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THE OBLE LIVIG AD THE OBLE DEADBY CHARLES R AKED, D.D.
"Into thine hand I commend my spirit" JesusThese were the last words spoken by our Lordbefore His death. He was mighty in the Scrip-tures. He loved the Psahns. The rich devo-tional spirit of the great poets of His race waskindred with His own. Alike in controversyand in prayer, their words were ever upon Hislips. Living, they were to Him an Inspiration ;dying, His last utterance was quoted from aPsalm. For millions of men, the Book of Psalms has been hallowed by the fondness of Jesusfor it.Our Lord quoted from the thirty-first Psalm.But as the ancient poet spoke it, the prayer hadreference not to death, but to life. He does notask that God will care for him in death, but pro-tect him now in the midst of distress, pain, andfear. Troubles compass him around. Anxiety,danger, conflict, have wrecked his health. Hiseye is wasted by grief; soul and body are en-feebled; sorrow seems to have gnawed intohis bones ; his life is In peril. It is impossible notto think of Jeremiah; of the imprisonment, thestocks, the scourging. Perhaps our poet thought8384 THE COURAGE OF THE COWARDof him, too. He describes his loneliness, thedesertion of those who knew him, the cowardiceof those who should have stood by him. There
 
are three groups of feeble souls whose weaknesshas done him wrong. He is a ^^ reproach"to his neighbours — because of the multitude andthe power of his adversaries his ^^ neighbours "reproach him. He is a " fear ** to his ** acquaint-ance" — ^how should they dare befriend him,champion his cause, even show sympathy withhim, in the face of threats and hatred? And asfor the larger, wider world, ^^ they that did seeme without," they fly from him as if he were aleper. And his prayer is the familiar prayerof weakness to Almightiness. He prays fordeliverance from immediate and pressing dangers ;for the sunshine of God's presence ; and for per-manent good issue from his fears. Then hisfaith pierces the future ; he looks for a time whenwisdom shall be justified upon the earth; whenthe voices of hate shall be silenced and lyinglips be dumb. As for himself, he can rest in theassurance that Grod rules over all ; *^ my times arein Thy hand " — ^the monuments, chances, changes,kaleidoscopic, unimaginable, God controls, and heis content. Into God's hands he conmiends hisspirit.Times of trouble will come to us all. Thehour of darkness, loss, and trial waits for everyone of us. In the form in which sorrow struck thisman it will not strike us. The form is a thingindiffer^t. The fact is real. One day, sorrowOBLE LIVIG AD OBLE DEAD 85will break over our soul in storm, its thunderswill crash around us, and we shall feel ourselvesalone. The experience of the race, as humanityhas trodden its path of sorrow, will not makeour own grief lighter. Each one of us will say,
 
"there is no sorrow like my sorrow,'* and thesuffering which strikes us, though the samesuffering has fallen upon men since man's lifebegan upon this planet, will seem to us an iso-lated and abnormal wonder. "ever morningwore to evening, but some heart did break.''Yet to dream that because ^^ such loss is conmionto the race" it is less charged with elements of despair, is to proclaim oneself ignorant of thehuman heart.Common is the commonplace.And vacant chaff well meant for grain.We must not darken the present by anticipa-tions of the clouds which will one day gather.But we can prepare for ourselves a shelter againstthe impending storm ; we can find in God a surerefuge and defence.Where will you find relief from sorrow, rest inweariness, comfort in bereavement, inspirationwhen your own strength is utter feebleness, if not in God? I have no answer to such a question.I have found no answer in the lives of men Iknow. I have found none in my own. I under-stand the man who finds God to be his ^* fortress "and his ^^high tower." I understand him whofinds that God ^Ms a very present help in time86 THE COURAGE OF THE COWARDof trouble." As perfectly as I am able to under-stand anything or anybody, I understand himwho finds that ^^ The eternal God is our dwelling-place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.''But I do not understand what relief from the
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