The unrecognized path
"I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known." The general truth here is that the all-wise God is working on our behalf in ways which are mysterious at the time. If we consider our finiteness and his infinity, our ignorance and his omniscience, we shall see that this must be so. If we consider how little we can understand of the great designs of the wisest of mankind when we have but a partial view of them, we shall cease to wonder at the mystery which attends the providence of God. How can we be otherwise than "blind" to the large and long purposes of him "whose way is in the sea," and to whom "a thousand years are as one day"? The thought of the prophet is illustrated in—
I. GOD'S DEALINGS WITH HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL, At one period, when languishing in captivity, it was black night to the people of God. It was dark twilight to Isaiah, looking on and down from the peaks of prophecy. It was early morning when the Israelites entered Jerusalem on their return. It was later morning yet when Paul caught a glimpse of God's large purposes in all the way he led them (Romans 11:33). But all along he was leading the blind by a way they knew not.
II. HIS DEALINGS WITH MANKIND. Through what dark days has the Church of Christ passed as it has come through the centuries! How many times has God seemed to have forsaken it, when it has undergone a threatening eclipse from:
1. Savage attack from outside; the trials and perils of unrelenting persecution.
2. Chilling coldness within; spirituality of worship, consistency of life, evangelizing zeal, having declined and almost expired.
3. Depressing faithlessness around; a dark shadow of scepticism surrounding, and, at points, invading and infecting it. Yet out of these miseries and temporary defeats God has brought it, turning darkness into light and making the crooked things straight.
III. HIS LEADING OF OUR INDIVIDUAL LIFE. Dark days come to us all; we fail where we counted on success; they become unfriendly on whose faithfulness we had confidently reckoned; the road which promised to lead up to prosperity and joy takes a sudden turn down into adversity and sorrow. We have been seeking Divine direction, but the guiding hand seems to have been withheld; God seems to have forsaken us. But we must not "speak thus, or we should offend against" the truth of God's word and the ultimate experience of his children. Others before and beside us have gone down into the darkness and come up into the light. Once the Master himself went a way he knew not; the Divine Father seemed to have forsaken him. And many a one, since that scene at Calvary, has been inclined to cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It is for us to remember that we are as blind men before the all-seeing God, discerning but a mere speck of all that has to be surveyed. God is leading us by a way that we cannot recognize now; but soon the darkness will be light and the crooked straight. It is the hour for trusting. Any one can trust God in the sunshine; we have to show our sonship by trusting him wholly in the deep shadows.
"When we in darkness walk,
Nor feel the heavenly flame,
Then is the time to trust our God,
And rest upon his Name."
C.