‘Ah!’ she says, ‘I haven’t heard of him for over a year now, and I begin to think that I shall never hear again.’
There is a sharp ring at the bell. She starts.
‘Something tells me,’ she continues, ‘that this 90is a message to say that the ship is lost, and that I shall never see my boy again.’
Even whilst she speaks the door is opened, and her last syllable3 is scarcely uttered before she is folded in the sailor’s arms.
The principle holds true to the very end. It is a sick-room, and the pale wan4 face of the patient looks very weary.
‘Oh, how I dread5 death!’ she says; ‘I cannot bear to think that I must die.’
An hour later the door of the unseen opens to her, and there stands on the threshold, not Death, but Life Everlasting6!
Peter very, very often waits for the executioner, and welcomes an angel.
I
During the next few moments Peter scarcely knew whether he was in the body or out of the body. Was he alive or was he dead? Was he waking or was he dreaming? ‘He wist not that it was true which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision.’ He walked like a man with his head in the clouds. Doors were opening; chains were falling; he seemed to be living in a land of enchantment7, a world of magic. But the iron gate put an end to all illusion. ‘They came to the iron gate,’ and, as I said a moment ago, an iron gate is a very 91difficult thing to argue with. The iron gate represents the return to reality. After our most radiant spiritual experiences we come abruptly8 to the humdrum9 and the commonplace. It was Mary’s Sunday evening out. Mary, you must know, is a housemaid in a big boarding establishment, and her life is by no means an easy one. But Mary is also a member of the Church. On Sunday she was in her favourite seat. Perhaps it was that she was specially10 hungry for some uplifting word, or perhaps it was that the message was peculiarly suitable to her condition; but, be that as it may, the service that night seemed to carry poor Mary to the very gate of heaven. The Communion Service that followed completed her ecstasy11, and Mary seemed scarcely to touch the pavement with her feet as she hurried home. She fell asleep crooning to herself the hymn12 with which the service closed:
O Love, that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
She knew nothing more until, in the chilly13 dark of the morning, the alarum clock screamed at her to jump up, clean the cold front steps, dust the great silent rooms, and light the copper-fire. ‘And she 92came to the iron gate.’ There come points in life at which poetry merges14 into the severest prose; romance yields to reality; the miracle of the open prison is succeeded by the menace of the iron gate.
II
As long as Peter had an iron gate before him, he had an angel beside him. It was not until the iron gate had been safely negotiated that ‘forthwith the angel departed from him.’ Mary made a mistake when she fancied that she had left all the glory behind her. The angel is with us more often than we think. A devout16 Jew, in bidding you farewell, will always use a plural17 pronoun. And if you ask for whom, besides yourself, his blessing18 is intended, he will reply that it is for you and for the angel over your shoulder. We are too fond of fancying that the angel is only with us when the chains are miraculously19 falling from off our feet, and when the doors are miraculously opening before our faces. We are too slow to believe that the angel is still by our side when we emerge into the night and come to the iron gate. It is a very ancient heathen superstition20. ‘There came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the Lord, because the Syrians have said, “The Lord is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys,” therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, 93and ye shall know that I am the Lord.’ We are always assuming that He is the God of the mountaintops, and that He leaves us to thread the darksome valleys alone; and our assumption is a cruel and unjust one. As long as Peter had an iron gate before him, he had an angel beside him.
III
The converse21, however, is equally true. As long as Peter had an angel beside him, he had an iron gate ahead of him. Angels do not walk by our sides for fun. ‘Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth15 to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation22?’ If there is an angel by my side, depend upon it, there is work that only an angel can do in front of me. Mary’s radiant experience that Sunday evening was directly and intimately related with the brazen23 yell of the alarum clock on Monday morning. It was not intended as a mere24 temporary elevation25 of the spirit, but as an assurance of a gracious presence—a presence that should never be withdrawn26 as long as a need existed. It is part of the infinite pathos27 of life that we misinterpret our visions. Jacob beheld28 his staircase leading from earth to heaven, with angels ascending29 and descending30 upon it. And straightway, as he prepared to leave, he began to say good-bye to the angels! ‘Surely,’ he exclaimed, ‘the Lord is 94in this place! How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven! And he called the name of that place Bethel!’ And thus he missed the whole meaning of the beatific31 vision. The vision was to warn him of the perils32 that awaited him, and to assure him that ‘behold, I am with thee in all places whither thou goest.’
‘All places!’ said the Vision.
‘This place! this place! This Place!’ said Jacob.
And so he journeyed on towards his iron gate, pitifully ignorant of the meaning of the golden dream. Life’s ecstasies33 are warnings, premonitions, danger-signals. Even in the experience of the Holiest, the open heavens and the voice from the excellent glory immediately preceded the grim struggle with the tempter in the wilderness34. Paul had his vision; he saw the Man of Macedonia; and he followed the gleam—to bonds, stripes, and imprisonment35. Bunyan knew what he was doing when he placed the Palace Beautiful, with all its sweet hospitalities and delightful36 ministries37, immediately before that dark Valley of Humiliation38 in which Christian39 struggled with Apollyon. When we hear angels’ voices speaking, when we find our fetters40 falling, when we see our jail doors opening, be very sure that outside, outside, there is a dark night and an iron gate!
95IV
But there is always this about it. Although the radiant vision is a premonition of the coming struggle, it is also an augury41 concerning that struggle. Opening doors are an earnest of opening gates. It is inconceivable that I shall be miraculously delivered from my dungeon42, with its guards and its chains, and then be baulked by an iron gate out there in the blackness of the night. It is inconceivable that here, at the Communion Service, God should draw so near to the spirit of this young housemaid, and then leave her to face alone the drudgery43 of Monday morning. If Mary is half as wise as I take her to be, she will answer the scream of the clock with a song. She went to bed singing; why not get up singing? She crooned to herself on retiring the hymn that had followed her from the Communion Table. Let her sing in the morning quite another tune44:
His love, in time past, forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink,
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review
Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.
The voice of the angel, the falling of fetters, and the opening of doors are all designed to brace45 us for the dark night and the iron gate.
96V
‘The iron gate opened to them.’ Of course it did. Who could suppose that the prison doors had been opened by angel’s hands, only that the prisoner might be caught like a rat in a trap outside? ‘The iron gate opened to them of its own accord.’ It did look like it. During my twelve years at Mosgiel, I often went through the great woollen factory. The machines were marvellous—simply marvellous. As you watched the needles slip in and out, or stood beside the loom46 and saw the pattern grow, it really looked as though the things were bewitched. They seemed to be doing it all ‘of their own accord.’ But one day the manager said, ‘Would you care to see the power-house?’ And he took me away from the busy looms47 to another building altogether, and there I saw the huge engines that drove everything. Neither looms nor needles really work ‘of their own accord.’ Nor do iron gates. A few minutes after the gates had opened, and the angel had vanished, Peter ‘came to the house of Mary, the mother of Mark, where many were gathered together praying.’ And then Peter understood by what power the iron gates had opened, just as I understood, when I saw the engine-room, how the great looms worked.
The prayer-meeting may not be artistic48. For 97the matter of that I saw very little in the power-room of the factory that appealed to the sense of the aesthetic49 within me; but when angels visit prisons, and iron gates swing open of their own accord, there must be a driving-force at work somewhere. And Peter only discovered it when he suddenly broke in upon a midnight prayer-meeting.
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1
coax
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v.哄诱,劝诱,用诱哄得到,诱取 | |
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2
miraculous
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adj.像奇迹一样的,不可思议的 | |
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syllable
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n.音节;vt.分音节 | |
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wan
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(wide area network)广域网 | |
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dread
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vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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everlasting
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adj.永恒的,持久的,无止境的 | |
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enchantment
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n.迷惑,妖术,魅力 | |
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abruptly
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adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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humdrum
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adj.单调的,乏味的 | |
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specially
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adv.特定地;特殊地;明确地 | |
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11
ecstasy
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n.狂喜,心醉神怡,入迷 | |
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hymn
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n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌 | |
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chilly
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adj.凉快的,寒冷的 | |
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14
merges
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(使)混合( merge的第三人称单数 ); 相融; 融入; 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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15
forth
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adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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devout
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adj.虔诚的,虔敬的,衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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17
plural
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n.复数;复数形式;adj.复数的 | |
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18
blessing
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n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿 | |
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19
miraculously
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ad.奇迹般地 | |
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20
superstition
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n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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converse
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vi.谈话,谈天,闲聊;adv.相反的,相反 | |
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22
salvation
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n.(尤指基督)救世,超度,拯救,解困 | |
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23
brazen
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adj.厚脸皮的,无耻的,坚硬的 | |
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24
mere
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adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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25
elevation
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n.高度;海拔;高地;上升;提高 | |
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26
withdrawn
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vt.收回;使退出;vi.撤退,退出 | |
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27
pathos
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n.哀婉,悲怆 | |
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beheld
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v.看,注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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29
ascending
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adj.上升的,向上的 | |
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30
descending
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n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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31
beatific
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adj.快乐的,有福的 | |
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32
perils
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极大危险( peril的名词复数 ); 危险的事(或环境) | |
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33
ecstasies
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狂喜( ecstasy的名词复数 ); 出神; 入迷; 迷幻药 | |
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34
wilderness
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n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠 | |
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35
imprisonment
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n.关押,监禁,坐牢 | |
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36
delightful
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adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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37
ministries
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(政府的)部( ministry的名词复数 ); 神职; 牧师职位; 神职任期 | |
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38
humiliation
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n.羞辱 | |
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39
Christian
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adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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40
fetters
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n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 );束缚v.给…上脚镣,束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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41
augury
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n.预言,征兆,占卦 | |
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42
dungeon
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n.地牢,土牢 | |
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43
drudgery
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n.苦工,重活,单调乏味的工作 | |
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44
tune
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n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整 | |
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45
brace
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n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
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46
loom
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n.织布机,织机;v.隐现,(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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47
looms
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n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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48
artistic
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adj.艺术(家)的,美术(家)的;善于艺术创作的 | |
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49
aesthetic
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adj.美学的,审美的,有美感 | |
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