cares and toils and
pleasures of the passing day, and the judgment of
beings who stand outside the range of our mistakes
and temptations, and who see the affairs of time in the
light of eternity.
Things are seldom what they seem to those who
judge only by what they see. We are walking every
moment upon the very brink of the awful abyss of
death and eternity. We are compassed about at all
times, and the very sanctuary of our being is penetrated
by influences that we cannot comprehend, and by forces
of illimitable power. The flame of life burns so feebly
upon the secret altar of our hearts that it can be put
out by a sudden jar or a single breath. The partition
between us and the unseen world is thin as the gar-
ments that clothe our flesh, and as easily pierced as
the bubbles that float on the wave. A slight change
in the elements of the air we breathe would wrap the
whole earth in devouring fire or stop the breath of
everything that breathes. The draught of water with
which we quench our thirst holds imprisoned an elec-
tric force great and terrible enough to darken the
heavens with tempests and to shake the eternal hills
with its thunders.
THE LAST NIGHT OF SODOM. 27
Tilings are not wliat tliey seem. The appearance
of rest and security is often the thin veil which hides
approaching calamity and destruction. The smoothly
gliding car flies along its level track, and the voices of
gayety and gladness are flung out upon the air, as the
changing panorama of mountain and hill and valley
and forest and stream unfolds before the hajipy throng
of travelers hastening to their homes or seeking new
delight in other scenes. A sudden crash is heard,
and the flying palace, with all its living throng of
passengers, lies in fragments and in flames beside the
track, and the voices of gladness are changed to shrieks
of terror and cries of agony and death. A healthful
and happy family retire to rest with every feeling and
indication of peace and security. The morning looks
in upon a darkened chamber and upon a company of
mourners, weeping around the bedside of one for whom
the death-angel came in the night-watches with so swift
a summons as to leave no time to say farewell. The
strong man rises with the sun and goes forth from his
home rejoicing in his strength. He takes up the bur-
den of his daily toil with eager grasp and tireless en-
ergy. In an unexpected moment some secret spring
of life is broken, and he falls as if smitten by the light-
ning-stroke, never to rise again. Thus, while the an-
gels of life and of death were seen by living men in
ancient time, we are met in our daily paths and visited
in our homes by powers as mysterious and mighty,
although we see them not with our eyes. Every day's
28 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
experience compels us to believe in the reality and
awful nearness of forces tliat take no visible body or
form. Let us equally believe in the actual appeai'ance
of messengers from the unseen ^orld, stepping out
from beneath the shadow of eternity to teach men the
great lessons of God's truth and love in ancient time.
Let us study this memorable passage in sacred his-
tory with deep reverence and godly fear. The first
scene which arrests our attention is one of quietness
and security. It is evening. A fair city lies upon the
border of a j)lain that looks like a garden in beauty
and fertility. A bright lake stretches away northward
between dark frowning hills and the steep wall of the
eastern shore is reflected in j)erfect outline beneath
the mirror-like surface of the w^ater. Laborers are
coming in from the vineyards and fields on the plain,
and sliepherds are folding their flocks on the distant
hills. There are no signs of wrath in the sky, no
voices of wailing in the air, no tremor in the " sure
and firm-set earth."
And yet the last night is casting its shadow^s upon
the walls and battlements of the doomed city. Ac-
cording to the custom of the land and the time, the
chief men are sitting in the gate. Old and young are
all abroad in the open air. The idle multitude are
coming and going to gather the gossip of the day and
enjoy the cool wind that comes uj) from the lake out-
side of the walls. The sun has gone down behind the
western hills, and the brief twilight lingers as if loth
THE LAST NIGHT OF SODOM. 29
to go, like a j)urple fringe on the dusky garments of
the coming night. So lingers the crimson flush of
health upon the pale cheek of the consumptive while
the fires of fever are draining the fountains of life
within. Sc the deluded youth, enticed by the siren
voice of pleasure, hesitates at the threshold of the
house of death, and then sets his feet in the way to
hell w^ith a smile.
The evening is so mild and beautiful in the cloud-
less clime of the East that the idle and j)leasure-loving
population give themselves up with childish freedom
to its bewitching charm, and the streets of the city and
its walks outside the gates resound with the voices of
the gay and the loud laugh of the " vacant mind."
Theirs is the land of the olive and the vine. The
flowers blossom through all the year. The air is
loaded wdth perfume. The light clothes the landscape
with dreamy fascination. The evening air woos to
voluptuous ease. The night persuades to passion and
pleasure.
The plains surrounding the city are like the garden
of the Lord in fertility. The most indolent culture
secures an abundance for the supply of every want.
The distant hills are covered with flocks. The mer-
chants of the East bring their treasures from afar.
The camels and dromedaries of the desert lay down
their burdens at her gates. And the fair city in the
vale of Siddim revels in the profusion of everything
that nature and art can produce. The chief men dis-
30 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
play the luxury and tlie pride of |)rinces. The com-
luon people make a holiday of the whole year. The
multitude look as if they were strangers equally to
want and to work. Like birds in summer, they enjoy
tlie season as it passes, and they take no thought for
the morrow. Idleness and riches stimulate the aj)pe-
tite for pleasure, and they go to every excess in indul-
gence. They have everything that the sensual can
desire, and their ordy study is to find new ways of
gratifying the coarsest and basest passion. According
to the testimony of One wlio knew all history, they eat
and drink, they buy and sell, they plant and build,
and their whole thought and effort and desire is given
to a life of the senses, denying God and debasing the
soul. And they are so passionate and haughty in their
devotion to earthly possessions and sensual pleasures
as to count it a mockery for one to say that there may
'be guilt or danger in such a life.
Such is the throng of the thoughtless and the gay
around the gate of the beautiful city in the vale of
Siddim, while for theni the shadows of evening are
deepening into night for the last time. It would only
provoke a smile of incredulity or derision if they were
told that they were sporting upon their funeral pile,
and that the breath of the divine wrath was just ready
to kindle the pile into devouring flame.
Alas ! how many millions of immortal men live like
the thoughtless and pleasure-loving people of Sodom,
all devoted to earthly cares, joys and occupations,
TUE LAST NIGHT OF SODOM. 31
until the pit of the grave opens in their path and tliey
sink to rise no more. And alas ! how often the solemn
lesson of sudden death is lost upon the living ! for the
crowd press on with hurried and heedless tread in the
very path out of which men are constantly passing
from time into eternity at a single step.
Two strangers are seen aioproaching the city. The
softened radiance of the evenins: li^-ht shows nothins:
unusual in their appearance. They seem to be only
common travelers coming down from the hill-country,
and turning in for shelter by night, that they may rise
up early in the morning and go on their journey.
God's mightiest messengers of mercy and of wrath
often come in a very common garb. We must give
earnest heed and keep ourselves upon the watch, or
the angels of blessing and of deliverance will come and
■
pass by us unawares, and we shall not receive their
help.
There was but one man at the gate of Sodom suffi-
ciently attentive to notice the strangers and invite
them to his own house. He did not know who they
vvere, nor did he suspect the awful errand upon which
they came. But by treating them with such courtesy
as was due to the character of strangers, in which they
came, he secured for himself such lielj) as angels alone
could give in the time of his greatest need. Fidelity
in the most common and homely duties of life oi^ens
the door of the house for the greatest of heaven's bless-
ings to come in. The discharge of duties that are fully
82 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
known and easily understood is tlie first qualification
for the compreliension of the deepest and most awful
mysteries of our being and destiny.
The idle throng in the streets deride the hospitable
old man for taking the two strangers home to his own
house. They see nothing in them worthy of such at-
tention. They are much more ready to treat them
with rudeness and contempt, or to make them the sub-
jects of the passion which has given their city a name
of infamy throughout all generations. They hoot and
jeer at the venerable patriarch when he rises up from
his seat in the gate to meet the travelers, and bows
himself with his face to the ground, and says with East-
ern*.courtesy, " Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray
you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night."
The vilest suggestions are passed to and fro among
the lewd and leering rabble as the old man leads his
guests away. The hour of rest has not come before a
crowd gathers in the streets and besets the house where
the strangers have gone to repose. They become more
clamorous, with infamous outcries and rude assault, as
night wears on. They are so blinded and besotted in
their sensuality that they would do violence to God's
mighty angels, who can wrap their city in flames and
open the pit of destruction beneath their habitations
in a moment.
The celestial messengers had come to see whether
there were any, in all that city, who could be per-
suaded to escape from the impending doom. And the
THE LAST NIGHT OF SODOM, 33
i]iiquity of tlie inhabitants was full ; the last drop was
added to the fiery cup of wrath to be poured upon
their heads, when they received the warning as an idle
tale and treated the messengers with contempt. So
dreadful a thing it is to slight God's offered salvation,
even though it should be meant only for once. For
when the angels of mercy go back to Him that sent
them, it may be that they will kindle behind them the
fires of wrath.
The men of Sodom did not think they were doing
anything unusual when they beset the house of Lot
and came near to break the door. They were no more
riotous or dissolute on the last night than they had
been many nights before. But there is a point bej^ond
which the Divine forbearance cannot go. And they
had reached that point when they clamored against
Lot, and would have beaten him down in the streets
for protecting his angel-guests. AVhen blindness fell
upon them, and they wearied themselves to find the
door, they had already passed
*' Tlie hidden boundary between
God's patience and liis wrath."
For the sake of the righteous man. Lot, there was
just one thing more to be done. The aged father is
permitted to go out and urge his sons-in-law to flee
from the doomed city. He makes his way to their
houses through the blinded rabble in the streets and
gives the warning. But he seems to them as one that
34 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
mocked. They cannot think it possible that he is m
his right mind, to be coming to them at that late hour
of the night with such an alarming message. They
only tell him to go home and quiet his fears by dis-
missing the suspicious strangers and going to sleep in
his own house. They cannot think of troubling them-
selves about the anxieties of a wakeful and weak-
minded old man, when nothing is wanted but a little
rest to dismiss his fears. They will sleep on till morn-
ing, and to-morrow they will laugh at the kind-hearted
old father about his midnight call.
Alas! how little do sons and daughters know the
fears and hopes, the anxieties and sorrows, of Christian
parents in their behalf! They jest and laugh the
hours of life away, while a father's heart is burdened
all day long with the desire and jDrayer that they
would be in earnest about the things that concern their
everlasting peace. They sleep soundly while a devoted
and self-denying mother spends the long hours of
the night in watching and weeping for their sake.
This old man. Lot, going into the noisy streets
under the cover of darkness, to rouse up his sons-in-
law and persuade them to escape from the doomed city,
was only doing what faithful parents have been doing
ever since, to save their children from the sad conse-
quences of living only for earth and time.
When the disappointed father comes back to his
own house, the angels of rescue are waiting for him,
and the first streaks of dawn are just beginning to
THE LAST NIGHT OF SODOM. 35
appear in the east. As yet there is no apparent change
in the earth or the sky. No trumpet of wrath has
blown through the midnight. No earthquake has
shaken the hills. No sulphurous fires have flamed
up from the bed of the peaceful valley. No threaten-
ing wave has rolled upon the shore of the quiet lake.
No cloud of vengeance darkens the coming day. The
morning star shines with its customary brightness over
the mountains of Moab. The cool air, mingled with
the perfume of flowers, comes up like refreshing in-
cense from the placid sea, and the song of birds wel-
comes the returning light.
There is nothing to fear save that one word of the
angels : " The Lord will destroy this city." The beau-
tiful skies speak peace and safety. The teeming earth
promises riches and abundance. The sleeping city
dreams of long life and continued pleasure. The
coming day looks down from the eastern hills with a
smile. But the angels have said, " The Lord will de-
stroy this city," and that is reason enough for alarm
and for immediate flight. When he threatens, it is
the part of fortitude to fear. When he commands, it
is the first dictate of duty and of safety to obey. A
thousand voices from the marts of business, from the
haunts of pleasure, from the beds of ease, and from
the lips of skepticism may promise peace and safety.
But all such voices are nothing against one word from
the mouth of the Lord. The desires of the deceiving
heart, the seductions of temptation, the example of the
36 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
multitude, may all say peace to those wlio are living
without Christ and without hope. But God's word has
said it is death so to live, and that word is enough.
It is hard for the old man to go and leave a part of
his own family and all his worldly possessions behind
to perish. But go he must, or even he cannot be
saved. He lingers with divided heart and hesitating
mind while the hour of doom is fast coming on. The
angels urge him to hasten, but he lingers still. With
merciful violence, they lay hold upon his hands and
upon the hands of those of his family that are with
him in the house, and hurry them forth out of the
city. And then comes the startling and vehement
charge : " Escape for thy life ! Look not behind thee,
neither stay thou in all the plain. Escape to the
mountains, lest thou be consumed.''
A few moments' delay will cost him his life. If he
only turns to take one longing, lingering look of house
and home, and of all that his heart holds dearest on
earth — if he only waits to see what will become of the
city — he will be consumed in the coming storm. The
overthrow is delayed only to give the fugitives time to
escape. Their steps across the plain are counting out
the last moments of the doomed city. Still the weary
and distracted old man begs to be permitted to rest at
a little town short of the safe mountains. It is so
small that he thinks it need not be involved in the
ruin of the greater and guiltier city below. The fond
and fearful request is granted, but with a solemn reite-
THE LAST NIGHT OF SODOM. 37
ration of the charge to hasten, for the fiery storm can-
not long be restrained from its outbreaking wrath.
One of the four fugitives pauses to look back, with a
vain curiosity to see what would become of the city,
and so fails to escape.
The sun is already risen upon the earth, and the
bright morning promises a beautiful day. The early
risers in Sodom are making themselves merry with the
frightened old man who had fled with his family to
the mountains. The sons-in law are on the way to his
house, to laugh at him for walking in his sleep the
night before. The idle and voluptuous are devising
new 2)leasures for the day; and the profligate are
sleeping through the fresh hours of the morning to
compensate for the late revels of the night.
And just now the hour of doom strikes. And the
Lord rains fire and brimstone out of heaven upon the
city and upon the beautiful plain, that seemed like
Paradise the day before ; and the smoke of the burning
goes up as the smoke of a great furnace ; and the glare
of the mighty conflagration is seen far ofi* by shepherds
on the hills of Hebron and the mountains of Moab.
And in one moment the fair vale, which had been as
the garden of the Lord in beauty and fertility, becomes
a desolation — a place never to be inhabited from gene-
ration to generation — a valley of desolation and of
death, where the wandering Arab shall never dare to
pitch his tent nor the shepherd to make his fold — a
haunted and horrible region, doleful in reality, and
38 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
clothed with additional terrors by gloomy superstitious
and evil imaginations.
And God made this great desolation in his own
beautiful and glorious work because the sin of Sodom
was great and the cry of its iniquity had come up to
heaven. The last night was as serene and beautiful as
ever hung its starry curtain over a sleeping world.
And when the golden dawn broke into day the rising
sun had not seen a fairer city than Sodom in all the
"gorgeous East.'' In one moment her last cry went
up to heaven amid tempests of fire that rained down
from above and fountains of fire that burst up from
the deep. And Sodom has become a name of infamy
for all generations ; and its awful doom stands forth as
a perpetual sign that God's patience with sin has a
bound beyond which it will not go.
The Scriptures expressly declare that the fiery fate
of this doomed city in ancient time is set forth as an
example, to warn men in all subsequent ages against
leading ungodly lives. The lurid flame of this great
act of the divine justice sends its warning light through
all the centuries of human history, to show that there
is a God in heaven, before whom the cry of man's
iniquity goes up day and night. The things that are
told of Sodom may be said of many a city that has not
shared in Sodom's doom. The prophet Ezekiel says
that the sin of that city was "pride and fullness of
bread and abundance of idleness." Millions would
count it happiness to revel in abundance and have
THE LAST NIGHT OF SOBO.U. 30
notliing to do. Thus far in the world's history the
highest rank in human society has been conceded to
those who have the greatest revenues secured to them
without effort on their part, and who never touch the
common burdens of humanity with one of their fingers.
And we all know how naturally |)ride enthrones it-
self as the master-passion in the heart, when once
all fear of want and all necessity to work are taken
away.
The sin of Sodom, however gross in reputation and
in reality, was the offspring of wealth and leisure — the
two things which the worldly heart most desires, and
of which, when possessed, the worldly heart is most
proud. If men could have all that they desire of both,
how hard it would be for them to think or care at all
for the life to come. Many are ashamed of work — all
are afraid of want. And yet it is work which makes
worth in men, and the deepest sense of want is the be-
ginning of immortal life in the soul.
This awful lesson in sacred history may be all
summed up in two words : One is from man and the
world — the other is from heaven and God. One says
to the careless and the worldly, "Tarry, be at ease,
enjoy yourself while you can." The other says, " Es-
cape for thy life." One says, " Wait, be not alarmed :
make yourself comfortable where you are." The other
says, " Haste, look not behind thee, flee to the moun-
tain, lest thou be consumed." One says, " Soul, take
thine ease, eat, drink and be merry." The other
40 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
says, •'• Tliou fool ! this night thy soul may be required
of thee."
The question which every one must answer for him-
self is always this, Which of these two voices shall I
obey ? Shall I sit down in that seductive and false
security which is all absorbed in earthly things and
fears no evil, because at present there is no aj)pearance
of danger ? Or shall I obey the voice from heaven,
which commands me to arise and shake off the dan-
gerous lethargy of the w^orld and escape for my life ?
Shall I listen to the voice of earth, which cries peace
and safety, or the voice of heaven, which says that
destruction lies in the path of souls that are at ease
without God ?
To many it seems like mockery to talk of danger to
the young and the gay, the healthful and the happy.
But who was the mocker on the peaceful night when
the cities of the plain rioted in pleasure for the last
time — the righteous man. Lot, who exposed himself
to the jeers of the mob and made his way through the
darkened streets to warn his sons-in-law and fled him-
self for his life, or the sons-in-law themselves, who
laughed at the w^arning and perished in the flames ?
All the seductions and falsehoods of temptation, and
all the dangers and sorrows of perdition, are bound up
in that one word — wait. The voice of love speaks to
the careless in terms of terror and alarm. God's pa-
tience will not always last. The day of grace must
have an end. And with many it is much shorter
THE LAST NIGHT OF SODOM. 41
tliaii tliey expect. Tlie God wlio rained a fiery tem-
pest upon the cities of the plain, and destroyed them,
is the God who holds oui everlasting destiny in his
hands. He will not always be mocked. He will not
long be trifled with.
And the loving and comi^assionate Jesus himself
declares that there is a greater sin than that for which
Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown. It is the sin
of those who hear the gospel call to repentance and
heed it not. It is the sin of those who see the Son of
God agonizing in the garden and dying on the cross
for their salvation, and w^ho still refuse to give him
their hearts. It is the sin of those w^ho have been
many times warned and entreated, and who neverthe-
less spend their lives in waiting for a more convenient
season to repent and turn to God. It is the sin of
those who put off the first great work of life to the
dying hour, and death finds them with the work all
undone. It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and
Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for those
who spend their lives in such utter neglect of the great
salvation.
The blessed and compassionate Jesus gave forth that
solemn warning to the neglecters and despisers in his
day, that the echo of his voice might resound through
all time, and that all who hear might be saved from
such a doom. His most awful threatening involves
and includes an invitation of equal extent. He would
awaken fear that he may kindle hope. He commands
42 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
effort tliat lie may save from despair. He draws back
the veil from the pit of darkness that we may be con-
strained to look up when he unfolds the glories of
paradise.
The angels hastened Lot while he lingered and was
loth to go. The voices of the divine mercy are ever
repeating the cry to the heedless and the hesitating —
Haste, escape for thy life. Wait not for better
opportunities to begin a better life. Any opportunity
to secure infinite and eternal -blessing is a good one.
And a better one than the present may never come.
Look not behind to see what will become of worldly
pleasures and vanities. When the soul is in peril, no
earthly interest can be a sufficient reason for an hour's
delay. The solemn monitions of conscience, the uncer-
tain tenure of all earthly possessions, the embittered
and transitory nature of all earthly joys, the admoni-
tions of divine j)rovidence in affliction and death, the
sweet and mighty constraint of the love of Christ, and
all the perils and sorrovfs and necessities of the soul,
continually say to the hesitating and the halting. Haste
thee ; escape for thy life. Make sure thy flight to the
stronghold of hope before the voice of mercy shall
cease to call, and the wrath that is ready to burn,
burst in an endless storm.
^kaljmn's Itgjt Wmn at |iccrs|tba.
And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abrahcm^
and said unto him, Abraham : and he said, Behold, here I am. And he
said, Take Jioiv thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get
thee ifito the land of Moriah ; and offer him .here for a burnt-offering
upon one of the momitains ivhich I ivill tell thee of. — Gen. xxii. i, 2.
11.
ABRAHAM'S NIGHT VISION AT BEERSHEBA.
BR AHAM was an hundred and twenty years old
when he received the strange and startling com-
mand to offer his only and beloved son Isaac for
a burnt offering, upon an unknown mountain in
the land of JMoriah. The message came to him in a
vision of the night, in his quiet home in Beersheba.
We can well imagine that there would be no more
sleep for him that night, after he had heard that mys-
terious and awful voice which spoke only to him, and
which himself only could hear.
He already passed for an aged man, even upon the
longer average of human life in his time. His heart
had lost much of the fervid and hopeful feeling of
youth. It was no longer easy for him to bend before
the storm of affliction, and rise with renewed strength
when the blow was past. It would be a bitter thing
for him now to be made to drink more deeply of the
cup of sorrow than he ever had done in the days of
his young manhood.
It is easy to face the storm while the lieart is fresh
and full of hope, and we can rise up from every dis-
' 45
46 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
appointment strong in the purpose and promise to reap
the fruits of success and repose in after years. But it
is very hard for an old man to find that the sorest
trial is reserved for the last, when the burden of age
is heavy upon his shoulders and the fire of youth is
dim in his eye. Fifty years before, when Abraham
left the land of his fathers, the love of adventure, the
impulse of curiosity, the prospect of a long life yet to
be enjoyed, would help him in his first great act of
obedience to the Divine command.
But now he needed repose. His quiet home in
Beersheba had been sought as a place of rest. There
he had planted the sacred grove and reared a living
temple for the worship of the IMost High. There he
had set up an altar and called on the name of Jehovah,
the everlasting God. There he had sunk dee23 wells
in the solid rock, opening perpetual fountains of living
water upon the borders of the desert. The Arab's
camels bend their course across the burning sands to-
day, to drink at the same spot where Abraham and nis
flocks refreshed themselves thirty-eight centuries ago.
There he had gathered round him a great household,
even hundreds of servants and herdsmen, and thou-
sands of camels, and sheep, and goats, and cattle. His
flocks and tents covered all the grassy j>lains between
the deserts of Arabia and the hills and mountains of
Judea. There Abraham had become very rich /in
silver and gold, and he was already greatest among all
the men of the East. And there was fulfilled unto him
ABRAIIA3rS NIGHT VISION AT BEERSIIEBA. 47
the Divine promise in the gift of Isaac, the son of liid
hopes and his heart. His trials and conflicts all over,
his desires all fulfilled, his faith confirmed, what had
he now to expect but a serene and cheerful old age
and a peaceful close of his long and eventful life?
He had left father and mother, kindred and country,
at the Divine command. He had lived a pilgrim and
a stranger in a land not his own. He had clung to the
Divine promise, when, to all human judgment its fulfill-
ment seemed a contradiction and an impossibility. He
had borne all the bitterness of a father's grief in send-
ing forth Ishmael to wander in the wilderness. And,
after all these trials of faith and submission, could there
be in store yet another and greater to wring his aged
heart when he was least able to bear it?
The announcement of the voice in the night vision
at Beersheba must have fallen \x])OTi Abraham like a
peal of thunder from a cloudless sky. And the terms
in which the terrible command is expressed seem as if
they were intentionally chosen to harrow up his soul.
Every word is a dagger to pierce the father's heart.
Four times over, the emphasis falls just where it would
give him the deepest pain : Take now, thy son, thine
only son, Isaac whom thou lovest, and offer him for a
burnt-offering. It would have been enough to break
an old man's heart to lose such a son by the ordinary
course of sickness and death. Then he could be
watched and comforted, and his last hours soothed by
the acts of parental tenderness and affection. But how
48 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
could a father shed the life-blood of that son with his
own hand? How could he heap on the fuel and the
fire that must burn his body to ashes in his own sight?
It makes the home desolate, and it casts a deep
shadow upon all the subsequent pathway of life, for an
aged father to lose one of many sons. How much
more must the loss of all in one make the remainder
of life but as the bitterness of death, and bring down
the gray hairs of age with sorrow to the grave.
If Isaac had been a profligate and disobedient son ;
if he had made himself such a grief to his parents that
they had even sometimes thought it would be a relief to
see his face no more — still in that case they would have
wept in all the bitterness of parental sorrow over his
new grave. How much more would such grief be
called forth by the violent and unnatural death of one
so gentle, so amiable, so deeply and tenderly loved as
was Isaac!
If Abraham had been a selfish, cold-hearted man,
caring little for the ordinary attachments of kindred
and home, never concerning himself to know who
should bear his name when he was gone, it would have
been a sad day for him when he found himself chikl-
less and alone in the world. How much darker must
that day be to the kind, generous and affectionate old
father ! How cruel, how inhuman must have seemed
to him the voice which commanded him, with his own
hand, to extinguish the life in wdiich he himself lived
anew in his old age ! How contradictory for him to
ABRAHAM'S NIGHT VISION AT BEERSHEBA. 49
put out the light which had been kindled to enlighter
all nations, to lead all wanderers into the right way.
If it had been his silver and gold, his flocks and
herds, his servants and herdsmen, his promised land
and peaceful home that he was to give up — if he had
only been commanded to spend the remainder of his
life in poverty, and wandering, and exile — it would
have been a hard lot for an old man. But it would
have been nothing compared with the command to
sacrifice his only son with his own hand. Nay, more,
it would not have seemed so strange, so terrible, so
contradictory — it would not have cost the father's heart
such a pang — if it had been himself that was demanded
for the sacrifice.
We know not what passed in the patriarch's mind
when he received the message. But we almost seem to
hear him say in an agony of surprise and sorrow :
*^ Oh, my son, my son! would God I could die for
thee ! I am old and withered, and in a few years, at
most, I must be gathered to my fathers. Let the
remainder of my days be accepted as a free-will offer-
ing, that the sole joy of my heart and the hope of my
family may not utterly perish in the death of my son."
Then, again, the seeming contradiotion between this
new command, and all the instructions and promises
which had already been given to Abraham, must have
added perplexity to his mind and agony to his lieart.
The voice came in a vision of the night. Strange,
terrible and unaccountable it must have seemed to him
^0 NIOBT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
at first, as if he had dreamed, or as if some tempting and
tormenting demon had assumed to speak in the name of
the Lord. Restless and alarmed, he rises up early, that
the cool air of the morning may arrest the feverish
dream, if it were only a dream, that had disturbed the
peaceful sleep of the night. As he passes silently from
the inner to the outer apartment of the tent, and looks
ujDon the calm face of his sleeping son, he feels for the
moment as if the blood of the dreadful sacrifice were
already upon his hands. He shudders as the awful
scene, upon some unknown mountain, flashes upon his
mind. The rej^ose of that peaceful countenance, dimly
seen when the curtain door is lifted, makes the father
groan in S23irit when he thinks of the terrible secret
in his own heart.
He steps forth silently into the open air and looks
up. The coming dawn has just begun to tip the edge
of the eastern hills with light. Above him the clear
blue dome of Arabian skies is all ablaze with the fiery
hosts of stars. He remembers that his fathers wor-
shiped those peaceful orbs "beyond the flood," and
that no such message ever came to them from the
silent depths of the firmament. He remembers that
the Divine voice which called him out of Chaldea fifty
years before, had once said to him, " Look now toward
heaven and tell the stars, if thou be able to number
them ; so shall thy seed be." And can it be that now
that same voice has commanded him to slay his only
son?
ABBAHAM'S NIGHT VISION AT BEERSHEBA. 51
The morning breeze from the mountains of Judah
raises a cloud of dust as it sweeps across the broad
sandy paths where his vast herds are wont to come
down to the wells of water. And again he remembers
the words of the Divine voice, " I will make thy seed
as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number
the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be num-
bered." And now has that same voice commanded
him to slay his only son? And shall he believe both,
when one contradicts the other, and so, at last, an old
Lian go childless and in sorrow to the grave ?
He looks away northward and eastward, and he sees
the baleful light of altar-fires blazing upon the hill-
tops. And he well knows that on those high places
the heathen inhabitants of the land offer their own
children in sacrifice to Moloch and Baal and Chemosh.
And shall the worship)er of the true God become like
one of them and stain his hand with the blood of his
own son ?
The wind moans through the sacred grove of tere-
binth, as if in sympathy with his great sorrow. He
walks beneath the widespreading branches of the
oaks, where he had many times met angels face to
face. He listens and strains his eye in every direction
through the gloom of the waning night, if perad ven-
ture he may descry some celestial messenger coming
to relieve his perplexity. He bows at the foot of the
altar which he has reared unto Jehovah, in an agony
of prayer for more light But his mind grows darker
52 NIGBT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
as tlie niglit wanes. Every sound seems to echo the
dreadful word : " Take thy son, thine only son, Isaac,
whom thou lovest."
The dawn comes slowly up th^ eastern heavens, and
now he can hear the lowing of his flocks gathered by
thousands in distant folds, and eager to be led forth
while the air is cool and the grass is fresh with dew.
The full day and the fiery noon will soon come on.
If the journey be undertaken at all, there is no time
for delay. If the command be from God, and it must
be obeyed, the quickest obedience will be found the
easiest and the best. Abraham knows all this, and
the father of the faithful is not a man to dall} and
shuffle with excuses and tamper with his own con-
science when once the way of duty, however hard, is
plain.
So Abraham goes silently to one of the tents where
his servants sleep. Of the hundreds at his command,
he selects two. They prej^are the wood for the sacri-
fice and lay it upon the beast of burden, and the aged
father, with a tender and tremulous voice, calls his
son. When Isaac wakes and starts to his feet, the
old man turns away his face. He cannot meet the
innocent and unsuspecting look of the victim named
in the voice of the night. Shall the fiither tell the
son where he is going and what is the object of the
journey? Oh, how can he conceal it? — how can he
tell it ? Not now — not here. There will be a better
time to break the awful secret to the son when they
ABBAHAWS NIGHT VISION AT BEEBSHEBA. 5o
are far away ujDon the long and lonely journey. But
shall not tlie son be permitted to take leave of his
mother? It would be cruel not to do so. And yet
how can it be done ? It would cause alarm and con-
fess the whole object of the journey, and 2:)erliaps make
it impossible for Abraham to obey the Divine com-
mand. He himself could not witness the parting.
And yet, shall not the fond old mother be told that
she is to see the face of her beloved and only son no
more? Must that son, that only son, die a bloody
death, and by the father's own hand, and she not be
consulted — she not know it till all is done ? Shall she
be denied the bitter consolation of giving him one
parting word ? If the sacrifice must be made, may she
not share with the father in the great act of faith and
obedience ? She must know it in the end. Will it be
right, will it be honorable, will it be kind to tell her
only when it is all over? Must the grief of never
having one word of farewell, must the bitter feeling
that her only son was stolen from her and slain, be
added to her worse than orphan's woe?
All these questions and many more must have passed
through the mind of Abraham as he started from Beer-
sheba in the dim light of the early morning, with
Isaac and the two young men. It must have been a
sore task for his wonted serenity and self-possession,
to go forth from his home, shutting up in his own
generous and magnanimous heart the dark and dread-
ful secret of the voice which he had heard in the night,
54 NIGHT SOE^S'ES IN THE BIBLE.
and of the sacrifice wliicli he had been commanded to
make.
The natural features of the road from Beersheba to
Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, are the same now
that they were in the days of Abraham. Passing over
the ground now, we see much that the patriarch saw.
The first day's journey is over grassy plains and
slightly undulating hills, with no forest or mountain
or shadowy rock to diversify the scene or to afford a
shelter from the noonday heat. On goes the little com-
pany, solitary as a single cloud in a clear sky, com-
panionless as a ship alone in mid-ocean, traversing a
sea of verdure emblazoned in every direction with
millions of bright flowers mingled with the green and
waving grass. The air murmurs slightly with the hum
of bees feeding upon the honeyed blossoms, and with
the twitter of small birds that build their nests upon the
ground. But no other sound mingles with the foot-
falls of the travelers as they pursue their journey.
Occasionally a solitary camel or the dark waving line
of a caravan aj)pears in the distance and then passes
out of view, as ships seen by voyagers at sea seem to
hang for a while in the horizon and then melt away
in the misty air.
The very solitude of the first day's journey must
have been oppressive to Abraham. In company with
his only son, to whom he had ever confided everything
that concerned himself and the family, he now travels
all day by his side with a secret in his heart, which
ABBAHABPS NIGHT VISION AT BEERSHEBA, 55
touclies his very life and all the clearest hopes of the
family, and he dare not tell him of it. He thought
when lie started that he could talk with him when
alone. But now he can only look at his open and un-
suspecting face, and turn away lest the son shall see
the starting tear and the heaving breast. A hundred
times in the day he begins to speak, designing gently
to unfold the awful purpose of the journey. A hun-
dred times his struggling emotions become too strong
for words, and he stoj)s, leaving his son to wonder at
the father's excessive feeling and to inquire vainly for
the cause. He feels as if it were deception and mock-
ery to talk with Isaac of anything else than the object
of the journey; and yet he walks all day long by his
side, and does not tell him of the dreadful deed that
must be done when they reach the mountain.
Abraham must have felt relieved when night came
on and they all lay down upon the bare earth, and
Isaac and the young men slept. Then the agonizing
father, wearied with the long torture, could withdraw
himself from the company, and pour out the sorrows
of his breaking heart under cover of the darkness,
even as a greater Sufferer prayed in his agony, " Oh,
if it be possible let this cup pass from me!" The
countless host of stars come out again in all their burn-
ing ranks upon the plains of heaven, only to pierce the
soul of the patriarch as with a sword, while they
remind him so clearly of that Divine promise, " As the
number of the stars, so shall thy seed be ;" and he is on his
66 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
way to sacrifice his only son. All night long lie waits,
if peraclventure that voice which gave the terrible com-
mand will speak again and tell him that his faith has
been sufiiciently tried — his soi} may live. But no
sucli message comes.
The hours of darkness are always long to a sleepless
man with the bare earth for his bed. But the morn-
ing comes too soon to Abraham ; for it brings him the
summons to renew his journey and hasten on to the
bloody sacrifice. And now he approaches the hills, to
every one of which he looks with trembling, lest he
shall see the sign of the j)lace where the sacrifice must
be made. He passes the oaks of Mamre, where he
interceded so fervently for guilty Sodom. But no
angels appear to hear his petition for his only son.
He ascends the heights afterward named Kirjath-arba,
and Hebron, and Bethlehem, and every outlook uj)on
the surrounding country only reminds him that all
this fair land, westward to the sea, and northward to
Lebanon, and south to the desert, was to have been
the possession of his posterity. And now, with his
own hand and by Divine command, he must cut off
his name and inheritance from the earth.
Another day passes as they journey among hills and
valleys and streams ; and when night comes on, Abra-
ham lies down with the rest upon the bare earth,
wearied and ready to perish with having carried the
terrible secret of his errand so much longer shut up in
his heart. Isaac sleeps, as the lamb sleeps the nigh
ABRAHAM'S NIGHT VISION AT BEERSUEBA. 57
before the sacrifice. And the wakeful fiither only
suffers the more keenly when he looks upon the calm
repose of his son. Sleeping and waking, he is all the
while listening and longing to hear the Divine voice
speak once more and say, " It is enough ; thy son shall
live, and thy paternal heart shall be spared this dread-
ful pang.'' But the night passes and the morning of
the third day begins to break, and no such message
comes. And Abraham must renew the journey with
the full expectation that before another evening closes
round him the bloody sacrifice will be completed.
When another morning breaks, he will be on his way
back, childless and broken-hearted, to bear the dread-
ful tidings of what he had done to his stricken and
desolate home.
" Had he not better go back now and never breathe
the object of this mysterious journey to any living
soul ? So his son shall live, and he shall be the staff
and joy of his old age. And in time it may be found
that this supposed voice in the night vision at Beer-
eheba was all a mistake, a false and feverish dream,
growing out of his very anxiety to preserve the life
of his only son."
If Abraham had been anvthins: less than the father
of the faithful, it would have been easy for him to
yield to such fond and parental misgivings, and so he
would have lost tlie fulfillment of the Divine promise
through his fears, and the world would have lost tli^
rich inheritance of his great and victorious faith.
£'8 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
We all know the conclusion. The journey of the
third clay is begun. Soon the mysterious sign, doubt-
less like the flame of the burning bush or the glory
of tlie tabernacle, apj^ears upon ^ distant height. 'Now
it is settled beyond all question in Abraham's mind
that the voice in the night vision at Beersheba was a
reality, the command was Divine, the sacrifice must be
made. He girds up his soul anew with desperate and
agonizing firmness to complete the great act of faith.
He lays the wood for the offering upon the one that
must be burned. With a trembling hand and a break-
ing heart he takes the fire and the knife, and goes
silently up the steep alone with his son. Isaac won-
ders where the victim for the sacrifice is to be found,
but the father cannot tell him yet. The altar is built
by the hands of both ; the wood is placed in order for
the fire ; the last dreadful moment has come, and no
delivering angel aj)pears — no Divine voice speaks to
stay the sacrifice. The father must tell the son the
awful message which he has carried in his own bleed-
ing heart through all the long journey. Isaac himself
must be slain, and by the father's hand. It must be
with his own consent if he is offered at all. For he is
a full-grown man, twenty-five years of age, and he can
easily resist or escape the hand of his father, who has
a hundred more years upon his shoulders.
We do not know what feelings, what expressions
the startling announcement brought forth from Isaac.
We are not told what surprise, what horror, what fear,
ABRAHAM'S NIGJIT VISION AT BEERSIIEBA. 59
what distrust, what agony he manifested. Had he
seen something wild and strange in the look of his
father all the Avay ? And does he now conclude that
the old man has become insane on the subject of sacri-
fice ? Or does he reason, does he remonstrate, does he
resist? Does he claim that the father can have no
right to take the life of the son, and that the vision or
voice Avliich commands such a dreadful deed cannot be
from God?
We do not know what w^as said, thought or felt by
Isaac when he heard from his father that he must be
the victim. But w^e do know what surpasses all our
comprehension — we know that Isaac in the end sub-
mitted to the sacrifice. He consented to be bound, as
he had seen the lamb bound, and laid uj^on the altar.
He gave up life, hope, everything, just because his
father told him, there, on that lonely mount, that it
must be so. He looked, as he thought, for the last
time upon the face of his father, and then silently
waited for the stroke of the knife that was already in
the father's hand. Which was most to be pitied it
were hard to tell — the father, who must inflict the
fatal blow, or the son who submits in silence to be
slain. If the sacrifice must be made, the sorrowing
father will certainly endure a longer and a deeper
agony than the dying son.
Abraham turns away his face, that he may not see
when the blood follows the blow. Isaac, with fortitude
equal to his father's faith, bids him strike. But now,
60 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
at length, it is enough. The voice from heaven comes
at last. The faith of the father and the submission of
the son are sufficiently tried. The delivering angel
of the covenant cries aloud, " J^ow I know that thou
fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son,
thine only son, from me."
And this great act of faith, which made Abraham
the father of the faithful, shines forth like the sun
amid the darkness of far-distant times. It teaches the
great lesson of confidence in the Divine word and sur-
render to the Divine will in such a way as most deeply
touches the heart. Nothing is too precious for us to
give to God. We never secure the full value of any
possession until we give it all to Him. Give Him
your money, and you will get more of all that money
is good for than you will by keeping it all to yourself
Give Him your time, and a day spent in his service
will be better than a thousand spent in "pleasurable
sin." Give Him your talents, your efforts, your toil,
and every act of duty done in His name shall receive
an exceeding great reward. Give Him your children,
and they will never be so dear to you as when they
are wholly dedicated to God. Give Him your lieart,
and the blessedness of heaven will begin in your soul
the moment you fix your supreme affection on Him
who alone is altogether lovely. Give Him all — heart,
soul, life, everything — and then Christ is yours, heaven
is yours, eternal life, eternal joy is yours — all things
are yours.
ABBAHA.WS NIGHT VISION AT BEERSHEBA. 61
Nothing is too precious for God to give to us.
Abraham's offering of Isaac was a^Dpointecl to fore-
shadow a greater and more awful sacrifice, which was
complete when the Almighty Father actually gave His
only-begotten Son to death that we might live. All
the sorrows that wruns; the heart of Abraham during
the three days of his dark and dreadful trial were im-
posed on him to help us understand how real, how
deep, how unutterable was the self-denial of the in-
finite God in giving His own Son to death for our
salvation. No trial, no mental torture could possibly
have been greater to Abraham than that which he
bore in obeying the command to sacrifice his son.
God actually surrendered His well-beloved Son to the
slow and dreadful agony of crucifixion. No voice
from heaven commanded to stay the sacrifice when
once He had been nailed to the cross. Legions of \
angels were in waiting, but they were not permitted to
interpose for His relief. The torture and the mockery
went on till he bowed His head in death. And all for
our sake! Surel}^ the Infinite One himself can give us
no greater proof that He sincerely desires our salvation.
And as the free gift of His love to us is infinite. His
claim upon our faith, our services and our affections
must be correspondently complete and extreme. If
we withhold from God, we are infinite debtors, though
we answer every other claim. If we give ourselves
to God, we shall be acquitted of every charge — we
shall be accepted in every prayer.
62 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Prompt and unquestioning obedience to God is
the easiest and the best. Abraham rose up early,
and was on his way to perform the fearful duty
assigned him before the cares of the day could divert
his attention or the interference of others could shake
his resolution. "\Ye should not allow ourselves for
once to look in the face of a present and an acknow-
ledged duty, and delay to meet its demand. It
darkens the mind, it perverts the judgment, it hardens
the heart, it wastes precious opportunities, it weakens
all good purposes, to hold ourselves back from doing
anything which, to us now, is clearly and unquestion-
ably right. It does not require a long process of
reasoning to convince any honest, candid, truth-
seeking mind that the whole heart and soul should
be given at once and cheerfully to Him who loved
us and gave himself for us.
Tlie hindrances that hold us back from obedience
to God are indeed many and subtle and strong. We
must make it a study to cut off every influence, to
break up every habit, to sunder every tie that keeps
us from the most free, open and hearty committal of
our whole heart and soul to God. We cannot be too
strongly or too openly bound to any course that is
right. The greatest difficulties melt and vanish before
a full and earnest purpose to do God's will. Light
shines out of darkness for those who, in trial and
perplexity, look only to Christ and wait for the words,
" Follow m^I"
ktah'B i;i|i|)f af ^d^ti
And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all nighty
because the <iun was set : and he took of the stones of that place, atid put
them for his pillo-ws, and lay doivn in that place to sleep. — Gen. xxviii. ii.
JACOBS NIGHT AT BETHEL.
111.
JACOB'S NIGHT AT BETHEL.
^vtHE journey upon wliicli Jacob went forth from
%ij liis father's home at Beersheba was both peril-
%A ous and long. He must go without a guide
and he must start without delay. He had pro-
voked his wild and passionate brother Esau to anger,
and his life was no lon2:er safe in his father's tent.
He must pass through a country where there was no
law for the protection of travelers; no courtesy or
hospitality was thought to be due to strangers, except
within the limits of tribe and family. He himself did
not belong to the native occupants of the land; he
could not invoke the name of chieftain or clan for his
protection. There would be none to revenge the
wrong if he should be robbed or murdered on the way.
What made the matter worse, Jacob himself was to
blame in the sad quarrel that had broken out between
him and his brother. In the long and lonely journey
before him he must have the worst company a defence-
less traveler can ever have — a guilty conscience.
Plard roads, and scanty fare, and bad weather, and
exposure to accident and r>ickness, and robbers and
5 65
66 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
assassins all the way, are quite enoiigli to remind tlie
weary wanderer that there is no place like home.
But altogether they cannot do so much to make a long
journey miserable as that secret* whisper in the soul
which says, " I have brought all this upon myself
by my wrong-doing."
And, besides, Jacob was naturally a cautious and
a timid man. He had never, like his brother, sought
the fierce and wild delight of traversing the mountains
and the desert with the hunter's tireless step or the
warrior's eager hate. He had never roused up the
lion in the chase or met his fellow-man in the fray.
He had never learned to go homeless and hungry
through the livelong day, and to lie down upon the
bare earth for a bed, with the open sky for a covering
by night.
He had been nourished from his earliest youth with
all the tenderness and solicitude of an indulgent and
doting mother's love. As he grew up to mature
years, he became a man of plain and peaceful life.
He preferred the quiet occupation of a herdsman
to the hazards and uncertainties that Esau loved.
From boyhood he had been subjected to caution and
restraint in the presence of his boisterous and daring
brother.
Human nature is apt to take to Its opposites. We
like that which is most unlike ourselves. We are
drawn to one who possesses the qualities in which we
feel ourselves most deficient. The quiet and medita-
JACOB'S NIGHT AT BETHEL. 67
tiv^c old man, Isaac was greatly taken with the
reckless and self-reliant hardihood of his wild and
vagrant son Esau. And Jacob always appeared to a
disadvantage in comparison with the dashing and
outspoken bearing of the wild man of the desert and
the wilderness. His modesty was taken for meanne.=?s
of spirit, his correctness of deportment for coldness
of heart, his attention to the wants and feelings of
others for servility and coAvardice. The fond and
peace-loving old father thought the rudeness of Esau
manly, his boastful and irreverent language courteous,
and his recklessness in giving and forgetting to pay
generous and noble-hearted in the extreme. Jacob's
services were all taken as a matter of course, because
they were so constant and faithful. Esau's were
received with gratitude and praise, because they were
seldom bestowed and never could be relied upon.
Jacob, always at home, always attentive to his father's
wishes, was looked upon as a dependant and a drudge.
His filial obedience was rewarded with few thanks
and less affection. \
The father's heart was with the son who seldom
showed himself in the paternal tent, and w]jo, when
he did appear, made everybody tremble with fear and
everything yield to his rude and boisterous manners.
Isaac himself was afraid of him, and never could be
quite at ease when he heard the ringing and rollick-
ing voice of his wild son coming in from the chase,
with the smell of the forest in his garments and the
68 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
lightness of tlie roe in his step. But no sooner was
he gone than the fond old father wished him back.
And Jacob's filial attention to his father's wants for
weeks and months could only draw forth from the
old man's heart the constant and querulous inquiry,
" When would Esau come again ?"
So the fond parent will often receive coldly and
as a matter of course the faithful attentions of a son
or daughter at home, while all the parental affections
and anxieties are expended U230n some absent child,
who is a burden rather than a blessing to the parent's
declining years. So do we all make little of daily
and common blessings, just because they come of
course. And we imagine we should be so happy if
we could always command pleasures which soon
weary us when they come, and which are esteemed
more highly just because they are rare and remote,
A single cup of cold water will call forth more grati-
tude from lips parched with fever, a single beam of
sunshine will be received with more thankfulness by
the prisoner in his dungeon, than rivers of water and
a universe of sunlight bestowed in the ordinary course
of free and healthful daily life.
Strange as it may seem to us, Jacob lived the
dependent life of a child with his ]\arents until he
was seventy-seven years of age. He had had little
opportunity to cultivate the more noble, generous and
self-reliant traits of character. Held in subordination
to the will of others, he was in danger of becoming
JACOBS NIGHT AT BETHEL. 69
timid, cautious, crafty, distrustful of otliers, and not
safe to be trusted himself.
The mode in which he provoked the outbreak
between himself and his brother Esau shows that he
liad gone far toward the formation of such a charac-
ter. He knew very well the Divine promise that the
inheritance of the ancestral name and the fulfillment
of the covenant with Abraham should fall to him.
And he should have been content to trust that immu-
table word, without resorting to deceitful devices to
secure and to hasten its fulfillment.
But the timid and subtle supplanter had not faith
enough to wait, or to leave Divine Providence to
accomplish its own ends in its own w^ay. Once upon
a time, when Esau came in from the chase, weary and
dispirited, faint and fretful, he said, in his usual rash
and extravagant manner, that he was at the point of
death with hunger, and that he must have food at any
cost. Jacob artfully took him at his word, and
told him that he would relieve his hunger at once if
he w^oukl give up to him his birth-right claim to the
inheritance and the honor of precedence in his father's
family. The reckless and roving hunter cared little
for a claim which would tie him down to his father's
quiet and peaceful life. Tired, impatient and hungry,
he only wants something to eat to-day, and the moun-
tains and the wiklerness. with his quiver and bow, shall
be his birth-right and inheritance to-morrow.
And so he carelessly said, and confirmed the rash
70 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
word with an oatli, that Jacob might have all such
claims of his and welcome, if only he would bring him
the plainest dish and let him eat and go back to his
hunting-grounds again. And ihus the bargain was
made between the two brothers, the cautious and timid
herdsman getting the advantage, because the brave and
improvident hunter was huugry, tired and fretful, and
cared little what he promised if only his appetite for
the time could be appeased.
Alas ! how many even now, with more light and
instruction than Esau had, throw away health, charac-
ter, life, and their very soul's salvation just for a brief
and trifling gratification ! How many, in an unguarded
and fretful moment, let words pass the lips which no
tears or after-regrets can recall ! How easy it is to do
in a moment of enticement or provocation what one
would give his right hand to change when done, but
which can never be blotted from the book of memory !
And it is always a bad bargain for one to barter away
a good conscience, a pure heart and the hope of heaven
for any amount of sensual gratification or earthly ad-
van tage.
Esau is elsewhere, in the Scrij^tures, called a "^ ])ro-
fime person," a man who made light of sacred things,
and would invoke the most awful curses upon himself
and others just to gratify an irritable and ungoverned
temper. And of all persons in the world the profane
man throws away the greatest good for the least grati-
fication. He dooms himself and others to everlasting
JACOB'S NIGHT AT BETHEL. Tl
exclusion from the Divine favor, just for tlie pride or
tlie passion of uttering " great swelling words of blas-
pliemy." He commits the most senseless and shock-
ing sin against God and his own soul, under an induce-
ment so slight that only a rude and irreverent mind
can feel that it is any inducement at all.
When Isaac was old and blind, and desired to pro-
nounce his final blessing upon his favorite Esau, it was
agreed between the two that the wild hunter should
bring venison from the field and make savory meat,
such as the old man loved, and that under the stimulus
of liis favorite dish his soul should bless his first-born
before he died. The arrangement was overheard and
cunningly defeated by Jacob and his mother. While
the hunter was out in pursuit of game they took ad-
vantage of the old man's blindness, and drew from him
the blessing which had been promised to the absent
brother. Undoubtedly, Jacob sincerelv believed tliat
the birth-right was due to him, both by purchase and
by Divine promise. But nothing could justify him for
attempting to secure even what he thought was his
right by gross deception and repeated falsehood.
He put on the garments of his hairy brother, and
covered his hands and neck with goat-skins to make
the disguise complete. He said plainly to his doubt-
ing father, I am Esau, thy first-born. He said he had
done as his father liad bidden him, wdien lie had done
no such thing. He offered him the flesh of kids, dis-
guised by the cunning cookery of his mother, and said
T2 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
it was venison. He said tlie Lord had given liim suc-
cess in the chase, when he had not been to the chase at
alL He came near his blind father, and confirmed the
lie of his lips by exposing to the blind old man's touch
the hairy covering of his hands and neck. He said
again to his still doubting father, "I am Esau, thy
first-born." And he sealed the whole tissue of im-
posture upon the lips of his father with a lying kiss.
And he did all this, not in the heat and thoughtlessness
of youth, but when he was a mature man, seventy-seven
years of age. And he did it to make sure of an in-
heritance which he knew had been promised him by
the word of the immutable God.
However sacred and venerable became the name of
Jacob in subsequent years, we must admit that all this
was flagrantly and inexcusably wrong. Such conduct
manifested a very strange mixture of deceit and devo-
tion— of anxiety to obtain the Divine blessing, and of
reliance upon fraud and falsehood to secure it. A man
who could do such things would have to be subjected
to some very sore discipline before he would become
frank and straightforward in his dealings with his
fellow-men, truthful and upright toward God. And
it was of the Lord to bring such discipline upon Jacob
as a direct consequence of his own distrustful and dis-
honorable policy.
Instead of establishing himself at once as the head
of a rich and honorable family by his duplicity, he
was obliged to flee for his life, with nothing but his stafl"
JACOB'S NIGHT AT BETHEL. T3
In his hand. He must go on foot and alone four
hundred and fifty miles through a wild and inhospita-
ble country. If he takes servants or beasts of burden,
his course can be too easily traced, and he will be
pursued and overtaken- by his impetuous and angry
brother. If he takes money, he may be robbed the
first nig] it. If he goes without it, he must beg of such
roving bands as he may meet on the way, or live with
the beasts of the forest and field. He must depend
upon his poverty for j)rotection, and upon his destitu-
tion for the supply of his wants.
The journey was as long and perilous as that of
young Washington from Virginia to Fort Duquesne
in the early history of this , country, and for accom-
plishing which he received the admiration of the
civilized world. Washington was twenty-two years
of age — Jacob was seventy-seven. Making all due
allowance for tlie greater duration of human life and
bodilv vie:or in Jacob's time, it would take a man
at his age twenty days to travel so far on foot alone,
in a strange country, without roads, bridges, land-
marks or houses of entertainment on the way.
Going with such a prospect of danger and suffer-
ing before him, he must have left his father's home
with a heavy heart. He starts out in the silence and
the gloom of the morning before the day, and he
joasses on over the rolling grassy jAam toward the
distant hills, afraid to be alone, and yet more afraid
of such compnny as he is most likely to meet. On
74 mOET SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
tlie ascent of every ridge liis quick eye surveys the
whole length of the landscape before and behind, and
every unusual object is sure to arrest his attention.
Passing through the hollow places of the plain, lie
keeps watch right and left, lest some robber should
rush down suddenly upon him from the higher
ground. Here and there lie sees a solitary shepherd
keeping his flocks, or a single traveler like himself
hurrying across the houseless waste, or the long file
of pilgrims and merchantmen making their way from
the hill-country toward Egypt. But he is afraid of
all, and takes the utmost j)ahis to keep himself from
being seen, while he hurries on all day toward the
distant hills. He takes the same path that his father
Isaac traveled many years before when going witli
Abraham to be offered in sacrifice upon the moun-
tain of Moriah. But he is far from having the peace
and strength of Isaac's faith to comfort him on his
journey.
On the evening of the second or third day he finds
himself in a solitary place, some fifty miles from his
father's home. The path before him leads up a wild,
rocky hill, on the tcp of which is a rude walled town.
He can hear the voices of the villagers floating out
upon the evening air. He can see families upon the
housetops and lights moving to and fro. But he dares
not approach the gates and ask for hospitality. Tired
and timid and heart-stricken as he is, he would rather
lie down among the stones of the naked hill and get
JACOB'S NIGHT AT BETHEL. 75
sacli sleep as lie can with wolves and jackals howling
round him all night.
Weary, hungry, homesick, he feels that the God
of his fathers has forsaken him, and that all this
danger and desolation have been brought upon him by
his own folly. The darkness in his soul is deepei
than the shades of night, and the utter loneliness
of the bleak and barren hill is in sympathy with the
feeling of solitude and desertion that weighs upon his
heart. He seems to himself like an outcast and an
unblessed creature in the howling waste of the wilder-
ness. The proximity of the town, which he dares not
approach, intensifies the sense of abandonment and
despair in his soul. The hardships of the day and the
horrors of the night are multiplied and aggravated
by a fearful heart and an excited imagination. When
the darkness becomes complete, and the sound of
voices ceases to be heard from the hill, he selects a
stone for a pillow and lies down upon the bare ledge
to sleep or wake and wait for the day. And now he
feels, as he never had done in his father's tent, the
need of protection from an Eye that never sleeps and
a Hand that never grows weary.
Oh how much it would be worth to the lonely
fugitive to be assured in this desolate place that God
has not forsaken him! How much lighter would be
the burden upon his weary heart if he did not know
that his own wrong-doing had driven him forth upon
this lonely and perilous wandering ! But there is no
76 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
servant of God to whom lie can turn for counsel — no
written word of God from wliicli lie can draw precept
or promise to sustain liis sinking liope. The blessing
which he was so anxious to secure has only made him
an outcast, and he lies down to sleep with the despair-
in 2: conviction that the God of Abraham has cast
him off.
But when man loses all confidence in himself, it is
God's time to help. When he sees and deplores the
folly of all worldly and selfish devices, it is God's time
to give light and hope from above. And so the
Almighty Father had compassion on this unhappy
wanderer in the desert. In the dreams of that memo-
rable night he received Divine assurance that the
God of Abraham and Isaac was with him in his
wandering, not less than in the jiatriarchal home at
Beersheba. The covenant of infinite mercy should
be fulfilled in his behalf; his promised inheritance
of everlasting blessing should remain secure.
In the inspired vision of that night the sleeping
exile saw the pathway of communication between earth
and heaven, glorious as the gates of the morning, broad
and firm as the everlasting mountains, open and free as
the boundless realm of air. He saw the shining staird&se,
going up with steps of light from the desolate ground
where he slept, and reaching to the higliest heaven.
T.iving messengers were passing up and down the ter-
raced steep, as if it were the special ministry of God's
host to wait on him in his wanderings ! Where the sue-
JACOB'S NIGHT AT BETHEL. 77
cessive gradations of ascending heights were lost in the
surpassing splendor of a throne great and high, the
glory of Jehovah appeared and gave forth a voice, re-
newing the promise of mercy, of protection and of ever-
lasting blessing.
When the astonished sleeper woke, and thought
within himself what this strange vision might mean,
he felt and believed that the promise and the protec-
tion of the Almighty God were his best reliance. He
learned that the most lonely and desolate spot on
earth could become a holy place to the heart that turns
with longing and with hope to the living God. He
saw that the j)athway between earth and heaven was
ever open and free, and that angelic messengers of
mercy were ever coming and going. To him, that
bleak and barren hill, strewn with jagged rocks and
haunted all night by howling beasts of prey, was the
most sacred spot he had ever found on earth. It was
none other than the house of God and the gate of
heaven.
And when the wandering Jacob, in the depths of his
sorrow and danger, was thus especially assured of God's
unfailing love, his heart was won. He dismissed his
doubts and fears, and he determined to make that
vision at Bethel to him the beginning of a new and
a better life. He made a solemn covenant with his
own soul that thenceforth he would trust and obey t]ie
Gt)d of his fathers for evermore. He set up a memorial
of that covenant. And in the subsequent years of his
T8 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
life, with only such imperfections and shortcomings
as are common to man, he was faithful to that vow.
And this sacred story of Jacob's night at Bethel may
serve to teach us that in our darkest and most desolate
moments God may be using our trouble and despond-
ency as a means of drawing our hearts to him. We
may find him nearest when we thought him farthest
off. What the world would call the greatest mis-
fortune may be found to have been sent in the greatest
mercy. There is no such word as chance or accident
in the inspired vocabulary of faith. Nobody but a
ske|)tic or a misanthrope would say of himself —
"1 am as a weed,
Flung from the rock on ocean's foam to sail
Where'er ihe surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail."
All places are safe, all losses are profitable, all things
work together for good to them that love God.
Every experience of the unsatisfactory nature of
earthly things should direct us to the stronghold of
hope. Every pang caused by an uneas}^ conscience
should awaken within us a more intense longing for
the peace which passeth all understanding. Every
unanswered desire, every disappointed expectation,
every unhappy hour should lead us to se^k for true
and permanent rest for the soul. Whoever would
grow in Divine knowledge, whoever would find out the
secret of happiness here and the seal of promised salva-
tion hereafter, must heed the voice with which Divine
Providence speaks in the common events of life.
JACOB'S NIGHT AT BETHEL. 79
Wlien tlie aims of human ambition are frustrated, the
objects of earthly affection are removed, the sources
of worldly pleasure, desire and effort fail to satisfy
the soul, then the voice of God is calling to trust in
him ; then the heavenly Father is coming forth to in-
vite the wanderer home. Like Jacob in his desolate
pilgrimage, we should obey that voice with gratitude
and with vows of consecration. We should rejoice
that the Divine compassion can follow us in our wan-
dering, even when we have forgotten our duty and
forsaken our God.
To the eye of Christian faith tne skies are always
clear, the pathway of ascent from earth to heaven is
always open, and angels of blessing are ever coming
and going upon errands of mercy. The great inherit-
ance, the glorious home, is not far away nor hidden in
thick clouds. God's presence makes heaven, and he is
with us everywhere. His banner over us is light and
love. His angels are our guardians and companions.
In every place where there is a human heart longing
for Divine consolation there is God's house, there is
heaven's gate, there are infinite sources of hope and
peace.
Out in mid-ocean there is a ship tossing on the
waves. The night is dark, the winds are high. The
angry elements rage and howl as if determined to tear
the shattered vessel in pieces or sink it in the deep. A
sailor-boy has just climbed down from the swinging
mast and crept into his narrow locker, wet and cold, to
80 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
get a little rest. He sleeps unconscious of the howl of
the storm and the roll of the groaning ship. His heart
is far away in that quiet home which he left for a
roving life on the seas. He he^rs again the voice of
evening prayer offered from the parental lips, and one
fervent, tender petition bears his own name to the
throne of the infinite mercy. The Sabbath bell calls,
and he goes in the light of memory, with his youthful
companions, along the green walks and beneath the
shade of ancient trees to the village church. He hears
the blessed words of Christ, " Come unto me." God is
speaking to that wanderer upon the seas as he spoke tu
Jacob at Bethel in the dreams of the night. And thai
vision of home and voice of prayer is sent to that sailor-
boy to make the tossing ship to him the house of God
and gate of heaven. When he wakes from that brief
and troubled sleep, he has only to answer the call of
Heaven, as Jacob 'did, with the gift of his heart, and
that night of tossing on the lonely seas shall be to him
the beginning of a new and a better life.
Far away, among the mountains of Nevada, where
of old God's creative hand locked up veins of gold in
the fissures of the rock, the weary miner lies down in
his cheerless cabin to sleep. It is the evening of the
blessed Sabbath, and yet to him it has not been a day
of rest. Work, work, work, with hammer and spade
and drill, from morn to eve, through all the week, has
been his life for months and years. His calloused
hands and stiffened frame and weary step tell of hard-
JACOB'S NIGHT AT BETHEL. 81
ships such as few can bear and live. And he has
borne them all with heat and cold, and rain and
drought, and famine and fever, that he might fill his
hands with gold. And now, in this wakeful and lonely
hour, something impels him to ask himself what all the
treasures of the mountains would be worth to him if
he has not found rest for his soul. To that tired,
Sabbathless worker in his solitude comes a gentle influ-
ence as if it were an angel's v^^hisper, to tell him of
riches that never perish, and of a home were the weary
are at rest.
And so all round the earth — on the sea and the land,
in the city and the wilderness, by night and by day —
God is calling wanderers home. He is speaking from
his high and glorious throne to the desolate and weary
and disa^Dpointed, saying, as he said to Abraham, "I am
thy shield and thy exceeding great reward."
And man can be guilty of no greater infatuation
than to refuse to hear when God speaks to him by his
providence or his word. Destruction must certainly
lie in the path of him who pushes away from himself
the everlasting arms of love which surround him
every moment for his protection and salvation. Sad
and hopeless must be the life of the man who chooses
to plod on his weary way, groping in the dust, clinging
to the earth, refusing to look up when there are voices
of God continually calling to him from above, and
wings of ministering angels hovering around him,
alluring to brighter worlds and leading the way.
82 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Blessed and glorious is the lot of liim who can find
Bethel every day in the journey of life, the house of
God in every home, the gate of heaven in every hour
of need. All the waste places 0/ the world will become
sanctuaries, and the light of paradise will shine in
every human dwelling, when every eye can see the
pathway from earth to heaven bright with the proces-
sion of angels, and the ransomed millions of earth going
up to the heavenly Zion with songs and everlasting joy
upon their heads.
\mVs IJigljt of llrtstliiig (uHJ i\t ^iigcl
And he lodged there that same night. . . . And Jacob was left alone ,
and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. —
Gen. xxxii. 13, 24.
IV.
JACOB'S NIGHT OF WRESTLING WITH THE
ANGEL.
^HE niglit vision of Betliel was tlie first great era
in Jacob's eventful life. The second was his
^ night of wrestling with the angel on his return
'^ from Padan-aram. The scene of this mysterious
and memorable adventure was on the banks of the
river Jabbok. It is a wild rocky stream, that comes
roaring down from the mountains of Gilead and Ba-
shan, and joins the Jordan on the east, midway be-
tween the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. In the
upper part of its course, among the highlands, it is a
dry bed for half the year. The hot sun of the Syrian
heavens burns down upon bare rocks and glimmering
sand with such fervor that its deep channel seems like
the heated shaft of a mine.
In the rainy season the main stream and all its
branches are transformed into foaming and furious
torrents, that fill the hills and valleys with their voices.
The lower portion of the river runs with a swift and
strong current through the whole year. The banks
are high and precipitous, with here and there a green
85
S6 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
and level recess of a few rods' width between tlie ba^e
of the hills and the water's edge. The neighboring
country is wild, and piled up into broken ridges and
rounded peaks. The descent to the Jordan is so steep
that the smooth current of the stream is often inter-
rupted by shooting rapids and silvery cascades. The
Ganges flills four inches in a mile, and it flows five
miles in an hour. The Jabbok falls twelve hundred
inches in a mile, and it must have a current corres-
pondently swift.
The neighboring heights are studded with pic-
turesque ruins of castles and strongholds, once held
by robber chieftains, and still haunted by the memory
of their dark and bloody deeds. The narrow borders
between the stream and the base of the high and rocky
banks are covered with thickets of cane and oleander,
and the blaze of bright flowers in spring makes the
bed of the ravine look as if it were all on fire, and the
river had been turned in to put out the flame. The
high table-lands are covered with dark green forests
of oak and pine, which appear the more fresh and
beautiful from contrast with a rocky peak or a barren
ridge occasionally lifting itself above the billowy sea
of verdure.
To this wild river Jabbok, not far from its junction
with the Jordan, the patriarch Jacob had come with
his family and flocks, a great company, on his return
from Padan-aram. Twenty years before, in his flight
from his father's home, he had crossed the same stream
JACOB'S NIGHT OF WRESTLING. 87
a lonely fugitive, with liis staff in liis liancl, carrying
aM liis earthly possessions in a shepherd's bag. Now,
in his return, he had become so rich that he could
select from his vast herds five hundred and fifty sheep,
goats, camels and oxen for a present to his brother
Esau, and yet have so many left that the multitude of
his flocks filled the valleys as they went. The long
and lonely exile in the strange land had done more to
enlarge his possessions than seventy years of filial ser-
vice in his father's house. He was feeble, timid and
poor when he went forth upon his wanderings alone.
When he came back, trial had made him strong and
misfortune had made him rich. So evermore does
God bring light out of darkness, and joy out of sor-
row, and great peace out of conflict, for . those whom
he is leading in the Divine life and preparing for the
blessed rest.
Jacob had left Padan-aram and started upon his
return to his native country in obedience to a Divine
command. The day before, while coming down from
the heights of Gilead to the fords of the Jabbok, he
had received a strange and startling assurance of the
Divine protection. While his flocks were moving
slowly, like fleecy clouds, along the grassy hill-sides
and over the wild pasture-lands, Jacob lifted up his
eyes and saw in open day, as if encamped in the air,
two hosts of angels encompassing him behind and
before and moving with him for his protection. He
remembered the vision of Bethel, and he rejoiced that
88 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
the heavenly guardians who cheered him on his de-
parture twenty years before were ready to welcome
him on his return.
And we who live in this m'atter-of-fact and me-
chanical age are aj^t to think that it w^as a wrapt and
wondrous life which the patriarch led in that old time,
when he could meet God's host among the hills, and
he could see convoys of bright angels like the burning
clouds of sunset hovering round him in the solitudes
of the mountains. But God's host is always nearer than
we are apt to suppose in the dark hours of trial and
conflict. The angels have not yet forsaken the earth,
nor have they ceased to protect the homes and jour-
neys of good men. Heaven and earth are nearer each
other now than they were when Jacob saw God's hbst
in the broad day and Abraham entertained the Divine
messengers under the shadow of the oak at noon. The
spiritual world is all around us, and its living inhabit-
ants are our fellow-servants and companions in all our
work for God and for our own salvation. The in-
habitants of heaven find more friends and acquaint-
ances on earth now than they did in ancient times. It
is not from any want of interest in the affairs of men
that they do not now meet us in the daily walks of life
or speak to us in the dreams of the night.
We must not think th^t God was more interested in
the world in ancient times, when he spoke by miracles
and prophets and apostles, than he is now when he
speaks by his written word and by his holy providence.
JACOB'S NIGHT OF WRESTLING. 89
Tlie lieart of the Infinite Father never yearned toward
his earthly children with a deeper or more tender com-
passion than now. No burden rests upon our shoul-
ders, no pain touches our hearts, without our Father.
If we do not see angels come and take us by the
hand and lead us out of danger, as they led Lot out
of Sodom, it is not because they have ceased to come,
or because they fail to guard us when we need pro-
tection.
There never was a time when God was doing more
to govern, to instruct and to save the world than he is
doing: now. To those who look for him the tokens of
his presence are manifest everywhere ; the voice of his
providence is in every wind ; every path of life is
covered with the overshadowings of his glory. To the
devout mind this world, which has been consecrated
by the sacrificial blood of the cross, is only the outer
court of the everlasting temple in which God sits
enthroned, with the worshiping hosts of the blessed
around him.
We need only a pure heart to see God as much in
the world now as he was wdien he talked with men
face to face. He speaks in all the discoveries of
science, in all the inventions of art, in all the progress
of the centuries, in everything which enriches life and
enlarges the resources of men. All the great conflicts
and agitations of society prove that God is on tlie
field. AVe need only add the faith of the patriarchs
to the science of the philosophers, and we shall find
90 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Bctliels in the city and in tlie solitude, Malianaini*
in every day's march in the journey of life.
Jacob greatly needed such encouragement as " Gods
host" gave him on the heights of Mahanaim. He had
heard that his offended brother Esau was coming out
of Mount Seir to meet him with four hundred men
as wild and warlike as himself. What could he do
against such a roving and reckless band, who lived by
plunder, and who could easily make an old grudge
of twenty years' standing an excuse for any amount
of violence, of bloodshed and of robbery. It would
only be a daily custom and a fierce delight with them
to swoop down upon Jacob's herds from the hills, like
the eagle from his eyry, destroy the keepers and drive
off the cattle to their own mountains beyond the
Jordan.
Jacob is not a man of war. He has no skill in the
use of the spear or bow. He has no guard of soldiers
or armed herdsmen to j)i'otect his family and his
flocks as they move along the unoccupied pastures of
the wildernbss. But he sets himself to prepare for
the encounter in the best way he can.
First of all, he feels that this new peril has been
sent to call his past life to remembrance ; and he
receives it as a Divme admonition to see that all is
right between him and God. He has learned by sad
experience that an accusing conscience is the worst
companion in the hour of danger. And he begins his
prep>aration for the great trial before him by adjusting
JACOB'S NIGHT OF WRESTLING. 91
the solemn account between liim and his father's God.
He makes humble confession of his many sins and
shortcomings in duty. He pleads tlie Divine promise
that God woukl deal well with him in his return to
liis native country. He prays for guidance and pro-
tection in the coming periL
Men who never pray in health and safety will
sometimes call upon God with great earnestness when
danger and death are near. And God sometimes
opens the pit of destruction in the path of the dis-
obedient and wandering, that they may be induced to
cry to him for help. Sometimes it is the last and
greatest act of God's mercy to a prayerless and worldly
man to lay so many pains and afflictions and losses
upon him that he feels compelled to cry out in agony
of soul, " Lord, help me ! "
And there is no good thing in the world which a
man cannot afford to lose, if the sacrifice and the
suffering will only teach him to call upon God in
humble and fervent prayer. Jesus taught that men
ought always to pray ; that they must needs pray, just
because they are men, having the nature, necessities
and privileges that belong to men in this world.
And if any man thinks he has not time to pray, let
him ask who gives what time he has, and whether m
fact he has time for anything else so long as prayer
is neglected. Let him see to it, lest God shall give
liim time to fail in business, to be sick, to suffer and
die, and not leave him the choice so to use the time
92 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
given or not. Tlien whose shall all those things be
that he has been so busy in seeking as not to have
time for prayer ? If any man says he has no fitting
form of words for prayer, let iiim observe in what
way the little child asks for food when hungry, and
then make the earnestness and the simplicity of that
petition his own when asking his heavenly Father for
the bread of life. If we fully understood the great-
ness of the privilege of prayer, we should say at once
that it were better to die than not to pray.
After Jacob had performed the first duty of seeking
help from God, he adopted such other measures for
his protection as a wise and thoughtful man would
have chosen in his circumstances. He divided his
people and his flocks and herds into two companies,
that one at least might escape should either be
attacked by the robbers. Next he selects and sends
forward five hundred and fifty from his vast lierds as
a present to his brother Esau. Then, when the weary
day was closed, and night had come down upon the
dark hills, and the bleating of his herds had ceased
among the valleys, he passed his own family silently
across the ford of the river, and went back himself to
spend a sleepless night on the northern side of the
stream alone. He could not bear to have his family see
his distress or to break their slumbers with his cries and
supplications. In the great conflict before him he
would rather be alone with God. So he left them sleep-
ing, and went back to the other side of the river, as
JACOB'S NIGHT OF WRESTLING. 93
Jesus, on tlie niglit of his great agony, left liis disciples
and went away into the darkness to pray alone.
To come up to the fullest and loftiest exercise of the
privilege of prayer, we must feel that the world and
everything else is shut out and we are alone with God.
Nothing can make our souls so pure and strong,
nothing can arm us so completely for the great con-
flicts of life, as to be alone for one hour with infinite
Truth and infinite Love; to lay open all the secret places
of the heart to the search of the infinite Eye, and to put
forth all the strength of the soul in grasping the hand
of infinite Powder. Even Jesus himself, when prej^ar-
ing for some new and great trial, would steal away to
the solitude of the mountains and sjDcnd the whole
night in prayer to God.
And there is no joy or duty or conflict or sorrow of
life for which we cannot be better prepared by prayer.
If the child would be kept from the paths of the de-
stroyer while his heart is tender and his mind is not
skilled to discern between good and evil, let him pray.
If the young man would pass in safety through the
dark scenes of trial and temptation, let him pray. If
the weary, anxious, hard-working man of business would
not be wholly given \x^ to a life of earthly care and
endless disappointment, let him pray. If the aged
pilgrim would find the last days of life the best and
enter the valley of the shadow of death in peace, let
him pray. If any one does not know by personal
experience how much of heaven's promised rest can be
94 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
secured for the soul even now by prayer, he had better
leave every other lesson of life unlearned till he has
mastered that.
Jacob was alone, and it was night. Nothing broke
the silence save the roar of the mountain river and
the occasional call of herdsmen keeping his own flocks
in the distance. In thirty-six hundred years there has
not been a time when a solitary man could spend the
night where Jacob was without peril to his life. There
is now an intense desire to explore the country of
Gilead and Bashan, and great honor would be con-
ferred upon one who should traverse the whole region
and tell the story of his wanderings. And yet we
could count on our fingers all the travelers who have
been there to any purpose within the last hundred
years. In Jacob's time, robbery and murder were even
more common in all that country than they are now.
And then, too, the lion couched for his prey, and the
bear wandered at night on the banks of the Jabbok.
In such a place this troubled and fear-stricken man
bows down to the earth in his great agony and weeps
and prays in darkness and alone. Suddenly he feels
the grasp of a strong hand laid upon him, and he is
sure that in such a place, at such an hour, it must be
the hand of an enemy. He springs to his feet, grap-
ples his unknown antagonist, and struggles with all
his might to fling him to the ground. He does not
succeed in overcoming his silent and mysterious assail-
ant, but he maintains his hold upon him, and the
JACOB'S NIGHT OF WRESTLING. 95
wrestle goes on for hours, a real hand-to-hand grapple
in which neither party speaks a word, and neither pre-
vails against the other.
Nothing in the sacred narrative hints or w^arrants
the supposition that this wrestling of Jacob took j)lace
only iji a " dream" or " vision" or state of " ecstasy."
The struggle was as real and corporeal as the halting
and the lameness that followed. Jacob himself took it
for granted that his antagonist was a real, living man,
and he did not dare to loose his hold or relax the con-
test for a moment, for fear he should be thrown to the
earth and killed or utterly disabled. At last, when the
day began to break and the contest still went on, the
mysterious Stranger put forth his reserved power and
brought the struggle to a close. He touched and para-
lyzed the seat of strength in Jacob's frame, and the
man, so strong and unmasterable a moment before,
could only hang, a crij)pled and weejiing su23pliant,
upon the neck of his Divine antagonist, and gain by
prayer and tears a victory which his human power
and skill had failed to win.
Now it w^as all plain that Jacob, in seeking his own
safety, had been contending against God. In the dark-
ness of the night, and in the deeper darkness that
clouded his mind, he had taken his best friend and
surest protector for an enemy. The mysterious
Stranger with wdiom he wrestled so long and so vainly
was the Divine Angel of the Covenant, the incarnate
Son of God. That mighty helper had condescended
9t) NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
to take on himself a human form and enter into a
bodily struggle with his own servant Jacob, to teach
him and millions of others that man's greatest victory
is gained by self-surrender and supplication.
Jacob had nothing but fear and weariness and pain
so long as he sought to prevail by his own strength
and skill. When he found himself utterly prostrate
and helpless, and he poured forth the wrestlings of his
soul in strong supplications and tears, then he became
a prince in power and he prevailed with God. In the
end of the struggle the revealed Angel of the Covenant
condescends to entreat his human antagonist and say,
" Let me go, for the day breaketh." And the poor,
stricken and suffering man has the boldness to reply,
" I will not let thee go except thou bless me."
The mightiest man on earth is the man who has
most power with God. For God is almighty and man
is omnipotent for the accomplishment of his purpose
when he has the promise of all needed help from the
Most High. The hiding of the power which deter-
mines the destiny of nations is not in the cabinets of
kings or the heavy battalions of war, but in the closets
of praying men, who have been raised by faith to the
exalted rank of princes with God. The conflict which
gained the greatest victory for Scotland, and gave her
such freedom and intelligence as she enjoys to-day,
did not originate in Holyrood Palace, nor was it waged
upon the high places of the field, but in the solitary
chamber of the man who prayed all night, crying in
JACOB'S NIGHT OF WRESTLING. 97
tlie agony and desperation of faith, " Give me Scotland
or I die!"
We are all encompassed with hazards and uncer-
tainties. We must struggle and endure even to live.
Life itself is a continued struggle against both real
and imaginary foes. The powers of light and darkness
are ever set in array against each other. The most
quiet home on earth must be shaken every day 'by the
shock of the contending forces. We must all take part
in this ceaseless struggle.
See to it, young man, that you are not found wrest-
ling against God. In some dark and dangerous hour
God will lay his strong hand upon you to pull you out
of temptation. Beware, lest you think it the hand of
an enemy and try to shake it off!
When you give yourself ujd to be chained and im-
prisoned by debasing appetites and worldly passions,
God's angel will come in and smite you, as he smote
Peter in the prison-house, with a swift and smarting
stroke, and he will bid you rise up quickly and go
forth with him into the paths of a pure, earnest, self-
denying life. That delivering angel may come in the
cloud of a great conflict, in the stroke of a sudden dis-
appointment, in the deep night of a sore aflliction.
However startling the voice with which he speaks,
however dark the aspect which he puts on, do not
think him an enemy. Anything which delivers from
bondage to a low, worldly, self-seeking life should be
received as a blessing.
98 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
In your hours of retirement and meditation Gvd's
Spirit will wrestle with you and make you feel utterly
worthless and helpless in yourself Strange and start-
ling light will flash in upon your soul, and you will
wish you could hide yourself from the sight of yoar
own vileness and impurity. When that feeling of
wretchedness and dissatisfaction is deepest and most
depressing, be sure that, like Jacob, you make suppli-
cation unto the Divine Comforter, and cease not till
you prevail and are blessed.
There are deep mysteries in the word of God — un-
searchable mysteries in Divine Providence — mysteries
23ast finding out in the plan of redemption — mysteries
not less deep and dark in our own souls. And some-
times, when you try most earnestly to solve these dark
things for the satisfaction of your own faith, it may
seem to you that the night is deepest around you and
that the day will never break. But remember that
God is very near you in the darkness. He comes in
the very mystery which troubles and saddens you
most, to lay his hand upon you and to bless you.
God comes to men now as he came to Moses on the
mountain, in the thick cloud. His way is in the
whirlwind and the storm, and out of the deep dark-
ness he brings forth revelations of light and of love.
Many a time you may be sure that the arm of his
strength is around you for your protection when you
think it the grapple of an enemy. God's children
often say that they have received the brightest revela •
JACOB'S NIGHT OF WBESTLING. 99
tions of tlieir Father's love when the night of affliction
and trouble and mental conflict was deepest around
them, In the very moment when you could say with
a sad heart, "Things never looked so dark to me as
now," God is hiding the secret of his presence in the
very darkness which surrounds you, and you have
only to long and look for his blessing and he will
bring you the bright day.
God's providence is the school in which he is
ever setting before us the true aims of life. The term
of instruction takes in all our earthly days. None are
too young, none are too old to learn, if only they heed
the Divine Teacher who " guides with his eye," and
who whispers to the wanderer, " This is the way — walk
ye in it." And there is no hope for the man who will
not give attention when God sets before him the great
lessons of life, of duty and of .happiness.
It is a sad mistake to neglect the hard lessons, and
count nothing interesting save that which is learned
without effort and forgotten as soon as learned. Peace
is attained through conflict. When God comes to a
man to give him a new life, the poor child of earth
is apt to think tliat some secret power is taking away
all his joy. He wishes he could shake off the grasp
that is laid upon him, and that makes his thoughts
dark and full of trouble. He takes his best friend for
an enemy, and he pushes away the hand that is put
forth to save him from his greatest peril.
Let him cease from such vain and blind resistance.
100 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Let liim yield himself penitently and trustingly to the
strivings of the Divine Spirit and the leadings of the
Divine Providence, and he will gain the first great
victory of life by surrender. *His weakness shall be
clothed with immortal strength and victory. He shall
become a prince unto God. Having acquired power
with the Almighty, he shall have power with every-
thing else. Power over temptation ; power over the
hearts of men ; power over the means and sources of
hapj)iness ; power over all the troubles and afflictions
of life ; power over all the pains and terrors of death,
shall be his who ceases to wrestle against God and
submits, and makes supplication and has faith to say,
" I will not let thee go except thou bless me ! ''
God's blessing is what we all have most reason to
seek and desire. It is the only thing which we cannot
afford to surrender at any price. The deepest poverty
with God's blessing is better than all riches without it.
The darkest duno;eon with God's blessins; is better
than thrones and palaces without it. The chamber
of sickness and the house of mourning with God's
blessing are better than the halls of gayety and the
haunts of pleasure without it. God's blessing gives
the chief value to everything that we possess, and it
makes us rich and happy, whatever we may lose or
suffer in the discharge of duty.
It would dry up all the fountains of human sorrow
and set everything right in this world if men could be
persuaded to seek and pray for God's blessing more
JACOB'S NIGHT OF WRESTLING. 101
earnestly tlian for anything else. The young would
never be seduced into the ways of death if they acted
upon the resolution never to enter any path save that
upon which they could ask God's blessing. It would
sanctify all the relations of home and business and
society if none would allow themselves to live a single
day without asking God to go with them and blesg
them in all that they do. Living thus, we should all
find many places which, like Jacob, we could name
Peniel, " For here have I seen God face to face, and
my life is j)i'eserved!" To us also would belong the
name of Israel, for as princes we should " have power
with God and prevail."
Bethel, Mahanaim, Peniel — house of God, host
of God, face of God — these are the three steps of pro-
gress in Jacob's spiritual life. First he saw in dreams
darkly a pathway of light reaching from earth to heaven.
But the glory of Jehovah was above and far away, and
the path was too high and steep for human feet to
climb. He could only look up from his stony pillow
and rejoice that even in that desert place the voice
of Jehovah could still be heard, and the angels of light
were continually coming and going between the throne
of heaven and his lowly bed. Again at Mahanaim he
saw the bright battalions of the guardian host attend-
ing him before and behind. And this was no longer
a dream of the night, but a clear and calm view in
open day. The angel-band were not now coming and
going in brief and occasional visitations. They were
102 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
stationed in air to guard liim in his perilous journey,
with " double camp" before and behind. They kept him
safe, but they stood apart and beyond his reach. He
did not feel the touch of a living hand, nor hear the
beating of another heart close to his own. At Peniel
the Jehovah-angel came near, as man approaches his
fellow-man. With mingled terror and joy, Jacob
found himself in the embrace of an Almighty arm ; he
was both conquered and crowned by infinite strength.
The revelation of the Divine love to him w^as now
complete. The weeping and wrestling man saw God
face to face and did live.
And such is still the law of advance in the Divine
life. Our steps toward heaven must be taken one by
one. The path of the just begins with the faint dawn
and shines more and more unto the perfect day. The
transformation into the image of Christ is from glory
to glory.
Israel's fast ligjt iu Cgnpt-
It is a nigJit to be muck observed unio the Lord, for brmging them out
from the land of Egypt : this is that night of the Lord tjt i'C observed oj
all the children of Israel in their ge?ieratio?ts. — Ex. xii. 42.
V.
THE LAST NIGHT OF ISRAEL IN EGYPT.
o
(I HE last niglit of Israel in Egypt was the birth-
niglit of a nation ; tlie beginning of a history that
^V shall flow with a continuous current through all
ti me ; the fountain of a stream that shall carry
life and blessing to all the nations of the earth. On
that memorable night, God himself a23peared on the field
as the great arbiter in human events, beginning a series
of providences which is still going on, and which, in
its completion, shall fill the whole earth with his glory.
When the sun went down, the descendants of Abra-
ham were sojourners and slaves, toiling under the lash
of the taskmaster and in a land not their own. When
the morning broke, they were a great people on the
march, with an army six hundred thousand strong,
and with the God of hosts for their guide. This
enslaved and despised race came forth from the house
of bondage and took their place among the great
historic nations as suddenly as an Eastern dawn breaks
into the full day.
Kome began with a score or two of shepherds and
robbers, drawn together in a miserable cluster of mud
105
106 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
cabins, and it was seven hundred years in reaching the
summit of its greatness. The Hebrews numbered three
millions the first day of their life as a nation. They
started uj)on their eventful carec^r, as the river Rhone
springs, full-voiced and strong, from the foot of the
glacier.
The Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, all
the great conquering nations of ancient times, have
utterly passed away from the earth. They have now
no representatives to bear their name or to glory in
their history. It is impossible to trace their influence
in the life of the world to-day. The inscriptions upon
their monuments tell us so little that we dare not trust
the correctness of our reading. We see their greatness
only in their ruins.
The Hebrews, in all their wanderings and disj)er-
sions, are Hebrews still. The descendants of the three
millions who marched out of Egypt under Moses may
be found on all the continents and in all the great
cities of the earth, yet everywhere a people aj^art by
themselves, a peculiar and an inextinguishable race.
When the Egyptians were carving riddles upon
their monuments to baffle and to blind the inquirers
of all succeeding ages, Moses, a thousand years before
the father of profane history, was writing the first,
clear, simple, life-like record of Divine Providence
and human events for the instruction of all times.
This nation of slaves, that passed from bondage to
freedom in a single night, has become the teacher
ISRAELS LAST NIGHT IN EGYPT. 107
and emancipator of the liuman race. Tlieir own pecu-
liar history, their Divine laws, their sacred principles
of morality, their inspired modes of thought, their
God-given faith, their individual character, the biog-
raphies of their representative men, exert more influ-
ence upon the cultivated and ruling mind of the world
to-day than all the other nations of antiquity taken
together.
We are w^arranted, then, in saying that the birth-
night of the Hebrew nation was the great era of ancient
times — the first advance of forces that are still on the
march for the conquest of the world. Let us rever-
ently study the events of that night, that we may learn
in what \vay God gives force to individual character
and pours unconquerable life into the heart of a nation.
Let us suj)pose ourselves carried back to that ancient
time, and standing by, as silent and thoughtful sjDCcta-
tors, while the great movements of God's providence
are going on before our eyes.
It is night throughout all the land of Egypt. Li
that rainless clime there is no cloud to darken the blue
serenity of heaven. The bright full moon moves in
queenly majesty among the princely stars, and the
lesser orbs of the heavenly host are hidden only by
the excess of light. The feathery palms are motionless
in the still air along the banks and branches of the
Nile, and the canals and water-courses shine like
threads of silver among the silent fields. The gardens
108 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
and vineyards bordering the river, the temples and
obelisks and palaces and the barren ridge of the distant
hills, east and west, can be clearly seen in the broad
moonlight, and the night seems " a softer day."
It is night in the twenty thousand cities and villages
that line the banks of the Nile. The laborers have come
in from the fields ; the yoke is lifted from the beasts
of burden ; the boats are moored to the banks of the
river. The princes of Pharaoh are asleep in their
porphyry halls. The house-slaves are asleep on the
stone floors and flat roofs of lordly mansions. The
bondsmen of the field and brick-kiln are asleep in
their mud-cabins and slime-pits.
It is night in the proud capital of Pharaoh. The
mighty monarch has said that the man Moses shall
see his face no more. He has sworn by the life of
Pharaoh that the hated Hebrew shall die the moment
he appears at the palace gates with his impertinent
and troublesome petitions for his people again.
For many a day and week the inspired fugitive
from the deserts of Sinai has haunted the halls and
tracked the steps of the proud king. His shepherd's
staff has become more powerful in Egypt than the
8ceptre of Pharaoh. He has excited the slaves to re-
bellion. The taskmasters complain that labor upon
the public works and in the field has been neglected.
The wise men of the realm and the priests of the
national gods have been confounded and put to shame
by the strange power of this one solitary man from the
ISRAEL'S LAST NIGHT IN EG TFT. lOD
desert. The subjects of Pharaoli have been plagued
with temj^ests and locusts and darkness. The water of
the sacred river has been changed to blood, the cattle
have been smitten in the field, and all unclean and
creeping things have come up into the houses and
sanctuaries of the land at his bidding. And the
haughty monarch has determined that he will endure
insult and insurrection no longer. He has forbidden
the Hebrew agitator, on pain of death, to appear in his
presence again.
And now Pharaoh congratulates himself and his
people that at last the land shall have rest. The de-
vouring locusts have been swept away into the sea.
The people have recovered from the boils and blains
that burned into their flesh. The flax and barley that
were beaten down by the hail have been replaced with
harvests of wheat. The blood-stained w^aters of the
Nile have become fresh and pure. The thick and
palpable darkness has passed away, and to-night the
queenly moon walks with her wonted brightness
through a clear and cloudless sky.
The weary monarch sleeps, forgetful of the mys-
terious and awful threat which Moses threw out in
great anger when he left his palace gates for the last
time. Surely nothing can come from words spoken
by an excited and angry man, who had himself been
threatened with death.
The priests are asleep under the palms and in the
corridors of their countless temples. They, too, have
110 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
congratulated themselves that they shall be confronted
with the hated Hebrew in the presence of Pharaoh no
more. The shrines and sacred places are all still as
the stony eyes of the sphynx that guards the temple
gates. The worshipers of Apis and Osiris and Anubis,
the servitors and pensioners of the "bleating gods" of
Egypt, no longer fear that the mightier God of Moses
will put them to shame.
There is rest in all the houses of the Egyptians and
there is silence in the streets of the capital of Pharaoh
as the midnight hour of doom draws near. The op-
pressors have gone to sleep with the assurance that
they shall hear no more of this excitement about the
release of their slaves. Moses having been compelled
to let the people alone, the dependent bondmen them-
selves will be glad to resume their old habits of toil
and submission. And, besides, every master sleeps
with the fond belief that his own slaves are so content
and happy in his service that nothing could persuade
them to forsake their homes and start off upon a wild
and fanatical journey of three days into the deserts of
Arabia. So in all the habitations of the Egyptians
there is silence as of the grave — there is sleep as of
death.
Not so in the cities and villages where the bond-
men of the land live apart from the homes of their
proud masters. In all the houses of the Hebrews
every soul is aWake and every eye upon the watch.
The day had resounded with the din of some great
ISBAEVS LAST NIGHT IN EGYPT. Ill
and mysterious preparation. As the hours of tlie
night move slowly on every heart is held in the sus-
pense of eager and awful expectation. There is no
stir in the streets. The families are all inside of their
houses, and there is a mysterious blood-stain on the
lintel and the two side-posts of every door. The
anxious eye of parents runs frequently around the
grouj) to see that all are there. When the little child
lays his hand upon the door, eager to open it and look
out into the bright moonlight, the mother springs with
terror in her countenance to arrest the movement and
rebuke the dangerous curiosity. One face wears the
look of resigned and trustful expectation, another of
doubt and impatience, another of high and eager
hope.
Their long, loose robes are gathered up and girt
tightly around the loins. Their feet are shod with
sandals for a journey. They have the shepherd's
scrip upon their shoulders, filled with provisions for
the way. Men and women stand with staffs in their
hands ready to go forth when the sign shall be given
for departure. The sacrificial lamb has been roasted,
and each grasps a portion in his hand, seasoning the
morsel with bitter herbs and eating in haste. No one
dares to lay aside staff or scrip for a moment, lest the
signal for de^iarture should come and any should be
found unprepared to go. Strong men turn pale and
women weep, and little children cling to the hands of
their parents ; and the whole family group are so still
112 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
that they can hear the beating of their own hearts aa
the awful moment of midnight approaches.
They have been told by Moses that about midnight
the Lord will go out into the midst of Egypt, and his
hand shall fall so heavy upon the homes of the op-
pressor that the princes of Pharaoh shall come to
their Hebrew slaves with supplications entreating
them to go forth free and in haste. The hour draws
near. They must soon know whether the Divine De-
liverer will actually come and break their bonds.
Hark ! was it the step of the angel of death passing
along the street and counting the doors with the sign
of the blood-stain on the side posts and the lintel? No>
it was only the light breath of air rustling the feathery
fronds of the palm that overhangs the house.
Again ! was not that the wail of a human voice
wafted upon the still night from some distant home,
where the messenger of wrath has breathed in the face
of a sleeping child ? No, it was but the lowing of the
sacred Apis in some idol temple where men change the
glory of the incorruptible God, into " birds and four-
footed beasts and creeping things."
But now it comes in very deed at last — the great cry
of which Moses spoke. Glory unto Jehovah ! His right
hand and holy arm hath gotten us the victory, and we
are free. Glory unto Jehovah ! for the dark days of
bondage are ended, and the ransomed tribes shall go
forth in triumph to their own land. Hark again, that
wild and piercing cry, such as can come only from the
ISRAEUS LAST NIGHT IN EGYPT. 113
untold deptlis of human woe-— sucli as the heart sends
forth when wrung with its greatest agony. Not from
one stricken house alone, but from every Egyptian
home, shrieks and howls break forth upon the stillness
of the midnight air, as if the dead of all generations
had burst their marble tombs with one universal wail.
Village cries to village, and city answers back to city,
and the mighty wave of midnight lamentation rolls
over the whole " realm of impious Pharaoh" and fills
all the land of Nile.
The death-angel has smitten the first born of every
family with a single stroke, and there is not a house
in which there is not one dead. There has been no
such sudden, wild, frantic, universal cry of woe on this
earth since man began his pilgrimage of ])2iin and
sorrow to the grave ; for in one awful moment the
angel of death has smitten every family in the whole
nation with just that one stroke which must cause the
deepest wound and the most crushing sorrow.
And this great cry goes up to Heaven from the
palace of the king, from the halls and harems of the
princes, from the courts and cloisters of the pagan
temples, from the floorless huts of the peasants along
the Nile, from the mud-hovels of the poor, and from
the cruel dungeon of the prison-house. From every
place where human hearts can be found to suffer or
human eyes to weep, there goes forth the same exceed-
ing great and bitter cry.
In the universal terror the king calls for the heir
114 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
of liis tlirone, and the answer is death. Aged j)arents
turn to their stalwart son for j)i'otection, but his strong
arm will be lifted for their support no more. The
young mother wakes to find tlie babe in her bosom
dead. Affrighted neighbors rush to each other's
houses for consolation only to find that the dead are
there. The sacred beast in the temple is stretclied
in death on the marble floor, amid the wail of w^or-
shipers Avho come wdth incense and with offerings to
stay the universal j^lague. Jehovah is passing through
the land in vengeance at this midnight hour, accord-
ing to his word, smiting the first-born of both man and
beast, executing judgment upon all the princes and
gods of Egypt.
And this is the great cry for wdiich the Hebrew^s are
.waiting as the signal for their departure out of the
house of bondage. The stifled agonies of four hun-
dred years of servitude find utterance in that loud
lamentation wdiich comes from the homes of the
op23ressor. And now the proud monarch sends mes-
sengers in every direction to say, in his name with
every urgency and entreaty, to the Hebrew^s, " Kise
up, go forth from among us; take everything w^itli you ;
only begone, and bless me, even me, in your departure.''
And when the morning came, the Hebrew^s were
a free people on the march to their own land, wath the
God of nations for their guide. A work of judgment
and of mercy had been done, to declare the name of
Jehovah throughout all the earth and to the end
ISRAEL'S LAST JSIGLIT IX EGYPT. 115
df time. With that memorable uight of departure out
of Egypt began the providential history from which
we still draw our deepest and wisest philosophy of
human events. Keading the inspired .narrative of
Moses, we first begin to com23rehend the prime fact
that God is in all history, and that the moving and
governing force behind the apparent order of things
in this world is always the Divine Hand.
God is the great Emancipator of nations. The Son
of God appeared incarnate on earth that he might set
at liberty them that are bound. TJiis great deliver-
ance of a whole people in ancient time is a type of the
rescue which Christ would accomplish for every human
soul. He comes to call men out of bondage into lib-
erty. To be a Christian is to be the honored and im-
mortal freedman of the Lord. It is to shake off the
dominion of evil appetites and passions, and stand forth
in the glorious liberty wherewith God sets his chosen
people free.
This s^^iritual and immortal emancipation is what
man most needs. The world puts chains and fetters
upon us all. It binds us in sore and exacting bondage
to customs and j)rejudices, to fears and hopes, to cares
and anxieties, to pleasures and sorrows, that should
never have dominion over an immortal being. We all
have capacities which can be fitly and fully employed
only in overcoming the workl, lifting ourselves above
its pride and power, extending our hopes and plans
and desires ])evond the utmost reacli of earth and time.
116 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Christ comes to set us free from bondage to things
that perish. He would give us the mastery over our-
selves and over the world. He would give us strength
to stand fast in the liberty wherewith he makes us
free. He would give us freedom to use all our powers
and opportunities in such a way as shall be most for
our own honor, most for our present and our everlast-
ing welfare. He would give us a complete and per-
manent superiority over all the powers and falsities
and enticements of temptation. He would save us
from the waste of our best endowments, and the bitter
regrets that follow the mistakes and losses of an un-
wise and an unfaithful life.
Looking unto Jesus for guidance and hope, we leave
the dark house of bondage behind — our faces are set
toward the promised land of light and liberty. If we
follow him, as the Hebrews followed the jyiWsiY of cloud
and flame, the desert will yield us fountains of water,
the Divine Hand will give us bread from heaven day
by day. Whatever delays or afflictions we may have
to meet on the way, our Divine Leader and Emanci-
pator will be sure to bring us at last to the promised
rest.
The follower of Christ alone has the promise of the
life that now is and of that which is to come. He
owns allegiance to no other power save that which is
infinite and eternal. He can be content with no other
inheritance save that which is boundless as the uni-
verse and lasting as eternity. He is exalted to the
ISBAEL'S LAST NIGHT IN EGYPT. 117
highest rank among all created beings by his gracious
adoption into the family of which Jesus Christ is the
head. The mightiest of the j)rinces of the earth have
nothing in their temporal estate to be compared in
value with the freedom, the glory, the hope of the
lowliest disciple of Jesus, the citizen of the heavenly
Jerusalem, the joint heir with Him who is the first-
born of every creature, the beginning of the creation
of God.
This great inheritance of light and liberty is freely
offered, in God's name, to the poor, the enslaved and
the perishing. Whoever chooses this infinite posses-
sion shall be defended in his title against every op-
posing power, world without end. There is nothing
left for a wise, considerate man to choose but the life
of free, willing, happy devotion to Christ. In the dis-
charge of Christian duty all the faculties of the mind
and all the susceptibilities of the heart are called fortli
into the noblest, freest, happiest exercise. All the
arguments of reason, all the creations of fancy, all the
treasures of memory, all the anticipations of hope, all
the raptures of love and devotion may enter into that
true, exalted life which begins by faith on the Son of
God and is continued by obedience to him.
When Moses came to the Hebrews to deliver them
from bondage, they distrusted his commission and
begged to be let alone, that they might serve the
Egyptians. They hearkened not unto Moses, because
the hard inheritance of bondage, transmitted from
118 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
generation to generation, had so debased tlieir spirits
and deadened tlieir hearts that for a while they could
not be aroused by the offer of liberty.
And so it happens when Chrisf, the Divine Emanci-
pator, comes to men who have long worn the inherited
chain of bondage to sin. They have become so habit-
uated to the hopes, the desires, the pleasures and expec-
tations of a worldly life that they give no heed to
Him who offers to break tlieir chain and bring them
forth into glorious and immortal liberty. It is the
saddest thing ever seen in this world — the determina-
tion and obstinacy with which men cling to the bond-
age of Satan and refuse to be made free in Christ.
I have seen the caged eagle beating vainly against
the iron bars of his prison, his plumes soiled and torn,
his strong wings drooping, the light of his glorious eye
dimmed, the pulse of his proud heart j)anting in vain
for conflict with the careering clouds and the moun-
tain blast. And I thought it a j^itiable sight to see
that kingly bird subjected to such bondage, just to be
gazed at by the curious crowd. And I have seen the
proud denizen of the air rejoicing in the freedom of his
mountain home —
" Clasping the crag with hooked hands,
Close to the sun in lonely lands" —
basking in the noon's broad light, balancing with mo-
tionless wings in the high vault of heaven, or rushing
forth like the thunderbolt to meet the clouds on the
pathway of the blast. And I thought that that wild
ISRAEL'S LAST NIGHT IN EGYPT 119
and cloud-cleaving bird would choose deatli, could the
choice be his, rather than give up his free and joyous
life to drag out a weary bondage in a narrow and
stifling cage.
And yet I have seen a greater and sadder contrast
than that. I have seen men, made in the image of the
living God, endowed with the glorious and fearful gift
of immortality, capable of becoming coequal com-
panions with archangels, consenting to be caged and
fenced around and fettered down by customs and cares
and pleasures and pursuits, that only bind them to
earth, make them slaves of things they despise and
answer their noblest aspirations with disappointment.
I have seen men, to whom God gave souls to become
heirs of the universe and to outlive all ages, living as
if this earth were their only home, and this fleeting
life were the measure of their existence. I have seen
men with hearts full of infinite longings, and w^ith
" thoughts that wander through eternity," laboring to
confine the range of hope and desire within the
narrow compass of earthly pleasures and occupations.
And if the eye of such an one should ever fall on
this page and trace these lines, let him pause just here
and ask himself why he need any longer lead such a
life. Made to live for ever, why suppress and contra-
dict the noblest aspirations of your nature by trying to
live only for this world ? Made to enjoy the glorious
liberty of the children of God, why consent to be the
slave of habits that you condemn and influences that
120 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
you cles2:)ise? Wliy imprison your immortal spirit
within the narrow round of earthly cares and toi^s and
pleasures, when you are invited to enter the palace of
heaven's eternal King, and to associate on terms of
freedom and equality with the princes and powers of
the universe? The everlasting God desires to adopt
you as a child and to make you heir of an inheritance
that shall be great as his infinite love can give and
your immortal powers can enjoy. The Creator of all
worlds, the Giver of all blessing, desires you to possess
and enjoy everything that can ennoble, expand and
exalt your whole being, and fit you to dwell with him
for ever.
I confess this is something I cannot describe, for
it surpasses all thought, all description, all imagination.
But I beg you to believe that it is a reality, and that
you may learn what it is by experience and possess it
for your own. And with such a great destiny open
before you, surely you must not give yourself up to
the cares and toils, the frivolities and pleasures of earth
and time alone. "With God arid heaven and eternity
to inspire your hopes and call forth your efforts, how
can you be so unwise, so thoughtless, so unmindful of
your true and proper destiny as to give yourself up
entirely to things that perish, when your own existence
has only just begun ?
The Hebrews were required to prepare the Paschal
lamb, to sprinkle the blood on the door-posts, to re-
main within their houses, to keep themselves awake
ISRAELS LAST NIGHT IN EGYPT. J 21
with sandals on and staff in hand. But in tlie great
and critical moment of passing from bondage to liberty,
they were to trust and see the salvation of their God.
So every one of us, in securing our everlasting de-
liverance from the bondage of sin and death, have
many things to do. AVe are to watch and to pray ; we
are to shun the path of the destroyer ; we are to ob-
serve all the ordinances and instructions of God's
house ; we are to hold ourselves ready to obey every
call of duty. But in the one infinite matter of secur-
ing our own j)ersonal salvation we have only to trust
and receive the salvation of our God.
And if any feel or fear that that salvation is far re-
mote or long in coming, I am commanded to say to
you, in the name of the Lord of Hosts, that his sal-
vation is very nigh. This is the great hour of the
Lord for your deliverance from bondage. You are
called to begin the glorious march to the heavenly
Zion without delay. You are to make this very hour
memorable for ever as the birth-hour of your immortal
soul into the free and blessed life of love and obedience
to God. Then, in the everlasting ages to come, you
will count this day, or this night, one to be much ob-
served unto the Lord as your great Passover, when the
bondage of sin was broken and you came forth into
the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
No one should hesitate to join the great emigration
which Christ, the captain of salvation, is leading out
of this woe-stricken world to the blessed home of
122 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
freedom and of rest. We are all living in the land
of bondage and of death. We are bound with chains
which are hard to wear, and which we find it impossi-
ble to break. The mind and the* body groan togetlier
under heavy burdens. The destroyer walks unseen
through every street. The angel of death stands
ready to enter every house. None are safe from a
worse death than befell the first-born of EgyjDt, save
those on whom are found the signs of the sacrificial
blood .
The Captain of salvation is leading forth a great
host. They are already on the march. Many are
passing in at the heavenly gate, and the angel-welcome
comes ringing down the shining ranks even to us,
" Whosoever w^ill, let him come." The effort and the
desire of the heavenly host are not to shut any out,
but to gather all in. And let all that hear the invita-
tion take up the cry, and say to all that linger,
" Come." The Almighty Father is ever sending
messages of love and instruction to draw his w^ander-
ing children home. He throws open the doors of his
many-mansioned house, and he stands all day with
outstretched hands in merciful entreaty, inviting, and
beseeching all to come.
Parents, come, and bring your children w^ith you.
Brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, join hands
and take your place in the ranks that are marching
toward heaven. Young men and maidens, set out for
the promised land, with the Prince of salvation for
ISr^AErS LAST XIGIIT IN EGYPT. 123
your guide, and with all the fresh hopes and fiery zeal
of youth to spur you on. We cannot any of us stay
here, if we would : strength and beauty, and health
and manhood must all fade. The world itself is fast
passing away. To be safe, to be free, we must take
the pilgrim's staff and set out for heaven. We must
join the ranks of the great host that are marching to
the better land.
Imagine some poor shipwrecked mariner cast ashore
upon a lonely island in mid-ocean. The gallant vessel
which had been liis home upon the deep went down
with all its precious freight before the fury of the
storm. His fellow- voyagers all perished in the terrible
conflict with the winds and the waves. He alone was
cast alive on shore, to suffer more than the bitterness
of death in sorrowing for his lost companions, and in
lon2:in2: for a return to his far distant home. The
climate of the island is perpetual summer. Every-
thing needed to sustain life springs from the earth
without cultivation. Flowers blossom and fruits ripen
through all the year. The forests are full of singing
birds. Their bright plumage flashes like meteors in
the shadows of the thick woods. The air is loaded
with perfume. The plains are carpeted with verdure,
the hills are covered with the feathery foliage of palms
and all graceful trees. The skies are genial and the
whole year is one continued season of growth and
bloom.
But to the lonely shipwrecked mariner this seeming
124 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
paradise is a prison. He longs for liis distant home
beyond the melancholy main. The first thing in the
morning and the last at evening he climbs the rocky
height overlooking the sea, to seatch round the whole
horizon for some friendly ship coming to deliver him
from his watery prison. And when at last he sees a
white sail hanging in the far horizon and growing larger
as it approaches, it looks to him as if it were the white
wing of an angel flying to his rescue. With eager and
frantic joy he makes every possible signal to arrest the
attention of the coming ship. And when his signals
are answered and a boat is lowered to take him on
board, he is ready to rush into the waves and swim
out to meet his deliverers before they reach the land.
And all his joy is excited by the hope of return to an
earthly home, where he must still be exposed to pain
and sorrow and death.
This earth is an island in the infinite ocean of space.
It has abundance of riches and pleasures and occupa-
tions for a few, much toil and work and suffering for
many, and it must be a temporary resting-place for
all. But it has no home for the soul. The ship of
salvation is sent over the ocean of eternity to take us
to the land of rest. Shall we not look often and
eagerly for its coming ? And when it aj)pears shall
we not be ready and willing to go ? Shall we try so
to accustom ourselves to the ways of living on this
island waste of earth that we shall be unfitted to live
in a land where there is no death ?
/
^t iigljt lassagt d % Sta,
It was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by n>'frht to these
so that the one came not near the other all the night. — Ex. xiv. 20. '
VI.
THE NIGHT PASSAGE OF THE SEA.
HE life of the Hebrew nation beaan with the
clej)arture out of Egyj^t. The first great hmd-
'\ mark on the line of their progress as a people
was the passage of the Eed Sea. That one
miraculous deliverance in the outset of their career
established their character as a favored and providen-
tial people. It declared to the neighboring heathen
nations that Divine power was ever ready to break
forth in fire and flood for the protection of Israel. It
carried on and comiDleted the terrible and tenfold
demonstration of the j)lagues in Egypt, that the
mightiest elements in nature w^ere the servants of Him
who had chosen the Hebrew people for his own. It
proclaimed aloud to the Israelites themselves that their
greatness in subsequent time must depend not upon
chariots and horses, and mighty hosts trained for war,
but upon the help of the living God. The secret of
their success, the hiding of their great power as a
people in all after time, must be direct, personal,
unwavering reliance upon the Most High.
This they were to learn as a first lesson. They
127
128 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
were to start upon their new life of liberty with thici
as a governing principle, a distinctive national idea,
to be handed down from generation to generation.
In the days of peace and prosperity their prayer must
go up Avith the smoke and incense of the daily sacri-
fice to Him that giveth showers and fruitful seasons,
that their land might yield its increase and the
harvest fail not. And when they went out to meet
their enemies and they set the battle in array, army
against army, still their most inspiring war-cry should
be a prayer unto the God of Israel, " Arise, O Jeho-
vah, and let thine enemies be scattered !''
All this will be apparent if we consider the scene
and the circumstances described, with inspired calm-
ness and simplicity, in the fourteenth chapter of
Exodus. With a multitude of facts, theories and
conjectures before me to choose from, I put the case
to my own mind somewhat in this form.
I see before me an open plain, ten or twelve miles
across, covered with low, gravelly ridges and hillocks
of sand. On the eastern side is the sea ; on the south
and west a chain of mountains coming obliquely down
to the sea, in a southeasterly direction, and giving the
plain a triangular shape, with the apex at the south-
east. Between the mountain and the sea there is space
enough left for a great multitude to move in a disor-
derly march. Beyond this pass, between the mountain
and the sea, is another plain, completely walled in
north and south by mountains, on the east terminated
THE NIGHT PASSAGE VF THE SEA. 129
by the sea, and tlie opeuiug toward the west leading
directly back to Egypt and the capital of Pharaoh.
The third day's march of the Hebrews after their
departure out of Egypt was across this first plain and
along the sandy pass between the j)rojecting bluff and
the sea. As the sun goes down, we find them encamp-
ing for the night on the second plain, walled in by
ranges of mountains right and left, and with the sea
in front. The next movement must be either to ad-
vance into the sea or turn westward and march directly
toward the capital of Pharaoh, or go back the way they
came.
Surely there is reason for the Egyptians to say,
" They are entangled in the land — the wilderness hath
shut them in." Their situation is strange and per-
plexing to the Hebrews themselves. They do not
know wdiere they are going or why they have been led
into this inextricable net of difiiculties, unless it be to
hold them entrapped till their enraged masters can
overtake them q,nd drive tlicm back to their former
bondage. Of one thing, at least, they are sure. They
are not on the way to the wilderness of Sinai, where it
was proposed to go, nor to the land promised to their
fathers. They have come down a whole day's marcli
on the wrong side of the sea, and if they could pass
the mountain which interru2)ts their advance, tliey
would only be going still farther out of the way. If
the army of Pharaoh should follow them up from be-
hind, they would have no way of escape but to turn
130 mOBT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
westward, between the mountain ridges and flee di-
rectly toward the capital of the kingdom.
They are weary with the day's march across the
sandy plain. Straggling companies have been com-
ing in and joining the host ever since they started.
Friends, neighbors and families have lost each other,
and are striving to get together for the night. Old
and young, women and children, flocks and herds, are
all mingled, crowded, passing to and fro, and the dry
plain is beaten into dust under their feet. The green
pastures of Goshen, the waving palms, the blooming
gardens, the shining water-courses of their forsaken
homes, are now far away. The sun-burnt earth, the
salt sea, the suffocating dust-cloud, the barren moun-
tains, are all around. The piteous lowing of thirsty
cattle, the cries of weary children, the frantic wails of
women, are answered by loud calls and angry com-
plaints and expressions of discouragement and fear.
The flrst joy of escape from bondage has subsided.
The terrors of the desert, the mountains and the sea —
the weariness, the hunger and the thirst of the long
march over yielding sand and rolling stones — now
make even a home in Egypt and a life of bondage
seem attractive. This is not the way to the land
promised unto their fathers. And it is impossible to
go on in this direction if they would. Three days of
freedom have been worse than all the woes of the
house of bondage.
And besides, this great multitude of two or three
THE NIGHT PASSAGE OF THE SEA. 131
millions of people, witli innumerable flocks and herds,
cannot live upon this sandy plain another day. Just
as little can they retrace their steps, pass over the ten
or twelve miles of sand-ridges and gullies which they
crossed yesterday and regain the course where they left
it at the head of the sea. They are lost among barren
hills and desert j^lains. The moaning sea sings the
dirge of all their hopes. The desolate mountains seem
like funeral monuments to mark the grave of the
mighty host. It is a sad night to follow so soon
after that glorious morning when they came out of
Egypt, harnessed like men of war and exultant with
high hope, while the wails and supplications of their
proud masters besought them to go.
And now, to complete their despair, they lift uj)
their eyes, and behold ! the Egyptians are marching
after them ! The cloud of dust Avhich had settled down
upon their own track in the rear rises again in the
distance, and over the ridges of drifted sand they see
the flashing armor and the tossing plumes of the ter-
rible chariots of Pharaoh. The advancing host is
commanded by the proud and impious king himself.
It is composed of the pride and power of Egypt, with
all the advantage of weapons, armor and disci|)]ine on
their side. They come on in orderly march, with tlie
confidence of trained armies moving agaiftst an un-
armed and panic-stricken mob.
They can ride down upon this disorderly multitude
of fugitive slaves, encumbered with their ilimilics and
132 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
flocks, as the eagle swoops upon the clove, as the liou
S|)ri]igs upon the herd of deer. They see at once that
the Hebrews are hemmed in on all sides, and that they
can take their time to capture 'their prey. The sun
lias already set. The moon, wdiich Nvas full on the
night of the departure out of Egypt, will not rise for
three or four hours. The Egyj)tians are themselves
weary with the long and rapid march of the day.
They resolve to encamp for the night and wait for the
morning before they rush in upon the host of fugitives
and destroy them there, or drive them back to their
former bondage.
And now the cries of the Hebrews are wild and
frantic, and all voices are lifted up in reproaches and
imprecations upon the head of Moses. They forget
the mighty miracles wrought by his hand in Egypt.
They have no thought or hope that the rod which
changed the sacred Nile to blood can smite the sea and
make a dry path for the host through the waves.
When trouble and danger come, there are always
some to say, " We knew it would be so, we told you so
before." And Moses had millions to remind him, in
tliis great extremity, that they told him of all this
great peril before, and that it would have been better
to live in bondage than to die of hunger and thirst in
the desert, or to be ridden over by the iron chariots of
war and trampled, torn and bleeding, into the sand.
With sublime faith and self-possession the great
leader meets the reproaches and soothes the excitement
THE NIGHT PASSAGE OF THE SEA. 133
of the multitude, even before lie himself knows what
will be the end. Of one thing he is sure— Jehovah,
who gave him the commission to deliver his people,
will not desert him while he is attempting to fulfil that
command. He says calmly to the excited and clamor-
ous multitude, ^^Fear not, stand still and see the salva-
tion of the Lord, which he will show you to-day. The
Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your
peace."
This was wise and faithful counsel for Moses to give,
but to hold their peace was just the hardest thing for
the excited and terrified host of the Hebrews to do.
Two and a half millions of peoj^le of all ages in one
vast crowd, mixed with as many cattle, and with all
their worldly goods lying about tliem in the sand, are
not easy to keep quiet under any circumstances, least
of all when every one feels himself to have been sud-
denly brought into imminent peril of death.
Let twenty-five hundred persons, old and young,
men, women and children, be gathered in one great
hall, and let a cry be raised that the roof is falling or
the building is on fire, and no voice can calm their
fears ; they will trample each other to death in the en-
deavor to get out. Here are a thousand times twenty-
five hundred people, crowded into one vast assembly.
They are ignorant, credulous and impulsive. Tliey
have never been accustomed to habits of order, reflec-
tion or self-command. A breath of excitement will
sweep over the host as the hot wind sweeps the desert.
134 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Let tlie chariots of Pharaoli rush upon them, and they
will tram^Dle each other into the sand by thousands in
the efifort to escape. Weary, discouraged, terrified, in
a desert place, with the darkiless of night closing
around them, they fill the air with w^ailing and cries
and suj)plications, such as came from all the homes of
the Egyptians when the destroying angel smote the
first-born. They now fully expect to fall into the
hands of their former taskmasters again, and to be
held responsible for all the plagues and afflictions
which their deliverance has brought upon Egypt. If
the lash fell heavily before, it will become a scourge
of scor|)ions when they go back to the brick-kilns and
slime-pits again.
What had drawn them into that dark and perilous
condition? Bound for the green hills and sunny plains
of Palestine on the north, how came they to turn in
the opposite direction and march, as if with blind in-
fatuation, into this waste and howling w^ilderness of
burning sand and barren mountains ?
It was in this w^ay. On the morning of the third
day of their march, there appeared a strange, myste-
rious cloud in the van of the host, extending upward
in a lofty column, like the smoke of some mighty
sacrifice. It rose so high into heaven that it could
be seen for miles by millions of j)eople, scattered over
a vast plain, and it came so near the ground that
those who walked could follow it as a guide. It was
not blown away by the wind. It did not melt into air
THE NIGHT PASSAGE OF THE SEA. 135
like mists from the sea in tlie heat of the risen sun.
All day long it moved slowly, majestically across the
plain, and the Hebrews were commanded to follow
where it led the way.
Thus they had been drawn silently, mysteriously
out of their course into this secluded valley, hemmed
in by the mountains and the sea. As the sun went
down, the awful pillar of the cloud advanced eastward
against the wind, and took its stand along the shore
between the host and the sea. The Israelites had
never seen any such aj)pearance before. Their ignor-
ance and superstition would easily lead them to fear
that it w\as some malignant and misleading shadow
raised by the magical arts of their enemies for their
destruction. The strange and inexplicable course
which they had been led, and the appearance of
Pharaoh and his army at evening, would do much to
confirm their fears.
But now, as darkness is coming on and the Egyptians
are encamping in sight, and the wail of distracted
myriads rises louder than the roar of the sea, this
awful cloud lifts majestically into the air, passes over
the heads of the Hebrew host, and settles down upon
the earth between them and their j^i^rsuers, so as to
hide the one from the other. There it stands, as
darkness comes on, unmoved by the strong wind
blowing from the sea, black as midnight to the
Egyptians, and yet sending forth a cheering and
glorious light over all the host of the Hebrews, calm-
136 NIGHT SCENES IN TRE BIBLE.
ing their fears, quieting their lameutations, giving
them the assurance that some great deliverance is yet
in store for them.
And now the time has come for Jehovah himself
to ride with chariots and horses of salvation through
the sea. At the Divine command, Moses lifts up the
wonder-working rod, and the waters are cloven down
to the bare earth. The channels of the deep are
rieen before the brightness of the protecting cloud.
A broad highway is made for millions to pass on foot
and dryshod where the ancient sea had its bed. The
command, " Go forv^ard !" passes through the great
host of the Hebrews, and all night long the tram23 of
the mighty multitude goes on between the walls
of waters, and the protecting cloud sends its strange
light to show the way through the whole length of the
channel to the other shore.
When the last of the fugitives have j^assed down
the beach and entered upon the bed of the sea, the
cloud itself moves slowly after them. The jilain of
the encampment is now bare. The light of the risen
moon shines upon it, and the Egyptian sentinels, roused
from the heavy sleep which had fallen upon them,
give the alarm that the Hebrews are escaping. The
trumpet sounds to arms. The chariots and horsemen
are set in array. The whole force rush forward
bewildered, hearing the march and the voices of the
Hebrews in the distance, and yet seeing nothing but
the cloud in the direction of the sea, and the plain*
THE NIGHT PASSAGE OF THE SEA. 137
vvliere tliey were at sunset, all empty and silent
beneath the light of the risen moon. They follow on
in the rear of the moving cloud, thinking it only a
mist, and not knowing that they are marching in the
bed of the sea. On they press, driving their chariots
heavily in the miry bed of the deep, yet determined
to pursue and overtake and divide the spoil. They
hear the murmur of the fugitive host — they trace the
broad path of their march — they expect every moment
to break through the retreating cloud and come upon
their prey. And so all the remainder of the night,
like men in a dream, the panting and toiling host of
Pharaoh is just upon the point of coming up with
the Hebrews, yet never succeeding.
At length, when the morning begins to dawn over
the desert hills of Arabia, and the children of Israel
have all passed safely through the channel of the
divided sea, the awful cloud is suddenly changed to
the Egyptians. It becomes a column of fire as high
as heaven, shooting forth lightnings and shaking the
earth with mighty thunders. To them it seems as if
some awful eye were looking upon them out of the
darkness, blazing with infinite anger and striking
them through with strange fears. The chariot horses
break the ranks and dash against each other in wild
confusion. Wheels are entangled with wheels and
torn ofi*, while the frantic steeds drag the scythe-
armed axles over dismounted charioteers and trample
prostrate footmen alive into the mire. The archers
138 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
and tlie spearmen are pierced with their own weapons.
And while the lightning flames and the thunder rolls,
and the host of men and horses are struggling together
in fear and madness and agony; two mighty waves
come crashing over them from opposite directions, and
when the shock has subsided and the sea is calm,
Pharaoh and his host, the pride and power of Egypt,
are no more. When the morning comes, the daughters
of Israel sing the song of triumph with timbrels and
dances, while the sea heaves the dead on shore at
every surge.
And this mighty God who so delivered Israel in
ancient time is our God for ever and ever. We have
only to trust him and obey him, and he will be our
guide and deliverer even in the deep w^aters of death.
All might and dominion belong to him in heaven and
in earth. We are all, every moment, girt with his
power and surrounded with his presence as really as
were the Israelites in the midst of the divided sea.
The walls and covering of our habitations are as truly
upheld and kept from falling and crushing us to death,
by the Divine hand, as were the walls of waters kept
upright, like solid stone, by almighty power, while the
Hebrew^s passed safely between. "We say that it was
miracle which protected them and laws of nature which
protect us. But in both cases it is God. He is the
one personal, uncreated, infinite Force, and all acts
and existences are manifestations of power going forth
from him. The deepest and truest philosophy of li-^e
THE NIGHT PASSAGE OF THE SEA. 139
and faith for us is to bring ourselves into the most inti-
mate relations with the infinite God. The most pro-
found and accurate student of nature is he whose
eye is quickest to see the plan and purpose of an intel-
ligent, governing Mind in everything that exists.
What should we think of an Israelite walking
through the depths of the sea on dry ground, between
walls of water standing up like marble on either hand,
and yet not recognizing the intended and merciful dis-
play of the Divine power for his protection ? What
should we think of a ransomed Hebrew standing on
the safe shore of the Red Sea on that memorable morn-
ing, and yet refusing to join in the song of thanks-
giving for the great deliverance of the night? The
same that we ought to think of one who lies down to
sleep at night in his own house, and goes to his daily
occupation in the morning, and never prays, never
offers thanksgiving to God for the mercy which re-
deems his life from destruction every moment.
In God we live and move and have our being.
Every use of our faculties, every sensation of pleasure,
every emotion of happiness, every possession, experi-
ence and hope that makes existence a blessing, is a wit-
ness to us of God's special, minute and ceaseless atten-
tion to our welfare We deceive ourselves with a form
of words when we sejDarate nature, laws or life, in any of
their foi'ms, from the immediate manifestations of Divine
power. A grateful, trustful, habitual recognition of
God lies at the foundation of all right conduct, all true
140 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
character. It were less ungrateful, less unreasonable,
to forget every human friend we have in the world
than to forget God.
No one should be ashamed to* say, "Among all the
calls of interest, of occupation and of pleasure, I put
first and foremost my duty to God. Nobody shall ever
make me afraid or ashamed to be known as the servant
of God. The skeptic may doubt and the scoffer may
rail, but neitlier the sophistry of the one nor the scorn
of the other shall prevail on me to disown or dishonor
my greatest and best Friend." This is no more than
any man, having heart and conscience, should be will-
ing to say. And whoever says it, and makes good his
words by a correspondent life, will be able to walk
through all the deej)s of trial and temptation, and come
forth at last upon the heavenly shore with songs of
triumph and everlasting joy.
The command to "go forwarcV^ is the Christian
watchword of duty and of safety in all ages. It is only
because some have faith and fortitude to advance in
the face of difficulties, dangers and uncertainties that
the life of the world does not stagnate and every good
cause die. To stand still, when the voice of God's
providence cries go forward, quenches the light of hope
in the heart and opens every avenue of the soul for the
incoming of the powers of darkness. Sometimes it
does a man good to be brought into such a strait that
he must choose one of two courses immediately and
for ever — either an absolute and abject submission to
THE NIGHT PASSAGE OF THE SEA. 143
the enemies of liis soul or a bold and open declaration
of himself as a servant of God, a follower of Jesus
Christ. In the days of persecution, the threat of im-
mediate martyrdom has induced some to stand up for
Jesus, when they might have lived and died without
making the choice, had they su23posed they could have
a long and peaceful life time to choose in.
It may be that these lines will be read by some one
who, at the moment of reading, is ready to say with a
sad heart, " The way of duty never seemed so hard and
dark to me as now." Yet even to such an one w^ould
I say, in God's name. Go forward ! Do your duty at
whatever cost. Obey the Divine command with a
ready mind and cheerful heart. The sea of troubles
will open before you and show you a safe path through.
The trials and hindrances which you now fear will all
vanish before the first firm and resolute step in the
right path. This may be the very hour when you are
to decide once and for ever whether you will follow
Christ and be saved, or hesitate and falter until you
are swallowed up -..by the waves of worldliness and
temptation.
If the Hebrews had not advanced — ^weary, terrified,
afflicted as they were — wdien Moses gave the word to
go forward, we have no reason to suj^pose that tlie
waters would have divided, or that they w^ould have
escaj^ed a return to worse bondage than they had ever
suffered before in Egypt. And the difiicultics tliat
hinder the discharge of duty, the clouds that darken
142 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
tlie path of faith, do not disappear before the halting
and the doubting just because they stand still and re-
fuse to go forward when commanded to do so in the
name of the Lord.
Go forward is the watchword of progress for the
world and of salvation for the soul. Obedience to that
command makes all the difference between success and
failure, triumj)h and defeat, salvation and perdition.
It climbs the dangerous steep, bridges the mighty
stream, opens fountains in the desert, makes the wil-
derness blossom as the rose. It discovers and tames
the most terrible forces in nature and puts them into
iron harness to work for man. It lifts the cloud of
ignorance from the human mind, scares away the
horrid spectres of fear and superstition, stretches the
iron nerve for the electric thrill of thought to pass
with lightning speed over the mountains and across
the continents, and under the ocean, and all round the
globe. All the generations that have gone before us
send back the cry, along all their ranks, from century
to century, Go forward ! The uncounted millions that
are soon to fill our places are pressing on from behind
with the same cry. From every source, from every
age and from every creature comes the repeated and
earnest cry, " Go forward ! press toward the mark ; for-
getting the things behind, reach forth to those before.
Do your duty now, for the time is short, and oppor-
tunities once lost may never return. When the prize
to be secured by an immediate advance in the face of
THE NIGHT PASSAGE OF THE SEA. 143
difficulties is eternal salvation, it is impossible to assign
a justifying reason for a moment's delay."
Tliere were two hosts in the Red Sea, and the cloud
which moved between them was light to one and dark-
ness to the other. So it is now. So it is always. I
go to one home of poverty and affliction. There is
trouble and sorrow enough there to break one's heart.
And yet I hear nothing but expressions of cheerfulness
and gratitude and hope. I go to another, and the
wretched abode is full of murmuring and impatience
and wrath. The same cloud of affliction has settled
down upon the two homes. To one it brings light
and peace, to the other darkness and despair. God's
afflictive providence is a cloud full of light to the
meek, the humble and the obedient, but it is very
dark to the proud, the impatient and the unthankful.
Light is sure to break, sooner or later, upon the j)ath
of those who hold themselves ready to go wherever
Christ leads the way. Every step in the life of faith,
of love and of consecration is an advance toward the
light. And to those who thus live the darkest night
of fear and trouble and affliction will soon break into
the morning of joy and triumph.
The time is not far distant when we shall all stand
upon the shore of the great sea of death. \Ye shall
not be able to pause at the brink or to return when
once our feet are set in the cold flood. There is but
one Guide who can take our hand and lead us safely
through to the bright and blessed shore. That Divine
144 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Guide has come all tlie way across the flood to meet us
here, that we may not fail to find him when we need
him most. He is willing to walk with us through all
the journey of life, that w^e may. not be found alone
and helpless when the hour of our greatest peril
comes. Pilgrim in a desert world, traveler to the
unknown regions of eternity ! wdll you hesitate to re-
ceive such a Guide now ? Would you rather wait till
your feet are set in the cold waters and the cloud of
death is around you, hoj)ing to grope about in the
darkness, and find even then the guiding Hand which
now you will not take ?
Raul's Itig^t at #iit>(jr.
10
And Saul disguised himself, aiid ^ut on other raiment.^ and ^e ■zve7it,
and two men iviih him, arid they came to the vjoman by nighi -i Sam.
xxvii\. 8.
T Mlli^/ N
;aijl's :n]ght at endoPv
VII.
SAUL'S NIGHT AT ENDOR.
fHE history of Saul, from his first appearance as
king of Israel to his death, reads like an in-
spired tragedy. His brilliant achievements in
war and his melancholy end were celebrated by
the greatest of the Hebrew Psalmists in his own age.
In modern times, poetry, j3ainting, music and sculp-
ture'have clothed his history with the fascination of
genius and the spell of romance. It is near three
thousand years since he fell down slain upon Mount
Gilboa, and still one of the great masters of musical
composition in modern times can find no better theme
for the display of his wondrous power in giving utter-
ance to the sorrows of stricken hearts. Ninety genera-
tions of men have appeared and passed away from tlie
earth since the beauty of Israel was slain upon the
high places of the field. And still the most mournful
march to which, funeral processions move in modern
times Ls known by the name of Saul.
There is so much of good and bad, strength and weak-
ness, success and failure, in the man, that we are drawn
to him when we do not like him. We pity him when
147
148 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
we feel that lie deserves to be punished. Like David,
we lament his fall when we know that it would have
been a calamity to his j)eople and the world if he had
continued to reign. We go back and read the history
of his call to the kingdom for the hundredth time with
something like hope that he will fulfill the fair promise
of his manly frame and his modest deportment. We
close the record with the same repeated disappoint-
ment, that one on whom Nature and Providence had
conferred all gifts and graces to make a " king of
men," should fail through his own fault and die in
dishonor for his own transgression.
His character combined the most op230site qualities,
and his life abounded in startling contradictions. At
different times he exhibited the rustic simplicity of
Cincinnatus, the unnatural sternness of the elder Bru-
tus, the clemency of the first Caesar, the cruelty of
Nero, the superstition of Wallenstein, the jealousy of
Philip the Second, the irresolution and remorse of Mac-
beth, the madness of Lear. He was rash in danger
and cautious in safety. He had the courage of a hero
and the timidity of a coward. He spared his worst
enemy and he would have put to death his l)est friend.
He prophesied himself and he destroyed the prophets
of the Lord. He cut off the diviners and necroman-
cers out of the land, and on the last night of his life lie
traveled ten miles, in great peril and fatigue and dis-
tress of mind, to inquire for himself of 9- woman that
had a familiar spirit.
SAUL'S NIGHT AT END OR. 149
He named his own cliildren just as tlie mood of
faith, superstition or mockery haj)pened to move him
at the time — Jonathan from Jehovah, Melchishua from
Moloch, Eshbaal from Baal, Mej^hibosheth from con-
tempt of all faith. When brought under the influence
of sacred music and song and religious worship, he
would catch the spirit of devotion and pour forth the
most fervid expressions of praise and prayer. He
would become so carried away with religious ecstasy
as to give himself neither rest nor food, day nor night,
until his strength failed and he fell upon the ground
faint and exhausted. And then, when the paroxysm
of wild and stormy zeal had passed, his old moody and
implacable disposition would break out with greater
violence than ever.
He would pursue the object of his jealousy with the
hate and fury of a demon, and then he would melt
into tenderness and weep like a child when some act
of generosity had touched his heart. Thus kindness
and cruelty, manliness and meanness, superstition and
faith, firmness and indecision, were combined with fear-
ful extremes in this one man. And so this mad mon-
arch of Israel, with the good and evil angel ever strug-
gling in his soul, was swept on in his stormy reign to
tlie dark day when he was encamped with three hun-
dred thousand men upon the northern ridge of Gilboa,
with the greater host of the Philistines in sight at
Shunem, five miles away on the other side of the
valley.
150 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
It was a place of great historic interest to the tribes
of Israel. It overlooked and bordered upon the great
plain of Esdraelon, the most fertile and famous plain
in all Palestine, even then, as it has been ever since
for three thousand years — from Joshua to Napoleon —
the battle-field of nations. On the same bare, bleak
and jagged ridge where Saul was encamped, Gideon
had hidden his three hundred men among the rocks
two hundred years before, when the Midianites filled
the valley beneath, as grasshoppers and as the sand of
the sea for multitude. Down the face of those dark
limestone cliffs Gideon and his servant Phurah had
slid silently by night and had crept stealthily along
through the v*dld grass and giant thistles "unto the
outside of the armed men," and there had overheard a
wakeful soldier telling his companion the dream of a
barley loaf rolling into the camp of the host and over-
turning a tent. In that valley, on the same night, the
brave three hundred, divided into three companies,
broke their pitchers, making a sound like the clash of
arms, brandished their lamps like the signal-lights of
a great army, blew their trumpets and cried, "The
sword of the Lord and of Gideon," until the heights
of Hermon and Gilboa echoed the shout and the peal.
From that spot the countless host of the Midianites
rushed in disorderly rout and wild dismay toward the
passes of the Jordan, while Gideon and his chosen
three hundred chased and cut them down from behind.
Saul was encamped by the very spring of Harod
SAUL'S NIOHT AT ENBOIL 151
wliere Gideon's Spartan band drank hastily, lifting tlie
water to their lips in the hollow of their hands. Saul
had a thousand times as many men as Gideon, better
armed and disciplined for war, and the place was one
to inspire hope and courage.
But the unhappy king was not in a state of mind
to secure the advantage or meet the peril of the hour.
Misfortunes had multiplied upon him in consequence
of his perverse and passionate temper, and the gloomy
clouds that had long lowered upon his guilty path
were now ready to burst forth in one final and destruc-
tive storm.
The tribes on the east of the Jordan had nearly re-
nounced allegiance to his sceptre. His own fiery little
tribe of Benjamin and the champion tribe of Judah
had grown weary of his turbulent reign. Increasing
numbers were daily turning their faces toward the
rising star of David. Samuel was dead, and his last
words to Saul were words of threatening. The pro-
phets and the priests were slain. The oracle of the
Lord gave him no answer. There was no voice nor
sound of harp that could charm away the tormenting
demon from the dark soul of the king. With the
heart of a hero in his bosom, he looked across the
valley to the camp of enemies that he had often routed,
and his mighty frame trembled exceedingly with
fear.
In an age when physical strength was the best title
to sovereignty, there was no man in all the host of
152 NIGHl mCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Israel to be comjiared with liim for the greatness and
beauty of his stature. Above them all he stood,
"With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear
The weight of mightiest monarchies. "
And his trembling was the more apparent and pitiable
because, in every limb and look of his mighty frame,
he seemed made for a king and a hero. With three
hundred thousand warriors entrenched around him
upon heights that the chariots and horses of the Philis-
tines could not climb, Saul felt himself to be defence-
less and alone, because God had forsaken him;
Alas! there is no path so dark and desolate for
human feet to tread as that chosen by the man who re-
sists and grieves away all holy influences from his heart,
until he feels that God has given him up. The worst
thing that can ever happen to a willful and disobedient
man like Saul is for God to let him have his own
way. It is the darkest hour of life and the beginning
of the shadow of death to such a man when he is left to
follow the bent of his own blind passion, and to fall
into the pit which his own folly has digged.
The sun went down behind the oak-crowned ridgo
of Carmel, and the shadows of evening covered the
great battle-plain, while the sleepless king watched the
kindling of the camp-fires, and heard the murmur of
the mighty host of the Philistines rising, like the roar
of the sea, on the other side of the valley. His distress
of mind increased as the darkness deepened around
him, and he "bitterly thought of the morrow." ^He
SAUL'S NIGHT AT ENDOB. 153
needed rest, but he could not sleep. He needed coun-
sel of God, but he had so often rejected it when given
that it was no longer offered. When men give up
their faith in God, God gives them up to believe a lie.
So this unhappy king, having shut his eyes to the
light that shines from heaven to guide all in the safe
way, resolved to seek counsel from beneath. He took
off his royal robes. He laid aside his buckler and his
battle-spear. He put on the garments of a common
peasant, took two trusty men with him and stole
silently out of the camp.
They pass silently down the steep sides of Gil-
boa into the valley to the east of the Philistines, and
then cross swiftly over the ridge of Little Hermon or
the Hill Moreh, watching every moment lest they
should fall upon some roving band or outpost of the
enemy. After having traveled some ten or twelve
miles across the grass-grown plain and the successive
ridges of lower hills, they come to a miserable little
cluster of mud and stone cabins, hanging on the
northern declivity of one of eight rounded peaks that
form the range of Little Hermon.
One of these wretched cabins, forming the entrance
of a rocky cavern on the mountain side, Saul and his
attendants seek out in the darkness and enter. In
that damp and diabolic den at midnight they find a
solitary hag, who receives their late intrusion with
mingled terror and cursing. Her fear is allayed by
the promise of secresy, and her wrath is appeased by
1.54 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
tlie offer of a rich reward. Her suspicions are doubt-
less awakened as to the character of the intruders, both
by the value of the present offered, and by the fact,
generally known, that there w^as but' one man in all the
land of such gigantic and kingly stature as now stands
before her.
In this wretched hamlet of Endor, with a heathen
name and half-heathen population, this outcast woman
of Israel has hidden herself away, that she may the
more safely and profitably practice the profane impos-
ture of divination. She pretends to the power of call-
ing back the spirits of the departed and wresting the
secrets from the unknown future. But she has no
more powder over the spirits of the dead than the
Caffre rain-maker has over the clouds. She has no
more knowledge of the future than the gypsy fortune-
teller, who pretends to read the decrees of eternal
destiny in the lines of the hand. Her spells, mutter-
ings and incantations are only cunning devices with
which to distract attention and deceive the credulous.
Her magical arts are wicked and forbidden, not because
they have any power over spiritual agencies, good or
evil, but because they are impositions and lies, and
they lead men to withdraw their confidence from truth
and the God of truth, and to believe in nothingness
and vanity.
And it is to consuh this low, cunning and abomina-
ble creature, under the cover of midnight in a cavern
of the mountains, that the anointed king of Israel
SAUL'S NIGHT AT ENDOR. 155
comes in tlie liour of his great extremity. Trust
in God and obedience to every word from the mouth
of the Lord was the first article in the constitution of
his kingdom, and the first condition of his continuing to
reign. And here he is, on the night of imminent and
terrible destiny to himself and his people, ten miles
away from his great army, in the den of a sorceress,
asking to be made the dupe of the vilest imposture.
He might have had Omniscience for his guide and the
strength of the Almighty for his shield ; and he seeks
light from a confederate of the prince of darkness— he
craves a more intimate alliance with the powers that
have already brought him to the very brink of destruc-
tion. The hours of the night are swiftly passing, and
when the dawn appears the hills will shake with the
battle-cry and the thundering charge of a half million
warriors, and the consecrated king of Israel, who should
rule the destinies of that day in the name of Jehovah,
is away from the camp, wasting his strength and
unnerving his heart by consulting with this wicked
and worthless woman at Endor.
To such dreadful darkness and delusion are even
great and strong and princely men given up, when
they turn away from the only living and true God and
trust in lying vanities. If you would meet the great
battle of life with the courage of heroes and the faith
of martyrs, do not ask counsel of those who pretend
to be wise above what is written in God's revealed
word. Do not turn away from the instructions and
156 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
admonitions of holy men, who spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost. Do not put yourself
under the guidatnce of men and women whose wisdom
is of the earth and whose inspirati6n is from beneath.
Let the horrors of despair, which drove the wretched
king of Israel in his perplexity to the darker cave of
Endor for comfort, warn every one not to forsake the
safe and plain path of trust and prayer and obedience
to God.
" And the woman said to Saul, Whom shall I bring
up unto thee ? And Saul said, Bring me u]3 Samuel."
And before the woman had time to practise her arts
for the deception of the king, behold, at the command
of God, Samuel actually appeared. The w^oman her-
self had the least expectation of any such thing. She
w^as so startled and terrified that she cried out with a
shriek of horror. She w^as well fitted by her aban-.
doned character and by the long j^ractice of imposi''
tion to turn any unexpected occurrence to the credit
of her divination. But the actual appearance of a
living man from the spirit-world was too much for her
courage and her self-joossession. It was indeed just
what she had long pretended to see and to do. But
to her it was as great a surprise as it w^ould have been
had the stony idols come down from the sides of her
cave and spoken with a human voice.
Her magical arts had no power to compel the great
prophet to leave the society of Abraham and Moses
and appear in that den of sorcery. The spirits of the
SAUL'S NIGHT AT ENDOR 157
mio-lity dead have something else to do than to answer
the call of conjurors and clairvoyants in any age, in
any land. And if they were to come down from their
high seats in bliss, they would bring better messages
and wiser counsels than the seers and mediums of
modern times have reported in their name.
It was by the power and appointment of the infinite
God that Samuel appeared to confound the arts of the
sorcerer, and again to rebuke the rebellious king be-
cause he had not obeyed the voice of the Lord. It
was no semblance or shadow, much less any confede-
rate of the sorceress, any emissary of Satan. It was
the same majestic and awful look that Samuel wore
when Saul saw him at Kamah for the last time ; the
same voice which commanded the thunder and the
rain in the day of the wheat harvest ; the same mantle
that Saul rent when Samuel told him that the Lord
had rent the kingdom from him twenty-three years
before. The same words of doom came again from the
prophet's voice, with the addition that to-morrow all
should be fulfilled.
And peradventure, too, this last sharp and terrible
warning was sent in mercy, that the blinded and mad-
dened monarch might have one more opportunity to
repent of his fearful impiety in going to the den of the
sorceress, when he should have called only upon the
Lord in his distress, and prayed, if need be, all that
night with strong crying and many tears unto the
God of Israel for help. The unhappy king saw and
158 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
heard, but no word of penitence or of hope came from
his pale and trembling lip.
" He heard and fell to earth as fall^the oak,
At once, and blasted by the thunder-stroke."
Hungry, weary, terrified, conscience-smitten, he laj^
like one dead, with the full length of his giant frame
prostrate upon the ground. And when he revived and
rose up to go back upon the perilous night-journey
to his army he went a doubly-doomed and despair-
ing man.
When the morning came, the host of Philistines
swej)t across the valley from Shunem and up the
heiglits of Gilboa, as the earthquake at sea heaves a
mountain-wave on shore. On the 23lain and up the
hill-side were seven hundred thousand men, yelling
and struggling with all the demoniac ferocity of a
hand-to-hand conflict, and with no cloud of cannon-
smoke to hide the infernal spectacle from the sun.
The fountain of Jezreel ran blood all the way ten
miles to the Jordan. The ranks of Israel were bro-
ken. The trampled grass of the plain and the rocky
steep of Gilboa were piled with countless slain. Amid
the discomfiture of his scattered host, the despairing
Saul fell by his own hand, and still in his death-agony
received, perhaps, a final stroke from the sword of one
who had shared with him in his transgression against
the Lord.
And this is the last sad memorial which the sacred
SAUnS NIGHT AT ENDOR. 159
chronicler writes of Israel's first king : " So Saul died
for his transgression, which he committed against the
Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he
kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a
fiimiliar spirit to inquire of it, and inquired not of the
Lord."
And out of this dark cave of Endor, and down from
these blood-stained and curse-smitten heights of Gilboa,
there comes a voice of warning and instruction even to
us. It is this : In all the trials, perplexities and con-
flicts of life seek counsel first of all from God. All
who go astray from him wander in darkness, and
they know not at what they stumble. The path of
obedience to God is as the shining light that shineth
more and more unto the perfect day. The first step
in duty makes the next easier. The higher you climb
the difficult steep of faith and self-denial, the farther
you leave the misleading clouds of doubt and tempta-
tion beneath you.
The first king of Israel was overwhelmed with dis-
aster and blinded with delusion just because he filled
to make obedience to God the first law of his kingdom
and the first principle for the government of his own
conduct. His life was a failure, and he died in dis-
Jionor and despair, just because he set up his own per-
verse and passionate will against God, and was bent
upon having his own way.
And just as certainly will any man come to sorrow
and disappointment who seeks the success and the joy
160 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
of life in anytliing else than obedience to God. God
has a special work for every one to do, just as truly
as he had for Saul in calling him to the kingdom of
Israel. It is the wisdom and glol:'y of every one's life
to do the work given him by God and to do it well.
The only failure Avhicli we have reason to fear - is
failure to be found at our task and doing our work
well, when called to give account of our trust.
There is no madness so dreadful, so hopeless as the
madness of trvinir to live without God. These in-
spired histories of good and bad men in ancient times
were written to impress upon our minds this one most
practical lesson — that the fear of the Lord is the begin-
ning of wisdom, and in the kee2:)ing of his command-
ments there is great reward. All the crowns and
kingdoms of the earth would not be a sufficient compen-
sation for one hour or one act of disobedience to God.
It woukl be neither wise nor profitable to accept all
that the tempter offered Jesus for the least concession
to his evil power. Wickedness in all its forms is a
waste ; disobedience to God is both dishonor and dis-
aster; temptation can never come in such a form as to
make it safe or right to yield.
As the result of this night's study of sacred history,
I would that some thou«:htful reader mi2:ht close the
book with this solemn and unalterable purpose in his
heart : " Henceforth I will live for God, and no earthly
consideration shall persuade me to disown my Saviour
and my King." The course of life is all plain and
SAUL'S NIGHT AT ENDUE. 161
open before liim wlio makes tliat resolution tlie start-
ing-point of his career and tlie constant guide of his
course. He is relieved from a thousand doubts and
uncertainties and conflicts that harass the unresolved
and uncommitted. He is satisfied with his choice, and
nothing, by any possibility, can ever make him regret
anything done or suffered for God. He has peace of
conscience, and that gives him more real happiness
than all the brief and deceptive indulgences of a
worldly life. He has the hope of heaven, and that
makes him richer than all earthly possessions could
without it. He has the assurance of his heavenly
Father's love, and that gives him light and joy in all
the dark hours of aflaiction and trouble. He has the
pardon of sin, and that takes away the sting of death
and disarms the king of terrors.
Doubtless every one who will be at all likely to
read this page means to serve God in some way, at
some time. The critical question with many is this,
how, when, shall that better life begin? I say. Do it
with all the heart, do it openly, do it now. God has
called many times ; he is calling still. God has 'baited
long ; he is waiting still. The child should answer
when the Father speaks. Take heed, lest you go so
far away in the paths of worldliness that you cannot
hear your Father's voice. Take heed, lest you stay
without until the door of your Father's house is shut.
Loving and obedient children long to be near their
father. The best evidence of a right disposition in us
11
162 mOHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
is an ardent and irrepressible longing after God. The
highest attainment of a holy and hap2:)y life is a serene
and clieerful walk with God. In the loftiest and
purest communion with him the strong desire of the
heart will still go forth in the Christian song —
" Nearer, my God, to thee.
Nearer to tliee ;
E'en tliougli it be a cross
That raisetli me,
Still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God, to thee,
Nearer to thee."
aiiib's %# at % larban.
And the hing^ and all the feoj>le that -were -with him, came iveary,
and refreshed themselves there Send quickly, and tell David,
sayings Lodge not this itight ifi the plains of the zvildei'ness, but speedily
pass over: lest the king be swallowed zip, and all the people that are
with him Then David arose, and all the people that were with
him, and they passed over Jordan : by the morning light there lacked
not one of them that was not gone over jforda7i. — 2 Sam. xvi. 14* vvii
16, 22.
VITI.
DAVID'S NIGHT AT THE JORDAN.
^HE Hebrew title of the third Psalm tells us that
ll it was written by David when he fled from his
son Absalom. The whole composition breathes
forth a spirit of the most serene and sustained
trust in God. And yet the author was at the time in
the midst of the greatest peril and affliction. It was
the first night after his hurried flight from Jerusalem.
He had been driven from his throne and from the
sanctuary of his God by a most cruel and unnatural
rebellion. All the waves of trouble and sorrow had
gone over him, and the pitiless sword of filial ingrati-
tude had pierced his very soul.
He had spent the day in traversing the horrible
wilderness of Judah, and the night encampment was
on the bants of the Jordan. The bare earth was the
bed on which he "laid him down and slept." The
" waking," for which he thanked God, was caused by
messengers rushing into the camp at midnight and
giving the alarm that the usurper had been advised to
pursue with a chosen force of twelve thousand men
that night, and that all must arise and cross the swift
166 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
and dangerous Jordan to save tlieir lives before
morning.
The conduct of David on this occasion supplies a
lesson for the imperiled and afflicted at all times. It
is well worth the while to inquire, even if it be merely
^s a study, by what means a man of quick and fiery
impulses like him could maintain a firm and peaceful
trust in God in the midst of so great excitement,
weariness, peril and sorrow. With this end in view,
let us glance at the history of the day preceding that
night encampment by the Jordan.
Absalom had been planning a revolt for four years
He used all the blandishments of his personal beauty
and winning address to alienate the hearts of the
people from the king. He took his stand early in the
morning at the gates of the city and at the very en-
trance to the palace, on purpose to make himself
acquainted with all wbo went and came. If he had
given himself to any good work with half the zeal and
talent that he displayed in doing mischief, his name
would have come down to us with honor, and the sad-
dest chapter in the history of his sainted father had
never been written.
His splendid bearing and courteous manners, his
false and fascinating expressions of interest in every-
thing and sympathy with everybody, drew all hearts
to him, as pleasure draws passion and the serpent
charms its prey. Added to these personal attentions
to individuals, he appeared in public before the mass
DAVID'S NIGHT AT THE JORDAN. 107
of the people with more pomp and splendor than the
king himself. David, the old warrior-monarch, cared
little for the parade and trappings of royalty. He
moved about among his subjects in Jerusalem on foot,
and he went out to the top of Olivet to worshij) with-
out guards or attendants. Absalom rode through the
streets and around the city in his chariot, attended by
horsemen and foot-runners, who cleared the way before
him with " the shout of a king.'^ And so the vanity
of the multitude was in every way temj)ted to wish
that the brilliant and beautiful prince were in the
pkce of their praying and psalm-singing sovereign.
All this was done under the eyes of the fond old
father, who was too much blinded by his affections to
suspect treason in his most indulged and fascinating
son. Strange to say, the parent who is quick to read
character in all others is sometimes the very last to
know his own children. He will judge more accu-
rately of the life and principles of one whom he meets
only for an hour than of some who sit at his own table.
The ruler, the statesman, whose word is law for the
government of millions, may himself be the uncon-
scious slave of a jDctted and passionate child in his
own house.
When all was ripe for the long-plotted rebellion,
Absalom disappeared, under some false pretext, from
Jerusalem, and the next day, at evening, news came
to David that his wild and wicked son was already
crowned and proclaimed king, twenty miles away, at
1(38 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Hebron. The intelligence was soon confirmed by mes-
sengers coming in from every direction, and saying,
" The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom."
David, by his own heroism and ^sagacity, had raised
his people to the first rank among the great kingdoms
of his time, and now, at the first breath of change, his
subjects were ready to turn to the treacherous and par-
ricidal son and cry, " God save the king !"
There was no time to be lost. The proud and im-
petuous rival for the throne was not a man to delay or
to be trifled with for a moment. A few hours' march
would bring him to the gates of Jerusalem, and Cxice
there he would not hesitate to add the murder of his
own father to the many crimes which he had already
committed.
Early the next morning the old king gave the
order, " Arise, and let us flee ! Make speed to depart,
for we shall not else escape from Absalom." This is
the darkest and most sorrowful day in the eventful life
of David — the day that closed with the night encamp-
ment and the sacred psalm by the banks of the Jor-
dan. The inspired historian tells us what was said and
done with great fullness and touching simplicity.
The aged king went forth from his palace upon
Mount Zion, and all his people with him. The mem-
bers of his own household, the servants and officers of
the royal court, the military captains and councillors
of state, the heads of tribes and families, the body-
guard of Philistines and the chosen six hundred who
DAVID'S NIGHT AT THE JORDAN. 169
had shared in the perils and wanderings of the king
before he came to the crown, their wives and chiklren,
the aged and the feeble — all went forth from the city
in long and mournful procession on that memorable
morning.
They descended the steep sides of Mount Zion into
the Tyropsean valley, crossed over the northerly por-
tion of the bare ridge of Moriah, on which the temple
was subsequently built, and then went down into the
deeper valley of the Kidron. They were all on foot,
and the road which they were to travel was steep and
difficult for the strong and unencumbered — much more
for the feeble, the aged and the little ones — much more
for those who carried in their hands food for the jour-
ney and whatever valuables or keepsakes they could
snatch from their homes in their hurried departure.
At the last guard-house outside the city, before
crossing the Kidron, the king paused and the sad pro-
cession of fugitives passed on before him. It touched
the heart of the aged father deeply when he saw the
little band of Philistines filing down the winding path
and committing themselves to the fortunes of the
fallen monarch, when his own son had conspired
against his life. Such fidelity in a troop of foreign
mercenaries was too much for David to see without
some expression of admiration. Overcome with his
feelings, he besought Ittai, the chief of the band, to go
back and take his followers with him, and not commit
himself and his peop"" e unnecessarily to the fortunes of
ITO NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
a dethroned and exiled monarch. But the generous
and chivalric chieftain declared, with a solemn oath
upon the name of Jehovah, his unalterable purpose to
live or die with his adopted king.*
So David and Ittai moved on together to the front
of the procession, and the whole multitude lifted up
their voices in wailing and loud lamentation, as they
stood aside from the winding and stony path for the
aged and broken-hearted monarch to pass, leaning
uj)on the strong arm of the Philistine chief. The
weeping and mourning of the multitude was so
vehement and excessive that the sacred narrative say3
the very hills and valleys wept with a loud voice.
They had only just crossed the Kidron, and were
beginning the ascent of Olivet, when they were over-
taken by the priests and Levites bearing the ark of
God. But David would not suffer them to subject
that most sacred depository of the Divine covenant
with Israel to the perils and conflicts that awaited him.
If he was to be dethroned and exiled, he did not wish
to have the constitution of the nation, written upon
tablets of stone by the finger of God at Sinai, lost with
him.
Some great men, when they fall, are ambitious to
make the ruin as great as they can. They would
have it appear that the world cannot go on without
them — that everything sacred and precious depends
upon their holding the reins of power and receiving
the homage of the people. Not so David. He said
DAVID'S NIGHT AT THE JORDAN. l71
to the priests, " Carry back the ark of God into the
city. If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he
will bring me again. But if he say, I have no delight
in thee, behold, here am I. Let him do to me as
seemeth good to him." In these words spoke out a
great and generous soul that would not have others
crushed with the weight of its own sorrows.
The ark was carried back to the city, and the heart-
broken king began to lead the long procession of
fugitives up the steep ascent of Olivet. It was a wild
mountain path, with steps here and there cut in the
ledges. It was strewn with loose pebbles and sharp-
edged fragments of rock, and the king led the way
barefoot, and covered his head to hide his grief. And
when the people saw that the ark was gone and the
king was leading off in the way to the wilderness, and
faintness and weariness came over them at the begin-
ning of the long march, they felt that the pledge of
God's protection was taken from them, their conse-
crated king was an outcast, themselves were sharers in
his exile, and all was lost. They all covered their
heads and broke out again in loud and piteous lamenta-
tions, until it seemed as if the whole western slope of
the mountain were covered with a funeral procession,
and every mourner were going to the grave of his
dearest earthly friend.
When the king came to the top of Mount Olivet,
there had been so many delays that it was already
noon, and there was fearful reason for haste, lest Absa-
172 NIGBT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
lorn, who was on tlie marcli from Hebron, sliould
arrive and cut off their retreat. But the afflicted
monarch could not pass the olive grove, where he had
been accustomed to worship God 'on the summit, with-
out turning aside from the path and stopping to pray
for Divine strength and guidance in all his affliction.
He needed the calmness, the energy and the self-
possession which come by prayer to meet the peril, the
fatigue and the sorrow that awaited him. And when
he rose up to renew the march, he was able to take a
last look of his beloved Zion and turn his face toward
the wilderness without a tear.
And now began the descent down the dreary, rocky
road, among bare, desolate hills and wild ravines,
which seem to have been made by rending in pieces
the whole mountain range, and leaving the mighty
fragments like a storm-tossed sea, to burn and blacken
in the sun. The whole region through which David
was passing on that saddest half-day of his life looks
as if it had been scathed by volcanic fires and had
never recovered from the fierce heat. Not a human
dwelling nor a sign of cultivation nor a spot of green
earth relieves the awful desolation. The road drops
down the shelving ridges, sometimes buried in the bed
of deep ravines, and sometimes hanging on the edge
of precipices four or ?iYe hundred feet high.
Shimei, a man of the house of Saul, came out upon
the edge of one of these ravines as the king passed
below, and cast earth and stones upon the heads of the
DAVID'S NIGHT AT THE JORDAN. 173
fugitives, and ran along on the heights from rock to
rock, uttering the most vehement and terrible curses
upon David. One of the men of war begged to be
permitted to cross over the glen and stop the mouth
of the reviler by taking off his head. But David
counted the insult a slight matter compared with the
grief which he bore upon his heart. He only said,
" Let him alone, let him curse, for what are his words,
when my son, my own son, for whom I could have
died, seeketh my life ?"
And so Shimei went on cursing and casting stones,
until he tired himself out with cursing and went back,
like a snarling dog that barks at travelers till he is
tired with barking and then skulks back into his
kennel. And silence is about the best answer to be
given to an angry and spiteful man who curses in
his anger. When he is tired of cursing and cooled
of his anger, he may perhaps hear to reason, but not
before.
The weary day passed slowly on, and the long line
of straggling fugitives began to emerge from the wild
mountain pass upon the hot plain of the Jordan toward
evening. It was deep night before the hindmost of
the company came in, weary, hungry and faint, and
the small stock of provisions which had been given
them on tlie way by a cunning and treacherous slave
scarcely sufficed for those who had brought nothing.
And then all lay down to sleep as best they could, with-
out tent or covering, upon the level of hot sand and
174 NIQRT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
gravel bordering the river, or among the thickets of
cane and oleander near the water's edge.
At midnight the alarm came that the forces of Ab-
salom were at Jerusalem, that his spies were out in
every direction, that the pursuit might be followed up
any moment, and the only safety was to be sought in
crossing the Jordan before morning. And so the fugi-
tive king and his whole company of weary, heart-
broken exiles were roused up from the first sleep after
such a terrible and exhausting day as they had passed
to renew their toil. But they woke and worked so
promptly that when the dawn lifted the curtains of
night from the mountains of Moab, the difficult and
dangerous task of crossing the deep and swift river was
accomplished.
Then David sang this psalm : " I laid me down and
slept ; 1 awaked, for the Lord sustained me. I cried
unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of
his holy hill. I will not be afraid of ten thousands
that have set themselves against me. Salvation be-
longeth unto the Lord. O God, thou art my God.
Early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee, to
see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in
the sanctuary. Because thy loving-kindness is better
than life, my lips shall praise thee. I will lift up my
hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied. My
mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips, when I medi-
tate on thee in the night-watches.''
Thus could the dethroned and exiled king David
JDAVinS NIGHT AT THE JOED AN. 175
pray and sing praises to God on tlie morning following
the saddest day and the darkest night in his life.
Yesterday, an absolute monarch, with millions of
subjects to obey his will. To-day, a fugitive and an
exile, with thousands upon his track to hunt him down
like an outlaw or a beast of prey. In the morning he
rose from a royal couch amid the splendors of kingly
state, with troops of servants at his command. At
night he slept upon the bare earth for a bed, sur-
rounded by a miserable multitude of fugitives, as
hungry, weary and sore with travel, though not as
heart-broken, as himself.
And this crushing weight of sorrow and suffering
was laid upon David when the white hairs of age had
silvered his brow and the fiery vigor of his young
manhood had left him for ever. He was a youthful
shepherd, with a step as light as the wild roe of the
mountains when he fled from the face of the demon-
haunted Saul. He could glory in danger, and he
heard the battle-cry of Israel with fierce delight when
he went forth to meet the giant in the valley of Elali.
He was a man to attack the lion with a shepherd's
staff, and to break a bow of steel with his hands when
he exposed himself among the lords of the Philistines
at the court of the king of Gath.
But it was a very different matter for a gray-headed
old king to be driven from his throne, and to find that
the fires of rebellion had been kindled by his own son.
And in estimating the force of the affliction and the
VQ NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
provocation which David suffered, we must remember
that he was by nature a man of keen sensibilities,
strong passions and impetuous temper. He had been
accustomed for years to have the slightest intimation
of his will received as supreme law by all around him.
He lived in an age of violence, and ho reigned over a
people that had just emerged from a state of barbarism.
He had the fullest confidence in his divine right to
govern, and the power of life and death w^as in his
hands. He w^as weary, insulted, wronged with the
deepest and blackest ingratitude.
The great English dramatist, whose representations
of human nature are wont to be received as of equal
authority with Nature herself, has attempted to put
fitting words into the mouth of an old king turned out
of doors, but not, like David, conspired against for his
destruction, by his unkind daughters. And Shake-
speare makes the injured father say, among many
other things too bitter and blasphemous to be quoted :
*' You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age ; wretclied in both.
If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely ; touch me with noble anger ;
Oh, let not women's weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks ! — No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both
That all the world shall — I will do such things, —
"What they are, yet I know not ; but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think, I'll weep ;
No, I'll not weep.
DAVID'S NIGHT AT THE JORDAN. 1* /
I have full cause of weeping ; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws
Or ere I'll weep. Oh I shall go mad !
Ingratitude ! thou marble-hearted fiend,
iMore hideous, when thou show'st thee in a child
Than the sea-monster.
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child !
The untented woundings of a father's curse
Pierce every sense about thee !"
Thus, and with still more violent outbreaks of the
wildest and most tempestuous passion, our English
Shakespeare represents the natural effect upon an in-
dulgent and fiery old king produced by the ingratitude
of his children. And the critical and literary world
extol the genius of the great dramatist as if it were a
Divine inspiration for revealing the secret depths of
the human heart.
But here, in actual history, was another old king,
himself an absolute monarch, living in an age of vio-
lence, his whole being thrilling with passion, conspired
against for his utter destruction by his most indulged,
most. beautiful son; and how does he attempt to ex-
press the unutterable things struggling in his soul?
With what words does he pour out wrath and cursing
upon the ingratitude which has deprived him of his
crown, driven him into exile and is still seeking his
very life?
We have read his words and they are full of trust
and peace. In the very climax of his great grief he
12
178 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
exhibits a serene and clieerful confidence in God. He
pours out his heart in praise and thanksgiving. He
makes the silence of the night and the solitude of the
wilderness resound with a psalm in which the afflicted
of all times may fitly sing forth their sublime trust in
God. The cry of his supplication and the longing of
his heart are such as all human souls may use in
coming before God. In the royal Psalmist the neces-
sities of the man are greater than the affliction of the
king. He can bear the loss of all that belonged to
him as a monarch if he can still have that which he
most needs as a man. And that is, the favor of God.
This is the lesson which David learned with the loss
of his crown — a lesson w^orth more to us than the
crown of all the earth. The infinite God alone can be
a sufficient portion for the soul. The soul can be
satisfied only w^hen filled with all the fullness of God.
It is not because one is a king or a slave, not because
he is a millionaire or a beggar, not because he is pros-
perous or afflicted, that he needs the Divine favor. It
is because he is a man — because he has a living, im-
mortal soul to take hold on things infinite and eternal —
that he cannot live safely or satisfactorily without God.
It is no more natural for the body to suffer hunger
when deprived of food than it is for the soul to be
unsatisfied and unhappy till it finds rest in God. If
the most worldly man living would let his soul speak
out — if he only dared to give voice to everything within
him which thinks and feels and longs and hopes and
DAVID'S NIGHT AT THE JORDAN. 179
fears — ^lie would say, " I am unhappy, and I cannot help
feeling and fearing that I am spending my life for
naught."
Suppose I knew all science, art, literature, history-
suppose I could range over earth and heaven with an
angel's wing and visit the starry spaces with the speed
of thought — what were all that power and knowledge
to me compared with the faith which can look upon
the universe of worlds and say, " Behold my Father's
house ! He made them all. I am his child. His love
is as great as his power, and I know that such a Fatliei
will never suffer his loving and obedient child to want
for any good thing."
This great Being, who made all worlds, is a Father
unto every one of us. It is our highest knowledge to
know him. It will be the purest and truest manifes-
tation of affection in us to love him. He meets us in
every path of life with gifts in both hands, that he may
win our hearts. He watches for the return of our
gratitude as a mother watches for the first smile of
intelligence and affection in her babe. That great and
mighty One is ever bending over us with a deeper
compassion than moves an earthly parent's heart to-
ward a wayward and suffering child. He cries after
us in all our wanderings, saying, "Beturn unto me
and I will return unto you." And when we weary
his patience and refuse to hear, he says with the
relentings of infinite pity, " How can I give thee up ?"
Every minister of the Gospel, every reclaimed and
180 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
forgiA^en cliild of God, is a messenger sent out in that
patient, generous and loving Father's name, to say to
every wanderer, " Brother, come home. Come back
to your Father. He is waitings with open arms to
receive you. You cannot be happy without his love.
Weary, wandering child, come back to your Father's
house and find rest. Come back to your Father's
heart and find forgiveness. Come home, and your
brethren, who mourn over your departure, will join
with the angels in singing songs of welcome and of
joy."
We have seen David's calm and assured trust in
God in the midst of all his troubles. His faith was
proved to be the stronger because it had to contend
with fierce impulses and fiery passions in his own
natural temperament. If we would measure the full
force of the trust that sustained him through the ter-
rible night at the Jordan, we must glance at the
sequel of this sad history. We must see how com-
pletely the heart of the father was bound up wdth mis-
guided affection for his wayward and wicked son.
David was now in exile at Mali an aim, a city on the
east of the Jordan, among the mountains of Gilead.
The last decisive day had come, when he was to lose
his son and regain his crown. He stood in the gate
of the city, burdened with age and broken with grief,
while the hundreds and thousands of his faithful
troops filed before him, as they went out, in the glori-
DA VIUS NIGHT AT THE JORDAN. 181
ous liglit of an Eastern dawn, to iiglit against Absa-
lom. Beside liim stood tlie iron-liearted warrior
Joab and all the chiefs of the army.
He knew that the fate of his kingdom and his own
life also, depended upon the defeat of the rebellious
host. And yet, with the fondness of an indulgent
father, he thought on|y of his wayward but still
beloved son. That son had grown up to be an ambi-
tious and wicked man — the worst man in the kingdom.
But the fond old father thought only of the fair-haired
boy who played before him in the innocence and
beauty of childhood. In the hearing of the soldiers,
as they passed, David kept charging the chiefs, saying,
" Gently, gently, for my sake, with the boy Absalom.'^
To those stern and loyal chieftains, Absalom was
nothing but an utterly bad and profligate man — the
most dangerous man in all Israel. But to the father,
carried away from his better judgment by his parental
affection, Absalom was the same dear boy that his fond
eyes doated upon in former years, when his glorious
beauty was the wonder and praise of all Jerusalem.
And as the fiery warrior Joab, the chief caj^tain of the
army, was impatient to mount and sjDur across the
plain, and head the host that was already far on in the
march and disappearing under the oaks of Bashan,
David's last word to him at the gate of Mahanaim, was
still the same, ^^ Gently, gently, for my sake, with the
boy Absalom !"
And now the day was far spent. The conflict was
182 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
over. The trumpet of recall had been blown through
all the ranks of the victorious host. Many thousands
who went forth with the morn to the fight, " burning
with high hope," were lying cold and dead on the
bloody field. King David still sat in the gate of
Mahanaim, anxious most of all for the safety of the
unnatural son who had lifted up his hand against his
father's life. The watchman stood on the tower above
the gate, looking down the winding descent of the hill-
side and far away across the distant plain for any
messenger that might come with tidings from the field.
At length, when the sun was almost set, a man was
seen coming out of the distant woods, and running
with great speed alone toward the gate of the city.
The watchman cried from the tower to tell the king.
And the king said, " If the man runs alone, he bring-
eth tidings." The panting messenger came, and with
one gasping breath, cried, " Shdlom,^^ peace, and fell
down to the earth upon his face before the king. The
monarch had no inquiry to make for his army or his
people. The father's heart broke forth in the one
eager and anxious question, "Is the young man Absa-
lom safe?"
And when the first messenger gave an evasive
answer, and the second came, the king had still no
other question to ask concerning the fortunes of the
critical day save the one in which he poured forth all
tlie passionate fervor of a father's love, " Is the young
man Absalom safe?" And when the death of the
DAVID'S NIGHT AT THE JOIWAN. 183
rebellious son was indirectly indicated by the second
messenger, the man hinting what he durst not say, the
king was too much agitated to restrain himself any
longer. He groaned and shook as if a barbed arrow
had pierced his aged heart. And then he went up
slowly and tremblingly into the little chamber in the
tower over the gate, covered his face with his robe, and
as he walked to and fro poured forth that bitterest cry
of parental anguish which the world has heard in three
thousand years : " O my son Absalom, my son, my son
Absalom ! would God I had died for thee ! O Absa-
lom, my son, my son !"
And this mighty man of war, this hero-king, the
greatest of all that sat on the throne of Israel, was
greatest and mightiest in making his faith in God
triumph at last over his vehement and passionate love
for his unworthy and wicked son. In David, the
man was greater than the monarch, both in faith and
affection.
And let us not think too hardly of this aged king
for seeming to forget his faithful people and his army
in his anxiety for the safety of his rebellious son.
Parental love is ever the same in all lands, in all times,
among all people. It affects the monarch more than
his crown. Even the hard life of bondage cannot
crush it out from the heart of the slave. It lends the
most profound interest to the daily life of home. It
commands toil and study and treasure and suffering
without end. It finds expression in rebukes and
184 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
caresses, in tears and supplication, in wearisome labor
by day and in wakeful hours by night. It is felt for
the helpless babe, for the impulsive youth and for the
full-grown man. It goes forth in unutterable longing
and tenderness for the loving and the good, and also
for the wayward and the wicked.
Children forget their parents and leave them home-
less and comfortless in their old age. Brothers and
sisters become alienated, so that they will not speak to
each other. Bosom friends are changed to open ene-
mies. Lovers are j^arted in hate. But it is against
the deepest and mightiest principles of nature for
parents to become indifferent to the welfare of children
for whom they have toiled and suffered, over whom
they have wept and prayed, on whom they have fixed
their dearest hopes and fondest affections.
God teaches us all to call him our Father. He em-
ploys the natural, instinctive love of the parent for the
child to show us how earnestly, tenderly, yearningly
his heart goes out toward us in our afflictions and in our
wanderings. He too is a King, and all our sin is com-
mitted against his high and adorable sovereignty. He
never can forget or forego his right as a king. But
in all his manifestations of mercy toward man w^ see
more of the Father than of the sovereign. We hear
the voice of compassion more frequently than the word
of command. He loves because it is his nature to
love. He desires our welfare because he cannot help
it. When the ministers of chastisement and affliction
DAVID'S NIGHT AT THE JORDAN. 185
are sent forth to reckiiu the wandering and rebellious
one, he says, " Ge?itli/y gently, for my sake, for it is my
child that has sinned. It is mine own son that must
suffer."
When children see the unceasing and tender
anxiety of parents for their safety and happiness, they
have only to listen and they will hear a voice from
above, saying, " Like as a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." When the
messenger of death comes to the family and takes
away an infant child, and the strong heart of manhood
is melted into tenderness by the stroke, and woman's
tears fall like rain upon the cherub brow in the little
cofiin, then the afiSicted ones have only to turn to the
covenant of God's everlasting love and they will find
it written that the mother will sooner forget her own
child than God will forget them.
Such is the paternal character of the everlasting God
as revealed in the gospel, and learned by the growing
experience of Christian faith. And, therefore, Christ
in giving a form of prayer that should express all wants
and be adapted to all ages, teaches us to say every-
where and every day — Our Father.
This is the great and glorious revelation of the gos-
pel— the Fatherhood of God humanized and appealing
to our hearts in Christ the Son. Eeason demonstrates
his necessary and eternal existence. Science walks
abroad with wonder and delight through the immensity
of his works. Conscience makes us tremble at the
186 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
thouglit of his awful justice and purity. Our own
hearts tell us that every hiding-place of the soul is
haunted by the omniscience of the Eternal Mind. From
all these sources of knoivledge we must turn to the
words and life of Jesus to learn that the best and most
acceptable name that we can give to this great and
incomprehensible One is — Our Father, and that all the
riches, glories, joys of his everlasting kingdom are
open and accessible to him who comes as a little
CHILD.
€li>j)'s 3# in % i^std.
He himself wejit a day's Jourtiey into the wilderness^ a?td came atid
sat dotv?t under a juniper tree : and he reqtiested for himself that hi
might die; and said, It is enough ; 7ww, O Lord, take away my life.^
I Kings xix. 4.
IX.
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT.
T is night in the desert of Arabia. A day's jour-
ney out on the billowy sea of sand rido-es and
^^ stony hills lies a living man, alone upon the
bare earth, under the shelter of a low, scrawny
tree. The scene is one of utter and melancholy soli-
tude. If it were day, the distant shore of green fields
and grazing flocks and human homes could be no-
where seen. And the asjiect of loneliness and desola-
tion is made more oppressive and painful by the pres-
ence of this weary, prostrate man in the midst of the
arid and lifeless waste.
The sentinel stars are all out in fiery armor on the
battlements of heaven, 9nd the clear air is tremulous
with their cold, twinkling light. The whole circuit
of the horizon presents the same undulating sweep of
bare earth and stony ridges, as monotonous and melan-
choly as the waste of waters seen from the deck of tlie
ship in mid-ocean. There is no breeze, no sound of
voice or footstep in the air. The desert is so silent
that the weary wanderer can hear the beating of his
189
190 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
own heart and tlie flow of the life-stream in his own
brain.
Haggard and weary and travel-worn, the nnhappy
fugitive has flung himself upon Ae ground in utter
despair, wishing that he might sleep in that solitude
and never wake again. Far from the homes of men
and the gentle charities of domestic life, he would
gladly give up his body to be covered by the drifting
sands and his bones to be bleached by the parching
winds of the desert. He has had enough of life, with
all its vain hopes and bitter disappointments. The
world is so given up to wrong and falsehood and
misery that to him it is no longer worth living in.
He would rather die in darkness and solitude than
ever see the face or hear the voice of his fellow-man
again. It is a dreadful thing for the human heart to
sink to such a depth of wretchedness and despair.
But who ever studied the great problem of life with a
reasoning mind and sensitive heart — who ever sur-
veyed and sounded the great ocean of human guilt
and misery, listening to its melancholy moan as it
comes down from far distant ages and rolls round all
the continents and islands of the peopled earth, and
heaves its dark waves of living wretchedness upon the
shores of eternity — who ever stood face to face with
these dark and dread realities without shrinkins; for
the moment from a share in such a mysterious and
awful thing as life ? To those who have little thought
and less feeling, the order of things in this world and
¥
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 191
the prospect for tliat wliicli is to come may seem all
plain. But to a great, generous, deeply sensitive soul,
tliere will come hours when he will cease to wonder at
the words which affliction and darkness wrung from
the lips of the patient patriarch of old : " Let the day
perish wherein I was born !"
And who is this weary and broken-spirited man
daring: to offer in bitterness of soul such a dreadful
prayer in the desert? It is Elijah. It is the greatest
and mightiest of all the prophets of Israel. After
Moses, he was the one man who stamped the imprint
of his own strong character most deeply upon the
heart and hopes of the Hebrew nation. Up to the
time of this strange flight into the desert he had
seemed to be the very incarnation of courage, fire and
energy. No threat or peril could put him in fear.
No hardship could exhaust his endurance. No temp-
tation could turn him aside from his duty. It will be
interesting and profitable for us to learn, if we can,
how so great and courageous and faithful a man could
have given himself up to complaint and despondency
and flight. The inquiry will lead us to review one or
two points in his remarkable history.
At his first appearance in the sacred narrative he
shows himself suddenly at Samaria, in the ivory palace
of Ahab, the apostate king. He stands in the presence
of the startled monarch with awful look and uplifted
hand, and he solemnly swears by the living God that
there shall be neither rain nor dew in the land of
192 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Israel, for years to come, except according to hig
word.
It was a time of rebuke and blasphemy, and the
inspired reprover of the nation's sins seemed like an
embodiment of the Divine anger which they had pro-
voked. He bursts upon the scene of action as sud-
denly as a meteor blazing forth from the midnight
heavens. He delivers his word of doom and then
disappears, as a solitary peal of thunder sometimes
crashes through the clouds of a winter storm. The
message which he brings is as abruj^t and awful as the
appearance of the messenger. Everything mysterious,
and everything known of the man and of his history,
conspire to invest his name with the most profound
and fascinating interest. The greatest of the prophets,
lie steps forth upon the scene of action full grown from
the darkness of the past, and he disappears, at the
close of his career, in a chariot of fire.
The sacred chroniclers, who are so careful in gene-
alogies, tell us nothing of the parentage of Elijah.
His name is announced without father or mother,
without beginning of days or end of life. It is now
twenty-eight hundred years since he disappeared with-
out dying, and the devout in Israel to this day still
expect his return. They still place a seat for him in
their solemn feasts, and set the door open for the pro-
phet to come in.
The word Tishbite, so often applied to his name,
gives us no information, for nobody knows what it
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 19S
means. Of one tiling only can we be certain in respect
to his origin. He came from the wild and mountain-
ous land of Gilead. From the abrupt western wall of
its j)asture-grounds the shepherd looked down three
thousand feet into the twisted and terrible gorge of
the Jordan. Eastward it rose in rounded peaks and
broken ridges, like the frozen billows of a stormy sea.
The whole region was tossed into such wild and fan-
tastic forms as to seem as if it had been the battle-field
of giants, where
"hills encountered hills,
Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire."
The strongholds of robber chieftains crowned the
heights ; the wandering shepherds pitched their tents
in the valleys. The native inhabitants lived as if in a
hostile country, and the herdsmen kept their flocks
with spear and bow day and night. They knew noth-
ing of towns or villages, cultivated fields or garden^.
As they roamed from valley to valley, in search of
pasturage, the plunderer might swoop down upon
them like the eagle from the heights, or spring upon
them like the couchant lion from the jungle. Vigi-
lance was the price, of safety, and the strong arm was
the only law. The wolf and the bear made their dens
among the crags ; the lion came up to prey upon the
fold from the swellings of Jordan.
In one of these wild gorges, where a furious torrent
comes leaping down the rocky terraces of the highlands,
Jacob wrestled all night with the mysterious stranger
13
194 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
on Ills return from Padan-aram. In these haunted
and terrible solitudes, the Spirit of the Lord came upon
Jephthah, and made him the deliverer of Israel in the
days of the judges. In this wikt region of exiles and
outlaws, David took refuge from the unnatural rebel-
lion of his son Absalom. The whole country was
repeatedly overrun by raids from the east, the north
and the west, and no sooner had the scattered inhabit-
jints satisfied the rapacity of one plunderer than they
were exposed to the exactions of another.
Whether Elijah lived as an exile or a native among
such a people we do not know. But he shared their
home and learned their habits of living. He had been
accustomed to the savage and solitary life of herdsmen
and mountaineers. He had met the roving bands of
robbers on their raids, and the beasts of prey in their
native haunts. He had watched all night upon tlie
lonely hill-tops, and he had slept where deadly ser-
pents made their dens. The fierce sun of the Syrian
heavens had bronzed his brow, and poured its burning
fires into his dark eye, till he became a man for kings
and warriors to look upon and tremble. He had
climbed rocky heights and battled with storms, and
traversed the wilderness till his frame was like iron.
He could walk with a firm step upon the dizzy brink
of cliffs where the wild goats could not climb. He
could run before the chariots without resting, and lead
the way for the horsemen on foot until horse and rider
were weary of the race. He would have been remem-
ELIJAirS NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 195
bered Jis a Hercules or a Samson in strength, if he
had not been the first of the prophets in faith and
inspiration.
On the evening of a day of exhausting toil and
terrible excitement, he trenched the earth and piled
up the twelve stones of a great altar and offered a
whole bullock in sacrifice, and slew eight hundred and
fifty priests of Baal with his own hand, and offered in
the solitude of the mountain his seven times repeated
supplications for rain, and then ran before the flying
chariot of Ahab fifteen miles from Carmel to Jezreel
over a slippery, miry road, in the midst of a tremen-
dous storm. He could traverse the desert like an
Arab, sleep on the bare earth where the night found
him without a covering, lodge for montlis in the rocky
bed of a dry torrent, live as a fugitive and an outlaw
in the wilderness until the ravens became his daily
visitors and the wild beasts were more familiar than
the face of man.
And yet in the deep loneliness of such a life, Elijah
looked on himself as standing ever in the presence of
the Lord of hosts. Amid all the perils and hardships
to which he was exposed, he never forgot his sacred
commission as the servant of the Most High. Every-
l>ody knew him when he made his sudden and
startling appearances in the desert, on the hill-top, in
the highway or by the Great Sea. The awful solemnity
of Ins look made men fear that he had come as an aveng-
ing angel to call their sins to remembrance. But no
196 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
one could tell whence lie came, wliere lie liid himself,
or hov/ his life was sustained. The inspired instructor
and reprover of apostate Israel was trained for his
mission amid awful solitudes. He was kept apart
from the gentle charities and tender affections of
domestic life. He was wet with the dews of night, girt
with the terrors of the wilderness, beaten by storms
and burnt by the sun. He was made familiar with
the sublimities and glories of nature, that he miglil
the better assert the power and majesty of Jehovah m
his works, and thus rebuke the Nature-worship of his
time and confound all false gods.
No silver-tongued rhetorician, skilled in all the
graces of speech and courtesy of manner, could fitly
bring the word of the Lord to the proud and pagan
queen, to the weak and wicked king. The time and
the mission demanded a sterner speech, a more start-
ling and defiant address, a more awful and command-
ing authority. And in Elijah the message found the
man.
In all times of- great public exigency, God raises up
men and fits them to do his work. Sometimes the
age most needs an earnest and alarming voice that
shall cry day and night in the city and the wilderness,
" Prepare ye the way of the Lord !" Sometimes there
are wanted men of action, whose silent and ceaseless
energy is the voice with wdiich they arouse and shake
the nations. Sometimes there is need of men with
the courage of heroes and the faith of martyrs to hew
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 197
down the thrones and temples of iniquity with the
stroke of battle-axes, and to meet the armed forces of
wrong on the bloody field. Sometimes the world's
great want is the embodiment of active benevolence,
the incarnation of pity and humanity, to carry light
into the dark homes of sorrow, to speak peace and
pardon in the dens and dungeons of vice and crime.
Whatever the want of any age, God is sure to find
men to meet its demands. It should be our great
study to know what work he has for us to do, and to
do it well.
Fresh and fearless from the mountains of Gilead,
Elijah remembered the history which Israel had for-
gotten. The deliverance from Egypt by a strong
hand; the march through the waves of the divided
sea ; the guiding pillar of cloud and fire that went be-
fore the countless host; the bread from heaven that
failed not for forty years ; the mount of the law veiled
in darkness and girt with its coronet of fire ; the allot-
ment of Canaan to the conquering tribes ; the pomp
and solemnity of the tabernacle and temple worship ;
the oracular responses from the mercy-seat ; the bright-
ness of the Shechinah shining in the Holy Place ; the
Divine messages that had been given to Samuel and
David and Solomon, — Elijah knew them all. And he
believed that the apostate house of Ahab and of all
Israel was as much in the hand of the living God as
were their fathers in the wilderness.
The priests of Baal had set up the worship of Nature
198 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
on every high place and under every green tree. The
heathen Jezebel had imported the lascivious rites of
Ashtaroth, the Sidonian Venus, fvom her home by the
Great Sea. The people had been taught that these
pagan deities ruled the elements of earth and fire and
water by their mystic spells. But Elijah still believed
that the sun and the clouds, the hills and valleys, the
streams and the fountains were in the hands of Jeho-
vah, the God of Israel, as they were when Moses smote
the rock in the wilderness and living waters gushed
out — as they were when Joshua commanded and the
sun stayed from going down, and Samuel prayed and
the Lord sent thunder and rain in the time of harvest.
Now at length a trial of terrible severity and of long
continuance must be made. The wicked sovereign and
the deceived people must be brought to recognize the
power and sovereignty of their fathers' God. There
must be a distinct and positive committal of the word
of the prophet, that all may know by whose authority
he speaks. For this purpose Elijah suddenly presents
himself before Ahab. His court dress is the shaggy
sheepskin mantle which had been his covering day
and night, in storm and sunshine, among the moun-
tains of Gilead. His flowing locks are such as had
given him the name of the " hairy man" when seen
striding, with wild and rapid pace, over the hills and
along the solitary footpaths, attracting the wondering
gaze of shepherds and villagers as he passed. He
stands before the passionate and guilty king, and he
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 199
utters a word of woe wliicli we sliouki suppose would
doom him to instant death: ''As the Lord God of
Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be
dew nor rain these years but according to my word."
'J'lie suddenness and the audacity of the declaration
secure a momentary protection for the prophet. The
startled monarch has not recovered from his surprise
sufiiciently to order his arrest, before the dread minis-
ter of the Divine vengeance has disappeared and can
be nowhere found. This awful man, who can chain
the clouds and imprison the winds and make the heavens
as brass, has come out of his solitude into the ivory
palace of Samaria, and spoken a word of vengeance
which shall fall like consuming fire upon every family
in the nation. Having delivered his message, he has
passed on unchallenged, unmolested, leaving the king
dumb and paralyzed with astonishment. Elijah has
locked up the treasures in the whole kingdom of
nature, and " carried off the key."
And now let apostate Ahab and pagan Jezebel make
full proof of the power of their gods to unsay the pro-
phet's word. They have altars and priests and sacri-
fices to the sun and moon and all the host of heaven.
They have consecrated temples and groves and shrines
and images to the brooks and rivers, to the falling
rain and the gentle dew, to the fruits of the earth, the
revolving seasons and all the secret powers of nature.
They are many, and against them all the bare word
of Elijah stands alone. Let them take their time.
200
NIGHT SCENES IN THJ^ BIBLE.
The j^ropliet of Jeliovali is safe and be can wait. If
they can make the heavens give rain, or if the ordi-
nary course of nature goes on of itgelf, then the word of
the Lord has not come by Elijah. If Baal can clothe
the fields w^tb verdure, if he can bring forth the bar-
vest in its season, then let the king worship him and
let all the people say he is God.
Elijah must have been a man of great faith to be
willing to stake his very life upon the truthfulness of
what he had spoken. Still, he was a man of like pas-
sions with us. In him Avere all the human elements
of fear and doubt and infirmity which we find in our-
selves. The inspiration of the Most High did not take
from him all temptation to supj)ress or reserve or
qualify the message. It was easy for him to question
whether it could be the word of the Lord which com-
manded him to threaten such an aw^ful calamity upon
the people of Israel. He could see many natural indi-
cations to the contrary.
Coming over from Gilead to Samaria, he passed
Salim and Enon with their gushing fountains of water.
He crossed the fertilizing brooks and the marshy plains
of Beth-shan. Looking forth from the palace of Ahab,
he could survey the green hills of Samaria, and the
excellency of wooded Carmel, and the teeming plain
of Jezreel, and the flow^ery fens of the Kishon. On
the north and east were Little Hermon and Tabor and
Gilboa, fountains of perpetual streams. Every wind-
ing brook and every green hill, every grove on the
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 201
heiglits and every cloud on tlie distant sea, would saj
to Ills doubting lieart : " No, tliis land cannot be
burned with drought nor wasted with famine. No
word of tliine can forbid the heavens to give showers
or the earth to bring forth fruit. It cannot be the
word of the Lord which puts the rain and the dew in
thy power. Speak it not, lest evil come upon thee
and the wicked mock at thy delusion."
So would Elijah's doubting heart say to him all the
way as he came down from Mount Gilead into the
gorge of the Jordan, and then climbed up the western
hills and passed over into the luxuriant vale of Jezreel,
to speak the word of the Lord to Ahab. So might he
doubt whether his prayer of imprecation could shut
up the heavens and change that garden into a desert.
But he resisted the doubt. He obeyed the Divine
voice which sent him forth at the peril of his life to
stand before Ahab. If it cost him his life, he Avould
show his apostate people that Jehovah was God in
Israel, and all the gods of Jezebel and Zidon were
vanity.
And the word of the Lord which enjoins a great
and j)erilous duty is the one which we are most likely
to receive with doubts and fears. AVe must not defer
our obedience till every shadow of uncertainty and
every possibility of ifiistake is removed. The doubt
that demands perfect knowledge will never yield to
faith, for faith rests upon probability, not demonstra-
tion. There is no scientific ground of faith, simply
202 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
because what has become science is taken out of the
sphere of faith. We must obey the voice of duty when
there are many other voices crying against it, and it
requires earnest heed to distinguish the one which
speaks for God. We must cherish the impulse of con-
science in the moment when it urges us to action, lest
it cease from its promptings and we be left to the blind
guidance of appetite and passion.
The w^ord of the Lord comes to us all, and it is a
message of light and of salvation. If we wait for
louder calls or better opportunities, the light may be
withdrawn and our path left to us in darkness. Ko
man can tell how much he may lose by once neglecting
to comply with the call of God's Spirit and word com-
manding him to perform some great and sacred duty.
Many would give everything they have in the world
only to be put back for a moment to hear again the
call which they once heard and neglected. The argu-
ment which almost convinces to-day, if rejected, may
have less force to-morrow. To have better opportuni-
ties in the future we must improve the opportunities
of the present with prompt and willing hearts.
Nothing will help us more in the discharge of duty
than the feeling which made Elijah always speak of
himself as standing before the Lord of hosts. Among
the mountains of Gilead, in the deserts of Arabia, on
the heights of Carmel, in the valley of the Jordan and
in the palace of Ahab, he felt himself to be equally in
the presence of Jehovah, and he would not do what
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 203
would offend the eyes of the Eternal King. He had
no fear before a human monarch, because his mind
was holden by the more awful presence of a Sovereign
whose empire is the universe and who holds in his
hand the destinies of time and eternity. To him tlie
cave of Cherith was a holy place. The humble dwell-
ing of the wddow of Zarephath was a sanctuary. The
solitudes of Horeb were vocal with praise. The long
journey, barefoot and alone, over burning deserts and
barren mountains, was a walk with God. In every
place he felt himself to be the servant of tlie Most
High, doing the bidding of a Sovereign higher than
all the kings of the earth.
Let us in like manner cultivate the feeling that in
every place we stand before the Lord, in every plan
and w^ork we are doing the will of the Most High, in
every trial we are upheld by his hand, in every afflic-
tion we are comforted by his word ; and then the whole
of life will have a meaning and a sacredness which
earthly honors can never give and worldly loss can
never take away.
Everything is just and honorable which God com-
mands to be done. Every service, every sacrihce
which he requires is its own reward. The thoughts
of the heart and the words of the lip, and all the acts
of the outward life, will be most worthy and apprc-
priate when the presence of the Infinite One is mos',
deeply felt.
The first murderer " went out from the presence of
204 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
the Lord." All wrong-doing is a departure from God.
The wayward child leaves his father's house and is
lost amid the temptations of the jvorld. The gay and
thoughtless forsake God's sanctuary and find no rest
in the pursuit of earthly joy. The fool says in his
heart, " There is no God," and he is left to believe the
falsehood which he wishes were truth. So all evil in
life and character follows as a consequence when man
forgets that he is ever in the presence of the Lord of
hosts. The pure in heart see him and are safe. The
believing have confidence in his help and are strong.
The righteous shelter themselves beneath the shadow
of his throne in the day of trouble, and so abide the
fury of the storm.
Go not out from the presence of the Lord. In
every place let your adoring heart be ready to say,
"Lo! God is here." So shall your earthly home
become the audience-chamber of the King of kings.
Every walk in life shall be made as pure for you as
the path of light on 'which the ministering spirit flies
forth from the Eternal throne. In all the toils and
joys and afflictions of the world, you will be ready to
take up the wondering and adoring ascription of
heaven, " Holy, holy, holy. Lord God of hosts, heaven
and earth are full of thy glory !"
We left Elijah at the beginning of the years of
drought and famine. He has uttered his word of woe
in the presence of the wicked king, and gone. Ahab
ELIJAirS NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 205
tells his iDagan queen Jezebel what lie said, and s]io
only wishes that she had heard him too. She would
have seen to it that he should never utter any more
threats in Samaria. The priests of Baal hear of it,
and they curse tlie prophet of Jehovah by all the god&
of Tyre and Sidon. It is told all over the land, anc'
it awakens mingled emotions of fear and wrath, dis^
trust and expectation.
By and by, the shepherd finds that the brooks ar^
getting lower among the hills. The ploii/ghman is
startled to see the earth dry in the bottom of his
furrow. The vintager looks at his vines, and turns to
the sky with increasing anxiety every morning. A
whole year passes and another begins, and there is no
rain. A second and a third is completed, and the
inexorable sky is still covered day and night with the
same dry and dusty haze, out of which no clouds form
and no dew falls. The sun grows red and dim as it
descends the western sky, and disappears an hour
before it reaches the horizon. The brightest stars
make only a faint blur of light here and there in the
zenith, and the outline of the distant hills is lost in the
lurid air. The flames of sacrifice burn red on ail the
high places around Samaria and Jezreel, and the
priests of Baal make the night hideous with their cries.
But the clouds refuse to form, and no spells of the false
prophets can unsay Elijah's word.
The parched earth is all burnt over as with fire.
The once fruitful field becomes like ashes from the
206 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
furnace. Tlie liot wind drains the moisture from the
green leaf and the living flesh, and the snflbeating
dust-storm sweeps along the hills and highways like
the simoom of the desert. The' grass withers on the
hill-sides and in the valleys. The harvest turns to
stubble before it is half grown. The groves give no
shade, and the trees of the forest stretch their skeleton
arms in mute supplication to the pitiless sky. The
weary and heart-broken shepherd leads his panting
herd from valley to vnlley in search of water, and daily
the bleating of flocks growls fainter among the hills.
The famine enters the homes of men. The feeble
and the friendless die first, and the living in their
despair have neither heart nor strength to bury the
dead. The traveler drags his weary frame, fainting
and slow, along the highway, without heeding the
haggard and hollow-eyed victims of famine crying for
food or murmuring of fountains and feasts in the
delirium of death, beside his path. The mother turns
with horror from the pinched and shrunken face of
her once beautiful babe, and the father feels a bitter
satisfaction when he returns from the field and finds
that the mouths for which he has brought no food
will cry no more. The cruel drought dries up all the
fountains of feeling, and the fierce instinct of self-
preservation sunders all ties, crushes all pity, and
makes men meet each other with the hungry and
haggard look of the wolf haunting the fold or the lion
ravening for his prey.
ELIJAirS NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 207
And all this terrible calamity was brought upon
Israel in mercy to save them from the worse evil of
denying and forsaking their fathers' God. Healthful
seasons and abundant harvests can do little for indi-
viduals or nations, when once they have lost faith in
truth, in duty and in man's eternal responsibility to
his Maker. Whatever it may cost them to recover
that faith, they had better suffer it all than live with-
out God and prosper for a time in wickedness and
unbelief.
There is something worse for individuals and
nations than drought and famine. It is a worse thing
to lose faith in God, in truth, in duty. It is a worse
thing to be given up to the love of money, and the
indulgence of ease and a life of pleasure. It is a worse
thing never to possess those treasures which can be
given only to the benevolent, the self-denying and the
])ure in heart. If only our consciences are clean and
our hearts right before God, earthly calamity will
prove a blessing — trial and suffering will make us
strong. It is the ruin of too many that they set their
Iiearts upon having all their good things in their life-
time. Truth, principle, conscience are the best things
to possess — the favor of God is the best thing to enjoy.
So Elijah believed, and strong in that faith he
waited through the long and terrible years of the
famine for the heart of his apostate people to be turned
back again by affliction. "And it came to pass after
many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah
208 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
in tlie third year, saying, Go sliow thyself unto Ahab \
and I will send rain upon the earth."
With him, to receive the word of the Lord was to
obey. He had been outlawed and hated and hunted
down by all the power of the king for three years, and
the whole nation had been put under oath that the
prophet could be nowhere found. And now, unbidden
by the king, without explanation or apology, Elijah
comes forth from his seclusion. Himself assuming to
be the monarch, he sends a messenger to say, " Behold !
Elijah is here." If Ahab wants to see him, he can
come. The prophet will not go to him. And when
the king makes haste to come, Elijah demands a solemn
convocation of all Israel and of the proj^hets of Baal at
Carmel. For three years Ahab had been sending spies
through all the land of Israel and the neighboring
kingdoms to find Elijah, that he might put him to
death ; and now that he meets him face to face the pas-
sionate king is so awed and unmanned by the presence
of the prophet that he only obeys at once when com-
manded, as if Elijah were king and Ahab were the
subject and slave.
Swift couriers are sent throughout all the kingdom
with the summons, and every village and family gladly
sends its representative to the great assembly. All
who have strength for the journey are in haste to
answer the call of Elijah and the word of the king.
The place of gathering was already sacred, and it was
in sight of a large portion of the kingdom. The high-
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 209
ways and the footpatlis among the hills are alive with
people moving in one direction. Clouds of dust arise
and darken the sultry air, as the long lines of the
gathering multitude stream across the great plain of
Jezreel toward the wooded heights of Carmel. Jeze-
bcFs eight hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and
Astarte march out in one body from their great tem-
ple, like a regiment of soldiers moving to battle, with
bannei-s flying and flushed with the hope of victory.
At last a blaze of bright spears and burnished shields
flashes across the plain, and the dust-cloud rolls as if
caught in a whirlwind where the chariot of Ahab
passes swiftly, with panting footmen running before
and galloping Jiorsemen riding behind. And when
the sun goes down, an innumerable multitude are en-
camped on the eastern slope of the wooded mountain,
waiting some great and awful decision on the morrow.
When tlie day is fully come, and the morning sun
struggles through the murky air on the east, a sudden
murmur runs through the great encampment— there is
a flowing in of the straggling multitude toward one
central position— for, behold ! Elijah, with awful look
and shaggy mantle, is there. The one man on whom
a whole kingdom had laid the weight of its desolation
and its agony, stands before them unterrified, defence-
less, alone !
On the highest ridge of the mountain, where the
altar of Jehovah had once stood and had been thrown
down, in full view of the great plain and the temple
210 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
of Baal at Jezreel, and the high places of idolatrous
worship around Samaria, the prophet comes forth and
takes his stand. All down the wooded slope of the
mountain, under the shade of oaks and olive trees, in
orchards and gardens are gathered the thousands of
the people, waiting with breathless awe and expectation
to catch the first word from the lips of the man who
ever spoke as in the presence of the Lord of hosts.
Nearer, and hemmed in by the multitude around a
fountain of water which flows to this day, are the false
prophets and their patron king.
In the open light of day, under the broad canopy
of heaven, with eager thousands to see and to hear,
Elijah cries aloud, "How long halt ye between two
opinions? If Jehovah be God, follow him: but if
Baal, then follow him." But there is not one in all
the multitude that dares to utter an approving word or
give a sign of assent to a proposition so plain. Again
the lonely pro23het of Jehovah speaks, and challenges
the priests of Baal to join with him in rearing two
altars and laying on the sacrifice, and each calling
upon their own object of worship, and the God that
answereth by fire let him be God. And now the peo-
ple are emboldened to answer, " The Avord is good."
The priests of Baal cannot escape the trial. They
rear their own altar, lay on the wood and the victim,
and then they begin to chant and howl, in the wild
orgies of idolatrous worship, until the whole forest of
Carmel resounds with their cries, " Oh Baal, hear us !"
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 211
They surround their altar like a legion of demons,
with a whirling and giddy dance, leaping up and
down, tossing and tearing their many-colored and fan-
tastic robes, growing more rapid and furious in their
motions and more wild and frantic in their cries as
the slow hours of the morning pass on and the sultry
noon comes and there is no voice nor any that answers.
It is past midday, and still, hoping to gain time and
find some device or sleight of hand by which the fire
can be kindled, they continue their cries, cutting their
flesh, leaping over the altar, staining their faces and
their garments with their blood, howling and foaming
with frantic excitement, making the whole mountain
resound with the demoniac chorus of eight hundred
hoarse and screaming voices, mingling curses with
their prayers to their pitiless sun-god for the answer
of fire, and still it does not come.
All the while Elijah stands alone, waiting and
knowing full well that if by any deceit or cunning
they should kindle the altar the people will join with
them in tearing him in pieces on the spot. He even
provokes and goads them on, telling them to call
louder that their god may be awaked. But all in vain
for the frantic and fainting priests of Baal. There is
none to answer nor any that regards The people are
weary of the vain repetitions and terrible demonism
of idolatry.
And now it is time for Elijah to take his turn.
Again he lifts up his voice, and the people crowd to
212 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
hear. The maddened priests of Baal, reeking with
blood, exhausted with their own frenzy, sink in
silence on the ground. With calm and solemn deport-
ment, Elijah rebuilds the altar of Jehovah with twelve
stones, according to the number of the tribes of Israel,
lays on the wood and the victim for the sacrifice, and
then causes it to be flooded with water three times
over. And then, at the hour of the evening sacrifice,
the prophet stands forth alone and calls upon the
name of Jehovah, the everlasting God. The great
multitude are pale and breathless with awful expecta-
tion while he speaks. His calm and simple prayer
and- his peaceful deportment are more impressive than
the foaming fury and the wild cries of a thousand
priests of Baal.
No sooner has he spoken than the rushing flame
descends from the clear heavens like the lightning's
flash, and the very stones of the altar are burnt up with
the devouring fire. The sudden blaze blinds the eyes
of the multitude and illumines the whole slope of the
mountain with a light above the brightness of the sun.
The people watching afar off, on the house-tops in
Jezreel and Samaria, and on the hills of Ephraim and
Galilee, are startled at the sight. It seems to them as
if the pillar of fire that led their fathers in the desert
had descended upon Carmel. The multitude on the
mountain fall on their faces to the ground, unable to
look upon the great light, and they cry with one voice,
" Jehovah is God ! Jehovah is God !" In the wild
ELIJAH'S mOIIT IN THE DESERT. 213
excitement of the moment tliey rush upon the false
prophets with one accord, drag them down to the river
Kishon, and there Elijah himself, the terrible and
strong servant of Jehovah, slays them wdth his own
hand, according as it had been commanded in the law
of Moses. The ancient Kishon ran blood all the way
to the sea, and the slain worshipers of Baal were piled
in heaps higher than all the altars they had reared to
their false god.
And now that the people have confessed their
father's God and the false prophets are slain, it is time
for the rain to come and for the parched earth to
revive again with returning life. Elijah goes up from
the terrible sacrifice to the top of the mount in such a
mood that he can still pray. He continues his suppli-
cations until his servant has come six times from his
outlook over the sea to say that there was nothing in
sight but the glassy, heaving wave and the coppery,
cloudless sky where the sun had gone down. At the
seventh time, he can only say that there is a handful
of mist hanging on the horizon, as if a sea-bird had
shaken the spray from her wdng in the air. But it is
enough. Elijah, to whom all signs and aspects of the
clouds and sky have been familiar from his youth, can
already hear the sound of the coming tempest.
And now the j)rophet warns Ahab to hasten down
to the plain and mount his chariot and drive swiftly,
lest the blinding storm and the swollen stream of the
Kishon make it impossible for him to reach Jezreel
214 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
that iiiglit. And then, after all the terrible excitement
and exhausting toil of that day, this strange and strong
man, Elijah, girt his rough mantle close about his loins,
took his stand before the chariot* of the king, and ran
all the way, fifteen miles, across the plain, through
darkness and wind and mire and a deluge of rain,
before the flying horses of the king, to the gate of the
city, and then, like an Arab of modern times, he would
not go in, but stayed outside the walls and cast himself
upon the bare earth, in the midst of the storm, for his
night's repose. The prophet had j)ut the king to
shame before his people at Carmel, and he ran before
his chariot as an act of homage to show that he still
acknowledged him as his sovereign. He who could
call down fire from heaven, and bring the clouds and
the rain, was still willing to perform the menial ser-
vice of running in the rain and darkness before the
chariot of his king.
We should suppose that no threat or violence could
terrify such a man in the least. After having faced
the king, the false prophets and the people, and com-
pletely trium|)hed over them all in a contest of life
and death, we should suppose that he would be just
the man to awe the furious queen in her own palace
and rebuild the altar of Jehovah in the capital of the
kingdom.
But no. That very night, in the midst of the
darkness and the storm, a messenger came out from
the city gate, roused the weary prophet from his first
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 2} 5
slumber, and shouted into liis ear the oath of Jezebel,
sworn by all the gods of Tyre and Sidon, that before
another sun had set she would do unto him as he had
done unto the prophets of Baal. We wait to hear in
what terms this iron-hearted saint and hero will hurl
back his defiance upon the queen in the name of the
Lord of hosts.
But instead of that he rises like one terrified by a
dream and not yet fully awake. Wet, cold, begrimed
with mud and his garments still dabbled with gore, he
springs to his feet, looks this way and that for a mo-
ment and then flees for his life. Over the hills of
Samaria and the mountains of Ephraim, up and down
the stony paths of Bethel and Gibeon, along the bed
of the wild valleys west of Jerusalem and Bethlehem,
and then out upon the plain of Sharon to Beersheba,
he hurries like some conscience-smitten murderer who
sees the avenger of blood behind him in every shadow.
Nor does he dare to rest, even in the farthest town
of the kingdom of Judah. Leaving his only attendant
behind him, without guide or provision for the way,
he starts out in the early morning upon the waste and
lifeless desert. All day long he toils over the broken
hills and barren plains of yellow sand and bare earth.
The dead uniformity of desolation stretches in every
direction to the horizon. No living thing moves upon
the earth or flies in the hot and glimmering air. Now
and then a sufibcating blast sweeps over the horrible
wilderness, and the shining sand rises and whirls in
216 mOBT SCENES IN THE ZiJBLE.
waves and columns of fire. And still lie presses silently
on till tlie sun goes down and the stars come out in the
sky. Then, finding a low, solitary bush of desert-
broom, he casts himself beneath it, weary, hungry, and
in such complete despair that he would rather die than
live.
Such is the reaction which not unfrequently follows
the most daring effort and the most dazzling success.
Such is the despondency that sometimes presses hard
upon the most sublime and heroic faith in the purest
and noblest minds.
Peter drew his sword against a multitude in defence
of his Master, and the next hour he was frightened out
of all faith and courage by the scornful finger of a
little maid.
Paul was caught up to the third heaven in visions
of glory and Paradise, and he heard words of wondrous
and ineffable meaning, such a^. cannot be spoken to ears
of flesh and blood; and then, soon after, the same
favored apostle was praying with thrice-repeated and
beseeching supplication to be delivered from some
common and petty annoyance, such as tries the temper
and disturbs the peace of every one of us every day of
life.
The Christian Pilgrim, in Bunyan's truthful and
ingenious allegory, lodged in the palace Beautiful and
slept in the chamber called Peace. In the morning he
saw the Delectable Mountains and ImmanueFs land
from the housetop. He started forth upon his journey
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 217
harnessed from liead to foot in armor of proof. And
yet lie had gone but a little way before " he began to
be afraid, and to east in his mind whether to go back
or to press on." The beautiful vision and the fair
prospect of the morning were followed by the valley of
Humiliation and the most desperate and agonizing
conflict with Apollyon.
The young disciiDle of Christ rejoices in the fresh-
ness of his first love, and he feels that he would gladly
go to the ends of the earth for his new Master. Frank
and fearless in his faith and zeal, he is ready to speak
out his overflowing joy to everybody, and only wonders
that all others should not feel just as he does. By and
by he meets a repulse from an unexpected quarter.
His feelings suddenly change; he distrusts his best
convictions, and his despondency becomes as extreme
as were his hope and joy.
In the high day of health and prosperity a Christian
man of business gives his money and time and effort
with cheerfulness and constancy for the cause of Christ.
He has many friends ; his look is full of sunshine ; he
infuses hope and life into everything he undertakes.
By and by he loses health, loses property, loses his
vivacity and hopefulness. Then his friends fall off;
he slides out of his former social connections ; he ceases
to be recognized by some who once eagerly sought his
friendship. Then he desponds, takes gloomy views
of everything, judges others with severity, blames his
best friends, is still more dissatisfied with himself, and
218 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
fioally falls into tlie habit of saying that he has noth-
ing to live for.
In the ardor of youth and the tireless energy of
manhood the Christian soldier enlists under the stand-
ard of the cross. He storms the strongholds of sin ;
he inspires others with his own burning zeal ; he gains
great victories ; he has many to bless him for their
rescue from the bondage of sin and death. But he
does not accomplish all that he would. Many times
he finds the forces of the enemy too strong for him.
Many times he is left to bear the brunt of the conilict
alone, and when his noblest efforts fail of success ]\e is
blamed by his best friends. By and by, he loses his
ardor, his hope, his courage. He becomes cautious,
conservative, distrustful, suspicious, and finally settles
down into inactivity and complaint.
A gifted and faithful minister of the gospel labors
on with great energy and success for many years, while
his health is firm, and his mind active, and his feelings;
warm, and his imagination teems with glowing imagery,
and his iron frame never complains of exhaustion or
work or pain. As long as he can do all that, he is full
of hope — he has troops of friends — he can meet them
all with a smile. But by and by, his step begins to
ialter, his eye grows dim, the wheels of life move
heavily, the mind loses something of its vivacity and
invention, the voice does not ring out as clear and
clarion-like as it once did ; he cannot catch the salient
and soul-stirring forms of a23peal, as he once could.
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 219
And now lie sees plainly that lie is losing the mag--
netic power of drawing people to him. His friends
fall aw^ from him one by one, and others do not come
to fill their place. The attention that was once be-
stowed on him is given to others. He must stand
aside and somebody else must fill his place. He must
submit to see others increase and himself decrease.
He must be blamed because he is not prompt enough
in taking himself out of the way. And not unfre-
quently that trial proves too great for one who has
been the very foremost among his brethren for every
excellence of mind and heart. He whom everybody
loved and admired in his prime finds it hard to be
only pitied and forsaken in his infirmity and age.
The closing years of life are darkened with despond-
ency, and many times before he is called away he says,
with Elijah, " It is enough. I have ceased to be of
any use in the world. It is better that I should die
than live."
So the sick, the weary the worn-out, the aged, the
disappointed are in danger of feeling, even if they do
not allow themselves so to speak. And we must pre-
pare ourselves for such experiences beforehand, that
we may meet them with patience and serenity when
they are sent upon us. Elijah's despondency was the
more violent and depressing just because he seemed to
be upon the point of overthrowing idolatry and revo-
lutionizing the nation, and then soon found himself
a fugitive and ready to die in the desert. And all
220 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
failure is Litter and hard to bear when it follows close
on the reality or the great hope of success. The man
who has worked hardest and done most in the. service
of God is the one who finds it hardest to be laid aside
by age or sickness or the diversion of public attention
to others.
We must make up our minds to this, that the world
can go on without us, and that God's work will prosper
better when we are out of the way than it ever did in
our hands. However much his cause may lose by the
removal of one and another, it is destined to wax
stronger and stronger. The little vacancy made in
the ranks of the living by our departure will be
filled before it is felt. But as long as God keeps us in
the world it is for a great and a good purpose, and he
will always give us something to do. We have never
done enough so long as there remains anything to be
done. God has work for the aged, the afilicted, the
suffering, the disappointed, the helpless, the poor.
The greatest work ever done in this world was done
by One who was called a man of sorrows, and who had
not where to lay his head. The greatest success ever
gained in this world was called a failure at the time,
and the greatest victory was thought by men to be an
utter and shameful defeat.
When we are most weary and discouraged, and the
world seems a desert, God's angel may be on the wing
to bring us messages of mercy from the throne. What-
ever seeming failures and disappointments we may ex-
ELIJAH'S NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 221
perience, it is never time for us to fling ourselves down
in desi3air and say, "It is enough.'' What we call
failure may be Divine success with God, and our sorest
defeat may be the j^reparation for the most glorious
triumph. Elijah's night of despair in the desert, and
his long contest with an apostate king and backsliding
people, made him the man to be taken to heaven in a
chariot of fire.
It is not the chief end of man to achieve what the
world will applaud as success. It is our main busi-
ness in life to show ourselves true men, loving right-
eousness, hating evil, and willing to take such measure
of present happiness and success as flows from obe-
dience to the truth. There is unconquerable strength
which begins with the confession of weakness. There
is a serene and lofty repose of soul which is reached
alone through conflicts and through scars. There is a
pure and sacred joy which springs from the deepest
sorrow and suffering. The great loss which we have
most need to deplore is the loss of earnestness to do
right, the loss of strength to resist temptation, the loss
of faith in the everlasting principles of truth and
duty. The poorest man in the world has something to
live and to die for so long as he preserves the integrity
of his own conscience. The most successful man in
the world is the man who gives himself most earnestly
to the cause of God and truth, and who never bates
one jot of heart or hope in his good work, whatever
difficulties and delays he may have to meet.
222 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Take courage, tlien, when tlie burden is heavy and
the work moves slow, and the temptations and conflicts
to be met are many and strong. Never say " It is
enough," long as you have one wrong disposition in
your own heart to subdue — long as there is one soul to
be benefited by your effort or example — long as pa-
tience and faith and love and devotion to duty are the
great lessons to be taught and learned — long as God
says he will never forsake the soul that trusts in him
and seeks his aid — long as the crown of life is offered
only to him that overcometh. Never say it is enough !
But toil OD, pray on, hope on, and always believe that
wliile life lasts there is something to do to prepare
yovirself and others for the better life to come.
|aira|'s Uig|t at '$mk^.
i
So Jonah xvent out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and
there made him a booth, and sat under it i?i the shadow, till he might
see what ivould become of the city. . . . Aiid it came to j)ass, -when the
sun did arise, tha. God fre/parcd a vehement east iviT.d ; and the sun
beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and zvijsked in hiinself to
die, and said, It is better for me to die, than to live. — Jonah iv. 5, 8.
1
JONAH'S NIGHT AT NINEVEH.
HE prophet Jonah lived in the time of Jeroboam
the Second, about 850 years before Christ. The
book which bears his name in the Bible was
doubtless written by the man himself. It sets
the faults of his character before us in the most glaring
light, and it takes no pains to explain or excuse his
conduct. Such a record could have come only from
one who was honest enough to confess his own errors,
and sincere enough to desire that others might profit
by his mistakes.
The one prophecy of his which has been preserved
twenty-seven centuries for our instruction is embraced
in the single sentence : '' Yet forty days and Nineveh
shall be overthrown." He was commanded to arise
and go a perilous and weary journey of five hundred
miles, over rugged mountains, through pathless wilder-
nesses, across burning deserts, on foot, defenceless and
alone, and to deliver that awful message in the name
of Jehovah, the God of Israel, in the very streets of
tlie doomed and idolatrous city itself. In obeying that
command, he must cross rivers without a bridge or a
15 225
226 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
boat; lie must find his way through mountain passes
without a map or a guide ; he must travel in the track
and sleep in the haunts of robbers and wandering
tribes, without a present to buy their protection or a
guard to resist their violence. He must climb the
cedar-crowned Lebanon and face the chilling blasts
from the snowy heights of Hermon. His sandaled feet
must sink in the mire of the marsh, and his fevered
brow must burn in the hot wind of the desert. He
must follow the march of armies on the highway of
nations, and he must trace the path of the wolf and
the bear in the jungle.
And when all the toils and dangers of the long
journey are escaped, he must show himself with his
"one rough garment of haircloth,'' and wdth the
strange accents of a foreign tongue within the walls of
that vast Eastern capital, which the prophet Nahum
describes as a great and bloody city, full of lies and
robbery ; in tlie streets of which the chariots rage like
flaming torches, and jostle against each other in the
broad ways and run like the lightnings ; that gi-eat
city, within whose walls the speechless babes that
know not the rio-ht hand from the left count a huu'
dred and twenty thousand ; that rich and proud city
whose merchants are multiplied above the stars, and
whose princes and captains and warriors are like tlie
swarming locusts in number ; that violent and cruel
city, by whose myriad population the stranger prophet
from Palestine mav be trodden down in the streets
JONAH'S NIGHT AT NINEVEH. 227
aud his body cast from the gates as a prey for the
jackals of night, and no one ask who he was or what
was the object of his coming.
In the midst of that proud and conquering people,
whose wickedness has come up before Jehovah, must
this lonely messenger appear with no fiery sword of
attending angels for his guard, no avenging thunder at
his command to confirm his word ; and he must de-
clare, without the least reserve or equivocation, that
within forty days the imperial city shall be overthrown.
In so short a time shall the glory of kingdoms, the
tyrant and the terror of vanquished millions, be made
a mockery ; her princes and nobles brought down to
the dust ; her people scattered upon the mountains or
buried in her ruins; and the delivered nations shall
clap their hands over her fall with mingled contempt
and congratulation.
" Alas !" we seem to hear the prophet exclaim in
terror and anguish of spirit — " Alas ! that this awful
word of the Lord should come to me ! Let him send
by whom he will send, I cannot bear the message."
And so, for once in all the sacred record, we have a
recreant prophet, fleeing from the call of duty, as
Jonah rises up to go to Tarshish from the presence of
the Lord. Fainting with fear and wild with anguish
of spirit, he hurries from his home in distant Galilee,
a journey of seventy miles, to Joppa, that he may there
take ship and call to his aid the wings of the wind,
and hide himself at the utmost extremity of the Great
228 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Sea from Him from whose face the beams of the
morning cannot fly — whose presence would still be
with him though he should make his bed in hell.
When a little babe, nestling in his mother's bosom,
she named him her " Dove," as if with a prophetic
intimation of his subsequent character. And now a
man, like that timorous bird he flees from the distant
sound of danger, and he seeks some covert in which
to hide himself till it is past. Alas ! unhappy man,
though a pro]3het of the JMost High, he has yet to
learn that the universe has not a hiding-place for the
concealment of the fugitive from duty and from God.
It will take the terrors of the sea and the thunders
of the storm to teach him that lesson. He must go
down to the bottoms of. the mountains, and for three
days and nights lie buried alive in the belly of hell,
with all the billows of the great deep rolling over him,
before he will be satisfied that the claim of duty is
omnipresent like God, and that to flee from its voice
is to rush upon destruction.
We justly blame the disobedient prophet for the
moral cowardice which made him encounter worse
dangers in fleeing from duty, than he would have met
in facing its demands. But how many in our time,
with far better opportunities, have not yet mastered
the simple lesson which it cost Jonah so much to learn ?
The word of the Lord comes to multitudes in our day,
and it is as a fire in their bones, and as a hammer
upon their hearts, breaking the flinty rock in pieces.
JONAH'S NIGHT AT NINEVEH. 229
It calls upon tliem to surrender all for Christ and to
take up their cross and follow him. And they think
it a hard message and they cannot receive it.
And so they flee from the sanctuary and shun the
society of God's servants, and stifle their convictions
in their shut and suffering hearts. The Christian life,
as taught in the Divine message of the Gospel, seems
to them a hard journey through parched deserts and
over cold mountains, and with no congenial company
by the way. And they dare not venture upon it.
The word of the Lord must bring a lighter message,
or they will seek some one to prophesy smooth things,
or they will flee away in the hope to find some refuge
where there is no bleeding Christ to burden them with
his cross — no call of duty commanding them to suffer
and to sacrifice all for his sake. They would face the
sea and the storm, to find some Tarshish of pleasure,
or business, or indolence, where the troublesome word
of the Lord will never more awaken their fears, rebuke
their sins or enforce their obligations.
Alas! mistaken men, they little think that there
are no dangers so much to be dreaded as those which
must be met in attempting to flee from duty. There
is nothing in the universe to be feared by him who
binds duty as a law upon his heart. But the tempests
and the billows of perdition are in the path of him
who would escape from God.
And so unhappy Jonah found it, while yet the
desired refuge of Tarshish was a great way off, and
230 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
was never to be readied. He did indeed find a strong
ship, and lie paid the fare for the long voyage in
advance, and he frankly told the shipmen why he was
going, that they might refuse him passage if they were
afraid to carry a fugitive from duty. And then he
w^ent down and hid himself in the hold, and there,
wearied w^ith his journey and stupefied with trouble, he
soon fell fast asleep. But no sooner is the ship started
upon its voyage than the word of the Lord, which
first disturbed the peace of Jonah's mind, is cast forth
upon the wind, and there is a mighty tempest upon the
sea. He sleeps while the elements of wrath and terror
are all awake around him, and he is already beset by
greater dangers than any he sought to escape by his
guilty flight.
Tliere is nothing more awful than the indifference
or slumber of guilty men in the midst of the terrors
and afilictions which the Lord has sent upon them to
bring them to repentance. And here is the fugitive
Jonah, dreaming of a sure escape from an unwelcome
duty, and already hungry death is gaping upon him
with a thousand mouths, and he knows it not. No
ship can fly faster than God's ministers of vengeance
travel over land and sea in pursuit of the guiky. It
is all in vain that the affrighted mariners cast out the
rich cargo into the sea. The angry deep will not be
satisfied with such an offering. The clamorous waves
lift u}^ their voices for a living prey. The disobedient
JONAH'S NIGHT AT NINEVEH. 231
prophet is a heavier weight on the wings of the ship
than all the w^ares in the hold.
The pagan seamen call upon their gods, but there
is none to answer, or to deliver them from the wrath
of Him who holds the sea in the hollow of his hand,
who hath his way in the whirlwind and the storm,
and who maketh the clouds the dust of his feet —
before whose coming the mountains quake and the
hills are melted, and whose voice alone can rebuke the
sea and make it calm.
So the shipmaster comes at last, in terror and des-
pair, to this strange passenger, whom he finds fost
asleep down in the hold of the ship and all uncon-
scious of the uproar around him. He alone is the
cause of all the peril, and yet he knows it not till
awakened by the cry of the captain : '' What meanest
thou, O sleeper ? Arise ! call upon thy God, if so be
that God will think upon us, that we perish not."
Desperate as was the condition of all, the pagan sea-
men seemed to think at last that it was better with
Jonah than with them. For he had a threatenino; and
a chastising God, who might perhaps show pity and
save, but they had no God at all.
And now they begin to eye each other with dreadful
suspicions that some one of their company may be a
fugitive from justice, whom the angry elements will
not suffer to escape. The restless eye and haggard
face of the awakened j)ropliet now remind the fearful
mariners of what they already knew, but of which they
232 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
tliouglit nothing till the terrors of death encompassed
them on every hand. For Jonah liad frankly told
them when he came on board that he fled from the
presence of the Lord. While tlie sea was calm and
soft winds blew them on their way, it was a trifling
thing to those hardened men that their poor, troubled
Hebrew passenger paid down the advance fare to Tar-
shisli and in his agitation told them that he was try-
ing to flee from the presence of the Lord. Then they
counted it no concern of theirs who he was, or where
he was going, or why he went, provided he paid in ad-
vance. He might settle his own controversy with his
God in his own way, and they would pursue their own
business in theirs, without any thought of the God of
heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. But
they soon found that it would not pay to help men in
their disobedience to God. The terrors of the tempest
soon made them throw their fair-weather philosophy
and their indifference about Jonah's God overboard
with the cargo, to lighten both the ship and their own
consciences. And now they beseech this moody and
melancholy man to pray unto his God, that they perish
not.
Many a time have worldly and wicked men, on
board a foundering vessel or in the dark hour of pub-
lic or domestic affliction, gathered around a poor, im-
perfect, unfaithful servant of God and besought him to
pray for them. They may cast off fear and restrain
prayer themselves in the high day of prosperity. But
JGNAirS NIGHT AT NINEVEH. 233
when peril and sorrow and death come it is a relief,
even to the worst of men, to hear prayer from the lips
of any who can offer it. They will then say to tlie
very man, w^hom at other times they ridiculed and de-
spised, as said the shipmaster to Jonah in the midst of
the storm, " Call upon thy God, if so be that he will
look upon us in our trouble, and we perish not."
It was only necessary for the danger to become im-
minent and terrible for Jonah to show that he was not
altogether a recreant or a coward. Good men not un-
frequently shrink from trifling burdens or yield to
petty temptations when the greater trial calls their
faith into exercise and gives them the victory. And
this fugitive pro23het, fleeing from the presence of the
Lord, is more ready to offer himself a sacrifice to ap-
pease the raging deep, now that the storm has over-
taken him, than the seamen are to obey his word :
"Take me up and cast me forth into the sea!" He
can now look those hard-featured men in the face and
say, " I fear and worship the God who stretched out
the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and
who rules the waves and the stormy winds w^ith his
word."
He now begins to feel the force of the lesson tauglit
him from his mother's lips and breathed forth in his
infant prayer, "All the terrors of the warring elements
and the violence of numberless foes are less to be
feared than disobedience to God." And now, strong
in the recovery of that faith, the awakened prophet
234 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
declares himself ready for the sacrifice for which the
hungry waves yawn and the tempest clamors with a
thousand voices. If he had begged to be spared, or if
he had resisted those rough and 'reckless seamen, they
would have flung him overboard as unhesitatingly as
they had cast the merchandise into the sea. But the
comiDosure, the resignation of the offered victim, deprives
tliem of all power to lay hands upon him. His entire
freedom from fear makes those iron-hearted mariners
afraid of him. And it was only after a more vigorous
and vain effort to bring the ship to land, and not until
they saw that the storm grew more and more violent,
that they took up Jonah, with many prayers unto
Jonah's God to be forgiven in what they Avere doing,
and cast him forth " into the tumbling billows of the
main," and then at last the sea ceased from its raging.
The astonished mariners are saved, and they offer
sacrifices and thanksgivings in token of gratitude for
their rescue. The clouds are dispersed from the face
of the sky, the sun breaks forth with new glory and
the deep smiles as joyously as if mariners had never
found a grave beneath its billows.
But the recreant prophet, who had fled from the
presence of the Lord to escape danger or to avoid a
troublesome duty or to gratify his moody and j)assion-
ate temper — where now is he? Down beneath the
billowy mountains of the sea, the waters have com-
passed him about to the very soul. The floods have
swallowed him up ; the earth hath imprisoned him
JONAHS NIGHT AT NINEVEH. 235
witli its stony bars beneath tlie bottoms of the moun-
tains and the monsters of the deep are the inmates of
his watery dungeon. But even there in the bowels of
leviathan, in the living belly of hell, the word of the
Lord finds him out. The call of duty is still louder
than all the voices of the sea. The waves cannot
drown him; the open jaws of destruction cannot devour
him till his duty is done. The abyss has no hiding-
|)lace for the man who would conceal himself from the
Infinite Eye. The monster of the deep will vomit him
up on shore that he may learn henceforth to believe
that neither land nor sea will afford rest or even a
peaceful grave for the fugitive from duty and from
God.
We need not pause to ask how the life of a man
could be preserved for three days and nights in the
body of a sea-monster beneath the surface of the deep.
If we believe that the veritable word of the Lord came
to Jonah at his quiet home in Galilee, if we doubt not
that the same word sent forth a mighty tempest to
overtake the fugitive prophet on the sea, we shall not
find it any more irrational to believe that the same
Divine power could preserve him alive in his living
grave and cast him forth again by a mysterious and
miraculous resurrection upon the dry land. And we
must not busy ourselves so much with the mystery of
the story as to forget the one grand lesson which the
story teaches. And this is the lesson — all the elements
of terror and of power in the whole creation are less to
236 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
be feared than disobedience to Him whose word of love
and of law speaks in the secret place of every soul.
And now the Divine message comes again the second
time to this man who has been brought up from the
abyss of death that he may the better teach others
how dreadful a thing it is to disregard the word of the
Lord: "Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and
preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." Jonah
fmds it easy to obey that word confirmed as it is now,
in its repetition to him, by all the terrors of the sea,
and by the remembrance of his three days' burial in
the belly of hell. The long journey of five hundred
miles and the hostile faces of the myriad multitude
in the streets of the great city are nothing to him com-
pared with the displeasure of God.
He girds his shaggy mantle close around him, slings
his leathern scrip upon his shoulders, takes his pro-
phet's staff in his hand and travels day after day with
the dreadful sound of the sea in his ears to urge him
on, and with the resolution of one who bears an urgent
and an awful message. At last the great city with its
lofty walls and its fifteen hundred towers appears upon
the distant plain. He approaches the open gate and
passes in among the throng unnoticed or only pitied
for his humble garb and haggard face= No one sus-
pects that he brings with him from his distant home a
word of woe that shall smite the heart of the great city
with terror and despair.
He begins in the early morning and he travels on a
JONAirS NIGHT AT NINEVEH. 237
whole day's journey within tlie circuit of the walls.
On every hand he passes parks and pleasure gardens
and palaces ; magnificent temples, colossal images of
winged bulls and lions with human faces, and all the
most elaborate symbols of idolatrous worship. In
every direction he sees warehouses stored with the
merchandise of all nations ; monuments and princely
mansions, the master-pieces of invention and profi-
ciency in every art; trophies and inscriptions com-
memorating victories gained in conflict with the mighti-
est foes ; elephants, camels and dromedaries bearing
burdens ; chariots and horses running swiftly ; soldiers
marching and the multitude flowing, a living tide,
through all the streets and squares.
And on, where the crowd gathers thickest and the
uproar of business and toil and pleasure and lordly
command is loudest, moves this one lonely man, utter-
ing his one cry of woe, which is the more appalling
for its melancholy and pitiless monotony : '' Od arhaim
yom venineveh nehpdcheth ;^^ ^' yet forty days and Nine-
veh overthrown." Gradually the strange messenger
arrests attention. The awful earnestness of his tone,
the fire of God's inspiration in his eye stops the mouth
of the reviler and divides the multitude before him
wherever he chooses to go. His solitary cry is taken
up and repeated by other voices till it has pierced every
habitation and sounded in every ear. Gradually the
loud laugh is hushed, the roar of business and pleasure
dies away, the crowd in the streets, pale and planting
238 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
with terror, glide silently to tlieir homes. The cry of
the prophet goes down into the lowest depths of the
prison-house ; it ascends through ^the marble gates of
the palace, and the king on his throne hears it with as
much consternation as the slave in the slime-pit and
the criminal in his cell. This one man, who trembled
at the bare name of Nineveh when five hundred miles
away among the hills of Galilee, has conquered the
great city by one day of prophecy. At the going down
of the sun, the whole living population, from the mon-
arch and nobles down to the very slaves and beasts
in their stalls, are covered with sackcloth and ashes,
and every human voice is crying mightily unto God,
if peradventure he will turn from his fierce anger and
the city perish not. So much can one man do with
nothing but the word of the Lord in his mouth and
courage to do God's will in his heart.
But, alas! how fickle and passionate is poor human
nature, even when honored by the message of Jehovah
and speaking by the spirit of Divine inspiration. The
extraordinary success of this one day of preaching was
too much for Jonah's intractable spirit to bear. Hum-
ble and obedient as he had been made by the terrors
of the sea and the storm, all his old pride of heart was
restored by safety and success. Forgetting that the
very object of declaring the Divine threatening was
that Nineveh might have opportunity to repent and be
saved, he begins to fear that his word will not be ful-
filled. In his angry desperation, he would rather die
JONAH'S NIGHT AT NINEVEH. 239
himself than outlive the forty days and see the threat-
ened city still standing. He would rather see fire come
down from heaven and consume or the earth open and
swallow up a half million human beings alive, than
that one should say to him in after time, " Thou earnest
all the way on that long and terrible journey to declare
the doom of this city, and now, at the end of the ap-
pointed days, it is still standing !"
He has no w^ord of hope for the fasting Ninevites,
although he well knew that God is gracious and mer-
ciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness — forgiving
iniquity and repenting of the evil threatened upon
them that repent. He does not w^ish to have them
repent lest they shall be saved. He was once afraid
of them, and now that they tremble at his word he
spurns and despises them in their misery. The sack-
cloth and ashes of their humiliation are an abomination
unto him. Their cries unto the Lord madden him, for
he is afraid that they will be heard, and if they are to
live he would rather die himself.
At first he would flee from the presence of the Lord,
and now he cannot bear the presence of those who re-
pent and humble themselves at the word of the Lord.
As the sun goes down and darkness comes on, he
makes his way out of the city to a hill on the east,
bends a few branches together as a covert from the
dews of night and the sun by day, and there he sits
alone, as miserable as a j)roud and angry man can be,
waiting for the threatened vengeance to fall and im-
240 mOHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
patient because it delays its coming. There lie sits all
iiiglit long, hearing the wail of the great city, waiting
for the avenging thunders to crash from the skies or
the cataracts of fire to flame up from the abyss and
fulfil his prophecy. Having delivered his message he
might go home in peace. But no ; he must stay and
see those proud towers leveled with the dust and
hear the last bitter cry of agony and death go up from
the overthrown city, and then he will be sure that no
one will ever taunt him with having uttered a vain
prophecy.
The night passes and the morning comes, and the
burning sun of noon pours its beams with maddening
fervor through the boughs of the hastily-constructed
booth, and there sits Jonah angry with himself and
with Providence, still waiting to see what would become
of the city. And now the Lord causes a new and
strange plant to spring up and spread its broad leaves
and thick branches over him to deliver him from his
grief. And the petulant prophet, who thought he
would rather die than not see the destruction of a city
with a half million inhabitants, is made exceeding
glad by the shade of a few green leaves. But the
friendly plant died the next day. And when the
parching wind of the East began to blow, and the sun
beat down upon the head of Jonah, he grew faint ; and
again, out of all patience with himself and with every-
thing about him, he wished himself dead. He could
murmur and be angry for the gourd which grew in a
JONAH'S NIGHT AT NINEVEH. 241
night and perished in a night, for that took away a
little of his own personal comfort. But he could look
with satisfaction upon the utter destruction of a half
million human beings in the ^^lain below him, for that
would gratify his pride of character as a prophet and
his natural prejudice as a Hebrew : "And God said to
Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?
And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death !"
The sacred record, with its sublime indifference to
the gratification of mere curiosity when once the essen-
tial truth is told, says no more of Jonah. As we close
the brief narrative, it seems as if this angry impreca-
tion were his last words and he had his wicked wish
in death. Nevertheless the book which bears his
name could hardly have been written by any other
hand than his, and that, too, after his restless spirit
ceased from its anger and found peace in full acqui-
escence with God's better will.
The brief story of this strange prophet teaches, what
all need to learn, that there is no escaping from the
presence of the Lord. Every step upon the path
which God forbids is a step toward destruction. Every
advantage gained by disobedience to the word of the
Lord is purchased only by exposure to infinite loss.
Every moment of ease or self-indulgence secured by
neglecting the Divine call to earnest and self-denying
duty, sows the seed for harvests of sorrow and supplies
fuel for the fires of endless remorse.
In the vision of the Apocalypse, four mighty angels
16
242 XIGIIT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
were seen lioldins: back tlie four winds of tlie earth's
perils and sorrows, and forbidding tliem to blow till
God's servants were sealed and safe. And lie who
holds the powers and perils of the universe in his
hand will ever make a safe path for his children
through whatever watery deeps or burning deserts he
commands them to pass. But he leaves the ministers
of vengeance to pour all their tempests and thunders
upon the dark way of transgression. Set it down, then,
as a first article in your practical faith — tJie servants
of God are ahvays safe. The way of obedience to him,
however hard and dark it may seem, is always the
path of life.
The law of duty is supreme. It claims authority
over reason and conscience, over talents and possessions,
over everything that is greatest and noblest in man.
It admits no rival, makes no abatement of its high
demands, enters into no compromises with any oppos-
ing power. The voice of duty is the voice of God in
our souls. Obedience to its claims brings us into
living and personal agreement with the highest law in
the universe. It lends greatness to the humblest
occupation, crowns the lowliest position in life with
glor}^ and honor, brings man into alliance with God,
associates him with plans and purposes that have
existed in the infinite Mind from eternity, and which
run on toward their appointed completion through all
coming ages. In every act of duty we go out of our-
selves, and beyond the narrow scope of present interest
JONAH'S NIGHT AT NINEVEH. 243
and selfish gratification. We become subject? of a
kingdom that is universal and everlasting ; we adopt
principles of action which may be safely and wisely
obeyed everywhere and for ever; we present the
homage of our hearts to the supreme and eternal
Sovereign ; we do all in our power to fill his great
empire with peace and blessedness.
A duty shunned or a duty delayed is a duty still.
There is no Tarshish of business or pleasure or indo-
lence where a man can hide himself from the infinite
eye of Him whose word of command is the highest law
for every soul. No man can cease to believe that he
oudit to do God's will. The excuses which men make
for neglecting their duty cannot diminish their obliga-
tion. You may put off till to-morrow what conscience
commands to-day. And when to-morrow comes with
its cares and toils and temptations, it may be easier to
defer again. But the obligation to serve God will not
die or diminish its claims. As the Lord of hosts, in
whose presence we all are, shall live, and as our souls
shall live, so certainly will our obligation to serve him
last as long as we have our being. We can no more
flee from duty than we can flee from the presence of
the infinite Jehovah. It is only by obedience to him
that we can have peace.
You may not think so now. It may seem to you
that much is to be gained and little to be lost by deny-
ing for the present God's claim upon your heart. But
in that gentle whisper of duty, which you now so easily
244 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
deny or suppress, is tlie very hiding of God's infinite
power over you to make you liappy or miserable
for ever.
Duty done will make the voice of conscience sweet
as the harps of heaven to your soul. It will make the
cup of life run over with blessing. It will snatch the
crown of victory from the hand of all-conquering
death. Duty neglected will arm the voice of con-
science with the terrors of the judgment to come. It
will fill the secret chamber of the soul with reproaches
and with the sentence of condemnation.
Think of this, O ye who have been neglecting
duties till they are almost forgotten ! They are duties
still. And now in this gracious hour they all come
back like God's angels of mercy, pleading for admis-
sion at the door of your hearts. If you continue to
shut them out, they will be swift witnesses against you
in the final day. Open the door and let them in.
Give them a supreme command over your whole con-
duct. So shall every path of life be safe for your feet,
and in the valley of the shadow of death you shall fear
no evil.
^t iigljt-»tc^ in Pomtt Stir.
He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, xvliat of the night? Watch-
man, 'What of the night ? The watcJiman said, The morning cometh, and
also the flight. — Is A. xx. u, 12.
We turiied aside through fantastic rocks, and encamjbed at last at the
entrance of the f>ass, and -waited for the morning : one isolated rock
with a7i excavation inside indicated the regions %ve were apJ)roaching,
apparently an outpost for a sentinel, perhaps the very one 'which the
prophet had in his eye in that iuell-kncwn text, " Watchman, what of the
»/>/^/ .?"— Stanley.
INTIGHT WATCi:i IN MOUNT SEIR
248 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Tliey turn with frequent and eager gaze to the quarter
whence the light is to break. They wonder that the
day is so long in coming, and the longer it delays, the
more their imaginations are excitfed with the wildness
and desolation around them. To them the jagged
rock overhanging the narrow pathway looks like a
grim giant ready to crush and trample upon the pass-
ing traveler. The solitary cedars crowning the rugged
height seem like spectral sentinels set to guard the
forbidden passes of the mountains. The roar of the
distant torrent, breaking the awful silence with its
prolonged echoes, sounds like the tramp of armed men
or the thunder of horsemen rushing to battle. The
night wind wails and moans as if foreboding deeds of
rapine and blood.
At last the rosy hues of dawn appear in the
"dappled east.'* The blue, star-spangled curtain of
the night is slowly lifted from the dark ridge of the
encompassing mountains, and the travelers can see the
golden fringe upon the robe of the king of day. They
rejoice that the reign of darkness is past, and that the
whole surrounding landscape will soon gladden again
in the smile of the all-beholding sun. They lift up
their voices in loud thanksgiving to the great Father
of light that the morn cometh. Higher and higher
ascends the dawn, and in its growing light the wild
landscape loses its threatening and awful aspect. The
winds murmur with the music of gladness, and the
torrents leap from the cliffs with silvery laughter.
THE NIGHT-WATCH IN 310 UNT SEIE. 249
Joyful for the coming day, the pilgrims forget the
terror, the weariness and the watching of the night,
and start upon their journey before the sun appears.
Meanwhile, the fresh mountain air, through which
the feeblest stars shone with crystal clearness in the
still midnight, becomes agitated by the approach of
day and breaks up into conflicting currents of warm
and cold, damp and dry. The morning wind sweeps
down from the chilly heights and condenses the
crystal vapor in the warm valleys into thick clouds.
Soon the driving and darkening mist conceals every
trace of the coming day upon the distant hills. It
folds down its impenetrable curtain upon the far-reach-
ing valley. It rolls its heavy burden upon the wind.
It sweeps around every ridge and mountain peak and
down through every gorge and defile. Soon every
way-mark is hidden in the whole landscape, and the
travelers find themselves enveloped in a darkness more
bewildering and inextricable than that of midnight.
It is neither day nor night. They have neither the
light of the sun nor of the stars. They may return
to the place from which they started, while they
suppose themselves to be advancing upon their journey.
Now, with more anxiety than before the day began to
dawn, they lift up the cry, " Watchman, what of the
night?"
And yet they know that the mist which has sur-
rounded them has not put out the sun. The morning
star has not been stayed in "his steep course," nor has the
250 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
day-spring forgotten its j^lace. Tlie path of the
pilgrims is indeed darker and more perplexing than
before. But they know that guidance and deliver-
ance are constantly approaching . from on high. To
them the morning cometh and also the night.
They j)ress forward darkling and fearful upon their
journey, climbing the steep and slippery height, wind-
ing around the projecting crag, overhanging the
fathomless abyss, yet all the while assured that the
unconquerable light will struggle through the gathered
clouds ; the sun will ascend the heavens with meridian
brightness ; the everlasting mountains will appear
upon their old foundations ; the pilgrim-band will
reach their noonday rest in safety and in peace. To
them the morning surely comes, though for a time it
seems veiled in a dee];)er night. The light shall dis-
perse the darkness, and the world shall rejoice in the
crowned and conquering day.
Such is the scene set before us by the voice of the
night-watch crying out of Seir. And such are the
interminglings and alternations of light and darkness,
hope and fear, in the lot of individuals and in the
history of nations. In every faithful picture of human
life, the night must mingle with the morning ; the
shade of sorrow and calamity must darken the dawn
of hope and gladness ; the journey that begins with joy
must be pursued with peril and uncertainty. The
successful seeker after earthly happiness has only time
to cry, " I have found it,'^ when the possession glides
THE NIGHT-WATCH IN MOVNT SEIB. 251
ft'om his grasp, and lie is left to mourn with empty
hand and sorrowing heart.
Sometimes, wdiile pursuing our journey of life, we
seem to have entered some quiet vale, where the
healthful air revives the weary frame, the whole land-
scape delights with its beauty, and we promise our-
selves long and secure repose. But soon the clouds
gather darkness on the distant heights, the sun is
hidden, and the tempest pours its angry flood through
the whole valley, and our promised paradise becomes
a scene of desolation. Our blooming hopes are
withered in the blossom; our peaceful retreat is
invaded by a thousand cares and sorrows. The morn-
ing comes with unw^onted brightness and beauty, but
it is night before noon.
If Ave stand aside from personal contact with the
struggling and conflicting world, and observe the vast
and ever-rolling torrent of human life sweeping by us
while we listen to the voices and study the changing
aspects of the tumultuous scene, we shall find our
hearts constantly moved by the same conflicting and
changing emotions of hope and fear, joy and sorrow.
We see darkened nations rejoicing in the bright
promise of the near-approaching day. We are con-
fident that soon their whole land will be bathed with
the full efliilgence of Gospel light and liberty. And
then all our hopes are blasted by the sudden coming
on of deep, dreadful night. The morning of millennial
glory is not indeed stayed from its appointed hour, but
262 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
to our imperfect human vision the envious night keeps
even pace with the dawn. The full day of truth and
righteousness and liberty must be ushered in by a
horror of great darkness, and a cup of trembling, and
the earthquake throes of revolution. A nation finds
peace in the same way that rest comes to the weary
and burdened soul — through dark clouds of fear and
doubt and sorrow, and through the agitations and
conflicts of penitence and remorse.
In the history of nations light sometimes breaks
forth from an unexpected source after long intervals
of darkness. As we read the record we see the throng-
ing millions of an emancipated people going out in joy
and led forth in peace. The earth, which has long
cried to heaven by the unavenged blood of its many
martyrs, breaks forth with its mountains and its hills
into singing and the trees of the field clap their hands.
We seem to see already the fulfillment of the prophetic
word that a nation shall be born in a day. Suddenly a
cloud sweeps over the fair prospect, and its darkness is
sevenfold more horrible by contrast with the recent
light. The decree of Providence appointing the pro-
gress of nations is not reversed or forgotten, but the
advance must be through cloud and conflict. The
morning cometh and also the night.
We see great and mighty nations, in a single day,
violently breaking asunder the chains of ignorance,
superstition and oppression with which they have been
bound for ages, lifting up their multitudinous voices,
TBE NIGHT-WATCH IN MOUNT SEIB. 253
like the roar of the ocean in storms, and swearing by
the awful name of the King of heaven that unto him
alone will they henceforth bow the knee and acknow-
ledge no other for their rightful Lord. The thunder
of that mighty voice is the signal for the casting down
of thrones. The tyrants of mankind fear that theii
hour of judgment has come. They are ready to call
upon the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them
and hide them from the wrath of their emancipated
subjects, breaking loose from a thousand years of bond-
age in one awful hour.
But the first outbreak of jubilant voices has scarcely
died upon the wind before the dethroned and terrified
power of darkness and despotism begins to recover its
self-possession and its authority. Under a difierent
name it climbs back to the vacant throne, and casts its
baleful shadow far as the breaking light has shone.
And again we are compelled to say that if the morning
of deliverance from dark and cruel bondage cometh to
the nations, so also the night of ignorance and oppres-
sion keeps even pace with the coming day. Shocked
by the excesses and discouraged by the ignorance and
self-confidence of the uprising spirit of liberty and
reformation, we are ready to exclaim :
" The sensual and the dark rebel in vain,
Slaves by their own compulsion; in mad game
They burst their manacles and wear the name
Of freedom graven on a heavier chain I"
Such was the history of the Hebrew nation under the
254 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
especial guidance of Divine Providence in ancient time.
Such lias been and still is the history of peoples and
opinions in the European world. The good and the
glorious days of Samuel and David and Solomon and
Hezekiah were followed by the dark and evil days of
Saul and Jeroboam and Ahab and Manasseh. Athana-
sius and Augustine, Luther and Calvin, Cranmer and
Knox, Whitefield and Wesley, the great champions of
truth and reformation, found their dark shadow and
counterpart in Arius and Pelagius, Loyola and the
Inquisition, Voltaire and the French Ee volution. The
bright dawn of a better day has always been overcast
with dark and angry clouds.
And yet the providence of God is wiser and mightier
than the policies of man. The night which comes with
the morning is partial and temporary, although it
seems for a time to devour the day and cut off the
hopes of mankind. In the darkest periods of human
history we need only the clear vision of faith to see the
day approaching. If we take only human feelings or
human philosophy for our guide, we shall be ready to
admit that the " tide in the affairs of men" of which
poets write is only a tide, sometimes advancing with
crowned and crested billows, gleaming in the light
and breaking upon the old bulwarks of the shore
with resistless shock and thundering sound, and then
retiring to its original bed to repose and recover
strength for the repetition of the same aimless and
ineffectual charge. But if we take the sure word of
TUE NIGHT-WATCH IN MOUNT SEIB. 255
proj)hecy for our teacher, and with such a guide en-
deavor to forecast the destiny of nations, we shall see
that the night of conflict and disaster which comes
with the morning of hoj)e and progress is only the
temj)orary darkness of an unsubstantial mist, which
must dissolve and disa23j)ear before the light and heat
of the coming sun.
Our human prophecies may utterly fail. All our wisest
counsels may come to naught. Men in their madness
may shut their eyes to the light and set on Are the tem-
ple of their own liberties. Intoxicated with pride and
success, they may overthrow the fairest structures tliat
their own hands have built, and bury themselves be-
neath the ruin that their own madness has made. But
these excesses and disasters to the cause of truth are
only the brief night that comes with the morning.
The perishable structures of man must be overturned
and removed to give place to that living temple w^hose
foundations are everlasting, and whose golden gates
and sapphire wall shall be reared by God's own hand.
He hath sworn by the immutability of his own word
that the kingdom and the greatness of the power under
the whole heaven shall be given unto Christ; and
through whatever conflict and calamity the human
family must pass to the fulfillment of that prophecy,
the night shall not outlive the morn. The Sun of
Eighteousness shall fill the heavens with the full day.
In every human dwelling there shall be light, in every
nation there shall be peace.
256 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
It is ever God's way to bring liglit out of darkness,
joy out of sorrow, rest out of weariness for tlie waiting
and longing soul. The most exalted and blessed of
the redeemed host before the throne of God and the
Lamb have come to their heavenly seats and starry
crowns out of great tribulation. And it would seem
impossible for us to attain the highest experience of
peace and rest in this life except through some great ^nd
terrible trial — some awful and costly sacrifice. If wq
would reign with Christ, we must be willing to drink
of the cup and be baptized with the baptism of his suf-
ferings. We shall never acquire any great capacity
for joy, the blessed peace of God will never possess
our mind and heart, so long as we can be frightened at
shadows, so long as we shrink from self-denial. The
darkness which rests upon our path in the time of crlal
is the pavilion of the Divine presence, the veil w^th
which God covers his glory when he comes to bring us
new blessings and to kindle the light of new hopes in
our hearts. God comes in the thick cloud of mourning,
in the deep night of sorrow, in the sharp conflicts of
trial and temptation, in the sacred demands of hard
and pressing duty, and yet it is a message of light and
of love that he brings. He may have spoken a thou-
sand times with the voice of peace and prosperity, and
you heard him not. You took the gift and forgot the
Giver. You walked in the light with no thought of
Him whose sun shone upon your path. And now he
comes, or at some future time he will come, to you in
THE NIGHT-WATCH IN MOUNT SEIB. 257
the greater mercy of cliastisement and affliction, that
you may not be given up to the dreadful doom of those
who live without hope and without God in the world.
And you must look in the direction of the cloud if you
would see the coming day. You must learn to feel
that God is nearest to you in the very hour when your
mourning heart is ready to exclaim, " Why hast thou
forsaken me?"
I have seen the sky the nour before sunrise, among
mountains, clear, cold and beautiful ; the stars shining
from the blue firn:i anient with a pure and silvery light ;
the constellations of the north circling around the pole
in the silent order of their eternal march ; the snowy
heights without a cloud ; the white torrents like bands
of light leaping from the dark cliff. Then again, look-
ing upon the same landscape the hour after the sun
had risen, I could not see the blue dome of the sky.
The stars were hidden. Clouds covered the mountain-
tops. Darkening mists swej)t down from the cold
heights and rolled in billowy torrents through the nar-
row valleys. The jagged cliffs assumed an aspect of
terror. The wind moaned through the pines, and the
voices of the streams sounded like a wail for the lost
glories of the morning.
But I knew that the sudden darkness had been
caused by the near approach of a greater light. If the
night had continued, the sky would have been clear
and the stars would still be seen. But I knew that the
sua would soon scatter the mist which had been raised
ir
258 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
by his coming, and that instead of the faint starlight
we should have the full day. And I was happy for a
while to walk beneath clouds and to face the driving
mist that I might rejoice the more in the sunlight and
rest on the mountain-top in the cloudless noon.
The highest reach of faith in this earthly life is only
the starlight of a fair morning that foreruns the full
and eternal day of heaven. And the near approach of
the coming glory will sometimes raise thick clouds, and
make the hour before the dawn seem the darkest of
the night. The moment of the greatest discourage-
ment and difficulty is the moment when the Divine
Helper is nearest to those who are listening in the
silence to hear his voice, and feeling in the dark to
find his hand. Six times of failure and disappoint-
ment in a good work may be all necessary to prepare
for the seventh of success and joy. When a great
trial comes upon you in an unexpected way — when the
course of duty is hedged up by many and great diffi-
culties— when you are just ready to give over to utter
discouragement and despair, you may be sure that
Heaven's glory is hovering behind the cloud that'
darkens your path. You have only to press on in the
way of duty, and the full day will shine around you,
and you will look back with joy and gratitude uj)on
all the trials and difficulties through which you have
passed.
It is the glory of God to conceal himself and his
ways not by withholding knowledge, but by surpass-
THE NIGHT-WATCH IN MOUNT SEIE. 259
ing our utmost capacity to know. So long as our
minds are finite we shall know only in part. The
infinite whole of God's nature and works will still
continue to he the unexhausted science and the ever-
lasting song of all eternity. It is hy the unsearchahle-
ness of his heing and his judgments that God com
mends himself to our faith. He gives us the most
glorious and satisfying revelation of himself when he
shows us that the mystery of his being is incompre-
hensible by finite minds, and that his ways are past
finding out. All that he makes known of himself, all
that he can communicate to the most exalted mind,
only serves to show that there are loftier heights of
power, greater depths of wisdom, greater immensities
of love, a far more exceeding glory yet unrevealed.
The love of Christ, the way of salvation through a
Divine, incarnate, crucified Eedeemer, impresses us
more deeply by what we do not know and cannot
comprehend of its infinite riches of grace, than by all
that we can see and explain.
When traveling among the Alps, I came down from
the T6te Noir Pass into the vale of Chamounv at the
close of a summer's day. For years I had thought that
it would be one of the great and rememberable events
of life if for once, from the depth of that wild valley,
I could gaze on the unclouded summit of Mont Blanc.
But the day had been one of mingled light and
shadows among the Alps, and when the sun went
down the snowy diadem of the monarch of mountains
260 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
was veiled in clouds. I could only sweep with my
eye slowly upward from the green valley over the
silent sea of pines, and along the track of the avalanches
and across the " motionless torrents and the silent
cataracts" of the glacier, till the clouds forbade all
further ascent, and then leave imagination to measure
the unrevealed height beyond.
The view was sublime and transporting beyond
expression ; but all that I could see only made me
long the more intensely for the clouds to clear away
and disclose the bald and awful form of the mountain
in its full extent. The morning came, the sky was
clear, and I rose before the sun to secure the loftier
view which the clouds of the evening had denied.
There stood Mont Blanc, rising in cold and silent
majesty from earth to heaven, its snowy crown trans-
muted to gold in the morning light, every outline of
its vast proportions clearly defined and embraced in
one glance of the eye. But it did not seem to me as
lofty, it did not impress me as deeply, as it did the
evening before, when clouds veiled the summit, and all
that I saw only helped me to imagine a greater reality
which I could not see. I gained my loftiest vision
of the monarch of mountains when its crowning glory
was veiled in clouds. I was most profoundly impressed
with the vastness and sublimity of Alpine scenery
when 1 felt that there was a still more glorious vision
which I had not beheld. .
So the mystery which envelops the being and the
THE NIGHT-WATCH IN MOUNT SEIR. 261
works of Gocl gives us tlie most awful and impressive
view of his greatness, and warrants us in offering him
the most profound homage of our hearts. It is because
we cannot measure his immensity, because we cannot
by searching find out the limit of his works, that we
believe in him as God. And the only veil with which
God hides himself from us is the excess of light. The
clouds and darkness round about his throne seem
thickest to us when he shows us the most of his glory.
We are bewildered and blinded by the vastness of the
vision because so much is revealed.
Do not be afraid, then, of mystery. Do not clamor
for the short and senseless creed of him who believes
only what he can understand. There are mysteries
in every pulsation of life and every perception of the
mind which the deepest philosophy cannot fathom.
Do not be troubled and cast down because you cannot
always see your Father's face; you cannot know the
reason of much that he requires you to do, much that
he does himself, much that he permits to be done.
You must have faith enough in your God and Father
to believe that the night around you is day to him, and
that in him there is no darkness at all. The true
greatness and joy of life come from faith in things
unseen. The heroes and conquerors of whom the
world is not worthy are those who can march into the
deep and face the king of terrors without fear, when
God gives the word, " Go forward !''
Those who believe in God and live to do his will
262 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
should never despair for themselves or for the world.
It is a heathenish and infidel philosophy which puts
the better ages in the past, and predicts darkness and
degeneracy for the future. Christianity is the religion
of progress. Whatever light or blessing it may have
given, it always has more and greater to bestow. To
our feeble vision and fainting hearts it may some-
times seem as if the powers of darkness had put out the
sun and hung the heavens with black. But God has
made a covenant with the morning and it shall advance
to the full day. Philosophy may set up reason as the
antagonist of revelation. Science, falsely so called,
may gro|)e with blind eyes in the book of nature for a
contradiction of the book of life. Ingenious criticism
may set the inspired record to confute itself. Skepti-
cism may treat the sacred claims of the Gospel with
scoffing and denial. The base spirit of worldlinesa
may corrupt the many and control the few. The
cause of truth may seem to maintain its ground only
by great exertions and costly sacrifices.
Still, the promised morning shall come, and the
shades of darkness shall flee away. We have only to
discharge our individual duty and leave the times and
reasons in God's hand. Christ shall yet see the tra-
vail of his soul and be satisfied with the world's re-
demption. If we walk with him, we shall see his
triumph and share his joy. We must expect conflict
if we hope for the crown. Our greatest riches must
come by sacrifice and self-denial. Like our Divine
TUE NIGHT-WATCH IN MOUNT SEIB. 263
Master, we must be made perfect by suffering. But
we can walk safely in the darkest path if y«^e have the
Light of the world for our guide. We can have peace
and joy in the most wretched home if Christ abide
with us.
The Gospel is a revelation of light and of hope.
But to make the light seen, it is thrown upon the dark
background of mystery, and to persuade us to lay hold
on the offered hope it is contrasted with the awful
blackness of despair. Bevelation leads the heavenly
pilgrim by the double symbol of light and cloud. The
light shows the way of safety and of peace, and the
cloud shows in what direction the one infinite mystery
lies. The Divine word pours light into the most dark-
ened understanding and at the same time makes the
most cultivated feel their ignorance and deplore their
blindness. It makes a man most intensely dissatisfied
with himself, that it may fill his mind and heart with
a peace that passeth all understanding. It lays heavy
burdens upon the conscience, and pierces the soul with
the sharp arrows of conviction, and at the same time it
offers rest to the weary and the heavy-laden, and it
heals the wounded heart. The boldest flight of im-
agination would not dare to picture such an exalted
and glorious destiny for man as is set before him in
that very book which humbles him in the dust and
puts all his pride and ambition to shame. To the
poor, stricken soul, weary of his wandering, and long-
ing to come back, no hour is so dark as the one when
^M NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
he is just about to see Lis Fatlier coming forth to meet
him, and to give him the kiss of reconciliation and
peace. To the burdened and benighted pilgrim no
part of the heavenly journey seems so hard and cheer-
less as the spot where the mountains and the hills are
ready to break forth before him into singing and all
the trees of the field to clap their hands.
^t ligljt of »tpg.
<:■
Weeping 7nay e?idure for a nighty hut Joy comeik in the morniiig%
. They that sow in tears shall reap in Joy.— Vs.. xx. 5; cxxvi. 5.
XII.
THE NIGHT OF WEEPING.
iJFE is a conflict of forces — the weak against the
strong, the bad against the good, the earthly
i^Sp and the sensual against the heavenly and the
divine. It is the joy of existence to attempt and
succeed — to contend and conquer. This is the law of
nature, of providence and of grace. The body must
w'aste away or it cannot grow; the mind must be
wearied or it cannot rest ; the soul must fight against
temptation or never win the prize of perfect peace.
The new growth which gladdens the heart springs
from the old decay which destroyed its hopes. The
living generations have all come up from the dust of
the dead, and the footsteps of life are everywhere fol-
lowed by the hounding pursuit of death.
Every change gives signs of its coming; every sub-
stance betrays its hidden quality ; every law is uniform
in its conditions and consequences. The contradictions
and paradoxes with which we seem to be surrounded
are only parts of the Divine harmony, which displays
infinite variety in nature and infinite wisdom in Provi-
dence. Let it not seem strange that peace comes by
267
268 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
conflict, and tliat surrender should be the condition of
coucjiiost in the sj)iritual life. The appearance is as
little like the reality in the matter-of-fact world which
we see, and a part of whicli we are.
Tlie rcddenins: clouds of the evenins; foretoken the
fair weather of the morniDg. The fiery holt that
crash es through the sultry air of an autumn night is
the harbinger of a clearer sky and a colder day. The
mists that hide the sunrise among mountains give
promise of a cloudless noon. The intense cold of the
seve]*est winter's day is the last effort of the cruel frost
to lock the earth in fetters of eternal ice. To-morrow
the crisping snow will soften in the breath of a more
genial air, and the hazy skies will give signs of coming
rain. In tropic climes the tornado that lashes the sea
into madness, and the earthquake which drives its
ploughshare through the solid globe, are announced
by a breathless and awful calm.
The diamond is the most purely combustible sub-
stance in the whole kingdom of nature, and yet in a
fire intense enough to inflame the earth the diamond
would be the last to burn. The membranous coating
on the convex surface of the eye is the only portion of
the living frame which can feel the contact of light.
And yet that fine network of nerves may be cut or
rudely torn and feel no pain. It is insensible to any
other force or substance save that which is so delicate
that no balances can detect its weight and no other
sense can discover its existence. The tones of the
THE NIGHT OF WEEPING, 269
human voice, the outlines of the human flice, the gene-
ral movement of the human frame in walking, the per-
sonal characteristics of individuals, are so much alike
that we cannot describe the difference in words, and
yet we seldom confound them with each other. Every-
where around us we see infinite variety under an
aspect of perfect uniformity. Conflicting forces neu-
tralize each other — discordant elements unite in har-
mony.
The riddle propounded by the strong man in the
time of Israel's judges is solved and verified in the
history of each successive day : Out of the eater still
cometh forth meat, and out of the strong stiU cometh
forth sweetness. Out of the fetid and formless duno--
hill the delicate flower distills the sweetest perfume
and builds up the perfection of beauty. The fallow
field is enriched by years of neglect to bear a plentiful
harvest. The volcano pours a fiery stream upon the
fertile plain, and so relieves a wider district from the
more wasteful destruction of the earthquake. The
bow of promise spans the cloud which bears the thun-
der in its bosom.
All these are things of daily experience and per-
sonal observation in the common life of men in this
world. And they prove conclusively that paradox and
conflict and mystery do not belong exclusively to the
realm of the spiritual life or the higher walks of
Christian faith. The material and moral world both
came from the same creative Mind, and are in harmony
'270 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
with each other. Things seen and temjDoral shadow
forth the reality and surpassing glory of things unseen
and eternal. The struggle and conflict of the spiritual
life have their parallel in the travail of this groaning
creation, and in the mystery which clothes the common
things of daily experience and casts its shadow upon
every path. The lessons of religious instruction, which
make the highest demands upon faith and patience and
submission, are confirmed and illustrated by a thou-
sand analogies in things which we all see and trials
that we all suffer.
The material and matter-of-fact mind has no right
to put aside the high claims of spiritual truth on the
plea that it stands too widely apart from the common
walks of human experience and the common demands
of human necessity. He who is most in earnest to lay
hold on the crown of eternal life need not be surprised
or disheartened because every step of advance toward
the heavenly prize must cost effort and encounter op-
position. The dumb earth which we tread, the voice-
less seasons which visit us in perpetual round, the laws
of growth and decay which govern all living things,
the conditions of success and failure in all worldly
schemes, illustrate the same truths which we are to be-
lieve, and the same principles which we are to obey, in
setting our hopes and affections upon things unseen
and eternal. The children of this world have only to
become as wise in considering the wants and capacities
of their immortal nature as experience compels them
THE NIGHT OF WEEPING. 271
to be in providing for tlie necessities of the present,
and tliey, too, will become children of light. The
whole theory and practice of the Christian life are as
rational, consistent and applicable to man's higher
being and destiny as the lessons of prudence and fore-
sight by observing which men succeed in this world.
It is constantly maintained in the work of Christian
instruction that it is good for men to tread a hard and
humble path, to encounter difficulties, to experience
disappointment, to suffer affliction. .[^ Faith grows by
conflict with doubt, virtue gathers strength by resist-
ance to temptation^ The toil and travail through
which the children of God pass in their journey to the
heavenly rest are the merciful chastisement of their
peace. The life of the good soldier of Jesus Christ is
but a battle and a march. For him there is no rest,
no home till he gains the better country. His repose
after conflict must be upon the field with his armor on.
Success only increases the demand for effort and sacri-
fice. The spoils of victory supply new incentives to
press on more vigorously in the ceaseless advance to
meet the decisive struggle and the final foe. When at
last presented faultless before the throne of glory with
exceeding joy, he is clothed in robes which have been
washed from the defilement 'of sin in the blood of the
slain Lamb. Thus, all the way, pain is the price of
pleasure, sacrifice is the condition of successL life eternal
begins with the agony of death ; \ -
"And beauty immorfaf awakes from the tomb I"
272 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Now, the man of the world who ^^I'ides himself upoD
his ability to devise objections to spiritual truth, and
who deems it a mark of intelligence to doubt, calls this
a needless and an unnatural process. He sees nothing
but contradiction in the statement that the j)eace which
passeth all understanding must be the growth of con-
tinual conflict. He demands to know why the rest of
heaven can be reached only through the toil and weari-
ness of earth ; why the harvest of joy can spring only
from seed that has been watered with the sower's tears.
In the last great day, when the circling seasons of time
have completed their round, why shall the angel reap-
ers shout their harvest-home over sheavee that have
been saved as from the fire, and gathered from fields
that have been sown in sorrow and ploughed in tears ?
In answer to all such questions and complaints, we
might say. The conditions of life and peace are ordained
of God. He has full power and right to do as he will.
We must comply with his conditions and live, or
submit to the alternative ordinance of death. Men
may say that the terms of salvation are arbitrary and
irrational; they may think that self-denial and self-
abasement and cross-bearing are poor preparations for
the crown and glory of immortal life. Still, it is the part
of a wise man to take the infinite gift of salvation upon
such terms as the Infinite Giver chooses to impose.
But we can say something more than this. What-
ever may be the reason for it, there is no doubt as to
the fact that the deepest joy is attained through suffer-
THE NIGHT OF WEEPING. 273
ing, the highest exaltation rises from the dejoths of
humilityOiope in God sjirings to life when every other
hope has been torn from the hearlLJ And this is the
lesson taught most constantly by a thousand condi-
tions and analogies in this earthly life. Everything
which is best worth possessing even in this world is
ordinarily secured by efforts that are most painful and
costly. The daily experience of this present life
teaches us to sacrifice everything to attain the infinite
inheritance of the future. We give toil and study and
patience and pain for possessions that perish. Shall
we be less willing to give all earthly gains, and life
itself, for possessions that will crown us with glory and
honor, and fill the soul with joy and peace through
everlasting ages ? We do not think it strange that the
good things of this world can be secured only by toil
and sacrifice and conflict. Why, then, should we be
surprised that the infinite treasures of the soul, the
inheritance which passes all estimate in value and
duration, should cost us our all ? Why need any one
say or think or feel that a religion of self-denial and
spiritual conflict is a forced and an unnatural religion,
or that the hope of an eternal and blessed life can
ever cost too much ?
It is to be feared that many entertain this thought,
and that some even go so far as to ask why a Being of
infinite beneficence need bestow his blessings at so
severe a cost upon creatures that are utterly poor?
Why should not the Supreme Giver take to himself
274 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
the greater glory of giving without conditions, and
making his unhappy children blessed without effort or
sacrifice on their part. "Why/' says the proud and
perverse spirit, "need I be cas£ down and crushed
before I can be permitted to stand erect and unrebaked
before my Maker ? "Why must I be pierced through
with the sorrows of penitence and self-abasement
before I am permitted to share the peace that passeth
all understanding? Why should not the path to
heaven be made easy, and all the walks of duty resound
with music and gladness to allure unwilling feet ?"
All such questionings and objections are not simply
against the way of restoration and the theory of duty
taught in the Gospel. They are against the whole
constitution and order of nature, against the primary
elements of our spiritual and responsible being, against
the only way in which the sinning and unliaj)py can
ever find peace. No experience or philosophy, reason
or invention of man, has ever found rest for the sinning
soul save that which comes through penitence and
sorrow for sin. The deepest joy of the heart springs
from the deepest humiliation. The most enduring
strength and nobleness of character are built upon
the foundations of patience and trust and sub-
mission to God. Tears are not always the evidence
of weakness. Grief does not necessarily spring from
despair. When one has sinned against a holy and
merciful God, when he has committed a deep and
dreadful wrong against the best Friend he has in the
THE NIGHT OF WEEPING. 276
universe, there is nothing more just or noble for him
to do than to confess and deplore his sin in bitterness
of soul. He will never recover his lost self-respect, he
will never feel entitled to the confidence of the wise
and the good, until he does. The Christian mode of
building up a strong and symmetrical character begins
at the foundation by causing man to meet the demands
of truth and duty as they are, and so giving him
respect for himself, confidence toward God, prepara-
tion for all that the future may bring.
And so the Christian mode of cultivation combines
great tenderness of feeling with great firmness of pur-
pose, great susceptibility of heart with inflexible strength
of will and unconquerable patience and endurance. A
thoughtful man sees much in the world around him,
and more in his own heart, to make him weep. A
brave and strong man, who had faced torture and
death to do his duty in ancient time, said, when con-
templating the sin and misery around him, " Oh that
mine head were waters, th^ mine eyes were fountains
of tears, that I might weep way and night !"
And the man must be very insensible to his own
condition, and the condition of the world around him,
who never has any such feeling. The trials of life are
many and great, and the sins which we have all com-
mitted against God are flagrant and awful ; and it
does no credit to the feelings or the conscience of any
man to talk about such things as if they were trifles.
Embittered and vain as are the joys of earth, the
276 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
human heart must grieve for their loss or cease to be
human. The earthly husbandman who would join
the angel-reapers in shouting the harvest home, in the
great reaping-time of the earth's ripeness, must sow
precious seed beside all waters, mingling his tears with
heaven's rain and the night's dew. In his sore pilgrim-
age of trial and of sorrow he must have prayed many
a time, in unison with the prayer of the Hebrew exiles
in the strange land, "Turn again our captivity, 0
Lord, as the streams in the south !"
" The streams in the south," of which the captives
sung by the waters of Babel, were summer torrents,
flowing only when rain had fallen on the distant hills.
In anticipation of their coming, the husbandman sowed
the parched ground, and then waited for the fertilizing
flood to flow among all the fields. But while it
delayed its coming, he watched every gathering cloud;
he listened for the sound of the wind that might fore-
token the needed rain ; he rose early to observe the
goings forth of the morning ; he studied the reddening
hues of the setting day ; he noted all the signs of the
earth and sky, if peradventure he might gather any
promise of help from the distant hills, any hope of the
returning streams among the valleys. He would carry
every day a heavier load upon his heart while the
clouds refused to form, and the whole air was hot and
hazy with powder and dust, and the stony beds of the
torrents were bare, and the fields were burnt with
drought, and the food of the flocks dried up, and
THE NIGHT OF WEEPING. 211
famine looked in at the peasant's door. And when at
last the blessing of the skies came in a single night,
there was music for the husbandman in the voice of the
thunder, and there was beauty in the blackness of the
storm. And when the morning shone upon the
gladdening torrents bursting from the hills, and the
reviving herbage rose with new life from the fresh
baptism of the flooded streams and the falling rain,
then the husbandman needed only a human heart to
rejoice with tears of gratitude and to sing aloud for
joy-
So, from natural and necessary reasons as well as
from Divine appointment, must we all learn to toil and
to wait. As faithful husbandmen in God's great field
of the world, we must sow with tears and with j)atient
expectation, if we would reap with joy unutterable
when the pitying heavens are bowed and the gracious
rain descends and ensures a plentiful harvest. The
tears shed in the time of sowing give promise that
the reaper shall bring home his full sheaves rejoicing.
The troubles and sorrows, the temptations and burdens
which try the spirit most severely, only give it wings
to rise and help it on in the heavenly way.
There is a bird in Eastern lands possessing a form so
graceful, and a plumage so brilliant with all the hues
of heaven, that it has seemed to men too bright
and beautiful a creature to be an inhabitant of a sin-
ful world ; and as if supposing it to belong to the glory
lost in Eden, they have named it the " Bird of Para-
278 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
dise." We are told by intelligent travelers that that
bird never, from its own choice, Jiies before the wind.
When compelled by fright or danger to do so, its
gorgeous train of delicate plumes is disordered and torn
by the favoring breeze, and soon the bird, so beautiful
with all the hues of heaven, is wearied, baffled, beaten
down, and all its glorious plumage trailed in the dust.
But then again, let it mount upon the wing and face
the rushing wind, and soon the dust is swept from the
soiled plumes by the opposing breeze, the bird recovers
her seemly shape and graceful motion, and ascends
with unwearied flight to the gate of heaven.
The most beautiful thing in all this earth is the soul
of man when purged from sin and renewed in the
image of Christ. In his new creation he is the child
of immortality, whose robes are Divine and whose
destination is paradise. Angels come down to attend
and guide him all the w^ay, until he reaches the better
country and rests in everlasting habitations. And yet
even such an one, with angels to guard and God to
help him, and his name already written in the book
of life, can secure his promised possession only by
struggle and conflict. To rise from the earth he must
lay aside every weight — to reach his heavenly home he
must face the storm. The favoring breeze of worldly
prosperity will disarray the garments of his glorious
beauty. The wings of faith and love will be soiled
and burdened by worldly success. The abundance
of temporal blessing will impede his upward flight, or
TUE NIGHT OF WEEPING. 279
even make liim content to dwell in the dust. He must
be willing to sow in sorrow if lie would reap in joy.
He must be bowed down with penitence and humilia-
tion for his sins, if he would stand unrebuked in the
presence of the King of kings.
And this penitence, this sorrow for sin, which the
Gospel requires, is the beginning of all strength, all
self-mastery, all nobleness of character. Let me sup-
pose the case of a careless worldling, by accident or by
contempt, entering the room where a little company of
God's children meet for evening worship. Their heads
are bowed low in the act of devotion and the voice of
one ascends in tremulous and fervent prayer. But he
has not come there himself to pray. He looks around
with indifference or w^ith idle curiosity upon the sup-
plicating throng. He cares little for that mercy which
they ^.re seeking with tearful earnestness. He takes
no part in the confession of sin which they pour out
with si2:hs and brokenness of heart before God. He
has lived for this world alone, and his conscience does
not rebuke him very sharply for what he has done.
He only smiles while others weep around him. His
heart is sh it against all the appeals of the Divine word.
He is insensible to the presence and power of the
Divine Spirit, by which others are so deeply moved.
He thinks it only a matter of course that he shall leave
that room and say lightly that it was only from curi-
osity or to gratify a friend that he went there.
But no; while he is revolving such thoughts, a
280 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
shade of deep seriousness steals over liis face. His
lip quivers with rising emotion. He has caught the
deep feeling which is struggling in the hearts around
him. He bows his head and covers his face, and tears
burst from fountains that had been sealed long ago.
He begins to feel himself to be a sinner in the sight
of God. He sees his whole life to have been a per-
petual wronging of an infinite Friend. His whole soul
is seized and shaken by the Divine sorrow which is
the beginning of peace and joy.
And let no one call it weakness that he weeps.
That rising emotion is evidence that his lost strength
is coming back to him. The angel within him is get-
ting the mastery over the demon, and he will be a man
again. He is stronger, greater, suj)erior in every ex-
cellence of character, now that he has shown himself
capable of weeping for his sins. The penitence and
humility with which he bows at the foot of the cross
are infinitely nobler and better than the scorn that was
upon his lip and the pride that was in his heart.
Let me suppose, again, a boy of noble and manly
feelings to commit a flagrant wrong. It is done in a
moment of thoughtlessness or passion, and regretted as
soon as done. But his companions applaud the deed>
and his pride is enlisted to deny or defend it. What
shall he do ? Confess and deplore the wrong, or shut
it up in his heart to poison his peace and embitter his
life? The tem23ter will tell him to disown his sin and
hide the sense of guilt in his own bosom. But if he
THE NIGHT OF WEEPING. 281
takes that weak and wicked counsel, he will submit to
be led by blind j^assion ; he will bring on himself the
intolerable tyranny of an accusing conscience ; he will
make himself a grief to his best friends; he will
wound and destroy his self-respect and his peace of
mind. He may assert his proud superiority to the
relenting of a contrite heart, and the tenderness that
dissolves in flowing tears. But he will only avail so
much as to become, " lord of himself, that heritage of
woe.''
But if, on the other hand, his feelings are deeply
touched when he begins to reflect upon his misconduct,
if the trembling lip and gathering tear indicate that
penitence and sorrow for sin are getting the mastery
of his heart, you may be sure that genuine strength
and nobleness cf character are still his. He will prove
himself greater, purer, stronger by every tear that he
sheds for the wrong he has done. Joy will again
spring up like a living fountain in his soul. He will
reap the blessed fruits of penitence in gladness and
peace.
This, then, is the conclusion to which we come.
Peace must be sought through conflict with the temp-
tations of the world and the wandering desires of our
own hearts. This earthly life will be well spent if we
make its whole course a pilgrimage to the heavenly
rest. Meekness and lowliness of heart are the qualifi-
cations for strength and victory. The kingdom of the
blessed and the crown of glory are waiting for him
282 KFGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
who is willing to take liis place in joenitence and hu-
miliation at the foot of the cross. Blessed are they
that w^eep and mourn for their departures from the
living God. Blessed are they that return from their
wanderings wdth confession and broken ness of heart.
They shall find their Father looking and Avaiting for
their coming. Their names shall be wa^itten in his
book of remembrance, and they shall be j^recious in his
sight.
^^ WW jf^^^^ "^ i^J4^^?^'*-
Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, a?id
drank tvine before the thousand. . . . They dra?ik ivine, and praised
the gods of gold a7id of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone
. . . . I71 that flight was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.^
Dan. v. 1,4, 30.
XIII.
THE NIGHT FEAST OF BELSHAZZAR.
«/eJI ELSHAZZAE was the last of tlie Babylonian
'yJll kinffs. The sTeat feast which he made for a
J^ thousand of his lords was on the last night of
his reign. He belonged to the proud and profli-
gate race of the Chaldeans, whom the Hebrew prophets
describe as tender and delicate, given to pleasures,
dwelling carelessly and trusting in wickedness. Their
young men were showy, sensual and self-indulgent.
They dressed themselves in dyed garments of brilliant
colors. They curled their hair, used unguents and
perfumes, wore jewelry, carried walking-sticks with
the beak of a bird or the head of a serpent carved on
the handle. They were fond of silver-plate and
splendid carpets, costly furniture and great suppers.
They frequented dramatic entertainments in which
female singers and dancers appeared on the stage with
little dress and less decency for the amusement of the
audience. They drank wine and sang lewd songs, and
were out late at night, and they did everything else
that wild, half-intoxicated young men are most likely
to do.
285
286 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
All tills can be abundantly shown from the Hebrew
prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel; from the
Greek historians, Herodotus, Xenophon and Diodorus,
and from inscriptions on monuments that remain
to this day. And knowing all this concerning the
young men of that great and mighty city of ancient
time, we are not surprised that Babylon became a
desolation. The day of doom is not far off from any
great city when its young men have become " tender
and delicate" and given to pleasure ; when they have
grown effeminate, self-indulgent, fond of amusement
and afraid of w^ork ; when they are excited and pas-
sionate about trinkets and trifles — nerveless and spirit-
less about the nobler demands of effort and duty.
There is no more effectual way to destroy a great
and mighty nation than to give its young men all the
money they wa^^t, provide them with plays and
festivities and amusements and dances and wine, and
then leave them to sweat the life and manhood out of
body and soul in the hot-bed of pleasure and self-
indulgence. That is the way Babylon was ruined.
That is the way imperial Kome became an easy prey
to northern barbarians. That is the way Christian
Constantinople came under the debasing and abomina-
ble sway of Mohammedans. That is the way Venice
ended a thousand years of independent and glorious
history with shame and servitude. And nothing
worse could come upon the fairest and n\ost Christian
eity in the world than to have a generation of tender
THE NIGHT FEAST OF BELSHAZZAR. 287
aud delicate young men, without energy, without
principle, without conscience, but with money enough
to support elegant pleasures and costly vices. Let
such young men give tone to public opinion, and take
the lead in the highest circles of society in any city
of our land, and they would soon make it the Sodom
of America.
Belshazzar had everything to flatter his pride and
indulge his passions. He was an absolute monarch,
holding the life and property of his thousand lords
and his countless people entirely at his disposal. His
servants were princes. His concubines were the
daughters of kings. His capital was enriched with
the spoils of nations — his provinces were cultivated by
captive people. He was hasty and violent in temper,
yet effeminate and luxurious in his habits of living.
He was gracious and indulgent toward his favorites ;
and yet when their best efforts to please him did not
happen to suit his caprice at the moment, he would be
cruel as the grave. His anger kindled at the slightest
provocation, like flax in the flame, and he yielded to
the seductions of pleasure and flattery as the early
frost melts in the morning sun. In his soft and
passive mood he could be moulded like wax by those
who studied his caprices and played upon his weak-
ness ; but let him be crossed in his will, let him
receive a slight or a sudden provocation, and his
effeminate face would darken with the ferocity of a
demon.
288 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
The great hall of the palace, in which he feasted his
thousand lords reclined upon couches, was large enough
to accommodate four times as many guests arranged as
we now seat ourselves at table.* It was adorned with
carvings and sculptures of colossal dimensions, and the
lofty walls were emblazoned with the trophies of war
and the symbols of idolatrous worship. The profane
orgies of royal mirth were adorned with every artistic
decoration that the genius of the age could supply. I
believe that the fine arts are capable of ministering to
the highest and purest civilization, but thus far they
have done little to enlighten the ignorant, to lift up
the degraded, or to help the world forward in the
career of moral improvement. They have always
flourished in the corrupt and reeking society of a dis-
solute and licentious age. Rome, the modern Babylon,
was never more depraved and abominable than when
it had Michel Angelo to build St. Peter's and Raphael
to fresco the Vatican. The capital of France was never
more like Rome than when the Grand Monarque, Louis
the Fourteenth, dazzled the world with his splendid
court, and the great masters of every land were deco-
rating the palaces of Fontainebleau, Versailles and the
Louvre with the loftiest achievements of art. And to-
day, if we would look for some of the most ignorant,
vicious and degraded of the whole European popula-
tion, we shall find them under the shadow of architec-
tural, structures which are the wonder of the world for
beauty and magnificence. They have grown up from
THE NIGHT FEAST OF BELSHAZZAR. 289
youth with full opportunity every day of their lives to
gaze upon statues and paintings which the greatest
artists of the present age can only imitate, never excel.
In three hundred years the highest art has done less
to refine and improve the common peoj^le in Eome and
Naples than would be done by the spelling-book and
New Testament in one year.
We have several independent statements in regard
to the dimensions of Babylon, and although they all
seem like immense exaggerations, we shall venture to
take them as they stand for the purpose of illustration,
without attempting to improve upon them by our con-
jectures. Let Herodotus, the father of history, be our
principal authority.
The front of the great palace of Belshazzar was six
times as great as the front of St. Peter's Church at
Rome, four times as great as the length of the Capitol
at Washington. The whole structure was surrounded
by three walls, so high that it would take thirteen tall
men, standing erect one above the other, to reach the
top. The outer wall of the palace enclosed more
ground than Central Park in New York. The city,
in which Belshazzar reigned, was a square fifteen miles
on a side, surrounded by walls as wide on the top as a
large church, and seventy-five feet higher than the
highest tower or steeple in America. If Broad street,
in Philadelphia, were graded and built up to the full
extent of the city limits, it would be the longest,
straightest, widest street in the world. Ancient Baby-
19
290 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Ion had fifty such streets, straight as an arrow, crossing
each other at right angles, and wider by one-third
than the widest street in Philadelphia. And this
mighty city of old was furnished with towers and tem-
ples and palaces and pleasure-gardens correspondent
to its greatness. Belshazzar's so-called father, Ne-
buchadnezzar, was the most magnificent builder the
world ever saw. According to Herodotus, he put into
the walls of his capital alone more than five thousand
millions of solid feet of masonry. Babylonian bricks
a foot square, inscribed with the name of Nebuchadnez-
zar, have been found by Sir Henry Bawlinson in more
than a hundred different places in the country about
the ruins of the great city, and there are millions of
such brick to-day lying just where they were placed
by the hand of the workmen twenty-four hundred
years ago.
Belshazzar inherited the pride, the glory, the riches,
the power, the palaces, the capital, the kingdom of his
great father. He inherited enough to ruin any young
man who was not fortified by great strength of charac-
ter and a severe mastery of his own appetites and pas-
sions. He was admitted to a share in kingly power
at fifteen, and the glory, which was too great for the
mighty Nebuchadnezzar, easily turned the head of an
effeminate and giddy youth, who had earned nothing
of all he had by his own exertions. He lifted himself
ap against the Lord of heaven, and he despised the
kings and armies of the earth.
THE NIGHT FEAST OF BELSHAZZAB. 291
At tlie time immediately preceding the great feast
which Belshazzar made for his thousand lords, the pro-
vince of Babylon had been overrun and the capital
assailed by a great army from the north. But, for
some strange and inexplicable reason, the besieging
force had apparently withdrawn. No effort appears
to have been made to discover what had become of
the enemy or what had occasioned their disappearance.
It was enough that they could no longer be seen from
the towers and walls. It was taken for granted that
the siege was abandoned and the war was over. The
whole city was immediately given up to rejoicing and
every form of riotous excess. Belshazzar set the ex-
ample, and people and princes were only too ready to
imitate their ki^g. The retiring enemy were ridiculed.
The guards deserted their post. The gates in the
palace-walls and the river banks were left open. No
attention was given to the strange and startling fact
that the water in the river was beginning to fall, and
that when the night of the great feast began the bed
of the stream was in many places bare, and that the
empty channel left an open pathway for an army to
march beneath the walls. There was feasting and
dancing everywhere, and the mad revelers thronged
the streets and houses, the palaces and pleasure-gar-
dens through all the city. The flames of idolatrous
sacrifice rose high into heaven from the lofty tower of
Belus. The hanging-gardens were hung with lanterns
and torches, till they seemed like a mountain of fire at
292 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
midniglit. Torchligiit processions flowed like rivers
of flame through the broad streets. The light of lamps
outshone the starlight, and the blue Chaldean heavens
looked black above the blaze of the great illumination.
Meanwhile, Belshazzar has entered the hall of
banquet —
" And a thousand dark nobles all bend at bis board;
Fruits glisten, flowers blossom, meats steam, and a flood
Of the wine that man loveth runs redder than blood ;
Wild dancers are there and a riot of mirth.
And the beauty that maddens the passions of earth;
And the crowd all shout, while the vast roofs ring,
All praise to Belshazzar, Belshazzar the king 1"
*' The music and the banquet and the wine ; the
garlands, the rose-odors and the flowers; the spark-
ling eyes, the flashing ornaments, the jeweled arms, the
raven hair, the braids, the bracelets, the thin robes
floating like clouds ; the fair forms, the delusion and
the false enchantment of the dizzy scene,'' take away
all reason and all reverence from the flushed and
crow^ded revelers. There is now nothing too sacred
for them to profane, and Belshazzar himself takes the
lead in the riot and the blasphemy. Even the mighty
and terrible Nebuchadnezzar, who desolated the sanc-
tuary of Jehovah at Jerusalem, would not use his
sacred trophies in the w^orship of his false gods. But
this weak and wicked successor of the great conqueror,
excited with wine and carried away with the delusion
that no foe can ever capture his great city, is anxious
THE mGHT FEAST OF BELSHAZZAR. 293
to make some grand display of defiant and blasplif*-
mous desecration :
*' ' Bring forth,' cries tlie monarcli, ' tlie vessels of gold
Which my father tore down from the temples of old ;
Bring forth, and we'll drink while the trumpets are blown,
To the gods of bright silver, of gold and of stone.
Bring forth.' And before him the vessels all shine,
And he bows unto Baal, and he drinks the dark wine,
While the trumpets bray and the cymbals ring,
'Praise, praise to ]>cl,shazzar, Belshazzar the king.'
Now what cometh? Look, look ! without menace or call,
Who writes with the lightning's bright hand on the wall?
What pierceth the king like the point of a dart?
What drives the bold blood from his cheek to his heart?
Let the captive of Judah the letters expound.
They are read ; and Belshazzar is dead on the ground.
Hark I the Persian has come on the conqueror's wing,
And the Mode's on the throne of Belshazzar the king."
The graphic lines of the modern poet do not exag-
gerate the rapidity with which the ministers of ven-
geance came upon Belshazzar and his thousand lords
on the last night of his impious reign. At the very
moment when their sacrilegious revelry was at its
height, the bodiless hand came forth and wrote the
words of doom upon the wall of the banqueting-room,
the armies of Cyrus had turned the Euphrates out of
its channel and marched into the unguarded city along
the bed of the stream beneath the walls ; they were
already in possession of the palace gates when Bel-
shazzar and his princes were drinking wine from the
vessels of Jehovah and praising the gods of gold and
294 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
silver and stone, and tliat great feast of boasting and
of blasphemy was the last ceremonial of the ChaldeaD
kings.
The reckless and the profane not unfrequently dis-
play the greatest gayety and thoughtlessness when they
are on the very brink of destruction. The feeling and
the appearance of safety are not always to be taken for
reality. Death still enters the banquet and the ball-
room as well as the bed-chamber. The last oppor-
tunity to prepare for a safe departure out of the world
comes to many, and they employ it only in doing their
utmost to stay here as long as they can. The last
word of warning and instruction is spoken to many
while they are so much absorbed in earthly things
that they do not know that they have been addressed
at all.
The last opportunity for any good work is apt to
look just like all that came and went before it. We
seldom know that it is the last until it is gone never to
return. Our only safe way to imjorove the last opportu-
nity is to use all that come as if any one might be the
last. On any night of the year multitudes are spend-
ing the precious hours as they would not wish to do if
they knew that to them it would be the last night of
earth. Many go to places where they would not wish
to be found when the messenger of death comes to
change their face and send them away. Many are
living in the indulgence of habits which they would be
very unwilling to continue if they knew that they had
THE NIGHT FEAST OF BELSHAZZAB. 295
already entered upon the last year of life. JMany are
in the habit of speaking as they would not be willing
to do if they were conscious that what they say is to
pass from their lips directly to the book of final ac-
count. The Bible gives us this one instance of a great
king and his princely associates in ancient time sud-
denly arrested in the midst of their wildest revelry
and blasphemy, to teach all readers of the sacred story
never to utter words that might not be fitly spoken if
they should prove the last ; never to be found in a place
where the feeling of God's presence is a source of dis-
quietude; never to do anything which would cause
regret if it should prove the last act of life.
The apparent thoughtlessness of the gay and worldly
does not prove that they are at peace with themselves.
A smiling face and a reckless manner are sometimes
put on to hide an anxious and an aching heart. There
are more troubled and weary souls in the halls of
gayety and the saloons of riotous mirth than in the
house of God. There are more unhappy ones in j)laces
where peoj)le go to be amused than in places where
they go to be instructed and to do their duty. The
young man who says, with the. most prompt and pas-
sionate decision, he does not care anything about re-
ligion, may be the very one who feels most deeply that
he is poor and miserable w^ithout it. The young lady
who thinks she cannot give up the pleasures of the
world for peace with God, may be the very one who
finds least satisfaction in a worldly life
296 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
To find joy in everything we do, we must do every-
thing for God. To have the light of heaven upon our
faces in all the dark hours of trial and trouble, we must
have heaven's peace in our hearts. There will be no
need of pretending cheerfulness or of seeking pleasure
in the frivolities and dissipations of the world when
once the love of Christ has opened fountains of pure
and endless joy in the soul. The message of the gospel
is God's way of peace for man. Religion is given us
to make us happy here and happy for ever hereafter.
There is indeed much gloom and despondency among
Christians. But their religion does not make them
unhappy. There are some things hard to be under-
stood in the Bible, but there are still greater and
more awful mysteries in the world without the Bible.
If all would enter God's way of peace and accej^t his
offered rest, the happy change would shed light upon
a troubled sea of sad faces, and lift the heaviest weight
from a world of weary hearts.
Belshazzar and his thousand lords did not profane
the golden vessels of Jehovah until they had drunk
wine. Indulgence in the intoxicating cup prepares
the way for every excess and profanation. No man
can be sure that he will be saved from any degree of
shame or crime when once he has " put an enemy in
his mouth to steal away his reason." For most persons
the only safeguard against drinking too much is not to
drink at all. If none ever took a temperate glass for
pleasure, none would ever drown themselves in full
THE NIGHT FEAST OF BELSHAZZAB. 297
beakers with intoxication. Put away the wine-cup
from tlie feast, and profanity and lewdness will go with
it. Shut up the dram-shops, and the houses of licen-
tiousness will be purified and the cells of the prisons
will be empty. A heathen historian explains the fall
of the mightiest city of ancient times, when he says :
* ^Bahylonii maxime in vinum, et qiice ehrietatem sequun tur,
effusi sunt.''^ (The Babylonians were greatly given to
wine and to those things which follow intoxication.)
The eye of the Great Judge is upon every scene of
profanity and dissipation. The handwriting appeared
upon the wall of the banquet-room in Belshazzar's
palace in the hour of their wildest mirth, to show that
God was there. And God is in every scene of wicked-
ness and dissipation not less really than in the Holy
Place of his own sanctuary. The finger of God is ever
writing the witness of his presence with us upon the
living tablets of our hearts. So long as we have a
conscience we must have a voice within us to tell us
that God's eye is ever fixed upon us, and that we must
give account to him for all we do and for all we are.
That infinite and awful Witness is in every storehouse,
work'shop and place of business every day of the week
and every hour of the day. His eye scrutinizes every
transaction in trade, every quality in goods, every de-
gree of fidelity or neglect in work. His ear catches
every word that passes between the buyer and the
seller, the employer and the workman, the master and
the servant, the mistress and the maid. He balances
298 NIGBT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
the books of the broker, presides at the board of trade,
searches the vauUs of the bank, judges the solvency of
every debtor and the justice with which every creditor
enforces his claim. He stands as a silent witness to
every statement of prices, of quality and of value in
the dry-goods palace, behind the shaded windows of the
pawnbroker and beside the shivering huckster in the
street. The omniscient God is witness to every oath
in the courts and custom-house, in the office of the
attorney and the tax-gatherer, upon every report of
income and every showing of assets and liabilities in
failure and bankruptcy. There is nothing said or done
or thought that can escape the Infinite Eye. In the
deepest solitude we must all have one companion. To
every act and word of our lives there must be one wit-
ness, and that witness is the holy and sin-hating God.
The bodiless hand that wrote in flaming letters upon
the walls of Belshazzar's palace is ever writing upon
every heart : " God is here — God is everywhere !"
Surely, then, it must be our wisdom so to live that
the sense of God's presence shall be peace and joy to
the soul. We cannot hide anything from him. Why
then do anything which we would not wish him to
know? We cannot escape our accountability to him
for all we do. Why then not live so that we can give
liim our account with joy?
Conscience is a mysterious and mighty power in us
all. The great and terrible king Belshazzar was com-
pletely mastered and unmanned by its secret whisper.
THE NIGHT FEAST OF BELSHAZZAR. 299
His countenance changed and his thoughts troubled
him, and he trembled like the aspen before he knew
the meaning of the writing on the wall. He was afraid,
because an accusing conscience always makes darkness
and mystery terrible to the guilty. It is mightiest in
the mighty. Milton's Satan, Byron's Manfred, Shake-
speare's Macbeth and Kichard the Third are truthful
illustrations of the harrowing torture produced in the
mightiest mind by the calm, solemn voice within, which
only says, " You are wrong." The Supreme Creator
has put us absolutely in the powder of that mysterioua
judge which pronounces sentence upon all our conduct
and motives in our own bosoms. And we cannot con-
ceive anything worse for a man than to die and go into
the eternal world with an unappeased and accusing
conscience to keep him company and to torment him
for ever. And the infinite mercy is manifest most of
all in providing a way by which the high and awful
demands of conscience can be answered and the guilty
soul can find peace. Within the whole range of hu-
man thought and inquiry there is no greater mystery
than this — the rescue of men from the misery which
they suffer from their own consciences.
Belshazzar had riches and pleasure and glory. H*
was absolute master in the greatest palace and tlic
greatest city the world had ever seen. But what is his
life worth to the world now, except to warn men not to
live as he did? With all his splendor and luxury he
lived a wretched man, and he died as the fool dies
300 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
He lifted himself up against God, lie trusted in wicked-
ness, and so be became but as the chaff which the wind
driveth away. While he was yet in the height of his
power and glory, his days were numbered, his charac-
ter was w^eighed and found wanting before the infinite
Judge.
And the same sovereign God counts out the days of
life to us all. He weighs our character, our conduct,
our motives in the balances of infinite truth. And
there is no deficit so damaging as that which is
charged to one who is found wanting before God. A
man may be weighed and found wanting at the bank,
at the board of trade, at the commercial agency, in the
circles of fashion and social respectability, and yet be
able to lift up his head and walk the earth with the
firm step of an honest and an honorable man. There
are heirs of infinite and everlasting riches and honor
whose names would not turn a feather's weight in the
balances with which the world is most apt to weigh
the worth of men. The doors of the best houses on
earth are not always open to those who can "read their
title clear to mansions in the skies.''
But oh to be wanting when God weighs motive,
character, life, soul ; to be wanting when judged by the
most compassionate, indulgent and generous Friend;
to be wanting in love to Christ, when he died on the
cross to draw all hearts to him; to be wanting in the
fruits and joys of a holy life, when God bestowed ten
thousand gifts and instructions to help us gain that
THE NIGHT FEAST OF BELSHAZZAB. 301
great reward ; to be wanting in a hope sure and stead-
fast when God takes away the soul ; to be wanting
when the book of life is opened and the eye of the final
Judge turns to see whose name is written therein, — who
would not see to it earnestly and always that no such
fatal deficiency shall be found against him when the
last account of his life is balanced before God ?
It has been said that the thought of our responsi-
bility to God is the greatest thought ever entertained
by the greatest mind. Certainly the discoveries and
demonstrations of science cannot carry our minds so
far over the sweep of ages and over the expanse of the
universe as the bare thought that our individual being
is bound inseparably and for ever to the being of the
infinite and eternal God. Whatever we do, wherever
we are, we can never cease to be responsible to him.
For he has appointed us to do his work. He has given
us the means, the faculties and the opportunity, and
he holds us answerable for using them well. So far as
we are true to our high destiny, we are warranted in
looking upon ourselves as co-laborers with the Builder
of all worlds, ambassadors of the eternal King, execu-
tors of the supreme Will. Thus our accountability to
God, fully accepted and faithfully met, will raise us
above everything that is mean and selfish and impure.
It will make us believe and feel that we always have
something great and glorious and good to live for. It
will make us earnest, cheerful and strong under all the
burdens, discouragements and difiiculties of life. What
802 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
the world wants most is men in whose minds the great
thought of responsibility to God is ever present — men
who are made strong by the consciousness that they
are doing God's work, and they 'mean to do it so as to
receive his approbation.
% Itig^t toitj |tsus at |trusakm.
There uas a man of the Pharisees^ named Nt'codemus, a ruler of is
^evjs. The same came to Jesus by night. — John iii. i, 2.
XIV.
A NIGHT WITH JESUS AT JERUSALEM.
)
NE of the most memorable and important inter-
views which ever took place between two indi-
viduals in this world was held on a raft in the
middle of the river Niemen, at the little town
of Tilsit, in Prussia. At one o'clock precisely, on the
25th of June, 1807, boats put off from opposite sides
of the stream and rowed rapidly toward the raft. Out
of each boat stepped a single individual, and the two
met in a small wooden apartment in the middle of the
raft, while cannon thundered from either shore, and
the shouts of great armies drawn up upon both banks
drowned the roar of artillery. The two persons were
the Emperors Napoleon and Alexander, and the his-
tory of the time tells us that they met " to arrange the
destinies of mankind.'' And the hastily-constructed
raft, on which the interview took place, will be re-
membered as long as the story of great conquests and
mighty revolutions can interest the mind of man.
The conference lasted but two hours; it was entirely
private between the two emperors, and yet it was
fraught with momentous consequences to millions. It
20 305
306 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
was one of the great crises in human history when the
currents of power that govern the nations take new
directions and break over the bounds and barriers
of ages.
Go back eighteen hundred years beyond the treaty
of Tilsit, and we can find a private conference between
two individuals of far more momentous and lasting
importance than that between Napoleon and Alexander.
This more ancient interview was not watched with
eager expectancy by great armies; it was not hailed
by the thunder of cannon and the shout of applaud-
ing thousands ; it was not arranged beforehand by
keen and watchful agents guarding the interest and
safety of the two who were to meet. It was in a pri-
vate house, at a late hour of the night, and it was
brought about by the mingled curiosity and anxiety
of an old man to know something more of a young
teacher who had recently appeared in his native city.
And yet from that humble night-conference of Jesus
with Nicodemus there have gone forth beams of light
and words of power to the ends of the earth. The
plans formed by Napoleon and Alexander at Tilsit
were reversed and defeated long ago, and it is impossi-
ble to trace their influence in the condition of Euro-
pean nations to-day. The words spoken by Jesus to
his wondering and solitary listener that night have
already changed and glorified the destiny of immortal
millions, and they have more influence in the world
now than in any previous age ; and they are destined
A NIGHT WITH JESUS AT JERUSALEM. 307
to go on increasing in power until tliey shall be
received as the message of life and love by every nation
under heaven.
We shall do well to observe the time, the place and
the occasion when this aged inquirer came to Jesus
and drew from him words of such momentous import-
ance to himself and the world. The time was nia-ht.
The place was Jerusalem. The occasion was the feast
of the Passover.
Jesus had come up from Capernaum to keep the
great national festival at the sacred city of the Jewish
people. Multitudes had come on the same errand
from every portion of the land and from the principal
cities of far distant nations. The houses in Jerusalem
were all full. The streets were thronged. The courts
and squares were crowded with pilgrims. The valleys
and hill-sides beyond the walls were covered with
tents. Josephus says that by actual count, on one
occasion, it was found that two hundred and fifty-six
thousand lambs were slain between three and five
o'clock in the afternoon, and that two millions seven
hundred thousand persons — three times as many as
the whole population of the largest city in America —
partook of the feast. So great a multitude in so small
a city as Jerusalem could make their way only by
struggling and crowding through the narrow streets.
And the overflow of pilgrims camping outside the city
would make the neighboring hills and valleys black
with tents and alive with people.
308 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
The temple was the chief attraction to the vast
multitude during the day. The sacred associations
of the spot where the daily sacrifice had been offered
with little interruption for a thousand years; the
choral service led by vast choirs of priests and Levites,
and supported by thousands of voices in the great
congregation ; the dazzling assemblage of domes and
columns and arches and aisles, which made the whole
area of the holy hill a wilderness of architectural
beauty ; the greetings and gatherings of friends after
long separation ; the passionate enthusiasm with which
the Jewish people entered into their great national
festivities, — all made the occasion such an one as could
not be repeated elsewhere on the face of the earth.
The Olympic games in Greece, the triumph and public
shows attendant upon the return of a conqueror at
E-ome, never stirred the hearts of the people so deeply,
never had so much to do with the formation of national
character, as did the festivities of the Jewish Passover.
Considered simply as an anniversary, a national festival,
the Passover was the most stirring and impressive
ceremonial that has ever been observed by any people.
It is now more than thirty-three hundred years since
the Paschal feast was first kept by the Hebrews in
Egypt with staff in hand and sandals on. And it is
still kept in the same manner by " the tribes of the
wandering foot and the weeping eye.'*
When the night of the great festivity came, the
multitude in Jerusalem divided into little companies
A NIGHT WITH JESUS AT JERUSALEM. 309
to eat tlie Pasclial lamb and to sing tlie songs of tlie
Passover. In the early morning preceding the festive
night, Jesus mingled with the crowd that filled the
courts and colonnades of the tem2:)le. He was indig-
nant to find the enclosure of the holy place changed to
a cattle-market, and the loud cries and contentions of
trade drowning the voices of praise and prayer. He
sternly bade the bargaining crew to leave the holy
place and take their merchandise w^ith them. With
an appearance of severity unusual with him, he over-
threw the tables and scattered the changers' money on
the marble floor. Alone and a stranger as he was in
Jerusalem, there w^as something in his look and tone
which made the most hardened men feel his power
and obey his word.
All day he had been instructing the rude and ex-
cited 23eoj)le, reasoning with the contentious and cavil-
ing Scribes, and attesting his Divine authority by
liealing the sick, the blind and the lame that were
brought to him in great numbers as he spoke. When
night came on and the crowded city was calm, he must
needs seek a place of rest, and in doing so he probably
went out to some quiet retreat on the slope of the
Mount of Olives.
Among all who had heard his words and seen his
mighty works that day, one aged and venerable man
It that he could not sleep another night until he had
known something more of this wonderful Teacher that
had come out of Galilee. This old man was a great
310 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
master in Israel, a member of tlie national council,
known to all in Jerusalem for his wealth, his learning
and his liberality. The Jewish Talmud speaks of a
Nicodemus so rich that he could suj^port a whole city
ten years on his own resources, and could give his
daughter a dowry of five millions of dollars. After-
ward he became so poor that his daughter had to live
by begging. This is supposed to be the man of tlie
Pharisees who came to Jesus by night. JMaking all
needed allowance for the wonted exaggeration of the
Talmud, we may safely infer that he was a man of high
distinction in Jerusalem at the time.
Jesus was so completely surrounded and beset by
the multitude all day that he could not be approached
and talked with by so remarkable a person without
exciting public curiosity and subjecting him to that
kind of remark and exposure which such a man would
be most likely to shun. The noise and interruption
of the crowd would prevent anything like calm and
continued conversation. Unwilling as men in his
position are apt to be to draw the attention either of
the rulers or of the rabble, Nicodemus chose to wait
till the crowd had dispersed and then make his way
through the quiet streets alone, to the house where
Jesus had gone to rest for the night.
Imagine this old man, at a late hour leaving his
house without letting it be known where he was going,
Diaking his way cautiously through the unlighted lanes
and alleys of the city, avoiding the more public streets
A NIGHT WITH JESUS AT JERUSALEM. 311
lest he should meet some one that might know him,
stumbling over beasts of burden and houseless pil-
grims lying upon the pavement, passing out at the
eastern gate, which was kept open all night during the
week of the Passover, stepping slowly down the zig-zag
path into the valley and across the bed of the Kidron,
and then up the western side of Olivet, among tents and
gardens and stone houses, to find some humble cottage
where he had learned by special inquiry during the
day that the young Galilean Teacher would be most
likely to lodge for the night. He reaches the door,
but his heart hesitates and his hand refuses to knock.
Whom will he find within ? If Jesus should be there,
how can he excuse himself for coming to talk with him
at such an hour of the night ? In what way can he
begin the conversation so as not to commit himself too
far ? What will be said in the city when it comes to
be known that he had shown so much anxiety to see
Jesus ? Eich, learned, honored as he is, how will he
dare to show himself again in the great and venerable
Sanhedrim after it comes to be known that he has been
out at night alone to talk confidentially with this
young, unlearned, unhonored Galilean ?
So men doubt and question and hesitate to this day
when they are just beginning to cherish a feeble and
half formed purpose to learn something more positive
and definite about Jesus and his salvation. Christi-
anity has been in the world eighteen hundred years.
It has proved itself mightier than all the powers of the
812 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
earth. It is the source of life and permanency to the
most advanced and progressive nations. It has brought
light into thousands of dark homes and peace into
millions of wretched hearts. And yet there is hardly
anything about which men are so slow, so unwilling to
be seen and heard inquiring as about Jesus and his sal-
vation. They have no hesitation in showing themselves
anxious about trade and prices and work and health
and the means of living. They will read books and
hear lectures and write letters and inquire of friends
and strangers and travel far and near to get informa-
tion about houses and lands and goods and worldly
occupations — all of which are valuable in their place,
but are as nothing compared with what Jesus can tell
us about ourselves, about God and heaven and eternal
salvation. And yet men are so reserved, so cautious,
so sensitive, so timid, even when they begin to be in
earnest to know what they shall do to be saved. Men
who can talk fast and well on everything else will be
silent and shy as soon as the grand question is raised —
What is to become of us all when we leave this world ?
Surely it ought not so to be. If there be one thing about
which a wise, considerate, consciennous man should
have no hesitancy, no reserve, no fear of man or of
anything else, it should be the grand infinite concern of
his own eternal salvation. It is better to fear and hesi-
tate and delay about everything else rather than that,
the one subject which most deeply concerns our rela-
tionship to God and eternity.
A NIGHT WITH JESUS AT JERUSALEM, 31S
Nicodemus, rich, learned, powerful — a member of
the proudest and strictest sect of the Jews as he was —
feared and hesitated when in the very act of seeking
Jesus. It is much to his credit, however, that he over-
came his fears and hesitancy, entered the humble abode
where Jesus was, and acknowledged himself an in-
quirer for the truth — a trembling, doubting, unsatisfied
seeker after light. The most becoming, the most hon-
orable place for any man, however rich or learned, is
that of an humble, earnest inquirer at the feet of Jesus.
Imagine, then, the scene in the quiet house on the
slope of Olivet, on that memorable night. The old
man anxious, agitated, wondering, trying in vain to
put on an air of composure and dignity and to make
it appear a great act of condescension in him to come
there at all, and Jesus calm, kind, inspiring his vene-
rable guest with awe and searching liis very soul with
a look — Nicodemus endeavoring to smooth the way for
his inquiries by courteous and complimentary expres-
sions, and Jesus, with solemn, direct and tender pre-
cision, laying bare at one word the great burden and
necessity of the old man's heart — Nicodemus surprised,
and affecting more ignorance than he felt, and Jesus
declaring again, with a still more solemn and awful
emphasis, that even such an one as he — kind, generous,
learned, a master in Israel — must be born again, must
have a new heart, a new life, or not see the kingdom
of God. Nicodemus sitting in silent amazemeot at the
thought of a kingdom so pure that even he could not
314 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
enter it without becoming a new man, and Jeyus going
on to declare the wondrous love of God in giving liis
own Son, not only to tlie learned, the rich and the
noble, but that the ignorant, the poor and the vile
might have eternal life.
This is the one great truth which must lie at the
foundation of all plans, efforts and instructions to make
the world better and haj^pier. This is the one ruling
and distinctive idea which stands first and foremost in
that peculiar system of truth called the Gospel of Jesus
Christ — man depraved and lost in his natural con-
dition, and man renewed and saved by the gracious
help of God in the Gospel. A full and practical ac-
ceptance of this truth is the way of entrance into the
blessed and eternal kingdom of life. The spring and
fountain of all good to man in this world, and the be-
ginning of an endless and blessed life in the world to
come, is a new heart — a pure, lowly, loving, obedient
heart — a heart that shuns evil and seeks good of its
own free and happy choice. The master in Israel
came to Jesus by night to talk about things of the first
and greatest concern to man. And Jesus told him
that this one principle lies at the foundation of all true
wisdom ; it is the beginning of all better hopes, the
source of all right conduct, the bright dawn of heaven
on earth : all must spring from a new spiritual life in
the Individual heart. In that obscure house, on that
memorable night, speaking to one solitary man, Jesus
the Divine Teacher set forth truths of greater import-
A NIGHT WITH JUSUS AT JERUSALEM. 315
ance to man and tlie world than are ever discussed in
the cabinets of kings or the councils of nations. He
laid down the principle that should govern us in all
our efforts at self-improvement and in all our labors
for the good of others. "With nothing but the words
of Jesus to Nicodemus for our guide and commission,
we can enter upon a successful crusade against all the
w^rongs and miseries of the earth — we can promise a
perpetual millennium of peace and j^rosperity to all who
accept and obey these w^ords.
Stan's life, as the Gospel of Jesus finds him, is a
waste and a perversion, and he needs to begin all anew.
He must have a life from above, that he may be in
harmony with God and at peace with himself. He is
a wanderer, and he must be called home. He is in
bondage to his worst enemy, and he must be made the
freeman of the Lord. He is in subjection to the old
man of sin and misery, and he must be made a new
man in Christ Jesus. He is an alien and a stranger
from the holy and blessed kingdom of God, and he
must be made an heir of God by faith and a son by
gracious adoption. Let this mighty spiritual change
be carried on and accomj)lished among men, and all
other blessings will follow in its train, and the kingdom
of heaven will come on earth.
We do not know with what thoughts Xicodemus
went back to his home that night; but the solemn
words which Jesus addressed to him should lead every
one who reads them to put to his own heart the ques-
316 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
tion : " Have I myself experienced this great eliange
wliicli is needed by all in order to see the kingdom of
God ? Have I been born again ? Has the old life of
sin and worldliness and alienation from God been given
up, and have 1 begun the new life of love and trust
and obedience to God ? Have I turned my steps back
from the dark way on which the shadow of death rests,
and am I now walking in the heavenly path uj)on
which the favor of God shines with everlasting light ?"
If any doubt the need of this great and radical
change to fit men for the service of God and for
heaven, they need only consider what the Bible says
about it. It everywhere describes man without a
Saviour as a lost creature. He is provided with a
gracious and complete salvation just because he is lost.
Christ comes to seek and to save the lost, and no others.
If one does not feel himself to be lost, then he is not
prepared to turn to Christ for hope; for Christ's
great salvation is prepared for, and is ada]3ted only to
those who are utterly without hope in themselves.
The Bible describes the ruling natural disposition of
men as one that cannot be used at all in the service
of God. It would not let a man feel at home and at
ease in heaven itself. It must be overruled and given
up, and a Christ-like disposition put in its place, before
the man can be content with the society of the holy
and the occupations of the blessed. The moment the
man renounces the sway of what the Bible calls the
carnal, the earthly, the worldly principle, he enters
A NIGHT WITH JESUS AT JERUSALEM. 317
the kingdom of God. He takes the place that was
made for him and that will fit him for ever.
There is no denying that the Bible gives very hard
names to all who have not put on the new man which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
It says that they are dead in trespasses and in sins,
and they must be quickened and raised up to a new
and holy life. They are sold under sin and they must
be bought with an infinite price. They are in bondage
and a mighty Deliverer must set them free. They are
blind both to their interests and their obligations, and
their eyes must be opened that they may see. All
this is said in sad and solemn earnest many times over
by the Holy Scriptures when describing man's need
of a Saviour. And when men come to be as much in
earnest as the Bible is in providing the best possible
relief for the world, they say as much against them«
selves as the Bible says. The best men that have ever
lived on earth have poured out their souls in the most
sorrowful and agonizing confession of their subjection
to a dark and evil power, and of their need of help
from a Divine source.
The Bible says that man in his unrenewed state is
without love, without peace, without hope, without
pardon. He is at war with himself and with the only
possible conditions of attaining peace. He carries a
heavy burden upon his heart, and he cannot shake it
off. He remembers the past with regret, and a dark
cloud rests upon his prospects for the future. Who-
318 KIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
soever studies history, society, individual cliaracter or
his own heart with earnest and impartial scrutiny, will
not be surprised that Jesus should say man must be
born again or he cannot enter .the pure and blessed
kingdom of God. Even in describing the lives of
good men, the Bible only says that they have some
excellences mingled with many imperfections, and
they differ from the rest of men only in the fact that
they are sorrowful for their sins and they are earnestly
striving to lead a better life.
And if we shut uj) the Bible and throw away all our
theories and theologies, and only read the book of
human nature as its dark and appalling j)ages are
open before us every day, we shall find reason enough
to say. Human character will have to be made over
anew and utterly changed, or there can be no hope for
the world. The great and terrible mystery is not that
men must be born again to see the kingdom of God,
but that they should be unwilling to accept the help
that is offered — they should persist in declaring them-
selves better off without it.
But only let the heart be changed, let the Divine
love come in and drive the worldly spirit out, and what
a wonderful and glorious creature poor, unhappy,
fallen man becomes ! Renewed, righted, he starts
upon his heavenward journey with joy in his heart
from the exhaustless river of God's pleasures, and with
light upon his path from the fountain of eternal day.
He is like the blind man from whose eyes the scales
A NIGHT WITH JESUS AT JERUSALEM. 319
of darkness fell at the word of Jesus, and lie found
himself in a new creation of surpassing splendor and
beauty. He is like the bird that has just escaped
from the net, and that springs exultant on the wing,
and bounds away over forest and field with a cry of
joy and with the speed of the wind. The man with
his changed heart, with his life begun all anew, is
free, wearing no chain save the sweet and welcome
bond that binds him to Christ. The world is over-
come and put under his feet. The forces of the
tempter are routed and scattered, and good angels
encamp around him for his protection.
There is no greatness, power, glory, joy, attainable
by man on earth to be compared for a moment with
that which becomes the possession and birth-right of
the new-born child of God. The great military com-
mander scatters the armies of nations, and shakes the
thrones and empires of half the world, and then dies
of disappointment and in exile. The great poet pours
the devastating flood of his fiery passion upon the
hearts of millions, and revels in proud misery over the
ruin which he has made, and then dies with curses
upon his lips. The great philosopher ranges through
all the harmonies and glories of the universe, every-
where tracing the manifestations of creative power and
infinite wisdom in the formation of worlds, yet finding
no God. Such examples of human greatness startle
the world and attract the admiring gaze of millions.
But they pass away like the pestilence and the storm,
820 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
and are remembered chiefly by the desolations they
have made. A more exalted greatness, a more benefi-
cent career, a more enduring glory belong to the
renewed and redeemed child of .God who is made heir
of all things in Christ. He is made sure of an inherit-
ance that will better satisfy the soul than all the riches
of the earth. He shall be crowned with a glory that
shall brighten with the progress of ages. The change
wrought upon his heart has brought him into harmony
with the will, the power, the law that governs all
things. His name is enrolled as a citizen in the
record-book of heaven. He is expected to arrive there
at no very distant time. Preparations have been
made for his reception. An apartment in the house
of many mansions is waiting for him. Messengers
from that world come all the way, flying swiftly, to
guard and to guide him in his journey thither. In
all the universe no higher work can be found for God's
mighty angels than to minister unto the heir of salva-
tion. A single angel could blast the conqueror and all
his legions with death in a single night. And yet that
mighty minister of Jehovah is happy to wait upon the
least of the disciples of Jesus. He can explore the sun
and stars and all the infinite host of heaven. He can
range the universe with unwearied flight, tracing
everywhere the great and marvelous works of the
Lord Almighty. He can lead the worship of the
adoring host in the presence of God, and amid the
splendors of the eternal throne. And yet that honored
A NIGBT WITH JESUS AT JERUSALEM. 321
and mighty one, so exalted among the hierarchies of
heaven, is happy to leave his shining seat among the
many thrones of the blest, and to come down to this
darkened and suffering world upon an errand of love
and mercy to the man who is struggling to shake off
the grasp of the low, sensual, earthly spirit, and lift
himself up to a higher, purer, better life. No depth
of darkness or affliction can hide the suffering child
of God from his angel-comforter, who comes all the
way from the service and the song of heaven to cheer
his heart and strengthen his faith in the hour of need.
Go to the meanest couch that can be found in all the
damp cellars or stifling garrets of the great city where
a servant of Christ lies dow^n in poverty and neglect to
die. Look on the wretchedness of that vile abode, and
weep; as you may, to learn that no human friend has
been there before you wdth the offer of help and conso-
hition. You may be sure that God's mighty angels
have found out that dark abode. If your eyes could
be opened to behold their glory, that wretched apart-
ment would seem to you the vestibule of heaven — the
miserable pallet would become a throne of triumph.
You would be ready to fall down and w^orship at the
feet of the mighty messenger who stands waiting to
bear the emancipated spirit of the dying disciple to
the throne of Jesus, to the mansions of the blest.
And the greatness conferred on the new-born child
of God rises to a far more exceeding and ineffable
glory. The everlasting Father bows the heavens and
21
322 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
comes down to dwell with liim. Pie makes liis abode
in the renewed and contrite heart. The Son of the
Highest calls him a brother, and receives him to his
confidence as a bosom friend. He is preferred before
all temples for the indwelling of the Spirit of the Holy
One. He is permitted to ask what he will of Him who
has everytliing to give. He is a peculiar treasure unto
him to whom the riches of the universe belons:. All
that the eye has seen, the ear has heard, or the heart
has felt, fails to give us terms for the description when
we speak of the birth-right inheritance of the new-
born child of God. We can only go to the utmost of
our capacities in describing the possession, and then
say it is greater, richer, more enduring, more satisfy-
ing than anything we can describe, anything we can
conceive.
Would you have the whole creation appointed to be
your tributary and to fill your heart with the abund-
ance of peace ? Would you receive the ministrations
of mighty angels and rejoice in their protection wher-
ever you go ? AVould you have faith to believe that
the infinite God dwells with you, and that you are an
accepted and beloved child of the everlasting Father ?
You have only to desire this great inheritance more
than anything else, and it shall be yours. You have
only to open your heart to receive it, and the new life
will come in and dwell with you for ever.
Itsus' iigljf on tfee Hauntak
' Atid it came to pass in those days that he ■went out into a mojuitain
to pray, anu continned all night in prayer to God. — Luke vi. 12.
■S". SAJX.TAI
JESUS NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN
^
!|
325
326 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
musical with tlie voices of streams that entice the deli-
cate-footed Spring to plant her flowers on the edge of
the glacier; — in every aspect and in every form, in every
age and in every land mountains are the fit representa-
tives of everything greatest and mightiest in the mate-
rial world. They may be traversed with sacred awe —
they may be studied with devout emotion as exhibit-
ing upr^n their scarred summits and rocky sides the foot-
steps of the " dreadful God." On their ancient walls
and cloven battlements we may read the record of the
goings forth of creative power in the building of
worlds.
The sacred language of the Hebrews does not con-
tain the technical terms of modern science, but it often
speaks of the mountains as if they had a living soul,
and could symj)athize with one who had retired to the
sanctuary of their solitudes for prayer and worship.
One who had been from early youth a devout reader
of the most sublime passages in the Psalms and Pro-
phets would have the most sacred images and lofty
thoughts thronging upon his mind when alone among
mountains. When God came from Teman, and the
Holy One shined forth from Mount Paran with the
retinue of the ten thousands of his saints, and his glory
covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his
praise, it is declared by the prophet that the everlast-
ing mountains were scattered and the perpetual hills
did bow. When the richest blessing is promised to
the people that faithfully keep the commandments of
JESUS' NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN. 327
the Lord, it is declared that theirs shall be the chief
things of the ancient mountains and the precious
things of the lasting hills. When God would give the
strongest assurance of the immutability of his promise
to them that trust him, he declares that the mountains
shall depart and the hills shall be removed, but his
kindness shall not depart nor the covenant of his
peace be removed. When the servant of God is ready
to sink under the waves of affliction that sweep over
his soul, he looks for help to the everlasting hills — he
lifts up his eyes to the high places of the mountains
and waits for the dawn. In the day of deliverance the
mountains bring peace to his soul, the mountains and
the hills break forth before him into singing. The
herald of glad tidings comes with beautiful feet upon
the mountains. In the last days, when righteousness
shall fill the earth, the mountain of the Lord's house
shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall
flow unto it.
If we turn from the figurative to the historic lan-
guage of the Scriptures, we shall find still more to im-
press the mind of a devout Hebrew with the feeling
that the mountains afford a fit sanctuary for j^rayer
and communion with God. He made them the scene
of the most awful and glorious manifestations of him-
self on earth. He set them up as witnesses and monu-
ments of his own mighty acts in the government of the
nations and in the redemption of man. They are ap-
pointed to bear the impress of his finger and to tell of
328 NIGHT SCENES IN^ THE BIBLE.
his greatness, until the conflagration of the final day
shall sink them again in the same fires by which they
were upheaved of old from the molten sea of a chaotic
world.
The primitive Eden was adorned and made glorious
in the eyes of its blest inhabitants by mountains. From
their snowy tops and secret springs sources were sup-
plied for the great river whose fourfold branches en-
compassed and watered the whole land of Paradise.
When all the families of the earth, with a single ex-
ception, were buried in one universal grave, it was the
mountains that first rose above the avenging waters in
token of reconciliation with the surviving representa-
tives of a disobedient race. It was the mountains that
extended their rocky arms to receive back the weary
fugitives of the waves to the forfeited inheritance of
sunny hills and fertile plains and revolving seasons.
The trial of faith which made Abraham the father of
the faithful for all time was ajipointed for him upon a
distant mountain. He went a weary journey of days
with his beloved son, carrying the dread secret of the
commanded sacrifice like a bnrbed arrow in his aged
heart, and the sacred height which the Lord showed
him afar off was destined to be the scene of the great
and final sacrifice for the world's redemption. When
the Ancient of Days bowed the heavens and came down
to proclaim his fiery law to the gathered tribes of
Israel, it was upon a desolate and hoary mountain that
he made his seat. For twice fortj days the mighty
JESUS' NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN. 329
God set lip liis tlirone upon the rocky heights of Sinai.
His descent was proclaimed by the trumpetings of
archangels ; he was attended by the myriads of the
heavenly hosts, and the place of his glory was veiled
with clouds and thick darkness on the holy mount.
And the same heights were swept by the strong wind
and scorched by the devouring fire and rent by the
earthquake when the mightier power of Jehovah spoke
to Elijah in the still small voice. When Aaron, the
first high-priest, and Moses, the great lawgiver of Israel,
had completed their course, and the time had come for
them to be gathered unto their fathers, by command
of God they went up into a mountain to die alone.
When the pillar of the cloud and the fire had led the
wandering tribes into the possession of the promised
land, the awful symbol of the Divine presence settled
down upon a mountain and made it the place of Jeho-
vah's name and the Holy Hill for the gathering of the
people. When Israel revolted and cast down the
altars of the Lord, and the whole land was blasted
with drought and famine in the days of Ahab, it was
upon a mountain that the lost fire came down from
heaven to rekindle the sacrifice at the word of Elijah.
All these and many similar facts in sacred history
were familiar to the devout in Israel at the time wlien
Christ appeared. As it was his purpose to confirm and
complete the whole course of Divine instruction car-
ried on in previous ages, we are not surprised to find
him giving an additional consecration to mountains by
330 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
liis life and instructions. It was upon tlie top of an
exceeding high mountain that he rejected the offered
kingdoms and glory of all the earth, and in so doing
triumphed for ever over the tem-pter's power. It was
upon a mountain that he appeared in the majesty of
meekness and love to begin his ministry by ]3romising
infinite blessing to the poor in spirit, the pure in heart,
the mourning and the merciful. It was upon a holy
mount that he was seen by the chosen three of his dis-
ciples transfigured and clothed with Divine majesty,
and declared to be the Son of God by voices from the
excellent Glory. It was upon a mountain that he
completed in his own person the expiatory sacrifice
which will be remembered in eternity as the greatest
event of time. And when his earthly mission was ac-
complished, it was from a mountain that the Conqueror
of sin and death reascended triumphant to his heavenly
throne.
All this is in accordance with the sacred prominence
which had been given to mountains in all the previous
revelations of God to man. It all agrees with the
Divine greatness which belonged to Christ as the
eternal Son of God. But there is one thing more
which draws our hearts to Jesus with the deepest won-
der and sympathy. He was accustomed to steal a^ay
alone to the silent sanctuary of the mountains, and
spend the whole night in prayer to God. All day
long, in the crowded and stifling synagogue, in the
narrow and equally crowded streets, and finally on the
JESUS' NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN. 831
bright and burning sand of the sea-sbore, be teacbes
the multitude and heals the sick. All are eager to ap-
proach him and weary him with questions — some from
idle curiosity, some from vanity, some in the spirit of
caviling and with the desire to catch him in his words,
some to draw his attention to subjects of petty and per-
sonal interest, and some from an earnest and humble
desire to learn the truth from his lips. The multitude
around him is in constant commotion, swaying to and
fro with the efforts of some to get nearer and of others
to escape. His voice is sometimes drowned by the
cries of the suffering and the insane, whom friends
are endeavoring to press through the crowd and set
down before him ; and then again by the shouts and
exultations of those who have been suddenly healed of
long and hopeless disease. He speaks kindly, patiently
with all, and is always clear, calm, earnest, amid all
the tumult and excitement of the people. They give
him no time to eat or to rest. Every applicant for
help thinks his own case the most urgent, and no
sooner is one relieved than another comes in his place.
The immediate friends of Jesus think he is beside him-
self, and they try to withdraw him from the crowd,
but without success. At last he goes down to the sea-
shore, and as the people press upon him, still eager
even to touch his garments, he enters a fishing-boat,
and, thrusting out a little from the land, finishes the
long and weary day by speaking from the boat to the
crowd on the shore.
332 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
And DOW, when the sun has set and the night comes
on and the people are scattered to their homes, the dis-
ciples think that the Master will rest, and that they
shall see him a little while in 'some quiet home by
themselves. But no; weary, hungry, exhausted as he
is, he refuses to go with them to the town and seek re-
freshment and repose. He sets his face toward the
dark and solitary mountains and moves off alone, for-
bidding his disciples to follow. He tells them where
they will find him in the morning, but all night he
must be alone in the lofty and desolate sanctuary of the
mountains with God. They watch him as long as they
can see his solitary form crossing the narrow plain and
climbing the steep heights, and then they go to their
homes to sleep, and he to some dark and shelterless
spot to spend the whole night in prayer to God. He
has no sins to confess, no pardon to seek, no griefs of
his own to bewail, and yet there he pours out his soul,
with strong crying and many tears, while the slow
hours of the night wear away. The wicked world
sleeps while the sinless One wakes in weariness and
pain to pray all night that the world may be saved.
And this retiring alone to spend the night in prayer
amid the solitudes of the mountains was a common
practice with the holy Jesus. Before entering upon
his public ministry he spent forty days and nights in
solitary spiritual conflicts and mighty wrestlings of
soul amid the most dreary mountain solitudes in all
the land. The whole night before the delivery of tJie
JESUS' NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN. 333
sermon on the Mount lie spent in prayer on some soli-
tary ]i eight above the elevated plain, whence he came
down to meet the people in the morning. When the
multitude would seize him by force to make him their
king, he stole away from them under the covert of
darkness, and went up into the solitary and unin-
habited table-land to j)ray. When he called and com-
missioned liis twelve apostles, he had prepared himself
for that most imjDortant and critical selection by spend-
ing the whole previous night in prayer alone among
the mountains. In all the gospel history there is no
scene which appeals more deeply, tenderly to a devout
mind and susceptible heart than this — the Son of God,
alone in the solitude of the mountains, pouring out his
soul all night in jDrayer.
Jesus felt that he must pray, and that he must be
alone. The modes of living in the land of Palestine
and in the time of his ministry were such as to make
it impossible for him to have a private apartment for
retirement in the houses of the class of people with
whom he lived. He was surrounded by an excited
and eager crowd all day long, and when the work of
the day was done he must spend the night in the com
mon sleeping-room of the house with many others.
Rather then forego the opportunity to pour out his
voice and his soul with the utmost freedom in long and
loud supplication, he chose to retire to the solitude of
the mouD tains and spend the whole night alone in
prayer to God. And his retirement at such times
SS4: NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
gives no countenance to the practice of ascetic and
monastic seclusion from the world. He withdrew from
active intercourse with men for a brief season only that
he might come back to labor more efficiently for their
good. He came forth from the solitude of the moun-
tains and from the night of prayer with a heart full of
sympathy for the poor, the ignorant, the afflicted and
the fallen, and with a mind ready to work all day for
their relief and instruction. The mountain monasteries
of Sinai and Saint Saba and Carmel and Athos have
been in existence for centuries, but they have sent forth
no streams of light and blessing to revive the waste
places of ignorance and superstition around them. The
saints who shut out the world with stone walls, and
wake at night to pray in stony cells, and hide them-
selves away among mountains for the best years of
their life, have little sym23athy with the Saviour of
sinners in his solitude. He sought for men wherever
he could find them — in the public street, in the private
house, in the synagogue or by the sea-side. He toiled
all day in the work of healing and instruction, and
then spent the night in solitary prayer, only to come
forth again and renew his labor amid all the noise and
conflict of the world. Moses and Elijah went up to
mountain-tops to pray, and they spent long seasons in
solitary devotion. But it was only to prepare them-
selves for active toil and for personal contact with the
stirring interests of real life.
All great reformers, all good and wise leaders of
JESUS' NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN. 335
public opinion, all true pliilantliropists wlio lift the
human race up to a higher and better life, have pre-
pared themselves for their public work and acquired
strength for great sacrifices by solitary communion
with God and prayer. All men who are called of
heaven to introduce a new order of things and to put
the world forward in the course of improvement have
learned to sympathize with Jesus in his retirement
from the world to spend the whole night in prayer.
They see what the world needs better than other men,
because they look down upon the conflicts of ojDinion
and the war of opposing interests from the serene and
commanding heights to which they have been lifted
by prayer. When they get discouraged because the
work moves slow, and the obstacles are many and
strong, and the darkness is thick around them, they
know how to take to themselves the wings of prayer
and ascend to the mount of God, and gain a new and
clear view of the glorious and triumphant issue to
which all present conflicts and uncertainties shall
come. In the calm hour of renewed and exalted faith
they hear the voices in heaven saying with one accord
— The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. And then they
come back to the field Avith faces full of heavenly light,
making many strong by the strength of their mighty
hopes, and cheering the fearful and despondent witli the
Bong of salvation.
So can we all go uj) the mount of God and survey
the obscure and complicated course of this earthly
336 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
journey from the heights and watch-towers of heaven.
"We can all repeat the observation when clouds drift
across our path and the storm gathers its darkness
around us. Every prayer off^ed in faith lifts the
suppliant above the clouds of ignorance and the con-
flicts of passion. Prayer brings new light into the
mind, because it scatters the clouds that keep the light
from entering ; it brings new peace into the heart,
because it calms the agitations with which the heart is
torn and weary. Every aspiration for a pure and a
holy life opens the secret chambers of the soul for that
life to come in. Every trial patiently borne, every
blessing gratefully received, every temj)tation faithfully
resisted, carries us higher on the shining way that leads
to glory and to God. And all these steps of advance
in the pure and blessed life can be best quickened and
corrected by jorayer.
The clearest and loftiest outlook upon the comj)li-
cated affairs of this world is gained by prayer. When
we keep near the throne, dwelling in the secret place
of the Most High, we shall see the path of duty
plainly and all things working together for our good.
The highest and safest place of observation, from which
to study the condition of the world and foresee its
future history, is the place nearest to the seat of infinite
power; and that is the place of prayer. While we
take counsel with our doubts and fears, or try to solve
the problem of the universe in the cabinets and labora-
tories of science, or to explore the depths of eternity
JESUS' NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN. 337
with the feeble taper of human reason, we shall only
increase our perplexity and deepen our disappoint-
ment.
The traveler in a mountainous region, while thread-
ing his way along the narrow valley, up the course of
the winding stream and under the brow of wooded
hills, has very imperfect views of the real features of
the country and of the relation of its several portions
to each other. He sees before him an apparent open-
ing between mountain ranges, but when he approaches
the supposed depression, he finds it walled up to
heaven by precipices which the wild goats could not
climb. He turns in another direction to ascend a
commanding height from which to survey the whole
reo-ion. But when he reaches the proposed elevation,
he finds that still beyond mountains soar above moun-
tains, " Alps on Alps arise." He endeavors to follow
the dry bed of a torrent as the surest path in his
descent to the plain. But that which seemed an easy
and an open track in the distance becomes precipitous
at his approach, and leads far away from the course
which he wishes to pursue. He hears the roar of a
waterfall echoing from some hidden glen, and he
thinks he has only to turn aside a few steps to behold
its beauty. But he toils on for hours in the vain
endeavor to reach the sound which seemed so near.
He proposes to ascend some lofty peak which rises
clear and cold above all the lesser heights. He starts
in the early morning and hurries on through the deep
22
338 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
valley and around the bold headland and up the steep
declivity, and when the day begins to wane and his
strength is exhausted, the same solitary peak hangs
over him, seemingly no nearer, tio farther off, than it
was hours ago.
Such are the illusions and disappointments of a
traveler among mountains so long as he keeps him-
self down in the low valleys or only climbs the heights
of subordinate hills. But let him toil his way up to
the loftiest peak, and from thence embrace the whole
landscape in one commanding view, and his former
perplexity will disappear at once. What was before
an inextricable labyrinth of hills and vallej-s and
forests and streams, becomes as easy to trace as the
lines upon his hand.
So it is with men while pursuing the low and intri-
cate paths of a prayerless, faithless, worldly life.
They have no clear, connected, harmonious view of the
purpose of their own being, or of the order and tend-
ency of events in the world's history. They have
no one object in view, so high and sacred that they can
afford to sacrifice all others to gain that alone. They
struggle hard to make their w^ay along the dark and
crooked paths of present interest, expediency or plea-
sure. They lift themselves up for a wider view upon
the molehills of human pride. They rise early and
outwatch the stars to study the uncertain standards and
landmarks which human wisdom has set up. They
toil hard and make no progress. They advance only-
JESUS' NIGHT ON TEE MOUNTAIN 339
to return to the point of departure. They make many
calculations, only to leave the great questions of life
ind duty darker than before.
But let them go up to the mount of God where man
meets his Maker in humble, trusting prayer. Let
them accept the great truth that the supreme power
governing the universe is a Being whom they can
address as a pei^sonal Friend. Let them leave all the
false guides which they have been following, and look
only to Him who sees everything at one view and
governs everything with a word. Let them believe
that they can speak to that most mighty and Holy
One at any time, and he will hear their voice and
attend to their wants. And then the darkness and
perplexity will vanish from their minds. They will
see man and the world and life and death and time
and eternity in their true relations. They will see
that all life, power and blessing are centred in God,
and the greatest possible privilege for man is to come
to God and ask all things of him in prayer. Take
away the privilege of prayer, and nothing would be
left to man but a pilgrimage of darkness and a heritage
of woe.
Prayer is the most rational and appropriate outgoing
of the spiritual nature of man in the effort to grasp
something higher and better than earth and time can
give. In every act of sincere prayer the soul comes
into living contact with the infinite Mind. We see no
face bending over us with looks of compassion. No
340 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
voice answers to our humble cry. No hand is let
down for us to grasp. And yet in all prayer the heart
pours itself forth to One whose awful presence is deeply
felt, whose benignant answer is* waited for with long-
ing desire, whose safe guidance is sought with such
confidence as the child seeks the parent's supporting
hand. Prayer is a representative act, standing for all
the duties and dispositions peculiar to a true, well-
ordered life. Whoever prays aright looks away from
man to God ; from earth to heaven ; from things seen
and temporal to things unseen and eternal. All that
is feared and shunned in hours of the most earnest
watchfulness, all that is sought and liojDed for as the
result of the highest spiritual cultivation, all that
rises to view in the glorious vision of faith, is present
to the mind and impressed upon the heart in the
solemn hour of prayer. We must say, therefore, that
the true greatness and exaltation of life are utterly
wanting to him who does not pray. The joy unspeak-
able, the peace that passeth all understanding, can
never come into the mind and heart of him who holds
himself aloof from the Giver of all good, and refuses to
speak, with reverent and sacred familiarity, to the
greatest Friend he has in the universe.
% %# storm 011 i\t
^rea.
<^
The ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves : for the
wind was co7itrary. And in the fourth watch of the nis^ht Jesus went
unto thein, waluing en the sea. — Matt. xiv. 24, 25
XVI.
A NIGHT STORM ON THE SEA.
HE Sea of Galilee is sacred in the annals and
memories of Christian faith and affection for all
^ time. The devout student of the Gospel history
from distant lands counts it a memorable moment in
his life when, with throbbing heart and tearful eyes,
he first looks down from the neighboring hills upon
its glassy waves and silent shore. " Here," he thinks,
fester than words can utter his thoughts-" here was
the earthly home and the heavenly work of the incar-
nate Son of God. Along this shining beach he walked
in the light of the early morning. These lowly sands
bore the impress of his feet, and these high banks
echoed to the sound of his voice. The shadows of
evening closed around him as he taught the multitude
upon this once busy and populous shore. His sacred
form was imaged in these bright waters. He was
many times borne across from shore to shore in the
fisherman's bark. The hot and quivering air comes
up from this deep cleft between the hills now as it did
when he toiled all day in the fierce heat and gave him-
self no rest from his work of instruction and mercy.
344 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
The wild winds that coroc down from these high banks
heard his voice and were still. He walked upon the
crystal face of this sea as if it had been solid ground
beneath his feet. Yonder, on t^e desolate plain, was
the little city which enjoyed the exalted privilege of
being called his own. In its narrow streets he healed
multitudes of the sick. In the white synagogue which
the centurion built he spoke on the Sabbath day. In
the mansion of the rich he raised the dead. Among
the huts and homes of fishermen he made his abode.
Up these steep hill-sides he climbed to seek the solitude
of the mountain for midnight prayer. On one of these
heights overlooking the lake he opened his ministry
with an address which is destined to carry the w^ords
of blessing to every language of the earth and to every
age of the world's history. On yonder grassy slojoe,
upon the other side, he fed five thousand men with
miraculous food. From thence he departed alone into
the desolate mountains beyond, to escape the impor-
tunity of the excited multitude, who would take him
by force to make him their king. On the shore of
this lake he appeared again to his disciples after he
had passed through the awful mystery of death.''
Thus the sacred memories of the Son of God throng
upon the mind of the Christian traveler when, for the
first time, he looks down upon the Sea of Galilee. The
cities that lined the shore and the boats that darted
across the sea when Jesus walked on the beach are
gone. The pensive pilgrim who reads the Gospel story
A ]SiGIlT STORM ON THE SEA. Mb
amid the rLl.i« of Capernaum may lift his eye from
the page and take in the whole compass of sea and
shore, and not discover a single human being in sight,
unless it be a wandering Arab stealing along under
the high banks so cautiously that his appearance in-
creases the aspect of loneliness that marks the whole
scene. Silence and desolation reign where once Jesus
had only to lift up his voice and thousands would
gather to hear. The basin of clear, bright water is
girt with bare, steep walls of limestone, two thousand
feet high, and the whole surrounding landscape's in-
describably drear and melancholy. The doom which
Jesus pronounced upon Chorazin- and Bethsaida and
jCapernaum, because they repented not, seems to rest
upon the naked hills and silent shore. And the awful
desolation that now rests upon the doomed cities of
Gennesaret and the whole scene around the Sea of
Galilee is a sign and shadow of the deeper and darker
desolation that must come uj^on the soul when once the
love of Christ has been utterly grieved away and his
offered salvation finally rejected.
With all the changes that have taken place in two
thousand years, there is one aspect of this sacred sea
which brings back our Saviour's days with vivid and
awful reality. It is a night storm, such as the disci-
ples encountered when their ship was tossed with the
waves. The word used by the Evangelist, in describing
the agitation of the little bark, literally means " tor-
mented,'' and it refers to the writhings and convulsions
346 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
of prisoners wlieii subjected to the torment of tlie rack
or tlie bastinado. And the Sea of Galilee is wrought
into such convulsions by the peculiar manner in which
the sudden and violent stroke of the wind comes down
upon its waves.
The lofty mountain wall on the northeastern side of
the lake is tunneled down to the water's edge by deep,
narrow ravines. These wild gorges have been formed
by the Avinter rains falling on the distant highlands,
gathering into torrents and rushing down to the sea
with^a fury that sweeps everything before it but the
solid rock. In midsummer, the air in the deejD basin
of the lake becomes heated like the air of an oven, and
rises ra23idly into the U2)per regions, while the heavy,
cold air flows down through the deep channels in the
surrounding walls to fill the vacancy. Sometimes,
when the sun has set, the icy winds from the snowy
heights of Hermon and the lofty tablelands of Bash an
come howling down the narrow gorges, and shoot out
upon the lake with such violence as to lash and torture
its whole surface into writhing and convulsive waves.
And these terrible storm-winds often come down sud-
denly as the avalanche when there is not a cloud in
the sky.
Such must have been the case on that memorable
night when the disciples wearied themselves with row-
ing and were not able to reach the shore. The day
must have been fair and peaceful in the balmy Syrian
spring when Jesus taught the great multitude in the
A NIGHT STORM ON THE SEA. 347
open air on the smooth grassy headland that pushes
out into the northeast corner of the lake. The even-
ing must have been as calm when he blessed the barley
loaves and fed the five thousand seated in ranks by
hundreds and by fifties on the green sward. And all
was still calm on the sea and in the air when he con-
strained his disciples to enter the ship and start for
the other side, leaving him to dismiss the excited
people alone.
But no sooner were they out a little from the shore
than the wild wind came down through the mountain
gorges with sudden and resistless fury, and swept them
far away from their course toward the southern ex-
tremity of the lake. They were strong men, accus-
tomed to the oar and not easily frightened by the
waves. And so all night long, for full nine hours,
they pulled with tireless sinews against the wind, toil-
ing hard to recover their course and reach the point
where they hoped to take their Master on board. But
all in vain. The wind was too strong for them. The
waves beat upon the boat as the blows of the bastinado
fall upon the writhing and tortured victim in the
prison-house. The strength of the rowers was ex-
hausted, while the merciless storm was still at its
height and the sea was raging under the lash of the
winds.
Just then Jesus was seen coming to their relief,
walking upon the waves. His watchful eye had seen
them through the darkness from the distant shore, and
348 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
he was ready to appear the moment when they needed
him most. They were laboring hard to obey his com-
mand and reach the point where they hoped to receive
him on board. And the Master does not assign a hard
service to his disciples and then leave them to struggle
unsupported and alone. At the very time when they
think themselves utterly deserted and in darkness,
they are watched by the eye of infinite compassion, as
the mother watches the first attempts of the child to
walk, withdrawing the supporting hand, yet always
near enough to arrest a fall.
At first the disciples were afraid when they saw
Jesus walking on the waves. They thought it some
bodiless messenger from the spirit- world — some awful
shadow from eternity appearing to warn them that
they would soon be with the departed. Nothing fills
the strong heart of manhood with such indefinable and
overmastering fear as anything which is taken to be a
voice or form or living messenger from the state of
the dead. Men who deny that there is any conscious
existence beyond the grave tremble and turn pale
when any sudden event brings them face to face with
what they claim is nothingness, but which they fear is
a dread and awful reality.
When the disciples heard the voice of their beloved
Master saying, " It is I, be not afraid," their fear was
changed to confidence, and the foremost of their num-
ber was ready to step over the side of the ship and go
to Jesus walking on the water. And the wonder is,
A NIGHT STORM ON THE SEA. 349
not that his faith failed him and he began to sink, but
that he dared to go at all upon such a sea in such a
storm. The hand of Jesus was near and strong to
save. With a gentle rebuke for his doubt, he rescued
the bold and impulsive disciple from sinking. The
two came on board, and immediately the wind ceased
and the ship was at the land whither they went.
The human heart is a great deep, troubled and
tormented by the strong wind of passion, and finding
no rest until Jesus walks upon the stormy waves with
his blessed feet and brings a great calm to the weary
soul. The great sea of human life is ever agitated
with fear and conflict and change until' Jesus comes
with the message of peace. The whole history of the
world, from age to age, has been a history of trouble
and battle and storm, and the groaning earth will
never have rest until the nations receive the Divine
Messenger of peace.
Jesus always comes to the sorrowing world and the
weary heart with the blessing of peace. And yet
somehow the unhappy world is afraid that he comes to
take away its joy, and the weary heart is troubled and
terrified at his approach. When we speak of Jesus to
worldly and wicked men, dark thoughts of death and
eternity come over them, and they look as if they
feared some avenging angel had come to call their sins
to remembrance and to torment them before the time.
A man will sooner be persuaded to accept every article
of the most profound and difficult theology than to
350 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
believe tliat Jesus comes to him in tlie dark niglit of
spiritual depression to take the burden from his heart
and make him a contented and happy man. To him
the offered sympathy of Christ Is something to be
suffered and submitted to, rather than eagerly sought
and enjoyed.
When I say to the sorrowing, the disheartened and
disappointed, "Jesus is longing to come to you and
take all your griefs upon himself and give you rest," I
see a shade of deeper sadness stealing over them.
They are sorely troubled with their worldly cares and
disappointments. But they seem still more troubled
when told that a Divine Comforter, with infinite
si rength and sympathy, is ready to come to their re-
lief. I go to the house of mourning, I stand up in
the solemn presence of the dead, and I try to speak
words of comfort to afflicted and bleeding hearts. I
tell them that Jesus comes in the storm that has beaten
upon their household. They have only to look and
they will see his radiant form in the night of sorrow.
They have only to listen and they will hear his voice
Baying, "It is I, be not afraid." And yet, when I
so speak of Jesus to the mourning and the afflicted,
they often seem afraid to believe me. They see no
light in the cloud which surrounds them. They hear
no voice calling to them in accents of love. Jesus
comes to them in the night and in the storm, and they
are afraid.
I speak of Jesus to the young, the thoughtless and
A NIGHT STORM OJV THE SEA. 351
tlie gay. I tell them that a life of worldliness is only
a voyage upon a restless and treacherous sea, exposed
to the tempests of passion and temj)tation, and ending
in the wreck of the soul. Jesus only can give tlie
peace, the joy, the hope for which they long. In say-
ing so, I am warranted by the experience of millions
who have found in one blessed moment of penitence
and faith in Christ more joy than in years of devotion
to the world. And yet the young and ardent and
hopeful are afraid to receive Jesus to their hearts.
They are afraid he will make them unhappy — afraid
they will lose the dearest joys of life if he is to be with
them always. When they become old and sorrow-
stricken and disaj^pointed, and are no longer able to
enjoy the world, then they think they will be glad to
have Jesus come to them. When they are tossed upon
the sea of trouble, when the storm of affliction beats
upon their heads, when the night of death is round
them, then they think they will be glad to hear the
voice of Jesus say unto them, " Be not afraid." But
now, so young, so full of life, with so much in the
world to enjoy, they cannot think of receiving Jesus
to their hearts. It only makes them sad to think that
he is near. ,
Under the dark cloud that comes over the mind in
some forms of insanity the unhappy sufferer is some-
times most afraid of his best friends. He is most
anxious to flee from those who have done most for his
relief, and whose hearts are breaking with grief for the
352 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
affliction tliat is ujion liim. And such is the strange
and sad mistake of those who are afraid to receive
Jesus to their hearts when he comes to make them
happy. They may toil like the galley slave all their
life long, rowing hard against the wind, and all tlie
while they may be driven farther and farther from the
rest, the repose of soul which they are seeking. They
have only to receive Christ's offered peace, and all the
elements of change and trouble wdll become ministries
of good to their souls, and every wind will waft them
toward the haven of rest. Christ is Lord of all the
temjoests that shake the world, as well as of the fiercer
storms that rage in the human soul. He walks abroad
in the bright sunshine of youth and prosperity, as w^ell
as in the dark night of affliction and sorrow. Where-
ever wanderers are astray, he is near to show the right
way. Wherever the w^eary and heavy-laden are sink-
ing under their load, he is near to take on himself
their burden. Wherever the young and thoughtless
are in danger of mistaking the whole aim and purpose
of their existence, he is near to offer the crown of life.
He comes in the voice of his word. He comes in
the lessons of his providence. He comes in the
strivings of his Spirit. He comes early and often, and
continues to come when many times rejected. He
comes only to bring the blessing of peace to hearts that
will never find rest without him.
And shall any be afraid of such a Friend ? No not
of him, but there is something of which even a brave
A NIGHT STORM ON THE SEA. 353
man should be afraid. He should be afraid to sail
upon the treacherous and stormy sea of life without
Christ to calm the waves, to hush the winds and to
bring him safe to the land of rest. He should be
afraid to rush into the tliick of the world's cares and
pleasures and temptations without Christ in his heart
to keep him in the hour of danger, and to show him
the safe path through all the changes and perils with
which he is surrounded. He should be afraid to give
himself up to the vanities and ambitions and frivolities
of the world, with the exjiectation that when he has
become weary of such a life, Christ will come and
drive them all out of his heart and make him a better
and happier Christian, just because he has tried the
world and found it wanting. He should be afraid to
live in constant exposure to death, and yet without
any settled and satisfactory preparation to enter upon
the untried state of being beyond the grave.
It is the strangest and saddest thing in the world
that men should be afraid of such a friend as Jesus
has proved himself to be in the blessed experience of
all who have received him to their hearts — Afraid to
be known as the followers of him who wore the crown
of thorns for their sake,' and who now wears the crown
of heaven — Afraid of him who bore our sorrows in
the bitter agony of the garden and the cross, and
suffered unutterable things in conflict with darkness
and death, that he might give us the inheritance of
eternal life — Afraid to have their names written with
23
354 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
the holy and the blessed of all ages of whom the world
was net worthy, and who now stand before the throne
of heaven with the palms of victory in their hands.
They receive pride and envy and'doubt and complaint
and frivolity ; they receive avarice and ambition and
hate and selfishness to their hearts, and they are
troubled all their life long with such unhapjoy and
contentious guests within. But when the meek and
gentle, the holy and the pitying Jesus comes and asks to
be received by them, they are afraid of him, they reject
him. And they keep doing this, although it is impos-
sible to find a single individual on the face of the
earth who will say, " I have received Jesus to my heart
and he has made me unhappy."
When the disciples saw Jesus walking upon the
waves, they thought they saw a spirit, an unreal and
ghostly shadow, appearing to terrify rather than to
comfort and deliver them. And yet he was the most
true and real man that ever walked the earth. Men
are still prone to think Jesus something unreal, spec-
tral, ghostly. They think that the religion which
bears his name is something hard to be weighed and
measured like substantial things; they think it de-
presses or excites or bewilders people, and makes them
act unlike themselves. And yet Christ is the highest
realization of truth. In him the troubled, longing,
weary soul finds the only reality which satisfies its
great want. He is more real, true and satisfying to
the earnest, thinking, aspiring mind than wealth or
A NIGHT STORM ON THE SEA. 355
learning or pleasure or power. His grand purpose in
all his instructions is to make us true men — not ano;els,
not beings destitute of any of tlie passions, appetites,
affections that are essential to our humanity: he would
make us true men. He stands before us in his human
nature, complete, perfect, wanting nothing. And he
would make us like himself, true in every purpose,
feeling and thought — true in our whole heart and
soul and being. This it is to be a Christian; this
it is to be a follower of Christ, this it is to receive
Christ to the heart. It is to be a true man. It is
to have our whole human nature purified, ennobled,
consecrated by the truth. Christian faith. Christian
duty. Christian character are at mortal and everlasting
enmity with all pretence, falsehood, unreality. The
man who has the most of the life of Christ in his soul
is the most true, genuine and complete man on the face
of the earth. If any man hears Christ always and
follows him perfectly, he is just what he seems to be,
just what he pretends to be, just what he ought to be.
To be a Christian it is only necessary to be a true
man — to love, believe and obey the truth. Whatever
it is which keeps one from being a Christian, it is
something false; something as unreal as the spectre
which the terrified disciples thought they saw walking
on the sea ; something that has no right to control the
mind ; something that perverts the judgment, misleads
the heart and makes the whole plan and purpose of
life a mistake. It is only when hearing the voice of
356 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Christ and following liim that man finds himself in his
true place, all the feelings and faculties of his mind
rightly and haj^pily employed, all his dearest hopes
resting upon everlasting foundations. All appropriate
preaching of the gospel of Christ is an attempt to call
men off from the pursuit of shadows and falsities, and
engage them in work worthy of their immortal powers
and their endless responsibilities. Conversion is turn-
ing back from a false way and beginning a life of obe-
dience to the deepest sense of right, to the most solemn
convictions of truth and duty in the soul. And how-
ever much men may fear and hesitate to begin a true,
earnest life of obedience to Christ, nobody is ever afraid
that he shall die a Christian. Nobody is afraid that
death will find him too much absorbed in the service
of Christ. No man can think of a more desirable close
of life for himself than that he may be found faithful
to his convictions, true to his own deepest sense of
obligation.
When Peter stepped over the side of the ship to go
to Jesus upon the water, he walked well enough while
he kept his eye upon his Divine Master. But when
he saw that the wind was boisterous, and he looked at
the wild waves and he thought of the peril, then he
began to sink. And if he had not had faith enough
left to cry, " Lord, save me !" he would have sunk to
rise no more.
Many try to walk on the treacherous waves of a
worldly life at the bidding of the " prince of the power
A NIGHT ST0E2I ON THE SEA. 357
of tlie air." They step forth cautiously at first, not
meaning to go far if there should be danger. But
they give themselves gradually more and more to
pleasure and to pride and to mirth, or to money-get
ting and care and ambition, or to appetite and self-
indulgence. They go farther and farther from the
old safeguards of prayer and watchfulness, the Bible
and the Sabbath and the sanctuary. Christian company
and Christian influence. And all the while they are
sinking deejDer and deeper in the treacherous waves of
a sea that they are trying to walk upon. They are
becoming more worldly, more forgetful of eternal
truth, more absorbed in things that can never satisfy
the soul. By and by they begin to be alarmed.
Trouble and fear come upon them, for they find they
are sinking into an abyss which has no bottom. They
are exposing themselves to a storm that no mortal can
face. They are in danger of being overtaken by a
night that is the blackness of darkness. Yet even
then, if they will only cry as Peter did, " Lord, save
me!" they will find the hand of Jesus near and strong.
He will lift them out of the stormy sea and set their
feet on the solid shore.
But, alas ! too many will not look to Jesus in the
hour of their greatest peril and sorrow. They look to
the world for comfort, and they keep sinking deeper
and deeper in trouble. They look to the world for
pleasure, and they grow more unhappy. They look
to the world for light, and they are all the while be-
858 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
coming involved in deeper darkness. They look to
the world for hope, and they are answered with the
groan of despair.
On a bitter cold night in mid-winter I was called
from my bed to go ten miles away over a bleak and
drifted road, and see a young man who was sinking in
the deep waters of death. He was but twenty years
of age. He had been a Sabbath-school scholar. He
had been an attendant upon the sanctuary. He knew
all about the w^ay of salvation. But he had broken
away from all these hallowed influences of earlier years
— he had yielded to the enticements of evil companions,
and now he was dying without hoj)e. The messenger
who came for me in haste was one of those who had
hel]3ed him on in the way of darkness, but he could
not lead him back to the light. I bade the dying
you<th look to Jesus, but his wild and wandering eye
could see no Saviour in the darkness that was gather-
ing around him. I besought him only to whisper the
prayer, ^' Lord, save me !" I offered myself the peti-
tion which I desired to draw from his heart. His
despairing look and heavy groan only answered, " Too
late, too late!" He kept sinking, sinking till the
billows of death passed over him, and no word or sign
of hope came from his dying lips. And as I went
back to my liome in the cold starlight of that winter
morning, it seemed to me as if the icy north wind that
swept the frozen earth and swayed the naked branches
of the trees by the road-side, took up the refrain of
A NIGHT STOBM ON THE SEA. 359
those sad and despairing words, " Too late, too late I"
And I tliought how many there are who have great need
to offer every day the prayer once offered by the sink-
ing disciple in the storm, " Lord, save me from sinking
in this sea of worldliness and temptation with which I am
surrounded ; save me from disowning Christ and deny-
ing the rock of my salvation ; save me from giving up my
heart, my life, my soul to the unsatisfying and perish-
able things of earth ; save me from living a stranger to
peace and pardon, and from sinking at last in the deep
waters of death, without a hope that shall be as an
anchor to the soul."
Again, in the same city, on a summer's afternoon, I
was called to visit a dying man. I walked hastily
down by the river's side, where his humble dwelling
stood in the midst of noisy workshops, and surrounded
with all the sounds and activities of busy life. I en-
tered his lowly room and approached his bedside with
awe as well as compassion, for I felt myself to be in
the company of heavenly messengers, who were wait-
ing to conduct an emancipated soul from the bed of
death to the throne of glory. I felt that I must speak
fit words for a redeemed and immortal spirit to remem-
ber as the last accents of human lips in this world.
And I spoke of Him who is the light of heaven and
the hope of earth. The man was dying in great agony,
but he could still signify, by the pressure of his hand
and the glance of his eye, that in Christ was all his
hope, and that beneath him was the everlasting arm.
360 FIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
He had lost tlie power of sjoeecli, but lie wrote upon a
slate with a wavering hand words that he wished to
have read. I looked earnestly at the irregular lines,
but could see no meaning. One word in the middle
of the sentence was larger than the rest, and he pointed
to that as if it contained the meaning of the whole.
Still I could not spell it out. With dying energy he
seized the pencil once more and slowly printed, "Vic-
tor Y." It was his last effort and it was enough. I
could now read the whole sentence : " Thanks be to
God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ." And as I went from that bedside to my home,
it seemed to me as if the roar of the waterfall in the
river, and all the sounds of busy life around me took
up the word and echoed — victory. And for many a
year, in the dark hours of spiritual conflict and dis-
couraging toil, my waning faith has kindled into new
life and my fainting heart has acquired new strength
at the remembrance of that word written with dying
hand in the chamber of death — victory.
%\t fast WM "f k'^ *»st.
Now the Je-ws* feast of tabernacles was at Jiavd. . . . Then went up
Jesus also unto the feast. . . . In the last day, that s^reat day of the
feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying. If any man thirst, let him come
unto me, and dyink.—Jows vii. 2, 10, 37.
XVII.
THE LAST NIGHT OF THE FEAST.
EXT to the Passover, the Feast of Tabeiaacles
was the most memorable and mipressive of all
the great national solemnities kept by the He-
brew people. For seven successive days Jerusa-
lem was crowded by thousands of the faithful in Israel,.
gathered from all parts of Judea and from distant pro-
vinces of the Eoman empire. The multitude seemed
more immense because the resident population of the
city, as well as the strangers, turned out of their dwell-
ings and spent the week in the open air. They lived
in booths or tabernacles of green boughs built upon
the housetops, in the streets and public squares, in the
courts of the temple and of private houses, and all up
and down the valleys and hill-sides beyond the walls
of the city. The whole of Mount Zion, with its com-
pact array of flat roofs and stone battlements, was so
thickly shaded with green boughs as to seem in the
distance like a forest of palm and of pine, of olive and
of myrtle. Seven days w^ere consecrated with offerings
and libations, with feast and song, with the grand
choral symphonies of the temple music, and the even-
sea
364 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
ings were giveo to illuminations and toreliliglit dances.
The whole week was one long pastime of exhilarating
and, in the end, of exhausting joy. The time was au-
tumn. The fruits of the earth' had ripened and the
harvests had been gathered in from all the fields. The
whole nation was represented in the thanksgiving and
festivities with which the capital celebrated the close
of the year.
The night following the seventh day of the feast was
the time when the interest of the great festival attained
a pitch of the most wild and excited enthusiasm.
Through the whole of that night four huge, golden
candelabras, each sustaining four vast basins of oil,
were kept burning in the principal court of the temple.
The flame of these sixteen golden lamps illuminatea
the whole city. In the midst of the crowded court de-
vout men danced with lighted torches in their hands,
tossing them high in the air and catching them as they
came down, at the same time shouting in unison with
each other and singing psalms of praise. A vast or-
chestra of Levites was ranged up and down the fifteen
stone steps of the temple, and they accompanied the
dancing and the songs with harps, cymbals, psalteries,
and all sorts of musical instruments. The vast mass
of the people in front of the temple took up the chorus,
at the same time waving branches of palm and of myr-
tle, and the swell of song rolled over all the housetops,
and through all the streets, and overpast the walls of
the city, and it was taken up in the tents on the hill-
THE LAST NIGHT OF THE FEAST. 365
sides, until thousands upon thousands of voices joined
in the strain, which was called the Great Hosanna:
" Oh give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his
mercy endureth for ever." The singing and the dan-
cing and the instrumental music were kept up all night.
When the first streak of dawn appeared, shooting up
the eastern sky over the ridge of Olivet, the priests
sounded with silver trumj)ets three times, long and
loud, and the answering shouts of the people welcomed
the Great Hosanna day. A procession of priests started
immediately to bring water from the fountain of Si-
loam, which flowed at the foot of Mount Moriah out-
side of the city walls. When the procession returned,
the brief twilight had grown to the full day. Their
appearance was greeted with a blast of silver trumpets.
They ascended the steps of the temple, bearing the
golden beaker full of water in their hands, chanting
the Song of Degrees as they went slow^ly up, keeping
time with their steps : " Our feet shall stand within thy
gates, O Jerusalem !'^ Then, in the presence of all the
people they poured out the consecrated water in com-
memoration of the fountain that flowed from the rock
for the tribes in the wilderness, and again they sung
and tlie people took up the chorus with thundering
voices : " The Lord Jehovah is my strength and song ;
therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells
of salvation."
On this occasion the music and the shouting, the
glare of lamps and torches, the waving of palms and
366 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
the blast of trumpets, the festive garlands and the ex-
citement of the multitude produced so deep an impres-
sion upon all present that the Jewish people were
accustomed to say, "He who lias*never seen, the rejoi-
cing at the pouring out of the water of Siloam has
never seen rejoicing in his life."
Now, we have strong reason for believing that it was
at this joyous climax in the great national festivity,
when the people had exhausted themselves with sing-
ing and shouting all night, and the morning found
them weary, hungry and thirsty, that Jesus stood forth
and cried, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me
and drink !" The long holiday was just closing. The
supply of water had been greatly reduced by the un-
usual multitude gathered in the city. Joy itself had
at last become wearisome. There was nothing more to
excite or to interest the multitude that had been stand-
ing and walking and shouting and singing all night.
The reaction of faintness and of exhaustion was besfin-
ning to overpower the people. Just then, the clear,
calm voice of Jesus is heard in all the crowded court
of the temple, speaking as never man spake, ringing
out upon the fresh air of the morning like the blast of
the silver trumpets, and saying, " If any man thirst, let
him come unto me and drink. Whosoever shall drink
of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,
but the water which I shall give him shall be in him
a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
Never did the Divine Teacher himself preach his
TBE LAST NIGHT OF THE FEAST. 367
own Gospel in more vivid and expressive tferms.
Never did lie make a more touch ing appeal to the
sense of need, to the deep feeling of want in the human
soul. The time, the place, all the attendant circum-
stances consj^ired to give meaning and power to the
words spoken. The people knew the voice, and they
understood the figurative dress in which Jesus
expressed the offer of salvation. To them the water
of Siloam was the sign of the rock smitten by Moses
in the wilderness, and the rock of Moses was the sign
of their own Messiah. They felt the strange power,
the sacred fascination of the voice which rung out
clear and loud on that memorable morning in the
crowded court of the temple. And some were ready
to say, with the woman of Samaria, " Give me of this
water, that I thirst not."
Eighteen hundred years have passed away since this
cry went forth from the lips of Jesus in the hearing
of weary, thirsty, exhausted men, but his words are
more full of meaning and power to us to-day than they
were to those who heard him speak. This is still the
cry that goes forth from the Fountain of life to a lost
world, " Come unto me and drink." This one invita-
tion contains the ruling thought, the substance and
meaning of the whole Gospel — the weary, the thirsty,
the perishing invited to One who can relieve all their
wants, now and for ever. If " any^^ man thirst — the
poorest, the lowest, the worst ; the richest, the highest,
the best — let him come to Christ. If any man " thirsf^ —
368 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
if he finds in liis soul necessities tliat the world has
never answered ; if he bears on his heart burdens
which no human hand can remove ; if he has sought
for years and the earth over for peace and satisfaction,
and found it not ; if he has passed through all the
extremes of poverty and riches, excitement and repose,
and never found anything worth living for — let him
come to Christ. The fact that one feels himself in
need is sufficient evidence that Christ calls him, and
that in obeying that call he shall find eternal life. If
the Divine Redeemer should leave the throne of
heaven and come back to earth to preach his own
Gospel in such a way as to satisfy some poor, doubt-
ing, troubled soul, he could say no more than he has
said : " If any man thirst — if any man be in want or
fear or trouble or sorrow ; if any man desires ]3eace
and pardon, the highest good of life while living and
the hope of heaver in death — let him come unto me."
So does the Saviour of the world commit himself by a
solemn engagement to save all who come to him with
an everlasting salvation. So does he send forth the
continual cry to the needy, the guilty and the unhappy :
" Come unto me, for I know that you are lost and
undone, and my heart is poured out with the desire to
help you."
There is nothing which men need so much as that
water of life which Christ offers to give when he says,
" Come unto me." The world has greatly changed in
many respects, and in most for the better in two thou-
THE LAST NIGHT OF THE FEAST. 369
sand years. In lands where tlie Gospel has been
preached bodily comforts have been greatly multiplied ;
the means of instruction made common to the mass of
the peoj)le ; the oj^pressions of power have been abated ;
the spectres of fear and superstition have been driven
away; intelligence flies with lightning speed; the
ships of commerce encompass the globe ; the poor can
command comforts and conveniences now which
princes could not buy when the incarnate Son of God
dwelt among men. But still the essential nature of
man remains unchanged. The great want of the
human soul is the same now that it was when Jesus
stood and cried to the thirsty, " Come unto me.'' No
language can describe, no imagination can conceive,
the destitution of man without a Saviour — man without
forgiveness of sin, man without peace with God, man
without the hope of eternal life. The awful sense of
responsibility to the infinite God hangs heavy upon
his soul, and he has no way to answer its demands, no
way to silence its dreaded voice. In the most solemn
and thoughtful moments of life he sees most reason to
be dissatisfied with himself. At such times he hears
most distinctly the bitter cry of want, of danger, of
guilt in the depths of his soul. He may not be dis-
posed to confess his sense of need. He may never he
heard to ask with becoming earnestness, " What shall
I do to be saved ?" But if he should speak out the
thoughts that haunt him in his most serious and tender
moments, he would say, " Oh for some way to end this
24
370 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
wearisome conflict with my own heart! Oh what
would I give to hear some voice from heaven saying to
me, Thy sins are forgiven thee ! How easy would it
be for me to bear all the troubles and afflictions of
earth, could I know assuredly that my name is written
in God^s book of life."
That cry of weariness and of woe is stifled in many
a heart, while the voice speaks in a tone of thought-
lessness and gayety and the countenance wears a cheer-
ful look. And that deep and dreadful want of the
soul is the one fact which demands most serious atten-
tion on the part of all who would do anything to bring
peace and contentment into the hearts and homes of
men. All false religions, all efibrts to seek satisfaction
in a worldly life, all devices for pleasure, excitement
and dissipation, all longings and struggles of weary
hearts for rest, prove that there is some one great want in
the very depths of man's soul, and that want must be
answered first by Him who would be the world's
Saviour. The burdens of life can be borne with
patience, the sorrows of life can be sweetened and
changed to joy, the pleasures of life can be made fore-
tastes of heaven, when we have found a Saviour who
can give us rest in our souls.
The thirst of the body is a fit and fearful sign of the
great want of the soul without a Saviour. When ex-
treme, thirst aggravates every other cause of suflering
and it is itself most intolerable. The cry of soldiers
dying upon the battle-field is not so much for relief
THE LAST NIGHT OF THE FEAST 371
from the pain of tlieir wounds as for water, water. The
exposures of wretched mariners on the deep, the tortures
of martyrs on the rack, the consuming fire of fever burn-
ing in every vein and nerve, can bring forth no cry
more agonizing than the cry for water. The only ex-
pression of bodily suffering which the cross extorted
from the lips of Jesus was this, '' I thirst." The cry
of the lost soul when he lifted up his eyes in torments
was for a drop of water to cool his parched tongue.
And if we fully appreciated the necessity of man in
his sinful and hopeless state without a Saviour, we
should feel that the terrible suffering of bodily thirst
could only imperfectly indicate the greater necessity of
the soul. Jesus uses that word to show that our desire
for the water of life should be an intense and an irre-
pressible longing. It were a thousand times better to
suffer the horrors of exposure day and night upon a
single plank in the open ocean than to suffer the wreck
of the soul, to live and die without a hope of entering
into God's blessed and endless rest. It were a thou-
sand times better to be left alone in the midst of the
pathless desert, weary and fainting, afar from friends
and fountains of water, than not obey that blessed voice
of Jesus which sounds through all the waste places of
sin and sorrow, saying, "Come unto me, come unto
me."
Imagine yourself left to perish in the midst of the
great African Sahara. The rays of the sun burn with
pitiless fervor into your throbbing brain. The hot
372 NIGHT SCE^'ES IN TIT?: BIBLE.
air seems like a blast from the furnace's mouth. The
immeasurable waste of sand glows and quivers around
you as if it rested upon an ocean of flame. There is
no living thing in sight, no way^of escape from that
fiery sea of desolation. You have given up all hope.
Maddened with thirst and pain, you are ready to choose
death rather than life, and you are impatient that death
is so slow in coming. Suddenly there appears before
you a being of radiant and celestial beauty. He looks
upon you with such tenderness and compassion as a
mother feels for her dying child. He touches the
desert with his finger, and a living fountain breaks
forth at his feet. With a voice that thrills through the
depths of your soul, he sa3^s, " Come and drink." You
think it a dream at first — you wonder, if it be a reality,
why he does not himself press the cooling draught to
your lips, without requiring effort on your part. At
last you bow to taste the gushing spring, and in a mo-
ment your strength is revived, your waning reason is
restored. Your lost hope returns. Again you hear
the voice of your Deliverer saying, " Kise up and
follow me, and I will give you to drink of the river of
the water of life; I will lead you forth from this burn-
ing and cheerless waste; I will bring you to a home
where you shall neither hunger nor thirst any more,
where all pain and sorrow and death shall cease, and
God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes." Re-
vived, strengthened, you stand on your feet. You look
the way your Deliverer points. Through the quiver-
THE LAST NIGHT OF THE FEAST. 373
ing liaze and the illusive mirage of the desert you see
the faint outlines of a glorious city afar. The shining
domes and sapphire walls are built of light. The
golden gates are open. Pilgrims from earth, in long
and bright procession, are going up and entering
in, while a wave of song floats down the ranks and
angel heralds stand by tlie open gates, continually pro-
claiming with silvery voices, "Whosoever will, let him
come.'' Would you hesitate to follow the Guide that
had found you in the desert, revived your strength,
shown you the way of escape and offered to lead you all
the way from that wilderness of death to the gates of
Paradise ?
The picture is something more than fancy. The
world is all a waste to him who feels the need of
salvation, and has found no Saviour. The pleasures
and occupations of the world have little charm for
him whose soul is athirst, and he knows not where
to find the Fountain of life. He feels that no lan-
guage can be too strong in describing his need. The
first and only ray of light that can break upon tlie
darkness of the soul in its alienation from God must
shine from the face of Jesus Christ. That light is a
beacon to guide all wanderers to the port of peace.
It is a star of hope that can never be covered with
clouds. It is a sun of righteousness whose glory fills
the earth and heavens. This is the message which
Christ is sending forth through all this darkened and
sin-stricken world. He sear«^hes out C"^. poor, the
874 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
guilty, tlie sorrowing in all the waste places of sin and
misery, and lie offers tliem infinite riches and eternal
blessing. By the ministration of his own gospel he
stands and cries as he did on the kst great day of the
feast at Jerusalem: "Come unto me and I will give
thee of the fountain of life. Come unto me and I will
take away all thy sins, I will bear all thy burdens, I
will heal all thy sorrows, I will take from thee the
fear of death, I will be thine advocate in the day of
judgment, I will open for thee the doors of the hea-
venly kingdom, and thou shalt live and reign with me
for ever." Let the world receive this one word of
Christ, " Come unto me,'' and thanksgiving will be-
come the song of nations, and every land will rejoice
in the promised reign of peace on earth.
%]it |i:ig})t flf foiptaibn.
Jesus said tint'i kzm, Vertly I say uniu ikee, That this night before
the cock cro-w, th^n shalt dcjiy me thrice. — Matt, xivr'i. 34.
THE NIGHT OF TEMPTATION
■
' I
1
1
378 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
my sincerity, in my firmness, after I have been with
him so long ?"
And then again the occasion on which Jesus spoke
these words must have added to the sorrowful weight
with which they fell upon the disciple's heart. It was
night in the uj)i)er chamber at Jerusalem where they
were assembled. The Fassover feast was done. The
crowded city was calm. The song of thanksgiving
that sounded in everv Jewish home that ni^ht had
ceased to be heard. The silence was no longer broken
by the tramp of feet or the sound of voices in the
street. The lights had gone out in the gardens and
tents on the slo23es of Olivet. The Roman sentinels
on the walls paced to and fro as silently as if they had
been set to guard a city of the dead.
In that still hour, just before midnight, the voice of
Jesus is heard in the upper chamber, speaking to his
disciples the blessed words which have comforted mil-
lions of mourners, and which will bring peace to
troubled hearts to the end of time. They are all
moved with tenderness and grief as they hang upon
his lips and 'see the look of sadness upon his face.
They are still more deeply touched when he pours
forth his burdened soul in prayer that they may be
kept from the evil of the world — that they may be with
him and behold his glory when he shall be seated
upon his throne with the crown of heaven upon his
head. As they listen in wondering and weeping
Bilence to that prayer, their hearts are all bound anew
THE NIGHT OF TEMPTATION. 379
in tender love to tlieir Lord. Every one of tliem is ready
to go to prison and to death witli him. And when they
all together break out in new and fervid expressions
of love to him, he says, with vmutterable sorrow in
his look and tone, "All ye shall be offended because
of me this night/' And when Peter, ever first and
foremost of the band, declares witli renewed vehe-
mence his readiness to die for his Lord, Jesus makes
the still more startling and sorrowful declaration,
" This night thou shalt deny me thrice.'' It must have
been a sore surprise to the disciples to hear their Mas-
ter speaking thus at such a time, when their hearts
were so deeply touched, and all their affections were
drawn forth in renewed and fervent devotion to him.
And we do not wonder at the impulsive earnestness
with which Peter again and again declared his devo-
tion to his Lord. How could a man of his strong and
impetuous feelings hear such words from the Lord
whom he loved, and not feel called upon to express his
love in the strongest terms. He was not blamed for
making that declaration. Whatever else may be inferred
from his subsequent denial, his strong professions of
attachment to Jesus do not warn us not to make such
professions ourselves. They should not, indeed, be
made in a self-confident or presumptuous spirit. But
we are urged by the highest sentiments of duty, grati-
tude and affection to declare our readiness to go with
Christ wherever he may lead the way, and to sufter
cheerfully whatever it may cost us to be faithful to
380 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
him. Sometimes those who promise most perform
least. But their failure to keep their good words is no
reason for not promising. Those who promise nothing
are still more apt to do nothing. A good and true
man should never be afraid to say he means to do his
duty. A faithful and loving heart will find some way
of making its attachment known. And when the pur-
pose to serve Christ is meekly and frankly declared,
that very declaration will do much to make the life
correspond to the profession.
While we do not blame Peter for the earnestness
with which he declared his devotion to his Master, we
have something to learn from his failure to keep his
good and commendable promise. We know how liter-
ally the sad words of Jesus were fulfilled in the con-
duct of his best friends that very night. An hour
passed on, and the blessed Redeemer was bowed down
to the earth in great agony, pouring out his mighty
sorrows with groans and tears and bitter crying and
bloody sweat. And his favorite disciples were so little
affected with his distress that they fell asleep within
hearing of his cries. Another hour passed, -and this
brave and devoted band were all scattered. Jesus, left
alone, was bound and led away by a midnight mob.
The stout-hearted Peter followed afar off, hiding him-
self under the shadow of the city walls and behind the
street corners, that he might not be suspected of being
a disciple. Another hour passed, and the finge]^of a
mischievous maid was pointed at him, and it made him
THE NIGHT OF TEMPTATION, 381
a coward. By and by lie saw suspicious eyes turned
upon him, lie heard it whispered that lie was with
Jesus, and he denied it with excited and angry vehe-
mence. And then soon came the third denial, confirmed,
as men are wont to confirm falsehood, by cursing and
swearing. Then followed the startling knell of the
hour and the pitying look of Jesus that broke Peter's
heart and sent him out into the darkness of night to
weep bitterly.
. This is a sad story to be told of a brave, generous,
warm-hearted man, and yet it was written in the spirit
of kindness to him and of warning to us. Of the four
forms in which the story is told, the one which bears
hardest upon Peter is the one which in all probability
was dictated by himself. And he desired to make the
record plain and full, because what he did, many others
may do, and all are in danger of doing. The story was
written that it might inspire in every heart the daily
prayer, " Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us
from evil." Alas ! how often do men go out from
scenes of the most hallowed interest and the most holy
aspirations and deny their Lord ! How many fall
asleep when they should wake and watch and j)ray !
How many are misled by the demons of darkness
when they rashly venture to walk in the night of
temptation !
The young man goes forth from the home of his
youth to enter into the great conflict of life alone. His
heart is strong, his intentions good, his aspirations
382 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
bigh. He goes from the quietude and tlie sanclHy of
a Christian home. He goes with the blessing of
Christian parents upon his head. He goes with the
solemn lessons of tlie sanctuary in his mind and the
daily supplications of the family altar in his heart. A
father's honor and a mother's love and a sister's affec-
tion and his own generous impulses concur in starting
him well upon a pure and noble life. He sees the
right path and he means to pursue it. His convictions
and judgments and purposes are right, and everylhing
promises a high and an honorable career.
He goes to the great city and plunges into the
mighty stream where hundreds of thousands are
struggling for life and it takes a strong swimmer to
keep his head above the w^ave. He meets with some
that are good and true, and with many that are bad
and false. For a while he holds his ow^n with a brave
heart and strong hand. But he does not openly com-
mit himself on the side of God and righteousness
And there he makes his first great mistake. He does
not quite dare to say that he means to live by prayer
and watching and Christian duty. When he is enticed
to countenance or to pursue some evil course, he does
not refuse without doubt or hesitancy, simply because
it is something a Christian should not do — it will lead
him where a Christian would not go. And it is a very
dangerous discovery for him, when evil men and
seducers find that he can be tempted. He can be
made to cringe and blush by the taunt that he is green
THE NIGHT OF TEMPTATION. 383
and does not know the world. He can be shamed and
put down by the hnpudent swagger of those who make
a boast of sin.
And by and by, when it is found that that once
noble, earnest, Avell-meaning young man is lost to
virtue, to character, to peace of mind, and to tlie hope
of heaven, the sad story of his fall is quickly told.
He fell in the way of temptation, and he was not
armed by watchfulness and a full committal of himself
to God. He was jeered at by some hard and heartless
man of the world; he heard his name spoken in deri-
sion by some mocking creature of frivolity and false-
hood ; he heard it said that it was manly to go certain
steps in wickedness, and that it was mean and slavish
to be always trembling and fearing to do something
wrong. And before such false and despicable boasters
of evil things he let down his high standard of charac-
ter. He consented to be led by those whom he dis-
trusted and despised, and who mocked him in their
hearts for yielding. He went where he could not
expect to meet the pure and the good. He learned
ways of life and habits of speech and modes of thought,
every one of which he knew was a step toward dark-
ness and perdition. He degraded himself in his own
estimate just to catch the vile applause of the worth-
less, the heartless and the vulgar. He gave up the
freedom, the nobleness of his manhood to be a slave to
things that he despised. He became a useless, dis-
appointed, unhappy man, not from any settled plan or
384 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
purpose to be bad, but from tbe want of fixed resolu-
tion to be good. He hesitated when he was first
tempted. He feared and blushed to own himself a
servant of God, a believer in truth and duty, when he
came in the way of scorners and triflers. When he
met the sneer of the skeptic, he did not dare to say,
" I believe.'^ When asked to join in some evil prac-
tice, he had not courage to say, " No, never V^
Oh it is the saddest, the most lamentable and
dreadful defeat, when a frank, generous, open-hearted
young man permits his high standard of duty to be
pulled down and trampled upon by those who trifle
with conscience, and sneer at religion and talk of
immorality as if it were only a harmless pleasantry.
Dear young man, keep your conscience if you lose
everything else. Keep your heart pure, and God will
keep you in the dark night of temptation which casts
its shadow upon your jiath, and under the cover of
which millions wander and fall to rise no more. Let
it be seen and known that you can face the frowns and
sneers and seductions of temptation with a look that
silences the caviler and puts the worldling to shame.
When asked to go where you cannot go, to do what
you cannot do with a good conscience and a pure heart,
do not hesitate to look the tempter firmly in the face
and say, "I love and fear the great God in heaven,
and I am not going to dishonor and disobey him for
the fear or favor of any man on earth. I love truth
and purity, and I am not going to soil my conscience
THE NIGHT OF TE2IPTATI0N. 385
and poison my heart by toucliing tilings tliat defile.
I am not going to give myself to indulgences tliat
embitter the best hours of life and make death-beds
terrible !"
If every young man could have the faith and the
fortitude to say thus, and act upon his words in the
face of the hardened and practiced misleaders of the
young, it would save many from premature and dis-
honored graves ; it would save some from a wretched
and hopeless old age. A single word of decision, a
calm, silent look of refusal, an unfaltering self-posses-
sion in the presence of temptation, is sometimes enough
to rout all the forces of the evil one and set the soul
free from further solicitation. And the earlier the
young man can shake off the touch of the tempter the
better.
In the dim light of memory, I see before me an old
man with feeble step, tottering to his seat in the house
of God on the Sabbath day. It is one of the genial
days of 023ening spring. The fields are clothed with
new beauty and the forests are musical with the voices
of new life. And yet that old man is wrapped in the
thick folds of his winter garments. He sits all through
the service of the sanctuary with his head covered, for
fear that the soft breath of June may breathe on his
frame too roughly and send the cold chill of death to
freeze the fountain of life. It is a strange and pitiable
sight to see that aged invalid shivering beneath his
thick robes on a summer's day, listening to that Word
25
386 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
which invites the wanderer to return and offers rest
to the weary in the heavenly Father's house.
What is the secret source of the great sorrow which
has laid heavy burdens upon that old man's shoulders
and made life a sad and weary pilgrimage to him ?
In his young manhood he was tempted, and he had
not the courage or the conscience to say, No, never !
The seduction to sin came to him, as it comes to many,
in brilliant and fascinating forms. He was surrounded
with the young, the gay and the thoughtless, who would
make life a holiday of pleasure and death a dreaded
thing to be thought of as little as possible. In such
company, away from the restraints and safeguards of
the parental home and the family altar, the young
man thought he would enjoy life and never be the
worse for having seen and shared what the world calls
pleasure. He did not once think of becoming a bad
man. He did nothing which the gay world would
call by any worse name than youthful indiscretion.
The temptation w^hich came in his path met him with
music and beauty and song and mirth. He was sur-
rounded with the refinements of taste, and the splendors
of art, and the most finished and delicate fascinations
of gay and giddy life. And he thought that when the
brilliant season was past, and he returned to his home,
he should be able to resume his place by the parental
hearth, and the jealous eye of affection would see in
him nothing but the ease and innocence of former
years.
THE NIGHT OF TEMPTATION. ' 387
But no. There was poison in the delirious cup of
pleasure. The laws of life and health had been broken,
and the unhappy youth must carry the consequences
of his sin and folly to his grave. He repented fifty
years in suffering and sorrow. He learned to pity the
poor, to uplift the cast down, to reclaim the wander-
ing. He would gladly have surrendered all his wealth
and worldly expectations to have received back again
the fresh, untainted constitution of his youth. He
trusted and believed that the sin of his soul was for-
given. But no repentance or forgiveness can change
or annul the law of eternal providence which lays the
physical consequences of transgression upon the head
of the guilty. A terrible lesson was the life of that
old man to warn the young against temptation, even
though it should allure with the voice of angels and
strew the path to the pit with the flowers of Paradise.
One grand reason why the young are so easily
deceived and led astray, is the fact that temptation
addresses them with all the graces of manner and all
the fascinations of beauty. They forget that ten
thousand arts and efforts have been employed for ages
in making the way to destruction easy and inviting.
It has been the labor and study of millions of the
human race, for successive generations, to increase the
attractions of the broad road and to allure multitudes
to walk therein. The one great engineer, who, in the
beginning, cast up the highway to destruction, ha^
been employing countless laborers ever since in keep-
388 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE
ing the road open. He has laid every human posses-
sion and every talent of the immortal mind under
contribution to aid him in making the way to his own
dark dominions more alluring to the deluded souls of
men than the steep ascent to the kingdom of light.
Poets of the loftiest genius have sung in bewitching
strains to cheer the gay and gladsome company that
throng the path to the pit. Romance has built its
palaces of air, and peopled its imaginary world with
beings created only to make wickedness beautiful ; and
the ardent and unsuspecting youth has been fascinated
with the fallen angels of fiction, and whirled onward to
the kingdom of darkness in chariots of light. The arts
of painting and sculpture have toiled for centuries to
make the way to perdition one long gallery of beauty,
where every scene shall be followed by another more
fascinating to entice the heedless gazer on, until the
inexorable gates- of death close behind him and forbid
all return. Millions of inventive minds, millions of
cunning hands, are ever busy in increasing the facilities
of travel on the downward way. If the pavement
sinks and a pitfall yawns with destruction disclosed
beneath, it is immediately covered over with flowers.
Tf some pitying angel of light drops an obstruction in
the path of some heedless soul to intercept his course,
nimble hands will be tugging with fiendish zeal to take
it out of the way. If those who have themselves been
delivered from going down to the pit set up warnings
or lift up their voices and cry aloud to alarm the heed-
THE NIGHT OF TEMPTATION. 389
less and the headstrong, their solicitude will be turned
into ridicule, and the warning against the dangers of
the way will be covered over and concealed by the
more glaring advertisements of its delights and attrac-
tions. On the most crowded street of the great city
there is many a door over which might fitly be written,
as a sign of what is done within, " Destruction made
easy." Amid the haunts of trade and the clustered
homes of domestic life there is many a threshold, in
crossing which the heedless youth passes the boundary
which marks his destiny to glory or despair. On the
one side is hope and light and heaven ; on the other,
darkness and despair and death. And there are eyes
of light, yet baleful as those of the serpent in Para-
dise ; there are forms of beauty arrayed like spirits
of darkness in the robes of heaven ; there are voices
of music that allure only to destroy ; and all conspir-
ing to lend attractions to the way of death. The wealth
of Mammon paves the ^^ath with gold, and proud rea-
son demonstrates its safety, and imagination pictures
the journey onward through an avenue of glories and
delights, and ambition holds up glittering crowns in
the distance to allure with their dangerous and dazzling
splendor, and the muse celebrates the fame of those
who have trodden it before in the loftiest strains of
harp and song. And thus riches and power and
genius and invention and pride and reason and passion
are enlisted in the bad work of making the broad way
easy and attractive.
390 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
And witli so niucli to allure in the wrong direc-
tion, let no young man wonder that he must watch and
fight and pray if he would keep himself out of the
way to darkness. Take heed how you carry yourself
in the face of temptation. Have the courage to say no,
however fascinating the form and winning the address
with which you are enticed. Be sure the voice which
persuades you to lower your standard of duty is not
the voice of a friend. The breath that whispers a con-
cession to the pleasant and profitable steps of sin is not
blown to your ear from paradise, but from the pit. Let
no one think a slight or a single deviation from the
path of duty a thing of little consequence. It is the
first step which fixes the long journey.
There is a small lake upon one of the high passes of
the Alps, the waters of which find their way to the
ocean by two difierent channels. One portion takes
the course of the " wide and winding Rhine," and goes
forth to mingle with the stormy waves and crashing
icebergs of northern seas. Another joins the blue cur-
rent of the " arrowy Rhone," and finds its way to the
Mediterranean along the vine-clad hills and the sunny
vales of France. One finds a home under the cold
splendors of auroral light amid the freezing horrors of
the Arctic zone. The other blushes in the glow of
Italian skies, and lingers idly around the classic shores
and storied isles of Greece. So small is that mountain
lake that a single flake of snow falling upon its surface
and dissolving in its waters may supply a portion for
THE NIGHT OF TEMPTATION. 891
eacli of tlie two mighty rivers. Different parts of tlie
same drop that shot out the rays of the same crystal
star in the snowflake may have a subsequent history
and a habitation separated from each other by ranges
of the loftiest mountains and the utmost diversities of
climate and the diameter of the globe.
So there may be influences which seem fitted to
crystallize the members of the same family into one
isymmetrical crown of beauty, and to make them a joy
unto each other for ever. And yet some divergent
force of temjDtation, some single choice or failure to
choose on the part of one or another, may set them
upon different tracks, and they may go on from slight
beginnings to great extremes, until no one can pass the
great gulf of separation that lies between them. The
first step in the downward course is easy, either to be
taken or avoided. But whoever takes that, will be
most likely to take another, and then another, until
the way of return becomes as steep and difficult to
climb as the icy precipice of an Alpine mountain.
The child, sporting upon the embankment which has
been raised to keep the mighty river in its channel,
may remove a pebble or a few handfuls of earth, and the
trench which the thoughtless boy has made to secure
a current for his toy-wheel may be worn by the water,
while he has gone home to his night's repose, deepened
and widened till at length the strength of the im-
prisoned river is turned through the opening. And
then in one irresistible deluge it rolls over the broad
392 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
savannas, and the morning sun shines upon a wide
expanse of waters, where, the day before, luxuriant
harvests waved in readiness for the reaper's hand.
So, in the moral as well as in the material world, the
mere wanton sport of a child may bring on himself and
others consequences so great and terrible as to defy
all calculation. A child, in the spirit of frivolity or in
a pet of evil temper, may start upon a course of con-
duct so utterly wrong in itself and so fatal in its con-
sequences, that in the end no hand less than Almighty
can break the chain of evil habit with which he is
bound. In one brief moment of passion or temptation
the unguarded youth may kindle a fire in his own
bosom that shall burn to the lowest hell.
Doubtless, in the moment of temptation, it seemed a
small matter to the first human transgressor to do only
one act which God had forbidden — only to pluck from
that tree the fruit of which was beautiful to the eye
and pleasant to the taste and to be desired to make
one wise. But it was not a small matter that he thus
forfeited his allegiance to the great Lawgiver, and
opened a fountain from which should spring a bound-
less ocean of guilt and woe, heaving its destructive
waves over a whole race of immortal beings, and rolling
the ever-accumulating flood of moral desolation down
the track of ages. And never can any one know, in
the moment of temptation, the full measure of evil
consequences that will flow from one wrong step. His
only safeguard is to consider, without argument or
THE NIGHT OF TEMPTATION.
hesitation, that no promise of profit or pleasure can be
a sufficient reason for sinning against God.
Let no one think it strange that it costs efibrt to be
good and watchfulness to be pure in the great conflict
of forces with which our life is beset. It is only by
long and sore discipline and the most determined exer-
cise of will that we become superior to temptation. The
course of duty is like the path by which travelers
climb the j)asses of Alpine mountains. It turns this
way and that way. It clings to, the face of the tower-
ing cliff. It hangs on the brink of the fathomless
abyss. It pierces the projecting crag. It crosses the
narrow ravine. It bridges the roaring torrent. It
sweeps the track where the thundering avalanche
rushes down. Yet all the while it climbs hio-her and
higher. The traveler can go on only by lifting him-
self at every step above the sunny fields, above the
dark green woods, above the storm-swept pines and
firs into the clear light and the bracing mountain air.
But the very process of climbing makes the youthful
mountaineer joyous and strong. The torrents sing
with a more gladsome voice, the hoary peaks are
crowned with brighter snows, the sky is tinged with
a deeper blue, the sun shines with a more glorious
light, the landscape unfolds with greater magnificence,
to him who has braced his nerves and quickened his
pulse and expanded his bosom by weary hours of
climbing to the lofty heights.
So it is with all who climb the ascending path of
394 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
duty and of faith. Let the young man take the Divine
" Excelsior" for his watchword as he goes up the toil-
Bome steep. As he passes through dangers and diffi-
culties, making every step of advance by effort, and
gaining every victory by conflict, let him sing all the
way, " Higher, higher, higher," and he will find that
the air grows purer as he ascends. By persevering
toil he lifts himself completely above the range of
temptations that once endangered his soul. The hea-
venly landscape oj)ens with increased clearness and
beauty, and as he passes from height to height he
catches occasional glimpses of the golden gates and the
sapphire wall of the city that hath everlasting founda-
dations, whose Builder and Maker is God.
With such a glorious career demanding his efforts
and encouraging his hopes, let no young man think
that he has nothing to do or time to waste. And if
any one has not yet begun to live for God and heaven
and eternity ; if he has not yet set his feet upon the
way that leads to glory and immortality, let him begin
the ascent without delay, and keep climbing till he
reaches the throne of the Lamb and the mansions of
the blest For the sake of God and heaven and
eternal salvation, for the sake of everything that is
highest and best in possession and in hope, do not
allow yourself, dear young man — do not allow yourself
to be carried away and lost in the dark night of temp-
tation.
Ut liglt of ^S0irg.
Then cometh Jesus tvith them tuito a place called Ge/Jisemane, and
saith unto the disciples., Sit ye here, -while I go and pray yonder. . . And
being in a7i agony._ he prayed ?nore earnestly ; and his szueat %vas as it
tvere great drops of blood falling down to the ground. — Matt. xxvi. 36;
Luke xxii. 44.
XIX.
THE NIGHT OF AGONY.
HE approach to Jerusalem most frequented in
modern times by pilgrims and travelers from
the west lies across the fertile plain of Sharon
and up the rugged pass of Beth-horon. The
path, after leaving the plain, is a perpetual climb over
rocks that are sometimes smooth and slippery, some-
times lying loose in huge angular blocks, and some-
times standing edgewise in successive strata, with deep
furrows yawning between like crevasses in the glacier.
Down this stony staircase the host of Joshua chased
tlie Canaanites, while the heavens shot forth hail to
help the spears of the pursuers, and the sun waited
over Gibeon for the victors to complete the triumphs
of the day. Up this rongh mountain road the armies
of the Philistines came many times to gather the har-
vests and garrison the towns and drive off the flocks
of Ephraim and Benjamin. ^
Up this wild ravine the Christian traveler climbs,
reading the book of the wars of the Lord all the way,
till he emerges on the high place of Gibeon, and Jeru-
salem, with the Mount of Olives on the east, lies before
397
398 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
him, Nowhere on earth have wilder shouts of enthu-
siasm burst from human lips than on that spot, where
pilgrims from many lands for more than a thousand
years have caught the first sight of the Holy City.
Nowhere have so many hearts passed so suddenly from
the memories of war and the inspirations of conflict to
emotions of the deepest tenderness and to the silent
expression of tears. There stood the mail-clad knights
of the Crusade, their ranks thinned by battle and
plague, their faces bronzed by long exposure to wind
and storm, yet with mighty hearts throbbing beneath
corslets of steel as they joined in the wild cry of their
followers, Jerusalem I Jerusalem ! And there still the
more enlightened and less enthusiastic travelers of
modern times from the cold North and the far West
take up the shout that has come down without inter-
ruption from other ages, Jerusalem ! Jerusalem !
Every year peasant and prince, Christian and Moslem,
Gentile and Jew, stand and gaze with unutterable
thoughts from the heights of Gibeon, across the bare
and broken waste of rocks and rounded hills upon the
one city which is sacred for all time and the source of
attraction to the whole earth.
There is little in the landscape itself to please the
eye. No silvery streams winding between flowery
banks, no green woods climbing gentle hills, no grassy
plains cropped by herds of cattle, no lines or clusters
of shadowy trees, no scattered houses embowered in
foliage along roadsides, no smiling gardens in the
THE NIGHT OF AGONY. 399
valleys, but far as tlie eye can see a blank and life-
less reacb of rounded and desolate hills and naked
rocks and bleached, sunburnt earth. But it is enougli
that in the midst of that desolation lies Jerusalem, the
city of the Great King. Zion itself has indeed been
ploughed as a field, according to the word of propliocv,
and all her streets are piled with ruin. Tlie paved
courts and marble steps on which David stood in the
new capital of his kingdom have been covered high ag
the house-tops with the ruins of ages. The engines
of destruction have so many times been set against the
towers of Zion, and the storm of war has so many times
rolled over the sacred hill, that now we cannot trace
the lines of the ancient city — we cannot tell the form
of her bulwarks or find the jiolished stones of her
palaces.
But the swelling ridge of Olivet is the same to-day
that it was when trodden by the blessed feet of the Son
of God. It is so near the eastern Avail of Jerusalem
that the little cluster of houses on the top seems in
tie distance to be a part of the city itself. The eye
of the observer, dimmed with deep emotion from see-
ing that great sight for the first time, wanders involun-
tarily from the dark, ruinous aspect of naked wall:^
and stone houses to the long green ridge with ifs
central swelling summit and its slopes sprinkled with
olive trees and lined with footpaths, on the east.
After all the changes and devastations of ages, that
sacieJ hill lifts the same outline to the sky, it casts the
400 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
same morning shadows upon the city. It gathers
around its summits and sides the most tender, the
most hallowed associations that the human heart has
ever cherished, or ever will cherish in all time.
The Jewish Targums say that Noah's dove plucked
the olive leaf from this mount, and bore it to the
imprisoned patriarch as a sign that the avenging waters
had passed away and peace was restored to the smitten
earth. The Eabbins affirm that when the Shechinah,
the visible symbol of the Divine presence, forsook the
Holy Place of the temple, it rested three years upon
Olivet to see whether the Jewish people would repent^
all the while proclaiming, " Keturn unto me, and I
will return unto you ; seek ye the Lord while he may
be found, call upon him while he is near," and then it
went up to the holy place in the heavenly Zion. The
Mohammedans declare that the immutable oath of the
Almighty is sworn by the olive and the fig of this
mountain. Both Jews and Mohammedans maintain
that all nations will be gathered for the final judgment
in the valley at the foot of Olivet, and that it is the
greatest privilege the dying believer can ask to be
buried on the slope of the sacred mount to be in readi-
ness to meet the Judge at the resurrection of the just.
But Olivet has no need of fables or fanciful tradi-
tions to make it sacred and interesting to all believers
In the inspired history of the Bible. Over this height
the morning sun looked down upon the rocky plat-
form of Moriah when Abraham had made it an altar,
THE NIGHT OF AGONY. 401
and stood ready to offer his beloved Isaac in sacrifice
at the Divine command. To the top of this mount
the devout David was wont to go forth from Jerusalem
to worship. Up the steep ascent of its northern path
the old king went weeping barefoot, and with his
head covered, and the whole country wailing with a
loud voice around him when Absalom rebelled. On
the top of the mount he paused and took farewell of
his beloved Zion with bitter weeping and a broken
heart. From this consecrated ground the restored
children of the captivity gathered myrtle and olive
and palm branches for the celebration of the feast of
tabernacles. These three bare mountain paths, which
have been worn by human feet for near three thousand
years, were trodden many times by the Son of God.
In all Jerusalem as it now is, a city ten times captured
and devastated since the days of Christ, there is no
street, no house where we can stand and say, " Here
we can be sure that Jesus of Nazareth passed by."
But we can climb the sides of Olivet with the certainty
that our feet are upon the footsteps of the incarnate
Son of God. Up and down its bare and travel- worn
paths he went and came, again and again. Just over
the eastern side of the ridge he stood by the grave of
Lazarus and called back the dead to life. Round the
southern shoulder of the hill he rode in triumioh, with
the rejoicing multitude strewing garments and palm
branches in the way, and thousands shouting with
rapturous voices, " Hosanna ! blessed is he that cometh
402 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
in the name of the Lord/' On some green terrace or
bare ledge of rock, over against the temple, he sat, as
the setting sun gilded the towers and domes and colon-
nades beneath him. and told the doom that should
come upon the proud city. In some humble dwelling
among the olive trees, just like the stone houses that
now cling to the face of the hill, he rested many a
night. Somewhere along this central path to Bethany
stood the fruitless fig-tree whose luxuriant leaves
withered at the reproachful word of Jesus. The crim-
son flowers that fringe these paths every spring, and
which are now called the blood-drops of Jesus, were
here in all their bloom at his feet wdien he paused to
weep over Jerusalem, and w^hen the sweat of his agony
fell like great drops of blood at the foot of the mount.
Far more than Jerusalem, this sacred hill was the daily
walk and the chosen home of the Son of God. It
gave him the resting-place which he loved most of all
on earth, and it w^as the scene of his most awful and
mysterious sufferings and sorrow^s.
Upon this most hallowed scene, at the foot of the
sacred mount, it becomes us to look with tender hearts
and tearful eyes. The inspired record tells us that
Jesus, at a late hour on the night of his betrayal, went
out of the city, over the brook Kidron to the Mount
of Olives. Somewhere just under the brow of the hill,
in sight of the whole eastern wall, was a place where
he was wont to go for retirement and midnight prayer.
After spending the whole day in the excited and
THE NIGHT OF AGONY. 403
stifling crowd of the city, healing the sick, comforting
the afflicted and reasoning with adversaries, he would
go out to this quiet spot to pour out his soul in suppli-
cation and to commune with his Father alone. He
mingled prayer with work, and he combined the most
active public toil with the most complete retirement
and devotion. His favorite spot at the foot of Olivet
was a garden, and its name, Gethsemane, indicates that
it contained a grove of olive trees.
The Passover moon shone from a sky which at that
season seldom has a cloud. The lights in the city had
gone out, the streets were silent, the voices were hushed
in the tents of pilgrims on the hill-sides. The air was
cold enough for soldiers and weather-beaten fishermen
to seek the fire. The day and evening had been spent
in excitement and sacred festivity, and all needed rest.
The voice of Jesus had joined with his disciples in the
upper chamber in singing the Passover psalm : " The
Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salva-
tion." He had spoken the last words of comfort and
peace to the sorrowing band. He had told them of his
Father's many-mansioned house, and of his future
coming to bring them home to see and to share his
glory. He had poured forth his soul in the great in-
tercessory prayer for them and for the penitent and
believing of all time.
And now at this late hour he comes out at the east-
ern gate with his disciples, descends the steep path to
the dry bed of the Kidron, passes over in the still
404 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
moonliglit, and goes up the ascent of Olivet a little
way to the gate of the garden. The disciples are
amazed and deeply troubled at the unusual silence of
their beloved Master. They have seen him wear the
shade of sorrow many times, but never have they seen
him look as he does to-night. And the strange sad-
ness grows heavier and heavier u23on him as he leads
the way, and they dare not ask the cause. They think
lie is going, as he was wont, to find some place of rest
for the night on the favorite mount, and that in the
morning his sadness will have passed away.
But when he reaches the open gate of the garden
alongside the familiar path, he says, *^ Sit ye here
while I go and pray yonder.'' They are not surprised
to hear him say so. For they knew that in the great
struggles and conflicts of his work his constant resort
was prayer. And now, silently selecting three from
the rest to go a little farther with him into the thicker
shade of the olive trees, he becomes more deeply agi-
tated and bowed down under the weight of some mighty
' and mysterious sorrow. He feels that he must be still
more alone, and he tears himself away from the favorite
three disciples, and goes a stone's throw further into
the recesses of the garden and casts himself upon the
ground in an agony of weeping and prayer.
We cannot fully understand the cause or the depth
of the grief and agitation that came upon the Man of
sorrows in Gethsemane. But the sacred narrative, when
•arefully examined, discloses a very strange and startling
THE NIGHT OF AGONY. 405
significance. The words of the evangelists imply that
Jesus was seized and possessed by a terrible and over-
powering fear — a shuddering and quaking horror — a
confused and distracting amazement. The sorrow that
came upon him was so overwhelming and crushing that
it pressed him down to the earth and penetrated soul
and body with insupportable anguish. Usually so calm,
so self-possessed, he now seemed utterly beside himself
with consternation and anxiety. At other times meet-
ing all his conflicts with an exalted and divine serenity
of deportment, now he is weighed down with some
strange and dark dejection, some restless and irresist-
ible disquietude of soul. In the utter loneliness and
desolation of this mysterious conflict he is ready to
utter the bitter cry of the cross itself: "My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me ?"
This first paroxysm of agony, with its strong crying
and many tears, lasted, it would seem, a full hour.
Then he rose up and came to his disciples and found
them sleeping. And while he stood all tremulous and
exhausted, with the bloody sweat upon his brow and
his face changed and furrowed with pain, gently re-
buking them for their failure to watch, the mysterious
anguish came upon him even more mightily than
before, and he turned from them the second time to
hide himself in the deeper recesses of the garden.
Even the poor boon of their watching and sympathy
failed him, and he must meet his great conflict alone.
He could only pour out his soul again in the same
406 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
supplicating, submissive cry, " O my Father, if this
cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy
will be done !" Calmed and strengthened a little by
that prayer, he hurries back a sedond time to get some
word, some look of sympathy from his disciples to com-
fort him, and again he finds them sleeping. Before
they could recover from their bewilderment enough to
answer him when he sought to rouse them, the third
and final onset of his great agony came uj)on him, and
he turned away from his helpless human comforters to
meet the conflict alone ; and this time a heavenly mes-
senger brought him the strength which man could not
give. And now the battle is fought and the victory
won. The Man of Sorrows has drained the cup of
agony to the very dregs. He has conquered by sub-
mission, and he comes forth from the garden with his
wonted serenity to enter upon the closing scene of
mockery and death. It was meet that the Divine Suf-
ferer should complete his great and mysterious conflict
with the powers of darkness and gain the victory before
his human foes began the cruel work of mockery and
death. If the strange fears and the shuddering amaze-
ment of Gethsemane had come upon him when he
stood before Pilate's bar, or when he was nailed to the
cross, the world would have said that his soul was
shaken with the fear of death. So much we may ven-
ture to say concerning the order of events in the
mighty passion which extended through all the years
of Christ's humiliation from Bethlehem to Calvary.
THE NIGHT OF AGONY. 407
But I dare not attempt to explain this mysterious
and awful niglit scene in Gethsemane. It seems to me
as if it would be irreverent and unfeeling for me to
enter this sacred garden, even in imagination, and
calmly look on with a critic's eye while my Kedeemer
is bowed down to the earth with bloody sweat and
bitter agony, and the anguish of his soul is expressed
in strong crying and many tears. But one thing I
know, and that will I say— Jesus suffered for you and
me, dear friend— for you and me. It was not because
he was afraid of death ; it was not because he shrank
from the shame of the cross ; it was not from any fear
or weakness or failure that he prayed in Gethsemane,
" O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from
me !" This Holy One of God had no sins or sorrows
of his own to bear. He was not one to shrink from
bodily suffering. He could not be surprised by any
sudden form of danger. It is impossible to explain
his amazement and agony in Gethsemane except by
admitting that he bore the sorrows of others, and that
on him were laid the iniquities of a lost world.
This is the awful and most affecting lesson of Geth-
semane. The. holy and mighty and loving Son of God
consents to have our sins laid upon him. He draws
himself so near to us by his Divine sympathy and his
desire to save that he consents to be taken as one of
us and to be treated as a transgressor. He looks into
the abyss of despair opened for us by our own sins, as
if its darkness were destined to cover him for ever
408 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
In tlie dread conflict of Gethsemane tlie power of evil
which he had undertaken to destroy appeared so
malignant and mighty, the hell of sin so deep and
black, the peril of man so imnlinent and awful, the
work of redemption so difficult to accomplish, that his
soul was troubled and amazed, his spirit fainted within
him, and his anguish came forth in bloody sweat and
in the cries of infinite sorrow. When his hour came
and the burden of our sins was upon him, it seemed as
if it were greater than he had thought it to be. He
trembled in every limb. He was crushed to the earth
by the weight. He cried out in an agony of tears and
su|)plications.
Such a dreadful thing was it for the mighty Son of
God to stand in the sinner's place for an hour ! How
much more dreadful a thing must it be for a feeble
mortal to stand in the sinner's place for a whole life-
time ! How much more dreadful a thing must it be
to stand in danger of going to the sinner's place for
ever ! We are not now amazed and agonized by our
sins, as Christ was in the garden, just because we do not
see and feel what a dreadful thing it is to sin against
God. But if we were now perfectly holy, and all our
present sins were laid upon us as if they were our own,
we should feel ourselves crushed down by a mountain
of agony as high as heaven and as deep as hell. It
was because Jesus was holy that it made his mighty
soul exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, only to be
numbered with transgressors, while as yet he knew no
THE NIGHT OF AGONY. 409
sin. And if you and I, dear friend, yvere j)erfectly
pure in heart as Jesus was, and tlie tempter sliould
raise one impulse of rebellion against God in our souls
in such a way as to make us think for the moment that
it were our own, it would be like the agony of death
to us until we could thrust it out.
Come, then, O man of the world — you who are care-
less about sinning against God, you who are content
to live on year after year without any assurance in your
own soul that your sins are forgiven — come and look
reverently and thoughtfully upon this awful scene in
Gethsemane. If I could take you to the bedside of
one dying in great torture for his own sins, your feel-
ings would be deeply touched. If I could show you
one suffering indescribable pain from wounds incurred
in saving your life, your heart would be melted with
sympathetic anguish. Come, then, stand by this gar-
den gate in the dread silence of midnight. See the
holy and mighty Son of God prostrate upon the bare
earth, writhing and trembling in great agony, bedew-
ing the trampled ground with bloody sweat. Hear
that voice from heaven which says, " He is smitten of
God and afflicted for your sake. The Lord hath laid
on him all your iniquities.'' Can you see that great
sight and hear that heavenly voice and not be moved ?
Can you see how dreadfully your Divine Redeemer
sufiers in an agony, which is all of the soul and all for
your sake, and not feel that the ransom of your soul is
exceedingly precious? Can you bolieve the sacred
410 NIOHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
story of Getlisemane and not be leady to say in an
agony of earnestness, " Oh, what must I do to be saved
from sins which are so terrible and crushing when laid
upon the mighty Son of God ?" '
And then again once more let me lead you to this
garden gate, that you may see and hear the fullest ex-
pression of the Divine love to man. This suffering of
Jesus in Gethsemane is not because he is already
scourged or crowned with thorns or crucified. His
soul is in agony with the desire to save sinners. . He is
agitated and anxious and amazed just because he finds
men upon the brink of perdition, and he must save
them or they will be lost. He must prevail on
them to take his hand or they will sink to rise no
more. He is troubled and agonized because it is so
hard to make men willing to be saved. And shall not
such unspeakable, such Divine sympathy draw the
most reluctant heart to Jesus ? Shall the bloody sweat
and the exceeding great sorrow and the crushing agony
and the thrice-repeated prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane
plead with men in vain to accej)t so generous, so
mighty, so compassionate a Saviour ?
%\i Jfbt Uigljt after l|e gcsurrtttioti.
Then the same day at evejiing; being' the first day of the %veek^ when
the doors ivere shut where the disciples were assembled for fiear of the
Jews, came Jesus and stood ifi the midst, and said unto them^ Peace
be unto you. — ^John xx. 19.
XX.
THE FIRST NIGHT AFTER THE RESURRECTION.
//['he two great facts wliich complete and confirm
[I everything else in the gospel history are the
crucifixion and the resurrection. The appointed
^"^^ sacrifice of redemption itself was indeed finished
when Jesus bowed his head in death on the cross. But
the Divine seal was set to the sacrifice, and the full and
final witness was given to the world when Jesus rose
from the dead. We therefore truly say that the two
greatest days in the world's history are the Friday
when darkness veiled the awful scene upon Calvary,
and the following Sunday when the white-robed angel,
with a countenance like lightning, rolled away the
stone from the door of the tomb where the body of
Jesus was laid. The extraordinary events of those two
days have exerted a controlling influence upon the
history of the world ever since, and they are still doing
more than great battles and mighty revolutions in form-
ing the character and fixing the destiny of individuals
and nations.
Tliese events were all purposed and sure in the In-
finite Mind. But to human judgment the most dis-
413
414 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
mal niglit that ever cast its shadows upon the hearts
and hopes of men was the last night that the body of
Jesus rested in the grave. The brightest morning that
ever rose upon a darkened and "death-stricken world
was the morning when the tw^o Marys ran with won-
der and joy from the garden of Joseph to the gate of
Jerusalem, to tell the disciples that the tomb was em23ty
and the Lord was risen. The disappointed and dis-
heartened disciples refused to believe the words of the
trembling and excited women. And when the tidings
came again that Mary Magdalene had seen Jesus him-
self alive in the garden, and that a vision of angels had
appeared to others and had positively affirmed the fact
of the resurrection, still they believed it not.
The day which might most fitly have been spent in
rejoicing was one of confusion and perplexity of mind
to them, because the awful and glorious event of the
resurrection surpassed the utmost reach of their faith.
Friday had taken from them their living Master, and
now it seemed that Sunday would deprive them of the
last sad privilege of embalming his dead body in the
tomb. Alas ! how often do the sad thoughts of the
afflicted linger about the grave and cling to the perish-
able form of the beloved who sleep in Jesus, forgetful
of the angel-voice which speaks from the tomb, " He
is not here, he is risen !'' The great fact of an actual
rising from the dead, a continued and glorified life
after death has done its worst upon the suffering body,
is still what believers themselves find it hardest to be-
THE NIGHT AFTER THE RESURRECTIOX 415
lieve. They still find it easier to talk of their lost
friends and buried hopes and broken hearts than of
the better life and blessed home to which the disciples
of Jesus go through the gate of the tomb.
It will help us to correct oar false impressions, and
discipline our hearts to faith and patience, if we ob-
serve the fears and fluctuations of mind through which
the discijDles passed on the first day and evening after
the resurrection. Late in the afternoon two of the
number resolved to give up all further inquiry and
suspense, and go home to quiet their excited and weary
minds in a little village eight miles away from Jeru-
salem. As nearly as can be ascertained they went
out of the city at its western gate, and pursued their
evening walk with sad looks and heavy hearts. The
path which they were to follow was one of the most
dreary and desolate in all Palestine. First, they had to
pass two miles over a bleak and barren level of loose
stones and sun-dried earth and naked slabs of rock.
I think it must have been somewhere- on this cheer-
less mountain ridge, at the beginning of their walk,
that they saw a stranger coming uj) from behind with
a quicker stejj and silently joining their company.
They were so busy with their sad thoughts, and he was
so gentle and courteous in his approach, that they
kept on in their conversation as if they were still alone.
He saw that their faces were sad and their words came
forth from burdened and sorrowing hearts. He gently
drew from them the cause of their grief, aiul in a few
416 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
moments lie entered into their feelings with so much
earnestness, tenderness and sympathy that their hearts
burned within them while he spoke. They wondered
who he could be, and they expressed their wonder by
silent glances at each other, while he went on with
them and talked all the way. But they did not dare to
ask him, or in any way to interrupt the flow of his
gracious words, while he opened to them the Scriptures,
and showed them how Christ must needs suffer and
by suffering enter into his glory.
And so the three walked on together, the delighted
and wondering disciples not knowing that they were
listening to their lamented and risen Lord. They
hear his step upon the stony road just like their own.
He labors with panting breath in climbing the steep
place, and he moves with cautious tread in descending
the slippery path, just as they do. Nothing in his
dress or manner or person leads them to suspect that
he can be anything else than one of the pilgrims re-
turning from the great feast to some distant home.
Having passed over the rocky platform immediately
west of Jerusalem, on what is now the Eamleh road,
they turn to take their last look of the city and brush
away a silent tear at the fresh remembrance of all they
had seen and suffered there within the last few days.
Then they plunge down into a narrow glen and make
their way cautiously over a dreary waste of bare ledges
and confused drifts of gravel and rubble stone. They
cross the dry bed of a torrent, and then climb slowly
THE NIGHT AFTER THE RESURKECTION. 417
up a winding and zig-zag path cut in the limestone
rock to the crest of another ridge. This height is no
sooner gained than they begin another descent, again
to climb a long, steep and winding track over loose
stones and ledges that have been worn smooth by
winter rains and spring torrents and the feet of
travelers for centuries.
And all the way the Divine Saviour, the Son of
God, who could say, " All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth," walks with these two men, tak-
ing as many steps as they, and talking all the v/hile as
they go up and down the steep places togeUj/^r. He
spends more time in this long and laborious conversa-
tion with these two sad and despondent men than with
all others on the first day of his resurrection life. This
mighty Conqueror of death, who had unbarred the gates
of the tomb for a lost world, would thus teach us his
readiness to be with us and comfort our hearts in the
hardest paths we have to tread. In his risen and
glorified state he is still the Son of Man, having all the
sympathies and affections of the human heart. He is
still as near to those who desire his company as he was
before he passed through the awful transformation of
the cross and the tomb.
The sun has gone down behind the gray hill-tops,
and the shadows of evening have begun to deepen in
the narrow valleys, and the laborers have left tJie ter-
raced orchards and vineyards on the hill-sides before
the two travelers reach their home, and beg the kindly
27
418 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Stranger to go in and abide with tliem for the night.
He would have gone farther, and they would not have
recognized their Lord had they not yielded to the im-
pulse which his words had kindled in their hearts and
urged him to stay. He never forces himself upon any.
He joins the company of many who are toiling along
the hard journey of life, he interests himself in the
sorrows that press them down, he warms their hearts
with his words of love, but if they fail to ask him to
abide with them, he passes on and they know him not.
It is toward evening, and the day of life is far spent
with some to whom Jesus has often drawn near in the
way ; the shadows of evening are gathering thick
around them, and yet they have never said to him with
earnest and longing desire, "Abide with us.'' The
humblest home becomes a palace fit for a king when
Jesus enters in to tarry there. And without him the
most splendid mansion on earth can give no rest to the
weary soul. Blessed is the home and sweet is the rest
of those who let no evening pass without offering the
prayer to him who walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus
with the two disciples: "Abide with us."
It was only to draw forth the invitation to stay that
Jesus made as if he would have gone farther. When
asked he entered without delay. The three weary
travelers sat down together in that lowly cottage home,
and the mysterious stranger continued to speak his
heart-burning words while waiting for the evening
meal. When bread, the simple fare of the poor, was
THE NIGHT AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 419
set before tliem, lie put forth his hands to bless it.
But what now so suddenly startles the wondering dis-
ciples ? They see the print of the nails in the open
palms, the sign and scar of the cross. And now that
he breathes forth the blessing they recognize the tone,
the manner, the look. It is he who hung upon the
cross ! It is he whose body was laid in the tomb ! He
lives, and they have been walking with him all the
way ! Now they are ready to cast themselves in wonder
and in worship at his feet. But the object of his
a]3pearance and his long reasoning with them by the
way is gained, and he vanishes out of their sight.
And now, that this great joy has filled their hearts,
their weariness and their discouragement are all gone.
They have no thought of hunger or of rest. They
must hurry back to tell the tidings to their brethren
in the city. In a moment they are out again upon the
Btony path with their faces toward Jerusalem. It is
now night, and the moon which was full four days ago,
has not yet risen. But it is all light in the glad hearts
of the disciples who have seen their risen Lord. The
Bad looks and sorrowful 'words with which they went
out in the bright afternoon are all exchanged for
exultations of joy, now that they are coming back in
the dark night. The world is all new to them, and
the one dread horror of death is all gone, if Christ be
risen from the dead. They cannot wait for the morn-
ing to carry such joyful tidings to the sorrowing band
of their brethren
420 NIGHT SChNES IN THE BIBLE,
They hurry along the wild mountain road, plunging
into dark glens, climbing oyer steep ridges, bending
around shadowy hills, sometimes stepping from stone
to stone, feeling the way in the dark with the pilgrim's
staff, and sometimes slipping u]3on the smooth face of
the steep ledges, and then losing the track in crossing
the dry bed of a torrent. I have myself more than
once traveled as wild and rugged a mountain-path
alone by night, and I know that Cleopas and his com-
panion must have had light hearts to have started out
upon that night journey to Jerusalem, without waiting
for the moon to rise or the morning to dawn.
But they carried in their hearts tidings of the
greatest victory ever gained in this world — the victory
over death, the unbarring of the gates of the grave
for the whole human race. And well they might go,
running when they could, climbing and descending
with cautious step when they must, but rejoicing all
the way. For they were bearers of the best tidings
that human lips ever told. They could testify to a
fact upon which all the hopes of man for eternity must
depend.
Keaching the walls of. the city at a late hour, they
probably passed around to one of the eastern gates,
which was l^ept open all night during the great festivi-
ties of the Jewish people. Having gained admission,
they hurry along the narrow streets, guided now by the
light of the risen moon. The doors are shut and the
blank walls of the stone houses give no sign of life
THE NIGHT AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 421
witliiu. Tliey make tlieir way first of all, we may
suppose, to that one memorable house with the upper
chamber where Jesus spent the last evening with his
disciples before he suffered. Late as is the hour, they
feel confident that the band will still be together. The
excitement of the day has been too great to let them
think of sleep.
When they reach the door, they find it barred from
within and they cannot enter. They knock, but none
reply. They call aloud and announce their names,
and then they hear steps and voices within, and the
swift and cautious hands of their brethren unbolting
the door. But they have not had time to enter or to
unburden their hearts of the great joy which they
brins:, before the voices of all within break out in the
exclamation, " The Lord is risen indeed, and hath
appeared unto Simon !" And now, that all are within
and the door is barred again, the excited and panting
travelers take tlieir turn and tell the wondrous story
of the evening walk to Emmaus, the strange comjDanion
that joined them in the way, the burning words that
he spoke as he climbed the hills and toiled along the
steep stony path in their company, the blessing that
he pronounced at the evening meal, the print of the
nails that they plainly saw in his extended hands, the
familiar looks of their beloved Lord shining out upon
his face, and then his vanishing out of their sight.
They have scarcely finished their story, amid the
wonder and joy of the listening throng, when, behold !
422 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLB.
another stands in the midst of the room. They are
startled and terrified at the sudden apparition, even as
they were when they saw the bright form w^alking
upon the Sea of Galilee. Every eye is fixed upon the
stranger. There has been no knocking without. The
door has not been unbarred. ]N"o sound of entering
footsteps has been heard. And yet there he stands
before the affirighted throng — a stranger, a spirit, a
living man! What can it be? In the hush of silence
which pervades the breathless group they hear a voice
speaking as only their Lord could speak, and saying,
" Peace be unto you.'' Then he shows them his hands
and his feet, and they lean forward with fear and
wonder to look upon the print of the nails, the signs
of sacrificial suffering which he wears even now upon
the throne of heaven. He lays bare his wounded side,
and they shudder as they see the dreadful scar where
the soldier thrust his spear. He bids them draw near
and lay their hands upon him, and thus be sure that
it is his real living body which they see. While they
tremble and dare not approach, he calls for food and
eats in their presence. And now at last are they glad
and satisfied that they see their Lord. It is he that
was nailed to the cross. It is Jesus himself, who died
and was buried, and behold he lives and shall be alive
for evermore.
And the first word which the risen Lord brings to
the assembly of his disciples on this first night after
his resurrection is " Peace." He stands forth in the
THE NIGHT AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 423
midst of tlie startled company with that blessing upon
his lips. And when they have recovered from their
fear and excitement sufficiently to heed his words, he
says again, " Peace be unto you." His first appear-
ance on earth was announced by angel voices with the
same blessed word — peace. And after he has com-
pleted his work and passed away from the world, he
comes back from the grasp of death and the grave to
bring the weary and the sorrowing the blessing of
peace. Peace to the troubled conscience, for the blood
of the cross takes away the stain of sin from the peni-
tent soul. Peace to the weary and heavy-laden, for
all who believe in Jesus shall enter into rest. Peace
to those who destroy their own happiness, for the love
of Jesus reconciles the believing to God, to duty and
to themselves. Peace to all troubled and restless and
doubting and dissatisfied souls, for Jesus came to seek
and to save the lost. Peace to all to whom the mes-
sage of his Gospel is given, for the risen Christ lives
in his truth and he comes to breathe the blessing of
his own Divine and abiding peace upon all who hear
his word. Jesus can enter the closed doors of the
sanctuary and of the secret chamber. But he stands
at the door of the heart and knocks and waits to be
invited in. He knocks and knocks again. He waits
and waits long. And many never invite him in. And
yet the blessing of peace, for which every bosom longs,
is never ours until we unbar our stony liearts and ask
the waiting Saviour in.
424 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Our life on earth is a continual conflict. We must
fight against forces that never tire, and keep ourselves
upon the watch against foes that never sleep We are
beset by countless temptations, and we must resist and
put them down, or be overcome and destroyed ourselves.
We are beset with cares and fears and anxieties, and
we need something to keep us calm and collected amid
the changes and agitations with which we are sur-
rounded. We have a great work to do, and it will be
a dreadful failure if we come to the close of life with
our work undone. We are liable at any moment to
be called out of time into eternity and to have our
destiny fixed for ever.
To real men, living in a condition just like ours,
Jesus showed himself on the first night after his resur-
rection. He stepped from behind the curtain which
hides the unseen world, and stood before them as real
and true a man as they had ever seen him in life.
And his first word to them was peace. He had passed
through the awful mystery of death, and he came back
with no sign of trouble or agitation upon his face, with
no word of fear or alarm upon his lips. They were excited
and terrified, but he said, "Peace be unto you." It waa
as if he had said, "I have suffered all the agony and seen
all the mystery of death, I have been to that unseen
world which you look upon with trembling and horror,
and I have come back to calm your troubled hearts and
quiet your excited fears. I have traveled all the way
which you will have to go through the valley of the
TEE NIGHT AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 425
shadow of cleatli, and I have returned to tell you
that it is safe to those who follow me."
And this blessed word of the risen Christ is for us
as well as for the first disciples. He comes to us in
Spirit as really as he came to them in the body, to give
us a peace which shall abide in our hearts amid all the
changes and agitations of this present life. He comes
to us to say that to those who trust in him there is
absolutely nothing to fear behind the impenetrable veil
which hides the unseen world. To all who believe in
him he says, " Fear not death, because I live, ye shall
live also."
When the peace of Christ comes into the soul, it
brings the calmness and the serenity of heaven. It
enables the suffering and afflicted to sing for joy, as
Paul and Silas sung in the dungeon at midnight. It
enables the poor and outcast to rejoice more in their
poverty than in all riches. It gives hope and triumj^h
to those who are just about to meet all that is most
awful and unchangeable in death and eternity. The
early Christians took this word from the lips of the
risen Christ, and they carried it with them wherever
they went. When exiled to mountains and deserts,
when treated as outcasts and the offscouring of all
things, when left to die of hunger and cold and torture
in dungeons, when surrounded by the fires of martyr-
dom, when cast into the arena to be torn in pieces by
wild beasts, they meekly folded their hands upon their
breasts and waited for the worst in peace. When lov-
426 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
ing hands were permitted to bury the mutilated bodies
of those who had sealed their faith by the most awful
death, they wrote upon the resting-place of the blessed
martyr of Jesus, " He rests in peace."
The early Christians made everything of the resur-
rection of Jesus. To them it made their beloved
Master Lord of the dead and of the living. It made
his cross a throne, his death a triumph, his open tomb
the gate of heaven. It is our privilege to make as
much of it as they did. If we believe in Jesus, we too
shall rise and share with him in his victory over death.
His resurrection is the pattern of our own. He came
forth from the tomb exhibiting the fullness of perfect
manhood in his glorified form. His voice and look
and manner of speech were all such as his friends and
followers had known them to be in his former life.
Though it seemed to some of them too much to believe
that he should be alive, yet their hearts burned within
them when they heard him speak. The tone of his
voice, the glance of his eye, the sacred signs upon his
hands, were to them better than all arguments to prove
the reality of his resurrection.
And in like manner shall our beloved who sleep in
Jesus rise again. They shall remember the past as
Jesus remembered and reminded his disciples of his
own words while he was yet with them. They shall
speak so that when we meet them and they call our
names, as Jesus called the name of Mary in the garden of
the sepulchre, it shall be all we need to know them. In
THE NIGHT AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 427
the shining hosts that throng the streets of the New
Jerusalem and gather in numbers Avithout number
round the throne of Jesus and follow his steps
wherever he goes, there shall be voices that we
loved to hear in our earthly homes, there shall be faces
that need no introduction to tell us who they are.
However plain they looked in this earthly life, they
shall still be themselves and yet their faces shall be
radiant with the soul's immortal beauty in the resur-
rection.
The great artist has the skill to make a homely face
beautiful in a picture, and yet everybody who knows
the original will say it is a perfect likeness. And so
the faces that we last saw on earth wrinkled with age
or wasted with suffering, and void of all grace and
comeliness, shall be the same when seen in the light of
heaven, yet clothed with immortal beauty and fit for
the companionship of angels. The infant of days, whose
smiles of joy and cry of pain lingered in the mother's
memory for years after the grave had closed over the
beloved form, shall come to the parents amid the glory
of heaven with such a look that they shall no more
say they once lost a child. The aged mother, who
died in faith, with children and grandchildren round
her to receive her parting blessing, shall appear the
same in the resurrection, and yet the glorified form
made surpassingly beautiful by the expression of the
sainted spirit dwelling within, just as the skillful artist
makes the beautiful soul shine forth from the silent
428 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
canvas wlien otherwise the picture would liave no
charm. Parents who prayed for beloved children^,
teachers who labored for the conversion of scholars,
pastors who wore out health and life for the salvation
of their flocks and died without seeing the result of
their labors on earth, shall find many faces to know
and hear many voices to recognize in the garden of
Paradise, even as Mary knew the risen Jesus when she
heard him call her in the garden of the sepulchre.
This is the lesson taught us by the familiar mode in
which Jesus met his disci|)les after his resurrection.
He spoke with the same voice. He wore the same
look. He showed them the wounds in his hands and
his side. He walked with them in their journeys.
He met with them in their assemblies. He appeared
on the shore of the lake where he first called them to
follow him. He led them out as far as Bethany, talk-
ing with them all the way along the old path up the
steep and over the brow of Olivet. And that loving and
sacred familiarity with them was manifested by him
after he had passed through the great horror and
mystery of death.
How could he better teach us the human and home-
like reality of the blessed life which shall be ours if by
any means we shall attain unto his resurrection ? Think
of heaven as a home — a home for human and loving
and grateful hearts. Think of its society as having all
that is purest and best on earth perfected and glorified.
Think of Jesus your Saviour there calling you by
THE NIGHT AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 429
name, and showing you that he still wore that name
nearest his heart, even when you wronged and denied
him. Think of waking up beyond the grave and find-
ing yourself in full possession of such a life, with all
the horror and agony of death behind, and nothing
but blessedness and glory before you to possess and
enjoy for ever. Think of all that is ensured to every
believing soul by the resurrection of Christ from the
dead, and then say how much reason we all have to
share the joy with which the disciples rejoiced when
they saw their risen Lord.
The first word which Jesus spoke after his resurrec-
tion was one for a sorrowing world to hear, " Why
weepest thou? "Whom seekest thou?" Many spend
their lives in seeking what they never find. All have
bitter cause for weeping. The journey of life begins
and ends with tears. Its whole course is a search
for something that can take away grief— something
that can call forth fountains of gladness and conso-
lation in the waste places of the soul. And Jesus
comes forth from the grave, the conqueror of sin and
death, that he may lead our search for the lost foun-
tains of joy and make it successful. He comes back
from the tomb to tell us that the object of our lifelong
search can be found only on the other side of that
dark and mysterious change which we so much dread.
He puts the question to all the sons and daughters of
affliction, "Why weepest thou?" that he may draw
their hearts and hopes to that land where there shall
430 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
be no more tears. He says to the burdened and dis-
appointed, " Whom seek ye ?" that he may show him-
self to be the desire of nations and the giver of rest
to the weary souL In the darkest and most desolate
hour of life, this voice of Jesus comes ringing like the
trumpet of victory through all the depths of the soul :
^' Weep not ; I have the keys of death. To him that
overcometh I will give the crown of life.''
Thus faith in the resurrection of Jesus dissipates the
the dark and dreadful horror that overhangs every
man's path in this world. By that mighty and crowd-
ing miracle, Jesus is proved to be the Son of God, with
power to conquer man's last enemy, and to set up for
all believing souls a highway of joy and salvation
between earth and heaven.
i,\t iigjjt of Jriiitltss Ml
They -wejit forth, and entered into a ship immedtutely: and that night
they caught ncthing. But ■when the morning was now come, Jesus stood
on the shore. — John xxi. 3, 4.
^
XXI.
THE NIGHT OF FRUITLESS TOIL.
HE last chapter in the Gospel of John is a second
ending of the sacred story, as told by the
•^1^ beloved disciple, concerning all things that
Jesus did and said. It seems to have been
added in the old age of the last surviving apostle, for
the express purpose of telling what Jesus said to Peter
on the shore of the Sea of Galilee after his resurrec-
tion, and what he did not say to John. The narrative
takes us back to the scene and circumstances of the
early ministry of Christ, and it shows us that the
Divine Saviour, in passing through the gates of death
and completing the great work of redemption, had lost
none of his interest in the homely and common things
of daily life. The place of his appearance on this
occasion is invested with peculiar sacredness in the
Gospel history, and the words which he spoke are
embalmed with the most tender and hallowed associa-
tions in millions of Christian hearts. We shall do well
to make both the words and the place as familiar as
possible to our minds, and to invest them with the
utmost degree of clearness and reality.
28 433
434 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
In the vivid and artless style of the old man, who
could talk of little but love, two pictures rise to view.
The first is night on the Sea of Galilee. It is in tlie
balmy and beautiful bloom of the 'Syrian spring. The
peculiar quietude and peace which breathe through
the inspired narrative of the beloved disciple persuade
us to think of it as a night of deep calm. There is no
breeze in motion. Not a ripple breaks on the white
sand of the silent shore. The lake lies as clear and
calm within its lofty banks as the crystal sea of heaven.
The stars and the mountains are mirrored in its glassy
face. The dark wall of frowning rock that frames the
picture seems to rise from foundations deep beneath
the wave. The lights in the watch-towers on the dis-
tant hills, reflected from beneath the surface of the
sea, look as if they were set in the same under-firma-
ment with the stars. From the solitary heights and
pasture lands, where the flock sleeps in the fold, the
occasional call of the shepherd and the answering howl
of the watch-dog break upon the stillness of the night.
A. pleasure-boat darts out from the Koman town of
Tiberias, and a wild heathen song, softened and chas-
tened by the still air, floats over the waters, and seems
in the distance as if it were a sacred melody to which
the stars and the sea listen in silent rapture. Once an
hour is heard the clank of steel scabbards and the
clatter of iron-shod hoofs when the Roman horsemen
pass on their solitary patrol along the paved road under
the cliffs close by the water's edge. But all else is still.
THE NIGHT OF FRUITLESS TOIL. 435
Tlie shore is silent as the sea, and the sea is silent as
the stars.
In the midst of this deep calm, seven men come
slowly and thoughtfully down to the narrow beach,
enter a stranded boat and push out a little way from
the land. They are clad in the coarse garb of fisher-
men. Their faces have been bronzed with exposure to
wind and sun. Their hands have been swollen with
dragging the dripping net, and hardened with pulling
the laboring oar. But they are men destined to hold
the highest rank among the great masters and teachers
of mankind. Their rude minds have already caught
fire from the Fountain of light, and they are to spend
their lives in carrying the torch of heavenly truth
through the world. They have just begun to under-
stand a little that there is a remedy for all our human
woe, and it is to be their Divine commission to offer
healing and salvation to the wretched and lost of every
land.
Foremost of them all is the fiery-souled Simon Peter,
ready to walk on the waters or to smite with the sword
or to weep in sorrow at a look from his Lord. There
is the gentle and loving John, who leaned upon Jesus'
bosom in the blessed feast of the upper chamber.
There is the slow, distrustful Thomas, so honest and
obstinate in his doubts, and so quick to surpass all
others in his faith when once he had seen the face and
heard the voice of his risen Lord. There is the guile-
less Nathaniel, from the hill-town of Cana, who was so
436 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
startled when Jesus read the thought of his heart th\it
he exclaimed, "Thou art the Son of God !" And there
is James, at once impetuous in spirit and practical in
judgment, and destined to be the first of the apostolic
band to seal his faith with the blood of martyrdom.
These men begin to ply their hard and homely
trade of fishing. Having pushed out a sufiicient dis-
tance from the land, they cast the net into the deep sea,
draw it up and find it empty. They change their
ground, pass up and down the coast, row out into deeper
water and come nearer to the shore, everywhere letting
down the net, and always drawing it up and taking
nothing. And so they spend the long hours of the
w^eary night in fruitless toil, thinking and talking
more of their absent and beloved Lord than of their
toilsome occupation.
Twice have they seen him since his resurrection, but
as yet their faith cannot fully grasp the great fact that
he is actually risen from the dead. They are trying
to live over the past, and they have no plan and little
hope for the future. On this very lake they saw him
walk in the wildest storm, as one would walk the solid
earth. Here, he said " Peace" to the winds, and the
winds were hushed. On yonder height he stilled a
fiercer tempest in the human soul. In the dim star-
light can be seen the grassy bank where he fed five
thousand in the desert place. Nearer by is Capernaum,
where he so often healed the sick and raised the dead
and spoke the words of eternal life. Outlined on the
THE NIGHT OF FRUITLESS TOIL. 487
western sky, under the evening star, are tlie twin
heights of the Beatitudes and the oak-crowned dome
of the Transfiguration. And a little way over tlie
ridge where the sun went down is Cana, where " the
conscious water saw its Lord and blushed to wine," and
Nain hallowed for evermore by the raising of the
widow's son, and Nazareth nestled among hills, where
the Divine Child was sheltered in a human home and
and nursed with a mother's love.
They think on all these things and are sad, while
the long hours of the weary night are spent in fruit-
less toil. They keep letting down the net into the
dark depths of the sea, and it'always comes up empty.
So in thought they plunge into the deeper and darker
mystery of Christ's death and resurrection, and they
can bring nothing to light. Sometimes it seems to
them that they have only just waked up from a beau-
tiful dream of their Master's reign on the earth, and found
themselves nothing but peasants and fishermen, just as
they were before he said to them, " Follow me.''
Weary, disappointed, deprived of the presence of their
Lord, they toil all night and take nothing.
Alas ! that there should be so many even now among
us who spend whok years, even a whole life, as the
disciples spent that sad night on the Sea of Galilee,
toiling in darkness and perplexity and taking nothing!
The world is full of toilers who never get any satisfac-
tory return for their labor. Losing sight of Him who
is the Light of the world, they work blindly and in-
438 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
effectually, putting forth great effort and j)ouring out
all their strength, and coming to the end of life with-
out ever having found anything worth living for. The
world is full of the disappointed an'd the unhappy, just
because it is full of those who set their hearts upon
securing that which, gained or not gained, can never
satisfy the deepest want of the soul.
A young man launches his life-boat upon the trou-
bled sea of toil and competition and temptation in the
great city. He has firm health, a fair address, a quick
mind and an eager heart. He has a high estimate of
his abilities, and he means to make something out of
life to be proud of and to enjoy. He puts a severe
restraint upon appetite and passion. He has nothing
to do with the idle and the vicious. He is intent upon
turning every hour, every acquaintance, every oppor-
tunity to some account in advancing his own interest,
enlarging his own possessions, securing a high position
in the world. And he succeeds. In middle life he is
rich, and in old age he is a millionaire, with everything
that money can buy at his command. But, alas!
money cannot buy that which man most needs. Money
cannot buy happiness, it cannot buy faith, love, cheer-
fulness, buoyancy of heart. Money cannot buy pardon
of sin, preparation for death and the hope of heaven.
The capacity to make money is a great and sacred
talent, whi(^h God gives men to be used in enriching
their souls, enlarging their hearts and lifting up their
hopes and desires to a better life. But when men use
THE NIGHT OF FRUITLESS TOIL. 439
that talent only for self and the world, it only makes
them poor in the priceless jewels of the heart, the more
it gives them of the perishable treasures of earth.
The harder they toil the less they get — the more they
succeed, the worse they fail.
And now this poor-rich man feels that he has spent
all his labor for naught. With all his success he has
gained nothing that can satisfy the soul. He has lived
only for the world, and the world is only waiting for
him to die and get out of the way for others to fill his
place and enjoy his possessions. Weary, disappointed,
heart-broken old man, he has toiled all night and
taken nothing. If he had given himself to Christ in
early youth, and made it the great business of life to
follow him who become poor that he might make many
rich, if he had determined to use the peculiar talent
which God had given him in making the world wiser
and better, he would have been happier all the way
while engaged in the severest toil, he would have had
many to call him blessed in his old age, and in dying
he would have entered upon the possession of infinite
and eternal riches. There is not a sadder place on
earth than the death-chamber of a successful man of
the world, who has secured all that the world can ever
give, and in dying must leave all his good things
behind him and go into eternity to be poor for ever.
Another starts with the purpose to enjoy life as he
^oes along. He means to take it easy. He never
strains himself up to meet the demands of any liiglj
440 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
and exacting princi23le. He never sets up any standard
of success which it will cost him great effort to gain.
Self-indulgence is his first law, and self-denial his
greatest horror. Conscience speaks with too solemn and
awful a voice for him to heed. He has little patience
to listen when duty asserts its sacred claims upon his
life and his heart. But he runs with eag-er haste at
the call of pleasure. He is ready for anything that
will divert a vacant mind or lend wings to a weary
hour. He means to enjoy himself while young, and
make a merry life while it lasts.
And yet the poor, frivolous creature is never happy.
He has no solid peace in himself His life is a pre-
tence and an imposture. He lives to enjoy himself,
and yet it is himself that he is least able to enjoy. He
wearies himself to be happy and he wonders that he
cannot succeed. He toils all night and takes nothing.
If he lives to old age without changing his course, it is
only to be a j)oor, heartless, disappointed man of the
world, who has never found anything worth living for,
and who in dying has less to hope for in the life to
come.
O ye ardent, warm-hearted young men, who would
enjoy life while it lasts! look for something higher,
nobler, purer than a life of worldly pleasure. Do not
consider it success to shun responsibility and leave the
heavy burdens for other shoulders to bear. Bind your-
selves in willing and holy alliance to Him who is infi-
nite, unchanging, everlasting love, and you will find,
THE NIGHT OF FRUITLESS TOIL. 441
even in suffering for liim, a liiglier happiness tlian can
ever be known by those who live only to gratify taste
and indulge the senses. Let duty to God be bound as
a law of affection and obedience to the heart, and you
can find joy in anything. Let loving, grateful, en-
thusiastic devotion to trutli, to purity, to everything
that is good and lovely in Christ, become the animat-
ing, soul-stirring principle of your life, and you will
not need to study the best ways of enjoying yourself
The brave, the self-denying, the dutiful are always
happy. Everything in the world is made tributary to
their happiness. It is impossible for anything to take
from them the success, the joy of living. Tliey have
in their own souls exhaustless sources of peace and
satisfaction. They come to the close of this earthly
life with the assurance that the higher joy and the
endless glory are just about to begin.
Here again is a young lady, whose susceptible heart
is fascinated with the glitter and gayety of fashionable
life. She turns away from her Saviour with graceful
excuses, and she dismisses the claims of duty w^ith a
smile. She estimates the joy of life by the music and
mirth, the gay diversion and the giddy dance. She
learns to talk of trifles with glowing animation, and
give delighted attention to those who make serious
things a jest. She chooses the society of those who are
never in earnest, who never speak truthfully of the
great and awful things which concern us all infinitely
and for ever. She loves light literature, light conver-
442 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
sation, light com]3any, light amusements, and so flatters
herself that she can make life all a holiday, drinking
only the froth and foam of its full cup, and pushing
aside from her lips the bitter contents of toil and trial
and sorrow.
Alas, mistaken creature ! she wearies herself all
night in the whirl of gayety and the giddy dance of
pleasure, only to bring darkness and disappointment
upon her soul when the great struggle of life comes,
and she needs to be fresh as the mornins: and full of
light as the day. She makes the great mistake of
supposing that worldly gayety is happiness, and that
there is a portion of life too cheerful, too hopeful, too
light-hearted to be given to God. That mistake has
made multitudes of the young throw away their best
years and then find that their hearts are empty and
unsatisfied. It has made them waste their young
affections and buoyant susceptibilities upon trifles, and
then left them to recover the lost capacity for happi-
ness, if at all, only through the stern discipline of trial
and sorrow.
Let every young woman put forth her purest and
noblest capacities for trust and devotion by giving her-
self to that Divine Saviour who, when he rose from the
dead, showed himself first of all to Mary in the garden
of the sepulchre. Let her prolong and glorify the
bright and beautiful vision of youth by lifting her
hopes to that better land where the beautiful bloom in
immortal youth. Let her keep her heart fresh and
TEE NIGHT OF FRUITLESS TOIL. 443
cheerful by setting lier strongest and holiest affections
upon that one Friend who changes not. Let goodness
lend its nameless charm, and devotion to duty give its
Divine strength to womanly character, and the woman,
so endowed and disciplined, will find a joy and a satis-
faction, a beauty and a grace in living, such as the
most caressed and flattered creature of fashion and
frivolity never knows.
Time would fail to tell of the many who make the
great mistake of seeking happiness in the world first,
hoping to turn to Christ when the world fails to satisfy
and the soul longs for rest. The Sabbath-school
scholar, just passing from youth to adult age, becomes
ashamed to be seen studying the heavenly oracles, and
goes away to toil for long and dark years to find
something more interesting than the blessed book
which pours light upon the grave and opens the glori-
ous prospect of endless life beyond the river of death.
The sons and daughters of parents who have entered
into rest, and whose dying prayer was that their
children might meet them in heaven, live on in the
hard and unsatisfactory service of the world, seeking
their rest here and finding it not. The Divine Com-
forter strives with many who shut their hearts against
liis gracious pleadings, and who only desire in their
strange infatuation to be let alone, that they may go
farther and farther in seeking what nobody ever found —
peace without pardon, rest for the soul without coming
to Christ. Could such mistakes be corrected, it wou^d
444 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
save a world of useless toil, it would bring peace to a
world of heavy hearts. And I could wish for no
loftier endowment or opportunity than to be able to
Bet forth the better life of faith and obedience to God
in such a liglit that the young would choose it in the
bloom of youth, while the evil days come not, and
those who have wandered far and long would return
to the way of j^eace and salvation. With all the toil
and weariness and disajDpointment inseparable from
man's lot in this world, it surely is not necessary for
the young to add the greater mortification of spending
the best years of life in seeking happiness where none
ever found it. It is not necessary for those who have
tried for years in vain to satisfy their souls from
worldly pursuits and pleasures to continue the experi-
ment longer.
If we look again at the disciples who have spent the
night in fruitless toil, we shall find the scene greatly
changed. It is morning on the Sea of Galilee. Pale
shafts of light are shooting up the eastern sky where
the bright star of dawn hangs over the hills of Bashan.
The wavy line of mountain-tops is beginning to redden
with the fires of the coming day. Away northward,
the white snows of the mighty Hermon are ablaze
with the glory of an Eastern dawn. Southward the
misty line marking the course of the Jordan brightens
and looks as if the shining train of a cometary orb had
fallen between the parted hills. A solitary lark s^Drings
THE NIGHT OF FRUITLESS TOIL. 445
from lier nest and shoots upward with a gush of song,
and soon the whole air becomes vocal with happy
singers that vie wdth each other in carrying the morn-
ing hymn highest toward the gate of heaven. The
dark gray wall of the distant hills draws nearer as the
day approaches, and a flush of air shooting across the
steel bright water makes a pathway of light, as if an
angel's wing had swept the sea from shore to shore.
The weary disciples now cease from their fruitless
toil, for the time of success has |)assed with the night,
and still they have taken nothing. Suddenly they see a
once familiar form standing on the white sand of the
beach, and they hear a voice they have often heard.
But they have been so wearied with toil and benumbed
with the night that they know not at first who it is
that speaks. He tells them to cast the net on the
right side of the ship, and the success which follows
their obedience to his word reveals the form and the
voice of their risen Lord.
Immediately they forget the long night and the
fruitless toil, in the joy of seeing Jesus manifest in the
morning light on tlie shore. They have cheaply
learned the great lesson that the highest skill and the
hardest work are vain without the presence of Jesus,
and that the success of life is obedience to him.
Simple, indeed, is the lesson, and yet how hard for
the heart to learn ! You may work ever so hard and
long in the endeavor to draw up riches and pleasures
and joys from the deep and dark sea of life. But it
446 mOHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
will all be a niglit of disappointment and failure
until you see Jesus revealed in heavenly light on
the shore. Pursue the most common and menial
occupation in obedience to him/ and the result will
be success and joy. His coming to the weary heart
is like morning on the mountains to pilgrims who
have spent the night in w^andering and terror. The
first act of free, genuine, heartfelt obedience to Christ
will give more real joy than a whole life of bondage
to the world.
O ye weary, toiling, unsuccessful seekers after rest,
lift up your heads from your heavy tasks and listen.
Jesus calls from the eternal shore. His voice comes
sweeter than the harps of angels from the mansions of
rest. He says to each of you by name, as he said to
Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, " Lovest thou
me? Lovest thou me? Follow me." He does not
say wait for others, but follow me thyself. He does
not say to-morrow or by and by, but follow me now.
The first step of obedience to that command will fill
the troubled soul with a deeper peace than rested on
the sea when Jesus hushed the storm. Every addi-
tional step in that course will be an advance toward
the blessed shore where Jesus waits your coming and
the ransomed host sing the song of the Lamb on the
crystal sea of heaven.
The night wanes, the morning is breaking. Some
who have long toiled in darkness can now see Jesus
walking in heavenly light and calling to them from
THE NIGHT OF FRUITLESS TOIL. 447
the blessed shore. Look, look in penitence and in
hope, and you will see him clothed ydth such sweet-
ness and majesty that you will forget all worldly
attractions for the glory of that sight. Listen,
listen with obedience and love, and you will hear
him say what should bring a heaven of joy to every
longing and weary heart: "Come unto me — come
unto me."
Night wanes, the high places of the earth are bright
with the coming of the full day. The night of super-
stition has been long and dark. The night of error
has led millions astray. The night of sorrow has made
every home a house of mourning. The night of wrong
has laid heavy burdens on the poor and led the inno-
cent into bondage and captivity. The night of con-
flict has darkened the heavens with the cloud of battle
and deluged the earth with blood. The great human
family has been toiling fruitlessly and in darkness for
ages. But now the day approaches. The hours fly
swifter as the morning advances. The light of the
Sun of Eighteousness is glancing from land to land
and penetrating all the dark places of the earth. Tlie
fetters of the slave are broken. The wall of separation
that divided nations is thrown down. Great conflicts
turn to the advantage of truth and humanity. Eeason
and faith have met together. Science and revelation
ha\re kissed each other. Christianity is gathering
honor and strength from all the arts and inventions,
from all the learning and refinement, from all the
448 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
riclies and poAver of the world. The nations are look-
ing to Jesus as he stands revealed in the glow of the
morning on the eternal shore, and when they hear his
voice and obey his word the night of fruitless toil will
pass away and the full day will come.
^ngtl Visits in t|e lig|t.
29
The same night Peter ivas sleeping bettveeyi two soldiers, boun ■'
Viitk two chains : and the keepers before the door kept the p^\"on
And, behold, the angel of the Lord came npo?i him, and a light shined
in the prison : and he smote Peter on the side and raised him up, say-
ing, Arise tip quickly. And his chains fell off fro?7i his hands. — Acts
xii. 6, 7.
jn:Ht-7 SAnij.Tir
ANGEL VISITS IIV THE NIGHT
451
L
452 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
tlie visible world the sliaclow and representative of the
invisible and unknown. When we go down into the
depths of the cavern or the dungeon, and shut our-
selves up in silence that never breaks into sound, and
in darkness that never changes to day, it seems as if
we were alone in the universe, with nothing but the
sense of responsibility and the yearning for society to
tell us that there are other beings beside ourselves.
When we mingle with the multitude on the crowded
street, and hear the roar of business and toil and plea-
sure that surges through all the channels of the great
city from morning to evening, it seems as if man and
earth were everything, and that there can be no real
life or intelligence or power outside of this visible,
material w^orld, in which we all now live and move and
have our being.
All these natural and uninstructed impressions con-
spire to narrow the range of our thought, and shut us
up to the society and home and occupations of man
alone. It is, therefore, a startling and a salutary dis-
closure of Divine revelation that we are not the only
intelligent actors in the busy scenes of daily life which
surround us. There are more living persons in the
crowd than any human observer can count. There
are more listeners in the public assembly than can be
seen by the speaker's eye. There is no solitude of
earth where we may not have the unseen companion-
ship of beings that think and feel and work more
mightily and constantly than ourselves.
ANGEL VISITS IN THE NIGHT. 453
And tliese invisible, unembodied partners of our toil
and sharers of our spiritual life have sometimes stepped
forth from behind the curtain that hides the unseen
world, to show us that we may have witnesses of our
conduct when we think ourselves most alone. We
have only to turn to the sacred record to learn that
these high and mighty ones, whose home is in some
far distant world, have borne an active part both in
the common and in the great events of this world
which we call ours. They have taken the form of
men, and shown themselves to human eyes, and spoken
aloud in the languages of earth. They have made
their appearance on the lonely mountain-top, on the
storm-beaten ship at sea, in the streets of the city, on
the hills, in the highways and fields and threshing-
floors, in the night and in the broad day, in the calm
and in the storm, speaking words of peace and smiting
with the sword, bringing health and prosperity and
wasting with the pestilence, talking with men under
the shadow of trees and tents and temple roofs, at city
gates, in humble dwellings and in the depths of the
dungeon's gloom. In all these places and circum-
stances men have seen and heard the living inhabitants
of other worlds.
And these celestial visitants have come from their
far distant homes to take part in the affairs of men.
They have shown themselves better acquainted with
human history and better able to do our work than
we ourselves. They have defeated great armies, they
454 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
have overtlirown populous cities, they have sent forth
and arrested the pestilence. They have rested under
the shadow of oaks at noon as if weary ; they have
eaten bread as if hungry ; they have received hospi-
tality in human homes at evening as if coming in from
a journey ; they have guided and protected travelers
on their way ; they have rolled away the stone from
the tomb ; they have kindled the fire of the altar and
stood unhurt in the midst of the flame ; they have
clothed themselves in garments that shone like the
lightning, and they have appeared in so common a
garb as to be taken for wayfaring men needing lodg-
ings for the night.
It adds immensely to the solemn interest of our daily
life to know that we may have such unseen witnesses
of our conduct and partners of our toil at any moment.
It gives us a higher and truer estimate of our own
place in the great commonwealth of intelligent beings,
to find that we are objects of intense interest to the
inhabitants of other worlds. It enlarges the range of
our thought, and lifts our desires and aspirations above
all earthly and perishable things, to know that our
present habitation is only one little province of a uni-
verse of worlds, and that this mighty empire is bound
together by ties of intelligence, co-operation and
sympathy to its utmost extent.
The deliverance of Peter from prison by the angel
of the Lord at night shows that these mighty visitants
from other worlds have little regard for the pomp and
ANGEL VISITS IN THE NIGHT. 456
splendor? of earthly state. Suppose a propliet liad
said tlie day before that on that night a mighty being
from the central province in God's great empire would
visit Jerusalem on a special mission from the Most
High, and only one man in all that city would be
honored by receiving that celestial messenger. Could
any have guessed that that man would be found in a
prison sleeping upon a stone floor, chained right hand
and left to soldiers, who must be answerable with their
lives for his safe-keeping ?
There were many other persons besides Peter for an
angel to see, many other places besides a prison for an
angel to visit. There was a king in Jerusalem at the
time, who had carried the splendors of his reign
beyond the utmost reach that Solomon in all his glory
ever attained. It was a season of sacred festivity, and
devout men from every nation under heaven had come
up to the Holy City to worship. There was the tem-
ple glittering with gold and precious stones, the most
gorgeous sanctuary that had ever been reared for the
worship of the true God by human hands on the face
of the whole earth. There were the tombs of the kings
and prophets — there were the holy places that had
been consecrated by human faith and Divine interpo-
sition in ancient time.
But the mighty angel who came down to Jerusalem
that night did not show himself in the palace of the
king. He did not enter the Holy Place of the temple
He did not address himself to devout pilgrims who
456 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
had come witli alms and with o£Perings from the most
distant nations. He did not come to visit the
monuments and revive tlie memories of the glorious
past. The one man whom that mighty servant of God
had come from a distant woi-ld to see was shut up in
stone walls, asleep on a stone floor, bound with iron
chains, only waiting for the morning to be led forth
and mocked by the multitude and murdered by the
king.
It is a sad thing for us to be obliged to confess that
when the holy messengers from distant worlds have
come to visit their friends and associates in the service
of God on earth, they have so often been obliged to
look for them in prisons or in caves of the earth or in
exile. And yet it is a blessed thing that human faith
has made the vilest dungeon a holy place, and the in-
struments of torture more sacred than the sceptres of
kings. The subterranean galleries of the catacombs,
where the Eoman Christians hid themselves and wor-
shiped God in the dark days of persecution, are
visited with more faith and affection to-day than the
ruins of the palace where the Csesars reigned.
If the very chain with which Peter was bound when
the touch of the angel awakened him from sleep were
now kept in Jerusalem, and there were no question
about its identity, every intelligent traveler visiting that
city would wish to see and to handle that chain. And
not necessarily from any superstitious regard for a ma-
terial and senseless piece of iron, but from the feeling
ANGEL VISITS IN THE NIGHT. 457
tliat airistian ftiitli and suffering consecrate everything
they touch in the estimate of those who themselves
believe and are ready to suffer for their faith. If the
cell in which Peter slept and the stone floor on which
the feet of the angel pressed were preserved to this day
unchanged, any intelligent traveler would think it
something to remember and to tell of, that he had en-
tered that cell and set his foot upou that floor. If any
city in America contained the prison in which John
Bunyan wrote tlie Pilgrim's Progress, or the castle in
which Martin Luther translated the Bible into his
mother tongue, the most unromantic and unbelieving
person in that city would direct a stranger to the
prison and the castlo as places that every one would
like to see.
So much consecration do rude homes and stone walls
and vile dungeons derive from the faith and toil and
suffering of the servants of God. And the whole earth
will become a sanctuary and all human possessions will
be made holy when all men have learned to walk
with God, and to live in sympathy with the blessed
inhabitants of other worlds. Let love to Christ become
the law and the life of everything we do, and then the
place where we toil and the home where we rest will
become as attractive to angels as the dungeons where
the martyrs suffered.
Peter slept so soundly upon the stone floor, with both
hands chained and a guard upon both sides, that the
light which shone from the presence of tlie celestial
458 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
messenger did not wake liim. He must hear the
angel voice and feel the touch of the angel hand. A
man with a good conscience can sleep on a very hard
bed and in the midst of very great danger. The
anxieties and perils and worries of life and the dread
of death would not weary and wear us out so much
and so fast if w^e went to our daily duties with such
high and ha^Dpy faith in God as m.artyrs have shown
in the prison and the flames. If we fully believed
that God has given his angels charge over us to keep
us in all our ways, we could fulfill our day of duty
without fear, and we could gratefully accept such sleep
as God gives to his beloved when the night comes.
I know the doctors say that sound sleep comes of a
good digestion. And while I do not deny that, I know
another thing quite as well as the doctors — a good
digestion depends greatly upon a good conscience. To
be in the best health of both'body and mind, we must
be at peace with Him who satisfieth our mouth with
good things and reneweth our strength like the eagle's.
And it makes very little difference how humble oi
exalted the chamber in which we lie down to rest, if
we have done our duty well and we trust wholly in
Him who giveth his beloved sleep. The sleep that
renews the life and restores the soul and gives a fore-
taste of heavenly rest is the sleep which God gives to
them that love him.
The time is not far distant when the sleep of death
will steal upon us all. What strange and bewildering
ANGEL VISITS IN THE NIGHT. 459
joy it will be to be waked from that last sleep by tlie
touch of an angel's hand ! What new life and liberty
for the soul to stand forth released from the suffering
body, and to see by its side, clothed in light, an angel-
guide ready to start u23on the heavenward journey, and
saying, "Eise up quickly and follow me!" What sur-
prise it will be to the soul to find itself able to obey
that command, and to follow the angel-guide, swift as
the light, to the paradise of God !
The care with which Peter was kept was a confes-
sion that even Herod was afraid of him. Sixteen
armed soldiers, all answerable with their lives for his
safe-keeping, and a cell made of massive rock, and two
chains and three guarded and bolted gates to secure
one unarmed, non-resistant, defenceless man ! Surely
it was taking great pains to hold one prisoner. And
we have much reason to be obliged to the king for
making the guard so strong, just as the sealing of
the stone and the setting of the watch over the sepul-
chre of Jesus only helped and confirmed the demon-
stration of his resurrection; just as we may well
thank the proud and passionate Voltaire for saying he
was tired of hearing that twelve men established Chris-
tianity throughout the world — he would yet live to hear
it said that one man had banished Christianity from
the face of the earth. Voltaire worked hard and
long to fulfill his boast. But he has been dead
ninety years, and yet the religion which he hated was
never so full of life and power, never so widely dif-
460 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
fused among men, never so likely to live for all time,
as it is now.
We may count ourselves deLtoj^s to tlie cultivated
and remorseless criticism wliicli has exhausted the
resources of genius and learning and industry in the
endeavor to shake our confidence in the sacred records,
for all its efforts have only served to lay bare the ever-
lasting foundations on which our faith rests. We may
be thankful for the bigotry which determined to crush
out the spirit of Christian liberty in the Old World two
hundred and fifty years ago, for that oppression drove
our fathers into exile, and gave them the sanctuary of
the wilderness for a home, and made them the guar-
dians of truth and freedom for the world. And so
every link in the two chains which bound Peter that
night, every stone in the wall of his prison, every bolt
in the triple gates, and every one of his sixteen guards
prove to us that the power enlisted for the defence of
the religion of Jesus is mightier than the armies of
kings.
Peter was accustomed to see miracles and manifesta^
tions of Divine jjower in behalf of men ; and yet I do
not wonder that he was bewildered and thought he had
seen a vision that night. Let us try to imagine the
circumstances, that we may the better understand his
feelings. He is awaked suddenly from deep slee23, and
his cell, which had never seen a sunbeam, is all ablaze
with light. There stands before him a being radiant
with celestial beauty, gentleness and might. He hears
ANGEL VISITS IN THE NIGHT. 461
a voice which lie cannot choose but obey, "Arise." He
lifts his hands and they are no longer chained. He
stands upon his feet and he is free. Again the voice
in quick, commanding tones, " Gird thyself— bind on
thy sandals." He tightens the leathern belt about his
loins, never once ceasing to gaze with dazzled eyes at
the stranger. He ties on his cast-off sandals without
knowing where he found them, without looking at his
hands to see what they are doing.
And then he stands up bewildered and wondering
what next. The armed soldiers are still as if they had
been changed to stone on the stony floor. Again the
voice, " Cast thy garments about thee." And he does
so, knowing as little as before what he is doing. "Fol-
low me," and the angel moves toward the closed and
bolted door. And all the while this impulsive man,
Peter, who was always talking, even when he had
nothing to say, has not said a word. He steps over
the prostrate guards, who, asleep or awake, do not seem
to know what is going on, and he moves after his
strange guide. They approach the door — it is shut;
they are outside of it— it is still shut. How they
passed it Peter does not know. He has not seen it
open or close. It was before them ; it is now behind
them, and they move on. There are soldiers within
and soldiers without. But they give no heed when the
apostle and his guide pass between them. They ap-
proach the second gate on the other side of the court
of the prison. That, too, is shut and guarded within
462 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
and witlioiit. They have already passed it, and every-
thing is behind them as it was before them. There is
no creak of hinges, no clank of bolts, no sign of alarm
or of attention from the fourfold guard. It is all light
as day about the man and the angel, and yet it seems
to the man as if he were dreaming. The bolts, the
gates, the guards seem to have lost their substance
and their reality to him. He passes them all as
if they were thin air, but how he does it he cannot
tell.
At last it looks more like reality when he comes to
the outer iron gate, for that swings open, and he can
see the motion, and the two pass out into the public
street. But then there is no sound of unbolting, no
stir or look of the soldier-guards within or without, as
if they knew that anybody were passing. And the
gate is shut the moment the angel and the man are in
the street. Peter follows his guide bewildered and
wondering what will be the end, and in a moment
more he finds himself alone.
Now at last he has time to think. The streets are
silent. No light shines from the blank walls of the
houses. The splendor that flowed from his mysterious
guide is gone. But the bewildered man begins to
come to himself. He recognizes the place. It was
along this very street that the rude soldiers led him a
week ago, with the ruder rabble hooting after him,
and the occupants of the houses stepping out to join in
the mockery. It was just here that he expected to
ANGEL VISITS IN THE NIGHT. 463
meet the faces of the mob in the morning when the
order came to lead him forth to torture and deatli.
Not quite sure that it is himself or that he is fully
awake, he feels in the dark for the crease of the mana-
cle on the swollen wrist. The mark is there, but the
chain is gone. Did he bind on his sandals when told
in the prison? He stamps upon the ground. Yes,
they are on his feet now. And his girdle and cast-off
robe that lay beside him on the stone floor in the hot
and stifling cell ? Yes, he has them all. And it is
no dream. God's mighty angel has led him along the
street where he expected to be led in mockery by
Herod's men of war. He is free, and the fanatical
populace of Jerusalem will clamor in vain for theii
victim on the morrow.
And so God's angel shall come in the appointed
time to deliver the disciple of Jesus from the prison of
the flesh. And oh how much more glorious than the
change which so bewildered the mind of the apostle
when he went out from the dungeon in Jerusalem, and
could not for a while believe that it was himself abroad
in the open streets ! The heavenly messenger finds tlie
one for whom he is sent racked with pain. Tlie
shadows of death are deepening around him. The
voice of w^ailing and sorrow is in his chamber. The
faces that bend over him are bedewed with tears. His
mind wanders, his senses are benumbed, everything
grows dark and confused around him. He cannot
hear the voices of his beloved, he cannot feel the toucli
46-i NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
of their hand. Everything is going from him — feehng,
thought, desire, life — all fading, sinking, gone !
But no! A strange glory is shining around him.
Forms of celestial beauty approach. Strains of un-
earthly music fill the air. The pain, the darkness, the
sorrow are all gone. There is no sun, but it is all
light. He listens, and in the chorus of voices he hears
one that passed away from the earth years ago. And
now it is the same voice, only purer, sweeter, more full
of love than it ever was on earth. And now he re-
cognizes a face over which he saw the shadow of death
pass long ago, and now it is the same and yet so beau-
tiful, so angelical, just what he wished it to be, what it
was to his mind and heart even when worn and deeply
furrowed with the lines of sickness and pain. And
now there are more of the loved and lost ones of other
years around him. They come swift as thought. There
is a tremor of light in the air, and they are by his side.
And they all seem like angels, yet so natural, so
human, so like themselves. They all know him, and
their presence makes it seem as if this were home, and
yet not the home that he left darkened with shadows
and saddened with wailing and tears.
Can this be heaven'? And is it himself that is
here'? And is he like the rest, glorious, beautiful,
happy'? And death, and pain, and sorrow, are they all
past'? Will not a word or a motion or a moment prove
it all a dream, and wake him to hear the voice of weep-
ing and to feel the fire of fever upon his lip, and to
ANGEL VISITS IN THE NIGHT. 465
Bee a sad company bending over liim in an agony of
grief?
But we try in vain to express in words the blessed
bewilderment of tlie lia23py soul in the first moment of
waking from the sleep of death to the life of heaven.
If the apostle could not for a while believe the reality
of what he had seen and heard when delivered from
prison by the angel at night, how much greater shall
be the wonder, the surprise of the ransomed soul when
taken from this suffering, crumbling prison of the
body, and set down free and every faculty all thrilling
with immortal life in the golden streets of the New
Jerusalem.
It is here that we sleep and dream. The great
reality of life is yet to come — a life that never rests
from activity, that never tires with toil, that never
grows old with time — a life that shall keep pace in
duration with the eternal years of God. Here the soul
is bound, like Peter in the prison, with two chains — one
the burden and sorrow of life, the other the fear of
death. Faith in Christ alone delivers us from the
double bondage. Faith in Christ alone can pre23are us
to be waked by the touch of the angel of death, and to
see ourselves surrounded with a greater light than
shone in the prison of the apostle when his angel de-
liverer said to him, " Arise, follow me." Immortal
man, let not the cares of this world, the deceitfulness
of riches, the seductions of pleasure, the dreams of
ambition lead you to forget that your true life begins
30
466 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
with deatli, and your real home is not earth, but heaven.
Let nothing bind you with such strong attachments
here that you would rather stay in the prison of the
body and wear your chains than go forth into everlast-
ing light and liberty, when God's angel comes with the
message, " Eise up quickly, and follow me.''
mibiiigjt ill t|)e |risoii at lijilip^^i.
And at midnight, Paul and Silas grayed, and sang t raises unto
God: and the prisoners heard them, — Acts xvi. 25
MIDNIGHT IN THE PRTGON AT FHILIPPI
46»
s
470 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
comfort and rest to sorrowing and weary hearts. Tliey
were only answering for others the most solemn and
important question that can ever engage the human
mind: "What must I do to be saved?"
While thus employed they were repeatedly inter-
rupted by the cries of a poor slave girl who was hel
in double bondage by her human masters and by the
demons of darkness. One of the two men, Paul, by
virtue of the Divine power given unto him in the name
of Jesus Christ, delivered the unhappy slave from her
spiritual tormentors, and so her masters could no
longer make gain of her pretended inspiration. They
were greatly incensed because their fraud and cruelty
were now exposed, and their opportunity to profit by
imposture was lost. In their rage and excitement they
laid hands upon the two peaceful strangers, hurried
them back into the city, gathered a crowd about them
in the market-place, and vehemently charged them
with causing the tumult which themselves alone had
excited.
The rude idlers of the town ran together from
every quarter, and cries were lifted up from many voices.
No opportunity was given to the two defenceless men
to speak or explain what they had done. The atten-
tion of the magistrates was draw^n to the tumult. The
officers of the Roman government were great sticklers
for order, and they sometimes restored quiet by the
most cruel and hasty process. In this case, seeing that
Paul and Silas were set upon and denounced by all the
MIDNIGHT IN THE PRISON AT PHILirPL 471
rest, tliey took it for granted, without delay or inquiry,
that they were the guilty cause of the disturbance.
They accordingly commanded them to be taken from
the hands of the rabble and stripped and scourged by
the public executioner in the market-place. Their
garments were torn off, they were thrown violently
upon their faces to the ground, their hands and feet
were held down by strong and cruel men, while others
beat with blow after blow upon their naked backs with
tough and flexible rods of elm, that tore the flesh and
drew blood at every stroke. If they tried to speak or
to ask a hearing of the magistrates, they were seized
by the hair of the head and their faces ground into
the dust. The heartless rabble looked on with eager
eyes, and shouted savage applause, while the blows
fell thick and fast upon the quivering flesh. The
sight of blood and the writhings of the victims only
roused the brutal passions of the crowd to a wilder
pitch of excitement, and made them encourage the
cruel lictors to strike with the greater force and upon
the part where the blow would cause the greatest
suffering. Such exhibitions were always witnessed
with fiendish delight by the rabble in Roman towns,
and many times the leading motive of the magistrate
in condemning the accused was to please the people
with the sight of torture and blood.
When the executioners were weary with giving many
blows, and their heavy rods were drij^ping with blood,
the poor men were lifted up from the ground and
4T2 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
taken away to prison. The rabble went booting after
them — the magistrates sent the solemn charge to tlie
jailor at the peril of his life to keep his captives safely.
Being taken in at the main gate, they were led through
the crowd of prisoners in the outer court. They were
seen by all, bruised and bleeding and their lacerated
bodies covered with dust. A more secure and horrible
place was sought for these men than for the common
criminals. And they were accordingly taken into the
deepest recesses of the prison and let down into a
damp, cold, pestilential dungeon. The jailor descended
after them, laid them upon their inflamed and tortured
backs on the stone floor, stretched out their feel and
hands and pinioned them down between strong timbers,
so that they could not rise or relieve themselves by
changing their position. Thus bound and secured, the
jailor left them, neither giving them water to assuage
their burning thirst, nor anything to alleviate their
painful wounds. He climbed up out of the dungeon,
and the iron covering crashed down behind him upon
the stone floor over their heads like the fall of a mill-
stone upon the pavement. And there they were for
the night, suffering hunger and thirst and cold and
torture, in darkness so deep that they could not tell
the day from the night.
Such was the reception given to the first missionaries
of the cross who passed over to Europe from the
Asiatic shore to proclaim the glad tidings of the great
salvation. They came to feed the hungry and clothe
MIDNIGHT IN THE PRISON AT PHTLIPPL 473
tlie naked and comfort the sorrowing, and they wore
stripped of their garments and scourged in the market-
place. They came to proclaim liberty to enslaved
millions, and they were bound and consigned to the
deepest dungeon. They come to bring light into the
hearts and homes of all men, and they were imprisoned
in utter darkness. They brought a message from
heaven which has been for ages the source of power
and prosperity to the mightiest and most enlightened
nations of the earth, and they were treated as if they
were robbers and deceivers of mankind.
So the world crowns its worst enemies and crucifies
its greatest benefactors. So hard is it even now for
men to accept the richest blessing when it is offered as
a free gift. So slow of heart are millions to believe that
the humbling, self-denying religion of Jesus does most
to improve man's condition in this world, while in the
world to come it ensures glory and life everlasting.
The excitement of the day was over. The lictors
had bound up their bloody rods and laid them aside
for the next victim. The magistrates had gone to
their homes, flattering themselves that by promptness
and energy they had suppressed a popular tumult and
vindicated the majesty of Roman law. The jailor had
fulfilled too well the charge to put the two prisoners
beyond the possibility of rescue or escape. The othei
inmates of the prison congratulated themselves that they
at least had not had their flesh seamed and torn by the
cruel rods, nor had they been buried alive in the cold
474 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
dungeon of the inner prison. The rahhle of the town
had skuik away to their wretched homes.
Midnight had come down with its deep shadows
upon the sleeping city. There was silence in the de-
serted streets, silence in the outer wards of the prison,
silence in the cells where wretched men were shivering
on the stone floor, silence in the inner prison. But no,
from that dungeon deep and cold, where the two tor-
tured men had been bound with their inflamed flesh
to the hard and rough stone, there comes a sound. Is
it a cry of pain ? Is it the wail of tortured men in
their agony ? Is it a maddened supplication for death
to come and release them from their misery ?
No, far from it. It is the voice of singing. It is a
strain of joy and triumph. It is a psalm of victory
and thanksgiving. We do not know precisely what it
was that they sung. But we may be sure that it was
in that ancient and ins]3ired Hebrew strain which de-
lights in ascribing glory unto God and in declaring
unshaken trust in him under the sorest afiliction: "Oh
sing praises unto Jehovah. For he heareth the poor
when they cry, he despiseth not his prisoners, he bring-
eth them out that are bound with chains. He break-
eth the gates of brass, and smiteth the bars of iron in
sunder. Oh sing praises unto Jehovah, for he is good,
for his mercy endureth for ever."
And still that glorious song swelled loud and clear
from the depths of the dungeon's gloom, until it was
heard through all the wards and outer courts of the
MIDNIGHT IN THE PRISON AT rillLIPPI. 475
prison, and all the wretched bondmen witliin tlie walls
were awake and listening to the strain. When they
saw the swollen and bleeding flesh of the two men as
they were taken into the inner prison the evening be-
fore, they thought their sleep would be disturbed that
night by groans and cries of agony. And now they
are waked by the strains of joy and exultation.
And while they listen and wonder what all this
can mean, suddenly there comes a mysterious and
awful sound, as if the solid earth were rent asunder
beneath the whole city. The foundations of the prison
are shaken. The bolted doors are all thrown open.
The chains and fetters of every prisoner are loosed and
all are free. The jailor, who had slept through all the
singing, is waked by the earthquake. He sees the
prison doors open. He supposes the prisoners to have
gone. He knows that, by the stern usage of Eoman
law, his life will have to be paid as the forfeit for their
escape. In despair he determines to anticipate the
shame of a public execution by plunging his sword into
his own bosom. He would be like Brutus and Cas-
sius, who ended their last struggle against Csesar on
the plains near this same city of Philippi, by falling
upon their own swords. The jailor's hand is upon his
sword, and he is just about to give himself the fatal
blow, when a voice comes up from the dungeon of the
inner prison, saying, " Do thyself no harm, for we are
all here." It is all dark. The jailor himself cannot
see the one who speaks. But the voice is so loud, clear
476 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
and calm, it is so full of earnestness and assurance, tliat
the excited man becomes liimself again. He drops his
sword, calls for a light, rushes into the inner prison
through the open doors, leaps do^n into the subter-
ranean dungeon, lifts up Paul and Silas from the pit
and brings them out into the open court of the prison.
And now there comes over this man a strange fear,
a mighty and an irrepressible longing which declares
itself in the most momentous inquiry man can ever
make: "What must I do to be saved?" Saved, not
simply from the terrors of the earthquake ; that is
already past and has done no harm. Saved, not sim-
ply from punishment under Eoman law for the escape
of the prisoners ; for the prisoners are all here. But
saved from that awful and infinite peril of which the
accusing conscience whispers in the secret place of
every human soul. Saved from the wretchedness of
living without God and dying without hope. Saved
with that everlasting salvation which is preached by
these persecuted prisoners in the namre of the most
high God.
This is the grand question which is to be first asked
and first answered for himself by every considerate,
conscientious man. It is not to be deferred till the
time of trouble and alarm. We are not to wait till the
pleasures of earth cease to allure, and the terrors of
death take hold of us, before we ask what is to become
of us in the endless future beyond the grave, before we
seek some rescue from the guilt and woe of sin in our
MIDNIGHT IN THE PRISON AT PHILIPPL 477
own hearts. This poor jailer at Philippi was indeed
driven by terror to acknowledge himself an inquirer
for the way of salvation. And no man should be
ashamed to confess himself afraid of what he feared-
afraid to live a life of sin and die a death of despair,
afraid to wrong the strivings and pleadings of infinite
love, and to reject the offer of eternal salvation. This
is what a brave man should be most afraid of.
The good soldier who is least afraid of the terrors of
death is most afraid to disobey the orders of his com-
mander. He is ready to face the storm of battle, but
he is not willing to have it said that his country called
for him in the hour of her peril and he answered not.
And no man should be ashamed to have it said that
he is afraid to disobey the infinite God, afraid to refuse
when the cause of truth and righteousness for all ages
and all worlds demands a service at his hands. It is
the first and best evidence of a right mind when one
begins to ask with deep earnestness, " What must I do
to be saved from making my life a failure, myself a
wreck, my whole toil and effort and sacrifice a waste?
What must I do to be saved from living in a state of
opposition to God and in perpetual conflict with my
own conscience? What must I do to cast off the
galling chains of evil habits and passions, and rise up
free in the Divine and glorious liberty of the children
of God r
Eiches and poverty, sickness and health, prosperity
and adversity are trifles not worthy to be named in
478 NIQHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
comparison with tlie soul's eternal salvation. Salva-
tion is tlie full j^ossession and perfect enjoyment of
every possible means of good for ever. And in this
world there is no perfect enjoyment of anything, and
the happiest hour is the quickest to fly. What is it
worth to man's immortal self to enjoy the highest
Ileal th and success for a few years, and die the owner
of millions of property, and then go into the other
world to be poor and wretched and in want of all
things for ever ? And how rich and happy is he who
lives a few years in pain and sorrow, suffers disappoint-
ment and neglect and has not where to lay his head,
and then with all his immortal powers bursts into a
new and glorious life, with the certain prospect of per-
fect and endless blessedness before him, and all the
pain and sorrow of earth for ever behind !
It is a wonder how this excited and terrified man at
Philippi could have become so suddenly and supremely
anxious about the one subject of greatest concern to us
all. His question is still the question of the age, of
the world, and of every man in it. Not, What shall I
do to be rich, to be honored, to be free from toil and pain
and want, to live the longest and to be most successful
in this world ? But, What shall I do to be blessed for
ever, to have every want of my soul supplied and
every faculty of my being ennobled and glorified for
everlasting ages ? What shall I do to prepare for the
society of angels, for the occupations of heaven, for a
home in that city whose builder and maker is God ?
MIDNIGHT IN THE PRISON AT PHILIPPI. 479
This is something worth being inquired about earnestly,
constantly, till the great inheritance of salvation is
secure and the soul is at rest.
We all have too many fears and anxieties about our
safety and success in this world to enjoy life as we go
along. It would add immensely to our present peace
and contentment if we were supremely interested about
our condition in the endless life to come. Paul and
Silas sang praises to God at midnight in the dungeon
of Phili23pi, triumphing over the tortures which had
been inflicted upon them, because they looked upward
through the gloom and saw the crown of life in wait-
ing for them, and they suffered only because they were
helping others to attain that crown. They could sing
on their way to glory, although the path they had to
tread was one of pain and conflict. Despised and
persecuted as they were, the journey of life to them
was the march of a conqueror who advances with the
exultations of triumph in his heart and the j^alms of
victory on his brow.
***** Hi
In the subsequent history of the great apostle who
was the chief actor in this memorable night scene at
Philipiii there is another ex23erience of prison life,
which shows still more clearly the sustaining power of
faith in a better life to come. A reference to tlie
latter will show that the joyfulness with which Paul
endured afflictions for Christ's sake in the earlier
part of his ministry was not a transient enthusiasm,
480 NFGIIT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
but a faitli that waxed stronger and stronger to the
last.
In the city of modern Rome, at the foot of the Capi-
toline Hill, adjoining the ruined Forum, is a deep, dark
and terrible dungeon called the Mamertine Prison.
It consisted originally of two vaulted chambers, one
above the other, excavated in the rock of the ancient
hill. The upper dungeon was far below the surface
of the ground, and the lower deep of the one beneath
could be entered only through a small circular open-
ing in the stone floor of the one above, as a man might
descend into a w^ell or a cistern by a rope. No window
or door or loophole was left for the light of the sun or
the fresh air of the open heavens to enter that dread
abode. The floor, the walls, the roof are all of stone,
damp, dark, cold, the sight of which, as seen by the
dim light of the taper, makes the flesh creep and the
heart shudder with horror. That terrible dungeon
was hollowed out of the rocky hill twenty-five hun-
dred years ago, and in all the intervening time it has
not been possible for the most ingenious cruelty to
build a better place in which to break a man's heart.
The tradition of the Catholic Church confidently
affirms that the Apostle Paul was confined in that
lower dungeon when he sent his last message of love
and counsel to his young friend and discij^le Timothy.
This tradition is credited by some writers of repute
outside of the Eomisli Church. If we venture to
assume its credibility for the purpose of illustration, we
MIDNIGHT IN THE PRISON AT PHILIFPI 481
shall not make the apostle's condition worse than it
was at the time. And such a definite view of the dread
reality of imprisonment under tlie Romans will help us
to appreciate the feelings with which he wrote his last
triumphant words: " I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith. Hence for tli
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.''
Let us try, then, to imagine the condition of this
heroic and much-suffering man, sending forth from
the dungeon of the Mamertine prison a shout of vic-
tory which has nerved martyrs in the midst of the
flames, and which shall sound through, all time and to
the ends of the earth. We see an old man with white
hair and a feeble frame lifting himself up slowly and
tremblingly from the wet and miry floor. The chilly
damp of the prison is upon his brow, and racking pains
are shooting through every limb. But the light of
heaven flashes in his glorious eye, and he has the calm,
earnest look of one who is already conversing with the
awful realities of the unseen and eternal world. He
has been waked by sharp suffering from short and
uneasy sleep on the cold stone, and now he is walking
painfully backward and forward the length of his
clanking chain to get a little warmth and to relieve hia
tortured frame by motion.
He has been accustomed to the dry air and the hot
sun of Syrian plains and Arabian deserts, and the chill
of that cold prison-house pierces like icicles to his very
heart. His dungeon is the sink of the larger and
31
482 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
crowded one above, and its condition was declared by
tbe heartless and stoical heathen writers of the time to
be " terrific" and not to be described. His fetters per-
mit him to walk but half the space between the walls,
and his feet make a path in the miry filth of the stone
floor. He has no change of clothing, no bed, nor chair
nor table. When the stone covering is lifted from
above to fling down a little black bread for his daily
food, it admits no light, no breath of pure air, for
the dungeon above him is as dark and close as his
own.
He has no means of measuring the time. He cannot
tell the day from the night. The weeks and months
of captivity are to him all one night of uniform and
terrible darkness and solitude. He lies buried so deep
beneath the surface of the ground that the roar of the
imperial city, with its million inhabitants above and
around him, seems like the dying echoes of distant
thunder or the breaking of waves upon some far-off
coast. The triumphal procession of a conqueror might
pass through the adjoining Forum and climb the
nearer hill of the Capitol, with a hundred trumpets
sounding and thousands shouting from streets and
housetops, and the captive in his dungeon not know
that Rome had kept a holiday.
After long intervals of perfect solitude and dark-
ness, a faithful friend, who has braved death to see
him, is permitted to descend and stay with him for an
hour with a taper's light in his terrible den. For so
MIDNIGHT IN TUE PRISON AT PlIILIPPL 483
long a time lie sees the horrors around him, which be-
fore the darkness had mercifully hidden from his
sight. He avails himself of the opportunity to dictate
his last letter to his young friend Timothy at Ephesus,
whose face he longs to see once more before his mar-
tyrdom. And in this letter, dictated under the suffer-
ance of racking pain and surrounded with unutterable
horrors, he is communicating Avith the living world for
the last time.
What thoughts, what emotions will crowd upon the
apostle's mind as he pours out all his heart to his be-
loved and sympathizing friend ! What will he say of
his situation and his sufferings ? Of what wrongs will
he complain? What afflictions will he deplore?
What fears and disappointments will he confess ?
He has been a man of lofty aspirations. He has
spent the best of his life in laboring for the highest
interests of man amid the pomp and marvels of the
great. He has traveled upon the track of empire. He
has made himself known in Lhe most ancient and re-
nowned cities of the earth. He has stood before
governors, kings and emperors, and always for the
same purpose and pleading the same cause. He has
reasoned the rabble into calmness when in one instance
they were impatient to tear him in pieces, and in an-
other they were just as eager to worsliip him as a god.
He has spoken in the assembly of philosophers with
a power that put their wisdom to shame. He has
made proud kings and profligate princes tremble
484 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
bj the awful solemnity of liis appeal to a judgment to
come.
He is now within a bowshot of arches and towers,
temples and monuments, tro23liies and 2^alaces, the
wonder of the world for splendor, the utmost achieve-
ment of genius and wealth and poAver. He has been
led to his dark imprisonment along the Appian Way,
through a street of tombs, more gorgeous than the
homes of the living. He has walked, chained to a
soldier's hand, beneath the shadow of the Csesars'
palace, that covers a whole hill wath the dazzling mag-
nificence of imperial state. He passed to his dungeon
through a wilderness of architectural wonders in the
Forum, in full view of the spot where Cicero harangued
and the first Csesar fell, over the triumphal way where
the car of the conqueror climbed the hill of the Capitol.
Looking for the last time upon the light of the sun
in heaven amid a scene of such surpassing earthly mag-
nificence, he has been consigned to the deej) ])\i where
murderers and conspirators have died of torture, of
strangulation and starving. The walls around him
are reeking with crime. His feet sink in the mire as
he walks the stony floor. Bearing a commission
higher than the sceptre of the Caesars, he has been
left to weej) and suffer and pray in darkness and soli-
tude. He is the most tried and provoked, the most
wronged and unappreciated, man in all the empire.
"What, then, will he say when the opportunity is
afforded him to speak to the world for the last time ?
MIDNIGHT IN THE PRISON AT PIIILIPPI. 485
Will he use the language of complaint, of disappoint-
ment or of despair? Will he mourn that the pomp
and splendor of the imperial city are hidden from
him ? After all his toils and trials and sufferings and
perils on land and sea, among strangers and among his
own people, will he count himself to have lost the work
of his life because it must end in a dungeon and he
must die as a malefactor?
No, far from it. This last message which comes up
from the darkness of the prison and from the heart of
the most injured and afflicted man in E-ome is full of
light and joy. It begins with thanksgiving and it ends
with triumph. It is the coronation hymn of a con-
queror who has gained the greatest victory and is to
receive the most glorious crown. He has not, indeed,
forgotten the wrongs which he has suffered. He has
not grown insensible to injury. He has not become
indifferent to bodily pain. It almost makes one shiver
with the chill of the dungeon when he tells Timothy
to bring the cloak which he left at Troas and to do his
best to reach Rome before winter. It touches our
hearts w^ith unspeakable tenderness to read the affec-
tionate remembrances wliich he sends, forgetful of his
own sorrows, to many beloved friends by name.
No, the heart of this aged prisoner has not grown
old, his mind has not become suspicious or resentful,
he has not lost any of his human sensibilities or attach-
ments under all his wrongs and afflictions. And yet
with all his longing for absent friends, and with his
486 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
tender susceptibility to the terrible injuries heaped
upon him, he glories and rejoices. From the depths
of the dungeon's gloom he sends forth a light which
shall shine to the ends of the earth. He counts him-
self to have already gained the victory. He sees the
crown waiting for him. He has a Defender higher
and mightier than the Csesars. He confidently ex-
pects to be delivered from all evil and to obtain an
everlasting kingdom. He is satisfied that he has ex-
pended the labor of his life upon the best cause, and
that it shall not be lost to him or the world. He
would not exchange his foul dungeon for Nero's
Golden House if, in so doing, he must disown the
principles which he has maintained or dishonor the
cause for which he has suffered. Paul in prison is
greater, nobler, happier than the man whose im23erial
palace, at the other end of the Forum, covers the whole
Palatine Hill, and whose single word can deliver the
apostle from his dungeon or doom him to immediate
death.
And we all know very well what gave Paul, in prison
and condemned to death, such an advantage over the
world's great master. It was simple, earnest, j)ersever-
ing devotion to Christ. His greatness was due to the
fact that he was a Christian. He might hav^e been
rich and learned and honored in his time, and we never
should have known anything about him. It is simj)ly
because he was a good man that his memory lives in
the hearts of millions, and his influence is destined to
MIDNIGHT IN THE PRISON AT PHILIFPI. 487
flow on, diffusiug light and blessing, tlirougli all gen-
erations. It now makes a memorable moment in a
man's life to stand for once on the uncovered stones of
the Appian Way, over which Paul, the prisoner of the
Lord, passed on his way to Eome, or to go down into
the dungeon where there is a possibility that he was
once imprisoned, or to pass out of the Ostian gate upon
the Cam23agna, and survey the scene where tradition
tells us that he suffered martyrdom. The house of
the Caesars has become the habitation of owls and dole-
ful creatures. A few broken columns and crumbling
arches are all that remain of the architectural magnifi-
cence of the Forum. The Coliseum is great only in
ruin. The name of Nero is remembered only to be
execrated, but the memory of Paul grows brighter
and fresher with the lapse of time. It lives in more
loving hearts, and is cherished in more cultivated
minds to-day, than ever before. The work of his life
is still one of the great powers operating most efficiently
for the world's advancement in all that is great and
good.
And there is no way in which any man can now
make so much of life with all its powers, faculties and
opportunities as by giving himself, as Paul did, to the
Divine task of making the world better and happier.
In any other way he may never do anything for which
the world will ever thank him. But let him give
time, talent, money, education, personal influence and
accomplishments to the work of bringing wanderers
4??8 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
back to the right way and showhig men where the
essential good of life is to be found, and he will make
for himself an everlasting name — he will have many to
do him honor when time shall be no more.
faul's iigjit in i\t S«p.
When the fourtee7ilh night ivas cotne, as we were driven up and down
hi Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew 7iear to
some country. . . . And so it came to ^ass, that they escaped all safe
to land.— Acts xxvii. 27, 44.
I
491
PAUL'S NIGHT IN THE DEEP. 493
out the north over tlie empty phice, and commanded
the pole star to keep its everlasting tlirone.
Their ship was little better than a canal-boat or a
scow. It was bluntly rounded at both ends, as if bow
and stern had been made after the same model, Avith
no delicate and sharpened lines to cut the water. It
had but one mast, and that was set upright in the
middle, so that the fidl pressure of a cross wind upon
the sails would pry the planks and timbers apart like
a wedge. The whole arrangement of spars and rigging
was well fitted to scud before the wind, but it left the
ship almost powerless to bear up against a breeze from
any other direction than behind. The vessel was large
enough to carry three hundred men and a cargo of
wheat in the hold, and it had ventured out upon a
stretch of sea as long in the passage as it now takes to
cross the Atlantic Ocean, and it was in the perilous
season of the October gales; and yet it had notliing for
a helm or rudder save two long paddles loosely lashed
to the sides and running down to the water near the
stern.
The first day of the storm they ran under the lee of
a small island, and the seamen improved the oppor-
tunity to take in sail and haul up the long-boat which
had been towing behind. Fearing lest their loosely-
joined hulk would go to pieces, they passed ropes be-
neath the keel, bringing the ends up on eitlier side
and tying them across the deck as one would tie a
buixlle of sticks with twine. The second and third
494 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
day all joined hands, soldiers and sailors, prisoners and
passengers, Paul and his companion Luke with the
rest, in throwing overboard everything that could be
reached of the furniture and lading of the ship. The
wheat was down in the hold and the hatches could not
be safely opened to bring it up, while the sea was flood-
ing the deck from stem to stern at every pkmge of the
vessel.
And now came on the long and fearful struggle with
the tempest. The wind blew a gale; the waves ran
wild and high ; the rain poured down in torrents ; the
angry elements beat with ceaseless rage upon the torn
sail, the shattered mast and the reeling deck ; the
groaning timbers parted and let in the water as fast as
a hundred hands could bail it out ; everybody on board
was wet through and through ; there was no oppor-
tunity to take food or rest. And so were they driven
fourteen days and Rights helplessly before the tempest,
until no hope was left that a single life of passengers
or crew could be saved.
At last the quick ear of the sailors discovered that
a new and more terrible voice had been added to the
wild chorus of the storm. It was midnight, and
nothing could be seen through the darkness. But
there was no mistaking the sound. It was the roar of
breakers upon a rocky shore. They cast the lead twice
and found that they were rapidly approaching the un-
seen coast. They dropped four anchors out of the stern
to stop their course, and then wished and waited for
PAUL'S NIGHT IN THE DEEP. 495
the coming day. In the mean time taking advice,
of Paul, whose word had come to be of more worth
with the seamen than the captain's, they refreshed
themselves with food and employed the time be-
tween midnight and morning in throwing the wheat
into the sea.
When the day dawned they cut away the hawsers,
leaving the anchors in the deep, and drove the light-
ened ship toward the shore. It struck at some dis-
tance from land, and was soon broken in pieces by the
violence of the waves. The whole two hundred and
seventy-six persons were cast alive and struggling into
the midst of the breakers. Exhausted as they were
with cold and hunger and weariness, after so many
days and nights of restless plunging ^nd rolling on the
sea, they could have had little strength left to battle
with the billows of that rocky shore. Wild, haggard
and enfeebled as they were by a h^f month of ftimine
and terror and torture, we should say that most of
them must sink without a struggle the moment the
broken ship cast them into the waves.
But no, they all escaped safe to land. Some by
swimming, some on boards, some on fragments of
freight and furniture thrown out of the ship, all found
their way through the boiling breakers to the solid
land. The angel of the Lord had stood by Paul in
the visions of the night on tliat tempest-tossed ship,
and had said to him, " God hath given tliee all them
that sail with thee," and that word must be fulfilled.
496 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
Neither wind nor wave nor hunger nor cold nor
weariness nor shipwreck could take the life of one of
those two hundred and seventy-five persons sailing
with Paul in that ship, because God had given them
to his servant in answer to his petition, and for his
sake tlie very men who counseled to kill him should
be saved. This persecuted prisoner of the Lord who
is going bound to Kome to bear testimony unto Jesus
in the palace of the Ccesars and before the world's great
master, must be permitted to fulfill his high commis-
sion. And the warring elements of the air and the
deep fight a continued battle of fourteen days and
nights in vain for the destruction of that ship, until
the ambassador of Christ and all who sail with him
are safely landed on Malta's rocky shore.
So much is it worth to a man to be found at the post
of duty when suffering and peril come. Such protec-
tion does the bar^ presence of the servant of Christ
afford to many who never know to whom they are in-
debted for their safety. The great sea had tossed the
ships of Solomon and of Xerxes, of Pompey and of
Augustus; it had been freighted with the spoils of
nations and with the gems and gold of " the gorgeous
East.'' But it never bore a richer treasure than it
carried in the life of that one man who was going
bound as the prisoner of the Lord to be brought before
Nero. The deep might have swallowed up the navies
of Salamis and of Actium with less disaster to the
world than would have been caused by cutting short
PAUnS NIGHT IN THE DEEP. 497
the career of liim who had received a Divine commis-
sion to preach the gospel by his bonds in "all the
palace of Csesar."
And He who makes the winds his ministers and who
holds the sea in the hollow of his hand would not
permit the raging elements to endanger the life of his
servant till his work was done. God will take care
of the life of any man who lives only that his duty may
be done. So long as God has work for him to do, and
it is better for him to live, his life is safe. And when
his work is done he shall enter into rest.
God will take care of the influence and reputation
of the man who lives only to do his duty. Paul was
counted a fanatic and an outcast. His name is not
mentioned in the classic histories of his time. The
great masters of the world knew him only as the pro-
pagator of a hated and pestilent superstition. The
author of the Roman Annals and the biographer of the
Csesars would have thought it beneath the dignity of
history to say that such a man ever lived. And yet
noAV it would be hard to find one who would not rather
have the reputation of Paul tlian of Nero. In all
human history there is not another name which repre-
sents so great power over the most active and cultivated
mind in this most advanced and progressive age. And
it is safe to say that when all the accounts of time are
balanced upon the books of eternity, it will be found
that Paul has exerted more influence upon men, and
has attained a higher place among the masters of the
498 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
world, than all the Csesars and Napoleons tliat ever
lived.
Paul's many niglits in the deep, and his escape out
of all perils while as yet he had anything to do for his
Master, should teach us that the way of duty is ever
the way of honor, of hap23iness and of safety. Dangers,
trials, sufferings may be met in the discharge of duty,
but the servant of God is always safe. None who live
for Christ can ever be lost. When all the storms and
wrecks of time are past, and the great company of the
ransomed is gathered in the glorious light of eternity,
it will be found that none who trusted in Jesus have
failed to escape safe to the heavenly shore. All who
ever enlisted under the Captain of salvation, and whose
names were written in his book of life, shall appear
when the roll of the ransomed is called and the man-
sions of rest are thrown open to welcome them in.
Some shall come out of great tribulation, from dun-
geons and tortures and martyrdom. Some who shine
in glory like the stars of the firmament shall come out
of great obscurity, having had no record in the ^^roud
annals of earthly fame, carrying the seal and promise
of coming greatness only in a pure heart and a lowly
walk with God. Some will be there whose earthly
life was a 23ilgrimage of pain, whose perishable body
was a network of nerves to gather in sufferings and
sorrows for the soul. Some shall be there who lived
long years under the shadow of thick clouds, wrestling
witli doubts and fears, like Bunyan and Brainerd and
PAUL'S NIGHT IN THE DEEP. 499
Cowper and Payson, doing desperate battle with spectre
hosts from the pit of darkness, yet ever yearning for
the light and waiting for the day. Some shall enter
into rest fresh from the fields of toil, and some wearied
and worn out with long effort and patient endurance
of temptation. Some that shine with angel brightness
in the countless throng shall come from humble homes
which they have consecrated by Christian faith, and
from lowly occupations which they have ennobled and
glorified by doing all things for the glory of God.
Some shall come from the envied seats of riches and
power among men, having laid all their earthly honors
and possessions at the feet of Jesus. The war-worn
soldier of Christ shall be there, having fought the
good fight and wearing still the scars of his earthly
campaigns illuminated as badges of honor in the ser-
vice of his King. And there shall be the little child
that fainted beneath the burden of life at the beginning
of the journey, and breathed forth its gentle spirit in to the
bosom of waiting angels, and was borne to the gardens
of Paradise in the bloom of its young immortality.
All shall be there. All shall escape safe to the
heavenly shore. When Christ counts up his chosen
and beloved, after all the storms of earth have spent
their fury and the wrecks of sin have strewn the sliores
of time, none who relied on him for rescue shall be
lost. No follower of his shall be wanting when the
hulk of this frail mortality is broken in pieces, and the
rescued souls are gathered upon that blessed shore
500 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
where tlie tempests of passion never rage, and the
billows of sorrow never swell.
Oh how unlike the gatherings of earth will be
that glad meeting when Christ shall call his ransomed
home ! Here we come together from time to time as
the years roll round, but the ranks are not all full.
The family circle forms again when the festive days
return, but there are more faces in the silent pictures
on the wall than greet each other around the social
board. To one and another beloved name there are
none to answer. And as time passes on and the storms
of affliction and sorrow beat around us, we are all get-
ting more names uj^on the roll of our acquaintances
whose places are vacant, who gather with us no more,
who answer not when their names are called.
When we visit a former home after long absence and
inquire for the friends of other years, we are told of
one and of another that he has gone the way whence he
will not return. When the regiment comes home from
the war w^ith the names of victory upon its banners,
and the surviving heroes are hailed with acclamations
and crowned with garlands as they bear their torn bat-
tle-flags along the streets, the vacancies in the ranks
are often more than the places that are filled. Among
the thousands that shout for joy over their return there
are many who weep for those who come not back.
While the multitude rend the air with their loud
huzzas of welcome, there is many a heart breaking with
silent grief for those who sleep afar in bloody graves ;
PA UUS NIGHT IN THE DEEP. 501
who fell out of the ranks on the weary march or in the
deadly charge, and left no subsequent history but the
one word, " Missing J^ When the storm rages on the
deep, and strong ships go down before the gale, and
the shore is strewn with wrecks, many families wait
with unutterable sus^^ense to know whether their be-
loved were among the lost.
And so in all the returns and gatherings of earth
there are some missing. Many times the lost are more
than the found. The farther we go on in the journey
of life the fewer of the friends of youth are left to keep
us company. But of all those who enlist under the
Captain of salvation, none shall be lost — none shall
be wanting when the war-worn hosts enter the ever-
lasting gates of heaven and pass in triumph through
the golden streets, welcomed by the shout of angels to
the throne of their King.
Every act of obedience to Christ is a step in the
immortal march to glory and to victory. The sea is
calm at his command. The stormy wind fulfills his
word. All are safe who sail in the ship with him.
Take Christ for your Guide, and he may lead you along
a rough and thorny road and up the steep hill-side.
He may expose you to the chill of night and the heat
of noon and the cutting blast. You may have to press
on when weary, and fight on when faint, and hope on
when discouraged. But you cannot lose the path of
life. You cannot fail to reach the heavenly rest.
Nothing like this is true of any other guid^ V ou
502 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
•
may folloAv pleasure, and be led along a flowery patL
to tlie sound of music and tlie step of dances for a
while. But tlie end will be pain and sorrow. You
may follow pride, but you will find it a cruel master,
crusliing witli heavy burdens and scourging with
scorpions all the way, and bringing to shame at last.
You may follow selfishness, and it may promise every
indulgence at first. But it will poison every fountain
and blast every flower and wither all the joys of life
as you go on. You may follow ambition, and climb for
a while the dazzling and dizzy steep of fame only to be
hurled down with a more furious and fatal descent at
last. You may follow the enticing spirit of procrasti-
nation, and put off the most urgent duty to a more
convenient season. But you will be left to mourn at
last, and say. How have I hated instruction and de-
spised rej)roof !
But if you follow Christ, he will make all the sorrows
and trials and losses of earth your servants and minis-
ters to help you on in the heavenward way. He will
not suffer the powers of darkness to hurt a hair of your
head. Through all the perils and temptations of earth
and time he wdll bring you at last to the heavenly Zion.
with songs and everlasting joy upon your head.
This is the one great cardinal truth in Christian
faith worthy of all acceptation : all who trust in Christ
are safe — safe now, safe everywhere, safe for ever.
Heaven and earth may pass away, but his word, which
is the shield and liope of his followers, shall never pass
PAUL'S NIGHT IN THE DEEP. 503
away. It shall never be written in his book of life
against the name of any soul that trusted in him,
" losty^^ " missing y When life's long battle is done
and the muster-roll of the sacramental liost is read be-
fore the throne of Immanuel, the ranks shall be all
full. To every name a ransomed soul shall answer :
" Here am I, saved by thy blood, victorious by thy
might, O King, bringing the spoil of all my vic-
tories to increase the splendor of thy many crowns."
And this infinite surety of salvation in Christ is
offered with infinite liberality to the needy and the
perishing. The ship of salvation which he launches
upon the perilous seas of time is large enough to hold
all who ^vish to sail with him ; it is strong enough to
outride every storm ; it is open and free for all to enter.
The everlasting riches of heaven can be secured with
far more certainty than the perishable riches of earth.
Many divers plunge into the deep in search of goodly
pearls, and return exhausted and empty-handed. All
who seek the one pearl of infinite price are sure to find.
The earth has been tunneled and bored a thousand
times for mineral treasures without yielding any reward
for the labor or the cost. No man ever sought the
true riches of faith and hope and peace with God, and
then found that he had spent his labor for naught. The
opportunity to secure an everlasting inheritance in
heaven is far more free and universal than the ability
to own an acre of ground or the meanest abode on the
face of the earth. No obstacles can close the kingdom
504 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
of lieaven against him who sincerely desires to enter.
It is wide enough to take in all that come, rich enough to
make the poorest within richer than the richest with-
out ; glorious enough to make the least and lowest of
its subjects more exalted than the mightiest of the
princes of the earth. The kingdom of heaven has a
post of honor and of profit for every applicant, occupa-
tions suited to every capacity, sources of light and joy
for every heart. It is easier to get an introduction to
the society of saints and angels, and to live with them
upon terms of friendship and equality for ever, than to
secure the least and the lowest of the aims of human
ambition on earth. You have only to come and knock,
with nothing but the name of Christ and your own
necessities to recommend you, and the everlasting door
of the heavenly kingdom will be thrown wide open
to receive you, and jubilant voices will sing your
welcome, and angel messengers will fly to the burning
throne to bear the glad tidings of your coming. If
men were only half as anxious to have their names
written with honor in the books of heaven as they are
to stand well in some little circle of fashion and fri-
volity on earth, they could look down with pity from
their serene and lofty elevation upon the petty rivalries
and jealousies of human society in this world.
Thus free and glorious and secure is the redemption
purchased for us by the blood of the cross. The ship
of salvation is girt around by the bands of everlasting
strength. It is borne onward by winds that sweep
PAUL'S NIGHT IN THE DEEP. 505
toward heaven. It is guided by the star of immortal
hope. It has Christ at the helm, and it cannot fail to
reach the port of peace. All are safe who sail the
treacherous seas of time with Christ on board. All
others are destined to wander from the true course, to
lose sight of the sun and stars, to founder in darkness
without a hand to help or a hope to sustain in the final
hour.
I have seen the mountain pine clinging to the edge
of a lofty precipice. Its hardy roots had sought for a
little earth in the cleft of the rock. It was a spot
where the snows of winter outlasted the spring, and the
desolating storm of summer swept by in its w^ild wrath,
and the thundering avalanche came rushing down.
And I wondered that anything so full of life could live
for years upon a spot so high and hard and cold. But
I have seen a greater wonder of life and growth than
that. I have seen the blessed fruits of faith and love
spring up in the uncongenial soil of an utterly depraved
heart. I have seen the proud, the profane and the
selfish humbling themselves at the foot of the cross,
pouring out their hearts in penitence, gratitude and
praise, giving their time, their efforts and their posses-
sions in willing consecration to Christ. I have seen
the gay and the thoughtless forsaking their vanity,
giving up the frivolities of worldly pleasure and self-
indulgence, and beginning life all anew, setting out for
heaven with earnest and cheerful step. I have seen
the frail and the fearful advancing to meet the king
506 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
of terrors without an expression of alarm, entering the
valley of the shadow of death without fear.
All this is done by that infinite grace of God which
throws open heaven's eternal mansions to the wanderers
of earth, and which seeks its own highest glory in
saving the lost. On this great mission of redemption
the Eternal Son came forth from the bosom of the
Father. He descended into the lowest depths of our
human woe, girt with the awful attributes of infinite
might and infinite mercy. He performed his work so
perfectly that now in this world, for whose salvation his
glory shines, his mercy pleads, there can be no excuse
for impenitence, there can be no place for despair. We
can go to the lowest and worst of men, to the most
troubled and tempted, to the most fearful and
despondent, to the most reckless and unthankful and
say, " Christ died for you and that is the reason why
you should love him. Christ has submitted to the
utmost degree of shame and agony for your sake, and
that is the reason why you should trust him. Christ
is addressing you this very moment with the message
of peace, with the offer of pardon, with the gift of
eternal life, and that is the reason why, without a
moment's delay, you should cast all the burden of your
sins at the foot of his cross."
A giant steamer was out in mid-ocean. The wind
was fair and strong. The engine was toiling with
limbs of iron and heart of fire to hurl the mighty
fabric on its way. The sails were all spread to help
PAUL'S NIGHT IN THE DEEP. 607
the groaning wheels. The masts and spars spread
forth their strong arms to gather up tlie force of the
wind, and the ship went bounding over the deep like
a sea-bird fresh upon the wing. It was a return
voyage, and a few more mornings would lift the hills
of home and native land from the waste of waters. A
hopeful and happy throng of passengers was beguiling
the twilight hour with walking the heaving deck.
Their talk was of storied scenes that they had visited
in other lands, and then again of home and of friends
waiting to welcome them back. There were cheerful
voices and joyful looks and loud laughter. The diffi-
culty of walking on the unsteady floor only increased
the pleasure of the hour. There was a sudden lurch
of the ship, a cry of terror, a plunge in the waves, and
one of the happy company was struggling for life in
the deep. Quick as thought, but none too quick foi
rescue, a rope was thrown to the drowning man, he
caught it before he was swej^t back on the foaming
wake of the ship, and strong arms drew him on board
without waiting to lower a boat. And the rescued
man had grasped the rope with such desperate energy
that he could not unclasp his own hands when safe on
deck. And when others came to his help they found
the hempen strand imbedded in the living flesh. That
Is the way man clings to anything that will save him
from a watery grave. With such quick decision he
grasps, and with such desperate energy he holds on
when life is at stake. And shall he not grasp as un-
608 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
hesitatingly the only Hand that can save him from a
bottomless deep ? Shall he not be still more in earnest
when the soul's eternal life is in peril ?
When all the storms and wrecks of time are past,
and the ransomed of the Lord have all escaped safe to
the heavenly shore, may you whose eye falls on this
page, and he whose hand traces the line, be counted
in that glorious company, ascribing unto the Author
of our salvation glory and dominion, world without
end. Amen.
^t Ctatjjiugs of fja^^i.
Nighi untQ night shoivetn ntKnaiedge.
-l^SfALM XIX. 2.
XXV.
THE TEACHINGS OF NIGHT.
N the beginning God made the light, and so time
began. He separated the light from the dark-
ness and so divided the sovereignty of time be-
tween day and night. The bright and the black
prince were made equal in command, and each was
appointed to relieve the other in the endless task of
counting the years of eternity. The two stand forth
as co-heralds to proclaim the Divine glory through the
whole creation, the one always speaking when the
other is silent; and there is no speech nor language
where their voice is not heard. The day comes in
shining glories from the gates of the morning, and
night follows close with its dusky robe and starry
crown, and both preach the same sermon, ever old and
ever new, upon the glory of God. Though all human
voices on earth were silent, and the angels in heaven
should cease their song, still would the day and the night
proclaim the goodness and the glory of God. Tlie
great Creator never leaves himself without witness of
his infinite perfections in the grand temple of his works.
For the day never fails to lift up the miglity diorus
512 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
of tlie sun and the seas, tlie mountains and the hills,
the forests and the streams, the forms and voices of all
living things in his praise. And the night is ever
faithful in bringing forth the hosts of stars upon the
field of light, or in leading up the solemn procession of
clouds and darkness, to proclaim the presence and
j)Ower of Him who holds the stars in his right hand,
and whose throne is in the thick darkness. The sun
comes forth with dazzling magnificence as the grandest
material representative of Him who dwells in light
that is unapproachable and full of glory. The starry
host, by the vastness of their number and distance, by
the unchanging order of their march, and by their
silent obedience to everlasting law, show forth ever-in-
creasing knowledge of God from age to age. The
inspired apostle says that even the heathen are without
excuse for their ignorance and depravity, because they
refuse to listen when the day uttereth speech — they re-
fuse to learn when the night showeth knowledge.
We should ever hold ourselves ready to receive in-
struction both from the day and the night. In the
present instance let us take our lesson from the calm
and meditative teacher that speaks by silence and
brings forth knowledge out of darkness. What salu-
tary impressions can we gain from the night, considered
not in its astronomical aspects, but simply as the visible
contrast of the day, the season of darkness, of silence
and of repose ?
Nio'ht teaches us the solemn and fearful lesson of
THE TEACHINGS OF NIGHT. 513
the individuality of our being. Far more tlian the day-
it shows us what it is to be alone with ourselves and
God. It diives all the faculties and sensibilities of the
soul inward upon itself. You spend a wakeful hour in
darkness and in silence upon your bed at night. Thei'e
is no sight to be seen, no sound to be heard. The voices
of the day are hushed. The diversions and activities
of busy life are all removed. You have nothing to do
but lie awake in the night-watches and think. With-
out light, without sound, without fear, without pain, a
solitary thinking mind, with the curtain of complete
darkness shutting you in on every side, you still must
feel that there is another Being whose dread omniscience
is haunting the secret depths of your soul. With no
thought of what your fellow-men may do or be or say,
you can only think of what you yourself are and ought
to be when alone with God. Every fibre and feeling
of your whole being tells you that the eye of the Infi-
nite One is upon you, and that there is no escaping hi?
presence. You seem to yourself to be alone in the uni-
verse with God, and you feel for the time that it were
better for you never to have had any being than not
to be at peace with him, who is around you and within
you and everywhere, and who seems to you in the
darkness and solitude to be the only being in exL">tence
outside of yourself
Thus the night, with its silence and darkness and
solitude, may impress you far more deej^ly than tlie
day witli the sense of God's presence, with the bare,
33
514 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
solitary conviction of your direct, individual responsi-
bility to liim. The night will give you the clearest
idea of what it is to be all thought, feeling, conscience,
soul, and to have your whole being searched and pene-
trated by the presence and scrutiny of the infinite God.
And if you feel that that great and holy One is your
Father, your friend and protector, your hope and
portion for ever, then the hour of wakeful meditation
in the darkness of the night will be to you one of th-e
sweetest and happiest hours of life.
Pastor Harms of Hermansburg used to preach and
pray and instruct his people for nine hours on the
Sabbath. And then when his mind was utterly
exhausted, and his whole body was thrilling with pain,
and he seemed almost dying for the want of rest, he
could get no sleep. And he used to say that he loved
to lie awake all night in the silence and darkness and
think of Jesus. The night put away everything else
from his thoughts, and left his heart free to commune
with the One whom his soul most devoutly loved, and
who visited and comforted his weary disciple in the
night-watches. And so God^s children have often
enjoyed rare seasons of communion with him in the
solitude of exile, in the deep gloom of the dungeon, in
the ])erpetual night of blindness, at times when all
voices and instructions from the world have been most
completely cut off, and the soul is left alone with God.
And the hours of darkness, of solitude and of silence
are fearful and sometimes maddening to those who are
THE TEACHINGS OF NIGHT. 515
afraid to be alone ^vltli themselves and God. I shall
never forget words that I once heard involuntarily
from the lips of a man who supposed himself to be
alone in the darkness and solitude of his chamber by
night. He spoke of a great and dreadful crime which
he had committed in some land beyond the seas. He
cursed himself In vehement and bitter words for his
wickedness, and then as passionately called upon God
to have mercy upon his soul. At one time, fearing lest
his confessions of crime had been overheard, he sprang
up wildly and called for an answer if any one were in
the room or within hearing. He listened in the silence,
and the bed shook with the beating of his heart. He
called again and again, and then lay down to repeat
his imprecations and prayers as before, trying to quiet
his fears by saying aloud, " Then I am alone and no
one has heard me, and all will be safe if I can get away
from here in the morning." And yet what distressed
and terrified that wretched man most of all was tlie con-
viction in his own heart that he was not alone in the
deepest solitude — there was One from whose presence he
could not escape, though he should take the wings of
the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.
The night compassed him about with its darkness only
to make him feel how dreadful a thing it is for the
guilty to stand face to face with the omniscient God.
When the heart is pure it will be the highest blessed-
ness to see God and to feel ourselves alone with him.
We are indeed made to be social beings. And in all
516 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
the great joys and conflicts of life, in the liigliest and
deepest experiences of s access and failure, we long for
the presence and sympathy of friends. We feel as if
we must tell somebody the crushing grief or the exult-
ant joy with which our hearts are full. Knowledge
confers little satisfaction unless we can communicate it
to others. Kiches corrode and canker the soul if kept
only for self. The impulse of any strong emotion is
to make itself known. The mother whose only child
has been taken away by death often feels that no
sorrow can be like hers, and for years she will tell the
tale of her affliction to all who will hear, to keep her
heart from breaking with the pent-up grief. In such
cases both the joyful and the afflicted would feel it to
be more than human nature can bear not to have some
one to whom the heart can pour forth its ecstasy of
emotion.
But all this sympathy and publicity of feeling are
of the light and of the day. The night has a deej)er
voice, and it speaks with a more solemn emphasis to
the soul when it surrounds us with darkness and makes
us feel that we are alone with ourselves and God.
Jesus himself retired to desert places, and spent the
whole night upon desolate mountains, that he might be
alone with his Father. He loved the souls of men.
He poured out his heart and his life in longing and in
sympathy toward the sorrowing and the afflicted. And
yet it was in the darkness of the night and in the
loneliness of the desert that he strengthened himself
THE TEACHINGS OF NIGHT. 617
for his great work by prayer and communion with his
Father.
And he taught us to shut out the world with all its
show and noise and seek our Father in some secret
place, when we would pour out all our grief and joys
with the greater confidence unto his attentive ear. It
is not ordinarily in the great and crowded assembly,
not in the hours of social intercourse, not when listen-
ing to the voice of others, that we come nearest to God
and gain our deepest impressions of personal, individual
responsibility to him. I do not wonder that devout
men in the dark and disturbed periods of the world's
history retired to deserts and mountains, and spent
whole nights in prayer to God. If it had been done
only occasionally and for brief seasons, as it was done
by Jesus himself, it would have been jirofitable. It
proved injurious when it became a profession, and built
up a barrier between devout men and the duties of
social life.
I have myself spent the hours of night alone upon
high mountains, when I thought that the darkness, the
silence and the solitude made the presence of God to
be the more deeply felt. The sense of loneliness and
desolation, the awful impression of the nearness of
eternity and the spiritual world, were like the feeling
which weighs upon i\\e mind when watching alone at
night with the dead. The mingled murmur of a thou-
sand torrents rose faintly from the dark cliffs and the
deep gorges below. At intervals the prolonged and
518 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
e welling roar of the avalanche filled the awful solitudes
as with the rushing of invisible hosts, trampling the
clouds and sweeping the pathless fields of air. Above
rose the shadowy forms of still loftier mountains, bear-
ing the name of angels and giants and storms and
darkness. And the cold, snow-shining peaks, piercing
the silent sky, seemed like the colossal monuments of
a perished world standing alone in the midst of a wil-
derness of death. Everything conspired to fill the
mind with an oppressive sense of loneliness and deso-
lation.
And the utter absence of all sounds and forms of
life, and all the activities of the bright and busy day
in that lofty solitude at night, made me feel more
deeply the presence of Him whose mighty hand had
piled the mountains above the clouds and " throned
eternity in icy halls of cold sublimity." Under the
awful impression of the hour it seemed as if all lesser
things had lost their hold** upon my mind. " En-
tranced in prayer I worshiped the Invisible alone."
To my excited imagination the loftiest of the snowy
heights took the form of a great white throne set up
for the Ancient of Days. The gentle wind that came
up from the silvery streams and the sea o± pines mur-
mured as if it had been swept by the harp-strings of
angels. I should have been scarcely more moved had
I actually seen
" the bright seraphim in burning row,
Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow."
THE TEACHINGS OF NIGHT. 519
And I thought I had learned from the experience
of the hour a new reason why Jesus took his disciples
apart into a solitary and exceeding high mountain by
night when he would show them his glory. I thought
we might all more frequently hear the voice of our
Father and see the face of Jesus in his glory if we
would learn to shut out the world more completely
from our minds, and receive the solen.n lesson which
the night teaches in silence and darkness.
In our day human life is full of stir and noise and
outward show. "VVe do everything in society and by
organization. The individual is lost in the multitude.
The man is absorbed in the masses. Thought, intelli-
gence, education are so generally diffused that inde-
pendent thinking is hardly possible. And our religion
takes the general form and characteristic of the time.
It is social, public, seen and known of men, diffused
through the mass, and rising and falling with the tide
of common feeling, practice and opinion. This is all
well, taken only as a part of our religious life. And if
it must be carried to the extreme, it is a much safer
extreme than the opposite of ascetic retirement and
morbid seclusion from the world. But it would be a
grand consummation if, with all our publicity of feel-
ing and practice, our multiplicity of meetings and
societies and organizations, we could learn a little more
of retirement, of meditation and of individual com-
munion with God. To feel ourselves alone with him
for one hour in the whole week, for so long a time to
520 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
have no tlioiiglit but of his presence, and no choice but
his will, must give earnestness and consecration and
peace to all the other seasons of life.
And God folds down the veil of darkness upon the
whole world the half of our life-time on purpose that
we may shut out all external things, retire within our-
selves and meet him alone in the living sanctuary of
our own hearts. He covers us with the mantle of
night and lays upon us the necessity of repose that we
may not waste all our affections and faculties in frantic
devotion to the mere show and form of this changing
world. He takes all visible things out of our sight,
and shuts us up alone with ourselves and him, that he
may#make us kings unto himself, reigning over the
Bpiritual and immortal sovereignty of mind, possessing
the exhaustless revenues and resources of a redeemed
and consecrated soul. He would show us that by keep-
ing our hearts pure we can always have unfailing
sources of peace and joy within ourselves. We can
withdraw from all the troubles and conflicts of the
world into the sanctuary of our own hearts, and there
the vision of his face shall change night to day and
earth to heaven.
And this retirement of the soul in which God's pres-
ence is most deeply felt need not take us away from
the crowded paths of life or the presence of our fellow-
men. Where we see most of man, there we can see
most of God. For man is God's crowned and glorious
work, made in his own image, and every human soul
THE TEACHINGS OF NIGHT. 521
is the subject of Divine care and a sharer in the Divine
bounty.
A man whose published meditations disphay an ex-
traordinary spiritual acuteness and cultivation, and
whose face seemed to those who knew him to be radiant
with the light of heaven, once said that he felt God's
presence with him in walking the crowded and noisy
streets of New York as really as he did in the sanc-
tuary and in the solemn hour of secret devotion. And
in fact I know of nothing that will make the devout
heart turn with a deeper longing to God than to feel
oneself alone and a stranger in a great multitude or
amid scenes of suffering and sorrow.
I have laid down to sleep at night upon the bloody
field when the music, the magnificence and the
splendors of war had rolled away, and left groans and
agonies and death behind. Around me were thou-
sands of the dead sleeping in the shallow graves which
their companions had made for them in haste, while
the hills still shook with the thunder of the Ions: con-
test, and the blue battle-smoke darkened the heavens
with its sulphurous cloud. All through the shattered
forests and the trampled fields lay still more numerous
thousands of the wounded and the dying, with tlio
bare earth for a bed and the open sky for a covering.
In the darkness and silence an occasional cry would
come from the parched lips of a dying soldier, in the
delirium of death, calling the name of beloved ones in
his far-distant home. IVFany souls were passing tc
522 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
their last account every hour as the heavy night wore
away. It seemed as if the veil of the darkness were
the shadow of the unseen world resting upon that field,
and that it w^ere but a step frora time into eternity.
Never in my life before had I been in a situation
where everything so consj^ired to make me lay awake
all night and think of God and of the awful destinies
of eternity. When the devouring fire, and the desola-
ting tempest, and the earthquake shock of battle weie
past, it seemed as if a still small voice were whispering
to the suffering and dying thousands, and the most
hardened soldier was glad to hear anybody speak of
God.
I have walked alone at night in the crowded streets
of a great foreign city. I was surrounded by the
unintelligible murmur of unknown tongues. In all
the living tide of human faces flowing along in con-
tinued succession I could catch no token of recognition,
I could see none ever seen before. I felt all the while
that if I should fall and die upon the pavement, there
would be none to know my name, and only the care
of the public health, rather than friendship or affection,
would find me a stranger's grave. And yet that feel-
ing of loneliness and of personal insignificance, in the
midst of a countless living multitude, impressed me
more deeply with my personal relationship to the
infinite and eternal God. The utter separation between
myself and my fellow-men made me cling the more
closely to that fatherly Hand which is always within
THE TEACHINGS OF NIUHT. b'16
reacli and wliicli is strong enough to sustain all who seek
its support. The thought that I was of so little conse-
quence to thousands of my fellow-men made me appre-
ciate the more highly the ceaseless care of that one
infinite Friend without whose permission not a hair of
my head could fall to the ground.
To feel ourselves of sufficient importance to he
noticed and cared for every moment by Him who has
the universe in his charge, is to have the highest and
truest sense of our own greatness. And tliat lesson
can be learned by us all from anything that makes us
seem to ourselves but a mote floating upon the great
sea of existence, of little consequence save to ourselves
and to Him who made us what we are, and who makes
nothing in vain.
The night of the natural world is the symbol of the
deeper night of sorrow and disappointment that settles
down upon the soul. And God surrounds us with
both that we may feel for his hand in the darkness and
find ourselves safe w^ith his protection. We may learn
from the night of affliction and trouble many lessons
which we could never master in the light of the broad
day. When God spoke to men witli an audi])le voice
in ancient time, he was wont to address them in the
hours of silence and darkness, when the noise of the
day was hushed and deep sleep had fallen upon the
multitude. And now still he is wont to bring the
most precious lessons of fliith and patience and love to
those whose home is darkened with the cloud of sorrow.
524 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
If we only trust him and seek liis presence, we shall
find that God is with us most sensibly when we need
him most, because everything else has forsaken us.
We must not expect always to s^e our Father's face,
and yet we must reverently and trustingly look for
him when the night is deepest around us. The dark-
ness which covers our path may be only the shadow
of his presence. He is covering us with his protecting
hand, as he covered Moses in the cleft of the rock lest
he should be consumed by the burning effulgence of
his glory. When God's children pray to him for light,
he comes to them in answer to their desire in a thick
cloud. The light is in the cloud, although to them it
seems dark. When their eyes become accustomed to
the brightness, they will see the cloud covered with
glory. The day which brings the heaviest burden is
the day when God comes nearest with blessings in his
hands. The duty which imposes the sorest trial proves
him to be nearest with all needed help. The tempta-
tions, the conflicts, the afflictions which are hardest to
meet and which cannot be avoided, are set in our path
to show that infinite mercies are waiting for us, and we
have only to go forward and receive the blessing.
If we see the Divine favor only in the success which
crowns our efforts, in the health which we enjoy, and
in the abundance of our earthly goods, God may come
to us many times in the greater mercy of loss and dis-
appointment, and we not know of his coming. When
you turn aside from the way of duty for profit or plea-
TUB TEACHINGS OF NIGHT. 525
sure, and God sends liis angel to meet you with the
drawn sword of disap2)ointment, do not be grieved or
angry at the stroke which saves you from destruction.
When any 2ieculiarly sore and unwelcome experience
is sent upon you, do not cry out in alarm and bitter-
ness of soul, but calmly and trustingly ask, " What
new gift has my Father now come to bestow ?" Thus
the night of sorrow and affliction shall teach more
precious lessons than the day of success and joy.
There is a time coming to us all wdien our souls will
be in darkness and despair if we cannot turn to the
great Shepherd of the heavenly fold with cheerful and
triumphant faith and say, *' I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."
Human friends can do much to prepare each other for
the journey through the valley of the shadow of death.
They may go hand in hand to the very brink of the
cold river that rolls betw^een this and the unseen land.
They may do much to soothe and sustain each other
as the last awful hour draws near. But there is a
j^oint beyond which human help cannot go. Every
one of us must advance to meet the great and final foe
with no human hand on which to lean. We must
turn away our face from our earthly friends, and pass
in under the deep shadow of eternity without their
company. Each individual must stand exposed to the
dread arrow of the great destroyer, witli none to turn
aside the shaft.
And yet in that awful liour we need not find our-
526 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
selves alone. There is a Friend tliat sticketh closer
than a brother. He has been all the way through the
valley of the shadow of death, and returned to tell us
that it is safe for the feet of them who follow him. We
have only to turn to him now with a true heart and he will
not leave us to grope in vain for his hand when the
night of death is around us and no human friend can
take us by the hand and lead us safely on. We have
only to choose Christ for our Guide and companion
now amid all the gloom and shadows of this earthly
life, \nd we shall walk with him in Paradise in the
^lorj of that land where there is no ni^ht.
in lica&tn.
Then sfiall be ?io night t/tere.—\<s.\. i li. 5.
z
>
<
o
NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN. ^31
threatened destruction delayed its coming. We have
seen tlie bodiless liaud come forth and wi-ite upon the
wall of the banquet-room when Belshazzar feasted liis
thousand lords, and great Babylon fell on the night
of mirth and revelry.
We have gone to Jesus with Nicodemus by night,
and heard him speak in words to be remembered
for ever of the wondrous love of God in giving his
only Son for the ransom of a lost world. We have
looked out upon the stormy night when the winds were
loud and the sea lifted up its waves on high, and we
have seen a bright form in darkness walking upon the
billows as if the solid earth w^ere beneath his feet. We
have seen the fire of coals glaring upon the bronzed faces
of soldiers in the court of the high-priest's palace, and
heard the impetuous and tempted Peter declare with
oaths and cursing that he knew not the Nazarene.
We have listened to the agonizing prayer of Jesus
thrice repeated beneath the olive trees in Gethsemane.
We have walked with the saddened disciples to Era-
maus at evening, and come back in the darkness of
night with haste and joy to Jerusalem to tell and to
hear the tidings that the Lord is risen indeed. We
have seen the Divine Saviour after his resurrection
walking again upon the shore of the Sea of Galilee in
the dim light of the early morning, making the high
commission of his foremost apostle to consist in feeding
the lambs of the Lord's flock. We have seen the im-
prisoned Peter waked from sleep by an angel at night,
532 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE,
led forth tlirougli barred and bolted doors into the
o^Den streets of Jerusalem so quickly and quietly tliat
for a time lie did not know wliat bad been done by the
angel, but suf)posed be bad seen'a vision. AVe have
heard Paul and Silas sing praises to God at midnight
in the dungeon at Philippi. And we have seen the
aged apostle to the Gentiles struggling in the stormy
waves, and saved alive from shijDwreck on the rocky
shore of Malta.
All these have been scenes of earth and of night.
Mingled with the brightest manifestations of Divine
power, there have been human weakness and pain and
sorrow. The lessons that w^e have learned in our long
study of the darker scenes of sacred history have been
in some measure dim and uncertain, like the lights and.
shadows between night and morning. And this very
obscurity attendant upon all our present studies is
wisely appointed to awaken within us a more intense
longing for the blessed morn and the full day of tbat
land where there shall be no night. The deficiencies
and imperfections of this present state are our teachers
to lift our hopes higher, and to set before us the
shadowy outlines of a glory which eye hath not seen,
ear hath not heard, nor heart conceived.
Every day of toil along the weary path of life, every
sore conflict with the trials and temptations of the
world, every feeling of faintness and exhaustion under
the burden of earthly care and resj^onsibility, is
appointed to teach us what the Bible means wdien it
NO NIGHT IN UEAVEN. 533
Bpeaks of heaven as a state of rest. While your heart
is all intent and your hands are all engaged in securing
the most permanent and desirable residence in tliis
world, you will give little heed to the word wlien told
that earth has no home for the weary soul. But k't
poverty come upon you like an armed man, let calamity
sweep away your possessions as the whirlwind sweeps
the withered leaves of autumn, let misfortune make
you a wanderer without a house or a home in the wide
world, and then you will listen with tearful eyes and
throbbing heart to the words of Jesus, " In my Father's
house are many mansions ; I go to prepare a place for
you." If you put forth all your efforts and pour out
all your hopes and desires upon the endeavor to stay
as long as possible in this world, and to enjoy its pleas-
ures to the utmost degree, you will take little interest
in anything that may be said about an endless and
blessed life beyond the grave. But let all your experi-
ments in the pursuit of earthly happiness fail ; let your
desires and expectations come to naught until hope dies
in your heart ; let affliction follow affliction until the
wide earth seems to you but one great charnel-house,
where death reigns with undisputed sway over all
things beautiful and lovely, and then you will be pre-
pared to see a new meaning and glory in the Divine
promise that all who believe in Jesus shall inherit
eternal life.
So much does the meaning of the most familiar
words and expressions in the sacred Scriptures depend
584 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
upon the state of mind in wliicli tliey are read and tlie
course of life and thought which we ourselves are pur-
suing. So are all the shadows and sorrows of earth
and time wisely appointed to lift ^ up our hearts and
hopes to the light and joy of heaven.
With all our studies and all our deepest exj)erience
we shall never fathom the full meaning of the one
word— -heaven. We are warranted in ascribing to that
blessed state all that is most genial and ennobling in
occupation; all that is most enduring and satisfying ia
possession ; all that is most j)ure and excellent in cha-
racter. The occuj)ations of heaven are endless praise,
triumph, joy. The possessions of heaven are infinite
glory, riches, knowledge. The character of heaven is
perfect love, holiness, peace. These things we can at
present know only in part, and the word of Divine
revelation itself must of necessity tell us much of what
heaven is by telling us what it is not.
We need little perception to see and little sensibility
to feel that this world is smitten all over with a direful
curse. It speaks in wrathful thunders from the sky.
It flames up in baleful fires and infectious plagues from
the earth. It defiles the fairest fields with footsteps of
blood. It casts the grim shadow of fear and danger
and perplexity upon every path. It wrings from every
heart the cry of woe. And the word of Divine reve-
lation tells us much of the future and the better life
when it says that in heaven there shall be no more
curse.
NO NIGHT IN HEA
\^N. 535
This world is the subdued and vested domain of
deatli. The history of the past is a record of the tri-
umphs of the king of terrors. In all lands the genera-
tions of the departed outnumber the living, and all
that now live will soon go with bitter pangs and terri-
ble agony to increase the already countless population
of the tomb. There is no pathway of life where the
destroyer may not be met at any moment. There is
no home from which the grim shadow of death can be
shut out. The bloom of youth, the strength of man-
hood, the glory of age are withered in his icy breath
as the late flowers wither in the frosts of autumn.
And this awful history of the ravages of the destroyer
in all lands and in all time helps us most to understand
the meaning of the Divine promise that in heaven
there shall be no more death.
This earthly life has been fitly characterized as a
pilgrimage through a vale of tears. In the language
of poetry, man himself has been called a pendulum
betwixt a smile and a tear. Philosophy, with affected
indifference to all the changes and sorrows of the
liinnan lot on earth and witli the formality of precise
definition, says man is the creature that weeps. And
the entranced apostle tells us much of what he saw in
heaven when he says that there God's own hand shall
wi])e away all tears.
In every earthly dwelling there is somebody to
suffer pain. In every human family there is some face
over which the pale shadow of sickness has passed.
536 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
In every company of liuman beings there are brows
furrowed witli care and looks changed with sorrow,
and frames bending under heavy burdens, and signs
of approaching decay that must destroy at last. And
who will not call upon every ]3ain-stricken nerve in
his body, and every enfeebled and suffering faculty of
his mind, to bless God for the assurance that in heaven
there shall be no more pain ?
Everything in this world is characterized by imper-
fection. The best people have many faults. The
clearest mind only sees through a glass darkly. The
purest heart is not without spot. All the intercourse
of society, all the transactions of business, all our esti-
mates of human conduct and motive must be based
upon the sad assumption that we cannot wholly trust
either ourselves or our fellow-men. Every heart has
its grief, every house has its skeleton, every character
is marred with weakness and im23erfection. And all
this helps us to understand how much the Bible means
when it speaks of a life without sin, of a home without
sorrow, of a society where the defiled are made pure
and the just are made perfect.
Among all the brief negative descriptions which the
Scriptures give of the heavenly state, no one is more
full of meaning than this : " There shall be no night
there." The night is the emblem and the reality of
darkness, of mystery, of gloom. It is always associ-
ated with ignorance and error, with wandering from
the true path and weary search for the safe way. And
NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN, 537
the inspired apostle of the Apocalypse tells us much
of the heavenly state when he says that there is a time
coming when there shall be no more night. The
thick veil of mystery which now covers the works antl
the ways of God, even to the most cultivated and
spiritual mind, shall he rent in twain. The mislead-
ing mist of baffled inquiry and blind conjecture, and
the deeper clouds of utter ignorance, shall never cast
their shadows upon the hills of the heavenly country.
The revelations of truth to us here are like the artful
intimations of a riddle, clear enough to excite curiosity,
yet reserved enough to baffle inquiry. All that we can
know only serves to impress us more profoundly with
the unfathomed and infinite mystery beyond. We
cannot remember the half of what our life was yester-
day. We do not know what it will be to-morrow.
We do not think to any purpose a tenth of our waking
liours, and we spend a third of our lives in that state
which has been aptly called the image and twin-brother
of death. After all the discoveries and demonstrations
of our boasted modern science, we have as much reason
as had the friends of Job three thousand years ago, to
exclaim, " What can we know ?''
The most cultivated mind is the one which, by much
meditation and painful study, has attained the deepest
knowled2;e of its own i2:norance. It is still the dis-
cipline which an all-wise Providence imposes on us all
tlial we sliall walk by faith, not by sight. When we
claim to have cleared up all the mystery overhanging
538 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
tlie present state by the feeble tajier of human wisdom,
and j)ride prompts us to walk in the light of our own
kindling, then we need the merciful interposition of an
invisible and an almighty Arm to save us from wander-
ing without end and falling to rise no more.
And wdio can possess a human heart and not long to
liave this great mystery in the kingdom of a wise and
beneficent God cleared up? Who ever studied the
dark and awful problem of our human destiny, with a
quickened and cultivated sensibility, without feeling
his heart breaking within him with longing for light
to shine forth from the cloud and the clear day to
dawn upon the encompassing night ? The blind battle
of opinions goes on from generation to generation.
The greatest and the best of the human race are ranged
upon opposite sides, striking w^ildly at random and
wounding they know not whom in the dark. Both
parties arm themselves with mighty arguments and
many proofs, and neither gains the victory. And who
can thoughtfully consider this blind and aimless conflict
without wishing that some great arbiter would appear
upon the field, and reconcile all differences and silence
all debate by the revelation of his own superior know-
ledge ?
The good and evil of life are distributed with strange
inequality. Success crowns the wicked cause and dis-
aster befalls the good. Error flies faster than truth ;
the guilty are acquitted with applause and the innocent
suffer wrong. It is only at immense cost and sacrifice
NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN. 639
that the worhl is kept from eutire subjection to the
powers of darkness. And who can see all this wit] i out
longing to know wliy the holy and the beneficent One
does not show himself more clearly and justify his own
ways without waiting for the feeble arguments and the
ialtei'ing efforts of man?
We may try ever so hard to keep the great reality
of the future life constantly in view, and yet it will
often hide itself from our vision in dim eclipse. Wo
all know that God is to us the infinite Sun of Truth,
and that in his light alone can we see light. And yet
the clouds of earth will often drift their darkness be-
tween us and him so thickly that we can see his face
only as the light of a nebulous star shining faintly
through its misty veil from the untraveled depths of
immensity. The hours of clear vision, in which a good
man can see God upon his throne of coeternal justice
and mercy, watli no cloud between, are fewer than the
fair nights in wdiich the astronomer can explore the
paths and trace out the eternal harmonies of distant
worlds.
AVe know very well that all arguments, reasons and
evidences are on the side of truth and right in any
case, and that it is utterly impossible for any form of
temj^tation to supply us with a justifying reason for
doubt, unbelief or neglect of duty. And yet so dim
is our poor human vision, so feeble our capacity to
comprehend evidences and to draw conclusions, that
the infinite Sun of Truth sometimes seems to us
540 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
but as a feeble taper shining in a very dark place,
lighting up only the small portion of our path where
we are walking, and leaving the impenetrable darkness
of ignorance to shut us in with itg blank wall on every
side.
I sometimes seem to myself like a traveler in a
strange country, making my way by night through the
narrow defile of high and precij^itous mountains. A
mass of earth and rock comes thundering down from
the overhanging cliffs and crushes me to the ground.
I cry in the solitude and the darkness for help, and
suddenly a friendly hand is placed beneath me to lift
me up. I lean upon it for support. It is a human
hand, warm wath the life-blood that flows from a
human heart, and yet it is strong enough to overturn
the mountains. A human voice speaks to me in tones
sweeter than the harps of heaven. It says, '' Be not
afraid ; I will uphold thee with my hand ; I will lead
thee in the right way. I will heal all thy wounds and
strengthen thy heart." And I go forward with fal-
tering steps, still too weak to walk or stand without
help — too blind to find the w^:iy without a guide. In
the alarm and embarrassment of sudden sur23rise, I
sometimes let go the hand of my Helper to save my-
self from falling, and yet fall the more certainly for
relying upon my own strength. IMy Deliverer gently
rebukes my distrust of him and lifts me up. I ask his
name, and why he helps me, and where he will lead
me. But he only tells me to trust in him and cling to
JVO NIGHT IN HE A VEN. 541
his liantl, and soon I shall know all. And is it stranffo
that my heart burns wUhin ine as I walk in dose com-
pany with One who saves me from destruction and
keeps by my side that I may not fall again, and only
tells me that it is not for me to direct my stej)s, and
that hereafter I shall see him as he is?
Any one who has known by experience the conflicts
of Christian faith and doubt, hope and fear, will not
regard this as an exaggerated representation of the
darkness and uncertainty with which we feel ourselves
to be surrounded when we have the most intense long-
ing for the perfect knowledge and the endless day of
heaven. And all these aimless conflicts of our minds
and unanswered longings of our hearts should lead us
to rejoice the more in the Divine assurance that a time
is cominir when there shall be no more niirht. The
dim, obscuring glass, the changing and tantulizinii;
enigma through which we now see the providences oi
God and our own duty, shall all jiass away. The night
shall melt into morn and the mystery shall be clothed
with glory.
The redeemed soul, irradiated through its whole
being l)y the light of heaven, and studying the book
of God's providence, in the splendors of the etcrnid
throne, shall find no leaves sealed up, no pages written
in too dark a character to be read. The veil of the
flesh shall be removed, and the spiritual vision shall
be ])urged from the dross and defilement of sin. And
U> souls thus purifiiMl knowledge shall no longer be a
542 NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
dangerous gift. They shall not be forbidden to look
within the ark of God's covenant and learn the reason
for the allotments of his justice and mercy, which it is
now impossible for us to comprehend. The ways of
God, that now seem to our feeble and perverted vision
most dark, shall then be irradiated with a glory above
the brightness of the sun.
And have you not thought enough of these things
to long for a state where this great mystery, this thick
cloud of darkness shall pass away and there shall be no
more night? Have you not learned by deep searching
into the depths of your own spirit by long and baf-
fling conflict with ignorance and error, something more
of the meaning of the Divine promise that the life of
heaven shall be one eternal day, and the blessed shall
dwell in everlasting light ? And is not the 230ssibility,
the reasonable and strong hope of reaching that beau-
tiful land at no distant day, enough to give us patience
and watchfulness and energy through all the weary
journey? Should not the very gloom through which
we must now j)ass keep alive in our hearts a more in-
tense longing for the home where there shall be no
night of ignorance or uncertainty —
"No dreadful hour
■
Of mental darkness or the tempter's power;
Across whose skies no envious cloud shall roll
To dim the sunHght of the raptured soul"?
In this world we associate weariness and danger and
all forms of trouble and wickedness and suffering with
NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN. 543
the niglit. Those who can sleep do, indeed, welcome
the night as the season of rest. But there are many
tossing upon feverish beds to whom " tired Nature's
sweet restorer" will not come. And to tliem the slow
hours of the niglit creep on their sluggish w^ay as if
leaden weights were hung on all tlie wheels of time.
To them, the veil of darkness which shuts out the di-
versions and silences the voices of tlie day is like the
pitiless door of the prison-house and the stone walls of
the dungeon. And besides the very necessity of night
as a season of repose is a sad confession of the frailty
and imperfection of our mortal state. We must permit
the powers of life to sink down into utter weariness
and inactivity for a tliird or fourth of tlie time given
us in this world, or we cannot live at all.
It will be the perfection of our immortal being to be
made capable of living in a land where there shall be
no night — no night of rest, because none are weary —
no night of watching, because none are sick — no night
of terror, because there are none to molest or to make
afraid.
" No night shall be in heaven : no gathering gloom
Shall o'er that glorious landscape ever come ;
No tears shall fall in sadness o'er those flowers
That breathe their fragrance through celestial bowers.
" No night shall be in heaven : forbid to sleep,
^ Tliese eyes no more their mournful vigils keep ;
Their fountains dried, their tears all wiped away,
They gaze lindazzled on eternal day.
644 mOHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE.
" No night shall be in heaven : no sorrow reign,
No secret anguish, no corporeal pain,
No shivering limbs, no burning fever there,
No soul's echpse, no winter of despair.
*'No night shall be in heaven, but endless noon;
No fast declining sun, no waning moon ;
But there the Lamb shall yield perpetual light
'Mid pastures green and waters ever bright.
" No night shall be in heaven : no darkened room,
No bed of death, nor silence of the tomb,
But breezes ever fresh with love and truth
Shall brace the frame with an immortal j^outh.
*' No night shall be in heaven. But night is here
The night of sorrow and the night of fear:
I mourn the ills that now my steps attend,
And shrink from others that may yet impend.
" No night shall be in heaven. Oh had I faith
To rest in what the faithful Witness saith.
That faith should make these hideous phantoms flee
And leave no night henceforth on earth to me."
THE END.