By John Henry Jowett
"Do ye not remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets ye took up?"-- Matt. xvi. 9.
IN the midst of to-day's necessity I am to recall the providence of yesterday. I am to sing of "His love in times past." I am to visit the Ebenezers I have built as memorials of my deliverance, and I am to look about for the altars of testimony which have been built by others. For other pilgrims have been along this road. This is not the first time that men have faced grim problems, and seen the teeth of gaunt hunger at their gates. And the recorded witness tells me that God was about the road as well as the hunger. The mighty Harvester was on the unsown waste, and the multitude was fed! And now in our day the necessity is huge, and our means are scanty. Sound the great recall! "Do ye not remember?" "Who through this weary pilgrimage hast all our fathers led?"
Do I not remember the inspired triumphs of the Lord's knights who fought the battle of the past? The roads along which we march are full of sacred reminiscence. Everywhere our common road is holy ground. "On this ground Christian stood, and up there came Apollyon against him. Behold, also, how here and there are yet to be seen upon the place some of the shivers of Apollyon's broken darts. . . . Verily, Christian did here play the man!" Thus is the road vocal with the witness of the King's knights. Let us listen to their witness, for "the Lord of hosts is with us, and the God of Jacob is our refuge."
By God's grace, and by our own steady faith, and by the exploits which are born of grace and faith, let us make our way an illustrious yesterday for the children of tomorrow. Let our sons and daughters find "the shivers of Apollyon's broken darts," and let them visit the hallowed spots "where with our blows we did split the very stones in pieces." We owe to our posterity a noble witness to our God. When our children shall sound the great recall, let it be that the gathered volume of testimony shall contain the witness of God's dealings with us, and may their conflicts be all the more assured because we have such wonderful triumphs to-day. "I heard a voice behind me saying!" Let us be grateful for that voice, which is "like the sound of many waters," and which is the mighty witness of a multitude that no man can number. "Day unto day uttereth speech"; and happy are we if we catch their heartening testimony.
