"
--MARGARET E. SANGSTER.
The matter of shoes is important. Especially is this true when the
roads are rough and hard. We cannot then get along without something
strong and comfortable to wear on our feet. One would scarcely expect
to find anything in the Bible about such a need as this. Yet it only
shows how truly the Bible is fitted to all our actual life to discover
in it a promise referring to shoes.
In the blessing of Moses, pronounced before his death upon the several
tribes, there was this among other things for Asher: "Thy shoes shall
be iron." A little geographical note will help to make the meaning
plain. Part of Asher's allotted portion was hilly and rugged. Common
sandals, made of wood or leather, would not endure the wear and tear of
the sharp, flinty rocks. There was need, therefore, for some special
kind of shoes. Hence the form of the promise: "Thy shoes shall be
iron."
Even the Bible words which took the most vivid local coloring from the
particular circumstances in which they were originally spoken, are yet
as true for us as they were for those to whom they first came. We have
only to get disentangled from the local allusions the real heart of the
meaning of the words, and we have an eternal promise which every child
of God may claim.
Turning, then, this old-time assurance into a word for
nineteenth-century pilgrims, we get from it some important suggestions.
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