The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

iii. 22-4.] THE UNFAILING GOODNESS OF GOD 197
reflection, however, should teach us that it is not so
unnatural a thing for this gem of grateful appreciation
to appear where it is. We do not find, as a rule, that
the most prosperous people are the foremost to recognise
the love of God. The reverse is ver}^ frequently the
case. If prosperity is not alv^^ays accompanied by
callous ingratitude—and of course it would be grossly
unjust to assert anything so harsh—at all events it is
certain that adversity is far from blinding our eyes to
the brighter side of the revelation of God. Sometimes
it is the very means by which they are opened. In
trouble the blessings of the past are best valued, and
in trouble the need of God's compassion is most acutel}'
felt. But this is not all. The softening influence of
sorrow seems to have a more direct effect upon our
sense of Divine goodness. Perhaps, too, it is some
compensation for melancholy, that persons who are
afflicted with it are most responsive to sympathy. The
morbid, despondent poet Cowper has writtten most
exquisitely about the love of God. Watts is enthusi-
astic in his praise of the Divine grace ; but a deeper
note is sounded in the Olney hymns, as, for example, in
that beginning with the line
—
"Hark, my soul, it is the Lord."
While reading this hymn to-day we cannot fail to feel
the peculiar thrill of personal emotion that still quivers
through its living words, revealing the very soul of their
author. This is more than jo3^ous praise ; it is the
expression of a personal experience of the compassion
of God in times of deepest need. The same sensitive
poet has given us a description of the very condition
that is illustrated by the passage in the Hebrew elegist
we are now considering, in lines which, familiar as