Isaiah 32:20 Blessed are you that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the donkey. Is there a word in our language which expresses more than that? What images of the good, the devoted, and the self-sacrificing does it not bring up vividly before us! We see Thomas Cranfield, the tailor, labouring among the bricklayers in the cause of Sunday schools; John Pounds, the cobbler, who founded ragged schools; Sarah Martin, the dressmaker of Yarmouth, the devoted visitor to the workhouse and the jail; and Thomas Dakin, the Greenwich pensioner and distributor of tracts. Among these, in the higher walks of life, we recognise Howard, the philanthropist, over whose grave, in Russia, was engraved the motto which kings might envy, "He lived for others"; Clarkson, Wilberforce, and a host of honoured statesmen; the Thorntons, and a multitude of other merchant princes; Washington and Wellington, and Havelock and Scott, who, while they were leaders in the armies of this world, were proud to be humble privates in the armies of the Lord of hosts. (J. N. Norton.) Parallel Verses KJV: Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.WEB: Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey. |
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