“They shall mount up with wings” (Isa. xl. 31).
“They shall mount up with wings as eagles,” is God’s preliminary; for the
next promise is, “They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and
not faint.” Hours of holy exultation are necessary for hours of patient
plodding, waiting and working. Nature has its springs, and so has grace.
Let us rejoice in the Lord evermore, and again we say, rejoice. And let us
take Him to be our continual joy, whose heart is a fountain of
blessedness, and who is anointed with the oil of gladness above His
fellows. We must not be disappointed if the tides are not always equally
high. Even at low tide the ocean is just as full. Human nature could not
stand perpetual excitement, even of a happy kind, and God often rests in
His love. Let us live as self-unconsciously as possible, filling up each
moment with faithful service, and trusting Him to stir the springs at His
will, and as we go on in faithful service we shall hear, again and again,
His glad whisper: “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into
the joy of thy Lord.”