132 THE MARRIAGE. be armed with a long dart, wear a tattered coat, and knock rudely at my door? I attend less to his appearance than to his business. My Faithful Saviour! It should not distress me though all the birds of the air were daily and hourly to sing and discourse to me of my mortality. The nectar I sip from Thy dripping wounds, swallows up the few bitter drops which death pours out to me from his cup, at my departure from this world. What, Lord Jesus, should I long for more than to depart and be with Thee! LXXVIII. The Marriage. EING present at a marriage, after the performance of the ceremony, Gotthold observed, with wonder, the pains and unremitting attention and zeal of the parents of the bride to entertain the guests and minister to their enjoyment. Well, said Gotthold to himself, Marriage seems to me to be one of the most unaccountable of miracles. These parents love their child; they brought her into the world with sorrow and pain, educated her with much labor and expense, and now have reared her to that time of life at which she might be helpful to them in their impending old age, and take a share in the management of their business or household; when, behold, they give her away to a man who is a stranger to them, and never did anything to earn the boon. Nay, they give her with outlay and trouble, joy and feasting, as if they counted it a happy thing to be quit of her. What is more, with their child they likewise give him their hearts, and conceive for him an affection often as strong as for their own bodily offspring. The daughter, likewise, now forsakes her father's house, and all the enjoyments to which she was there accustomed, and resigns herself to the conjugal service of a man, who, but a short time before, was wholly unknown to her. Verily, there is here a higher hand, which knows how to incline hearts, and knit them together, above all human thought and expectation, but in His own wise and wondrous way. My God, we men have often our hands so full, that we forget that the supreme government of all things belongs to Thee. And Thou, on Thy part, often conductest Thy government so quietly, or permittest events to take so strange a course, that the last thing we would suspect is the presence of Thy hand in the game. A closer inspection, however, soon shows us that Thou controllest and bringest into order the vast confusion of the world, and, even in silence, marvellously display est Thy gracious crown. He, therefore, is a fool who wills anything but what Thou wilt. LXXIX. The Clouds. FTER a heavy fall of rain, and when a gentle east wind was beginning to clear the sky, Gotthold walked forth into the fields, thanked his God for the fertilizing storm; and lifting his eyes to the heavens and beholding the rolling clouds, said to himself: My God, there go the chariots in which (to use the language of weak men) Thou ridest forth to inspect Thy fields and gardens, Thy meadows, forests, and plains. Beggars are wont to run behind the chariots of the wealthy, and cry aloud for alms. To Thee, O God, we are all beggars; and when Thou ridest forth on Thy chariot of the clouds, we cry after Thee, Give us this day our daily bread. The clouds are also the pitcher with which, like a gardener, Thou waterest the sultry glebe in times of drought. They are the pipes by which Thou THE SHOOTING-MATCH. 135 conductest moisture into the firmament, and thence causest it to descend in rain, and bless the earth. They are Thy storehouses, richly filled with wine, beer, oil, butter, corn, and malt, and Thou openest it in Thy goodness, and satisfiest the desire of everything that lives. They are great curtains, which, at Thy good pleasure, Thou drawest as a covering for the plants, that they may not be withered and destroyed by the continuance of the heat. Not seldom, too, are they the arsenal in which Thou keepest Thine artillery of thunder and lightning, in order, at set times, to strike the children of men with reverential awe, or inflict upon them some great punishment. LXXX. The Shooting-Match. Na certain neighborhood, the young men had been allowed, for pleasure and pastime, to set up a target, at which they shot, all endeavoring to do their best. Gotthold happened to be in the vicinity, and, hearing the reports, fell into the following train of reflection: All of these shooters aim at the black mark, and yet there can be little doubt 136 THE SHOOTING-MATCH. that only a few will hit it. The same is the case with our Christianity and its perfection. Since the fall we no longer (to use the sportsman's phrase) have a steady hand. But although an outline of Divine perfection, in other words, the Law, is set before us, as the mark at which, in all our thoughts, words, and works, we are to aim; still we so often shoot aside, that our perfection is really imperfection, and we must even reckon it a kind of perfection to be aware how imperfect we are, mourn over our defects, and endeavor, by the practice of godliness, to grow daily better. None of us has reached the mark as we ought to have done; but we are all upon the way to it, one nearer, another not so near, and God is satisfied with us, if He only find us laboring and pressing towards it. Would that men were but satisfied with each other, when this one strikes the centre, and that one only touches the corner of the target! Why do we despise a brother because we are nearing the goal, while he is doing his best to follow? Show me the man who has always hit and never missed the mark, I mean who has at all times and in all things chosen the better part, and I will look upon him with astonishment, as an angel. My God! keep my Christianity in continual exercise; for exercise brings increase, and increase, at last, perfection, not, perhaps, such as will satisfy man, but such as will satisfy Thee, my benign and merciful Judge. |