One of the rarest treasures of the May time is the richness and purity
of the sky. The winter wraps the heavens in robes of somber hue as
though in mourning for the summer dead; but at the coming of the first
white cloud, and sound of first lark’s song, the sky seems to melt in
tenderness, and assume the softest, richest hue of blue. As far as the
eye can reach there is nothing but blue--soft, rich, warm, tender,
melting, soul-entrancing blue. Blue, as clear as an unshadowed midland
lake. Blue as a translucent sapphire without a flaw to disturb its
gleaming surface. A great arch of caressing tenderness through which
the white-flecked clouds ride in state, as they sail majestically from
one port of mystery to another port of mystery. Among the richest
treasures of the spring must be mentioned the deepening of the blue and
the hanging of the snow-white curtains of the clouds.
But life’s horizon is ever draped with rich folds of white and blue,
that hang like silken curtains, to hide, with tantalizing secrecy,
the mysteries that lie beyond. Day by day the curtains hide their
treasure-chests of mystery, tempting us to strike tents and journey
toward them. With the eagerness with which little children watch the
unwrapping of a Christmas package we watch the moving of these clouds,
trusting that each new shifting of the curtains will make the coveted
revelation, but as we journey on they still evade us.
Conservative people, ones who never startle themselves or their friends
by doing anything new, not that they are averse to doing anything new
but simply because they are not mentally capable of entertaining new
ideas, say that the mysteries that lie behind the curtained clouds are
childish fancies and youth’s illusions; and that energy expended in
reaching the buried treasure at the rainbow’s end were as fruitful an
enterprise. Those of us who have endeavored to solve these mysteries
know better, for we have found that the curtained clouds that hide, are
the ones that, like banners, guide us to the things we really need.
Man must not be unmindful of the ministry of mystery. Over against
everything enigmatic God has given man an insatiable desire to find
out the hidden meaning. Yielding to that divinely implanted impulse
develops powers that otherwise would atrophy. Behold the benefits
of these endeavors as they lifted the human race out of stagnation
and taught it the way of progress. Tented in the low swamplands,
eating roots and bark, man saw these curtains that suggested to his
hunger-pinched body the thought of a banqueting-hall where he might
feed. His quest never brought him to the ladened tables of his desire,
but as he journeyed he found grain and fruits and nuts and berries,
substantial food for a full twelvemonth. Dwelling amid the sick and
dying, man saw the moving of the curtains that God hangs along our
sky-line, and felt that, somewhere, beyond their folds, must exist
a spring, whose living waters would not only heal the sick but give
the drinker perpetual youth. The spring was never found, but as man
journeyed westward in the quest he found a land whose liberties and
institutions crowd a century of blessings into every decade. Toiling
with small recompense, like some dull beast of burden, man saw the
clouds that suggested a palace of ease and luxury. He failed to find
the palace of his dreams, but on the way he discovered labor-saving
machinery that has made his labor a delight, and given to every laborer
a home surpassing in comforts the baron’s stately castle.
Because of the ministry of mystery he has been able to discover
the depth and values of his own soul. In his effort to reach the
curtained clouds man has had to rally his forces, and, to meet
arising exigencies, he has been compelled to draw upon the resources
of his nature, until he startled himself with his newly discovered
possibilities and powers. He trained his body to wrestle against
physical odds; he trained his mind to master the handicaps of
ignorance; he found the glittering sword of courage with which to
destroy defeating fear; he learned the value of faith and hope with
which to enrich the soul when disaster would impoverish. Without the
effort aroused by the cloudy curtains of mystery, he could not have
found himself, and perfected his work of invention, art and letters.
The cloud curtains are also the temple curtains beyond which men are
ever seeking God. As the pillared cloud led Israel victoriously through
troubled waters and desert sands, so the mysteries of life and death,
and the natural world in which we live, have led the human mind to
religious contemplation. Man found himself entangled in the maze of
sin, helplessly confused amid the ways that wound about, and crossed,
and led to still more hopeless entanglements. Despair pointed to the
narrow, tangled ways and said, “There is nothing better.” Looking
upward, the distant clouds spoke of a larger world and greater freedom,
and beckoned man to try again. By faith he was saved. To a thoughtful,
reverent man, all nature reveals and conceals the One who brought it
into existence. An awakened soul will never be satisfied until he finds
God. He longs to see the Hand that parts the curtains and hurls the
lightnings. He yearns to see the Face whose smile fills the sky with
sunlight, and transfigures the cloudy curtains, until they become the
portals of the heavenly temple. While mystery is not the mother of
religion, it is, and ever has been, an important part of the Christian
faith. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing,” says King Solomon.
He might have added, “It is the glory of man to search until he find
it.”
It was from behind the curtained clouds that God spoke, introducing
Jesus as the world’s Redeemer, saying, “This is my beloved Son, hear
ye him.” It was an overhanging canopy of cloud that curtained the
disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, and it was in this curtained
tabernacle that they beheld the glory of their Lord. To hide the shame
of those who crucified His Son, God hung a curtain of cloud about the
sun, enveloping Calvary in the shades of night. It was a curtain of
cloud that hid the ascending Lord from the sight of the wondering,
astonished, fear-filled disciples. It was from amid their soft drapery
that the angels spoke of his coming again, and it is upon the clouds
that the Son of man shall come in his glory to judge the nations. From
the glory of the Patmos vision, John exclaimed, “Behold he cometh
with clouds; and every eye shall see him!” To the very end Christ is
surrounded with the curtained clouds of mystery. “And I looked, and
behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of
man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the
earth was reaped.”
Mystery has a large part in the Christian faith, not to discourage, but
to encourage the prayerful, aspiring souls of men. The drapery of cloud
hangs all about, not to defeat, but to challenge. It is no illusion
like a great desert distance filled with the blue of emptiness, that
strews the sands with the bones of those whom it deceives, but is as
real as the curtains of the ancient tabernacle that held the symbol of
Jehovah’s presence. Life’s mysteries are often most tantalizing; its
problems artfully made difficult of solution; but always within their
depths is God.
To-day, for our development, it is the glory of God to conceal a
matter, but it is the promise that some day we shall see, not through
the mists darkly, but face to face with God. Some day we shall
pass beyond the cloudy portals, and the vision of God and our own
immortality shall lie before our enraptured vision. The puzzle of life
shall there find perfect solution. The equation in which life is now
the unknown quantity shall find its answer. In that cloudless land we
shall know even as we are known. The shadows of death are the last
shadow the soul of the righteous shall ever see. Until that glad day
comes, let us fit ourselves, through prayer and goodness, to receive
such revelations of the mystery of godliness as God may care to reveal
as he parts the curtains of our life’s horizon, knowing that we journey
to a perfect, unclouded day.