"He shall feed me in a green pasture, and lead me forth beside the
waters of comfort." How perfectly beautiful and tender the image, a
thing seen how many hundred years ago on the hills of Bethlehem,
and touching the old heart just as it touches me to-day!
And yet, alas, to me to-day the image seems to miss the one thing
needful; how all the images of guide and guardian and shepherd fail
when applied to God! For here the shepherd is but a little wiser, a
little stronger than his flock. He sees their difficulties, he
feels them himself. But with God, He is at once the Guide, and the
Creator of the very dangers past which He would lead us. If we felt
that God Himself were dismayed and sad in the presence of evils
that He could not touch or remedy, we should turn to Him to help us
as He best could. But while we feel that the very perplexities and
sufferings come from His hand, how can we sincerely ask Him to
guard us from things which He originates, or at least permits? Why
should they be there at all, if His concern is to help us past
them; or how can we think that He will lead us past them, when they
are part of His wise and awful design?
And thus one plunges again into the darkness.
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