The Goodwill of the Bush

4t The goodwill of Him that dwelt in the bush.” — Deut. xxxiii. 16.

Is not this a straDge thing to place amongst the catalogue of human blessings? We can understand why Moses should have desired that his people might be blessed by God with u the precious things of heaven,” with “the dew and the deep that couch eth beneath,” with “the precious fruits brought forth by the sun and the precious things put forth by the moon.” But why should he ask for them such a blessing as this? — the goodwill that God manifested when He dwelt in the unquenchable fire. Was not that aspect of Israel’s God an aspect of deepest terror? did it not reveal Him in those attributes which do not suggest goodwill? Nay, my brother, it is not so. It is not only in the calm that the goodwill of thy God appears, it is not only in nature’s smile that the blessing of thy Father is seen. The heart of thy Father beats for thee beneath every cloud as well as in every sunbeam; the blessing of thy Father is in thy night as well as in thy day. To thee, as to every man, He comes betimes in a chariot of fire; with thee, as with every man, He dwells betimes in the burning bush of a wilderness; but the fire chariot is His chariot, the burning bush is His dwelling-place. The fire of thy God is love; its burning is the burning of love. The pains of thy life are not accidents; they are gifts from thy Father’s hand. The fire of the burning bush is meant to set fire to thy heart. It is designed to kindle thee into a glow of enthusiasm, to warm thee with the love of humanity. How canst thou be warmed with the love of humanity if thou hast not in thee that fellowship of the cross which unites soul to soul. The fire that comes to thee from the bush is that which consumes the barrier between thy heart and the heart of thy brother. It destroys the middle wall of partition between you, and makes you one. Before the fire came to thee thou wert in the wilderness alone; thou hadst not felt the touch of nature that makes the world kin. But the fire opened the door of thy sympathy, and thy spirit passed through — passed into the heart, into the life of thy brother man to bear his burden and to carry his cross. There was no more solitude in thy wilderness; to thee, as to Moses, the command came to enter into union with the afflictions of thy brethren. To thee, as to Moses, the mandate was given to go down into the valleys and join thyself to the sorrows of the sorrowing. It was to the ear of thy sympathy that mandate was addressed; it came to thee through the fire. In the sense of thine own pain thou wert awakened to the universal pain; in the bearing of thine own burden thou wert warmed into pity for all that bear. 0 blessed bush, whose burning in the wilderness has been my inspiration, I thank thee for my new life, my life of love. 0 Thou that still dwellest amid the fires of human suffering, and still knowest by sympathy the sorrows of Thy people, I bless Thee for Thy goodwill in the bush to me — that goodwill which, by sending me the mystery of pain, united me for evermore to the family of the sorrowful — to the heart of the Man of sorrows.