Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/235

 weakness of man does but increase the Divine zeal. While the warfare is at its height, man, unable to contend, would yield the disputed ground, and in the intensity of his suffering might say, "Put up thy sword, rest, and be still." But in this very weakness is the Lord glorified. Some sudden stroke of His providence slays the evil, and vivifies what was ready to perish, until his suffering creature is led to acknowledge "The sword of the Lord hath prevailed!"

HERE isa spiritual as well as a physical geography. Otherwise of what benefit to us would be the record of Egyptian stubbornness six thousand years ago? How could this at all help us on our spiritual journey, or tend to the purification of our souls, if nothing but an historical narrative was intended to be handed down to us? How could what happened to them be a warning to us, to whom the ends of the world are come, if Egypt possessed not some spiritual signification, and the quality of its people a warning voice, which might admonish us against hardness of heart and unbelief? The truth is, every country mentioned in the Scripture has a reference to some principle in the Church, and some province in the mind of man, who is a church in its least form. In ancient history we find it recorded,