Thoughts for Life's Journey

In accordance with a suggestion made by the pubHshers to the author some few months before his death, these devotional sermonettes, which have appeared from time to time in The Christian World, are now issued in collective form. Eighty-six sermonettes are here included, dealing with varied subjects that may appeal to varied minds. In the course of their previous issue the author received much eloquent testimony regarding the help and comfort derived from their perusal, which fact would tend to the belief that this further offering in a more permanent form is not without some measure of justification.

It was a strange time for Martha to get a call — just when her own special gift had come to a stand. There was no further room for her practicalness; she had been forced to fold her hands. The power to work had ended; the necessity to wait had come. It was a time when Martha might well have said to herself: “I have no longer any calling; my occupation is gone now. There are no more tables to serve, no more friends to entertain, no more hospitalities to dispense, no more sick brothers to nurse, not even any more funeral arrangements to make; my work is done.” Yet it was at that hour the call came. It was at the close of her own day that God’s day began for her. It was in the stillness of all her special powers that the knocker struck the door.

And I think, my brother, it is ever so that thy Father deals with thee. I do not think He knocks at the door of thy special gift; rather, it seems to me, does He seek thy neglected door. He would bring thee out precisely by that gate which was not thine entrance gate. Why does He so often block that particular way on which thou art going? “To teach thee distrust of thyself,’” cry a hundred voices. Nay, to teach thee to trust thyself in more directions. Why should all thy work be special! Is there to be no road between thee and thy brother — no sympathy with that which is another’s endowment? Why has God stripped thee of thy power of active service? To teach thee thine impotence? No, to show thee thy power on the other side of the hill. Is there no service but action! Is there no blessing for Mary! Is there no work for those who can only stand and wait, only lie and wait! What of that wondrous movement which makes no noise — the surrender of the will! What of those who suffer and pine not, endure and complain not, bear and doubt not! How came they to that blissful call? Through the shadows of the evening. They once were like thee — believing in nothing but the hand. God hid

the garish day, and the hand grew powerless. And then the Master called through another avenue — a slighted avenue; and the inward will arose and said, “I have found a neglected door.”

The doctrine of Jesus differs here from the view of the moderns. The common voice of ozr day is, “Pray in secret, and thy Father will reward thee secretly.” I am told that the only use of prayer is to calm the inind — to breath within me a spirit of peace. And truly, even if that were all, it would be a most valuable boon. But it would not be an open reward.” It would be a thing as latent as my prayer. It would be a little secret of the heart between me and my Father. Its coming would be unknown to the world; its presence would be unseen by the world; its music would be unheard by the world. That may be very sublime, but it is not what Christ promised. What He says is that the prayer is to be secret, but the reward open. The prayer is to be unwitnessed; the answer is to be public. The prayer is to be veiled; the answer is to be read of all men. The prayer

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is to be within closed doors; the answer is to be in the wide wide world.

My brother, do not say that the purpose of your prayer is to calm your mind! That is not an end; it is a beginning. If you have a calm mind you will come out into the open. Your Father’s aim is not that you should enter into rest; it is that you should enter into movement. He offers you His peace, not to make you lie down in green pastures, but to make you walk in the paths of righteousness. It is not the secrecy of our prayer that He values; it is the publicity which the secret hour kindles. Tell me! have not our most public moments come from our most secret hours? When you were a child you built castles in the air. They were rather castles in the heart; they were all inside — within the closed doors of the soul. These castle-buildings were your first prayers. They were the golden wishes of your spirit, and they were only visible to you and your Father. There was no axe or hammer heard when these houses were building; they were prayers to your Father “in secret.” Yet these prayers have had an open reward.; You are richer to-day by reason of the castles you built in your heart. I do not say your life has ever reached the measure of them; I know it has not. But I do say it has reached more than it would have reached without them. Your love’s young dream has kept you from the miry clay. Your vision of the hill has nerved you for the plain. In the secret places of your heart you have heard distant music — the world would say imaginary music. But it is to this secret music that the march of your outward life has been timed. It is this far-off melody that has fired you for the actual battle. It is this song in the night that has made you conqueror in the day. Build, my brother, your castles of prayer — build 6n! They will meet you again in stone and lime. You vill find them in the daylight world — the world of life and action. Your poetry will help your prose; your flight will aid your walking. Stand in the secret place of golden wishes; but know assuredly that there is nothing secret which shall not be revealed I

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