The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-07-16
Wait and See.

never let BARNS or fools see my pic
lures until they are DONE" said Scotch
artist to me once-quoting familiar
proverb of his countrymen. We are all
but BARNS in Gods sight, and we sadly
play the fool in regard to his providential
dealings. As no artist is willing to have
a judgment pronounced on painting or
statue until the work is completed, 30 our
heavenly Teacher bids us possess our
souls in patience. "What / do thou
knowest not now, but thou shalt know
hereafter" We must wait and see. This
world is but the preparatory school, in
which character is on the easel or under
the cbisel exhibition.dsy will come in
another world. Gods hand lays on dark
colors very often; his chisel cuts deep.
No trial of our faith is joyous but griev-
GUS, nevertheless afterward it may work
out the eternal weight of glory. stood
last evening beside the silent form of
lovely daughter of one of my flock for
six months she had been in chamber of
severe suffering. The picture is COM
pleted now one of the last touches was
given to it last Sunday morning, when
the dying girl murmured, on her bed of
pain, {" o had hoped to spend this Sab
bath in heaven" Why she was lying
helpless on that bed while her class had
need of her in the Sunday.school-
those parents are doomed to 60 the rest
of the journey without her-is a mystery
that they or I cannot solve. What has
befallen them has befallen many of us in
the past. God only let's us see his provi-
dences " in part" and then we only see
them as through glass, darby. Why
the pleasantest room in our house is
turned into hospitsl-why that coffin
was carried, like specter, up our stair
way-why the pillow in that little empty
crib is impressed to-day-why that in.
come on which so many mouths depended
is dried up-why this and that staff was
broken, our poor blind, aching hearts can
not understand. God keeps his own
secrets; all the answer he vouchsafes to
us now, is call things work together for
good to them that love me-" Impatient
and rebellious as we may be now, we can
not displace Gods hand from the canvas !;
there is no help for us but to wait until
the picture is completed. Some of the
colors he is laying into our lives are
frightfully somber but by-and-by, in the
revealing light of the last day, they may
be only background on which faith and
submissive trust and victorious strength
will stand out in hues of golden glory.
Let us wait and see.
"God is his own interpreter
And he will make 1t plain"
1t is not from the assaults of open inf
deity or from the skeptical pages of the
Remains, or Strauses, or Spencers, that the
hor CIV Of = 10
from dark and mysterious permissions of
Providence that we are oftenest in dan
ger of making shipwreck of faith. We
not only turn towards in the dark, but,
like fools, we doubt whether there will
ever again be daylight. At such times it
is good to bring in the lamp of that
blessed passage of the thirtieth Psalm,
"Weeping may endure for a night, but
Joy cometh in the morning." The orig
inal Hebrew is far more forcible; it liter
ally reads Gin the nighttime sorrow
lodgeth, but at the day.dswn cometh
shouting" The shouting will be raised
by the discovery of what was actually in
existence all the time, and that is Gods
wonderful wisdom and love. once spent
night on the summit of Mount Righi,
| and the darkness was so dense that |
could not see one rod from my window.
But when the morning broke, the polished
| mirror of Lake Lucerne spread beneath
me, and the icy coronets of the Jung frau
and the Finsterasrhorn glittered in the
rosy beams. They had been there all
through the night waiting for the unfold.
ings of the day-spring from on high. A
great deal of our work in this world is
nightwork. Weary with rowing, we even
get frightened by the apparition of the
Master, and cry out, I" 1t is a ghost p
until he reveals himself in the words, 1t
is be of good cheer; be not afraid"
The history of every discovery of new
truth, of every enterprise of benevolence,
of every Christian reform, of almost every
revival, is the history of long working,
waiting, and watching through sea.
sons of Encouragement. The history OF
Palsy the Potter is repeated ten thousand
times over. The lesson for every mis-
sionary, every pastor, every teacher, and
every sorely-tried child of God is in these
heaven-taught words 6" wait for the
Lord, and in his word do hope; my soul
waiteth for the Lord more than they that
watch for the morning" awe have toiled
all night and caught nothing" was the
lament of the tired, sleepy, and hungry
disciples. But in the early gray of the
day-break they espy the Master on the
beach the net is cast afresh and cast or
the right side of the ship, and 10 il
swarmS with shoal that breaks through
the meshes So doth God test his chill
dren before he blesses them. Our prov
ince is simply to work, and to wait, and tc
watch, and to let God have his way. That
dear girl whose funeral service was at.
tended last evening has discovered al
ready that heaven had been lowering
around her dying bed for weary weeks anc
only waiting for her eyes to shut towards
this worlds and open towards the next
The beautiful paraphrase of the dying
words of Rutherford might be applied tc
her:
| The sands OF time sinking,
| The dawn OF heaven broke
| The summer-morn she sighed for
| The fair sweet awoke