TH£ TCLLOWSHIP 
 op-THepirTVPf. 
 
 eDlTCD ■ By • PCRCy • D6ARM6R 
 
Class . IB F\ _. 
 
 Book. 2h *~ 
 
 Copyright N° 
 
 COPffilGMT DEPOSIT. 
 
THE FELLOWSHIP 
 of the PICTURE 
 
THE FELLOWSHIP 
 of the PICTURE 
 
 AN AUTOMATIC SCRIPT 
 
 TAKEN DOWN BY 
 
 NANCY DEARMER 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 PERCY DEARMER, M.A., D.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL ART, KING'S COLLEGE, 
 LONDON 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 68 1 Fifth Avenue 
 
Copyright, 1920, by 
 E. P. DUTTON & CO. 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 
 o\ 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 SEP 28 1920 
 ©CI.A576620 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 
 INTRODUCTION .... 
 
 vii 
 
 I. 
 
 ESCAPING FROM CONVENTIONALISM 
 
 I 
 
 II. 
 
 HOPE 
 
 6 
 
 III. 
 
 hope (Contd.) .... 
 
 9 
 
 IV. 
 
 FAITH 
 
 ii 
 
 V. 
 
 "A GARDEN ENCLOSED" 
 
 15 
 
 VI. 
 
 HELPING GOD 
 
 17 
 
 VII. 
 
 "i MAKE A SACRIFICE" 
 
 20 
 
 VIII. 
 
 SACRIFICE AND THE PICTURE 
 
 22 
 
 IX. 
 
 PEACE AND GOODNESS . 
 
 25 
 
 X. 
 
 THE DIFFICULTY OF CREEDS 
 
 28 
 
 XI. 
 
 CREEDS AND FAMILY PRAYER 
 
 30 
 
 XII. 
 
 children's PRAYERS . 
 
 32 
 
 XIII. 
 
 UNDERSTANDING AND STUPIDITY 
 
 34 
 
 XIV. 
 
 CORPORATE THOUGHT . 
 
 37 
 
 XV. 
 
 OTHER MEN 
 
 40 
 
 XVI. 
 
 WISDOM 
 
 43 
 
 XVII. 
 
 wisdom (Contd.) .... 
 
 46 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 XVIII. THE CHAIN OF EXPERIENCE 
 XIX. THE OLD COMMUNITIES 
 XX. COMMUNITIES AND CHILDREN . 
 
 XXI. THE NEW COMMUNITY 
 
 XXII. BEGINNING OF A NEW COMMUNITY 
 
 XXIII. THE IMPORTANCE OF FELLOWSHIP 
 
 XXIV. COMMUNION AND FELLOWSHIP . 
 XXV. THE SHARE OF THE CHILDREN 
 
 XXVI. LIGHT IN THE CORNERS . 
 XXVII. THE DUSTY ONES 
 XXVIII. ON FEARING EVIL 
 XXIX. A JOYFUL CONSCIENCE 
 XXX. THE DEMON IN THEOLOGY 
 XXXI. THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY 
 XXXII. WHAT IS OMNIPOTENCE? . 
 
 XXXIII. THE LAWS OF GOD 
 
 XXXIV. A PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY 
 XXXV. PLEASURE AND HAPPINESS 
 
 XXXVI. CONCLUSION 
 
 PAGE 
 4 8 
 
 Si 
 
 54 
 58 
 61 
 
 64 
 67 
 7o 
 73 
 7« 
 79 
 82 
 
 85 
 88 
 
 91 
 93 
 96 
 98 
 101 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 /^\N July 31st, 19 19, when we were staying in 
 ^-^ our country cottage, my wife felt impelled 
 to sit down and allow her hand to write auto- 
 matically. She had previously felt a marked 
 dislike of all such supposed manifestations or 
 communications as are now classed under the 
 name of Psychics ; nor had she ever imagined her- 
 self to have any psychic powers, or gifts, or 
 whatever they may be. When I happened to 
 come into the room where she was, she told me 
 that her hand was writing, but that she did not 
 know what the writing was, as she had not yet 
 read it. I looked over her shoulder, and saw 
 that, after some meaningless attempts at sentences, 
 the script had settled down into a coherent mes- 
 sage. So I said, "This looks interesting. I think 
 
viii Introduction 
 
 you had better go on writing, and see what 
 happens." 
 
 She thenceforward wrote for about half an hour 
 a day quite regularly and as a matter of course, 
 interrupting her morning duties to write, then 
 bringing the script for me to read aloud, so that 
 she might hear what it was about. This con- 
 tinued with an interruption of a few days, until 
 September ioth, when, on reading the script aloud 
 to her, I found, to the surprise of both of us, 
 that the book which had been coming out so regu- 
 larly had reached its end. 
 
 We neither of us desire to propose any theory 
 about the book which we now offer to the reader, 
 or to express any opinion; except to say that 
 neither of us was the author of it, and that we 
 find it very difficult to frame any hypothesis ex- 
 cept that in some unexplained way it did emanate 
 from the mind of the friend whose name, or 
 initials, was frequently appended to the morn- 
 ing's chapter. From the beginning this name was 
 signed in a different handwriting from that of 
 my wife — in fact, with the same signature which 
 
Introduction ix 
 
 we found on looking through his letters ; and the 
 last page was signed with his initials. All along, 
 the script was written as from one who was 
 urgent to give a message to the world, who was 
 the friend we had known, and whose identity was 
 familiar and unmistakable. 
 
 He was a well-known man of academic dis- 
 tinction and singularly pure and high character, 
 who was killed in France in 191 8. He had al- 
 ready written certain valuable contributions to 
 religion and philosophy; but he had another book 
 on his mind which he was anxious to write as 
 soon as the war was over. "The Fellowship of 
 the Picture" claims to be that book. We print 
 it as it stands only omitting a few personal sen- 
 tences of no public interest; and we offer it to 
 the reader for what it claims to be, taking no 
 further responsibility upon ourselves, except to 
 say that we have been scrupulously careful 
 throughout in what we have done. The original 
 script was paged and dated as it appeared, and 
 was countersigned by several friends who were 
 staying with us in the country during last August 
 and September, and who very kindly sat in the 
 room while my wife read or looked out of the 
 
x Introduction 
 
 window as her hand hastened over the paper. 
 We wrote at the outset to the Society for 
 Psychical Research to ask if there were any 
 further precautions we could take, and were in- 
 formed by the secretary that there were none be- 
 yond what we were already doing. We have 
 since then shown the script to the secretary of the 
 Society. 
 
 The proofs have been carefully corrected from 
 the original script. A few words which were 
 obvious mistakes have been altered, and a list 
 of these is given at the end of the book. The 
 punctuation has been made heavier, and here and 
 there a word has been put into italic. Otherwise 
 the script is exactly reproduced; except for the 
 personal passages which have been omitted (three 
 typical examples are given on pp. 8, 87 and 
 103), their places being denoted by three dots, 
 in every case. 
 
 We are now publishing the book because we 
 are strongly convinced of its great intrinsic merit. 
 On consideration, we felt that we ought to take 
 the public into our confidence as to the manner 
 of its production; and we are therefore obliged 
 
Introduction xi 
 
 very reluctantly to print our own names as a 
 guarantee of good faith, though we can claim 
 no credit for a work which did not come from the 
 brains of either of us, whatever the ultimate ex- 
 planation of its transmission through my wife 
 may be. 
 
 Percy Dearmer. 
 February, 1920. 
 
THE FELLOWSHIP 
 of the PICTURE 
 
ESCAPING FROM CONVENTIONALISM 
 
 ^T^HE world to-day* is hungry for prayer and 
 -*• the restfulness of prayer, in a way that 
 it has never hungered before. I wonder if we 
 can gather together our thoughts about it into 
 some kind of form, in order that they may pos- 
 sibly help all these young folk, who are earnestly 
 seeking for help, and perhaps not finding it in 
 more official quarters. It isn't very easy, because 
 the whole subject has got so conventionalised: 
 and if we are going to help folk now, we have 
 got to get away from conventionalism and talk 
 about prayer and God as we talk about cricket 
 or other pursuits, that is, with entire simplicity 
 of thought and word. We must pay God the 
 
 *The first three pages down to "with your fellows . . ." 
 were written last of all, evidently to serve as an introduc- 
 tion if there should later on be a reason for publication. 
 
 I 
 
2 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 compliment of treating him as real. So if I seem 
 to use phrases unlike the usual religious phrases, 
 it will not be from a lack of reverence, but rather, 
 I hope, from a profound reverence — a reverence 
 too deep to allow me to hide God behind a veil 
 of conventionalism. 
 
 Some of the thoughts that come are disjointed; 
 but I fancy it may be better to set them down 
 just as they occur, because they may contain the 
 germ of an idea which is helpful, even if I am 
 unable to elaborate it to its fuller value. Others 
 may elaborate it further for themselves. Some- 
 times it is helpful to have merely a suggestion 
 without elaboration. I would not attempt this 
 little book at all, only we have worked out some- 
 thing which has proved helpful to a few (per- 
 haps just through its extreme simplicity, its — al- 
 most — easiness), and if there is any chance of its 
 helping others, we ought to try to pass on the 
 gift. It seems as if it were the gift of seeing 
 familiar things from a different angle, which gives 
 them a certain freshness and distinctness. So 
 after this little apologia we will begin and set 
 down what we can of our simple philosophy, de- 
 
Escaping from Conventionalism 3 
 
 liberately unhampered by a search for style or 
 the effort to develop every thought more fully. 
 
 I want to begin with love, because everything 
 begins and ends there. And first I want you to 
 learn to differentiate between personal and imper- 
 sonal love, in order that you may be helped in 
 your dealings with your fellows . . . 
 
 . . . Love can be both: and personal love is 
 only for the few and near, but impersonal is for 
 all. It is an attitude kindly and open to all one 
 comes in contact with. It does not tax like per- 
 sonal love, but it is less instinctive, and more diffi- 
 cult to acquire for most people . . . But most of 
 all, it is necessary to love the fellowship, and all 
 who go to make it up. Personalities are not a 
 bar to love, if it is the impersonal kind. That is 
 why the impersonal kind is necessary to learn; the 
 personal is too difficult — in bulk — for any one 
 but God; his capacity is quite inexhaustible . . . 
 
 Love and faith are both needed. I want you 
 to understand about prayer. I wonder if I can 
 explain better now than I could that day when 
 we talked. It is necessary to be very patient, you 
 
4 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 know. It is a work to learn, and joy for ever 
 when you do know; but discipline is not only an 
 ugly, tiresome word, it is a fact that we cannot 
 get over, and God wants us to be patient, so that 
 he may teach us wonderful things about life and 
 love, and faith and hope. 
 
 We learn through prayer — prayer is growth 
 and life. It is the beginning that is difficult, be- 
 cause we are afraid that God is going to ask too 
 much of us; but he never really does that, though 
 sometimes it seems uncommon like it. You must 
 just let yourself go, and remember that God is 
 love; and he really does love you, and he isn't 
 going to behave like a demon. Just ask him to 
 lead your life, and then follow where he leads; 
 and, above all, trust — trust him; he is the only 
 really trustworthy person you will ever know. 
 Don't you think you can do this? 
 
 One is always so full of fears for oneself and 
 others, and one thinks no one can manage so 
 well, not even God. But what is the use of 
 being God if you can't manage better than Nan, 
 eh? That's what I discovered about God and 
 
Escaping from Conventionalism 5 
 
 myself; and when he arranges life, it becomes 
 enormously interesting and really very comfy, you 
 know. I never could arrange my own life 
 "comfily," but he is an artist in living and in life. 
 Do trust him: it is peace and joy, and all the 
 good things. 
 
 Meditation in the set sense is not much use, 
 I fancy; but thought about God is, and it isn't 
 necessary to be a hermit for that. You can do 
 it nearly all the time; only don't expect him to 
 do things that are out of the picture. He isn't 
 going to spoil his picture just for one person, 
 you know; that wouldn't do at all. Think of the 
 mess it would make ! No, you have got to see 
 the picture, and then he will help you to make 
 your life fit in; and to be part of the picture is 
 much more glorious than to have one's own 
 private little plans answered. In the end all good 
 in prayer is answered, because God is good and 
 he reabsorbs all the good in the world . . . 
 
II 
 
 HOPE 
 
 T TOPE is very often misunderstood. It is not 
 A merely expectancy, it is something much 
 bigger than that ... It is a difficult, but inter- 
 esting question. It is very necessary to prayer, 
 and yet to some people it is almost the only side 
 of prayer, and that is not right. Hope is more 
 constructive than that: it causes men to be wan- 
 derers in search of Never-never Land. Prayer 
 is, after all, a prolonged wanderjahr of the soul 
 — wandering after God, finding his traces, follow- 
 ing his lead in all things. It really is easy. 
 
 But about hope. Hope implies trust; so you 
 must trust God implicitly, before you can begin 
 to hope in the real sense of the word. It is no 
 
 6 
 
Hope 7 
 
 good hoping wrong things; it only leads to dis- 
 appointment and to asking God for something 
 over which he has no direct control. So, you 
 see, you must follow God's lead in your hopes 
 as also in your prayers. Hoping is not a jumble 
 of sudden impulses; it must be part of the plan, 
 too. Do you understand? It all goes to build 
 up God's beautiful picture. 
 
 Of course this is difficult, because one's own 
 private and intimate hopes intrude: that is only 
 natural, and, I believe, right. But in judging 
 God and his actions, it is necessary to distinguish 
 between these earthly hopes of our own and the 
 heavenly hope which we must practise and which 
 is a near attribute of God. A wrong idea of 
 God is almost inevitable if we do not thus dis- 
 tinguish, because we are then certain to say that 
 God gave us hopes and then did not fulfil them; 
 and it is hurtful to ourselves and to our faith 
 to believe that God ever lets us down. He never, 
 never does. So try to get these two phases of 
 hope clear, earthly intimate hopes, which I must 
 add are often nearly connected with fear, and 
 
8 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 godlike heavenly hope, which is constructive and 
 helps on with the Picture.* 
 
 * The original script goes on : "We are progressing so 
 well. I think we really shall write this book between us — 
 don't you, Nan? How ripping! But you mustn't do too 
 much, and tire — that won't do. So I will stop for the 
 present. Give me half an hour a day, when you are fresh 
 in the mornings. We shall have plenty of time that way." 
 No signature on this occasion. 
 
Ill 
 
 HOPE {continued)' 
 
 T HAVE a good deal more to say about hope. 
 It really is rather difficult to understand; 
 and yet a true understanding of it is most awfully 
 important if you are to pray rightly. Hope is 
 always a dream of heaven, a vision; and the 
 vision cannot live without the help of man. God 
 needs man's help in making his vision-picture 
 come true, and it is man's right understanding 
 and practising of hope that is required. Hope 
 implies faith too. You must believe in something 
 before you can hope for it; but most people put 
 that the other way round. That is why their 
 hopes are so vague, and of so little constructive 
 value. 
 
 We can be God's architects, all of us, only this 
 means passivity and few people are prepared to 
 9 
 
io The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 be passive: they must always De doing things. 
 Are you prepared to be passive? Don't be busy, 
 except over what comes in your direct daily path. 
 Passive folk are needed badly, and you know 
 how to be passive : that is why I can use you for 
 my book. God can use you for many things, if 
 you are passive. Just attend to him, and he will 
 fill your life. 
 
 About hope : don't think I am "snubbing" about 
 earthly hopes; they are impulses, you can't help 
 having them. Impulses are often sweet and 
 right. Only do distinguish between them and the 
 larger thing, which is a helpful constructive thing, 
 and a thing that God requires of those of us who 
 do his bidding. If enough of us do his will, there 
 is nothing that he cannot do with the world, and 
 it will be a dear sweet place to live in, full of 
 God and his love. But lots of us must help ; and 
 you must see this and make others see it. 
 
IV 
 
 FAITH 
 
 T7AITH must come before hope — you must be- 
 lieve in something before you can hope for 
 it. I am speaking now of the larger hope — 
 godlike hope. Faith is a sort of vision; it is the 
 beginning of the scheme which builds up God's 
 picture. Do you think it is difficult to have faith? 
 It isn't really. Of course it is a God-given gift, 
 and different people get it in varying degrees; 
 but all can practise it. If only you can acquire 
 the habit of seeing that things are not difficult, 
 you will be half-way up the ladder of faith, so 
 to speak. I suppose fear is the greatest hindrance 
 to faith. You really must get fear out of your 
 life somehow, if you are to go on. 
 
 I wonder if I can make this clearer. Think 
 of faith as a dive, the dive into the unknown. 
 
12 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 It takes more courage, because it is the begin- 
 ning, the first plunge. When once that first 
 plunge is taken, the rest is comparatively easy, 
 and fear goes, perhaps for ever. Fear is such 
 a waste of life: it must be got rid of before any 
 progress is obtained. I think it is the greatest 
 and most successful work of the devil. He 
 chortles with glee when we give way to it! You 
 don't want to have the devil chortling with glee 
 over you — do you? It is a nasty sound! So just 
 you get rid of all fear, and take the plunge of 
 faith; and God will do the rest and lead you 
 into all truth, and love, and light. Faith is mis- 
 understood often, and thought to be a more com- 
 plex thing than it really is. Take it from me, 
 it is simple if only you can catch the first glimmer 
 of an idea of it. The word is tied up with so 
 much human "muddle-ideadness" that it takes a 
 bit of disentangling — in fact, you must cut through 
 it like barbed wire. No, I can't tell you exactly 
 how to cut through — every one must discover that 
 for himself — but I think you can, if you just try. 
 God likes to see a bit of effort. 
 
 Faith and works — well, but faith is a work 
 
Faith 13 
 
 itself. They talk as if you just turned the tap 
 and faith ran out like beer. Am I mixing 
 metaphors, I wonder? They were made to get 
 mixed, I think! but we must try to keep them 
 clear, mustn't we? . . ± 
 
 Corporate prayer ought to be as simple in 
 form as possible, because you don't want to tie 
 up individuals by putting them to pray together. 
 It oughtn't to be a constriction — that is not quite 
 the word — it ought to be a widening and grow- 
 ing, for the individual to pray in company. He 
 ought to be free enough to develop along his own 
 lines, as the S. C. M.* folk are so fond of saying! 
 There must be room for individual growth and 
 development in corporate worship : and that is 
 why I say that the form must be very simple, and 
 allow a place for the individual growth. No, I 
 do not mean that the congregation should go 
 their own ways, and pray aloud just when they 
 please; but some forms of prayer now used are 
 earth-bound; and we, on the contrary, should be 
 heaven-bound. So it don't fit — do you see? 
 
 * Student Christian Movement. 
 
14 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 Aim above all at simplicity of form; but re- 
 member that what is difficult to you may be simple 
 to others, and what is simple to you may be im- 
 possible to them. So don't be impatient with the 
 things that you personally have, or seem to have, 
 no use for: reserve your impatience for those 
 forms that do not ring true — that are earth- 
 bound. If the services are rid of them, you will 
 be well on the way to heaven . . . 
 
V 
 
 "A GARDEN ENCLOSED" 
 
 T)AY great attention. Prayer gathers up all 
 *- that is best in us to meet God; therefore, 
 you see the importance of keeping yourself en- 
 cased, as it were. This may sound somewhat of 
 a contradiction; but, if you think, you will see 
 that it is not so. You wish to keep all the good 
 inviolate, in order that God may have back what 
 comes from him, to use again for his own pur- 
 poses. You must not dissipate this good: it is 
 God's treasure, of which you are the temporary 
 custodian. Therefore a certain — not aloofness, 
 a horrid word implying superiority — but a certain 
 enclosedness, like a city within its own walls, is 
 becoming to those whom God uses : it makes for 
 repose, and that is helpful to the working out of 
 God's plan. Does this strike you as reasonable 
 and true? It is very far from a priggish attitude 
 15 
 
16 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 really, you know, it is only a safeguard against 
 waste. It does not mean a cutting of oneself off 
 from the life like an anchorite: it can be prac- 
 tised in daily life without raising any barriers be- 
 tween oneself and one's neighbour. 
 
 God never teaches us to cut ourselves off from 
 human life and experience: it is not his plan for 
 us — I am sure of this. We know God only so 
 far as we live to the full; and knowledge of our 
 neighbour brings truer understanding of God, 
 though it is also true that knowledge of God ac- 
 quired by prayer is necessary before we can begin 
 to know our neighbour. So you see, it is a kind 
 of magic circle, and once you can get into it, you 
 are all right. Circles do not generally lead any- 
 where, but this is a magic circle and leads to 
 heaven. 
 
VI 
 
 HELPING GOD 
 
 A BOUT prayer for others (because we must 
 ■*■ *- not be selfish, you know). It means a lift- 
 ing up of them and their needs before God, rather 
 than actually asking for specific things for them. 
 God knows what is best for them far better than 
 we or they can know; and we can safely leave 
 them, even our nearest and dearest, in his hands. 
 It may partly frustrate God's plan if we insist 
 on asking special things for our friends — only he 
 can know what they need, what they really need 
 for their ultimate well-being. 
 
 Perhaps you are wondering why we are needed 
 at all. It is part of God's plan that he needs 
 our co-operation if his plan is to work. He has 
 ordained that without our help he is only partly 
 able to carry out his plan. Our highest good 
 17 
 
18 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 requires that we should be needed to help him, 
 and so he has ordained it that way. Helping — 
 helping God and others — draws out the best in 
 us, and God in his wisdom sees this and uses it 
 for the plan. Then, too, many others will never 
 learn to pray for themselves; either they haven't, 
 or think they have not time, or else the will is 
 too weak — or other reasons — so our prayers for 
 them are doubly precious in God's sight, because 
 they are the only help he will get, where those 
 people are concerned, for his plan. Do you see? 
 Lift up to God in prayer especially those whom 
 you have reason to believe do not pray for them- 
 selves; remember them as individuals, when you 
 are in God's presence — selfishness must never 
 enter God's presence, it hurts him as you on earth 
 can never comprehend. Therefore remember 
 others always when you pray; but do not special- 
 ise — just ask that all good may come to those 
 for whom you pray, and that God's will may be 
 accomplished in them. 
 
 You never really thought before how much 
 God needed your help, did you? People gen- 
 erally think mostly of their need of God's help; 
 
Helping God 19 
 
 but the other is just as necessary if the plan is 
 to come true. And when the plan comes true, 
 heaven will be upon earth and earth will be 
 heaven; and that is not an impossible dream, but 
 something we may all work for — you on earth, 
 and we over here. 
 
 Now perhaps you see where faith and hope 
 come in. It is so good to think that we may work 
 together over the biggest plan that ever was made. 
 Do you sometimes catch a gleam of the glory of 
 the plan? . . . 
 
VII 
 
 "I MAKE A SACRIFICE" 
 
 / "T^HIS is the most difficult piece we have had 
 
 ■*• so far. You must try to help me to be 
 
 clear. Keep your mind as open as possible : other 
 
 thoughts tend to get in the way and to confuse me. 
 
 Sacrifice is difficult to understand, because it is, 
 or I should say the thought of it is, mixed up 
 with pagan ideas, and we have got to keep free 
 from that tangle somehow. First, remember that 
 sacrifice is wholly a spiritual thing, and can only 
 be offered by the person most concerned. Isaac 
 would have had to offer himself, to make a true 
 sacrifice. The talk about the Lamb of God 
 offered is rather confusing: our Lord offered him- 
 self. Then you must understand that the essence 
 of sacrifice is its willingness — in fact, it is not 
 a sacrifice until even willingness is forgotten, and 
 20 
 
" I Make a Sacrifice " 21 
 
 the one who makes the sacrifice has forgotten the 
 need of willingness in his joy at this opportunity 
 of helping God. If he says "I make a sacrifice," 
 be sure it is no complete sacrifice; for the com- 
 plete sacrifice ends in joy, though it is true that 
 there is sorrow and bitterness to be passed through 
 first — but that is only a stage and must be realised 
 as such. Our Lord passed through this stage, 
 but he would wish us to look further at the 
 ultimate joy. The usefulness of the sacrifice 
 begins at the point where sorrow is forgotten and 
 we are swept upwards in the joy of the accom- 
 plished act. Therefore joy must be the keynote 
 of sacrifice; and it is no chastened joy at that, 
 but dazzling in its radiance. 
 
 Do not think of sacrifice as something grim 
 that God demands of us: he doesn't demand 
 sacrifice, he accepts it when it is offered. And 
 though the beginning of the process may be grim, 
 the sacrifice itself is joy. It must be so. Can 
 you see what I am driving at? It seems rather 
 a topsy-turvy philosophy at first perhaps, and I 
 can't always be as clear as I want to be; but I 
 do hope you can understand . . . 
 
VIII 
 
 SACRIFICE AND THE PICTURE 
 
 CACRIFICE means the letting go of all things 
 for the sake of the one thing that is worth 
 while. This is not easy. Love and faith and 
 hope are all needed, before we can see ourselves 
 into the picture sufficiently to make us want to 
 let go all the things we had esteemed so highly, 
 in favour of one thing unknown. 
 
 First, you must have seen the Picture and begun 
 to see yourself into the picture before sacrifice 
 begins to be possible to you. Sacrifice asks too 
 much, to be given or made lightly; and that is 
 as God would wish. Hope for, long for the 
 Picture; believe in it with all your power of be- 
 lief; pray for it and love it: then follows willing 
 sacrifice for it, as for the one thing worth work- 
 ing for. Sacrifice clinches, as it were, the friend- 
 
Sacrifice and the Picture 23 
 
 ship between us and God; it makes us one with 
 him. Therefore it is what he longs for from 
 us, but never demands. If demanded, it would 
 cease to be sacrifice — the very essence of sacrifice 
 is wholehearted, generous giving. 
 
 Sacrifice is God-given, not God-demanded. The 
 power for it is given to us by him through prayer, 
 as a father gives a child the means to help him- 
 self and his father: the initial gift comes from 
 the father, but he likes it to be asked for. Ask- 
 ing is a sign of the necessary keenness. 
 
 God is eager to help us. You see, it is his pic- 
 ture, and he longs to see it perfect, but it can 
 never be perfect without our help. So you can 
 imagine the joy in heaven over one sinner that 
 repenteth. The angels haven't God's patience — 
 if they had, they wouldn't be angels, they would 
 be God. Next to love, patience is God's highest 
 attribute — and it is needed! We must learn pa- 
 tience from him and not be too unhappy if the 
 picture take long in coming to perfection. 
 
 Perhaps you wonder how we are to see some- 
 
24 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 thing that is not wholly there yet — an uncom- 
 pleted picture. We see it by getting to the mind 
 of God — the Picture is already complete and per- 
 fect in God's mind. That is what makes his pa- 
 tience so marvellous — to see the picture all com- 
 plete, and to have to wait, and to wait, and to 
 wait again. Thank God for his patience — that 
 is often left out of our praises. 
 
IX 
 
 PEACE AND GOODNESS 
 
 T OVE is needed, and joy, for the Picture; then 
 "^ comes peace, and that is badly needed too. 
 Corporate world-wide peace can only come when 
 there is individual peace; and there is no individ- 
 ual peace possible for a man until he has made 
 his way close to God. We must find peace 
 through sacrifice; it follows after joy; and then 
 we must gather up with us into the peace as many 
 others as possible, holding them near God in our 
 prayers. For where God is, there is his peace. 
 God's peace is not merely passive; out of it grow 
 other things, such as forbearance and gentleness. 
 We cannot be forbearing and gentle to others if 
 our nerves are all of a jangle with the clamour of 
 the world. But when we have entered into God's 
 peace, the rest comes naturally and without effort. 
 So seek peace and pursue it, for yourself and for 
 25 
 
26 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 those you love. Whilst men have not peace, they 
 will fight, either as individuals or as nations. So, 
 you see, almost the greatest gift we can ask for 
 the world is peace; but God cannot give world- 
 peace until we have each learnt the way of peace 
 for ourselves. If you ask for world-peace before 
 the other thing is accomplished, you ask what is 
 impossible even to God. So seek peace for. your- 
 self — that is the first step, and do not forget to 
 gather up others with you when you pray. Here 
 again is a magic circle; for peace is not possible if 
 you have not gentleness and forbearance, but they 
 are not possible without peace. That is God's 
 paradox. But he will show you the way, through 
 prayer. It really is simple, if you will just try. 
 
 Goodness is what others see in us when we fol- 
 low God's plan for us. It is not a state we can 
 consciously enter into; our own sign that we have 
 entered into it is happiness. But others can see 
 it in us, and it radiates all the good things; and 
 besides, it brings happiness to others. When we 
 have attained to it, others wish to be near us. 
 There is something protective, an echo of God's 
 protection, in human goodness, and men and chil- 
 
Peace and Goodness 27 
 
 dren, and the beasts too, are quick to discern it 
 and to place themselves under this protection. 
 
 Faith has come before. 
 
 Lowliness is easy when we have acquired the 
 rest. You cannot be near to God and not be lowly 
 before the wonder of him. And if you are for 
 ever seeing yourself lit by the radiance of God, 
 you will have a humble and meek (though that 
 word has lost all meaning) attitude before other 
 men. There will be no superiority left in your 
 bearing, and they too will become meek. For 
 lowliness breeds lowliness in others. 
 
 The last is Temperance, and that means bal- 
 ance, and it is the natural consequence of the 
 rest . . . 
 
X 
 
 THE DIFFICULTY OF CREEDS 
 
 f 1 REEDS are not meant to be stumbling-blocks, 
 ^^^ far from it. They were written as an at- 
 tempt to clear men's minds. Perhaps we have not 
 reached a point where our minds can be corpo- 
 rately clear about God. But it is an ideal at 
 which we must aim, and it would be a pity to dis- 
 card the Creeds before we have reached that spir- 
 itual stronghold of corporate clearness. We may 
 find that some of the things we counted least true 
 are the simplest, when seen together in the light 
 of God's mind. Perhaps they are the missing 
 part of the Picture. So don't be in a hurry, and 
 don't imagine you are acting a lie when you pro- 
 claim that you believe in Christ born of the Virgin 
 Mary. Perhaps you are only seeing one side of 
 a profound truth. Aim at corporate clearness of 
 thought; and expend your energy at seeking for 
 28 
 
The Difficulty of Creeds 29 
 
 this, rather than at trying to expel the Virgin 
 from your Credo. And you want great corporate 
 faith for a corporate creed; don't forget that. 
 Perhaps, by the time that all others of your church 
 can say the Creed as it stands in all its parts, be- 
 lieving each clause, others from other churches 
 will be ready to join with you and it will be for 
 all. That is worth a patient waiting for; don't 
 you agree? So aim at patience in this as in other 
 things. It isn't the stumbling-block you all make 
 it out to be; and one day you will see for your- 
 selves that what I say is true. But I admit you 
 have to take a good deal on trust. Surely, how- 
 ever, you can do that. I tell you God is wholly 
 trustworthy. 
 
 I have told you discipline is part of God's plan. 
 It is necessary for the completion of the picture. 
 Institutional religion makes for discipline, and it 
 ought not to go entirely; but all the same it need 
 not be inhuman : discipline does not mean that, it 
 only means a temporary confinement, necessary to 
 the achievement of something important and felt 
 to be worth while — a restriction which makes for 
 concentration. 
 
XI 
 
 CREEDS AND FAMILY PRAYER 
 
 A LOT of nonsense is talked about creeds. 
 Our religion does not depend upon them; 
 they depend upon our religion. Get that point 
 clear, and they will cease to be stumbling-blocks. 
 No one need leave the church because he does not 
 believe some clause in the Creed; as I said yester- 
 day, if he knew more, no difficulty would proba- 
 bly be found. The Creeds were made by man, 
 after all; though, remember, they were made by 
 sincere men who tried to help others. They 
 would have been shocked if they had found that 
 they hindered instead of helped. But, all the 
 same, we must not give to man-made things the 
 importance of God-made things. I think the 
 Creeds, however, are God-blessed, which is why 
 you are not to discard them in a hurry. He can 
 generally bless the work of sincere and thoughtful 
 30 
 
Creeds and Family Prayer 31 
 
 men, because they have caught so much of his 
 spirit into their work. 
 
 I don't want to talk any more about creeds. I 
 only wanted to try to clear up these one or two 
 things. 
 
 Now we will consider the question of family 
 prayer. It is generally too much mixed up with 
 the morning bacon; and then, too, some one is 
 always late, and then it isn't family prayers any 
 longer. Yet a Christian household ought to join 
 together with God once in the day. Time is the 
 biggest difficulty; but on the whole, the evening, 
 before bed, is surely best. 
 
 Let silence have a large share of your time. 
 Set prayers are only valuable where strangers 
 meet — in church — and even then they must be 
 very simple. At family prayers, let the head of 
 the house read part of the evening lesson, and 
 then gather yourselves up to God in his silence for 
 a few minutes. The value of your family pray- 
 ers will be felt in your family life ; and you will, 
 in yet another way, be helping on the Picture. 
 
XII 
 
 CHILDREN'S PRAYERS 
 
 /^HILDREN are not ready for silent prayer, 
 though I think you can begin to teach them 
 about it quite early. It is better that their pray- 
 ers shall also consist of a reading; the mother 
 should read; and explanations are not so neces- 
 sary as we are tempted to fancy — sometimes we 
 muddle what was clear before by our explana- 
 tions. After the reading, we might suggest, 
 "Suppose we think now about dear daddie," and 
 others by name; "and, when we have thought, let 
 us ask God to bless them." Only just "God 
 bless" and then a string of names becomes a form 
 soon, and bores the child. If he can learn to 
 think quietly of his daddie for a moment, before 
 he says "God bless," it will be a real valuable 
 prayer. Children will soon learn about God's 
 plan, and learn to love it: they make plans them- 
 32 
 
Children's Prayers 33 
 
 selves, and they know how horrid it is to have 
 them spoilt. I don't think religion bores chil- 
 dren ever — only people's explanation of it. We 
 do explain so badly! 
 
 About grace. It so easily sounds sanctimonious.' 
 Why not let it be something in the nature of a 
 little gentle joke? I mean, a little joke in the 
 rhyme pleases a child, and what pleases little chil- 
 dren is generally pleasing to God: — "We thank 
 dear God for bread and butter, And milk, that 
 make our simple supper; And ask that the other 
 children may Be glad, arid not forget to say A 
 little grace at close of day." 
 
 It needn't always be the same grace, or solemn, 
 need it? God loves all simple happy things, just 
 as much as the children do. So why should we 
 stand between him and the children? 
 
XIII 
 
 UNDERSTANDING AND STUPIDITY 
 
 A LONE, it is impossible to help on the pic- 
 ture. We must work with others, and 
 great love is needed for that, and sympathy which 
 grows from love. Sympathy will draw out of 
 others all kinds of unsuspected gifts — unsuspected 
 even by themselves. Therefore God expects sym- 
 pathy. He can't work at his highest power with- 
 out it, any more than we can. Sympathy implies 
 understanding, which is a gift of God. So ask 
 him for this gift. If you are without understand- 
 ing you will waste much time in needless blunders; 
 and you will alienate others from you by some- 
 thing which you do not understand to be a fault 
 of your own — but it will be a fault all the same. 
 God may give his gifts to men in varying degrees; 
 but he never refuses a gift entirely when it is 
 asked for, and the degree to which you receive it 
 
 34 
 
Understanding and Stupidity 35 
 
 depends on yourself. He can't sow great under- 
 standing in you, unless you have prepared the 
 ground. Lack of understanding makes for stu- 
 pidity, and stupidity is about the most hindering 
 thing that there is. It makes blots on the pic- 
 ture. It is a sin, because it is something that 
 you can prevent. No one need be stupid. 
 
 You can't have understanding, if you are put- 
 ting up any rigid bars against God in your mind. 
 And it is quite easy to put up bars almost uncon- 
 sciously. It is not until you have learnt clearly 
 about sacrifice and practised it that you have pre- 
 pared the ground for the gift of true understand- 
 ing. Self-surrender to God is the price that you 
 must pay for the full gift. 
 
 What you have got to realise about God is that 
 he wants you to have his gifts. People always 
 seem to think of him as sitting on a heap of gifts 
 tied up tight in sacks, and every now and again, 
 when very much worried by us, letting a little por- 
 tion leak out of one bag, but very grudgingly! 
 God isn't a miser; but he can't waste his gifts, 
 and he must see some preparation for their re- 
 
36 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 ception before they are given. There isn't so 
 much good that he can just chuck it about, you 
 know, so don't expect it of him, but just buck up 
 and prepare the ground. 
 
 Understanding is about the greatest gift you 
 can ask — it is such a magic key to the world, and 
 of course to heaven too. It isn't only Peter who 
 can hold the keys of heaven! we can each have 
 a latch-key of our own if we have a mind to. Un- 
 derstanding will teach you to make excuses for 
 people, and God likes us to make excuses for 
 other people, though not for ourselves . . . 
 
XIV 
 
 CORPORATE THOUGHT 
 
 TT is difficult for us all to work together in a 
 single-minded sort of way. We are far too 
 full of our own plans and ideas; and our plans 
 are all so different, they get entangled and cause 
 a kind of "no man's land" of entanglement. Until 
 we have all learned to see God's plan clearly too, 
 and to keep it clear before our mind's eye, we are 
 not really fit for corporate work. If we become 
 one as to general desire for something, and at 
 the same time remain many as to our minds, we 
 can't expect to do anything very great and valu- 
 able, and we shall be just wasting time. So, you 
 see, the first step in everything is to find that cor- 
 porate plan ; and that can only be found with God. 
 We often talk about this, but I am not sure how 
 many of us understand its real importance and 
 significance. 
 
 37 
 
38 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 And before we can gain this common mind with 
 all men, we must gain it with the few in our own 
 church. That is why fellowships are important 
 and why we must stick to our . . . Fellowship 
 at all costs, we who belong to it. It is natural 
 that a fellowship within one's own particular 
 church should have a special strength and value. 
 In more general fellowships some strength must 
 evaporate by very reason of their generalness. 
 They are very important and valuable, but the 
 concentratedness of a fellowship within a partic- 
 ular church has a value all its own; and we must 
 not lose sight of this in our eager haste for union 
 with other churches and peoples. It doesn't make 
 us narrow, it widens us out; and it is a very spe- 
 cial and necessary work, and essentially part of 
 the picture. 
 
 Thinking profoundly is not every one^s job by 
 any means; but, for those whose job it is, a rather 
 limited fellowship like ours is very helpful. You 
 can't think profoundly on a great many things; 
 you must concentrate, and a fellowship of this 
 kind does concentrate you, and force you to nar- 
 row down thought into certain grooves, thereby 
 
Corporate Thought 39 
 
 giving your thought a chance to become profound. 
 So if you want thinkers — and you do badly, you 
 know! — don't be afraid of limiting your fellow- 
 ship. The dangers just at present are the other 
 way, and though there is great use for interde- 
 nominational fellowships, they are not the only 
 thing of importance. God's plan is very big in- 
 deed, and there is room for many works in it, so 
 long as we are all of one mind one to another, 
 and that one mind is God's mind. 
 
 But corporate God-mindedness can only come 
 through personal God-mindedness. So work for 
 the first, and do not become discouraged and 
 bored if it does not seem easy at first. It won't 
 be easy at first, but it is worth effort. You see, it 
 isn't that you have got to fit your ideas into those 
 of any other particular person; all you have to do 
 is to get your vision of God's mind as clear as 
 you can. Then, if the others are truly trying to 
 do the same, one fine day you will find that the 
 things in them you disliked and disapproved of 
 have miraculously disappeared, and they will dis- 
 cover the same glorious fact about you ! And 
 when that happens you will have brought heaven 
 perceptibly nearer. 
 
XV 
 
 OTHER MEN 
 
 T ET us try to think about all men as part of 
 God's plan. We so often are tempted to 
 think that the plan really would be possible if it 
 wasn't for so-and-so — he does block the way so ! 
 But it is chiefly our thought of him that blocks the 
 way. Be sure that you have raised the blockade 
 of your own thoughts before you accuse him of 
 obstruction. Besides, thought does influence the 
 actions of others enormously. If you remember 
 that it is your own attitude towards the plan that 
 is important — much more important than what 
 you suppose the attitude of others to be — you will 
 not go far wrong. 
 
 We do find it so easy to see the beam which we 
 imagine in another person's eye; and what we 
 take to be a little mote in our own eye seems very 
 40 
 
Other Men 41 
 
 small and insignificant. It wouldn't, if we had 
 ever really seen ourselves in the presence of God 
 — that is why it is so important to see ourselves 
 into the Picture. 
 
 Miracles are God's back doors. He has to 
 have back doors, because it isn't every one who 
 can find their key of heaven and go in by the front 
 door; and so a miracle back door is needed, to 
 get folk (whom God couldn't bear to leave out- 
 side) into heaven. The miracles in the Bible are 
 kind of back doors too; they are a kind of back- 
 door way of showing heaven to people who are 
 yet incapable of seeing it more openly. Just a 
 glimpse, through the back door, of glory beyond 
 is all their eyes are strong enough for yet. Only 
 God would have thought of that way out of the 
 difficulty — he does have such perfect thoughts! 
 Even so, some of the people got what they saw 
 all wrong and mistook the true gold for dross. 
 They thought Christ did the miracles to show how 
 powerful and mighty he was, instead of seeing 
 that his pity for man was so great that he had 
 to show them a glimpse of heaven, or else his 
 heart would have broken over their plight. If it 
 
42 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 was so easy to misinterpret God — no wonder it is 
 easy to misinterpret man; and that is what we are 
 continually doing. So watch your thoughts and 
 guard them. 
 
XVI 
 
 WISDOM 
 
 \X7" ISDOM is also a key of heaven. It is given 
 by God when it is asked for by us; and we 
 receive it in varying degrees, according to how 
 much we are prepared for it. As I said before, 
 God cannot waste his good gifts on unprepared 
 places! they are far too precious. Wisdom is 
 needed so badly in the world, that people really 
 might concentrate most of their powers on trying 
 to win this great gift. These great powers of 
 God are rather like electricity; in that they are 
 there all the time, but their usefulness depends on 
 our discovery of them and our power of using 
 them. We need them badly for the working out 
 of God's plan; so we must make it our business to 
 discover about them and use them. 
 
 Some people seem to be born wiser than 
 
 43' 
 
44 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 others; but the others need not despair about that 
 — they can attain wisdom. 
 
 What is wisdom? It is a kind of soul sight. 
 But it is more than that. It is something like in- 
 stinct, only carried to a far higher plane. It is 
 perception of the one single possible course to 
 pursue; it leaves no doubt. Wisdom and doubt 
 are not compatible. 
 
 Wisdom leaves us certain of one thing, and that 
 thing is all that is needed in our work for the Pic- 
 ture. It makes for extreme clearness of purpose, 
 and that is the greatest need where the Picture is 
 concerned. There will be no blurred outlines if 
 we are possessed of wisdom. And yet I don't 
 seem to be able to tell you just what it is. I think 
 it can't be put into words; it is an experience, 
 and no one ever can describe an experience cor- 
 rectly, can they? they soon get themselves finely 
 tangled up in a web of contradictions. So I won't 
 try any more to tell you what wisdom is ! 
 
 Wisdom is a crown of light around the head of 
 the man to whom the gift is given. By its light he 
 
Wisdom 45 
 
 sees many shadowy objects and places made clear. 
 It takes him, too, past cross-roads without waste 
 of time — cross-roads of decision, I mean, of 
 course. 
 
 I think wisdom is perhaps the gift God is most 
 anxious to give; it will carry us past so many bad 
 places in our journey to heaven. It will help 
 us to find our way into those magic circles we 
 spoke of. 
 
 Wisdom is not the round-eyedness of the owl 
 — though that is often mistaken for it; it is the 
 clear-eyedness of the falcon — perception rather 
 than contemplation. You must perceive before 
 you can contemplate, you know ; and perception is 
 a gift — contemplation the use you make of the 
 gift. Am I making this at all clear? It really 
 isn't easy. I grope after words to express some- 
 thing that is essentially impossible to express in 
 words. It can only be expressed in actions, the ac- 
 tions that follow the receiving of the gift. So 
 there you are, and I had better cease! 
 
XVII 
 
 WISDOM {continued) 
 
 "^J" OW wisdom comes from God, and it is very 
 different from worldly-wiseness which 
 comes from quite another quarter. So be quite 
 clear about which wisdom it is you seek. Worldly- 
 wiseness is not a gracious quality; and though it 
 appears to serve folk well, it really leads them to 
 world's end; and to arrive at world's end with- 
 out being already on the path to heaven is a mis- 
 erable state of affairs, not to be tolerated by the 
 truly wise man. So avoid world-wiseness as 
 you would avoid its creator, and seek the light 
 of God's wisdom — it brings statesmanship, not 
 worldly statesmanship, but a higher thing. By 
 its light you can shape your actions and life 
 to fit the picture. Have care to become pos- 
 sessed by wisdom, and it will lead you to knowl- 
 edge which you will need, if you are to be an ar- 
 4 6 
 
Wisdom 47 
 
 chitect for God. You see, God's picture belongs 
 to the Fourth Dimension, and has to be built with 
 space; it resembles a little castles in Spain — only 
 it is true and stands firm, whereas they come clat- 
 tering down about our ears. The Picture has 
 God for its foundation — a firmer rock than Peter ! 
 so we need not fear that it will fall. 
 
 Still we need knowledge, to prevent us wasting 
 time over mistakes. Everlasting happiness comes 
 with knowledge. It will turn you into a creator, 
 and you will know the joy of creation — the splen- 
 did joy of creating something planned and de- 
 sired by God.* 
 
 ♦Another amusing little child's rhymed grace (cf. p. 33) 
 here follows in the original: "Our broth is steaming in 
 the dish, And we have bread and salt and fish, 'Most every- 
 thing a child could wish. Thank God for our dinner, And 
 pray that every sinner May also have dinner!" This has 
 since been set to music by Mr. Geoffrey Shaw. 
 
XVIII 
 
 THE CHAIN OF EXPERIENCE 
 
 ""OELIGIOUS experience" is such a dull- 
 sounding phrase, but in reality it is far 
 the most thrilling experience we can have; and 
 though there may be variety in the details of our 
 several experiences of religion, the thing that we 
 experience is essentially the same. Naturally, it 
 may come to each of us in a different way: we are 
 so different from each other that it must be so. 
 But the thing that comes to us is the same thing — 
 a unifying thing which makes us one in and with 
 God. The important thing is how to obtain this 
 unifying experience. The method by which we 
 gain it is unimportant, and varies according to our 
 several needs. For those of us who have learnt 
 to pray rightly, it will come through prayer; for 
 others it will have to come in less direct ways. 
 However it comes, it is a very important factor 
 48 
 
The Chain of Experience 49 
 
 in the building of the Picture. It appears to have 
 two forms, too, in a way. The experience, as we 
 understand experiences — that is a sudden realiza- 
 tion of some particular sensation in connection 
 with some person, act, or thing. Then the linking 
 together of that experience with other similar ex- 
 periences, thus forming a continuous experience or 
 chain. Religious experience, as we need it, is 
 rather this chain than any one particular experi- 
 ence of God. It is the continuous chain that we 
 need, which will help us to build the Picture. Of 
 course the chain may be studded with gems, par- 
 ticular and vivid experiences, which brighten and 
 encourage us from time to time. Is this clear? 
 Or am I getting tied up in a metaphor again? Re- 
 ligious experience is a consciousness of God and 
 of his plan. Without this consciousness we should 
 be like moles working in the dark. 
 
 You may obtain your experience in whatever 
 way it comes most easily to you. Remember, God 
 is trying to give it to you at least as hard as you 
 are trying to obtain it : so it oughtn't to be at all 
 impossible to have it. Do remember that God is 
 not a grudging God, but that he is generosity; all 
 
50 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 that is generous, open-handed, and free in man 
 comes direct from God. Remember this when 
 you are disposed to judge men, and learn to see 
 God in them. You can't see God in men until you 
 have learnt to see him in his entirety — as a whole. 
 Then you will be able to recognise him in man . . . 
 
XIX 
 
 THE OLD COMMUNITIES 
 
 "RELIGIOUS experience must vary, not only 
 -*-^ according to the individual and his possibil- 
 ities, but also according to the age. This is not 
 sufficiently understood; and we hark back to re- 
 ligious experience of a past age without realising 
 that the experience of 1250, for instance, would 
 not be of the highest value to 1919. Our corpo- 
 rate spiritual life has grown since 1250, and our 
 corporate needs have changed, though people do 
 not seem to understand it. Our needs have 
 changed in so many ways, and our mode of life 
 too. At one time it really was impossible to get 
 near to God, except by leading a hermit-like or 
 monkish existence : but civilisation nowadays has 
 made life an easier thing in many ways; and we 
 have time to seek God in ordinary daily life, with- 
 out shutting ourselves away from our fellow-man. 
 51 
 
52 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 The hermit-monk existence never was very satis- 
 factory for this very reason. As I explained be- 
 fore, you need to know your fellow-man if you are 
 to know God; as well as the other way round — 
 the two things are interdependent. So now that 
 we have progressed so far with the world as to be 
 able to find God in our daily life, it is mere fool- 
 ishness to try to revive the monkish habits of the 
 past. We don't want to make a museum of our 
 religion, to mummify something that is sweet and 
 living. 
 
 People may say, "But surely the corporate life 
 of prayer and study was of great value?" Yes, I 
 think it was; I am not minimising the usefulness 
 of it for a past age, only questioning the useful- 
 ness of it for this age; and I do not say that we 
 cannot use its usefulness for this age, first ridding 
 ourselves of its hindrances. God certainly meant 
 men and women to work together, or he would 
 not have made two sexes for one world! So why 
 should we, now that we have learnt the value of 
 two sexes for corporate work, try to shut our- 
 selves into separate compartments when we begin 
 the greatest work of all, the religious work? No, 
 
The Old Communities 53 
 
 we are far enough along the road of understand- 
 ing nowadays not to do this any longer. Men and 
 women both have special contributions to make 
 to any work that is on hand, secular or religious, 
 and we are losing a great force for good if we 
 do not recognise this. 
 
 As we see more and more clearly the need for 
 God in our lives, we shall set aside more of our 
 family life for prayer and thought, and so we 
 shall get a sort of community life of prayer again ; 
 only now it will be a wholly natural life, instead 
 of the very unnatural, and in many ways hurtful 
 life of the hermit and monk. Prayer is only at its 
 highest use when it is part of life itself. 
 
XX 
 
 COMMUNITIES AND CHILDREN 
 
 "^TO one ever seems to have thought that chil- 
 dren were necessary to the religious life, 
 and yet Christ always gave a prominent place to 
 children; he liked to have them near him. I am 
 sure the "Suffer the little children" occasion was 
 only one of many. I see him with children always 
 near him — and he told us to be like them. We 
 can't be like children if we shut ourselves away 
 monkishly. The community life of the future will 
 include children. It will be merely an expansion 
 of family life — family life at its highest and best. 
 Many families may go to make up our religious 
 community. Perhaps at first it will be necessary 
 for those of us who care intensely about God, and 
 his Picture, to go and live all together in some 
 village, and so show how such community life is 
 possible. But afterwards it ought not to involve 
 
 54 
 
Communities and Children 55 
 
 any change of residence : the community will grow 
 up naturally wherever several families live near 
 together, either in towns or villages — wherever 
 the family bread-winner wins the family bread. 
 These families will be linked by a bond of mutual 
 fellowship and prayer into a community life, 
 at the same time preserving their own individu- 
 ality as families, having their own home life, and 
 living their lives just as naturally as any sinners. 
 There will be nothing forced or unnatural about 
 the life at all — or it would lose its value. They 
 would meet for prayer and discussion just as nat- 
 urally as others meet for bridge — more naturally, 
 because prayer is a far more natural thing than 
 bridge! And the children will grow up in this 
 life of fellowship and prayer and love, not know- 
 ing any other life. 
 
 This may sound a little like the life of some of 
 the old Puritans, but it will be their life with a 
 difference. The New Community will not cut it- 
 self off from other life and interests by having one 
 communal interest. If this life is lived to its 
 highest, it will open us out to other interests and 
 other lives : we shall have a godlike sympathy for 
 
56 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 all life and all forms of life. If our community 
 made others feel that we had a life apart, we 
 should have failed as a community. 
 
 The effect ought to be that others find them- 
 selves attracted to us — that they should want to 
 be near us and feel the protective atmosphere of 
 which I spoke before — that echo of God in us. 
 That is the error of all unnatural forms of com- 
 munity life; they repel others, and so do harm 
 instead of helping on the Picture. 
 
 Little children can help so much, you know. 
 Christ knew what he was talking about when he 
 told us to be like them — and how can we be like 
 them if we cut ourselves off from their society? 
 We can't all have children of our own ; so the com- 
 munity life is necessary, in order that the childless 
 may share the privileges of those who have chil- 
 dren — there must be separate members included 
 in these family groups. You can't copy a picture, 
 even badly, unless you are near and seeing the 
 picture; and you can't become as a little child un- 
 less you have a little child somewhere about you. 
 If you try to manage without the child's help, you 
 
Communities and Children 57 
 
 will have a dismal failure, you know. The "un- 
 childlike childlike" person is particularly horrid, 
 and not at all what Christ meant. 
 
 And of course animals come in too. Remem- 
 ber, Christ was in the East, and it wasn't any 
 good his talking about love for dogs, for instance, 
 in a country where there were only pariahs. No 
 one would ever have understood him; and he gave 
 them already sufficient grounds for misunder- 
 standing, — that one can well see why he didn't 
 want to give more than necessary. All the same, 
 I shouldn't be surprised if one of the things that 
 made people suspect him most was that pariah 
 dogs, as well as pariah people, were found in his 
 company. Only, of course, the disciples wouldn't 
 want to mention that : they already had to tell so 
 many unpalatable things about him, poor dears ! 
 and they did want to make the most of their case. 
 He must have loved them, mustn't he? — the way 
 they stuck to him in spite of the shocks he gave 
 them. 
 
 But I must stop. 
 
XXI 
 
 THE NEW COMMUNITY 
 
 '"T^HE community idea, this New Community we 
 ■*■ will call it, isn't just a dream, you know; it 
 is practical politics, and I do wish some of you 
 would just collect enough faith amongst you to 
 begin. You would be surprised to see how com- 
 paratively simple it is to work, and yet what a rev- 
 olution it would bring about. It would clear the 
 air enormously. Can't some of you try it quickly? 
 I do think you have got to begin by collecting spe- 
 cial people in a special village; for this reason, 
 that at present I very greatly doubt if you would 
 find more than one family in any one village even 
 partially prepared for this New Community idea. 
 Just think of your own village, and you will see. 
 But once the right people are together, others will 
 soon see the results of the New Community — 
 that is, if you make it a success, and you will; and 
 58 
 
The New Community 59 
 
 then they will be swift to follow, because people 
 always do follow successful leads. It is only un- 
 successful plans that don't get followed 1 Only, of 
 course, you really must behave as Christians, and 
 not as savages, when you join in your community 
 — you must have real true fellowship, the kind 
 that will carry you gloriously past all obstacles. 
 Because there will be obstacles; you will be an ob- 
 stacle yourself, unless you are very careful! You 
 have all got to solve the problem of becoming im- 
 personal without losing personality. 
 
 But I don't want to put the difficulties before 
 you; you will probably see them clearly enough 
 for yourselves. What I want to make you see is 
 the "worth-whileness" of it all. Then you will be 
 in the frame of mind to pass difficulties, and get 
 on with the plan. You see, I haven't acquired 
 God's patience by any means, and I can't help 
 champing a little; though I know that is hindering, 
 and I try not to. 
 
 The New Community is only a new name for an 
 old plan. New names have to be found, because 
 old names collect a coat of dusty boredom, and a 
 
60 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 new name bucks us up ! But it is just part of the 
 plan which has been in God's mind since he first 
 set the world going. Only now the time really 
 is ripe for this part of the plan to come alive; it 
 tingles already, and just a touch would start it into 
 full activity. It is a much bigger part of the plan 
 than you, any of you, realise; it would bring the 
 kingdom of heaven on earth. But of course it 
 involves personal hard work as well as corporate 
 hard work — hard work of prayer and faith and 
 hope, and love and sacrifice — all the things we 
 have been talking about. 
 
XXII 
 
 BEGINNING A NEW COMMUNITY 
 
 TT is necessary to consider practical difficulties 
 and to find the way out. You can't import 
 whole families away from their natural environ- 
 ment and dump them down in a village together. 
 Try to get one family with children that under- 
 stands the plan. Probably there may be such a 
 family already in a likely village. Then get them 
 to make of themselves a family community of 
 prayer and thought and fellowship rather after 
 the manner we have already talked about. Then 
 try and get several isolated people, who have time 
 and opportunity at their disposal, to go and live 
 in the same village with that family — they can all 
 have cottages of their own, or live together, as 
 seems best. And let the experiment begin in this 
 humble way; only do let it begin — that is the 
 urgent thing. They can all go on with their ordi- 
 61 
 
62 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 nary pursuits and still have time to make the com- 
 munity idea come alive. There is nothing to pre- 
 vent others who cannot join this community from 
 trying to bring the plan alive wherever they hap- 
 pen to be. At least you can begin to follow it-in 
 your own homes, and possibly you can get neigh- 
 bours to come in with you — at least you ought to 
 have sufficient faith to make it possible to suggest 
 it to them. Do remember that it is our lack of 
 faith which is often the stumbling-block in the 
 path of others. Talk to all whom you think 
 might possibly understand, and try to get their 
 help. 
 
 You needn't fear to begin the plan in a humble 
 way. The Christian religion began in a stable, 
 you know; and many mighty things have sprung 
 from very humble beginnings. Just get the idea 
 implanted in a few folk who are really keen about 
 it, and you will find it all happening quite simply. 
 But you must all be keen about it, and you must go 
 on being keen; and do be content for a while to 
 start just this one new thing, and then stop start- 
 ing other new things for a while, and give this a 
 
Beginning a New Community 63 
 
 chance to grow. "Club"* may grow out of it too, 
 and be a central meeting place for members of 
 communities as well as others. Remember, if you 
 make a success of the community you will not 
 alienate others by your new way of life; you will 
 not become less but more clubable folk as a conse- 
 quence. I should like to see "Club" started be- 
 fore long . . . 
 
 *A scheme for a new sort of club which the author had 
 much at heart and always referred to in this way. 
 
XXIII 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF FELLOWSHIP 
 
 X70U must not look upon the New Community 
 A as an end in itself. It is really to be a means 
 only, to help you to practise fellowship with all 
 men. Only it is difficult at first to acquire the 
 spirit of universal fellowship, and it will help you 
 if you begin at first in smaller ways, which are at 
 the same time larger and rather more difficult 
 than the fellowship which you practise at present. 
 I mean, it will be more difficult to have continu- 
 ous fellowship with a set of people with whom you 
 live, than it is to have it with folk who are full of 
 a common interest, whom you only meet with oc- 
 casionally for a short week at a time. The New 
 Community fellowship will require patience and 
 forbearance; and that will train you to be ready 
 for the larger fellowship with all mankind. 
 
 And when you have acquired universal fellow- 
 
 6 4 
 
The Importance of Fellowship 65 
 
 ship with mankind, you will be ready for the Fel- 
 lowship of Heaven, which is the Communion of 
 Saints. Don't imagine that the Communion of 
 Saints is a glorified fellowship that you spring 
 into the moment you are dead. It has to be ac- 
 quired too; and if you practise fellowship in your 
 life you will the sooner be ready for the happi- 
 ness of the Communion of Saints. And the Com- 
 munion of Saints brings you close to God himself, 
 and within the radiance of his light of love. So 
 you see what a tremendous thing fellowship is, 
 and how important it is to practise it in all its re- 
 lation to life on earth. It is a work for God, and 
 God gives himself as the reward of it. When I 
 say, he gives himself, it sounds as if his giving or 
 withholding of himself depended on himself; and 
 that is not quite the truth, because it really de- 
 pends more on you. God is very much handi- 
 capped by us, you know; and we must remember 
 that, when we are tempted to judge his actions 
 or what we take to be his actions : what we take 
 to be God's actions are often only the result of 
 our own actions, if we would only understand it. 
 
 However, the more you pray aright, the better 
 
66 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 you will come to understand God and his relation 
 to us, and you will see how much he is limited in 
 his power, and yet at the same time his power is 
 quite unlimited when he has our co-operation. 
 The devil has no more power against God when 
 God has been able to teach us his will; but he 
 can't fight the devil single-handed. If we were 
 merely the battleground of God and the devil, we 
 shouldn't be worth much in ourselves — we should 
 be merely negative. And God wants us to be pos- 
 itive, and positive on the side of good. It would 
 not be possible to build the Kingdom of Heaven 
 out of a mere spent battlefield — battlefields are 
 not good material for building sites ! Therefore 
 God has made us positive, and it is for us to decide 
 on which side we fight. If once you can see God, 
 there will be no doubt on which side you elect to 
 fight; and it is for those who have the vision to 
 show it to others, in order that they too may be 
 on the right side. If you pray aright, you will 
 live aright, and others will see God in you. 
 
XXIV 
 
 COMMUNION AND FELLOWSHIP 
 
 ^T^HE Communion, that is a commemorative' 
 •*■ meal as instituted by Christ, is very helpful 
 towards fellowship. But I do think that he meant 
 it to be just that — an act of fellowship together 
 with others, and a remembrance of him. We do 
 need times of special remembrance; that is why 
 anniversaries have their value. But we must try 
 to distinguish between what Christ meant when he 
 instituted this act of commemoration and fellow- 
 ship, and all the traditions that men have built up 
 round it. Possibly the traditions have value ; but 
 I fancy that on the whole they are hindering, and 
 tend to keep away those who might otherwise 
 have fellowship with us in this common act. 
 
 After all, as Christ founded it, it was a very 
 simple homely meal which friends and comrades 
 67 
 
858 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 shared together, and perhaps we have read rather 
 more concrete meaning into what we call the 
 words of institution than Christ intended. Any- 
 how, our thoughts and beliefs about this seem to 
 have led to more harm than good, and have 
 tended to alienate those whom a simple doctrine 
 might have bound together with us in a common 
 fellowship. A commemorative meal with other 
 folk who share a common interest and a common 
 hope is no mean thing, even if there is no further 
 mystical meaning than can be found there. It 
 helps to strengthen our purpose, to renew our 
 hope, and to deepen our love. But at present 
 many simple and good souls are debarred from 
 it because they fancy themselves unworthy; no 
 one is unworthy who wishes to have fellowship 
 with man and love for God. 
 
 Learn to look upon it in this way, and teach 
 your children to love it as a means of deeper fel- 
 lowship. Then it will be of real value in your 
 lives, and it will no longer be a stumbling block 
 to others. Most things to do with God are sim- 
 ple : it is only when we interfere with God's plan 
 that it gets complicated and represents difficul- 
 
Communion and Fellowship 69 
 
 ties to us and to others. So try to understand 
 God's plan and to show it to others in your life, 
 as he wants it shown, and not as you might think 
 he wants it shown. 
 
 Remember that simplicity is another key of 
 heaven: it is the children's key, but you can use 
 it too . . . 
 
XXV 
 
 THE SHARE OF THE CHILDREN 
 
 "p\ON'T press children or others to share Com- 
 -*-"' munion with you. If it is really a useful 
 and valuable thing in your life — and it will be if 
 you only understand it rightly — children and 
 other folk will see its influence in your life and 
 they will wish to share this common experience. 
 We have frightened them away by our solemnity 
 about it. It is solemn, of course, but it is gay and 
 joyful too; and it is the gay and joyful side we 
 want to show to folk. They will discover the 
 solemn side later, and realise its value. It is men 
 who are always pressing the need of awe. Christ 
 was more occupied in getting near men's hearts, 
 and in drawing them to him by his love. He 
 knew that awe would not be absent where there 
 was any true knowledge and understanding of 
 God. It could be left to look after itself. 
 70 
 
The Share of the Children 71 
 
 In the early stages of learning, awe is rather a 
 deterrent than an incentive. Therefore tell the 
 children naturally about this experience of Com- 
 munion, let them see that it is a real power for 
 joy in your own life; and if they are assured of 
 its practical value, you may be sure they will soon 
 wish to share it with you. Then a few words 
 about sincerity are all that will be needed, I think. 
 I mean, they will understand that it is better far 
 to stay outside for years and years than to take 
 part, if they are not truly seeking fellowship with 
 man and love for God. But if you have shown 
 forth the joy in your own life, there will be little 
 danger of their seeking a loveless Communion, 
 and also little danger of their stopping outside 
 this fellowship. 
 
 As with children, so with older folk. Let 
 them see practical results, and they will not be 
 slow to join with you. You can also help to 
 gather them in by prayer, as we said before. 
 
 And now about baptism. Since we have great 
 responsibility concerning others if we truly love 
 God and seek to further his plan, we can surely 
 
72 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 face the responsibility of bringing our babes to 
 God in this initiation service. We want the babe 
 to grow up near God, part of the Picture in which 
 we believe. So we cannot bring him too early to 
 God; and this public way has great value. Gather 
 with you others who truly believe and seek for 
 the Picture, and so surround the babe with a pro- 
 tective ring of love and faith, whilst you gather 
 him up to God in prayer. Only be sure to con- 
 tinue to hold him near God in your prayer al- 
 ways, in order that his life's beginning may be as 
 helpful to the rest of his life as possible. Bring 
 other little children to the baptism too; it will 
 help them to understand that they belong also to 
 a great fellowship — the Fellowship of the Picture. 
 
XXVI 
 
 LIGHT IN THE CORNERS 
 
 VK/'E must carry our vision of the picture into all 
 the corners of life, in order that it may 
 illumine them for us like a bright lamp. The 
 light of this lamp will make clear much that was 
 dim to us before; and things that had seemed 
 valueless acquire their true value under its rays. 
 Particularly is this true where our religion is con- 
 cerned — services, and doctrines, and dogmas, they 
 are so overlaid with the dust of human stupidity, 
 that we can only discern their true original outline 
 by holding over them this light of the vision. 
 First, of course, we have to obtain this light; but 
 I think I have shown you that it is not impossi- 
 ble, or even so very difficult, to obtain, if you will 
 only try. By its light things will cease to be a 
 puzzle, and life will be ever so much more clear 
 and straightforward, both for us and for others, 
 73 
 
 y 
 
74 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 because we cannot illuminate our own path with- 
 out illuminating also the path that others walk. 
 God means us to be very helpful to others, and 
 they to us : that is one of the most important parts 
 of his plan, and we must always bear this in mind. 
 
 Man's relation to man is only next in impor- 
 tance to man's relation to God, and one cannot 
 exist without the other. No individual salvation 
 is possible. It is no true salvation unless it in- 
 cludes fellow-man. It can only be partial, so long 
 as it is not universal. That is why our attitude 
 to cur fellow-man is so important, and also why 
 we depend on him so much. 
 
 The outlines of all fundamentals of religion 
 are true and clear enough. What we have to do 
 is to penetrate through the dust-layers of stupid- 
 ity with the beam of our light of vision, and re- 
 discover these outlines. Whilst they are lost and 
 hidden, our religion will be of little value to any 
 one; and to the young especially it will appear 
 mouldy — just useless lumber. If, however, they 
 are able to see the clear outlines appear as we 
 get rid of the rubbish, they will not be slow to 
 
Light in the Corners 75 
 
 discern the value of what they see. Young folk 
 are far more keen for essentials than their eld- 
 ers, and have no time to waste over anything 
 that appears to them useless. They are, how- 
 ever, keen as mustard over real live things, and 
 it is our job to show them the real live thing which 
 we have buried under so much dust. So buck up, 
 and apply the vision-beam to your religion, and 
 you will no longer have to complain of the lack 
 of interest displayed by the young folk. But you 
 mustn't keep any cosy dusty corners: the light 
 must go everywhere. What you need is a thor- 
 ough spring clean, you know, before the great 
 truths will shine out in the light of day. Inci- 
 dentally your courage will be a strong appeal to 
 the young and to all those who like clean dwell- 
 ing places, and who have been alienated by the 
 dust and disorder . . « 
 
XXVII 
 THE DUSTY ONES 
 
 VX7"HEN you have got back to those original 
 clear outlines, you must be careful to keep 
 them clear and not to accumulate fresh dust. You 
 are all so full of theories, and you find them so 
 exciting, but I assure you it is a much more ex- 
 citing thing to see God's plan grow; and it cannot 
 grow, if you smother everything in your theories. 
 You must somehow keep yourselves passive, and 
 then God can use you for the working out of the 
 plan. If you are full of your own plans and the- 
 ories, and do not wait to find out God's plan and 
 bend yourselves to it, then your religion will soon 
 be as musty and dusty as ever, and all your effort 
 will have been in vain 
 
 Perhaps you say that it is impossible for you to 
 do much to clear the outlines, whilst those at the 
 76 
 
The Dusty Ones 77 
 
 top make no effort and are so placidly dusty. 
 Now really, you know, they don't count so much 
 as you seem to think. The real business lies with 
 you and your fellows. As far as possible you 
 must just ignore the dusty ones, and where they 
 can't be either ignored or converted, they must 
 be fought. After all, you have examples of this 
 already — and have they proved so very indomita- 
 ble? I think not. You see, if you are sincerely 
 trying to follow God's plan and to bend your- 
 selves to it, and to do only such things as you can 
 see clearly that he requires of you, then you know 
 that right is on your side; and the dusty ones 
 must inevitably be conquered by right. 
 
 So first ascertain what it is that God requires 
 of you, and then do it undeterred and unhindered 
 by any one or anything. Of course, worldly am- 
 bition has had to go: but then worldly ambition 
 is incompatible with God's plan, and I take it that 
 you have got rid of this hindering thing and stand 
 up unfettered for your work for God. When 
 once worldly ambition has gone, you are well 
 equipped for your work, and the dusty ones will 
 have no power against you. They will go down 
 
78 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 like nine-pins before your single-minded pur- 
 posefulness. 
 
 Don't, however, despair of the dusty ones. 
 Some of them are capable of reform. Remember 
 that dust is an insidious thing that creeps on one 
 unawares, and before one knows, one is all 
 clogged up in it. It is not at all easy to get free 
 from it. So be compassionate to them, but ruth- 
 less when it is necessary for the furtherance of 
 the plan. There is such a thing as ruthless kind- 
 ness, though it may sound a contradiction. They 
 have got to learn that they are not so important 
 to our religion as they earnestly believe ; and that 
 conviction can only come to them by action on 
 your part. When they see that religion flour- 
 ishes and people are attracted to it, even when 
 you who practise it go directly against their own 
 judgment and wishes, they may see their error — I 
 don't say they will, but they may. And that would 
 be their salvation; they would begin to seek God 
 and his plan, and to let go their own plans and 
 ambitions. So do not alienate them by dislike 
 and hostility — be friendly, but ruthless . . . 
 
XXVIII 
 
 ON FEARING EVIL 
 
 'IXT'E spoke before of the need of eliminating 
 fear from our lives; but then we were 
 thinking chiefly of actual fears about life in its 
 relation to ourselves and others. Now, fear of 
 evil is also something that we have to get rid of; 
 and I don't think you understand that yet. You 
 think fear of evil is natural and right; but I tell 
 you all fear is wrong, and hindering to the plan. 
 Fear must go. 
 
 So many people who are counted good — almost 
 saints — by the world are very fearful of evil; they 
 shun any contact with it, treating it as a mighty 
 and terrible thing. The strength of the devil lies 
 not so much in the subjection of the wicked to his 
 purposes, as in the fear, respectful fear, that he 
 inspires in the good. You are helping the devil 
 79 
 
80 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 when you fear evil. God wishes you to be god- 
 like, that is to be as like him as you can become 
 by constant nearness to him; and he has no fear 
 of evil. If he had, he would at once cease to 
 exist and we should all be ruled by the devil. So 
 do not flinch from evil; go boldly to meet it, and 
 explore it in the light of God. There can be no 
 godlike goodness without a knowledge of both 
 good and evil. It is necessary in order that you 
 may help to complete the picture. For if you 
 shun and fear evil, you will be confining your 
 powers : it will be as if you voluntarily set out on a 
 journey partly blindfold. We need all our pow- 
 ers and our wits about us. We have to be brave 
 and not cowardly, if we are to fight for God. 
 
 It is a pity that so many good folk do limit their 
 powers by this fear of evil. They about halve 
 their use in the world. 
 
 You must have clear eyes that fear nothing, if 
 you are to see the Picture true in God's mind and 
 help him to make it come true in the world. Fear 
 is always a clogging, hindering thing; and once 
 more I say, it must go. Can't you see the power 
 
On Fearing Evil 81 
 
 you give the devil when you fear him? No, you 
 must face all evil as it comes in your path, openly, 
 courageously. Your life will then become a mag- 
 nificent, free thing — the wind of God for ever 
 blowing through it, purifying it. You can't purify 
 a place by shutting the windows and pulling down 
 the blinds, you know. You have to fling open the 
 windows and let the cleansing wind blow right 
 through. 
 
 Strength only comes completely when fear goes 
 completely. Remember that, and see if you can't 
 expel all fear from your life once and for all . . . 
 
XXIX 
 
 A JOYFUL CONSCIENCE 
 
 /^UR consciences are really just our power of 
 clear-sightedness — -our power of seeing 
 God's picture. Therefore, you see, they are badly 
 needed for the furtherance of the plan. But we 
 do so badly misunderstand the word, or else we 
 muddle its meaning when speaking of it. To 
 hear us, you would think that our conscience was 
 a person, a kind of thin-lipped governess who 
 was always telling us not to do what we wanted 
 to do, or to do what we loathe doing. It isn't a 
 person at all, of course, nor is it really a "still 
 small voice." It is mind-sight; and we are never 
 made, by it, to do anything we don't wish to do, 
 because as soon as our conscience or mind-sight 
 has enabled us to see the Picture, we at once want 
 to do what is right, that is, what fits in with the 
 picture. 
 
 82 
 
A Joyful Conscience 83 
 
 No one resents having power of sight, and that 
 is all conscience is; and it never makes us do what 
 we do not want to do, — that would be quite 
 against God's plan — an entire impossibility. It is 
 essential to understand that you can't be working 
 for God and doing something you dislike. If you 
 are really working for God, the work brings God- 
 companionship with it; and that is happiness. 
 
 People, who talk as if conscience was a gov- 
 erness and made them do things they dislike, are 
 really being led away by some will-o'-the-wisp — 
 some queer little kink in themselves. They are 
 mistaking the whole nature of conscience. And 
 you generally find that — when they do something, 
 led, as they say, by their consciences — that some- 
 thing is, if not perhaps definitely sinful, at least 
 something which is hindering to the plan. And 
 anything that hinders the plan does indirectly 
 help the devil, you know. So it is at least very 
 nearly sinful, and a thing to be shunned. 
 
 So try to understand about conscience, and 
 make others see the truth about it too. 
 
 Conscience, you see, is an entirely joyful thing 
 
84 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 — a vision of God and his picture must always be 
 that; but what folk call "conscience" is grim and 
 joyless, and associated with duty, which also is so 
 hopelessly misunderstood, that we shall really 
 have to drop the word altogether, I fear. "My 
 duty," we say, and at once a joyless prospect 
 stretches out before us. Of course, duty really 
 only means the carrying out of the plan which con- 
 science has enabled us to see; but, as I say, the 
 word is so mixed up with hopelessness and wrong- 
 ideadness that it had better go. Speak of your 
 work for God. Work is a good honest word and 
 not yet wholly dissociated from joy, — thanks be! 
 
XXX 
 
 THE DEMON IN THEOLOGY 
 
 HP HE young people are right in thinking us mis- 
 taken when we use hard words with hard 
 meanings in connection with God and our religion. 
 True companionship with God teaches us that sen- 
 sitive tenderness is the keynote of the Picture, and 
 that harshness is out of the picture. Tenderness 
 is a far stronger quality than harshness. Harsh- 
 ness is merely the shoddy armour behind which 
 the weak seek to hide their weakness. A really 
 strong man is a tender man : tenderness is a god- 
 like quality. So remember all that is harsh and 
 unlovely in your religion is what has been tacked 
 on by blundering man; and when you get down 
 to those fundamental outlines, you will find ten- 
 derness and love and joy, all of which are attri- 
 butes of God. 
 
 I do want you to understand this above all 
 
 85 
 
86 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 things; for the Church can never make its true 
 appeal to all men, so long as any of you are blur- 
 ring the outlines with your ideas of harshness in 
 connection with God and religion. You say that 
 you believe God to be good — but search your 
 hearts ! Down deep in you is planted the convic- 
 tion that he is a demon: it was planted there by 
 man, not by God; and that conviction, however 
 sub-conscious it may be, does infinite harm, and 
 must be got rid of. Until it is uprooted, and you 
 have firmly planted in its place the conviction that 
 God is Love and can only do loving helpful things, 
 you cannot work your best for the picture. You 
 will be working against the grain, as it were. You 
 must believe in God's goodness so completely that 
 you almost cease to have to believe in it — if you 
 can understand what I mean. It will be like a 
 habit — a habit of mind this time — a habit so in- 
 grained in us, after a while, that we do the thing 
 subconsciously. It does not stir the surface at 
 all; the surface is free for other things. That is 
 how you are to believe in the goodness and love 
 of God. It means that you must practise your 
 belief constantly, because that is the only way any- 
 thing can become a habit. But you won't be at 
 
The Demon in Theology 87 
 
 your full power for good until you have this habit. 
 
 With the coming of this habit of mind, all be- 
 lief in the power of the devil must go. He has 
 no power against God, when God can command 
 the help of man on his side. That is what you 
 have to fight for, the gathering of all men on to 
 the side of God. It is not so impossible as you 
 think; and it depends more on you, and on your 
 attitude to your fellowman, than you have yet 
 thought possible. 
 
 It is far more necessary to have a conviction of 
 love than a conviction of sin.* 
 
 * The original script goes on : "This book is going on well, 
 I think. We seem to work better together as we get more 
 practice, don't we? And you like the book, don't you? I 
 really believe it is a good book; and it is going to help 
 people, and clear up some things for them. I can write 
 more clearly now than I ever could before: you can see 
 that in the book, I expect; and it helps me to write through 
 you, instead of through myself, as it were. You have a 
 clear mind to write through." Then follow the usual 
 ini tials. 
 
XXXI 
 
 THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY 
 
 RESISTANCE is to be avoided as much as 
 possible in one's life. Some folk are so 
 busy resisting evil that they have little time left 
 to seek good. Now the first and most important 
 thing is to seek good. When evil comes in your 
 direct path resist it like anything, but don't spend 
 your life setting out on expeditions against it. 
 
 Sometimes, too, we resist what is good because 
 we mistake it for evil. This would not happen 
 if we were not putting more energy into our 
 pursuit of evil than into our search for good. And 
 we resist each other too in a futile way — all the 
 things we dislike in others. If we concentrated 
 our thought on what we find admirable in others, 
 we should have less time to notice the things we 
 dislike, and we should waste less energy in our- 
 88 
 
The Conservation of Energy 89 
 
 selves — which we really need badly for our con- 
 structive work for the Picture. 
 
 One of the things you most need to learn is to 
 conserve your energy for good, and not to waste 
 it over the unnecessary little frictions of daily life. 
 Do remember you can only have a certain 
 amount, and if you waste it over irrelevant things 
 it won't be available for the building up of the 
 Picture. It is awful to see the way people will 
 waste this gift of God, and not seem to realise 
 that it is a gift of God, or even that it has any 
 worth at all. Fussed away, it often is, in petty 
 trivialities. 
 
 You must learn to expend yourselves as little 
 as possible over the daily life. Go calmly on 
 your way, and don't let all the little trivial things 
 upset your balance. Do try to see your life in 
 terms of eternity. Then, if you are seeing the 
 Picture in the mind of God, you will know how 
 to use the energy, the life power that is yours, to 
 its best and fullest advantage. Do realise that 
 God is a person; and it must be bitter to him to 
 see his good gifts wasted, instead of being turned 
 
90 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 to further good. Christ tried to express some of 
 this to us in that parable of the talents, but it 
 has been a good deal misunderstood, as so many 
 of his stories and sayings have been. People gen- 
 erally are content to find a little meaning in his 
 sayings, and not to go further and seek out the 
 greater meaning which is always enshrined at their 
 heart. 
 
 You have to read your Bible in the light of 
 understanding which you obtain from God in 
 your prayer. Then the larger meaning of many 
 things will stand emblazoned out like a beacon. 
 You will not be able to avoid seeing it . . . 
 
XXXII 
 
 WHAT IS OMNIPOTENCE? 
 
 OMNIPOTENCE has to be understood. It 
 ^"^ does not mean that God alone can do any- 
 thing he pleases. Omnipotence is a co-operative 
 quality; God and man working together are 
 omnipotent. If you understand this, you won't 
 expect the impossible from God, and you won't 
 so often be disappointed. So many qualities and 
 attributes which we think of as belonging to God 
 are really co-operative qualities, and only come to 
 their highest power and value when they are 
 shared by God and man. God is the greatest 
 co-operative worker there is; it was not God who 
 taught us individualism. 
 
 We are not to compete with one another for 
 heaven: heaven can never come completely until 
 it comes to all; and so long as some are outside, 
 
 r 9i 
 
92 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 just that much will heaven be incomplete for the 
 others. A treat is not a treat to a loving child 
 if it is not shared by all his family. If we are 
 capable of attaining heaven ourselves, we are also 
 sufficiently filled with God's love for it not to be 
 completely heaven if unshared by all. There's a 
 paradox for you! But it is true — you will see 
 for yourself that it is true. Selfishness is the 
 negation of heaven. 
 
XXXIII 
 
 THE LAWS OF GOD 
 
 /^HANGE of thought about the all-powerful- 
 ^-^ ness of God is needed very badly, if you 
 are to work whole-heartedly for the Picture. So 
 long as you misunderstand about this, you will be 
 restricted in your work. God made his own laws, 
 and one of them is that he should have little 
 power in bringing the picture to life without our 
 co-operation. It is necessary for our ultimate 
 good that we should know that we are needed — 
 that despotism on the part of God cannot bring 
 the Kingdom of Heaven, but that it depends on 
 our working together with God. And God's laws 
 are never arbitrary; they are well thought out in 
 their relation to the scheme of things — the Pic- 
 ture. The subjects of a despot are rarely people 
 of strong character; any strength they may have 
 possessed has been undermined by the despotism 
 93 
 
94 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 of their ruler, and they become weak, shiftless, 
 purposeless. 
 
 Now God has our ultimate good at heart, and 
 he has made his laws with that always in view. 
 But he made his laws quite unchanging once for 
 all. That cannot be done by man, only by any 
 one as sure as God. And only God can be suffi- 
 ciently sure to make unchanging laws. Of course 
 it is the best way of making laws, if you are 
 sure enough and wise enough ; but remember that 
 it is only God who can do it. When men try, they 
 come the most awful croppers inevitably. 
 
 In the Picture, God is not seen as our head, 
 as a king. In the Kingdom of God we are so 
 filled with the Spirit of God, he so permeates us, 
 that there is no need of a king. We work to- 
 gether with him in complete fellowship, under- 
 standing and love. That is a thought to fill us 
 with awe — -almost fear. Perhaps we can hardly 
 bear the light of the completed picture yet. But 
 you must remember that a king stands alone and 
 is of necessity a lonely person, and God is also 
 human as well as divine, and hates loneliness as 
 
The Laws of God 95 
 
 much as you and I. So in the picture, as it stands 
 complete in the mind of God, he is no longer 
 standing in lonely kingship; for we have all be- 
 come so completely one with him that all loneli- 
 ness, all distinctions, are merged into one glorious 
 wonderful whole. But that is not yet. Work for 
 the picture; but remember always this dazzling 
 thing that is in the mind of God, and humble 
 yourselves before it. 
 
XXXIV 
 
 A PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY 
 
 HP HIS desire or longing of God to be one with 
 •*• man — to step down for ever from his 
 throne- — touches us by its very greatness, its seem- 
 ing impossibility, just as the ambitions and de- 
 sires of our fellow men touch us by their small- 
 ness, their modesty sometimes. But it is not an 
 impossible plan really if only we will look clearly 
 into the mind of God and see it there, and dis- 
 cover there too the way in which it is to come to 
 pass. You must always remember in thinking of 
 the picture that it is not at all nebulous — it is 
 clearly planned to its completion in God's mind; 
 it only lacks perfection in that it is still only in 
 the mind of God and not an actual fact, not yet the 
 kingdom come upon earth. And God does not 
 plan impossibilities: it is true that all things are 
 possible to him with our help. 
 
 I am trying to put before you this Fellowship 
 96 
 
A Practical Philosophy 97 
 
 of the Picture as a practical philosophy of life. 
 I want you to see that it is a perfectly workable 
 plan; and if only you would all try to discover 
 it in the mind of God (you must each see it there 
 for yourselves, you know — no one else can really 
 show it you clearly), and if you will then try to 
 make it come true, you will soon find that I am 
 not telling you about something impracticable, but 
 something which will help you all, more than you 
 can guess. Surely your lives are not so well 
 planned and so satisfactory that you are unwilling 
 to give this scheme a trial? 
 
 It is no mere dream, it is a real live possible 
 fact. It is no use just saying that is very beautiful, 
 and then going on as before. A great responsi- 
 bility lies with those who see the vision. They 
 not only have to see it and to show it to others, 
 they have to translate it into actual fact; they 
 have to translate eternity into terms of time, in 
 order that all those in the world may be able to 
 work for it. The bother is that so many who 
 see the vision do not seem also to feel this prac- 
 tical responsibility. But they must see it, and you 
 must see it. The picture must not remain for ever 
 in God's mind. 
 
XXXV 
 
 PLEASURE AND HAPPINESS 
 
 TTfE have been thinking of the ultimate glory 
 * * and happiness that come with the com- 
 pletion of the picture. We must not forget that 
 great happiness comes immediately to those who 
 begin to work for it. It isn't a case of working 
 in sorrow and misery — upheld merely by the glory 
 that is to come. The happiness of the work itself, 
 if not so complete and satisfying as the final hap- 
 piness, is at least very great and absorbing. And 
 it is this happiness that the world needs so greatly 
 nowadays. There is very little happiness in the 
 world to-day. One sure sign of a lack of happi- 
 ness is pleasure-seeking. The really happy person 
 does not need to seek pleasure, because happiness 
 is far more delightful and satisfying than 
 pleasure. I don't mean that the happy person 
 should have a puritan-like attitude to pleasure — 
 98 
 
Pleasure and Happiness 99 
 
 far from that — only he will never need to go 
 seeking pleasure; he will take what comes in his 
 direct path and will be satisfied with that. 
 Pleasure-seeking is a sign of unrest, and unrest is 
 unhappiness, not always conscious unhappiness, but 
 unhappiness for all that. 
 
 This unrest in the world has got to stop; but 
 there again, as we said about peace, universal 
 happiness can only come through personal hap- 
 piness. Happiness is an attitude of mind, and 
 it isn't difficult to acquire if you will set about it 
 the right way. Only most of you confuse pleasure 
 and happiness, and spend your energy pleasure- 
 seeking; and that is a terrible waste of time. 
 Happiness is constructive and leads to further 
 happiness; but pleasure ends in itself, and only 
 leads to further unrest. 
 
 The labourer who strikes for higher pay is 
 really influenced more by this general unrest of 
 the pleasure-hunt than he is by the higher motives 
 of happiness. That is where the trouble comes 
 in; because the motive that causes us to do a thing 
 is of far more ultimate importance than the deed 
 
ioo The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 itself. But you can't get mankind as a whole to 
 revise its motives, unless you as an individual 
 revise your own. That is the great lesson you 
 have to learn — the importance of individual effort 
 for the corporate good. Man for his fellow, and 
 God for us all, you know ! . . . 
 
XXXVI 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 TJTAPPINESS has immense constructive value. 
 Man's best work is done when he is happy. 
 But remember that happiness depends on our- 
 selves: we are not the creatures of circumstances 
 that we delight to make ourselves out to be. To 
 be happy requires determination. Make up your 
 mind that you will never be vanquished by cir- 
 cumstances. Happiness is your right; but we all, 
 even men, have to make efforts to obtain our 
 rights, you know! 
 
 We have so confused terms in the past, and 
 that has led us into some fearful mistakes. We 
 have misunderstood the whole nature of happi- 
 
102 The Fellowship of the Picture 
 
 ness, and looked upon it as a dew of heaven that 
 came upon us without personal effort; whereas 
 it is a thing to be sought and wooed. True good- 
 ness and happiness are synonymous, you know; 
 you can't have one without having the other, and 
 they are both equally necessary for the Pic- 
 ture. 
 
 It is impossible for me to show you the Picture; 
 and every one has to see it himself in the mind 
 of God, not only to see it once, but many, many 
 times. As he sees it, and every seeing makes it 
 clearer, so he has to mould himself to it, and, as 
 far as he is able, to help others to mould them- 
 selves to it. And so, very gradually but very 
 surely, the Fellowship of the Picture, God's King- 
 dom, will come into being. It is given to me to 
 have power to show you these few glimpses, in 
 order that you may be inspired and encouraged 
 to seek further for yourself. It is only glimpses 
 — you must not regard it as more than that; you 
 must go on in all courage and high hope to ac- 
 complish this great work. I am happy that God 
 has allowed me to give you even this little help. 
 
Conclusion 103 
 
 I shall be with you always as we work, each in 
 our own place, for the Picture.* 
 
 *The original script goes on: "Dear Nan. That is the 
 book. I have no power to write more for now, and I think 
 we have said enough to help folk quite a lot, if only they 
 will give the plan a fair trial. Some day I may be able 
 to talk to you and write some more; but something is 
 drawing me away now — more work of a different kind. But 
 I shan't be far away; and if I find later that I have other 
 things to tell you, you will know. The title is The Fellow- 
 ship of the Picture. . . ." 
 
NOTE 
 
 The following corrections have been made in 
 setting up the script: 
 
 Inexhaustible for exhaustive, 
 and of for and so of. 
 be added after must, 
 mustn't for must. 
 Corporate for corporal, 
 superior deleted before word, 
 do not for only. 
 Corporate for corporal, 
 the added before simplest. 
 Add of after disapproved, 
 it for as. 
 
 God's for God; and is deleted before brings, 
 are added after you. 
 (not line 8) corporate for corporal, 
 say for see. 
 you see for see see. 
 absent for absence, 
 others for ours, 
 real for keen, 
 is deleted after habit, 
 never for only, 
 have for be; having for being. 
 104 
 
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