Blemishes in the Great

‘• Then Daniel was astonied for one hour.” — Dan. iv. 19.

The words to my mind are strongly dramatic. They are meant to convey the impression of a contradiction in terms. Daniel at a loss even for one hour! Daniel at sea! Daniel at the end of his resources I It seems the climax of impossibility. For one hour of his life Daniel falsified his character — was found paralysed in judgment. Is it not a pity that God allowed it! Is it not a pity that man recorded it! Do we not love to think of Socrates as never having lost his temper! of Caesar as never having lost a battle! of Solomon as never having lost an opportunity! Why should the Bible have allowed one rent to appear in the seamless robe of Daniel; is it not a breach of Divine art? I do not think so. I hold that nothing brings out moral beauty like a shadowy background. What a charming light is thrown upon Daniel’s wisdom by this one hour of perplexity! It shows that his wisdom was the result of personal struggle — that it was not the wisdom 161 L of the bee or of the spider or of the ant — imposed from the outside, but that it was something to which, through darkness, he had to work his way. Men talk of the examples of the great; I think the finest part of their example is the one hour in which they fail. That one hour makes them possible for me. Before it, I looked upon them as specially endowed, raised by nature far above the reach of my hand. But that hour said: “Go and do thou likewise!” It told me that he whom I admired was a man of like passions. It told me that he, as much as I, had the element of human weakness. It is not the powers, but the difficulties, of the great that inspire us. I get my wings from their night — not from their sunshine. I make their clouds my chariot. I rise upon the step on which they fall. It is not the footprints they have left on the sands of time that impel me to follow; it is the spots where the footprints fail. Jacob may be a prince that has power with God; but he only becomes my example when he halts upon his thigh.

I thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast revealed in the life of each saint one dark hour. I used to wonder. It seemed a strange thing that the temple of a holy life should have one gate not beautiful. I do not wonder now; I adore the Blemishes in the Great

wisdom that has made it so. I bless Thee, my Father, for the saint’s broken gate; it will be the only gate of entrance for me. How can I aspire to pass into the temple by his gate of glory! I dare not mount with Elijah in his chariot of fire — I should grow giddy with the height; but he had an hour of despondency when he cried like a child; I will meet him there! I dare not climb with Moses to the summit of Pisgah — I am not fit to see the Promised Land; but he had an hour of temper when he showed the common clay; I will meet him there! I dare not seek with Abraham the top of Moriah’s hill — I am not yet ripe for the sacrifice; but he had an hour of trembling when he chose the coward’s part; I will meet him there! I dare not fly with John to the visions of Patmos — mine eyes would be blinded with the glow; but he had an hour at Samaria when he forgot the vision of his Lord; I will meet him there! I will take wing from their weakness; I will get robed from their rags; I will rise from the spot where they wrestle; in the place where they flagged I shall be constrained to fly. I thank Thee, O Lord, for Daniel’s impotent hour.

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