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4 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