Retrospect^  in  the  sublime  past  Avhich  God  had  given  her
for  her  experience.  "  They  have  Moses  and  the  prophets,  let
them  hear  them."  On  them  they  were  to  live — their  nation's
sacred  history ;  God's  guidance  and  faithfulness ;  the  sure
truth  that  obedience  was  best.
Prospect^  in  the  expectation  of  better  times.
Dim,  vague  hints  of  the  Old  Testament  had  pointed  them
to  a  coming  revelation — a  day  in  Avhich  God  should  be  near-
er to  them,  in  which  society  should  be  more  pure.  An  ad-
vent, in  short.
And  between  these  two  there  was  a  pause.
They  were  left  by  God  to  use  the  grace  and  knowledge  al-
ready given  by  Him.
Now  this  is  parallel  to  God's  usual  modes  of  dealing.  Foi-
example,  the  pause  of  four  hundred  years  in  the  land  of
Egypt,  between  the  bright  days  when  Abraham  talked  with
God,  and  the  deliverance  by  Moses.
The  pause  in  Canaan  when  the  Israelitish  commonwealth
*  Four  hundred  and  thirty-one  years.
Christian  Friendship,'  763

was  left,  like  a  building,  to  settle  down  before  being  built
higher,  between  the  times  of  Joshua  and  of  Samuel.
The  pause  in  the  captivity,  and  now  again  a  pause.
A  pause  after  each  revelation  until  the  next.
So,  in  the  natural  Avorld.  Just  as  in  summer  there  is  a
gush  of  nature's  forces  and  a  shooting  forth;  and  then  the
long  autumn  and  winter,  in  which  is  no  growth,  but  an  op-
portunity, taught  by  past  experience,  for  the  husbandman  to
manure  his  ground,  and  sow  his  seed,  and  to  wait  for  a  new
outpouring  of  life  upon  the  world.
