The Alternations of Life

“He giveth His beloved sleep.’” — Psa. cxxvii. 2. “And the angel that talked with me waked me.” — Zecu. iv. 1,

ERE are two opposite aspects of the work

of Christ in the soul. We commonly recognise only one of them. We all associate religion with peace — with what is called the sleep of God’s beloved. We have been taught in times of storm and stress that there is to be found a peace which passeth knowledge, a rest to the inner man. So habitual has been this association that we are apt to forget it is only one side of the Christian life, that it has another side — the side revealed by Zechariah. It is quite true that in the hour of trouble a Christian finds peace; but it is equally true that in an hour of peace the Christian often finds trouble. The one seems consistent with God’s promise; but the other appears a breaking of the promise. They are, in truth, both fulfilments. God has promised each of these experiences. There are times when he gives His beloved their sleep, and there are times when He sends His angel to wake them. If there are seasons when the Great Physician administers to His patients a sedative, there are also seasons in which He administers to them an irritant. Peace without conflict is as bad as conflict without peace. It is not good to sleep too long. We need an alarm bell of some kind. Noise, as well as silence, may be a gift from our Father. There are scenes of beauty which are lost to us just from unbroken contemplation; there are domestic joys which are uncherished by us just from their daily recurrence. Nothing makes the soul sleep like the monotony of mercies; on the banks of that rhythmic stream we become dead to the rhythm. But if the current be impeded, if an obstruction bar the stream, if a famine of waters bid it relax its speed, then indeed I wake to yesterday’s music. It comes to me like the murmur of the shell whose voice has only grown beautiful in the absence of the parent sea.

Lord, I want both Thy pillar of fire by night and Thy pillar of cloud by day — Thy peace in the shadow, Thy shading in the sun. And because I need both, Thou hast given me both. There is no Gethsemane without its flower; there is no rose without its thorn. Men call this the uncertainty of Jife. Rather would I see in it the certainty of Thy mercy. To me life would be far more uncertain if there were not these alternations of the light and the cloud. There would be more deaths untimely if Thou didst not give Thy beloved a sleep in their sorrow; there would be more lives unfruitful if Thou didst not bid Thine angel wake them to their joys. It is to keep my life certain that Thou keepest me ever between the calm and the breeze. If the waters ran up to the brim, they would overflow me; if the waters revealed no ripple, they would deaden me. My safety cometh from life’s changes; if life were less variable, I should be less secure. Therefore, O Father, I say, Beset me with Thy varied presence — Thine hours for sleep and Thine hours for waking! Beset me at night with Thy glowing fire, by day with Thy cooling wind! May I rest in my labours; may I wake in my responsibilities! In the tempest of my heart, say, “Peace, be. still”; on the mount of my vanity, cry, ‘“Arise and depart, for this is not your rest”! Prepare for me a table in my wilderness; overthrow for me the tables of traffic I have set up within Thy temple! Compass me, in grief, with songs of deliverance; surround me, in joy, with thoughts of solemnity! So shall my evenings and mornings together make one day; so shall all my life be girt about by Thee.