RECEIVING LIFE AND TRUSTING THE GIVER.
By William Covert
DAVID says, "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like the cedar in Lebanon." Ps. 92: 12. Every tree that grows depends wholly upon the elements which nature has provided for its sustenance. Among the trees most remarkable for getting life and keeping it, are the cedars of Lebanon. The cedar can feed where other trees starve, and can flourish under circumstances very unfavorable to growth. Its graceful forms are pleasing to behold, and its evergreen boughs are emblems of immortal life. The drought can not pale their verdant hue nor shut them from the hidden springs. As the cedars are kept by the life provided for them, so may Christians drink from the Fountain of Life, tho it be unseen by human eyes. Many fail to enjoy what God desires to bestow, because they feel unworthy of the proffered gift. They actually think the promises of God can not be realized by mortals here below. Their own self-abnegation deprives them of heaven's offered bounties. An impressive illustration of the way in which many refuse to receive the blessings which love provides, is found in the history of Sojourner Truth, a colored woman, who became renowned for her great faith in the Lord. For more than forty years of her early life she had served as a slave in one of the Eastern States. When her freedom was procured, she could not easily comprehend its significance. For a time after her emancipation she was very needy. While in this destitute condition some charitable friends procured for her a pleasant room, and provided it with a comfortable bed. She was then made mistress of the place, and invited to enjoy it as her own home. They supposed that she would most cheerfully accept the comforts proffered. But they were greatly disappointed; for when the hour for retiring came, she lay down under the cozy bed, instead of reposing upon it. She could not believe that such excellent comforts were intended for a person who had been a poor slave. In her former state of life she had probably been used to sleeping on the floor, with a rug for a bed, and so could not readily appropriate the luxurious gift. Christians often doubt the beneficence of the Redeemer, and refuse to enjoy the blessings which He has freely prepared for them. Like Sojourner Truth, they think it needful still to endure the hard usage of their former master. But every one rescued from the bondage of sin should fully enjoy the gift of life and citizenship in the divine kingdom. To dwell upon one's own failures, and insist upon wearing the garments of human invention, is to turn away from the life and righteousness of Christ, and be lost at last. A pleasing instance of a child's trust in its father, and one that gives Christians an impressive picture of how they should cast all their cares upon God, recently occurred among the Alps. A party, while searching these rugged mountains for wild flowers, discovered a very desirable specimen growing at the base of a precipice five hundred feet below the place where they stood. They had no means at their command by which they could get possession of the flower, tho they coveted it very much. Upon looking around they discovered a small boy, a shepherd's son, not far away. They approached the child, and offered to give him a dollar if he would permit himself to be let down by a rope over the precipice, to procure the flower. They promised that he should be safely lowered, and then returned to the mountain top, by their own hands. But the boy refused. They then offered him two dollars, and said they would make the rope perfectly secure, and that, as they were strong and able to assure his safety, he could receive no injury in doing the service. Still he refused. They offered him three dollars, but without avail. Then they offered four, and finally raised the bid to five dollars. The thoughtful little fellow then requested them to wait until he could see his father about the matter. The father came, and with his own hands made the rope secure about the body of his son. When the travelers wished to assist the father in his hazardous task, the boy refused their help—he wanted only his father's hands to hold the rope. When he returned in safety with the beautiful flower, and had received the money promised, the men asked why he was afraid to risk himself with the rope in the hands of three men, when he showed no fear while it was held by only one. He replied that his father had held the rope, and him he knew; but they, the travelers, were strangers to him, and he knew not how much they would expose themselves to save him, if in the event he had been in danger. "But," said he, "I knew my father would have gone over the rock with me, and been killed, rather than let go his hold on the rope." As this shepherd's boy could, with the fullest confidence, trust himself in the strong hands of his father, while going down into the yawning depths, so should the child of faith yield himself without reserve into the hands of the great Shepherd, who really did give His life for the sheep. Whoever knows Jesus as fully as this little boy knew his father, will not be afraid to trust Him. They only want to be conscious of the fact that His hand holds the rope upon which hangs their destiny. They, too, like the shepherd's son, will be afraid to trust strangers; but in the hand of Jesus they will fear no evil. With His strength upholding, they can procure the most precious treasures, or even go down into the dark valley: for He will surely bring them up again.