The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

THE STILLING OF THE TEMPEST 55
sleeps ! Vanity of Vanities ! such
fool ;
is the sermon of the
but if you have known Jesus Christ, if you have
beheld His sign on leprous and palsied wretches, if
you know the love of God, His sleep does not trouble
you. If this storm rages, it is because the time to
rebuke it has not yet come. If no stupendous miracle
arrests all suffering, that is because God is working out
a better consummation and in a better way. He is not
limited to the bare alternative that we see, and our
faith in God should speak another language than
" Save, Lord, or we perish." In Tintoretto's picture
of Paradise the vast canvas is crowded with angel
faces. Angels everywhere And then, as you look
closer, you see behind the first angels others, fainter,
further in, but fair. And, if you still continue looking
you will see behind them others again, and still others,
until at last the idea of the picture seizes you, and
you feel that you are looking into angel-filled deeps of
eternity, from the glory on the outer face into glory
on and on and on without measure or end.
This earthly life has its angels— its fair, sweet,
precious things, health, home, life, wife, husband,
child, friend, books, colour, form, pleasure, leisure,
work. But we have these treasures in a frail vessel
on a land-locked sea, exposed to sudden and violent
storms. If these be lost, all is lost Nay! There
are angels behind angels, good beyond all goods of
time. Good has no end. 'Tis only evil is limited.
Sin, and death, and hell are but little clouds against
the planet-peopled azure of eternity. They shall
perish, but God shall endure, and God is love. Oh, we
of little faith, why are we fearful