Part 6

We are so accustomed nowadays to clocks and watches, that the ancient difficulty of marking the time may never have occurred to us. We listen to our time-pieces striking the hours and think no more about it. But the Jew had no such time-piece. He had no other way of knowing the hour than by listening to the voices of nature. The starry heavens stretched above him like a great clock, and he could read its face every night. The clear ringing voice of chanticleer was also heard, reminding him of the advent of the dawn. And listening to these and such like voices, and dividing the night by means of them, he was able in a rough and general way to tell the advance of the hours. He made the night to consist of four watches--"the even" from sunset to about nine o'clock, "midnight" from nine to twelve, "cock-crowing" from twelve to three, and "morning" from three to sunrise (see Mark xiii. 35).

The Rabbis used to say that David, the sweet singer of Israel, had a harp hung over his bed, which sounded at midnight of its own accord, and woke the king to prayer. And the children may remember that our own King Alfred is reported to have used graduated candles to measure the hours of the night. But until the advent of the pendulum, the accurate measurement of time was impossible. The face of the sky or the crowing of the cock could not give an exact chronometry.

Nevertheless it had one clear advantage. It kept man in touch with nature. It made him listen reverently to the voices of the night. And that was an education which we can ill afford to disregard. We are not made richer by its loss. We may only have lost our reverence for the sake of our mathematics. Influenced by it, the pious Jew responded to every voice of nature by uttering a blessing on the divine name. Even when the crow of the cock fell on his ear he was instructed to say, "Blessed is He who hath given wisdom to the bird." If our modern chronometry has abolished that, perhaps we have paid too dear for our clocks and watches. To have time-pieces that go to the minute is a great deal; but to hear voices that keep us in touch with God is a great deal more. "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth." Rise up and pray at "_the voice of the bird_." We are even told that God giveth _songs_ in the night (Job xxxv. 10).

"They err who say that music dwells Alone within the halls of light; In anthems loud it also swells Within the temple of the night.

The happy birds that soar and sing May all be mute when day is done, The hum of insects on the wing May sink to silence with the sun.

But when the sounds of toil are o'er, And silence reigns beneath the stars, A murmur runs along the shore, Where ocean smites his sandy bars.

Its echo floats upon the wind, Beneath the moonbeam's mystic light, And stealing o'er the listening mind, Produces music in the night.

While far among the stars, as runs The legend through a thousand years, Amid the rolling of the suns Is heard the _music of the spheres_.

The roll of ocean and of star Dispensing music through the night; The one behind its sandy bar, The other in the realms of light.

But both to teach the human breast That He who guides the star and wave Can also breathe a psalm of rest Around the portal of the grave.

The night of grief, of sin, of death, Is not impervious to His power; It feels the influence of His breath, Like springtime come to woo the flower.

It melts in music o'er the soul, For grief has caught the glorious light, And rolling as the billows roll, _His_ songs are heard within the night."

II.--THE COCK-CROWING AND THE FALL OF PETER.

"Verily I say unto thee, Before the COCK crow _twice_, thou shalt deny Me thrice" (Mark xiv. 30). But why twice? There is no mention of this detail in the other three gospels. No; but Mark got his information from Peter himself. The pain of the degradation had sunk so deeply into Peter's soul that he had no difficulty in recalling each separate particular. His self-confidence had been so great that he would _not_ deny his Lord, and his subsequent profanity had been so awful after he had once entered on the downward course, that not one warning was sufficient to show him his danger, but a warning repeated and repeated again, before he was rudely awakened from the terrible stupor of his sin. The first crowing of the cock at midnight, and the second crowing-time about three o'clock, were both alike needed to arouse and humble him in the dust; and thus with painful accuracy he was able to recall the very words of the Master, "Before the cock crow _twice_, thou shalt deny Me thrice."

On the other hand, his self-confidence was a measure of his sincerity. Matthew Henry has well said, that Judas said nothing when Christ told _him_ he would betray Him. There was no protesting on his part. "He sinned by contrivance, Peter by surprise: he devised the wickedness, Peter was overtaken in this fault." In the language of "Baxter's Second Innings," "It was a _swift_ that bowled out Peter, the night the cock crowed." And the same author adds, "The best of boys are sometimes taken by swifts." But, swift or slow, it was clearly Peter's duty not to wait even for the first crowing of the cock, before he laid to heart the solemn warning of the Master. It would have been his wisdom to say, "Lord, Thou knowest my nature better than I do; and if Satan desires to have me, that he may sift me as wheat, take Thou charge of my life, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil." That would have been Peter's wisdom and safety. But this he didn't do. He planted his feet on the shifting sand of his own self-confidence, and fell into the awful quagmire of denying his Lord. He would not believe the pointed warning of his Master, and therefore he was left to start up at the voice of the bird, and to go out and weep bitterly. The cock-crowing may come to one man as the summons to praise and prayer; but it comes to another as the very trump of God, calling him to penitence or--judgment.

III.--THE COCK-CROWING AND CHRIST'S SECOND COMING.

"Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning" (Mark xiii. 35). There is here a large element of uncertainty. Not the uncertainty of the event, for the second coming of Jesus is one of the things that cannot be shaken, but the uncertainty of the _time_. "Of that day or that hour knoweth no man, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." The time of His coming has not been revealed, to the end that we should be always ready.

And yet, in that early age, the second advent was believed to be nigh at hand. Jesus spake of it as "_a little while_." "Behold, I come _quickly_, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." And James, the Lord's brother, wrote, "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." If the little while has now stretched out into centuries, and the crowing of the cock has not yet been heard, it is not because the Saviour has forgotten His promise, but because the godlessness of men and the worldliness of the Church have raised up innumerable obstacles in His way. Oh, if men would but repent and turn again to Him, those times of refreshing would not be long delayed. God would send Jesus, whom the heavens must receive until the times of restoration of all things (Acts iii. 19-21, R.V.).

What a coming that will be to all those who love His appearing! At midnight, or at the cock-crowing, the cry will be heard, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him." And they who are ready will rise up at "the voice of the bird," and go in with Him to the marriage supper of the Lamb. But the foolish virgins will be shut outside. They too will rise up at the voice of the bird; but for them, alas! it will be no "bird of the _dawn_." Like Judas, they will go out into the darkness--a darkness that has no morning; and there will be the weeping and the woe.

But that day, or rather that night, has not yet arrived. It has not yet come for you young people. With you it is still the time of _choosing_; and if you choose Jesus, if you remember your Creator in the days of your youth, that evil day will never come at all. The cock-crowing will still be to you the trump of God; but it will call you to happiness and not to misery. It will proclaim to you the advent of the eternal dawn; and you will rise up at the voice of the bird to exclaim, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

*Peace.*

"Then had thy peace been as a river."--Isa. xlviii. 18.

I sat alone in the pinewood, And mused with the falling leaves; And the Autumn breath like a requiem Hymned low for the garnered sheaves.

And the pensiveness of the Autumn, Like the ocean rocked to rest, Found a fitting shell-like murmur In the heavings of my breast.

For a something came from the stillness, It had touched me oft before, Sometimes in the hush of pinewood, Sometimes on the lonely shore.

It came and it touched my being, Laid its finger on my brain, And there alone in the pinewood I could _pray_ as a child again.

It was not the spell of memory Cast around me its soothing power, Nor the magic of thought that held me Entranced in that silent hour.

The rarest and deepest impressions Come from fingers, but not our own, From music unbarred and unmeasured, From language unuttered, unknown.

They come, the unnamed and the dateless, They come as the waves of light, Like the murmuring breath of the pine-woods, Like the voices of the night.

And they leave their deep impressions In the tidemarks of the soul, Those pulses that come as in secret, And roll as the billows roll.

It may be in yon far region, Far above the remotest star, My glowing and growing vision May find what those pulses are.

May find in the land of the morning, In the brightness beyond the flood, That the pensive hush of the woodland Was a breath of the _peace_ of God.

Till then I will seek the pinewoods, I will muse with the falling leaves, And watch the design in symbols That the silent finger weaves.

And catch from the fleeting river, And the ocean so vast and broad, From the Autumn quiet and the pinewoods, How to know and worship God.

* * * * * * * *

*THE "GOLDEN NAILS" SERIES*

of

ADDRESSES TO THE YOUNG.

_Post 8vo size. Neat Cloth Binding. Price 1s. 6d. each._

"Messrs Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier's 'Golden Nails' Series is one of the happiest of recent enterprises in book-publishing. Every volume has had a good reception, and every new volume increases one's admiration for the enterprise."--_Expository Times_.

GOLDEN NAILS, and Other Addresses to Children. By the Rev. GEORGE MILLIGAN, B.D.

PLEASANT PLACES. Words to the Young. By the Rev. R. S. DUFF, D.D.

PARABLES AND SKETCHES. By ALFRED E. KNIGHT. With Illustrations by the Author.

SILVER WINGS. Addresses to Children. By the Rev. ANDREW G. FLEMING.

THREE FISHING BOATS, and Other Talks to Children. By the Rev. JOHN C. LAMBERT, B.D.

LAMPS AND PITCHERS, and Other Addresses to Children. By the Rev. GEORGE MILLIGAN, D.D.

A BAG WITH HOLES, and Other Talks to Children. By the Rev. JAS. AITCHISON.

KINGLESS FOLK, and Other Addresses on Bible Animals. By the Rev. JOHN ADAMS, B.D.