Part 14 (2/2)
”Thy work unfinished! Do not fear Though at his coming may be found The stone unset.
Yet, for thy faith, beyond the skies Thine own shall be the longed-for prize.
He knoweth best who calls from labor now To rest, to build no more.”
CHAPTER XXIV.
IRON SHOES FOR ROUGH ROADS.
”Our feeble frame he knoweth, Remembereth we are dust; And evermore his face is kind, His ways are ever just.
In evil and in blindness, Through darkened maze we rove, But still our Father leads us home, By strength of mighty love.”
--MARGARET E. SANGSTER.
The matter of shoes is important. Especially is this true when the roads are rough and hard. We cannot then get along without something strong and comfortable to wear on our feet. One would scarcely expect to find anything in the Bible about such a need as this. Yet it only shows how truly the Bible is fitted to all our actual life to discover in it a promise referring to shoes.
In the blessing of Moses, p.r.o.nounced before his death upon the several tribes, there was this among other things for Asher: ”Thy shoes shall be iron.” A little geographical note will help to make the meaning plain. Part of Asher's allotted portion was hilly and rugged. Common sandals, made of wood or leather, would not endure the wear and tear of the sharp, flinty rocks. There was need, therefore, for some special kind of shoes. Hence the form of the promise: ”Thy shoes shall be iron.”
Even the Bible words which took the most vivid local coloring from the particular circ.u.mstances in which they were originally spoken, are yet as true for us as they were for those to whom they first came. We have only to get disentangled from the local allusions the real heart of the meaning of the words, and we have an eternal promise which every child of G.o.d may claim.
Turning, then, this old-time a.s.surance into a word for nineteenth-century pilgrims, we get from it some important suggestions.
For one thing it tells us that we may have some rugged pieces of road before we get to the end of our life-journey. If not, what need would there be for iron shoes? If the way is to be flower-strewn, velvet slippers, as Dr. McLaren somewhere suggests, would do. No man wants iron-soled shoes for a walk through a soft meadow. The journey is not likely to be all easy. Indeed, an earnest Christian life is never easy. No one can live n.o.bly and worthily without struggle, battle, self-denial. One may find easy ways, but they are not the worthiest ways. They do not lead upward to the n.o.blest things. One reason why many people never grasp the visions of beauty and splendor which s.h.i.+ne before them in early years is because they have not courage for rough climbing.
”I reach a duty, yet I do it not, And, therefore, climb no higher; but if done, My view is brightened, and another spot Seen on my mortal sun; For be the duty high as angel's flight-- Fulfil it, and a higher will arise Even from its ashes. Duty is our ladder to the skies, And climbing not, we fall.”
We shall need our iron shoes if we are to make the journey that leads upward to the best possibilities of our life.
But the word is not merely a prophecy of rugged paths; it is also a promise of shoeing for the road, whatever it may be. One who is preparing to climb a mountain, craggy and precipitous, would not put on silk slippers; he would get strong, tough shoes, with heavy nails in the soles. When G.o.d sends us on a journey over steep and flinty paths he will not fail to provide us with suitable shoes.
Asher's portion was not an accidental one; it was of G.o.d's choosing.
Nor is there any accident in the ordering of the place, the conditions, the circ.u.mstances, of any child of G.o.d's. Our times are in G.o.d's hands. No doubt, then, the hardnesses and difficulties of any one's lot are part of the divine ordering for the best growth of the person's life.
There was a compensation in Asher's rough portion. His rugged hills had iron in them. This law of compensation runs through all G.o.d's distribution of gifts. In the animal world there is a wonderful harmony, often noted, between the creatures and the circ.u.mstances and conditions amid which they are placed. The same law rules in the providence of human life. One man's farm is hilly and hard to till, but deep down beneath its ruggedness, buried away in its rocks, there are rich minerals. One person's lot in life is hard, with peculiar obstacles, difficulties and trials; but hidden in it there are compensations of some kind. One young man is reared in affluence and luxury. He never experiences want or self-denial, never has to struggle with obstacles or adverse circ.u.mstances. Another is reared in poverty and has to toil and suffer privation. The latter seems to have scarcely an equal chance in life. But we all know where the compensation lies in this case. It is in such circ.u.mstances that grand manhood is grown, while too often the petted, pampered sons of luxury come to nothing. In the rugged hills of toil and hards.h.i.+p, life's finest gold is found.
There are few things from which young people of wealthy families suffer more than from over-help. No n.o.ble-spirited young man wants life made too easy for him by the toil of others. What he desires is an opportunity to work for himself. There are some things no other one can give us; we must get them for ourselves. Our bodies must grow through our own exertions. Our minds must be disciplined through our own study. Our hearts' powers must be developed and trained through our own loving and doing. One writes of two friends and two ways of showing friends.h.i.+p:--
”One brought a crystal goblet overfull Of water he had dipped from flowing streams That rose afar where I had never trod-- Too far for even my quickened eye to see.
They were fair heights, familiar to his feet-- They were cool springs that greeted him at morn, And made him fresh when noon was burning high, And sang to him when all the stars were out; His hand had led them forth, and their pure life Was husbanded, with sacred thrift, for flower, And bird, and beast, and man. The hills were his, And his the bright, sweet water. Not to me Came its renewal. I was still athirst.
”The other looked upon me graciously, Beheld me wasted with my bitter need, And gave me--nothing. With a face severe, And prophet brow, he bade me quickly seek My own hard quarry--there hew out a way For the imprisoned waters to flow forth Unhindered by the stubborn granite blocks That shut them in dark channels. I sprung up, For that I knew my Master; and I smote, Even as Moses, my gray, barren rock, And found sufficient help for all my house, All my servants, all my flocks and herds.”
The best friend we can have is the one, not who digs out the treasure for us, but who teaches and inspires us with our own hands to open the rocks and find the treasures for ourselves. The digging out of the iron will do us more good than even the iron itself when it is dug out.
Shoes of iron are promised only to those who are to have rugged roads, not to those whose path lies amid the flowers. There is a comforting suggestion here for all who find peculiar hardness in their life.
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