THE TOWN CLERK OF EPHESUS.
COTTON MATHER often used to say there was a gentleman mentioned in Acts 19, to whom he was indebted for some of the best advice he ever received. This person was the town-clerk of Ephesus, whose counsel was to do nothing rashly. —So, when any matter of consequence came before Mather for decision, he was accustomed to say: “Let us first consult the town-clerk of Ephesus.” How much trouble and sorrow would be avoided if more people were to consult this gentleman! how many more things would be done right the first time, and not have to be done over again; how much more of joy, and safety, and rest, in the assurance that we deliberated well, weighed consequences, waited the leadings of the Lord, and followed the openings of his providence! The hardest lesson of many a life is that of waiting. It is easy enough to hurry when all the world is hurrying, to make quick resolves and rash promises, but to pause while the swift current is sweeping by—to think, and wait, and pray, and listen for the low counsel of that guiding Spirit which whispers to every Christian heart, “He that believeth shall make haste”—is no easy task. Some people are ever inclined to run before they are sent; and if the Lord left them to themselves, they would soon finish their course in ruin. But in mercy he restrains our ways; he shuts us up and hedges us about, and entangles our feet till we are compelled to stop, and, like imprisoned birds that flutter and beat against their cage-bars till in weariness they fall down and submit, we at length learn to be quiet, and know moderation, and be slow in speech, calm in thought, and temperate in action. How many a heart can say with Rosetti: “I would have gone, God bade me stay;
I would have worked, he bade me rest,
He broke my will from day to day;
He read my yearnings unexpressed,
And said them nay.”