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Great Companion I

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Lyman Abbott

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The Great Companion

The
Great Companion

Lyman Abbott

New York
The Outlook Company
1904

Copyright, 1904, by
The Outlook Company
Published March, 1904

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THE DEVINNE PRESS

The ETERNAL is no Simulacrum;
God is not only There, but Here or no
where, in that life-breath of thine, in that
act and thought of thine, — and thou
wert wise to look to it. Thomas Carlyle.
Speak to Him thou for He hears, and
Spirit with Spirit can meet —
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer
than hands and feet.
Alfred Tennyson.
Our God is never so far off
As even to be near. Frederick W. Faber.
" Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God."

Contents

The Living God . .
The Quest after God .
The Hidden Presence
The Power of Vision
Pursuing God . . .
Listening to God .
The Door ....
Christ's Yoke . .
The Fruits of the Spirit
Devout Forgetting .
Devout Remembering

PAGE 9
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103
"5129i4S

THE LIVING GOD

I
THE LIVING GOD
ONE of the most pathetic pas
sages in modern literature is
Professor Clifford's lament : " We
have seen the spring sun shine out
of an empty heaven to light up
a soulless earth ; we have felt
with utter loneliness that the Great
Companion is dead. Our children,
it may be hoped, will know that
sorrow only by the reflex light of
a wondering compassion." ii

THE LIVING GOD
To say that the Great Compan
ion is dead, is not to say that there
is no God. The dead also live;
but between them and ourselves
all communion and companionship
seem to most of us impossible. So
to many in our own time, to many
without the Church, to some within
it, living companionship with a
living God is an experience un
known. They believe in what
Carlyle calls a "hypothetical God,"
but he is to them only a hypothe
sis. They look back through the
ages for some evidence of a God
who revealed himself centuries
ago ; they look forward with antici
pation to a God who will reveal
12

THE LIVING GOD
himself in some future epiphany ;
but of a God here and now, a God
who is a perpetual presence, a God
whom they can see as Abraham
saw him, with whom they can talk
as Moses talked with him, who
will inspire them with courage as
he inspired Gideon, with hope as he
inspired Isaiah, and with praise as
he inspired David, they do not
know. "Our fellowship is with
the Father, and with his son Jesus
Christ," are to them sacred words,
but they do not express a real ex
perience. " I will not leave you
orphans," says Christ. There are
a great many orphan Christians to
whom the Father is a vague tradi-
!3

THE LIVING GOD
tion or a scarcely less vague hope;
but not a living presence.
It is because I believe that God
is the Great Companion, that we
are not left orphans, that we may
have comradeship with him, that I
have written these pages. Not to
demonstrate any truth, but to give
expression to a living, inspiring,
dominating faith.

14

THE QUEST AFTER GOD

II
THE QUEST AFTER GOD
THE lament of Professor Clif
ford is itself a witness to the
truth that the spirit of man longs
for fellowship with God. Whether
we know it or not, we are all in a
quest after the Great Companion.
All study, all art, all music, all lit
erature, all government, all indus
try are in essence a search after the
Infinite. This is science — not the
bringing together of phenomena
i7

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
that were before dispersed and scat
tered, but the finding out what is
the unity in phenomena that makes
them all part of the one great
whole. This is art. The artist
does not really create ; he discovers.
Behind all forms of beauty there is
an infinite unity, and this unity,
this intrinsic and eternal beauty,
the artist is seeking to discern and
to make others discern. So with
the musician. See him try to
bring out from the piano that which
he has heard in his spirit. See
him try first one chord and then
another, crying at last, "Eureka!
I have found it!" What is this
man doing? He is searching after
18

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
a harmony already existing. He
has not created it. He has brought
it out of the inaudible into the au
dible, out of the immaterial into
the material.
As of study, so of life; every
man's life is, consciously or uncon
sciously, a quest for the infinite and
the eternal reality. What is the
doctor doing but endeavoring to
ascertain what are the laws of
health ? He does not make them ;
he finds them. What is the lawyer
doing ? If he be a true lawyer, he
is endeavoring to find out what are
the laws of justice. He does not
create them. They are ; they al
ways were ; they always will be.
10

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
The courts may disregard, the leg
islature may violate them, but they
reassert themselves. And the law
yer and the statesman are endeavor
ing to find out what are these moral
laws which are as true as the phys
ical laws, and which they can as
little create as the scientist can cre
ate the physical laws.
The farmer and the manufacturer
also are working with God; they
also are trying to find out the divine
laws that lie back of nature. They
are working with God, whether
they know it or not, in transform
ing useless material into useful ma
terial, in lifting up from the lower
to the higher ; they also are engaged

20

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
in the divine pursuit, they also are
really in the quest after God and
God's way of working in the world.
In the deeper experiences of the
soul we grow into the conscious
ness of what we are doing. When
sorrow comes, and the child or the
husband or the friend is rapt
away from our vision as Elijah was
from Elisha's as in a chariot of
fire, and the minister and the friends
cannot comfort, then the cry of the
heart before uninterpreted becomes
vocal, and we cry out, " O that I
knew where I might find him ! "
Sooner or later to every man comes
the consciousness of this quest;
sooner or later to every man the

21

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
hungering desire to know a stronger
and better friend than any earthly
friend, a wiser and truer justice than
earthly justice, a larger and diviner
life than the terrestrial life.
It is wholly idle to attempt to
stop this quest by saying it is a use
less one. The agnostic may tell
us : "I have searched everywhere
for God and I cannot find him.
We cannot know what we cannot
see, and as we cannot see God, we
cannot know him. Stop looking
for him." He has been saying
that for a great many years; and
still the world goes on with its
quest. Agnosticism has done the
Church a good service; for it has
22

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
taught us the folly of dogmatism;
it has taught us that there are no
scales in which we can weigh God,
no phrenological chart possible of
him, that at best we know in part
and we prophesy in part; but ag
nosticism cannot stop the soul's
quest after God. Still the scientist
will seek for the One Energy be
hind all energies; still the manu
facturer will seek new forth -puttings
of God's power in new combina
tions of matter and new uses of
what he calls natural forces ; still
the lawyer and the statesman will
seek new revelations of the Eternal
Law-giver in new applications of his
immutable justice to the changing
23

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
conditions of society ; still the artist
and the musician will search all the
realm of visible and invisible art,
of audible and inaudible sounds for
some new phase of the Infinite and
Eternal Beauty.
No statements about God can
satisfy the soul in this its quest after
God. Nothing can take the place
of the personal finding of him; per
sonal communion with him; per
sonal fellowship with him. Au
thority can do something for us;
but there are things which it can
never do — whether it be authority
of creed, or of Church, or of Bible.
Authority may convince us that the
music of Beethoven is better than
24

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
the music of Sankey, and we may
accept the statement because it is
made by a musical expert. But
the expert's statement will not give
us a thrill of joy in the music
of Beethoven's symphonies. Every
one must himself receive and hear
the message of Beethoven. An ex
pert may tell us that the poetry of
Browning is better than the poetry
common in our daily newspapers,
and we may believe it because he
is an expert ; but his testimony will
not give the reader the thrill of
life that Browning can give to one
who appreciates him. The Bible
may tell the devout reader that God
lived in the world nineteen cen-
25

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
turies ago, and he may believe it;
but that will not give the life that
God gives. The Church may tell
the devout churchman that God is
in his Church, and he may believe
it; but that will not give the life
that God gives.
Nothing can satisfy the quest
after God except God himself. We
must come to know him as Abra
ham knew him, as David knew
him, as Isaiah knew him, as Paul
knew him, or our quest will never
be satisfied. " O that I knew
where I might find him ! " is the
cry of humanity, and only God
himself can satisfy it. And he does
satisfy it. The soul can find God.
26

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
How did Isaac know God ? he had
no visions. Or Joseph? did he
know him only by dreaming about
him ? Or Moses, before he met
him face to face in Sinai? did he
before that time only imagine a
Creator? and if so, what made him
fancy that it was God who spoke
to him at the burning bush ? Or
Samuel? was his sole knowledge
derived from the mysterious Voice
which called him from his bed in
the Tabernacle ? Or David? what
made him suppose that Jehovah
was his Shepherd, and led him be
side still waters and in green pas
tures ? Or the author of the Hun-
dred-and-third Psalm? how came
27

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
he to know that Jehovah forgave
all his iniquities, healed all his dis
eases, redeemed his life from de
struction, and crowned him with
loving-kindness and tender mercies?
Or Isaiah ? how did he know that
they who wait upon Jehovah shall
renew their strength; shall mount
up with wings as eagles ; shall run
and not be weary, and shall walk
and not faint ?
The soul can know God, and
know that God instructs, guides,
forgives, redeems, strengthens, in
spires the soul that trusts in him,
exactly as Isaac and Moses and
Samuel and David and Isaiah knew
him and his helpfulness, and in no
28

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
other way. The knowledge is just
as vital and real, the intercommu
nion as actual, to-day as ever. The
notions that there is no God, or
that God cannot make himself
known to men, or that he can
be known only at second hand,
either through a privileged hier
archy or an ancient literature, are
all phases of the same general unbe
lief. The doctrine of the Bible is
not that God once was, but that he
ever is ; not that man once knew
him, but that men can always know
him. Its doctrine is that God is
in his world of nature and in his
world of men, and that not to be
able to see him is to be blind, and
29

THE QUEST AFTER GOD
not to be able to talk to him is
to be deaf and dumb.
This teaching of the Bible is also
the teaching of the great drama
tists. " There is," says Victor
Hugo, " a philosophy which denies
the Infinite. There is also a phi
losophy, pathologically classified,
which denies the seen; this phi
losophy is called blindness. To
erect our lack of a sense into a
source of truth is a fine blind man's
self-sufficiency."

3°

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE

Ill
THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
WE fail to find God because
we do not look for him in
the right place. We conceive of
him as afar off, and coming at times
in great displays of majesty and
power to show himself to men, as
he appeared in strange symbolic
glory to Ezekiel in the land of
the Chaldeans. But the Scripture
writers represent him as in all the
33

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
common places and in all the com
mon experiences of mankind. We
think of him as manifesting himself
to a few elect souls who possess a
genius for religion and a power of
vision exceptional and rare; but the
Scripture writers represent him as
the God of all men, whatever their
temperaments or their dispositions.
If there should be another de
struction of the Cities of the Plain,
with some angel visitant to interpret
it to us ; if' again the waters of the
sea should part for an Israel to go
through as on dry ground, with the
waves rising up on either side as a
wall for their protection, we should
believe in the divine presence. But
34

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
the Scripture writers did not any less
believe in God's presence in the
commonest phenomena of nature.
In truth, the commonest phenomena
of nature are as great manifestations
of his mysterious power and pres
ence as those which impress us as
unique. It does not need the con
vulsion of a Mount Pelee to bear
witness to him. The springs that
water the valleys, the grass that
springs out of the earth, the perpet
ual transformation of mineral into
vegetable, life-feeding products, the
ordinary movement of the planets in
their orbits — these also declare the
glory of God and show his handi
work. 35

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
He sendeth forth springs into the
valleys ;
They run among the mountains :
They give drink to every beast of the
field;
The wild asses quench their thirst.
By them the fowl of the heaven have
their habitation.
They sing among the branches.
He watereth the mountains from his
chambers :
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of
thy works.
He causeth the grass to grow for the
cattle,
And herb for the service of man ;
That he may bring forth food out of the
earth :
And wine that maketh glad the heart of
man, 36

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
And oil to make his face to shine,
And bread that strengtheneth man's
heart.
The trees of the Lord are satisfied ;
The cedars of Lebanon, which he hath
planted ;
Where the birds make their nests :
As for the stork, the fir trees are her
house.
The high mountains are for the wild
goats ;
The rocks are a refuge for the conies.
He appointed the moon for seasons :
The sun knoweth his going down.
Thou makest darkness, and it is
night ;
Wherein all the beasts of the forest do
creep forth.
The young lions roar after their prey,
And seek their meat from God.
37

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
As he is in all the common
phenomena of nature, so he is an
inspiring, guiding, protecting, re
deeming presence in all the experi
ences of men ; not more the God
of the poet or the prophet than of
the shopman or the day-laborer.
He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac,
and of Jacob. Abraham was a man
of visions, who went out from his
native land not knowing whither
he went, seeking a God more spiri
tual than any which the land of his
fathers had made known to him.
God is the God of the men of
imagination. Isaac was a common
place man who saw no visions and
dreamt no dreams, but who in an
38

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
age of universal polygamy was faith
ful to one wife, and in an age of
universal war sought peace and
pursued it. God is the God of the
commonplace man. Jacob was per
haps the meanest man of Old Tes
tament history ; he began his life
by driving a hard bargain with his
brother in necessity ; then cheated
his blind father on his death-bed ;
then made his first prayer a bargain :
" If God will be with me, and will
keep me in this way that I go, and
will give me bread to eat, and rai
ment to put on, so that I come again
to my father's house in peace, then
shall the Lord be my God." And
God was his God, and, through
39

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
long years of disciplining sorrow,
conquered the meanness in him and
delivered him from it, and brought
him out, in his old age, into a
peaceful and triumphant manhood.
God is the God of even the mean
and the despicable.
We are apt to imagine that God
reveals himself to men in certain set
and sacred places, that we can find
him only in the church, or in the
closet, or on the mountain-top, or
in the midst of the tempest. But
God, who came to Isaiah in the
temple, came also to Moses while
in exile, and to Gideon while in
hiding he was threshing wheat by
the wine-press, and to David while
40

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
as a ruddy-faced boy he was keep
ing his father's sheep on the hillsides
of southern Judea, and to Paul in
spired by a ruthless conscience and
with murderous intent. What Jacob
said when he awoke from his dream
of the celestial ladder to find his
head pillowed on the stones, we
might all of us say, at all times —
" Surely the Lord is in this place,
and I knew it not."
As he is in the common places
of life, so he speaks to us in our
common experiences. We have an
idea that only the extraordinary, the
uplifting, the celestial movements
of our mind are divinely inspired ;
but this was not the conception of
41

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
the sacred writers. The secret and
source of all life is God ; he is over
all and in all; in him we live and
move and have our being. All
human activities of every kind have
the source of their power in the
infinite and the eternal. A striking
illustration of this conception of the
Biblical writers, of God as the source
and inspiration of all the commonest
operations of the mind, is furnished
by the Plowman's Ode:
Listen, and hear ye my voice,
Attend, and hear ye my speech.
Is the plowman never done with his
plowing,
With the opening and harrowing of
ground ? 42

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
Does he not, when its surface is leveled,
Scatter fennel, and sow cummin
broadcast ?
And duly set wheat there, and barley,
And for its border plant spelt ?
It is Jehovah who has taught these right
courses,
It is his God who has trained him.
We do not thresh fennel with sledges,
Nor are cart-wheels rolled over
cummin,
But fennel is threshed with a staff",
And cummin is threshed with a rod.
Do we ever crush bread-corn to pieces?
Nay, the threshing goes not on
forever,
But when over it cart-wheels are driven,
Or sledges, our care is never to
crush it. 43

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
This also from Jehovah proceeds —
Wonderful counsel, great wisdom
has he.1
Let us not, then, wait for the
extraordinary to bring us the reve
lation of God's presence. We are
to look for him not without but
within. "Say not in thy heart,
Who shall ascend into heaven ?
(that is, to bring Christ down:) or,
Who shall descend into the abyss ?
(that is, to bring Christ up from
the dead.) But what saith it ? The
word is nigh thee, in thy mouth,
and in thy heart : that is, the word
of faith, which we preach." Every
'Isaiah xxviii. 23-29. Translation of
T. K. Cheyne.
44

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
voice of conscience summoning to
virtue or restraining from vice, say
ing, Thou shalt, or Thou shalt not ;
every regret for a misspent past,
every sorrowful " I have left undone
those things which I ought to
have done, and I have done those
things which I ought not to have
done" ; every inspiration to a'higher,
nobler, and better future, calling
from the heights above, Follow thou
me — yes, every incentive to gener
ous or unselfish service and self-
sacrifice for another, every impulse
toward humanity, of pity for the
sorrowing, or of mercy for the
erring, is the voice of God speaking
within us. Nay, more than that ;
45

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
all the common operations of our
mind are, if we do but recognize
it, witnesses to his presence from
whom comes all our life, and by
whom, if we will but allow it, all
our life may be both guided and
strengthened. And every virtue we possess,
And every victory won,
And every thought of holiness,
Are his alone.
To commune with ourselves is
to talk with God. If any one says
this is a dangerous utterance, let
him reframe it in the words of the
Psalmist : " The Lord will hear
when I call unto him. Stand in
46

THE HIDDEN PRESENCE
awe, and sin not: commune with
your own heart upon your bed, and
be still." To be still and commune
with our own heart is to commune
with God. His is the still, small
voice which we hear in the quiet
of our own souls.

47

THE POWER OF VISION

IV
THE POWER OF VISION
NOT every good man has
within himself the con
sciousness of the divine presence.
Some men walk by the light, with
out knowing the light by which
they walk. To obey God, it is
not necessary to see God. A sol
dier on the battle-field may receive
the orders of his commander-in-
chief filtered down to him through
51

THE POWER OF VISION
half a dozen intermediary com
manders, and obey those orders loy
ally, without ever seeing the one
from whom they come. On the
other hand, he may see the one
from whom they come, and be
disloyal to him, as Lee was dis
loyal to Washington at the battle
of Monmouth.
Not every devout soul is at all
times equally conscious of the pres
ence of God. That consciousness
is obscured by other causes than sin :
sorrow, perplexity, the enigma of
life, physical infirmity, native tem
perament, mere weariness of the
flesh, may serve to obscure it. Prob
ably most honest souls have experi-
52

THE POWER OF VISION
ences akin to agnosticism. Such an
experience was that of Job :
Behold, I go forward, but he is not
there ;
And backward, but I cannot perceive
him :
On the left hand, when he doth work,
but I cannot behold him:
He hideth himself on the right hand,
that I cannot see him.
But Job's agnosticism was like Pro
fessor Clifford's — sorrowful. The
devout soul is never a self-com
placent agnostic ; he is never con
tent not to know God. He never
sings a Jubilate because the Great
Companion is dead. In the absence
of the Great Companion his soul
53

THE POWER OF VISION
cries out, more or less consciously:
" O that I knew where I might
find him, that I might come even
to his seat!"
Even Jesus Christ knew tempo
rarily this experience, in which the
consciousness of the divine presence
was obscured, and out of that expe
rience cried : " My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me ? "
But because the Great Compan
ion is not seen he is not therefore
dead. He is the Universal Pres
ence, though he is sometimes the
Hidden Presence. And man has
the power of vision, though he
may not exercise it, or may seem
wholly to lose it. For man is a
54

THE POWER OF VISION
child of God. This is what the
sacred writer means by his declara
tion that "God created man in his
own image." This is what Isaiah
meant when he said : " Doubtless
thou art our father, though Abra
ham be ignorant of us. And this is
what Paul meant when, speaking
on Mars' Hill at Athens to a con
gregation of pagans, and quoting a
pagan poet, he said : " We are also
his offspring." Whether pagan or
Christian, whether agnostic or be
liever, whether self-seeker or loyal
servant, we have sprung from God.
We are all kin to him. We so far
share his nature as to be able to
comprehend his will, receive his
SS

THE POWER OF VISION
love, recognize his presence. Spir
itually, man springs from God and
partakes of the divine nature. He
has a conscience which recognizes
the difference between right and
wrong, hope and aspiration which
look to the future, faith which
enables him to see the invisible
world, love which binds him to
his fellow-men and which should
bind him to God. This is what is
meant by the statement that man is
by nature a son of God. He has
come from God, and he possesses
elements of the divine character in
his reason, his conscience, his higher
affections. True, he is an animal,
and he has come from lower ani-
56

THE POWER OF VISION
mals ; but he is more than an
animal. Whether this something
in him which is more than animal
has been developed from the lower
animal nature, as Darwin and Drum-
mond believe, or has at some epoch
in the evolutionary process been
implanted in him by the creative
energy of God acting on him from
without, is a question of philosophy,
not of religion. However man has
obtained this conscience and rever
ence, this faith and hope and love,
he has them; they constitute his
nature; they impose upon him obli
gations ; they should be the supreme
and dominant motives of his con
duct. 57

THE POWER OF VISION
Like the Prodigal Son, man may
wander away from God, but he can
not escape from himself, and there
fore he cannot escape from the
divine in himself. However far
he wanders, however self-debased
he may become, he is still one of
God's children.
It is this fact which makes it
possible for every man to know
something of the divine life, which
imposes on every man the obligation
to have some spiritual acquaintance
with the Father of whom every
family in heaven and on earth is
named, or at least to seek for such
acquaintance, and be dissatisfied un
til he attains it. 58

THE POWER OF VISION
But this experience, or God-con
sciousness, in the soul, is of various
kinds and of every degree, from a
mere heart-hunger to a supreme
spiritual quietude. Religious liter
ature is full of the reflections of this
experience, but one need not go
out of the Bible to find illustrations
of almost every phase of it. Some
times the experience is one of long
ing for him — " O that I knew
where I might find him"; some
times it is a heart-hunger for him —
"As the hart panteth after the water-
brooks, so panteth my soul after
thee, O God"; sometimes it is a
new sense of his holiness and of the
worth of his companionship pro-
59

THE POWER OF VISION
duced by a consciousness of sin
committed — "Against thee, thee
only, have I sinned, and done this
evil in thy sight"; sometimes it is
a sense of gladness and of gratitude
in his favor — "Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and forget not all his
benefits " ; sometimes it is a supreme
sense of his protecting presence —
" He shall cover thee with his feath
ers, and under his wings shalt thou
trust"; sometimes it is simply an
assurance of peace in him — "Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on thee";
sometimes it is a recognition of
strength derived from him — " They
that wait upon the Lord shall renew
60

THE POWER OF VISION
their strength; they shall mount up
with wings as eagles ; they shall run,
and not be weary ; they shall walk,
and not faint." But in all these
and kindred passages the testimony
is uniform — the testimony of souls
to their own experience of God,
distant or near, desired or found,
guiding, or guarding, or rebuking,
or consoling, or pardoning, or life-
giving. This experience of God in fellow
ship with man is all summed up in
the counsel of Christ to his disci
ples: " When ye pray, say, Father."
This is what the Master seems to
say: Recognize him as your law
giver, your provider, your counselor,
61

THE POWER OF VISION
your constant companion, your most
intimate personal friend. This is
something very different from mere
ly believing that there is a God. To
prove to a man that there is a God
is of very little use, if he is going
on to live as though there were
none. Belief that there is a God
is valuable only as it grows out of an
experience of companionship with
him or longing for him. It is
better to obey the voice of God
and not know that it is his voice
than to know that it is his voice and
not obey it. To be absent from
home and wish for the Father is
more filial than to live at home and
not care for the Father. If I am
62

THE POWER OF VISION
not sure whether God is or not,
what shall I do ? Assume as a
hypothesis that Christ may be right:
go to the Father whom you do not
know, and get acquainted with him
by going to him. Say, "Father."

63

PURSUING GOD

V
PURSUING GOD
IT is a common mistake, but a
great mistake, to imagine that
the saints have reached their expe
rience of God easily. No doubt
there are differences in tempera
ment : to some God-conscious
ness is an inherited gift, while by
others it is acquired. It may even
be that there are some who all their
life long must go without this con
sciousness, or with it only as a
67

PURSUING GOD
vague and not understood experi
ence, loyal to a God they do not
know — or, let us say, loyal to truth
and righteousness rather than to the
God of truth and righteousness.
But there are abundant evidences
that the sacred writers did not ordi
narily come instantly and easily into
the experience of fellowship with
God. Once, in the woods, I watched
a moth emerge from the chrysalis.
He struggled slowly out. When
through the open door of his
prison-house he had partially
emerged, he was still bound round
with silken cords, from which with
difficulty he emancipated himself
before he took wing and flew into
68

PURSUING GOD
the realm of his newly bestowed
liberty. So, from the chrysalis of
our animal state, the spirit emerges
into the freedom of the sons of
God. The door of man's prison-
house is opened for him, but he
must find the exit, disentangle him
self from the cords which bind him,
and use his own newly acquired
wings himself. The experiences
of the sacred writers, as they are
recorded in the Bible, abundantly
illustrate the saying of Christ :
" Every one that asketh receiveth ;
and he that seeketh findeth ; and
to him that knocketh it shall be
opened." If we are to have this
experience of fellowship with the
69

PURSUING GOD
Great Companion, we must ask,
seek, knock. What invitation could
be freer than that which is contained
in the last chapter of the Book of
Revelation, " He that will, let him
take the water of life freely." Yes;
but he must have the will, and he
must exercise it. It is by the exer
cise of this will that he takes the
gift so freely proffered to him.
We read, for instance, such a
triumphant utterance as this of
Paul's, and imagine that it expresses
a kind of divine experience miracu
lously bestowed upon him: "For I
am persuaded, that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principali
ties, nor powers, nor things present,
70

PURSUING GOD
nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord." Yet if we would
but reflect a little, we should be sure
that he never could have written
these words if he had not felt death,
and life, and angels, and principali
ties, and powers, and things present,
and things to come, and height, and
depth, all pulling at him to separate
him from the love of God. This
shout of victory is itself a demon
stration of the battle which pre
ceded it. We do not even need to
turn back and read the seventh
chapter of Romans, to know that
7i

PURSUING GOD
through some such experience as is
there recorded Paul must have passed,
or he never could have written the
last verses of the eighth chapter.
There is perhaps in all literature
no more splendid illustration of
victorious faith than that furnished
by the last three verses of the
prophecy of Habakkuk ; but when
we read those verses we are apt to
forget that there are few more
striking expressions of a despairing
skepticism than are found in the
first three verses of the same book.
Let the reader compare them :
O Lord, how long shall I cry, and
thou wilt not hear ? I cry out unto thee
of violence, and thou wilt not save.
72

PURSUING GOD
Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and
look upon perverseness ? for spoiling
and violence are before me: and there is
strife, and contention riseth up. There
fore the law is slacked, and judgement
doth never go forth : for the wicked doth
compass about the righteous; therefore
judgement goeth forth perverted.
For though the fig tree shall not blossom,
Neither shall fruit be in the vines ;
The labour of the olive shall fail,
And the fields shall yield no meat;
The flock shall be cut off" from the fold,
And there shall be no herd in the stalls :
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength,
And he maketh my feet like hinds' feet,
And will make me to walk upon mine
high places. 73

PURSUING GOD
Let us not, then, imagine that
fellowship with God comes to men
unsought. Few of the sacred writ
ers afford a more striking illustra
tion of such fellowship than Paul ;
and Paul, looking back upon his life,
says of it : "I have fought a good
fight." If there are many Christians
who think that the kingdom of God
can only come "with observation,"
and who do not look within them
selves for its appearing, there are also
many who think it should immedi
ately appear, and who have never
pondered the meaning of the words,
"This is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith."

74

LISTENING TO GOD

VI
LISTENING TO GOD
IF God is to be to us the Great
Companion, we must form the
habit of listening to God. Prayer
is something else than talking to
God. It is something else than
asking things of him which we
expect to receive. I have heard
prayer compared to a draft on a
bank, which the holder presents,
expecting to receive the money upon
it. This is a very inadequate and
77

LISTENING TO GOD
unsatisfying interpretation of prayer.
Prayer is communion with God.
It is the intermingling of our life
with his life. It involves listening
to him as well as speaking to him.
The answer to prayer is furnished
not in things given, but in life im
parted, in fellowship enjoyed, in
counsel received, in uplifting, in
spiring, life-giving influence. Prayer
is living in the conscious presence
of God.
Prayer is carrying to God our
sins, and receiving forgiveness; our
sorrows, and receiving his comfort;
our weakness, and receiving his
power. In prayer is the secret of
that indefinable spiritual life which
78

LISTENING TO GOD
defies definition, description, inter
pretation, which can be felt by the
possessor, the effect of which can
be seen in his character, the nature
of which cannot be explained by
philosophy. " Spiritual power," says
Canon Liddon, " may be felt rather
than described or analyzed. ... It is
an unearthly beauty, whose native
home is in a higher world, yet
which tarries among men from age
to age, since the time when the Son
of God left us his example and gave
us his Spirit. It is nothing else than
his spiritual presence, mantling upon
his servants ; they live in him ; they
lose in him something of their proper
personality ; they are absorbed into,
79

LISTENING TO GOD
they are transfigured by, a life alto
gether higher than their own ; his
voice blends with theirs; his eye
seems to lighten theirs with its
sweetness and its penetration ; his
hand gives gentleness and decision
to their acts; his heart communi
cates a ray of its divine charity to
their life of narrower and more
stagnant affection; his soul com
mingles with theirs, and their life
of thought and feeling and resolve
is irradiated and braced by his."
If the soul is to receive this com
municated life, it must learn how to
be passive as well as active, recipient
as well as forth-putting; it must
learn to listen as well as to speak.
80

LISTENING TO GOD
Savonarola has said that we are so
busy praying to God that we have
no time to listen to him. It may
be doubtful whether in our time
this sentence, even for devout souls,
would not have to be changed into:
We are so busy working for God
that we have no time to listen to
him. But it is a mistake to be
always doing. If it is true that the
disciples could not be permitted to
build three tabernacles and remain
on the Mount of Transfiguration,
always enjoying the glow and glory
of the vision, it is also true that they
could not have cured the boy in the
valley below possessed of an evil
spirit unless they had been in the

LISTENING TO GOD
Mount of Transfiguration. If we
are to be workers for God, we must
also be workers with God.
The peril of our time lies not in
the fact — if it is a fact — that men
attend church less than they used to,
or that family prayers is a less
common practice than it once was.
These facts are but symptoms.
"When thou prayest, enter into thy
closet, shut thy door, pray to thy
Father which is in secret." One
cannot but wonder whether this en
tering into the closet, shutting the
door, praying to the Father which is
in secret, and listening for his secret
response, is a common experience
of the twentieth-century Christian.
82

LISTENING TO GOD
What do I mean by listening to
God ? I mean what the Psalmist
meant when he said, "Be still and
know that I am God"; when he
said, "Commune with your own
heart upon your bed and be still."
I mean the endeavor to come into
a consciousness of that divine pres
ence, consider the problems of our
life, the questions of our duty, the
possibility of our service, and then,
while we consider these as in his
presence, waiting for the impulse
that shall guide and the will that
shall determine. In such a sacred
hour the lower motives fall away,
they lose their propelling power,
and the higher and the diviner pur-
83

LISTENING TO GOD
poses come into play and assume
their rightful authority.
To pray is not to seek his alli
ance in our work, his strength for
the accomplishment of our will ; it
is first of all to make our will tribu
tary to his will, and ourselves sharers
in his work. Therefore it is that
the Master, in that prayer which he
has given us, and which ought not
to be a form but rather the secret
and illustration of a spirit, bids us
make our first petition, the very
entrance door into the room of
prayer, " Hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven."
If one has not come into this spirit,
84

LISTENING TO GOD
he has not come into the spirit of
prayer at all. If he has come into
this spirit, he will wish to know
what the Father's will is, and what
he himself can do to hallow the
Father's name and hasten the Fa
ther's kingdom.
To pray to God is to listen to
God, and his voice is to be listened
for in the impulses of our own souls,
which come to us in those secret
hours in which his presence excludes
from our consciousness all other
presences.

85

THE DOOR

VII
THE DOOR
DO I substitute the mystical
experience of God within
the soul for faith in Jesus Christ as
the Word made flesh which dwelt
among us, in whom we may behold
the glory as of the only-begotten of
the Father? No. But neither do
I substitute this faith in Jesus Christ
as the Word made flesh, in whom
we may behold the glory as of the
only-begotten of the Father, for an
89

THE DOOR
inward and mystical experience of
God in our own souls. Jesus Christ
has not come into the world to
serve as a substitute for the know
ledge of God. He has come into
the world to give the world know
ledge of God. He has come that
he might give eternal life to as
many as God has given him; and
this, he says, is life eternal, "that
they might know thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent."
We are not to know Jesus Christ
instead of knowing the only true
God; we are to know the only
true God through Jesus Christ. By
Christ's fellowship with the Father,
90

THE DOOR
and our fellowship with Christ, we
are to come into fellowship with the
Father. Christ has lived, taught,
suffered, and died that the hidden
Presence might no longer be hidden
to us ; that we might better under
stand and have diviner intimacy
with the Great Companion.
I have been often asked to define
my faith in Jesus Christ, and have
often endeavored to do so. Let me
make that endeavor once more here,
not in the terms of theological
science, but in those of spiritual
experience. If God is in universal humanity,
adumbrated by our ignorance, his
presence obscured and his person
9i

THE DOOR
distorted by our imperfections and
by our sins, why may we not believe
that he was in one typical man, in
whom his presence was not adum
brated by ignorance, nor his person
obscured or perverted by sin? We
have looked into the clouds, into
the flowers, into the lakes, into the
mountains, and we have seen his
handiwork and been sure that he
was behind it all. We have looked
in history, and in its great currents
and its great events we have seen
his handiwork and been sure that he
was working out his divine design.
We have stood upon the nether
side of history, and we have seen the
pattern of righteousness and liberty
92

THE DOOR
and justice slowly growing, and we
have been sure there was some one
on the other side, though we could
not see him ; he was a hidden
workman. But now some of us
believe that we can find the hand
that does this work. We have a
personified God.
Nineteen centuries ago there ap
peared a man in the little province
of Palestine. He lived a quiet,
humble life. He loved and served
and suffered, and drew men to him
by his love and his service and his
sacrifice. After his death there grew
up an assurance among his disciples
that he had risen from the dead;
and the conviction laid hold upon
93

THE DOOR
them, and they believed it with all
their hearts, that this man who had
so loved with this great love was
the revelation of God's grace ; that
he was full of grace and truth ; that
in him dwelt all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily; that he was the
reflection of God's glory, the reve
lation of God's love, the express
image of God's person. Their belief
in his resurrection was more than
belief in a great historic fact: it was
belief that death had no dominion
over him ; that he liveth and reign-
eth evermore ; that he who was with
his disciples in the flesh in Palestine
is with his disciples in the spirit in
all history. To his presence his fol-
94

THE DOOR
lowers attribute the power and glory
of that great historic movement
which we call Christianity. Christ
never built a house, but more splen
did edifices have been built to his
memory than to all other names put
together in the world's history. He
never wrote a line of music, but he
has inspired more music than any
other man. He never painted a pic
ture, but painting was born in his
birth. He wrote no great books,
but he inspired the most splendid
literature the world has seen. He
wrought no specific reform, but
wherever his cross has gone slavery
has been abolished, war has been
ameliorated, and pestilence has dis-
95

THE DOOR
appeared. The Christian looks back
through this ever-increasing illumi
nation and sees in the far-off century
the Star from which it comes, and
believes that in him he gets the an
swer to the cry, "O that I knew
where I might find him!"
I do not mean to enter into the
hot debates respecting the person
and character and work of Jesus
Christ. They are unutterably offen
sive. Men have fought over his
cross until the smoke of their cannon
has obscured the vision of his life
and death from their eyes. I will
have none of it. I will not debate.
Let me only say I believe that God
was in Christ ; that Christ was God
96

THE DOOR
manifest in the flesh. He is the
highest and supremest manifestation
of this unknown God possible in a
single human life. What Christ was,
God is ; coming into every sorrow
ing household with the message,
"Thy brother shall rise again";
coming to every Pharisee with the
warning, "Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
devour widows' houses and for a
pretence make long prayer"; com
ing to every despairing sinner with
the words, " Go in peace ; thy sins
are forgiven thee."
For what purpose did the Son of
God come into the world, living,
teaching, suffering, dying ? He said
97

THE DOOR
of himself, " I am the door." We
stop for a few moments at the
bronze doors of the Baptistery in
Florence to admire their art; then
we pass through the door and go in.
A door is not merely to be admired ;
it is an entranceway. Christ is the
door by which we enter in unto
God; he is the door by which God
enters in unto us. " No man," he
says, "cometh unto the Father but
by me." This is not because God
has shut up all other doors of en
trance to him, allowing us but one.
It is because the Infinite can mani
fest himself to the finite only in
one way — by becoming, as it were,
finite. He can manifest himself to
98

THE DOOR
humanity only in one way, namely,
in the terms of a human experi
ence. This is the significance of the
resurrection of Christ. The mere
fact that a man died in the first
century and rose again from the
dead would not of itself greatly
concern us. It is not a matter of
vital concern whether Lazarus rose
from the dead or not. But it is a
matter of vital concern if we have
in Christ Jesus a Master who could
not die ; who, having apparently
died, came back again with visible
witness to his own disciples, that
we might know that he lives to-day
as truly in every American town as
99

THE DOOR
he ever did in Nazareth — as truly
by our side as he ever was by the
side of James and John.
"O that I knew where I might
find him!" Look about: he is in
all the phenomena of life. Look
back : he is in the one incomparable
Son of God. Look within : he is
in every noble discontent, in every
inspiring aspiration. We need not
ascend up into the heavens to bring
him down. We need not go down
into the depths to bring him up.
He is in the hearts of all who truly
desire him.
"O that I knew where I might
find him ! " We can find him in
the Infinite and Eternal Energy
ioo

THE DOOR
from which all things proceed. We
can find him in "the Power not
ourselves that makes for righteous
ness," which is building up out of
history a kingdom of truth and
purity and liberty and justice. We
can find him in the one transcendent
figure in human history manifesting
the Divine Spirit because manifest
ing the infinite and unquenchable
love. We can find him in the spirit
in our own hearts, of truth and
purity and goodness, which we mis
call our better nature, but which is
in reality God's own voice, God's
own presence, God's own spirit,
speaking to us and working in us —
"never so far as even to be near,"
101

THE BOOR
"closer than breathing, nearer than
hands or feet."
" If a man love me, he will keep
my word: and my Father will love
him, and we will come unto him
and make our abode with him."

1 02

CHRIST'S YOKE

VIII
CHRIST'S YOKE

is

COMRADESHIP with God
the secret, not only of joy
and peace, but of efficiency. In
that comradeship we find rest, not
from our work, but in our work.
When Christ says, " Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest; take my
yoke upon you, and learn of me,"
he does not invite us to lay aside
our work. He offers us rest in our
105

CHRIST'S YOKE
work. The invitation is to those
that are laboring and bearing bur
dens. The promise is to teach them
how so to labor and how so to bear
their burdens as not to be wearied
by them. It is not a couch which
he offers us, but a yoke ; and a yoke
is an instrument for the accomplish
ment of work.
A boy is tugging with his fingers
at a stone embedded in the ground,
in a vain endeavor to raise it up. A
wiser companion stops him. "I will
show you how to do that more
easily," he says. And he takes a
small stone from the roadside as a
fulcrum, and a branch from a tree
as a lever, and in a moment the
1 06

CHRIST'S YOKE
embedded stone is raised from its
resting-place. In the same way
Christ says to us, Come, and I will
teach you how to reach g^reat results
with little labor.
The secret of all modern civil
ization is comradeship with God.
A few years ago I visited a shop in
Greece where exquisite silks were
being woven. The beauty of the
silk and the skill of the loom-han
dlers did not impress me so much as
the fact that all the power by which
the three or four looms in the room
were worked was supplied by two
or three poor, bent-backed laboring
women turning a crank all day long.
Modern science harnesses the rapids
107

CHRIST'S YOKE
above Niagara Falls to some turbine-
wheels, and so sets them revolving
electric dynamos which tap the
electric currents that encircle the
world; the transformed power of
the rapids is carried to Buffalo and
lights the city. Modern science is
able to do this because it has learned
how to do its work with God; to
take the powers with which he has
stored the world ; to learn of him ;
to use his yoke.
For a yoke is not only an imple
ment of industry : it is a symbol of
comradeship. The yoke binds two
together. To take Christ's yoke
upon us is to be yoked to Christ.
Work with me, says Christ, and
108

CHRIST'S YOKE
your work will be easy ; work with
me, and your burden will be light.
This is what Paul means when he
says, " I can do all things through
him who strengtheneth me." We
fail to recognize the spiritual forces
in the world which are working for
righteousness ; we think we must
conquer; we see how great are the
forces against us; and we are dis
mayed. But he who has any ex
perience of divine companionship
learns the meaning of the saying,
"One with God is a majority."
Twelve Galilean peasants conquer
pagan Rome. The martyrdom of
Huss wins a victory for religious
freedom. The Mayflower Pil-
109

CHRIST'S YOKE
grims are more than a match for
the Stuarts.
It is worry, not work, that kills;
and how can one who is doing
God's work in companionship with
God worry about results ? Worry
is distrust; worry is disbelief. Trust
and faith forbid worry. Christ has
given to us the secret of peace in
the sentence, "Let not your heart
be troubled, neither let it be afraid;
ye have faith in God, have faith
also in me." Faith in him means
faith in a God who is in his world,
who is working out the world's
redemption, who is making of it
in every generation a better world;
whose resources are ample, whose
no

CHRIST'S YOKE
hopes are infinite, whose results are
sure; who will not cease his work
until the kingdom of God has come
and the will of God is done on earth
as in heaven.
One mother gives her sick child
into the care of a professional nurse
and goes off to the ball, dismissing
the sick-chamber from her mind;
a second sits by the side of her sick
child, with anxiety written in her
face and expressed in every motion
of her body, until the doctor con
trives how to send her from the
room because she is adding to her
child's restlessness ; the third mother
supplements the services of the pro
fessional nurse by the serene and

in

CHRIST'S YOKE
placid temper which she brings into
the sick-room. She yokes herself
to God, and the doctor declares to
himself, This mother is better medi
cine than any I can give. These are
the three ways in which men take
troubles. They forget them ; they
worry over them ; they conquer
them. By doing the work which
God has given us to do and leaving
the results to God, we conquer all
forms of anxiety, care, and worry.
The continual prayer, "Thy will be
done," is the secret of a quiet mind.
It was the secret of Christ's peace.
It is not our business to set the
world right. It is our business to
do what we can in our own little
112

CHRIST'S YOKE
corner to set that little corner right.
That was a wise teacher who, when
one of his pupils came to him with
anxious heart and fretted face be
cause the boys' prayer-meeting did
not go as he thought it ought to,
replied to him, "God took care of
the universe before you were born,
and God can take care of the uni
verse after you are dead." Let us
be content to do our own work and
let everything else go.
I do the little I can do,
And leave the rest to God.

"3

THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT

IX
THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT
THE fruit of the spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, fidelity, meek
ness, self-control." How shall we
get these fruits of the spirit ? We
cannot make them. Fruits that are
made are artificial fruits ; real fruits
grow. " Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow; they toil not,
neither do they spin ; and yet I say
unto you that even Solomon in all
117

THE FR UITS OF THE SPIRIT
his glory was not arrayed like one
of these." Why not? Because they
toil not, neither do they spin. Solo
mon's glory was wrought with much
toiling and spinning, and was put on
him; the glory of the lily is de
veloped spontaneously from within.
How shall we get these fruits of the
spirit? Certainly not by laboring
for them. By just living in the spirit
and letting the fruits grow. "What
shall I do to be saved?" "Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved." Do what he bids
you, and let him do the saving.
What shall I do to get this fellow
ship with the Great Companion and
the fruits of this fellowship? Follow
118

THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT
Christ in your life, and leave him to
bring to you the fellowship and its
fruits. Suppose that a patient, in going
into a hospital, were to take her
watch, her thermometer, and her
hand-glass with her, and every hour
were to measure her pulse-beat by
her watch, and take her temperature
with her thermometer, and look at
her tongue in the hand-glass, and ask
herself at each new self-examination
whether her symptoms indicated
grip, or typhoid, or malarial fever,
or pneumonia, and what they indi
cated as to her condition, whether
worse or better. She would not
promote her recovery by the process,
119

THE FR UITS OF THE SPIRIT
and certainly she would not promote
her peace of mind. What the doc
tor wants of his patient is that she
should not examine herself; that
she should never try her pulse, or
take her temperature, or look at her
tongue; that she should never ask
herself or him how she is getting
along. The patient who forgets
herself, asks no questions, leaves him
to kill her or cure her as he will,
while she simply obeys his directions
without questioning, — in brief, who
discharges herself of all responsibility
and lets it rest upon him, — is the
best patient and makes the best
possible contribution to her own
cure. The meaning of the parable

1 20

THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT
is plain enough. Jesus Christ is the
Saviour of men, the physician of
souls. Our business is simply to
follow his directions, and never to
ask ourselves how we are getting
on; never to test our symptoms, or
examine into our spiritual condi
tions, or ask ourselves whether we
are getting better or worse. Spiri
tual self-examination almost inevi
tably produces spiritual hypochon
dria. "Which of you by taking
thought can add one cubit unto his
stature?" is as applicable to spiritual
as to physical stature. It is not for
us to save our own lives ; that is his
business. It is our business to do
the work God has given us to do.

121

THE FR UITS OF THE SPIRIT
When we turn aside from doing the
work he has given us, in order to do
his work, we get into trouble.
You want peace and righteous
ness. Which is it that you want —
peace or righteousness? They are
not identical. Christ did not always
have peace; he did not have it in
the temptation in the wilderness,
nor in the struggle in the Garden
of Gethsemane ; but he always had
righteousness. It is a matter of little
consequence whether you have peace
or not, but it is a matter of the
greatest consequence whether you
are righteous. And you will never
get peace by pursuing it; you will
get it only by pursuing righteousness.

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THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT
Peace flees from those who pursue
her ; but those who pursue right
eousness with singleness of purpose
she steals up behind unexpectedly
and folds in her embrace.
Forget yourself, and think only
of your duty. Do what Christ bids
you do, regardless of the question
whether he gives you peace for do
ing it or not. Read the Sermon on
the Mount, and then try to live it.
"Let your light so shine." Do you
know, or can you find, any darkened
home? Go into it and carry the
illumination of a bright and cheery
presence. "Love your enemies."
Do you know any one who has
done you an ill turn ? Study how
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THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT
you can do him a good turn. Give
the whole of your mind to doing
each hour the duty which lies next
to you. And when the day is over,
waste no time in an idle review to
see whether you have done the duty
well or not. Put your thoughts on
the morrow, on the question what
you can find to do to make some
one happier and better for your
being in the world. If you have
peace, be glad of it. If you have
no peace, go on just the same, re
solved to show yourself, the world,
and your Master how loyal you can
be to your own life, to your fellow-
men, and to him.
Is this substituting obedience to
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THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT
the law for acceptance of Christ?
Is it a subtle form of legalism ? No.
The essence of legalism is doing
work as a servant in order to earn a
servant's wages. We are to accept
Christ as a friend, and render him
our service because we believe in
him and love him. The way to
comradeship with God is to do for
God and with God the work which
God has given us to do, and leave
him to do in his own time and by
his own methods the work which
he has not given us to do. Making
ourselves over is not a part of the
work which he has given us to do.
We cannot make ourselves over.
The more we study our symptoms
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THE FR UITS OF THE SPIRIT
and medicate ourselves, the more
miserable we are, and the less we
have of his conscious companion
ship. The way to conscious fellow
ship with God is indicated by the
Psalmist :
Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts :
And see if there be any way of wicked
ness in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Let God do the searching. Let
God do the trying. Let God lead
us into the experiences which will
burn out the dross and purify the
gold. The way to conscious fellow
ship with God is indicated by the
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THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT
apostle: "Let us run with patience
the race that is set before us, look
ing unto Jesus, the author and fin
isher of faith." If we are willing
to go where he is willing to lead
us, we need not fear that he will
fail to make us over. If we will
forget ourselves and put all our
strength on running the race which
he has set before us, we need not
fear that we shall not eventually be
crowned: and the crown is comrade
ship with God.

127

DEVOUT FORGETTING

X
DEVOUT FORGETTING
WHEN we have lost com
radeship with God by our
own wilful wrong-doing, how shall
we recover it? What shall we do
with the follies, the faults, and the
transgressions of the past? When
our iniquities have separated be
tween us and our God, and our
sins have hid his face from us that
he will not hear, how shall we re
gain our Great Companion? 131

DEVOUT FORGETTING
Come, sit down here with me,
and let us talk this over quite
frankly. You have sinned; you think,
probably truthfully, that you have
grievously sinned; you fear that
you have sinned away the day of
grace, as it is said; that you have
committed the unpardonable sin ;
that there is for you no forgiveness.
You are sorry for your sin ; you re
pent of it. This does not merely
mean that you are afraid of the
consequences ; that you would be
glad to go on in sin if you were
not afraid of the consequences. It
means that the sin itself has become
loathsome to you. You hate it;
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DEVOUT FORGETTING
you want to get away from it, to
be delivered from it, to come back
into a state in which you can re
spect yourself, and in which others,
however thoroughly they might
know your inmost life or the secrets
of your past life, could also respect
you. But though you repent of
your sin, though you loathe it and
want to escape from it, you cannot
think that you are forgiven. The
reason you cannot think that you
are forgiven is because you have no
peace ; you do not enjoy that con
sciousness of forgiveness of which
you read in books of biography, or
of which you have heard in ser
mons and in prayer-meeting expe-
*33

DEVOUT FORGETTING
riences. Sometimes you feel your
sin and the isolation which it has
produced very bitterly; sometimes
you simply do not feel at all ; you
seem to yourself to be inert, dead,
" past feeling," as the Bible says,
and so you think that you are not
and cannot be forgiven, and you
know not what you can do.
The simple answer to all this is
that you are making a great mis
take ; that you are looking for the
effect to precede the cause. Peace
is not the result of being forgiven ;
it is the result of believing that one
is forgiven. You are expecting to
believe that you are forgiven because
you are at peace, but you can have
*34

DEVOUT FORGETTING
peace only when you believe that
you are forgiven. You are to be
lieve that you are forgiven, not be
cause you experience any change of
feeling, but because Christ declares
that he forgives you. He declares
that he will receive to the utter
most all those that come to him.
His prophet declares that if the
wicked forsake his way and the
unrighteous man his thoughts, and
return unto the Lord, the Lord
will have mercy upon him and will
abundantly pardon him. You are
to believe this, not because you
have experienced the joy of pardon,
but on the testimony of others —
of the prophet, of the Bible, of
*3S

DEVOUT FORGETTING
Christ, and of Christians in all ages
of the world. Until you believe
this, of course you cannot have
peace, for peace is the result, not of
being pardoned, but of believing
that you are pardoned.
You carry to a prisoner the Gov
ernor's pardon and say to him,
"You are free; the door is open;
come out." "No," he replies; "if
I were free, I should not be in this
cell. When I am out of it, then I
will believe that I am pardoned and
that I am free." Like such a pris
oner, you are pardoned if you are
sick of the sin, whether you know
you are pardoned or not. You are
to go out of the cell because you
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DEVOUT FORGETTING
are free ; you are not free because
you have gone out of the cell.
But what of the past ? The bro
ken resolutions cannot be mended,
the lost opportunities cannot be
recovered, the cruel words cannot
be taken back, the injuries inflicted
cannot be repaired. What of the
past ?
I answer : Study yesterday in
order to learn wisdom for to
morrow, but when the lesson has
been learned study it no longer.
We ought to learn wisdom from
our mistakes; we ought to acquire
virtues from our sins. Why this
act of folly which we lament ?
Spend no time in repining ; but
i37

DEVOUT FORGETTING
spend all the time that is necessary
in order to learn its lesson. Was
it due to vanity ? or greed ? or
appetite ? or self-conceit ? or a
weak and wayward will? Find
out. Then be on guard against the
same enemy to your honor when
he attacks you at a new point and
under new circumstances. We all
make mistakes; we all commit
transgressions. But we ought not
to repeat the same mistakes — that
is to blunder; we ought not to
commit the same transgressions —
that is doubly dishonorable. For
get the things which are behind,
and stretch forward to the things
which are before. No man ought
138

DEVOUT FORGETTING
to carry the past as a prisoner car
ries the ball chained to his ankle.
No man ought to allow the mem
ory of the past to prevent his peace
and joy in present fellowship with
God. God declares that he buries
our sins in the depths of the sea; it
is not right nor wise for us to fish
them up again and take a new in
ventory of them. He blots them
out of the book of his remem
brance; it is neither right nor wise
for us to engrave them with pens
of steel in the book of our remem
brance. To do this is to disbelieve
his word, distrust his forgiveness,
refuse his comradeship. It is in
jurious to us, insulting to him. To
*39

DEVOUT FORGETTING
do this is for Peter to refuse to
accept the bishopric proffered to
him ; for John to refuse to rest his
head on Christ's bosom because a
few days before he has ambitiously
sought the best place in Christ's
kingdom ; for the Prodigal to reject
the proffer of the robe and the
festal board, because he has been
prodigal. Not even our sins should
exclude us from the comradeship
of God, who delights to pardon
iniquity. The last time before his death
that Peter looked on Jesus was
as Jesus was being led out from
the court of Caiaphas to Pilate's
judgment-seat, and the oaths and
140

DEVOUT FORGETTING
curses with which Peter was de
nying his Lord were still trem
bling on his lips. The first time
after his resurrection that Peter
saw Jesus was by the Galilean Sea,
when the Master asked the disciple,
Do you love me? as many times as
the disciple had denied the Master.
Christ recalled the past, burnt it in
upon Peter's memory, probed his
heart to the uttermost, despite the
hurt of the probing. But he did
it only that he might add emphasis
to the instruction, " Feed my sheep."
The only value of the backward
look is as a preparation for a future
life. It is well for us sometimes to
number our days, but only " that
141

DEVOUT FORGETTING
we may apply our hearts unto
wisdom." But when we have ap
plied our hearts unto wisdom, when
we have learned the lesson of the
past, and learned it thoroughly,
then we are to rise up and go about
Christ's business, " forgetting those
things which are behind, and reach
ing forth unto those things which
are before."
The Great Companion is still
our Companion, although we have
sinned. That is the Gospel. He
is what Jesus was, The Friend of
sinners. He has taken the burden
of our sins upon himself. We are
to show our love and loyalty to
him by allowing him to take that
142

DEVOUT FORGETTING
burden, without attempting to take
it from him. Go out in Christ's
spirit and take upon yourself the
burden of others' sins, and let him
take the burden of yours. You
cannot alter the past: leave that to
him ; give yourself to the future.
You cannot earn the remission of
your sins : accept it as his free gift ;
then, inspired by gratitude and love
to him, go forth to carry the remis
sion of sins to others. This is the
answer to the question, How shall
we regain our Great Companion?

H3

DEVOUT REMEMBERING

XI
DEVOUT REMEMBERING
WE are to forget ourselves and
remember God ; we are to
forget ourselves by remembering
God; forget our perplexities by re
membering his guidance; forget our
failures and follies by remembering
his deliverance of us; forget our
sorrows by remembering the com
fort he has given to us; forget our
tears by remembering that he has
wiped them away; forget our sins
147

DEVOUT REMEMBERING
by remembering his forgiveness.
Surely Mary and Martha did not
keep alive the memory of that sad
hour when Lazarus closed his eyes
in death, and answered no more to
their caresses; the memory of the
moment when, answering to the
call of Jesus, he came forth from
his grave into the sunlight, must
have erased the other picture from
their thoughts. Surely Peter did
not live over again the scene of his
cowardly denials by the fire in the
courtyard, surrounded by the jeer
ing servants; the memory of that
other scene when, by the quiet sea
and in the early dawn, Christ gave
him again his commission as apostle
148

DEVOUT REMEMBERING
was the one on which his thoughts
delighted to dwell.
Forgetting and remembering are
results of the same mental opera
tion. We remember when we fix
our attention upon a past incident;
we forget when we turn our atten
tion away from it. In this, as in all
our experiences, we are to overcome
evil with good; we are to erase the
pictures which dishearten, depress,
and discourage us by substituting for
them the pictures which hearten,
encourage, and inspire; we are to
forget our sorrows by remembering
God's comfort; we are to forget
our sins by remembering God's for
giveness. Our mind is more sub-
149

DEVOUT REMEMBERING
ject to our will than we are apt to
think. The memory is a gallery
whose walls are covered with many
pictures; we can choose what pic
tures we will look at. This is
what Paul means when he bids us
bring " every thought into captivity
to the obedience of Christ." It is
always easier to turn our eyes from
one picture to another than to close
our eyes altogether. The easiest
way to forget what is best forgotten
is to remember what is best worth
remembering. The easiest way to
forget our own follies and failures
and sins is to remember God's good
nesses. The involuntary consciousness of
150

DEVOUT REMEMBERING
the divine Presence is the result of
a voluntary attention to the effect
of that Presence in our lives. If
we wish that a sense of the Great
Companion shall be always with
us, we must fasten our attention
upon those experiences which bear
witness to his presence. This is
the reason why the Bible lays so
much stress on special remem
brances of God. Attend, it seems
to say, to his manifestations of him
self in special experiences; so you
will learn to realize that he is in
all experiences. " Remember that
thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and
the Lord redeemed thee." "Re
member the days of old, consider
J51

DEVOUT REMEMBERING
the years of many generations : ask
thy father, and he will show thee;
thy elders, and they will tell thee."
" I call to remembrance my song
in the night. ... I will remember
the years of the right hand of the
Most High." " Seek the Lord and
his strength; seek his face ever
more. Remember his marvellous
works that he hath done." This
last verse interprets the others: it
is by remembering his marvellous
works that we seek his strength and
his face. Remembrance of his past
graciousness is the way to win the
consciousness of his continual pres
ence. In this is the value of securing
152

DEVOUT REMEMBERING
certain times and places for the
special cultivation of our conscious
fellowship with God. It is true
that all places are holy places; that
all times are sacred times ; that God
is in all our experiences. But it is
also true that we shall not see him
if we do not look for him, and
that the mind is so subject to the
law of association that we shall most
easily see him in all places and at
all times if we form a habit of
looking for him in certain sacred
places and at certain sacred times.
It is doubtful if Ezekiel would have
seen God in the desert, if he had
not first seen him in the Temple.
Even Christ had his special hours
*S3

DEVOUT REMEMBERING
set apart to devotion. No man is so
saintly that he can well dispense
with aids to the devotional life
which Christ found valuable, if not
absolutely needful. This is the
value of public worship. We go
to church not for the sermon, or
the music, or the prayers: we go
for the atmosphere. When I am
with a hundred devout men and
women, who have in some measure
a consciousness of the divine pres
ence, or even a consciousness of
their need of it, their vision gives
vision to me, their imagination en
kindles my imagination, their heart
hunger awakens my heart hunger.
This is the devotional value in
J54

DEVOUT REMEMBERING
sacred art. My grandchild has
been making me a visit; and every
morning we have taken him to the
photograph of his mother, and he
has spoken to the photograph :
"Mamma." The picture has kept
her in his remembrance. Doubt
less, there is a danger lest the soul
shall substitute the image for the
reality, the crucifix for the Christ.
Whether the danger outweighs the
advantage, whether the Second
Commandment is to be interpreted
as forbidding all graven images or
only all worship of graven images,
I do not here discuss: for the ob
ject of these pages is not discussion,
but exposition and interpretation.
*5S

DEVOUT REMEMBERING
But I may remind my Roman Cath
olic readers that their own church
forbids them to venerate the image,
and bids them use the image never
as a substitute for the living Person,
but only to recall him ; and I may
remind my Protestant readers that
it may be less acceptable to Christ
to forget him altogether than to
recall him to our thoughts by means
of a statuette or a picture. That
we may rise above the use of sacred
symbols I do not doubt; but no
one can doubt that we may fall
below it.
This is the value of those quiet
hours which the night sometimes
affords us. Insomnia has lost its
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DEVOUT REMEMBERING
dread since I learned the meaning
of the Psalmist's declaration : " My
mouth shall praise thee with joyful
lips when I remember thee upon
my bed, and meditate on thee in
the night watches." The man who
spends his sleepless hours in such
remembrance makes them joyful
hours. He does not lie tossing to
and fro, wondering whether he shall
ever fall asleep again, anxious lest he
shall prove unfitted for the morrow's
duties, trying to put himself to
sleep by endless combinations of
numbers or by repeating senseless
rhymes : he lies restfully and reads
in the book of his remembrance
the record of his Father's love, or
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DEVOUT REMEMBERING
looks calmly at the morrow's duties
or the morrow's perils because he
looks at them as through his Fa
ther's eyes, or communes with his
own heart and in its uninterpretable
experiences hears the voice of his
Father, or simply is still and knows
that God is God ; and he finally
falls to sleep as a child in his Fa
ther's arms, and wakes in the morn
ing more refreshed by his hour of
sleeplessness than by all that the
hours of sleep have brought to
him. The Great Companion is not
dead. He is not talking, nor pur
suing, nor in a journey, nor sleep
ing and must be awakened. It is
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DEVOUT REMEMBERING
we who are talking, and pursu
ing, and in a journey, and sleep
ing and must be awakened. If we
will stop our talking and listen, we
may hear him ; if we will stop our
pursuing after we know not what,
we shall find him at our side ; if
we will return from our journey
into the far country, he will come
forth to meet us ; if we will rouse
ourselves at the voice of conscience,
which every now and then pierces
to our consciousness and disturbs
our slumbers, we shall find our
selves in his presence. For still, as
of old, is it true :
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art
there : *S9

DEVOUT REMEMBERING
If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou
art there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea;
Even there shall thy hand lead me,
And thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover
me ;
Even the night shall be light about me.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee ;
But the night shineth as the day :
The darkness and the light are both
alike to thee.

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