THE JOURNEY AND THE HINDRANCES
[p. 419] THE JOURNEY AND THE HINDRANCES
You have passed through a year of much exercise. It has been like a long voyage; the ship has been subjected to many a trial as to how it could bear up against the winds and waves from without, and furnish and preserve the needed comforts for those on board, or within. The without and the within, I might say, constitute our history for each year. I suppose each year is an era in our lives. The without is an unceasing opposition. Pursuing the illustration, the sea on which we sail is man’s heart. The waves - the influence of man; and the winds - the power of Satan. Be it calm or storm, the opposition is the same. You cannot be helped by anything purely of man. It is in not remembering this that we all suffer. It is here the dark part is. The ship - the new being, has to make its way through the sea to the heavenly port, but if the ship expose itself to the sea, to the influence of men in any way, it suffers accordingly. Its highest condition is to be proof to its entrance, while in itself it has provisions of all kinds - home comforts for the whole voyage. This is the within, and from the Lord. We are really to expect nothing from without, to be ever on our guard; we have a relentless and unsparing foe, none the less dangerous when carrying a fair exterior. Surely the deep sea is not less dangerous in a calm than in a storm. In a storm you are watching on every side. The pumps are regularly worked; the whole of the ship is looked after in the strictest way, and if there be not supplies within, all hands would faint and die, even though you could successfully surmount the opposition without. The ship through grace will live; but many a sorrowful day would be avoided were we more alive to our danger, and the unceasingness of it.
You are cautious enough at any rate, and you are well provisioned, through grace; but while you keep on at a steady pace, are you courageous enough? Every [p. 420] one, thank God, can see the port you are bound for; for Hebron you are bound, but are you like Caleb unable to take Kirjath-sepher? I suppose there is a spot where each of us shows the white feather. I merely ask the question. I can truly say, “This also we wish, even your perfection” (2 Corinthians 13: 9); when you fail in courage, add to your faith courage. Courage has to do with the without; the lack of it always indicates some lack within. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of courage.
The Lord be praised for the way your ship has traversed the deep seas for so many years, but where there is most grace, there is most progress. The ship that has gone well is the one that goes on better. The Lord bless you much.