And in one
day of bitter misery he can teach us lessons, which we could not
teach ourselves in a thousand years of reading and studying, or even
of praying. But our prayers, we shall find, have not been in vain.
He has not forgotten one of them; and there is the answer, in that
very sorrow. In sorrow, he is making short work with our spirits.
In one terrible and searching trial our souls may be, as the Poet
says--
Heated hot with burning fears,
And bathed in baths of hissing tears;
And battered by the strokes of doom.
To shape and use.
Yes. He will make short work at times with men's spirits. He
grinds hearts to powder, that they may be broken and contrite before
him: but only that he may heal them; that out of the broken
fragments of the hard, proud, self-deceiving heart of stone, he may
create a new and harder heart of flesh, human and gentle, humble and
simple. And then he will return and have mercy. He will show that
he will not contend for ever. He will show that he does not wish
our spirits to fail before him, but to grow and flourish before him
to everlasting life. He will create the fruit of the lips, and give
us cause to thank him in spirit and in truth. He will show us that
he was nearest when he seemed furthest off; and that just because he
is the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is
Holy, who dwelleth in the high and holy place, for that very reason
he dwells also with the humble and the contrite heart; because that
heart alone can confess his height and its own lowliness, confess
its own sin and his holiness; and so can cling to his majesty by
faith, and partake of his holiness by the inspiration of his Holy
Spirit.
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