XXI.]

LIVING BY FAITH.

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thing which takes away that self-confidence, and any thing which brings forth that faith, is blessed, is divine; let the outward aspects of it be as dark, let the inward anguish which it produces be as terrible, as it may. Here is the solution of the riddles of the universe; here is the key to God's dark and inscrutable ways. Not a solution which we can resort to as if it were a formula of ready application, which may stifle questioning and set our minds at ease. Not a key such as empirics and diviners use, pretending that they know all the wards of every mystery and can open it at their pleasure, but one to which the humble and the meek can always resort when most baffled, when most ignorant, one which helps them to welcome their own tribulations and to see in the tribulations of the world a sure witness that the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

In this spirit Habakkuk stands and waits. He writes the vision and makes it plain upon tables that he that runneth may read it, that men in after days may know how their forefathers have suffered and sorrowed, and may know where they could not find and where they did find deliverance. He does not see to the end of the vision; he does not ask to see. There is yet an appointed time; to tarry is his task,—yes, and his privilege. For no sudden discovery could give him the simple dependence, the thorough confidence, to which he is trained amidst clouds and darkness. Out of that darkness there rises-not some Atlantis, some island of the blessed, whither men may fly from the misery that is about them. He says

"God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the

376

REJOICING.

[Serm.

earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.-c. iii. vv. 3 & 4.

The land in which he dwelt, the mountains on which he had looked from childhood-these and not some far off world spoke to him of the Divine Presence. God was there. And this God was He who had delivered His people, who cared for the poor and needy, who had declared war against the proud and oppressor. To see the pestilence and the burning coals working as His ministers, the everlasting mountains swallowed at His word, the rivers cleaving the earth, the sun and moon standing still or moving at the light of His arrows; this was fearful, it made His lips quiver and his hands tremble. Yet the sight gave him rest in the day of trouble. At the root of confusion was eternal order; every dark power in Nature, every human will, must work out the purposes of Eternal Love.

66 Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."-c. iii. vv. 17 & 18.

The saddest of all prophecies ends with a song-the stringed instuments give out a music which is deeper than all the discords and wailings of Creation. Brethren! may it be granted to us with purged ears to hear that music, may it have an echo in our inmost hearts. We shall hear it best, we shall join in it most fervently, when we have confessed how little fruit we have ourselves brought forth to God, when we have mourned over the dryness and barren

XXI.]

FOR US AS WELL AS HABAKKUK.

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ness of God's Church. is written upon all things, we shall begin to know the power of the risen life; we shall understand the truth,-Jesus Christ was crucified in the flesh, that He might be quickened in the Spirit, and that, together with His own body, He might quicken us and the whole universe.

Then when we have felt how death

SERMON XXII.

TEMPTATION THE SCHOOL OF THE PROPHET.

LINCOLN'S INN, 4TH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.-MAY 9, 1852.

JEREMIAH, I. 6—9.

Then said I," Ah Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child." But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child; for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee," saith the Lord.

It is not improbable that Jeremiah was almost a child when he spoke these words. The earliest of the prophets was called to his office when he was girded with the linen ephod which Hannah had made for him. The king of the land at the time when the word of the Lord first came to Jeremiah was a child, and yet knew that he was destined to do a great work. Josiah had clear evidence that he was designated to his task before his birth; it devolved upon him simply because he was the heir of the house of David. The like assurance came in another way to the young priest of Anathoth. To him it was revealed, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; before thou camest out of the

Serm. XXII.] THE SENSE OF A CALLING.

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womb, I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."

I do not believe it would have been possible for either of them, when he became a man, to have suffered life without this conviction. If the king had thought that he held his power because there were some special virtues in him which entitled him to it; if Jeremiah had fancied that he was a prophet because there was in him a certain aptitude for uttering divine discourses and foreseeing calamities, who can tell the weariness and loathing which each would have felt for his task when it led to no seeming result, except the dislike of all against or for whom it was exercised,—still more when the powers and graces which were supposed to be the qualifications for it became consciously feeble. Nothing but a witness, the more sure for being secret, 'thou wast marked and sealed for this function before thou hadst done good or evil; all thy powers are endowments to fit thee for fulfilling thy vocation, but do not constitute it; they may perish, the comfort and inward satisfaction in the work may perish—it may produce nothing but pain to thyself and to those who are brought within thy influence— or harder still, it may be regarded with utter indifference and contempt by others till thou almost art taught to despise it thyself: still the words must be spoken; the acts must be done; for they are not thy words or thy acts;' -nothing, I say, but such a persuasion as this, written and re-written in a man's heart, could sustain him against the conflicts outward and inward which pursue the righteous king and the true prophet.

In proportion then as а man had to sustain a more than usual amount of such conflicts, one might suppose that his discipline would begin early, that there would be