Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1910-02-11
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Y? SPE71;T
BRIGHT DAYS AND DARK.
BY Rev. Donald Sage Mackay.

ny rev. Oon2lQ sage macAay'
But where sin abounded. grace did
much more abound-Rom. v:20.
How much the counterbalance plays
its part in the activities Of human life!
Our bright days are counterbalanced
by dark days. Our times of prosperity
are Offset by times of adversely. For
every sorrow there is in the divine
providence a corresponding gain, and
at the heart of every defeat there is
for the man of faith the prophecy Of
new victory. Go where We will In the
great universe of love and we find
everywhere the working Of this divine
law Of counterpoise-the divine love
compensating for every earthly loss.
Where sin abounds grace doth much
more abound" Where death walks
with insolent feet life triumphs in ex-
ultant song. When earthly joys wither
heavenly hope blooms in eternal beau
ty. When time wears out its vesture
into threadbare decay eternity robes
herself in immortal splendor.
1t has been pointed out that Walter
Scott became great as man and real
lied the highest expression OF his
genius not until the wave of adver-
sity swept into his life. Look at that
manuscript" says Ruskin, referring to
SCOTS novel of Woodstock" which
was in course of writing at the time,
written in the very maelstrom Of that
q hTy hn nI3iU n a
hair stroke, not by the suggestion of
single tremor in the hand, not by
an erasure or change, not by any fall
ing off in the creative interest of the
story could any one detect that when
Scott wrote the second part of that
novel he did so under a cloud of bit
ter adversely"
And biography is full of such un-
masktngs of the reserve forces OF char
acter through the pressure of the dark
days succeeding the bright days in
life Millions personality became far
more potent influence after blindness
had stricken him. The loss of physical
sight intensified the keenness of spir-
itual vision. Had Bunyan never lain
in Bedford Jail he had never dreamed
the Pilgrims Progress" Had Tom
Hood never known for himself the bit
terness of want and the ache of pain
he had never sung the Song of the
Shirt" or sobbed out his immortal
dirge, The Bridge of Signs" Had
David never fallen as he did the world
would never have felt the passion Of
penitence and aspiration of heart
which breathed through some such
psalm as the f1fty-frst. Had John
never been banished to the island of
Patmos we should never have had the
revelation of heaven as he has unfold
ed it's glories in the last book of Scrip
ture. In a sense, most solemn OF all,
had Christ never passed through the
darkness of Calvary and tasted the bit
terness of death, He had never been
exalted as the Savior Of the world.
In the highest sense, these alternat-
ing days in life reveal what is more
precious than any human help, the
nearness and the helpfulness of God
Himself. Prayer grows strong in our
day of adversely. Some of us, indeed,
would never pray at all but for these
dark hours in life. Some Of us never
would know God in the sunlight I'M
less we hal learned to stretch forth
hands of necessity to Him in the dark
ness. God sets the dark days over
against our bright days to teach US
that through all the changes Of life
there is One whose presence never
fails His children and on whose al
sufficient grace they can at all times
lean. That was the deep lesson of the
psalmist's life when he said: 1T is
good for me to be afflicted; before
was afflicted l went astray.''