The Rev. Thomas G. Selby says:
Copious and unfailing rivers run just beneath the burning
desolations of the Sahara. Twenty or thirty feet under the
sand-drifts there is an impervious sheet of rock which prevents
the escape of the collected rain-waters. It is easy to see the
oasis, but not so easy to track the windings of the hidden
river. The skilled engineer can get at the river, bring it
up through his wells, and change the desert into an earthly
paradise.
Society at large is not the dreary, all-devouring, illimitable
ethical waste we often imagine. The rivers of God flow under
natures we call reprobate, and create penitential moods which
are the earnest of a coming righteousness. It is easy to map out
the strips of moral fruitfulness which appear here and there in
the world, but not so easy to find the deep secret contrition of
those who are often classed as abandoned outcasts. The Savior
of the world has an insight into character which enables him to
see promise where men less sympathetic and discerning see the
black marks of reprobation; and the angels share the visions of
the Lord on whom they wait. It is by His art, as the Prophet
of coming good, that the desert is made to bloom.--“The Divine
Craftsman.”
(2788)
=Robbery, Moral=--See REPENTANCE, LATE.