True faith I may call the
grand tidal wave of the soul. I will endeavor to explain the expression.
We see the river Thames day by day ebbing and flowing. What causes this
change? You answer, “It is produced by the sea in the Channel
alternately coming up and retiring.” It is a true explanation. But what
makes the sea of the Channel alternately come up and retire? There is
what is called “a grand tidal wave” that comes across the Atlantic
Ocean, which, as it ebbs and flows, affects all the minor tides of the
neighboring seas; and thus the tide of the Channel, and that of the
river Thames, ebb and flow in unison with this huge Atlantic wave.
In
the same way faith is the tidal wave of the soul; and all the graces
and fruits of the Spirit ebb and flow just as faith rises, or just as
faith sinks. If faith rises in the soul, all the graces and fruits of
the Spirit rise with it; light increases, life is deepened, the fear of
God strengthened, hope brightened, and love augmented. And when this
great tidal wave of faith falls in the soul, all the minor tides of the
Spirit’s graces fall in unison with it. Thus when faith recedes and
becomes low in the soul, all the other graces of the Spirit sink with
it; consolation ebbs out altogether, hope recedes to a narrow streamlet,
life dwindles to a scanty current, and love is reduced to a shallow
channel. And as in the Thames we see, at low tide, the muddy banks which
the stream has forsaken, so as faith sinks to a low ebb in the soul,
there seems little else left but the mud and mire of corruption.
But
what makes the grand tidal wave itself move? There is a cause for that
also. It is drawn up by, and obeys the attraction of the sun. And is not
this true spiritually of the grand tidal wave of faith in the soul? Is
it not drawn up by the Sun of righteousness, as the natural sun draws up
the wave of the ocean, and makes it ebb and flow? And when that
glorious Sun ceases to draw up faith, does it not ebb and sensibly sink
in the soul, as the natural sea sinks when the sun recedes from it?
Source: Daily Blessings
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