LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
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 Watkinson, W. L. 1838-1925 
 The duty of imperial 
 thinking 
 
(i 
 
 ^ 
 
 
THE DUTY OF 
 IMPERIAL THINKING 
 
The Duty of Imperial Thinking 
 
 and other Essays on Themes Worth While. 
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 Fleming H. Revell Company, Publishers 
 
^/ 
 
 The Duty of Imperial 
 
 Thinking /^ 
 
 AND OTHER CHAPTERS ON^'^''^' 
 THEMES WORTH WHILE 
 
 OCT 121923 
 
 // 
 
 WILLIAM L. WATKINSON, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "the BLIND SPOt," "THE BANE AND THE ANTIDOTE," 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
SECOND EDITION 
 
 Copyright, 1906, by 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York : 11; 8 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago : 80 Wabash Avenue 
 Toronto : 27 Richmond St.,W. 
 London : 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh : 100 Princes Strest 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. On Thinking Imperially . 
 
 II. The Ashes of Roses . 
 
 III. Fascination of Difficulty 
 
 IV. The Poles of the Moral World 
 V. The Sorrows of Superiority , 
 
 VI. The Divine Source of Redemption 
 
 VII. Put Yourself in His Place 
 
 VIII. The Charmed Life of the Frail 
 
 IX. The Dilemmas of Duty 
 
 X. The Tyranny of Time 
 
 XI. Subconsciousness 
 
 XII. The Divine Protestation 
 
 XIII. Specious Sin .... 
 
 XIV. The Forlorn Rescue . 
 XV. Secular Weapons in the Spiritual War 
 
 XVI. The Unnaturalness of Moral Surrender 
 
 XVII. The City : its Sin and Saviour 
 
 XVIII. The Moral of the Empty Grave . 
 
 XIX. Progressive Revelation .... 
 
 5 
 
 page 
 9 
 14 
 17 
 20 
 24 
 27 
 31 
 35 
 39 
 43 
 47 
 51 
 56 
 61 
 
 65 
 70 
 75 
 81 
 86 
 
6 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XX. Faddish in Faith and Character . . go 
 
 XXI. Defence and Defiance .... 94 
 
 XXII. Ploughing the Sands 99 
 
 XXIII. Elevation and Vision 104 
 
 XXIV. Elevation and Strength .... 109 
 XXV. Elevation and Safety 114 
 
 XXVI. Elevation and Peace 118 
 
 XXVII. Deferred Blessing 123 
 
 XXVIII. The Fatuity of Religious Indifference . 129 
 
 XXIX. The Sleeping Sickness . . . .135 
 
 XXX. The Efficacy of Joy 141 
 
 XXXI. A Human Document 147 
 
 XXXII. The Discipline of the Disagreeable . 152 
 
 XXXIII. Humility 157 
 
 XXXIV. Differentiations in Excellence . . 163 
 XXXV. Truth 169 
 
 XXXVI. Indirection i74 
 
 XXXVII. What we May Do towards our Salvation 181 
 
 XXXVIII. The Devil's Riddle 188 
 
 XXXIX. The Grand Goal and the Lowly Path . 195 
 
 XL. Passive Faith 202 
 
 XLI. Faith and Morals 206 
 
 XLII. Reality and Range in Christian Faith . 210 
 
 XLIII. The Condition of Righteousness . . 215 
 
 XLIV. Masked Perils of Spiritual Life and 
 
 Fellowship 220 
 
CONTENTS 7 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XLV. The Transformations of Grace . . 225 
 
 XLVI. The Graciousness of the Law . . .229 
 
 XLVII. Vicarious Faith 234 
 
 XLVIII. The Grandeur and Graciousness of God 238 
 
 XLIX. Spasmodic Piety 243 
 
 L. The Choir Invisible and Their Music . 249 
 
 LI. The Mercy of Mystery .... 254 
 
 LH. The Hour, and the Divine Deliverer . 259 
 
 Lin. The Implied Promise of Nature and Life 264 
 
ON THINKING IMPERIALLY 
 
 For Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work; I 
 ztrill triumph in the works of Thy hartds. O Lord, how great 
 are Thy works.' and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish 
 man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this. — Ps. 
 xcii. 4-6. 
 
 THE psalmist indulges in grand conceptions 
 and celebrations, which fill him with delight ; 
 he is enraptured with thoughts of God's 
 works and government. The brutish man and the 
 fool are incapable of these boundless and delightful 
 speculations: they are wholly occupied with narrow, 
 frivolous, sordid interests. 
 
 There is the larger thought that arises from the 
 contemplation of God's works. This rapturous passage 
 must contain a reference to the greatness and glory 
 of creation. The psalmist is alive to the beauty of the 
 earth, the wildness of the sea, the magnificence of 
 the heavens, and these appreciations enlarge his heart 
 and fill it with pure enthusiasm. Contemplating the 
 divine grandeurs of nature, he becomes oblivious to the 
 petty thoughts and cares of human hfe, and bathes 
 his soul in the infinite. 
 
 Never was there more pressing need of the larger 
 thought than to-day. Our age is specially materialistic, 
 
 9 
 
10 ON THINKING IMPERIALLY 
 
 industrial, mechanical, commercial, and we are steeped 
 in belittling, coarsening influences. The conditions 
 of modern life seem to forbid that a grain of poetry- 
 should be left in our brain, a spark of noble passion in 
 our heart. The ugly, the hard, the vulgar, and the vile 
 are the shades of our prison-house. What, then, is the 
 special antidote and compensation that heaven has 
 provided against this threatening deluge of materialism 
 and meanness? The age of secularism is also the age 
 of science. "God hath even made the one side by side 
 with the other." Side by side with the demoralizing 
 and dwarfing influence of intense material care and 
 passion are discovered sublime things and exquisite 
 things hidden from former generations. Lest an age 
 of tools should make us brutish, and an age of gilded 
 toys make us fools, God has reserved to us the tele- 
 scope, the spectroscope, the microscope, and other 
 rare instruments to keep us face to face with the 
 splendour and mystery of the world. 
 
 Do we duly avail ourselves of the gift of natural 
 knowledge vouchsafed to our generation? A few do, 
 and live in great thoughts; the majority do not, and 
 their brain and heart are choked with rubbish. Natur- 
 alists bewail the forlorn lot of the captive bird ; but the 
 far worse tragedy is that man himself is caged, his 
 humanity thrust into the narrowest intellectual and 
 sentimental range. It is sad to think how little this 
 glorious world means to the mass of us ! Weary and 
 sickened with ephemeral things, absurd ambitions and 
 pleasures, irritating trifles, disheartening commonplaces 
 of scene and experience, let us cultivate more the ob- 
 servant, adoring mood of the psalmist, and at once we 
 
ON THINKING IMPERIALLY 11 
 
 shall lose ourselves and find ourselves in the infinite 
 felicities and marvels of the divine hand. Only as we 
 delight in the work of God can we delight in our own 
 work and find rest to our soul. 
 
 Lift, then, your eyes on high and behold the eternal 
 lights, take the wings of the morning, brood over the 
 flower, chase the subtle splendour of minute life 
 through its secret hiding-places, revel in landscapes 
 chequered with glowing colours, listen to the solemn 
 music of the sea, and the weariness of life is gone. 
 "Give me a great thought," was the dying cry of 
 Schiller ; it is the agonizing cry of millions of the liv- 
 ing, only they do not understand the secret of their 
 discontent. Nature is a repository of the great 
 thoughts of God which science interprets, and in those 
 thoughts our soul walks at large — wonders, worships, 
 and sings. "The world is yours." Do not give nature 
 a passing glance, science an idle moment, but look 
 deeply and lovingly for the secrets of God's wisdom, 
 power, and love ; for, as Traherne puts it quaintly yet 
 profoundly : "You never enjoy the world aright till 
 the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed 
 with the heavens, and crowned with the stars; and 
 perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole 
 world." 
 
 There is, secondly, the larger thought which arises 
 from our study of the government of God and our 
 identification with the great causes that government 
 fosters. In a fine passage Quinet celebrates the day 
 on which he recognized his relation to the whole series 
 of the past ages : "I discovered that frail and circum- 
 scribed as I may be, had any form of humanity been 
 
U ON THINKING IMPERIALLY 
 
 wanting, I should have been other than I am. Old 
 Chaldea, Phenicia, Babylon, Memphis, Judea, Egypt, 
 Etruria, all have had a share in my education, and live 
 in me. Our individual life may seem circumscribed ; 
 but looked at as forming a part of the harmony of the 
 ages, it has a force and a meaning we have perhaps 
 little dreamt of." And it is only as we realize our 
 relation to the ages, to all who came before us, to all 
 who succeed us, striving to do our duty to the whole, 
 that we are conscious of dignity, strength, and satis- 
 faction. Thinking imperially, recognizing ourselves 
 in mankind, and becoming its helper, we taste a pure, 
 vast joy impossible to a life centred in mean egotism 
 and the narrow sphere of personal interests. 
 
 An essential way to redeem life from insignificance 
 and satiety is to identify ourselves with a great cause. 
 Mr. Sanborn writes thus of Thoreau : "The atmos- 
 phere of earnest purpose which pervaded the great 
 movement for the emancipation of the slaves gave to 
 the Thoreau family an elevation of character which 
 was ever after perceptible, and imparted an air of 
 dignity to the trivial details of life." Identification 
 with a great cause imparts elevation to the humblest 
 sincere and intelligent co-worker. One of the best 
 things arising out of political partisanship is that it 
 gives a touch of largeness to lives otherwise paltry 
 and squalid. Identification with the temperance cru- 
 sade, the cause of purity or mercy, or any other similar 
 movement, lifts men into a larger sphere and creates 
 a satisfying sense of the value and glory of life. A 
 great enthusiasm tends to make small men great, or, 
 at least to evoke the greatness that otherwise would 
 
ON THINKING IMPERIALLY 13 
 
 have remained latent. Best of all, let us recognize 
 in its fullness the government of God bringing in the 
 kingdom of Christ ; here we have the sum of all great 
 causes. To plan and pray for the establishment of 
 Christ's reign in the whole earth is indeed to think 
 imperially. Nothing small or mean can dwell in a soul 
 dominated by this great thought and fired by this sub- 
 lime passion. What many of us need, to forget our 
 sorrows, to banish our weariness, to overcome our 
 indifference and disgust with life, to fill our days with 
 poetry and romance, is to enlist in a great cause, to 
 serve our nation and race, to become workers in that 
 kingdom that ruleth all, and that ruleth all to the end 
 of filling the world with righteousness and peace. 
 "For Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy 
 work : I will triumph in the works of Thy hands." 
 Naturalists affirm that the size of the fish found in 
 Central Africa is subtly influenced by the dimensions 
 of the lake in which they live, the same species being 
 larger or smaller in proportion to the scale of their 
 habitat. Living in a small world, we men dwindle and 
 wither; but as knowledge and imagination, faith and 
 hope, make us citizens of a vaster universe, corre- 
 sponding characters of glory are imprinted on our 
 soul. 
 
II 
 
 THE ASHES OF ROSES 
 
 The fading Aower of his glorious beauty. — ISA. xxviii. i. 
 
 IN one of his nature-notes Mr. E. K. Robinson 
 suggests the construction of a floral thermome- 
 ter. "With us the convolvus can stand about 
 one degree more of frost than the dahha, and the 
 canary-creeper one more than the convolvulus; and 
 one might almost fill a large flower-bed with plants 
 arranged according to their cold-resisting powers, so 
 that on each morning of late autumn and early winter 
 one could see how much frost there had been the night 
 before by the plants that had suffered. " But he adds : 
 "When all was done, it would be only a gloomy pleasure 
 that one would derive from counting the deaths of 
 beautiful things." Yet in fact this is what we are ever 
 doing. The world at large is a prepared cemetery, and 
 we pensively mark the lapse of time by the vanishing 
 of dear faces and the fading of beautiful things. 
 
 The fairy days of childhood soon flit away as the 
 fairies do. Youthful love and beauty are grains of 
 gold lost whilst they glitter in the coarser sand-heap 
 of time's hour-glass. Bridal blossoms are as illusive 
 as the flowers of a dream. The season when our 
 children are about us is mockingly brief. The sweet 
 
 14 
 
THE ASHES OF ROSES 15 
 
 days and ambrosial nights of charming friendship 
 vanish with the rainbow and the falling star. The 
 perfection of our powers is the twinkling of an eye. 
 "All times of our wealth" are snowflakes on the river, 
 one moment white, then gone for ever. Hours of 
 glorious life are auroral gleams. Cherished things of 
 grace and joy perish in the using, as roses crumble 
 into ashes with the dew still upon them. Life is over 
 ere it is well begun, and the relics of its colour and 
 perfume are a few sober memories, as in the museum 
 at Cairo a handful of withered flowers gathered from 
 the coffins of the dead is all that remains of the 
 gardens of the morning world. And, once again, the 
 things and sensations which have eluded us cannot be 
 restored. It is fabled of Eastern magicians that they 
 can take the dust of a flower and by their incantations 
 restore it in phantom form as it was in life. But the 
 ghostly bloom could only be a pathetic reproduction — 
 the dyes, the lustre, the fragrance, all that constituted 
 the fashion and glory of the sweet original, have 
 perished. So by portraits, trinkets, letters, epitaphs, 
 and biographies we seek to perpetuate lost delights ; 
 but the aching heart tells how unavailing these tricks 
 are. The photograph of a rainbow, the ashes of a 
 rose, go only a little way to retrieve the lost glories 
 of heaven and earth, and no expedient of love or wis- 
 dom can bring back the light of other days. 
 
 Let us in the spirit of godliness realise all the gaiety 
 and glory of life. The fading flower of the text is the 
 symbol of pride, indulgence, and worldliness and its 
 end can only be bitter dust. So is it ever with unholy 
 loftiness, show, and jubilation. Verse 5 presents us 
 
16 THE ASHES OF ROSES 
 
 with a contrast to our text : "In that day shall the Lord 
 of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of 
 beauty, unto the residue of His people." Here glory 
 and beauty become consummate and perpetual. In 
 whatever sparkling things you delight, delight also in 
 the Lord. Take every lovely object and delectable 
 moment as gifts from His hand, enjoy everything in 
 His fear, let all be hallowed by His blessing, and the 
 succession of ephemeral pleasures shall enrich your 
 imagination, aflfections, and character with abiding 
 treasure and joy. Worn by a pure and devout soul 
 fading flowers become amaranth. 
 
 Be alert to realise all goodly things as they swim 
 past. The epicurean ought not to be the only one 
 to seize the ever-vanishing pleasures of sight and hear- 
 ing, of scent and taste, of intellectual rarities, of social 
 felicities, and to joy in the lovely things as bees riot 
 in the dust of beauty; it is the right and privilege of 
 the pure also to grasp fleeting joys and taste their 
 sweetness. To-day, whilst it is 'called to-day, rejoice 
 in whatever the day brings. Do not say, I will return 
 to this flower. It blooms only for a few sunny hours, 
 and then withers on its stem. As the Italians say: 
 "There is no rose of a hundred days." 
 
 My Lord, I find that nothing else will do, 
 But follow where thou goest, sit at thy feet. 
 And where I have thee not, still run to meet. 
 Roses are scentless, hopeless are the morns, 
 Rest is but weakness, laughter crackling thorns, 
 If thou, the Truth, do not make them the true: 
 Thou art my life, O Christ, and nothing else will do. 
 
Ill 
 
 FASCINATION OF DIFFICULTY 
 
 Hast thou entered the treasures of the snow, or hast thou 
 seen the treasuries of the hail? — ^Job xxxviii. 22 
 
 JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, returning to 
 the Alps from a visit to Venice, sat down to 
 write a history of avalanches, remarking, "In the 
 long run we really love the sternest things in life best." 
 Symonds's paradox expresses a deep and suggestive 
 truth. We see this in the young, with all their reputed 
 love of ease and indulgence. They leave the most 
 luxurious homes for voyages and campaigns which 
 imply almost incredible hardship and peril. The terri- 
 ble career is not forced upon them as upon a convict 
 or conscript; they deliberately choose it, they enter 
 upon it as gay as a bridegroom, and they do so with 
 full knowledge of its privations and sufferings. This 
 is a matter of everyday occurrence. They cheerfully 
 quit the primrose paths for steep and rugged ways, 
 every step in which means toil and may mean destruc- 
 tion. Our national history furnishes striking evidence 
 of this strange fascination. With the whole rich world 
 before them, our adventurous forefathers found Arctic 
 exploration specially alluring. In The Expansion of 
 England Seeley records this remarkable passion : "Our 
 explorers, naturally but unfortunately, turned their 
 attention to the Polar regions, and so discovered 
 
 17 
 
18 FASCINATION OF DIFFICULTY 
 
 nothing but frozen oceans, while their rivals (Spanish 
 and Portuguese) were making a triumphal progress 
 on from island unto island at the gateways of the sun." 
 Again, in our own day we have a fresh demonstration 
 in our Alpine climbers of this allurement of difficulty. 
 Not finding severity enough in their national pathway, 
 members of the rich and leisured class voluntarily seek 
 it where a very short step comes between them and 
 death. Like Symonds, they forsake enchanted Venice 
 and the gardens of Italy for the snowy altitudes of the 
 Alps, ice-gulfs, and the loose mountain trembling from 
 on high. Strange that it should be so, yet so it is. 
 Our fear of excessive cold is intense and inveterate; 
 scientists think it is a reminiscence of the awful 
 struggle of primitive man with the ice age: yet it is 
 overcome by the passion for difficulty, the instinct for 
 peril. At the thought of the edelweiss we forget all 
 the gay flowers of the field. 
 
 It is not difficult to justify this instinct for stern 
 things, for really we see at last that it is the instinct 
 of self-preservation, the preservation of our higher 
 self through the denial and discipline of our lower self. 
 The gilded youth dandled in the lap of luxury secures 
 his manhood by the wild daring of loss and difficulty — 
 by losing his life he saves it. Seeley says: "Our ex- 
 plorers unfortunately turned their attention to the 
 Polar seas, and so discovered nothing but frozen 
 oceans." Is that the whole truth ? Certainly no gold- 
 mines, precious stones, spices, or orchids are found in 
 these frozen regions ; yet we cannot be blind to the fact 
 that our national adventure there through many gen- 
 erations has proved a splendid discipline. In the end 
 
FASCINATION OF DIFFICULTY 19 
 
 the explorers who dared the Polar night discovered 
 something more than frozen oceans : they have secured 
 everything, even the glorious lands at the gateways of 
 the sun. And sad as the summer catastrophes of 
 Switzerland are, Alpine climbing may be the necessary 
 tonic of a rich civilization. One of the deepest instincts 
 of our nature teaches the preciousness of severity. 
 
 Life may easily become much too easy. We heard 
 the other day of a lady who, in mistaken compassion, 
 cracked a cocoon so that the butterfly might the more 
 easily escape; but when the pampered creature 
 emerged, it was sickly and colourless, and soon died. 
 The painful effort of escape was essential to its strength 
 and splendour. Through tribulations must we 
 struggle into the higher life of the spirit. We love to 
 review the treasuries of the sun, the wealth of soft 
 and lovely things : let us remember the treasuries of 
 the snow, the noble, holy, and beautiful issues of 
 sanctified hardship and sorrow. 
 
IV 
 THE POLES OF THE MORAL WORLD 
 
 Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done that 
 which is evil in Thy sight: that Thou niayest be justified zvhen 
 Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest. — Ps. li. 4. 
 
 IT is of first consequence that we clearly perceive 
 and steadily remember the fact of the absolute 
 and eternal antagonism of sin with the nature 
 and purpose of the Almighty. Once permit this great 
 truth to be obscured, and all moral life is relaxed. 
 And in certain quarters strenuous efforts are made to 
 obscure it. Poets and philosophers so speculate on 
 moral evil as to leave the impression that it is not 
 wholly illegitimate, but is in some sense and measure 
 a medium for the manifestation of God's will and the 
 agent of His purpose. One of this school argues that 
 evil and good are fundamentally identical, that they 
 constitute a "double-faced unity." At the very 
 moment of writing we notice in one of the reviews this 
 passage : "The mystery of evil owes its mysteriousness 
 chiefly to the incongruous attributes with which earlier 
 thought invested its author. Clear away these dis- 
 figurements, and the moral reproach of the mystery 
 will disappear with them, and evil, freed from all that 
 is malignant, may then find place in the divine scheme, 
 as a stern but faithful minister of its benign purpose." 
 
 90 
 
THE POLES OF THE MORAL WORLD 21 
 
 This is the profoundly false teaching we must resent. 
 Evil cannot be freed from all that is malignant. It is 
 no part of the divine scheme. It is no minister of the 
 benign purpose which dominates the creation. 
 "Against Thee have I sinned." This is the immense 
 truth to burn into the soul. 
 
 1. Sin is not from God. The Old Testament holds 
 this cardinal truth aloft, clear as noonday. "He is 
 the Rock, His work is perfect : for all His ways are 
 judgement: a God of truth and without iniquity, just 
 and right is He." The same teaching is everywhere 
 endorsed in the New Testament. "Let no man say, 
 when he is tempted, I am tempted of God : for God 
 cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempteth 
 no man." "Every good gift and every perfect 
 boon is from above," but the evil determination is 
 from within. Philosophers and mystics vainly dream- 
 ing discern the poison and malignity of evil first in 
 God ; they infer that it was part of His own substance, 
 and that the confusion of the world springs out of the 
 divine nature : revelation, however, knows nothing of 
 such notions. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness 
 at all." He is the Music that has known no discord, 
 the eternal Beauty who requires no foil and suffers no 
 blemish. Love that never touched a limit, Purity that 
 excludes temptation, Life undimmed by time's 
 shadow. It is the crowning blasphemy to implicate 
 God with sin. As John Howe says : "He could not be 
 the cause of unhfbliness but by ceasing to be holy." 
 
 2. Sin is not for God. "Against Thee." 
 
 Sin is contradiction, not misinformation. Not 
 merely lack of knowledge, but, as we see every day, 
 
22 THE POLES OF THE MORAL WORLD 
 
 it is committed in defiance of knowledge, the act of 
 sheer wilfuhiess. It is a deUberate assertion of our- 
 selves as against the supreme law which we perfectly 
 understand. 
 
 Sin is contradiction, not misdirection. We do not 
 so much miss the mark — we refuse to aim at it. It 
 is not that we take a false direction which is in some- 
 wise a variant of the true; we prefer one that leads 
 right away from the divine goal. "And they have 
 turned unto Me the back, and not the face." 
 
 Sin is contradiction, not imperfection. The child 
 is imperfect in relation to the man, the pupil in rela- 
 tion to the master; but the sinner is not after this 
 fashion an imperfect saint. He is not on the same 
 lines of development at all. He occupies an opposite 
 pole, not a lower stage. Sin is not the failure of one 
 striving upward, it is the denial of the heavenly vision. 
 
 Sin is contradiction, not contrast. Contrasts are 
 not contradictions. "Contrasts," says Martensen, "are 
 necessary differences which emerge from the essence 
 of the thing, and which mutually demand one another ; 
 but contradiction is that which is repungant to the 
 essence of the thing." Vice is not a necessary differ- 
 ence which emerges from the essence of righteousness ; 
 it is repugnant to that essence. It is opposition, not 
 differentiation. 
 
 Sin is contradiction, not privation. It is not merely 
 the absence of something, as darkness is the absence 
 of light ; it is also the presence of something, the posi- 
 tive assertion of the individual will against the com- 
 mandments of God. This will is the 'centre of person- 
 ality, and its decisions are of the essence of actuality. 
 
THE POLES OF THE MORAL WORLD 23 
 
 If there is anything real in our hfe, it is when we call 
 upon ourselves to resist or to obey the eternal law. 
 
 "The carnal mind is enmity against God." Sin is 
 rebellion against God's majesty. It is full of terrible 
 independence and ambition. It is the impeachment 
 of the divine wisdom. "The foolishness of God is 
 wiser than men," but the sinner does not think so: 
 he thinks the foolishness of man is wiser than God. 
 Whenever we sin, our inward thought is that our pro- 
 gramme is more rational than His. It is the denial of 
 the divine goodness. He who transgresses the law 
 believes that more good is gained by breaking than 
 keeping it : he denies the goodness of the law and the 
 love of the Lawgiver. It is unbelief in the divine truth 
 and justice. The transgressor secretly believes that 
 he shall eat and not die. Sin is the real, irreconcilable 
 antithesis. A "double-faced unity" ! Between the 
 two faces a wide gulf is fixed, and a wide gulf ever 
 yawns between those who serve God and those who 
 serve Him not. Heaven and hell express the "double- 
 faced unity" ; good and evil never come nearer together 
 than that, whatever gossamer bridge speculation may 
 spin between. 
 
THE SORROWS OF SUPERIORITY 
 
 Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird; the birds round 
 about are against her. — ^Jer. xii. 9. 
 
 WHATEVER may be the exact sense of this 
 passage, it serves to remind us that the 
 privileged character of Israel excited the 
 jealousy of surrounding nations, and in their faithful- 
 ness and unfaithfulness brought upon the chosen 
 people special sorrows. The birds round about were 
 against her because the colours of heaven streaked 
 her feathers. Every kind of superiority excites dislike 
 and invites attack. When Solomon bestowed gifts 
 upon the birds, the hoopoes received golden crowns 
 and flew away well satisfied with the distinction. But 
 the jealousy of their brethren and the cupidity of 
 man were so excited at the sight, that the hoopoes 
 went in constant fear of their lives, and in time re- 
 turned to their would-be benefactor and prayed him to 
 take away from them the possession which had become 
 so dangerous. The king listened to their supplication, 
 deprived them of the glittering crowns with which 
 he had adorned them, gave them instead crests f buff 
 feathers tipped with black, and so sent them away 
 
 24 
 
THE SORROWS OF SUPERIORITY 25 
 
 rejoicing. This fable is a parable of the exasperating 
 quality of excellence in all departments. An extra 
 splash of gold or purple on our wings awakens the 
 enmity of the commonplace. Victor Hugo hits the 
 nail on the head : "Truly, all success in this world is a 
 crime, and must be expiated." Schopenhauer reminds 
 us that we must not expect to make ourselves popular 
 in society by exhibiting intelligence and discernment, 
 for with the majority such qualities excite hatred and 
 resentment. To show your intelligence and discern- 
 ment is only an indirect way of reproaching others for 
 being dull and incapable. Intellectual ability is felt 
 as a piece of impertinence. A man may be as humble 
 as possible in his demeanour, and yet hardly ever get 
 others to overlook his crime in standing intellectually 
 above them. As Dr. Johnson testifies : "There is 
 nothing by which a man exasperates most people more 
 than by displaying a superior ability of brilliancy of 
 conversation." To be accepted by the stupid you must 
 conceal the Argus eyes and scarlet feather. The birds 
 round about do not take kindly to the speckled bird 
 of genius. 
 
 This antipathy is most pronounced in relation to 
 moral and spiritual excellence. The world loves its 
 own, and is shy of heavenly characters not well com- 
 prehended. Joseph is an outstanding illustration of 
 this. It was not so much the coat of many colours 
 that rendered him a speckled bird hated of his brethren, 
 as the pure and lovely moral qualities of which the 
 variegated tunic was a sign. "Joseph is a fruitful 
 bough, a fruitful bough by a fountain; his branches 
 run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved 
 
26 THE SORROWS OF SUPERIORITY 
 
 him and shot at him and persecuted him." Thousands 
 to-day are conscious of this isolation, and find it hard 
 to bear. An old writer wittily observes : "Let those 
 who would be singular be very virtuous." Many are 
 thus nobly singular, and those about them resent it. 
 Sometimes in the home circle fine character excites 
 dislike, and the household is ready with taunt and 
 persecution. In business, decided Christian lives may 
 provoke unfriendliness and embitter the days of clerk, 
 assistant, or workman. And in public afifairs serious 
 goodness is apt to irritate the community, and the 
 singularity of uncompromising truth and purity is 
 denounced. If genius offends, grace much more 
 offends; if brilliance of intellect arouses resentment, 
 pure goodness not rarely evokes positive malignity. 
 This enforced solitariness of life is not easy to bear, 
 and it brings special temptation and peril. Whatever 
 we may be to the world, let us not be a speckled bird 
 against God, as Israel came to be. Find the grace 
 which enables the bird of purity to defy the birds of 
 prey. Seek His fellowship and strength who trod the 
 winepress alone. He knew best what such loveliness 
 meant. 
 
 Single, yet undismayed, I am ; 
 
 I dare believe in Jesu's name. 
 
VI 
 
 THE DIVINE SOURCE OF 
 REDEMPTION 
 
 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, thai 
 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom 
 I am chief. — i Tim. i. 15. 
 
 CHRIST JESUS came into the world." The 
 salvation of man — that is, his deliverance 
 from the debasing element, the destroying 
 element — is from above ; it is directly divine and super- 
 natural. Christ came into this world, descended from 
 a higher sphere, that He might renew this. 
 
 Man cannot save himself. God never does any- 
 thing for us that we can do for ourselves. He never 
 gave a system of philosophy. The universe is before 
 us, and we are left to our intelligence to frame a 
 reasonable explanation of it. He never gave us a sys- 
 tem of government. We were left to discern by 
 reflection and experience the laws which determine 
 human welfare. He never gave us a system of science. 
 We were left to puzzle out for ourselves the problems 
 of nature. What we are capable of doing God leaves 
 us to do, although we may serve a long apprenticeship 
 of thought and suffering before we attain the necessary 
 proficiency. But we could not save ourselves, and 
 
 27 
 
28 THE DIVINE SOURCE OF REDEMPTION 
 
 therefore God has stepped in to deliver us by a mighty 
 act of extraordinary grace. He has acted in the moral 
 kingdom as He does not in the intellectual and social 
 development of the race, the reason being that we have 
 a natural power adequate to the situation, but not a 
 moral power. The Incarnation was the stoop of God 
 to do for mankind what it could not do for itself. 
 
 There is no poiver of redemption within the race. 
 Men prate about doing without God, yet they cannot 
 lift themselves out of the mud without Him. In the 
 street we see an acrobat stand upright, another in- 
 stantly leaps upon his shoulders, another on his, per- 
 haps a fourth mounts higher still on the human ladder, 
 and one might think that they meant to scale the 
 heavens ; but this kind of thing comes to an end long 
 before they touch the morning star. Some think that 
 a similar trick may be tried in another sphere, and 
 accomplish the elevation of the race. The school- 
 master is to mount the sturdy shoulders of the trades- 
 man, the politician is to support himself on both, the 
 scientist is to carry upward the imposing column, and 
 lastly the aesthete must crown it with his light, grace- 
 ful figure, and together they will raise society into the 
 seventh heaven of perfection. But these admirable 
 combinations go no farther in the moral world than 
 they do in physics. If society is to be lifted to high 
 levels, it will be by a hand out of heaven. 
 
 There is no law of salvation operative in the world. 
 God does not do that in one way which He has already 
 done in another. Many think there is a law of healing 
 in the world— silently, slowly, but really curing the 
 maladies which afflict us; a law of uplifting — silently, 
 
THE DIVINE SOURCE OF REDEMPTION 29 
 
 slowly, but irresistibly exalting the race to the stars. 
 If this were the case, if God had already implanted 
 a law of salvation in the world, He would not do over 
 again what He had already done in creation. The 
 fact that Christ came into the world proves that there 
 is no natural redemption. 
 
 Whenever men are saved it is by the intervention 
 of superior strength and goodness. It is so with the 
 individual sinner. He is helpless, often painfully help- 
 less, until directed, encouraged, and assisted by noble 
 friends. They take him in hand, instruct him, smooth 
 his way, until he recovers himself. "The impotent 
 man answered Jesus, Sir, I have no man, when the 
 water is troubled, to put me into the pool." Picture 
 of the impotent sinner in all generations ! It is the 
 same with the debased classes : if they are saved, help 
 must come from without. Left to themselves, to the 
 policeman, the pawnbroker, and the publican, they 
 would rot from year to year. Only as men and women 
 of superior education and character come to the rescue 
 is there any hope for them. To the East End of Lon- 
 don Oxford sends its culture, South Kensington its 
 pictures, the West End its music, Westminster its 
 politicians, all Churches their messengers and chari- 
 ties. There is hope for the lapsed classes only as the 
 wise, the rich, the kind, and the godly come to their 
 aid. 
 
 It is the same with fallen nations — they never raise 
 themselves. A writer of distinction says : "The civili- 
 zation of America once lost was never recovered till 
 help came from without, in the shape of European 
 intercourse and colonization. To be isolated is plainly 
 
30 THE DIVINE SOURCE OF REDEMPTION 
 
 to lose the power of recovery, and the longer the 
 isolation the more profound will be the decay." The 
 higher nations must save the lapsed nations. 
 
 It is the same with the race — it can no more lift 
 itself out of the slime than a person, class, or nation 
 can. The salvation of humanity depended upon a 
 superior Power coming to its rescue and working 
 out its redemption. "Christ Jesus came into the 
 world." How did life originate upon this planet? 
 The grass, trees, flowers, birds, animals, whence came 
 they? What was the origin of the first mysterious 
 seeds which held within themselves these various forms 
 of life and beauty? Lord Kelvin believes that 
 meteoric stones are seed-bearing agents, and that it 
 is not improbable that these aerolites first brought to 
 us the seeds of vitality and loveliness from distant 
 worlds. It may be so. The law of the cosmos may be 
 that living worlds vitalize dead worlds. So the Son 
 of God descended from the celestial universe that He 
 might bring into this realm of death and despair all 
 those glorious truths, influences, and hopes which are 
 making the desolate sphere to blossom as the rose and 
 to shake like Lebanon. 
 
VII 
 PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE 
 
 And I sat where they) sat. — Ezek. iii. 15. 
 
 IN the first instance Ezekicl was withdrawn from 
 the multitude. He reports, "The Spirit took me 
 away" : removed him to the river Chebar, where 
 in his solitude he had visions of God. But he could 
 not be permitted to remain thus isolated. He must 
 forsake the solitude of the cell, and mix with the 
 throng of the captives. It was essential to the success 
 of his ministry. Unless he did this, all the visions of 
 his solitude were in vain. Is not, then, the great truth 
 most graphically taught here, that if we are to help 
 men we must in some sense associate ourselves with 
 them, identify ourselves with them? Science emphat- 
 ically denies what is known as "action at a distance." 
 That one body may act upon another at a distance, 
 through a vacuum, without the mediation of anything 
 else, scientists declare to be an absurdity. A thing 
 cannot act where it is not. That one body should 
 operate upon and affect another body without mutual 
 contact is inconceivable. But if this principle of dis- 
 tant action is impossible in the material universe, it is 
 even less so in the spiritual realm. One soul can move 
 another only by mutual contact. 
 
 31 
 
32 PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE 
 
 Only as we enter into personal relations with men 
 do we realize their sin and misery. "Then I came 
 to them of the captivity, . . . and I sat where they 
 sat, and remained there astonished among them seven 
 days." During that week was he realizing the great- 
 ness of the sin and misery of the people? Was it this 
 that filled him with astonishment? Henry Drummond, 
 after close contact with inquirers, writes : "Such tales 
 of woe did I hear that I felt I must go and change my 
 very clothes after the contact. Oh, I am sick with the 
 sins of men! How can God bear it?" Only in hos- 
 pital wards does the student attain any adequate 
 knowledge of disease ; and only whilst dealing imme- 
 diately with fallen and suffering men and women can 
 we realize the actuality and awfulness of human 
 iniquity and wretchedness. 
 
 Only as we mingle with the sinful and the sad do 
 we sympathize with them. "I went in bitterness, in 
 the glow of my spirit." Ezekiel came to the captives 
 boiling with wrath because of their idolatries ; but as 
 he "sat where they sat," did not sympathy with the 
 sinners mingle with his horror of their sin ? The glow 
 of pity and love was kindled as well as the glow of 
 indignation. We cannot bless men unless we love 
 them, unless from our heart we commiserate them ; 
 and this is possible only when through actual contact 
 we really know their misfortunes, disabilities, tempta- 
 tions, and sufferings. 
 
 Only as we become one with sinning men and classes 
 do we understand how to help and save them. "And 
 it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the 
 word of the Lord came unto me." Then and there 
 
PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE 33 
 
 did Ezekiel understand his mission, receive his 
 message, and begin his ministry. Only then was he 
 fit, only then was he competent. 
 
 "I sat where they sat." Is not this the philosophy 
 of the Incarnation? In Hades, says Homer, except 
 the shades first drink blood they can neither speak 
 nor recognize the living. And it was only as the Son 
 of God descended from the heavenly sphere and be- 
 came the Son of Man, that it was possible for Him 
 to work out our redemption, "Forasmuch then as the 
 children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Him- 
 self likewise took part of the same." "Wherefore in 
 all things it behoved Him to be made like unto his 
 brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful 
 high-priest." And all great helpers of the race have, 
 in a very real sense, followed this supreme example, 
 and sat with the prisoner and the slave, the drunkard 
 and the harlot, the poor and the needy, the sick and the 
 dying. 
 
 The reformer must keep this lesson in mind. He 
 will never comprehend the people through an opera- 
 glass, or succour them from a balloon. The philan- 
 thropist also must observe this law : action at a distance 
 leaves him uninformed, misinformed, and minus the 
 genuine enthusiasm of humanity. The educationalist 
 must not forget this principle. A little child is a big 
 mystery, and only they who seat themselves on the 
 lowly bench enter into the children's hearts and needs, 
 and they alone are competent to teach, guide, and bless. 
 The preacher above all must come very near to those 
 whom he would serve. "I have learned more," said 
 Bishop Christopher Wordsworth, "in sick-rooms, and 
 
34 PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE 
 
 from poor and simple folk, than from all the books 
 which I have read." So much preaching is sounding 
 brass and a tinking cymbal because it lacks human 
 sympathy. "One form of preparation for the pulpit 
 would add immeasurably to its power. That is the 
 training gained by a more intimate acquaintance with 
 life. If the preacher only knew, it is precisely in visi- 
 tation, in close contact with souls, that he would find 
 the best possible material for his work. This is the 
 hunting ground of all the great masters of emotion." 
 This witness is true. The true orator is said to enter 
 at his opponent's door and to bring him out at his; 
 he first meets him on common ground, and then per- 
 suades him to his own conclusions : so if we would 
 bring men out at the door of heaven, we must begin by 
 sitting where they sit, by being one with them in those 
 touches of nature which make the whole world kin. 
 
VIII 
 THE CHARMED LIFE OF THE FRAIL 
 
 When I am weak, then am I strong. — 2 Cor. xii. 10. 
 
 A LL naturalists are impressed by the tenacious- 
 / \ ness, immunity, and successfulness of frail 
 X JL creatures and things. That which at first sight 
 seems to have Httle if any chance of survival in the 
 mighty elemental war mysteriously lives and prevails. 
 Sir J. W. Dawson again and again refers to this strik- 
 ing phenomenon. "Mountains become ephemeral 
 things in comparison with the delicate herbage which 
 covers them, and seas are in their present extent but 
 of yesterday when compared with the minute and 
 feeble organisms that creep on their sands or swim in 
 their waters." "A superficial observer might think the 
 fern or the moss of a granite hill a frail and temporary 
 thing as compared with solid and apparently everlast- 
 ing rock. But just the reverse is the case. The plant 
 is usually older than the mountain." Darwin was 
 similarly impressed by the security and triumph of 
 frail things. Writing of a sea-weed which he saw on 
 the shores of South America, he proceeds : "I know 
 few things more surprising than to see this plant grow- 
 ing and flourishing amidst those great breakers of the 
 western ocean, which no mass of rock, let it be ever so 
 hard, can long resist." Bending to the current without 
 breaking, they withstand impetuous tides which would 
 
 35 
 
36 THE CHARMED LIFE OF THE FRAIL 
 
 uproot the largest trees, and roaring seas which the 
 rock itself cannot resist. And on the same coast the 
 great naturalist wondered at the clouds of frail butter- 
 flies which passed his ship far out at sea ; just as a more 
 recent traveller marvelled to find the same winged 
 beauties fluttering with impunity on bleak, wind-swept 
 mountain heights of nearly eighteen thousand feet. 
 
 Kay Robinson shares in the astonishment of these 
 distinguished observers. "It is a curious thing that 
 the extremes of heat and cold seem to be most easily 
 endured by the flimsiest creatures. What is it that, 
 when the frost is splitting our strongest metal water- 
 pipes, protects the tiny tubes of life-giving moisture 
 in the almost spectral organism of a gnat? Larger 
 things get frost-bitten and perish. In tropical countries 
 the tiniest insects brave the blistering midday heat 
 which shrivels the larger herbage, and drives men, 
 birds, and animals gasping under shelter. In India a 
 small blue butterfly flits all day about the parched 
 grass or sits in full blaze of the sun, where metal or 
 stone becomes so hot that it burns the hand. What 
 heat-resisting secret resides in the minute body of that 
 little butterfly, scarcely thicker than notepaper? 
 Nature's power of preserving life touches the 
 miraculous." 
 
 The saints have the least reason to be afraid when 
 they most feelingly recognize their utter weakness and 
 dependence. He who puts into the most delicate forms 
 of animal and vegetable life such secrets of resistance 
 or evasion, fortifies the heart of His feeblest children 
 with sublime increments of vitality and victory. Does 
 sickness or misfortune reduce us to insignificance? 
 
THE CHARMED LIFE OF THE FRAIL 37 
 
 Precious are the privileges of insignificance, as we may 
 see everywhere in the lowly forms of nature. "More 
 surely than the eagle escapes the arrow, the animal- 
 cule escapes being crushed." Do the bitter blows of 
 life destroy our confidence in our own understanding 
 and sufficiency, and leave us nothing but to wait and 
 trust? Sings the old poet, "Love's passives are his 
 activ'st part" ; and truly the soul is never more magnifi- 
 cently strong and safe than when tribulation, shutting 
 it up to simple love and trust, causes it to behave itself 
 like a weaned child. 
 
 In submission, contentment, gentleness, humility, 
 and patience the sovereign energy of love asserts itself 
 as rarely in action. The active and passive virtues are 
 two sides of one shield, but the deep significance of 
 our Lord's life is that the passive graces constitute 
 the golden side. Gentleness, long-suffering, and en- 
 durance are of the essence of the divinely great and 
 heroic. Do the sorrows and severities of life feelingly 
 persuade us of our frailty, and bow us to the earth? 
 We prevail by yielding, we succumb to conquer, like 
 those sea-flowers which continue to bloom amid the 
 surf when the rocks are pounded. In acquiescence and 
 diffidence, in yieldingness and clinging, do we triumph, 
 as the fern survives geological cataclysms and the 
 butterfly the blizzard. 
 
 In celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles the Jews 
 are required to make their booths sufficiently frail that 
 the stars may be seen through them : thus through the 
 rents of the body and the dislocations of circumstance 
 are we kept face to face with the claims and hopes of 
 a higher world, and the fragile booth in which we 
 
38 THE CHARMED LIFE OF THE FRAIL 
 
 painfully dwell is a safer refuge than the walls of iron 
 and gates of brass of a carnal security. The humbled, 
 bruised soul is far from conceits and presumption. 
 There is a temper of bravado, a jingoism of life, of 
 which we may well stand in fear; but the habitual 
 sense of our own nothingness before God, and of our 
 entire dependence on His grace, is a state of salvation, 
 a presage of full and final victory. 
 
IX 
 THE DILEMMAS OF DUTY 
 
 In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant; when my master 
 goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he 
 leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rim- 
 mon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord 
 pardon thy servant in this thing. And he said unto him. Go 
 in peace. — 2 Kings v. 18, 19. 
 
 IN the main the path of duty is sufficiently clear, 
 but not always. Baffling situations arise, and 
 it is difficult to determine what is right and best. 
 And the more sterling the character, the more likely 
 are these delicate questions to arise. The majority 
 are not troubled about bowing in the house of Rimmon 
 because they grovel before the idol ; but there is a 
 bewildering zone to every sensitive soul, a twilight 
 region of conflicting duties. The subject is by no 
 means academical. A complex civilization tends to 
 multiply ambiguous situations, and we could easily 
 compile a considerable list of the singular positions in 
 which godly men find themselves, and of the curiosi- 
 ties of compromise into which they enter. Dean Farrar 
 remarks on this passage : "The only rule which sincere 
 Christians can follow is to have no truce with Canaan, 
 no halting between two opinions, no tampering, no 
 compliance, no connivance, no complicity with evil — 
 
 39 
 
40 THE DILEMMAS OF DUTY 
 
 even no tolerance of evil as far as their own conduct is 
 concerned. No good man, in the light of the gospel 
 dispensation, could condone himself in seeming to 
 sanction — still less in doing — anything which in his 
 opinion ought not to be done, or in saying anything 
 which implied his own acquiescence in things which he 
 knows to be evil." 
 
 But these excellent commonplaces do not help us. 
 The fact remains that various evils are subtly inter- 
 woven with the very fabric of society, and the most 
 delicate situations and problems of duty arise. Life 
 is charmingly simple when we dwell in a cottage in a 
 vast wilderness; but let us make the immense initial 
 compromise of entering into society and its manifold 
 relations, and a train of compromises is inevitable — 
 compromises which often impinge on morals and 
 religion. In medical, legal, military, political, and 
 commercial life, righteous men find themselves in 
 positions in which, to say the least, they are uncom- 
 fortable, and where they are required to act in a way 
 that goes against the grain. In this sadly disordered 
 world pious men are confronted by problems of con- 
 duct apparently as insoluble as the squaring of the 
 circle. They can cut the knot by getting out of the 
 world; but if they are to abide in their calling, they 
 are entangled by associations which in certain particu- 
 lars conflict with their faith and feeling. 
 
 On the whole, Elisha thought it best for Naaman 
 to continue with his Syrian master. "Go in peace." 
 Farrar thinks that Elijah would have refused this 
 sanction, but there is no reason for this supposition. 
 St. Paul in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (viii. 
 
THE DILEMMAS OF DUTY 41 
 
 1-13) agrees with Elisha. "We know that an idol is 
 nothing in the world." The process of reasoning by 
 which the apostle justified the Christians who ate meat 
 offered to idols would excuse Naaman bowing in the 
 house of Rimmon and justify the judgment of the 
 prophet. On the whole, taking all their circumstances 
 into consideration, it is sometimes better that godly 
 men should suffer certain social compromises than 
 that they should violently and abruptly sever them- 
 selves from the familiar circle of life and duty. We 
 say, "suffer" certain social compromises, for if they 
 desired or welcomed them the whole case would be 
 changed. 
 
 In dealing with a dilemma of duty let us not forget 
 the extreme seriousness of any kind of concession to 
 unrighteousness or ungodliness. Even when for the 
 sake of "the present distress" we permit the compro- 
 mise, our feet stand in slippery places. Charles Reade 
 justly discriminates on this delicate matter : "Mr. 
 Eden's anxiety to be back among his prisoners in- 
 creased daily, but his nurses would not hear of it. 
 They acted in concert, and stuck at nothing to cure 
 their patient. They assured him all was going well in 
 the prison. They meant well ; but for all that, every 
 lie, great or small, is the brink of a precipice the depths 
 of which nothing but Omniscience can fathom," 
 Christian men will not lie, yet that reserve and finesse 
 which the situation demands incline to the same brink 
 of peril, and so do most other compromises. 
 
 Remembering the inevitableness of compromise, let 
 us be comforted in the fact that perfect sincerity on 
 our part implies a rare gift of discrimination. "There 
 
42 THE DILEMMAS OF DUTY 
 
 are instincts for all crises," and no doubt, entirely 
 truthful souls possess wonderful intuitions of leading. 
 The single eye ensures a body full of light. Every- 
 thing, however, must not be trusted to mystic insight 
 and impulse; a cultivated judgment ought to accom- 
 pany entire sincerity. "And this I pray, that your love 
 may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in 
 all judgment." Survey the whole situation, weigh 
 conflicting claims in delicate balances, exercise a prac- 
 tical judgment on particularly perplexing questions, 
 and the Spirit of God will not permit us greatly to err. 
 Having come to a thoughtful and prayerful conclusion, 
 for the rest "think noble thoughts of God," who will 
 render you immune in half-lawful places, and in His 
 good time and wonderful working lead you out of 
 them. It may be that we suffer these painful com- 
 promises in the interest of larger and higher issues, as 
 Naaman's continuance with the Syrian gave the true 
 religion a standing in an idolatrous court: the tares 
 were spared in the interest of the wheat. Our spirit 
 and action, too, in ambiguous situations may furnish 
 more impressive evidences of our integrity than sharp, 
 definite paths of duty can evoke. And the zone of 
 dubiety and suspense implies precious discipline. 
 Make the Divine Spirit your counsellor, and He shall 
 guide into the whole truth. 
 
X 
 THE TYRANNY OF TIME 
 
 In your patience ye shall win your souls. — Luke xxi. 19. 
 
 IT is easy to become impatient in regard to the 
 development of our own character. Whilst sin- 
 cerely and earnestly striving to outUve our faults, 
 and attain a worthier life, we are sometimes almost 
 heartbroken by the absence of any striking signs of 
 progress. Yet it is unreasonable to lose hope and 
 courage. The growth of any seeker after a high ideal 
 will seem slow to the enthusiastic mind, and when we 
 aim at a lofty moral ideal we must specially remember 
 the stubbornness of constitutional faults to which 
 heredity has perhaps given the sanction of centuries. 
 Our improvement may be real whilst it is impercep- 
 tible. An artist recently took at short intervals a 
 hundred photographs marking the various stages of a 
 rapidly growing plant. Now, it would require a fine 
 eye to distinguish progress in the successive pictures 
 of the long series : so imperceptible would be the 
 changes of the plant, that any two closely following 
 plates would be indistinguishable, and progress 
 would be evident only when somewhat distant pictures 
 of the series were compared. Yet personally we often 
 lose heart by comparing our present selves with our 
 
 43 
 
44 THE TYRANNY OF TIME 
 
 moral and spiritual history of yesterday. How impos- 
 sible to gauge moral movement! But even when 
 onward and upward movement is really slender, has 
 not modern thought recognized the immense import- 
 ance of even the most trifling variation? H we are 
 living rightly, the deepest changes are being silently 
 wrought in the depths of our nature, and the faintest 
 of these is a cause for infinite gratitude. The plant 
 was steadily on its way to the consummation of its 
 glorious flower, even when the photographic film failed 
 to register its too delicate progress ; and with true men 
 the soul grows in the power of holiness, even when 
 crude self-examinations fail to discover the delightful 
 transformation. No impatience will accelerate the 
 unfolding of flower or soul, it can only retard. Nor 
 let us be impatient with the circumstances which dis- 
 cipline character; God knows best how long the gold 
 ought to remain in the furnace, how long the jewel 
 must suffer the grinding of the wheel. 
 
 We become weary waiting for the renewal of the 
 world. Yet the kingdom of God is coming, however 
 deeply sometimes its development may be veiled. 
 Nature moves slowly, advancing by hairs'-breadths, 
 augmenting by the scruple. If we had lived on this 
 earth from its very beginning until now, we should 
 have thought it standing still, so tardy its action and 
 minute the individual result; but if we recall the 
 geological age when not a plant was on the earth, and 
 then compare that barren epoch with the modern world 
 blushing like a rainbow with ten thousand flowers, it is 
 patent after all that the development of the planet has 
 gone on unrestingly, however silently and deliberately. 
 
THE TYRANNY OF TIME 45 
 
 It is the same with the history of civiHzation. Had we 
 Hved through the long ages since man first appeared 
 on the earth until now we should have thought him 
 ever standing still, so gradual and insignificant have 
 been the successive changes and transformations of 
 which he has been the subject ; but compare the flint 
 instruments, the rude vessels, and the grotesque deco- 
 rations of a primitive kitchen midden, with the splendid 
 treasures of an International Exhibition, and the prog- 
 ress is as indisputable as it is glorious. So with the 
 spiritual development of the race ; we cannot mark 
 the steps of its onward march, but the moral barbarism 
 of the ages by fine degrees, which escape our eye, 
 passes into the pure splendour of the millennial world. 
 "What is to last for ever takes a long time to grow." 
 
 We must be struck with the spirit of patience dis- 
 played everywhere in the New Testament. The 
 patience of our Lord is remarkable. Isaiah prophesied 
 of Him : "He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He 
 have set judgment in the earth : and the isles shall 
 wait for His law." Nothing is more wonderful than 
 the serenity of our Lord in the prosecution of His 
 great mission. His zeal was a flaming fire, and His 
 desire to see the travail of His soul in the establish- 
 ment of His kingdom of universal righteousness and 
 peace was intense, with an intensity into which we 
 cannot enter ; but the calmness with which He carried 
 out His purpose was that of the measured and majestic 
 movements of nature. Never flurried nor betrayed 
 into the agitation of hurry, but whilst kindling with 
 sublime and mighty enthusiasm He proceeded to fulfil 
 His destiny without haste and without pause. The 
 
46 THE TYRANNY OF TIME 
 
 same spirit of tranquil confidence animated the apos- 
 tles. "Strengthened with all might, according to His 
 glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering 
 with joyfulness." Because they exulted in glorious 
 power they were patient and long-suffering. 
 
 In these days of feverishness and haste our eye is 
 too much on the clock. Rae, writing of The White 
 Sea Peninsula, alleges that in all the hundreds of 
 Russian peasants' huts, cottages, and houses that he 
 visited every one had a clock, yet he saw only one 
 going. Wise people ! It is well to remember that we are 
 children of time; but the agitation and tension of 
 watching the clock are not good for us in any sense, 
 least of all in relation to spiritual things. Let us do 
 our duty, and do it with confidence. When the Duke 
 of Wellington saw a painting of Waterloo which rep- 
 resented him sitting on horseback with a watch in his 
 hand anxiously scanning the hour, the great soldier 
 ridiculed the picture, declared the posture false, and 
 told the artist to paint the watch out. No battle is 
 won with a watch in our palm. The victory over our 
 own nature, the victory that overcometh the world, 
 are gained in patient faith and endeavour. The vic- 
 tory of Christ, and the setting up of His kingdom over 
 all the earth, will be achieved, not as against time, but 
 in quietness and confidence. 
 
XI 
 SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 
 
 Their inward thought is. — Ps. xlix. ii. 
 
 YES, this is what we want to get at — our real 
 spirit, belief, sympathy, purpose — that which 
 lies hidden in the inmost recesses of the soul. 
 Modem thinkers are much interested in what is known 
 as the Philosophy of the Unconscious. They maintain 
 that in our bodily organism distinct wills and ideas 
 exist of which our higher consciousness is uncon- 
 scious. And not only so, but distinct mental elements 
 and processes exist which do not report themselves in 
 the higher consciousness. Below consciousness is a 
 dim realm of obscure ideas, reasonings, impulses, and 
 purposes — a realm which by the great majority of men 
 is almost entirely unsuspected. And this nebulous 
 region is not confined to our psychic and intellectual 
 nature, it also underlies and seriously influences moral 
 and spiritual life. In the text the psalmist glances at 
 this dark, inchoate deep where seethes the stuflf of 
 which character and destiny are ultimately made. 
 
 "Their inward thought." That is not the thought 
 we express to those about us ; the idea of the psalmist 
 is that the outer life is another thing to the thought. 
 Our talk ignores it, or sophistically misrepresents it. 
 If ever telepathy becomes a science and thought-read- 
 
 47 
 
48 SUBSCONSIOUSNESS 
 
 ing a fact, they will disclose unpleasant contradictions 
 between the inward thought and the profession. But — 
 and this is of yet greater consequence — the inward 
 thought is not merely undivulged, it often remains 
 obscure and unavowed to those who cherish and obey 
 it. The real wish and passion lie like guilty secrets in 
 subterranean chambers rarely visited ; occasionally the 
 bull's-eye exposes for a moment the foolish, vile, or 
 vulgar imagining hidden there ; but, as a rule, our 
 eyes are averted from that which will not bear think- 
 ing about. 
 
 Is not envy the worm in the bud? We should be 
 ashamed to confess that the secret of our severe 
 strictures on some we criticize is this base canker of 
 envy : indeed, it is by no means clear to us that jealousy 
 does discolour our judgments, when it is a fact, never- 
 theless. Is not ambition at the bottom of our action? 
 We cunningly persuade ourselves that we are actuated 
 simply by sincere motives, whilst the "inward thought" 
 cowering in the dark corner dreams only of personal 
 aggrandizement. Is not malice from time to time the 
 chief factor in our hostility to our fellows? We dare 
 not formulate to ourselves the mean motive, it is 
 speciously disguised, yet rancour is of its essence. Is 
 not the inner thought covetousness ? A selfish, miserly 
 soul alone explains our conduct; but we elude the 
 truth, never once permitting expression in conscious- 
 ness or speech of the sordid passion which governs us. 
 Is not the inner thought sensual? We delicately veil 
 the animating appetite, yet the core is rottenness. The 
 sleight of hand and cunning craftiness by which we 
 deceive others are clumsy trickery compared with the 
 
SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 49 
 
 deft conjuring by which we deceive ourselves. We 
 shrink from giving expression to the "inward 
 thought" ; it is too impoHtic, preposterous, disgraceful. 
 South has a famous sermon, "On the Fatal Force of 
 Words" ; but there is also a saving force in words, and 
 when impulses, moods, and inclinations are brought 
 up from the underworld into the daylight and frankly 
 interpreted, it is a great gain. We are, however, not 
 courageous enough to define and disavow the vague 
 thing, and so it continues to lurk with "the shadows of 
 the caverns of man's mind." 
 
 Yet the unspoken, unrealized thought is the most 
 potent factor in character; the real belief and motive 
 determine and mould life. A French naturalist has 
 recently shown that the invisible morphological char- 
 acters of plants and animals are more influential in 
 deciding the future of the species to which they belong 
 than the visible characters are. What the microscope 
 searches out means more to the future of the flower 
 or creature than do its obvious characteristics. And 
 we may truly say that the secret things of the human 
 heart are more fateful than anything appearing on the 
 surface. The hidden sympathies of the soul silently 
 yet masterfully sway the whole course of life. 
 
 (What is described as probably the largest meteorite 
 known in the world, recently arrived in New York. 
 It was brought from the coast of Greenland by Lieu- 
 tenant Peary. On the cruise home the presence of this 
 magnetic iron in the hold of the ship afifected the com- 
 pass, and whenever there was bad weather and the 
 mariners had to depend on dead reckoning they could 
 not keep their course. So the "inward thought" in 
 
50 SUBSCONSIOUSNESS 
 
 the depths of the personality imparts a bias to the 
 mind, confuses the judgment, cajoles the conscience, 
 paralyses the will, and makes the life to swerve from 
 the line of godliness and righteousness. The first stage 
 in all eccentricity of character and irregularity of life 
 is this secret inward leaning. 
 
 Remember that God knows "the inward thought," 
 and judges it, and us by it. "Thus saith the Lord; 
 Thus have ye said, O house of Israel ; for I know the 
 things that come into your mind, every one of them." 
 He sees us as we sit "each one in the chambers of his 
 imagery." "He knoweth our thought afar ofif," in its 
 remote, embryonic conception. Let us deal with our- 
 selves in the secret places of fancy and desire. The 
 wish behind the thought, the inclination behind the 
 resolve, the unconscious intention, the secret, cherished 
 affinities out of which all dubious actions and courses 
 of life spring — these origins and breeding-places of 
 character and action call for searching and candid 
 oversight and discipline. We must carry the illuminat- 
 ing, purifying process right back here. "Behold, Thou 
 desirest truth in the inward parts : and in the hidden 
 part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom." 
 
XII 
 THE DIVINE PROTESTATION 
 
 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith 
 the Lord God; and not that^ he should return front his ways, 
 and live? — Ezek. xxviii. 23. 
 
 OUR conception of God is most influential. If 
 we know Him as "a hard man," it means one 
 thing; if we recognize Him as equitable and 
 generous, it means another, and a very different thing. 
 The one entails bondage of mind, discouragement, 
 paralysis ; the other is a precious inspiration. The 
 whole argument of Ezekiel is designed to set forth 
 God as just and generous; not condemning the son for 
 the sin of his father, but dealing with each according 
 to his own conduct, and even after he has sinned of 
 opening a way of recovery. 
 
 I. The constitution of the world gives its sanction 
 to the text. Nature does not invite us to destroy our- 
 selves. Certainly poisonous elements may be extracted 
 from the plants which grow about us. From the laurel 
 we may distil prussic acid, from the gay poppy derive 
 opium and laudanum; the juice of the hemlock is 
 deadly ; decoctions of various herbs torment and de- 
 stroy ; and some plants are immediately and wholly 
 fatal. Yet this is not the prevailing character of 
 vegetation. One of the ancient kings who took to 
 
 51 
 
E% THE DIVINE PROTESTATION 
 
 gardening filled his grounds with poisonous plants; 
 but the aspect of nature does not suggest that its 
 Creator was animated by that sinister spirit. Nature is 
 not a devil's paradise. The commons are not covered 
 with a venomous sward, our gardens are not planted 
 with poison flowers, nor are the forests thick with 
 upas-trees. If we so resolve, we can find opium and 
 strychnine; but leagues of green grass, orchards full 
 of odorous blossom, millions of lilies, carnations, and 
 roses, tell only of sweetness, health, and gladness, and 
 of the loving spirit and purpose of Him who created 
 all these things. Nature is on the side of righteous- 
 ness and life. George Sand thus addresses a corre- 
 spondent: "Nature, you think, fixes the limits herself, 
 and prevents us from indulgence in excess. Ah ! but 
 no, she is not wiser than we who are part of herself." 
 Nature is wiser. We are not part of nature : if we were 
 we should not be guilty of excess ; the foolish intem- 
 perance by which we destroy ourselves has no place in 
 nature. We possess faculties which differentiate us 
 from nature and raise us above it, and the misuse of 
 these faculties degrades us below the beasts which 
 perish. If we recognize and obey the great laws of 
 truth and beauty which are the laws of nature, we shall 
 live and not perish. "I have no pleasure at all in the 
 death of the sinner" is written in letters of glory on 
 nature's front. He who inspired the Mosaic legisla- 
 tion — "When thou buildest a new house thou shalt 
 make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not 
 blood upon thine house if any man fall from thence" — 
 first observed the humane law in the building of the 
 world. 
 
THE DIVINE PROTESTATION 53 
 
 2. The constitution of society declares the divine 
 graciousness. The mistaken reasoners in Ezekiel's 
 day argued that the law which bound man to man, 
 one generation to another, was a cardinal source of 
 human misery. The fathers having eaten sour grapes, 
 the children's teeth were set on edge. Yet it is clear 
 enough that the social law was designed for our welfare 
 and not our loss. A party of Alpine climbers is usually 
 roped together, and this arrangement sometimes in- 
 volves its common destruction; yet the design of the 
 expedient is manifestly benevolent, for on the whole 
 the mutual attachment is helpful and protective to the 
 climbers, steadying them in dangerous moments and 
 giving them a general sense of safety. It is much the 
 same with tbe social law. The bands which bind us 
 together may prove disastrous — the father dragging 
 down the son, the husband the wife, the son the house- 
 hold, one friend another. But the obvious design of 
 the law was the common good and salvation. Our 
 mutual bonds — civic links of steel, friendship's jewel- 
 beaded cords of silk, love's threads of gold — are 
 so fashioned that we may steady and strengthen one 
 another in scaling the difficult slopes of progress, and 
 that we may together reach the crystal heights and 
 blue heavens of individual and social perfection. The 
 tender yet tenacious ties binding us into brotherhood 
 eloquently declare that God loves us and ever 'contem- 
 plates our safety and delight. And Ezekiel is strong 
 in his assurance that, whatever evils the social law may 
 entail in this life, it is never permitted to drag souls 
 into the abyss. "The more, the merrier," is a familiar 
 but true description of the social law. "As I live, saith 
 
54 THE DIVINE PROTESTATION 
 
 the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the misery and 
 damnation of men" ; and the divine asseveration is 
 gloriously borne out as we see Him setting the solitary 
 "in solemn troops and sweet societies," that he may 
 know the immunity and inspiration of brotherhood. 
 
 3. The constitution of our own nature demonstrates 
 the beningnity of the divine purpose. The fundamental 
 and essential instincts, faculties, and forces of our 
 nature are on the side of righteousness and life : our 
 reason is, our conscience and nobler affections are. 
 Danger there is, and ever must be, where freedom is; 
 but everything jconsonant with liberty has been done 
 to safeguard us. The miner must descend the shaft, 
 and work where the insidious fire-damp may reach 
 him ; yet science provides him with a safety-lamp, and 
 before entering the pit legislation locks the lamp lest 
 unwittingly he should expose himself to peril. If, then, 
 the collier carries a private key and unlocks the lamp 
 to light his pipe, perishing miserably in an awful 
 explosion, the fault is altogether his own. Is not this 
 a parable of our human nature and situation? What 
 is the conscience but the candle of the Lord declaring 
 the perilous thing, place, or hour? And what are 
 reason and the nobler instincts but safeguards of the 
 divine light? We must do violence to ourselves, as a 
 rule immense and repeated violence, before we destroy 
 ourselves. "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am 
 tempted of God." It is writ large over all our structure 
 and spirit that God willeth not the death of a sinner. 
 
 4. The graciousness of divine providence furnishes 
 impressive proof of the saving design. In Catherine 
 Furze occurs this passage : "Destiny delights in offer- 
 
THE DIVINE PROTESTATION 55 
 
 ing to the wicked chances of damning- themselves." 
 If by "destiny" is meant nature, providence, or God, 
 nothing can be more untrue. The fact is the direct 
 opposite. We can find abundant opportunities to ruin 
 ourselves if we are intent upon doing so; but we must 
 seek or make opportunity, it is not thrust upon us. To 
 charge nature or life with delighting in offering to us 
 chances of damning ourselves is as incorrect as to 
 affirm that London Bridge delights in offering to 
 passengers the chance of drowning themselves. If 
 drunk or mad, they may drown themselves ; but they 
 must leave the path and climb the parapet : it is pal- 
 pable that the thoroughfare was constructed for con- 
 venience and safety, and not to solicit suicide. Human 
 life is not arranged on the principle of giving us plenty 
 of opportunities to damn ourselves. It is surprising 
 how rare temptation is whilst we live a normal life, 
 intent only on work and duty. "Lead us not into 
 temptation." Graciously and wonderfully is that 
 prayer answered, and the poor helpless creature hidden 
 from the dread occasion. 
 
 5. The whole system of revelation and redemption 
 is the final and overwhelming proof of the divine grace. 
 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should 
 not perish but have eternal life." "As I live, saith the 
 Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the 
 wicked." The Cross of Christ is the embodied oath 
 of the Almighty, and it ought to banish unbelief and 
 fear from every guilty breast. 
 
XIII 
 SPECIOUS SIN 
 
 There is a zvay which seemeth right unto a man, but the 
 end thereof are the ways of death. — Prov. xiv. 12. 
 
 AWAY seemingly straight, but really fatal"; 
 
 /\ "the beginning of the way is straight, the end 
 jL jL of it is death." The figure is that of a jour- 
 ney, in which the traveller imagines that he is pursuing 
 a straight path that will lead him to his desired goal 
 of success and happiness, but finds, too late, that it 
 leads to ruin. The thought of the proverb is the illu- 
 sive character of the godless and immoral life. 
 
 When impiety and wickedness are disguised by 
 decorum and taste, it is easy to mistake the false path 
 for the true. Guilty lives are worked out on very 
 different lines. The wickedness of some is vulgar and 
 ghastly in the extreme : no effort is made to disguise 
 or soften it; it is bad in form as in essence; it imme- 
 diately disgusts all right-thinking people. There is 
 the less danger that such a course should be mistaken 
 for the right one. But it is altogether different with 
 others whose life is equally in the wrong. Whatever 
 these may do is marked by decency, everything is in 
 good taste, they are even dainty and elegant, their 
 haunts and habits are invariably refined; they may 
 
 56 
 
SPECIOUS SIN 57 
 
 forget God and His law, but they never forget that 
 they are gentlemen. Yet the result is identical ; the 
 two courses, so superficially unlike, are inevitably and 
 similarly disastrous. Whether worked out with refine- 
 ment, or flaunted in ways impudent and offensive — 
 selfishness, licentiousness, or worldliness equally de- 
 stroys the soul. In tropical forests trees grow whose 
 branches are infested with parasitic growths, some of 
 which blossom into gorgeous flowers, whilst others 
 develop loathsome fungi and cankers ; yet, flowers or 
 cankers, both live upon the vitality of the tree and 
 equally destroy it. 
 
 So there are transgressors whose mode of life is 
 exempt from all grossness — sometimes, indeed, their 
 manners are even brilliant and fascinating; whilst the 
 excesses of others are wholly coarse and brutal : but, 
 aesthetic or revolting, unrighteousness is equally fatal 
 to character and destiny. Society is little ruffled by 
 the polite or brilliant wickedness which matches the 
 mistletoe or orchid, whilst 'it indignantly resents con- 
 duct suggestive of the sickly fungi ; but He who knows 
 all the secret working of disobedience on the mind and 
 character of the transgressor realizes full well that sin, 
 whether decorous or vulgar, is in essence one, and that 
 the common issue is death. The couch of impurity is 
 not less leprous because of its spices ; the virus of 
 malice is not attenuated when it distils from the lips 
 like honey; a lie loses nothing of its malign quality 
 when uttered in dainty speech or written on scented 
 paper ; selfishness mindful of ceremony blights as when 
 brutally frank ; the grace of the thief does not redeem 
 the infamy of his dishonesty ; and intemperance veiled 
 
58 SPECIOUS SIN 
 
 with discretions kills as certainly as the excess of the 
 gutter. Sin loses nothing of its virulence by losing its 
 grossness. 
 
 When truth and righteousness are cunningly 
 blended with error and vice we may easily be deceived. 
 In a goldsmith's window in one of our cities may be 
 read this notice, "Artificial gems set in real gold." 
 This advertisement expresses one of the most serious 
 perils of human life — the close and confusing associa- 
 tion of truth and error, good and evil, godli- 
 ness and hypocrisy. To deal with what is wholly 
 erroneous and evil requires little discernment, and 
 involves less peril ; but false gems set in pure gold 
 are the masterpieces of temptation. Bad doctrine 
 vindicated in real eloquence; immoral principles dis- 
 guised in splendid poetry; licentious life glorified in 
 masterly fiction; selfishness enforced by philosophical 
 maxims; equivocal courses sanctioned by brilliant 
 names; sensual pleasures gilded by aesthetic refine- 
 ments; ungodliness linked with love and friendship; 
 and base policy justified by Scripture — these, with 
 similar admixtures and associations, are among the 
 subtlest perils of life, and they especially abound in 
 modern life. It is exactly here, where evil is mixed 
 with good, and where it is thus made to wear innocent 
 and seductive aspects, that the soul stands in special 
 jeopardy. During the past year or two there has been 
 an extraordinary crop of Alpine accidents, and in 
 several instances these arose from a disregard of the 
 dangers of a grass slope. The inexperienced moun- 
 taineer thinks that a grass slope must be safe, and, 
 setting his foot on the inviting green, discovers that it 
 
SPECIOUS SIN 69 
 
 is every bit as dangerous as the ice, if it be steep and 
 terminate in a precipice. The short Alpine grass is 
 remarkably slippery, and many a tourist who has safely 
 negotiated rock and glacier has fallen a victim to the 
 treacherous slope where the verdant patch and moun- 
 tain flower tempt the climber. We are comparatively 
 safe when a thing is nakedly evil and a situation con- 
 fessedly dangerous ; but the pure gold reconciles us to 
 the spurious gem, and the green slope, with an edel- 
 weiss at the top and a precipice at the bottom, lures us 
 to our doom. 
 
 We may easily be deceived by the glamour with 
 which evil is frequently invested. Imagination, 
 passion, fashion, often wonderfully transform and 
 glorify forbidden things. In South America and else- 
 where are mountain ranges distinguished by extraor- 
 dinary colouring. If an immense quantity of scarlet, 
 vermilion, and yellow ochre paint were made to gush 
 over the rocks^ it could not produce a more brilliant 
 depth of colouring than nature has spontaneously 
 created. They are known as "The Painted Rocks," 
 because they are decorated by reds, purples, greens, 
 and yellows in marvellous mixtures. But these moun- 
 tains have nothing except their brilliant colouration. 
 Scarcely a lichen or moss grows on their surface, and 
 the precious metals are never found in them. This 
 curious aspect of nature is exactly representative of 
 many of the evil things, places, and practices which 
 abound in human society and life; they are seductive 
 to the imagination, whilst utterly worthless and dis- 
 appointing. Carmel with its flowers, Lebanon with 
 its cedars, or Hermon with its snows, is gloomy and 
 
60 SPECIOUS SIN 
 
 disappointing compared with the gaudy hues of the 
 glowing slopes up which the devil lures his victims. 
 "The dark mountains" of obvious and cruel evil are 
 less dangerous than these mounts of satanic trans- 
 figuration. 
 
 We shall be led into the right path if we are perfectly 
 sincere and serious, vigilant and willing to make every 
 sacrifice that truth may require at our hands. The 
 Spirit of God waits to teach, guide, and save us — to 
 give us real gems set in pure gold, to bring us into 
 green pastures which have no precipices. Are we 
 willing to follow the royal path ? 
 
XIV 
 THE FORLORN RESCUE 
 
 Scarcely saved. — i Peter iv. 18. 
 
 MARK RUTHERFORD, in one of his books, 
 indulges in this just reflection : "Do not 
 those of us who have been mercifully pre- 
 vented from damning ourselves before the whole 
 world, who have succeeded and triumphed — do we not 
 know, know as we hardly know anything else, that our 
 success and our triumph were due to superiority in 
 strength by just a grain, no more, of our better self 
 over the raging rebellion beneath it? It was just a 
 tremble of the tongue of the balance; it might have 
 gone this way, or it might have gone the other, but by 
 God's grace is was this way settled — God's grace, as 
 surely, in some form of words, everybody must ac- 
 knowledge it to have been." He who does not feel 
 the truth of this reflection cannot have marked very 
 Carefully his experience, and he is one who stands in 
 special peril. The righteous are vividly conscious 
 of the fact that more than once they escaped by a hair's 
 breadth. Such are the weakness and folly of human 
 nature that our salvation is rendered possible only in 
 the infinite power and grace of God, 
 
 The evolutionist knows that in the great struggle 
 
 61 
 
62 THE FORLORN RESCUE 
 
 of nature competitive forms are so evenly balanced 
 against each other that the slightest advantage deter- 
 mines the successful plant or animal. Darwin's words 
 are these : "A grain in the balance may determine 
 which individuals shall live and which shall die ; which 
 variety or species shall increase in number, and which 
 shall decrease or finally become extinct." "A grain in 
 the balance." Very astonishing is the vast part that 
 the grain plays in deciding the mighty fortunes of 
 nature. It has been said somewhat reproachfully that 
 the modern mind is "drunk with the microscope" ; but 
 careful experiment shows that he who does not know 
 the little does not know the much, that "man's biggest 
 organs are his atoms," and that in nature generally 
 the minute is almighty : "the retired sphere of leasts" 
 turns out the sovereign sphere. The presence or ab- 
 sence of the grain in the balance is equally decisive in 
 society. That which determines between the success- 
 ful and the unsuccessful, the rich and the poor, the 
 famous and the forgotten, is often singularly insignifi- 
 cant — a mere particle. So the moral triumph of man 
 repeatedly seems due to superiority in strength by just 
 a degree, only that. "Scarcely saved." The saint of 
 fairest reputation is humble, knowing how nearly he 
 escaped failure ; he is full of charity for the fallen, 
 because he feelingly remembers how his own feet were 
 almost gone and his steps had wellnigh slipped. 
 
 The special lesson we would now enforce is the 
 immense importance of any gain whatever in the 
 religious life. Many Christian people do not appre- 
 ciate this fact, and accordingly despise the minute 
 accessions of light and strength secured by daily 
 
THE FORLORN RESCUE 63 
 
 study, vigilance, and effort. Because our increase in 
 knowledge and energy is so slight as to be impercepti- 
 ble, we neglect the opportunities which promise so 
 little. If we received sudden and splendid bursts of 
 light, if our character blazed out in memorable trans- 
 figurations, if our work straightway bore a hundred- 
 fold, we should be satisfied ; but the atomic increment, 
 the slight happy variation in our experience, and added 
 grain or cell of life and force, are lightly esteemed. 
 It is a mistake. The minute gain of daily faithfulness 
 is in its significance immense. The naturalist tells us 
 that some flowers are curiously sensitive to a single 
 degree of cold more or less ; let the thermometer drop 
 just half a degree too much, and the glories shrivel 
 up black and dead as though they had passed through 
 a furnace. The fatal "half-degree" is the thing to 
 escape or withstand. What havoc will the half-degree 
 of intensified trouble and temptation work in the 
 experience of the weak ! On the contrary, how blessed 
 are those who, a little stronger, can successfully defy 
 heightened trial! Truth, a trifle more clearly dis- 
 cerned ; faith, enhanced as by a grain of mustard seed ; 
 love, clinging by an added tendril ; and hope, the 
 anchor of the soul, somewhat more surely biting the 
 solid ground, mean much in the history of a soul. 
 
 Let us take to heart the fact that the working out 
 of our salvation is a serious thing, attended by infinite 
 difficulty. We are familiar with peril in our natural 
 life. The fury and lightning of the storm, the dangers 
 of the sea, the chances of war, the perils of the mine, 
 the risks of locomotion, the snares of machinery, the 
 threatenings of fire, violence and epidemic, with many 
 
64 THE FORLORN RESCUE 
 
 other sources and agents of destruction, beset our 
 path, and only by constant circumspection do we 
 escape, if we escape at all. There is far more tension 
 of awareness in our natural life than at first appears. 
 Yet the peril of the soul is certainly not less ; and the 
 best are conscious that they have nothing of which to 
 boast. Whilst we believe we are compelled to plead. 
 "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." The 
 dread occasion of temptation leaves us humbled by 
 the knowledge that we were saved yet so as by fire. 
 The recurrent sense of personal frailty feelingly re- 
 minds us of the jeopardy in which we walk. The stress 
 of trial, sorrow, and mystery perpetually extorts the 
 cry, "Save, Lord, or we perish." A commentator is 
 well within the truth who declares : "That any single 
 believer comes off at last victorious against so great 
 apparent odds is to be accounted for only on the prin- 
 ciple that what with men is impossible is possible with 
 God." The most thrilling rescues of fire-ladder or 
 lifeboat are dull metaphors of the wonderful deliver- 
 ances of the soul from sin and hell. Heaven must 
 have held its breath several times over the best of us. 
 Let us, then, take care that henceforth we put our 
 whole soul into the work of its own salvation : despis- 
 ing nothing, neglecting nothing. There is no telling 
 in our spiritual life with what vast consequences 
 microscopic gains are fraught, or what tragedies the 
 lack of those gains may entail. The atom becomes a 
 spiritual rock which guarantees our salvation ; the 
 grain turns in our favour the balances of eternity. 
 
 Oh, the little more, and how much it is! 
 And the little less, and what worlds away! 
 
XV 
 
 SECULAR WEAPONS IN THE 
 SPIRITUAL WAR 
 
 BeaS, your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks 
 Mto spears; let the weak say, I am strong. — Joel iii. lo. 
 
 WE are always disposed to think that what- 
 ever is wonderful, delightful, or specially 
 efficient is a long way off and very hard of 
 attainment, when all the time it is not improbably close 
 to us, a familiar association. Last summer several 
 fatal accidents were reported from the Alps occasioned 
 by the gathering of edelweiss. People suppose that 
 it is a rare and valuable plant flourishing only in inac- 
 cessible places, and near to the snow-line ; whereas 
 naturalists assure us that it is one of the easiest raised 
 plants that exist : it can be readily grown in a London 
 back garden, a penny packet of seed constituting the 
 whole of the necessary outfit. So the mountain flower 
 is stripped of romance; or, to speak more accurately, 
 the glamour of the Swiss hills is transferred to a 
 London back garden. The greatest possibilities are 
 close at hand, latent in things familiar and common- 
 place, or working unsuspectedly in the ordinary inci- 
 dents and experience of everyday life. Our text sug- 
 gests an illustration of this. In the plowshare and 
 
 65 
 
66 WEAPONS IN THE SPIRITUAL WAR 
 
 pruning-hook are potential weapons of victory, and in 
 the simple rustic a hero. What we now wish to note 
 is the marvellous power of salvation that dwells in 
 common things and duties. 
 
 When we consider the methods by which we are, or 
 may be, defended from temptation, we think chiefly of 
 a mystic armour of light, of a supernatural hedge 
 planted about us, of celestial horses of fire and chariots 
 of fire ; and we are apt to forget to what a large extent 
 the grace of God acts through familiar things and 
 relations, and that, duly sanctified, the weapons of 
 moral victory are the commonplace tools already in 
 our hands. Sir Oliver Lodge recently wrote thus: 
 "It may surely without unorthodoxy be held that 
 there are two ways of overcoming sin and sinful ten- 
 dencies — one the direct way, of concentrating attention 
 on them by brooding and lamentation; the other, the 
 indirect and, as I think, the safer and more efficacious 
 and altogether more profitable way of putting in so 
 many hours' work per day, and of excluding weeds 
 from the garden by energetic cultivation of healthy 
 plants." We may not neglect the sighings of a contrite 
 heart, or ignore the supernatural grace which 
 strengthens penitent men; but we need to remember 
 also the indirect defence and blessing of daily sancti- 
 fied human duty. Do not envy or expect the ordnance 
 of Milton's war in heaven ; plowshares supply en- 
 chanted blades, pruning-hooks, ethereal spears, and the 
 magic panoply in which the good fight is best waged 
 is the unadorned but consecrated paraphernalia of 
 ordinary human life. 
 What a source of moral salvation is the home! That 
 
WEAPONS IN SPIRITUAL WAR 67 
 
 our house is our "castle" is a familiar boast; yet it is 
 far more of a castle than we sometimes think. Home 
 life properly hallowed is a citadel of the soul, a maga- 
 zine of martial resources against the spiritual war. It 
 is a mainstay of Mansoul amid beleaguering hosts of 
 darkness. Drinking at its pure fountain, we lose our 
 taste for stolen waters. Its simplicity and purity are 
 charms against a garish world. Its exquisite relation- 
 ships call forth the noblest qualities of the soul. Its 
 unity is strength for good. Its joys and sorrows im- 
 part a brightness and tenderness which are a glory to 
 our nature, and upon the glory a defence. Whenever 
 we think of "the whole armour of God," let us remem- 
 ber that the domestic institution is a very considerable 
 and precious piece of it. The home is a royal fortress. 
 The hearthstone a rampart. The fender a brazen 
 wall. Its pots and pans, helmets and greaves of brass. 
 Its decorations, the sheen of polished arrows. Its 
 utilities, bows and slings and coats of mail. "They 
 hanged their shields upon thy walls round about ; they 
 have made thy beauty perfect." Who can justly esti- 
 mate the moral efficacy of the home altar, of its round 
 table, of its little library, of its sacred grave! With- 
 out war-paint, and with the very least of the pomp 
 and circumstance of glorious war, the weakest amongst 
 us in the consecrated domestic armoury may boast, "I 
 am strong." 
 
 What a safeguard is work! The tendency of legiti- 
 mate business, pursued in the right spirit, is to foster 
 what is best in our heart and life. To a certain extent 
 work is good because it occupies the time and engages 
 the mind. All the world is alive to that terrible peril 
 
68 WEAPONS IN THE SPIRITUAL WAR 
 
 of mischief which besets the vacant mind and empty 
 hands. One of the current reviews writing on "The 
 City of Enchantments," proceeds : "In Naples and its 
 enchanting environs, the softness of the cHmate and 
 the richness of the soil have been the curses of an indo- 
 lent and superstitious people. . . . The women 
 do the work ; the men loaf about their orange-gardens, 
 lounge over their nets, or sleep away the hours of the 
 sunshine. . . . It is a melancholy look-out, and 
 the dry rot of inveterate indolence seems inherent in 
 the race." 
 
 Moreover, work is good, not merely because it 
 occupies time, but also as it tends to secure the sanity 
 and health of the soul. It keeps us in touch with 
 reality, and thus excludes the subjectivity and senti- 
 mentality which constitute the medium of temptation; 
 it brings with it a sense of obligation and restraint 
 which is always salutary; and in manifold ways occu- 
 pation is a discipline and tonic to the whole being. 
 The unhealthiest trade is less dangerous than no task 
 at all. Dr. Stiles, an eminent scientist of the United 
 States Agricultural Department, claims to have discov- 
 ered "the germ of laziness," which he declares is chiefly 
 responsible for the abnormal laziness existing among 
 the poor white people in some of the Southern States. 
 Alas ! this malady has spread far beyond the poor whites 
 of the Southern States ; its victims abound everywhere, 
 and truly deplorable are its consequences. "The germ 
 of laziness" is one of the very worst of the species ; 
 it generates endless mischief, it is at the root of 
 many of the mighty evils which afflict society, and 
 the doctor will indeed prove a benefactor to humanity 
 
WEAPONS IN THE SPIRITUAL WAR 69 
 
 if he can discover an anti-toxin for this pestilent 
 microbe. 
 
 We are often impressed, when visiting an arsenal 
 or military exhibition, with the display of firearms, 
 swords, lances, and bayonets, of ominous mitrailleuse 
 and mortar, shot and shell ; whilst we forget the un- 
 rivalled power and virtue of the humble instruments 
 of industry which are in the hands of the million. The 
 scythe, spade, crowbar, axe and hammer, trowel, yard- 
 stick, weights and measures, and a thousand other 
 implements of common industry are mighty weapons 
 of a glorious war ; for with these tools of toil we rout 
 alien armies of vice and folly. Work is apt to be a 
 rough friend ; yet we have no truer friend, nor one 
 more really helpful. Working clothes worthily worn 
 are as heroic as khaki, and the daily victories won in 
 shirt sleeves are not less significant than those of 
 warriors with garments rolled in blood. If we would 
 be safe from the assaults of evil, we must sanctify and 
 improve the common relations, duties, and diversions 
 of life, and we shall forge out of them shield and 
 helmet, sword and breastplate. The ninth verse of 
 this chapter gives a rousing summons : "Prepare war." 
 The original signifies hallozv zvar, that is, make it holy. 
 Let "Holiness unto the Lord" be written on the bells 
 of the horses, and the pots in the Lord's house be like 
 the bowls before the altar, and we shall be safe from 
 the fear of evil. 
 
XVI 
 
 THE UNNATURALNESS OF 
 MORAL SURRENDER 
 
 Moreover, thou shalf say unto them, Thus sdlth the Lord; 
 Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not 
 return f — ^Jer. viii. 4. 
 
 THAT the difficulties of return to a better life 
 are real and formidable must be frankly 
 owned. In losing ground spiritually and 
 morally we place ourselves at a great disadvantage; 
 what is easily lost is recovered painfully. Difficulties 
 which arise both within and without are to be reckoned 
 with. 
 
 Difficulties arise within the backsliding soul itself 
 which are not easily overcome. As Drummond points 
 out, "The penalty of backsliding is not something 
 vague and arbitrary, but the consequences are already 
 marked within the structure of the soul. The punish- 
 ment of degeneration is the atrophy of the spiritual 
 nature. It is well known that the recovery of the back- 
 slider is one of the hardest problems in spiritual work. 
 To reinvigorate an old organ seems more difficult and 
 hopeless than to develop a new one; and the back- 
 slider's terrible lot is to have to retrace with enfeebled 
 feet each step of the way along which he strayed." 
 
 70 
 
MORAL SURRENDER UNNATURAL 71 
 
 jWe must be careful how we press the analogy between 
 physiological and spiritual degeneration, for serious 
 physical degeneration never takes place in the lifetime 
 of an individual, but only in a considerable series of 
 generations ; yet it is alarming to contemplate the swift 
 degeneration of a soul, to mark how soon it loses vision, 
 strength, sensibility, aspiration, and hope. The injury 
 that the moral nature sustains through a lapse is to its 
 immense prejudice; to climb steep and slippery slopes 
 is ever sufficiently arduous, but to attempt those slopes 
 with injured sight and shattered limbs is an exag- 
 gerated and disheartening task. The process of physi- 
 cal recovery is usually trying, and frequently peculiarly 
 painful. Ordinary convalescence is full of uneasiness, 
 the sense of weakness and suffering being most acute 
 as the returning forces of life slowly seize successive 
 points of the citadel so nearly lost. The restoration of 
 those who narrowly escape drowning is accompanied 
 by intense agony. Physical weariness and torture 
 are repeated yet more vividly in the sorrow of fallen 
 souls fighting towards life. "And having cried out, 
 and torn him much, he came out : and the child became 
 as one dead ; insomuch that the more part said, he is 
 dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and raised 
 him up; and he arose." Thus bitter is the ejection of 
 demons. The most pathetic and tremendous tragedies 
 are witnessed in secret places where penitent souls 
 wrestle in tears and blood with the evil passions and 
 habits which have fastened upon them. 
 
 Difficulties are created without, as well as within, 
 by backsliding. Society makes it easy for a man to 
 sink and very painful for him to return. And if 
 
72 MORAL SURRENDER UNNATURAL 
 
 society puts no stumbling-block in the way of the 
 repentant sinner, his own conduct has created for 
 himself miserable entanglements which require the 
 utmost resolution to shake off. In the biography of 
 Louis Agassiz occurs a striking account of his descent 
 into the heart of a glacier. He was lowered by his 
 assistants to a great depth in the ice, each foot of the 
 descent being attended by peril ; if, however, the 
 descent was dangerous, the ascent was even more so, 
 for the well was filled with large icicles, which pointing 
 downward presented no obstacle in his descent, but 
 now as the adventurer looked up the one hundred and 
 twenty-five feet of blue ice, the sharp and dangerous 
 points of hundreds of these javelins threatened to cut 
 the rope or fall upon him. The ascent of the soul to 
 the coign of vantage lost is usually similarly discourage 
 aging. The difficulty of the position is only under- 
 stood when return is contemplated. Yes, it is 
 ever a serious thing to fall away from faith and 
 righteousness. 
 
 Yet let the great truth be laid to heart by the un- 
 happy backslider that such recovery is possible. 
 
 There is in nature what physicists call a power of 
 repair, an inherent power in an injured part to restore 
 itself. Sir James Paget writes : "The power of repair 
 is not confined to living things. Broken crystals can 
 repair themselves as well as, e.g., broken bones. Wher- 
 ever we find evidence of an end or design to be ful- 
 filled in the attainment or maintenance of a definite 
 form, there also we may find evidence of some power 
 to repair the injuries which that form may sustain 
 from forces external to itself." Does not the text seem 
 
MORAL SURRENDER UNNATURAL 73 
 
 to point to this law of recovery active in the very con- 
 stitution of things? "Shall they fall, and not arise? 
 shall he turn away, and not return?" It is natural to 
 seek to repair any injury that we suffer; it is unnat- 
 ural to surrender ourselves to the forces of disinte- 
 gration and destruction. 
 
 There is also within the soul itself an instinct of 
 hope which the greatest disaster can hardly extinguish. 
 The doctrines of metempsychosis and of purgatory, 
 in the opinion of some, show the natural unwillingness 
 of men to believe in final defeat and failure. Hope 
 springs eternal in the human breast. Picturing the 
 conduct of men during an awful storm at sea, Victor 
 Hugo observes : ""By degrees, however, they began to 
 hope again. Such are the unsubmergible mirages of 
 the soul ! There is no distress so complete but that even 
 in the most critical moments the inexplicable sunrise 
 of hope is seen in its depths." The text is an appeal 
 to this very instinct. "Shall they fall, and not arise? 
 shall he turn away, and not return?" Is it not a 
 natural instinct that, if one stumbles, he attempts to 
 rise again? if one wanders, he seeks to return to the 
 point whence he departed? God appeals to that in- 
 stinct of recovery, that temper of hope, which He has 
 established deep in the heart. However abjectly we 
 sink, that bit of blue, that gilt of a star, that fainting 
 halo of the sunset which yet lingers in the guiltiest 
 soul, assures us that God has not forgotten to be 
 gracious, and prompts us to penitence and faith, to 
 hope and effort. 
 
 But, above all, how clear and full is the testimony 
 of revelation to the possibility of the soul's recovery! 
 
74 MORAL SURRENDER UNNATURAL 
 
 The Old Testament abounds with tender appeals to 
 God's backsliding people. "Who gathereth the out- 
 casts of Israel." Our Lord's treatment of Peter settled 
 for all time the attitude of the New Testament to the 
 prodigal son. 
 
XVII 
 THE CITY: ITS SIN AND SAVIOUR 
 
 The great city, zuhich spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, 
 where also our Lord was crucified. — Rev. xi. 8. 
 
 THE fact that our Lord was crucified nigh unto 
 the sacred city is a suggestive fact we shall 
 do well to ponder, 
 
 I. The sinfulness of the city. "Which spiritually is 
 called Sodom and Egypt." 
 
 Not that the obscenity and visible horror of Sodom 
 were features of Jerusalem, but the sacred city re- 
 sembled Sodom in its internal and vicious condition. 
 Isaiah brought this accusation against his nation : 
 "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom ; give 
 ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah." 
 And again: "They declare their sin as Sodom; they 
 hide it not." Centuries later the impeachment is re- 
 peated in our text. "The great city which spiritually 
 is called Sodom." The special sins of Sodom are noted 
 by Ezekiel (xvi. 49) . Pride, lust of the flesh, luxurious- 
 ness, "neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor 
 and needy." Our Lord showed clearly the moral 
 rottenness of the sacred city of His day. 
 
 "Which spiritually is called Egypt." Egypt was the 
 land of slavery and persecution, and Israel had spir- 
 
 75 
 
76 THE CITY : ITS SIN AND SAVIOUR 
 
 itually taken the place of Egypt, reproduced the char- 
 acteristics of Egypt. The prophet Hosea utters the 
 divine malediction : "They sacrifice flesh for the sacri- 
 fices of Mine offerings, and eat it; but the Lord 
 accepteth them not: now v>^ill He remember their 
 iniquity, and visit their sins; they shall return to 
 Egypt." That was exactly what happened to them; 
 they did not return to the geographical Egypt, but 
 spiritually they did so. They became the bondslaves 
 of selfishness, pride, greed, and unmercifulness. As 
 our Lord showed when they boasted of freedom, they 
 were abject slaves of unrighteousness. And as the 
 Egyptians persecuted the people of God, modern Jeru- 
 salem played the role of the ancient tyrants, killing 
 prophets and righteous men, and finally consummating 
 their wickedness by crucifying the Messiah. Jesus 
 Christ found Israel full of idols and slaves ; the priests 
 were taskmasters, and Pharoah sat on the chief seat of 
 the synagogue. That the great city was "spiritually" 
 called Sodom and Egypt does not mean that it was in 
 any sense better than those accursed places; it means 
 that the Jews were worse than the heathen, and that 
 the Jerusalem which crucified our Lord was filled with 
 corruptions more intense and abominable than the 
 iniquity of Sodom or Egypt. It is quite possible for 
 evil to lose its revolting expression whilst its actuality 
 is untouched and its virus is increased tenfold. 
 
 The point specially to be observed is, that Jerusalem 
 had become thus infamous through the abuse of 
 religious privilege. It was a religious city that was 
 spiritually called Sodom and Egypt; perverted 
 religious opportunity made it pre-eminent in iniquity 
 
THE CITY: ITS SIN AND SAVIOUR 77 
 
 and retribution. It was not Thebes, Babylon, Athens, 
 nor Rome that reached supreme wickedness, but Jeru- 
 salem. Solemn truth to be laid to heart by us mod- 
 erns! Jerusalem, with its mighty corruptions ending 
 in unparalleled tragedy, could not have become what 
 it was, could not have suffered what it did, had it not 
 been for its vast advantages of light and blessing. 
 Tyndall, writing on The Forms of Water, remarks: 
 "Curious then as the conclusion may be, the cold ice 
 of the Alps has its origin in the heat of the sun." By 
 one set of conditions the sun calls forth the leaves of 
 grass, the blossoms of the garden, the charm of flowers, 
 the glory of the corn, and paints with emerald, purple, 
 and gold the palm, the vine, and the orange; but 
 through another set of conditions it causes snow and 
 ice, and becomes the architect of the awful avalanches 
 and glaciers of the Alps. 
 
 It is thus with religious truth and privilege. Ac- 
 cepted and improved, the light and grace of Heaven 
 enrich with all glorious things; but resisted and mis- 
 used, the light that is in us becomes darkness, our 
 worst passions are evoked, the most terrible possi- 
 bilities of our nature are revealed, our sins and iniqui- 
 ties swell to the skies in ghastly pinnacles of defiance. 
 If the sun of righteousness does not create tropics of 
 moral beauty, brightness, and blessing, it must, when 
 denied and abused, create poles of unrighteousness 
 whose blackness and horror are like hell. It took 
 ages of privilege — temple, lawgivers, prophets, psalm- 
 ists, oracles of God, and lastly the presence of our 
 Lord Himself — to make possible the glaring scarlet of 
 Jerusalem's consummated sin. 
 
78 THE CITY : ITS SIN AND SAVIOUR 
 
 f All evils come to their worst in great cities; the 
 evils exist in petty forms and inconspicuous colours 
 in rustic scenes, but the wealth, liberty, numbers, and 
 rivalry of a great city bring them out broadly and 
 luridly. It is a forcing-bed where every vice attains 
 abnormal growth. And when the benign influences of 
 religion are rejected, the wickedness is in the same 
 proportion aggravated. It is urged as a proof of the 
 inefficiency of Christianity that the sin and misery of 
 our great cities are greater than that of the pagan and 
 savage. That the sin and misery of the Christian civi- 
 lization are greater than that of heathen lands we are 
 ready to admit, but this is no proof of the inefficacy 
 of Christianity. Christianity proves its virtue by mak- 
 ing most noble those who welcome it; and, on the 
 negative side, its virtue is vindicated in the bitterer 
 iniquities and wretchedness of those who reject its 
 mercy and grace. To degenerate needs vital power; 
 and wherever religious force is not allowed to express 
 itself in forms of health and beauty, it demonstrates 
 itself in intensified disease and hideousness. "Sodom 
 and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." Such 
 -V- is the penalty of high privilege wickedly abused. 
 
 2. The Saviour of the city. "Where also our Lord 
 was crucified." Christ crucified is the one antidote 
 for the city's wickedness and woe, even when that city 
 is Jerusalem. This Book of the Revelation pictures a 
 city of jasper and pearl, of gold and crystal, a city 
 burning with splendour and brimmii'g with felicity. 
 What does this metropolis of gold and glory signify? 
 The ideal city ; what cities ought to be, what God 
 means them to be. The civic capitals are to be made 
 
THE CITY: ITS SIN AND SAVIOUR 79 
 
 after the jewelled pattern shown in the mount called 
 Patmos; glorious in holiness, transfigured by truth 
 streaming through all their garniture, raised into the 
 music of perfect harmony, and satisfied with a fullness 
 of felicity that knows no end. What, then, is the 
 process by which communities are to be reconstructed, 
 what the secret of their ultimate transfiguration and 
 blessedness? Will this be brought about by civic 
 ingenuity, by political reform, by industrial pro- 
 grammes, by social adjustments, by economics, litera- 
 ture, science, art, music? Not so, but primarily and 
 concurrently by the gospel of the Crucified. The ideal 
 city is "the bride, the Lamb's wife." "The lamp 
 thereof is the Lamb." In the twelve foundations are 
 the twelve names of the "apostles of the Lamb." "The 
 Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the tem- 
 ple thereof." They only become its citizens "which 
 are written in the Lamb's book of life." And their 
 eternal refreshment and joy is "a river of water of 
 life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of 
 God and of the Lamb." 
 
 We are not going to cleanse, enlighten, uplift and 
 idealize our cities without God; and then it will only 
 be through God as He has been pleased to reveal Him- 
 self in His redeeming Son. Every sin that blasts the 
 city is condemned in the Cross ; every inspiration that 
 saves it flows from the Cross. Calvary testifies to the 
 everlasting righteousness of God, to His mercy to the 
 penitent, to His sympathy and grace with up- 
 struggling humanity. It is the centre of holiness and 
 mercy, of power and hope, of present and eternal sal- 
 vation. Only in the Cross do we get at the root of the 
 
80 THE CITY : ITS SIN AND SAVIOUR 
 
 mischief; only there do we find the essential blessing. 
 God is in Christ crucified, reconciling the world unto 
 Himself ; and only as sinners find their way to the foot 
 of the Cross are Babylon, Sodom, and Egypt trans- 
 formed into the City of God. "And he carried me 
 away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and 
 showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, de- 
 scending out of heaven from God." 
 
XVIII 
 THE MORAL OF THE EMPTY GRAVE 
 
 Fear not ye; for 1 know that ye seek Jesus, which hath 
 been crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, even as He 
 said. — Matt, xxviii. S, 6. 
 
 A DISTINGUISHED representative of science 
 recently exhorted the rehgious world to rest 
 .its doctrines and hopes on the facts of nature 
 and consciousness, and not on "an empty grave." But 
 surely the facts of history also furnish a valid source 
 of illumination and a secure basis of faith, and espe- 
 cially when such facts interpret the facts of nature 
 and consciousness. The empty grave of our Lord is 
 the best attested fact of antiquity, and is to the whole 
 race of immense significance. What it meant to the 
 first generation of Christians is readily seen in the 
 Epistles of the New Testament. St. Paul makes very 
 clear what he thought of our Lord's resurrection ; he 
 is content to rest the whole vast superstructure of the 
 new faith on that empty grave. "For if the dead are 
 not raised, neither hath Christ been raised ; and if 
 Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain : ye are 
 yet in your sins." 
 
 If we desire to learn what the immediately follow- 
 ing generations of Christians thought of the fact and 
 promise of our Lord's resurrection, the catacombs will 
 
 81 
 
82 THE MORAL OF THE EMPTY GRAVE 
 
 teach us. There pathetic testimonies abound to the 
 consolatory truth that after the great Shepherd of the 
 sheep had tasted the sharpness of death He rose from 
 the grave and opened the kingdom of heaven to all 
 believers. The glorious army of martyrs felt the power 
 of Christ's resurrection, and found in it the secret of 
 their triumph. Through the Christian centuries that 
 empty grave has been the window into heaven. And 
 if any one would understand what the resurrection of 
 our Lord means to-day to the great host of dying men, 
 let him visit the cemetery, and thousands of epitaphs 
 testify that the sleepers sleep in peace because that 
 empty grave throws the sweet light of hope on their 
 resting-place. The hope of immortality is an instinct 
 of the race ; it is the vivifier of life ; it reconciles us to 
 the dust and ashes which end all human glory ; and its 
 supreme proof and symbol is the empty grave of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 We speak of "empty space," and perhaps think 
 lightly of it; we can respect space occupied by sun, 
 moon, or star, but to speak of empty space seems like 
 speaking of nothing, the absolute negation. The man 
 of science, however, does not think thus. He knows 
 that empty space is full of essential substance, of 
 primal forces, of atmospheres and ethers without which 
 there could not be life and light, music and beauty, and 
 the ten thousand ornaments and delights of our planet. 
 The earth with all its opulence and splendour arose 
 out of empty space; it was not made of things which 
 do appear. Beware when you speak of empty space ! 
 Empty space is crammed with reality. It is much the 
 same when one speaks lightly of the "empty grave" of 
 
THE MORAL OF THE EMPTY GRAVE 83 
 
 our Lord : it is charged with vital elements, sovereign 
 forces, glorious possibilities. History shows that all 
 down the ages it has been the primal source of power, 
 purity, consolation, and blessedness. Because our 
 Lord's grave is empty, therefore is it the fountain of 
 eternal energy and victory. As this round globe and 
 all that it inherits arose out of empty space, so has 
 Christendom arisen out of the empty grave of our 
 Lord. 
 
 What, then, is the immortality that on this day our 
 Lord brought to light? 
 
 It is personal. Philosophers and poets of a certain 
 school think to satisfy our craving for immortality by 
 assuring us that in death we shall melt into "the infinite 
 azure," and live henceforth in the life of nature. De- 
 livered from the crippling limitations of mortality we 
 shall be transfused into the rainbow, share the pulsa- 
 tions of the sea, mingle with the fragrance of flowers, 
 glow in the light of setting suns, sparkle in the stars. 
 How eloquently Shelley dilates on the pantheistic 
 creed ! But the empty grave of our Lord reminds us 
 that in perfected personality we enter upon our great 
 inheritance. There is no scattering of the soul in the 
 air, no melting in the infinite azure, but as a being with 
 consciousness, knowledge, will, and affection, do I 
 live beyond and live for ever. Christ came into 
 the world to assure us of the fact and inviolability 
 of personality as standing out from the universe; and 
 His empty grave is the sign that upon our personality 
 death has no power, but in the distinction and fullness 
 of our faculty do we enter into glory. 
 
 It is individual. It is not the immortality of patriot- 
 
84 THE MORAL OF THE EMPTY GRAVE 
 
 ism. The hope of living in the future of one's nation 
 is not the Christian hope. The Old Testament fur- 
 nishes little direct and explicit teaching on immor- 
 tality, as we conceive it. Then the individual largely 
 forgot himself in the collective unity of his people ; 
 when the Hebrew thought of his great future, he rec- 
 ognized himself in the collective unity of his people ; 
 when the Hebrew thought of his great future, 
 he recognized himself in the persistence of 
 Israel. Very similarly the Greek and Roman specu- 
 lated on the future; their aspiration for immortality 
 was satisfied as they felt themselves identified with 
 the splendour and permanence of their nation. This 
 is not, however, the immortality pledged in the resur- 
 rection of Christ. 
 
 Nor is the Christian immortality that of positivism. 
 Transcending the ideal of national futurity, positivism 
 strives to satisfy us with the hope that we shall sur- 
 vive in the life of humanity. Corporate immortality 
 involves a great truth which the sacred writers recog- 
 nized long before Comte, but it does not supersede the 
 fact and glory of that individual immortality which 
 Easter Day pledges. Just as the modern telescope 
 tends to break up the Milky Way, and to resolve its 
 undistinguished light into individual orbs ; so Chris- 
 tianity defines the vague splendour of nationality and 
 humanity, showing that the humblest soul is like a 
 star and dwells apart. 
 
 It is moral. Some have been tempted to think that 
 immortality is bound up with intellectual power and 
 merit, but the whole significance of the resurrection 
 of our Lord is moral. If we are to share in the glory 
 
THE MORAL OF THE EMPTY GRAVE 85 
 
 of His ascended life, we must know the power of our 
 Lord's resurrection raising us from the death of sin 
 to the Hfe of righteousness. In the New Testament 
 immortality is never treated as a philosophical ques- 
 tion, but always as a moral one. Moral resurrection 
 is the condition of everlasting life and blessedness. 
 The spirit of holiness is the secret of glorious resurrec- 
 tion. If we are one day with joy to survey our empty 
 tomb, it will be because He who is the resurrection and 
 the life first brought our soul into the liberty of the 
 glory of His dear children. "Then shall come to pass 
 the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in 
 victory." 
 
XIX 
 PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 
 
 That the God of our Lord Icsus Christ, the Father of glory, 
 may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the 
 knowledge of Him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, 
 that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, what the 
 riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what 
 the exceeding greatness of His power to uszvard who be- 
 lieve. — Eph. i. 17-19. 
 
 )4 T Easter time the greatest mysteries of redemp- 
 h-^^ tion occupy our thought, and every sincere 
 X JL soul must then be found in the attitude of the 
 angels who "desire to look into these things." We are 
 conscious that the great facts of redemption go far 
 beyond us, that we have not sounded their depths, that 
 they contain a wealth of light and blessing in which we 
 have not entered. What lengths and breadths and 
 depths and heights are in this very chapter before us ! 
 The apostle "prays that the Ephesians may have 
 supernatural light shed upon the gold of their super- 
 natural wealth." 
 
 It is our great privilege to grow in clearness of 
 understanding, beholding with more open vision the 
 beauty and preciousness of the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 The first light that falls upon our spiritual under- 
 standing is marvellous light; but whilst we continue 
 
 86 
 
PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 87 
 
 obedient unto the heavenly vision, it v^ill shine ever 
 more brightly. In the lower world of animal life we 
 find that creatures can receive wonderful accessions 
 of seeing power. The caterpillar has a simple organ 
 of vision only, but in the butterfly that simple organ 
 has developed into a compound faceted eye with per- 
 haps more than twenty thousand lenses. Are we not 
 justified in taking this wonderful enhancement of sight 
 in the lower stages of life as a rude prophecy of the 
 larger virtue of vision latent in the soul, of the larger 
 revelations of the divine mind and purpose reserved 
 for the eyes of angels and men ? The vision of a faith- 
 ful soul grows in comprehensiveness and penetration, 
 realizing with infinite delight the great and beautiful 
 doctrines of the spiritual universe. It is true, alas! 
 that some Christians do not seem to grow in insight 
 and wisdom; they do not attain to the sylph-like per- 
 fection, but to the end abide old caterpillars. "Of 
 whom we have many things to say, and hard of inter- 
 pretation, seeing ye are become dull of hearing. For 
 when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers, ye 
 have need again that some one teach you the rudiments 
 of the first principles of the oracles of God." The 
 design of God is that we should with maturing years 
 see more of Him who dwells in the thick darkness ; 
 that we should apprehend more adoringly the Divine 
 Son of His love ; that the incarnation of our Lord, His 
 atoning death, and His resurrection from the dead 
 should grow upon us, yielding their secrets, and mould- 
 ing us irresistibly. 
 
 The biographer of the late Dr. Dale, of Birming- 
 ham, says of him : "He lived under the benignant sway 
 
88 PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 
 
 of a succession of great truths, following one another 
 like the constellations of the heavens." In successive 
 periods of his life familiar truths in succession became 
 extraordinary, captivating him, filling him with won- 
 der, thrilling him with delight. Is not this the ideal 
 life? First one and then another article of the creed 
 glowing into light, dawning on the soul, seizing it, 
 occupying it, delighting it, leaving it with special en- 
 richment and perfection ! As the constellations of the 
 heavens pass unceasingly and majestically, raising 
 thoughts of wonder and admiration in all noble 
 minds, so, O God, let the great truths of Thy 
 Holy Word cross our soul's horizon — inspiring, uplift- 
 ing, hallowing all within. God is discovering in a 
 marvellous way larger measures of His glory in the 
 physical sphere, and we ought not to be content except 
 He unveil to us more fully the glory of His Son, and 
 delight our soul with the exceeding abundance of His 
 grace. A true course is one of progressive illumina- 
 tion. No Qiristian life is altogether right and satis- 
 factory except more light, and more, is shining upon 
 it out of God's Word — except uninteresting bits of the 
 raiment of the truth are continually being transfigured ; 
 except passages which resemble darkened glass are 
 becoming telescopic; unless commonplace chapters of 
 historian, prophet, and apostle sufifer a strange change 
 into streets of gold whose stones are like unto a stone 
 most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as 
 Crystal; and unless starless spaces in the firmament 
 of revelation are being sown with galaxies, and irradi- 
 ated with the glory of the Lord. 
 
 Note that the sources of illumination are within. 
 
PROGRESSIVE REVELATION 89 
 
 "Having the eyes of your heart enUghtened." It is 
 insight rather than reflected Hght; it springs up in 
 the depths of the soul. This is not the instruction 
 gained by intellectual study; it is rather experimental, 
 coming through the inner powers of affection, thought, 
 and will. We think we can see the truths of the uni- 
 verse only with the eyes of the theoretic understand- 
 ing; but the fact remains that sincerity of purpose, 
 purity of heart, and spirituality of life give an availing 
 acquaintance with the magnificent truths of the divine 
 calling, and with that surpassing greatness of the divine 
 power which makes our calling effectual. 
 
XX 
 
 FADDISM IN FAITH AND 
 CHARACTER 
 
 That we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and 
 carried about with every wind of doctrine. — Eph. iv. 14. 
 
 IN one of Darwin's letters we read this : "It is a sad 
 flaw, I cannot but think, in my beloved Dr. Gully, 
 that he believes in everything. When Miss 
 
 was very ill, he had a clairvoyant girl to report on 
 internal changes, a mesmerist to put her to sleep, a 
 
 homeopathist, viz., Dr. , and himself as hydro- 
 
 pathist! and the girl recovered." Our purpose is not 
 to expatiate on the miracle reported in the closing 
 line of this paragraph, but rather to point out that 
 the freakishness displayed by Dr. Gully in the medical 
 world is, with increasing frequency we are afraid, 
 being reproduced by sincere people in matters of belief, 
 devotion, and character. In all religious circles these 
 faddists are found. They are abnormally susceptible 
 to new-fangled notions, greedily fall in with novelties, 
 and are every whit as fanciful as Dr. Gully was in his 
 special vocation. Almost contemptuous of tried meth- 
 ods and historical beliefs, they consider their quick 
 sympathy with the novelties of the religious world a 
 sign of advanced spirituality. We know beforehand 
 
 90 
 
FADDISM IN FAITH AND CHARACTER 91 
 
 the people who are hkely to be infected by eccentric 
 movements. 
 
 We anticipate the defence not unUkely to be set 
 up for these. It may be argued, and not unreasonably, 
 that aberrant souls who disconcert routine are some- 
 times exceedingly valuable to society, and not less so 
 to religious society. People accounted bizarre con- 
 stitute the seed-plot whereon new ideas and enthusi- 
 asms are tested ; if a novelty contains truth or 
 relevancy it gets a chance to assert itself, if it is a 
 crotchet merely it dies away. The sports of the social 
 world are deeply interesting, there is no predicting to 
 what they may grow ; the accepted beliefs and indis- 
 pensable programmes of to-day were only a little while 
 ago scorted as wayward and fantastic. The rigidly 
 conservative, who ruthlessly ban every variant thought 
 and thing, usurp the office of the Hebrew midwives, 
 and kill the millennial age as it comes to birth. Nev- 
 ertheless, we must guard against crazes, and the vola- 
 tility of mind that is captivated by the last grotesque 
 toy of opinion and method. Darwin was no enemy of 
 fresh thought, but he knew the difference between the 
 erratic and the original, and could not approve of the 
 vagaries of his beloved doctor who "believed in every- 
 thing." Variation is a prominent feature of nature; 
 she is, however extremely jealous lest it should be 
 carried to excess. The naturalist finds the most inge- 
 nious arrangements to exist in the structure of many 
 plants, "that undue variation from type may be 
 checked." Nature knows the preciousness of new, 
 strange things, but will not allow her grounds to 
 swarm with hybrids, monsters, and an infinity of freaks. 
 
92 FADDISM IN FAITH AND CHARACTER 
 
 Singularities of view and action, on the possession 
 or execution of which even good people are tempted 
 to plume themselves, are more often a defect than a 
 merit. Vagaries are not necessarily virtues, although 
 often mistaken for such by those who display them. 
 The commonplace aspects of the man's character and 
 life, as a rule, are infinitely more significant than his 
 whims. We are told that the chief fascination of 
 orchid-culture lies in the fact that an exceptional flower 
 may be found in a common variety — the albinos of a 
 coloured variety, spotted flowers of white varieties, or 
 the flowers of freak form — and yet all the time the 
 exceptional flower, from the point of loveliness, is dis- 
 tinctly inferior to that of the common variety ; it is a 
 decadent taste that prefers the sport, the ordinary 
 types being usually far more beautiful. A collection 
 of birds was recently shown in the Crystal Palace, 
 when, once more, the "sports" formed the centres of 
 attraction. A yellow-hammer with red eyes of an 
 albino, a snow-white blackbird, a dove-coloured green- 
 finch, and a white sky-lark, were the cynosure of all 
 eyes ; although every competent critic would acknowl- 
 edge that the real perfection of the songsters was found 
 in the fine examples of the ordinary type. Something 
 like disease lurks within these speckled flowers and 
 birds ; and the eccentric individual who complacently 
 accentuates his crotchets mistakes weakness for 
 strength, his warts for his glory. The real worth of 
 men is not in private interpretations, in quaint phrases, 
 in the following of unaccustomed ways, or in unique 
 philanthropies — these may or may not be signs of 
 superiority; but when our aberrations prompt the 
 
FADDISM IN FAITH AND CHARACTER 93 
 
 neighbours to sum us up as cranks, the interest attach- 
 ing to us is rather that of the harlequin orchid or the 
 white blackbird. Real merit ordinarily demonstrates 
 itself by giving fruitful applications to trite truths, and 
 by carrying commonplace virtues to a rare perfection. 
 Inordinate idiosyncrasies destroy the faith of people 
 in our judgment and character; originality is so rare 
 that we are suspected and not taken seriously when 
 we affect too much of it. To yield to the habit of fan- 
 cifulness tends to distract attention from the funda- 
 mental truths and duties by which we live. Crotcheti- 
 ness is also a waste of power; energy of mind and 
 heart, so precious for the upbuilding of character, and 
 efficiency of life are frittered away on dubious ends. 
 Faddism feeds vanity, the unique one generally reck- 
 oning himself the nonsuch professor. And, finally, 
 the tendency of exotic opinions and odd ways is anti- 
 social ; the more we insist on quaint notions, the more 
 isolated we become, and the less capable of taking part 
 in the great movements which design the salvation of 
 the world. 
 
XXI 
 DEFENCE AND DEFIANCE 
 
 Put on the whole armour of God. — Eph. vi. 1 1. 
 
 THE motto of our volunteers is "Defence, not 
 defiance," but in the war with evil we must 
 adopt the title of this chapter. "The whole 
 armour of God," or what is called elsewhere "the 
 armour of light," is the sanctification of our whole 
 nature through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 This is the only panoply invulnerable by evil. Wher- 
 ever a defect in character exists — a weakness of the 
 soul — there is a flaw in our armour which may well 
 prove fatal. No magic prevails against evil influences 
 and things. There is no availing natural magic ; no 
 amulets, charms, or incantations. There is no ecclesi- 
 astical magic; no baptism, sacrament, or sign of the 
 cross will avail anything, except it is associated with 
 personal faith and purity. The devil monopolizes the 
 magic ; and a pure soul is no more afraid of his black 
 arts than a philosopher is troubled by the vapourings 
 of a magician. 
 
 Defence against the sins which beset us is implied 
 in our text. The faithful disciple of Christ is secure 
 in fidelity to the truth, in the power of purity, in the 
 peace which garrisons his heart, in the love of God 
 
 94 
 
DEFENCE AND DEFIANCE 95 
 
 and goodness, in his pervasive righteousness, in his 
 fellowship with Heaven, in his faith and hope laying 
 hold of eternal life. The Lord Jesus, all love and 
 beauty, was the most hopeless target against which 
 demon ever shot an arrow ; and as the mind of Christ 
 dwells in us and the spotlessness of His life is attained 
 by us we also become the despair of hell. The grosser 
 temptations fail to deprave one who is clothed in the 
 shining mail of holiness. Just recently at the Cape a 
 diver was pursuing his vocation in the depths when his 
 hand was suddenly seized by the tentacle of a gigantic 
 octopus. Fortunately, with the other hand, the man 
 was able to transmit the danger-signal to his com- 
 panions above, who immediately raised him. On the 
 unfortunate diver emerging from the waters the 
 spectators were horrified to see that his armour was 
 almost entirely enveloped in the slimy folds of the 
 frightful devil-fish, which only relaxed its grasp when 
 hewed to pieces by axes. 
 
 How that submerged explorer in the awful embrace 
 of the sea-monster would bless the brazen panoply in 
 which he was encased, and which ensured salvation! 
 What that armour was to the diver in his ghastly con- 
 flict in the muddy abyss — the love of truth, the power 
 of holiness, the refuge of prayer are to a sincere soul 
 assaulted by dark temptations. The purest saint is 
 exposed to odious perils. Inherited evil in mind or 
 temperament seeks to enswathe our personality, and 
 suck up our better life; sometimes sins of the flesh 
 close on us loathsomely ; and again, our environment 
 arouses ugly and shuddering appetites ; if we let down 
 our moral tone, we are defenceless against cruel lusts, 
 
96 DEFENCE AND DEFIANCE 
 
 but no octopus of darkness grips a soul sincerely pure. 
 "Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord." 
 No sooner is the danger-signal given than we are 
 lifted into the light, and delivered from monstrousness. 
 "With the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is 
 plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel 
 from all his iniquities." 
 
 The more subtle forms of sin are equally innocuous 
 to the pure in heart. The temptations of our Lord 
 were of this more delicate character; and as He over- 
 came in His passion of purity, so will His disciples. 
 There is no gross tangibility in the temptations to 
 which many good people are subject; the enemy 
 attacks with unseen array and smokeless powder. 
 "Spiritual wickedness in high places." The develop- 
 ment of electricity has brought with it a new kind of 
 peril that has set inventors on devising anti-electric 
 armour; and recently a coat of mail was fabricated 
 that is effectual against the dangers of high-tension 
 electricity. The protection consists in a garment of 
 fine close brass gauze, which envelopes the body and 
 extremities entirely, so that the current, if it should 
 pass over the body, will only get as far as the metallic 
 surface, and be then conducted off harmlessly. Thus 
 the occult forces of evil, the temptations which appeal 
 to the mind and heart, are neutralized by the delicate 
 mail, the spiritual armour, which guarantees the sal- 
 vation of faithful souls. We cannot read the whole 
 passage whence our text is taken without feeling that 
 the atmosphere of life is charged with malign electrici- 
 ties, which work deadly mischief unless we are shel- 
 tered from head to foot in the invisible anti-electric 
 
DEFENCE AND DEFIANCE 97 
 
 armour which Heaven silently and constantly forges 
 about pure-hearted men. 
 
 The defiance of evil. It is not enough to defend 
 ourselves from the assaults of evil ; we must challenge 
 and fight it at every step, even when it does not 
 decisively challenge us. Are we not often conscious 
 of possibilities of evil in our nature which are per- 
 mitted to remain undisturbed whilst they do not 
 actively disturb us? From time to time they signify 
 their presence, but so long as they are latent only they 
 are ignored. We do not act thus with the disease."? 
 of the body. We no sooner suspect the existence of a 
 bodily malady than we do our best to bring it to the 
 light, to ascertain its real character, and to deal with 
 it as drastically as we may. In our spiritual warfare 
 we ought to follow the same course, anticipating evil, 
 challenging it, carrying the war into the enemy's 
 camp. To "let sleeping dogs lie" is not sound policy 
 in the moral life. Our attitude must be aggressive, 
 whether evil is palpable or obscure. 
 
 We must deal with evil in an uncompromising 
 spirit, allowing no truce, granting no quarter. It is 
 an axiom with the military that a purely defensive 
 war must end in defeat; and certainly we often fail in 
 spiritual warfare because we do not press the battle to 
 the gate, and thoroughly subjugate the enemy when 
 God gives us his neck. We must deal with evil in the 
 spirit of abounding courage and confidence. He who 
 is in us is more than he who is in the world, and we 
 ought to know it and strike home. We must also 
 struggle against evil in the full assurance of final vic- 
 tory. "When Immanuel," says John Bunyan, "had 
 
98 DEFENCE AND DEFIANCE 
 
 driven Diabolus and all his forces out of the City o£ 
 Mansoul, Diabolus preferred a petition to Immanuel, 
 that he might have only a small part of the city. When 
 this was rejected, he begged to have only a little room 
 within the walls; but Immanuel answered, He should 
 have no place in it at all, no, not to rest the sole of his 
 foot." To this end and in this confidence we must 
 pursue the struggle. We often fail in defence because 
 we are lacking in the spirit of defiance ; and the whole 
 conception of the New Testament touching the 
 spiritual war is that it will be won in the spirit of 
 defiance. 
 
XXII 
 PLOUGHING THE SANDS 
 
 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the 
 wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I zoill give 
 her her vineyards from thence. — ^Hos. ii. 14, 15. 
 
 DR. WALLACE tells us that one of the most 
 peculiar and least generally considered feat- 
 ures of our earth, but one which is also essen- 
 tial to the development and maintenance of the rich 
 organic life it possesses, is the uninterrupted supply 
 of atmospheric dust which is now known to be neces- 
 sary for the production of rain clouds and beneficial 
 rains and mists, and without which the whole course 
 of meteorological phenomena would be so changed as 
 to endanger the very existence of a large portion of 
 the life upon the earth. Now, the chief portion of 
 this fine dust, distributed through the upper atmos- 
 phere, from the equator to the poles, with wonderful 
 uniformity, is derived from those great terrestrial 
 features which are often looked upon as the least 
 essential, and even as blots and blemishes on the fair 
 face of nature — deserts and volcanoes. Most persons, no 
 doubt, think they could both be very well spared, and 
 that the earth would be greatly improved, from a human 
 point of view, if they were altogether abolished. Yet 
 
 99 
 
100 PLOUGHING THE SANDS 
 
 it is almost a certainty that the consequences of 
 doing so would be to render the earth infinitely less 
 enjoyable, and, perhaps, altogether uninhabitable by 
 man. 
 
 In most human lives are periods closely correspond- 
 ing with the deserts of the earth : times and conditions 
 distinctly stale, flat, and apparently unprofitable ; spaces 
 of compulsory isolation and solitariness; seasons of 
 intellectual infertility and depression ; stretches of 
 drudgery ; tedious spells of personal affliction ; times of 
 enforced inaction ; years of dullness, dreariness, and 
 barrenness. Destitute of the ordinary interests, excite- 
 ments, and charms of life, we may justly reckon such 
 periods as constituting the wilderness stages of our 
 pilgrimage. Of these monotonous interludes we think 
 and speak regretfully. They are looked upon as the 
 waste part of life, the days when we simply marked 
 time, when we ploughed the sand. What the desert 
 is to nature, a blot and blemish ; that, we conclude, are 
 the grey, featureless terms of human life. Yet may 
 we not be mistaken about our dreary days and years 
 as we are in our estimate of the worth of deserts in 
 the system of nature? As Dr. Wallace reminds us, 
 indirectly we get our vineyards from the Sahara ; and 
 is it any more difficult to believe that what we are 
 tempted to call the waste places of life fulfil a mission 
 similarly benign and precious? The deserts of nature 
 and the colourless episodes of time are immensely more 
 enriching than at first sight appears. "I will give her 
 her vineyards from thence." Ploughing the sands is 
 a more profitable form of agriculture than some clever 
 persons think. 
 
PLOUGHING THE SANDS 101 
 
 Tedious, sterile, and lonely periods may serve us 
 eminently by concentrating for a while our thoughts 
 upon ourselves. When the environment is full of 
 movement and colour, of incident and interest, our 
 mind is naturally occupied with it ; and not rarely occu- 
 pied with it to the total exclusion of introspection and 
 self-acquaintance. When our circumstances cease to 
 absorb our thought, the opportunity is given to com- 
 mune with our own heart, and to become acquainted 
 with the facts of our personality. Richard Semon has 
 an instructive passage on the intellectual benefit of 
 isolation and monotony : "The immense Australian bush 
 offers genuine solitude. At first this solitude was new 
 and interesting to me, and it used to bring me lonely 
 hours and a sense of abandonment ; but finally I felt 
 it like a great and mighty revelation, a thing as vivid 
 and intense as the witnessing of the most varied scenes 
 amongst foreign lands and nations. It gives a man 
 time and a chance to look into his innermost self, to see 
 himself, not as he appears in the eyes of his neighbours, 
 but in his relation to great, ever-creating, ever- 
 destroying nature." This naturalist merely considers 
 the intellectual advantages of the wilderness life in 
 self-acquaintance, and a better appreciation of our 
 relation to nature ; but those lonely and dreary passages 
 of life from which we shrink give us time and a 
 chance to look into our heart, to become acquainted 
 with the secrets of character, to know our relation to 
 God. As a rule the world is too much with us to allow 
 either time or energy for introspection ; but outward 
 stagnation and insipidity give opportunity for a greater 
 and mightier revelation than Semon received, even the 
 
102 PLOUGHING THE SANDS 
 
 more perfect knowledge of ourselves in the sight of 
 God. "Therefore, behold, I will bring her into the 
 wilderness." The context shows that God marred the 
 glory of Israel and brought her into dreary conditions, 
 that she might see her real self and prepare to meet her 
 Lord. 
 
 God brings His people into dull and desolate sur- 
 roundings that they may be fitted for the greater tasks 
 which await them. "I will give her her vineyards 
 from thence." How strikingly that law has been 
 illustrated in the history of many great historic char- 
 acters ! Moses kept the flock of Jethro behind the 
 desert. After his conversion Paul withdrew to Arabia 
 for purposes of reflection. John at Patmos beheld his 
 splendid vision. Luther shut up in the Castle of the 
 Wartburg translated the Bible. John Bunyan was 
 imprisoned that he might dream his glorious dream. 
 And John Wesley in squalid Georgia was disciplined 
 for his great mission. Let us never be impatient when 
 brought into desert places. The Pentateuch, the Epistles 
 of St. Paul, the Apocalypse, the German Bible, the 
 Pilgrim's Progress, the Evangelical Revival, and a 
 thousand other purple vineyards of moral and spiritual 
 wealth were vouchsafed to us from the wilderness. We 
 may not be likely to do things after this heroic 
 measure; but our future success in life depends far 
 more on the faithful improvement of disappointing 
 days, uncongenial circumstances, dreary tasks, and 
 unfruitful strivings than youth imagines. He who 
 is faithful, diligent, and hopeful when life stretches 
 around 
 
 All dark and barren as a rainy sea, 
 
PLOUGHING THE SANDS 103 
 
 will bring his barque to the golden isles ; he who 
 bravely ploughs the sand and casts his seed into the 
 dull furrow shall find it at length a garden of vines, 
 fig-trees, and pomegranates. 
 
 Earthly life is sometimes sobered that the heavenly 
 world may the better assert its existence and claims. 
 When human life is excited, distracted, and absorbed 
 by terrestial things, the heavenlies are liable to be 
 forgotten and obscured. Living on the wide, unattrac- 
 tive plains of Mesopotamia the ancients turned their 
 attention to the stars, there so conspicuously in evi- 
 dence. Mr. Hudson, writing of the scenery of Pata- 
 gonia, remarks : "On the wild flying clouds appeared 
 a rainbow with hues so vivid that we shouted aloud 
 with joy at the sight of such loveliness. ... I do 
 not suppose that the colours were really more vivid 
 than in numberless other rainbows I have seen ; it was, 
 I think, the universal greyness of earth and heaven 
 in that grey winter season, in a region where colour 
 is so sparsely used by nature, that made it seem so 
 supremely beautiful, so that the sight of it affected us 
 like wine." The tameness of earth fascinated the 
 Babylonians with the magnificence of the stars ; the 
 greyness of the landscape intoxicated the naturalist 
 with the glory of the rainbow ; and the dullness, weari- 
 ness, and sterility of this earthly life give the eternal 
 world a better chance to command the thought and 
 affection of the soul. 
 
XXIII 
 ELEVATION AND VISION 
 
 After these things I saw, and behold, a door opened in 
 heaven, and the first voice which I heard, a voice as of a trum- 
 pet speaking with me, one saying, Come up hither, and I will 
 show thee the things which must come to pass hereafter. 
 — Rev. iv. I. 
 
 IT is a serious error to suppose that we can rightly 
 apprehend the highest truths whilst we live on 
 a low plane of thought and conduct, and yet it is 
 a very common error. Those who grovel in the dust, 
 nay, who wallow in the sensual mire, yet believe 
 themselves competent to discuss the most solemn prob- 
 lems of existence and destiny ; they conclude that the 
 truths concerning God — His existence, laws, govern- 
 ment, revelation, and purpose — are apprehended and 
 understood mentally like theories of mechanics and 
 mathematics. It is a profound mistake; divinest veri- 
 ties are revealed only to the upward gaze and the 
 uplifted life. 
 
 It is a matter of popular knowledge that the human 
 eye, as an organ of vision, is not commensurate with 
 the whole range of solar radiation, and that it is inca- 
 pable of receiving visual impressions from all the rays 
 emitted by the sun. Beyond the violet at one end of 
 the spectrum are rays so intense as to be invisible, and 
 
 104 
 
ELEVATION AND VISION 105 
 
 beyond the red at the other end of the spectrum are 
 rays whose feebler action render them equally invisible ; 
 beyond the violet and the red the vibrations in the 
 light ether make no appeal to the optic nerve, we are 
 unconscious of colours actually before our eyes, of 
 beams of light which the chemist knows to be of the 
 first consequence. So a world of truth exists which in 
 the very nature of things is for ever hidden from the 
 secularized soul. The carnal eye may distinguish 
 certain great religious and ethical facts and distinc- 
 tions, but eternal realities of the very first importance 
 are inaccessible to the blurred and feeble sense. "The 
 natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
 God, for they are foolishness unto him ; and he cannot 
 know them, because they are spiritually judged." 
 
 To see eternal realities with open vision we must 
 preserve a pure and sensitive soul. Only as the Spirit 
 of God refines our perceptions, works in us clearness 
 of insight, endows us with spiritual imagination and 
 sensibility, are we qualified to apprehend, mirror, and 
 appropriate the truths by which men live. Recently 
 in some experiments in colour photography it was 
 attempted to reproduce the colours of the spectrum. 
 The experiment succeeded so far as the bars of colour 
 in the interval between the violet and the red were 
 concerned ; but the camera failed to represent the ultra 
 hues, the film was not sufficiently sensitive to seize the 
 hidden mystery of colour, and a couple of blotches 
 alone witnessed to the existence of the unseen rays. 
 Thus a coarsened soul in its dark misgivings bears 
 witness to unseen things, yet it lacks the subtlety to 
 discern and realize the glorious realities of the 
 
106 ELEVATION AND VISION 
 
 transcending universe. Our spirit must be uplifted 
 by fellowship with God, made sensitive by purity, 
 refined by love, kept steady by a great hope and con- 
 fidence, or it cannot reflect and realize eternal verities. 
 "Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God" ; 
 and seeing Him, the whole universe becomes like unto 
 clear glass. "Things which eye saw not, and ear heard 
 not, and which entered not into the heart of man," are 
 revealed in the pure heart by the Holy Spirit. It is 
 not so much by intellectual acuteness as by truth and 
 purity in the inward parts that we lay hold of the things 
 of God. Keep, then, the soul bright and fair, "that the 
 God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, 
 may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation 
 in the knowledge of Him ; having the eyes of your 
 heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope 
 of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His 
 inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding great- 
 ness of His power to usward who believe." 
 
 To apprehend justly and influentially eternal truths 
 our life must be lofty in its spirit and aim. Infidelity 
 and pessimism just now are rampant amongst us, and 
 we need not wonder at this when we remember the 
 prevalence of a worldly and selfish temper. The real 
 explanation of our dubiety and despair is not to be 
 sought in our intellectual defects and limitations, but 
 rather in the narrowness, egotism, and debasement of 
 our thoughts, ideals, and strivings. We need to get 
 on a higher plane of thinking, sympathy, and purpose. 
 "Come up hither, and I will show thee things which 
 must be hereafter." The Almighty could not unveil 
 to John eternal spheres, realities, and relations whilst 
 
ELEVATION AND VISION 107 
 
 he continued on the depressed levels where men ordi- 
 narily live ; only was this possible as the seer attained a 
 vaster horizon and breathed an ampler air. "Come up 
 hither, and I will show thee." Is not that the call of 
 God to us ? Come up out of that yellow fog of covet- 
 ousness, that tinted vapour of vanity, that blinding 
 smoke of pride and self-will, that sandstorm of worldli- 
 ness, that enveloping cloud of animal appetite and 
 passion, and you shall know the glorious things freely 
 given you of God. In the elevated mood, which be- 
 comes an elevated habit, He grants a comforting and 
 transforming consciousness of Himself; He gives deli- 
 cate interpretations of His will ; He reveals His eternal 
 purpose in Christ Jesus ; He makes us to taste the pow- 
 ers of the world to come. It is only through the high 
 life of entire consecration, of constant communion with 
 the skies, of intense and sustained spiritual sympathy, 
 that we get insight into the deep things of God. We 
 are told that from the bottom of a pit the stars are 
 visible at noonday, but to those who are content to 
 dwell in the murky depths of low thinking, feeling, 
 and action, the lights of the upper universe are lost 
 in impenetrable obscuration. "Come up hither, and I 
 will show thee." 
 
 What is our response to this invitation? Are we 
 willing to renounce all the attractions of the lower life, 
 to yield ourselves to our noblest impulses and dare 
 the life of thoroughgoing holiness, to frame our ways 
 after the purest patterns and standards, to delight 
 ourselves in the Lord and in His commandments and 
 service? If we are thus responsive to the hf^avenly 
 call, we shall rejoice in an inner light and assurance 
 
108 ELEVATION AND VISION 
 
 that will fill our heart with peace, such as no polemical 
 volume or debating society could secure us. Practical 
 purity is the best medium for supernatural revelation. 
 If our souls are to gain light and certainty, we must 
 live more nearly as we pray. Character is the chief 
 source of illumination ; noble conduct best augments 
 the inner light; life aspiring to high standards rather 
 than logic divines the secrets of eternity. If we con- 
 sent to live higher, purer, worthier lives, it will do far 
 more for the clearness and certitude of our faith than 
 a whole world of controversy. Standing by our Mas- 
 ter's side in the heavenlies He whispers us in the ear, 
 and we saints know. 
 
XXIV 
 ELEVATION AND STRENGTH 
 
 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heav- 
 enly places in Christ. — Eph. i. 3. 
 
 That ye may know . . . the exceeding greatness of 
 His power to usward who believe, according to that working 
 of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ, 
 when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at 
 His right hand in the heavenly places. — Eph. i. 18-20. 
 
 EVERY spiritual blessing is the gift of Christ, 
 but these blessings are realized only as we live 
 in the "heavenlies." "He has raised us up with 
 Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly 
 places, in Christ Jesus." Words implying habitual, 
 permanent elevation. We are not "caught up into 
 paradise" for a fugitive moment, it is not an ecstasy, 
 but in Him we are privileged to live on a high plane 
 of thought and sentiment, of experience and achieve- 
 ment; our affections being "set" on things above, the 
 whole character of our mind, heart, and life transcend- 
 ing the terrestrial. The highest blessings are attained 
 only as we live lives of distinct spirituality and conse- 
 cration. The special gift we now contemplate is that 
 of power, and our duplicated text teaches that eleva- 
 tion is the condition of moral strength and efficiency. 
 
 109 
 
110 ELEVATION AND STRENGTH 
 
 Nothing in our day is more thought about, written 
 about, sought after, than power, the discovery of any 
 new kind of force being hailed with universal satisfac- 
 tion. The way in which we have learned to use various 
 manifestations of physical energy is the chief distinction 
 of our age. But no force is comparable in its precious- 
 ness to that spiritual might by which we reach the 
 ideal of character, attain victory over our foes, and 
 find ourselves competent for the discharge of every 
 duty. Humanity needs the power to fulfil its highest 
 ideals more than it needs any other power whatever. 
 This is the power of Pentecost, the most glorious gift 
 we may covet ; and it is ours only as we aspire to a life 
 of elevated purpose, experience, and action. 
 
 Scientists and philosophers have much to say about 
 a kind of force that they distinguish as "energy of 
 position." There is a certain locked-up motion in an 
 elevated body : a force which demonstrates itself when 
 the body is released, energy of position being converted 
 into energy of motion. We get an exemplification of 
 this theory in pile-driving machines : slowly the ram 
 creeps to the top of the machine, attaining energy of 
 position ; then the releasing hook frees the massive 
 body, which falls with accumulated force on the pile- 
 head. The tourist step by step pushes his machine 
 along the steep mountain-side, but having reached the 
 crest has no more trouble, he has won energy of posi- 
 tion, and sweeps down succeeding slopes in triumph. 
 Niagara supplies an apt illustration of the doctrine of 
 energy of position. The deep fall of the mighty river 
 creates or liberates an amazing force which, when duly 
 conserved, is capable of effecting immense results — ■ 
 
ELEVATION AND STRENGTH 111 
 
 driving machinery, lighting with electricity remote 
 cities, and accomplishing manifold purposes of utility. 
 Throughout the physical world we witness the mar- 
 vellous efficacy of energy of position : elevation is 
 efficiency. 
 
 Society supplies fresh proof of the realty and effec- 
 tiveness of energy of position. Speaking of "the upper 
 ten," we use a suggestive metaphor — one that indi- 
 cates a ruling class whose immense influence is the 
 energy of elevated position. This class comprises men 
 of wealth, culture, and rank ; slowly they acquired 
 gold, scholarship, or title; slowly they accumulated 
 power, and now from elevated place they exercise a 
 political and social influence of the first consequence. 
 The "upper ten" in many palpable ways demonstrate 
 the fact and competence of energy of position. 
 
 But the text reminds us of the supreme import of 
 elevation in the moral life. Stupendous power resides 
 in a soul that lives high above the world, one familiar 
 with eternity, ever steeping in the light. Christian 
 believers may not always impress us with the sense of 
 force ; their power is often power in a state of rest, they 
 are restrained, passive, patient; but no sooner are 
 they brought into circumstances of difficulty, of 
 arduous duty, of severe temptation, of bitter depriva- 
 tion and suffering, than they discover tremendous 
 energy and prove complete masters of the situation : 
 the potential becomes the actual, energy of position is 
 converted into energy of victorious action, the erst- 
 while passive saints acquit themselves as heroes and 
 martyrs. Not for nothing have they lived on high, 
 mused on holy things, talked with God, drunk from 
 
112 ELEVATION AND STRENGTH 
 
 eternal fountains ; when the occasion arises they are 
 equal to it, they have strength to subordinate the lower 
 nature, to fulfil obligation, to make the costliest sacri- 
 fices : they develop power for watching, working, fight- 
 ing for life and death. Irresistible and invincible 
 forces accumulate in a soul that habitually dwells with 
 God; it knows perfectly how real is the energy of 
 position. A while ago a literary authority, in address- 
 ing an audience interested in the drama, asked, Could 
 a very good man be a hero? He answered "No"; the 
 exceptionally good man could not be a hero of drama. 
 In the first place, the drama dwelt with action, 
 and the saint was passive. Then again, the 
 drama dealt with emotions, and the saint was 
 a man who had subdued emotion. In the third 
 place, what an audience looked for in a hero was 
 an exhibition of mastery, of force, of something sig- 
 nificant. This gentleman's conception of a saint was 
 partial ; he left out the complimentary aspect of saintly 
 character. Sometimes the saint does appear passive, 
 passionless, unassertive ; his energy is in a state of rest : 
 but change his circumstances, and his glorious poten- 
 tiality flashes forth ; he reveals action, emotion, mastery 
 of the sublimest character. 
 
 Is not the main deficiency with many of us the lack 
 of instinctive, adequate, triumphant moral power? 
 Too often we sadly fail in the trying hour; and when 
 we do not absolutely fail, we are conscious of miserable 
 insufficiency. In one of his letters Stevenson refers 
 regretfully to the paralyzing influence of ill-health 
 upon his literary work. "I have never at command 
 that press of spirits necessary to strike out a thing red- 
 
ELEVATION AND STRENGTH 113 
 
 hot. A certain languor marks the whole. It is not, in 
 short, art." How many of us are conscious of a simi- 
 lar moral feebleness marring our character and action ! 
 We do at length arrive, we muddle through, our calling 
 and work are finished after a fashion, but faintness and 
 failure are everywhere in evidence. We have not at 
 command the spiritual vigour necessary to strike out 
 things of duty and service red-hot — immediate, com- 
 plete, triumphant. "That ye may know the exceeding 
 greatness of His power to usward who believe, accord- 
 ing to that working of the strength of His might which 
 He wrought in Christ," leave the lower levels, aspire 
 to a life of entire dedication, seek the closer walk. 
 The tonic is in the mountain air. He who lives in the 
 heavenly places shares in the majestic strength of the 
 glorified Lord, under whose feet all things are put in 
 subjection. 
 
XXV 
 ELEVATION AND SAFETY 
 
 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall 
 abide under the shadow of the Almighty. — Ps. xci. i. 
 
 IN the highest moods of thought and feeling we 
 enjoy an immunity impossible to those who do 
 not live a whole-hearted spiritual life. If we 
 would be safe, we must live near God, dwell in His 
 secret place, high above the levels of the unspiritual. 
 The higher life, or rather the highest life, is the condi- 
 tion of absolute security. 
 
 The devil uses the stratagem of elevation, just as 
 the hawk does. Thus he approached our Lord. "Then 
 the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth 
 Him on a pinnacle of the temple." "Again, the devil 
 taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and 
 showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the 
 glory of them." So still from enchanted heights does 
 the enemy of souls beguile men, and, alas! too often 
 captures them. Here he brings the ambitious, luring 
 them with a seat in the cabinet; here also he dazzles 
 the covetous, showing them twenty per cent. ; and here 
 he intoxicates the sensualist, showing him the land 
 below decked with the lotus and the rose. All tempta- 
 tion implies dangerous elevation — an excitement of the 
 
 114 
 
ELEVATION AND SAFETY 115 
 
 senses, a kindled imagination, an exaltation of the 
 moods and emotions of the soul. The tempted are 
 always poised on a pinnacle : from the dizzy mountain 
 brow they survey the glittering scene to which dis- 
 tance lends enchantment. 
 
 How shall we resist this sorcery, and be secure 
 against the glamour of dangerous heights of fancy 
 and feeling? Wherein was the salvation of our Lord 
 when He was tempted as we are? He went higher 
 still. 'The prince of the power of the air" essays his 
 arts of deception and fascination high up in the realm 
 of cloudland and mirage; but our Lord went outside 
 the atmosphere altogether, and judged the earth from 
 the depths of the heavens. The "wicked one" exercised 
 over our Lord no fascination, played Him no trick, 
 touched Him not, because He ever judged the earthly 
 in the light of the heavenly, the human in the light of 
 the divine, the temporal in the light of the eternal. 
 "Come up, and I will show thee," cries a master of 
 illusions, thrusting into our hand the cup of sorcery. 
 "Come up, and I will show thee," cries a voice out of 
 heaven ; and if we regard that invitation from on high, 
 the cup of intoxication is shattered, and the wine of its 
 fornication is as water spilled on the ground. The 
 way to master temptation is to transcend it. The peril 
 of selfishness is best vanquished by a grander selfish- 
 ness, which is ready to lose its life for the sake of the 
 life eternal ; the peril of insobriety is most effectually 
 mastered by the rarer intoxication of being filled with 
 the Spirit ; and the peril of worldliness is past to those 
 who look upon the heavenly vision of the immortal 
 treasures and delights of the spiritual universe. 
 
116 ELEVATION AND SAFETY 
 
 If terrestrial things are not to prove a snare, we 
 must cherish the elevated mood and dwell in the secret 
 place of the Most High. One side of the dangerous- 
 ness of human life is to misconceive the place and 
 purpose of the secular world, and therefore to exag- 
 gerate or despise it ; but the man of spiritual thought 
 and devout feeling, he who is familiar with the larger 
 law and purpose of God, he who abides in the secret 
 place of the Most High and makes that his standpoint 
 of judgment, has got the true perspective, knows the 
 just proportion, and uses the world without abusing 
 it. He weighs all things in unerring balances, measures 
 them with the angel's golden reed. We are naturally 
 the slaves of the best, the biggest, the brightest that 
 we know, and nothing can emancipate us from the 
 dominion of the present but to see, to taste, to follow 
 the far grander conceptions of a godly life. The roses 
 of the summer may entice those who have not known 
 the fadeless amaranth ; broken cisterns charm the 
 thirsty who have not tasted the upper springs ; rifted 
 lutes are sweet to ears ignorant of celestial music ; and 
 the pedlar's toys of human pride are alluring to those 
 who have not grasped the jewels of spiritual proprie- 
 torship and dominion. We are safe from the world 
 only as we transcend it. We must all be Dantes, 
 familiar with the holy laws, the far-off horizons, the 
 solemn imagery of the eternal world, if we are to esti- 
 mate aright the interests, relationships, pleasures, and 
 sufferings of this present life. 
 
 We fight successfully positive temptations to sin 
 only whilst we draw our motives and inspirations from 
 the highest sources. Every step taken into a higher, 
 
ELEVATION AND SAFETY 117 
 
 holier life secures a completer immunity from the 
 power of evil. Virtually there is no temptation to 
 those who climb high enough ; they still suffer the trial 
 of their faith and principle, but they have no evil 
 thought, no affinity with evil, it exercises over them 
 no fascination, it is to them as though it were not. 
 Never deal with temptation on low utilitarian grounds 
 of health, reputation, or interest. If you have a vice, 
 convict it at Sinai ; arraign it at the bar of the Judg- 
 ment Day; make it ashamed of itself at the feet of 
 Christ ; blind it with heaven ; scorch it with hell ; take 
 it into the upper air where it cannot get its breath, 
 and choke it. 
 
 And chok'st thou not him in the upper air 
 His strength he will still on the earth repair. 
 
 Migratory birds invisible to the eye have been 
 detected by the telescope crossing the disc of the sun 
 six miles above the earth. They have found one of 
 the secret places of the Most High; far above the 
 earth, invisible to the human eye, hidden in the light, 
 they were delightfully safe from the fear of evil. Thus 
 it is with the soul that soars into the heavenly places ; 
 no arrow can reach it, no fowler betray it, no creature 
 of prey make it afraid ; it abides in the shadow of the 
 Almighty. 
 
XXVI 
 ELEVATION AND PEACE 
 
 The mountains shall bring peace to the people. — Ps. Ixxii. 3. 
 
 PEACE originates in strength and loftiness ; ele- 
 vation is the condition of power and calm. 
 Peace within ourselves can be established only 
 by the very highest and most penetrating considera- 
 tions. What an abyss of contradictions and conflicts 
 is the human breast ! The cosmic struggle is reflected 
 in the heart of man. Our deepest discontent and 
 misery spring out of this schism and internecine war- 
 fare. And how trivial and unavailing are the efforts 
 of the natural man to reconcile himself to himself, to 
 get rid of the burden and friction of a nature at war 
 within itself! Our Lord indicates this. "Peace I leave 
 with you ; My peace I give unto you : not as the world 
 giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be 
 troubled, neither let it be fearful." "Not as the world 
 giveth." The natural man attempts to rid himself of 
 the cruel burden of the soul by boldly denying its 
 existence ; he plots to evade the painful sense of interior 
 discord by distracting and absorbing his thought upon 
 the outside world ; he snatches intervals of unconscious- 
 ness in the anaesthetics of fashion or indulgence; but 
 whatever is done is shallow and ineffectual, he never 
 
 118 
 
ELEVATION AND PEACE 119 
 
 establishes peace within himself, at best only a truce. 
 We know a war picture entitled, "A Quiet Day in a 
 Battery"; it represents artillerists enjoying precarious 
 moments of leisure and refreshment ere they are sum- 
 moned to imminent action by the peal of the trumpet 
 and the thunder of the guns. Intervals of rest in the 
 warfare of the soul are after this sort; the painful 
 struggle of the spirit against the flesh, the reason 
 against the passions, the conscience against the incli- 
 nation and will, may be momentarily suspended, but it 
 is not finished, anon it breaks out again as bitter and 
 fierce as ever. 
 
 "Not as the world giveth, give I unto you." The 
 disorder of our nature can be successfully treated only 
 from above. The method of the New Testament is to 
 satisfy the conscience by the atonement of Calvary; 
 to destroy the virus of evil which poisons the heart ; to 
 vivify the affections by the enthusiasm of love; to 
 strengthen the will in righteousness. It is miserably 
 disappointing to deal with the anarchy of our nature 
 on the low, superficial grounds to which the world 
 invites us. If we covet the radical pacification of a 
 warring soul, we must go for our motives and specifics 
 to a transcending world ; great thoughts, stimulations, 
 and succours are indispensable. We must tremble on 
 Sinai, see the vision from Nebo's top, prove the virtue 
 of the green hill beyond a city's wall, drink in the 
 teachings of Olivet, and know the transfigurating grace 
 of Tabor. Only in heavenly places can we treat 
 effectually the tumult, malignancy, and weakness of 
 the heart. J. F. Millet has a saying: "Art lives by 
 passion alone, and a man cannot be deeply moved by 
 
120 ELEVATION AND PEACE 
 
 nothing." True holiness is born in passion, it lives 
 by passion alone, and here specially a man cannot be 
 deeply moved by nothing. The consciousness of God, 
 the knowledge of His everlasting righteousness, the 
 experience of the truth, mercy, and grace of Jesus 
 Christ, the sense of eternity — these high truths can 
 deeply move us, restrain us, inspire us, guarantee our 
 utmost salvation, and nothing else can. 
 
 Peace amid the frictions and wounds of outward 
 life is only possible whilst the soul is uplifted and 
 invigorated by heavenly virtue. Only as we transcend 
 our troubles can we master them. The greatness and 
 loftiness of the mountain must pass into our mind, the 
 wideness and depth of the sea into our heart, if we are 
 to live untroubled by the vicissitudes of human fortune. 
 A thousand pretentious maxims and manoeuvres de- 
 signed to keep trouble at a distance are little less than 
 absurd; vexation and pain must be swallowed up in 
 thoughts and consolations not of this world. The 
 psalmist bemoans himself: "Oh that I had wings like 
 a dove ! Then would I fly away, and be at rest. Lo, 
 then would I wander far ofT, I would lodge in the 
 wilderness. I would haste me to a shelter from the 
 stormy wind and tempest." There is a truer way than 
 this out of a painful situation. 
 
 Mr. Hudson tells us that in Patagonia he was much 
 surprised by the behaviour of a couple of sweet song- 
 sters during a thunderstorm. On a still, sultry day in 
 summer he was standing watching masses of black 
 cloud coming rapidly over the sky, while a hundred 
 yards from him stood the two birds also apparently 
 watching the approaching storm with interest. Pres- 
 
ELEVATION AND PEACE 121 
 
 ently the edge of the cloud touched the sun, and a 
 twiHght gloom fell on the earth. The very moment 
 the sun disappeared the birds rose up and began 
 singing their long resounding notes, though it was 
 loudly thundering at the time, while vivid flashes of 
 lightning lit the black cloud overhead. He watched 
 their flight and listened to their notes, till suddenly as 
 they made a wide sweep upwards they disappeared in 
 the cloud, and their voices seemed to come from an 
 immense distance. The cloud continued emitting sharp 
 flashes of lightning, but the birds never reappeared, 
 and after six or seven minutes once more their notes 
 sounded loud and clear above the muttering thunder. 
 They had passed through the cloud into the clear 
 atmosphere above it, and the naturalist expresses his 
 surprise at their fearlessness. 
 
 But really did not these sweet singers, passing 
 through the thunder-cloud and singing above it, show 
 us the true policy for dark days? We must not 
 attempt to evade our troubles, not to resist them, not 
 to fly before them, but simply to transcend them. 
 Soaring into the clear atmosphere above, the thunder 
 will not terrify nor the lightning smite. We become 
 oblivious of a score of things which irritate and wound 
 others to madness. Just as those wise, brave birds 
 mounted beyond the tempest into the blue heavens 
 and golden sunshine, so the devout soul in faith and 
 prayer, in hallowed thought and feeling, wings its way 
 into the calm azure of the heaven of heavens until the 
 storms are overpast and gone. Even whilst yet in the 
 flesh we are with the angels, and with glorified spirits 
 who dwell in the stillness where beyond these voices 
 
122 ELEVATION AND PEACE 
 
 there is peace. In those serene heights Christ dwells, 
 and ever exhorts His people. Lift up your eyes to the 
 heavens where I sit; in faith and love and hope claim 
 your place by My side; and your heart shall be un- 
 troubled, neither shall it be afraid. 
 
 How happy are the little flock, 
 
 Who, safe beneath their guardian Rock, 
 
 In all commotions rest ! 
 When war's and tumuU's waves run high, 
 Unmoved above the storm they he; 
 
 They lodge in Jesu's breast. 
 
 It has been said that no class reveals so tranquil a 
 temper as astronomers do. Close observers declare 
 that of all men they are most equal and serene. It is 
 easy to imagine that this should be so. Habitually 
 dwelling in the heavens, thinking God's thoughts in 
 the mighty constellations, familiar with infinity and 
 eternity, no wonder that a majestic quietness dis- 
 tinguishes them from other men. To us who awake 
 out of nothingness the morning newspaper may be 
 replete with agitating items, but its most stirring and 
 dramatic paragraphs will hardly flurry the midnight 
 watcher awed by the vastness of the heavens and the 
 mystery of the stars. How much more will the saint 
 "made higher than the heavens" be oblivious of earthly 
 annoyances and catastrophes, and live in tumultuous 
 scenes with a placid temper! Walk out of the great 
 chapters of revelation into daily life, and you will be 
 astonished at the strength and peace which garrison 
 your soul. 
 
XXVII / 
 
 DEFERRED BLESSING 
 
 And I tvill restore to you the years that the locust hath 
 eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiUar, and the palmer- 
 worm, my great army which I sent among you. — ^Joel ii. 25. 
 
 IT is not necessary to regard the text as express- 
 ing a miraculous intervention of God in the order 
 of nature, for that order already permits and pro- 
 vides for the restoration of withheld blessings. Spe- 
 cially severe or unseasonable weather in one season, 
 destroying wild life on an unusual scale in animal or 
 plant, will very probably secure compensation in the 
 succeeding season ; the repression of birds, beasts, 
 reptiles, or fishes is followed by what naturalists have 
 called a "bumper season." The failure of fruit in one 
 autumn leaves a handsome balance to the good in un- 
 exhausted energies of plant or tree. A peasant having 
 nothing else to complain about, complained of the 
 abundant harvest because "it took such a power out of 
 the earth" ; he might have consoled himself by the fact 
 that a deficient harvest leaves such a power in the 
 earth — a power that in another season will not fail 
 to realize itself. If lean years follow fat years, fat 
 years follow lean ones. In mysterious ways unused 
 forces are treasured, and years are restored that the 
 caterpillar wasted. 
 
 123 
 
124f DEFERRED BLESSING 
 
 Bemoaning unprofitable years of worldliness and 
 sin, we may find consolation in the text. Let us not 
 be afraid to say this. It is ever right and best that we 
 love and serve God in the morning of life, but such an 
 admission does not exclude the truth that the grace of 
 God secures to penitent men forfeited blessing. It is 
 not altogether true that the past is irrevocable ; there is 
 truth in the solemn admonition, but, as so often in 
 peremptory axioms, not the whole truth. "Where sin 
 abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly." Re- 
 tarded gifts may break forth ultimately with unusual 
 energy and effectiveness, as late-flowering plants some- 
 times bear uncommonly splendid blossoms. We all 
 know how the sense of unprofitable years has spurred 
 adult converts to an all-conquering intensity and enthu- 
 siasm in the time that remains ; and we have often seen 
 how the extraordinary grace of God granted to a late 
 repentance has infused into the transformed character 
 surpassing strength and beauty. 
 
 The curious fact has recently been noticed in the 
 south of France that the lilac-trees whose leaves have 
 all dropped from green-fly or other pests bloom earlier 
 and better than any others. There seems to be some 
 link between the destruction of the leaves and the 
 unexpected crop of flowers. No horticulturist would 
 therefore voluntarily infect his orchards with blight, 
 nor will he shut his eyes to the strange benign proc- 
 esses by which evil is limited and compensated. Human 
 life does not permit presumption, but we may never 
 forget that the mystery of love is profounder even than 
 the mystery of iniquity, and that the virtue of grace 
 triumphs over the worst ravages of sin. St. Paul's 
 
DEFERRED BLESSING 125 
 
 early years were devoured by the caterpillar, yet, 
 through the mercy at which the apostle never ceased 
 to wonder, the stripped branches became purple with 
 blossom and golden with fruit beyond all the trees of 
 the garden. The penitent is in danger of being para- 
 lyzed by the clamour of the sins of past years, and of 
 losing all heart and hope when he broods over what he 
 has rejected, wasted, and perverted; still, he may take 
 courage at the thought of the mercy wider than the 
 sea, of the power that can cause stems and boughs 
 blasted by the palmer-worm to blossom as the 
 rose. 
 
 The mysterious action of divine providence may 
 restore what has been wasted by the specially bitter 
 and barren seasons of life. We must not despair when 
 frost turns the green leaf black, nor when the locust 
 devours it. Many get a bad start in life. Owing to 
 various causes the morning sunshine is darkened, and 
 the season that ought to be only gay is embittered and 
 blighted by poverty, unkindness, sickness, and injus- 
 tice. The lives of many little children are terrible. 
 Miss Martineau complained that her life had "no 
 spring." Sad loss, indeed! No snowdrop or violet; 
 no primrose, cowslip, or daffodil ; the tender leaf 
 frost-bitten ; the singing birds dead in the snow. But 
 God can more than restore a lost spring in a sweet 
 summer, a gracious autumn, a kindly winter. The 
 dutiful child emerges out of premature trial only 
 strengthened by it, and specially qualified because of 
 the dark background to enjoy the bright things which 
 God hath prepared for them who love Him. One of 
 the pictures in the north gallery at Kew represents the 
 
126 DEFERRED BLESSING 
 
 snowflower of California. Of an intense crimson 
 colour, and very large and tall, it is a beautiful flower ; 
 it is called the "snow-plant" because it springs directly 
 out of the snow, and is most striking and handsome 
 growing out of it. Thus many of the brightest Chris- 
 tians and most distinguished men in society com- 
 menced life in the harshest conditions, spent their youth 
 in the most cruel environments, and yet bourgeoned 
 into gold and purple through many years of prosperity 
 and honour. 
 
 Then, again, what we may call the apprenticeship 
 of life is to many deserving young persons bitterly 
 disappointing and exquisitely painful. The brilliant 
 hopes of earlier youth soon drop as blighted blossoms. 
 The literary aspirant is chilled by harsh criticism, the 
 artist's pictures are curtly rejected, the lawyer remains 
 briefless, the physician waits in vain for patients, the 
 preacher's sermons are not well received, and the 
 young shopkeeper is disheartened by multiplied diffi- 
 culties : these early years of one's career are often 
 peculiarly humiliating and distressing. Yet let none 
 despair, for rich ultimate blessing may come out of 
 and atone for weary and apparently wasted days. 
 Much has been heard lately about flowers being re- 
 tarded by a cold process ; that they may flower when 
 desired, they are kept for a while in an ice-house at a 
 temperature somewhere near zero, but this severe 
 treatment does them no damage : on the contrary, 
 when they are removed from the ice-house and de- 
 posited in a warm place they begin to sprout up with 
 greater rapidity for the delay, they are more impervious 
 to unpropitious conditions, and lilacs, laburnums, lilies. 
 
DEFERRED BLESSING 127 
 
 azaleas, and the rest are exhibited and crowned for 
 their exceptional splendour. 
 
 By the providence of God, the delays and postpone- 
 ments of human fortune may be similarly recom- 
 pensed; the years that the caterpillar wasted, that the 
 frost retarded, are restored in fairer, mellower fruit. 
 And all this is just as true of mysterious failure and 
 barrenness in our intellectual and spiritual culture. 
 There are times when all effort seems abortive, and all 
 progress suspended in the higher life ; yet be certain 
 such honest endeavour will tell later. Alfred Stevens 
 says : "If you have unexpectedly done well, attribute 
 your success to the effect of previous study." All 
 faithful striving leaves a balance of unexpended force 
 in the brain and heart which one day will delightfully 
 surprise us as though it were an immediate heavenly 
 inspiration. Let not young or old despair. Disap- 
 pointment often means in the end overflowing vats, 
 and this issue recurs too often to allow us to believe 
 that it belongs to the chapter of accidents. Through- 
 out life we must hesitate to interpret discouragements 
 into final and absolute defeats. The light, the rain, 
 the dew of God work wonders ; the locust shall be fol- 
 lowed by the butterfly and bee and bird, the song of 
 the vintage and the shout of Harvest Home. God 
 may restore to us what the caterpillar wasted, as He 
 did to Job. 
 
 Is there not a truth in the text touching the future 
 life? The whole of this mortal career wears to many 
 the character of complete failure, locusts mar it beyond 
 the possibility of any present redemption ; it is a record 
 of unrealized gifts, unfulfilled desires, vain strivings, 
 
113 DEFERRED BLESSING 
 
 unreached ideals ; it never comes to fruition, for hate- 
 ful swarms devour it. Does not the hope of a future 
 world come in here? Such was the thought of Paul, 
 and the truer and purer our heart the more clearly 
 this hope glows in it. The years wasted here by the 
 locust and palmer-worm shall burst out in rare fruitions 
 in the glory everlasting. The leaf consumed by the 
 pitiless caterpillar is Converted into splendid satin ; a 
 parable, let us say, of the mysterious processes by 
 which care, sickness, loss, toil, suffering, and death — 
 God's sombre alchemists — transmute the green but 
 fading leaves of earth's glory and joy into the enduring 
 felicities and splendours of a higher sphere and a 
 grander life. Let us then in the days of deepest 
 failure and distress be true to God and ourselves. 
 Conan Doyle justly observes: "The highest morality 
 may prove also to be the highest wisdom when the 
 half-told story comes to be finished." This life is "the 
 half-told story." Let us confidently wait for the other 
 half in the heavenly places, and it will entirely justify 
 our faith and patience. "And ye shall eat in plenty, 
 and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your 
 God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my 
 people shall never be ashamed." 
 
XXVIII 
 
 THE FATUITY OF RELIGIOUS 
 INDIFFERENCE 
 
 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his 
 own farm, another to his merchandise. — Matt. xxii. 5. 
 
 THE imagery of this parable is simple, yet its 
 teaching is large indeed. Our Lord here 
 announces that in the fullness of the times 
 God has called the race to fellowship with Himself; 
 that He has provided richly for its satisfaction and 
 perfecting; that He has opened to it a great prospect 
 of eternal life and blessedness. And just as distinctly 
 He teaches that the whole of this divine purpose, so 
 full of grandeur and graciousness, is to be realized 
 in Himself, 
 
 The invitation of the king was differently received : 
 in one case the invited maltreated the royal messengers 
 and slew them, whilst others who were called made 
 light of the whole thing. Thus in all generations is 
 the message of God treated — some scorning it with 
 anger and contempt, whilst others simply ignore it. 
 Of this latter class, who tranquilly put aside the 
 message of Christ, we now speak. Much of this levity 
 toward religion is found in the spirit of our age. In 
 the literary world we have examples of this. Renan 
 
 129 
 
130 RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE 
 
 in France was long a representative of this bantering 
 spirit. He calls religion "the romance of the infinite." 
 God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, soul, conscience, eternity, 
 heaven, and hell are thrilling episodes in a gigantic 
 fiction, shadows which come and go at the beck of 
 priestly magicians. The same spirit is displayed in 
 English literature. Well-known writers who have 
 little sympathy with supernaturalism have nothing 
 bitter to say against religious faith ; they rather discuss 
 it as an innocent and beautiful phase of thought that 
 we ought not willingly to let die. They treat it as 
 one of the fine arts. It is the inspiration of poetry; 
 it may find moving expression in oratorios ; it provides 
 admirable dramatic spectacles; it is replete with fine 
 themes for artists. Others pleasantly dismiss religion 
 as a useful illusion. Lecky calls it "the romance of the 
 poor." It is a pleasant dream, perhaps even a useful 
 dream, yet only a dream. The Bible is charac- 
 terized as a collection of "the fairy stories of God." 
 Pretty phrase ! Students of a different taste or temper 
 would denounce it as a fraud, a superstition, a scandal ; 
 but to the gay spirits who have not seriousness enough 
 to be angry it is a myth, a romance, a story of pathos 
 and beauty. They make light of it. Agnosticism ele- 
 vates indifference into a philosophy and a religion. 
 
 The same levity is more conspicuous still in actual 
 life; thousands treat the gospel as though it were a 
 romance, yet they would shrink from calling it one. 
 Science! — that touches us. We listen with eagerness 
 and admiration; we are curious and sympathetic; the 
 subject is full of fascination. Politics !— here our pref- 
 erences and antipathies are at once evoked; we ap- 
 
RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE 131 
 
 pland, we hiss, our friends arc concerned lest party- 
 spirit should betray us into indiscretion. Commerce ! 
 — we are instantly all eye and ear. Amusement ! — our 
 face shines, our heart beats, our tong-ue is loosed. But 
 our interest in religion is faint indeed ; it is a subject 
 that does not charm or agitate in the least; many a 
 romance stirs us more deeply. 
 
 This mood of levity is altogfether unreasonable. 
 How profoundly serious was Jesus Christ ! He was 
 so engrossed by the sense of God, the things of the 
 spirit, the claims of eternity, that He had little to say 
 about anything else. He who asked the question, 
 "What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, 
 and lose himself?" ever lived and taught, feeling the 
 transcendent importance of the spiritual state and 
 destiny. And are not His doctrines supremely signifi- 
 cant? Sin is no indiflFerent matter, no light thing. 
 Not only is the awful fact of disobedience emphasized 
 in revelation ; in the tragedies of Shakespeare, in the 
 poetry of Burns, as well as in our own hours of 
 deepest thought, are the reality and seriousness of 
 iniquity brought into the light. The doctrine of grace, 
 revealing the secret of peace with God, is no negligible 
 matter. And the relation of this world to the eternal 
 state is surely a question calculated to inspire solicitude. 
 The Incarnation; Christ's pure teachings, searching 
 appeals, solemn warnings, and glorious promises; His 
 noble life, His bloody sweat and passion. His death on 
 the tree, His resurrection and ascension, and His 
 coming in judgment, all these are solemn matters 
 entitled to be laid to heart, and to be pondered by night 
 and day. "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ?" 
 
132 RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE 
 
 Nazareth, Olivet, Gethsemane, Calvary, Pentecost! 
 The great problems of life were stated here as never 
 before; they were solved here as never before. 
 
 And, counting these things lightly, what do we 
 reckon serious? Speaking of this human life, Renan 
 said : "There is nothing serious at the bottom." Well, 
 if things are not serious at the bottom, they must be 
 serious at the top. If they are not serious in the 
 depths, where the consciousness of God is, where the 
 light of eternity breaks forth, where the infinite striv- 
 ings and fearings are, then the seriousness must be on 
 the surface where the beans and bacon are, the dress- 
 ing and undressing, the huckstering and bill-sticking, 
 the dust and ashes. And this is the sting of the text — 
 it condemns the invited because they turn from the 
 King and His love, from the eternal kingdom and its 
 glory, to farms and merchandise ; in other words, 
 it condemns us because we renounce the divine, the 
 spiritual, the eternal, and count the animal life the only 
 serious thing. It is irrational. We ought to listen to 
 our deepest nature, and if we do we shall listen to 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 The mood of levity is a guilty mood. There is no 
 merit whatever in treating religion lightly rather than 
 offensively, although some persuade themselves that 
 there is. They think their polite treatment of religion 
 a considerable justification. They do not stone the 
 messengers, they are courteous, they merely put the 
 invitation into the waste-paper basket, and compliment 
 themselves on their reticence and taste. No, we are 
 not acquitted when we have dismissed Christ i)olitely. 
 There is no greater sin than to make light of religion — 
 
RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE 133 
 
 to reduce it to a mere matter of taste, curiosity, or 
 convenience. "Between the poet who dreams, and the 
 faithful who believes, there is a whole abyss." Yes, 
 the abyss of which our Lord speaks in the parables of 
 Dives and Lazarus. What can more emphatically 
 indicate character and provoke damnation than that 
 we should treat revelation as a romance, the house of 
 God as an opera-house, religion as a curious specula- 
 tion, and that we should turn from the mighty truths 
 of the Christian creed to eat, drink, and play ! 
 
 How bitter was the spirit that expressed itself in 
 the imprecation, "Crush the wretch!" Renan never 
 spoke thus brutally. He turned the miracles of reve- 
 lation into myths, its teachings into poems, and in 
 elegant phrases peeled the .Saviour of every shred of 
 reality and divine glory ; by sophistry and epigram he 
 made of the Cross an intellectual plaything: but he 
 was never rude. How much better is Renan than Vol- 
 taire? As much as the kiss of Judas is better than the 
 blow of the Roman soldier. We have civilly dismissed 
 the appeal of God in Christ, that is all, and it is enough. 
 "None of these men shall taste of my supper." 
 
 The mood of levity is specially hopeless. The friv- 
 olous are the last to be reached. After visiting many 
 cities Paul came to Athens, and preached with un- 
 common eloquence. Nowhere did he fail more com- 
 pletely. The Athenians were talkative, flippant, 
 curious, vain, and the apostle made no impression 
 upon them. As Dr. Stalker observes : "He quitted 
 Athens, and never returned to it. Nowhere else has 
 he so completely failed. His message roused neither 
 interest nor opposition. The Athenians never thought 
 
134 RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE 
 
 of persecuting him ; they simply did not care what the 
 babbler said. This cold disdain cut him more than the 
 stones of the mob or the lictors' rods." He who had 
 more or less success in Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome, 
 failed in Athens. Any hearer may be reached sooner 
 than he who treats religion with placid tolerance, dis- 
 eased indifference, or complaisant nonchalance. 
 
XXIX 
 THE SLEEPING SICKNESS 
 
 Jt is high time for you to awake out of sleep. — Rom. xiii. il. 
 
 INSOMNIA is considered a modern malady. So 
 intense is the strain of life that we become 
 nervous and restless ; we resemble a piano after a 
 railway journey, and anything like healthy repose is 
 out of the question. We may lay our head on the 
 pillow ; but, unstrung and morbid, we toss to and fro 
 through the hours of darkness, and in the end not 
 improbably are driven to sleeping draughts to secure 
 the slumber we cannot otherwise woo. But the natives 
 of Africa are afflicted with an exactly opposite malady ; 
 attacked by overpowering drowsiness it is impossible 
 to keep the patients awake, they sleep on through days 
 and weeks, and to many of them the stupor proves the 
 sleep of death. 
 
 The plague of physical sleeping sickness is rare 
 amongst our countrymen, but other forms of it are 
 familiar enough. There is a political and economical 
 apathy. Not long ago one of our princes recently 
 returned from foreign travel produced a great sensa- 
 tion by calling upon England to "wake up." He had 
 become aware that his countrymen were yielding to a 
 spirit of complacency and self-indulgence, and that 
 
 185 
 
136 THE SLEEPING SICKNESS 
 
 other nations were outstripping us in intelligence and 
 enterprise. Dozing on the couch we were in peril of 
 being eclipsed. He conjured us to arouse ourselves, to 
 get the mist out of our eyes, the haziness out of our 
 brain, the torpor out of our limbs, to appraise facts at 
 their just value, and see to it that we did not suffer 
 an international competition. The sleeping giant must 
 bestir himself ere he is shorn of the locks of his 
 strength. Intellectual apathy sometimes afflicts us. 
 Robert Louis Stevenson, writing to a friend, complains : 
 "You cannot sleep ; well, I can best explain my state 
 thus : I cannot wake." Mentally he was at the oppo- 
 site pole to insomnia ; troubled by a nervous lethargy, 
 an unwholesome somnolence, his head and eyes, intel- 
 lectually speaking, were heavy, and he was unable to 
 do justice to his genius. Most orators, artists, and 
 poets are overtaken at times by this mental stupor. They 
 cannot see strongly ; their faculty is not entirely alert ; 
 their touch lacks sureness and delicacy, and they are 
 conscious that in consequence of this sluggishness of 
 the brain their work misses the magic of perfect art. 
 
 Yet, is not the spiritually-minded man most con- 
 scious of this fatal infirmity of sleep? Soporifics pro- 
 duce confusion and illusion, yet in such times of partial 
 insensibility devout men have a sense of uneasiness 
 that they are not at their best, that they are not realiz- 
 ing anything like the power and pleasure of their high 
 calling. Looking on God's glorious world we are 
 haunted by a conviction that we ought to descry more 
 in it than we do. Reading His Word, with all our 
 sense of delight in its infinite meaning and precious- 
 ness there mingles a feeling of distress that we appre- 
 
THE SLEEPING SICKNESS 137 
 
 hend it only faintly, as a student who nods over a 
 masterpiece. In the sanctuary we struggle with dull- 
 ness and are constrained to confess, God is in this 
 place, and I know it not as I ought to know. And in 
 daily life our heart is continually condemning us, 
 because, whilst we watch the mechanism of the divine 
 government, we only by fits and starts catch bare 
 glimpses of the Spirit in the midst of the wheels. 
 Yes ; a great spiritual universe infolds us — this we 
 know, of this we are as sure as we are of the existence 
 of the tangible sphere — yet such is the apathy of the 
 interior sense that we cannot get steady sight of eternal 
 realities and delight ourselves in the discovery. We 
 grope in worlds unrealized, and more cannot truthfully 
 be said of us. A "half-awakened child of man" is the 
 poet's portrait of us, and it is true. Tantalizing and 
 humiliating situation ! To be mastered by bodily sleep 
 when strong reasons urge us to remain alert, to be thus 
 caught and buffeted between the mind and the body, 
 is a miserable dilemma in which we sometimes find 
 ourselves ; and this nebulous and perplexing state very 
 closely represents the unhappy condition of our 
 spiritual life. We are cursed with the sleeping sick- 
 ness of the soul ; our organ of spiritual vision catches 
 only stray gleams of the mystic effulgence hailed by 
 prophets and poets, saints and seers ; the light that is 
 in us is darkness. We are like a bulb stirring in the 
 dark, yet unable to flower; like a bird agitated by an 
 instinct of the sky, yet imprisoned in the shell ; like a 
 sleeper whose eyes troubled by the morning are yet 
 withheld by nightmare. Shakespeare tells of superb 
 music filling the universe — 
 
138 THE SLEEPING SICKNESS 
 
 But whilst this muddy vesture of decay 
 Doth grossly close us in, we cannot hear it. 
 
 Physical restrictions, the opacity of the senses, the 
 infirmity of a yet undisciphned mind, conceal from us 
 rarer aspects and harmonies of the world, and herein 
 we are not greatly to blame ; but, unless we fabricate 
 it for ourselves, no muddy vesture of decay doth 
 grossly close us in, and make us blind and deaf to the 
 Holiest in the height and to the ineffable beauty and 
 music of His presence. The muddiness of soul which 
 forbids us penetrating to the other side is a guilty 
 stupefaction, and of this we are more or less conscious. 
 
 Some Christian disciples have the added pang that 
 they are less sensitive to the presence and stimulation 
 of a higher world than they once were. Addressing 
 the Birmingham University, Sir Oliver Lodge declared 
 that, "The average schoolboy of to-day was ignorant. 
 The eager and inquiring child had by some process been 
 turned, or had turned himself, into the intellectually 
 dull, apathetic, indolent professional schoolboy." Has 
 not a somewhat similar but far sadder transformation 
 ;aken place in some of us? It is ever a mournful 
 thing that the process of years should spoil the fresh- 
 ness of our intellectual life, quench its poetry, silence 
 its curiosity, and degrade it to coarse issues; but it is 
 infinitely more melancholy when we permit our con- 
 tact with the world to cloud the visions and ideals of 
 the soul, and to rob us of that sensitiveness and aspira- 
 tion of our religious childhood which gave us entrance 
 into the kingdom of God. 
 
 To become awake to the over-world and greater 
 life is largely a question of personal sincerity and 
 
THE SLEEPING SICKNESS 139 
 
 decision. Dr. Adam Clarke, the commentator, was 
 well known as an early riser. A young preacher re- 
 gretted his inability to follow the doctor's example, 
 and was anxious to know the secret of his success. 
 "Do you pray about it?" inquired the youth. "No," 
 was the reply ; "I get up." Sincerity and purpose have 
 also much to do with shaking off the slumber of the 
 soul. If we would direct our mind to the greater life 
 as assiduously as we woo the passive condition, we 
 should soon be open-eyed to heavenly sights. Men 
 rise early in the morning because they yield place and 
 play to larger motives than sensual sloth and indulg- 
 ence ; and if we allow the great thoughts and motives 
 of eternity permanent place in our mind and heart, no 
 drowsiness of indifference shall steal over us, nor 
 stupor of materialism betray us, nor intoxication of 
 pride or pleasure lull us to fatal sleep. Are we really 
 persuaded of the imperativeness of the spiritual life? 
 Do we give the highest things daily opportunity to 
 occupy, fascinate, enthuse us, and to grow upon us 
 in majesty and desirableness? Sleepers awake when 
 they really wish to awake. 
 
 To become fully alive to the greater life is to be on 
 our guard against the lower life. "Let us cast off the 
 works of darkness." "Let us walk honestly as in the 
 day." Study these verses. How can we awake if we 
 go on dosing ourselves with narcotics ! If we permit 
 the breath of impurity to tarnish our imagination, 
 the pure light of heaven will not shine through it; if 
 we abide in a sandstorm of worldliness, we forfeit the 
 stars; if we surrender to dreams of ambition, greed, 
 and appetite, the purple dawn of the everlasting day 
 
140 THE SLEEPING SICKNESS 
 
 breaks upon us in vain. Oh, for power to awake ! 
 Lord, that I might awake! "Now, Peter and they 
 that were with Him were heavy with sleep; but when 
 they were fully awake they saw His glory." Alas for 
 us if we give place to indolence and insensibility! 
 "Lest when He cometh He findeth them sleeping." 
 The Greek general, finding a sentinel asleep at his 
 post, plunged a dagger into his heart, protesting: "I 
 found you asleep, and I leave you so." 
 
 Lord, wake me up; rend swift my coffin-planks; 
 I pray Thee, let me live — alive and free. 
 
XXX 
 THE EFFICACY OF JOY 
 
 To the chief singer on my stringed instruments. — Hab. iii. 19. 
 
 SCHOPENHAUER disliked the Jews because 
 they were optimistic, and, if optimism is a fault, 
 not without reason. A celebrated German physi- 
 cian used to pursue his studies through the night with 
 a couple of skeletons holding the candles ; it is very 
 patent that the psalms and prophecies of the Old Testa- 
 ment were not written in any such ghastly environ- 
 ment and atmosphere. Despair with the sexton's lamp 
 did not make the darkness visible to Moses, David, 
 and Isaiah ; in the light of Hope's torch they construed 
 the blackest problems, and dedicated tragedy and dirge 
 to the chief singer on the stringed instruments. And 
 if hope and cheerfulness characterize the contents of 
 the Old Testament, an intenser peace breathes in the 
 doctrines of the New. No longer are dark themes 
 relieved by torchlight ; they are softened and solved in 
 the golden light of a heavenly day. At the heart of 
 revelation throbs a mighty blessedness and hope. 
 
 This optimism is justified by our deepest instinct 
 and philosophy. Human consciousness bears witness 
 that the profoundest thing in the universe is the thing 
 whose essence is purity and whose expression is beauty 
 
 141 
 
142 THE EFFICACY OF JOY 
 
 and peace. We naturally, that is necessarily, believe 
 in gladness as we do in freedom. The world is neither 
 clear nor dark, and therefore intellectual men debate 
 as to whether it is a wedding-robe with a crape hem, 
 or a shroud with an embroidered border ; but the unso- 
 phisticated discern that its warp and woof are threads 
 of gold throughout, only mysteriously rent and blotted. 
 The fundamental principles of nature and life are truth 
 and love, happiness and hope. Many lurid clouds 
 threaten us, yet after all the blue sky is the main thing, 
 not the blue lightning ; the sky is more than all clouds ; 
 and, indeed, we should not know that the storm was 
 black had we not first known that the sky was blue; 
 for, as Shakespeare puts it — 
 
 The more fair and crystal is the sky, 
 The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly. 
 
 Reeking pools, slimy marshes, and muddy rivers defile 
 the landscape ; but the crystal sea is the grand feature 
 of the planet, and its infinite purity and beauty show 
 how limited and exceptional foulness is. We grope 
 in deep shadows and gloomy places, yet is the shining 
 sun the sovereign reality; there are dark suns, and if 
 our central orb had been one of these in vain should 
 we have kindled sparks ; but a sight of our sun makes 
 us smile at the blackest night and the bitterest winter. 
 Our God is "the happy God" ; the central universe is 
 one of light and music; the core and ideal of things 
 are truth, beauty, and peace ; and the partial blemishes 
 and disorders which distress us shall not destroy our 
 faith and joy. The pessimist may industriously stir 
 his puddle, but we console ourselves with the Atlantic ; 
 
THE EFFICACY OF JOY 143 
 
 he may exaggerate the thunder-cloud, but we soothe 
 ourselves with the eternal azure ; with Calaban he may 
 shudder in the eclipse, but we warm ourselves in the 
 sun that shall no more go down. And if instinct and 
 philosophy justify a happy soul, much more is that true 
 of revelation, as already hinted. 
 
 Joyfulness has never been the ideal of the Christian 
 world, nor is it now. The mass of godly people feel 
 that there is something malefic in humour, that laughter 
 partakes of the nature of sin, and a snore in a congre- 
 gation is more easily condoned than a smile. An 
 ancient law banished roses from Jerusalem, and that 
 law is considerably in force in the Christian church. 
 Seriousness is always thought to be much nearer akin 
 to melancholy than to mirth. All of which is a serious 
 misconception. Robert Louis Stevenson uttered a 
 really profound truth when he wrote : "To be happy is 
 the first step to being pious." It would be a grand 
 thing indeed if the godly could finally rid themselves 
 of the superstition of sadness, and show the world the 
 virtue of Christianity in bringing to perfection all the 
 elements of gaiety which beautify the soul and life. 
 The Christian world has never yet mustered courage 
 to let itself go ; it has never given free expression to 
 the mighty gladness which stirs its heart. Herein it 
 has seriously discredited its faith. Whatever, notwith- 
 standing, may have been the mistake of the Church, 
 the gospel is full of the spirit and power of holy 
 gladness, and once grant it free course it will express 
 itself in every jubilant form and accent. Our Lord 
 Himself is "the chief singer" who, on the rudest of 
 instruments, has harmonized the discords of the world, 
 
144 THE EFFICACY OF JOY 
 
 and who imparts the secret of melody and mirth to all 
 who can receive it. 
 
 Joyfulness of spirit is most efficacious as against 
 temptation and sin. The Greek had a happy creed, but 
 that creed chiefly contemplated intellectual and sensa- 
 tional pleasure, and it rather fostered selfish and 
 sensual indulgence. The Christian creed is also happy, 
 but with happiness of another order, and going far 
 deeper ; first concerning itself with the soundness of 
 the heart, and contemplating chiefly the noble pleasure 
 of unselfish and righteous conduct ; and thus becoming 
 a splendid safeguard against illegal enjoyment of every 
 kind. A simple joyous Christian heart instinctively 
 shrinks from selfish sensual indulgence; and just as 
 instinctively it regulates all legitimate delights and 
 solicitations of a subordinate order. There is wonder- 
 ful preservative virtue in true joy ; it may to a super- 
 ficial glance seem altogether too poetic to be trusted 
 with serious interest, yet it is the very key of our 
 defence and salvation. The New Testament confides 
 the most serious interests and consequences to appar- 
 ently the slenderest guarantees. Thankfulness may be 
 counted a flimsy sentiment, yet when the Apostle Paul 
 imputes the enormities of the Gentile world to the lack 
 of it we perceive its immense significance in regard to 
 character and destiny. Mild peace masks military 
 mastery of the first order, for it garrisons the heart. 
 But the practical love is reckoned a frail emotion, yet 
 on that tenuous thread Heaven suspends universal 
 virtue. And the all-conquering strength which van- 
 quishes world, flesh, and devil is a mystic thrill known 
 as "the joy of the Lord." True delight in God is not 
 
THE EFFICACY OF JOY 145 
 
 weak, for it combines within itself all the strength of 
 the intellect, all the vigour of the will, all the invinci- 
 bleness of the affections ; it is the very health, power, 
 and perfection of the soul ; and we are never safer from 
 sin than when a holy joy sparkles in our eyes and 
 vibrates on our tongue. 
 
 Joyfulness is the availing specific against sorrow. 
 A thoroughgoing realization of the bright things and 
 seasons of life is the best preparation for the dark days, 
 and no one is fortified against the dark days who has 
 not fully enjoyed the bright ones. The summer 
 flowers which survive through the autumn bear the 
 chills of approaching winter much better than the 
 flowers of autumn do ; the summer flowers drenched in 
 the long sunshine have a fuller vitality than the autumn 
 blooms which enjoyed only the fainter light of the 
 shorter day, and the favoured children of the sun best 
 brave the gathering cold and darkness. So men best 
 sustain the trying seasons of life who enjoyed most 
 heartily its privileged hours, who stood well out of 
 the shade, and drank in at every pore the golden sun- 
 shine of life's summer days. If happy days are vouch- 
 safed, raise your vitality to the highest by their full 
 enjoyment. If threatened by misfortune, confront it 
 as Habakkuk did, with a trustful song. If tribulation 
 overtakes you, disperse or sanctify it in the power of 
 a smiling confidence and holy joy. As the Orientals 
 put it: "By dint of laughing the roses are opened." 
 They who come to Zion with songs "obtain joy and 
 gladness, and sorrow and sighing flee away." 
 
 Joyfulness is the best inspiration for obedience and 
 service. "Serve the Lord with gladness ; come before 
 
146 THE EFFICACY OF JOY 
 
 His presence with singing." Only as we attain to 
 gladness are duty, work, suffering, and sacrifice accom- 
 plished at their best. Leonardo da Vinci painted, they 
 say, holding a lyre in one hand ; and everybody knows 
 that he painted superbly. Holding a lyre in our hand, 
 paths of duty bloom into paths of primroses: holding 
 a lyre in our hand, whatever work is done by the other 
 hand is a masterpiece ; holding a lyre in our hand, the 
 sacrifice is forgotten in the garlands; holding a lyre 
 in our hand, the sponge dipped in vinegar changes to 
 a honeycomb. 
 
XXXI 
 A HUMAN DOCUMENT 
 
 Wherefore doth a living man complain^ a man for the pun- 
 ishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and 
 turn again to the Lord. — Lam. iii. 39, 40. 
 
 THE natural man resents his afflictions. He is 
 ever asking, Why do I suffer? Why do I 
 suffer thus? He regards his sufferings as 
 partaking of the nature of injustice; he considers him- 
 self the victim of misfortune, rather than the subject of 
 correction. Enlightened men know better than this; 
 they recognize an element of justice in their tribulation, 
 and know within themselves how little reason they 
 have to complain. 
 
 Whenever we are brought to the right point of view, 
 we are in some sense penitents. We no longer argue 
 as though we were innocent and meritorious, but under- 
 lying all our reasonings and conclusions is the con- 
 sciousness of personal fault and demerit. The self- 
 righteous and self-satisfied are astonished when brought 
 into deep waters ; it is an experience entirely out of 
 harmony with their complacent mood ; but when under 
 the stress of inward or outward trouble we "search 
 and try our ways," we are not surprised by anything we 
 suffer. And testing our life in the light of the holy 
 
 147 
 
148 A HUMAN DOCUMENT 
 
 law we do not construe trial as though it were an un- 
 lucky accident, but we accept it as partaking of the 
 nature of chastisement and retribution. In Oscar 
 Wilde's pathetic prison book, which has recently ex- 
 cited much attention, we read : "The fact of my having 
 been the common prisoner of a common jail I must 
 frankly accept, and, curious as it may seem, one of the 
 things I shall have to teach myself is not to be ashamed 
 of it. I must accept it as a punishment, and if one is 
 ashamed of having been punished one might just as 
 well never have been punished at all. Of course, there 
 are many things of which I was convicted that I had 
 not done; but, then, there are many things of which 
 I was convicted that I had done, and a still greater 
 number of things in my life for which I was never in- 
 dicted at all. ... I must say to myself that I ruined 
 myself, and that nobody great or small can be ruined 
 except by his own hand. I am quite ready to say so. 
 This pitiless indictment I bring without pity against 
 myself. Terrible as was what the world did to me, 
 what I did to myself was far more terrible still." With 
 similar reproaches are the afflicted souls of the awak- 
 ened ever filled as they remind themselves of the sins 
 of past years. And this sense of personal unworthi- 
 ness checks all complaining ; makes the penitent indeed 
 thankful for bitter things which the carnal bemoan. 
 
 Not only do the enlightened detect in their suffer- 
 ings the working of a general law of retribution, but 
 they can often trace the connexion between their 
 humiliations and sufferings and their specific personal 
 sinfulness. "A man for the punishment of his sins." 
 We may be fully assured that there is exquisite exact- 
 
A HUMAN DOCUMENT 149 
 
 ness and discrimination in the working of the law of 
 retribution as in the action of all divine law; it does 
 sometimes appear as though the law of retribution 
 were peculiarly blind and sweeping, but truly the 
 wheels which graze or grind are full of eyes, and ex- 
 quisite justice regulates their every movement. The 
 Harvard Astronomical Observatory at Cambridge, 
 Massachusetts, recently secured the first successful pho- 
 tograph of a spectrum of lightning, the astronomer 
 thus being able to analyze the fire of the tempest, and 
 to determine what elements enter into its composition : 
 subsequently several excellent photographs of light- 
 ning flashes were taken, and a later study of their 
 spectra brought out the interesting fact that they were 
 not exactly similar. We are morally certain that if, 
 in some similar manner, it were possible to analyze 
 the judgments of God, to enter into their causes, ele- 
 ments, and workings, we should find wise and delicate 
 differentiations. As one lightning flash differs in char- 
 acter from another, so there is ever something personal 
 and unique in the tribulations by which the Father of 
 spirits disciplines His children. 
 
 The sensitive soul often discerns the subtle relation 
 between its sin and punishment. Others may not at 
 all understand the relation ; they may not suspect it, but 
 the godly know why their Father has taken them to 
 task, and they see the personal significance of their 
 trial. To none living may they, perhaps, speak of it; 
 yet they can hardly be mistaken as they trace the ob- 
 scure connexion between the faults of which they 
 know themselves guilty, and what, to others, appear 
 causeless and purposeless sorrows. In this respect 
 
150 A HUMAN DOCUMENT 
 
 the heart knows its own bitterness. We make the 
 greatest and most painful mistakes when we gratui- 
 tously undertake to give reasons for the afflictions of 
 our neighbours, as Job's friends did; but to find the 
 reason for our private sorrow in our personal sin is 
 a humbling task for which we are often sorrowfully 
 qualified. 
 
 The truly enlightened do not complain, because they 
 apprehend sharply that their punishment is less than 
 their desert. "Wherefore doth a living man com- 
 plain?" The fact that we are alive is immediate and 
 sufficient evidence of the divine forbearance. "It is 
 of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, be- 
 cause His compassions fail not." "But though He 
 cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to 
 the multitude of His mercies. For He doth not afflict 
 willingly nor grieve the children of men." All this 
 the humbled soul is made to understand, and to lay 
 to heart. Where is the reasonableness of complaint 
 when the just and extreme sentence has not been exe- 
 cuted? He who has been excused a plank bed does 
 not fret at a crumpled rose-leaf. He who has escaped 
 the gallows does not murmur at the tread-mill. He 
 who is pardoned the hemlock-cup does not resent the 
 wormwood and the gall. "He hath not dealt with us 
 after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our in- 
 iquities." No, the truly enlightened man does not 
 complain of the punishment of his sins ; what troubles 
 him far more are the sins that go unpunished. The 
 sense of chastisement gives inward relief; but the 
 secret distress of many is that, whilst others are being 
 bitterly and openly punished, they have escaped detec- 
 
A HUMAN DOCUMENT 151 
 
 tion and judgment — nay, that they continue to be 
 honoured and blessed in a thousand ways. This is the 
 fact that keenly troubles most noble yet erring souls. 
 Let us, however, leave all our sins with Him who abun- 
 dantly pardons. "Let us search and try our ways, and 
 turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with 
 our hands unto God in the heavens." 
 
XXXII 
 
 THE DISCIPLINE OF THE 
 DISAGREEABLE 
 
 5*0 then am 'I become your enemy, because I tell you the 
 truth f — Gal, iv. i6. 
 
 NOT long ago we had a most dismal summer 
 season, and the papers reported that it wit- 
 nessed a record pawning of barometers. 
 People got depressed by looking at the face of the in- 
 strument, the hand of which invariably indicated a con- 
 tinuance of unsettled weather. So when money ran 
 short, and it was found necessary to part with some- 
 thing, the barometer was the first item to be selected. 
 Some pawnbrokers, it was said, had such a glut in 
 these pledges that they declined to advance money on 
 any more. This funny episode in the human comedy 
 condenses into a quaint image an undeniable feature 
 of our poor nature — an impatience with whatever 
 thrusts upon us unwelcome truth. 
 
 International criticism is usually resented and re- 
 torted. In a speech at Calcutta University Lord Cur- 
 zon treated the native students to some plain speaking 
 about the besetting Oriental tendency to take liberties 
 with the truth. This was more than the self-love of 
 the Bengali could bear, and forthwith the native news- 
 
 152 
 
DISCIPLINE OF THE DISAGREEABLE 153 
 
 papers teemed with invective ; no sooner did the quick- 
 silver fall than the barometer lost its popularity. The 
 Cretans would not prize the native instrument whose 
 index finger fastened on their national failing, nor 
 would the apostle have been popular who gave his 
 testimony to its verdict. And this is the usual con- 
 sequence of international candour. 
 
 Not long ago a distinguished Metropolitan minister 
 suggested that a section of the working classes was 
 specially lacking in industry, temperance, and godli- 
 ness ; the impeachment was promptly and indignantly 
 resented, stones were thrown, and the barometer came 
 near to being smashed. If the rich do not with equal 
 demonstration repudiate criticism, it must be owing to 
 the fact that long ago they sent the steadily unflattering 
 glass to the pawnbroker, supposing they ever dispose 
 of things in that quarter. The various religious de- 
 nominations do not relish neighbourly analysis and 
 advice. And so far as concerns the individual, to see 
 ourselves as others see us is rarely reckoned a privi- 
 lege. We are usually hugely ofifended when our per- 
 sonal defects in grammar, pronunciation, manners, or 
 matters of similar import are corrected ; and the an- 
 noyance is yet more intense when the deeper imper- 
 fections of our character are challenged. Few can 
 bear with anything like good nature any hint of their 
 serious infirmities. 
 
 We decline practically to listen to our friends. "Am 
 I become your enemy, because I deal truly with you ?" 
 The Galatians received the apostle as an angel of God 
 when he came with a general message of grace ; yet 
 he no sooner ventured to remonstrate with them on 
 
154 DISCIPLINE OF THE DISAGREEABLE 
 
 account of their error and prejudice than they harshlv 
 withstood him. Whilst our friends administer syrups, 
 they charm; but we suspect their species the moment 
 we catch the smatch of a tonic in their intercourse. 
 And with most of us it is entirely out of the question 
 that we should be willing to be taught by our enem.y. 
 The excuses tendered for resenting criticism are amus- 
 ingly ingenious and sophistical. The suggestion of 
 our fault was unseasonable ; the spirit in which it was 
 made was not nice ; our alleged failing was exagger- 
 ated ; the critic ought first to have taken the beam out 
 of his own eye. By a thousand transparent demurs we 
 rob ourselves of the benefit of current personal ad- 
 monition. 
 
 Are we not extremely inconsistent and foolish in 
 this touchiness and resentment? We are not irritable 
 after this sort if there is any chance of the removal of 
 blemishes in our personal appearance of bodily health. 
 We treat handsomely the artist who frees us from a 
 wart, smooths out a wrinkle, or refines away a mole 
 or freckle; the physician who puts his finger on the 
 spot and testifies, "Thou ailest here and here," excites 
 gratitude, not anger ; why, then, should we turn away 
 with wounded pride and displeasure from any mirror 
 which presumes to throw back upon us reflections of 
 our moral self? It is quite true that critics sometimes 
 do us scant justice. The Japanese have metal mirrors 
 with properties which ordinary looking-glasses do not 
 possess; on the back of the metal is a figure which, 
 owing to the process of polishing, is reflected on any- 
 thing when the sun shines upon the surface of the mir- 
 ror. So our critics do not always reflect our true 
 
DISCIPLINE OF THE DISAGREEABLE 155 
 
 likeness, but a perverse image they have formed of 
 us at the back of their mind. If this is so, it is to 
 our advantage. If faithfully we satisfy ourselves that 
 the impeaching mirrors are not true, so much the bet- 
 ter ; but if they are true, how irrational it is to banish 
 them. Even when the truth is urged upon us un- 
 seasonably, tactlessly, or harshly, we are not the less 
 interested in it. Emerson says : "The wise man throws 
 himself on the side of his assailants. It is more 
 his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point." 
 The discipline of the disagreeable is far too precious 
 to be rejected. In some of the training colleges for 
 Roman Catholic priests it is said to be a rule to force 
 the novices to practise the particular things they most 
 dislike ; and many of us would be all the better were we 
 to practise the particular duties we most resent, and 
 to listen impatiently to the sermons we find most dis- 
 tasteful. 
 
 Few suffer more seriously or manifestly in temper 
 and character than do the men and women who, for 
 one reason or another, are exempt from frank, candid, 
 honest criticism ; their privileged lot is really cruel in 
 the extreme. To pawn the barometer or to banish the 
 mirror is gratuitously to deliver ourselves up to foolish 
 and fatal notions. We go to church and listen to large, 
 eloquent discourses which by no accident touch our 
 personal weaknesses, and we come away little the 
 better for the splendid oration ; but those faithful per- 
 sonal and domestic criticisms which are all application 
 may prove infinitely more to our advantage. The min- 
 istry of the disagreeable is a much under-valued means 
 of grace, yet it would often profit more than the golden 
 
166 DISCIPLINE OF THE DISAGREEABLE 
 
 mouth and silver tongue of famous pulpits. Let us be 
 willing to know the truth, to admit the light whatever 
 it reveals, to follow the light wherever it leads. No 
 matter how untuned the trumpet, let us obey its warn- 
 ing; no matter how uncouth the gramophone, let us 
 listen to its message ; no matter how humbling or pain- 
 ful the witness of mirror or barometer, let us cleanse 
 ourselves from the blemish revealed by the one, and 
 prepare ourselves for the storm foreshadowed by the 
 other. 
 
 Dear is my friend, but my foe too 
 Is friendly to my good; 
 
 My friend the thing shows I can do, 
 My foe, the thing I should. 
 
XXXIII 
 HUMILITY 
 
 Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one 
 another; for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the 
 humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty 
 hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. — i Peter 
 V. 5, 6. 
 
 IN every possible way and at every possible point 
 revelation sets forth the charm and obligation of 
 humility. The New Testament never loses sight of 
 the lovely grace and never fails to extol it. Our Lord, 
 who of this grace was the supreme illustration, most 
 emphatically and repeatedly enjoins it upon His dis- 
 ciples; and Paul, Peter, James and John again and 
 again exhort their brethren to lowliness of mind. 
 
 It is an error to regard humility as a separate, defi- 
 nite virtue ; it is much rather an attitude and a dis- 
 position of the soul. It is the way in which we feel 
 towards God, in which we regard ourselves and our 
 fellows ; towards God it implies the sense of reverence 
 and dependence, and towards our fellows, deference, 
 consideration, and helpfulness. Harnack justly re- 
 marks: "Humility is not a virtue by itself; but it is 
 pure receptivity, the expression of inner need, the 
 prayer for God's grace and forgiveness — in a word, 
 the opening up of the heart to God" ; and united with 
 
 157 
 
158 HUMILITY 
 
 this meekness of godliness are the love and service of 
 our neighbour. Humility is an abiding disposition 
 towards the good, and that out of which everything 
 that is good springs and grows. Let us note the con- 
 ditions which render this grace possible, the elements 
 which constitute it. The primary condition of humility 
 is the consciousness of personal greatness. Secularism 
 is accustomed to inculcate humility by belittling us. 
 Its favourite line of argument is to contrast our weak- 
 ness and mutability with the vastness, splendour, and 
 permanence of the universe; thus subjecting our pre- 
 tensions to contempt. But to insist on our abject 
 insignificance is to render humility impossible. There 
 can be no sense of lowliness without the consciousness 
 of loftiness — only greatness can be humble. And if 
 humility requires that we should esteem and minister 
 to our neighbour, it implies that we cherish a high 
 sense of our neighbour's worth and dignity. If, ac- 
 cording to the text, we ought to gird ourselves "with 
 humility, to serve one another," it must be because we 
 are persuaded of our common grandeur, and not of 
 our common insignificance. The consequence of 
 gibing at the vanity, impotence, and humiliations of 
 humanity is to induce cynicism, not the meekness 
 which honours and helps our fellows. Our Lord never 
 sought to humble us by caricaturing us, but in His 
 blended majesty and lowliness discovered the nature 
 and secret of humility. 
 
 With the consciousness of personal greatness, how- 
 ever, must go the knowledge that our greatness is 
 derived and dependent. The secularist rebukes pride 
 by contrasting our life and lot with thq stability and 
 
HUMILITY 159 
 
 magnificence of nature, but his method is mistaken. 
 Whatever may be the humihations of humanity, we 
 are yet conscious of our superiority to dust, however 
 it may be transfigured, or however much there may 
 be of it. Revelation sets us before the face of God ; 
 declares His greatness, wisdom, holiness, and love; 
 avouches that we are His offspring, and that we have 
 nothing that we have not received from Him; that 
 He is our King and Judge ; and thus our sense of 
 greatness is chastened and hallowed by the vision of 
 supreme and eternal greatness. Abolish God, and 
 there is an end of the humility of men. What author- 
 ity remains to rebuke rampant arrogance after His 
 fear is removed from before our eyes? Then we are 
 greater than all else; we are absolute masters of the 
 situation; no place is left for gratitude, reverence, or 
 service. Before the face of God seraphim veil their 
 face with their wings ; and in the presence of His 
 glory vanity is shamed and abased. Tempted to self- 
 ishness, domination, and vaingloriousness, we are 
 humbled "under the mighty hand of God." 
 
 Finally, humility is perfected in the consciousness 
 that our greatness is redeemed greatness. "Humble 
 yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift 
 you up," is the admonition of St. James. We are 
 called to estimate ourselves in the light of the knowl- 
 edge of Jesus Christ. Created in honour, and set over 
 the work of God's hands, we have fallen from our 
 high estate, and it is only through sovereign mercy 
 that the dropped crown has been restored to us. How 
 much there is in the gospel of redemption to over- 
 whelm us, to fill us with humility ! Everything from 
 
160 HUMILITY 
 
 which we have been saved, everything that we possess, 
 everything for which we hope — all is of the free grace 
 of Him who died for us. Well may we with the elders 
 cast our crowns on the jasper pavement at the feet of 
 the Lamb, and ascribe to Him all glory and praise! 
 These are the large considerations which at once pre- 
 serve our sense of innate greatness, and yet bend us 
 low in humility and adoration. 
 
 Lowliness of mind is the ground and condition of all 
 rare excellences. We see this in every direction. The 
 scholar must enter upon his task with modesty and 
 humility if he is to excel ; a sense of cleverness and 
 self-sufficiency may easily prevent success. Writing 
 to his son at the University, Sir James Paget remarks : 
 "I am very sorry for the failures at Christ Church of 
 which you tell. I suspect that cleverness was at the 
 bottom of the failure, for it is a character of mind 
 the exercise of which is so instantly and pleasantly 
 rewarded that the temptation to cultivate it is always 
 present, always diminishing the feeling of need to 
 work with better mental powers for better rewards that 
 are far off. Certainly, of all good mental powers 
 cleverness is the most dangerous, unless it can be held 
 down, even with violence, by some better power, and 
 made a lower servant where else it would be master." 
 So the sense of cleverness, of self-sufficiency, robs men 
 of coveted prizes of scholarship. How eloquently 
 Ruskin dwells upon the peril of pride in art and the 
 constant need in the artist of sincerity and simplicity ! 
 When Mr. Tylney Wellesley, afterwards fourth Earl 
 of Mornington, was Master of the Mint, he caused 
 a certain number of shillings to be struck, on which 
 
HUMILITY 161 
 
 the letters "T. W." were placed on the lower edge 
 of the Sovereign's neck. George IV. found this out, 
 and was extremely angry. So Ruskin warns the artist 
 against the pride of mind and heart that may betray 
 him into introducing his own vain conceits into his 
 pictures; when he ought simply to rejoice in the work 
 of God's hands, and to give Him all the glory by a 
 faithful representation of it. Vanity, conceit, and in- 
 solence in the artist will mar his work, however great 
 he may be. The immortal masters forgot themselves 
 in the glory of the world. 
 
 And far beyond the blighting effects of pride of 
 heart, or intellect and its achievements, is its fatal 
 influence on the moral life. Meekness, teachableness, 
 responsiveness, are essential to high spiritual excel- 
 lence. Just as pride is the root of all vices, humility 
 is the ground out of which all moral perfections 
 spring. The structure of the violet is, we believe, the 
 most perfect known to botanists, inasmuch as it pos- 
 sesses all the parts of a plant according to scientific 
 classification, which comparatively few plants possess, 
 whilst many brilliant tropical plants are more or less 
 defective in their organs. As the sweet emblem of 
 humility comprehends all the parts of a plant, so 
 humility itself holds the essence of universal good- 
 ness ; and he who is clothed with it is perfect, lacking 
 nothing. 
 
 The idea that men of marked humility and unselfish- 
 ness are inept creatures has no foundation in fact* 
 George Sand writes : "Humility of mind is a monkish 
 virtue which God forbids to reformers." It is not so. 
 Meekness was the grand characteristic of our Lord ; 
 
162 HUMILITY 
 
 it is repeatedly and most touchingly revealed in St. 
 Paul ; and, whatever his traducers may say, the humility 
 of Martin Luther was profound. A Turkish proverb 
 well discriminates : "A man is harder than iron, more 
 delicate than the rose." Noble men are ever thus; 
 they have a side of lowliness, softness, condescension, 
 helpfulness, the delicacy and sweetness of the rose; 
 and with this simplicity and gentleness they blend 
 qualities of the utmost strength and steadfastness. 
 
XXXIV ^ 
 
 DIFFERENTIATIONS IN 
 EXCELLENCE 
 
 The gold of that land is good. — Gen. ii. 12. 
 
 PROFOUND students of human nature are most 
 conscious of the complexity of moral character. 
 Analyzing the elements which enter into it they 
 discover sound alloy in base metal. The soul of good- 
 ness in things evil is a favourite topic with some critics ; 
 and, it may be acknowledged, a legitimate one. It is 
 good to think that pure evil is rare, if, indeed, it is 
 ever met with. But, on the other hand, these assayers 
 of human nature find dross in the most refined metal. 
 Gold is never found pure, and they do not find human- 
 ity so. A reviewer writes : "With Thackeray no pas- 
 sion is simple, no motive unmixed. Afifection is alloyed 
 with injustice, innocence with selfishness, generosity 
 with folly, love itself with jealousy and calculation." 
 Indeed, good and evil in many instances are so un- 
 deniably present and so subtly interfused that the 
 appraiser of character is puzzled by the anagram, and 
 hesitates as to the category to which his ambiguous 
 subject belongs. In California in some cases the more 
 precious metals of silver and gold are found in con- 
 
 163 
 
164 DIFFERENTIATIONS IN EXCELLENCE 
 
 nexion with copper. The gold in certain places is so 
 largely mixed with the copper that it is a question 
 whether the mine is a poor gold or a rich copper one. 
 Most of us are acquainted with men and women who, 
 concerning their moral qualities, present a similar 
 problem ; and many of us are familiar with the same 
 problem in our own heart and life. There is gold and 
 gold, as found it varies immensely in fineness ; and 
 even when we may humbly hope that through God's 
 grace we rank with the higher metal, yet are we dis- 
 tressed that so much in our experience and character 
 is mixed and amorphous. 
 
 The range of moral excellence is immense. The 
 interval is wide between the ordinary precious stones 
 of the working jeweller and the Cullinan diamond; 
 between the seed pearl and the lustrous drop for the 
 possession of which millionaires contend ; between the 
 meagre sparkle of the quartz and the refined gold of 
 the treasury of kings : and this wide scheme of mate- 
 rial values is only one illustration of the distance that 
 often obtains between the worst and best of the excel- 
 lent things of nature. In the intellectual world an all 
 but infinite space divides the good artist in literature, 
 colour, or music from the immortal masters. And the 
 differentiations of moral worth are wider still, although 
 they may not be equally obvious. Only He whose 
 eye sees every precious thing can sum up the grada- 
 tions, and measure the distance, between "the least 
 in the kingdom of heaven" and the saint who comes 
 nearest to his Master and who is most like Him. A 
 well-known work on ornithology has an illuminated 
 frontispiece, on which are figured the first bird pre- 
 
DIFFERENTIATIONS IN EXCELLENCE 1G5 
 
 served in the geological record and the highest bird 
 existent on the earth to-day. The earliest known 
 avine form is the archgeopteryx, a creature which was 
 unquestionably during life a feather-clad bird ; yet it 
 had only just passed the reptile stage, and still re- 
 tained many reptilian characteristics — it is altogether 
 a strange, monstrous form. By the side of this primi- 
 tive creature is a picture of the last and highest type 
 of bird, the bird of paradise — a form on which Heaven 
 has lavished such a wealth of elegance and glory, that 
 when a great living naturalist first beheld it in its 
 native haunts he was so overpowered by its splendour 
 that his heart beat violently and he nearly fainted. 
 Millions of delicate differentiations have lifted the 
 lizard-like original into an organized scrap of rainbow. 
 This teaching of natural history may remind us of 
 the countless variations, transformations, and phases 
 which crowd the wide interval separating the convert, 
 freshly emerging from the mud of the slough with 
 many gross characteristics yet adhering to him, and 
 the saint, cleansed, disciplined, faultless — quite on the 
 verge of heaven. We think of a man as a converted 
 man, as a good man, and are content with the simple 
 description ; yet we must not forget that there is such 
 a thing as comparative goodness, and that innumerable 
 gradations exist among good men. The Scriptures 
 repeatedly recognize these subtle differences in the 
 character, consecration, and service of those who are, 
 nevertheless, all recognized disciples. It is true that 
 He alone who searcheth the hearts and who knoweth 
 the mind of the Spirit is acquainted with the differen- 
 tial calculus of the interior world, the method and 
 
166 DIFFERENTIATIONS IN EXCELLENCE 
 
 truth of computation in the highest branches of moral 
 life and action, and He only can follow the silent and 
 hidden progressiveness of the soul; but He knows all 
 these secrets, they are written in His book, and they 
 will regulate the final verdict. 
 
 It would be rank presumption to attempt to say how 
 far refinement of character may go. In this age we 
 are chary of attempting to define the potentialities of 
 any thing or creature whatever, much less must we 
 venture to place limits to the ennobling of character 
 and life. Who may affirm to what ultrasensitiveness, 
 to what sovereign strength conscience may attain in a 
 fully consecrated life ! Just as science has brought time- 
 pieces to an almost absolute perfection, then enclosing 
 them in hermetically sealed cases that the mechanism 
 may not be affected by changes of temperature or of 
 atmospheric pressure ; so conscience enshrined in, tem- 
 pered by the Holy Ghost, acquires an almost infallible 
 truth of delicacy. Who may declare the capacity of the 
 human will! Without doubt it may be educated until 
 it enjoys perfect freedom and ineffable delight in exe- 
 cuting the behests of the highest righteousness. Who 
 may set a limit to the richness of love, to the power of 
 self-sacrifice, to the sublimity of purity, of which a true 
 heart is susceptible ! Who dares to assign a boundary 
 to the power of holiness in practical life ! Holy Writ 
 assures us that we may be cleansed from all filthiness 
 of flesh and spirit, and that we may perfect holiness 
 in the fear of God. Have we, then, more faith in the 
 corruption and weakness of human nature than we 
 have in the redeeming and hallowing grace of the 
 Spirit of power and holiness? As already intimated, 
 
DIFFERENTIATIONS IN EXCELLENCE 167 
 
 great are the possibilities of material things, great are 
 the possibilities of the human mind, and we have seen 
 the folly of fixing arbitrary limits to their capacity of 
 development ; but is it not far more glaring presump- 
 tion to attempt to confine within any narrow lines the 
 unfolding of the moral life? "I have seen an end of all 
 perfection ; but Thy commandment is exceeding broad." 
 The infinity of the law argues the infinity of the soul, 
 and its vast possibilities of vision, power, beauty, antl 
 blessedness. We do ourselves amazing injustice by 
 qualifying the ideal of human perfection. "The gold 
 of that land is good." Outside the kingdom of God is 
 much auriferous gravel ; immediately within its bor- 
 ders is coarse gold ; but in its depths alloys, adultera- 
 tions, and debasements are finally purged, and human 
 nature throughout its structure, manifestations, and 
 experiences has become even like a jasper stone, clear 
 as crystal, or as pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 
 In the highest reaches of character and action do 
 we taste the ineffable satisfactions of godly life. "The 
 least in the kingdom of heaven" is conscious of un- 
 earthly blessedness, but the lower stages of the bet- 
 ter life have no glory by reason of the glory that 
 excelleth. The last degrees of perfection in anything 
 mean more than all that went before. The trifling 
 superiority of the historical diamond in size and water 
 give it an altogether disproportionate value ; so minute 
 are the excelling perfections of the prize rose that 
 they are inappreciable to an untrained eye; the skim- 
 ming of the final film of alloy makes poetry of the 
 gold on the fire ; it is a fine stroke, a soft touch, a 
 last ethereal grace that constitutes an artistic master- 
 
168 DIFFERENTIATIONS IN EXCELLENCE 
 
 piece and invests it with fabulous wealth and glory; 
 and it is when purity loses its final specks of dross, 
 when love precipitates its lingering sediment of selfish- 
 ness, when the scent of pride and vanity is gone, when 
 the thoughts, emotions and motives are ultimately 
 clarified, when life attains to perfect simplicity, sin- 
 cerity and loftiness, that we enter into the fullness of 
 joy which is beyond all other joy as the flower trans- 
 cends the leaf. Strive toward these highest ends, fol- 
 low the "more excellent" way, "that ye may show forth 
 the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness 
 into His marvellous light." 
 
XXXV 
 TRUTH 
 
 For we can do nothing against the truth, hut for the truth. 
 — 2 Cor. xiii. 8. 
 
 TRUTH is a question of far wider scope than 
 verbal literal accuracy; indeed, the prosaic 
 man who prides himself on rigid accuracy 
 of statement, and upon his habit of calling a spade a 
 spade, is sometimes essentially untruthful. One may 
 be severely precise about dates, numbers, and circum- 
 stances, and yet through suppression and bias egreg- 
 iously misrepresent and discolour the facts of the situ- 
 ation. Much has been written about the photograph 
 as a false witness. The general notion is that a photo- 
 graph must be, without question, an almost ideal of 
 truthfulness ; we feel sure that the sun cannot lie. And 
 yet it has been shown in an ancient-lights case that 
 photographs can be taken of the same site which are 
 mutually contradictory. The photograph is made to 
 speak for this or for that, according to the interests 
 of the parties concerned. The artist has to select his 
 lens, to find the desired standpoint, and to take the pic- 
 ture at the right time of day. By sundry devices walls 
 may be represented as near or far, windows misplaced 
 by a sinister angle, various sections of the premises 
 
 169 
 
170 TRUTH 
 
 magnified into disproportion, and the whole scene con- 
 fused by lights and shadows cunningly distributed. 
 When the two photographs taken in the interests of 
 the two litigants were brought into court they gave 
 diametrically contradictory witness. Thus although in 
 one sense the camera must be literally accurate, yet in 
 another sense the photograph may seriously lie and 
 mislead. And just as photography, whilst mechan- 
 ically veracious, may give directly false evidence, so 
 the verbally accurate witness, whilst telling the circum- 
 stantial truth in the main, may, through prejudice, 
 pride, or interest, suppress some item or introduce 
 some small and concealed element of falsehood as 
 serves to turn the whole of his testimony on the side 
 of unrightness. 
 
 On the other side, it is quite possible for imaginative 
 and emotional people to give the literal truth a certain 
 exaggerated and poetical setting which does not violate 
 the essential truth or mislead. This is so with much 
 of the fiction of Sir Walter Scott; the graphic, ro- 
 mantic presentment bringing home to the reader more 
 forcibly the essential truth of certain historical scenes 
 than could have been done by literal statements and 
 statistics. Turner furnishes a similar illustration in 
 art. Critics of a sort complain of his inaccuracies, and 
 that they fail to recognize in his cities and landscapes 
 the features which are known to distinguish them ; but 
 the apologists of the great artist contend for his ex- 
 ceptional truthfulness ; he neglects topographical preci- 
 sion, yet the essential characteristics of the scenery 
 are seized and depicted with unerring delicacy and 
 fidelity. It is quite possible to be intensely faithful 
 
TRUTH 171 
 
 and true whilst giving a free and pictorial expression 
 to facts and ideas that others would relate boldly. The 
 glowing utterances of Isaiah and St. John are not less 
 exact than the cold, hard photographs of didactic 
 truths and principles given by Ecclesiastes. This is 
 equally the case with ordinary people in current inter- 
 course. We must allow for differences of temperament 
 and situation, and not suppose that the whole idea of 
 truth is exhausted by a rigorous pedantry. The statue 
 in the public square is not as measured by a foot rule 
 true to life, yet it may most faithfully represent the 
 ideal personality — in other words, the actuality. Not 
 that we design in writing thus to encourage looseness 
 of statement on one side, or a habit of exaggeration 
 on the other; rather our purpose is to show that in 
 the high, broad sense of Scripture truth is no mere 
 technical matter, but a question of inward sincerity 
 and Tightness of heart, stamping all that a man is and 
 does with the character of ingenuousness, unreserved- 
 ness, and trustworthiness. To do nothing against the 
 truth, but for the truth, implies that the spirit of truth 
 is in our heart; that we are not governed by motive 
 of pride or interest, but by the simple passionate love 
 of truth itself ; and that we are prepared to make every 
 sacrifice that we may follow it in all its findings. Wide 
 is the scope, various the subjects, and nice the appli- 
 cation of truth alike in word and deed ; and he alone 
 is faithful to the text who lives in the fear of God, 
 the spirit of Christ, and in the fellowship of the Holy 
 Ghost, whose office it is to lead into the whole truth. 
 
 In our day the moral sentiment ought to be strongly 
 reinforced by the sanction given to truthfulness both 
 
172 TRUTH 
 
 by nature and by science, which is its interpretation. 
 The exactness and absolute trustworthiness of nature 
 are truisms. A recent writer thus expresses the fact : 
 "Every distinct object is characterized by its own 
 quahties, powers, and appearances, and by them may 
 be distinguished from that which is characterized by 
 different quahties, powers, and appearances. Oxygen 
 has its signs; hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, chlorine, 
 iodine, and phosphorus have their signs. These signs 
 no chemist distrusts ; his science is built on them. He 
 works in their midst with confidence ; he depends upon 
 them, and is not disappointed. From whatever dis- 
 tance, also, in the heavens a sign comes, it is received 
 without distrust; unlimited faith is placed in it; its 
 truth is never questioned ; its message and interpreta- 
 tation obtain a settled place among the verities of 
 science." Such is the fundamental truth of earth and 
 heaven. And most sincerely, sensitively, and patiently 
 does our science study to interpret faithfully the phe- 
 nomena of the world. The philosopher approaches his 
 task with an open and inquisitive mind; his theories 
 are drawn from observation and experiment ; he works 
 with instruments of marvellous precision ; his painstak- 
 ing, perseverance, and sacrifice often rise to martyr- 
 dom ; his only passion is to know and exhibit the 
 thing as it is. The veracity of modern science is a 
 grave rebuke to all who attempt to imprint on the 
 facts of life the characters of their own ignorance, 
 partiality, passion and untruthfulness. 
 
 Are we not humbled when, leaving the sphere of 
 science, we contemplate the condition of things in com- 
 merce, politics, society, and religion? What guile, 
 
TRUTH 173 
 
 feigning, juggling, varnishing, and hypocrisy! How 
 rare is actuality, reality, candour, the supreme love 
 of the truth ! Much as we flatter ourselves on our 
 plain truthfulness and honest living, tried by the ideal 
 standard we are yet barbarians. Our mind falls as far 
 short of truth as our character does of beauty. Is 
 there not passing occasion that we should diligently 
 cultivate the truthful spirit and practise it in all direc- 
 tions ? In controversy let us not strive for victory, but 
 for illumination ; let us not be dominated by party 
 spirit, but by a sense of verity and righteousness; let 
 us be deaf to the pleadings of interest and passion, 
 always giving the forward place to reasonableness and 
 conscience ; let us carry into our sects and cliques a 
 love of truth that penetrates at once the sophistries and 
 glamours of falsity and selfishness. Let us be severely 
 true to our own selves ; diligently worship God in spirit 
 and in truth; and maintain intimate communion with 
 Him who is the truth and the life. The highest ideal 
 of honesty and veracity is only possible as we culti- 
 vate a spirit of meekness, unselfishness, and reverence ; 
 as we walk in the light in which there is no darkness 
 at all ; and we must refuse to count that religion which 
 does not work out in transparency of thought and pur- 
 pose, impartiality of judgment, sincerity of demeanour, 
 conversation, and action. 
 
XXXVI 
 ' INDIRECTION 
 
 And it came to pass, zvhen Pharaoh had let the people go, 
 that God led them not through the way of the land of the 
 Philistines, although that was near; for God said. Lest per- 
 adventure the people repent when they see war, and they re- 
 turn to Egypt; but God led the people about, through the way 
 of the wilderness of the Red Sea. — Exod. xiii. 17, 18. 
 
 FOR the reason stated, God did not lead His 
 people by the nearest path to their desired 
 goal, but by a circuitous route and after long 
 delay. Does He not often act thus both with the race 
 at large and with the individual? We may be sure 
 that He never loses sight of the far-off event, that 
 He never falters in His design, and that He can make 
 no mistake as to direction, and yet by endless windings 
 and turnings He seeks to bring His purposes to pass. 
 What a wide sweep He took to prepare the earth 
 for human habitation ; not by the short cut of an imme- 
 diate creation, but by a process of evolution stretching 
 through measureless ages ! And when He determined 
 to vouchsafe His creatures a revelation of Himself and 
 of the truths of the eternal universe, He did not once 
 for all issue a direct and summary declaration of His 
 character, laws, and purpose, but worked out the rev- 
 elation through thousands of years in the crooked his- 
 tory of the chosen nation. 
 
 174 
 
INDIRECTION 175 
 
 The same principle of circumlocution is being per- 
 petually evidenced in the administration of His gov- 
 ernment. A recent traveller observes : "What a won- 
 derful thing it is to have arrived at such a perfect 
 knowledge of the currents of air and water, that even 
 on these vast seas one is sure of arriving quicker at 
 any given point, by taking the two sides of a right 
 angle, than by taking the hypothenuse, and more sure 
 of making out the journey to Australia in three months 
 by following a circuitous route than of making it in 
 five if one followed the shortest route traced on a 
 chart." How perfectly this strategy is understood in 
 heaven, and by what labyrinthine marches does God 
 circumvent every opposing force, and bring His de- 
 signs to fruition ! 
 
 Does not this fact supply a cue to the apparent con- 
 fusions of national and individual history? Events 
 seem to lack orderly marshalling, they do not move 
 smoothly, they apparently wander wide of the goal. 
 Providence, if any such rule there be, wears the aspect 
 of indecision and confusion, the action of things sug- 
 gests tedious see-saw, the route seems lost, and we 
 move as in a maze. If we could only strike "the bee- 
 line" and follow "as the crow flies," we should be de- 
 lighted; but our course through life is painfully at 
 variance with this natural simplicity. Weary of what 
 we consider the pedantry of the Imperial Government, 
 we contemptuously brand it as "the circumlocution 
 office ;" yet if we candidly note the cycles and fluctua- 
 tions of human affairs, there is more circumlocution in 
 the government of God than in any other government 
 whatever. 
 
176 INDIRECTION 
 
 Let us, however, be on our guard against impatience 
 "For God said, Lest peradventure the people repent 
 when they see war, and they return to Egypt." The 
 tortuous path of Israel was prescribed out of a tender 
 regard for its safety; and the same wise loving kind- 
 ness determines the involutions, tangents, and circum- 
 navigations of our pilgrimage. We are conducted 
 "round about" in order to escape hills that are too 
 steep, currents that are too strong, ordeals that are too 
 bitter. "He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that 
 we are dust," and leads us in a safe way because of 
 our enemies. The meandering track we wearily tread 
 irritates us, and excites in our heart cruel thoughts of 
 God ; yet if we saw truly, we should glorify the exquis- 
 ite wisdom and grace which find for us at every step 
 the line of least resistance. Indirection is not misdirec- 
 tion. The way is long, obscure, and apparently arbi- 
 trary; but the sufficient reason for all our perplexing 
 wanderings is found in the weakness of our nature and 
 the exigencies of life's discipline. 
 
 He fixed thee 'mid this dance 
 
 Of plastic circumstance, 
 This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest: 
 
 Machinery just meant 
 
 To give thy soul its bent, 
 Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed. 
 
 In the sanctification of character the same method 
 of indirection is followed. The ordinary moralist 
 makes a frontal attack on the weaknesses and 
 errors of human nature. He strikes directly and 
 bluntly at the vices of men, concentrating his strength 
 upon exposing, denouncing, and chastising their of- 
 
INDIRECTION 177 
 
 fences. The programme of revelation is widely dif- 
 ferent. Conversion is God's roundabout way of 
 getting into the rear of a man's vices to dislodge them 
 and to compel their retreat. Instead of con- 
 tenting Himself with an immediate onslaught 
 on our sins and follies, the Divine Saviour follows 
 a deeper policy, and works round by the understand- 
 ing, conscience, and heart, although the process is 
 intangible and protracted, and does not commend 
 itself to the natural man. And the whole process of 
 our sanctification is effected in the same way. We 
 pray earnestly that we may be enabled to attain this 
 grace or the other, but the graces sought are not in 
 some supernatural way immediately planted in our 
 heart. Is prayer therefore unheeded? Not so. It is 
 usually answered through a long course of events 
 whose significance at the time we do not comprehend, 
 but which eventually disciplines us into the very per- 
 fections we coveted. Henry Drummond, writing of 
 the rest which God gives His people, remarks : "It 
 is a roundabout way, apparently, of producing rest ; 
 but nature generally works by circular processes ; and 
 it is not certain that there is any other way of becom- 
 ing humble, or of finding rest. If a man could make 
 himself humble to order it might simplify matters, 
 but we do not find that this happens." 
 
 God's order in the purification of society is similarly 
 devious. The frontal attack on public evil is the 
 only mode that commends itself to the mind of many 
 reformers ; but the Captain of Israel directs His unseen 
 and unsuspected armies into the rear of social 
 sins and wrongs, cuts off their supplies, en- 
 
178 INDIRECTION 
 
 velops them, saps and mines in the darkness, until 
 the alien host mysteriously melts away. The New 
 Testament makes no frontal attack on slavery, as abo- 
 litionism does; but first by the working of great 
 doctrines of justice and love makes abolition inevit- 
 able. It makes no frontal attack on intemperance, as 
 Mohammed did by the prohibition of wine ; but by the 
 slow, silent action of its grand ideals of purity and 
 sacrifice guarantees and inaugurates a sober world. 
 It makes no frontal attack on sensuality, after the 
 manner of monasticism ; but by revealing to men 
 nobler delights and inspiring them with moral strength 
 it hastens the time when all the people shall be right- 
 eous. The impatient resent this tardy process, yet the 
 end shall justify it. "For My thoughts are not your 
 thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the 
 Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so 
 are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts 
 than your thoughts." The educationalist, the legalist, 
 and the politician may unavailingly demonstrate for 
 ever in the enemies' front, unless spiritual forces, which 
 elude observation and work on eccentric lines, first ren- 
 der strongly intrenched evils untenable. The pathway 
 by which God is introducing the race into its Canaan 
 exhausts all mathematical figures. If nature abhors 
 straight lines, still more does Providence. But He 
 who governs the races and the ages has a sufficient 
 reason for every detour and eccentricity. Do not 
 resent the serpentine path, the confused movements, 
 the unaccountable delays ; eternal wisdom and com- 
 passion are ever discovering the line of least resist- 
 ance for the race as well as for the individual. 
 
INDIRECTION 179 
 
 Let us, then, imitate more closely the divine method 
 of indirection in dealing with evil. In our personal 
 moral culture we may act thus with advantage. To 
 brood over our besetting sin becomes dangerous ; it 
 is wiser to attempt a flank movement, and defeat it 
 by occupying our mind with other thoughts, interests, 
 occupations, and pleasures. The smith seeking to ren- 
 der smooth a plate of iron that has been accidentally 
 distorted does not smite directly the protuberances 
 themselves, lest in doing so he should break or wound 
 the plate he designs to flatten. Knowing the fibre of 
 the metal, he strikes quite away from the obnoxious 
 bulgings, so removing the inequalities without marring 
 the sheet. In dealing with the faults of society there 
 is a place for protest and prohibition, but to treat them 
 effectually we must take the wide excursions of the 
 intellectual and spiritual reformer. Most profitably 
 might the ministry cultivate this generalship. Didactic 
 and controversial presentments of the truth are not the 
 most effective; we succeed best when the reader or 
 congregation hardly knows where the moral comes in. 
 Direct assaults on men's opinions and defects often 
 provoke them into the attitude of self-justification and 
 defiance, whilst the noble guile of insinuation and sug- 
 gestion manoeuvres them out of prejudices and posi- 
 tions we deprecate. Astronomers are said to see cer- 
 tain stars whilst they look askance. 
 
 Men must be taught as if you taught them not, 
 And things unknown proposed as things forgot. 
 
 In attempting the recovery of the fallen remember 
 the charm and virtues of indirection. The instructed 
 
180 INDIRECTION 
 
 physician of to-day, in dealing with morbid conditions 
 of mind and body, hopes much less from direct 
 methods of medicine and treatment than from 
 the indirect action of education and environment. 
 This holds good equally in the treatment of morbid 
 elements of character. In the training of children 
 the shortest way of dealing with their faults may 
 prove the longest. Do not unceasingly and painfully 
 emphasize the fault and labour it; attenuate and 
 destroy the evil thing by getting at it from another 
 side. Lead the child along the line of least resistance. 
 When by stratagem we carry our point with neigh- 
 boifrs or friends we say, "I got round them." By a 
 worthy artfulness let us "get round" people, that we 
 may save them from Egypt and bring them into the 
 Promised Land. 
 
J 
 
 XXXVII 
 
 WHAT WE MAY DO TOWARDS 
 OUR SALVATION 
 
 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up 
 your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, till He 
 come and rain righteousness upon you. — Hosea x. 12. 
 
 THAT we can do anything towards our salva- 
 tion has often been denied. Some contend 
 that seekers after redemption have nothing 
 to do with the means of grace, that they ought not 
 to search the Scriptures, and that they must not even 
 use private prayer; they ought to be still until the 
 Spirit of God gifts them with living faith and blesses 
 them with the consciousness of salvation. Others who 
 are not thus extreme are nevertheless suspicious of 
 anything done with a view to a new nature and a 
 new life. Certainly this attitude of passivity is con- 
 trary to the law of our natural life. Everything we 
 possess, or can hope to possess, of worldly blessing is 
 the free gift of God, but as a rule it is imparted only 
 to the diligent seeker. 
 
 The forest trees — 
 Do they fall round us into builded homes 
 Without an axe or arm? The blowing winds 
 Are but our servants when we hoist a sail. 
 
 181 
 
182 HELPS TOWARDS OUR SALVATION 
 
 We know the usual fate of the passive people in 
 society, of those who wait for "something to turn 
 up." Things do not turn up, they turn down, and 
 every day finds the idle dreamer involved in deeper 
 embarrassment and misery. The analogy is com- 
 plete with the higher life. The supreme gifts — a 
 pure heart, a peaceful conscience, a righteous char- 
 acter, a glorious immortality — do not come unsought ; 
 they are vouchsafed only to those who seek the Lord 
 with their whole heart. 
 
 What, then, may we do with a view to our salva- 
 tion ? "Sow to yourselves in righteousness ; break up 
 your fallow ground." What is impHed in this instruc- 
 tion? 
 
 An interior preparation for the blessing is necessary. 
 We may not expect it without a suitable attitude of 
 mind and heart. Indeed, any kind of discovery what- 
 ever is impossible without mental sympathy and ex- 
 pectation in the seeker. The fallen apple would never 
 have become historic if Newton's genius had not been 
 mathematical, and his mind occupied with natural 
 problems; the swinging lamp in the cathedral at Pisa 
 would have oscillated for ages without shedding other 
 illumination than that of oil, if Galileo had not sym- 
 pathetically pondered the mysteries of matter and 
 motion ; America would have been mistaken for a 
 cloud on the horizon, if faith and desire had not 
 sharpened the vision of Columbus ; the primrose by 
 the river's brim would have perished as nothing more 
 than a primrose, if reflection and sensibility had not 
 prepared Darwin to see in it the revelation of an 
 unknown law. 
 
HELPS TOWARDS OUR SALVATION 183 
 
 A distinguished writer has shown that in all research 
 and experiment the use of the imagination is essen- 
 tial ; that without sympathetic predisposition and alert- 
 ness the secrets of nature remain impenetrable. It is 
 the same with the great saving truths of religion ; 
 they can be apprehended only by seriously seeking 
 souls. In the temper of criticism, in the attitude of 
 antagonism, in the mood of indifference, it is impos- 
 sible to discern the truth to the saving of the soul. 
 "They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thith- 
 erward, saying. Come, and let us join ourselves to 
 the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be 
 forgotten." "With their faces thitherward ;" here is 
 depicted the true attitude of the inquirer and seeker 
 after God, and without it we miss the goal. As Dean 
 Church puts it: "The way and direction we choose 
 to look make a great difference as to what we see and 
 what we do not see." Surely there is enough to justify 
 our quest of these higher things, and we can hope to 
 find them only as in the right spirit we follow on to 
 know them. Our "desire must be to the remembrance 
 of His name." By reading, meditation, and earnest 
 prayer we make to ourselves a new heart; bring our- 
 selves into such an expectant, responsive mood that we 
 are able to see, feel, and grasp the things freely given 
 us of God. In the early morning plants are wet with 
 the dew, whilst stones are dry ; thus the grace of God 
 distils on prepared hearts, whilst the stony and unre- 
 ceptive remain unvisited and unblessed. 
 
 A preparation of the life is also essential. 
 Throughout God's holy Word it is insisted that in 
 seeking for the great salvation we "break off" our 
 
184 HELPS TOWARDS OUR SALVATION 
 
 "sins." Cries Isaiah: "Wash you, make you clean; 
 put away the evil of your doings from before Mine 
 eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well." Jeremiah 
 makes the same demand: "If thou wilt return, O 
 Israel, saith the Lord, return unto Me: and if thou 
 wilt put away thine abominations out of My sight, 
 then shalt thou not remove. For thus saith the Lord 
 to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your 
 fallow ground, and sow not among thorns." It is 
 useless to sow among thorns, they choke every good 
 impulse and resolve; in other words, to continue in 
 sin quenches the Spirit and renders abortive all 
 prayers and tears. Hosea points the same moral : 
 "Their doings will not suffer them to turn unto their 
 God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of 
 them, and they have not known the Lord." The 
 teaching of the New Testament is invariably to this 
 effect. One known sin deliberately retained means the 
 forfeiture of every blessing of the covenant. Do any 
 object? 
 
 Just as I am, and waiting not 
 To rid my soul of one dark blot, 
 To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, 
 O Lamb of God, I come ! 
 
 Yes, even so; but our contention remains in full 
 force. The prodigal came to his father's house just 
 as he was ; nevertheless he forsook the far country, 
 the harlots, and the swine. Qiristian could not cleanse 
 his filthy rags nor free his burden ; yet he turned his 
 back upon the guilty companionships and pleasures 
 of the City of Destruction. If we would enjoy the 
 
HELPS TOWARDS OUR SALVATION 185 
 
 great salvation Christ came to secure, we must remem- 
 ber the Baptist's exhortation to "bring forth fruits 
 meet for repentance." 
 
 Finally, plant yourself in the appointed paths of 
 blessing. In the "King's highway" wait the passing 
 of the Royal Presence. "Thus saith the Lord, Stand 
 ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, 
 where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall 
 find rest for your souls." It has been said: "It is 
 not enough to be ready to go where duty calls. A 
 man should stay around where he can hear the call." 
 Stay around, listening with a keen ear where God 
 is most likely to speak ; watching with eager vision 
 where He has promised to reveal Himself. Frequent 
 the place where prayer is wont to be made ; search the 
 Scriptures; listen to pious counsels. With your feet 
 on holy ground, with the right book in your hand, with 
 the right people about you, with your eyes viplifted and 
 expectant, wait for the light and joy that may be de- 
 layed, but which cannot be denied. 
 
 The Lord shall to His temple come. 
 Prepare your hearts to make Him room. 
 
 Think of the unprofitable years of the past ! "The 
 fallow ground." Our great nature unworked ; the 
 great possibilities of life unrealized. No fruits of 
 light ; no sweet-smelling flowers of grace and purity ; 
 no golden sheaves of noble service. But fallow ground 
 will produce something, a something that is worthless 
 and mischievous ; and it is ever thus with the unre- 
 generate, unconsecrated life. Roots of bitterness have 
 poisoned our days ; hemlock growths made us a curse 
 
186 HELPS TOWARDS OUR SALVATION 
 
 instead of a blessing; thorns and briers, fit only for 
 burning, are the sad harvest of a neglected soul. And 
 the brighter sides and things of wasted years are no 
 more satisfactory. The bright yellow of the hated 
 charlock and the dazzling scarlet of the poppies give 
 no pleasure to the husbandman ; they are only poison- 
 ous weeds, despite all their showiness : and the gaieties 
 of a godless life are not pleasures of memory. "What 
 fruit had ye then, in those things whereof ye are now 
 ashamed ? for the end of those things is death." 
 
 Think of the riches of the new life in Christ ! "Reap 
 in mercy." "Till He come and rain righteousness 
 upon you." According to the measure or proportion 
 of mercy shall God grant to the penitent soul the 
 gifts of grace. This is the glorious standard of bless- 
 ing. Thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold spring from 
 the seeds sown in the fields ; and in the moral sphere 
 God refreshes and enriches us beyond all our thoughts. 
 He blesses, not according to our merits, prayers, or 
 expectations, but according to the freeness and large- 
 ness of His mercy. He shall make you wiser, stronger, 
 holier, happier, more useful, beyond all that you can 
 ask or think. Broken up, that fallow ground shall bear 
 golden harvests, roses of Sharon, fruits of Paradise, 
 
 "Seek the Lord till He come." Continue the search 
 quite up to the point and time when you shall find. A 
 celebrated gold-mine in Nevada is known as the 
 Eureka, and a mournful history is connected with it. 
 The original owner, after working it without success, 
 was obliged to abandon it. He retired to San Fran- 
 cisco, where he lived in indigence for some time, finally 
 cutting his wife's throat and those of his two children, 
 
HELPS TOWARDS OUR SALVATION 187 
 
 and then blowing out his own brains. Those who re- 
 opened the mine struck the gold only twelve 
 feet beyond the spot where the poor fellow had ceased 
 working. Do not stop short of the heavenly blessing 
 and sink in despair. "It is time to seek the Lord " 
 If the husbandman permit the auspicious hours to 
 pass, the harvest is lost. 
 
XXXVIII 
 THE DEVIL'S RIDDLE 
 
 Then Satan answered the Lord, and said. Doth Job fear 
 God for nought? — ^Job i. 9. 
 
 SATAN assumes that the godHness of the patri- 
 arch rested on the secular advantage attending 
 it. "Hast Thou not made a hedge about him, 
 and about his house, and about all that he hath on 
 every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, 
 and his substance is increased in the land." The ac- 
 cuser then proceeds to predict that if the secular ad- 
 vantage ceased the godliness would cease with it. "But 
 put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, 
 and he will curse Thee to Thy face." The inference 
 to be drawn from the Satanic impeachment is that 
 godliness inspired by sordid selfishness is worthless; 
 piety must rest on other and higher grounds than 
 material advantage. So far it must be granted that 
 the devil's theology is orthodox, as indeed his theology 
 usually is ; his failure is elsewhere. The true religious 
 life is independent of all arithmetic. 
 
 Several subjects do not permit calculation of the 
 worldly order. Certain vocations and relationships are 
 so lofty that they are desecrated by the very thought 
 of financial gain or social advancement; the fine gold 
 
 188 
 
THE DEVIL'S RIDDLE 189 
 
 becomes dim at the suspicion of mercenary design. 
 Art cannot be cultivated in the spirit of gain. The 
 ancient masterpieces of sculpture, architecture, and 
 painting arose out of the pure impulse of genius, the 
 passionate love of perfection, and not out of greed. 
 Splendid workmanship is native to solitude and low- 
 liness, as some choice fruits and flowers are reared 
 best on the poorer soils. In the atmosphere of for- 
 tune, luxury, and renown genius withers. Great music 
 does not come by the way of the Stock Exchange. 
 The singing robes of the premier poets are commonly 
 threadbare. Science also is easily hurt by commer- 
 cialism. The true student of nature works in simple 
 love of the truth, knowing nothing of thoughts of 
 aggrandizement. In the opinion of competent judges 
 modern science has been seriously compromised by 
 too close association with industrialism; vast are the 
 material advantages ensured by science, but it must 
 not be cultivated in the commercial spirit. Detach- 
 ment from the world is essential to all high intellectual 
 work ; a glance at fiscal gain or social glory mars the 
 power and efficacy of the most brilliant genius. In the 
 realm of the social affections material considerations 
 are still more intolerable. Love shrinks from sordid 
 reckonings ; and if for a moment it should be seduced 
 into any thought of interest, its divine quality is lost. 
 Partnership in business is legitimate enough, yet busi- 
 ness under the guise of friendship is a painful confu- 
 sion impossible to sensitive souls. "Commerce, traffic, 
 speculation are honourable words when properly ap- 
 plied, but they are infamous when applied to mar- 
 riage," as Marie Bashkirtseff justly declares. Love, 
 
190 THE DEVIL'S RIDDLE 
 
 friendship, philanthropy are affairs of the heart, and 
 any alloy of interested motives converts these terms 
 into expressions of the worst forms of fraudulent pre- 
 tence. 
 
 But coming to goodness, M^hich is another word 
 for godliness, we enter a realm where mercenary 
 thoughts are simply profane. In the lower stages of 
 personal religious experience, as in the earlier stages 
 of national religious development, the bargaining tem- 
 per of the patriarch Jacob may be condoned; but in 
 the higher stages, which cannot be delayed without 
 serious loss, the huckstering spirit has entirely passed 
 away. "Now when Simon saw that through the laying 
 on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, 
 he offered them money. . . . But Peter said unto 
 him, Thy silver perish with thee, because thou hast 
 thought to obtain the gift of God with money." In 
 our day dollars and divinity are associated without 
 causing any special shock, but to men full of the spirit 
 of Christ the association was sacrilegious ; the attempt 
 to obtain spiritual power with money, or to get money 
 out of spiritual virtue, was equally impious. The 
 strong language of Peter shows that profit and piety 
 are utterly irreconcilable in religious thought and 
 motive, although they are often and naturally coinci- 
 dent in practical life. 
 
 It is the duty of Christian men to preserve their 
 religious life not only from gross secularism, but also 
 from every refinement of interested motives ; we must 
 remember that simony may exist in subtle forms, and 
 find application through a wide range. Revelation 
 everywhere represents goodness as of transcendent 
 
THE DEVIL'S RIDDLE 191 
 
 character, and bases it confidently on transcendent 
 motives ; we might all be spirits inhabiting a spiritual 
 world so far as the New Testament concerns itself 
 with political instructions or material provisions. 
 Christianity little concerns itself with material ad- 
 vantage, and it makes few promises in terms of bread 
 and gold. Its great design is to captivate the human 
 spirit by the sight of God's beauty and love, so that 
 perfect obedience may spring out of pure admiration, 
 reverence, and affection. It identifies man with the 
 truth itself, so that right action does not result from 
 the lower reason of utility, but from the higher cause 
 of a will so purified from self as to sympathize by 
 instinct with the eternal laws. And this ultimate ideal 
 of unselfish life and obedience commends itself to our 
 deepest consciousness; for the fatal objection to utili- 
 tarian morality is not logical, but is found in that in- 
 curable sentiment of the heart which is not satisfied 
 unless the highest conduct is the expression of pure 
 affection. 
 
 Are we capable of this pure affection and disin- 
 terested service? Human nature is capable of far 
 more disinterestedness than it usually gets credit for. 
 Selfish instincts are indeed strong, and sadly overlay 
 the higher instincts, yet we are often reminded of the 
 latent poetry of the human heart. Miss Anna Swan- 
 wick, the translator of the dramas of .^^schylus, 
 formed a class of shop girls and servants. Once when 
 she was trying to interest them in Milton, some one 
 suggested that instruction in arithmetic would be more 
 useful, considering their work and future. She thought 
 not, but resolved to leave it to themselves to decide. 
 
192 THE DEVIL'S RIDDLE 
 
 So at their next meeting she put the question to them, 
 "Which do you prefer — instruction in the poets or in 
 boolc-keeping ? and, not to hasten their decision, left 
 them to discuss it among themselves, telling them that 
 she would come back for their answer. When she 
 returned she found that only two of the girls were 
 in favour of what bore upon their ordinary work; 
 all the rest wished what would take them away from 
 it or lift them above it. 
 
 We get splendid glimpses of the higher suscepti- 
 bilities and possibilities of human nature when and 
 where we least expect them ; a noble idealism triumphs 
 over gross secularism, flashing out like a diamond in 
 the dark. By the glorious energy of divine light and 
 grace this faculty of disinterestedness is stimulated 
 until the love of truth, right, and beauty fills the soul, 
 and the whole man is mastered by the highest impulses 
 and forces, unconscious of meaner interests and hopes. 
 The raiser of the celebrated Shirley poppy tells how 
 he noticed in a waste corner of his garden a patch of 
 common wild field-poppies, one solitary flower hav- 
 ing a very narrow edge of white ; preserving its seed, 
 and by careful and diligent culture year by year, the 
 successive flowers got a larger infusion of white to tone 
 down the red, whilst the black central portion was 
 gradually changed, until the flower throughout became 
 absolutely a pure white. Just as the skill of man, 
 taking advantage of a slight tendency in the flower, 
 transforms the black heart and fiery leaves of a poi- 
 sonous weed into a sort of eucharistic lily; so divine 
 grace seizes upon the gracious susceptibilities of de- 
 generate nature, and converts the selfish soul into the 
 
THE DEVIL'S RIDDLE 193 
 
 rarest beauty of purity and disinterestedness. We have 
 seen too many delightful changes worked in humanity 
 to doubt this crowning transformation. Love is the 
 fulfillmg of the law, and asks no aid from lucre. 
 
 Let us not enter on the religious life with the 
 thought of worldly advantage. It is quite ad- 
 missible to defend religion against the reproaches of 
 secularism, but it is a fatal mistake to adopt 
 religion on any ground of worldly welfare. In this 
 age far too much is made of the big loaf and the 
 social laurel to persuade men to follow Christ ; and 
 the consequence of holding forth such inducements 
 can only be unhappy. Art does not confer upon her 
 elect disciples popularity, or J. F. Millet would not 
 have suffered neglect ; science does not grant opulence 
 to her brilliant sons, or Faraday would not have re- 
 mained poor ; literature does not guarantee social emi- 
 nence, or Carlyle would not have lived and died in such 
 modest estate ; nor does religion tempt by vulgar bribes 
 of worldly largess. They who followed the Master 
 because they ate of the loaves and were filled soon 
 forsook Him, and discipleship inspired by hopes of 
 earthly gain is ever precarious. It is only when we 
 dare to serve God for nought that we discover the 
 infinite riches God's nought stands for. 
 
 Let us not become discontented with our spiritual 
 faith if it ceases to be accompanied by worldly ad- 
 vantage. The vast reward of a godly life is in the 
 soul itself, and no spoiling of our goods can abate 
 this inward wealth and felicity. James Smetham's 
 painting, poetry, and study of literature did not lead 
 to conventional success ; yet toward the end of life 
 
194 THE DEVIL'S RIDDLE 
 
 he wrote: "In my own secret heart I look on myself 
 as one who has got on, and got to his goal, as one 
 who has got something a thousand times better than 
 a fortune, more real, more inward, less in the power 
 of others, less variable, more immortal, more eternal; 
 as one whose feet are on a rock, his goings established, 
 with a new song in his mouth, and joy on his head." 
 Here is the exceeding great reward of devout souls, 
 however carnal fortune may fail. 
 
XXXIX 
 
 THE GRAND GOAL AND THE 
 LOWLr PATH 
 
 To them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and 
 honour and incorruption, eternal life. — Rom. ii. 7. 
 
 THE Grandeur of the Quest.— "Seek for 
 glory and honour and incorruption." What 
 thrilling words these are when taken with 
 their great meanings ! Some would eliminate them 
 from the vocabulary, and shut us up to more modest 
 language. But take these words, properly understood, 
 out of the vocabulary, and what will be the effect on 
 character? The noblest character, the strongest and 
 most beautiful life, are impossible without the large 
 ideas and hopes expressed in these terms. One of the 
 finest orchids in the world is found in England, but 
 owing to the inclement climate it grows in a dwarfed 
 form destitute of beauty, and is of no value ; and the 
 various virtues which bloom so radiantly under the 
 quickening influences of the great ideals and promises 
 of the New Testament, dwindle and sicken into mere 
 dull properties once those vital influences fail. Su- 
 preme character is born and sustained in magnificent 
 spiritual conceptions. 
 
 Take these great words out of the vocabulary, and 
 195 
 
196 GRAND GOAL AND LOWLY PATH 
 
 what will be the effect on experience? Can the spirit 
 within us live without them? "No," says the secular- 
 ist; "the spirit of man will not be content without 
 these words ; but glory, honour, and incorruption are 
 found within the worldly life." Are they? "Glory" 
 — have we that? Glory means solidity, reality, dur- 
 ability, and certainly we know nothing of these in the 
 temporal sphere. If the spirituality of our nature is 
 denied, man himself is palpably only a bubble, and all 
 the worlds inflated films floating in space and doomed 
 to vanish. There is no substance, no persistence where 
 there is no spirit. "Honour" — have we that? When 
 the soul is denied, we become like the beasts which 
 perish, and the honours of life's short day are golden 
 shoes, purple saddles, jingling bells. "Immortality" — 
 have we that ? Yes ; fame. Fame ! a death's-head 
 crowned with a fading wreath. 
 
 The fact is, we have not these things, only these 
 words, if we are without faith in God, the spirituality 
 of our own nature and the eternal world. There is 
 no lofty, luminous character, no rich, satisfying ex- 
 perience, except the living God and life in Him are 
 recognized. "Thou shalt show me the path of life; 
 in Thy presence is fullness of joy ; at Thy right hand 
 are pleasures for evermore." Let us seek and expect 
 the realization of these great words in their largest sig- 
 nificance. "To them who seek for glory and honour 
 and incorruption, eternal life." Heaven goes beyond 
 our utmost ideas, aspirations, and hopes, filling our 
 biggest poetic words with over-running, infinite mean- 
 ing. We have seen that on the lips of men these words 
 shrink into very nothingness ; but God gives them actu- 
 
GRAND GOAL AND LOWLY PATH 197 
 
 ality, widens them into boundlessness, and fills them 
 to overflowing with glorious suggestion and promise. 
 Aim at the highest. When a great ideal slips out of 
 a man's soul, he begins to rot ; only as we cherish high 
 and holy thoughts and beliefs do we find rest to our 
 soul, and reach the stature of the perfect man. 
 
 The Simplicity of the Pathway. — "To them 
 that by patience in well-doing seek." There is some- 
 thing quite startling between the grandeur of the aim 
 and the homeliness of the condition. "Well-doing." 
 "Glory, honour, and incorruption" are usually sought 
 in very different paths, but at last the plain path is 
 the royal one. Not brilliant strokes in trade, war, or 
 scholarship, but zvcll-doing in ordinary life. Doing 
 humbly, purely, justly, hopefully the work God has 
 assigned, whatever that work maybe. Fulfilling our 
 task with a willing mind, a loving heart, and both 
 hands. Nothing heroic ; only faithfulness, simple dili- 
 gence, and quiet perseverance in being good, getting 
 good, doing good. In this world the grand prizes 
 chiefly go to the brilliant few ; the rewards for patient 
 continuance in well-doing are painfully rare and mod- 
 est. It was so at school where we began. The bril- 
 liant fellows got everything; the dull plodders little 
 if anything. It is thus in the big world. Dull merit, 
 patient conscientiousness, are lightly passed over. The 
 world affects men who can conduct a dashing cam- 
 paign, deliver a brilliant speech, pull a fortune out of 
 the fire, or engineer dramatic movements ; it worships 
 genius, brilliance, audacity. The laurels of society 
 are reserved for extraordinary talents and histrionic 
 achievements. What a blessing to know that God rec- 
 
198 GRAND GOAL AND LOWLY PATH 
 
 ognizes patient merit, and that He reserves the major 
 prizes for dutiful souls faithful unto death ! 
 
 Heaven recognizes the greatness of simple charac- 
 ter. The greatest moral qualities, powers, and virtues 
 exist in the humblest men and women. A musician 
 listening to the talk of common people can distinguish 
 in the cadences of their voices chords of the world's 
 greatest music, notes of its sweetest songs and mighti- 
 est oratorios; and the sublimest faith and heroism of 
 prophets, apostles, and martyrs are revealed in the 
 works and ways of the dim multitude. It is easy to 
 overlook great character in humble guise, yet it is 
 clearly seen by Him who appreciates it the most. An 
 art critic affirms that "scale is not a very important 
 element in distinct impression" ; but we are afraid that 
 fine moral character and action are repeatedly un- 
 marked by us when they lack social magnitude and 
 conspicuousness. When magnanimity, patience, in- 
 tegrity, purity, and all the other graces are only on 
 the inch scale of lowly life, they are liable to be ignored 
 or disesteemed ; we can appreciate majestic lines and 
 fair colours only in heroic figures and expansive car- 
 toons. But He who is a Spirit, and who judges ac- 
 cording to truth, knows little of size and show ; in 
 His reckoning, the vastness of the circle is nothing, 
 the exactly round being the question ; the length of the 
 line is not measured, only its straightness noted ; the 
 magnitude of the object is of trifling import, its truth- 
 fulness is the essential thing, even if that truth- 
 fulness is revealed only by the microscope. God knows 
 the spiritual essence of all that is done, and unerringly 
 recognizes the great soul in the small act. Many 
 
GRAND GOAL AND LOWLY PATH 199 
 
 amongst us are greater than they know ; their actions 
 greater than they think. ,We have all heard of the 
 man who spoke prose for forty years without know- 
 ing it ; but a fact of far greater interest is that scores 
 of men speak poetry without knowing it — nay, act 
 splendid poetry without knowing it ; and God shall sur- 
 prise them with glory, honour, and incorruption be- 
 yond their most glowing dream. 
 
 God recognizes the greatness of simple duty. In 
 a lowly post, entrusted with commonplace offices, 
 called daily to discharge the most menial service, we 
 may express the noblest conscientiousness, the most 
 exquisite feeling, sublimest principle and behaviour. 
 Lafcadio Hearn, in his last book on Japan, writes thus v 
 about the tea ceremonies which are such a feature 
 in the female education of this artistic people: "The 
 elaborate character of these ceremonies could be ex- 
 plained only by the help of many pictures ; and it re- 
 quires years of training and practice to graduate in the 
 art of them. Yet the whole of this art, as to detail, 
 signifies no more than the making and serving of a 
 cup of tea. However, it is a real art — a most exquisite 
 art. The actual making of the infusion is a matter 
 of no consequence in itself: the supremely important 
 matter is that the act be performed in the most per- 
 fect, most polite, most graceful, most charming man- 
 ner possible. Everything done — from the kindling of 
 the charcoal fire to the presentation of the tea — must 
 be done according to rules of supreme etiquette ; rules 
 requiring natural grace as well as great patience to 
 fully master. Therefore a training in the tea cere- 
 monies is still held to be a training in politeness, in 
 
200 GRAND GOAL AND LOWLY PATH 
 
 self-control, in delicacy — a discipline in deportment." 
 The matter of making and serving- a cup of tea has 
 been invested with all this importance; it has 
 been made the frail instrument of artistic discipline, 
 and has become the sign of culture. Not in studies 
 and exercises of a splendid and expensive order, open 
 to the elect few, have these wonderful people found 
 the training for refined action and delicate behaviour, 
 but in the simple, cheap, daily act of domestic life. Did 
 not our Master teach the same lesson on a higher plane 
 with the cup of cold water, where the grace of the 
 gift is the chief thing, and the gift itself the symbol 
 of the highest character? The training for glory, 
 honour, and incorruption lies in the right use of voca- 
 tions and vessels accounted vulgar by the thoughtless ; 
 and they who are faithful in that which is least shall 
 inherit all things. 
 
 God recognizes the greatness of simple suffering. 
 A writer has recently protested that the world just now 
 wants heroes. Society comprehends more heroes than 
 it knows. Gordon flashed a splendid figure on the 
 imagination of the world, but many such heroes are 
 hidden in obscure life. The hidden ones are sometimes 
 much the more glorious. Carlyle awoke Europe with 
 his monstrous melody if a neighbour's cock happened 
 to crow ; yet simple people all around us bear uncom- 
 plainingly the most bitter suffering, bravely resist the 
 most terrible temptations, and with manly silence sus- 
 tain the heaviest burdens. Obscure life conceals illus- 
 trious heroism, known only to God, but it is known 
 to Him, and shall not lose its recompense of reward. 
 
 Let us not despise lowly station and the hum-drum 
 
GRAND GOAL AND LOWLY PATH 201 
 
 life. If we cannot belong to the flowers of the gar- 
 den, the aristocracy of flowers, let us be content to 
 be flowers of the grass — very beautiful in the eyes 
 of Him who makes the grass to grow upon the moun- 
 tains, and who clothes with grace the lily of the field. 
 Not in brilliance, but in simple work honestly wrought 
 are we perfected. Let us believe in high truths, and 
 at the same time in the divinity of fag. 
 
 Be mild, and cleave to gentle things. 
 Thy glory and thy happiness be there. 
 
XL 
 PASSIVE FAITH 
 
 What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, 
 but have not works? can that faith save him? — ^Jas. ii. 14. 
 
 A MAN'S consciousness of his relation to God 
 may be so vague that it exercises no influence 
 .whatever on his character and conduct, or let 
 us say, no appreciable influence. It is possible to hold 
 the Christian creed so faintly that it exerts no more 
 practical influence over us than our knowledge of 
 mythology. Lord Bacon writes of "bed-ridden truths." 
 He means truths dimly seen and ineffectually realized : 
 truths which, for some reason or other, do not assert 
 themselves and produce the effects to which they are 
 logically competent. Through long ages master think- 
 ers get glimpses of the idea, in some measure they 
 expound and enforce it, but it remains nebulous and 
 ineffective, a mere speculation. 
 
 It was thus with the doctrine of liberty. Through 
 many generations great thinkers appreciated the obli- 
 gation and grandeur of freedom in thought and gov- 
 ernment, and ever and anon vindicated most eloquently 
 "the liberty of prophesying" ; yet it was only in mod- 
 ern times that their contention proved availing, and 
 liberty of thought and speech was granted. The truths 
 
 202 
 
PASSIVE FAITH ^03 
 
 were within ken, and received logical attestation, but, 
 as Bacon pictures them, they were "bed-ridden" ; they 
 were blear-eyed, had no use of their hands, only found 
 their voice as a sleeper does in nightmare, they were 
 weak in their ankle joints, and could not descend the 
 stair and make themselves felt in the street, the mar- 
 ket-place, parliament, the academy, and the temple. It 
 is with the race as with the individual. Nominal Chris- 
 tians verbally subscribe to all the articles of the creed, 
 but the glorious truths they confess with their lip are 
 invalided and sterile. Their mind is a dormitory of 
 slumbering admissions, a sick ward of impotent beliefs, 
 anaemic sentiments, paralytic and crippled purposes. 
 This phantom faith does not energize, constrain, in- 
 spire, transform, or make anything it touches to live. 
 We call this "faith," but really it has no claim to 
 be thus distinguished — rather ought it to be known 
 as fancy opinion, speculation, or sentiment. How does 
 the New Testament describe faith? "Who through 
 faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, ob- 
 tained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched 
 the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, 
 out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in 
 fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." This 
 is what revelation means by faith — conviction, en- 
 thusiasm, sacrifice, heroism — the victory that over- 
 cometh self, sin, and the world. How far away to-day 
 is the faith of thousands from this vital force? Our 
 creed is in our memory, on our lip, it revolves in 
 our imagination, we give a faint, general, unimpas- 
 sioned assent to the supreme verities ; but our so-called 
 faith does not force its way into thought, experience, 
 
204 PASSIVE FAITH 
 
 and conduct ; it does not command our understanding, 
 kindle our affections, energize our will, hallow our life. 
 A heartfelt confidence in God and in His Son Jesus 
 Christ is quickening throughout the whole personality 
 and life as sunshine upon germs sown in honest 
 ground; the traditional faith of the nominal believer 
 is moonshine on snow. The faith that worketh by 
 love, purifying and kindling the heart, has the magical 
 virtue of a summer's day which makes everything to 
 live; the phantom faith of the conventional orthodox 
 is the frigid lustre of the northern lights, 
 
 "Can that faith save him?" We are assured that an 
 educated Hindu will pass an examination in hygiene 
 and then look on complacently while every imaginable 
 sanitary law is violated within the walls of his own 
 compound. He does not so realize his science as to 
 appreciate its practical import, he is content with the 
 abstruse knowledge, never proceeding to apply it. Does 
 that faith save him? Is the educated Hindu in his 
 filthy compound delivered by his abstract knowledge 
 from enteric, plague, cholera? We know that his 
 theoretic science gives him no immunity whatever ; he 
 falls a victim to the prevailing epidemic just as read- 
 ily as do those who never heard of any science of 
 health. Likewise the nominal saint masters the creeds, 
 sometimes so thoroughly that he could pass a theo- 
 logical examination, and then in actual experience and 
 conduct violates every great spiritual and moral law. 
 Will his faith save him ? Nay, does it save him ? Does 
 it save him from guilty fear, filling his heart with 
 the peace of God's adopted children? Does it 
 save from the power of passion and selfishness, 
 
PASSIVE FAITH 205 
 
 strengthening him to hve in purity and love? Does 
 it save in the day of temptation, enabling the tempted 
 one to put away the evil thing? Does it save in the 
 day of trouble, bringing strong consolation into the 
 stricken heart? The theoretic knowledge of the Hindu, 
 who practically disregards sanitary law, cannot save 
 him from disease and death, so the notional ghostly 
 faith of the nominal Christian is not able to save him 
 from overmastering passion, sloth, sadness, and sin. 
 And what fails to save here and now is not likely to 
 save us elsewhere and hereafter. That faith, and that 
 faith alone, which is genuine enough and strong 
 enough to bring peace and purity now, can secure us 
 eternal salvation. What stops with fancy and dreams 
 is of little count in any department of life, least of all 
 in questions of character and destiny. 
 
XLI 
 FAITH AND MORALS 
 
 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did W6 not 
 prophesy by Thy name, and by Thy name cast out devils, and 
 by Thy name do many mighty works? And then will I profess 
 unto them, I never knetv yon: depart from me, ye that work 
 iniquity. — Matt. vii. 22, 23. 
 
 RELIGIOUS faith may be held so that it affects 
 character injuriously, and works out in ways 
 >^ and acts of unrighteousness. In a letter writ- 
 ten by the late Mr. Gladstone to the Duchess of Suther- 
 land occurs this passage: "There is one proposition 
 which the experience of life burns into my soul ; it is 
 this, that man should beware of letting his religion spoil 
 his morality. In a thousand ways, some great, some 
 small, but all subtle, we are daily tempted to that great 
 sin." How well founded is this admonition to beware 
 of letting our religion spoil our morality ! The Phari- 
 sees of our Lord's day show how real this danger is. 
 The result of their energetic religious faith was de- 
 plorable ; it produced the worst type of character we 
 know. "Working death by that which is good" was 
 the melancholy distinction of the Pharisee. 
 
 History furnishes abundant proof of the ruinous 
 effects of misdirected religious faith. We see how the 
 vices come to their last sad perfection in religious 
 
 206 
 
FAITH AND MORALS j:07 
 
 circles and atmospheres. The Inquisition made of 
 cruelty a fine art. The Jesuits reduced duplicity to a 
 science. Ecclesiastical tyranny has ever been the worst 
 form of tyranny. Pride reached its apotheosis in the 
 successors of the apostles. The Puritans contrived to 
 give to virtue a fierceness and hardness which made 
 it repulsive. And the golden calf was never wor- 
 shipped more passionately than by those who sought 
 to make the best of both worlds. Nowhere has pride 
 been more lofty, gluttony more greedy, craft more 
 subtle, ingratitude more base, covetousness more 
 grasping, temper more fierce, cruelty more unsparing, 
 than when and where prompted and consecrated by 
 religious faith and zeal. Immorality cannot be brought 
 to its last inglorious maturity without some sort of 
 religious stimulation. "Thou believest that there is 
 one God ; thou doest well : the devils also believe, and 
 tremble." And they could not be the ghastly shapes 
 they are if they did not believe. This effect is inevit- 
 able if faith through ignorance, prejudice, or insin- 
 cerity operates on wrong lines. Religious belief is "the 
 savour of life unto life, or of death unto death" ; and 
 it is an indirect testimony to the divinity of our religion 
 that the worst of character is bread in the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 Grace abused brings forth the foulest deeds, 
 As richest soil the most hixuriant weeds. 
 
 Great indeed are the obligations and perils of religious 
 belief; we must be much the better or terribly the 
 worse for it. The science of electricity puts us in the 
 front of civilization, but he who blimders with it is 
 
208 FAITH AND MORALS 
 
 a corpse ; and the action of religious enthusiasm is 
 similarly decisive. If a spiritual faith does not corrteCt 
 our native faults, it accentuates and exaggerates them. 
 The intolerant become more fiercely dogmatic, the ir- 
 ritable more bitterly irascible, the mean unspeakably 
 contemptible, and the sins of the flesh affecting re- 
 ligious sanctions are peculiarly odious. By miscontep- 
 tion and misdirection, by mistaken ends and methods, 
 we turn the grace of God to lasciviousness. 
 
 Religious faith must be so held that it glorifies 
 character ; the faith which spoils morality cannot save. 
 "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you : 
 depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." The one 
 great ideal of the Old and New Testament is the 
 transfiguration of character, the holiness of life. Every 
 visitor to Palestine is impressed with the promin^ice 
 of Mount Hermon. That superb, isolated cone, cov- 
 ered with snow nearly all the year, is practically visible 
 from every district and corner of the Holy Land, 
 Whether you journey in Judea, Samaria, or Galilee, 
 whatever may be the locality or point of view, one 
 never gets away from that dazzling dome. As Her- 
 mon dominates Palestine, so does the idea of holiness 
 dominate revelation. Whether the sacred writer is 
 treating of cosmogony, history, philosophy, prophecy, 
 or doctrine, righteousness is the motive and aim of 
 his argument. We are no more permitted to lose sight 
 of purity than the geography of the sacred land allows 
 its people to lose sight of Hermon's stainless crest. 
 Religion does not call upon us for "many mighty 
 works," or, indeed, for any "mighty" work whatever; 
 it calls for good works, for whatsoever is true, honest, 
 
FAITH AND MORALS 209 
 
 pure, and lovely. If we would not that our religious 
 faith should spoil our morality, let us keep this truth 
 continually in mind. 
 
 A true faith will not distort character, but, on the 
 contrary, bring it to splendid perfection. If religion 
 is not to mar our morality, we must have the right 
 kind of religion, and the right kind is the faith of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him we see exemplified 
 the holiness for which revelation everywhere pleads ; 
 and in Him we find the grace making that holiness 
 possible. We must fix our eye, not on traditionalism 
 or ecclesiasticism, but on the glory of God in the face 
 of Jesus Qirist. Whenever we examine the religion 
 that disfigures character and perverts conduct, we dis- 
 cover that it is a religion vitiated by foreign elements, 
 a faith lacking simplicity and spirituality. It is occu- 
 pied with antiquity, its controversies and interpreta- 
 tions. It is largely biased by ecclesiastical canons, 
 rubrics, and theories. No longer the direct, clear 
 vision of the Lord, it has become obscure and oblique. 
 We ever need to fix our eye on the living Christ and 
 the great facts and verities of His gospel. It is so easy 
 to let human teachings and institutions blind us to the 
 divine holiness, which is the first and last question 
 for us all. Clinging to "the simplicity that is in Christ," 
 we cannot get far wrong on matters of moral duty. If 
 we cherish His Spirit, we shall be saved from the 
 sophistry which turns grace into lasciviousness ; and 
 if we daily walk with Him, all noble virtues and sweet 
 graces will spontaneously spring in our heart and life. 
 
XLII 
 
 REALITY AND RANGE IN 
 CHRISTIAN FAITH 
 
 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. 
 And the Lord said, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard 
 seed, ye would say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up, 
 and be thou planted in the sea; and it would have obeyed you. 
 — Luke xvii. 5, 6. 
 
 <A S a rule we are more anxious about the range 
 /\ of our faith than about its reality. We are 
 j[^ ^_ most concerned that faith should be commen- 
 surate with the great creeds ; and if we find ourselves 
 unable to receive this article or that, we regard our- 
 selves as excluded from the household of faith. Does 
 not our Lord in the text teach that the matter of first 
 import is not the comprehensiveness or intensity of 
 faith, but its reality ? Faith, however limited or feeble, 
 if only genuine and vital, is full of efficacy. A grain 
 of genuine trust in the righteous God, in the super- 
 natural universe, in the divine government, in the vir- 
 tue of the Cross, in the power of grace, in the life 
 everlasting, contains within itself all virtue and prom- 
 ise. A hundred guineas were recently refused for a 
 microscopic speck of the pollen of a rare orchid, so 
 precious is the dust of beauty. The fact is, that micro- 
 scopic speck of pollen would have enabled its pur- 
 
 210 
 
REALITY AND RANGE IN FAITH 211 
 
 chaser to produce no one knows what abundance of 
 hybrid and original orchids ; to have adorned his own 
 and a thousand other conservatories with new and 
 dehghtful flowers. So our Lord teaches that out of 
 a microscopic speck of genuine faith in God, in His 
 most holy Word, in His eternal promise in Girist 
 Jesus, will spring purity and peace, strength and vic- 
 tory, high character and heroic service — in this world 
 all the graces of the Spirit, and in the next all the 
 flowers and fruits of paradise. A vague, passive faith 
 that is neither belief nor disbelief is worth little ; 
 a sterling faith, however weak and hesitating, holds 
 the potency and promise of universal grace and 
 glory. 
 
 A religious faith that is as a grain of mustard seed 
 greatly distinguishes its possessor, and invests him 
 with a glorious moral mastery. How wonderful it is 
 when a man is born with a grain of poetry in his 
 brain ! That fact dififerentiates him from the vast ma- 
 jority of men, and gives to his words and work charm 
 and power. In his imagination common things are 
 mysteriously enhanced, the splendour of nature unseen 
 by other eyes dazzles his, and human life, so prosaic 
 to the mass, is romantic to one in whose soul shines 
 the poetic gleam. We may inherit only a grain of 
 poetry, yet that mystic atom makes an almost infinite 
 difiference; the world that otherwise were a dust-heap 
 is a jewel-heap, and life that otherwise were dark and 
 dull is sprinkled with azure and gold. And this mere 
 dust of poetry in the brain creates the picture, the 
 music, the song, the oration about which men talk and 
 which they do not willingly let die. What a wonderful 
 
212 REALITY AND RANGE IN FAITH 
 
 gift is a spark of genius! It is indefinable, elusive, 
 incalculable, yet the difference that it establishes be- 
 tween men is immense; they who possess it are seers 
 looking straight into the secret of things, and by their 
 knowledge of the laws and forces of nature they make 
 us masters of the situation. A spark of genius con- 
 stitutes a unique personality, one gifted with vision 
 and sovereign skill, a miracle-worker in the natural 
 sphere. 
 
 So our Lord declares it to be with the believer whose 
 faith is "as a grain of mustard seed." It is far from 
 being a completed faculty or exercise, but the least in 
 the kingdom of God have in their actual, sympathetic, 
 transforming confidence in a higher world a most pre- 
 cious source of vision and energy. What the grain of 
 poetry or the spark of genius is in the mental world, 
 the gleam of spiritual faith is in all that pertains to the 
 higher life of man. One vivid vision of God — His 
 goodness, holiness, nearness ; one real sight of the 
 Saviour's all-sufficing merit and love ; one heartfelt 
 experience of the virtue of heavenly grace ; one flash 
 of the eternity which awaits us and which is so surely 
 ours, — these, or any of these, inspire a power which 
 can remove mountains, reveal all life in a new light, 
 and bring into the soul consolations and hopes far 
 beyond anything known to the natural man. The main 
 thing is not to believe in many propositions faintly and 
 doubtfully, but to get a fast grip upon the truths by 
 which men live. All the great doctrines of salvation 
 are related, and hang together by secret bonds ; and 
 if we once get hold of any of these, we may be sure 
 that the Spirit of truth will in due season lead us into 
 
REALITY AND RANGE IN FAITH 213 
 
 the whole truth. Having seen "His star," all fainter 
 stars and nebulas on the far horizon may be trusted in 
 due time to resolve themselves into bright constella- 
 tions. We have only to be afraid when we hold no 
 one saving truth with any clearness or sincerity. 
 
 "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now 
 I see." The modesty of the testimony of the man 
 born blind may be imitated by us with great advantage. 
 The scientist is often content to study a single branch 
 of knowledge, to apprehend and illustrate one great 
 principle of nature. Ordinary men regard such ex- 
 tremely limited specialism as quite unworthy and of 
 little value, but the thinker knows better. He knows 
 that to really master a fragment is to get hold of 
 universal truth. As Sir James Paget writes : 'Tf the 
 field of any specialty in science be narrow, it can be 
 dug deeply. In science, as in mining, a very narrow 
 shaft, if only it be carried deep enough, may reach 
 the richest stores of wealth, and find use for all the 
 appliances of scientific art." So our view of spiritual 
 truth may be confined ; yet if it only be genuine and 
 go deep enough, it will in due time bring us into pos- 
 session of treasures of knowledge beyond all our 
 thought and hope. Into many historical, metaphysical, 
 and ecclesiastical questions we find ourselves unable 
 to enter, yet we need not worry about this ; grasping 
 fundamental gospel truths with a sincere and sympa- 
 thetic heart, God will in due order reveal related truths 
 as we are able to receive and bear them. Such a 
 genuine belief will certainly grow in clearness, full- 
 ness, and intensity. Let us, then, seek that hold upon 
 God as revealed in Christ, in which meet the concur- 
 
214 REALITY AND RANGE IN FAITH 
 
 rence of the mind, the conscience, the affections, and 
 the will ; and such a faith, although now like a grain 
 of mustard seed, shall wax into noonday clearness and 
 all-conquering power. 
 
XLIII 
 
 THE CONDITION OF 
 RIGHTEOUSNESS 
 
 The just shall live by his faith. — Hab. ii. 4. 
 
 GREAT ethical thinkers in all ages have un- 
 - derstood the profound significance of this 
 declaration, that the sense of the supernatural 
 is the foundation and dynamic of righteous life. 
 Grasping the facts of the unseen we are able to main- 
 tain our integrity in days of darkness and perplexity, 
 of temptation and suffering, of threatening and peril. 
 By faith we become just. This is the great truth 
 which St. Paul grasped as against the traditionalism of 
 the Jew, which Martin Luther urged as against papal 
 ceremonialism. "I am not ashamed of the gos- 
 pel .. . for therein is revealed a righteousness 
 of God by faith unto faith: as it is written. But the 
 righteous shall live by faith" (Rom. i, 16, 17). The 
 moral law convicts and condemns, but God in Christ 
 has discovered for us the grounds of pardon and 
 grace, the secret of renewal and righteousness. Tak- 
 ing God at His word, trusting in His declared mercy, 
 resting on the infinite merit of that sacrifice in which 
 God Himself was well pleased, the penitent consciously 
 passes from death unto life. His iniquity is forgiven, 
 his sin covered, he is treated as a discharged and right- 
 eous man, and when God treats a man as righteous He 
 
 215 
 
216 THE CONDITION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS 
 
 makes him so. This is the justification by faith of 
 which St. Paul treats so copiously ; this is the doctrine 
 which gave peace to Luther and vitality to his teach- 
 ing. We are not accounted righteous, nor made so, 
 by any ecclesiastical routine whatever ; nor does a me- 
 chanical obedience to the law put us into a right 
 relation to God or effect in us any change; we attain 
 forgiveness, justification, and sanctification only as we 
 grasp the promises of God in our redeeming Lord. 
 "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness," 
 Being thus justified by faith we have peace with God. 
 And by faith the just live. They so confide in the 
 righteous God and in His declared promises, they 
 remain so entirely loyal to the heavenly vision and 
 hope which are beyond the ken of the natural man, that 
 they are secretly strengthened in the darkest hours to 
 hold fast their integrity. Faith in God means con- 
 fidence in Him, fellowship with Him, devotion to Him ; 
 and such whole-hearted trust is the inspiration and 
 guarantee of highest character, even when the stress 
 and strain of life are most severe. 
 
 But are not many "just," without faith? Is not 
 high character continually met with that has dis- 
 pensed with supernatural stimulation? Christ says, 
 "By their fruits ye shall know them." Must we not 
 therefore allow that consistently moral men are in the 
 right, and that the promptings and succours of a 
 religious faith are not indispensable? Our Lord's 
 words are not to be interpreted in the facile shallow 
 way that so many people think. As Professor Seeley 
 wrote in Ecce Homo : "It is true that the good man 
 does good deeds, but it is not necessarily true that 
 
THE CONDITION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS 217 
 
 he who does good deeds is a good man. The difficulty 
 of determining whether a man is or is not good has 
 now become a commonplace of moralists and satirists." 
 How far the good behaviour of men is the result of 
 their personal faith and quality is a subject for investi- 
 gation, and a very difficult subject. A while ago, in 
 a London suburb, a professional gentleman gave a 
 garden-party, and to surprise his friends he decorated 
 the branches of his trees with flowers and fruits they 
 had not known before. Golden citrons spangled the 
 graceful birch ; willows displayed crimson blossoms ; 
 oaks, instead of acorns, dropped down peaches, apples, 
 and plums ; hollies displayed purple clusters ; and all 
 the branches of the garden bore fruits pleasant to the 
 eye and sweet to the taste, yet entirely at variance with 
 the character of the trees on which they grew. "By 
 their fruits ye shall know them." Not this time. They 
 were not their fruits at all ; the things of beauty and 
 sweetness were artificially fastened to alien stems, and 
 were no proofs of the nature or goodness of the tree 
 on which they were imposed. 
 
 It is much the same with thousands of moral men 
 and women of our day. The pleasant fruits supposed 
 to express their fine quality are not their fruits at 
 all. These virtues must be traced to other roots and 
 stems, the good behaviour in question being largely 
 the reflection of the general civilization which has been 
 created by ages of faith. Inheritance and environment 
 account for many proprieties which have little if any 
 root in the living soul of those who boast them. If 
 these amiable and blameless ones were planted in the 
 wilderness, beyond the ring-fence of a civilization sat- 
 
218 THE CONDITION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS 
 
 iirated by a spiritual faith, it would be seen how little 
 these gracious fruits belong to them, and how little 
 they signify the real character of the happily situated 
 unbeliever. All true righteousness of life springs out 
 of godliness. As George Macdonald sings : 
 
 Lo, Lord, Thou know'st, I would not anything 
 
 That in the heart of God holds not its root; 
 
 Nor falsely deem there is any life at all 
 
 That doth in Him, nor sleep nor shine nor sing; 
 
 I know the plants that bear the noisome fruit 
 
 Of burning and of ashes and of gall — 
 
 From God's heart torn, rootless to man's they cling. 
 
 That the just live by faith is evidenced by the 
 strength and beauty of the moral life of the saint. 
 True, the character of many professing Christians is 
 poor, and in some instances far worse than poor, but 
 that is what might reasonably be expected from a 
 vague or misconceived faith. Scientists say that the 
 darkest places in the universe are the spots in the sun, 
 and no wonder that the dark places of the Church are 
 sometimes very dark. The worst persons I have known 
 were living in Christian fellowship, and that they were 
 the worst is what we should expect. A merely secular, 
 sceptical sphere could not produce a Judas, close con- 
 tact with the infinite love and beauty of the Lord was 
 necessary to develop such a moral monster. But if the 
 worst of men are in the Church, the best are there 
 also. Nothing seems more wonderful or delightful to 
 me than the vast numbers of noble men and women 
 whom I have known ; they stretch along the years as 
 bright and beautiful as the Milky Way. This world 
 has seen nothing more pure and lovely than the saints 
 
THE CONDITION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS 219 
 
 and their Master, Every virtue comes to its last per- 
 fection under the sweet and vital influences of Chris- 
 tian faith, hope, and love. "The just shall live by 
 faith" ; let us boldly declare it. Nothing in character 
 is real, nothing perfect, nothing abiding, except it is 
 rooted in eternity, its branches bathed in heaven, its 
 life kindled and sustained by the sunshine of God. 
 
XLIV 
 
 MASKED PERILS OF SPIRITUAL 
 LIFE AND FELLOWSHIP 
 
 Hidden rocks in your love-feasts. — Jude 12. 
 
 THE ungodly men who had crept unawares into 
 the Christian community are hkened by the 
 apostle to sunken rocks which amid smooth 
 seas and under fair skies prove fatal to the mariner. 
 But these hidden rocks present themselves in moods, 
 theories, and sentiments, as well as in false brethren ; 
 and against these subtlest perils we must diligently 
 watch. Many of the rocks which threaten us stand 
 out conspicuously enough, we are ever being reminded 
 of them, they are surmounted by warning lights, to 
 run upon them means presumptuous sin ; other perils, 
 however, are hidden and almost unsuspected. We seek 
 now to indicate several of these submerged reefs. 
 
 The quest of spiritual power zvhilst forgetting the 
 uses of such power is one of these hidden rocks. Miss 
 J. M. Fry made the following statement at a recent 
 religious gathering: "Many persons are actuated by 
 mere vanity in desiring the attainment of spiritual 
 power." That is, we presume, such power is sought 
 not for the high ends of personal sanctification or 
 effective ministry, but rather for its self-complacent 
 
 220 
 
MASKED PERILS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 221 
 
 possession. We understand how wealth may be de- 
 sired for mere vanity : not with an appreciation of its 
 uses, but out of the passion of possession and the 
 desire of display. Intellectual power may be coveted 
 from the same motive. Men desire scholarship and 
 skill for the sake of the pride and pleasure of them, 
 for ends of personal self-sufficiency and distinction. 
 And the attainment of spiritual power may be 
 prompted in much the same spirit. Here pride refines 
 itself into invisibility, and we find it difficult to believe 
 in its presence. Spiritual power should be sought so 
 that the ignoble elements of our nature may be effect- 
 ually purged, that the sanctification of our faculties 
 may be complete, and that all our work for God and 
 man may be efficient. To lose sight of these practical 
 uses is to fall into a subtle snare of refined selfishness 
 and vanity. 
 
 The cultivation of character in the artistic spirit is a 
 snare of the spiritual life. One of our writers justly 
 observes : "There are two kinds of artists, just as there 
 are moral and spiritual souls. There are the trimmers, 
 the superficialists, the amateurs, not loving beauty for 
 itself, but for its advantages, socially and selfishly." 
 Wuttke in discussing the morals of the Greeks shows 
 that in their reckoning the beautiful was the good ; 
 and that, in their opinion, man is moral in enjoying 
 and creating the beautiful. They regarded the moral 
 idea chiefly as an object of artistic enjoyment, and 
 morality as a matter of mere spectacle. Does not this 
 danger beset us? — to cultivate holiness in the aesthetic 
 spirit and as so much personal adornment? He who 
 has understood the teaching of Christ never forgets 
 
222 MASKED PERILS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 that the good is the beautiful, and that the two must 
 be sought in this order. He remembers that loveUness 
 of character is first a question of essence and not of 
 form. This sculptor brings the statue to perfection by 
 fine measurements and delicate touches on the surface, 
 but a noble human body is such by virtue of indwelling 
 life, and health, and purity. The Greek sought moral 
 excellence as in the studio of the sculptor; whilst in 
 the school of Christ, which is the school of life, beauty 
 of character is forgotten and found in the purity of 
 the soul. To cultivate the virtues in an artistic tem- 
 per, and as so much personal ornament, is to fall into 
 serious error; in the power of a holy spirit we much 
 achieve exterior grace. Harmony, beauty, and seren- 
 ity of life spring from essential truth, purity, and love. 
 Least of all must moral gracefulness be studied as a 
 matter of mere spectacle. How we stand in the eye 
 of God ought to be the dominant thought; and if we 
 live in His sight clothed in wrought gold, we shall 
 hardly be unlovely in the sight of those about us. To 
 cultivate moral beauty in the spirit of art and fashion 
 is to make shipwreck on the coral reef of a silver sea. 
 Sensuous enjoyment may insinuate itself into 
 spiritual culture so as to become a peril. It might be 
 thought that there is little to fear from sensuality in 
 a fervent spiritual life; it would seem so essentially 
 coarse and vulgar as not to be susceptible of con- 
 cealment or decoration. But it is not so. With the 
 Greeks the worship of Aphrodite lent to sensuality 
 itself a religious sanction ; and the epistle before us 
 makes manifest how soon the disciples of a far higher 
 religion of love and beauty were in danger from the 
 
MASKED PERILS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 223 
 
 sensual side. Very plainly does Jude speak of gross 
 passions, temptations, and sins. "Strange flesh" ; "in 
 their dreamings defile the flesh" ; "fornication" ; and 
 suggestions of unnatural sin, come in this epistle into 
 strange association with godliness, spiritual enthusi- 
 asm, and that fellowship of love in which the primitive 
 Church reached sublimity. A recent writer in discuss- 
 ing Sainte-Beuve and Chateaubriand, both of whom 
 combined an ostentatious profession of religion with 
 sexual licence, observes: "We know, however, that 
 erotic mania and religious mania are in some strange 
 fashion allied alike in Protestant and Catholic com- 
 munities." The outcome of the high-pitched ideal of 
 monasticism was often licentiousness ; and the conse- 
 crated communities established by saints like Terstee- 
 gen were discredited by unseemly developments. It 
 is true that "we cannot have mountains without preci- 
 pices," and it is humbling and alarming to note that 
 the love and purity of an exalted spiritual life may so 
 easily pass into unhealthiness and sin. The "love- 
 feast" became an orgie, and the heavenly love of the 
 individual saint may imperceptibly degenerate into 
 dangerous sentimentalism and profane passion. 
 
 To cultivate fervent devoutness apart from practical 
 life is another peril of the spiritual. Intense emotion, 
 ecstatic song, fervent witness-bearing, impassioned 
 contemplation, fellowship, and devotion soon become 
 dangerous when severed from the facts and duties of 
 daily life. Contact with the realities of the worldly 
 life is necessary to the health and sanity of the soul, 
 to the strength and soundness of our piety. We must 
 keep in touch with human relations and responsibilities, 
 
224 MASKED PERILS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 we must at every step test our faith and feeling by their 
 value in everyday life, even when caught up into para- 
 dise we must not lose sight of commonplace duty and 
 things. The kindling afflatus, the lyrical utterance, the 
 solemn awe that dare not move, the lips touched with 
 fire, are precious and delightful in their place and sea- 
 son; but the mystical and ecstatic, the vision and the 
 rapture, must immediately and consistently blend with 
 practical life if they are to leave us strong and safe. 
 
 Talking too much about our spiritual life may prove 
 to its detriment. Testimony-bearing in the love-feast 
 is a duty and joy, but it is easy to injure our deepest 
 life by discussing it too freely and too frequently. A 
 French critic writes: "Beware of an artist who talks 
 too well of his art. He wastes his art in talk." And 
 it is as certainly true in regard to religion. Men think 
 that they are in saintship because they discuss it so 
 admirably, and they waste in talk the reality and 
 energy of grace; were they to think more and talk 
 less they would be safer. Reticence and reality are 
 close kin. There is much that is sacred and secret 
 about the experiences of the soul, and it is dangerous 
 to violate its delicacy. So we need vigilance on every 
 side. 
 
 Keep me waiting watchful for Thy will — 
 Even while I do it, waiting watchful still. 
 
XLV 
 
 THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF 
 GRACE 
 
 'And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their 
 spears into pruning-hooks. — Isa. ii. 4. 
 
 THE first great transformation effected by the 
 grace of God is the transformation of the 
 sinner into a saint. It is not the design of the 
 gospel to destroy any of the faculties or affections, 
 any of the energies of human nature, but to reform, 
 renew and strengthen, to exalt them and give them a 
 new direction. It aims to divert the powers of the 
 soul from false and destructive ends, and to fix them 
 on objects and exercises altogether worthy and beau- 
 tiful. In conversion new faculties are not created 
 within us; but, transformed in the spirit of our mind, 
 the misdirected and dishallowed faculties are restored 
 to high and holy uses. As Archer Butler puts it, 
 "Trust, but trust in the living God. Preserve un- 
 broken every element of your affections ; they are all 
 alike the property of heaven. Be ambitious, but ambi- 
 tious of the eternal heritage. Let avarice be yours, 
 but avarice of celestial treasures. Covet esteem, but 
 esteem in the mind of God and the circles of the 
 blessed. Labour after knowledge, but let it be 'the 
 
 225 
 
226 THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF GRACE 
 
 light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face 
 of Jesus Christ.' Yearn after sympathy, but seek it 
 where alone it is unfailing." 
 
 All these affections are native to us, they are prim- 
 itive and essential, only they have been corrupted and 
 misapplied; now it is the work of the Holy Spirit to 
 cleanse and raise them, to find the true objects and 
 materials of these divine impulses and desires. Noises 
 are composed of pleasant sounds, only the sounds are 
 irregularly mingled; indeed, the components of the 
 most disagreeable noises are pure and true and pleas- 
 ant as music, only the various notes are mingled in a 
 painful confusion. So the faculties and energies of 
 unregenerate nature are intrinsically sound and noble, 
 although through becoming lawless they create cruel 
 discords; and it is the special office and work of the 
 Spirit of God to elicit order out of this anarchy, to 
 mould into blessed harmony the hostile elements of 
 nature. The natural man is a magazine of organs, 
 gifts, sympathies, and desires, consecrate to violence, 
 egotism, and sensuality : his powers are weapons which 
 wound, mar, and destroy himself and his neighbours ; 
 but by the divine grace the perverted members and 
 affections are transformed and pressed into the benign 
 service of purity, unselfishness, peace, and fruitfulness. 
 Grace does not destroy or mutilate individuality, it 
 honours and hallows the whole host of our energies. 
 And the stronger, the more intense, and the more 
 mischievous the personality, the more rich and gra- 
 .cious does it become duly converted and controlled by 
 the spirit of holiness. For, as shown experimentally 
 in another sphere by Professor Balfour Stewart, the 
 
THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF GRACE 227 
 
 blacker the body the brighter will be its light when 
 incandescent. Saul changed into Paul is a fine instance 
 of such moral transformation. 
 
 One of the Greek philosophers wrote : "And this 
 is the greatest stroke of art, to turn an evil into a 
 good." Such is the grand mission of the faith of Jesus 
 Christ, It is the work of the devil to debase good 
 things to vile uses ; it is the task of the Spirit of grace 
 to make of evil things vessels unto honour, fit for the 
 Master's use. The other day we heard of a shell found 
 on the battlefields of South Africa being converted into 
 the bell of a church, as the brazen serpent was lifted 
 up to save those who were dying of the bite of ven- 
 omous serpents ; and in many ways things, institutions, 
 and methods which for ages have tormented and de- 
 stroyed society are being transformed into instruments 
 of blessing. Gold often works harmfully; history 
 shows it a root of all evil. But it shall not be so 
 for ever. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ shall 
 purify gold as no refiner on earth ever purified it. "To 
 Him shall be given of the gold of Sheba," and He 
 shall cleanse it from the canker of ages, and make 
 it an instrument of manifold and untold blessing. Gold 
 is said by the alchemists to have its origin in the sun ; 
 they call it "the under sun," endowed by God with an 
 incredible potency to free men from diseases and 
 impurities. They dreamt better than they knew. The 
 spirit of Christ shall change a root of all evil into a 
 root of paradise bearing only fruits sweet and good. 
 Art has been such a minister of vanity, such a source 
 of corruption, that Carlyle wished "the devil would fly 
 away with it"; but a spirit of truth and purity is 
 
228 THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF GRACE 
 
 penetrating the universal mind, the beauty of hoHness 
 and the hoHness of beauty are being increasingly recog- 
 nized, and as this process continues the fine arts will 
 become chosen ministers of God, whose action is only 
 good. Pleasure has long beguiled and depraved ; yet 
 ,it, too, shall be transformed, as poison berries have 
 been changed into delectable fruits, and rank weeds 
 into perfumed flowers. Babylonish garments shall 
 adorn the festivals of Zion ; cups long profaned by 
 excess shall shine in the sacraments of saints, as the 
 sacred vessels were returned from the Captivity to the 
 uses of the altar ; and the roses of Bacchus and Venus, 
 purified from every taint of voluptuousness, shall smell 
 sweet again as in the golden age when God walked in 
 the garden. 
 
 It is not the design of the gospel to make the world 
 narrower, to impoverish life, to destroy any part of 
 the almost infinite riches which were given us to enjoy ; 
 its task is the far more divine and difficult one of 
 restoring all things to nobler uses. The distorted shall 
 return to the divine form, the poisonous become food, 
 the mischievous be returned into a blessing; all per- 
 verted things shall be redeemed from lust, blood, and 
 ■selfishness, and restored in their time and place to 
 honest and honourable use, to their high and holy 
 purpose. "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir- 
 tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle- 
 tree." 
 
XLVI 
 THE GRACIOUSNESS OF THE LAW 
 
 For this is the love of God, that we keep His command- 
 ments; and His commandments are not grievous. — ^John v. 3. 
 
 EVERY commandment is a salvation. How is 
 it that the commandments appear grievous? 
 Because they cross our unnatural and inor- 
 dinate desires. But what would be the result were 
 those desires gratified? Pandemonium. The com- 
 mandments save us; they save us from ourselves and 
 the infinite peril of the unregenerate situation. The 
 commandment enjoining love is to rescue us from the 
 damnation of selfishness, the law of meekness to 
 defend us from the devil of pride, the demand for 
 purity to withhold us from the hell of lust. To resent 
 the laws of Sinai is more foolish than to complain 
 of the steel bars of the menagerie which come between 
 us and the wild beasts. The grievousness is in our- 
 selves, and the commandment is a glorious salvation 
 from the evil within us which we have most to fear. 
 Yet this is only a partial expression of the sense of 
 the text. Not only are the commandments not griev- 
 ous, they are gracious. Law and grace represent two 
 orders of ideas, yet really, at bottom, divine law is the 
 definition of love. Perhaps we might say that law 
 
 229 
 
230 THE GRACIOUSNESS OF THE LAW 
 
 is the expression of love to a perfect universe, and 
 grace is the added expression of love to a world of 
 sinners, but love alike inspires law and gospel. 
 
 There are two kinds of grace — preventing grace and 
 reclaiming grace. We usually extol redeeming grace, 
 and we have every reason to do so. The grace that 
 absolves our sins, covers our guilt, brings into our 
 bosom abiding peace, is precious indeed. Yet prevent- 
 ing grace is not less precious. One of the grandest 
 revelations of this preventing grace is seen in the clear 
 and authoritative publication of the law. The will 
 of God is expressed in nature, reason, and conscience ; 
 but it has become obscure, and having no other expres- 
 sion of it we might greatly err. In the commandments 
 the obscured law shines out in letters of fire, and they 
 who run may read. Moses reminded Israel of their 
 great privilege in this respect. "For these nations 
 which thou shalt possess, hearken unto them that prac- 
 tise augury, and unto diviners ; but as for thee, the 
 Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do" (Deut. 
 xviii. 14). Whilst these less-favoured people in their 
 perplexity resorted to equivocal sources of enlighten- 
 ment and fell into ruinous error, God in the law of 
 the two tables showed Israel the path of truth and 
 righteousness. So He now saves us. The command- 
 ment is not grievous, any more than the lighthouse — 
 it is a warning, guiding, saving beacon. "So that the 
 law is holy and the commandment holy, and righteous, 
 and good." 
 
 Every commandment is an inspiration. The com- 
 mandment would be grievous if it demanded what was 
 beyond our power; it would be harsh if it demanded 
 
THE GRACIOUSNESS OF THE LAW 231 
 
 what was only just within our power through severe 
 strain and suffering. A tax is grievous as it exceeds 
 the financial resources of a people ; a lesson is grievous 
 that is beyond the capacity or training of the scholar ; a 
 burden is grievous when too heavy to be borne. True, 
 the implications of God's moral law are beyond our 
 native strength : yet the commandments are not griev- 
 ous; because, in these evangelical times, divine 
 strength is given with the effort to obey. "For what 
 the law could not do, in that it was weak through the 
 flesh," is now done through the strengthening grace 
 of God vouchsafed in Christ Jesus. "The entrance of 
 Thy word giveth light," is a great truth as it stands 
 in the Old Testament ; it is, however, an enlarged truth 
 in these later days. Science assures us of the efficacy 
 of light; it is not light only, but force — quickening, 
 cleansing, compelling force. And the truth in Jesus 
 is not merely dry light for the intellect, but vital force 
 availing for interior purity and practical obedience. 
 "Already ye are clean because of the word which I 
 have spoken unto you." 
 
 Read John xv. for the full understanding of the 
 inward life and power which make obedience light. 
 The fourth and fifth verses of the chapter whence 
 our text is taken explain the text itself. When we 
 are born of God and filled with faith and love, the 
 keeping of the commandment is easy and delightful. 
 The inner energy is equal to the whole incidence of 
 duty. According to science the atmosphere rests upon 
 us heavily, pressing to the weight of fifteen pounds 
 to the square inch ; and thus a grown man sustains a 
 burden of about fifteen tons. But we know little if 
 
^32 THE GRACIOUSNESS OF THE LAW 
 
 anything of this burden. The gases and fluids inside 
 our body press outwards, balancing the external press- 
 ure, and leaving us to walk at liberty. So far from 
 the atmosphere being a burden, we know nothing 
 lighter than air. It is somewhat thus with us in rela- 
 tion to the moral law. The lofty, sublime, exceedingly 
 broad statutes of God do not crush us, do not weigh 
 upon us, because our internal vigour is equal to them, 
 our mind, affections, and will are so filled with hea- 
 venly power ; in the strength and joy of the soul the 
 law becomes as light as air, and as vital. H we feel 
 the commandments pressing upon us heavily, it is a 
 sign that the interior life needs uplifting and strength- 
 ening. "Take heed to yourselves : if thy brother sin, 
 rebuke him ; and if he repent, forgive him. And if 
 he sin against thee seven times in the day, and seven 
 times turn again to thee, saying, I repent ; thou shalt 
 forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, 
 Increase our faith." When the Master showed the 
 immense sublimity of the law of forgiveness, the dis- 
 ciples did not ask that it should be modified to their 
 weakness, but that through increased faith and force 
 they might be equal to it in all its length and breadth. 
 Every commandment is a benediction. Not a sal- 
 vation only, but a beatitude. "Moreover by them is 
 Thy servant warned : in keeping of them there is great 
 reward." Our whole perfecting is bound up with our 
 obedience ; only as we submit ourselves to divine con- 
 trol do we realize ourselves and all the great possi- 
 bilities of our calling. No astronomer has yet been 
 able to observe any evidence of a comet possessing a 
 fixed axis of revolution, and most probably because 
 
THE GRACIOUSNESS OF THE LAW 233 
 
 they have not yet acquired this law comets are so un- 
 organized and so eccentric in their orbits ; free from 
 a fixed axis of revokition they wander at large with 
 erratic movement, yet they remain chaotic, and do not 
 develop into beautiful and fruitful planets. Yes ; it is 
 only as the love of God becomes the fixed axis of our 
 being, and a close obedience to law the rule of our 
 life, that we are fashioned into the full glory of our 
 nature and enter upon its vast destiny of blessedness. 
 
XLVII 
 VICARIOUS FAITH 
 
 And they come, bringing unto Him a man sick of the palsy, 
 borne of four. . . . And Jesus seeing their faith saitli unto 
 the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins arc forgiven. — Mark ii. 3-5. 
 
 THE narrative teaches the necessity of action 
 with a view to salvation, the ingenuity of 
 love, and the efficacy of faith ; but we will 
 confine ourselves to the last point, and emphasize the 
 singular character of the faith in question. "And 
 Jesus seeing their faith." Amid the pitiless selfishness 
 and chilling unbelief of the age, the scene here 
 depicted must have been to the Master a sight as 
 pleasant as it was unexpected, and very promptly 
 and cordially He spoke the words of forgiveness. He 
 distinctly recognized the faith of the bearers as well 
 as that of the sufferer who was borne. Humanly 
 speaking the palsied man owed his recovery and salva- 
 tion to the faith and self-sacrifice of his four friends. 
 The great lesson comes out here that to an unknown 
 extent it is possible to inspire and to bring about the 
 salvation of others by our faith and co-operation. Our 
 faith cannot supersede theirs, it is never a substitute 
 for the faith of those more immediately concerned ; 
 but it prompts and strengthens their faith, and by a 
 
 234 
 
VICARIOUS FAITH 235 
 
 consentaneousness of trust and effort a wonderful re- 
 covery is effected. And really in all this there is noth- 
 ing exceptional or miraculous. In many ways we all 
 owe much to the confidence of others working on our 
 behalf, and many of us are deeply conscious of the 
 debt. For much that we are, viewed from an intel- 
 lectual and worldly point of view, and for much that 
 we have achieved in social and material life, we are 
 indebted to the faith and encouragement of those about 
 us. They believed in us and for us, when we believed 
 very faintly in and for ourselves ; they derided our self- 
 mistrust ; they withstood our enemies ; they assisted us 
 with moral and material help ; at even serious sacrifices 
 they attacked the obstacles which stood in the way, 
 and smoothed our path to success. One man is 
 famous, another great, another rich, because at a crit- 
 ical juncture sympathetic associates stood by them, 
 aided them, awoke their ambition and enthusiasm, and 
 really carried them to victory. Thousands of distin- 
 guished men are such because they resolved to justify 
 the confidence reposed in them, and to fulfil the 
 prophecies hazarded on their behalf. It is simply won- 
 derful how largely many of us are indebted for success 
 to the confidence and expectations of parents, brethren, 
 and compeers, backed up by their practical sympathy. 
 Friendship is a wonderful factor in a struggling life, 
 and friendship is based in mutual faith. Many a hesi- 
 tating yet capable soul has perished in obscurity be- 
 cause of indiscreet and unsympathetic criticism at a 
 crucial moment; whilst others, more fortunate, have 
 grasped the golden prize and worn the victor's wreath 
 because loving and heroic helpers pushed a way for 
 
236 VICARIOUS FAITH 
 
 them through the crowd, broke up the roof, and let 
 them down into the presence of fortune and glory. 
 
 What we can do for our friends circumstantially is 
 even exceeded by what we can do for them touching 
 character. A German writer justly observes : "Esteem 
 your brother to be good, and he is so. Confide in the 
 half-virtuous man, and he becomes wholly virtuous. 
 Encourage your pupil by the assumption that he pos- 
 sesses certain faculties, and they will be developed in 
 him." In moral attainment and efficiency vicarious 
 faith, working by love, avails much. We must 
 remember this in dealing with children. Let your 
 child know that you believe in him, that you are 
 satisfied as to his capacity and ability for good- 
 ness, without prophesying smooth things anticipate 
 good things, and you have gone a long way 
 toward making him all you could wish him to be. 
 Your faith makes it easy for the child to believe. In 
 the treatment of young persons generally this canon 
 of education must be followed. Esteem them to be 
 good, confide in them, assume that they are genuine 
 and sincere, and your faith on their behalf stimulates 
 and saves them. In dealing with the lapsed never for- 
 get this secret. The morally impotent and palsied, the 
 blind and crippled, the leprous and dying, are saved by 
 hope, and our hope may kindle that of the most for- 
 lorn and despairing. Seeing our faith the shipwrecked 
 brother, perchance, takes heart again, and struggles 
 into that higher life our charity painted for him. In 
 our intercourse with one another let us always proceed 
 on these grounds of mutual faith, love, and hope. And 
 there is nothing quixotic in this belief in and for one 
 
VICARIOUS FAITH 237 
 
 another, in and for the worst. All men have a great 
 capacity for salvation; and faith, sympathy, and sac- 
 rifice work wonders. 
 
 The very best way in which we can serve our fel- 
 lows is to get them to Christ; believing in Him and 
 in His power to save those who come to Him, let us 
 despair of no one. Let us imitate the courage of these 
 bearers of the sick of the palsy. They dared much, and 
 their boldness and aggressiveness carried the day. Let 
 us imitate the sympathy of this ambulance corps. With- 
 out a real love to men we shall never undertake any- 
 thing desperate on their behalf. Let us emulate the 
 sacrificial spirit of these helpers of the helpless. After 
 Christ has borne the cross for us we ought not to 
 shrink from any burden that implies the salvation of 
 the lost. Finally, let us be instructed by the combina- 
 tion of these heroic friends in the interest of the 
 palsied. "Borne of four." Co-operation goes far in 
 the salvation of men. Parent, teacher, preacher, and 
 friend must unite if salvation is to come to the house. 
 Iron chests holding great treasure are sometimes se- 
 cured by three or four locks, and it is only by the con- 
 currence of those who hold the several keys that the 
 chest can be opened. Thus again and again the treas- 
 ures of grace are reached only as two or three agree 
 in prayer and effort. Wlien Epworth parsonage was 
 burnt, the child John Wesley was saved through an 
 upper window by neighbours who stood on each other's 
 shoulders. Thus the soul itself is often a brand plucked 
 from the burning by the combined sympathies, suppli- 
 cations, and sacrifices of those who have caught the 
 spirit of the Master. 
 
XLVIII 
 
 THE GRANDEUR AND GRACIOUS- 
 NESS OF GOD 
 
 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabifeth etern- 
 ity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, 
 with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive 
 the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite 
 ones. For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always 
 wroth: for the spirit should fail before Me, and the souls 
 which I have made. — Isa. Ivii. 15, 16. 
 
 I. ^T — ^ HE GRANDEUR of God. 
 
 I He is the supreme One. The "high and 
 
 M lofty One." He stands above nature, law, 
 necessity, fate, power, destiny, and all other such names 
 as men have been pleased to give to the world, its 
 laws, and its forces. He stands above humanity, dom- 
 inating us, whatever may be our power, pride, or 
 wrath. He stands above the unknown world, and its 
 principalities. "God over all." 
 
 He is the unchangeable One. "Inhabiteth eternity." 
 The eternally dwelling One. The hoary sea is a morn- 
 ing dewdrop ; the stars are glittering fireworks ; and 
 the earth itself a vapour. 
 
 They melt like mists the solid lands ; 
 Like clouds they shape themselves and go. 
 
 288 
 
THE GRANDEUR OF GOD 239 
 
 But with our God is no shadow of turning. He 
 transcends time and space. 
 
 He is the holy One. "Whose name is holy." The 
 very essence of God's grandeur. The levity, lust, and 
 cruelty of pagan paradises are unknown in the heaven 
 of revelation. Its Deity is the just One, the true, the 
 righteous, the good, the merciful. 
 
 How impossible to speak worthily of God ! of Him 
 who fills the universe with His glory ! A little while 
 ago a great painter went out to paint the sunset. He 
 prepared his palette, but the sight was so beautiful 
 that he waited to examine it better. All about the 
 skies and hills were rich shadows, resplendent colours, 
 purple flames, golden lustres. The painter waited, 
 waited, absorbed by the vision of glory. Said his 
 friend, impatiently, "Are you not going to begin?" 
 "By-and-by," replied the artist. And so he waited, par- 
 alyzed by the splendour, until the sun was set and dark 
 shadows fell upon the mountains. Then he shut up 
 his paint-box and returned home. But if we faint thus 
 in the presence of God's lower works, how impossible 
 is it to speak adequately of Him whom no man hath 
 seen nor can see ! Yet it is well sometimes to recall 
 the grandeur of God. Let us shun familiarities and 
 sentimentalisms, and live in wonder and reverence. 
 
 2. The GRAciousNESs of God. 
 
 "With him also that is of a contrite and humble 
 spirit." "God has two thrones," says an old writer; 
 "one in the highest heaven, the other in the lowliest 
 heart." He is not power only, not intellect only, but 
 love, tenderness, sympathy. He comprehends all the 
 pathos of human life. He is full of pity. He is 
 
240 THE GRANDEUR OF GOD 
 
 patient. He is ready to forgive. He waits to be 
 gracious. He is Creator, Ruler, Judge, but Father 
 always, full of mysterious sovereign love. 
 
 This thought is precious in the days of penttence. 
 God is great and terrible in majesty, and in the days 
 of repentance we think of Him and are troubled. We 
 are afraid of His knowledge, holiness, and power. Our 
 own heart condemns us, and He is greater than our 
 heart and knoweth all things. Full of sin, shame, 
 and misery we shrink from the glory of His Presence. 
 In such times remember the latter part of the text : "I 
 dwell with him also that is of a contrite and humble 
 spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive 
 the heart of the contrite ones." He will moderate His 
 anger; He will be gracious unto us. As the sun lifts 
 up the grass and flowers beaten by the storm, gently, 
 caressingly, availingly, so the good Spirit comforts and 
 raises the soul bruised and bowed dovvn in penitence. 
 Fear God, but do not be afraid of Him; take hold of 
 His strength that you may make peace with Him, and 
 you shall make peace. 
 
 The knowledge of the divine graciousness is pre- 
 cious, as it finds expression in all the education of the 
 soul. "For I will not contend for ever, neither will 
 I be always wroth : for the spirit should fail before Me, 
 and the souls which I have made." It is the same idea 
 as that of the psalmist: "He will not always chide." 
 In human training there is far too much chiding. The 
 parent too often indulges in irritating, disheartening 
 criticism. The schoolmaster succeeds, insisting chiefly 
 on the pupil's forgetfulness and blundering. The ap- 
 prenticeship of the youth leaves nothing unsaid about 
 
THE GRANDEUR OF GOD 241 
 
 his weakness and incompetence. Throughout our edu- 
 cation are endless fault-seeking, fault-finding, fault- 
 magnifying, fault-remembering. The effect is un- 
 questionably hurtful. Hearing only of our bad points, 
 and always hearing of them, of our ignorance, idleness, 
 stupidity, and failure, we are terribly discouraged, and 
 the marvel is that we turn out half as well as we 
 do. This is not the method of the divine education. 
 If it were, the spirit would fail before Him. He ever 
 gives us assurances of His sympathy and stimulates 
 us to eflfort. His Spirit speaks in the sinking heart 
 words of cheer, affection, approbation, and hope, of 
 sweet refreshment, of strong consolation. When a 
 picture by a great master is to be restored, it is not 
 entrusted to an amateur; it is not a fitting subject for 
 turpentine, sandpaper, and pumice-stone. A great 
 restorer must be found, and such a restorer is as rare 
 as an original artist. But think of restoring a soul, 
 of bringing out the possible grace and glory of the 
 human spirit! Only He who created the soul can re- 
 store it, and He can restore it only in infinite tender- 
 ness. If He were harsh the spirit would fail before 
 Him, but gently He removes each spot and stain until 
 the image of His own immortal beauty shines forth 
 again. "Thy gentleness hath made me great." 
 
 The divine graciousness softens all the discipline of 
 life. Some write and speak as though there was noth- 
 ing else in the world but law, logic, and force, and 
 as though all must go to the wall that cannot bear 
 the ruthless ordeal. Hence the dictum of Diderot: 
 "The world is the abode of the strong." But there is 
 something else in the world beside law and force ; pity, 
 
242 THE GRANDEUR OF GOD 
 
 sympathy, and love assert themselves — there is the 
 heart. An illogical something, known as compassion 
 and tenderness, works in human life ; or, if not illog- 
 ical, having a transcendent logic of its own. There is 
 a sublime tempering element, perpetually saving a race 
 trembling on the brink of destruction, "The world is 
 for the strong"; yes, and for the humble, the meek, 
 the pure, for those who are crucified through weak- 
 ness, all of whom God cunningly hides in His secret 
 place. Do not be afraid; terrible as life may often 
 seem, there is a genius of grace in it, converting its 
 severity into a mode of salvation and perfecting. 
 
XLIX 
 SPASMODIC PIETY 
 
 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Jtidah, what 
 shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, 
 and as the dew that goeth early away. — Hos. vi. 4. 
 
 ALL kinds of workers are conscious of moments 
 in which they awake to uncommon power and 
 L excellence. These inspired moments are rare, 
 wonderful, delightful episodes of the intellectual life. 
 Similar seasons occur in our mortal and spiritual 
 experience. We see the ideal, are visited by high 
 and holy thought and feeling, are ashamed of our 
 inferiority, vividly see what we ought to be, receive a 
 sudden influx of power, and resolve to lead a worthier 
 life. The greatest villains are not strange to these 
 hours. The ordinary sinner also knows these special 
 times of illumination and conviction. The covetous 
 are ashamed of their selfishness, and startle everybody, 
 by unwonted acts of generosity ; the angry see the 
 miserable character of their impatience, and become 
 unnaturally amiable; whilst the intemperate take the 
 pledge, and even become intemperate on water. Above 
 and beyond all this, the worldly and unsaved are 
 aroused, and, realizing the guilt and misery of their 
 godless days, resolve upon a new life of spirituality 
 
 243 
 
244 SPASMODIC PIETY 
 
 and consecration. They reflect, they repent, they 
 amend. This gracious state is brought about in var- 
 ious ways — by calamities and sorrows, by special 
 mercies and blessings, by the message of the pulpit, 
 and often simply by the direct action of the Spirit 
 upon the conscience and heart. Much that is mysteri- 
 ous pertains to the higher moods of artists, poets, and 
 musicians, they cannot explain the sudden illumina- 
 tion and impulse ; and the spiritual agitation is still 
 more mysterious. But, however brought about, the 
 sinner is aroused and more or less sincerely repents. 
 
 Yet all these exercises of mind, these stirrings of 
 the heart, these good resolutions prove vain. Nothing 
 permanent comes of it. The villain who gives a tran- 
 sient glimpse of nobility is again a villain. The re- 
 formed miser, tyrant, drunkard, or sensualist returns 
 to his wallowing in the mire. The worldling once 
 more surrenders himself to the carnal elements. Thus 
 multitudes are inconstant, fitful, wavering. Their 
 goodness never lasts: ever beginning anew, then re- 
 lapsing; ever making a show of leaves, good feelings, 
 aspirations, resolves, and yet bearing no fruit unto 
 everlasting life. Mark, 
 
 I. The extreme unsatisfactoriness of fitful piety. It 
 is rather the fashion to regard such piety with some 
 degree of appreciation. We are thought to be not 
 altogether bad when good days and deeds are placed 
 to our credit. These flashes of a higher self and life 
 are supposed to signify and atone for much. But it 
 is a perilous mistake. When we are told that a per- 
 son has "lucid moments," we know that he is in a 
 parlous condition ; if he is not in an asylum, he ought 
 
SPASMODIC PIETY 245 
 
 to be. And it is much the same with those who have 
 lucid moments of the spiritual and moral life. Their 
 fits of goodness show their capacity to be noble, their 
 character to be base. It has been urged apologetically 
 that "We are all good sometimes" ; but the inmates of 
 an asylum might plead that "We are all sensible some- 
 times." Neither party is redeemed by such interludes. 
 Lucid moments only accentuate the tragedy of mad- 
 ness ; and spasms of goodness in a bad life only demon- 
 strate and intensify the tragedy of sin. 
 
 No, there is no value in transient goodness ; it lacks 
 the main characteristic of the essential thing. The 
 charm of certain sights lies in their fugitiveness. The 
 momentariness of the bubble is the secret of its de- 
 light ; a snowflake is lovely in its exquisite frailty ; we 
 sing of never-withering flowers, but we should care 
 little for them if they bloomed at our feet ; and as 
 Goethe says, no one would linger over a rainbow that 
 stood for a quarter of an hour. The source of the fas- 
 cination of these things lies in their perishableness. 
 Goodness, however, belongs to an altogether different 
 sphere. He who is alone good knows no shadow of 
 turning, and the more stable our goodness the nearer 
 it approaches the absolute standard. To play fast and 
 loose with the fear and service of God is repeatedly 
 reprobated by the Old Testament. In the New Testa- 
 ment our Lord teaches the obligation of permanence. 
 "Abide in Me, and I in you." It is not enough to 
 enjoy blest moments ; He must abide in us, and we 
 in Him, for all time, and when time shall be no longer. 
 Revelation puts no value on sudden exuberance of 
 feeling, on surprised confession, on temporary panic 
 
246 SPASMODIC PIETY 
 
 or ecstasy, on the glow and gleam that die away into 
 coldness and darkness. "Persistence is the sign of 
 reality." Whatever does not persist may be fancy, sen- 
 timent, imagination, or hysteria ; but it is not the right- 
 eousness of God, nor does it avail in His sight. Such 
 emotion is no more real goodness than a dewdrop is 
 a diamond, a gourd a cedar, or a meteor a star. 
 
 These brief seasons are all too short to bring to any 
 kind of maturity the faint beginnings of higher quali- 
 ties and graces. A distinguished traveller tells of a 
 certain region of Asia where the night temperature is 
 below the freezing-point all the year round, with the 
 exception of a couple of weeks in the middle of sum- 
 mer. What may be expected here when for a few 
 days the glass gets above freezing? What flowers will 
 bloom ? What kind of harvest will be reaped ? What 
 vintage will be gathered? There can be nothing but 
 pathetic, abortive beginnings, dubious signs of life fall- 
 ing back into death and darkness. It is much the same 
 with fugitive penitence. "Herein is My Father glo- 
 rified, that ye bear much fruit ; so shall ye be My disci- 
 ples." And how can He accept those obscure stirrings 
 of life which get no farther than microscopic shoots, 
 cryptogamic vegetation, and low water-weeds ? 
 
 The spasmodic saint must not rank himself with the 
 true saints of God. The difference between them is 
 simply infinite. It is a curious experience when at sea 
 you behold for the first time the flying fish. They sud- 
 denly spring out of the depths, skim the waves, cut the 
 air, and you would not be surprised to see them take 
 to the heavens. In a few moments, however, their 
 power of flight is exhausted, and they flop again into 
 
SPASMODIC PIETY 247 
 
 the depths whence they emerged. It is wonderful cer- 
 tainly, yet it is a mild form of flying. How different 
 with the genuine bird of the air — the lark singing at 
 heaven's gate, the eagle soaring towards the sun, the 
 swallow winging its flight half across the world ! Fly- 
 ing fish and mounting bird belong to different worlds, 
 although they may resemble each other for a moment. 
 So the distinction is practically infinite between the 
 ineffectual struggles of the spasmodic penitent and the 
 consecrated life that perseveres through sunshine and 
 storm, through months and years, soaring on eagle's 
 wings, running without being weary, and walking 
 without fainting. 
 
 2. Hoiv may zve coiwert these awakenings of the 
 soul into abiding goodness? So many fail in the spir- 
 itual life because they do not take measures to per- 
 petuate the higher life that these precious visitations 
 of grace initiate. A French writer observes, "Poetry is 
 not a permanent state of the soul"; and it is certain 
 that no high, intense mood may long abide. The artist 
 does not continue in an inspired condition, but he un- 
 derstands how to take advantage of it, and by care 
 and diligence to perpetuate whatever he has happily 
 gained. The astronomer finds only a few days in a 
 year when the vision of the heavens is perfect, but he 
 acts so promptly and practically in these privileged 
 hours that they enrich the rest of his lifetime. The 
 great thing is to take care that the times of our spiritual 
 visitation do not exhaust themselves in cries, sobs, 
 tears, and fruitless emotion, but that they are seized, 
 economized, and perpetuated. We must follow on to 
 know the Lord. By wise and practical effort we must 
 
2 i8 SPASMODIC PIETY 
 
 fix the gracious inspiration. Having chosen our part 
 we must abide by it, and pursue it. By good books, 
 habits of prayer, devout companionship, and immediate 
 consecration to some form of social service we must 
 seek to complete our conversion. 
 
i: 
 
 THE CHOIR INVISIBLE AND 
 THEIR MUSIC 
 
 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of 
 the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. — Luke 
 
 XV. 10. 
 
 IN the higher universe the true value of things is 
 known, and this peep into glory is most in- 
 structive. 
 We are taught the significance of the individual, 
 "Over one sinner," It is often seen how Christ sets 
 at nought the tyranny of numbers, and concentrates 
 attention on the unit. In His reference to the lilies 
 of the field this tendency is manifest. He does not say 
 that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like gor- 
 geous landscape or blooming meadow, but he "was not 
 arrayed like one of these," Again, in enforcing unsel- 
 fishness. "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of 
 these little ones a cup of cold water only . . shall 
 in no wise lose his reward," And in the text the angels 
 rejoice over "one sinner," We should not have been 
 surprised had the joy been over a penitent orb ; but it 
 is not that. A day of Pentecost, with its thousands of 
 penitents, might seem to justify a grand outburst of 
 song; but it is not that. Millennial times might bring 
 
 249 
 
250 CHOIR INVISIBLE AND THEIR MUSIC 
 
 down a cloud of angels filling the sky with hallelujahs ; 
 but it is not this. "Over one sinner." Christ discov- 
 ered humanity ; there was no sense of the solidarity 
 of the race before He came: yet He also discovered 
 the individual, for there was no recognition of the value 
 of the single soul before He came. It is remarkable 
 how much Christ individualized — how frequently the 
 word "one" was upon His lip. Let us not permit our- 
 selves to be lost in a crowd; nor must we suffer in 
 our self-respect because of multitudes and magnitudes. 
 
 One of the very foremost teachings of Jesus Christ 
 declares the supreme worth of personality. In these 
 days we are ever being dazed by arithmetic ; we are 
 bluntly assured that worlds and histories turn on vast 
 hinges, whilst individual lives are the dust of the bal- 
 ances; and society, collectivism, and humanity are 
 most familiar terms of contemporary politics and phil- 
 osophy, until the individual is well-nigh forgotten. 
 Continents and mountains are always in evidence, 
 whilst the atom remains invisible; and the individual 
 is being similarly ignored in the social mass. Christ 
 writes across the sky in blazing letters, "One." The 
 lowliest must not forget his mysterious greatness nor 
 the fact that in the highest world his fortune is followed 
 with impassioned interest. He knew, who told us this. 
 
 A further lesson of the text is that the importance 
 of the individual lies in his moral life. "One sinner." 
 In that world where the true value of things is known 
 we are recognized on our moral and spiritual side. 
 Social status, mental culture, or financial ability is 
 disregarded by the angels; they concern themselves 
 only with our relation to the holy God. The heavenly 
 
CHOIR INVISIBLE AND THEIR MUSIC 251 
 
 universe is interested exclusively in the history of 
 souls. How different with us ! We survey life from 
 an altogether different standpoint; and gold, culture, 
 greatness, or pleasure is the consuming theme of our 
 contemplation. If the celestial world is absorbed in 
 the history of the soul, ought we not to concern our- 
 selves far more than we usually do with the inner life ? 
 We are most attentive to worldly fortune ; success or 
 failure in social and material life is never long out 
 of our thoughts, and we rarely pause to ask ourselves 
 how we stand with God. The state of the soul, the 
 movements of the spiritual life, and the rise or fall 
 of character are recognized by us only in glimpses, 
 yet they fill the eye of God and angels. Earth scans 
 the surface of history ; Heaven studies the soul of 
 history, which is the history of the soul. 
 
 The final lesson we note is that the most important 
 event in the individual life is the restoration of the 
 lapsed soul to God. "One sinner that repenteth." He 
 who came into the world to revalue all our values 
 declares that the return of the prodigal son to his hea- 
 venly Father is the most momentous of all acts. Re- 
 pentance means the consciousness of sin. Sin in its 
 essence is ungodliness, the leaving of the Father for a 
 far country. The creature divorced from the Creator, 
 the gift severed from the Giver, here is the inmost 
 essence of sin. He who truly repents knows that he 
 has shut out God, substituted his own will for God's 
 will, used God's gifts without God's blessing. "I will 
 arise, and go unto my father," is of the very essence 
 of repentance. Repentance means also a horror of 
 sin. We awake to its ugliness, bitterness, shameful- 
 
252 CHOIR INVISIBLE AND THEIR MUSIC 
 
 ness, and peril. It is astonishing how Hghtly the 
 natural man thinks of sin! He is far more troubled 
 by a physical infirmity than by a moral fault. He will 
 rather suffer a bad conscience than a bad tooth; he 
 will tolerate a vile disposition, and resent a squint ; he 
 will prefer a cloven foot before a club foot. And he 
 is far more distressed by an error in language or 
 manners than by a breach of the higher law. A misfit 
 in dress offends him more than his base act; a slip 
 in grammar humiliates him more than a slip into sen- 
 sual mire; a trifling breach in etiquette causes him to 
 blush as he never does for his wickedness. In repent- 
 ance all this is changed. He sees the unreasonable- 
 ness, hatefulness, and wretchedness of his evil pas- 
 sions and ways, loathes them, and shrinks from them 
 with shame and distress. Finally, repentance means 
 the renunciation of the life of disobedience, and a 
 trustful return to the heavenly Father. "They have 
 turned to Me the back, and not the face" (Jer. xxxii. 
 33). In repentance we turn clean round, and look 
 with desire upon God and His holy will. In the 
 strength of Christ's grace, on the grounds of His 
 merit, we return to our Father's love, house, and 
 service. 
 
 How vividly this narrative brings out the blessed- 
 ness of repentance! God rejoices. "In the presence 
 of the angels." And we can understand His joy. 
 The human heart is our best mirror of God ; the 
 brother's heart, the sister's, the lover's, the friend's, 
 the father's and mother's heart. As in water face 
 answereth face, so the heart of God is reflected in the 
 heart of man ; only turbid elements make the glorious 
 
CHOIR INVISIBLE AND THEIR MUSIC 253 
 
 image dim. How, then, do we rejoice, when the lost 
 returns ! It is most human that we should rejoice, and 
 what is most truly human is most nearly divine. 
 Strange and blessed thought ! God rejoices in our 
 repentance unto life. The angels also rejoice. When 
 the tide rises in the ocean, it rises in a thousand creeks 
 and rivers ; and when the sunny sea of God's blessed- 
 ness swells, it streams through the celestial universe, 
 and fresh music everywhere breaks out like the sound 
 of many waters. But if repentance is an event to make 
 heaven glad, is it not one to make us glad also? It 
 is, indeed, the beginning of true peace and felicity. 
 "Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it; 
 shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into 
 singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree 
 therein ; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glo- 
 rified Himself in Israel." 
 
 What a powerful encouragement to repentance this 
 passage affords ! The penitent finds it a severe task 
 to overcome the difficulties which lie in his path. The 
 hostile elder brother stands for many disheartening 
 influences. But "the morning stars" are elder brothers 
 who stand by the penitent. "The angels laid hold 
 upon his hand." (Gen. xix. i6.) Beautiful scene! 
 So now, repentant sinner ! if Sodom mocks, there is 
 with you a vast world of divine, angelic, and saintly 
 sympathy. More are with you than can possibly be 
 against you. 
 
LI 
 THE MERCY OF MYSTERY 
 
 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing. — Prov. xxv. 2. 
 
 THE meaning of things and events is to us 
 largely incomprehensible ; we cannot order our 
 speech aright because of the darkness. This 
 fact often frets us, we feel that an injustice is being 
 done us, we complain of the weary weight of an unin- 
 telligible world. But the text sets the matter in an- 
 other light. "It is the glory of God," the wisdom and 
 love of God, "to conceal a thing." The motive of 
 mystery is generous, it contemplates our safety and 
 advantage. 
 
 So far as the universe itself is concerned this is 
 true. What we know of the world is as nothing 
 compared with what we do not know. The secret 
 always escapes us — the secret of matter, of life, of 
 the origin and ending of things. We ought not to 
 be surprised that this is so. To a certain extent this 
 mystery arises out of the greatness of God, and the 
 necessary inscrutableness of His infinite working. A 
 child cannot understand the higher mathematics, a 
 peasant follow a philosophical discussion, a savage 
 comprehend the Atlantic telegraph ; and the great- 
 est human mind cannot grasp the universe. That the 
 
 254 
 
THE MERCY OF MYSTERY 255 
 
 whole scheme of things can ever be known by us 
 is absurd, for the creature can never overtake the Cre- 
 ator, the finite comprehend the Infinite. Yet it is true 
 that we might know much more of the universe 
 than we do. Why, then, does not God flash upon us 
 the secrets for which our scientists and philosophers 
 search with aching brain? Why does He not light 
 up the material universe, and make clear its secret 
 workings? "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing." 
 Illumination is regulated by practical good, and must 
 not outstrip moral progress. Hidden things are re- 
 vealed as fast as the knowledge of them can advantage 
 our whole being. The desire to know may be nothing 
 more than an impertinent curiosity, a proud and 
 delirious ambition, and Heaven concedes nothing to 
 this inordinate speculative temper. To each succeed- 
 ing age secrets are disclosed, according to its needs 
 and fitness. We might easily get more light than 
 would be a blessing. Pilots object to the electric light 
 in lighthouses because" it perplexes and blinds them; 
 a gentler, softer light is better for practical purposes. 
 So God does not grant a succession of brilliant lights 
 for ends of pride, vanity, or amusement. He slowly 
 explains His works that we may be kept humble and 
 reverent by their mysterious immensity and magnifi- 
 cence, and that every addition to our knowledge may 
 be a practical good — a mental, material, moral, and 
 spiritual blessing. 
 
 Another illustration is found in the unfolding of the 
 divine government. Great inventions and discoveries 
 familiar to us were denied the old civilizations. Why 
 did God so long jealously guard these secrets? Not 
 
256 THE MERCY OF MYSTERY 
 
 because He was arbitrary or ungenerous, but in loving 
 care for His creatures. The welfare of man regulates 
 progressive illumination. If in the morning of time 
 those who possessed a crude knowledge of the arts and 
 sciences, with colossal pride built Babel, what frightful 
 outrages would they have perpetrated possessed of 
 modern wealth and knowledge! The tyranny and 
 slavery of Egypt and Assyria were terrible enough 
 with horses and chariots; what would they have been 
 with steam and electricity! The Jews were in con- 
 stant peril because the navy of Solomon every three 
 years brought gold, ivory, and peacocks; what would 
 have been their state had the fleets of the world 
 anchored in their ports, as they do in ours! The 
 Romans were destructive enough with bows and 
 arrows, slings and stones, swords and spears ; think 
 what they would have been with gunpowder and dyna- 
 mite ! The Greeks were voluptuous enough with the 
 modest resources of their age ; imagine their carnivals 
 of ruinous pleasure had they commanded the diamond- 
 mines of Kimberley, the gold-fields of Johannesburg, 
 the luxuries of all climates ! God denied the treasures 
 which would have rendered progress impossible ; He 
 withheld them until the race had attained those higher 
 qualities without which excessive material power is a 
 curse. The material progress of the world is condi- 
 tioned by its moral fitness. We do not allow a child 
 to play with matches, poisons, razors, and live wires; 
 and God did not trust the childhood of the race with 
 the awful resources of knowledge, wealth, and power 
 involved in modern civilization. "Beloved, I wish 
 above all things that thou mayest be in health and pros- 
 
THE MERCY OF MYSTERY 257 
 
 per, even as thy soul prospereth." This is the law 
 of the world's enrichment and illumination, and it is 
 a law of love. 
 
 Another illustration of our theme is found in the 
 impartation of spiritual knowledge. The Bible we 
 know as revelation, yet it has immensely widened the 
 range of mystery. How much there is in it that we 
 do not understand ! and we are often impatient with 
 the mystery of godliness. "It is the glory of God to 
 conceal a thing." Christ came only "in the fullness of 
 time" ; before then the Advent would have been worse 
 than useless. Even when He came He observed a 
 striking reticence in addressing the multitude. "And 
 with many such parables spake He the word unto them, 
 as they were able to hear it: and without a parable 
 spake He not unto them ; but privately to His own 
 disciples. He expounded all things." Nay, even to 
 the disciples He could not tell all. "I have yet many 
 things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 
 Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He 
 shall guide you into all the truth." The physician can- 
 not always tell his patient all the truth concerning his 
 position — it would retard the sick man's recovery, per- 
 haps cost him his life ; so he is told only as he is able 
 to bear it, only as it will be good for him to know. 
 So Heaven deals with us in loving discretion. Little 
 do we know what we ask when we ask for the fullness 
 of the light ! The holiness of God, the wrath of God, 
 the love of God ! To see all our sin, all our peril ! 
 To see the universe of glory, to penetrate the secret 
 of the prison-house ! Were it flashed upon us, it would 
 blind, paralyze, destroy. We are saved by the gen- 
 
258 THE MERCY OF MYSTERY 
 
 tleness which filters out the light a ray at a time. 
 Infinite mercy grants no more. 
 
 A veil 'twixt us and Thee, dread Lord, 
 
 A veil 'twixt us and Thee ; 
 Lest we should hear too clear, too clear. 
 
 And unto madness see ! 
 
 We understand high and holy truths only as we 
 treat them seriously and apply them practically. God 
 explains them to us through experience. Just as the 
 scientist learns the truths of nature through experi- 
 ment, so we learn the highest truths through experi- 
 ence. We know the heavenly doctrine through its 
 action on our conscience, heart, and will. God illu- 
 minates us through cha/t'acter. Would you know 
 imore? Get higher qualities and graces. We are 
 illuminated through obedience. Revelation is granted 
 through duty. We learn divinest secrets in prayer. A 
 very little fellow, whose mother failed to explain his 
 difficulties, answered, "Mother, you have not told me 
 much ; I wish that I could have five minutes with God." 
 Our five minutes with God go a long way. So light 
 is not given to theorists, for knowledge that puffeth 
 up is no gain; light steals upon us through personal 
 sanctification, practical obedience, hallowed devotion, 
 and every truth thus apprehended is the light of life, 
 filling us with strength, purity, and joy. 
 
LII 
 
 THE HOUR, AND THE DIVINE 
 DELIVERER 
 
 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His 
 Soft, born of a woman, born under the law, that He might re- 
 deem them which were under the law, that we might receive 
 the adoption of sons. — Gal. iv. 4, 5. 
 
 THE period of Christ's manifestation. It has 
 often been pointed out that when certain char- 
 acters are wanted they inevitably appear. 
 When the hour strikes the man arrives, the man ex- 
 actly suited to the hour. "The tools of history are 
 never inappropriate. A Dante is not produced when 
 history requires a Luther. Philosophical and contem- 
 plative natures are not produced when history requires 
 practical and heroic natures. Providence makes no 
 mistake, there is always harmony between the special 
 gifts of individuals and the requirements of history." 
 This harmony was never more strikingly illustrated 
 than in the age of the Advent. Christ is the centre 
 of the history of the world, and there could be no 
 error in the date of His appearance. The race had 
 proved its inability to restore itself to lost truth, purity, 
 and happiness. Through the discipline of the Mosaic 
 law, and of natural law, Jew and Gentile were pre- 
 
 259 
 
260 THE HOUR, AND THE DELIVERER 
 
 pared for a spiritual, redeeming religion. And the 
 state of the political world corresponded with the 
 exigencies of a universal faith. "When the fullness 
 of the time came, God sent forth His Son." Nothing 
 in nature is more wonderful than the way in which 
 complementary things and creatures arrive together; 
 and in history the same phenomenon is repeated. 
 "God's trains never keep one another waiting." 
 Events synchronize and harmonize. The Incarnation 
 is the crowning example of the dramatic unities of 
 history. 
 
 The nature of this manifestation. "God sent forth 
 His Son." "Born of a woman." Christ was the reve- 
 lation of God in the sphere of time and sense. The 
 splendour of Jehovah was veiled by the seamless robe ; 
 under the mechanism of frail flesh throbbed the energy 
 which built the world; the gentle tones of the voice 
 unheard in the streets disguised the accents of the 
 thunder; and beneath the weakness which slept, 
 fainted, and expired was hidden the might of Omnipo- 
 tence. That Christ was God; that He became man, 
 possessing a true human body and a true human soul, 
 is the distinct teaching of the evangelic narrative. God 
 manifests Himself in nature, history, and conscience; 
 but here is a supreme, personal, and unique revelation 
 of Himself — the divine clothing Himself with the 
 human that He might redeem the human. 
 
 There is nothing in this manifestation contrary to 
 the divine greatness. The grandeur of God is not 
 founded on those visible splendours with which we sur- 
 round Him. Without a throne of awful brightness, 
 without crowns either on His head or at His feet. 
 
THE HOUR, AND THE DELIVERER '2GI 
 
 without ten thousand times ten thousand angels, with- 
 out the dust of gold and blaze of jewels, He is still 
 the only wise God, King of kings, and Lord of lords. 
 Divested of all those glories which appeal to our imag- 
 ination, His real greatness is untouched. His great- 
 ness is that of supreme wisdom, righteousness, and 
 love; and with these perfections He is equally great, 
 whether invested by the splendours of the heavens, 
 or manifested in the simplicity of "the man Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 There is nothing contrary to the divine honour. If 
 there is nothing derogatory to the honour of God in 
 His dwelling within the physical universe, and in mani- 
 festing Himself through suns and stars, hills and seas, 
 forests and flowers, there cannot be anything contrary 
 to the divine glory in assuming that He should take 
 up His special abode in a human body, and reveal Him- 
 self through its marvellous organs. There seems, in- 
 deed, no shrine so fitting for the divine indwelling and 
 manifestation as a pure human body. "The human 
 face divine" can express more than a sun, the rounded 
 forehead speak more than arched skies, the eyes shine 
 out deeper things than stars, the lip reveals secrets 
 which winds and waves can never utter, and the actions 
 of human life are rich in suggestion hidden from the 
 foundations of the world. The human body is less 
 bright than the heavens, less large than the earth, but 
 to utter things deep and high a finer organ than either. 
 
 There is nothing contrary to the divine purity. Im- 
 purity is not an idea inseparable from human nature, 
 and the New Testament takes care that the Incarna- 
 tion is freed from all suspicion of that sinfulness by 
 
262 THE HOUR, AND THE DELIVERER 
 
 which the flesh has been defiled. It is reasonable to 
 think that God would come near to us in a way that 
 we could know Him, take hold of Him, love and serve 
 Him. And He has thus manifested Himself (i John 
 
 i- 1-3). 
 The design of this manifestation. "That He might 
 
 redeem them which were under the law, that we might 
 receive the adoption of sons." In a word, the purpose 
 of the Incarnation was to convert the slaves of sin into 
 the sons of God (Rom. viii. 3, 4). Our Lord lived and 
 died that He might show us the glory of righteous- 
 ness ; that He might open the way for our forgiveness 
 and reconciliation with Heaven; and that He might 
 endue us with the Spirit of purity and might, enabling 
 us to attain to holiness of heart and life. In Him our 
 .emancipation from sin is most complete. We die to 
 the old life of actual sin and formal righteousness ; we 
 live in the power of faith, purity, and love. We once 
 heard an Oriental relate that when he was converted 
 to Christianity his old angry fellow religionists treated 
 him as a dead man, building his tomb, and following 
 a bier to the graveyard. It was the glorious truth 
 in a parable. He who is truly converted by the grace 
 of Christ is dead to sin, and all the vices follow his 
 bier. Bereaved passion is there, with wild cries and 
 gnashing of teeth ; loathsome lust sorrows as one with- 
 out hope ; mammon mourns a slave who has slipped his 
 shining fetters ; pride stalks along in grief because eyes 
 so long dazzled with power and purple have strangely 
 forgotten their sight ; falsehood for once lays aside 
 his mask and is inconsolable, bereaved of a familiar 
 friend; selfishness bemoans a lost son; and all the 
 
THE HOUR, AND THE DELIVERER 263 
 
 daughters of guilty pleasure despairingly cast into the 
 dust the poison-flowers the dead will no longer wear. 
 The devil follows as the chief mourner; the rabble of 
 the vices weep and blaspheme; and the epitaph reads, 
 "How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer 
 therein?" But out of this grave rises a new man in 
 the power of Christ's resurrection. Walking in new- 
 ness of life he is conscious of freedom, strength, and 
 joyfulness which are truly heavenly. The miserable 
 slave groaning under bondage has become a son of 
 God, sitting in heavenly places and enjoying the liberty 
 of the glory. 
 
LIII 
 
 THE IMPLIED PROMISE OF 
 NATURE AND LIFE 
 
 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, he- 
 cause we have seen God. But his wife said unto him. If the 
 'Lord were pleased to kill us, He ivoiild not have received a 
 burnt offering and a meal offering at our hand, neither would 
 He have showed us all these things, nor would at this time 
 have told such things as these. — Judges xiii. 22, 23. 
 
 MANOAH was greatly troubled by the won- 
 derful appearances recorded in the context : 
 "We shall surely die, because we have seen 
 God." But his wife took a more reasonable and hope- 
 ful view of the situation. She argues from the analogy 
 of things that God means to deal graciously with them. 
 She reasons from the known to the unknown, from the 
 present to the future, from the segment to the circle. 
 In days of mystery, perplexity, and ominousness we 
 cannot do better than follow out this special line of 
 reasoning; we cannot do better than resort to this 
 argument as we enter upon a new, unknown year. In- 
 stead of yielding to panic and despair, let us deal with 
 threatening problems in the light of reflection, experi- 
 ence, and history ; let us strengthen ourselves by a ref- 
 erence to the secret analogy of things. 
 
 264 
 
PROMISE OF NATURE AND LIFE 265 
 
 "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, would He 
 have showed us all these things?" 
 
 Look at the question in relation to this present life 
 and its anxieties. How we torment ourselves about 
 our earthly future ! Life would be worth living were 
 it not for to-morrow ; to-morrow poisons all the days 
 of the calendar. But if the Lord were pleased to 
 degrade and destroy us, would He have shown us all 
 these things of nature's wealth and glory? We can- 
 not survey the teeming treasures of earth and sky 
 without feeling that God means to deal generously 
 with us. Ruskin declared that there was beauty 
 enough in a lily to decorate a cathedral ; and our Lord 
 found truth and grace enough in a lily to furnish a 
 creed for that cathedral — a creed of absolute trust in 
 our heavenly Father. Every sunbeam, every shower, 
 every sheaf rebukes our scepticism and despair. If 
 the design of God were sinister, if He were pleased to 
 forsake us, to abandon us to hunger and nakedness, to 
 torment and destroy us, would He have thus filled our 
 world with riches and splendour? In revelation we 
 have exceeding great promises in black and white, 
 whilst in nature are millions more promises in gold 
 and purple, and God means to keep them all. In our 
 personal history, too, how wondrously has He blessed 
 us ! When tempted to dark fears, think of what God 
 is likely to do by the gracious things He has already 
 shown you in nature and life. Every gift and deliv- 
 erance of the past are also a prophecy and promise. 
 In granting us these things He contracts engagements 
 to us ; His past favours lay Him under a necessity 
 of conferring other favours; He must be consistent 
 
^66 PROMISE OF NATURE AND LIFE 
 
 with Himself, and finish what He has begun. He 
 must honour His own government. 
 
 As to the future beyond this world and life, the 
 argument of the text holds. If God meant to annihi- 
 late us, would He have dealt with us after the won- 
 derful fashion with which we are so familiar? What 
 immense ages He took to prepare this earth for our 
 habitation ! How infinitely vast and magnificent is 
 the universe which inspheres us! How inexhaustible 
 are the treasures which mainly design our welfare! If 
 God proposed to annihilate us, would He have shown 
 us all these things and lavished upon us such endless 
 gifts? Is it like Him to do so? Is it like His wis- 
 dom? Scientists tell us of a law of nature that they 
 describe as the law of parsimony; that is, nature does 
 not permit any waste of material, time, or energy, the 
 means to any given end being always regulated by 
 stern economy. But what becomes of this law of par- 
 simony if after Heaven has lavished so much upon us 
 it extinguishes us? Annihilation does not correspond 
 with the wisdom of God as reflected in nature. Is it 
 like His goodness to destroy us? Life is positively 
 cruel if nothing more than a tantalizing flash. When 
 the Aztecs managed to capture several of the Spanish 
 invaders, the captives were surprised to find that they 
 were treated most hospitably; abundant provision was 
 forthcoming, and they were regaled with every deli- 
 cacy ; but when they discovered that they were being 
 fattened for sacrifice, they lost their appetite, and could 
 no longer touch the luxuries spread before them. All 
 the pride of life is gone, all the sweetness and glory 
 and joy of things vanish the moment we really believe 
 
PROMISE OF NATURE AND LIFE 267 
 
 that we are reserved for the carnival of the worms. 
 Fearing annihilation, we are all our lifetime in bondage 
 to the fear of death, and can know nothing of the 
 goodness of God and the preciousness of living. Is it 
 like the divine faithfulness to destroy us? Does nature 
 implant instincts it does not mean to gratify? Does 
 God excite hopes in us that He does not intend to 
 fulfil ? "He satisfieth the desire of every living thing." 
 Will He then mock the sublimest desire of all — the 
 instinct of immortality? No; He does not mean to 
 destroy us. The grandeur of the world, of which we 
 are the chief aim ; the splendour of our faculties ; the 
 costliness of our education; the munificence of our 
 treatment, — these, one and all, are prophecies and 
 pledges of great things prepared for faithful souls. We 
 shall not die like dogs; the grass of the churchyard 
 shall not cover our great being and hope. 
 
 When grim Death doth take me by the throat 
 Thou wilt have pity on Thy handiwork. 
 
 "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, would He have 
 told such things as these?" God has not only shown 
 us many wonderful things ; He has also spoken many 
 wonderful words. The great silence of eternity has 
 been broken, and we have listened to mighty messages 
 of love and hope. Seers have risen in all nations and 
 ages, teaching doctrines which stretch far beyond this 
 life and its interests. In Egypt, Assyria, Persia, India, 
 Giina, Greece, and Rome poets and philosophers 
 taught truths which transcend the trivial and mortal, 
 and assume a vaster world and destiny than the pres- 
 
268 PROMISE OP NATURE AND LIFE 
 
 ent. In Judea patriarchs, lawgivers, psalmists, and 
 prophets enforced high and holy doctrines which are 
 foolishness if this life is all. Last of all in this circle 
 God spake to us by His Son, spake words pulsating 
 with eternity. And in each generation since then great 
 teachers have appeared protesting against animalism 
 and materialism; warning their contemporaries that 
 they are men not beasts, and eloquently conjuring them 
 to live for higher ends than those of terrestrial ad- 
 vantage and indulgence. Our own age has been illu- 
 minated by Carlyle, Emerson, Ruskin, and Tennyson, 
 who have appealed to our spirituality and aroused us 
 from sordid life to grasp the prizes of a higher world. 
 We may not always be able to distinguish very clearly 
 between a sky-sign and a star, between the fancies 
 of men trusting to the heavens and the authorized 
 messages of eternity; but, whatever falsities and 
 errors may cloud and confuse our vision, God has 
 never permitted us to lose sight of immortal ideas, 
 beliefs, and hopes — the truths of eternity have been 
 kept before us high, clear, solemn, like the Milky Way 
 in the midnight heaven. 
 
 Has God spoken all these words in vain? There 
 is more truth in the nature of things than this. He 
 would not have addressed us thus had we been worms 
 of the earth, moths of a moment. He would not have 
 told us such things about Himself, about ourselves, 
 about the world above us, about the ages of the past, 
 about the ages to come. And when God speaks these 
 great words we grasp His meaning. We are constantly 
 being told of the sagacity of animals, of their marvel- 
 lous intelligence and cleverness, the intention being to 
 
PROMISE OF NATURE AND LIFE 269 
 
 humble us by the thought that we are at last one with 
 the beasts which perish. But we may easily reassure 
 ourselves. Read Plato to your parrot, try the Iliad on 
 the gorilla, declaim Shakespeare to swine, or attempt 
 to disclose the visions of Isaiah and St. John in the 
 kennels, and you elicit no response, or a very coarse 
 one. But the great words of God find us, thrill us, 
 alarm us ; they inspire us with fear, wonder, or delight. 
 There is a measureless gulf between us and the brute. 
 Surely God would not thus have spoken to us, we 
 should not thus have comprehended Him, had we been 
 only creatures of a day. Let us not say, "We shall 
 die because we have seen God" ; but rather, "We shall 
 live because we have seen Him, and because He has 
 spoken to us the words of eternal life." 
 
 If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not 
 have revealed His grace as He has done. The fear 
 of Manoah arose out of the sense of sin ; but, in so 
 many words, his wife replies, "True we are sinners, 
 yet God has accepted our sacrifice, and shown us 
 tokens for good, and He would not have done this 
 had He meant to destroy us." Does not this argument 
 hold with us ? A great sacrifice comes between us and 
 God — the accepted Sacrifice of Calvary ; and does not 
 this avail on our behalf? "He that spared not His 
 own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall 
 He not with Him also freely give us all things." By 
 virtue of this ofTering God has assured us of forgive- 
 ness, vouchsafed the sense of His favour, kindled in 
 our heart, love, peace, and hope; and is it likely that 
 He will abandon us? In our Christian experience 
 we find the prophecy and promise of immortality. 
 
270 PROMISE OF NATURE AND LIFE 
 
 "Being confident of this very thing, that He which 
 began a good work in you will perfect it until the day 
 of Jesus Christ." "Now He that wrought us for this 
 very thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of the 
 Spirit." 
 

 Date Due 
 
 
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