Isaiah 40:31

THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH

‘They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.’

Isaiah 40:31

I. Consider, first, what it is to wait upon the Lord.—Three things make it: service, expectation, patience. ‘Wait on the Lord.’ We must be as those Eastern maidens who, as they ply their needle or their distaff, look to the eye and wait upon the hand of their mistress, as their guide which is to teach them, or their model which they are to copy. Our best lessons are always found in a Father’s eye. Therefore, if you would ‘wait upon the Lord, you must be always looking out for voices—those still small voices of the soul—and you must expect them, and you must command them. But service, however devoted, or expectation, however intense, will not be waiting without patience. Here is where so many fail. The waiting times are so long; the interval between the prayer and the answer, between the repentance and the peace, between the work and the result, between sowing-time and reaping-time, and we are such impatient, impetuous creatures. We could not ‘tarry the Lord’s leisure.’

II. Consider, next, the action: elevation, rapid progress, a steady course—soar, run, walk.—Is it not just what we want—to get higher, to go faster, and to be more calmly consistent? (1) Elevation. What are the wings? Beyond a doubt, faith, prayer; or, if you will, humility and confidence in a beautiful equipoise, balancing one another on either side, so that the soul sustains itself in mid-air and flies upward. (2) ‘They shall run.’ Have you ever noticed how the servants of God in the Bible—from Abraham and David to Philip in the Acts—whenever they were told to do anything always ran. It is the only way to do anything well. A thousand irksome duties become easy and pleasant if we do them runningly, that is with a ready mind, an affectionate zeal, and a happy alacrity. (3) But there is something beyond this. It is more difficult to walk than to run. To maintain a quiet, sustained walk, day by day, in the common things of life, in the house and out of the house, not impulsive, not capricious, not changeable—that is the hardest thing to do. Let me give four rules for this walk: (a) Start from Christ; (b) walk with Christ; (c) walk leaning on Christ; (d) walk to Christ.

Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘In the ministry of Christian service the last is the best. It may be best with us long after the two pence are spent, when we are spending more and more, and yet spending far more consciously than before what is not ours by nature. The promise marks an ascent, though it may not seem to do so. “They shall mount up on wings as eagles.” There is a better thing, “They shall run, and not be weary,” and best of all there is this, “They shall walk, and not faint.” It is the climax of covenant grace.

So as of old I follow Him

Only another way;

When the lights of the world are growing dim,

And my heart already is singing the hymn

Of twilight grown to day.’