Slow Walking

“To walk and not faint,”

ISA. xl. 31.

That is the severe testing season, when our going slackens down to a slow walk. There is an exhilaration in movement when life speeds along, and its general interests are vivid, and we have congenial and kindling companionship. When the sleigh-horses are galloping, and we are just flying through the air, how the sleigh-bells ring out their merry peal! Bees hum when they are on the wing! And so it is in human life. It is easy to sing when we can mount up with wings as eagles. We come to the supreme test when the swift movement is over, when the merry pace is ended, when the stimulating fellowship is withdrawn, and we come to the slow walk, and something very vital seems to have been lost. It is a happy attainment to mount ud

149 with wings as eagles; it is a noble victory to walk and not to faint.

Sometimes, even when we pass out of the brilliant hours, our busy pace is the soul’s defence. Here is a woman nursing her loved one. She is going from morning to night. And then there comes a day when her loving service is no longer required. The sick one has slipped away from her and has recovered immortal health in the healing presence of the Lord. The swift, absorbing pace of the loving nurse is changed into an awfully slow walk when there seems nothing to do. We say one to another, “There will be a reaction!’’ or we whisper, “There will be a collapse!” It is evidently a great testing time when the saving pace is almost halted, and the ministering servant comes to the hour of folded hands. Can she walk and not faint?

Here is a man who has been wakened to the knowledge of his Saviour. He wakens amid the excitement of a great revival. There is the exhilaration of a multitude. There is the stimulus of music whose volume is as the sound of many waters. He goes night after night, and the unusual and glorious pace of everything keeps his spirit on the run. Then the day comes when the phenomenal season is over. The extraordinary stimulants are withdrawn.” The tumult and the shouting dies; the captain and the kings depart.’’ The surroundings become quite normal, and he settles down to the slow walk on the ordinary road. That is the testing time. Can we walk and not faint?

That man is not strong who needs the fierce pace, nor is he strong who only reveals his strength in fits of convulsion. He is the strong man who can walk slowly, and under a heavy weight, without staggering. And this triumph is the promised victoiy of grace, and the grace is surely given to those who “wait upon the Lord.’’ Grace offers strength for the trudge on the long, grey road. Nay, grace offers more than strength, it offers Companionship. It is not satisfied with the gift of power; its gift is a Friend, and He brings His own cordials and balms to our sorrows, and His own bread to our hungry needs. “They that wait upon the Lord shall walk and not faint.”