St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1903-02-07


to expect, and that the unkindly crit
icism and strong opposition met with
are more than they can endure. They
become discouraged, they lose heart
and confidence, they are ready to
throw up their hands in despair and
give up the task altogether. 1t is
then that God comes, as He came to
Zerubbabel, and whispers to the trou-
bled soul to look away from self and
the discouragements and learn that it
is mot by might, nor by power" but
by the Spirit of God that His work
is to be accomplished. Oh, what
lesson to learn! No Christian can do
constant and successful work for God
until he has mourned in despair with
Zerubbabel over the uncompleted wall
and temple of the task God has given
him to do, and has finally, in the last
dying hope of utter encouragement,
looked up and caught a vision of the
Eternal God and beheld His omnipo-
tent arm moving to his aid.
I imagine I can see Zerubbabel sit
ting with bowed head in his home after
another discouraging day on the city
wall and amidst the unsightly ruins
of the temple. It has been push
and a drive all day, and apparently
nothing done. He has been unable to
inspire the people with sense of the
task before them. They are more con-
cerned about their homes and the
qualification of their own desires and
the carrying out of their own plans
than they are to perform the work
of the Lord. He has just about made
up his mind that with the morning
light he will send in his resignation
and abandon the people to their indif-
ference and their fate, when 10! .
gentle tap on the door announces a
visitor. Without looking up, too dis
couraged to be hospitable, or even
civil, he impatiently bids the waiting
one to enter. Dear Christian soul, have
you ever felt as Zerubbabel did that
night? Have you come home discour-
aged from Sunday school, from
church, from young peoples meeting,
from junior meeting, from any of the
varied forms of religious activity
which it may be God has called you
to perform for Him, and thrown your
self into a chair or upon the couch
and, covering your face with your
hands, given way to your discourage
ment? Such experiences come to us
all. But let us return to Zerubbabe1
and see who his visitor is and what his
message.
The door is pushed open and the
prophet, Zechariah, enters. A quick
glance at the bowed figure tells him
the whole story. God has sent him
just in time. God always comes when
the soul is best prepared to receive His
message and to learn the Divine les
son. If the prophet had come a few
days before, when Zerubbab bel was con-
fidently depending upon himself and
was planning new method to arouse
the people to the task before them,
his message would not have been re-
ceived or understood. But now the
Jewish leader has come to the end
of his resources. He has tried every
thing to make the Lords work go.
Perhaps he had stirred the good la
dies up and had tried church suppers
and bazars on the temple site to en-
courage the rebuilding. Perhaps he
had offered prizes out on the city wall
for the fastest and best worker, or had
started unique little entertainments,
sort of side shows, you know, to draw
the crowds out to the walls in the
hope that once he had enticed them
there he could set them to work. And
SO it had gone on, day after day. Each
day saw failure of his own plans,
and each night sleepless eyes and
wakeful brain sought for new meth
DDS to be tried on the morrow. Have
you ever been in poor Zerubbabel's
fix? Have you wrestled in such des-
perate way with the work of the Lord?
Well, at last his resourceful brain, and
his wonderful patience and persever-
ance, failed him. The prophet I'M
derstands it all as he quickly advances
across the room through the gather
ing gloom. With tender touch. born
of the infinite love of God which floods
his soul after his wonderful visions,
he places his hand upon the bowed
head of the discouraged leader, and
speaks in CHEEKY, confident tones:
"This is the word of the Lord unto
Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by
power, but by My Spirit, saith the
Lord of Hosts. Who art thou, o great
mountain (of difficulty? Before
Zerubbabel thou shalt become plain;
and he shall bring forth the head
stone thereof with shoutings, crying:
Grace, grace, unto II"
Like drowning man grasps after 6
straw, the soul of Zerubbabele eagerly
drinks in the prophets message. AS
he lifts his head new light bursts in
upon his soul. He is humbled "a he
realizes how he has magnitied his own
Importance in the Lords work and
has failed to reckon God as a fac
tor in the tasks given him to do. Here
was revelation to him of the re-
lation which God always sustains to the
"oih Lie gives LIS CulluIeH " w 1oI
Him. Here was powerful factor in
the accomplishment of the great pub
lie and religious enterprises which he
had entirely overlooked. A new hope
kindled in his breast as he felt the
arm of God was linked in his to the
successful completion of the great
work. 1t was a different man who
went out to direct the work on the
wall and at the temple the next morn
ing. Discouragements and difficulties
became stepping stones to success. He
knew that what he could not do Gods
Spirit would do. He knew he did not
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