SOME years ago, a lad happened to be staying at a lonely place on the sea coast. It was wintry weather, and the northwest wind drove the great waves in upon the shore with tremendous force. Upon a headland stood an old ruined castle, which our young friend particularly wished to see from the rocks on the shore, so he clambered along them towards it; bent upon reaching the point on which he had set his heart, he did not observe the quickness with which the sea was running in, and before he was aware, his retreat was cut off.
Then it was a question with him, “Shall I stay perched up upon a crag on the cliffs till the sea goes down about midnight, or shall I try and climb to the top? Well,” thought he, “it will never do to shiver here half the night”; so the climb began.
For a while all went well; he was getting on bravely as he thought. But he happened to take his eyes off the crags above, and to bend his head over his shoulder for a moment, just to see how far up he had reached. There was a piece of cliff jutting out at his feet, and then nothing more to be seen until the eye rested on the moving waves far down below. Not being accustomed to cliff climbing in stormy weather, upon looking down the young adventurer felt giddy, and began to question whether he had not better try to reach the ledge he had left at the first, and then to wait till the tide ran out.
But to descend he found was for him impossible. For, as any boy knows, it is far more difficult to climb down than to climb up. He dared not attempt it, one false step and he would have been hurled into the roaring sea below, which—by the time now spoken of—was beating against the bottom of the cliff. Then, in his perplexity, this lad learned the meaning of the two little words at the head of this paper, “Look up!”
“Look up!” said he to himself, “if you look down you must fall into the sea, and no one will know where you died.” So with eyes fixed on what was above him, and by pulling with his hands and setting his feet most cautiously, he managed, after a time, to reach a kind of shoulder within some few feet of the top. There a new difficulty presented itself. Those feet were almost upright. What was to be done? The cliff was of a kind of sandstone, but soft, so taking out his knife he cut two steps, and putting his feet firmly into them, managed to lay hold of a tuft of grass near the top with one hand. He then began cutting another step, when the blade of his knife broke short off at the handle.
What would you have done, my boy; for difficulties you must meet in this world of ours, and which, in their way, will be far worse than this which beset our young friend on those lonely cliffs? To have looked down then, or to have tried to go back would have ended in certain destruction. There was only one possible way before him: he remembered the little words, “Look up,” and by God’s goodness—though how he never could exactly say—found himself in safety upon the top of the cliff. After lying still for some minutes, during which he was thoroughly frightened, he pulled himself together, and returned to his temporary home.
The memory of that struggle comes back to his mind at times during life’s difficulties, and, thinking that the story may be interesting to some of our readers, he has recorded it for boys who love the Lord.
“Look up!” is our exhortation to you. You have entered upon a difficult path. Do not dare to look down: keep your eye steadily above. The Lord is before you: keep your gaze upon Him. The time will come in life when you will see no path before you at all, like the boy who tried cliff climbing. We do not want you to risk breaking your necks by like foolishness, but up the rugged cliff of life’s difficulties go you must, and where there is no path, and where you will often not know where next to put your foot. One step at a time, dear young friend—one step at a time for faith. Perhaps sometimes you will be so situated that you will not know where to place hand or foot, as it were, and that is just the time to look up. And at what time you are afraid, that is the time to trust in the Lord.
Be sure of this, many more fall and dishonor Christ, and bring bruises or, may be, lifelong ruin on themselves by turning tail than by anything else. Do not try to get out of the troubles which come upon you by doing God’s will; but go on, keep straight on, praying as you go. If you are a good climber, you know well enough that, though you hang on with your hands and cling with your feet, your eye does the work. The eye gives strength and firmness, as it were, to both hands and feet. In the difficulties of life the Christian works by his eye, he looks up, and the Lord strengthens him. God will give a steady foot so long as you keep your eye fixed on Him. Keep climbing on, and when you are brought to the top, and have surmounted your difficulty, do not forget to thank God.