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4 THE TABERNACLE PULPIT Marah and Elim. “And they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and three score and ten palm trees.’’ Ex. 15:27. N their march toward Canaan, the chil dren of Israel had come to Marah where the sun •was hot, and the ground was parched, and the only water was bitter with poisonous herbs so that they could not drink it. It w r as a sore dis appointement. They had already en countered as many hardships as their I weak faith could overcome. At the Red 'Sea, many of them halted. It was strange, as they viewed it, that they should have been led out of the bondage of Egypt into such suffering as they were experiencing. But of all the disappointments, Marah was the greatest. When once they were over the Red Sea, and Miriam had sung her song of deliverance, they thought the hard places had all been put behind them, and now they had one straight triumphant march to the land of promise. The thought of having to camp by the wa ters of Marah never entered their mind. HIDDEN DIFFICULTIES. It was very well that they did not know of their future troubles. They would doubtless have stayed and starved in Egypt had they known what was ahead in the way of hardness. The best of people are better off so long as the major part of the fu ture is veiled. Charles Kingsley, one of the saint liest saints that ever lived, looking back on his life, said: “I have praised God more for the things which he has kept from me than for the hings he has revealed to me.” Certainly, my experience has been like this through which Mr. Kingsley has passed. Had God revealed to me in the days gone by just the kind of hardships and disappointments through which I had ultimately to pass, I feel very sure I would not be here today. I know many people desire to; know ahead that that they may prepare for the worst, but I am frank to say that the best preparation I have ever found for overcoming hard and rough places in life is a glad and resolute heart—glad for the good life has brought, and resolute to master the difieul ties incident to the journey. It is not best to know too far ahead. Seize the opportunity of victory that lies close about the place of struggle, and it will be a great deal easier to triumph than by peering into the distance to find perhaps what will never be experienced. ELIM AT HAND. God knew the needs of his people. He knew they could not always live in Marah, and he was not forgetful of their needs. The experience of bitter waters was necessary for their training, but they were not intended to be perpetual, he arranged that they might come to Elim with its ten springs and its three score and ten palm trees. I believe they got there just in time. Many strong and brave charac ters can turn their bitter experiences into victory. When they start out in pursuit of any line, they burn the bridges behind them. If they come to bitter problems, they deal with them. They never give up. The more bitter the experience, the srong er the courage. They hold on to their purpose with the grip of death itself. They never know what it is to take a backward step. The only change they admit into their program is a change for the better. The Apostle Paul was a man of this stripe. Once he set his face toward Jerusalem, but his friends urged him not to go. They said: “If you go, you will be imprisoned,” but he was not mindful of their discouraging notes. His face had been set to ward Jerusalem, and nothing could stop him but death itself. Take Martin Luther. He was a man of this daunt less courage. When he was told not to go to the Diet at Worms, he said: “I will go to Worms though there were as many devils there as there are tiles on the house tops.” Dr. Broughton’s First Sermon After His Return From London. The Golden Age for October 25, 1906. Another character of this kind was John Knox.l The Archbishop of St. Andrews threatened him if 1 he preached at the Parish Church, but John Knox 1 said: “Go tell the Archbishop that I am not solicit ous about my life, but I will preach there tomor row.” That is what I call courage. It is the spirit of dare animated by hope that brings success. f THE PICTURE OF HOPE. At this time in England, there is one picture that seems to be more popular than all the rest. The original is found in the Tate gallery, while copies are found everywhere. It is called Hope. At first sight, it produces a feeling of despair. Indeed it is said that the painter when starting his picture in tended it to be despair, but his conception changed as he continued his work. What was originally the thought of Despair became the thought of Hope. In the picture, a blind girl is holding a harp with every string broken but one, and she is en deavoring to play with that one string. Intently, she leans her ear forward endeavoring to catch the sounds that it makes, while on her face there plays a slight smile. I declare the picture is so real, it talks. You can see hope shining out in the counten ance of that girl as she fingers away upon what to others would be a hopeless task. How charmed I have found myself as I have stood before that picture, and, at the same time, how ashamed I have felt. She, poor thing, is transmuting despair into hope, and so often I have allowed myself to trans mute hope into despair; and yet, may I say it?—not so often has this been my experience. God has graciously saved me from that kind of pining. The spirit of optimism He has so bestowed upon me as to cause me to forget ofttimes the difficulties that lie in the way. There are a great many people who cheer us with their optimism. To me, they are always a ray of hope. I love to associate with them; I love to feel the spirit that pulsates in their breast pulsate in mine. Take the scene of old Bedford jail where John Bunyan mastered the mystery of his impris onment. Walk over the ground stained with the blood of the martyrs, and see how cheerfully and triumphantly they spilt their blood in the cause of right. I never w r alk over such fields that I do not feel my own heart beat faster, and my soul grow bigger. THE TIMID AND WEAK. But while it is true that some men are never so happy as when mastering difficulties, there are oth ers, and I may say the great majority of mankind who find it very hard to come up to the rough places of life. They are timid and shrinking, not necessa rily cowardly, though many of them are. The Isra elites were of character. I cannot believe that they were cowardly. They had not been gifted with the same spirit of dare that Moses and Caleb and Joshua had, but many of them were just as true. They would have gone just as far had they been able to see as far ahead. They were men and women for the most part easily discouraged and frightened. They had not been out of Egypt long before they were pining for the old flesh pots, and but for Mo ses and Caleb and Joshua, the glorious triumph and entry into the promised land would not have char acterized the history of this people. Thank God for a few men who are gifted in this way. They are God’s true leaders. There are not many of them, and their calling is not easy. It is not aneasy thing to seize fast hold of a problem that is regarded by everybody as too intricate to be solved, and hold on with a dogged grip until it is solved. I say it is not an easy thing. My heart goes out to any man who has to do it, but if he be a true servant of God, he dare not fail to do it, though he is left alone. Others will come to his rescue after awhile. No man ever persisted in a right enterprise, whose heart was right, and in whose life God was mani festing himself, but that victory came. Oh, pity the man who drops out because of hardness! It is related of John Mark that he accompanied Paul and Barnabas so long as they enjoyed the favor ||of the governor, Sergius Paulus, but when they Icame face to face with opposition, when it became adangerous longer to stand with them, poor John f Mark’s courage failed him, and he departed from them. What a sad spectacle it is to see one turning from a life of opportunity because it is beset with difficulties! PRESENT DAY ELIMS. Oh, my friends, let me come to you with a note of encouragement! If anything has come to pass that is calculated to dampen your ardor, do not yield to it. The more you yield, the weaker you become, and the less possibility there is for ultimate success. Master the thing, whatever it may be. Master it today. Master it first by mastering your self, for there are enough Elims in every one’s life that lie close by the bitter waters of Marah to give cheer on the journey, and many of these Elims, with their springs of sweet water and their palm shades, lie close by the bitter waters of Marah— yes, very much closer than many of us imagine. They may be veiled, but the veil is very thin. With one step, many of us today who are pining around the wells of Marah with the scorching sun and the parched earth to make more miserable the exist ence, could be resting under the shade of the palm trees of Elim, and drinking of the sparkling water. What I want to do now is to bring a message of encouragement to every one of you, just such a mes sage as God has given me. I want to tell you, poor, tired, hungry soul, that God has an Elim close to the bitter waters of Marah, and I want you to stretch forth your hand, and see if you cannot touch it. I -want that this message shall be a message of com fort, for a discouraged, drooping spirit is not pre pared for battle, and ive want to do battle in the days that are ahead. I was traveling the other day with a gentleman who has for a number of years been a resident in one of the most historic regions of the world, the Persian Gulf. He said: “The one thing that struck me most concerning the Persian Gulf is the way they get their water. You know the Persian Gulf is of very, very salt water, so much so that it is impossible to drink it. The way they get their wa ter is by diving down deep through the salt w T ater to where there are springs of pure, clear water. They take their pig skins, and go down to these springs, and fetch up the water. I thought, as I talked to him, about this text. I thought to myself it is just this way with many of us. God somehow has caused many of us to live in the regions of salt water, and the only chance for us is to dive deep for what we get. Some of us have to go very deep, but thank God the heavier the water, and the deeper the dive, the more the springs are appreciat ed when we get to them. So, if God has in any way dealt hardly with any of us, my message today is, make haste to Elim. It has sufficient water to ena ble us to make the journey. Now, what are some of the springs of Elim that ought to comfort and encourage us ? I will mention just a few. HOME, SWEET HOME. First, the Elim of home. We do not appreciate it as we ought. The best of us do not appreciate it. We will never know how much we should appre ciate it until we are placed so we cannot get the comfort of it. Very truly can it be said: “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” As our boat pulled into New York harbor the oth er day, a great crowd of passengers got on the land side of the ship, looking eagerly at the crowd of friends gathered to say “Howdy.” In that crowd, some one said: “Oh, for a band to play Home, Sweet Home!” I heard a little Irish girl, who somehow, had been practically alone all the way over, in spite of the great crowd on the ship, say: “Oh, don’t, don’t play Home, Sweet Home, for I have no home!” Then the great tears rolled down her cheeks, and I felt like savin?, and I didn’t take it all out in feeling either: “You can have a home.” Oh, the force of