The Compensatory Element in Life
Isaiah 27:8
In measure, when it shoots forth, you will debate with it: he stays his rough wind in the day of the east wind.


Plants of great splendour have usually little fragrance, and plants of much fragrance usually little colour; birds of brilliant plumage have no music, and musical birds little glory of feather; strong animals ordinarily lack speed, swift animals strength. Now that would be a very disordered state of things in which the brilliant plant ever grieved over its defect of sweetness, and the sweet flower its lack of colour; in which the bird of paradise should lament its vocalism, and the nightingale sigh over its plumes; in which the camel should fret its slowness, and the gazelle deplore its frailty. And yet this error is common to man. We look on the side of our limitations and bereavements, quite overlooking or undervaluing the particulars in which we are rich or strong.

(W. L. Watkinson.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

WEB: In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.




The Adaptation of Trial to the State of the Afflicted
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