XXXIX.

RESPONSIBILITY.

Behold I and my children, whom God hath given me.--_Heb._ ii.

No sympathy is so genuine and so ready, none so acceptable and helpful as that created by similarity of experience. “What doth he know that hath not been tried?”[131] “Who can rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep”[132] like one whose heart has thrilled with the same gladness, and found relief in the same tears?

Nothing more endears our Lord to us than the proofs of fellow-feeling that come out in every act of His human life. The Incarnation was the supreme gift of His sympathy. Every weary journey to and fro, every cure of soul or body, every word of warning and of comfort spoke of His sympathy. The Eucharist is His sympathy incarnate to the end of time.

No burden of ours is unshared by the Son of man. He has devised expedients that bewilder us by their condescension, in order to bring home to us the truth: “I also have a heart as well as you.”[133] He will weep with his friends beside a grave. He will cower before pain and ignominy. He will be “tempted in all things like as we are”.[134] Nay, He will even clothe Himself with the appearance of sin, be “made sin for us”;[135] feel its burden and its shame; bear the penalty of its guilt, to prove His devotedness to us in His most winning of ways--the sharing of our miseries out of love.

All the heavy-laden He invites to Him, but none, perhaps, are more tenderly welcomed than those who come bowed beneath the weight of responsibility. Whether this devolves upon them through their relations with others as superiors, or is the consequence of kinship or friendship, it surely wins for them the sympathy of Him Who knows by His own experience the nature of all such responsibilities and the solicitude they entail.

“You call Me Master, and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.”[136] “Is not He thy Father that hath possessed thee, and made thee and created thee?”[137] “As one whom the mother caresseth, so will I comfort you.”[138] He is our Elder Brother, “first-born amongst many brethren;”[139] “the Physician of Whom we all have need;”[140] “the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls”.[141] He knows, therefore, experimentally the peculiar trials of the charge with which we are laden, and we may pour out our hearts to Him with the freedom that comes of perfect trust in One “sorrowful,” “heavy,” “troubled”--“in all things like as we are”.[142]

My cares, dear Lord, are known to You, and not known only, but laid upon me by Your own hand. They weigh heavily at times. The interests at stake are so tremendous, and my ignorance and helplessness so great. Often enough I do not see what to do for the best; oftener still I cannot take the course that seems to me best. I am afraid of a false step; I am afraid of missing opportunities. Where to make a stand, and where to yield; when to command, and when to entreat; when to offer a word of remonstrance or of counsel, and when to say nothing and trust to prayer--all these are perplexities in which I need and pray for the guidance of Your holy Spirit. There is a time to speak and a time to keep silence, but this is Your secret, O Lord! Give me the opportunities won by long prayer. Put upon my lips the well-timed word. Send me the success that comes of casting out the nets at Your word, under Your eye, with Your blessing.

And solve for me other problems--how to teach my children to take their place befittingly in the world without being of the world; how to train them for the battle of life; to provide them with an equipment for mind and heart that will suffice for the needs of these perilous times; to strengthen them by self-knowledge, self-reverence, self-control against the intellectual and moral dangers they will have to face, and prepare them for the burning questions of the day before they are flung into their midst. I tremble at the sight of these dangers beginning so early now when life is lived so fast. And the mother’s words, the mother’s arms do not reach as far as heretofore. She can only pray and trust. How earnestly You bid us trust, O Lord!

“Fear not: for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”[143] “Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.”[144] “Be quiet, fear not, and let not thy heart be afraid.”[145]

“I shall fear but I will trust in Thee.”[146] “My God is my helper, and in Him will I put my trust.”[147] “In my affliction I called upon the Lord, and I cried to my God.”[148] “How long, O Lord, wilt Thou forget me, how long dost Thou turn away Thy face from me? Consider, and hear me, O Lord my God.”[149]

* * * * *

“_Behold I and my children, whom God hath given me!_” I gather them round me here at Your feet. I trust them to Your care. Keep them in Your faith and in Your love, and bring them safely through the dark perils of this life to the haven of salvation.

“_Behold I and my children, whom God hath given me._” Let me say this one day as we stand in the brightness of Your Presence. Let me say in the fulness of my joy: “Of them whom Thou hast given me, I have not lost one.”[150]

* * * * *

“Fear not! stand and see the great wonders of the Lord, which He will do.”[151] “I will seek that which was lost, and that which was driven away, I will bring again; and I will bind up that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was weak.”[152] “I will give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of My hand.”[153]

[131] Ecclus. xxxiv.

[132] Rom. xii.

[133] Job xii.

[134] Heb. iv.

[135] 2 Cor. v.

[136] John xiii.

[137] Deut. xxxii.

[138] Isa. lxvi.

[139] Rom. viii.

[140] Luke v.

[141] 1 Peter ii.

[142] Heb. iv.

[143] 2 Par. xx.

[144] Psa. liv.

[145] Isa. vii.

[146] Psa. lv.

[147] Psa. xvii.

[148] _Ibid._

[149] _Ibid._ xii.

[150] John xvii.

[151] Exod. xiv.

[152] Ezech. xxxiv.

[153] John x.