Then, and not till then, shall we be ready for good service
in his name.
CHAPTER VIII.
MORAL CURVATURES.
"I think we are too ready with complaint
In this fair world of God's. Had we no hope
Indeed beyond the zenith and the slope
Of yon gray blank sky, we might grow faint
To muse upon eternity's constraint
Round our aspirant souls; but since the scope
Must widen early, is it well to droop,
For a few days consumed in loss and taint?"
--MRS. BROWNING.
Our Lord's miracles are parables in act. A woman came to him bent
almost double, and went away straight. The human form is made for
erectness. This is one of the marks of nobility in man, in contrast
with the downward bending and looking of other animals. Man is the
only creature that bears this erect form. It is a part of the image of
God upon him. It indicates heavenly aspiration, hunger for God, desire
for pure and lofty things, capacity for immortal blessedness. It tells
of man's hope and home above the earth, beyond the stars. Says an old
writer, "God gave to man a face directed upwards, and bade him look at
the heavens, and raise his uplifted countenance toward the stars." The
Greek word for "man" meant the upward looking. The bending of the form
and face downward, toward the earth, has always been the symbol of a
soul turned unworthily toward lower things, forgetful of its true home.
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