CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE SOUL IN PRESENCE OF FAILURE.

"Their net brake."-ST. LUKE 5, 6.

"There is no fiercer hell than failure in a great object."— KEATS.

"I do not ask, O Lord, that Thou shouldst shed

Full radiance here;

Give but a ray of peace, that I may tread
Without a fear;

I do not ask my cross to understand,
My way to see-

Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand

And follow Thee.

Joy is like restless day; but peace divine,

Like quiet night:

Lead me, O Lord, till perfect day shall shine

Through peace to light."

PROCTER.

EVERY incident of our Lord's human life as recorded by the Evangelists must have some special importance, and contain instruction for us, if only we can read it aright. There are probably many deep truths and most precious lessons enshrined in unlikely places, lying beneath the surface of seemingly unimportant details. Bishop Butler said of the

Bible, "it is not at all incredible that a book which has been so long in the possession of mankind should contain many truths as yet undiscovered."

Now, in the record of the first miraculous draught of fishes, it is mentioned that when the disciples attempted to draw in the prize they had secured "their net brake.' Why was this? These men were doing what our Lord had told them to do; might we not have expected that they would have been protected from accident? They were in the midst of a miracle; might we not have supposed that the miracle would be complete and all its circumstances felicitous. But it was not so; the draught of fish was miraculous, yet the net brake, and so, doubtless, many of the fish escaped and were never landed. The boats were filled indeed, but presently they began to sink. Was our Lord not able to do a perfect work? was His power limited like ours; greater, indeed, but not infinite ? We cannot believe this. There is doubtless some mystery here, some mystery perhaps in things human to which God Himself submits.

Human life is full of riddles and difficulties. Thoughtful men in all ages have pondered over them. They have watched their recurrence, tried to lay down a theory, to detect a law, to discover a reason and a meaning, but it is not an easy task. Many give up the search in anger and vexation, and deny God's providence altogether. Many pass by all such questions, and live in the present, mere higher animals; a better sort of ant,

for instance, that toils, accumulates, lays by safely what it has collected, then dies and leaves all behind!

There are many instances that seem to point out the existence of a law in human affairs of which this breaking net is but an example. We notice not mere imperfection, but an actual break-down after a good beginning, a flaw in that which is otherwise very good. Thus, man is created in God's image, and God Himself pronounces him "very good;" but soon there come temptation, fall, ruin. Look at the Flood, the history of Israel, the Christian Church. Take individuals; all break down somewhere; some finally, all at one point in their history; Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David, Solomon, Peter. Look at people now;

what fine characters are almost realized! what noble lives are just missed! That man would be great but for one failing; this man's bodily frame is marred by one taint, one blemish, one weakness; that woman would be beautiful but for that one inharmonious feature. See that sweet child, watch it with loving admiration, till presently it revolts you by some rudeness or ill temper. fair, but hearts foul

"A villain with a smiling face,

A goodly apple rotten at the core."

See faces

Take men's high deeds and purposes: do they not often resemble Horace's mermaid, a fair woman above, a foul fish below? Read the lives of noble men who began religious Orders and missions in

Europe, and see what presently came of it all. Let some good king arise and do great things for God and man in this poor world; sooner or later there comes disappointment and collapse. Every Arthur will be mated with his Guinevere to "spoil the purpose of his life." The good ship sails round the world, but founders in sight of home, squandering her precious cargo upon the rocks, flinging her more precious crew of stalwart men to rot upon the oozy bottom of the sea.

"This is the state of man: To-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost;
And,-when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening,-nips his root,

And then he falls."

Did our Lord so truly and completely become man that He did not exempt Himself and His works from this strange law of failure? He did not alter it; He did not even explain it, but He seems to have taken His place side by side with us, and silently, as if He knew no more than we know, entered into our disappointments and shared our failures. He commanded the net to be let down, He compelled the fish to enter it; but then "the net brake"! We read elsewhere how the ark of God was taken, how the holy city and its sacred Temple were destroyed. These things are hard to understand, but are they not written in the same Book as that brief, pregnant, mysterious record,

"their net brake"? Nay, is there not something written there more mysterious, more unintelligible: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" There can be nothing beyond that; all failures, all breaking down, are nothing to that. Our little catastrophes, the collapse of our best hopes, fade into nothingness beside that consummation at Calvary.

The

What, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter? What great law of human affairs do we discover from so many instances? Is it not that there is not and cannot be anything perfect in this life; that sooner or later, in beginning, midst, or end, there must be a break-down? Not only in man's work, but in God's work in this world, even our dim eyes and dull senses can discern flaws. perfect has not yet been revealed. How grandly and truly, we say, the earth rolls in its orbit round the sun; but science can detect irregularities, nutations, catastrophes. How true the seasons are in their succession; but there are droughts, blights, excessive heat or cold. The animal is beautiful; but even while we are admiring it, it destroys some other animal as beautiful as itself. We are ravished with sunny skies and silver moonlight, but what shall we say about long sunless rain and piercing cold? The flowers come year by year, each with their own exquisite painting; the fruit never forgets its flavour; but try as you may, you will scarcely find blossom or fruit without some flaw or imperfection. Men think over the