SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 365, 16 April 1910, Page 10

SUNDAY READING

OUT OF THE PIT.

(By the Rev. J. H. Jonett, M.A.)

•I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out ot the pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and'established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God; many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord."— Psalm xl., 1-3.

The phraseology is antiquated; the experiences are contemporaneous. The figures of speech are Oriental; the deliverance they enshrine is English and 'up-to-date. What was the condition of the subject described in my text? "He was in a horrible pit." He was sunk in deep and dark depression. He* was what we describe as "down," brought very low, plunged into great despondency and despair. We very well know what brings men into the pit. Grief can do it. There are few of my hearers who have not experienced the grief that saps the mind, that removes one prop after another, until the life smks into deep helplessness and night. A man makes repeated attempts to do a thing, and is as many times defeated. After a time the buoyancy of his spirit is destroyed, his nervous force is spent, and body and soul he sinks into limpness and profound depression: he is in the pit. A multiplicity of tasks can do it. When a. man's work bears down upon him like a rude and thougfttress crowd, and overwhelms him. when the Tiead swims in tie sense of innumerable tasks, he experiences what the Psalmist, would have called the horrible pit. and Tie falls back in the gloom and fastness of despair. But above all other thins? sin can fling a man into the •pit. Everybody knows the down-drag-eine nower of sin. Tt takes the "lift" and the buoyancy out of life, and make? it the victim of an appalling gravitation Tb'ch sucks it into abvssmal depths of helplessness and darkness and despair. This is the horrible pit in which we Tnve all been sunk. HORRIBLE PIT. But a second element in the condition of the Psalmist is interpreted by the descriptive word "horrible," "the horrible pit," or, as the marginal version give it, "the pit of noise." And is not this the modern experience? When a man is in the pit he is addressed by confused and confusing voices. One man calls to us and tells us that our depression is purely imaginary, we are the victims of our own thoughts and dreams. Another declares that we are a little "out of sorts," and that tlie doctor 'will put us right in a week. A third avers that "more need we the Divine than the physician." Still another counsellor declares that we are too self-ab-sorbed, too morbid, that we are in need of a little more life; while at his heels there comes another counsellor advising ns to take life a little more quietly. One prescribes fresh air. Another enjoins a new locality. Still another proclaims that the onlv Temedy will he found in a new heart. It is a "pit of noise" and confusion. A third element in the suppliant's depression is described in the phrase, "the mirv clay." Surely we know the experience of our own life! The ground slips from under our feet. We have no foothold. There is nothing solid. There is nothing dependable. Everything yields. Nothing bears. We have, tried many ways of escape and all tIW wars have failed. We are in the mirv clav. SucTi is the Psalmist's condition: sunk, depressed, bewildered, having no foothold. deep in a "horrible pit and miry clav." WAITED PATIENTLY. Now what are his resources? "I waited patiently for the Lord." "I waited patiently." Literally we may translate it, "I waited waitingly." There is a waiting which is thoughtless, its eyes are closed. Tt has no alert and expectant vision. There is a waiting which is will-less. It lies in indolent passivitv, and is devoid of the spirit of endeavor. There is a waiting which is careless. It has no prayer, no voice, no "halloo!" The Psalmist of my text brought all his powers to the task of waiting. His being was collected, and all fixed in intense expectancy on God. "He inclined unto me." The figure Is exquisitely helpful. "He stretched right out and down to me." His arm was long enough to reach me, even when I was in the deepest pit. "His arm is not. shortened that He cannot save." God's reach is further than our perdition; His arm is longer than our alienation. "If I make my bed in hell, He is there." "And heard mv cry." Just as the mother. when the hou=e is filled with company, hears the crv of her babe in the chamber above. Or just as a shepherd hears the faint lone crv of the lost lamb in some ravine on the open moor. "He inclined unto me and heard >nv

cry." DELIVERANCE. Now let us turn to the deliverance. "He brought me out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay." That is to say, He lifts me out of my captivity. Struggling will only aggravate our bondage. When we are in the slough of despond One comes to ua called "Help." "He set my feet upon a rock." Then He not only lifts me out of the pit, He confirms my feet. He sets me upon a bit of good road. Hitherto I have been in the miry clay, the victim of uncertainties, despondencies and doubts. But now He has "enlarged my steps under me," and I find myself upon the highway of the Lord. "And He hath established my goings." Thus He not only lifts and confirms me, but He vitalises my soul. When my depression is gone, and my life is in tune with His purpose, and I feel myself upon the rock, with what vigor I can step out upon the acceptable road! We all know the ease that comes to the feet when we have been trudging through heavy mire and we find ourselves upon a well-made turnDike roarl. As soon as we come to the good road we say to one another. "Now we shall be able to step out." That is the suggestion in the Psalmist's phrase; "and hath established my goings." We are able to step out. nav, to go as those who are "marching to Zion"! Now see the succession. Depression is (rone. Uncertainty is gone. Timidity is gone. What then? ''And He hath put a new song into mv mouth, even praise unto our God." I don't wonder that all this deliverance creates, and, 'indeed, necessitates, a song. "When the Lord turned again our captivity, then was our mouth filled with lauehter. and our tongue with rejoicing." But there is something very beautiful in this word "song." It means a wandering sons, a strollW minstrelsy, a travelling strain of music.. The sons goes with the man. Tn all hi' circumstances the song continues. He is, I say, a• strolling minstrel. the singing goes on while the circumstances' change. In good weather and foul the sinking continues. "And at midnisrht Paul and Silas m-aved, and .sang praises unto God ; " This is the very genius of Christian life. The

emancipated are a singing company, and the song is never ending. "And they sang a new song." Come, Thou found of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Try praise, Streams of mercy never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise. And now the emancipated suppliant becames an unconscious missionary. "Many shall see it." The delivered Psalmist does not know that lie is being looked to and listened to. It was with him as with the singing Pippa, as she went her little round, and one after another was awakened by her song. It is something to make people listen to the music of an emancipated life. I have just quoted a text from the Acts of the Apostles; let me now complete it. "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them." Paul and Silas were missionaries but did not know it! The prisoners were fascinated by the song, and began to make enquiries as to its origin. We are doing great service for the Master when we make the world ask questions like these. The song, where was it horn? The buoyancy, what is its secret? The radiance, whence the hidden fire? "We never saw it in this fashion."

"Many shall see it and fear." Curiosity is deepening into reverence. Mere interest become religious fear. Men and women are falling on their knees m reverent adoration before the God who created the music and filled our mouth with the sons. •"Shall fear and trust in the Lord." Here is reverence ripening into faith. It is a common succession. one that is repeated every dav. And so the grand sequence is repeated. Those who have heard the song become singers themselves, and other companies listen unto them. And so, literally, it is altogether true that this is "a song that hath no ending."