Little wonder therefore that God became all and in all to this feeble band of captives, journeying across the desert back to their ruined life and land.  God had taken away earthly things from them, that He might be their all and in all.  When the earth is made poor for us, sometimes the heavens become rich.  God closed the eyes of Milton to the beauty in land and sea and sky, that he might see the companies of angels marching and countermarching on the hills of God.  He closed the ears of Beethoven, that he might hear the music of St. Cecilia falling over heaven’s battlements.  He gave Isaiah a slave’s hut, that he might ponder the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  How is it that this prophet and poet has become companion of the great ones of the earth?  At the time Isaiah rebelled against his bondage, but when it was all over, and the fitful fever had passed, and the fleshly fetters had fallen, he smiled at the things that once alarmed him, as he recalled his fainting strength and the unwearied God.

Gone—­that ancient capital.  Babylon is a heap.  Jerusalem a ruin!  But this epic of the unwearied Guide still lives!  Isaiah, can never die!  Can a chapter die that has cheered the exile in his loneliness, that has comforted the soldier upon his bivouac, that has braced the martyr for his execution, that has given songs at midnight to the prisoners in the dungeon?  Out of suffering and captivity came this song of rest and hope.  At last the poet praised the eternal God for his bonds and his imprisonment.  Oh, it is darkness that makes the morning light so welcome to the weary watcher.  It is hunger that makes bread sweet.  It is pain and sickness that gives value to the physician and his medicine.  It is business trouble that makes you honor your lawyer and counselor, and it is the sense of need that makes God near.

Are there any merchants here who are despondent?  Remember the eternal God and make your appeal to the future.  Are there any parents whose children have wandered far?  When they are old, the children will return to the path of faith and obedience.  Are there any in whom the immortal hope burns low?  The smoking flax He will not quench, but will fan the flame into victory.  Look up to-day; be comforted once more.  Work henceforth in hope.  Live like a prince.  Scatter sunshine.  Let your atmosphere be happiness.  If troubles come, let them be the dark background that shall throw your hope and faith into bolder relief.  God hath set His heart upon you to deliver you.  Tho your hand faint, and the tool fall, the eternal God fainteth not, neither is weary.  He will bring thy judgment unto victory, immortalize thy good deeds, and crown thy career with everlasting renown.

JEFFERSON

THE RECONCILIATION

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE