What are you, O mighty mountain?
(Alexander Smellie, "The Secret Place" 1907)
"What are you, O mighty mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you will become
level ground!" Zechariah 4:7
What difficulties the divine Builder encounters!
HE has to shape me, and depraved
men like me, into HIS spiritual Temple.
I am far from GOD--
and HE must bring me near.
"The soul that sins, it shall surely die!"
(Ezekiel 18:20)
the Judge has said; and HE has to alter
that which has gone forth from the Judge's
lips, and to do it without impeaching HIS
faithfulness or wounding HIS glory.
Does it not seem to be a huge,
impassable mountain?
Moreover, HE has to fit me, and
ten thousand wayward souls,
for adorning HIS Temple. It gleams
with the light of precious stones--
diamonds and sapphires and emeralds!
But I am all defiled, loving sin and
cleaving to it as if it were my life!
HE must prevail over the depraved
bias of my nature, and the power
of my sinful passions. Alps piled
on Alps would be easier to uproot!
And then, HE has to finish HIS Temple
of regenerated men among the most
unfriendly conditions. HE does not carry
forward the enterprise in a quiet Heaven,
where angels rejoice in it and hasten
to help HIM. It is amid the sinful
confusions of earth, that HE toils
and perseveres. Where the force
of the enemy is strongest, where
his deceit permeates the very air--
CHRIST works with a love that never
tires, as well as an arm that never droops.
HE will humble these towering
mountains to the dust!
And with what ease and completeness the
divine Builder will surmount HIS difficulties!
We see here HIS power and wisdom, and
of the insignificance in HIS sight of every
hindrance that is opposed to HIM.
Nothing will turn HIM aside in HIS
triumphant work. It is not that HE halts
in perplexity before the great mountain.
It is not that HE climbs the steep
ascent slowly and painfully. Nay, to HIM
all mountains of difficulty are a level plain.
Without an effort, with composure, as though
the world aided instead of resisted HIM,
as though the malignant principalities
of evil were nonexistent--
HE begins and continues and ends
HIS sovereign undertaking!
Let me rejoice that ONE WHO is mighty
to save has espoused my depraved,
shameful and hopeless cause!
(Alexander Smellie, "The Secret Place" 1907)
"What are you, O mighty mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you will become
level ground!" Zechariah 4:7
What difficulties the divine Builder encounters!
HE has to shape me, and depraved
men like me, into HIS spiritual Temple.
I am far from GOD--
and HE must bring me near.
"The soul that sins, it shall surely die!"
(Ezekiel 18:20)
the Judge has said; and HE has to alter
that which has gone forth from the Judge's
lips, and to do it without impeaching HIS
faithfulness or wounding HIS glory.
Does it not seem to be a huge,
impassable mountain?
Moreover, HE has to fit me, and
ten thousand wayward souls,
for adorning HIS Temple. It gleams
with the light of precious stones--
diamonds and sapphires and emeralds!
But I am all defiled, loving sin and
cleaving to it as if it were my life!
HE must prevail over the depraved
bias of my nature, and the power
of my sinful passions. Alps piled
on Alps would be easier to uproot!
And then, HE has to finish HIS Temple
of regenerated men among the most
unfriendly conditions. HE does not carry
forward the enterprise in a quiet Heaven,
where angels rejoice in it and hasten
to help HIM. It is amid the sinful
confusions of earth, that HE toils
and perseveres. Where the force
of the enemy is strongest, where
his deceit permeates the very air--
CHRIST works with a love that never
tires, as well as an arm that never droops.
HE will humble these towering
mountains to the dust!
And with what ease and completeness the
divine Builder will surmount HIS difficulties!
We see here HIS power and wisdom, and
of the insignificance in HIS sight of every
hindrance that is opposed to HIM.
Nothing will turn HIM aside in HIS
triumphant work. It is not that HE halts
in perplexity before the great mountain.
It is not that HE climbs the steep
ascent slowly and painfully. Nay, to HIM
all mountains of difficulty are a level plain.
Without an effort, with composure, as though
the world aided instead of resisted HIM,
as though the malignant principalities
of evil were nonexistent--
HE begins and continues and ends
HIS sovereign undertaking!
Let me rejoice that ONE WHO is mighty
to save has espoused my depraved,
shameful and hopeless cause!
~ ~ ~ ~
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