REMEMBERING EGYPT
REMEMBERING EGYPT
The path is one of faith and faith sees nothing here. It sees neither the easy thing nor the difficult; neither the famine nor the green fields of Sodom. Abraham gave up his faith when he saw the famine, and Lot was outside faith when he saw the green fields of Sodom. Whenever the things around us influence us or govern us, we are not in faith; and when faith ceases there is no more real energy. A righteous soul will be vexed by the things around, but there is no actual deliverance. There is always in our course an opportunity for returning; it is allowed in order to test the faith and to assure the heart, when tested, that the faith which enabled one to step forth perhaps years ago, is as fresh in its energy as it was then. Now this opportunity to return occurs with remembering or calling to mind the country from whence they came out. Faith is really lost when there is not a looking to God to carry one on to His own city, and then thoughts and memories of the land of which Babel is the city come into the mind and pave the way for returning. One reverts to the tastes and habits suited to the Chaldean territory before one accepts the opportunity to return, and once the tastes and habits or the memories of the old country are entertained by the mind, one is morally fit for the place which answers to them; just as a prince who adopts the manners of a clown will find himself at home ere long in the haunts of a clown. With a saint it is either faith, or calling to mind the country from whence he came out; when it is faith, there is always progress, and the sense of power overcoming the present things: there are energetic activities even though the obstacles are not visible. I remember hearing [p. 166] of a near-sighted sportsman who could not account for the sudden and continual bounds the horse was making in the hunting field. He did not see the obstructions over which his horse was carrying him, whenever they opposed him in his course. This is just what faith does, it is even more energetic when there are oppositions than when not, and the whole being is made sensible of its power. There is the glow and animation of a well-exercised strength.
The softest furs grow in the coldest climes, the exterior is indicative of how the inward energy provides a defence against the atmospheric antagonism.
If memories of the land of the Chaldeans are awakened, if tastes once repressed or refused are revived, the heart has gone back to the world, and the feet are waiting or ready for the opportunity to follow. The memories may not shew themselves much or distinctly at first; the absence of the energy of faith is the first sign of decline. The external appearance indicates that there is a verging to Babylon, instead of there being a tighter girdle to face the foe, and a firmer step to encounter the roughness of the wilderness. Every one has a weak point, and all the evil associations and the checks in our course have been occasioned by yielding ourselves to the society where it was fostered; and sooner or later, unless we continue in faith, the memory of the world will be awakened, and then there is danger, and loss too, until the memory has been refused, and the stern active life of faith which looks for nothing here, be resumed.