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+ float: left; + margin-right: 1em } + +.align-right { clear: right; + float: right; + margin-left: 1em } + +.align-center { margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto } + +div.shrinkwrap { display: table; } + +/* SECTIONS */ + +body { margin: 5% 10% 5% 10% } + +/* compact list items containing just one p */ +li p.pfirst { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0 } + +.first { margin-top: 0 !important; + text-indent: 0 !important } +.last { margin-bottom: 0 !important } + +span.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 1 } +img.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.5em 0 0; max-width: 25% } +span.dropspan { font-variant: small-caps } + +.no-page-break { page-break-before: avoid !important } + +/* PAGINATION */ + +@media screen { + .coverpage, .frontispiece, .titlepage, .verso, .dedication, .plainpage + { margin: 10% 0; } + + div.clearpage, div.cleardoublepage + { margin: 10% 0; border: none; border-top: 1px solid gray; } + + .vfill { margin: 5% 10% } +} + +@media print { + div.clearpage { page-break-before: always; padding-top: 10% } + div.cleardoublepage { page-break-before: right; padding-top: 10% } + + .vfill { margin-top: 20% } + h2.title { margin-top: 20% } +} + +</style> +<title>ONE DAY AT A TIME</title> +<meta name="PG.Rights" content="Public Domain" /> +<meta name="PG.Title" content="One Day at a Time" /> +<meta name="PG.Producer" content="Al Haines" /> +<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Arch. Alexander" /> +<meta name="DC.Created" content="1920" /> +<meta name="PG.Id" content="39309" /> +<meta name="PG.Released" content="2012-03-29" /> +<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" /> +<meta name="DC.Title" content="One Day at a Time and Other Talks on Life and Religion" /> + +<link href="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" rel="schema.DCTERMS" /> +<link href="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators" rel="schema.MARCREL" /> +<meta content="One Day at a Time and Other Talks on Life and Religion" name="DCTERMS.title" /> +<meta content="day.rst" name="DCTERMS.source" /> +<meta content="en" scheme="DCTERMS.RFC4646" name="DCTERMS.language" /> +<meta content="2012-03-30T00:06:00.811927+00:00" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.modified" /> +<meta content="Project Gutenberg" name="DCTERMS.publisher" /> +<meta content="Public Domain in the USA." name="DCTERMS.rights" /> +<link href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39309" rel="DCTERMS.isFormatOf" /> +<meta content="Arch. Alexander" name="DCTERMS.creator" /> +<meta content="2012-03-29" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.created" /> +<meta content="width=device-width" name="viewport" /> +<meta content="EpubMaker 0.3 by Marcello Perathoner <webmaster@gutenberg.org>" name="generator" /> +<style type="text/css"> +.pageno { position: absolute; right: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; text-indent: 0 } +.pageno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } +.lineno { position: absolute; left: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; text-indent: 0 } +.lineno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } +.toc-pageref { float: right } +pre { font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.9em; white-space: pre-wrap } +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39309 ***</div> +<div class="document" id="one-day-at-a-time"> +<h1 class="document-title level-1 pfirst title">ONE DAY AT A TIME</h1> +<div class="noindent vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-produced-by"><span>Produced by Al Haines.</span></p> +<div class="noindent vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst"><span></span></p> +</div> +<div class="center large line-block noindent outermost"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">A DAY AT A TIME</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">AND OTHER TALKS</div> +<div class="line">ON LIFE AND RELIGION</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">BY THE REV.</div> +<div class="line">ARCH. ALEXANDER, M.A., B.D.</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">Author of</div> +<div class="line">"The Glory in the Grey"</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">SECOND EDITION</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">LONDON: H. R. ALLENSON, LIMITED</div> +<div class="line">RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">Printed in Great Britain</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh</em></div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">THIS BOOK</div> +<div class="line">WRITTEN IN WAR-TIME</div> +<div class="line">TO MINISTER COMFORT</div> +<div class="line">AND IF IT MAY BE TO REINFORCE HOPE</div> +<div class="line">AND FAITH</div> +<div class="line">IS DEDICATED</div> +<div class="line">BY PERMISSION</div> +<div class="line">TO</div> +<div class="line">SIR JOHN R. JELLICOE</div> +<div class="line">G.C.B., K.C.V.O.</div> +<div class="line">ADMIRAL OF THE GRAND FLEET</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +<div class="left line-block outermost small"> +<div class="line">"There are nettles everywhere,</div> +<div class="line">But smooth green grasses are more common still;</div> +<div class="line">The blue of heaven is larger than the cloud."</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">E. B. BROWNING</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">CONTENTS</div> +</div> +<div class="left line-block medium outermost"> +<div class="line">1. <a class="reference internal" href="#a-day-at-a-time">A DAY AT A TIME</a></div> +<div class="line">2. <a class="reference internal" href="#god-in-the-wheels">GOD IN THE WHEELS</a></div> +<div class="line">3. <a class="reference internal" href="#a-triple-best">A TRIPLE BEST</a></div> +<div class="line">4. <a class="reference internal" href="#finical-farming">FINICAL FARMING</a></div> +<div class="line">5. <a class="reference internal" href="#the-doctor">THE DOCTOR</a></div> +<div class="line">6. <a class="reference internal" href="#well-and-now">WELL AND NOW</a></div> +<div class="line">7. <a class="reference internal" href="#the-washen-face-in-war-time">THE "WASHEN FACE" IN WAR TIME</a></div> +<div class="line">8. <a class="reference internal" href="#the-real-martha">THE REAL MARTHA</a></div> +<div class="line">9. <a class="reference internal" href="#our-unearned-increment">OUR UNEARNED INCREMENT</a></div> +<div class="line">10. <a class="reference internal" href="#smoking-wicks">SMOKING WICKS</a></div> +<div class="line">11. <a class="reference internal" href="#culpable-goodness">CULPABLE GOODNESS</a></div> +<div class="line">12. <a class="reference internal" href="#a-khaki-virtue">A KHAKI VIRTUE</a></div> +<div class="line">13. <a class="reference internal" href="#the-overcoming-of-panic">THE OVERCOMING OF PANIC</a></div> +<div class="line">14. <a class="reference internal" href="#the-day-s-darg">THE DAY'S DARG</a></div> +<div class="line">15. <a class="reference internal" href="#gashmu-the-gossip">GASHMU THE GOSSIP</a></div> +<div class="line">16. <a class="reference internal" href="#god-in-front">GOD IN FRONT</a></div> +<div class="line">17. <a class="reference internal" href="#unbelief-kept-quiet">"UNBELIEF KEPT QUIET"</a></div> +<div class="line">18. <a class="reference internal" href="#the-equipment-of-joy">THE EQUIPMENT OF JOY</a></div> +<div class="line">19. <a class="reference internal" href="#the-god-of-the-unlovable-man">THE GOD OF THE UNLOVABLE MAN</a></div> +<div class="line">20. <a class="reference internal" href="#under-the-juniper-tree">UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE</a></div> +<div class="line">21. <a class="reference internal" href="#instructing-the-cabin-boy">INSTRUCTING THE CABIN BOY</a></div> +<div class="line">22. <a class="reference internal" href="#god-s-door-of-hope">GOD'S DOOR OF HOPE</a></div> +<div class="line">23. <a class="reference internal" href="#nowadays">NOWADAYS</a></div> +<div class="line">24. <a class="reference internal" href="#roundabout-roads">ROUNDABOUT ROADS</a></div> +<div class="line">25. <a class="reference internal" href="#the-extravagance-of-love">THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF LOVE</a></div> +<div class="line">26. <a class="reference internal" href="#the-art-of-doing-without">THE ART OF DOING WITHOUT</a></div> +<div class="line">27. <a class="reference internal" href="#wonder">WONDER</a></div> +<div class="line">28. <a class="reference internal" href="#the-fatherhood-of-god">THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD</a></div> +<div class="line">29. <a class="reference internal" href="#the-unreturning-brave">THE UNRETURNING BRAVE</a></div> +<div class="line">30. <a class="reference internal" href="#the-sacrament-of-sunset">THE SACRAMENT OF SUNSET</a></div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="a-day-at-a-time"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">As thy days, so shall thy strength be.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(DEUTERONOMY xxxiii. 25.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">I</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">A DAY AT A TIME</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">If any one of us knows a word of hope or has picked up a message of +comfort anywhere, it is his plain duty to share it, these days. We owe +it to each other to cherish as exceeding precious, and to pass on to +others, every brave and helpful word or thought we come across.</p> +<p class="pnext">Well, here is a splendid one for us all, and especially for those who +have most at stake in this great conflict, and are looking anxiously +ahead and fearing what the weeks may have in store,--"As thy days, so +shall thy strength be." It is a great and glorious promise. And just +a couple of verses further on, it is caught up and included in one +greater still,--"The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the +everlasting arms." Fathers and mothers, with a boy, or more than one, +perhaps, away on active service for King and country, this promise is +for you, to take to your heart and hide there, like some precious +secret between you and God,--As thy days, so shall thy strength be.</p> +<p class="pnext">Notice carefully, however, how the promise runs. Not, mark you, as +your life is, not as your years are, not even as your weeks are, but as +your days, so shall your strength be. For each day as it comes, God's +promise is that strength will be given you, but just for a day at a +time. The way to live under any circumstances, but especially in these +hard weeks, is just a day at a time. Leave to-morrow with God, my +brother, until it comes. That is what the Word of God lays upon you as +a duty. Live this day at your best and bravest, trusting that God's +help will not fail you. And for the duties and trials of to-morrow, +however hard and heavy, believe that strength for that day also will be +given you, when it comes.</p> +<p class="pnext">You cannot have failed to observe what an important place this way of +living had in the teaching of Jesus Christ. He was always trying to +get men to trust the coming days to God, and to live fully worthily and +nobly to-day. He was dead against the practice of adding to the +burdens of to-day fears and forebodings for to-morrow. It is in love +to us, in His desire to save us unnecessary pain, that He bids us +remember that "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."</p> +<p class="pnext">In one of R. D. Blackmore's fine open-air stories, there is a character +who talks at length about horses. After comparing good ones and bad +ones in their behaviour the first time they breast a hill with a load +behind them, he sums the matter up thus: "Howsoever good a horse be, he +longeth to see over the top of the hill before he be half-way up it." +The man who is listening to him confesses that he has often felt that +way himself! And I do not know that there are many of us who can claim +to be guiltless in this respect. Yet it is perfectly plain that the +men and women who are living the bravest and most successful lives +around us, and are proving towers of strength to others, are those who +have learned the art of living just a day at a time, and of depending +upon God for strength for that day in the simplest and most trustful +fashion.</p> +<p class="pnext">Why, my brothers, if God our Father had meant us to carry on our backs +the fears and anxieties of the coming days, He would surely have told +us more about them! If we were meant to bear to-day what next week +holds, surely we should have been permitted to see into next week. But +we cannot. We cannot see a single second ahead. God gives us Now, and +To-Morrow He keeps to Himself. Is there anything wiser or better we +can do with our to-morrows than just to leave them quietly and +trustfully with Him?</p> +<p class="pnext">The habit of living ahead, as so many of us do, prevents us from +getting the full taste and flavour of the happiness and blessing that +are ours to-day. I defy any man to be adequately grateful for this +day's sunshine if he is worrying all the time about the chance of a bad +day to-morrow. Mark Rutherford, merciless self-critic as he was, takes +himself severely to task for this habit in his "Autobiography." "I +learned, alas! when it was almost too late," he says, "to live in each +moment as it passed over my head, believing that the sun as it is now +rising, is as good as it ever will be." Yes, in great things as well +as in little things, that is true. If we are to live our lives at the +full, and anywhere on the Christian level, the only way is to live one +day at a time.</p> +<p class="pnext">Our forefathers in the pulpit were fond of reminding their hearers to +live each day as if it were their last. And in solemn truth, without +being in the least morbid, that is the way to live. If a man knew that +after to-day, he would not smell the sea again, how fully and +gratefully would he fill his lungs with its ozone to-day! If he knew +he were not to enter God's House again, how earnestly and sincerely and +reverently he would join in its worship to-day! Yes, but the point is, +why should his hope, that he has other days to come, prevent him taking +out of this day all that he possibly can? Why should this day be any +less prized, because others in all probability will follow it?</p> +<p class="pnext">But the great value of this word is the comfort of it to those who are +anxious and fear the coming days. And which of us is not in that +category? I do not suppose there is one of my readers upon whom, +somehow or other, the war has not levied its tax. Nearly every one has +somebody belonging to him or her who is in this gigantic struggle, and +whose welfare is a matter of real concern. And, closer still, there +are fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, whose very dearest are +"in it" or are getting ready to do their share. They have joined, and +we are proud that they have joined, for this is a cause that ennobles +every mother's son who fights for it. But who shall say what the +mother's thoughts are, these days? How proud, and justly proud, the +father is that his boy has played the man, and offered himself to his +King and for his country! But only God, who made the father--and the +mother--heart, knows what the surrender costs. And only God knows how +eagerly and anxiously they look ahead to try to see what the future may +hold.</p> +<p class="pnext">And, knowing that, He sends His comfort to you, fathers and mothers. +The comfort of His promise,--As thy days, so shall thy strength be. +Just a day at a time, my friend! Do not take fears for next month on +your shoulders now. You will get strength given you for to-day, +certain and sure, and when next month comes, the strength and comfort +for that day will come too, as certain and as sure. Be not +over-anxious about the morrow. Leave your to-morrow, and your +soldier-son, in God's hands. You can do nothing more at the best, and +this is the best. But it is such a mistake to do anything less. Leave +all your to-morrows with God--it is what He wants you to do--and humbly +and gratefully take from His hands His gift of To-day, and the strength +that comes with it. If that be not enough--and it is not enough for +God has said more--when that is not enough, still your heart a moment, +and listen! And you will hear, beneath that promise for to-day, like +the grand deep tones of an organ, the magnificent diapason of the +Father's constant love and mindfulness,--"The eternal God is thy +refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." And surely that is +enough!</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"So for To-morrow and its needs</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">I do not pray,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">But keep me, guide me, help me, Lord,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Just for To-Day."</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">O Lord our God, who dost appoint the way for each of us, give us the +grace to trust that as Thou hast helped us hitherto, so, in Thy great +mercy, Thou wilt bless us still. We do not ask to see the distant +scene. Keep us, and our beloved, this day; and in quietness and +confidence teach us to leave to-morrow with Thee, our Father. Through +Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="god-in-the-wheels"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">The Spirit of life was in the wheels.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(EZEKIEL i. 21.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">II</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">GOD IN THE WHEELS</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">The prophet Ezekiel once had an extraordinary vision of God. He tries +to tell us about it, but his description seems to be a meaningless +jumble of cherubim, and wheels,--wheels within wheels, complex, +wonderful, unresting. Behind all, he saw the Glory of God. And again +and again he tells us that "the Spirit of Life was in the wheels."</p> +<p class="pnext">Now that at least is intelligible, and it is a good thing for us to +think about. The Spirit of God is in the wheels.</p> +<p class="pnext">I want to suggest to you that He is in the wheels of industry. We have +no hesitation in saying that God gives the farmer his harvest, and we +actually thank Him for it in His temple. A shepherd with a lamb in his +arms is for a pastoral people like the Jews the very image of the +Saviour God. But men who dwell in towns, and work in mills and +factories and yards and railways, or who control or manage such places, +have little to do with either corn or sheep. Is it not worth while to +remind them that God is also in the wheels? Do you remember how +Kipling's old chief engineer Macandrew believed that his twin monsters, +driving the liner onward on her way, sang their hourly hymn of praise +to God? And why not? From all the wheels of industry and man's +inventiveness, goes there not up to Him a praise as real as the song of +His little birds?</p> +<p class="pnext">Where two or three gather together on Lord's days, God is truly and +graciously present. But I want you to remember that out in the noisy +moving world of industry and business, God is present also, guiding, +controlling and bringing His long, long plans to pass. It is by His +decree that all the countless wheels of traffic and production turn and +spin, for He needs them all, and has brought them into being by the +hands of men, and they are His, as the Church is His. I would not have +you, as Christian men, look upon your week-day world with its mechanism +and its traffic, that world of yours that goes so literally upon +wheels, as a province of life very far remote from the presence of God. +I would remind you rather that God's spirit is in those wheels, that +they move at His bidding, and that they are working out His purposes +upon the earth.</p> +<p class="pnext">I would suggest, further, that God is in those wheels whose turning +brings us Change. If you will allow the figure, I would say that God +is in the wheels of Change and time.</p> +<p class="pnext">As we grow older, we resent more and more the constant alteration of +the surroundings of life. It saddens us that there should be such a +continual moving on. But perhaps it is in the realm of doctrine and +practice that changes hurt and perplex us most. Godly old customs die +out. The face of truth seems to alter. Old notes in religion +disappear and new ones take their place, and we are sorely tempted to +ask if it be possible that the children can know God better or serve +His Christ more truly than their fathers. Ah yes, from forty years and +upwards, men are very apt to have a quarrel with change. They resent +it, and would spike Time's wheels if they could.</p> +<p class="pnext">Forgetting that the Spirit of God is in those very wheels. Change is +God's method and His blessing. The Bible does not envy the man who has +no changes. It is afraid for him, afraid that for want of them, he may +settle on his lees, and forget the fear of God.</p> +<p class="pnext">Of course, no one will defend every new fashion, or assert that +everything recent is an improvement on what went before. But I, for +one, do believe that generation after generation men are moving up, +being shepherded up, the long slope of history nearer to God. I +believe that God's promise is that He will do better for us than at the +beginnings, and I believe He is keeping His promise. I must believe +that the history of this world which man rough hews, is--spite of all +the wars--being shaped by God Himself, or else there is no God at all. +And so I would say to those who distrust the continual changes of life, +and would fain stop the wheels that turn on and on and never halt, +"Fear not! Be of good courage! For aback of all change is God our +Father, and it is His Spirit that is working in the wheels."</p> +<p class="pnext">Again, I would suggest to you that God is in the wheels that shape your +own lot and mine. The wheels of Chance, they are sometimes called, the +mere whirligig of destiny, as if the world were some blind +irresponsible machine grinding on in the dark, and heeding not which or +how many lives were broken in its teeth.</p> +<p class="pnext">And I grant you that there be times when that idea seems feasible. For +life is full of mysterious happenings, and chance sometimes seems the +most probable explanation. The tragedy of Job is always being played +somewhere. There are men who up to a certain point in life have known +nothing but good fortune, and after that, nothing but disappointment +and disaster. Out of a blue sky the bolt may fall on any one; while +from clouds lowering and heavy, it is waited for, expected and +dreaded--and never comes! The merest knife-edge of circumstance +sometimes affects results out of all proportion to its importance. "A +grain of sand in a man's flesh" as Pascal remarks, "has changed the +course of Empires." Yes, I grant you, there be times when the blind +chance theory does suggest itself.</p> +<p class="pnext">But by an overwhelming majority the instinct of man is against it. And +best of all, Jesus Christ, our supreme authority, has pledged Himself +in His life and death, that the Ruler and Disposer of all events is +Eternal Love. We have learned from Jesus to say and to trust "Our +Father who art in Heaven." We know and believe that whatever is to +come falls not by chance, but is sent and permitted by the Love of God, +who makes no mistakes. Taught and inspired by Jesus, many thousands of +men and women have committed themselves and all their interests--home, +health, happiness, reputation, loved ones--to the keeping of God the +Father, and known by the peace that came to them, that it was a real +transaction.</p> +<p class="pnext">Soulless wheels of destiny! say some. The blind mechanism of law! Ah, +no, Jesus is the refutation of that. Law there is, and mechanism there +must be. But neither blind nor soulless. For, above all, is the +Father Love of God, and it is His spirit that is guiding and governing +the wheels.</p> +<p class="pnext">Wheels of Industry, Wheels of Change, Wheels of Destiny. And God's +Spirit in them all!</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">O Lord our God, to whom not only the Church but our whole work-a-day +world belongs, give us the purged sight that can see Thy tokens there. +Deliver us from all foolish fear of changes since the goad moving all +things onward is in our Father's hand. And help us to be sure that +whatsoever befalleth us and ours has been permitted and appointed by a +Love that passeth knowledge. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="a-triple-best"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">The just shall live by faith.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(ROMANS i. 17.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">III</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">A TRIPLE BEST</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Some time ago I came across the life-motto of George Stephenson, the +"father of the locomotive," as he has been called, the man whose brains +and sagacity made possible the network of railways which spreads now +over the earth. The crystallised experience of such a life is worth +studying Here, then, was Stephenson's working formula:--"Make the best +of everything; think the best of everybody; hope the best for yourself."</p> +<p class="pnext">First, MAKE THE BEST OF EVERYTHING. In every set of circumstances +possible or conceivable, there are always, at any rate, two ways of +acting. You can look for the helpful, bright, and hopeful things, and +"freeze on" to these meantime. Or, you can select all the doleful, +sombre aspects, and sit down in the dust with them. Now, if it did not +matter which a man did, there would be no good saying any more. But it +has long since become abundantly clear that the man who makes the best +of his circumstances, however hard they be, comes most happily out of +them in the end. In other words, it pays to make the best of things. +It is the cheery people who recover quickest when they are sick. There +are men who, if their house should fall in ruins about them, will +contrive some sort of shelter meantime with the broken beams! That is +the type that wins out in the end somehow; these are the men to whom +the miracles happen--who never know when they are beaten, who will face +the most tremendous odds with "the half of a broken hope" for a shield, +who are never done until they are dead. What makes for success or +failure in a man is nothing external to him at all. It is something +within him. It is the temper of his spirit. It is the way he captains +his own soul.</p> +<p class="pnext">The other day I saw a photograph of a backyard. It was a little bit of +a place, of the most forlorn appearance, littered with tin cans, +overgrown with weeds, and hemmed round with blank walls of brick. But +it came into the hands of a man who believed in making the best of +things. Another photograph showed that same backyard after a year had +passed. It was still as small as ever, still overlooked by high walls +and surrounded by chimneys. But it was now a perfect little oasis of +beauty amid a wilderness of bricks and slates. Will anybody deny that +that spirit pays?</p> +<p class="pnext">Right up the scale, from little things to the highest things, the man +who looks for the shining possibilities and follows them, is the man on +whom, in our short-sighted way, we say that Fortune smiles. Rather, he +smiles in such a determined way to Fortune, that she has at length to +smile back!</p> +<p class="pnext">Nobody pretends that it is easy, when we have failed, to gather our +powers together and try again. But nearly all the big men have had to +do that very thing. It certainly is not easy, when you have a heavy +burden of your own, to spare a cheery word or a hand of sympathy for +somebody who is really much better off, but there are plenty of people +doing it at this moment. Nero's palace is the last place in this world +where you would expect to find a company of loyal Christian folk. Yet +there were such people there, "the saints of Cæsar's household." And +the grace of God that made that possible can achieve all these lesser +wonders too.</p> +<p class="pnext">Second, THINK THE BEST OF EVERYBODY. There is a winsome legend that +Jesus once revealed Himself in this way:--A knot of idlers had gathered +in the street round a dead dog. One remarked how mangy and unkempt its +hide was. Another said, "What ugly ears!" But a stranger, who had +come forward, said, "Pearls are not whiter than its teeth!" And men +said to one another, "This must be Jesus of Nazareth, for nobody but He +would find something good even in a dead dog." Certainly it is the +mark of the most Christlike men and women that they delight rather in +emphasising the merest speck of goodness than in denouncing the too +visible evil. We can, all too easily, see the fault in another. What +we cannot see is the heart of the defaulter, the weight of temptation +he struggled under, and his bitter inner penitence. "Granted," as +Carlyle says, "the ship comes into harbour with shrouds and tackle +damaged; the pilot is blameworthy. He has not been all-wise and +all-powerful. But, to know how blameworthy, tell us first whether his +voyage has been round the globe, or only to Ramsgate and the Isle of +Dogs."</p> +<p class="pnext">The way to get the best out of people is to think the best about them. +Let a man see that you have good hopes of him, and recognise what is +best in him, and, in ways of which science can give no explanation, you +add to his chances of reaching better things. In any case, who would +not wish to stand on Christ's side rather than on Judas's. "This +ointment might have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the +poor." That is Judas. "Let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath +wrought a good work in me. She hath done what she could." That is +Jesus Christ.</p> +<p class="pnext">Third,--Don't leave yourself out of the picture. HOPE THE BEST FOR +YOURSELF. George Eliot, in her "Scenes of Clerical Life," gives, in +one chapter, an account of how the Rev. Amos Barton is criticised and +discussed in his parish. In the next chapter we see the Rev. Amos +himself going on his way blissfully unconscious of the poor opinion in +which he is held, believing quite honestly in himself, and not a little +proud of his abilities. "We are poor plants," says this keen student +of character, "buoyed up by the air vessels of our own conceit." And a +blessed thing, too, when you think of it! If we only knew all the +disparaging remarks people make about us, we should never face up to +our duties at all. What helps us along is our innocent belief in our +powers, in the esteem in which we are held--our little conceits, if you +like. Since they send us to our tasks with more spirit, and keep us at +them with more determination, aren't they good things in their way? +They are indeed just a lower form of that hope that we are speaking +of--Hope's poor relations.</p> +<p class="pnext">If these are of such value, how much more pure quiet steady Hope +itself, purged of all pride and undue self-esteem? Hope the best for +yourself, and you are already a good way on the road to it. Suggestion +is a tremendously powerful instrument, even when you make it yourself. +By self suggestion, the psychologists tell us, you can influence your +actions, your character, and your general outlook in a wonderful +fashion, either to your advantage or your hurt. Therefore, they say, +be careful never to suggest evil to yourself. Never say to yourself, +"I'm going to make a mess of this," or "I am not fit for that." +Suggest success, happiness, health, and you beckon them to you. Hope +the best for yourself, and you pave the way for its coming.</p> +<p class="pnext">On higher planes, the same holds true. Hope on, and, though you fall +you will rise again. Believe that you will be enabled to face your +trouble or temptation, and you will be brought through it somehow. +Even when the end of life is near, hope still, for beyond this best +there is a better, and God's road winds uphill all the way.</p> +<p class="pnext">But, you say, this is just faith. I know it is. Run your hopes for +yourself up as high as you can reach, and they will touch God and +become faith. That is why you are to hope the best for yourself. +Because--God. Because God the Father loves you, and desires the best +for you too. I believe in the optimism which Stephenson's motto +embodies, because I believe in the Fatherhood of God through our Lord +Jesus Christ. That is why I counsel you to go on hoping that the best +is yet to be. Not that we can earn it at all, or that we deserve it at +all. But--because God, our Father. And, for the daring and faith of +that saying, this sufficient ground.--Because--Jesus Christ.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Help us all, Heavenly Father, to meet the discipline of life with +stouter hearts. May we all try harder to cultivate the Christ-like +mark of charity. And spite of our many sins and shortcomings, and our +poor love of Thee, grant us the courage to believe that all things, in +Thy great Love for us, are working together for our good. We ask it +for Jesus' sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="finical-farming"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">He that observeth the wind</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">shall not sow, and he that</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">regardeth the clouds shall not</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">reap.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(ECCLESIASTES ii. 4.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">IV</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">FINICAL FARMING</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">When a man like the writer of Ecclesiastes gives his views on life, it +is worth everybody's while to listen. A tabloid of experience is worth +a ton of theory. And it is from his own knowledge of men and +experience of life that he has discovered that "he that observeth the +wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap."</p> +<p class="pnext">Was ever a temper of mind, that we all know something about, more +neatly hit off than that? You can see the very picture which this wise +preacher had before his eyes. Agricola was a farmer in his parish who +would not sow his fields unless the wind was blowing soft and gentle +from a certain direction, and the clouds were just as he wished to see +them. He held there was no hope of a harvest unless wind and clouds +were right. And I observed, says the wise man, that Agricola, my +farmer friend, waiting for the exactly suitable conditions, never got +his seed in at all.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was speaking chiefly about benevolence and charity when he used this +figure. And that is one reason why we need to give heed to it. For +ours is an age of charity. We give more to the poor and needy to-day +than ever any nation gave before. It is said, indeed, that a good deal +of our giving is not very wise. Our charities overlap. The truly +necessitous are forgotten, and the improvident, the lazy, and the +wasteful reap the largest share. Certainly that is one of the perils +of charity-giving. But I question very much if, in our efforts to +avoid it, we are not running the risk of falling into a graver mistake +still, namely, of observing the wind overmuch before we sow. If I +refuse to give my mite for Christ's sake till I have made perfectly +certain that it will not be misused, if we withhold our subscription +from a charity till we are assured that it is managed in the very most +economical fashion, it will end in us giving nothing at all. There is, +of course, a reasonable amount of inquiry that is not only legitimate +but necessary. Just as there is a regarding of the clouds before +reaping which is simply wise. But, to wait till every scruple is +satisfied, till every risk has been eliminated and there is not a cloud +in the sky, is to wait for a state of matters that may be long enough +in coming. Meantime the needy person may die; or the corn blacken in +the fields.</p> +<p class="pnext">Charity, however, is but a small part of Christian benevolence. The +law of Christ says "neighbour" whether he be poor or not. He is in +trouble, and I feel inclined to visit him. Must I wait till I am sure +he will not misunderstand my motive? I have it in my heart to forgive +him. Shall I defer the reconciliation till I am convinced he will not +offend again? Or I have hurt and offended him, and wish to apologise. +Had I not better wait till I know that he will not reject my advances? +The wise man's answer to all these questions is an emphatic No. If you +wait for all that, he says, you will wait too long, and the chance will +go past. Wait till the wind and the clouds are just as you would wish +them, and you will neither sow nor reap at all.</p> +<p class="pnext">What to do, then? The wise man answers: "In the morning sow thy seed, +and in the evening withhold not thy hand, for thou knowest not whether +shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike +good." Just because you can never fully calculate what the result of +your labours may be, give up trying. Don't trouble about it, but do +what comes to your hand at the time. If it is sowing time, don't wait +for the perfect day. If the weather will do at all, sow thy seed in +the morning, and in the evening do not stop. In other words, Take life +more royally. Do not be deterred by its ordinary risks. Seize your +chance like a brave man. You do not know, of course, whether that seed +you sow will prosper or not. But sow it, all the same. Don't let the +fact that you don't know cause you to hold your hand. It is just +because you do not know but that the kindness which you offer your +neighbour may be ill-requited, that there is a royal free-handed +self-forgetfulness in offering it. That a man should live his life and +do his good deeds with a certain dash and carelessness of +consequence--that, the Preacher thought the ideal of noble living. And +when we measure it by the standard of Him who said, Do good and lend, +hoping for nothing again, it does not seem to come so very far short.</p> +<p class="pnext">For, of course, there are the continual surprises that life holds for +faith. If only the corn reaped when the clouds were just right was +safely gathered in, then indeed we might feel that we could not be too +careful. But what do we find again and again? Why, we find that men +who have had the faith to sow when the day was by no means perfect have +been blessed beyond their expectations. We find our barns full and +running over, though we reaped on a cloudy day. We have seen men cast +their bread upon the waters, where you would say it was certain to be +lost, and find it again, after many days. It's perfectly true that you +don't know whether shall prosper this or that. Yet how often have you +been surprised to find that where you thought you knew, you were proved +mistaken, and where you dealt in faith, it stood justified beyond your +dreams.</p> +<p class="pnext">And so, the end of the matter for the Preacher is, once more, Live your +life royally, with a certain loving wastefulness, and an easy disregard +of calculations. Do all the good you can, and do it with a free hand, +not asking to see your harvest before you sow, but taking your risk of +it, and leaving the outcome with God. "Cast your bread on the waters, +and you will find it after many days."</p> +<p class="pnext">But what of the bread one has cast on the waters, only to see it +carried away, apparently of no use to anybody? What of the faith that +has not been justified? What of the good done to the ill-deserving, of +the kindly-meant act repaid with indignity and scorn? It is a hard +question, not easy to answer, not fully to be answered at all. "After +many days," said the Preacher. And there is no sign yet, we say. +Patience, brothers, patience! God's day is not yet done. When the +days have run out to the end, it will be time enough to say if we miss +the bread returning. We shall be better able to count the gains and +the losses, if there are any then,--when the "days" are done.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Teach us, O Lord and Master, the high and difficult lesson that only +those who lose their lives shall truly find them. Show us that the +manna hoarded in miserly fashion is always touched by Thy curse. In +small things as in great, may this be a token that we are Thy +disciples, that virtue also goeth out of us. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="the-doctor"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">But when Jesus heard</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">that, he said unto them, they</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">that be whole need not a physician,</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">but they that are sick.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(MATTHEW ix. 12.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">V</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">THE DOCTOR</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Jesus is Himself the best witness as to what He was, and what He wished +to do for men. It is a fact, moreover, for which we cannot be too +thankful that, in explaining Himself, Jesus used not the language of +doctrine, but living figures and symbols which the humblest and +youngest could not fail to understand.</p> +<p class="pnext">When, for example, He compared Himself to a shepherd leaving the ninety +and nine in the fold and braving the darkness and the steep places that +he might bring back the one that had wandered, He opens a window into +His own love for men which is worth pages of description. For those +who are familiar with the daily life and work of a shepherd, it means a +great deal that Jesus waits to be the Shepherd of men.</p> +<p class="pnext">But, in these very different days of ours, there are multitudes in +streets and tenements who have never seen a shepherd, and know not what +manner of life is his. So that one is glad that Jesus gave Himself +other names as well. When Matthew Arnold met the pale-faced preacher +in the slums of Bethnal Green, and asked him how he did--</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"Bravely," he said, "for I of late have been</div> +<div class="line">Much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the Living Bread."</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">If that name for Christ brought him comfort, another preacher may be +allowed to confess that he has often been cheered and helped by the +thought of Jesus as the Good Physician. I am glad that in effect, at +least, if not in actual words, He called Himself by that name.</p> +<p class="pnext">This is His apology for consorting with publicans and sinners, for +being so accessible to those who had lost caste and character. He says +it is the sick who need a Physician, not those who are well. And His +defence implies that Jesus regarded Himself as being in a true sense a +Physician, not for outward ills merely, but for the whole man, body, +mind, and spirit.</p> +<p class="pnext">The days were, as you know, when priest and physician were one calling; +and it is doubtless to the advantage of both vocations that their +spheres are now distinct. But it may be, and I think it is, +unfortunate that Jesus should be regarded by many as so entirely +identified with the priestly side of life and the priestly calling. It +is beyond question that a faithful priest is, in his degree, a mirror +of Christ, and helps men to see Him more clearly. But it is also +true--and a truth worth underlining in these days--that the Doctor, +too, is a symbol of what Christ means to be to men--nay, more, that +there are respects in which the figure of a beloved physician of to-day +comes nearer to the reality of the living human Christ than any other +calling in the world.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is a sure and unique place which the Doctor holds in the esteem and +confidence of the community. He is the most accessible of all +professional men, the most implicitly trusted, and, I think, the best +beloved. At all hours of the day and night he is ready to give his +services to those who need him. His mere presence in the sick room +inspires confidence. In the poor districts of town and city +especially, he is more really the friend and confidant and helper of +everybody than any other person whatever. As no other man does, the +Doctor goes about continually doing good. His life is a constant +self-sacrifice for his fellow-men. He wears himself out in the +interests of the needy. He runs risks daily from which other men flee. +He asks not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and often and +literally he gives his life a ransom for many.</p> +<p class="pnext">And I do not know what we have been thinking of that we have not +oftener made use of this as Christ's claim for Himself, that we have +not told the ignorant and the very poor especially, who know far more +about the Doctor than they do about the Church, who are, in fact, shy +of all that is priestly, but who do understand and appreciate the +Doctor, I say, I do not know why we have not oftener told them to +forget that Jesus is the King and Head of the Church and remember only +that He is the best of all Physicians. That Christ is compassionate, +sympathetic, and approachable, like the Doctor, would be veritable good +news to many a poor ignorant soul who is mightily afraid of His priests.</p> +<p class="pnext">The word which comes to our lips when we seek to characterise the life +and work of the true Doctor is Christlike. And big as the title is, it +is deserved. In sacrifice and self-forgetfulness, in his care most for +those who most need him, in the way he identifies himself with his +patient, bearing with, because understanding, his weakness and +petulance and fears, and seeking all the while only to heal and help +and save him, there is no more Christlike character or calling in the +modern world than the Doctor.</p> +<p class="pnext">I am the happy possessor of an engraving--a gift from one whose calling +is to teach doctors--of Luke Fildes' famous picture. Most of you +doubtless are familiar with it. It represents the interior of a humble +home where a little child lies critically ill. The father and mother, +distracted with grief, have yielded their place beside the couch to the +Doctor, who sits watching and waiting, all-absorbed in the little one's +trouble. It is a noble face, strong, compassionate, resourceful, +gentle; and if the Eternal Christ of God is to be represented to us in +His strength and gentleness by any human analogy or likeness whatever, +as He wished to be, and indeed must be, no finer figure could be found, +I think, than that, none more certain to draw out the reverence and +gratitude and trust of men.</p> +<p class="pnext">Men of all grades and classes appeal to and trust the Doctor. But how +many of them realise that Jesus desires that men should come to Him and +trust His willingness to help and save them, just as they would do to +some good physician? How many men who have found comfort by taking +their fears and forebodings to the Doctor and hearing his authoritative +"Go in peace!" know or realise that just so would Jesus have us bring +Him our unworthiness and shame and sin? Jesus never preached at those +whom His compassion drew to Him. He never lectured them, He just +helped them, and that at once. He lifted them to their feet and gave +them a new hope. He, straightway, in God's name, assured them of +forgiveness.</p> +<p class="pnext">Ah, if men only understood that Jesus is to be found to-day down among +the world's burdened and weary souls, not as a Priest begirt with +ceremony and aloof from daily life, but as a Physician, approachable, +helpful, human, who sees and pities their weakness, and longs to save +them and help them to their best. If men only understood that!</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">We come to Thee, Thou Good Physician, with all our ills and fears. We +would whisper in Thine ear the troubles that frighten and shame us. +Surely Thou wilt hear. Draw near us in Thy strength and Pity, and in +Thy Mercy heal us all. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="well-and-now"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">Whatsoever thy hand findeth</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">to do, do it with thy might,</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">for there is no work nor device</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">nor knowledge nor wisdom in</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">the grave whither thou goest.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(ECCLESIASTES ix. 10.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">VI</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">WELL AND NOW</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">In popular and condensed form, the golden rule according to +Ecclesiastes is, "Do it well and do it now." His own words are, +"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is +no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou +goest." We want to let that precept soak into our minds for a little.</p> +<p class="pnext">DO IT WELL. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." +Among the lesser joys of life there are few that thrill one with a more +pleasurable sense of satisfaction than that which goes with the bit of +work finished, rounded-off and done as well as one can do it. No +matter what the job may be, if it is worth doing at all, or if it is +one's business to do it, it is not difficult to recognise in the +curious inward glow over its honourable completion, a token of God's +good pleasure, some far-off echo of His "Well done!"</p> +<p class="pnext">It is a truism which never loses its point that it is enthusiasm that +commands success. In her weird book called "Dreams," Olive Schreiner +tells the parable of an artist who painted a beautiful picture. On it +there was a wonderful glow which drew the admiration of all his +compeers, but which none could imitate. The other painters said, Where +did he get his colours? But though they sought rich and rare pigments +in far-off Eastern lands they could not catch the secret of it. One +day the artist was found dead beside his picture, and when they +stripped him for his shroud they found a wound beneath his heart. Then +it dawned upon them where he had got his colour. He had painted his +picture with his own heart's blood! It is the only way to paint it, if +the picture is to be worth while at all. If we would have the work +that we do live and count, our heart's blood must go into it. +Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.</p> +<p class="pnext">What magnificent heart-stirring examples are coming to us every day +just now, from sea and battle-field, of the good old British virtue of +sticking in gamely to the end and "seeing the thing through!" If the +stories of the old English Admirals are calculated, as Stevenson says, +to "send bank clerks back with more heart and spirit to their +book-keeping by double entry," shall not the story that unfolds day by +day of what our own kith and kin are doing, nerve and inspire us all to +"do OUR bit," to face up to OUR duty, humdrum and ordinary though it +be, with the same grit and energy, with the same determination to see +it through, and make as good a job of it as we can?</p> +<p class="pnext">The Preacher has his reason for this advice. Because, he says, some +day you will have to stop and lay down your tools, and that will be the +end. No more touching botched work after that. No going back to lift +dropped stitches then. Such as it is, your record will have to stand +as you leave it, when Death raps at your door. Even for us in this +Christian age, this ancient Preacher's reason still stands valid and +solemn. Do what you are at now as well as ever you can, for you shall +pass that way no more again for ever.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Apostle Paul, who expresses practically the same sentiment, gives a +different reason. "Whatever ye do," he writes to the Colossians, "do +it heartily as to the Lord." And that is the point for you and me. +Not merely because we have a limited time to work, but because our work +is Christ's service, we must do it heartily, with all our might. It is +to the Lord. To us all in our different labours, in the things we work +at day by day, and the worthy interests we endeavour to support, there +comes this call that transforms the very commonest duty into an +honourable obligation to a personal living Master--Whatever ye do, do +it heartily as to the Lord.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yes, and DO IT NOW. For the amount of misery and suffering and remorse +that is directly due to putting off the God-given impulse or generous +purpose to some other season, is simply incalculable. If all the kind +letters had been written when the thought of writing was fresh and +insistent--ah me, how many burdened souls would have been the braver +and the stronger. If only the friendly visit had been paid when we +thought about it--and why wasn't it? "Never suppose," says Bagshot, +"that you can make up to a neglected friend by going to visit him in a +hospital. Repent on your own death-bed, if you like, but not on +another's."</p> +<p class="pnext">An old writer on agriculture says that there are seasons when if the +husbandman misses a day he falls a whole year behind. But in life the +result is often more serious still. When you miss the day, you miss it +for ever. Wherefore, let us hear the words of the Preacher. If we +have a kind purpose in our heart towards any living soul, let us do it +now. If we think of beginning a better way of living, let us begin +now. If we propose to end our days sworn and surrendered servants and +soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ, let us volunteer now, for this is +the day of salvation.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is said that a great English moralist had engraved on his watch the +words, "The night cometh," so that whenever he looked at the time he +might be reminded of the preciousness of the passing moment. The night +cometh. How far away it may be, or how near to any one of us, no one +of us knows. But near or far it cometh with unhalting step. +Wherefore, whatsoever the thing be that is in your heart to do, great +or little, for yourself or for others, for man or for God--DO IT NOW!</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">O Lord our God, by whose command it is that man goeth forth to his work +and his labour until the evening, grant us all a more earnest regard +for the sacredness of each passing moment, and help us to do with our +whole heart whatsoever our hand findeth to do. For Jesus' sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="the-washen-face-in-war-time"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">And he washed his face,</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">and went out, and refrained</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">himself, and said, Set on bread.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(GENESIS xliii. 31.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">VII</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">THE "WASHEN FACE" IN WAR TIME</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">That is what Joseph did when his feelings nearly overmastered him at +the sight of his brother Benjamin standing before him, all unconscious +of who he was. He "sought where to weep," says the record with quaint +matter-of-factness, for of course he did not want his brothers to see +him weeping just yet. So "he entered into his chamber and wept there." +But Joseph's secret affections being thus recognised and allowed their +expression, he had a duty to perform. He put a curb upon his feelings. +He took a firm grip of himself. He "washed his face and went out, and +refrained himself, and said, Set on bread." One cannot help admiring +that. It was a fine thing to do.</p> +<p class="pnext">And there are two classes of people in our own time in whom one sees +this same attitude, and never without a strange stirring of heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">The first and most honourable are those who have already tasted of the +sorrows of war and lost some dear one in the service of King and +country. We speak of the courage and sacrifice of our men, and we +cannot speak too highly or too gratefully about that. But there is +something else that runs it very close, if it does not exceed it, and +that is the quiet heroism and endurance of many of those who have been +bereaved. Time and again one sees them facing up to all life's calls +upon them with a marvellous spirit of self-restraint. God only knows +how sad and sore their loss is. And upon what takes place when they +enter into their chamber and shut the door and face their sorrow alone +with God, it does not beseem us to intrude. Such sorrow is a sacred +thing, but at least we know, and are glad to know, that God Himself is +there as He is nowhere else. It is never wrong and never weak to let +the tears come before Him. As a father understands, so does He know +all about it. As a mother comforteth, so does the touch of His Hand +quieten and console.</p> +<p class="pnext">But what fills one with reverent admiration is that so many of those +whose hearts we know have been so cruelly wounded have set up a new and +noble precedent in the matter of courage and self-control. They are +not shirking any of the duties of life. They are claiming no +exemptions on the ground of their sorrow, and they excuse themselves +from no duty merely because it would hurt. They wear their hurt gently +like a flower in the breast. They carry their sorrow like a coronet. +Out from their secret chambers they come, with washen face and brave +lips to do their duty and refrain themselves. How beautiful it is! +What a fine thing to see! The sorrowing mother of a noble young fellow +I am proud to have known, said to a friend recently who was marvelling +at her fortitude, "My boy was very brave and I must try to be brave, +too, for his sake." Dear, gentle mother! One cannot speak worthily +about a spirit so sweet and gracious as that. One can only bow the +head and breathe the inward prayer, "God send thee peace, brave heart!" +But, surely, to accept sorrow in that fashion is to entertain unawares +an angel of God! The feeling which underlies this new etiquette of +sorrow with the washen face is not very easily put into words. But it +rests, I think, upon the dim sense that the death which ends those +young lives on this noble field of battle is something different from +the ordinary bleak fact of mortality. If death is ever glorious, it is +when it comes to the soldier fighting for a pure and worthy cause. +There is something more than sorrow, there is even a quiet and reverent +pride in the remembrance that the beloved life was given as "a ransom +for many." When one thinks what we are fighting for, one can hardly +deny to the fallen the supreme honour of the words "for Christ's sake." +And it is not death to fall so. Rather is it the finding of life +larger and more glorious still. It is that that marks the war-mourners +of to-day as a caste royal and apart. It is that that moves so many of +them by an inward instinct to wear their sorrow royally. Hidden in the +heart of their grief is a tender and wistful pride. Lowell has put +this feeling into very fine words:</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"I, with uncovered head,</div> +<div class="line">Salute the sacred dead,</div> +<div class="line">Who went and who return not--</div> +<div class="line">Say not so.</div> +<div class="line">'Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay,</div> +<div class="line">But the high faith that fails not by the way.</div> +<div class="line">Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave;</div> +<div class="line">No bar of endless night exiles the brave,</div> +<div class="line">And, to the saner mind,</div> +<div class="line">We rather seem the dead that stayed behind."</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">The other class who are teaching us a new and better way to bear +burdens are the friends at home of those who are on active service. +Men, with sons in the trenches, are going about our streets these days +almost as if nothing were happening, making it a point of honour not to +let the lurking fear in their hearts have any outward expression. +Wives and mothers and sisters are filling their hands and their hearts +full of duties, and putting such a brave face on life that you would +never suspect they have a chamber that could tell a different tale. It +is absolutely splendid. There is no other word for it. I walked a +street-length with a young wife recently whose man has been ill and out +of the fight for a while. She hoped that he might have been sent home, +and who can blame her? but he has gone back to the trenches instead. +And how bravely and quietly she spoke of it! Pride, a true and noble +pride in her beloved soldier, a resolute endeavour to do her difficult +bit as uncomplainingly and willingly as he--it seemed to me that I saw +all that in her brave smile. And I said to myself, "Here is the cult +of the washen face! And a noble cult too! Britain surely deserves to +win when her women carry their crosses so!"</p> +<p class="pnext">It is easy, of course, to read the thought in their minds. Our men, +they say, are splendid, why should we be doleful and despondent? They +have made a new virtue of cheerfulness; let us try to learn it too. +They have offered everything in a cause which it is an honour to help +in any degree; let us lay beside theirs the worthy sacrifice of the +washen face and a brave restraint. Such, I imagine, is the unconscious +kind of reasoning which results in the resolute and cheerful bearing +you may see on all sides of you every day.</p> +<p class="pnext">And wherever it is seen, it carries its blessing with it. Others with +their own private burdens and anxieties are encouraged to hold on to +that hope and cheerfulness which are just the homely side of our faith +in God and in the righteousness of our cause.</p> +<p class="pnext">The cult of the washen face is contagious. It spreads like a +beneficent stain. And since it is entirely praiseworthy, we can but +wish it to spread more and more. Those who come out from the chambers +where they have kept company with sorrow or anxiety, to face life and +duty with shining face and mastered feelings, are not only proving +their faith in the Divine Strength, they are making a precious +contribution to the moral stedfastness of the nation.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And he washed his face and went out and refrained himself." Good man!</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">We bless Thee, O God, for the assurance that Thine ear is ever open to +our cry, that it is never wrong to take our sorrows and our cares to +Thee. But help us also, endowed with Thy strength in our secret +chambers, to bear our burdens bravely in the sight of men. For Thy +Name's sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="the-real-martha"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">But few things are needful,</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">or one.</em>" R. V. (margin).</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(LUKE X. 42.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">VIII</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">THE REAL MARTHA</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">When Jesus said, upon one occasion, that He had not where to lay His +head, He was speaking the bitter and literal truth. He had really no +home of His own, but was everywhere a wanderer, dependent on others for +shelter and food; and though the New Testament draws a veil over all +the hardships which that entailed even in the hospitable East, +imagination can picture something at least of what the homelessness of +Jesus must have meant.</p> +<p class="pnext">But He had close and warm friends who made it up to Him as far as +friends could, and of these were the two sisters, Martha and Mary, who +with their brother, Lazarus, had a house in Bethany. This place was +His haven and shelter, for "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and +Lazarus." The sisters were unlike in disposition. Mary, we can +imagine, was dreamy, meditative, perhaps a little delicate and fragile, +and gifted with a quick and loving sympathy. Martha was robust, +practical, energetic. Her way of showing the Master that she +considered it an honour to have Him for a guest was to give Him the +very best that her housewifely skill could suggest. No trouble was too +much for her. And it is very possible that one of the charms which +this home had for Jesus--one of the qualities which made it a real +place of rest--was its well-ordered arrangements, the quiet, efficient, +capable way in which things were done. And whose was the credit for +that? Martha's.</p> +<p class="pnext">What would that household have been like without Martha? And what +would any home that is fortunate enough to have a Martha in it, be like +without her? The truth is our debt to the Marthas is one which we have +never fully acknowledged. You would imagine, hearing the way in which +her name is sometimes used, that it has an apologetic character, as if +the making of a home comfortable and homelike were a gift to be lightly +esteemed in comparison, for example, with the ability to write verse! +It is foolish to play Mary off against her sister in this way. Martha +did what she could do best, and showed her love for Christ in that +fashion, and you may be quite sure that He understood. Mary served Him +in her way, by giving Him what He needed more at times than food--a +heart to listen to His message, and a sympathy which made the telling +of it meat and drink to Him. Each sister was the complement of the +other.</p> +<p class="pnext">But we wrong Martha, of course, in thinking of her as always in the +kitchen. Certainly when there waas a meal to be prepared you would +find her there, and well that was for the household and the servants. +But nobody is always eating or thinking about eating; and often of an +evening, doubtless, when the labours of the day were over, Martha would +join her sister at the feet of the Master whom she loved as much as +Mary did.</p> +<p class="pnext">The incident which has given rise to the popular misconception of +Martha's character occurred during a visit which Jesus paid in the days +before Lazarus fell sick. Something went wrong in Martha's department +that day. Perhaps it was a mistake of a servant that irritated the +usually self-controlled Martha, or maybe some oversight of her own. At +anyrate, it set up a condition of worry which straightway began to add +to itself, as its habit is, seven other devils. And as Martha went out +and in the dining chamber getting things ready, the sight of Mary +sitting there at the Master's feet doing nothing, struck her, perhaps +for the first time, as rather out of place. Things began to go further +wrong. Just when Martha wanted to do special honour to Jesus, the +ordinarily smooth-running wheels of that home began to creak and grind. +Each time she entered the room where Christ and Mary were, Martha's +steps grew brisker and more emphatic; and then the last straw was laid +on, and the outburst came! Martha asked Jesus if He really did not +care that Mary was leaving her to do everything. Bid her come and help +me, she said.</p> +<p class="pnext">Of course, Jesus knew that it was for His sake that Martha was giving +herself all this trouble. He saw, as even we can see, that this +kind-hearted, worried woman was speaking crossly, as the very best will +do at times, because she was tired and a bit overdriven. And with a +perfect and gentle chivalry and tact He made His reply. As the +Authorised Version puts it, it jars on one, somehow. But King James' +translators have misread their text. What Jesus said was: "Martha, +Martha, you are unduly anxious and troubled. Only a few things are +necessary, or even one. Mary has chosen a good part, and I cannot +allow you to take it from her."</p> +<p class="pnext">Martha, remember, was making a feast worthy of the Master, and Jesus, +looking upon the various dishes being got ready, said, in effect, I do +not really need so many as that. One would do quite well. And I must +not let you think that Mary is doing nothing. She, too, is ministering +to me by her sympathy and her willing ear, and you must not take away +the good part she has chosen.</p> +<p class="pnext">Jesus was not speaking about the personal salvation of either Mary or +her sister. He was only dealing gently with a good and true friend of +His who had not served Him as she had wished to do. When He spoke of +what was needful, He meant needful for Himself, the Guest whom both the +sisters were seeking to honour.</p> +<p class="pnext">He made no comparison between Martha's service and Mary's. He did not +say, as we have read it so often, that Mary had chosen the better part. +He said, in her defence, that Mary's was also a good part. He is not +blaming Martha, but only expostulating with her in the gentlest +fashion, and defending Mary from the charge which Martha in her heat +had made against her, the charge of being useless, and doing nothing to +help to entertain the Master. Jesus said, She is helping to entertain +Me in her own way, and, He added, it is a good way.</p> +<p class="pnext">When Jesus having said that only a few things were necessary, dropped +His voice, as we may imagine, and added "or indeed one," He may have +meant more than He seemed to say. For there was one thing that was +more than meat to our Lord, and that was to find a soul with heart and +sympathy open to His message. And it may be that He felt, as He said +the words, that Mary's ministry met a need of His deeper than that for +which Martha was catering. At anyrate, the oldest and best versions of +this Gospel give Christ's words as we have rendered them, and they +stand here, not to be used as a peg on which to hang doctrines, but +rather as a proof of the gentle courtesy of our Lord, of His insight +into character and motive, and of His gracious recognition of the worth +of any and every kind of service that has love at its heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">Martha went back to her kitchen, and Mary remained where she was. Mary +was not asked to go and help. Martha would have protested if she had +come. Martha was not called upon to go and sit beside Mary. Each +continued the service for which she was best fitted. But each, I +think, had learned something that day. And you and I must not leave +this page of our New Testament till we have learned it too--that we +serve best when we do gladly that for which we are best qualified; that +it belongs to our Christian service to recognise in all loyalty that, +though others find different ways of expressing it, theirs is a good +part; and that we must never either belittle it or seek to take it from +them.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">O Lord our God, Who by many diverse ways dost bring us near to Thee, +and in differing modes and stations dost appoint our service, help us +gladly and gratefully to do the things we can do, neither envying those +whose opportunities are greater, nor forbidding those who follow not +us. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="our-unearned-increment"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">He giveth (to) His beloved</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">(in their) sleep.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(PSALM cxxvii. 2.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">IX</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">OUR UNEARNED INCREMENT</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">"It is vain for you," says the writer of the 127th Psalm, "to rise +early and sit up late and eat the bread of sorrow, for so He giveth to +His beloved (in their) sleep." That is the true reading, and I want +you to think about it. "God giveth to His beloved while they sleep." +Over and above what you have yourself achieved, you GET something you +have never worked for. And you get that, as it were, in your sleep. +This is a beautiful thought, and there are three people to whom I want +to offer it as God's comfort.</p> +<p class="pnext">The first is the worried man. It is indeed directly against worry that +this psalmist sets forth his reminder. It is not that he minimises the +need for hard work and watchful care. But he tells the man who is +feverishly burning his candle at both ends, and consuming himself in a +frenzy of tense anxiety, to leave something for God to do. It is as if +he said, "Why so hot, little man, why so fiercely clutching all the +ropes? Remember that God is working too as well as you, working in +your interest and in love for you. When you have done your best +therefore, go to your bed and sleep with a quiet mind, for God giveth +to His beloved even so."</p> +<p class="pnext">One can imagine how a word like that would relax the tension and lead +some persuadable Hebrew who heard it to say, "Ah, well, I worry far too +much. After all, I am not Providence. I am always getting a great +many things I have not wrought for. I shall worry less about securing +the good things I desire for me and mine, and trust more to God to give +them as He sees fit." If all of us who needed this reminder just had +the sense to come to the same conclusion!</p> +<p class="pnext">I have seen a man compass his family with so many careful regulations +and observances that the criticism of a candid friend seemed entirely +just. "You would think," he said, "to see so-and-so shepherding his +family, that there was no other providence than his own." You can't be +with your best beloved all the while. And you ought to know that God +too is watching even while you sleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">If there be some plan on which you have set your heart, and you are +over-anxious about it, quote this text to yourself. Do your best, of +course, but, having done so, leave the outcome with God. About a great +many of the things over which we worry ourselves needlessly, I believe +God's word to us is:--Leave these things to Me. You can't work for +them. And anxiety won't bring them. But you will get them, as you +need them, just as if they came to you in your sleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">Said one hermit to another in the Egyptian desert, as he looked at a +flourishing olive tree near his cave, "How came that goodly tree there, +brother? For I too planted an olive, and when I thought it wanted +water, I asked God to give it rain and the rain came, and when I +thought it wanted sun I asked God and the sun shone, and when I deemed +it needed strengthening, I prayed and the frost came--God gave me all I +demanded for my tree, as I saw fit, and yet it died." "And I, +brother," replied the other hermit, "I left my tree in God's hands, for +He knew what it wanted better than I, and behold what a goodly tree it +has become."</p> +<p class="pnext">The second man to whom I would offer the comfort of this word of God is +the man who is disappointed. Things have gone wrong with him. The +plan on which he spent so much of his time and energy has miscarried, +and a very different result has emerged from what he counted on. His +way, as he saw it, is blocked, and he has had to turn aside.</p> +<p class="pnext">Now, there are not many things one can say usefully to a disappointed +man. And it is cruel kindness to try to heal his hurt lightly. +Nevertheless, to him also the psalmist's message applies, and what he +needs to remember, that he may pick up heart and go on again, is that +God giveth to His beloved while they sleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">We have all had disappointments, sore enough at the time, which +after-experience proved to have been blessings in disguise. Many a man +can point to a signal failure as the beginning of a true success or +usefulness or happiness. We did not feel as if we were being enriched +when our plan fell through, and we were bitter and rebellious enough at +the time, it may be, but it is quite clear to us now that God was at +that very time giving to us with both His hands.</p> +<p class="pnext">No one, of course, can see that about any more than a few of his +disappointments. It would be false to experience to speak as if we +could. But what is manifestly true about one or two may conceivably +hold with regard to them all, if we knew more, or could see better. +And the Christian Gospel calls us to believe and trust that that is so. +There is another Hand than ours shaping our life, a wiser Hand. Better +things are being done for us than we can see in the meantime. And the +man whose hopes and plans have turned out amiss, but whose trust is +still in God, is invited by our psalmist to reason with himself +thus:--"I am like a man asleep, and I do not rightly understand at +present, but I will trust that it is not for nothing that misfortune +has come, and when I wake I shall hope to see that God has been giving +to me in love and mercy when I was not aware of it at all."</p> +<p class="pnext">The third man whom this text will help and comfort is the worker, the +man or woman who is trying to do something for Christ's sake. The +Christian worker needs to be told that what he is trying to do is not +nearly all that he is doing. What he is, is speaking as loudly as what +he does or says. There is an aroma and fragrance about the life of the +consecrated Christ-like man or woman which sweetens and sanctifies +other lives beyond what he or she can ever know. Some of the best +sermons in the world have been preached by people who least suspected +what they were doing. The invalid in the home does not know how real +religion becomes to all who watch her patience and unselfishness. And +among the busy and vigorous we often catch hints and reflections, that +they never suspect, of what Christ-likeness means. The man who has +surrendered his life to God, indeed, is a channel of blessing to others +beyond all he ever dreams of. He must not be disheartened when he +realises how little he is doing, for the truth is he is doing far, far +more than he knows. Wherefore, my brother, be of good cheer, and +render your service to Christ with a quiet heart. Lay your course, and +work your ship, and hoist your sail and trust. And the gifts of God +will enrich you, and the winds of heaven will bring you on your way, +even while you sleep.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">We give Thee thanks, O God, for all Thy bounties, undeserved and +unearned; for the increase Thou dost send us while the stars are +shining; for Thy gracious thirty-fold and sixty-fold beyond what we +have sown. Every morning Thou leavest gifts upon our doorstep and dost +depart unthanked. But this day we remember, and we bow our heads to +render unto Thee our humble and our hearty thanks for all that Thou +hast given us while we slept. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="smoking-wicks"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">The smoking flax he shall not quench.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(ISAIAH xlii. 3.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">X</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">SMOKING WICKS</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">We read the 42nd chapter of Isaiah now as if it were a part of the +Christian Evangel. And that is right. For whoever the Servant may +have been, of whom Isaiah was thinking, it is Christ and only Christ +who completely fulfils this prophecy. This is a true description of +His spirit and His method. "The dimly-burning wick he shall not +quench."</p> +<p class="pnext">The figure is easily understood. Here is a piece of flax floating in +oil, and burning so faintly that it seems a mere charred end from which +the smoke coils thinly upwards. Some one comes and snuffs it out, +because it smells. That is the way of the world's reformers, as Isaiah +saw it, and we can see it still. By and by they will trim the wick and +light it with fire of their own, but first they will quench the spark. +But there is One to come, said Isaiah, shooting his arrow of prophecy +in the air, who will go otherwise about it. He will not despise the +spark because it is so feeble. He will tend it and foster it, and make +the evil-smelling bundle of flax into a clear, shining light. And the +saying has found its mark in Jesus Christ.</p> +<p class="pnext">When a woman that was a sinner made her way into the house where He sat +at meat, and wept at His feet, He amazed all those present by the +extraordinary gentleness of His dealing with her. He did not refer to +the evil in her life. He did not, as other good men would have done, +first cast her down, that He might afterwards lift her up. He simply +took the beautiful impulse after good which she brought Him out of a +life besmirched and tawdry, held it in His hands--a mere spark of +virtue--and breathing on it, blessed it, and behold it was a flame, +burning up the evil in her life, a lamp lighting her path along a new +and hopeful way. That was Christ. He does not, He will not quench the +dimly-burning wick.</p> +<p class="pnext">Now--and this is our point--if those who profess and call themselves +Christians are to have the spirit in them that was also in Christ +Jesus, must not this be their mark too? Does not this prescribe their +attitude to life, that many-coloured, strangely-mixed compound of good +and evil? Good in any form, however feeble, however mixed, as in this +world it inevitably is, with what is evil, should find in those who +call themselves by Christ's name, its truest supporters, sympathisers, +friends.</p> +<p class="pnext">To the eye and heart in sympathy with it, beauty often peeps out in +strange places.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"The poem hangs on the berry bush,</div> +<div class="line">When comes the poet's eye,</div> +<div class="line">And the whole street is a masquerade</div> +<div class="line">When Shakespeare passes by."</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">So the mark of the Christ-like heart is just that it discerns, and, +discerning, loves the feeblest tokens of some inward grace that redeems +a life from evil. Do not be afraid that by welcoming the scant good, +you may be held to approve of the greater evil. That is a risk that +God Himself rejoices to take. Did not Christ risk that, when He +accepted that poor woman's worship? Did He not risk it when He held +out His hands to a man like Zaccheus? Does He not risk it always when +He declares, "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out?" And +shall we refuse because the risk is too great?</p> +<p class="pnext">Life presents us with many anomalies that refuse to square with our +theories. You find men exhibiting qualities of character, which any +Christian might be proud to emulate, outside of the Church altogether. +And you cannot simply label these--"glittering vices," and pass on. +God is not two but One, and goodness is His token wherever it be found. +"The World," says John Owen, "cannot yet afford to do without the good +acts even of its bad men." And the truth for us to learn is that the +grace of God is not bound by our standards or limits. Make the circle +as wide as you like, you will still discover fruits of the Spirit +outside, where by all our canons they were never to be expected.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"And every virtue we possess,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">And every victory won,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">And every thought of holiness</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Are His alone."</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">It is for something more than tolerance I am pleading. For that may be +a weak and a wrong thing, if it spring not from belief in the good. +What our calling demands is something more, the rejoicing, hopeful +recognition of the good deed or purpose anywhere, and the offer of a +sympathy and a faith in which it can grow. That gift of yours may +actually be the decisive factor in a life balancing perilously betwixt +good and evil. Three times, the other evening, I tried to light my +study fire, and each time it went out. The paper burned, but the +sticks apparently would not light. At last in despair I flung in a +burning match and went away--and when I returned I found a cheerful +blaze: the brief glimmer of that last match had been the determining +factor. You will smile perhaps at the illustration, but you will +remember, all the better, that where the flax is even smouldering, +there the angels are still fighting for a soul. And you will, maybe, +remember also that even your warm sympathy may turn the scale, and fan +the flicker to a flame.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">O Lord our God, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray that +the mind that was in Him may more and more be found in us. Help us to +offer to what is good anywhere a sympathy in which it may grow and +increase. Grant us a helpful faith in the struggling good in every +man, even as Thou, our Father, dost call us sons while as yet we are +but prodigals, afar off. For Jesus' sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="culpable-goodness"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">Let not then your good be</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">evil spoken of.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(ROMANS xiv. 16.)</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XI</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">CULPABLE GOODNESS</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">In his letter to the Christians at Rome, the Apostle Paul counsels them +not to let their "good be evil spoken of." And at first we ask +ourselves if this is a possible thing. Can you have good that is evil +spoken of? Since this is a matter that ought to concern us all, I want +to suggest one or two ways in which this very result may be brought +about, that those of us who are trying to follow an ideal of goodness +may be on our guard.</p> +<p class="pnext">First, we can very readily have what is good in us evil spoken of +because of our CENSORIOUSNESS. When men come upon some fruit that +grows upon a goodly-looking tree, or one at least that has a +trustworthy label attached to it, and find it sour or bitter to the +taste, they are apt to be particularly resentful. And it is with +precisely such indignation that they observe men and women who profess +themselves followers of Christ exhibiting a censorious and critical +spirit. Where ought you to find the broadest charity, the kindliest +judgment, the most Christ-like forbearance and restraint? Among +Christians, of course. And yet--alas! alas!</p> +<p class="pnext">Just keep your ears open with this end in view for a week, and you will +be surprised at the appallingly hard judgments that come tripping +daintily from the lips of some of those you know best. And if that +line of investigation be not very handy, just watch yourself for the +same time, and you will learn what a rare thing Christian charity is.</p> +<p class="pnext">We talk a lot about it, but in real life we "forbid" men very readily +"because they follow not us," we belittle things which we do not +understand, we speak rashly about people whom we do not know, and we +are ready, without the least consideration, with our label for the +movement or the man, who happens to be brought to our notice.</p> +<p class="pnext">Ah, if we could only see how far astray we often are, what a libel our +label is, and how unChrist-like many of our speeches appear! We don't +know enough of the inner life of any man to entitle us to pass judgment +upon him. A critical spirit never commends its possessor to the +affection or the good-will of men. Besides, it blinds him to much that +is really beautiful, and cuts him off from many sources of happiness. +You will see evil in almost anything if you look for it, but that is +not a gift that makes either for helpfulness or popular esteem. "I do +not call that by the name of religion," says Robert Louis Stevenson, +"which fills a man with bile," and, on the whole, the ordinary man is +of the same mind with him.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"Judge not; the workings of his brain</div> +<div class="line">And of his heart thou canst not see.</div> +<div class="line">What looks, to thy dim eyes, a stain,</div> +<div class="line">In God's pure light may only be</div> +<div class="line">A scar brought from some well-won field,</div> +<div class="line">Where thou wouldst only faint and yield."</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">Sometimes one must, in the interests of true religion, pass judgment, +but these times are not so frequent as we suppose. And if there are +occasions more than others when the disciple needs an overflowing +measure of Christ's spirit, it is when it is his clear duty to +diagnose, disapprove, and condemn.</p> +<p class="pnext">Secondly, we may have our good evil spoken of by our EXTREMENESS. I +should be very chary of saying that there is such a thing as being +righteous overmuch, but for two reasons. The first is that there is an +injunction in Scripture against it. And the second is that I have met +people, of whom, in all charity, it was true! The modern name for +being righteous overmuch is being a "crank." Now, nobody loves a +crank. The extremist always does his own cause harm. Carefulness +about one's food is a good thing, but to take an analytical chemist's +outfit to table with us is simply to ask for the contempt of all +sensible people.</p> +<p class="pnext">Paul's advice to the Philippians was, "Let your moderation be known to +all men." And Paul was himself a splendid example of the true +moderation as distinguished from that which is merely indolent and +uninterested. Earnest, enthusiastic, loyal, there was yet about him a +big and healthy sanity, a sweet reasonableness, and--what the extremist +always lacks--an engaging tact. In other words, Paul was a Christian +gentleman, and if you want to know what that means, read his letter to +Philemon about Onesimus the runaway slave. There are blunt words with +which a man can be felled as effectually as with the "grievous +crab-tree cudgel" of which Bunyan speaks. Paul did not consider it any +special virtue to employ such words. His Christian zeal did not lead +him to make a statement in a way that would irritate and rasp a man's +soul. There is a certain extreme candour affected by some Christian +people, who pride themselves on always calling a spade a spade. But if +it hurts my friend to hear me say "spade" I know of no law of God that +compels me to name the implement at all!</p> +<p class="pnext">And then, lastly, we can have our goodness "evil spoken of" because it +is so COLD. It sometimes seems as if, in our day, warmth of manner had +gone out of fashion. Ian Maclaren once said of our generation that it +will "smile feebly when wished a happy New Year as if apologising for a +lapse into barbarism." But I don't think any sensible person, not +blinded by an absurd convention, cares for that type of rarified +demeanour. No one likes to get a hand to shake which feels like a dead +fish!</p> +<p class="pnext">In one of his books, Dr Dale of Birmingham criticised that line in +Keble's hymn which speaks about the trivial round and the common task +giving us "room to deny ourselves." "No doubt," he says, "but I should +be very sorry for the people I live with to discharge their home duties +in the spirit of martyrs. God preserve us all from wives, husbands, +children, brothers, and sisters who go about the house with an air of +celestial resignation." Ah, no, that's not the goodness, either at +home or on the street, which wins men. It is not beautiful because it +is too cold. The religion of Jesus is something much more than +duty-doing. Thou shalt love the Lord thy GOD WITH ALL THY HEART. +Whosoever compels thee to go a mile, GO WITH HIM TWAIN. Whatsoever ye +do, do it HEARTILY AS UNTO THE LORD.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">From all unkind thoughts and uncharitable judgments; from all +intemperate speech and behaviour; from coldness of heart and a frigid +service, Good Lord, deliver us. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="a-khaki-virtue"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">God loveth a cheerful giver.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(2 CORINTHIANS ix. 7.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XII</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">A KHAKI VIRTUE</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">We are proud to believe that, in the article of courage, our men are +second to none in the world. They have glorious traditions to live up +to, and they are adding to these pages--nay, a whole volume, as +splendid as any in our annals. Yet it is not of our soldiers' courage +I wish to speak.</p> +<p class="pnext">For we are told on all hands that there is another quality shining +brighter still these days in the trenches in France and Belgium, in +ambulance waggons and field hospitals, and in the camps at home, +namely, cheerfulness. Again and again the same tale is repeated from +one quarter or another--"our men are simply wonderful," "they treat +discomfort as a joke." They label the very instruments that deal death +among them with names that raise a smile. Nurses, doctors, and +correspondents tell us that the light-hearted way in which our soldiers +face pain and suffering and force twisted lips to smile has created a +new record for the British Army. When the story of this war is +written, and the world gets a nearer glimpse into those awful trenches, +I venture to prophesy that the quality in our countrymen which will +most capture the imagination and fill us with the greatest pride will +be the gay, undaunted cheerfulness with which they faced it all.</p> +<p class="pnext">Surely we who stay at home may learn something of that virtue too. For +it is worth learning. Ordinary people who only know what they like, +without knowing why they like it, have a very warm side towards the +person who, when things are grey and gloomy, can keep cheerful. They +would much rather see him come in on a dull day than a wiser man whose +wisdom was a burden to him, or even than a pious person whose piety ran +to solemnity and gloom. It is high time, indeed, that the tradition +was broken for good and all which associates moral excellence with a +funereal heaviness of manner and denies the favour of the Lord to one +who, as Goldsmith has it, "carols as he goes."</p> +<p class="pnext">For the blessing of God is written visibly upon the results of +cheerfulness wherever you find it. God rewards the gallant souls who +keep their colours flying through every battle, even though they have +to nail them up over a sorely damaged ship. If you want a proof that +the hopeful and cheery way of facing the rebuffs of life and tholing +its aches and disappointments is more in the line of what God expects +from His children than the doleful whining temper, you have it shown +unmistakably in the fact that the gallant unconquerable soul solves +problems, overcomes difficulties, endures pains, and wins successes +where the solemn and easily depressed would simply have given in and +lain down. You can safely prophesy that the man whom you hear singing +as he goes through the valley, like the pilgrim that Bunyan's Christian +heard, is going to get out of it safely and honourably in the end. The +Lord Himself will deliver him, as He delights to deliver all those who +face life smiling and unafraid, and meet His Fatherly discipline with a +stout heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">Cheerfulness, in other words, pays for oneself. But it is also a great +blessing to others. One very safe and sure way to help our fellows up +their hills is to breast our own as bravely and gaily as we can. And +the cheerfulness which heals and blesses like the breath of morning is +that which shows up against a background of cloud and trouble. Let us +all in this year of war and clean courage, register a vow that we shall +take a leaf out of our soldiers' book, and think less about our own +troubles, teach our lips to smile when things are wrong, and keep our +eyes wider open for trouble's danger signals among our friends. It's a +simple way of doing good, but a very effective one. For cheerfulness, +like mercy, is twice blessed. It blesseth him that has, and him that +sees!</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"It was only a glad Good Morning</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">As she passed along the way,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">But it spread the morning's glory</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Over the livelong day."</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">But cheerfulness needs its explanation. It implies something. A man +is not cheerful without some underlying philosophy of life to sustain +him, some pillar of faith or hope at his back. When a man faces life +dauntless and smiling, he does so because some inward and, it may even +be, unconscious faith or hope thus finds its expression. What that +faith is, different men will describe in different ways.</p> +<p class="pnext">But however much the descriptions vary, it all comes back to this in +the end, that the man who is living bravely and cheerfully is +expressing by his conduct at any rate his faith in the Fatherhood and +good Providence of God. He knows that "God's in His Heaven"; at any +rate he believes so. He believes that things do not just fall out by +chance, but that a Father Hand controls all, and a Father Heart cares +even for the sparrow's unheeded fall. The God who rules all makes no +mistakes.</p> +<p class="pnext">And is not that a cardinal part of the faith which Jesus brings near to +all who are learning of Him? There are various adjectives used to +qualify the title Christian. One hears, for example, of "earnest +Christians," and earnestness is a very necessary quality, even though +one does occasionally happen upon "earnest Christians" who are rather +unlovable and irritating people. But there's another adjective, not +nearly so common--and yet it denotes a quality just as essential in +those who have taken Christ's gospel of God's Love and Fatherhood to +their hearts--namely, cheerful. A "cheerful Christian." Let us all +try to be that kind of Christian at least.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">"The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns +and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with +laughter and kind faces, let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give +us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting +beds weary and content and undishonoured, and grant us in the end the +gift of sleep. Amen."</p> +<ol class="upperalpha simple" start="18"> +<li><ol class="first upperalpha" start="12"> +<li><p class="first pfirst">STEVENSON.</p> +</li> +</ol> +</li> +</ol> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="the-overcoming-of-panic"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"(Jeremiah dwelt among the</div> +<div class="line">people that were left in the</div> +<div class="line">land.("</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(JEREMIAH xl. 6.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XIII</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">THE OVERCOMING OF PANIC</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Once upon a time Jeremiah the prophet had asked for only one thing, +that he might get away from that strange cityful of perverse men to +whom it was his hard lot to be the mouthpiece of a God they were +forgetting. He was tired of them. "O that I had in the wilderness a +lodging place of wayfaring men that I might leave my people and go from +them."</p> +<p class="pnext">Well, time passed on. The people got no wiser, and Jeremiah's burden +certainly got no lighter. But the very chance he prayed for came. He +had a clear and honourable opportunity to go to the lodge in the +wilderness, or anywhere else he liked, away from the men who had +disowned his teaching. His work was done apparently, and he had +failed. Yet with the door standing invitingly open, see what Jeremiah +did! He "went and dwelt among the people that were left in the land." +He had his chance and he did not take it!</p> +<p class="pnext">We all know something of this desire to get rid of a present hard duty, +or a difficult environment, or a perplexing problem. And yet I wonder, +if the way were similarly opened up for us, how many would seize the +opportunity? I believe that the feature of such a situation would just +be the large number of us who, when it came to the pinch, would choose +as Jeremiah did, to remain where we are! Something would hold us back.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet the desire itself is natural enough, and a man need neither be a +coward nor a weakling who confesses to it. The hours when the daily +round seems altogether flat and unprofitable, and when one would gladly +change places with almost anybody, are real hours in life, and it is no +shame to have known them. But between that knowledge and the actual +escape, the actual fleeing from one's post, there is a great gulf fixed +that, for very many with any high ideal of duty, is impassable. For, +though a man has known the state of mind that looks for some back door +out of a depressing situation, he has had the other experience also, +the joy of self-mastery, the keen sense of pleasure that comes to him +when he discovers that his surroundings do not count for so much as he +himself does. That experience, though it be only in memory, will stand +between a man and retreat. He has conquered before, and the thrill of +victory over material discouragements may be his again. And so, though +the way of escape be open, he will choose to remain and fight it out.</p> +<p class="pnext">Sometimes the mere weight of his responsibility may tempt a man to wish +that he might escape. There is a fairly well-known symptom of nervous +disease whose name signifies the fear of being shut in, when the +patient dreads the experience of being in any closed place. Sometimes +a moral panic of that kind comes to a man when he realises that he is +shut in with some duty which must be gone through with. With something +of the instinct of the trapped animal he may look round for a way of +escape.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet does that mean that he would take the chance deliberately, with +eyes full open to the consequences, if it were offered? I think not.</p> +<p class="pnext">You can apply the test to yourself. Have you ever accepted some +responsibility, and then, when the occasion came nearer, backed out of +it for no other reason than that you were afraid? If you have, you +will perhaps remember whether you felt proud of yourself, whether, +beneath the undoubted relief, there was not a good deal of quiet shame +and self-scorn. If the same thing were to happen again, you might feel +the impulse to desert, but if you remembered your former experience, +you would hardly yield to it, I imagine.</p> +<p class="pnext">The plain truth is that no proper man really likes a soft job. "In the +long run," says J. A. Symonds, "we really love the sternest things in +life best." And he speaks truth. There is a certain exhilaration in +the endurance of hardness. Responsibility braces most men like a shock +of cold water. What is arduous calls them as with a trumpet. And in +the general sense of quiet contempt for the person who in a panic +flings up his responsibility, we may recognise one of God's elementary +checks upon cowardice.</p> +<p class="pnext">There are those who are reading these words who are enduring hardness +and making sacrifices from which they might easily escape. They do at +times desire relief. But the point is that they don't take it, when it +is possible. And I say there must be some reason for this. What is it +that holds men back from the easy way when it stands open before them?</p> +<p class="pnext">For one thing, I think, the sense of the place that hardness and effort +and endurance play in every true life. For centuries men have climbed +up to strength of character, if at all, by ways uniformly arduous and +steep; and distrust of the primrose path, however alluring, has passed +as an instinct into our blood. In the small unheroic affairs of life +we have learned that a difficulty faced and overcome, or a duty +doggedly fulfilled, add a precious something to experience that there +is no other way of securing. The schoolboy on a hot summer day may +look up from his task, away out wistfully to the cool shade of the +trees across the playground, and wish that he were there, rather than +where he is. Yet even he knows, what we all come to learn, that that +is not the road to anything in life worth the gaining.</p> +<p class="pnext">Another deterring impulse is the sense of a divine vocation. Our +calling and circumstances are ordained for us by God, and we must not +quit the field till the day is done. It is He who has chosen our lot +in life and summoned us to the sphere we fill.</p> +<p class="pnext">We may succeed or fail as seems to Him best. Sometimes he places men, +for reasons of His own, in corners where success, as commonly measured, +is not possible. But one thing--success or failure--we must not do. +We must not shirk. We must not run away. God means us to stand fast +and do our best. For failure even, if it be honourable, He may have +His good word at the last. But to the man who has shirked life's hard +duties, not even God can say, "Well done!"</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Lord of our life, and God of our salvation, make us strong to endure +hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Thou sendest no man a +warfare upon his own charges. In dependence on Thy help, grant us +grace to do each duty, as the hour and Thy will may bring it. And, +with Thy fear in our hearts, grant us deliverance from all other fears +whatever. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="the-day-s-darg"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">Whatsoever ye do, do all</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">to the glory of God.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(1 CORINTHIANS x. 31.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XIV</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">THE DAY'S DARG</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">It is never hard to connect the presence of our Lord and Master Jesus +Christ with our Sabbaths and our hours of worship. If ever Christ +comes near us in spirit at all, we say, it is when in the quiet of the +sanctuary we reach out hands of prayer and desire to Him. The link +between our worship and our Lord is strong and obvious. But, when the +din of business shuts out all else, when the hard, toilsome duty of the +ordinary day is to be done, when we are at work amid surroundings that +have no suggestion of sacredness or of God about them--what of the link +with Christ then? It is much harder then, is it not? to imagine any +thinkable and workable connection that our Lord has with that sphere of +life, broad and extensive as it is. There are many indeed who forget +that there is any, and live as if there were none. And yet the solemn +truth is that if that link is not strong and real, we don't know what +religion means. We have hardly the right to call ourselves Christian +men and women unless we can relate our week-day labours to the fact of +Christ.</p> +<p class="pnext">So let us try to strengthen that link. Let us look at our daily work +in the light of religion.</p> +<p class="pnext">First, let me remind you that our work is by divine commandment. It is +not something that God allows us to do when we are not worshipping. It +is His ordinance that we should all work at something. The business of +life is labour of some sort. I do not know if we all realise how the +Fourth Commandment begins--"Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy +work." And the man who is inexcusably idle, or who belittles his work, +even in the interest, as he thinks, of religion, is breaking this +commandment as truly as he who neglects the other half of it and +dishonours the Sabbath day.</p> +<p class="pnext">No one will accuse the Apostle Paul of any indifference or lukewarmness +where true religion was concerned. Yet it was this Apostle who ordered +the Thessalonians to go on with their daily occupations even though +they believed, as so many did at that time, that the Return of the Lord +to earth was just at hand. By our daily work we serve the Lord as +truly as when we gather to His worship. Let us get out of our heads, +then, the false and foolish idea that all the working part of our week +is the part at which God looks askance. Man's chief end is to glorify +God, and one of the ways of doing that is by being loyal to the duties +of each hour whatever they may be.</p> +<p class="pnext">Secondly, I would ask you to think of those quiet, unrecorded years of +our Lord's life on earth before His public ministry. The Gospels give +no details, but the fact is perfectly certain that up till His +thirtieth year Jesus of Nazareth worked at His trade as a carpenter. +If only we would let that fact soak into us, it would alter our whole +idea of the relation of our daily work to religion. Jesus worked +Himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">And we have, as has been pointed out, interesting indirect proof as to +what manner of life He lived on those workaday levels that we all know +so much about. For, to this Carpenter of Nazareth there came a day +when, in Nazareth itself, He stood forth as representative of a +morality and religion higher than ever was proclaimed before. He spoke +to men about the true way to live like one having authority. And there +were many who so resented what they deemed His presumption that +anything that reflected on His claims or belittled His authority would +gladly have been seized upon and made the most of. Had there been in +Nazareth a bit of botched work of His doing, "a door of unseasoned wood +or a badly made chest," don't you think it would have been produced to +discredit His mission? If any one could have been found with whom the +Carpenter had not dealt honourably and justly, if, as He walked the +streets of His native town and lived His humble daily life in the sight +of all men, there had been anything that weakened His claim to guide +and teach His brethren, don't you think they would have found it out +and taxed Him with it?</p> +<p class="pnext">There was nothing of that. Jesus faced His fellows with His daily duty +behind Him, and it reinforced every word He said. His message to men +was backed up by His daily life. He spoke of religion as no other son +of man ever did, but He lived it long before He ever opened His mouth. +He brought religion down to the workshop and the street, and showed men +what it meant there. And unless He had done that, it is difficult to +conceive that His public ministry of itself would have satisfied men +that He was indeed One sent from God.</p> +<p class="pnext">Do you see, then, from this point of view, what a great and vital part +of religion our day's work is, and the way we do it, our life at home, +our ordinary contact with our fellow-men? It is that that gives weight +to any profession we may make. If in our daily life we are not +exhibiting our religion, nothing that we can profess or say on Sunday +will make up for that defect. It is what we are on Monday and Tuesday +that underlines and emphasises the claims we make at church on the +Sunday. Behind all our prayer and profession lies the everyday life.</p> +<p class="pnext">Third, our daily work is sanctified by the fact that our Lord and +Master is with us, to help and strengthen us there, as truly as when we +pray. Jesus Christ is not far away, as we so pitifully misconceive it, +amid the dust of business, when we must keep our temper and follow +conscience along the hard way and deal honourably with all men. He is +near us there also, ready and willing to help us to be true to God and +man on that road which once He trod Himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">There is a famous unwritten saying of Christ which puts memorably what +the Gospels likewise testify. "Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me. +Cleave the wood and there am I." Christ is as near us in our daily +work as that! When Peter and his friends went a-fishing, you remember, +with heavy hearts because the Master had gone away from them, He met +them by the lake as they plied their ordinary calling. So does He +wait, my brother, to meet you and me wherever the duty of the hour may +take us. For our working life is not outside of His interest nor out +with His care and guidance. With reverent imagination Van Dyke has +seemed to hear the Christ speak thus--and the words may perhaps further +weld the link for some of us between our everyday duty and the Christ +whom we worship and seek to serve:</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"They who tread the path of labour follow where My feet have trod;</div> +<div class="line">They who work without complaining do the holy will of God.</div> +<div class="line">Where the many toil together, there am I among my own;</div> +<div class="line">Where the tired workman sleepeth, there am I with Him alone.</div> +<div class="line">I, the peace that passeth knowledge, dwell amid the daily strife,</div> +<div class="line">I, the bread of heaven, am broken in the sacrament of life.</div> +<div class="line">Every task, however simple, sets the soul that does it free,</div> +<div class="line">Every deed of love and mercy done to man is done to Me.</div> +<div class="line">Nevermore thou needest seek Me; I am with thee everywhere--</div> +<div class="line">Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and I am there."</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Our Lord and Master, whose command it is that we do with our whole +heart whatsoever our hand findeth to do, grant that we may so yield and +surrender ourselves, body, mind and spirit, unto Thee, that even in the +common business of each ordinary day we may serve Thee and glorify Thy +great Name. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="gashmu-the-gossip"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">Gashmu saith it.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(NEHEMIAH vi. 6.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XV</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">GASHMU THE GOSSIP</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Gashmu is a mere name in Scripture. He is mentioned only three +times--twice as acting with Sanballat against Nehemiah, and once as the +authority for a false piece of news. It is reported, wrote Sanballat +in a cruel letter to Nehemiah, that you are plotting against the king, +and "Gashmu saith it." That is what Gashmu stands for in Scripture, a +tale-bearer, a slanderer, a gossip. What an unenviable immortality to +be remembered only as the pedlar of a tale he knew to be untrue!</p> +<p class="pnext">As long as we live together in society, there will be a kind of gossip +that is inevitable, the kindly or merely casual relation of small and +insignificant matters of fact, as that the painters are in next door, +or that Mrs So-and-So has got a new bonnet. It is not of that I want +to speak.</p> +<p class="pnext">For there is another sort as deadly as the plague, and in civilised +countries the cruellest and most devilish instrument that one man or +woman can use against another. And that is the inventing of an untrue +report about a man's doings or character, or the unthinking repetition +of the same. That is the pestilence that walketh in darkness; that is +the destruction that wasteth at noonday. And I wish I had the pen to +write of it as it deserves.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is very, very common. We are all too ready to repeat what we have +heard, with a "Gashmu saith it," as if that certified the tale correct. +And the harm done is simply incalculable. If my house is burned or I +lose my money, I can still get along by the kindness of my friends for +a little, till I find my feet again. But whoever by some lying story +takes away my character, deals me a blow from which there is no +recovering, which my loyalest friends can do nothing to avert. I have +no redress, no compensation, and no help. Any one may be a victim, and +you and I, by thoughtlessly passing on the deadly thing, may all +unconsciously be driving another nail into a man's coffin.</p> +<p class="pnext">Did you ever lie awake at night and think that even now the cancer may +have begun on YOUR good name, that whispers may be going about among +your friends concerning you? Those who know you will hear it, and will +say, It's a lie! But that won't stop it. And you will never know till +some day you waken up and find that your reputation is in danger. And +not one word or vestige of truth may be in it. It may be a lie pure +and simple, or a colourable counterfeit of some quite innocent truth. +That won't make any difference. It is enough merely to start it, and, +like a stone thrown down an Alpine slope, it gathers others in its +train, till an avalanche swoops down on some unsuspecting head.</p> +<p class="pnext">When King Arthur enrolled his Knights of the Round Table, he made them +take the oath to "speak no slander." And there is a knightly chivalry +of speech which ought to be the mark of all those who have promised +fealty to Jesus Christ. Our discipleship of Jesus demands of us the +high endeavour to love our neighbour as ourselves, and that +presupposes, as one of its consequences, that we guard his name against +false witness as carefully as we protect our own. If we hear a good +story about some one, a report that is to his credit and honour, let us +blazon that abroad. We are all far too slow at that, and somehow the +tale that is a little damaging has a far easier and more rapid +circulation. Might we not make more of our brother's successes? Might +we not oftener repeat about him what he is too modest ever to say about +himself? It were a true and kindly Christian act. But never, as we +call ourselves servants of Christ, never do our brother such a grievous +irreparable wrong as to start about him a tale which may not be true. +God can and will forgive you your sins of speech. But even He cannot +make clean the character which a foolish word has sullied.</p> +<p class="pnext">King Arthur went further, however, than demanding that his knights +should speak no slander. Their vow included the words, "no, nor listen +to it." And that is a high and difficult course to keep. It is not +easy, when you are being told of something that is striking or +sensational of a merely gossipy character, to stop the conversation and +lead it into other channels. It requires great courage and as great +tact. But how many of us ever try it?</p> +<p class="pnext">If, however, the refusal to listen be regarded as a counsel of +perfection, there remains yet the further injunction--never REPEAT the +gossip you have heard. That at least is homely and possible.</p> +<p class="pnext">We used to read in our book of Fables of the lamb that noticed this +significant thing about the track that led to the lion's den--that all +the footprints pointed inwards, but there were none returning. +"Vestigia nulla retrorsum." No footprints backwards. It would be a +good motto for us all. Let the stories, the ill-humoured, unkind, +uncharitable sayings that float and wander about everywhere, let them +come to us as they will, but let the traces end there. Be such a +person that men may trace a story from its source down the chain TO +you, but never PAST you.</p> +<p class="pnext">We can do that much at least for our friends. All about us is the +constant, unquiet drift of gossip and distorted half-truth, as restless +as the sand in the desert, dancing and whirling with every puff of +wind. We can do something to arrest that drift. We can be for our +friends in some measure what Isaiah said that God's Servant, when He +came, should be, the shadow of a great Rock in a weary land, stopping +the drift of the sand, and sheltering our friends by our loyalty and +our silence.</p> +<p class="pnext">Don't even repeat the gossip that comes to you, not only for the strong +reason already given, but also for this little one, that you won't +likely repeat it correctly. With all the will in the world, it is one +of the hardest things to retail a story just exactly as you heard it. +Sir Walter Scott, speaking about anecdotes that he had heard, said he +always liked to cock up their bonnets a bit and put a staff in their +hands that they might walk on a little brisker and sprightlier than +when they came to him! But we all do that, without meaning to do it at +all. We add a little bit. We exaggerate just the tiniest fraction, +and our hearer when he repeats the story does the same, and so the +matter grows till it is big enough to do much mischief.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"A Whisper broke the air,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">A soft light tone and low,</div> +<div class="line">Yet barbed with shame and woe.</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Now, might it only perish there,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Nor further go!</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">Ah me! A quick and eager ear</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Caught up the little meaning sound;</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Another voice has breathed it clear,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">And so it wandered round,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">From ear to lip, from lip to ear,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Until it reached a gentle heart,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">And that--it broke."</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">There is a legend that once a king avoided death in a poisoned cup that +had been handed to him by making over it the sign of the Cross--when it +broke in pieces at his feet. Let us, when we are tempted to retail the +vivid, poisonous piece of scandal, stop and invoke the Spirit of +Christ. Is this that I am going to say about my brother the kind of +thing I should say if Christ were standing by? Am I justified in +turning over that bit of gossip which may be true, but which ought not +to be true? Our duty, who profess and call ourselves Christians, is +clear. We are to speak no slander no, nor listen to it. We are to +retail evil about no man. We are to love one another.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">O Lord our God, whose command it is that we love our neighbour as +ourselves, help us to cherish and protect his good name as carefully as +we guard our own. Make us more willing to repeat the good about him, +but slower to retail or exaggerate the evil. Grant us all a deeper +sense of the deadly wrong a foolish tongue can work, and keep Thou the +door of our lips. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="god-in-front"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">Thou preventest him with</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">the blessings of goodness.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(PSALM xxi. 3.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XVI</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">GOD IN FRONT</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">You know how, in a happy home, the near approach of a birthday is +signalised, how parcels are mysteriously smuggled in and hidden in +secret places, and, though everything seems to be going on as usual, +yet the plans are being laid in train that will surprise and delight +the fortunate owner of the birthday when the festal day dawns. That is +our feeble, human way of trying to surprise one another with the +blessings of goodness. That is how we "prevent" our beloved with +tokens of our remembrance. So, says the Psalmist, does God deal with +us. Not only have we--what we so much need--His forgiveness of our +past, and His help and presence for the day which now is; He is working +for us in the future too, sowing the days to come with blessings for us +to pick up when the passage of time brings us to the places where He +has hidden them.</p> +<p class="pnext">The idea that God has been beforehand in our history, getting ready, as +it were, for our coming, though not a very usual one, is very helpful, +and it finds abundant illustration and proof in all directions. When a +child arrives on this earth, he enters into the enjoyment of bounties +and blessings prepared, not merely weeks, but literally ages before his +coming. Warmth he needs, and aeons ago the coal beds were formed in +the bowels of the earth. Food he needs, and God "laboured for ages," +as Sir Oliver Lodge puts it, to bring corn into existence. For corn +needs soil, and, to make that, the Creator had to set the glaciers +grinding over the granite, and to loosen the forces of rain and frost +and running water over great stretches of time.</p> +<p class="pnext">Every child born into the world becomes the heir of all the ages past. +What blessings have been prepared for most of us, in advance, in the +homes into which we were born, and the gracious influences under which +we have grown up! "I have to thank the gods," says Marcus Aurelius the +pagan Emperor, "that my grandfathers, parents, sisters, preceptors, +relations, friends and domestics were almost all of them persons of +probity." "I have to thank the gods." Who else is there to thank but +God who prevents us in this way with the blessings of goodness? God is +working beforehand in our interest in all these things. So, when we +awaken to a sense of Him, there is His Church, established of old, +awaiting to take us by the hand and help us on our way. When we learn +our need of a Saviour, behold Christ stands at the door and knocks. +When, in penitence of heart, we ask God's mercy, we learn that, long +since, it was laid up in store for us. Before we thought of loving +God, He first loved us, and gave Himself for us in Jesus Christ our +Lord. Is it not gloriously true all the way along that God has been +beforehand with His goodness?</p> +<p class="pnext">And that, of course, is the explanation of all the glad surprises of +life. The Lord has prepared them for us beforehand. He has sown the +future with good things and watched our surprise as we picked them up. +When Mary Mardon and her father, in Mark Rutherford's "Autobiography," +went to the seaside to look for lodgings they saw a dismal row of very +plain-looking houses. Mary objected instinctively to the dull street, +but her father said he could not afford to pay for a sea view, so they +went in to inquire. To their delight they found that what they thought +were the fronts of the houses were really the backs, for the real +fronts faced the bay, had pretty gardens before the doors, and a +glorious sunny prospect over the ocean. Isn't that what we often find +to be the case? Our most treasured friends are not always those whom +we fall in love with at first sight. The thing we greatly fear +dissolves like mist. An envied, but despaired-of, blessing is flung +into our lap. A door of splendid hope opens in a dead wall. Life is +full of the unexpected as if wonder were one of the things God wanted +very much to keep alive in us. When, as you think, everything has been +exhausted, God surprises you with a fresh gladness. And, aback of all, +there is the unending surprise of God's patience with us, and of that +daily mercy of His, which we so ill requite, and so often forget.</p> +<p class="pnext">Of course, no one dreams of suggesting that all our surprises are of a +happy sort. It is not so. But the point is that if it is God who has +hidden the blessings for us to come upon, it is He also who has hidden +the other things. God's hand does not slip so that we get the wrong +parcel by accident. He prevents us also with the blessings that we do +not call by that name at all. In his Lay Sermons, Huxley, describing +the tadpole in its slimy cradle, says: "After watching the process hour +after hour, one is almost possessed by the notion that some more subtle +aid to vision than an achromatic object-glass would show the hidden +artist with his plan before him, striving with skilful manipulation to +perfect his work." If, in that wonderful fashion, God is working +beforehand according to a plan of His own, in the life of a tadpole, is +it not much more likely that He is so working in your life and mine, +not in its joys only, but also in its dark hours and its sorrows? +That, indeed, is the very message and comfort of the Lord Jesus Christ, +that not even a sparrow falleth to the ground--calamity indeed for the +sparrow--without our Father.</p> +<p class="pnext">If it be true that God our Father is working in advance of us all the +time, then surely it is wrong to speak of the monotony of life? For we +are on a road which God Himself has sown with surprises for us, and the +hour of our deadliest weariness may be the immediate percursor of our +richest and most joyous find. Who could have supposed, at the end of +the eighteenth century, when poetry in England seemed dead, that a +great galaxy of stars--Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, +Keats--was on the very eve of rising? The unexpected can always +happen. You may come upon another of God's hidden blessings to-morrow. +Let us not talk of monotony, therefore, in an age which has seen so +many wonderful things happen. Rather let us hold to the faith that all +the while God is going before us with the blessings of goodness.</p> +<p class="pnext">This faith puts another complexion on all our fears and forebodings. +Before we live it, the web of our life passes through God's hands. And +the shaded parts, as well as the bright parts, are in His wise and +loving design. Nobody can promise us freedom from sorrow, but the +Bible promises that God is beforehand to make the sorrow bearable. He +has adjusted our temptations to our strength, and never a one has He +hidden, where we come upon it, that it is impossible for us by His help +to withstand. Before the mother puts her little child into his hot +bath at night, she tests the water first with her fingers. And the +Psalmist means us to believe that life comes to us from God, who has +measured and adapted it for us, beforehand, in a like fashion.</p> +<p class="pnext">Viewed in the light of this faith, Death itself takes on a different +aspect. Oliver Wendell Holmes has suggested that the story of this +life and the next can be fully written in two strokes of the pen, an +interrogation-point, and, above it, a mark of exclamation--fear and +question here below, and, above, adoration, wonder, surprise. "I go to +prepare a place for you," said Christ to His disciples. If the +preparation for us here is so wonderful, is it likely to fail yonder? +If Love made ready for us here, shall it not be beforehand there too? +Yea, verily. Our experience of how God prevents us here with His +loving kindness ought to strengthen in us all the "faith of our Lord +Jesus Christ, and the saint's trust in every age, that when we pass +hence it will be to meet the grandest, the most blessed, and the most +surprising provision of all."</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Our Father in Heaven, we shall not be afraid of what life may hold for +us when we have learned that our little web has first passed through +Thy merciful and loving hands. We have often prayed that Thou wouldest +go with us; but Thou hast answered us beyond our asking, for Thou goest +before us all. In the faith of that leading, make us to journey +bravely and to sleep secure. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="unbelief-kept-quiet"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">Fight the good fight of faith.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(1 TIMOTHY vi. 12.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XVII</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"UNBELIEF KEPT QUIET"</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">We are often told that this is not an age of faith, that the day of the +beautiful, old, simple acquiescence is past, whether it ever comes +again or not. Some one has wittily suggested that the coat of arms of +the present age is "an interrogation-point rampant, above three bishops +dormant, and the motto 'Query.'" But, like a great many more witty +things, that saying leaves one questioning whether, after all, it be +really true. I venture, for my part, to assert that a great many more +people are really interested in this matter of faith than most of us +imagine. There is something that haunts men as with a sense of hidden +treasure about this wonderful thing in life called Faith, that always +seems to be going to disappear, and yet somehow does not. With a +strange, wistful persistence men linger about this pool, though there +are many to tell them that the "desired angel bathes no more."</p> +<p class="pnext">I wish to speak a word of encouragement to-day to all who are finding +faith hard. "Fight the good fight of faith," says Paul to his young +friend, Timothy. Fight. I want to remind you that faith often implies +effort, that there is nothing in the idea of faith which is +incompatible with struggle, that the very form of Paul's advice implies +an antagonism.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is true that many think of the "faith of the saints" as a quiet, +contented habit of gentle acquiescence, a sweet and beautiful state of +mind very far removed from the restless, questioning, analytic temper +of the man of to-day. Now, I do not say that faith is never seen now +in that placid form, but I do say that that was not the type Paul had +in mind when he wrote Timothy, it is not the figure which best +described his own faith, and it is certainly not the aspect he would +require to deal with, were he writing to the men of to-day.</p> +<p class="pnext">For they are only too conscious of much inward suspense of judgment and +uncertainty concerning many things in Heaven and earth. And that +inward conflict seems to many of them a sign that faith is waning, if +not dead. They have forgotten that it is that very sense of inward +conflict which proves that faith is not dead. Dead things do not offer +any resistance. We ought by this time to have learned that a thing +"may be for us an intellectual puzzle, and yet a sheer spiritual +necessity," and that the Christian faith is, for every soul who has +once caught it. There are a great many earnest and honest men to whom +it is the best of news that Christian faith is not incompatible with +very grave perplexities. The real opposite of faith is not doubt, as +so many suppose, but deliberate and satisfied denial. Faith can live +in the same life along with very many doubts--as a matter of fact, in +the case of not a few of the most Christ-like men of our time, it is +living beside them constantly. Paul assures us that outside of him he +found fightings and within him he found fears. Yet he kept the faith +for all that. They start up on all sides, these spectres of the mind +and reason, and they ask questions which a man cannot answer. Yet +Faith may be dwelling in his life in very deed and truth, because faith +is something more than the sum of all his beliefs. It is the whole +conscious and deliberate set and desire of his being.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is a well-known fact that a man may be truly courageous, acting, +speaking, thinking bravely at the very moment when panic fears are +gripping his heart. I like that fine old story of the soldier +advancing into the fire zone with steady step, and taunted by a comrade +for his pale face. "You're afraid," said the other. "I know I am +afraid," said he, "and if you felt half as much afraid as I do, you +would turn and flee." It is the very finest courage that dominates and +controls a sensitive organisation, and holds the shrinking other-half +to its purpose with firm grip. Just so is it with faith. A man keeps +his course, lifts up his eyes to the hills, lives for God and His +Christ, prays on, struggles on, and hopes for the home beyond the edge +of life, while often enough his mind is full of questioning and the +puzzle of God's deep mysteries. For faith is not what the intellect +says merely. It is what the whole man is struggling and trying to say.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"With me, faith means perpetual unbelief</div> +<div class="line">Kept quiet, like the snake 'neath Michael's foot,</div> +<div class="line">Who stands calm just because he feels it writhe."</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">Don't do yourself the wrong of thinking that faith has vanished because +the snake is felt to be writhing. "Perpetual unbelief kept quiet." +Yes, but what keeps the clamouring doubts and fears under foot? Just +yourself, just your highest self, the bit of you made for God, and +unable to do without Him! Faith is the vote of the whole man, of the +best of the man, in the face of a protesting minority. In other words, +fight is a splendid word to use in speaking about faith.</p> +<p class="pnext">Let a man ask himself--Does he really wish that the best he has dreamed +or heard about God and His love for men, His passion to deliver them +from evil, and His pity and nearness to us all in Jesus Christ His +Son--does he wish all that to be true? No man is without faith who +does wish that, and is living in the direction of his desire. In that +man's life who, despite all the clamour and philosophy of Babylon, is +keeping his window open towards where he believes Jerusalem to be, +there is that vital element of faith that is linking his life to God +even now, and will bring him where he would be at last.</p> +<p class="pnext">I do not think that the prodigal was at all sure of the welcome that +awaited him. Probably his mind, as he limped along in his rags, was +full of misgivings and fears. But the father hailed him as his son +whenever he saw afar off that the lad's face was set for home. I do +not imagine our Father will concern Himself very much about the gaps in +our creed if only our faces are turned homewards and towards Him. Let +the man I have tried to speak to be of good courage, and fight on with +a stout heart. Faith is not sight. It may not even be assurance, may +be only hope and longing, and a reaching towards the Highest. But I +firmly believe that no man, even though he may fall on the way home, +and before he knows of his welcome, I believe that no man shall be cast +out at the last, whose arms, as he fell, were outstretched in desire to +God.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">O Lord our God, Author and Finisher of our faith, help us with all our +strength to fight the good fight. When our defence is being broken, do +Thou garrison our souls, O God, that we may be able to stand in the +evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Through Jesus Christ our +Lord. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="the-equipment-of-joy"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">The joy of the Lord is your strength.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(NEHEMIAH viii. 10.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XVIII</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">THE EQUIPMENT OF JOY</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Let us talk about joy, and especially that kind of it of which Nehemiah +was thinking when he said, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." It +is strange that while practically everybody would agree as to the +wholesomeness and the duty of joy in the ordinary sense of the term, to +add the words "of the Lord" to it, seems, to some, completely to alter +its character and in fact to spoil it, to turn it into an unreal sort +of joy which is not true joy at all.</p> +<p class="pnext">I wish emphatically to protest against such a conception of religious +joy as an injustice to the Father Love of God. The joy of the Lord, as +I understand it, is not different in quality from wholesome human +gladness, it is, in fact, just that gladness deepened and sanctified by +the sense of God, and the knowledge of Him brought to us by Jesus +Christ our Lord. There is not a single innocent and pure source of +gladness open to men and women on this earth but is made to taste +sweeter when they have opened their hearts to the love of God. It is +the very crown of happy living that is reached when a man can say, "My +Lord and my God." Once I have dared to accept the wonderful truth that +even for me the Eternal Father has His place and His plan and His care, +every simplest happiness, every common joy of living, every delight in +the beauty of the world and the pleasures of home and work and +friendship--every one of these takes on a keener edge. It is a +pestilent heresy to declare that a Christian ought to walk through life +like a man with a hidden sickness. On the contrary, there is no one +who has a better right to be joyous and happy-hearted. Do you think it +is for nothing that the "joy of our salvation" is a Bible phrase? And +shall we believe that that salvation is ours and not be mighty glad +about it all the time? What is the good of translating "Gospel" as +"good news" and at the same time living as if religion were a bondage +and a burden grievous to be borne? Of all the strange twists of human +convention, it is surely the strangest to allow ordinary human joy to +be happy and cheerful, and to insist that those whose joy is in the +Lord should pull a long face, and forswear laughter, and crawl along +dolefully as if to the sound of some dirge! The "morning face and the +morning heart" belong of right to the truly religious, and no one ought +to be gladder, come what may, than the man who has made the highest and +best disposal of his little life that any one can make, namely, +surrendered it in faith and obedience to his Lord.</p> +<p class="pnext">A gloomy, ponderous, stiff religion which looks askance at innocent +merriment and is afraid to pull a long breath of enjoyment has the mark +of "damaged goods" on it somehow, and no one will take it off your +hands. It is not catching, and certainly your children will never +catch it. It is said to be a good test of a religion that it can be +preached at a street corner. But I know a better test than that. +Preach it to a child. Set him in the midst of those who profess it. +If their religion frightens him, freezes the smiles on his lips, and +destroys his happiness, depend upon it, whatever sort of religion it +be, it lacks the essential winsomeness of the religion of Jesus Christ.</p> +<p class="pnext">I need not say, of course, that I am not pleading for a more hilarious +religious life. And, equally of course, empty frivolity, and the cult +of the continual grin are insufferable things to endure either in the +name of religion or anything else. Not by a single word would I lessen +the condemnation which such aberrations deserve. But I do say, and +with all my heart I believe that a deep, abiding well-spring of +happiness--which our author calls the "joy of the Lord"--is of the very +essence of true religion, and is indeed, what he asserts it, actually +our strength. Actually our strength. Let us be quite clear about that.</p> +<p class="pnext">The man in whose heart there dwells this best of all joys is a strength +to other people. We don't need any one to prove that to us, I imagine. +We have all been helped and revived many a time merely by contact with +some hearty cheerful soul. Who, for example, that had his choice, +would elect for his family physician a man with a doleful air? Have we +not all found that a doctor's cheery manner was as potent a medicine as +any drug that he called by a Latin name? Ay, and even when we are in +trouble, and our hearts are sad and sore, I think we would all rather +see the friend whose faith in God showed in a brave and buoyant outlook +than one whose religion was of the dowie and despondent sort.</p> +<p class="pnext">I have heard it said of an employee who had the gift of the joyous +heart that the twinkle of his eyes was worth £100 a year to his firm. +I could easily believe it, though the money value might well have been +set at any figure, seeing that the thing itself is really priceless. +Did not the most famous modern apostle of the duty of +happiness--himself a signal proof that joy is something more than the +mere easy overflow of health and animal spirits--did not Stevenson +declare that "by being happy we sow anonymous benefits," and that "the +entrance of such a person into a room is as if another candle had been +lighted?" I take it the proof is ample that a joyous heart is a +strength to others.</p> +<p class="pnext">But more, it is a strength to oneself. That may not be so obvious, and +yet the result here is even more certain. Ordinary experience tells us +that joy is good for us, that depression and gloom work us bodily harm. +But from one province of scientific study especially there has come a +wonderful array of evidence that makes it as certain as any fact can be +that the happy states of mind do literally add to our strength in quite +measurable directions. There is, in strict fact, no tonic in all the +world like gladness.</p> +<p class="pnext">That being so, joy, and especially the best kind of it of which +Nehemiah speaks, is not a luxury, not a condition you may legitimately +cherish if you are fortunate enough to possess it. It is a sheer +necessity. You can't do without it. Even to meet your sorrows, even +to gird you for service, even to run your race without fainting, you +need the joy of the Lord, which is strength. And since the Father has +stored up such an abundant supply of it in this world of His, since it +is knocking at our doors every day, and only our distrust and suspicion +keep it outside, we know what to do to secure this good gift of God. +We have only to open our doors to let it in, and give it room.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">"So take Joy home</div> +</div> +<div class="line">And make a place in thy great heart for her,</div> +<div class="line">And give her time to grow, and cherish her,</div> +<div class="line">Then will she come and oft will sing to thee</div> +<div class="line">When thou art working in the furrows--ay,</div> +<div class="line">Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn.</div> +<div class="line">It is a comely fashion to be glad--</div> +<div class="line">Joy is the grace we say to God."</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Help us, O God, beyond our poor and forgetful thanksgiving, to show +forth the praise of Thy loving kindness by our joy and gladness. For +Thy great grace and mercy toward us, and for all the gifts of Thy +sleepless Providence, we offer Thee the joy of our hearts. Accept our +offering, we beseech Thee; forgive its scant measure, and teach us to +be glad in Thee. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="the-god-of-the-unlovable-man"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">The God of Jacob is our refuge.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(PSALM xlvi. 11.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XIX</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">THE GOD OF THE UNLOVABLE MAN</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">There is a phrase which echoes through the Old Testament like the +refrain of some solemn music--the "God of Jacob." "The God of Jacob," +says the 46th Psalmist, "is our refuge." Yet when you think of it, it +is a strange title. The "God of Abraham" you can understand, for +Abraham was a great and faithful soul. And the "God of Isaac," also, +for Isaac was a saint. But the "God of Jacob" is a combination of +ideas of a very different sort. For though, by God's grace, Jacob +became a saint in the end, it took much discipline and trouble to mould +him into a true godliness. And, for the greater part of his life, and +many of his appearances on the stage of Scripture, his actions and +ideals are not such as to make us admire him very passionately. We +like Esau for all his faults, but we do not like Jacob for all his +virtues. There is something cold and calculating about Jacob that +repels affection. For all his religion, the Jacob of the earlier +chapters is a mean soul, successful but unscrupulous, pious but not +straight, spiritually-minded but not lovable. And yet the Almighty +condescends to be known as the God of Jacob, and the Bible loves that +name for God!</p> +<p class="pnext">What does that say to you? To me it says this--and I think we all need +to learn it--that God is the God even of unlovable people! That even +unlovable people have a God! That the Lord is very gracious to +sinners, we all rejoice to believe, for that is the Evangel of Jesus, +and He Himself was found practising it even among the waifs and +outcasts of society. But that unlovable people have a God, too, is +actually harder for us to realise, for the plain fact is that +unlovable, disagreeable people irritate and annoy us more even than the +sinners. If you question that, just analyse your attitude to the +Prodigal in our Lord's wonderful story, compared with that toward his +respectable, cold-hearted and priggish elder brother. The brother +irritates us. We call him, with some heat, as Henry Drummond did, a +baby, and we want to shake him. But we never want to shake the +prodigal.</p> +<p class="pnext">Now, we all have, on our list of acquaintances, people whom we have +labelled disagreeable, who continually rub us the wrong way, as we put +it. There is the man who is always talking about himself, and is +filled with conceit like a bladder with air. "There is the man," says +Hazlitt in one of his Essays, "who asks you fifty questions as to the +commonest things you advance, and, you would sooner pardon a fellow who +held a pistol at your breast and demanded your money." There is the +ill-tempered, sulky person, and the grumbling, whining, dolorous soul +never without an ache or a grievance. So we can all draw up our own +private "Index Expurgatorius" of the people we bar or dislike. We say +these people are unlovable.</p> +<p class="pnext">And, since the corruption of the best is the worst, we are agreed that +the most unlovable of all types is the religious undesirable, the smug, +unctuous, oily person, for example, whose sincerity is continually in +question, the narrow, intolerant, little soul who cannot see any sort +of truth or righteousness except his own, or the prim and pious man who +is cocksure of his interest in the life to come, but is not straight in +the affairs of the life which now is. There are others, but +enumeration is not a very profitable or a pleasant task. Take them all +together, gather them in a crowd in your memory, and then set yourself +this exercise for your sanctification and growth in grace. Realise +that the Lord your God is the God also of these unlovable people. Get +that idea thoroughly into your heart, and say it to yourself, if need +be, many times a day. These people look up to Him in worship just as +you do. They have their sacred hours in His presence just as you have. +There is nothing you look for to God, that they do not seek, too, from +Him. They are not of a different order from you, but the same order. +And though you do not love them, God does. Though they are outside of +your circle, they are not outside of His. The God of Jacob is their +God. And therein lies for them, as it did for Jacob, the hope and +promise of better things to come.</p> +<p class="pnext">If we remembered that, should we not be more patient and forbearing +with them than we are, keener to look for the best in them, and to make +the best of them than we are? Just to think of what is meant by the +"God of Jacob" is to set our sharp and bitter judgments of others over +against the infinitely tender compassion and patience and longsuffering +of God. All the wonder of the divine grace is hidden in the phrase. +And this is the wonder--that God never grows tired even of disagreeable +people. He does not give up caring even for the unlovable. But oh! +what poor sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty <em class="italics">we</em> are, with our +quick, rash final judgments and our hard, unbrotherly hearts!</p> +<p class="pnext">Did you ever ask yourself what some of these unlovable people are +doing, the while you and I are telling each other how impossible and +unlovable they are? George Eliot suggests it somewhere thus:--"While +we are coldly discussing a man's career, sneering at his mistakes, and +labelling his opinions 'Evangelical and narrow' or 'Latitudinarian and +pantheistic,' or 'Anglican and supercilious,' that man in his solitude +is perhaps shedding hot tears because his sacrifice is a hard one, +because strength and patience are failing him to speak the difficult +word and do the difficult deed." Ah, yes, it's a mercy that there is a +God even for unlovable people!</p> +<p class="pnext">But there is a question that has been waiting all this time, and we +must ask it before we close. <em class="italics">What about ourselves, you and me</em>? Are +we such lovable people that we can afford to judge others? Do we never +rub our friends the wrong way, and, without meaning it, annoy and +disappoint and repel them? Are <em class="italics">our</em> religious profession and our +daily practice so very much in keeping that we may talk about prigs and +self-righteous people as if they belonged to an entirely different +world? May I speak for you all and say humbly "No"? No, God knows +they are not! The fact is that if we know ourselves at all well, we +must be aware that we have it in us to be quite as disagreeable and +selfish and self-righteous as anybody. It is only our best beloved who +do not get tired of us, and sometimes even they must be hard put to it.</p> +<p class="pnext">But there is a blessed Gospel for those who have made that discovery +about themselves. There is a God of Jacob. Abraham is too high for +us, and Isaac is too saintly, but Jacob, faulty, disappointing, +unlovable, yet by God's grace redeemed and perfected at last, Jacob is +the man for us! The hope and comfort of all who have learned what they +really are is that "the God of Jacob is our refuge."</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Bring us, we pray Thee, O God, into a truer knowledge of ourselves. +Make us to learn how frail we are, how poor and blind and naked; to the +end we may regard with due charity the shortcomings of others, and may +worthily praise Thy great Mercy, who yet hast not turned away Thy face +from us. For Jesus' sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="under-the-juniper-tree"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">Elijah went a day's journey</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">into the wilderness, and came</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">and sat under a juniper tree, and</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">requested for himself that he</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">might die.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(1 KINGS xix. 4.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XX</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">A well-known writer relates that, when passing through Edinburgh once, +he saw a procession of Friendly Societies, and observed on one of the +banners the name emblazoned, The Order of the Juniper Tree. His +comment is:--"Many of us belong to that order." So we do. And, +because of that, we can diagnose Elijah's trouble quite accurately. He +is suffering, as we have all suffered at some time or other, from the +pains and penalties of reaction. Just because he had climbed to a +height almost superhuman, the reaction when it came was very black and +terrible. The Bible is too wise and too true to human nature to +conceal the fact that for his hour of splendid daring, Elijah had his +price to pay.</p> +<p class="pnext">It's a commonplace, of course, but just one of those commonplaces which +in the bulk spell wisdom, that there was a physical reason for this +condition. To put it plainly, Elijah was tired out. He had been using +up his physical and nervous energy at such a ruinous rate during the +past few hours, that he had overdrawn his account. It strikes one as a +very significant fact that when God's angel took the prophet in hand, +the first thing he did was to provide him with a meal. Elijah was +actually on his way back to his normal condition when he had had +something to eat.</p> +<p class="pnext">That is not a mere incident in the story. It is exceedingly important, +because, sometimes the religious depression with which we are +acquainted arises in a similar way. It is a very useful fact to +remember that a man's whole religious outlook is coloured by the +condition of his health. We may be slow to admit such a low and +material cause for effects so apparently spiritual. But it is a fact +all the same. And it is only wise to recognise it.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Elijah's reaction was not entirely or even mainly physical in its +origin. He had been in a very exalted spiritual condition during the +contest on Carmel. Think what the man had done! He had stood alone in +the path of a whole nation rioting down to idolatry and shamelessness, +and with voice and presence and fire from Heaven had stopped and turned +them, driven the huddled, frightened sheep back again to the ways and +the worship of God. Was it to be wondered at that his very soul within +him was faint under the strain?</p> +<p class="pnext">Though the vision and the privileges of the hill-top are what the best +men covet most, it is but little of it at a time that any one can +stand. Do you remember that Jesus would not let Peter and James and +John remain long on the Mount of the Transfiguration, even though they +wanted to build tabernacles and dwell there? There have been few +greater spiritual experts than John Bunyan, and when he has described +how his pilgrim fared in the Palace Beautiful, how he slept in a +chamber called Peace, how he saw afar off the Delectable Land, whither +he was journeying, where does he take him next? Straight down into the +Valley of Humiliation, where he has to fight for his life against the +darts of the Evil One flying as thick as hail!</p> +<p class="pnext">There is no cure for reaction, of course, but there are one or two +rules which experience has proved to be helpful.</p> +<p class="pnext">For example, it is never a wise thing, when you are depressed, to +attempt to form any judgment about yourself, your service, or your +standing in the sight of God. By some Satanic impulse, that is the +very time, of course, when you will be tempted to do it. It may appear +a very wholesome spiritual exercise when you have gone a day's journey +into the wilderness and are faint, to reckon up what manner of man and +disciple of Christ you are. But don't do it then. Nobody sees truly +either himself or God, under a juniper tree.</p> +<p class="pnext">And then, if possible, do not speak about your despondency. Don't +express your mood outwardly at all, if you can help it. Bottle it up +if you can, and you will starve it all the sooner. His biographer +relates of the late Ian Maclaren that, like many people who have Celtic +blood in their veins, he was subject to curious fits of depression and +gloom which did not seem to be in any way connected with bodily health. +"But," he goes on to say, "he never inflicted his melancholy moods on +his family, was only very quiet and absorbed, and kept more closely to +his study. In a day or two he would emerge again, like a man coming +out into the sunshine."</p> +<p class="pnext">And lastly. Once a man has sworn himself a disciple and soldier of +Jesus Christ, neither doubt nor depression, neither darkness nor +reaction absolves him from the obligation to follow and to serve when +he is called. It must be confessed that it is an undue sense of the +importance of our own feelings that makes the juniper-tree-mood the +peril and hindrance that it is. We need to remember that the call of +Christ overrides personal feelings. In His army too, there is +discipline to be thought of, and "it is not soldierly to skulk." When +the bugle calls to action, nobody but a coward would make the fact that +he is not feeling quite up to the mark, an excuse for sitting still. +Reaction is a natural thing, but cowardice is always shameful.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">O Lord our God, we bless Thee for the comfort of Thy perfect knowledge +of us. We are glad to think that Thou knowest our frame and +rememberest that we are dust. Make us more wise to bring the burden of +our moods of darkness and reaction to the footstool of Thy perfect +understanding; but save us, we beseech Thee, from all yielding in the +long fight against them. Seeing that Thy grace is sufficient for us +and Thy strength made perfect in our weakness, grant us a godly fear of +all unmanly surrender. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="instructing-the-cabin-boy"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">If any man will do his will</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">he shall know of the doctrine.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(JOHN vii. 17.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XXI</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">INSTRUCTING THE CABIN BOY</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">When John Wesley was on his way home from Georgia, he wrote this record +of the voyage in his Journal:--"Being sorrowful and very heavy (though +I could give no particular reason for it) and utterly unwilling to +speak close to any of my little flock (about twenty persons), I was in +doubt whether my own neglect of them was not one cause of my heaviness. +In the evening, therefore, I began instructing the cabin boy, after +which I was much easier."</p> +<p class="pnext">This is a significant passage for various reasons. For one thing, it +lets us see that even a spiritual genius like Wesley sometimes fell +into the mood of doubt. And, for another, it shows how, almost by +accident, as it seems, he found a cure for his trouble. It is plain +that religion just then had lost its savour for the great evangelist. +The joy had gone out of his service and the power from his prayers, and +he was not sure of anything at all. This is practical doubt, the only +serious kind there is. "Being sorrowful and very heavy and very +unwilling."</p> +<p class="pnext">There are not a few men and women whose trouble this is. They are in +straits to know what is really God's truth. They greatly desire to lay +hold of it surely for themselves. The tremendous earnestness of those +who have found the old dogmas unsatisfying, and are adrift again in a +twentieth century search for God, is one of the most significant +features of the situation. Can a man really come in touch with God? +they ask. Is there a living Christ whose presence redeems men from +evil and can lift them up to what they long to be? Is there a life +with God which even Death cannot end? And those who are in such deep +earnest to know God vitally for themselves, are sorrowful and heavy +indeed to find that all their thinking and reading and inquiry do so +little for them. They pray for light, and examine all the evidence +with a wistful eagerness, but the clouds still lie around them, and +they are still wandering, now in this direction, now in that, like men +lost in a mist.</p> +<p class="pnext">Is there no way out of this tangle? Yes, there is. To all who are +sorrowful and heavy because they know so little they can call their own +about God and spiritual living, I want to say, There is a way forward, +a safe, sure way. It is the way that Wesley stumbled upon. "I began +instructing the cabin boy." That is the way for you and me to a fuller +experience of God.</p> +<p class="pnext">That is the simple solution which so many thousands of us have +overlooked, and it was the discovery of Jesus Christ. When asked how +He knew about God, He answered that it was because He was doing God's +will, and He added, If any man, no matter who, no matter what his +doubts be, if any man be willing to do God's will, where, and as, it is +clear to him, he too shall know. God will not leave him in ignorance +of what is really essential.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nowhere, except in the Bible, do you find such a method of learning +recommended. From nobody but Christ could such a precept come, for it +is clean contrary to all that we know about learning in other spheres. +Study and you will know, think, investigate, ask questions--that, we +can understand. That is how knowledge comes to us in the realms with +which we are acquainted. But when men asked Christ how they could +learn God's truth for themselves, He said, First of all you must obey +it. Do, and you will know.</p> +<p class="pnext">You remember the lepers whom Christ touched, of whom it is written that +"as they went, they were healed?" That is how the only sort of doubt +that really matters is healed. As you go, not as you sit still and +puzzle, but as you shoulder the nearest duty and obey what light and +knowledge you have.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I don't know," Wesley would say to himself, "whether I am in my right +place here or not, whether I am really Christ's servant or not. I am +in the dark, and don't seem to be sure of anything. But there is that +cabin boy. I can at least do him some good. That is right anyhow, +whatever be uncertain." "After which," he says, "I was much easier." +It is marvellous to read, but it is a law as certain and safe as +gravitation. Do God's will as you know it, and you will get more +light. "Doubt of any sort," said Thomas Carlyle, "cannot be removed +except by action."</p> +<p class="pnext">It is hardly necessary to say, of course, that the knowledge which +Christ promises to those who will obey God's will is not of dogma in +its restricted theological sense. It was life Christ talked about, it +was life He was concerned with, and, for Him, life meant not +head-knowledge, but heart-experience and heart-hold of God. It is that +He promises in His great saying. So do not make the mistake of +thinking that when you seek to do the Will of God, all your mental +difficulties, about miracles or inspiration or what not else, will come +to an end. These are problems, not of life, but of mind, and you have +them because God has given you a mind, and you will probably have them +as long as your mind is growing. What Christ does promise is of vastly +more importance, namely, the light of God's truth in your heart, the +assurance of God in your inmost soul, that you shall know for yourself +that God is, and that He is near to you, and that your true life is in +Him; and when a man has got that length, there are many doctrinal and +other mental puzzles for the solution of which he is content to wait +with an easy trust and patience.</p> +<p class="pnext">I like that saying of Viscount Kenmure's, away back in the sixteenth +century, "I will lie at Christ's door like a beggar, and, if I may not +knock, I will scrape." I like it, for this reason, that I am quite +sure there is no essential door of God in earth or heaven which is shut +against the man who casts himself so utterly on Him as that. And I +take Kenmure's word to illustrate what Jesus meant by If any man will +do God's will. It is when a man says, I cannot see, I do not know, my +mind is filled with spectres and doubts and questions, but, so help me +God, I will do the thing that is right for me, I will walk by what +little light I have--it is then, it is to that man that there come +infallibly the knowledge which no criticism can shake, and the peace +which the world can neither give nor take away.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">O Lord our God, we thank Thee for this one straight road out of our +doubts, and the difficulties we so often make for ourselves. We bless +Thee for the stedfast certainty that no man, who will rise and follow +what light he has, shall finally be left in darkness. By doing shall +we come to know. As we go upon our clear duty, other truths become +more clear. It is our Lord's own doctrine, and in His Name we pray +that Thou would'st help us to learn it. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="god-s-door-of-hope"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">The valley of Achor for a</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">door of hope.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(HOSEA xxv. 15.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XXII</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">GOD'S DOOR OF HOPE</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">The world has a scheme of redemption of its own, and men can themselves +do something for the brother who has fallen. But the plan involves, +invariably, a change of surroundings. Worldly wisdom says, of the +youth who is making a mess of his life, "Ship him off to the colonies, +try him with a new start on another soil." But the grace of God +promises a far more wonderful salvation. It makes possible a new start +on the very spot of the old failure. It leads a man back to the scene +of his old disloyalty, and promises him a new memory that shall blot +out and redeem the old. God does not take the depressed and +discouraged out of their surroundings. He adds an inward something +that enables them to conquer where they stand. It is not some new +untried sphere that God gilds with promise. It is the old place where +one has already failed and fallen. It is the valley of Achor, the +scene of Israel's defeat, and Achan's shame and sin, that God gives to +His people as a door of hope.</p> +<p class="pnext">In Italian history, during the Middle Ages, the republics of Pisa and +Genoa were often at war, and at one time the Genoese were badly beaten +in a sea-fight near the little island of Meloria. Some years after, a +Genoese admiral took his fleet to that same spot and said, "Here is the +rock which a Genoese defeat has made famous. A victory would make it +immortal." And sure enough, the fight that followed ended in a great +victory for Genoa. It is that sort of hope that God holds out to all +defeated souls who put their trust in Him. He points us back to our +valley of Achor, the place with a memory we do not like to think of, +and He says, There is your door of Hope, Go back and try again. And +those who go back in His strength are enabled to write a new memory +upon the old shame.</p> +<p class="pnext">Our Lord and Master is very gracious to forgive us when we come to Him +in penitence to tell Him of the position we have lost by our +faithlessness or our cowardice, but He does not consent to the ultimate +defeat of the very feeblest of His soldiers. "Go back and try again," +is His order. There are many, as Dr Matheson says, who offer us a +golden to-morrow, but it is only Christ who enables us to retrieve our +yesterday. For His grace is more than forgiveness. It is the promise +to reverse the memory of Achor, to turn defeat into victory even yet.</p> +<p class="pnext">Achor, further, literally means Trouble, and it is a great thing for us +when we have learned that even there God has for us a door of hope.</p> +<p class="pnext">The valley of Trouble is perhaps the last place in the world where the +uninstructed would look for any fruit of harvest, and yet again and +again men have brought the fairest flowers of character and holiness +out of it. How many a devout and useful servant of Christ owes the +beginning of his allegiance to a serious illness, to some crippling +disappointment, to an overwhelming sorrow? In all humility there are +many who can say, It is good for me that I have been afflicted, and +there are many, many more about whom their friends often quote that +text.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"I walked a mile with Pleasure;</div> +<div class="line">She chattered all the way,</div> +<div class="line">But left me none the wiser</div> +<div class="line">For all she had to say.</div> +</div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"I walked a mile with Sorrow,</div> +<div class="line">And ne'er a word said she,</div> +<div class="line">But oh, the things I learned from her,</div> +<div class="line">When Sorrow walked with me!"</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">There is a door of Hope even in the valley of Trouble, and those who +tread it in God's company shall not fail to find it.</p> +<p class="pnext">There is one other class who need to know that even in Achor there is a +door of hope, the depressed and discouraged. Phillips Brooks once +declared, "I came near doing a dreadful thing the other day. I was in +East Boston and I suddenly felt as if I must get away from everything +for a while. I went to the Cunard dock and asked if the steamer had +sailed. She had been gone about an hour. I believe if she had still +been there, I should have absconded." I wonder if there is any one who +has not known that feeling? When duty is dull, and circumstances +discouraging, when we seem to be merely ploughing the sands, "Oh," we +say, "for the wings of a dove!" Comfort and happiness and salvation +seem to lie solely in escape. And it may be that they do. But more +often the trouble is in ourselves, and would travel with us to the new +post.</p> +<p class="pnext">If there be any depressed or discouraged reading these lines, I should +like to remind them of God's promise to give the valley of Achor--that +is the depressing scene of your labours, my brother--for a door of +hope. You are looking for your hope somewhere else, anywhere else +provided it be out of your present rut and drudgery. In reality your +door of hope lies in the rut, in the valley itself. It is not escape +you need. It is just a braver faith that God is in your valley with +you, and that He needs you there.</p> +<p class="pnext">Take a firmer grip of that, and go back to where you serve, and you +will find, please God, that even in your valley He has opened for you a +door of Hope and Gladness.</p> +<p class="pnext">May all those who are living and working these days in the valley of +Achor find in it somewhere God's Door of Hope.</p> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Grant us, O God, the faith that in Thy strength we can yet succeed even +in the place where we have failed. Teach us that it is Thy whisper we +hear, when we have fallen into Despond, bidding us rise and try again. +And grant us the courage to be sure, since Thou hast a tryst to meet +and help us there, that even our Achor shall open to us its door of +hope. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="nowadays"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">There be many servants</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">now-a-days that break away</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">every man from his master.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(1 SAMUEL xxv. 10.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XXIII</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">NOW-A-DAYS</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Nabal, says the Bible, was a churl. When David sent his men to request +some provender, in return for services rendered, this ill-mannered +sheep-farmer broke out, "Who is David? There be many servants +now-a-days that break away every man from his master." It was a +singularly rude and ungracious reply, all things considered. But it is +not about Nabal's truculence I wish to speak. I want you to think +about that phrase he used, and the tone in which it was said. +"Now-a-days." The implication, of course, is that servants did not +break away from their masters in <em class="italics">his</em> young days. Things were +different in the times <em class="italics">he</em> could remember.</p> +<p class="pnext">You will recognise this peculiar intonation of "Now-a-days" as +something fairly familiar. You hear it yet, quite often. Now-a-days +the Church has lost caste. Now-a-days the Bible is a neglected book. +Now-a-days faith is on the wane, and most people don't believe anything +at all. There are many such sentences, beginning with the word +Now-a-days and sounding like a chant on a minor key.</p> +<p class="pnext">This pessimistic philosophy is difficult to fight, for it is +unsubstantial, and dissolves like mist whenever you come to close +quarters. But there are three queries I have noted in my Bible +opposite that "Now-a-days" of Nabal.</p> +<p class="pnext">And the first is--What about the man himself? Judge his philosophy by +his actions. Nabal apparently believed that servants were getting +entirely out of hand, and he speaks as if he remembered something very +different in his own early days. Very good. What was he doing to +maintain the old standards? Nothing, less than nothing. His personal +manners and behaviour were such that servants would be very ready to +break away on that farm, I should think. Now, what business has Nabal +to go whining, in general terms, mark you, about servants now-a-days, +when he behaves like a boor to his own? For any declension which he +may see about him, he is himself largely responsible.</p> +<p class="pnext">I think that it is a perfectly fair line of argument, and it disposes +of quite a number of pious "inexactitudes." When I hear a man talking +about the lost influence of the Church now-a-days, I am always tempted +to inquire what his own relation to it is, whether he is loyally +supporting it and working in its interests, for experience has taught +me that a very great deal of exaltation of the Church's past records, +at the expense of its position to-day, comes from men who are +themselves doing absolutely nothing to help it on its way. There are +exceptions, of course, but, as a rule, it is not the active workers in +any worthy cause who are lamenting its failure. The men who think the +country is going to the dogs are themselves to be found, for the most +part, lolling in the clubs. It is not the pledged and active member of +Christ's kingdom who thinks it is disappearing from the earth. And to +those who are fond of the Now-a-days type of complaint, I would suggest +the inquiry--What about yourself? Are you helping to keep up the old +standards as you say you remember them? Or is your influence also +tending to set this ball of the earth rolling in the very direction you +deplore, namely, down the hill?</p> +<p class="pnext">The second query on Nabal's "Now-a-days" is--Can his memory be relied +upon? It is an instinct with us all to idealise the past, and gild it +in memory with all sorts of romance. We quietly drop all the shadows +from the picture as time goes on. Were ever summer days since so long +and fine and sunny as they were when we were boys? Never! We are all +agreed about that. Yet when we were boys, men who were then grey were +using exactly the same words about summer days years before! We are +all apt to praise the past just because it is the past, and because it +has a way of turning rosy as it recedes. The wise man recognises that, +and allows for it. The foolish man begins many sentences with +"Now-a-days," and ends with a shake of the head and a sigh.</p> +<p class="pnext">But there is something that does not forget nor gild the past with +false romance, and that is history. Turn back its pages a hundred +years or more; read such a book as H. G. Graham's "Social Life in +Scotland in the Eighteenth Century"; and you will soon discover what a +fine word Now-a-days really is.</p> +<p class="pnext">As far as humanity and civilisation, brotherly charity, and true +religion are concerned, the man who in pessimistic mood contrasts +now-a-days with the good old times a hundred years ago, simply does not +know what he is talking about. Changes there have been, many and +radical, but change is not necessarily a sign either of declension or +decay.</p> +<p class="pnext">I can partly understand a man without faith in God giving his vote for +a general falling off in human progress, but I cannot understand a man +who believes in God, and in the presence in the world of a living +spirit of Christ, being a pessimist. No one affirms, of course, that +we are progressing everywhere, and all the time. Set-backs here and +there, there are in human history just as in a successful campaign. +But that, on the whole, the world grows better, the Kingdom comes, and +earth draws nearer to Heaven, seems to me to be simply a corollary from +the fact that God reigns, and has blessed us with knowledge of Himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">I grant you that the war is a disappointing revelation of how far +mankind still has to travel. But, as far as we are concerned, I am not +disposed to counsel undue humiliation and self-condemnation on account +of it. A people that for the sake of unseen eternal realities like +honour and righteousness will make the sacrifices which we are making, +can hardly be said to be degenerating, especially when we remember some +of the causes for which we have drawn the sword in years and +generations gone by. But even though the clock of progress be set back +awhile--and that does not seem so likely now as when the war began--it +is simply not possible that, in this world of God's, evil should +ultimately vanquish good, that the Spirit of Christ should finally be +crushed by the forces that oppose it. That can never be. As soon +might the germs of disease which the sun destroys turn round upon it +and quench its blessed light.</p> +<p class="pnext">The third query opposite Nabal's "Now-a-days" is--Does he truly discern +the present time? Does he know "now-a-days" even as well as he knows +the past? As a matter of fact, David was not just a servant who had +broken away from his master, and if Nabal had only lived a little +longer he would have seen how completely he had misread the signs of +the times.</p> +<p class="pnext">That is worth remembering when you are tempted to say, Now-a-days +things are out of joint. Maybe you don't clearly see these very days +you are disparaging. When Jesus preached in Nazareth, the village +where He had been brought up, the people said, Is not this the +Carpenter? and in their anger at His presumption, as they thought it, +they wanted to make away with Him. If they had only known!</p> +<p class="pnext">It is not enough to recognise that we cannot see the future. We cannot +even see the present. Think what it would be like if we could see the +great men, the prophets, poets, reformers, leaders, who are at this +present moment in our nurseries and schools, or if we were able to +recognise in the--at present--small shoot of a cause, the great tree +into which in God's providence it is destined to grow!</p> +<p class="pnext">Now-a-days; now-a-days! What a delusion it is for anybody to think he +knows "now-a-days" well enough to call it names! It is not with +observation that the Kingdom comes. God rings no bell when He has a +new and gracious purpose afoot in the world. And the thing for you and +me to do is to rest confidently in the faith that, in His own good way +and time, God is redeeming the world to Himself, and to do all that we +can to help Him, and to make our little corner of it a brighter and a +better place. But do not let us imagine that we can see all that is +going on about us. There is far, far more of God and of goodness in +the world than we suspect. The woods and hedges look very bleak and +bare to-day.[1] It is a dead and barren aspect that Nature wears +now-a-days. Yet <em class="italics">even now</em> the sap is mounting quickly in every living +stem, and Spring is getting ready while we sleep.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small"> +<div class="line">[1] Written in February.</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">So, let us have the courage to believe--so is it with every worthy +cause of God and man.</p> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Almighty God, Ruler and Disposer of all events, we would remember that +this world of ours is, first of all, Thine. We believe that, though +Thy Kingdom comes not with observation yet it does come more and more. +We believe that, with Thee, the best is yet to be. And we pray that, +with that faith in our hearts, we may leave the large campaign with +quietness and confidence to Thee, and seek rather to discharge the +duties of that post Thou hast assigned to us, with loyalty and good +hope. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="roundabout-roads"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">And a certain man drew a</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">bow at a venture.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(2 CHRONICLES xviii. 33)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XXIV</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">ROUNDABOUT ROADS</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">It sounds improbable that though a whole army was trying to kill Ahab, +it should be an arrow which a man shot at a venture, or as the Hebrew +has it, quaintly, "in his simplicity"--when twanging his bow +carelessly, or trying a new string perhaps--that should find the king's +heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">And yet it is the thing that does happen occasionally in real life. We +sometimes do get the target when we are aiming for something else. The +name which we have been worrying to recall strolls casually into our +memory when we have given up trying and are not thinking of it at all. +There are certain stars, astronomers tell us, which they see best when +they look askance. And I have come to think that there are certain +precious goods of His which God allows us to possess on the same +conditions. You see them by looking past them. You get them by aiming +at something else. "Look at your goal and go for it straight," says +worldly wisdom, wisely and truly enough in many instances. All the +same there are good things in life to which that is emphatically NOT +the road. The real way to secure these is to aim for something else.</p> +<p class="pnext">This is true, for example, of Happiness. Everyone of us wants to be +happy. And there is such a bountiful provision of the means of +happiness all about us that it is difficult to resist the conclusion +that God means us all to be happy. Yet when those for whom happiness +is meant and prepared seek it directly and for itself, it is as certain +as anything can be that they won't find it. You ask, perhaps you pray +for this boon, and God shows you only some bare duty that is clearly +yours. Out to it you go, like a brave man, not thinking there can be +any blessings on that road, when, lo! as you journey, happiness comes +to you, quietly, filling your heart with peace.</p> +<p class="pnext">One does not find that the New Testament, as a matter of fact, has much +to say about being happy at all. There is so little reference to it +that it looks as if God had forgotten our need. I find that the Book +which I had thought might tell me how to find happiness tells me +instead of "bearing one another's burdens," doing it "unto one of the +least of these"; tells me about my brother's need of me when he is sick +or naked or hungry; tells me even about such a thing as a cup of cold +water to a thirsty disciple. Ah! but when, in however poor a fashion, +I forget my own quest and gird myself in Christ's name and try to DO +some of these things, I find that God has not forgotten after all, +that, all the time He has been showing me THE way to happiness, and I +did not recognise it because it is not a straight road. It's not a +question of seeking, but of forgetting to seek. Happiness comes to you +oftenest when you are intent on bringing it to your brother.</p> +<p class="pnext">The same principle holds true also with regard to Influence. It is +natural that a man should desire that his shadow when it falls on +others should heal and not hurt. But the healing, helpful shadow is +not got by wishing for it. As soon as you begin to think about it and +aim for it, you will go astray. Here is a little poem which tells how +the strange magnetic quality of influence for good comes to a man:--</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"He kept his lamp still lighted,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Though round about him came</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Men who, by commerce blighted,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Laughed at his little flame.</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +<div class="line">He kept his sacred altar</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Lit with the torch divine,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Nor let his purpose falter,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Like yours, O World, and mine.</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +<div class="line">And they whose cold derision</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Had mocked him, came one day</div> +</div> +<div class="line">To beg of him the vision</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">To help them on their way.</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +<div class="line">And, barefoot or in sandal,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">When forth they fared to die,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">They took from his poor candle</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">One spark to guide them by."</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">That is the secret--a roundabout way, as you see. If Influence is to +be ours, that is how it will come, not by our trying to be influential, +but by our striving to be upright, loyal, and true.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the third place, this is true of Life in Christ's sense of the term. +Life was one of His favourite words. It was Life, in the highest +sense, that He claimed to bring to men. And the greatest calamity in +His eyes that could fall on any man is that that inward soul-life +should die.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet when those in whom He has awakened it, aim directly for its growth +and culture, they make mistakes. To the question--Shall I regard the +development and deepening of that soul-life of mine as the one end and +object of my living? the answer of Jesus, as I understand it, is No. +Life, said He, at its highest and fullest and most perfect, is reached +by giving it away. He that loseth his life shall save it.</p> +<p class="pnext">What a long way from this ideal are those good people who are for ever +laying their fingers on their spiritual pulse and plucking their +soul-life up by the roots to see how it is growing! There is a nobler +use of life than to save it in that fearful fashion. There is a truer +way to grow in grace than by hoarding up virtue so, namely, by letting +it go generously out from us. When St Nicholas got to Heaven with his +white robes of sainthood stained with mud through stopping on his way +to help a carter pull his waggon out of a rut--a task which his fellow +St Cassianus, for the sake of his robes, avoided and declined--it was +the muddy saint whom the Master welcomed with the sweetest smile and +the most gracious words. Whoso loseth his life, the same shall save it.</p> +<p class="pnext">Happiness, Influence, Life, these three, and the road to each of them +is indirect. May God bless it to us that we have stood for a little to +mark the flight of an arrow shot "in simplicity!"</p> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">O Lord our God, may we have grace to discover the blessings that lie on +Thy roundabout roads. May we never make the mistake of thinking that +the path to true happiness is the one that runs straight towards it. +Keep us true to Christ, and we shall not then be false to any man. And +give us to know that we are likest Him, not when we hoard and cherish +life and virtue, but when we spend them without stint or measure in any +worthy cause of God or man, for His sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="the-extravagance-of-love"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">Why was not this ointment</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">sold for three hundred pence,</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">and given to the poor?</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(JOHN xii. 5.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XXV</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF LOVE</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">"Wherever this Gospel is preached, this that she had done shall be told +as a memorial of her." What a gracious memorial, and how worthy of it +was Mary's beautiful outburst of generosity! But what a pity that the +speech of Judas should be recorded also, as a memorial of him! And +yet, on mature consideration, we would not have the Judas criticism +forgotten. Because it called forth what we might not otherwise have +had, the vindication of Jesus Himself. And because, as a matter of +fact, we are constantly hearing the protest of Judas repeated in our +own day, and are often ill-held to know how to meet it.</p> +<p class="pnext">"This he said," records our evangelist bluntly, "not because he loved +the poor, but because he was a thief and kept the bag." Yet he might +have been an honest man and said the same thing. For very many honest +and earnest men and women are repeating this criticism still. It is +repeated whenever it is taken for granted that practical utility is the +only standard by which to judge actions and offerings, that God and man +can be served in no other way than by "iron bars and perspiration."</p> +<p class="pnext">How often do we meet the type of mind that admits the service of a +ploughman and denies that of poet or artist, for whom a waterfall, as +somebody has said, exists merely as so much power for driving turbines, +and whose sole test of usefulness is that of making two blades +grow--and corn blades at that!--where but one grew before. We are +commonly browbeaten by this type of person, and yet we feel that +somehow, if we could only say it, he is wrong--that the poet's is as +divine a vocation as the farmer's, that God meant a silver band of +falling water in a green glade to suggest other things besides dynamos, +and that he who even paints some blades of grass, and paints them +pleasingly, has his place somewhere in the great guild of servants of +God and man.</p> +<p class="pnext">One has heard the same attitude taken up in other directions too. Why +spend so much money on a Church, you will be asked, when there are so +many poor people in the land? What need for stone pillars and a fine +organ, when a plain building and a harmonium would do as well? Why try +to secure what is called a beautiful Church service, dignified, +stately, musical, when the very baldest worship is acceptable in God's +sight, if only it be sincere? We have heard all that, and other +remarks like that, often, and we have seldom been able to give reasons +against them. A mere instinctive sentiment seems a feeble thing to +oppose to such cold and hard facts. Yet somehow we feel that it is all +wrong if only we knew how to convict it.</p> +<p class="pnext">Did it ever occur to you that Jesus Himself has answered that objection +and others like it when He vindicated Mary's action that night? There +is no doubt that her ointment cost a deal of money, money that could +have fed many hungry people. It was an extravagant offering, without +any practical outcome, save that Jesus was refreshed. There is no +doubt also about our Lord's sympathy with the poor and needy. And yet +He upheld Mary's action, and would not have it called wasteful! All +that could be said in its favour was that it was beautiful, that it +touched Jesus keenly, and influenced all who saw it done. And that, as +I read the story, was one reason at least why Jesus defended it. He +allows the Beautiful. He would have the Beautiful honoured for its own +sake even in a world so full of sorrow and trouble as this.</p> +<p class="pnext">For my part, I am very grateful that this word of Christ's has been +recorded. For it affords sufficient warrant for declaring the poet, +the artist, the architect, and all those who are trying to make the +world more beautiful, God's servants too, offering Him a gift He does +not disdain to recognise, as truly as the physician, the +philanthropist, and the preacher whose object is to make it better.</p> +<p class="pnext">Beauty of form and structure has been lavished profusely by the Creator +on creatures too small to be seen. There are more things grow out of +God's earth than corn for food or timber for building houses. There's +the heather and the wild flowers, the daisies and the violets. +Hard-headed common-sense asks--What's the use of them? What good do +they do? The answer is that they are beautiful, and that seems in +God's sight to be justification enough for having made them.</p> +<p class="pnext">So when we see Love breaking her alabaster box, and pouring forth her +offering without stint, as she is doing every day--a mother lavishing +care upon an ungrateful son, a husband surrounding a peevish wife with +a tireless devotion, or a sister keeping her own love-dream at arm's +length that she may guard and guide some graceless brother--let us lay +our hands upon our lips when we are tempted to criticise. These +actions may be foolish, extravagant, quixotic, and may outrage every +canon of common-sense. But there is a fragrance about them without +which the world would be much poorer. They are morally beautiful, and +for that reason, our Lord Himself would teach us, they are not to be +rudely handled nor judged by any hard standard.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yes, but He said more than that. He found a more complete extenuation +of Mary's extravagance. It was because she loved much. Her gift was +an offering of love to Himself. "She hath done it for my burial." And +that is the end of the whole matter, my brothers. Love is always +extravagant when measured by the tape-line of bare duty. It always +overflows. It breaks its box and gives everything it has. Yet, like +the widow's cruse of old, its casket is never empty, for even when it +has given its all, the next needy case will find succour at that door. +Take your charity subscription sheet to the man who loudly asserts that +too much money is being given to the Kirk this dull season, and what +will you get? Take it also to the man who has signed a bigger cheque +than he can well afford that the House of his God may be made +beautiful, and it will be strange if you are sent empty away. Ah no, +it is not Mary, whose devotion has found outlet in some sudden +generosity, it is not she who neglects the poor.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">O Lord our God, whose we are and Whom we seek to serve, enlighten us, +we pray Thee, in the knowledge and practice of that supreme service +which is love. May we learn that the greatest thing in our little +lives is the love they hold for God and man. Teach us to appraise +love's extra everywhere as those who have also felt and understand. +And when our own gift and offering must needs be poor and small, may we +be encouraged by the remembrance that even a widow's mite that love has +offered is precious in Thy sight. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="the-art-of-doing-without"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">I know both how to be</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">abased, and I know how to</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">abound.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(PHILIPPIANS iv. 12.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XXVI</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">THE ART OF "DOING WITHOUT"</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">In one of his letters, Paul declares that he knows both how to be +abased and how to abound. Most people, who did not stop to think, +would be inclined to assert that the second of these lessons did not +require much learning. It's an easy enough thing to be content, they +would say, when you have plenty. Far harder is it to learn how to do +without. I am not at all sure that that is right. I rather think +that, of the two, abundance is a more searching test of a man's true +quality than scarcity ever is. Carlyle has declared that for one man +who will stand prosperity there are a hundred that will stand adversity.</p> +<p class="pnext">But whether that be so or not, there is no question that it is a great +thing to have the secret of doing without. And the merest glance +abroad convinces us that it is of the utmost importance. In +literature, for example, the quality which confers most distinction +upon style is the art of omission. Did not Stevenson, himself a +master, say that one who knew what to omit could make an Iliad of the +daily newspaper? And the commonest blunders in the great business of +living spring from ignorance of this secret. Why do some people make +themselves disagreeable in a community by their touchiness and +sulkiness? Simply because they have not learned how to be abased, how +to live without getting their own way always, or without getting the +praise or recognition to which they feel themselves entitled. It's an +art, you see, which is well worth studying.</p> +<p class="pnext">It has to be added that opportunities for practising it are never long +wanting from anybody. We don't need to choose what things we shall do +without, as a rule. The things are simply taken from us, or we never +get them. It may be our own fault, or it may not. The result is the +same. We have to do without. And we give away our inmost self by the +fashion in which we do it.</p> +<p class="pnext">There is, for example, the question of material goods. It's easy to +talk unreal nonsense here, and we all must confess to wishing to have +more of this sort of property than we do possess. But I honestly +believe that the Apostle Paul did not greatly concern himself whether +he was, materially speaking, well-off or ill-off. There are other men +that one knows who have attained to the same point of view. There's no +question either that for those whose religion is a vital thing it is +the right point of view. The real man is independent of either riches +or poverty, because the real man is the man inside. Riches is not you. +Poverty is not you. You are what you are in your inner spirit. The +riches there are invisible, but they are eternal--love, faith, hope, +peace. And the man who has these, as Paul had them, can honestly say +that it is of relatively small moment whether he is in a material +sense, rich or poor.</p> +<p class="pnext">Or take the question of friendship. Who can tell in adequate words +what it means to have one true, loyal friend? But it has happened +sometimes that the very closest friendships are broken and a man has to +stand alone, not by his own choice, but in the grim ordering of things. +There is a higher obligation than that you keep faith with your +friends. First and foremost you must keep faith with yourself, with +your own conscience, with the voice within. And it may be that +obedience to that involves seeming disloyalty to your friends, either +for a while or permanently.</p> +<p class="pnext">Such a time came to Paul. He had for conscience' sake to stand alone; +and he did it. He was able to do it because his life did not rest for +its ultimate pillar on his friendships any more than on his riches. +Paul's real life was within. That inner life of his was enriched and +made radiant and constant by one supreme fact--he believed that Jesus +Christ his Lord deigned to share it with him in spirit. It is not +irreverent to say that in his inner soul Paul lived with Christ.</p> +<p class="pnext">Maybe his words are too big for us to use, but each of us who, at some +hard bit of our journey, has appealed beyond friends to the Christ +within, saying, "I have done, O Lord, what seemed to me right. And my +friends are hurt and angry. But Thou knowest"--that man has learned, +even in a slight degree, that there is a nearer and truer blessing +possible for sinful men than even human friendship.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then there is another thing that has sometimes to be done without. +There are privileges that belong to every Christian man and woman, and +are in a sense their birthright--the sense of God, confidence, +quietness of heart, hope. There is no doubt that every real Christian +should be walking and working in the light and gladness of God's +presence.</p> +<p class="pnext">But it is just as clear that not all are so blessed. It may be their +own fault. Doubtless in many cases it is. Or it may be temperament or +outward circumstances that determine it. Anyhow, many have to walk, +not in the light but in uncertainty, perplexity, and misgiving, and +sometimes even in darkness.</p> +<p class="pnext">But "a bird is a bird even though it cannot sing." And a Christian is +a Christian still even though his soul is dark within him, and he goes +on in fear, never daring to look up and hope at all.</p> +<p class="pnext">That is spiritual abasement. It ought not to be. It is never to be +lightly acquiesced in. But it happens sometimes to earnest men and +women, and it seems to be the settled condition of a few. Is it +possible to do without these things? Can a man manage to exist and +even move forward who has for a while lost his hold on his faith and on +God? There are good and godly men who have done it. Brother Lawrence +did it. Robertson of Brighton did it. Horace Bushnell did it. And +many, many more. When all that they held most precious in faith had +been eclipsed for the time, they steered still by the little light they +knew. Though there should be no heaven, they resolved that they were +called to be pure, truthful, patient, kind, since these things could +never be wrong. Though there were no Christ, they would still follow +where He had once seemed to invite them. And so doing and so following +they came again to know. The darkness passed, and faith and gladness +returned. They had lost hold of God for a little, but He had never +lost hold of them. And, brethren, whatever the doubt or darkness be, +that's always true. That is what makes it possible at all. That is +what may make it even blessed. For</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"It's better to walk in the dark with God</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Than to walk alone in the light;</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Better to walk with God by faith</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Than to walk alone by sight."</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Our Gracious God and Father in Heaven, whether Thou dost appoint for us +poverty or riches, save us from thinking that a man's life consisteth +in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Beyond all our +friendships, be Thou our Friend and Helper, and grant us to seek first +the blessing of our God. Make us very sure, for their comforting and +our own, that when men in their darkness sorely seek Thy face, the very +ache of their quest is token that Thou hast already found them. For +Jesus' sake. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="wonder"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">And Moses said, I will now</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">turn aside and see this great sight.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(EXODUS iii. 3.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XXVII</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">WONDER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Moses, adds one commentator significantly, was then eighty years of +age. By the ordinary standards, he was an old man, yet he had not lost +his youthful sense of wonder. It is a good sign, the best of signs, +when a man has lived so long and yet finds wonder in his heart. It is +a bad sign when a man at any age, or when a generation of men, find +nothing in all God's world to wonder at.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet in many quarters it is regarded as the correct attitude to refrain +from expressing surprise at anything, no matter how striking. The +utmost concession to be made to what is really wonderful is a languid +and patronising "Really?" That is always a pitiful thing. For where +there is no wonder there can be no religion worthy of the name.</p> +<p class="pnext">The instinct of worship and the instinct of wonder are very intimately +related. And where the one has died, the other cannot be in a very +healthy state. "I had rather," said Ruskin once, "live in a cottage +and wonder at everything, than live in Warwick Castle and wonder at +nothing." And his preference is to be commended. For he who has never +wondered has never thought about God in any way to be called thinking.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was our Lord Himself who said that the ideal of religion was the +child-like heart. Everyone knows that these little people are always +being brought to a halt to wonder at something. And Heaven is in very +truth nearer to them then, and they are more truly filled with its +spirit, than either you or I are when the glory and bloom of this world +unfold before our eyes, or the thought of the Infinite and Eternal God +comes to us and we have not felt impelled to bow our heads in silence +and worship, spell-bound, and in a godly fear.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is not hard to lay one's finger on some of the causes that have +brought about this state of things. A silly fashion, for one cause, +has decreed that wonder is vulgar. Why that should be so, no one can +tell. But if there be higher intelligences than ours in God's +Universe, and they see the sons of men, as they have plenty of chances +to do, casting an indifferent glance at the full pomp and majesty of +the setting sun, or reading such a Psalm as the 103rd with an untouched +heart, how they must marvel indeed!</p> +<p class="pnext">And then, of course, familiarity tends to blunt the sense of wonder in +a certain and common type of mind. The best men have always resisted +that tendency and recognised that it works harm to life and character. +They have remembered to look for God in the common and familiar, and +that is a search that goes far to make a man a saint, just because it +is a continual prayer, a continual holding open of the heart to God. +His answer is to fill the wondering heart, bit by bit, with Himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">Ignorance, too, is often a cause, the kind of ignorance that calls +itself knowledge. It is an innocent delusion on the part of the +youthful tyro in Science that after he has made a little experiment +with a prism and a beam of sunlight, there is nothing wonderful in the +rainbow. Pure, profound Science on the other hand, speaks very +humbly--and wonders all the while.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nature is dumb and silent concerning the Infinite behind it to him who +goes but to catalogue and dissect. Take a heart that can wonder with +you on your country-walk, open your eyes and look, open your heart like +a child and listen, and you will find, as Moses found, that even in a +bush there may be the Voice of God. Hold the door of your heart ajar +in simple wonder, and some thing of God will enter to cleanse and +freshen it, as the hot and dusty street is washed by the rain from +Heaven.</p> +<p class="pnext">Just as he who goes to Nature with a heart that cannot wonder, will +find no message there for him, so he who looks out upon the sanctities +of home, of human life and love, in that dull mood of mere acceptance, +must often find himself hard pressed for material when he makes his +thanksgiving to God. George Eliot has spoken somewhere of the agony of +the thought that we can never atone to the dead for the stinted +affection we gave them, for the "little reverence we showed to that +sacred human soul that lived so close to us, and was the divinest thing +God has given us to know." The divinest thing God has given us to know!</p> +<p class="pnext">Have we realised that that gift of God to us lives now in the same home +with us? Do you know what it is? It is a wife's devotion, a mother's +care, a brother's comradeship, a sister's love. It is the trust and +affection of little children, and the patience of those who love us. +And yet there have been men--judge ye if this be not true--who have +lived close to gifts of God like these, and taken them all unquestioned +and never wondered at the undeserved bounty of them or their +continuance from day to day.</p> +<p class="pnext">How easy it is to discover the gifts and charm of a stranger, how easy +to wonder at that! But to wonder at the sacrifice and the patience of +the love that dwells under the same roof with us, and stoops, in Mrs +Browning's happy phrase, "to the level of each day's most quiet need," +how few of us do that! And yet, without daily wonder, how can we be +sure that we do not slight it, or requite it ill, how can we truly give +our thanks to God whose gift it is?</p> +<p class="pnext">Most important of all, he who brings no wonder in his heart can never +be touched with the sense of God. The lack of the great deep and awful +wonder of our fathers in all their thought and speech about God, has +brought it about that our religious speech to-day is too often either +superficial, flippant and easy, or syllogistic, mechanical, and hard. +It is the absence of wonder that tempts men to imagine that God can be +enclosed in any formula whatever, or brought to the hearts of men in so +many rigid propositions. If men would but give their wonder expression +when they frame their creeds, there would be less chafing where the +edges are too sharp.</p> +<p class="pnext">I am bound to confess that my sympathies are altogether with a working +man who once listened to a fervid evangelist at a street corner +unfolding a scheme of salvation as clean-cut and mechanical as a +problem of Euclid, and buttonholed him afterwards to inquire if he had +ever read any astronomy. No, he said, he had not. "That's a pity," +said the artisan, "for, eh, man, but ye have an awfu' wee God." In all +reverence, my brothers, that is what the absence of wonder brings us +to, a small God, a small salvation, and a merely mechanical Christ.</p> +<p class="pnext">Men have sometimes asked what that childhood of the Kingdom is on which +Jesus laid so much stress, and some have taken it to mean renunciation +of intellect and reason in favour of a Church's dogma. But it means, +says John Kelman, something far more human and more beautiful--"it +means wonder and humility and responsiveness, the straight gaze of +childhood past conventionalities, the simplicity of a mind open to any +truth, and a heart with love alive in it." That is surely right. That +is what becoming a little child in Christ's sense does mean. First of +all, wonder.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Almighty and eternal God, Creator and Ruler of the Universe, dwelling +in light that is inaccessible and full of glory, whom no man hath seen +or can see, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of +man that Thou visitest him? Behold what manner of love the Father hath +bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God! Such +knowledge is too wonderful for us; it is high, we cannot attain unto +it. O come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord +our Maker. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="the-fatherhood-of-god"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">If ye then, being evil, know</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">... how much more ... your</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">heavenly Father.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(LUKE xi. 13.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XXVIII</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">If it were a conceivable thing that we had to part with all the words +of Scripture save one, and if we were allowed to choose that one, there +are some of us who would elect to retain that great declaration of +Jesus--"If ye being evil know ... how much more ... your heavenly +Father." For, having that, we should still be rich in knowledge of the +Love and Fatherhood of God. We should still know Christ's dominating +conception of God, and have His last and highest word regarding Him. +We should still be able to rise, as Jesus not only warrants but invites +us to do, from the little broken arc of true fatherhood on earth to the +perfect round in Heaven.</p> +<p class="pnext">At the warm reassuring touch of that "How much more your heavenly +Father" whole systems of brainy divinity vanish away! The truth of the +Fatherhood of God, vouched for and lived on by Jesus, kills men's hard +and unworthy and hurtful thoughts about God as sunshine kills the +creatures that breed and prevail in darkness and ignorance. They can +no more live alongside of a realisation that Christ's name for God is +His true name, and really describes His attitude to all the sons of +men, than the dark, creepy things that live under the stone can remain +there when you turn it over and let in the air and the light.</p> +<p class="pnext">But, say some, you must not carry the truth of God's Fatherhood too +far. What is too far? I ask. I want to carry it, and I believe Christ +means us to carry it, as far as ever it will stretch, and that is "as +far as the East is from the West." Think of a father's GOOD-WILL. It +is conceivable that other men may do you a deliberate wrong. But you +are entitled to believe that your father won't. You may not understand +what he proposes, but you can be quite sure that he means only your +good. Henry Drummond tells how his early days were made miserable by +the conception he had of God as of some great staring Eye in the +heavens watching all he did. But that is a policeman's eye, not a +father's.</p> +<p class="pnext">There are many tokens that, even yet, we have not realised what these +blessed words of Jesus mean and imply. A mother vainly trying to +answer the old, old question why her little one was taken from her, +will say, "Perhaps I was too fond of him." Or, should sudden sorrow +come, the explanation suggested by the troubled one himself is, "I was +too happy." There are plenty of people who are afraid to declare that +they feel very well or are very happy, in case the upper Powers should +hear and send trouble, apparently out of sheer malice! "Bethankit, +what a bonny creed!" Oh! what a dreadful caricature of God! How it +must pain the Father to hear His children talking so!</p> +<p class="pnext">There is another mark of fatherhood, as we know it on +earth--COMPASSION, pity, the willingness to forgive. There is no +forgiveness on earth like a father's or a mother's, none so willing, +none that will wait so long and yet give itself without stint at last. +Pity, as the world of business and of ordinary relationship knows it, +is at best a transient emotion. It murmurs a few easy words and then +forgets. But parent love suffereth long and is kind, hopes against +hope, and waits and is still hopeful when every one else has written +the offender down irreclaimable. It is such compassion and pity for us +sinners, how great soever our sins be, that Jesus would have us come +for to God in Heaven.</p> +<p class="pnext">But will not men abuse such patience and long-suffering? it is asked. +Is it not a risky thing to tell them that God is our Father? It is. +But it is the risk that Love takes cheerfully, and that only Love can +take. And when men talk lightly and complacently about the great mercy +of God, there is something, I think, which they have forgotten, namely, +that at the heart of the divine Fatherly forgiveness there lies the +shadow of the Cross. I do not say that in any conventional sense. I +say it because I have seen for myself that at the heart of all true +earthly forgiveness of a fatherly sort there lies this same mysterious +shadow. Shall not the father forgive his returning prodigal? Yea, +verily, and with all his heart. But, ah, before that, think how the +father has suffered with his son, and for his son. The prodigal's +shame is the father's shame too, and lies heavy on his heart. And it +is out of a chamber where he and that pain have long been companions +that the earthly father issues to welcome and receive at last the lad +who has sought his face penitent and in his right mind. The welcome is +real. The forgiveness is full and free. And yet behind it there is +sacrifice. The price of it is suffering. Aback of it lies--the Cross! +That is what silences cheap thinking and glib speech about the +forgiveness of God. If God's long-suffering be like a father's here, +it is, first, long suffering.</p> +<p class="pnext">The danger, however, is not that we abuse God's grace knowingly and in +callous complacency. Far more is it, I think, that we never actually +accept and realise and build our lives upon the gracious compassion of +the Heavenly Father and His willingness to forgive.</p> +<p class="pnext">Every parent ought to know Coventry Patmore's beautiful lyric, "The +Toys." In it a father tells how, when his little son had been +disobedient again and again, he struck him, and sent him with hard +words and unkissed to bed--"his mother, who was patient, being dead." +And when, later, he went upstairs to see him, he found him asleep, his +lashes still wet with tears, and--what touched him most--on a table +beside his bed all his little treasures heaped together to comfort his +sad heart--a box of counters, and a red-veined stone, a piece of glass +abraded by the beach, and six or seven shells, a bottle with blue +bells, and two French copper coins--all his little store of precious +things.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">So when that night I prayed</div> +<div class="line">To God, I wept and said--</div> +<div class="line">"Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath,</div> +<div class="line">Not vexing Thee in death,</div> +<div class="line">And Thou rememberest of what toys</div> +<div class="line">We made our joys,</div> +<div class="line">How weakly understood</div> +<div class="line">Thy great commanded good,</div> +<div class="line">Then, fatherly not less</div> +<div class="line">Than I, whom Thou hast moulded from the clay,</div> +<div class="line">Thou'lt leave Thy wrath and say:</div> +<div class="line">'I will be sorry for their childishness.'"</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">One word more about our Father's SILENCE. Our fathers here on earth +had their silences when we were children. We asked him for something +that we wanted very much. And he gave no reply. We went on asking. +We expected to get what we had set our hearts on. He heard us hoping +and believing that this good thing would come to us, and he held his +peace. But we knew that silence, and we trusted it. We were quite +sure that he would have told us if we were deceiving ourselves, that +his gift, when it came, would, at least, not be a mere mockery of our +hopes.</p> +<p class="pnext">And I often think of these words of Christ's, "If a son shall ask bread +of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?" when I stand +by a graveside, and speak the words of radiant hope with which we lay +our beloved to rest. Our Father hears us speak that hope. He has +heard hearts in an agony through all the generations wish that it might +be true--that this bleak fact of Death is not the end, but only the +beginning of a better thing. But He keeps silence. We have no sure +proof, only the blessed hope of the Christian evangel.</p> +<p class="pnext">He keeps silence. But, my brethren, can we not trust that silence +since it is our Father's? We have asked this bread in our pain and +through our tears. We have asked it because it seems to us we need it +so. And whatever gift His silence hides, this at least is certain, it +is not, it cannot be, only a stone.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Almighty God, who through Jesus Christ has taught us to call Thee our +Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast chosen a name so dear to us to +reveal Thy care and Love. When our way is dark and our burden is heavy +and our hearts are perplexed, grant us the grace to know that Thou who +art directing every step of our journey art a God of Love, and Thy true +and perfect Name is Our Father in Heaven. Through Jesus Christ our +Lord. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="the-unreturning-brave"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">Whosoever will lose his</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">life for my sake shall find it.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(MATTHEW xvi. 25.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XXIX</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">THE UNRETURNING BRAVE</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">(EASTER DAY, 1915)</div> +</div> +<p class="left pfirst small">NOTE.--I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Sir Wm. Robertson +Nicoll's "When the Wounded Go Home," a tender and courageous message.</p> +<!-- --> +<p class="pnext">Christmas in war time was like an evil dream. Easter is like a breath +from Heaven itself, a wind from the pure and blessed heights of God +blowing the clouds of battle-smoke apart for a brief space so that we +all may see again that beyond the smoke and beyond grim death itself +there is the Life Enduring, a Divine Love compared to which ours at the +best is untender and hard, a Fatherly welcome beside which welcomes +here are faint and cold. This is the strangest Easter Day the world +has ever known, yet never have the thousands and thousands of stricken +homes and sore hearts needed more the living hope that is begotten anew +in the Christian Church this day by our Lord's rising again from the +dead. It is assuredly of God's mercy that Easter should fall in these +days, when so many fathers and mothers, wives and sisters and lovers +need its hope and comfort so.</p> +<p class="pnext">We cannot but think to-day of the many, many homes in our own and other +lands from which strong and brave men marched away weeks or months ago, +because they had heard the call, and were willing to make the supreme +sacrifice for righteousness' sake, who will never come back again, who +have died a soldier's death and sleep in a soldier's grave--fathers, +husbands, sons, lovers, gallant men, dear lads, cheerful, willing, +dauntless. You find their names by the hundred and the thousand in the +casualty lists, but the loss you cannot measure unless you could see +all the shadowed homes. How many such homes there are in our own land +alone, How many such in our own little circle!</p> +<p class="pnext">Try to realise that, and then ask if a more gracious message could fall +upon all these hearts to-day than the Easter message of the Christian +Church,--that there is no death and that its seeming victory is not a +victory. The old, old question, If a man die shall he live again? is +answered to-day by the triumphant Yes! of Christendom. Yes, he never +ceases to live. From the inferno of the battlefield the mortally +stricken do but pass across the bridge and stream of death to God's +Other Side. When they fall in battle, they fall into His everlasting +Arms. They do not die. They are not dead. It is only their poor +mortal bodies that the shrieking shells can maim or destroy. They +themselves, the real self and spirit of them, no material force can +hurt, for that belongs to a higher kingdom than the visible, and its +true goal and home are not here at all.</p> +<p class="pnext">To all who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death in these +days, to all who have watched their beloved go out where every true man +would wish to go, and know only too surely that they shall never +return,--to these to-day Jesus Christ has His Word to speak,--and would +that all might hear it and give it room in their hearts to do its +blessed work! It is to Him we owe it, and He is our authority for +believing that beyond the darkness and separation of death there is the +morning of a new and fairer day. The valley of the Shadow, yea, the +valley of battle itself opens out again at its far end to the sun's +rising and the untrammelled life in the light and liberty of God. The +happy warrior is borne by gentle hands to God's own land of peace, +where the fret and fury of battle slip from him like a discarded +garment, and beside the still waters of that better country he finds +healing for his hurt. It is that quiet and blessed hope that is being +reborn in our hearts this day as the Church keeps her festival of a +Risen and a Living Christ. It is that lively hope the Church offers +for comfort to all stricken homes and to every sorrowing heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">They offered themselves, these gallant lads, not for anything they +hoped to gain, but for the sake of honour and liberty, of justice and +righteousness. And when a man casts himself on God in that fashion, +offering not the words of his lips, nor the homage of his worship, but +himself, all that he has, his life and all that life holds for him, +think you that upon that poor soul, with his priceless offering borne +humbly in his hands, the God and Father of us all is going to turn His +back? "He that loseth his life," said Jesus, "for my sake shall find +it."</p> +<p class="pnext">There are times when the most gracious doctrine is not gracious enough +to represent and embody the Spirit of Christ to us. We want something +more, and we often seek it and sometimes find it in poetry, in art, or, +best of all, in the silence of our own hearts when God-given instinct +whispers what no words or doctrine can ever express. Such a time is +now. Such a need is ours to-day.</p> +<p class="pnext">I make no defence of it theologically, and I ask no man to accept it +who does not feel it clamouring at his heart for entrance, but I +confess that for me a couple of lines of John Hay's in his "Pike County +Ballads" strike a note which all that I know in my heart of the Spirit +of Christ leaps up to welcome and approve. It is when he has told the +story of Jim Bludso's sacrifice. Jim was engineer on the "Prairie +Belle," a river-steamboat, and he was rather a rough, careless man. +But when the steamer took fire, it was Jim who held her against the +bank till everybody got safely off except himself. With eyes wide open +to what he did, he sacrificed his life to save the other souls on +board. Hay sums up in these lines:--</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"And Christ ain't going to be too hard</div> +<div class="line">On a man that died for men."</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">I leave it there. I trust I am a loyal son of the Church, but I must +have a place in my creed somewhere for the hope which these lines +express that Christ ain't going to be too hard on a man that died for +men.</p> +<p class="pnext">But there is something more to be said. Every chaplain at the front +tells us that the most careless and irreligious youths and men take up +a wonderfully different attitude out there. Men pray in the trenches +who have never prayed before. I heard some stories recently that +brought tears to my eyes, of brave and simple confessions made at +little gatherings for prayer in strange places, by some of those very +lads whom we reckoned indifferent and heedless before they left home. +And some of then, turning their faces simply and earnestly, and by an +old, old instinct of the heart, towards God and His Christ before the +battle broke upon them, some of them have fallen on the field!</p> +<p class="pnext">Many, many more there must be who turned them Godwards even at the +eleventh hour in one brief upward glance to ask forgiveness and +strength to play the man, about whom no chaplain can report, for no one +knows or saw or heard save Christ Himself. But there's a glorious page +in the Gospel to assure us beyond all doubt or question that no one who +makes that appeal, though it be the dying thief himself, ever makes it +in vain.</p> +<p class="pnext">And there we leave the issue--with God, who is kinder than our kindest, +and whose mercy is from everlasting. It is He who has brought us this +blessed hope, through His Son, this Easter Day, and we honour His gift +best by taking it in all its breadth and comfort to our hearts. To the +broken-hearted wife or mother, to whom the bald War Office report has +come, let us take this comfort,--"Your beloved is not dead. God has +him in His gracious care and keeping till the day break and the shadows +flee away." For that is the Easter message, God be thanked. And this +is Easter Day.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">To Thy merciful care and keeping we commend all the sons and daughters +of affliction, and especially those who in this great contest have lost +some loved one. Grant that even through their tears they may discern +the glory that belongs to those who have given their lives a ransom for +many. Be Thou their help and their strength, and may the sympathy of +all who know them be for them an earnest and token of Thy great Love +and Compassion. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.</p> +<div class="left line-block outermost small" id="the-sacrament-of-sunset"> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">"<em class="italics">The heavens declare the</em></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">glory of God.</em>"</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">(PSALM xix. 1.)</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center line-block medium noindent outermost"> +<div class="line">XXX</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +<div class="line">THE SACRAMENT OF SUNSET</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">"The sky," says Ruskin, "is the part of Nature in which God has done +more for the sake of pleasing man, more from the sole and evident +purpose of touching him, than in any other of His works." It looks +like the truth. For there is no scene of earth so fair or majestic +that man cannot spoil it. Where the "cataract exults among the hills, +and wears its crown of rainbows all alone," he will build him a +power-house to supply current to some distant town. But he cannot +touch the heavens. In the heart of some fairy glen he will placard the +virtues of somebody's pills, and plaster the gate-posts in a sweet +country lane with the specious claims of some quack doctor, but above +it all, it is God, and God alone, who spreadeth out the heavens like a +curtain and in them has set a tabernacle for the sun. Even in places +where the face of earth wears no suggestion of natural beauty the face +of the sky redeems it from evil. For, above the squalor of the city's +meanest slum, burn the great fires of the setting sun, and overhead the +fleecy white clouds sail silently all night long.</p> +<p class="pnext">But, of it all, the glory of the sunset is chief. The dawn has its +cold splendours too, but not many of us are there to see it when it is +at its best. It is at eventide, when the work of the day is done, and +the spell of its restfulness lays the senses open, it is then chiefly +that God unfolds these splendid harmonies of colour in the western +heavens. And, by consent, on this Ayrshire coast, on which I look out +as I write, these glories can be seen to great advantage. It is into +no flat expanse of water that the dying sun sinks here. The peaks and +crags of Arran invest its passage with an indescribable pomp and +majesty, standing out against it like the massive pillars of some giant +gateway of the West. It is never twice the same. Sometimes lurid and +blazing, with masses of thunder-cloud piled high, all their outer edges +rimmed with fire; and, next night, peaceful and level, a study in +straight lines, as if the great Artist, with even brush, had washed the +sky with bands of grey and blue and gold. Each evening God has His own +picture for us, His own handiwork, unspoiled by man. How many of us +ever pause to recognise its beauty? What does it mean that such a +prodigality of harmonious colours should be the most ordinary feature +of our evening hour? Is it that God Himself takes delight in the +beauty of it all, for its own sake, rejoicing, like all good workmen, +in the work of His hands? Or has He some purpose with regard to His +children of mankind? Is it, as Ruskin says, for the sake of pleasing +man? How unthankful and unmindful we are, if that be so!</p> +<p class="pnext">The sunset teaches us to put together these two ideas--beauty, beyond +the wit of man to portray, and God. There is plenty of ugliness and +sin in the world, and the life of men. Man himself recognises how much +of the beauty that might have been has been marred and disfigured by +him. Yet in his heart he worships it, and feels after it afar off. +And in the evening sky it is written that Beauty belongeth supremely +unto God.</p> +<p class="pnext">Whatever that far-off divine event be, to which the whole creation +moves, one of its features shall be, must be, a beauty which shall +fully satisfy. For beauty and God cannot be divorced. And when, of an +evening, God for His own good pleasure, working with those material +elements which have no power to disobey His behests, unfolds His will +in such dazzling visions of splendour, is He not declaring that the end +and goal of life itself, when His purpose therewith is completed, and +Man, too, has fallen into harmony with His will, shall be fair, and +satisfying, and beautiful?</p> +<p class="pnext">Let us not be afraid to say and believe that God speaks to us in the +sunset. If I pick up the receiver of a telephone and hear my friend +announce some good news that fills my heart with gladness, it does not +disturb me to remember that the wire itself has no power to speak. For +I feel that somewhere at the end of the wire is a mind and a heart like +my own who is using the dead, soulless wire as a medium of speech with +me. When the glories of the sun's setting fall upon your heart like a +benediction, stirring you to devout and grateful thought, breathing +peace upon you, cleansing your desires of all that is mean and sordid, +do not be afraid to believe that, behind and beyond all that is +material and visible, there is the Mind and Heart in whose image yours +was made, whose gift peace is, whose whisper, though it come along dead +ether-waves to reach you, is His whisper nevertheless.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is perhaps natural that the prevailing quality of the thoughts that +arise within us when we watch the setting sun should be pensive, +tender, and, not seldom, a little sad. For it speaks of the end of the +day and the coming night. Its charm and spell are like that of autumn, +the remembrance of what has gone, the tender grace of a day that is +dead. For all the beauty and wonder of this world, there is a tear at +the heart of things. Beneath all our laughter and happiness there lies +that deeper note. The night cometh. There is an end to it +all--friendship, love, happiness, work, life itself.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"For be the long day never so long,</div> +<div class="line">At last it ringeth to evensong."</div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">And yet, and yet, my brothers, the end is beautiful, more beautiful +even than the beginning. God has made the day's death to be exceeding +fair. The sun passes gloriously to its rest. Hopefully too, for, +passing thus, it promises a new and fairer morning. So do God's +children die.</p> +<div class="center line-block noindent outermost small"> +<div class="line">PRAYER</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">O Lord our God, who hast written Thy Word of hope and promise in the +evening sky, be near us when our day is done, and the wind has fallen +silent, and the night is waiting. Put us to sleep in a chamber of +peace whose windows open toward the sun rising, and, when we awake, may +we be still with Thee. For Jesus' sake. Amen.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> +<div class="backmatter"> +</div> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39309 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |