Times-promoter., 1903-01-09

| VI bOu.
L imagine | 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. 1t has been push
and drive all day, and apparently
nothing done. He has been unable tc
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 Lords 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! a
| 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 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 Zerubbabel
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 Zerubbabel was con-
fidently depending upon himself and
was planning a new method to arouse
the people to the task before them,
his message would not have been re-
celved 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 60.
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 1T 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 Zerubba bells
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 un-
ierstands 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"
Like drowning man grasps after
straw, the soul of Zerubbabel eagerly
thinks in the prophets message. AS
le lifts his head new light bursts in
lpon his soul. He is humbled as he
realizes how he has magnified his own I
Importance in the Lords work and
las sailed to reckon God as a fac '
or i'll the tasks given him to do. Here
vas d revelation to him of the re- /
alton which God always sustains to the Y
work He gives His children to do for
linn. Here was powerful factor in
he accomplishments of the great pub {
ic and religious enterprises which he S
lad entirely overlooked. A new hope q
indled in his breast as he felt the {
rm Of God was linked in his to the y
uccessful completion of the great t
york. 1t was different man who /
vent out to direct the work on the t
vail and at the temple the next morn i
ng. Discouragements and difficulties c
ecame stepping stones to success. He
new that what he could not do Gods
pirit would do. He knew he did not Il
ave to scold and drive any more. A h
ew light burned in his eye. Con- 4
dence was marked in his every move @
nd tone. 1t was no longer Z~rubba- S
el and God, but God and Zerubbabel. t
he people noted the change. They t
Called their leader had had O revela- t