Through the long hours intervening,
It had waited his return,
And he felt his bosom burn,
Comprehending all the meaning,
When the blessed Vision said:
'Hads't thou stayed, I must have fled!'
'Be shod with sandals!' said the Master; so that at a moment's notice, you may slip them off to welcome the vision or slip them on to take to the road. The crest of the Baptist Missionary Society is a picture of an ox between a plough and an altar, while, underneath the symbols, are the words 'Ready for Either!' The ox is ready for service in the field or for sacrifice in the temple. Christ's minister stands between the glory and the majesty of things divine on the one hand and all the paths and the prose of human life on the other. He must be ready at any moment to enter into fellowship with the skies; and he must be ready at any moment to hurry forth to see a sick child, to comfort a broken-hearted woman or to share the burden of a man whose load is greater than he can bear. 'Be shod with sandals'; so that, whether the Revelation or the Road shall call, you are ready for either. The ministry is neither mundane nor monastic; the minister wears sandals that he may keep in touch with two worlds.
Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by;
They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,