The Valley of Humiliation.
By J. CLARKE
THIS is a valley much dreaded by the proud and the lofty and the aspiring, and they take the greatest pains to get around it. No labor is too great, no pain too severe, in order to avoid this dreaded valley. To avoid this many a Judas has betrayed his Master, many a soul has left the path of life; but to the whole-soulled seeker for eternal life this valley has no terrors. No, here he finds as John Bunyan has finely described, "a fat ground and one that consisteth much in meadows." He quaintly says that he has "known many laboring men who have got good estates in this valley, (for God resisteth the proud but giveth more grace to the humble), for it is indeed a very fruitful soil, and bringeth forth by handfuls. Some have also wished that the next way to their father's house were here that they might be troubled no more with either hills or mountains to go over." "In this valley our Lord formerly had his country house. He loved much to be here. He loved also to walk in these meadows, and he found the air was pleasant. Besides, here a man shall be free from the noise, and from the hurrying of this life. All states are full of noise and confusion; only the valley of humiliation is that empty and solitary place. Here a man shall not be hindered in his contemplation as in other places he is apt to be. This is a valley that nobody walks in, but that love a pilgrim's life. And though Christian had the hard hap to meet Apollyon here and to enter with him into a brisk encounter, yet I must tell you that in former times men have met with angels here, have found pearls here, and have in this place found the words of life. Hosea xii, 4, 5. I will add that to those that live and trace these grounds, he has left a yearly revenue to be faithfully paid them at certain seasons for their maintenance by the way, and for their further encouragement to go on pilgrimage. Methinks one may here without much molestation be thinking what he is, whence he came what he has done, and to what the king has called him. Here one may think and break at heart, and melt in one's spirit until one's eyes become as the fish-pools of Heshbon. Cant. vii. 4."
J. CLARKE.