The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1889-12-08
CROSSING THE RUBICON.
The Rev. Hugh Macmillan. ID. d., LII. d..
II. ). E.. In The Quiver.

| full but this Hateful moment occurs IN ~.
1t will come in the shape OF tempta-
ton, or sorrow, or change; and the way
in which this browning trial will be
met will be determined by the training
that has been received from the pre-
vious routine OF ordinary life. We learn
in little things the lesson which be-
comes of powerful use in great events,
and acquire in resistance to daily petty
temptations the force OF character
which is to be called out into resolute
vigor in critical experiences.
The best preparation for the crossing
of any Rubicon is wrestling with God
before hand in prayer, like Jacob. IL
we succeed in getting the blessing Of
the Lord. We know that our path will
be a victorious enc; that our foes will
become our friends, and the things
that were adverse, favorable. We
shall pass over into the new circum-
stances. knowing, it may be. but dimly
what shall befallu us, but having already
in possession, wrought out in the very
texture of our soul, through the trial
ia which we have been victorious; that
faith in God which is the ground of our
most absolute confidence and our largest
hope.
But it may be than our Rubicon is OF
different nature. 1t may be like
David s, flight from the consequences
ofour sin. We cross the brook OF sad
ness because we have planted in our
life some seed of evil. and are now reap
ing its bitter fruit. Wehave found that
sins breaks the ties and sweet assccla-
tons Of life, and drives the soul into a
dreary and lonely desert The curse rises
from the ground. and like Shimei'S, be-
comes articulate to us. We pass through
the valley OF the shadow Of death.
But such a crossing over the kldron
OF the soul will be blessed. if it leads. as
in David 3 case. to heartfelt and abiding
repentance; for the sin that creates
breach between US and others will only
create, if we are truly penitent, a
deeper friendship between us and Him
whose blood cieanseth from all sin
and whose love makes the sinners sor-
row-which would have been unavail
ing if it were only the sorrow of the
world that worketh death-the straight
and narrow way to higher holiness and
purer happiness.
IL the crossing of the stream has been
to us as to Jacob and David. decisive
change OF character and purpose, the
waters will be very baptism of purIi
cation, in which our old life will be
carried from us down into the Dead
Sea, and our flesh will come again like
unto the flesh of little child. We
shall pass over to Mahanaim, the
Lords host, from the valley OF the
shadow of death. led across the ldark
waters of sorrow to Gods heart and to
Gods throne, and shall acquire, in the
wrestling Of the Jabbok, the earnest OF
the Inheritance of the saints in light.
The passing through any trial that IL
sanctified to US is a crossing of the brook
KIdron to the Gethsemane of the soul
with Christ. Why is all sorrow &c
lonelyY Why does it make a solitude
around Us and within usp Why dCes
it withdraw us from our fellow. cree.
lures aud lead US into the desolote v il.
derness, where common experience nd
ordinary sympathy are unavailingY /:
it not that we may be brought into
nearer and tenderer relationship with
Him who has felt the awful burden Of
human woe as no human being has real
lied it. and in all our Affections is still
afflicted ? We are made capable Of
feelings which we cannot utter, and oil
pains and sorrows which we canno
share with others. because Jesus is The
interpreter of our feelings and tn,
sharer Of our sorrows.
The cloud that shuts us out from thu
world, shuts US in more closely with
Him, and in the very core of the cloud I
darkness and loneliness, we behold tn,
TRANSPORTATION Of sorrow-a beauty
and glory such as we see not in all tn,
fairest and brightest hours of life. The
wilderness, where human help is farth
est eff, is the place where heavenly helI
10 nearest. where the ladder is set VI
that reaches from earth to heaven, anC
the angel appears in the bush and min
listers tenderly to our necessities. under
the shadow Of the juniper where W.
have lain do Sn to die.
Life knows not such peculiar and gra
cious revelations of divine love, as tn,
solitude Of suffering into which we ar
| II alum Jul g
to be- more entirely alone with Himself
We have not to say to Him, ''Couldst tho'
not watch with me one houry" He i
with us,-a very present help in our tim
of need. 1t is no angel that strength
ems us, but the Lord Jesus himself
The sorrow with which no stranger Cal
intermeddls, may weep itself out on tn
bosom OF the Friend that sticketh close
than brother. For us, there is NJ
lonely, forsaken place in God
universe. We can say, "Alone, yet no
alone, for the Saviour is with me-" q
we pass over the brook Kidron to sbar
in the Gethsemane Of the soul, the fel
Iowship Of his sufferiEgs. as he share
the fellowship of ours.
| Our own pain and sorrow will give u
fuller understanding of the suffer
logs Of the Man of Sorrows, and bin,
US more closely to him; for nothing
brings two beings nearer than share'