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The Religion of the Daily Life.
‘ ‘ They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk,
and not faint.” Isa. 40:31.
NE of the most remarkable things
about Isaiah’s prophecy is his peculiar
method of expression. In one sentence,
ho can say more than any other man
I know anything about. Our text is an
illustration of what I mean: “They
that wait upon the Lord shall renew
their strength; they shall mount up
O
and not be weary; they shall walk, and not
faint.”
ASCENDING OR DESCENDING.
Every one looking at this promise must be im
pressed with its peculiar character. It seems to be
upon a descending rather than an ascending scale.
“They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they
shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and
not faint.” Our way of putting that same promise
would have been a reverse of Isaiah’s way. We
would have said: “They shall walk, and not faint:
they shall run, and not be weary; they shall mount
up with wings as eagles,” but the prophet’s method
is to begin high, and end low; that is, he begins
with the soaring, then the running, then the walk
ing. But is this after all a descending scale? Is
it not so regarded because we have the wrong idea
of what ascent and descent mean in the religious
life? Let us look at it carefully.
Wings indicate vision.
Running indicates youth and rapture.
Walking indicates dignity, toil and the daily
life.
The meaning of the prophet is this: They that
wait upon the Lord shall have spiritual vision, and
rapture, which result in a religious dignity and fix
edness that enables them to walk in the midst of
life’s drudgery, and not faint. This makes it far
stronger than the way we would naturally put it.
The religion that is of most force in impressing the
world is the religion of the daily life, the religion
of drudgery, the religion that enables one to en
dure without fainting.
Os course, the vision and the rapture are nec
essary. God pity the man who never has it. I
often feel with Phoebe Hinsdale Brown in her beau
tiful poem:
“ I love to steal a while away
From every cumbering care,
And spend the hours of setting day
In humble prayer.
I love in solitude to shed
The penitential tear,
And all His promises to plead
Where none but God can hear.
I love to think on mercies past,
And future good implore,
And all my cares and sorrows cast
On Him whom I adore.
I love by faith to take a view
Os brighter scenes in Heaven; .
The prospect doth my strength renew,
While here by tempests driven.”
WHEN I WAS CONVERTED.
Never disparage the day of vision and rapture
in the Christian experience. I have always re
gretted I did not have it as many others when I
was converted. I had it in part. For a number of
days, I had felt myself a lost sinner, and I had
been trying to pray.
Finally, I came to the point where I put my trust
altogether in Jesus Christ, and then waited upon
the Lord. The vision was rather slow in coming,
likewise the rapture did not flood my soul at the
instant, but I remember that gradually a perfect
The Golden Age for November 16, 1906.
Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len. G. Broughton.
calm settled upon me. I never shall forget the
feeling. It was not a desire to clap my hands, and
shout. It was more the feeling of perfect rest
after a long and tedious journey. I was so calm,
so quiet. I felt so good. Never can I find words
to express my feelings. This was all the rapture
that I had at first. Others around me had much
more. They testified with free speech and loving
words, they clapped their hands for joy, but I was
calm. I could not testify, and I did not feel like
clapping my hands.
The vision and rapture, however, that was only
in part at the beginning continued to enlarge and
increase. There was no weariness in its exercise.
I enjoyed it every whit, and more and more both
vision and rapture have increased. Many a time
since then, I have felt like clapping my hands, and
shouting “Glory to God!” and even today, there
is no weariness in the experience. The more I
have felt and seen of God’s presence and blessing,
the more I have enjoyed it. Truly I can say today
that the spiritual joys of the present have never
been surpassed in my life. They are fresher and
more enjoyable as the years come and go.
This is what I feel the prophet means when he
says: “They shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary.”
DAILY EXPERIENCES.
They that wait upon the Lord shall have their
spiritual vision constantly increased. Higher and
higher they will be enabled to soar until they shall
find like the eagle that the highest atmosphere is
ever increasingly blessed. The eagle never tires of
the rapture and vision when he gets above the
clouds. There he feels himself beyond danger. It
is when he comes in contact with the earth that he
is restless; and with the slightest suspicion of dan
ger soars away to his fortress beyond the clouds.
So with them that wait upon the Lord. Their most
cherished habitat is the highest possible spiritual
atmosphere, the atmosphere that enables them to
live above the clouds, and away from danger. There
in that atmosphere the Christian feels perfectly se
cure. He is beyond the clouds, and he is out of
reach of danger. Contact with the world is what
makes it hard for him, but this contact he must
have so long as he tabernacles in the flesh.
The world has got to go on. Men and women
have got to live. Sin entering into the Garden of
Eden made it necessary that man should live by
the sweat of his brow, by the contact that he has
with the world. Let no ambitious Christian imag
ine that he can live always in that far oil atmos
phere of vision and rapture. It is all right to have
it, but the eagle must come down to Mother Earth,
and so the Christian, while he enjoys the vision
and the rapture, must at the same time deal with
the affairs of daily life.
It takes more grace, more waiting upon God.
more power of the Holy Spirit to live on the earth
than it does to soar above the clouds. Walking, to
one who has enjoyed an air ship, must be a very
prosy process, but it is far more necessary. The
tendency is, when one has caught the vision of the
glory that shines in the face of Jesus Christ, and
for sure has felt the rapture of his smile of an
proval—l say the tendency is to exalt this ex
perience to the neglect of the things of the daily
life in which the vision and the rapture are to
such an extent displaced by common every day
drudgery.
WALKING WITH GOD.
“Enoch walked with God three hundred years,
and begat sons and daughters.” This is a far
greater testimony of Enoch’s piety than if it had
said he walked with God three hundred years, and
shouted every step of the way. In other words
it takes more religion to live at home in the midsjt
of its daily problems, some of them ofttimes vex
ing, than it does to testify in a revival or a Holi
ness convention.
John is often envied for his vision on Patmos
where he lived perpetually beyond the clouds. No
man ever had such visions and such rapture;
the strength of John’s union with God as illustrated
by his visions on Patmos does not begin to compare
with the strength of God as illustrated by Enoch’s
walk in the affairs of his daily life.
Do not misunderstand me; I am not disparaging
the vision nor the rapture. I recognize the impor
tance of both. The man who walks with God will
have his vision and his rapture. He cannot help
it. The consciousness of the ever present God in
his life will give him vision, and give him rapture,
but let us not imagine that the vision and the rap
ture are the highest experience in the Christian’s
life. It is not so. I am afraid that many people
because of a misunderstanding at this point have
their religious development arrested. They live in
the clouds. They serve God when they see visions
and feel raptures, but at no other time.
What I am trying to impress at this time is what
I believe the text teaches, and that is, that the
man who can walk with God in the daily life, and
not faint is the highest type of the Christian. Have
the vision, and have the rapture. They need not
be sought. Simple waiting upon God will
bring them, but let it never be thought that this is
the end of the Christian life. The vision and the
rapture are only intended after all to enable one
to walk, and not faint.
So many times we have seen this brought out in
the earthly life of Jesus. Take his experience with
the young man of Gadara, possessed with a legion
of demons. I know of no more pitiable spectacle
than that man. The record says that for a long
time “he had worn no clothes, and abode not in
any house, but in the tombs.” When Jesus en
tered Gadara, one of the first things he did -was to
heal that poor, unfortunate man. It was a great
miracle, and everybody soon heard of it. The man
himself, of course, realized it. Nothing greater
could have occurred in his life. See the contrast!
A moment ago, he was possessed of demons, bound
in chains and fetters, a terror to himself ancl everv
body about him. Now he is “clothed and in his
right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus.” I am
not surprised at his sitting at the feet of Jesus.
It seems to me I should have ever desired to look
into his face, and to feel his personal nearness,
No wonder, when Jesus was preparing to move on,
this man begged to go with him. He 'had had a
taste of the vision and the rapture, and he wanted
to live in the perpetual experience of it, and do
nothing else. But this was not Jesus’ plan, hence
he sent him away saying, “Return to thy Ifmse,
and declare how great thing-s God hath done] for
thee.” Jesus wanted the testimony of the daily
life. He did not object to the paise and glory of
the crowd, but realized that folio-wing this great
blessing, there was needed contact, personal touch
and testimony.
THE DAY OF TRIAL.
So today Jesus wants a living religion as well as
one of praise, profession and creed. All these are
good in their place. We can not think of trying
to operate the kingdom of Christ without insisting
upon praise, profession and creed, but they are
not all. They are not the most important. They
simply have their place, and are essential in their
place, but the religion of Jesus Christ wants ex
pression in the problems of daily life. I know this
is not an easy thing every time to do. Peter did
not find it easy. Indeed he failed. Just after the
celebration of the Lord’s Supper, while they were
on the Mount of Olives, Jesus said to His disciples:
“All ye shall be offended in me this night, for
it is written, I shall smite the shepherd, and the
sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But
Peter answered, and said unto Him: If all shall be
offended in thee, I will never be offended, even if
I must die with thee.”
This is how Peter felt in the presence of his
Lord when they had just come fro mthat sweet and
Holy Communion. He felt strong then, but see