The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1916-03-25

out at sea the ships have left their
traces in foam-then turning inland.
l have gone down the hillside into the
still valley, sheltered from the winds,
and there the lonely plowman drove
the team across the heavy clods. All
Is still-dull, if you please to call it
so-that Is Isaac" AS another has
put it, the salient feature of his life
Is that 1t has no salient features" He
is a type of the commonplace people
of whom God has made SO many. How
thrilling it is to know that God is the
God of Isaac and of all like unto
him!
Isaac's life was no doubt a disap-
pointment to lei He came by
miraculous birth, yet proved to be just
an ordinary man. Many have hoped
to be the happy fathers of artists,
sculptors, musicians and scholars, but
their children have turned out to be
house painters, stone masons, and dry
goods clerks. Still, it is well to have
entertained these hopes, for if our
children are no more remarkable than
they are, in spite of u ambitions,
what might they have been if we had
had no ambitions for them.
Isaac's life was directed by God.
This appears especially in the story
of his marriage, found in Gen. "a.
1.-THE steps of a good man are ordered
of the Lord" no matter how dull and
brown his life may be outwardly; an
ordinary" life may still be an COR
dered" life. Horace Bushnell, in his
great sermon on Every Mans Life
a Plan of God" states his theme thus:
THAT God has a definite plan for
every human person, girding him
visibly or invisibly for some exact
thing, which it will be the true sig
n~i1cance and glory of his life to have
accomplished"
In character Isaac was marked by
the passive virtues. We do not ap-
p~reciate patience, ~gentleness, meek
ness, and other quiet graces as much
as we should.
Submission was a marked element
in his makeup. When Abraham would
offer him as a sacrifice on Mount Mo
riah he made 40 resistance, though
the knife actually flashed over him.
What a picture he was of our Lord
in his submission (Heb. 10: SD. This
element appears again in Isaac's life
.at Gerar. AS fast as he would dig
wells at this place the Philistines
would contend for them, but instead
of quarreling, Isaac would on
and dig another we'll. The outcome
of his meekness was that the Philis-
tines came to him to make a GOV
enant, saying, 1--WE saw certainly that
the Lord was with thee" Even now
there Is a sense in which the meek
inherit the earth.
This quiet man was thoughtful, and
we see him going out to mediate in
the fields at the eventide Gen. 24:63).
Quiet people may know things better
than others and know them more
deeply. This twentieth century, with
bloodshot eye and fevered pulse" has
lost the art of meditation, but only
when truth ~saturates us does it really
become a life power.
Isaac was affectionate, as manifest
ed in his relation to his mother and
his wife (Gen. 24:67). We need such
people in the world. We have often
noticed that a plain mother, who has
a great heart, will be adored by a son
who shines in the world of science or
letters.
How surprising it is to find that this
quiet man was, nevertheless, sensu-
Gus. Isaac loved Esau because he
did eat of his venison" (Gen. 25:28;
27:24). We have, in this matter, a
suggestion of one danger of the quiet
life. Alexander Wright says the great
est glutton he ever knew never
crossed his own doorstep and his only
walk was between his desk and the
dining table. Temperance, or, as the
Revised Version renders, ~self-control,
is a grace much insisted on in the
New Testament.
Isaac's commonplace life is notable
because linked with Christ. He was
an ancestor of Christ and also a type
of him in that his birth was super
natural and that, Sin a figure" he was
offered up and also raised from the
dead. Our lives may be made signit-
cant, in that they. too, may be linked
with Christ. Paul exhorts that even
slaves shall do their work, not as unto
their earthly masters, but as unto the
Lord, for says he, I'VE serve the
lord Christ" Our commonest actions
can be done with the same motive as
our highest deeds-'to be we'll pleas
ing unto him." "The world passeth
away and the lust thereof; but he that
doeth the will o. Cod abideth fores En-"