The Green Pastures and the Open Road

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness.” PsaLM xxiii. 2, 8.

Tue green pastures and the open road! Here are two symbols which unveil two vital aspects of the spiritual life. There is, first of all, the figure of the green pastures which represent the rich fulness of the divine resources for a tired and exhausted soul. There is the suggestion of rest, and satisfaction, and restoration. Amid the soothing ministries of pastoral peace new life flows into spent muscle and wearied nerve. The nourishment more than balances the fatigue. Contentment wipes out the memory of exertion and toil. ‘‘ He restoreth my soul.” The good Lord meets the soul in fields of quietness, and it is as when the angels sang over the fields of Bethlehem in comforting strains of peace and good will.

The second figure is the figure of the open road — ‘‘ the way of righteousness.” The circumstances seem to be entirely changed. There is no longer the moist sweetness of the nourishing meadow. There is now the tedious path, the wayward, endless road, the dust, the flints, the long and seemingly endless journey. It is no longer lying down, but walking, walking, walking! ‘ He leadeth me in paths of righteousness.” The soul is out on the open road, and its Shepherd is leading on. Such is the second figure.

Well, now, the peril about these two figures is this — we may regard them as if they were offered to us for our choice, and as though we can prefer the one and reject the other. We can choose to be knights of the green pasture, delighting in the proffered luxuriance, or we can choose to be knights of the open road, revelling in the dusty exploit, nourishing ourselves on difficulty and struggle, and almost despising the multitude who remain in fields of pleasantness and peace. Whichever choice it be, if it be a rejection of the other, our spiritual life will be gravely impaired.

There is a type of spirituality which is born and nourished in green pastures. It is for ever seeking nice things, sweet things, pleasant things, peaceful things. It loves to get apart. It delights in long retreats. It revels in the atmosphere of conferences and withdrawn communion. It has a growingly large library on the secrets of the higher life. It joins any and every league except the league for routing out bandits on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, or the league for slaying dragons wherever they infest the lives of men. And so this is a sort of spirituality which lacks tone and virility. It needs more red corpuscles in its blood. Its piety is pale and anemic. And

I think that if in this world of green pastures and still waters there is a quiet cemetery where dead devotion is buried, many a grave would have to carry this epitaph, ‘‘ Passed away in decline through sheer neglect of the open road.”

On the other hand there is a sort of spirituality which lives on the road. It is always ‘‘on the go.” It is practical, and ever practical, and it has no leisure for the use of green pastures or still waters. It is too busy to go apart and rest awhile. The calls are too clamant for any heed to be paid to the lures of rest. It has no time for thinking things through because it is so intent upon seeing them through. It has no time for praying because it is so devoted to working. ‘* Laborare est orare!’’ That is the motto, and they keep at it night and day. And what is the result? They become overdriven. They lose the fine and nobly proportioned sense of things. They become supersensitive, which is only another way of saying that they become insensitive to large issues. They are apt to become shallow. And often they become irritable and critical, and they fall into murmuring and complaint, “Lord, speak to my sister, and bid her that she help me in service.”’ That is the speech of one of the overwrought, the folk who have been too long on the road, and who greatly need the quieting, restoring ministries of the green pastures and the still waters which are the precious provisions of divine grace. There is many a splendid knight on the open road whose loyalty is suffering and whose labour is maimed because he will not turn aside with his Leader into the deep and deepening secrets of rest. They are “tired to death.”

Now it is the gracious purpose of our Lord that the ministries of the green pastures and the open road are to be mutual and complementary. Our Saviour continually mentions them as being equally essential to the perfecting of His will. ‘‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!” It is the Lord’s call to the green pastures! ‘‘My peace I give unto you!’ It is our Lord’s bequest by the still waters. But joined to these is His call to the open road. ‘* Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you!” ‘ He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness,”

This is the ministry of the journey, the offer of some splendid commission, the chance of a great adventure. The soul which has been secluded with Him in arbours of rest is now carrying the secrets of rest into valiant works of righteousness and doing His will on earth as it is done in heaven.

It is even so in all the teachings of the Apostle Paul. Take, for example, his letter to the Ephesians. What a combination it is of green pastures and open road! The earlier part leads us into the deep and unfathomable things which concern our peace. We move with reverent rapture among God’s infinite provisions for the soul’s eternal rest. The wonders pass the powers of human speech, and the soul goes beyond the ministry of words into the riches of wordless contemplation. But the letter which leads the soul into these entrancing mysteries also leads it into the activities of the open road. Howmany times does the apostle call us from the restoring rest of contemplation to the invigorating habits of a healthy and out-of-doors spiritual life! How many times does he use the figure of walking, which is just outdoor movement on the venturous way! ‘“‘ Walk in love!”

“Walk in the light!” ‘* Walk as children of light!’ What is all this but spiritual knighthood on the march, going on and on to works of chivalry and freedom! And thus does the apostle’s letter unite the ministries of spiritual peace with the calls of the open road.

And when I turn to the last part of the sacred Book, where we have glimpses of the final issue of things, some of the happenings beyond the boundaries of time and death, one looks on a similar spiritual landscape, a combination of green pastures and open road. I open the Book on one page, and I read of the Shepherd, now the Lamb of God, leading His flock to ‘‘ fountains of living water.” It is the secret wealth of the green pastures. I open another page, and I see the Lamb of God, wearing “‘ a vesture dipped in blood” — mark you, not the blood of another, but His own blood, for this is the royal insignia of self-sacrifice — and on chivalrous venture He is out on the open road. And where are they who companied with Him in the green pastures? This is the answer: ‘‘ These are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth”’ They are out with Him on the open road!