_AFTER THE TRIUMPH!_
MATTHEW xiv. 23-33.
After the great miracle of feeding the multitude our Lord "_went up into a
mountain to pray_." May we reverently wonder if it was a season of
temptation? Did they want to make Him a King? Was our human Lord assailed
by "the destruction that wasteth at noonday"? And did He shut Himself up
with the Father?
I am so disposed to pray _up_ to my successes, and to cease to pray _in_
them! I remember God in my struggles, I forget Him in my attainments. I
hold fellowship with Him on the road, I part company with Him when I
arrive. I become a practical atheist in the midst of my successes. My only
security is to go up into a mountain apart and pray. Unless I become
closeted with God, and see all things in their true colours and
proportion, I shall be lifted up in most unholy and destructive pride.
And let me notice that our Lord returned from His privacy with the Father
to do even greater miracles still. He had appeased the pangs of hunger;
now He appeases the passion of the sea. And so in my degree shall it be
with me. If in all my triumphs I remain the humble companion of the Lord,
my triumphs shall be repeated and enriched. "Greater works than these
shall ye do."