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diff --git a/14453-0.txt b/14453-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e80e98 --- /dev/null +++ b/14453-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4595 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14453 *** + +THE HOPE OF THE GOSPEL + +BY + +GEORGE MACDONALD + + + + +CONTENTS + + +SALVATION FROM SIN + +THE REMISSION OF SINS + +JESUS IN THE WORLD + +JESUS AND HIS FELLOW TOWNSMEN + +THE HEIRS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH + +SORROW THE PLEDGE OF JOY + +GOD'S FAMILY + +THE REWARD OF OBEDIENCE + +THE YOKE OF JESUS + +THE SALT AND THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD + +THE RIGHT HAND AND THE LEFT + +THE HOPE OF THE UNIVERSE + + + + +_SALVATION FROM SIN_. + +--and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from +their sins.--_Matthew_ i. 21. + + +I would help some to understand what Jesus came from the home of our +Father to be to us and do for us. Everything in the world is more or +less misunderstood at first: we have to learn what it is, and come at +length to see that it must be so, that it could not be otherwise. Then +we know it; and we never know a thing _really_ until we know it thus. + +I presume there is scarce a human being who, resolved to speak openly, +would not confess to having something that plagued him, something from +which he would gladly be free, something rendering it impossible for +him, at the moment, to regard life as an altogether good thing. Most +men, I presume, imagine that, free of such and such things antagonistic, +life would be an unmingled satisfaction, worthy of being prolonged +indefinitely. The causes of their discomfort are of all kinds, and the +degrees of it reach from simple uneasiness to a misery such as makes +annihilation the highest hope of the sufferer who can persuade himself +of its possibility. Perhaps the greater part of the energy of this +world's life goes forth in the endeavour to rid itself of discomfort. +Some, to escape it, leave their natural surroundings behind them, and +with strong and continuous effort keep rising in the social scale, to +discover at every new ascent fresh trouble, as they think, awaiting +them, whereas in truth they have brought the trouble with them. Others, +making haste to be rich, are slow to find out that the poverty of their +souls, none the less that their purses are filling, will yet keep them +unhappy. Some court endless change, nor know that on themselves the +change must pass that will set them free. Others expand their souls with +knowledge, only to find that content will not dwell in the great house +they have built. To number the varieties of human endeavour to escape +discomfort would be to enumerate all the modes of such life as does not +know how to live. All seek the thing whose defect appears the _cause_ of +their misery, and is but the variable _occasion_ of it, the cause of the +shape it takes, not of the misery itself; for, when one apparent cause +is removed, another at once succeeds. The real cause of his trouble is a +something the man has not perhaps recognized as even existent; in any +case he is not yet acquainted with its true nature. + +However absurd the statement may appear to one who has not yet +discovered the fact for himself, the cause of every man's discomfort is +evil, moral evil--first of all, evil in himself, his own sin, his own +wrongness, his own unrightness; and then, evil in those he loves: with +this latter I have not now to deal; the only way to get rid of it, is +for the man to get rid of his own sin. No special sin may be +recognizable as having caused this or that special physical +discomfort--which may indeed have originated with some ancestor; but +evil in ourselves is the cause of its continuance, the source of its +necessity, and the preventive of that patience which would soon take +from it, or at least blunt its sting. The evil is _essentially_ +unnecessary, and passes with the attainment of the object for which it +is permitted--namely, the development of pure will in man; the suffering +also is essentially unnecessary, but while the evil lasts, the +suffering, whether consequent or merely concomitant, is absolutely +necessary. Foolish is the man, and there are many such men, who would +rid himself or his fellows of discomfort by setting the world right, by +waging war on the evils around him, while he neglects that integral part +of the world where lies his business, his first business--namely, his +own character and conduct. Were it possible--an absurd supposition--that +the world should thus be righted from the outside, it would yet be +impossible for the man who had contributed to the work, remaining what +he was, ever to enjoy the perfection of the result; himself not in tune +with the organ he had tuned, he must imagine it still a distracted, +jarring instrument. The philanthropist who regards the wrong as in the +race, forgetting that the race is made up of conscious and wrong +individuals, forgets also that wrong is always generated in and done by +an individual; that the wrongness exists in the individual, and by him +is passed over, as tendency, to the race; and that no evil can be cured +in the race, except by its being cured in its individuals: tendency is +not absolute evil; it is there that it may be resisted, not yielded to. +There is no way of making three men right but by making right each one +of the three; but a cure in one man who repents and turns, is a +beginning of the cure of the whole human race. + +Even if a man's suffering be a far inheritance, for the curing of which +by faith and obedience this life would not be sufficiently long, faith +and obedience will yet render it endurable to the man, and overflow in +help to his fellow-sufferers. The groaning body, wrapt in the garment of +hope, will, with outstretched neck, look for its redemption, and endure. + +The one cure for any organism, is to be set right--to have all its +parts brought into harmony with each other; the one comfort is to know +this cure in process. Rightness alone is cure. The return of the +organism to its true self, is its only possible ease. To free a man from +suffering, he must be set right, put in health; and the health at the +root of man's being, his rightness, is to be free from wrongness, that +is, from sin. A man is right when there is no wrong in him. The wrong, +the evil is in him; he must be set free from it. I do not mean set free +from the sins he has done: that will follow; I mean the sins he is +doing, or is capable of doing; the sins in his being which spoil his +nature--the wrongness in him--the evil he consents to; the sin he is, +which makes him do the sin he does. + +To save a man from his sins, is to say to him, in sense perfect and +eternal, 'Rise up and walk. Be at liberty in thy essential being. Be +free as the son of God is free.' To do this for us, Jesus was born, and +remains born to all the ages. When misery drives a man to call out to +the source of his life,--and I take the increasing outcry against +existence as a sign of the growth of the race toward a sense of the need +of regeneration--the answer, I think, will come in a quickening of his +conscience. This earnest of the promised deliverance may not, in all +probability will not be what the man desires; he will want only to be +rid of his suffering; but that he cannot have, save in being delivered +from its essential root, a thing infinitely worse than any suffering it +can produce. If he will not have that deliverance, he must keep his +suffering. Through chastisement he will take at last the only way that +leads into the liberty of that which is and must be. There can be no +deliverance but to come out of his evil dream into the glory of God. + +It is true that Jesus came, in delivering us from our sins, to deliver +us also from the painful consequences of our sins. But these +consequences exist by the one law of the universe, the true will of the +Perfect. That broken, that disobeyed by the creature, disorganization +renders suffering inevitable; it is the natural consequence of the +unnatural--and, in the perfection of God's creation, the result is +curative of the cause; the pain at least tends to the healing of the +breach. The Lord never came to deliver men from the consequences of +their sins while yet those sins remained: that would be to cast out of +window the medicine of cure while yet the man lay sick; to go dead +against the very laws of being. Yet men, loving their sins, and feeling +nothing of their dread hatefulness, have, consistently with their low +condition, constantly taken this word concerning the Lord to mean that +he came to save them from the punishment of their sins. The idea--the +miserable fancy rather--has terribly corrupted the preaching of the +gospel. The message of the good news has not been truly delivered. +Unable to believe in the forgiveness of their Father in heaven, +imagining him not at liberty to forgive, or incapable of forgiving +forthright; not really believing him God our Saviour, but a God bound, +either in his own nature or by a law above him and compulsory upon him, +to exact some recompense or satisfaction for sin, a multitude of +teaching men have taught their fellows that Jesus came to bear our +punishment and save us from hell. They have represented a result as the +object of his mission--the said result nowise to be desired by true man +save as consequent on the gain of his object. The mission of Jesus was +from the same source and with the same object as the punishment of our +sins. He came to work along with our punishment. He came to side with +it, and set us free from our sins. No man is safe from hell until he is +free from his sins; but a man to whom his sins, that is the evil things +in him, are a burden, while he may indeed sometimes feel as if he were +in hell, will soon have forgotten that ever he had any other hell to +think of than that of his sinful condition. For to him his sins are +hell; he would go to the other hell to be free of them; free of them, +hell itself would be endurable to him. For hell is God's and not the +devil's. Hell is on the side of God and man, to free the child of God +from the corruption of death. Not one soul will ever be redeemed from +hell but by being saved from his sins, from the evil in him. If hell be +needful to save him, hell will blaze, and the worm will writhe and bite, +until he takes refuge in the will of the Father. 'Salvation from hell, +is salvation as conceived by such to whom hell and not evil is the +terror.' But if even for dread of hell a poor soul seek the Father, he +will be heard of him in his terror, and, taught of him to seek the +immeasurably greater gift, will in the greater receive the less. + +There is another important misapprehension of the words of the +messengers of the good tidings--that they threaten us with punishment +because of the sins we have committed, whereas their message is of +forgiveness, not of vengeance; of deliverance, not of evil to come. Not +for anything he has committed do they threaten a man with the outer +darkness. Not for any or all of his sins that are past shall a man be +condemned; not for the worst of them needs he dread remaining +unforgiven. The sin he dwells in, the sin he will not come out of, is +the sole ruin of a man. His present, his live sins--those pervading his +thoughts and ruling his conduct; the sins he keeps doing, and will not +give up; the sins he is called to abandon, and clings to; the same sins +which are the cause of his misery, though he may not know it--these are +they for which he is even now condemned. It is true the memory of the +wrongs we have done is, or will become very bitter; but not for those is +condemnation; and if that in our character which made them possible were +abolished, remorse would lose its worst bitterness in the hope of future +amends. 'This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, +and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were +evil.' + +It is the indwelling badness, ready to produce bad actions, that we need +to be delivered from. Against this badness if a man will not strive, he +is left to commit evil and reap the consequences. To be saved from these +consequences, would be no deliverance; it would be an immediate, ever +deepening damnation. It is the evil in our being--no essential part of +it, thank God!--the miserable fact that the very child of God does not +care for his father and will not obey him, causing us to desire wrongly, +act wrongly, or, where we try not to act wrongly, yet making it +impossible for us not to feel wrongly--this is what he came to deliver +us from;--not the things we have done, but the possibility of doing such +things any more. With the departure of this possibility, and with the +hope of confession hereafter to those we have wronged, will depart also +the power over us of the evil things we have done, and so we shall be +saved from them also. The bad that lives in us, our evil judgments, our +unjust desires, our hate and pride and envy and greed and +self-satisfaction--these are the souls of our sins, our live sins, more +terrible than the bodies of our sins, namely the deeds we do, inasmuch +as they not only produce these loathsome things, but make us loathsome +as they. Our wrong deeds are our dead works; our evil thoughts are our +live sins. These, the essential opposites of faith and love, the sins +that dwell and work in us, are the sins from which Jesus came to deliver +us. When we turn against them and refuse to obey them, they rise in +fierce insistence, but the same moment begin to die. We are then on the +Lord's side, as he has always been on ours, and he begins to deliver us +from them. + +Anything in you, which, in your own child, would make you feel him not +so pleasant as you would have him, is something wrong. This may mean +much to one, little or nothing to another. Things in a child which to +one parent would not seem worth minding, would fill another with horror. +After his moral development, where the one parent would smile, the other +would look aghast, perceiving both the present evil, and the +serpent-brood to follow. But as the love of him who is love, transcends +ours as the heavens are higher than the earth, so must he desire in his +child infinitely more than the most jealous love of the best mother can +desire in hers. He would have him rid of all discontent, all fear, all +grudging, all bitterness in word or thought, all gauging and measuring +of his own with a different rod from that he would apply to another's. +He will have no curling of the lip; no indifference in him to the man +whose service in any form he uses; no desire to excel another, no +contentment at gaining by his loss. He will not have him receive the +smallest service without gratitude; would not hear from him a tone to +jar the heart of another, a word to make it ache, be the ache ever so +transient. From such, as from all other sins, Jesus was born to deliver +us; not, primarily, or by itself, from the punishment of any of them. +When all are gone, the holy punishment will have departed also. He came +to make us good, and therein blessed children. + +One master-sin is at the root of all the rest. It is no individual +action, or anything that comes of mood, or passion; it is the +non-recognition by the man, and consequent inactivity in him, of the +highest of all relations, that relation which is the root and first +essential condition of every other true relation of or in the human +soul. It is the absence in the man of harmony with the being whose +thought is the man's existence, whose word is the man's power of +thought. It is true that, being thus his offspring, God, as St Paul +affirms, cannot be far from any one of us: were we not in closest +contact of creating and created, we could not exist; as we have in us +no power to be, so have we none to continue being; but there is a closer +contact still, as absolutely necessary to our well-being and highest +existence, as the other to our being at all, to the mere capacity of +faring well or ill. For the highest creation of God in man is his will, +and until the highest in man meets the highest in God, their true +relation is not yet a spiritual fact. The flower lies in the root, but +the root is not the flower. The relation exists, but while one of the +parties neither knows, loves, nor acts upon it, the relation is, as it +were, yet unborn. The highest in man is neither his intellect nor his +imagination nor his reason; all are inferior to his will, and indeed, in +a grand way, dependent upon it: his will must meet God's--a will +_distinct_ from God's, else were no _harmony_ possible between them. Not +the less, therefore, but the more, is all God's. For God creates in the +man the power to will His will. It may cost God a suffering man can +never know, to bring the man to the point at which he will will His +will; but when he is brought to that point, and declares for the truth, +that is, for the will of God, he becomes one with God, and the end of +God in the man's creation, the end for which Jesus was born and died, is +gained. The man is saved from his sins, and the universe flowers yet +again in his redemption. But I would not be supposed, from what I have +said, to imagine the Lord without sympathy for the sorrows and pains +which reveal what sin is, and by means of which he would make men sick +of sin. With everything human he sympathizes. Evil is not human; it is +the defect and opposite of the human; but the suffering that follows it +is human, belonging of necessity to the human that has sinned: while it +is by cause of sin, suffering is _for_ the sinner, that he may be +delivered from his sin. Jesus is in himself aware of every human pain. +He feels it also. In him too it is pain. With the energy of tenderest +love he wills his brothers and sisters free, that he may fill them to +overflowing with that essential thing, joy. For that they were indeed +created. But the moment they exist, truth becomes the first thing, not +happiness; and he must make them true. Were it possible, however, for +pain to continue after evil was gone, he would never rest while one ache +was yet in the world. Perfect in sympathy, he feels in himself, I say, +the tortured presence of every nerve that lacks its repose. The man may +recognize the evil in him only as pain; he may know little and care +nothing about his sins; yet is the Lord sorry for his pain. He cries +aloud, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will +give you rest.' He does not say, 'Come unto me, all ye that feel the +burden of your sins;' he opens his arms to all weary enough to come to +him in the poorest hope of rest. Right gladly would he free them from +their misery--but he knows only one way: he will teach them to be like +himself, meek and lowly, bearing with gladness the yoke of his father's +will. This is the one, the only right, the only possible way of freeing +them from their sins, the cause of their unrest. With them the weariness +comes first; with him the sins: there is but one cure for both--the will +of the Father. That which is his joy will be their deliverance! He might +indeed, it may be, take from them the human, send them down to some +lower stage of being, and so free them from suffering--but that must be +either a descent toward annihilation, or a fresh beginning to grow up +again toward the region of suffering they have left; for that which is +not growing must at length die out of creation. The disobedient and +selfish would fain in the hell of their hearts possess the liberty and +gladness that belong to purity and love, but they cannot have them; they +are weary and heavy-laden, both with what they are, and because of what +they were made for but are not. The Lord knows what they need; they know +only what they want. They want ease; he knows they need purity. Their +very existence is an evil, of which, but for his resolve to purify them, +their maker must rid his universe. How can he keep in his sight a foul +presence? Must the creator send forth his virtue to hold alive a thing +that will be evil--a thing that ought not to be, that has no claim but +to cease? The Lord himself would not live save with an existence +absolutely good. + +It may be my reader will desire me to say _how_ the Lord will deliver +him from his sins. That is like the lawyer's 'Who is my neighbour?' The +spirit of such a mode of receiving the offer of the Lord's deliverance, +is the root of all the horrors of a corrupt theology, so acceptable to +those who love weak and beggarly hornbooks of religion. Such questions +spring from the passion for the fruit of the tree of knowledge, not the +fruit of the tree of life. Men would understand: they do not care to +_obey_,--understand where it is impossible they should understand save +by obeying. They would search into the work of the Lord instead of doing +their part in it--thus making it impossible both for the Lord to go on +with his work, and for themselves to become capable of seeing and +understanding what he does. Instead of immediately obeying the Lord of +life, the one condition upon which he can help them, and in itself the +beginning of their deliverance, they set themselves to question their +unenlightened intellects as to his plans for their deliverance--and not +merely how he means to effect it, but how he can be able to effect it. +They would bind their Samson until they have scanned his limbs and +thews. Incapable of understanding the first motions of freedom in +themselves, they proceed to interpret the riches of his divine soul in +terms of their own beggarly notions, to paraphrase his glorious verse +into their own paltry commercial prose; and then, in the growing +presumption of imagined success, to insist upon their neighbours' +acceptance of their distorted shadows of 'the plan of salvation' as the +truth of him in whom is no darkness, and the one condition of their +acceptance with him. They delay setting their foot on the stair which +alone can lead them to the house of wisdom, until they shall have +determined the material and mode of its construction. For the sake of +knowing, they postpone that which alone can enable them to know, and +substitute for the true understanding which lies beyond, a false +persuasion that they already understand. They will not accept, that is, +act upon, their highest privilege, that of obeying the Son of God. It is +on them that do his will, that the day dawns; to them the day-star +arises in their hearts. Obedience is the soul of knowledge. + +By obedience, I intend no kind of obedience to man, or submission to +authority claimed by man or community of men. I mean obedience to the +will of the Father, however revealed in our conscience. + +God forbid I should seem to despise understanding. The New Testament is +full of urgings to understand. Our whole life, to be life at all, must +be a growth in understanding. What I cry out upon is the +misunderstanding that comes of man's endeavour to understand while not +obeying. Upon obedience our energy must be spent; understanding will +follow. Not anxious to know our duty, or knowing it and not doing it, +how shall we understand that which only a true heart and a clean soul +can ever understand? The power in us that would understand were it free, +lies in the bonds of imperfection and impurity, and is therefore +incapable of judging the divine. It cannot see the truth. If it could +see it, it would not know it, and would not have it. Until a man begins +to obey, the light that is in him is darkness. + +Any honest soul may understand this much, however--for it is a thing we +may of ourselves judge to be right--that the Lord cannot save a man from +his sins while he holds to his sins. An omnipotence that could do and +not do the same thing at the same moment, were an idea too absurd for +mockery; an omnipotence that could at once make a man a free man, and +leave him a self-degraded slave--make him the very likeness of God, and +good only because he could not help being good, would be an idea of the +same character--equally absurd, equally self-contradictory. + +But the Lord is not unreasonable; he requires no high motives where +such could not yet exist. He does not say, 'You must be sorry for your +sins, or you need not come to me:' to be sorry for his sins a man must +love God and man, and love is the very thing that has to be developed in +him. It is but common sense that a man, longing to be freed from +suffering, or made able to bear it, should betake himself to the Power +by whom he is. Equally is it common sense that, if a man would be +delivered from the evil in him, he must himself begin to cast it out, +himself begin to disobey it, and work righteousness. As much as either +is it common sense that a man should look for and expect the help of his +Father in the endeavour. Alone, he might labour to all eternity and not +succeed. He who has not made himself, cannot set himself right without +him who made him. But his maker is in him, and is his strength. The man, +however, who, instead of doing what he is told, broods speculating on +the metaphysics of him who calls him to his work, stands leaning his +back against the door by which the Lord would enter to help him. The +moment he sets about putting straight the thing that is crooked--I mean +doing right where he has been doing wrong, he withdraws from the +entrance, gives way for the Master to come in. He cannot make himself +pure, but he can leave that which is impure; he can spread out the +'defiled, discoloured web' of his life before the bleaching sun of +righteousness; he cannot save himself, but he can let the Lord save him. +The struggle of his weakness is as essential to the coming victory as +the strength of Him who resisted unto death, striving against sin. + +The sum of the whole matter is this:--The Son has come from the Father +to set the children free from their sins; the children must hear and +obey him, that he may send forth judgment unto victory. + +Son of our Father, help us to do what thou sayest, and so with thee die +unto sin, that we may rise to the sonship for which we were created. +Help us to repent even to the sending away of our sins. + + + + +_THE REMISSION OF SINS._ + +John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance +for the remission of sins.--_Mark_ i. 4. + + +God and man must combine for salvation from sin, and the same word, here +and elsewhere translated _remission_, seems to be employed in the New +Testament for the share of either in the great deliverance. + +But first let me say something concerning the word here and everywhere +translated _repentance_. I would not even suggest a mistranslation; but +the idea intended by the word has been so misunderstood and therefore +mistaught, that it requires some consideration of the word itself to get +at a right recognition of the moral fact it represents. + +The Greek word then, of which the word _repentance_ is the accepted +synonym and fundamentally the accurate rendering, is made up of two +words, the conjoint meaning of which is, _a change of mind_ or +_thought_. There is in it no intent of, or hint at _sorrow_ or _shame_, +or any other of the mental conditions that, not unfrequently +accompanying repentance, have been taken for essential parts of it, +sometimes for its very essence. Here, the last of the prophets, or the +evangelist who records his doings, qualifies the word, as if he held it +insufficient in itself to convey the Baptist's meaning, with the three +words that follow it--_[Greek: eis aPhesin amartiôn:--kaerussôn Baptisma +metauoias eis aphesin amartiôn]_--'preaching a baptism of +repentance--_unto a sending away of sins'._ I do not say the phrase +_[Greek: aphesis amartiôn]_ never means _forgiveness,_ one form at least +of _God's_ sending away of sins; neither do I say that the taking of the +phrase to mean _repentance for the remission of sins_, namely, +repentance in order to obtain the pardon of God, involves any +inconsistency; but I say that the word _[Greek: eis]_ rather _unto_ than +_for;_ that the word _[Greek: aphesis],_ translated _remission_, means, +fundamentally, a _sending away,_ a _dismissal;_ and that the writer +seems to use the added phrase to make certain what he means by +_repentance;_ a repentance, namely, that reaches to the sending away, or +abjurement of sins. I do not think _a change of mind unto the remission +or pardon of sin_ would be nearly so logical a phrase as _a change of +mind unto the dismission of sinning._ The revised version refuses the +word _for_ and chooses _unto,_ though it retains _remission,_ which +word, now, conveys no meaning except the forgiveness of God. I think +that here the same word is used for man's dismission of his sins, as is +elsewhere used for God's dismission or remission of them. In both uses, +it is a sending away of sins, with the difference of meaning that comes +from the differing sources of the action. Both God and man send away +sins, but in the one case God sends away the sins of the man, and in the +other the man sends away his own sins. I do not enter into the question +whether God's aphesis may or may not mean as well the sending of his +sins out of a man, as the pardon of them; whether it may not sometimes +mean _dismission,_ and sometimes _remission_: I am sure the one deed +cannot be separated from the other. + +That the phrase here intends repentance unto the ceasing from sin, the +giving up of what is wrong, I will try to show at least probable. + +In the first place, the user of the phrase either defines the change of +mind he means as one that has for its object the pardon of God, or as +one that reaches to a new life: the latter seems to me the more natural +interpretation by far. The kind and scope of the repentance or change, +and not any end to be gained by it, appears intended. The change must be +one of will and conduct--a radical change of life on the part of the +man: he must repent--that is, change his mind--not to a different +opinion, not even to a mere betterment of his conduct--not to anything +less than a sending away of his sins. This interpretation of the +preaching of the Baptist seems to me, I repeat, the more direct, the +fuller of meaning, the more logical. + +Next, in St Matthew's gospel, the Baptist's buttressing argument, or +imminent motive for the change he is pressing upon the people is, that +the kingdom of heaven is at hand: 'Because the king of heaven is coming, +you must give up your sinning.' The same argument for immediate action +lies in his quotation from Isaiah,--'Prepare ye the way of the Lord; +make straight in the desert a highway for our God.' The only true, the +only possible preparation for the coming Lord, is to cease from doing +evil, and begin to do well--to send away sin. They must cleanse, not the +streets of their cities, not their houses or their garments or even +their persons, but their hearts and their doings. It is true the Baptist +did not see that the kingdom coming was not of this world, but of the +higher world in the hearts of men; it is true that his faith failed him +in his imprisonment, because he heard of no martial movement on the part +of the Lord, no assertion of his sovereignty, no convincing show of his +power; but he did see plainly that righteousness was essential to the +kingdom of heaven. That he did not yet perceive that righteousness _is_ +the kingdom of heaven; that he did not see that the Lord was already +initiating his kingdom by sending away sin out of the hearts of his +people, is not wonderful. The Lord's answer to his fore-runner's message +of doubt, was to send his messenger back an eye-witness of what he was +doing, so to wake or clarify in him the perception that his kingdom was +not of this world--that he dealt with other means to another end than +John had yet recognized as his mission or object; for obedient love in +the heart of the poorest he healed or persuaded, was his kingdom come. + +Again, observe that, when the Pharisees came to John, he said to them, +'Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:' is not this the same +as, 'Repent unto the sending away of your sins'? + +Note also, that, when the multitudes came to the prophet, and all, with +the classes most obnoxious to the rest, the publicans and the soldiers, +asked what he would have them do--thus plainly recognizing that +something was required of them--his instruction was throughout in the +same direction: they must send away their sins; and each must begin with +the fault that lay next him. The kingdom of heaven was at hand: they +must prepare the way of the Lord by beginning to do as must be done in +his kingdom. + +They could not rid themselves of their sins, but they could set about +sending them away; they could quarrel with them, and proceed to turn +them out of the house: the Lord was on his way to do his part in their +final banishment. Those who had repented to the sending away of their +sins, he would baptize with a holy power to send them away indeed. The +operant will to get rid of them would be baptized with a fire that +should burn them up. When a man breaks with his sins, then the wind of +the Lord's fan will blow them away, the fire of the Lord's heart will +consume them. + +I think, then, that the part of the repentant man, and not the part of +God, in the sending away of sins, is intended here. It is the man's one +preparation for receiving the power to overcome them, the baptism of +fire. + +Not seldom, what comes in the name of the gospel of Jesus Christ, must +seem, even to one not far from the kingdom of heaven, no good news at +all. It does not draw him; it wakes in him not a single hope. He has no +desire after what it offers him as redemption. The God it gives him news +of, is not one to whom he would draw nearer. But when such a man comes +to see that the very God must be his Life, the heart of his +consciousness; when he perceives that, rousing himself to put from him +what is evil, and do the duty that lies at his door, he may fearlessly +claim the help of him who 'loved him into being,' then his will +immediately sides with his conscience; he begins to try to _be_; +and--first thing toward being--to rid himself of what is antagonistic to +all being, namely _wrong_. Multitudes will not even approach the +appalling task, the labour and pain of _being_. God is doing his part, +is undergoing the mighty toil of an age-long creation, endowing men with +power to be; but few as yet are those who take up their part, who +respond to the call of God, who will to be, who put forth a divine +effort after real existence. To the many, the spirit of the prophet +cries, 'Turn ye, and change your way! The kingdom of heaven is near you. +Let your king possess his own. Let God throne himself in you, that his +liberty be your life, and you free men. That he may enter, clear the +house for him. Send away the bad things out of it. Depart from evil, and +do good. The duty that lieth at thy door, do it, be it great or small.' + +For indeed in this region there is no great or small. 'Be content with +your wages,' said the Baptist to the soldiers. To many people now, the +word would be, 'Rule your temper;' or, 'Be courteous to all;' or, 'Let +each hold the other better than himself;' or, 'Be just to your neighbour +that you may love him.' To make straight in the desert a highway for our +God, we must bestir ourselves in the very spot of the desert on which +we stand; we must cast far from us our evil thing that blocks the way +of his chariot-wheels. If we do not, never will those wheels roll +through our streets; never will our desert blossom with his roses. + +The message of John to his countrymen, was then, and is yet, the one +message to the world:--'Send away your sins, for the kingdom of heaven +is near.' Some of us--I cannot say _all_, for I do not know--who have +already repented, who have long ago begun to send away our sins, need +fresh repentance every day--how many times a day, God only knows. We are +so ready to get upon some path that seems to run parallel with the +narrow way, and then take no note of its divergence! What is there for +us when we discover that we are out of the way, but to bethink ourselves +and turn? By those 'who need no repentance,' the Lord may have meant +such as had repented perfectly, had sent away all their sins, and were +now with him in his Father's house; also such as have never sinned, and +such as no longer turn aside for any temptation. + +We shall now, perhaps, be able to understand the relation of the Lord +himself to the baptism of John. + +He came to John to be baptized; and most would say John's baptism was of +repentance for the remission or pardon of sins. But the Lord could not +be baptized for the remission of sins, for he had never done a selfish, +an untrue, or an unfair thing. He had never wronged his Father, any +more than ever his Father had wronged him. Happy, happy Son and Father, +who had never either done the other wrong, in thought, word, or deed! As +little had he wronged brother or sister. He needed no forgiveness; there +was nothing to forgive. No more could he be baptized for repentance: in +him repentance would have been to turn to evil! Where then was the +propriety of his coming to be baptized by John, and insisting on being +by him baptized? It must lie elsewhere. + +If we take the words of John to mean 'the baptism of repentance unto the +sending away of sins;' and if we bear in mind that in his case +repentance could not be, inasmuch as what repentance is necessary to +bring about in man, was already existent in Jesus; then, altering the +words to fit the case, and saying, 'the baptism of willed devotion to +the sending away of sin,' we shall see at once how the baptism of Jesus +was a thing right and fit. + +That he had no sin to repent of, was not because he was so constituted +that he could not sin if he would; it was because, of his own will and +judgment, he sent sin away from him--sent it from him with the full +choice and energy of his nature. God knows good and evil, and, blessed +be his name, chooses good. Never will his righteous anger make him +unfair to us, make him forget that we are dust. Like him, his son also +chose good, and in that choice resisted all temptation to help his +fellows otherwise than as their and his father would. Instead of +crushing the power of evil by divine force; instead of compelling +justice and destroying the wicked; instead of making peace on the earth +by the rule of a perfect prince; instead of gathering the children of +Jerusalem under his wings whether they would or not, and saving them +from the horrors that anguished his prophetic soul--he let evil work its +will while it lived; he contented himself with the slow unencouraging +ways of help essential; making men good; casting out, not merely +controlling Satan; carrying to their perfect issue on earth the old +primeval principles because of which the Father honoured him: 'Thou hast +loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, +hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.' To love +righteousness is to make it grow, not to avenge it; and to win for +righteousness the true victory, he, as well as his brethren, had to send +away evil. Throughout his life on earth, he resisted every impulse to +work more rapidly for a lower good,--strong perhaps when he saw old age +and innocence and righteousness trodden under foot. What but this gives +any worth of reality to the temptation in the wilderness, to the +devil's departing from him for a season, to his coming again to +experience a like failure? Ever and ever, in the whole attitude of his +being, in his heart always lifted up, in his unfailing readiness to pull +with the Father's yoke, he was repelling, driving away sin--away from +himself, and, as Lord of men, and their saviour, away from others also, +bringing them to abjure it like himself. No man, least of all any lord +of men, can be good without willing to be good, without setting himself +against evil, without sending away sin. Other men have to send it away +out of them; the Lord had to send it away from before him, that it +should not enter into him. Therefore is the stand against sin common to +the captain of salvation and the soldiers under him. + +What did Jesus come into the world to do? The will of God in saving his +people from their sins--not from the punishment of their sins, that +blessed aid to repentance, but from their sins themselves, the paltry as +well as the heinous, the venial as well as the loathsome. His whole work +was and is to send away sin--to banish it from the earth, yea, to cast +it into the abyss of non-existence behind the back of God. His was the +holy war; he came carrying it into our world; he resisted unto blood; +the soldiers that followed him he taught and trained to resist also unto +blood, striving against sin; so he became the captain of their +salvation, and they, freed themselves, fought and suffered for others. +This was the task to which he was baptized; this is yet his enduring +labour. 'This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many +unto the sending away of sins.' What was the new covenant? 'I will make +a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not +according to the covenant which they brake, but this: I will put my law +in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their +God, and they shall be my people.' + +John baptized unto repentance because those to whom he was sent had to +repent. They must bethink themselves, and send away the sin that was in +them. But had there been a man, aware of no sin in him, but aware that +life would be no life were not sin kept out of him, that man would have +been right in receiving the baptism of John unto the continuous +dismission of the sin ever wanting to enter in at his door. The object +of the baptism was the sending away of sin; its object was repentance +only where necessary to, only as introducing, as resulting in that. He +to whom John was not sent, He whom he did not call, He who needed no +repentance, was baptized for the same object, to the same conflict for +the same end--the banishment of sin from the dominions of his +father--and that first by his own sternest repudiation of it in himself. +Thence came his victory in the wilderness: he would have his fathers +way, not his own. Could he be less fitted to receive the baptism of +John, that the object of it was no new thing with him, who had been +about it from the beginning, yea, from all eternity? We shall be about +it, I presume, to all eternity. + +Such, then, as were baptized by John, were initiated into the company of +those whose work was to send sin out of the world, and first, by sending +it out of themselves, by having done with it. Their earliest endeavour +in this direction would, as I have said, open the door for that help to +enter without which a man could never succeed in the divinely arduous +task--could not, because the region in which the work has to be wrought +lies in the very roots of his own being, where, knowing nothing of the +secrets of his essential existence, he can immediately do nothing, where +the maker of him alone is potent, alone is consciously present. The +change that must pass in him more than equals a new creation, inasmuch +as it is a higher creation. But its necessity is involved in the former +creation; and thence we have a right to ask help of our creator, for he +requires of us what he has created us unable to effect without him. Nay, +nay!--could we do anything without him, it were a thing to leave undone. +Blessed fact that he hath made us so near him! that the scale of our +being is so large, that we are completed only by his presence in it! +that we are not men without him! that we can be one with our +self-existent creator! that we are not cut off from the original +Infinite! that in him we must share infinitude, or be enslaved by the +finite! The very patent of our royalty is, that not for a moment can we +live our true life without the eternal life present in and with our +spirits. Without him at our unknown root, we cease to be. True, a dog +cannot live without the presence of God; but I presume a dog may live a +good dog-life without knowing the presence of his origin: man is dead if +he know not the Power which is his cause, his deepest selfing self; the +Presence which is not himself, and is nearer to him than himself; which +is infinitely more himself, more his very being, than he is himself. The +being of which we are conscious, is not our full self; the extent of our +consciousness of our self is no measure of our self; our consciousness +is infinitely less than we; while God is more necessary even to that +poor consciousness of self than our self-consciousness is necessary to +our humanity. Until a man become the power of his own existence, become +his own God, the sole thing necessary to his existing is the will of +God; for the well-being and perfecting of that existence, the sole thing +necessary is, that the man should know his maker present in him. All +that the children want is their Father. + +The one true end of all speech concerning holy things is--the persuading +of the individual man to cease to do evil, to set himself to do well, to +look to the lord of his life to be on his side in the new struggle. +Supposing the suggestions I have made correct, I do not care that my +reader should understand them, except it be to turn against the evil in +him, and begin to cast it out. If this be not the result, it is of no +smallest consequence whether he agree with my interpretation or not. If +he do thus repent, it is of equally little consequence; for, setting +himself to do the truth, he is on the way to know all things. Real +knowledge has begun to grow possible for him. + +I am not sure what the Lord means in the words, 'Thus it becometh us to +fulfil all righteousness.' Baptism could not be the fulfilling of all +righteousness! Perhaps he means, 'We must, by a full act of the will, +give ourselves altogether to righteousness. We must make it the business +of our lives to send away sin, and do the will of the Father. That is my +work as much as the work of any man who must repent ere he can begin. I +will not be left out when you call men to be pure as our father is +pure.' + +To be certain whom he intends by _us_ might perhaps help us to see his +meaning. Does he intend _all of us men_? Does he intend 'my father and +me'? Or does he intend 'you and me, John'? If the saying mean what I +have suggested, then the _us_ would apply to all that have the knowledge +of good and evil. 'Every being that can, must devote himself to +righteousness. To be right is no adjunct of completeness; it is the +ground and foundation of existence.' But perhaps it was a lesson for +John himself, who, mighty preacher of righteousness as he was, did not +yet count it the all of life. I cannot tell. + +Note that when the Lord began his teaching, he employed, neither using +nor inculcating any rite, the same words as John,--'Repent, for the +kingdom of heaven is at hand.' + +That kingdom had been at hand all his infancy, boyhood, and young +manhood: he was in the world with his father in his heart: that was the +kingdom of heaven. Lonely man on the hillside, or boy the cynosure of +doctor-eyes, his father was everything to him:--'Wist ye not that I must +be in my father's things?' + + + + +_JESUS IN THE WORLD._ + +'Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have +sought thee sorrowing.' And he said unto them, 'How is it that ye sought +me? wist ye not that I must be about my father's business?' And they +understood not the saying which he spake unto them.--_Luke_ ii. 48-50. + + +Was that his saying? Why did they not understand it? Do we understand +it? What did his saying mean? The Greek is not absolutely clear. Whether +the Syriac words he used were more precise, who in this world can tell? +But had we heard his very words, we too, with his father and mother, +would have failed to understand them. Must we fail still? + +It will show at once where our initial difficulty lies, if I give the +latter half of the saying as presented in the revised English version: +its departure from the authorized reveals the point of obscurity:--'Wist +ye not that I must be in my father's house?' His parents had his exact +words, yet did not understand. We have not his exact words, and are in +doubt as to what the Greek translation of them means. + +If the authorized translation be true to the intent of the Greek, and +therefore to that of the Syriac, how could his parents, knowing him as +they did from all that had been spoken before concerning him, from all +they had seen in him, from the ponderings in Mary's own heart, and from +the precious thoughts she and Joseph cherished concerning him, have +failed to understand him when he said that wherever he was, he must be +about his father's business? On the other hand, supposing them to know +and feel that he must be about his father's business, would that have +been reason sufficient, in view of the degree of spiritual development +to which they had attained, for the Lord's expecting them not to be +anxious about him when they had lost him? Thousands on thousands who +trust God for their friends in things spiritual, do not trust him for +them in regard of their mere health or material well-being. His parents +knew how prophets had always been treated in the land; or if they did +not think in that direction, there were many dangers to which a boy like +him would seem exposed, to rouse an anxiety that could be met only by a +faith equal to saying, 'Whatever has happened to him, death itself, it +can be no evil to one who is about his father's business;' and such a +faith I think the Lord could not yet have expected of them. That what +the world counts misfortune might befall him on his father's business, +would have been recognized by him, I think, as reason for their parental +anxiety--so long as they had not learned God--that he is what he is--the +thing the Lord had come to teach his father's men and women. His words +seem rather to imply that there was no need to be anxious about his +personal safety. Fear of some accident to him seems to have been the +cause of their trouble; and he did not mean, I think, that they ought +not to mind if he died doing his father's will, but that he was in no +danger as regarded accident or misfortune. This will appear more plainly +as we proceed. So much for the authorized version. + +Let us now take the translation given us by the Revisers:--'Wist ye not +that I must be in my father's house?' + +Are they authorized in translating the Greek thus? I know no +justification for it, but am not learned enough to say they have none. +That the Syriac has it so, is of little weight; seeing it is no original +Syriac, but retranslation. If he did say '_my father's house_', could he +have meant the temple and his parents not have known what he meant? And +why should he have taken it for granted they would know, or judge that +they ought to have known, that he was there? So little did the temple +suggest itself to them, that either it was the last place in which they +sought him, or they had been there before, and had _not_ found him. If +he meant that they might have known this without being told, why was it +that, even when he set the thing before them, they did not understand +him? I do not believe he meant the temple; I do not think he said or +meant '_in my fathers house'_. + +What then makes those who give us this translation, prefer it to the +phrase in the authorized version, '_about my Father's business_'? + +One or other of two causes--most likely both together: an ecclesiastical +fancy, and the mere fact that he was found in the temple. A mind +ecclesiastical will presume the temple the fittest, therefore most +likely place, for the Son of God to betake himself to, but such a mind +would not be the first to reflect that the temple was a place where the +Father was worshipped neither in spirit nor in truth--a place built by +one of the vilest rulers of this world, less fit than many another spot +for the special presence of him of whom the prophet bears witness: 'Thus +saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is +Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a +contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to +revive the heart of the contrite ones.' Jesus himself, with the same +breath in which once he called it his father's house, called it a den of +thieves. His expulsion from it of the buyers and sellers, was the first +waft of the fan with which he was come to purge his father's dominions. +Nothing could ever cleanse that house; his fanning rose to a tempest, +and swept it out of his father's world. + +For the second possible cause of the change from _business_ to +_temple_--the mere fact that he was found in the temple, can hardly be a +reason for his expecting his parents to know that he was there; and if +it witnessed to some way of thought or habit of his with which they were +acquainted, it is, I repeat, difficult to see why the parents should +fail to perceive what the interpreters have found so easily. But the +parents looked for a larger meaning in the words of such a son--whose +meaning at the same time was too large for them to find. + +When, according to the Greek, the Lord, on the occasion already alluded +to, says 'my father's house,' he says it plainly; he uses the word +_house_: here he does not. + +Let us see what lies in the Greek to guide us to the thought in the mind +of the Lord when he thus reasoned with the apprehensions of his father +and mother. The Greek, taken literally, says, 'Wist ye not that I must +be in the----of my father?' The authorized version supplies _business_; +the revised, _house_. There is no noun in the Greek, and the article +'the' is in the plural. To translate it as literally as it can be +translated, making of it an English sentence, the saying stands, 'Wist +ye not that I must be in the things of my father?' The plural article +implies the English _things_; and the question is then, What _things_ +does he mean? The word might mean _affairs_ or _business_; but why the +plural article should be contracted to mean _house_, _I_ do not know. In +a great wide sense, no doubt, the word _house_ might be used, as I am +about to show, but surely not as meaning the temple. + +He was arguing for confidence in God on the part of his parents, not for +a knowledge of his whereabout. The same thing that made them anxious +concerning him, prevented them from understanding his words--lack, +namely, of faith in the Father. This, the one thing he came into the +world to teach men, those words were meant to teach his parents. They +are spirit and life, involving the one principle by which men shall +live. They hold the same core as his words to his disciples in the +storm, 'Oh ye of little faith!' Let us look more closely at them. + +'Why did you look for me? Did you not know that I must be among my +father's things?' What are we to understand by 'my father's things'? +The translation given in the authorized version is, I think, as to the +words themselves, a thoroughly justifiable one: 'I must be about my +father's business,' or 'my father's affairs'; I refuse it for no other +reason than that it does not fit the logic of the narrative, as does the +word _things_, which besides opens to us a door of large and joyous +prospect. Of course he was about his father's business, and they might +know it and yet be anxious about him, not having a perfect faith in that +father. But, as I have said already, it was not anxiety as to what might +befall him because of doing the will of the Father; he might well seem +to them as yet too young for danger from that source; it was but the +vague perils of life beyond their sight that appalled them; theirs was +just the uneasiness that possesses every parent whose child is missing; +and if they, like him, had trusted in their father, they would have +known what their son now meant when he said that he was in the midst of +his father's things--namely, that the very things from which they +dreaded evil accident, were his own home-surroundings; that he was not +doing the Father's business in a foreign country, but in the Father's +own house. Understood as meaning the world, or the universe, the phrase, +'my father's house,' would be a better translation than the authorized; +understood as meaning the poor, miserable, God-forsaken temple--no more +the house of God than a dead body is the house of a man--it is +immeasurably inferior. + +It seems to me, I say, that the Lord meant to remind them, or rather to +make them feel, for they had not yet learned the fact, that he was never +away from home, could not be lost, as they had thought him; that he was +in his father's house all the time, where no hurt could come to him. +'The things' about him were the furniture and utensils of his home; he +knew them all and how to use them. 'I must be among my father's +belongings.' The world was his home because his father's house. He was +not a stranger who did not know his way about in it. He was no lost +child, but with his father all the time. + +Here we find one main thing wherein the Lord differs from us: we are not +at home in this great universe, our father's house. We ought to be, and +one day we shall be, but we are not yet. This reveals Jesus more than +man, by revealing him more man than we. We are not complete men, we are +not anything near it, and are therefore out of harmony, more or less, +with everything in the house of our birth and habitation. Always +struggling to make our home in the world, we have not yet succeeded. We +are not at home in it, because we are not at home with the lord of the +house, the father of the family, not one with our elder brother who is +his right hand. It is only the son, the daughter, that abideth ever in +the house. When we are true children, if not the world, then the +universe will be our home, felt and known as such, the house we are +satisfied with, and would not change. Hence, until then, the hard +struggle, the constant strife we hold with _Nature_--as we call the +things of our father; a strife invaluable for our development, at the +same time manifesting us not yet men enough to be lords of the house +built for us to live in. We cannot govern or command in it as did the +Lord, because we are not at one with his father, therefore neither in +harmony with his things, nor rulers over them. Our best power in regard +to them is but to find out wonderful facts concerning them and their +relations, and turn these facts to our uses on systems of our own. For +we discover what we seem to discover, by working inward from without, +while he works outward from within; and we shall never understand the +world, until we see it in the direction in which he works making +it--namely from within outward. This of course we cannot do until we are +one with him. In the meantime, so much are both we and his things his, +that we can err concerning them only as he has made it possible for us +to err; we can wander only in the direction of the truth--if but to find +that we can find nothing. + +Think for a moment how Jesus was at home among the things of his +father. It seems to me, I repeat, a spiritless explanation of his +words--that the temple was the place where naturally he was at home. +Does he make the least lamentation over the temple? It is Jerusalem he +weeps over--the men of Jerusalem, the killers, the stoners. What was his +place of prayer? Not the temple, but the mountain-top. Where does he +find symbols whereby to speak of what goes on in the mind and before the +face of his father in heaven? Not in the temple; not in its rites; not +on its altars; not in its holy of holies; he finds them in the world and +its lovely-lowly facts; on the roadside, in the field, in the vineyard, +in the garden, in the house; in the family, and the commonest of its +affairs--the lighting of the lamp, the leavening of the meal, the +neighbour's borrowing, the losing of the coin, the straying of the +sheep. Even in the unlovely facts also of the world which he turns to +holy use, such as the unjust judge, the false steward, the faithless +labourers, he ignores the temple. See how he drives the devils from the +souls and bodies of men, as we the wolves from our sheepfolds! how +before him the diseases, scaly and spotted, hurry and flee! The world +has for him no chamber of terror. He walks to the door of the sepulchre, +the sealed cellar of his father's house, and calls forth its four days +dead. He rebukes the mourners, he stays the funeral, and gives back the +departed children to their parents' arms. The roughest of its servants +do not make him wince; none of them are so arrogant as to disobey his +word; he falls asleep in the midst of the storm that threatens to +swallow his boat. Hear how, on that same occasion, he rebukes his +disciples! The children to tremble at a gust of wind in the house! God's +little ones afraid of a storm! Hear him tell the watery floor to be +still, and no longer toss his brothers! see the watery floor obey him +and grow still! See how the wandering creatures under it come at his +call! See him leave his mountain-closet, and go walking over its heaving +surface to the help of his men of little faith! See how the world's +water turns to wine! how its bread grows more bread at his word! See how +he goes from the house for a while, and returning with fresh power, +takes what shape he pleases, walks through its closed doors, and goes up +and down its invisible stairs! + +All his life he was among his father's things, either in heaven or in +the world--not then only when they found him in the temple at Jerusalem. +He is still among his father's things, everywhere about in the world, +everywhere throughout the wide universe. Whatever he laid aside to come +to us, to whatever limitations, for our sake, he stooped his regal head, +he dealt with the things about him in such lordly, childlike manner as +made it clear they were not strange to him, but the things of his +father. He claimed none of them as his own, would not have had one of +them his except through his father. Only as his father's could he enjoy +them;--only as coming forth from the Father, and full of the Father's +thought and nature, had they to him any existence. That the things were +his fathers, made them precious things to him. He had no care for +having, as men count having. All his having was in the Father. I wonder +if he ever put anything in his pocket: I doubt if he had one. Did he +ever say, 'This is mine, not yours'? Did he not say, 'All things are +mine, therefore they are yours'? Oh for his liberty among the things of +the Father! Only by knowing them the things of our Father, can we escape +enslaving ourselves to them. Through the false, the infernal idea of +_having_, of _possessing_ them, we make them our tyrants, make the +relation between them and us an evil thing. The world was a blessed +place to Jesus, because everything in it was his father's. What pain +must it not have been to him, to see his brothers so vilely misuse the +Father's house by grasping, each for himself, at the family things! If +the knowledge that a spot in the landscape retains in it some pollution, +suffices to disturb our pleasure in the whole, how must it not have been +with him, how must it not be with him now, in regard to the +disfigurements and defilements caused by the greed of men, by their +haste to be rich, in his father's lovely house! + +Whoever is able to understand Wordsworth, or Henry Vaughan, when either +speaks of the glorious insights of his childhood, will be able to +imagine a little how Jesus must, in his eternal childhood, regard the +world. + +Hear what Wordsworth says:-- + + Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: + The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, + Hath had elsewhere its setting, + And cometh from afar: + Not in entire forgetfulness, + And not in utter nakedness, + But trailing clouds of glory do we come + From God, who is our home: + Heaven lies about us in our infancy! + Shades of the prison-house begin to close + Upon the growing Boy, + But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, + He sees it in his joy; + The Youth, who daily farther from the east + Must travel, still is Nature's Priest, + And by the vision splendid + Is on his way attended; + At length the Man perceives it die away, + And fade into the light of common day. + +Hear what Henry Vaughan says:-- + + Happy those early dayes, when I + Shin'd in my angell-infancy! + Before I understood this place + Appointed for my second race, + Or taught my soul to fancy ought + But a white, celestiall thought; + When yet I had not walkt above + A mile or two, from my first love, + And looking back--at that short space-- + Could see a glimpse of His bright-face; + When on some gilded cloud, or flowre + My gazing soul would dwell an houre, + And in those weaker glories spy + Some shadows of eternity; + Before I taught my tongue to wound + My conscience with a sinfull sound, + Or had the black art to dispence + A sev'rall sinne to ev'ry sence, + But felt through all this fleshly dresse + Bright shootes of everlastingnesse. + O how I long to travell back, + And tread again that ancient track! + That I might once more reach that plaine, + Where first I left my glorious traine; + From whence th' inlightned spirit sees + That shady City of palme trees. + +Whoever has thus gazed on flower or cloud; whoever can recall poorest +memory of the trail of glory that hung about his childhood, must have +some faint idea how his father's house and the things in it always +looked, and must still look to the Lord. With him there is no fading +into the light of common day. He has never lost his childhood, the very +essence of childhood being nearness to the Father and the outgoing of +his creative love; whence, with that insight of his eternal childhood of +which the insight of the little ones here is a fainter repetition, he +must see everything as the Father means it. The child sees things as the +Father means him to see them, as he thought of them when he uttered +them. For God is not only the father of the child, but of the childhood +that constitutes him a child, therefore the childness is of the divine +nature. The child may not indeed be capable of looking into the father's +method, but he can in a measure understand his work, has therefore free +entrance to his study and workshop both, and is welcome to find out what +he can, with fullest liberty to ask him questions. There are men too, +who, at their best, see, in their lower measure, things as they are--as +God sees them always. Jesus saw things just as his father saw them in +his creative imagination, when willing them out to the eyes of his +children. But if he could always see the things of his father even as +some men and more children see them at times, he might well feel +_almost_ at home among them. He could not cease to admire, cease to love +them. I say _love_, because the life in them, the presence of the +creative one, would ever be plain to him. In the Perfect, would +familiarity ever destroy wonder at things essentially wonderful because +essentially divine? To cease to wonder is to fall plumb-down from the +childlike to the commonplace--the most undivine of all moods +intellectual. Our nature can never be at home among things that are not +wonderful to us. + +Could we see things always as we have sometimes seen them--and as one +day we must always see them, only far better--should we ever know +dullness? Greatly as we might enjoy all forms of art, much as we might +learn through the eyes and thoughts of other men, should we fly to these +for deliverance from _ennui_, from any haunting discomfort? Should we +not just open our own child-eyes, look upon the things themselves, and +be consoled? + +Jesus, then, would have his parents understand that he was in his +father's world among his father's things, where was nothing to hurt him; +he knew them all, was in the secret of them all, could use and order +them as did his father. To this same I think all we humans are destined +to rise. Though so many of us now are ignorant what kind of home we +need, what a home we are capable of having, we too shall inherit the +earth with the Son eternal, doing with it as we would--willing with the +will of the Father. To such a home as we now inhabit, only perfected, +and perfectly beheld, we are travelling--never to reach it save by the +obedience that makes us the children, therefore the heirs of God. And, +thank God! there the father does not die that the children may inherit; +for, bliss of heaven! we inherit with the Father. + +All the dangers of Jesus came from the priests, and the learned in the +traditional law, whom his parents had not yet begun to fear on his +behalf. They feared the dangers of the rugged way, the thieves and +robbers of the hill-road. For the scribes and the pharisees, the priests +and the rulers--they would be the first to acknowledge their Messiah, +their king! Little they imagined, when they found him where he ought to +have been safest had it been indeed his father's house, that there he +sat amid lions--the great doctors of the temple! He could rule all the +_things_ in his father's house, but not the men of religion, the men of +the temple, who called his father their Father. True, he might have +compelled them with a word, withered them by a glance, with a +finger-touch made them grovel at his feet; but such supremacy over his +brothers the Lord of life despised. He must rule them as his father +ruled himself; he would have them know themselves of the same family +with himself; have them at home among the things of God, caring for the +things he cared for, loving and hating as he and his father loved and +hated, ruling themselves by the essential laws of being. Because they +would not be such, he let them do to him as they would, that he might +get at their hearts by some unknown unguarded door in their diviner +part. 'I will be God among you; I will be myself to you.--You will not +have me? Then do to me as you will. The created shall have power over +him through whom they were created, that they may be compelled to know +him and his father. They shall look on him whom they have pierced.' + +His parents found him in the temple; they never really found him until +he entered the true temple--their own adoring hearts. The temple that +knows not its builder, is no temple; in it dwells no divinity. But at +length he comes to his own, and his own receive him;--comes to them in +the might of his mission to preach good tidings to the poor, to heal the +broken-hearted, to preach deliverance, and sight, and liberty, and the +Lord's own good time. + + + + +_JESUS AND HIS FELLOW TOWNSMEN._ + +And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his +custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up +for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet +Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was +written, 'The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me +to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the +brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of +sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach +the acceptable year of the Lord.' And he closed the book, and he gave it +again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were +in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, +'This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.'--_Luke_ iv. 14-21. + + +The Lord's sermon upon the mount seems such an enlargement of these +words of the prophet as might, but for the refusal of the men of +Nazareth to listen to him, have followed his reading of them here +recorded. That, as given by the evangelist, they correspond to neither +of the differing originals of the English and Greek versions, ought to +be enough in itself to do away with the spiritually vulgar notion of the +verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. + +The point at which the Lord stops in his reading, is suggestive: he +closes the book, leaving the words 'and the day of vengeance of our +God,' or, as in the Septuagint, 'the day of recompense,' unread: God's +vengeance is as holy a thing as his love, yea, is love, for God is love +and God is not vengeance; but, apparently, the Lord would not give the +word a place in his announcement of his mission: his hearers would not +recognize it as a form of the Father's love, but as vengeance on their +enemies, not vengeance on the selfishness of those who would not be +their brother's keeper. + +He had not begun with Nazareth, neither with Galilee. 'A prophet has no +honour in his own country,' he said, and began to teach where it was +more likely he would be heard. It is true that he wrought his first +miracle in Cana, but that was at his mother's request, not of his own +intent, and he did not begin his teaching there. He went first to +Jerusalem, there cast out the buyers and sellers from the temple, and +did other notable things alluded to by St John; then went back to +Galilee, where, having seen the things he did in Jerusalem, his former +neighbours were now prepared to listen to him. Of these the Nazarenes, +to whom the sight of him was more familiar, retained the most prejudice +against him: he belonged to their very city! they had known him from a +child!--and low indeed are they in whom familiarity with the high and +true breeds contempt! they are judged already. Yet such was the fame of +the new prophet, that even they were willing to hear in the synagogue +what he had to say to them--thence to determine for themselves what +claim he had to an honourable reception. But the eye of their judgment +was not single, therefore was their body full of darkness. Should +Nazareth indeed prove, to their self-glorifying satisfaction, the city +of the great Prophet, they were more than ready to grasp at the renown +of having produced him: he was indeed the great Prophet, and within a +few minutes they would have slain him for the honour of Israel. In the +ignoble even the love of their country partakes largely of the ignoble. + +There was a shadow of the hateless vengeance of God in the expulsion of +the dishonest dealers from the temple with which the Lord initiated his +mission: that was his first parable to Jerusalem; to Nazareth he comes +with the sweetest words of the prophet of hope in his mouth--good +tidings of great joy--of healing and sight and liberty; followed by the +godlike announcement, that what the prophet had promised he was come to +fulfil. His heart, his eyes, his lips, his hands--his whole body is full +of gifts for men, and that day was that scripture fulfilled in their +ears. The prophecy had gone before that he should save his people from +their sins; he brings an announcement they will better understand: he is +come, he says, to deliver men from sorrow and pain, ignorance and +oppression, everything that makes life hard and unfriendly. What a +gracious speech, what a daring pledge to a world whelmed in tyranny and +wrong! To the women of it, I imagine, it sounded the sweetest, in them +woke the highest hopes. They had scarce had a hearing when the Lord +came; and thereupon things began to mend with them, and are mending +still, for the Lord is at work, and will be. He is the refuge of the +oppressed. By its very woes, as by bitterest medicine, he is setting the +world free from sin and woe. This very hour he is curing its disease, +the symptoms of which are so varied and so painful; working none the +less faithfully that the sick, taking the symptoms for the disease, cry +out against the incompetence of their physician. 'What power can heal +the broken-hearted?' they cry. And indeed it takes a God to do it, but +the God is here! In yet better words than those of the prophet, spoken +straight from his own heart, he cries: 'Come unto me, all ye that labour +and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' He calls to him every +heart knowing its own bitterness, speaks to the troubled consciousness +of every child of the Father. He is come to free us from everything that +makes life less than bliss essential. No other could be a gospel worthy +of the God of men. + +Every one will, I presume, confess to more or less misery. Its apparent +source may be this or that; its real source is, to use a poor figure, a +dislocation of the juncture between the created and the creating life. +This primal evil is the parent of evils unnumbered, hence of miseries +multitudinous, under the weight of which the arrogant man cries out +against life, and goes on to misuse it, while the child looks around for +help--and who shall help him but his father! The Father is with him all +the time, but it may be long ere the child knows himself in his arms. +His heart may be long troubled as well as his outer life. The dank mists +of doubtful thought may close around his way, and hide from him the +Light of the world! cold winds from the desert of foiled endeavour may +sorely buffet and for a time baffle his hope; but every now and then the +blue pledge of a great sky will break through the clouds over his head; +and a faint aurora will walk his darkest East. Gradually he grows more +capable of imagining a world in which every good thing thinkable may be +a fact. Best of all, the story of him who is himself the good news, the +gospel of God, becomes not only more and more believable to his heart, +but more and more ministrant to his life of conflict, and his assurance +of a living father who hears when his children cry. The gospel according +to this or that expounder of it, may repel him unspeakably; the gospel +according to Jesus Christ, attracts him supremely, and ever holds where +it has drawn him. To the priest, the scribe, the elder, exclaiming +against his self-sufficiency in refusing what they teach, he answers, +'It is life or death to me. Your gospel I cannot take. To believe as you +would have me believe, would be to lose my God. Your God is no God to +me. I do not desire him. I would rather die the death than believe in +such a God. In the name of the true God, I cast your gospel from me; it +is no gospel, and to believe it would be to wrong him in whom alone lies +my hope.' + +'But to believe in such a man,' he might go on to say, 'with such a +message, as I read of in the New Testament, is life from the dead. I +have yielded myself, to live no more in the idea of self, but with the +life of God. To him I commit the creature he has made, that he may live +in it, and work out its life--develop it according to the idea of it in +his own creating mind. I fall in with his ways for me. I believe in him. +I trust him. I try to obey him. I look to be rendered capable of and +receive a pure vision of his will, freedom from the prison-house of my +limitation, from the bondage of a finite existence. For the finite that +dwells in the infinite and in which the infinite dwells, is finite no +longer. Those who are thus children indeed, are little Gods, the divine +brood of the infinite Father. No mere promise of deliverance from the +consequences of sin, would be any gospel to me. Less than the liberty of +a holy heart, less than the freedom of the Lord himself, will never +satisfy one human soul. Father, set me free in the glory of thy will, so +that I will only as thou willest. Thy will be at once thy perfection and +mine. Thou alone art deliverance--absolute safety from every cause and +kind of trouble that ever existed, anywhere now exists, or ever can +exist in thy universe.' + +But the people of the Lord's town, to whom he read, appropriating them, +the gracious words of the prophet, were of the wise and prudent of their +day. With one and the same breath, they seem to cry, 'These things are +good, it is true, but they must come after our way. We must have the +promise to our fathers fulfilled--that we shall rule the world, the +chosen of God, the children of Abraham and Israel. We want to be a free +people, manage our own affairs, live in plenty, and do as we please. +Liberty alone can ever cure the woes of which you speak. We do not need +to be better; we are well enough. Give us riches and honour, and keep us +content with ourselves, that we may be satisfied with our own likeness, +and thou shalt be the Messiah.' Never, perhaps, would such be men's +spoken words, but the prevailing condition of their minds might often +well take form in such speech. Whereon will they ground their complaint +should God give them their hearts' desire? When that desire given closes +in upon them with a torturing sense of slavery; when they find that what +they have imagined their own will, was but a suggestion they knew not +whence; when they discover that life is not good, yet they cannot die; +will they not then turn and entreat their maker to save them after his +own fashion? + +Let us try to understand the brief, elliptical narrative of what took +place in the synagogue of Nazareth on the occasion of our Lord's +announcement of his mission. + +'This day,' said Jesus, 'is this scripture fulfilled in your ears;' and +went on with his divine talk. We shall yet know, I trust, what 'the +gracious words' were 'which proceeded out of his mouth': surely some who +heard them, still remember them, for 'all bare him witness, and wondered +at' them! How did they bear him witness? Surely not alone by the +intensity of their wondering gaze! Must not the narrator mean that their +hearts bore witness to the power of his presence, that they felt the +appeal of his soul to theirs, that they said in themselves, 'Never man +spake like this man'? Must not the light of truth in his face, beheld of +such even as knew not the truth, have lifted their souls up truthward? +Was it not the something true, common to all hearts, that bore the +wondering witness to the graciousness of his words? Had not those words +found a way to the pure human, that is, the divine in the men? Was it +not therefore that they were drawn to him--all but ready to accept +him?--on their own terms, alas, not his! For a moment he seemed to them +a true messenger, but truth in him was not truth to them: had he been +what they took him for, he would have been no saviour. They were, +however, though partly by mistake, well disposed toward him, and it was +with a growing sense of being honoured by his relation to them, and the +property they had in him, that they said, 'Is not this Joseph's son?' + +But the Lord knew what was in their hearts; he knew the false notion +with which they were almost ready to declare for him; he knew also the +final proof to which they were in their wisdom and prudence about to +subject him. He did not look likely to be a prophet, seeing he had +grown up among them, and had never shown any credentials: they had a +right to proof positive! They had heard of wonderful things he had done +in other places: why had they not first of all been done in _their_ +sight? Who had a claim equal to theirs? who so capable as they to +pronounce judgment on his mission whether false or true: had they not +known him from childhood? His words were gracious, but words were +nothing: he must _do_ something--something wonderful! Without such +conclusive, satisfying proof, Nazareth at least would never acknowledge +him! + +They were quite ready for the honour of having any true prophet, such as +it seemed not impossible the son of Joseph might turn out to be, +recognized as their towns-man, one of their own people: if he were such, +theirs was the credit of having produced him! Then indeed they were +ready to bear witness to him, take his part, adopt his cause, and before +the world stand up for him! As to his being the Messiah, that was merest +absurdity: did they not all know his father, the carpenter? He might, +however, be the prophet whom so many of the best in the nation were at +the moment expecting! Let him do something wonderful! + +They were not a gracious people, or a good. The Lord saw their thought, +and it was far from being to his mind. He desired no such reception as +they were at present equal to giving a prophet. His mighty works were +not meant for such as they--to convince them of what they were incapable +of understanding or welcoming! Those who would not believe without signs +and wonders, could never believe worthily with any number of them, and +none should be given them! His mighty works were to rouse the love, and +strengthen the faith of the meek and lowly in heart, of such as were +ready to come to the light, and show that they were of the light. He +knew how poor the meaning the Nazarenes put on the words he had read; +what low expectations they had of the Messiah when most they longed for +his coming. They did not hear the prophet while he read the prophet! At +sight of a few poor little wonders, nothing to him, to them sufficient +to prove him such a Messiah as _they_ looked for, they would burst into +loud acclaim, and rush to their arms, eager, his officers and soldiers, +to open the one triumphant campaign against the accursed Romans, and +sweep them beyond the borders of their sacred country. Their Messiah +would make of their nation the redeemed of the Lord, themselves the +favourites of his court, and the tyrants of the world! Salvation from +their sins was not in their hearts, not in their imaginations, not at +all in their thoughts. They had heard him read his commission to heal +the broken-hearted; they would rush to break hearts in his name. The +Lord knew them, and their vain expectations. He would have no such +followers--no followers on false conceptions--no followers whom wonders +would delight but nowise better! The Nazarenes were not yet of the sort +that needed but one change to be his people. He had come to give them +help; until they accepted his, they could have none to give him. + +The Lord never did mighty work in proof of his mission; to help a +growing faith in himself and his father, he would do anything! He healed +those whom healing would deeper heal--those in whom suffering had so far +done its work, that its removal also would carry it on. To the Nazarenes +he would not manifest his power; they were not in a condition to get +good from such manifestation: it would but confirm their present +arrogance and ambition. Wonderful works can only nourish a faith already +existent; to him who believes without it, a miracle _may_ be granted. It +was the Israelite indeed, whom the Lord met with miracle: 'Because I +said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? Thou +shalt see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.' +Those who laughed him to scorn were not allowed to look on the +resurrection of the daughter of Jairus. Peter, when he would walk on the +water, had both permission and power given him to do so. The widow +received the prophet, and was fed; the Syrian went to the prophet, and +was cured. In Nazareth, because of unbelief, the Lord could only lay his +hands on a few sick folk; in the rest was none of that leaning toward +the truth, which alone can make room for the help of a miracle. This +they soon made manifest. + +The Lord saw them on the point of challenging a display of his power, +and anticipated the challenge with a refusal. + +For the better understanding of his words, let me presume to paraphrase +them: 'I know you will apply to me the proverb, Physician, heal thyself, +requiring me to prove what is said of me in Capernaum, by doing the same +here; but there is another proverb, No prophet is accepted in his own +country. Unaccepted I do nothing wonderful. In the great famine, Elijah +was sent to no widow of the many in Israel, but to a Sidonian; and +Elisha cured no leper of the many in Israel, but Naaman the Syrian. +There are those fit to see signs and wonders; they are not always the +kin of the prophet.' + +The Nazarenes heard with indignation. Their wonder at his gracious words +was changed to bitterest wrath. The very beams of their ugly religion +were party-spirit, exclusiveness, and pride in the fancied favour of God +for them only of all the nations: to hint at the possibility of a +revelation of the glory of God to a stranger; far more, to hint that a +stranger might be fitter to receive such a revelation than a Jew, was an +offence reaching to the worst insult; and it was cast in their teeth by +a common man of their own city! 'Thou art but a well-known carpenter's +son, and dost thou teach _us_! Darest thou imply a divine preference for +Capernaum over Nazareth?' In bad odour with the rest of their +countrymen, they were the prouder of themselves. + +The _whole_ synagogue, observe, rose in a fury. Such a fellow a prophet! +He was worse than the worst of Gentiles! he was a false Jew! a traitor +to his God! a friend of the idol-worshipping Romans! Away with him! His +townsmen led the van in his rejection by his own. The men of Nazareth +would have forestalled his crucifixion by them of Jerusalem. What! a +Sidonian woman fitter to receive the prophet than any Jewess! a heathen +worthier to be kept alive by miracle in time of famine, than a +worshipper of the true God! a leper of Damascus less displeasing to God +than the lepers of his chosen race! It was no longer condescending +approval that shone in their eyes. He a prophet! They had seen through +him! Soon had they found him out! The moment he perceived it useless to +pose for a prophet with them, who had all along known the breed of him, +he had turned to insult them! He dared not attempt in his own city the +deceptions with which, by the help of Satan, he had made such a grand +show, and fooled the idiots of Capernaum! He saw they knew him too well, +were too wide-awake to be cozened by him, and to avoid their expected +challenge, fell to reviling the holy nation. Let him take the +consequences! To the brow of the hill with him! + +How could there be any miracle for such! They were well satisfied with +themselves, and + + Nothing almost sees miracles + But misery. + +Need and the upward look, the mood ready to believe when and where it +can, the embryonic faith, is dear to Him whose love would have us trust +him. Let any man seek him--not in curious inquiry whether the story of +him may be true or cannot be true--in humble readiness to accept him +altogether if only he can, and he shall find him; we shall not fail of +help to believe because we doubt. But if the questioner be such that the +dispersion of his doubt would but leave him in disobedience, the Power +of truth has no care to effect his conviction. Why cast out a devil that +the man may the better do the work of the devil? The childlike doubt +will, as it softens and yields, minister nourishment with all that was +good in it to the faith-germ at its heart; the wise and prudent +unbelief will be left to develop its own misery. The Lord could easily +have satisfied the Nazarenes that he was the Messiah: they would but +have hardened into the nucleus of an army for the subjugation of the +world. To a warfare with their own sins, to the subjugation of their +doing and desiring to the will of the great Father, all the miracles in +his power would never have persuaded them. A true convincement is not +possible to hearts and minds like theirs. Not only is it impossible for +a low man to believe a thousandth part of what a noble man can, but a +low man cannot believe anything as a noble man believes it. The men of +Nazareth could have believed in Jesus as their saviour from the Romans; +as their saviour from their sins they could not believe in him, for they +loved their sins. The king of heaven came to offer them a share in his +kingdom; but they were not poor in spirit, and the kingdom of heaven was +not for them. Gladly would they have inherited the earth; but they were +not meek, and the earth was for the lowly children of the perfect +Father. + + + + +_THE HEIRS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH._ + +And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, 'Blessed are the poor +in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' ...'Blessed are the +meek; for they shall inherit the earth.'--_Matthew_ v. 2, 3, 5. + + +The words of the Lord are the seed sown by the sower. Into our hearts +they must fall that they may grow. Meditation and prayer must water +them, and obedience keep them in the sunlight. Thus will they bear fruit +for the Lord's gathering. + +Those of his disciples, that is, obedient hearers, who had any +experience in trying to live, would, in part, at once understand them; +but as they obeyed and pondered, the meaning of them would keep growing. +This we see in the writings of the apostles. It will be so with us also, +who need to understand everything he said neither more nor less than +they to whom first he spoke; while our obligation to understand is far +greater than theirs at the time, inasmuch as we have had nearly two +thousand years' experience of the continued coming of the kingdom he +then preached: it is not yet come; it has been all the time, and is now, +drawing slowly nearer. + +The sermon on the mount, as it is commonly called, seems the Lord's +first free utterance, in the presence of any large assembly, of the good +news of the kingdom. He had been teaching his disciples and messengers; +and had already brought the glad tidings that his father was their +father, to many besides--to Nathanael for one, to Nicodemus, to the +woman of Samaria, to every one he had cured, every one whose cry for +help he had heard: his epiphany was a gradual thing, beginning, where it +continues, with the individual. It is impossible even to guess at what +number may have heard him on this occasion: he seems to have gone up the +mount because of the crowd--to secure a somewhat opener position whence +he could better speak; and thither followed him those who desired to be +taught of him, accompanied doubtless by not a few in whom curiosity was +the chief motive. Disciple or gazer, he addressed the individuality of +every one that had ears to hear. Peter and Andrew, James and John, are +all we know as his recognized disciples, followers, and companions, at +the time; but, while his words were addressed to such as had come to +him desiring to learn of him, the things he uttered were eternal truths, +life in which was essential for every one of his father's children, +therefore they were for all: he who heard to obey, was his disciple. + +How different, at the first sound of it, must the good news have been +from the news anxiously expected by those who waited for the Messiah! +Even the Baptist in prison lay listening after something of quite +another sort. The Lord had to send him a message, by eye-witnesses of +his doings, to remind him that God's thoughts are not as our thoughts, +or his ways as our ways--that the design of God is other and better than +the expectation of men. His summary of the gifts he was giving to men, +culminated with the preaching of the good news to the poor. If John had +known these his doings before, he had not recognized them as belonging +to the Lord's special mission: the Lord tells him it is not enough to +have accepted him as the Messiah; he must recognize his doings as the +work he had come into the world to do, and as in their nature so divine +as to be the very business of the Son of God in whom the Father was well +pleased. + +Wherein then consisted the goodness of the news which he opened his +mouth to give them? What was in the news to make the poor glad? Why was +his arrival with such words in his heart and mouth, the coming of the +kingdom? + +All good news from heaven, is of _truth_--essential truth, involving +duty, and giving and promising help to the performance of it. There can +be no good news for us men, except of uplifting love, and no one can be +lifted up who will not rise. If God himself sought to raise his little +ones without their consenting effort, they would drop from his foiled +endeavour. He will carry us in his arms till we are able to walk; he +will carry us in his arms when we are weary with walking; he will not +carry us if we will not walk. + +Very different are the good news Jesus brings us from certain prevalent +representations of the gospel, founded on the pagan notion that +suffering is an offset for sin, and culminating in the vile assertion +that the suffering of an innocent man, just because he is innocent, yea +perfect, is a satisfaction to the holy Father for the evil deeds of his +children. As a theory concerning the atonement nothing could be worse, +either intellectually, morally, or spiritually; announced as the gospel +itself, as the good news of the kingdom of heaven, the idea is monstrous +as any Chinese dragon. Such a so-called gospel is no gospel, however +accepted as God sent by good men of a certain development. It is evil +news, dwarfing, enslaving, maddening--news to the child-heart of the +dreariest damnation. Doubtless some elements of the gospel are mixed up +with it on most occasions of its announcement; none the more is it the +message received from him. It can be good news only to such as are +prudently willing to be delivered from a God they fear, but unable to +accept the gospel of a perfect God, in whom to trust perfectly. + +The good news of Jesus was just the news of the thoughts and ways of the +Father in the midst of his family. He told them that the way men thought +for themselves and their children was not the way God thought for +himself and his children; that the kingdom of heaven was founded, and +must at length show itself founded on very different principles from +those of the kingdoms and families of the world, meaning by the world +that part of the Father's family which will not be ordered by him, will +not even try to obey him. The world's man, its great, its successful, +its honorable man, is he who may have and do what he pleases, whose +strength lies in money and the praise of men; the greatest in the +kingdom of heaven is the man who is humblest and serves his fellows the +most. Multitudes of men, in no degree notable as ambitious or proud, +hold the ambitious, the proud man in honour, and, for all deliverance, +hope after some shadow of his prosperity. How many even of those who +look for the world to come, seek to the powers of this world for +deliverance from its evils, as if God were the God of the world to come +only! The oppressed of the Lord's time looked for a Messiah to set their +nation free, and make it rich and strong; the oppressed of our time +believe in money, knowledge, and the will of a people which needs but +power to be in its turn the oppressor. The first words of the Lord on +this occasion were:--'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the +kingdom of heaven,' + +It is not the proud, it is not the greedy of distinction, it is not +those who gather and hoard, not those who lay down the law to their +neighbours, not those that condescend, any more than those that shrug +the shoulder and shoot out the lip, that have any share in the kingdom +of the Father. That kingdom has no relation with or resemblance to the +kingdoms of this world, deals with no one thing that distinguishes their +rulers, except to repudiate it. The Son of God will favour no smallest +ambition, be it in the heart of him who leans on his bosom. The kingdom +of God, the refuge of the oppressed, the golden age of the new world, +the real Utopia, the newest yet oldest Atlantis, the home of the +children, will not open its gates to the most miserable who would rise +above his equal in misery, who looks down on any one more miserable than +himself. It is the home of perfect brotherhood. The poor, the beggars in +spirit, the humble men of heart, the unambitious, the unselfish; those +who never despise men, and never seek their praises; the lowly, who see +nothing to admire in themselves, therefore cannot seek to be admired of +others; the men who give themselves away--these are the freemen of the +kingdom, these are the citizens of the new Jerusalem. The men who are +aware of their own essential poverty; not the men who are poor in +friends, poor in influence, poor in acquirements, poor in money, but +those who are poor in spirit, who _feel themselves poor creatures_; who +know nothing to be pleased with themselves for, and desire nothing to +make them think well of themselves; who know that they need much to make +their life worth living, to make their existence a good thing, to make +them fit to live; these humble ones are the poor whom the Lord calls +blessed. When a man says, I am low and worthless, then the gate of the +kingdom begins to open to him, for there enter the true, and this man +has begun to know the truth concerning himself. Whatever such a man has +attained to, he straightway forgets; it is part of him and behind him; +his business is with what he has not, with the things that lie above and +before him. The man who is proud of anything he thinks he has reached, +has not reached it. He is but proud of himself, and imagining a cause +for his pride. If he had reached, he would already have begun to forget. +He who delights in contemplating whereto he has attained, is not merely +sliding back; he is already in the dirt of self-satisfaction. The gate +of the kingdom is closed, and he outside. The child who, clinging to his +Father, dares not think he has in any sense attained while as yet he is +not as his Father--his Father's heart, his Father's heaven is his +natural home. To find himself thinking of himself as above his fellows, +would be to that child a shuddering terror; his universe would contract +around him, his ideal wither on its throne. The least motion of +self-satisfaction, the first thought of placing himself in the forefront +of estimation, would be to him a flash from the nether abyss. God is his +life and his lord. That his father should be content with him must be +all his care. Among his relations with his neighbour, infinitely +precious, comparison with his neighbour has no place. Which is the +greater is of no account. He would not choose to be less than his +neighbour; he would choose his neighbour to be greater than he. He looks +up to every man. Otherwise gifted than he, his neighbour is more than +he. All come from the one mighty father: shall he judge the live +thoughts of God, which is greater and which is less? In thus denying, +thus turning his back on himself, he has no thought of saintliness, no +thought but of his father and his brethren. To such a child heaven's +best secrets are open. He clambers about the throne of the Father +unrebuked; his back is ready for the smallest heavenly playmate; his +arms are an open refuge for any blackest little lost kid of the Father's +flock; he will toil with it up the heavenly stair, up the very steps of +the great white throne, to lay it on the Father's knees. For the glory +of that Father is not in knowing himself God, but in giving himself +away--in creating and redeeming and glorifying his children. + +The man who does not house self, has room to be his real self--God's +eternal idea of him. He lives eternally; in virtue of the creative power +present in him with momently, unimpeded creation, he _is_. How should +there be in him one thought of ruling or commanding or surpassing! He +can imagine no bliss, no good in being greater than some one else. He is +unable to wish himself other than he is, except more what God made him +for, which is indeed the highest willing of the will of God. His +brother's wellbeing is essential to his bliss. The thought of standing +higher in the favour of God than his brother, would make him miserable. +He would lift every brother to the embrace of the Father. Blessed are +the poor in spirit, for they are of the same spirit as God, and of +nature the kingdom of heaven is theirs. + +'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,' expresses the +same principle: the same law holds in the earth as in the kingdom of +heaven. How should it be otherwise? Has the creator of the ends of the +earth ceased to rule it after his fashion, because his rebellious +children have so long, to their own hurt, vainly endeavoured to rule it +after theirs? The kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor; the meek shall +inherit the earth. The earth as God sees it, as those to whom the +kingdom of heaven belongs also see it, is good, all good, very good, fit +for the meek to inherit; and one day they shall inherit it--not indeed +as men of the world count inheritance, but as the maker and owner of the +world has from the first counted it. So different are the two ways of +inheriting, that one of the meek may be heartily enjoying his +possession, while one of the proud is selfishly walling him out from the +spot in it he loves best. + +The meek are those that do not assert themselves, do not defend +themselves, never dream of avenging themselves, or of returning aught +but good for evil. They do not imagine it their business to take care of +themselves. The meek man may indeed take much thought, but it will not +be for himself. He never builds an exclusive wall, shuts any honest +neighbour out. He will not always serve the wish, but always the good of +his neighbour. His service must be true service. Self shall be no umpire +in affair of his. Man's consciousness of himself is but a shadow: the +meek man's self always vanishes in the light of a real presence. His +nature lies open to the Father of men, and to every good impulse is as +it were empty. No bristling importance, no vain attendance of fancied +rights and wrongs, guards his door, or crowds the passages of his house; +they are for the angels to come and go. Abandoned thus to the truth, as +the sparks from the gleaming river dip into the flowers of Dante's +unperfected vision, so the many souls of the visible world, lights from +the father of lights, enter his heart freely; and by them he inherits +the earth he was created to inherit--possesses it as his father made him +capable of possessing, and the earth of being possessed. Because the man +is meek, his eye is single; he sees things as God sees them, as he would +have his child see them: to confront creation with pure eyes is to +possess it. + +How little is the man able to make his own, who would ravish all! The +man who, by the exclusion of others from the space he calls his, would +grasp any portion of the earth as his own, befools himself in the +attempt. The very bread he has swallowed cannot so in any real sense be +his. There does not exist such a power of possessing as he would +arrogate. There is not such a sense of having as that of which he has +conceived the shadow in his degenerate and lapsing imagination. The real +owner of his demesne is that pedlar passing his gate, into a divine +soul receiving the sweetnesses which not all the greed of the so-counted +possessor can keep within his walls: they overflow the cup-lip of the +coping, to give themselves to the footfarer. The motions aerial, the +sounds, the odours of those imprisoned spaces, are the earnest of a +possession for which is ever growing his power of possessing. In no wise +will such inheritance interfere with the claim of the man who calls them +his. Each possessor has them his, as much as each in his own way is +capable of possessing them. For possession is determined by the kind and +the scope of the power of possessing; and the earth has a fourth +dimension of which the mere owner of its soil knows nothing. + +The child of the maker is naturally the inheritor. But if the child try +to possess as a house the thing his father made an organ, will he +succeed in so possessing it? Or if he do nestle in a corner of its case, +will he oust thereby the Lord of its multiplex harmony, sitting regnant +on the seat of sway, and drawing with 'volant touch' from the house of +the child the liege homage of its rendered wealth? To the poverty of +such a child are all those left, who think to have and to hold after the +corrupt fancies of a greedy self. + +We cannot see the world as God means it, save in proportion as our souls +are meek. In meekness only are we its inheritors. Meekness alone makes +the spiritual retina pure to receive God's things as they are, mingling +with them neither imperfection nor impurity of its own. A thing so +beheld that it conveys to me the divine thought issuing in its form, is +mine; by nothing but its mediation between God and my life, can anything +be mine. The man so dull as to insist that a thing is his because he has +bought it and paid for it, had better bethink himself that not all the +combined forces of law, justice, and goodwill, can keep it his; while +even death cannot take the world from the man who possesses it as alone +the maker of him and it cares that he should possess it. This man leaves +it, but carries it with him; that man carries with him only its loss. He +passes, unable to close hand or mouth upon any portion of it. Its +_ownness_ to him was but the changes he could make in it, and the +nearness into which he could bring it to the body he lived in. That body +the earth in its turn possesses now, and it lies very still, changing +nothing, but being changed. Is this the fine of the great buyer of land, +to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? In the soul of the meek, the +earth remains an endless possession--his because he who made it is +his--his as nothing but his maker could ever be the creature's. He has +the earth by his divine relation to him who sent it forth from him as a +tree sends out its leaves. To inherit the earth is to grow ever more +alive to the presence, in it and in all its parts, of him who is the +life of men. How far one may advance in such inheritance while yet in +the body, will simply depend on the meekness he attains while yet in the +body; but it may be, as Frederick Denison Maurice, the servant of God, +thought while yet he was with us, that the new heavens and the new earth +are the same in which we now live, righteously inhabited by the meek, +with their deeper-opened eyes. What if the meek of the dead be thus +possessing it even now! But I do not care to speculate. It is enough +that the man who refuses to assert himself, seeking no recognition by +men, leaving the care of his life to the Father, and occupying himself +with the will of the Father, shall find himself, by and by, at home in +the Father's house, with all the Father's property his. + +Which is more the possessor of the world--he who has a thousand houses, +or he who, without one house to call his own, has ten in which his knock +at the door would rouse instant jubilation? Which is the richer--the man +who, his large money spent, would have no refuge; or he for whose +necessity a hundred would sacrifice comfort? Which of the two possessed +the earth--king Agrippa or tent-maker Paul? + +Which is the real possessor of a book--the man who has its original and +every following edition, and shows, to many an admiring and envying +visitor, now this, now that, in binding characteristic, with +possessor-pride; yea, from secret shrine is able to draw forth and +display the author's manuscript, with the very shapes in which his +thoughts came forth to the light of day,--or the man who cherishes one +little, hollow-backed, coverless, untitled, bethumbed copy, which he +takes with him in his solitary walks and broods over in his silent +chamber, always finding in it some beauty or excellence or aid he had +not found before--which is to him in truth as a live companion? + +For what makes the thing a book? Is it not that it has a soul--the mind +in it of him who wrote the book? Therefore only can the book be +possessed, for life alone can be the possession of life. The dead +possess their dead only to bury them. + +Does not he then, who loves and understands his book, possess it with +such possession as is impossible to the other? Just so may the world +itself be possessed--either as a volume unread, or as the wine of a +soul, 'the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and +treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.' It may be possessed as a +book filled with words from the mouth of God, or but as the +golden-clasped covers of that book; as an embodiment or incarnation of +God himself; or but as a house built to sell. The Lord loved the world +and the things of the world, not as the men of the world love them, but +finding his father in everything that came from his father's heart. + +The same spirit, then, is required for possessing the kingdom of heaven, +and for inheriting the earth. How should it not be so, when the one +Power is the informing life of both? If we are the Lord's, we possess +the kingdom of heaven, and so inherit the earth. How many who call +themselves by his name, would have it otherwise: they would possess the +earth and inherit the kingdom! Such fill churches and chapels on +Sundays: anywhere suits for the worship of Mammon. + +Yet verily, earth as well as heaven may be largely possessed even now. + +Two men are walking abroad together; to the one, the world yields +thought after thought of delight; he sees heaven and earth embrace one +another; he feels an indescribable presence over and in them; his joy +will afterward, in the solitude of his chamber, break forth in song;--to +the other, oppressed with the thought of his poverty, or ruminating how +to make much into more, the glory of the Lord is but a warm summer day; +it enters in at no window of his soul; it offers him no gift; for, in +the very temple of God, he looks for no God in it. Nor must there needs +be two men to think and feel thus differently. In what diverse fashion +will any one _subject_ to ever-changing mood see the same world of the +same glad creator! Alas for men, if it changed as we change, if it grew +meaningless when we grow faithless! Thought for a morrow that may never +come, dread of the dividing death which works for endless companionship, +anger with one we love, will cloud the radiant morning, and make the day +dark with night. At evening, having bethought ourselves, and returned to +him that feeds the ravens, and watches the dying sparrow, and says to +his children 'Love one another,' the sunset splendour is glad over us, +the western sky is refulgent as the court of the Father when the glad +news is spread abroad that a sinner has repented. We have mourned in the +twilight of our little faith, but, having sent away our sin, the glory +of God's heaven over his darkening earth has comforted us. + + + + +_SORROW THE PLEDGE OF JOY._ + +'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.'--_Matthew_ +v. 4. + + +Grief, then, sorrow, pain of heart, mourning, is no partition-wall +between man and God. So far is it from opposing any obstacle to the +passage of God's light into man's soul, that the Lord congratulates them +that mourn. There is no evil in sorrow. True, it is not an essential +good, a good in itself, like love; but it will mingle with any good +thing, and is even so allied to good that it will open the door of the +heart for any good. More of sorrowful than of joyful men are always +standing about the everlasting doors that open into the presence of the +Most High. It is true also that joy is in its nature more divine than +sorrow; for, although man must sorrow, and God share in his sorrow, yet +in himself God is not sorrowful, and the 'glad creator' never made man +for sorrow: it is but a stormy strait through which he must pass to his +ocean of peace. He 'makes the joy the last in every song.' Still, I +repeat, a man in sorrow is in general far nearer God than a man in joy. +Gladness may make a man forget his thanksgiving; misery drives him to +his prayers. For we _are_ not yet, we are only _becoming_. The endless +day will at length dawn whose every throbbing moment will heave our +hearts Godward; we shall scarce need to lift them up: now, there are two +door-keepers to the house of prayer, and Sorrow is more on the alert to +open than her grandson Joy. + +The gladsome child runs farther afield; the wounded child turns to go +home. The weeper sits down close to the gate; the lord of life draws +nigh to him from within. God loves not sorrow, yet rejoices to see a man +sorrowful, for in his sorrow man leaves his heavenward door on the +latch, and God can enter to help him. He loves, I say, to see him +sorrowful, for then he can come near to part him from that which makes +his sorrow a welcome sight. When Ephraim bemoans himself, he is a +pleasant child. So good a medicine is sorrow, so powerful to slay the +moths that infest and devour the human heart, that the Lord is glad to +see a man weep. He congratulates him on his sadness. Grief is an +ill-favoured thing, but she is Love's own child, and her mother loves +her. + +The promise to them that mourn, is not _the kingdom of heaven_, but +that their mourning shall be ended, that they shall be comforted. To +mourn is not to fight with evil; it is only to miss that which is good. +It is not an essential heavenly condition, like poorness of spirit or +meekness. No man will carry his mourning with him into heaven--or, if he +does, it will speedily be turned either into joy, or into what will +result in joy, namely, redemptive action. + +Mourning is a canker-bitten blossom on the rose-tree of love. Is there +any mourning worthy the name that has not love for its root? Men mourn +because they love. Love is the life out of which are fashioned all the +natural feelings, every emotion of man. Love modelled by faith, is hope; +love shaped by wrong, is anger--verily anger, though pure of sin; love +invaded by loss, is grief. + +The garment of mourning is oftenest a winding-sheet; the loss of the +loved by death is the main cause of the mourning of the world. The Greek +word here used to describe the blessed of the Lord, generally means +_those that mourn for the dead_. It is not in the New Testament employed +exclusively in this sense, neither do I imagine it stands here for such +only: there are griefs than death sorer far, and harder far to +comfort--harder even for God himself, with whom all things are possible; +but it may give pleasure to know that the promise of comfort to those +that mourn, may specially apply to those that mourn because their loved +have gone out of their sight, and beyond the reach of their cry. Their +sorrow, indeed, to the love divine, involves no difficulty; it is a +small matter, easily met. The father, whose elder son is ever with him, +but whose younger is in a far country, wasting his substance with +riotous living, is unspeakably more to be pitied, and is harder to help, +than that father both of whose sons lie in the sleep of death. + +Much of what goes by the name of comfort, is merely worthless; and such +as could be comforted by it, I should not care to comfort. Let time do +what it may to bring the ease of oblivion; let change of scene do what +in it lies to lead thought away from the vanished; let new loves bury +grief in the grave of the old love: consolation of such sort could never +have crossed the mind of Jesus. Would The Truth call a man blessed +because his pain would sooner or later depart, leaving him at best no +better than before, and certainly poorer--not only the beloved gone, but +the sorrow for him too, and with the sorrow the love that had caused the +sorrow? Blessed of God because restored to an absence of sorrow? Such a +God were fitly adored only where not one heart worshipped in spirit and +in truth. + +'The Lord means of course,' some one may say, 'that the comfort of the +mourners will be the restoration of that which they have lost. He means, +"Blessed are ye although ye mourn, for your sorrow will be turned into +joy."' + +Happy are they whom nothing less than such restoration will comfort! But +would such restoration be comfort enough for the heart of Jesus to give? +Was ever love so deep, so pure, so perfect, as to be good enough for +him? And suppose the love between the parted two had been such, would +the mere restoration in the future of that which once he had, be ground +enough for so emphatically proclaiming the man blessed now, blessed +while yet in the midnight of his loss, and knowing nothing of the hour +of his deliverance? To call a man _blessed_ in his sorrow because of +something to be given him, surely implies a something better than what +he had before! True, the joy that is past may have been so great that +the man might well feel blessed in the merest hope of its restoration; +but would that be meaning enough for the word in the mouth of the Lord? +That the interruption of his blessedness was but temporary, would hardly +be fit ground for calling the man _blessed_ in that interruption. +_Blessed_ is a strong word, and in the mouth of Jesus means all it can +mean. Can his saying here mean less than--'Blessed are they that mourn, +for they shall be comforted with a bliss well worth all the pain of the +medicinal sorrow'? Besides, the benediction surely means that the man is +blessed _because_ of his condition of mourning, not in spite of it. His +mourning is surely a part at least of the Lord's ground for +congratulating him: is it not the present operative means whereby the +consolation is growing possible? In a word, I do not think the Lord +would be content to call a man blessed on the mere ground of his going +to be restored to a former bliss by no means perfect; I think he +congratulated the mourners upon the grief they were enduring, because he +saw the excellent glory of the comfort that was drawing nigh; because he +knew the immeasurably greater joy to which the sorrow was at once +clearing the way and conducting the mourner. When I say _greater_, God +forbid I should mean _other!_ I mean the same bliss, divinely enlarged +and divinely purified--passed again through the hands of the creative +Perfection. The Lord knew all the history of love and loss; beheld +throughout the universe the winged Love discrowning the skeleton Fear. +God's comfort must ever be larger than man's grief, else were there gaps +in his Godhood. Mere restoration would leave a hiatus, barren and +growthless, in the development of his children. + +But, alas, what a pinched hope, what miserable expectations, most who +call themselves the Lord's disciples derive from their notions of his +teaching! Well may they think of death as the one thing to be right +zealously avoided, and for ever lamented! Who would forsake even the +window-less hut of his sorrow for the poor mean place they imagine the +Father's house! Why, many of them do not even expect to know their +friends there! do not expect to distinguish one from another of all the +holy assembly! They will look in many faces, but never to recognize old +friends and lovers! A fine saviour of men is their Jesus! Glorious +lights they shine in the world of our sorrow, holding forth a word of +darkness, of dismallest death! Is the Lord such as they believe him? +'Good-bye, then, good Master!' cries the human heart. 'I thought thou +couldst save me, but, alas, thou canst not. If thou savest the part of +our being which can sin, thou lettest the part that can love sink into +hopeless perdition: thou art not he that should come; I look for +another! Thou wouldst destroy and not save me! Thy father is not my +father; thy God is not my God! Ah, to whom shall we go? He has not the +words of eternal life, this Jesus, and the universe is dark as chaos! O +father, this thy son is good, but we need a greater son than he. Never +will thy children love thee under the shadow of this new law, that they +are not to love one another as thou lovest them!' How does that man love +God--of what kind is the love he bears him--who is unable to believe +that God loves every throb of every human heart toward another? Did not +the Lord die that we should love one another, and be one with him and +the Father, and is not the knowledge of difference essential to the +deepest love? Can there be oneness without difference? harmony without +distinction? Are all to have the same face? then why faces at all? If +the plains of heaven are to be crowded with the same one face over and +over for ever, but one moment will pass ere by monotony bliss shall have +grown ghastly. Why not perfect spheres of featureless ivory rather than +those multitudinous heads with one face! Or are we to start afresh with +countenances all new, each beautiful, each lovable, each a revelation of +the infinite father, each distinct from every other, and therefore all +blending toward a full revealing--but never more the dear old precious +faces, with its whole story in each, which seem, at the very thought of +them, to draw our hearts out of our bosoms? Were they created only to +become dear, and be destroyed? Is it in wine only that the old is +better? Would such a new heaven be a thing to thank God for? Would this +be a prospect on which the Son of Man would congratulate the mourner, or +at which the mourner for the dead would count himself blessed? It is a +shame that such a preposterous, monstrous unbelief should call for +argument. + +A heaven without human love it were inhuman, and yet more undivine to +desire; it ought not to be desired by any being made in the image of +God. The lord of life died that his father's children might grow perfect +in love--might love their brothers and sisters as he loved them: is it +to this end that they must cease to know one another? To annihilate the +past of our earthly embodiment, would be to crush under the heel of an +iron fate the very idea of tenderness, human or divine. + +We shall all doubtless be changed, but in what direction?--to something +less, or to something greater?--to something that is less we, which +means degradation? to something that is not we, which means +annihilation? or to something that is more we, which means a farther +development of the original idea of us, the divine germ of us, holding +in it all we ever were, all we ever can and must become? What is it +constitutes this or that man? Is it what he himself thinks he is? +Assuredly not. Is it what his friends at any given moment think him? Far +from it. In which of his changing moods is he more himself? Loves any +lover so little as to desire _no_ change in the person loved--no +something different to bring him or her closer to the indwelling ideal? +In the loveliest is there not something not like her--something less +lovely than she--some little thing in which a change would make her, not +less, but more herself? Is it not of the very essence of the Christian +hope, that we shall be changed from much bad to all good? If a wife so +love that she would keep every opposition, every inconsistency in her +husband's as yet but partially harmonious character, she does not love +well enough for the kingdom of heaven. If its imperfections be essential +to the individuality she loves, and to the repossession of her joy in +it, she may be sure that, if he were restored to her as she would have +him, she would soon come to love him less--perhaps to love him not at +all; for no one who does not love perfection, will ever keep constant in +loving. Fault is not lovable; it is only the good in which the alien +fault dwells that causes it to seem capable of being loved. Neither is +it any man's peculiarities that make him beloved; it is the essential +humanity underlying those peculiarities. They may make him interesting, +and, where not offensive, they may come to be loved for the sake of the +man; but in themselves they are of smallest account. + +We must not however confound peculiarity with diversity. Diversity is in +and from God; peculiarity in and from man. The real man is the divine +idea of him; the man God had in view when he began to send him forth out +of thought into thinking; the man he is now working to perfect by +casting out what is not he, and developing what is he. But in God's real +men, that is, his ideal men, the diversity is infinite; he does not +repeat his creations; every one of his children differs from every +other, and in every one the diversity is lovable. God gives in his +children an analysis of himself, an analysis that will never be +exhausted. It is the original God-idea of the individual man that will +at length be given, without spot or blemish, into the arms of love. + +Such, surely, is the heart of the comfort the Lord will give those whose +love is now making them mourn; and their present blessedness must be the +expectation of the time when the true lover shall find the restored the +same as the lost--with precious differences: the things that were not +like the true self, gone or going; the things that were loveliest, +lovelier still; the restored not merely more than the lost, but more the +person lost than he or she that was lost. For the things which made him +or her what he or she was, the things that rendered lovable, the things +essential to the person, will be more present, because more developed. + +Whether or not the Lord was here thinking specially of the mourners for +the dead, as I think he was, he surely does not limit the word of +comfort to them, or wish us to believe less than that his father has +perfect comfort for every human grief. Out upon such miserable +theologians as, instead of receiving them into the good soil of a +generous heart, to bring forth truth an hundred fold, so cut and pare +the words of the Lord as to take the very life from them, quenching all +their glory and colour in their own inability to believe, and still +would have the dead letter of them accepted as the comfort of a creator +to the sore hearts he made in his own image! Here, 'as if they were +God's spies,' some such would tell us that the Lord proclaims the +blessedness of those that mourn for their sins, and of them only. What +mere honest man would make a promise which was all a reservation, except +in one unmentioned point! Assuredly they who mourn for their sins will +be gloriously comforted, but certainly such also as are bowed down with +any grief. The Lord would have us know that sorrow is not a part of +life; that it is but a wind blowing throughout it, to winnow and +cleanse. Where shall the woman go whose child is at the point of death, +or whom the husband of her youth has forsaken, but to her Father in +heaven? Must she keep away until she knows herself sorry for her sins? +How should that woman care to be delivered from her sins, how could she +accept any comfort, who believed the child of her bosom lost to her for +ever? Would the Lord have such a one be of good cheer, of merry heart, +because her sins were forgiven her? Would such a mother be a woman of +whom the saviour of men might have been born? If a woman forget the +child she has borne and nourished, how shall she remember the father +from whom she has herself come? The Lord came to heal the +broken-hearted; therefore he said, 'Blessed are the mourners.' Hope in +God, mother, for the deadest of thy children, even for him who died in +his sins. Thou mayest have long to wait for him--but he will be found. +It may be, thou thyself wilt one day be sent to seek him and find him. +Rest thy hope on no excuse thy love would make for him, neither upon any +quibble theological or sacerdotal; hope on in him who created him, and +who loves him more than thou. God will excuse him better than thou, and +his uncovenanted mercy is larger than that of his ministers. Shall not +_the_ Father do _his_ best to find his prodigal? the good shepherd to +find his lost sheep? The angels in his presence know the Father, and +watch for the prodigal. Thou shalt be comforted. + +There is one phase of our mourning for the dead which I must not leave +unconsidered, seeing it is the pain within pain of all our mourning--the +sorrow, namely, with its keen recurrent pangs because of things we have +said or done, or omitted to say or do, while we companied with the +departed. The very life that would give itself to the other, aches with +the sense of having, this time and that, not given what it might. We +cast ourselves at their feet, crying, Forgive me, my heart's own! but +they are pale with distance, and do not seem to hear. It may be that +they are longing in like agony of love after us, but know better, or +perhaps only are more assured than we, that we shall be comforted +together by and by. + +Bethink thee, brother, sister, I say; bethink thee of the splendour of +God, and answer--Would he be perfect if in his restitution of all things +there were no opportunity for declaring our bitter grief and shame for +the past? no moment in which to sob--Sister, brother, I am thy slave? no +room for making amends? At the same time, when the desired moment comes, +one look in the eyes may be enough, and we shall know one another even +as God knows us. Like the purposed words of the prodigal in the parable, +it may be that the words of our confession will hardly find place. Heart +may so speak to heart as to forget there were such things. Mourner, hope +in God, and comfort where thou canst, and the lord of mourners will be +able to comfort thee the sooner. It may be thy very severity with +thyself, has already moved the Lord to take thy part. + +Such as mourn the loss of love, such from whom the friend, the brother, +the lover, has turned away--what shall I cry to them?--You too shall be +comforted--only hearken: Whatever selfishness clouds the love that +mourns the loss of love, that selfishness must be taken out of +it--burned out of it even by pain extreme, if such be needful. By cause +of that in thy love which was not love, it may be thy loss has come; +anyhow, because of thy love's defect, thou must suffer that it may be +supplied. God will not, like the unjust judge, avenge thee to escape the +cry that troubles him. No crying will make him comfort thy selfishness. +He will not render thee incapable of loving truly. He despises neither +thy love though mingled with selfishness, nor thy suffering that springs +from both; he will disentangle thy selfishness from thy love, and cast +it into the fire. His cure for thy selfishness at once and thy +suffering, is to make thee love more--and more truly; not with the love +of love, but with the love of the person whose lost love thou bemoanest. +For the love of love is the love of thyself. Begin to love as God loves, +and thy grief will assuage; but for comfort wait his time. What he will +do for thee, he only knows. It may be thou wilt never know what he will +do, but only what he has done: it was too good for thee to know save by +receiving it. The moment thou art capable of it, thine it will be. + +One thing is clear in regard to every trouble--that the natural way +with it is straight to the Father's knee. The Father is father _for_ his +children, else why did he make himself their father? Wouldst thou not, +mourner, be comforted rather after the one eternal fashion--the child by +the father--than in such poor temporary way as would but leave thee the +more exposed to thy worst enemy, thine own unreclaimed self?--an enemy +who has but this one good thing in him--that he will always bring thee +to sorrow! + +The Lord has come to wipe away our tears. He is doing it; he will have +it done as soon as he can; and until he can, he would have them flow +without bitterness; to which end he tells us it is a blessed thing to +mourn, because of the comfort on its way. Accept his comfort now, and so +prepare for the comfort at hand. He is getting you ready for it, but you +must be a fellow worker with him, or he will never have done. He _must_ +have you pure in heart, eager after righteousness, a very child of his +father in heaven. + + + + +_GOD'S FAMILY._ + +'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' 'Blessed are +they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be +filled.' 'Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the +children of God.'--_Matthew_ v. 8, 6, 9. + + +The cry of the deepest in man has always been, to see God. It was the +cry of Moses and the cry of Job, the cry of psalmist and of prophet; and +to the cry, there has ever been faintly heard a far approach of coming +answer. In the fullness of time the Son appears with the proclamation +that a certain class of men shall behold the Father: 'Blessed are the +pure in heart,' he cries, 'for they shall see God.' He who saw God, who +sees him now, who always did and always will see him, says, 'Be pure, +and you also shall see him.' To see God was the Lord's own, eternal, one +happiness; therefore he knew that the essential bliss of the creature is +to behold the face of the creator. In that face lies the mystery of a +man's own nature, the history of a man's own being. He who can read no +line of it, can know neither himself nor his fellow; he only who knows +God a little, can at all understand man. The blessed in Dante's Paradise +ever and always read each other's thoughts in God. Looking to him, they +find their neighbour. All that the creature needs to see or know, all +that the creature can see or know, is the face of him from whom he came. +Not seeing and knowing it, he will never be at rest; seeing and knowing +it, his existence will yet indeed be a mystery to him and an awe, but no +more a dismay. To know that it is, and that it has power neither to +continue nor to cease, must to any soul alive enough to appreciate the +fact, be merest terror, save also it knows one with it the Power by +which it exists. From the man who comes to know and feel that Power in +him and one with him, loneliness, anxiety, and fear vanish; he is no +more an orphan without a home, a little one astray on the cold waste of +a helpless consciousness. 'Father,' he cries, 'hold me fast to thy +creating will, that I may know myself one with it, know myself its +outcome, its willed embodiment, and rejoice without trembling. Be this +the delight of my being, that thou hast willed, hast loved me forth; let +me know that I am thy child, born to obey thee. Dost thou not justify +thy deed to thyself by thy tenderness toward me? dost thou not justify +it to thy child by revealing to him his claim on thee because of thy +disparture of him from thyself, because of his utter dependence on thee? +Father, thou art in me, else I could not be in thee, could have no house +for my soul to dwell in, or any world in which to walk abroad,' + +These truths are, I believe, the very necessities of fact, but a man +does not therefore, at a given moment, necessarily know them. It is +absolutely necessary, none the less, to his real being, that he should +know these spiritual relations in which he stands to his Origin; yea, +that they should be always present and potent with him, and become the +heart and sphere and all-pervading substance of his consciousness, of +which they are the ground and foundation. Once to have seen them, is not +always to see them. There are times, and those times many, when the +cares of this world--with no right to any part in our thought, seeing +either they are unreasonable or God imperfect--so blind the eyes of the +soul to the radiance of the eternally true, that they see it only as if +it ought to be true, not as if it must be true; as if it might be true +in the region of thought, but could not be true in the region of fact. +Our very senses, filled with the things of our passing sojourn, combine +to cast discredit upon the existence of any world for the sake of which +we are furnished with an inner eye, an eternal ear. But had we once +seen God face to face, should we not be always and for ever sure of him? +we have had but glimpses of the Father. Yet, if we had seen God face to +face, but had again become impure of heart--if such a fearful thought be +a possible idea--we should then no more believe that we had ever beheld +him. A sin-beclouded soul could never recall the vision whose essential +verity was its only possible proof. None but the pure in heart see God; +only the growing-pure hope to see him. Even those who saw the Lord, the +express image of his person, did not see God. They only saw Jesus--and +then but the outside Jesus, or a little more. They were not pure in +heart; they saw him and did not see him. They saw him with their eyes, +but not with those eyes which alone can see God. Those were not born in +them yet. Neither the eyes of the resurrection-body, nor the eyes of +unembodied spirits can see God; only the eyes of that eternal something +that is of the very essence of God, the thought-eyes, the truth-eyes, +the love-eyes, can see him. It is not because we are created and he +uncreated, it is not because of any difference involved in that +difference of all differences, that we cannot see him. If he pleased to +take a shape, and that shape were presented to us, and we saw that +shape, we should not therefore be seeing God. Even if we knew it was a +shape of God--call it even God himself our eyes rested upon; if we had +been told the fact and believed the report; yet, if we did not see the +_Godness_, were not capable of recognizing him, so as without the report +to know the vision him, we should not be seeing God, we should only be +seeing the tabernacle in which for the moment he dwelt. In other words, +not seeing what in the form made it a form fit for him to take, we +should not be seeing a presence which could only be God. + +To see God is to stand on the highest point of created being. Not until +we see God--no partial and passing embodiment of him, but the abiding +presence--do we stand upon our own mountain-top, the height of the +existence God has given us, and up to which he is leading us. That there +we should stand, is the end of our creation. This truth is at the heart +of everything, means all kinds of completions, may be uttered in many +ways; but language will never compass it, for form will never contain +it. Nor shall we ever see, that is know God perfectly. We shall indeed +never absolutely know man or woman or child; but we may know God as we +never can know human being--as we never can know ourselves. We not only +may, but we must so know him, and it can never be until we are pure in +heart. Then shall we know him with the infinitude of an ever-growing +knowledge. + +'What is it, then, to be pure in heart?' + +I answer, It is not necessary to define this purity, or to have in the +mind any clear form of it. For even to know perfectly, were that +possible, what purity of heart is, would not be to be pure in heart. + +'How then am I to try after it? can I do so without knowing what it is?' + +Though you do not know any definition of purity, you know enough to +begin to be pure. You do not know what a man is, but you know how to +make his acquaintance--perhaps even how to gain his friendship. Your +brain does not know what purity is; your heart has some acquaintance +with purity itself. Your brain in seeking to know what it is, may even +obstruct your heart in bettering its friendship with it. To know what +purity is, a man must already be pure; but he who can put the question, +already knows enough of purity, I repeat, to begin to become pure. If +this moment you determine to start for purity, your conscience will at +once tell you where to begin. If you reply, 'My conscience says nothing +definite'; I answer, 'You are but playing with your conscience. +Determine, and it will speak.' + +If you care to see God, be pure. If you will not be pure, you will grow +more and more impure; and instead of seeing God, will at length find +yourself face to face with a vast inane--a vast inane, yet filled full +of one inhabitant, that devouring monster, your own false self. If for +this neither do you care, I tell you there is a Power that will not have +it so; a Love that will make you care by the consequences of not caring. + +You who seek purity, and would have your fellow-men also seek it, spend +not your labour on the stony ground of their intellect, endeavouring to +explain what purity is; give their imagination the one pure man; call up +their conscience to witness against their own deeds; urge upon them the +grand resolve to be pure. With the first endeavour of a soul toward her, +Purity will begin to draw nigh, calling for admittance; and never will a +man have to pause in the divine toil, asking what next is required of +him; the demands of the indwelling Purity will ever be in front of his +slow-labouring obedience. + +If one should say, 'Alas, I am shut out from this blessing! I am not +pure in heart: never shall I see God!' here is another word from the +same eternal heart to comfort him, making his grief its own consolation. +For this man also there is blessing with the messenger of the Father. +Unhappy men were we, if God were the God of the perfected only, and not +of the growing, the becoming! 'Blessed are they,' says the Lord, +concerning the not yet pure, 'which do hunger and thirst after +righteousness, for they shall be filled.' Filled with righteousness, +they are pure; pure, they shall see God. + +Long ere the Lord appeared, ever since man was on the earth, nay, +surely, from the very beginning, was his spirit at work in it for +righteousness; in the fullness of time he came in his own human person, +to fulfil all righteousness. He came to his own of the same mind with +himself, who hungered and thirsted after righteousness. They should be +fulfilled of righteousness! + +To hunger and thirst after anything, implies a sore personal need, a +strong desire, a passion for that thing. Those that hunger and thirst +after righteousness, seek with their whole nature the design of that +nature. Nothing less will give them satisfaction; that alone will set +them at ease. They long to be delivered from their sins, to send them +away, to be clean and blessed by their absence--in a word to become men, +God's men; for, sin gone, all the rest is good. It was not in such +hearts, it was not in any heart that the revolting legal fiction of +imputed righteousness arose. Righteousness itself, God's righteousness, +rightness in their own being, in heart and brain and hands, is what they +desire. Of such men was Nathanael, in whom was no guile; such, perhaps, +was Nicodemus too, although he did come to Jesus by night; such was +Zacchaeus. The temple could do nothing to deliver them; but, by their +very futility, its observances had done their work, developing the +desires they could not meet, making the men hunger and thirst the more +after genuine righteousness: the Lord must bring them this bread from +heaven. With him, the live, original rightness, in their hearts, they +must speedily become righteous. With that Love their friend, who is at +once both the root and the flower of things, they would strive +vigorously as well as hunger eagerly after righteousness. Love is the +father of righteousness. It could not be, and could not be hungered +after, but for love. The lord of righteousness himself could not live +without Love, without the Father in him. Every heart was created for, +and can live no otherwise than in and upon love eternal, perfect, pure, +unchanging; and love necessitates righteousness. In how many souls has +not the very thought of a real God waked a longing to be different, to +be pure, to be right! The fact that this feeling is possible, that a +soul can become dissatisfied with itself, and desire a change in itself, +reveals God as an essential part of its being; for in itself the soul is +aware that it cannot be what it would, what it ought--that it cannot set +itself right: a need has been generated in the soul for which the soul +can generate no supply; a presence higher than itself must have caused +that need; a power greater than itself must supply it, for the soul +knows its very need, its very lack, is of something greater than itself. + +But the primal need of the human soul is yet greater than this; the +longing after righteousness is only one of the manifestations of it; the +need itself is that of _existence not self-existent_ for the +consciousness of the presence of the causing Self-existent. It is the +man's need of God. A moral, that is, a human, a spiritual being, must +either be God, or one with God. This truth begins to reveal itself when +the man begins to feel that he cannot cast out the thing he hates, +cannot be the thing he loves. That he hates thus, that he loves thus, is +because God is in him, but he finds he has not enough of God. His +awaking strength manifests itself in his sense of weakness, for only +strength can know itself weak. The negative cannot know itself at all. +Weakness cannot know itself weak. It is a little strength that longs for +more; it is infant righteousness that hungers after righteousness. + +To every soul dissatisfied with itself, comes this word, at once rousing +and consoling, from the Power that lives and makes him live--that in his +hungering and thirsting he is blessed, for he shall be filled. His +hungering and thirsting is the divine pledge of the divine meal. The +more he hungers and thirsts the more blessed is he; the more room is +there in him to receive that which God is yet more eager to give than +he to have. It is the miserable emptiness that makes a man hunger and +thirst; and, as the body, so the soul hungers after what belongs to its +nature. A man hungers and thirsts after righteousness because his nature +needs it--needs it because it was made for it; his soul desires its own. +His nature is good, and desires more good. Therefore, that he is empty +of good, needs discourage no one; for what is emptiness but room to be +filled? Emptiness is need of good; the emptiness that desires good, is +itself good. Even if the hunger after righteousness should in part +spring from a desire after self-respect, it is not therefore _all_ +false. A man could not even be ashamed of himself, without some 'feeling +sense' of the beauty of rightness. By divine degrees the man will at +length grow sick of himself, and desire righteousness with a pure +hunger--just as a man longs to eat that which is good, nor thinks of the +strength it will restore. + +To be filled with righteousness, will be to forget even righteousness +itself in the bliss of being righteous, that is, a child of God. The +thought of righteousness will vanish in the fact of righteousness. When +a creature is just what he is meant to be, what only he is fit to be; +when, therefore, he is truly himself, he never thinks what he is. He +_is_ that thing; why think about it? It is no longer outside of him that +he should contemplate or desire it. + +God made man, and woke in him the hunger for righteousness; the Lord +came to enlarge and rouse this hunger. The first and lasting effect of +his words must be to make the hungering and thirsting long yet more. If +their passion grow to a despairing sense of the unattainable, a +hopelessness of ever gaining that without which life were worthless, let +them remember that the Lord congratulates the hungry and thirsty, so +sure does he know them of being one day satisfied. Their hunger is a +precious thing to have, none the less that it were a bad thing to retain +unappeased. It springs from the lack but also from the love of good, and +its presence makes it possible to supply the lack. Happy, then, ye +pining souls! The food you would have, is the one thing the Lord would +have you have, the very thing he came to bring you! Fear not, ye +hungering and thirsting; you shall have righteousness enough, though +none to spare--none to spare, yet enough to overflow upon every man. See +how the Lord goes on filling his disciples, John and Peter and James and +Paul, with righteousness from within! What honest soul, interpreting the +servant by the master, and unbiassed by the tradition of them that would +shut the kingdom of heaven against men, can doubt what Paul means by +'the righteousness which is of God by faith'? He was taught of Jesus +Christ through the words he had spoken; and the man who does not +understand Jesus Christ, will never understand his apostles. What +righteousness could St Paul have meant but the same the Lord would have +men hunger and thirst after--the very righteousness wherewith God is +righteous! They that hunger and thirst after such only righteousness, +shall become pure in heart, and shall see God. + +If your hunger seems long in being filled, it is well it should seem +long. But what if your righteousness tarry, because your hunger after it +is not eager? There are who sit long at the table because their desire +is slow; they eat as who should say, We need no food. In things +spiritual, increasing desire is the sign that satisfaction is drawing +nearer. But it were better to hunger after righteousness for ever than +to dull the sense of lack with the husks of the Christian scribes and +lawyers: he who trusts in the atonement instead of in the father of +Jesus Christ, fills his fancy with the chimeras of a vulgar legalism, +not his heart with the righteousness of God. + +Hear another like word of the Lord. He assures us that the Father hears +the cries of his elect--of those whom he seeks to worship him because +they worship in spirit and in truth. 'Shall not God avenge his own +elect,' he says, 'which cry day and night unto him?' Now what can God's +elect have to keep on crying for, night and day, but righteousness? He +allows that God seems to put off answering them, but assures us he will +answer them speedily. Even now he must be busy answering their prayers; +increasing hunger is the best possible indication that he is doing so. +For some divine reason it is well they should not yet know in themselves +that he is answering their prayers; but the day must come when we shall +be righteous even as he is righteous; when no word of his will miss +being understood because of our lack of righteousness; when no +unrighteousness shall hide from our eyes the face of the Father. + +These two promises, of seeing God, and being filled with righteousness, +have place between the individual man and his father in heaven directly; +the promise I now come to, has place between a man and his God as the +God of other men also, as the father of the whole family in heaven and +earth: 'Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the +children of God.' + +Those that are on their way to see God, those who are growing pure in +heart through hunger and thirst after righteousness, are indeed the +children of God; but specially the Lord calls those his children who, on +their way home, are peace-makers in the travelling company; for, surely, +those in any family are specially the children, who make peace with and +among the rest. The true idea of the universe is the whole family in +heaven and earth. All the children in this part of it, the earth, at +least, are not good children; but however far, therefore, the earth is +from being a true portion of a real family, the life-germ at the root of +the world, that by and for which it exists, is its relation to God the +father of men. For the development of this germ in the consciousness of +the children, the church--whose idea is the purer family within the more +mixed, ever growing as leaven within the meal by absorption, but which +itself is, alas! not easily distinguishable from the world it would +change--is one of the passing means. For the same purpose, the whole +divine family is made up of numberless human families, that in these, +men may learn and begin to love one another. God, then, would make of +the world a true, divine family. Now the primary necessity to the very +existence of a family is peace. Many a human family is no family, and +the world is no family yet, for the lack of peace. Wherever peace is +growing, there of course is the live peace, counteracting disruption and +disintegration, and helping the development of the true essential +family. The one question, therefore, as to any family is, whether peace +or strife be on the increase in it; for peace alone makes it possible +for the binding grass-roots of life--love, namely, and justice--to +spread throughout what were else but a wind-blown heap of still drifting +sand. The peace-makers quiet the winds of the world ever ready to be up +and blowing; they tend and cherish the interlacing roots of the +ministering grass; they spin and twist many uniting cords, and they +weave many supporting bands; they are the servants, for the truth's +sake, of the individual, of the family, of the world, of the great +universal family of heaven and earth. They are the true children of that +family, the allies and ministers of every clasping and consolidating +force in it; fellow-workers they are with God in the creation of the +family; they help him to get it to his mind, to perfect his father-idea. +Ever radiating peace, they welcome love, but do not seek it; they +provoke no jealousy. They are the children of God, for like him they +would be one with his creatures. His eldest son, his very likeness, was +the first of the family-peace-makers. Preaching peace to them that were +afar off and them that were nigh, he stood undefended in the turbulent +crowd of his fellows, and it was only over his dead body that his +brothers began to come together in the peace that will not be broken. He +rose again from the dead; his peace-making brothers, like himself, are +dying unto sin; and not yet have the evil children made their father +hate, or their elder brother flinch. + +On the other hand, those whose influence is to divide and separate, +causing the hearts of men to lean away from each other, make themselves +the children of the evil one: born of God and not of the devil, they +turn from God, and adopt the devil their father. They set their God-born +life against God, against the whole creative, redemptive purpose of his +unifying will, ever obstructing the one prayer of the first-born--that +the children may be one with him in the Father. Against the heart-end of +creation, against that for which the Son yielded himself utterly, the +sowers of strife, the fomenters of discord, contend ceaseless. They do +their part with all the other powers of evil to make the world which the +love of God holds together--a world at least, though not yet a +family--one heaving mass of dissolution. But they labour in vain. +Through the mass and through it, that it may cohere, this way and that, +guided in dance inexplicable of prophetic harmony, move the children of +God, the lights of the world, the lovers of men, the fellow-workers with +God, the peace-makers--ever weaving, after a pattern devised by, and +known only to him who orders their ways, the web of the world's history. +But for them the world would have no history; it would vanish, a cloud +of windborne dust. As in his labour, so shall these share in the joy of +God, in the divine fruition of victorious endeavour. Blessed are the +peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God--_the_ +children because they set the Father on the throne of the Family. + +The main practical difficulty, with some at least of the peace-makers, +is, how to carry themselves toward the undoers of peace, the disuniters +of souls. Perhaps the most potent of these are not those powers of the +church visible who care for canon and dogma more than for truth, and for +the church more than for Christ; who take uniformity for unity; who +strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, nor knowing what spirit they are +of; such men, I say, are perhaps neither the most active nor the most +potent force working for the disintegration of the body of Christ. I +imagine also that neither are the party-liars of politics the worst foes +to divine unity, ungenerous, and often knowingly false as they are to +their opponents, to whom they seem to have no desire to be honest and +fair. I think, rather, they must be the babbling liars of the social +circle, and the faithless brothers and unloving sisters of disunited +human families. But why inquire? Every self-assertion, every form of +self-seeking however small or poor, world-noble or grotesque, is a +separating and scattering force. And these forces are multitudinous, +these points of radial repulsion are innumerable, because of the +prevailing passion of mean souls to seem great, and feel important. If +such cannot hope to attract the attention of the great-little world, if +they cannot even become 'the cynosure of neighbouring eyes,' they will, +in what sphere they may call their own, however small it be, try to make +a party for themselves; each, revolving on his or her own axis, will +attempt to self-centre a private whirlpool of human monads. To draw such +a surrounding, the partisan of self will sometimes gnaw asunder the most +precious of bonds, poison whole broods of infant loves. Such real +schismatics go about, where not inventing evil, yet rejoicing in +iniquity; mishearing; misrepresenting; paralyzing affection; separating +hearts. Their chosen calling is that of the strife-maker, the child of +the dividing devil. They belong to the class of _the perfidious_, whom +Dante places in the lowest infernal gulf as their proper home. Many a +woman who now imagines herself standing well in morals and religion, +will find herself at last just such a child of the devil; and her misery +will be the hope of her redemption. + +But it is not for her sake that I write these things: would such a woman +recognize her own likeness, were I to set it down as close as words +could draw it? I am rather as one groping after some light on the true +behaviour toward her kind. Are we to treat persons known for liars and +strife-makers as the children of the devil or not? Are we to turn away +from them, and refuse to acknowledge them, rousing an ignorant strife of +tongues concerning our conduct? Are we guilty of connivance, when silent +as to the ambush whence we know the wicked arrow privily shot? Are we to +call the traitor to account? or are we to give warning of any sort? I +have no answer. Each must carry the question that perplexes to the Light +of the World. To what purpose is the spirit of God promised to them that +ask it, if not to help them order their way aright? + +One thing is plain--that we must love the strife-maker; another is +nearly as plain--that, if we do not love him, we must leave him alone; +for without love there can be no peace-making, and words will but +occasion more strife. To be kind neither hurts nor compromises. Kindness +has many phases, and the fitting form of it may avoid offence, and must +avoid untruth. + +We must not fear what man can do to us, but commit our way to the Father +of the Family. We must be nowise anxious to defend ourselves; and if not +ourselves because God is our defence, then why our friends? is he not +their defence as much as ours? Commit thy friend's cause also to him who +judgeth righteously. Be ready to bear testimony for thy friend, as thou +wouldst to receive the blow struck at him; but do not plunge into a nest +of scorpions to rescue his handkerchief. Be true to him thyself, nor +spare to show thou lovest and honourest him; but defence may dishonour: +men may say, What! is thy friend's esteem then so small? He is unwise +who drags a rich veil from a cactus-bush. + +Whatever our relation, then, with any peace-breaker, our mercy must ever +be within call; and it may help us against an indignation too strong to +be pure, to remember that when any man is reviled for righteousness-sake, +then is he blessed. + + + + +_THE REWARD OF OBEDIENCE._ + +'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' 'Blessed are +they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the +kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and +persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for +my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in +heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before +you.'--_Matthew_, v. 7, 10 11, 12. + + +Mercy cannot get in where mercy goes not out. The outgoing makes way for +the incoming. God takes the part of humanity against the man. The man +must treat men as he would have God treat him. 'If ye forgive men their +trespasses,' the Lord says, 'your heavenly father will also forgive you; +but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father +forgive your trespasses. And in the prophecy of the judgment of the Son +of man, he represents himself as saying, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it +unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' + +But the demand for mercy is far from being for the sake only of the man +who needs his neighbour's mercy; it is greatly more for the sake of the +man who must show the mercy. It is a small thing to a man whether or not +his neighbour be merciful to him; it is life or death to him whether or +not he be merciful to his neighbour. The greatest mercy that can be +shown to man, is to make him merciful; therefore, if he will not be +merciful, the mercy of God must compel him thereto. In the parable of +the king taking account of his servants, he delivers the unmerciful +debtor to the tormentors, 'till he should pay all that was due unto +him.' The king had forgiven his debtor, but as the debtor refuses to +pass on the forgiveness to his neighbour--the only way to make a return +in kind--the king withdraws his forgiveness. If we forgive not men their +trespasses, our trespasses remain. For how can God in any sense forgive, +remit, or send away the sin which a man insists on retaining? +Unmerciful, we must be given up to the tormentors until we learn to be +merciful. God is merciful: we must be merciful. There is no blessedness +except in being such as God; it would be altogether unmerciful to leave +us unmerciful. The reward of the merciful is, that by their mercy they +are rendered capable of receiving the mercy of God--yea, God himself, +who is Mercy. + +That men may be drawn to taste and see and understand, the Lord +associates reward with righteousness. The Lord would have men love +righteousness, but how are they to love it without being acquainted with +it? How are they to go on loving it without a growing knowledge of it? +To draw them toward it that they may begin to know it, and to encourage +them when assailed by the disappointments that accompany endeavour, he +tells them simply a truth concerning it--that in the doing of it, there +is great reward. Let no one start with dismay at the idea of a reward of +righteousness, saying virtue is its own reward. Is not virtue then a +reward? Is any other imaginable reward worth mentioning beside it? True, +the man may, after this mode or that, mistake the reward promised; not +the less must he have it, or perish. Who will count himself deceived by +overfulfilment? Would a parent be deceiving his child in saying, 'My +boy, you will have a great reward if you learn Greek,' foreseeing his +son's delight in Homer and Plato--now but a valueless waste in his eyes? +When his reward comes, will the youth feel aggrieved that it is Greek, +and not bank-notes? + +The nature indeed of the Lord's promised rewards is hardly to be +mistaken; yet the foolish remarks one sometimes hears, make me wish to +point out that neither is the Lord proclaiming an ethical system, nor +does he make the blunder of representing as righteousness the doing of a +good thing because of some advantage to be thereby gained. When he +promises, he only states some fact that will encourage his +disciples--that is, all who learn of him--to meet the difficulties in +the way of doing right and so learning righteousness, his object being +to make men righteous, not to teach them philosophy. I doubt if those +who would, on the ground of mentioned reward, set aside the teaching of +the Lord, are as anxious to be righteous as they are to prove him +unrighteous. If they were, they would, I think, take more care to +represent him truly; they would make farther search into the thing, nor +be willing that he whom the world confesses its best man, and whom they +themselves, perhaps, confess their superior in conduct, should be found +less pure in theory than they. Must the Lord hide from his friends that +they will have cause to rejoice that they have been obedient? Must he +give them no help to counterbalance the load with which they start on +their race? Is he to tell them the horrors of the persecutions that +await them, and not the sweet sympathies that will help them through? +Was it wrong to assure them that where he was going they should go also? +The Lord could not demand of them more righteousness than he does: 'Be +ye therefore perfect as your father in heaven is perfect;' but not to +help them by word of love, deed of power, and promise of good, would +have shown him far less of a brother and a saviour. It is the part of +the enemy of righteousness to increase the difficulties in the way of +becoming righteous, and to diminish those in the way of seeming +righteous. Jesus desires no righteousness for the pride of being +righteous, any more than for advantage to be gained by it; therefore, +while requiring such purity as the man, beforehand, is unable to +imagine, he gives him all the encouragement he can. He will not enhance +his victory by difficulties--of them there are enough--but by +completeness. He will not demand the loftiest motives in the yet far +from loftiest soul: to those the soul must grow. He will hearten the +child with promises, and fulfil them to the contentment of the man. + +Men cannot be righteous without love; to love a righteous man is the +best, the only way to learn righteousness: the Lord gives us himself to +love, and promises his closest friendship to them that overcome. + +God's rewards are always in kind. 'I am your father; be my children, and +I will be your father.' Every obedience is the opening of another door +into the boundless universe of life. So long as the constitution of that +universe remains, so long as the world continues to be made by God, +righteousness can never fail of perfect reward. Before it could be +otherwise, the government must have passed into other hands. + +The idea of merit is nowise essential to that of reward. Jesus tells us +that the lord who finds his servant faithful, will make him sit down to +meat, and come forth and serve him; he says likewise, 'When ye have done +all, say we are unprofitable servants; we have done only that which it +was our duty to do.' Reward is the rebound of Virtue's well-served ball +from the hand of Love; a sense of merit is the most sneaking shape that +self-satisfaction can assume. God's reward lies closed in all +well-doing: the doer of right grows better and humbler, and comes nearer +to God's heart as nearer to his likeness; grows more capable of God's +own blessedness, and of inheriting the kingdoms of heaven and earth. To +be made greater than one's fellows is the offered reward of hell, and +involves no greatness; to be made greater than one's self, is the divine +reward, and involves a real greatness. A man might be set above all his +fellows, to be but so much less than he was before; a man cannot be +raised a hair's-breadth above himself, without rising nearer to God. The +reward itself, then, is righteousness; and the man who was righteous for +the sake of such reward, knowing what it was, would be righteous for the +sake of righteousness,--which yet, however, would not be perfection. +But I must distinguish and divide no farther now. + +The reward of mercy is not often of this world; the merciful do not +often receive mercy in return from their fellows; perhaps they do not +often receive much gratitude. None the less, being the children of their +father in heaven, will they go on to show mercy, even to their enemies. +They must give like God, and like God be blessed in giving. + +There is a mercy that lies in the endeavour to share with others the +best things God has given: they who do so will be persecuted, and +reviled, and slandered, as well as thanked and loved and befriended. The +Lord not only promises the greatest possible reward; he tells his +disciples the worst they have to expect. He not only shows them the fair +countries to which they are bound; he tells them the truth of the rough +weather and the hardships of the way. He will not have them choose in +ignorance. At the same time he strengthens them to meet coming +difficulty, by instructing them in its real nature. All this is part of +his preparation of them for his work, for taking his yoke upon them, and +becoming fellow-labourers with him in his father's vineyard. They must +not imagine, because they are the servants of his father, that therefore +they shall find their work easy; they shall only find the reward great. +Neither will he have them fancy, when evil comes upon them, that +something unforeseen, unprovided for, has befallen them. It is just +then, on the contrary, that their reward comes nigh: when men revile +them and persecute them, then they may know that they are blessed. Their +suffering is ground for rejoicing, for exceeding gladness. The ignominy +cast upon them leaves the name of the Lord's Father written upon their +foreheads, the mark of the true among the false, of the children among +the slaves. With all who suffer for the world, persecution is the seal +of their patent, a sign that they were sent: they fill up that which is +behind of the afflictions of Christ for his body's sake. + +Let us look at the similar words the Lord spoke in a later address to +his disciples, in the presence of thousands, on the plain,--supplemented +with lamentation over such as have what they desire: St Luke vi. 20--26. + +_'Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye +that hunger now, for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now, +for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when +they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and +cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice ye in +that day, and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven; +for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets._ + +_'But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your +consolation. Woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger. Woe unto +you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you when all +men shall speak well of you; for so did their fathers to the false +prophets.'_ + +On this occasion he uses the word _hunger_ without limitation. Every +true want, every genuine need, every God-created hunger, is a thing +provided for in the idea of the universe; but no attempt to fill a void +otherwise than the Heart of the Universe intended and intends, is or can +be anything but a woe. God forgets none of his children--the naughty +ones any more than the good. Love and reward is for the good: love and +correction for the bad. The bad ones will trouble the good, but shall do +them no hurt. The evil a man does to his neighbour, shall do his +neighbour no harm, shall work indeed for his good; but he himself will +have to mourn for his doing. A sore injury to himself, it is to his +neighbour a cause of jubilation--not for the evil the man does to +himself--over that there is sorrow in heaven--but for the good it +occasions his neighbour. The poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated, +may lament their lot as if God had forgotten them; but God is all the +time caring for them. Blessed in his sight now, they shall soon know +themselves blessed. 'Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall +laugh.'--Welcome words from the glad heart of the Saviour! Do they not +make our hearts burn within us?--They shall be comforted even to +laughter! The poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated, the persecuted, +are the powerful, the opulent, the merry, the loved, the victorious of +God's kingdom,--to be filled with good things, to laugh for very +delight, to be honoured and sought and cherished! + +But such as have their poor consolation in this life--alas for +them!--for those who have yet to learn what hunger is! for those whose +laughter is as the crackling of thorns! for those who have loved and +gathered the praises of men! for the rich, the jocund, the full-fed! +Silent-footed evil is on its way to seize them. Dives must go without; +Lazarus must have. God's education makes use of terrible extremes. There +are last that shall be first, and first that shall be last. + +The Lord knew what trials, what tortures even awaited his disciples +after his death; he knew they would need every encouragement he could +give them to keep their hearts strong, lest in some moment of dismay +they should deny him. If they had denied him, where would our gospel be? +If there are none able and ready to be crucified for him now, alas for +the age to come! What a poor travesty of the good news of God will +arrive at their doors! + +Those whom our Lord felicitates are all the children of one family; and +everything that can be called blessed or blessing comes of the same +righteousness. If a disciple be blessed because of any one thing, every +other blessing is either his, or on the way to become his; for he is on +the way to receive the very righteousness of God. Each good thing opens +the door to the one next it, so to all the rest. But as if these his +assurances and promises and comfortings were not large enough; as if the +mention of any condition whatever might discourage some humble man of +heart with a sense of unfitness, with the fear, perhaps conviction that +the promise was not for him; as if some one might say, 'Alas, I am +proud, and neither poor in spirit nor meek; I am at times not at all +hungry after righteousness; I am not half merciful, and am very ready to +feel hurt and indignant: I am shut out from every blessing!' the Lord, +knowing the multitudes that can urge nothing in their own favour, and +sorely feel they are not blessed, looks abroad over the wide world of +his brothers and sisters, and calls aloud, including in the boundless +invitation every living soul with but the one qualification of unrest or +discomfort, 'Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I +will give you rest.' + + + + +_THE YOKE OF JESUS._ + +At that time Jesus answered and said,--according to Luke, In that hour +Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said,--'I thank thee, O Father, Lord of +heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and +prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it +seemed good in thy sight. + +'All things are delivered unto me of my father; and no man knoweth the +son,'--according to Luke, 'who the son is,'--'but the father; neither +knoweth any man the father,'--according to Luke, 'who the father +is,'--'save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal +him.'--_Matthew_ xi. 25--27; _Luke_ x. 21, 22. + +'Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give +you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and +lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is +easy, and my burden is light.' _Matthew_ xi. 28--30. + + +The words of the Lord in the former two of these paragraphs, are +represented, both by Matthew and by Luke, as spoken after the +denunciation of the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum; only +in Luke's narrative, the return of the seventy is mentioned between; and +there the rejoicing of the Lord over the Father's revelation of himself +to babes, appears to have reference to the seventy. The fact that the +return of the seventy is not mentioned elsewhere, leaves us free to +suppose that the words were indeed spoken on that occasion. The +circumstances, however, as circumstances, are to us of little +importance, not being necessary to the understanding of the words. + +The Lord makes no complaint against the wise and prudent; he but +recognizes that they are not those to whom his father reveals his best +things; for which fact and the reasons of it, he thanks, or praises his +father. 'I bless thy will: I see that thou art right: I am of one mind +with thee:' something of each of these phases of meaning seems to belong +to the Greek word. + +'But why not reveal true things first to the wise? Are they not the +fittest to receive them?' Yes, if these things and their wisdom lie in +the same region--not otherwise. No amount of knowledge or skill in +physical science, will make a man the fitter to argue a metaphysical +question; and the wisdom of this world, meaning by the term, the +philosophy of prudence, self-protection, precaution, specially unfits a +man for receiving what the Father has to reveal: in proportion to our +care about our own well being, is our incapability of understanding and +welcoming the care of the Father. The wise and the prudent, with all +their energy of thought, could never see the things of the Father +sufficiently to recognize them as true. Their sagacity labours in +earthly things, and so fills their minds with their own questions and +conclusions, that they cannot see the eternal foundations God has laid +in man, or the consequent necessities of their own nature. They are +proud of finding out things, but the things they find out are all less +than themselves. Because, however, they have discovered them, they +imagine such things the goal of the human intellect. If they grant there +may be things beyond those, they either count them beyond their reach, +or declare themselves uninterested in them: for the wise and prudent, +they do not exist. They work only to gather by the senses, and deduce +from what they have so gathered, the prudential, the probable, the +expedient, the protective. They never think of the essential, of what in +itself must be. They are cautious, wary, discreet, judicious, +circumspect, provident, temporizing. They have no enthusiasm, and are +shy of all forms of it--a clever, hard, thin people, who take _things_ +for the universe, and love of facts for love of truth. They know +nothing deeper in man than mere surface mental facts and their +relations. They do not perceive, or they turn away from any truth which +the intellect cannot formulate. Zeal for God will never eat them up: why +should it? he is not interesting to them: theology may be; to such men +religion means theology. How should the treasure of the Father be open +to such? In their hands his rubies would draw in their fire, and cease +to glow. The roses of paradise in their gardens would blow withered. +They never go beyond the porch of the temple; they are not sure whether +there be any _adytum_, and they do not care to go in and see: why indeed +should they? it would but be to turn and come out again. Even when they +know their duty, they must take it to pieces, and consider the grounds +of its claim before they will render it obedience. All those evil +doctrines about God that work misery and madness, have their origin in +the brains of the wise and prudent, not in the hearts of the children. +These wise and prudent, careful to make the words of his messengers rime +with their conclusions, interpret the great heart of God, not by their +own hearts, but by their miserable intellects; and, postponing the +obedience which alone can give power to the understanding, press upon +men's minds their wretched interpretations of the will of the Father, +instead of the doing of that will upon their hearts. They call their +philosophy the truth of God, and say men must hold it, or stand outside. +They are the slaves of the letter in all its weakness and +imperfection,--and will be until the spirit of the Word, the spirit of +obedience shall set them free. + +The babes must beware lest the wise and prudent come between them and +the Father. They must yield no claim to authority over their belief, +made by man or community, by church any more than by synagogue. That +alone is for them to believe which the Lord reveals to their souls as +true; that alone is it possible for them to believe with what he counts +belief. The divine object for which teacher or church exists, is the +persuasion of the individual heart to come to Jesus, the spirit, to be +taught what he alone can teach. + +Terribly has his gospel suffered in the mouths of the wise and prudent: +how would it be faring now, had its first messages been committed to +persons of repute, instead of those simple fishermen? It would be +nowhere, or, if anywhere, unrecognizable. From the first we should have +had a system founded on a human interpretation of the divine gospel, +instead of the gospel itself, which would have disappeared. As it is, we +have had one dull miserable human system after another usurping its +place; but, thank God, the gospel remains! The little child, heedless +of his trailing cloud of glory, and looking about him aghast in an +unknown world, may yet see and run to the arms open to the children. How +often has not some symbol employed in the New Testament been forced into +the service of argument for one or another contemptible scheme of +redemption, which were no redemption; while the truth for the sake of +which the symbol was used, the thing meant to be conveyed by it, has +lain unregarded beside the heap of rubbish! Had the wise and prudent +been the confidants of God, I repeat, the letter would at once have +usurped the place of the spirit; the ministering slave would have been +set over the household; a system of religion, with its rickety, +malodorous plan of salvation, would not only have at once been put in +the place of a living Christ, but would yet have held that place. The +great brother, the human God, the eternal Son, the living one, would +have been as utterly hidden from the tearful eyes and aching hearts of +the weary and heavy-laden, as if he had never come from the deeps of +love to call the children home out of the shadows of a self-haunted +universe. But the Father revealed the Father's things to his babes; the +babes loved, and began to do them, therewith began to understand them, +and went on growing in the knowledge of them and in the power of +communicating them; while to the wise and prudent, the deepest words of +the most babe-like of them all, John Boanerges, even now appear but a +finger-worn rosary of platitudes. The babe understands the wise and +prudent, but is understood only by the babe. + +The Father, then, revealed his things to babes, because the babes were +his own little ones, uncorrupted by the wisdom or the care of this +world, and therefore able to receive them. The others, though his +children, had not begun to be like him, therefore could not receive +them. The Father's things could not have got anyhow into their minds +without leaving all their value, all their spirit, outside the +unchildlike place. The babes are near enough whence they come, to +understand a little how things go in the presence of their father in +heaven, and thereby to interpret the words of the Son. The child who has +not yet 'walked above a mile or two from' his 'first love,' is not out +of touch with the mind of his Father. Quickly will he seal the old bond +when the Son himself, the first of the babes, the one perfect babe of +God, comes to lead the children out of the lovely 'shadows of eternity' +into the land of the 'white celestial thought.' As God is the one only +real father, so is it only to God that any one can be a perfect child. +In his garden only can childhood blossom. + +The leader of the great array of little ones, himself, in virtue of his +firstborn childhood, the first recipient of the revelations of his +father, having thus given thanks, and said why he gave thanks, breaks +out afresh, renewing expression of delight that God had willed it thus: +'Even so, father, for so it seemed good in thy sight!' I venture to +translate, 'Yea, O Father, for thus came forth satisfaction before +thee!' and think he meant, 'Yea, Father, for thereat were all thy angels +filled with satisfaction,' The babes were the prophets in heaven, and +the angels were glad to find it was to be so upon the earth also; they +rejoiced to see that what was bound in heaven, was bound on earth; that +the same principle held in each. Compare Matt, xviii. 10 and 14; also +Luke xv. 10. 'See that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I +say unto you that their angels in heaven do always behold the face of my +father which is in heaven.... Thus it is not the will before your father +which is in heaven,'--_among the angels who stand before him_, I think +he means,--'that one of these little ones should perish.' 'Even so, I +say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one +sinner that repenteth.' + +Having thus thanked his father that he has done after his own 'good and +acceptable and perfect will', he turns to his disciples, and tells them +that he knows the Father, being his Son, and that he only can reveal the +Father to the rest of his children: 'All things are delivered unto me +of my father; and no one knoweth the son but the father; neither knoweth +any one the father save the son, and he to whomsoever the son willeth to +reveal him.' It is almost as if his mention of the babes brought his +thoughts back to himself and his father, between whom lay the secret of +all life and all sending--yea, all loving. The relation of the Father +and the Son contains the idea of the universe. Jesus tells his disciples +that his father had no secrets from him; that he knew the Father as the +Father knew him. The Son must know the Father; he only could know +him--and knowing, he could reveal him; the Son could make the other, the +imperfect children, know the Father, and so become such as he. All +things were given unto him by the Father, because he was the Son of the +Father: for the same reason he could reveal the things of the Father to +the child of the Father. The child-relation is the one eternal, ever +enduring, never changing relation. + +Note that, while the Lord here represents the knowledge his father and +he have each of the other as limited to themselves, the statement is one +of fact only, not of design or intention: his presence in the world is +for the removal of that limitation. The Father knows the Son and sends +him to us that we may know him; the Son knows the Father, and dies to +reveal him. The glory of God's mysteries is--that they are for his +children to look into. + +When the Lord took the little child in the presence of his disciples, +and declared him his representative, he made him the representative of +his father also; but the eternal child alone can reveal him. To reveal +is immeasurably more than to represent; it is to present to the eyes +that know the true when they see it. Jesus represented God; the spirit +of Jesus reveals God. The represented God a man may refuse; many refused +the Lord; the revealed God no one can refuse; to see God and to love him +are one. He can be revealed only to the child; perfectly, to the pure +child only. All the discipline of the world is to make men children, +that God may be revealed to them. + +No man, when first he comes to himself, can have any true knowledge of +God; he can only have a desire after such knowledge. But while he does +not know him at all, he cannot become in his heart God's child; so the +Father must draw nearer to him. He sends therefore his first born, who +does know him, is exactly like him, and can represent him perfectly. +Drawn to him, the children receive him, and then he is able to reveal +the Father to them. No wisdom of the wise can find out God; no words of +the God-loving can reveal him. The simplicity of the whole natural +relation is too deep for the philosopher. The Son alone can reveal God; +the child alone understand him. The elder brother companies with the +younger, and makes him yet more a child like himself. He interpenetrates +his willing companion with his obedient glory. He lets him see how he +delights in his father, and lets him know that God is his father too. He +rouses in his little brother the sense of their father's will; and the +younger, as he hears and obeys, begins to see that his elder brother +must be the very image of their father. He becomes more and more of a +child, and more and more the Son reveals to him the Father. For he knows +that to know the Father is the one thing needful to every child of the +Father, the one thing to fill the divine gulf of his necessity. To see +the Father is the cry of every child-heart in the universe of the +Father--is the need, where not the cry, of every living soul. Comfort +yourselves then, brothers and sisters; he to whom the Son will reveal +him shall know the Father; and the Son came to us that he might reveal +him. 'Eternal Brother,' we cry, 'show us the Father. Be thyself to us, +that in thee we may know him. We too are his children: let the other +children share with thee in the things of the Father.' + +Having spoken to his father first, and now to his disciples, the Lord +turns to the whole world, and lets his heart overflow:--St Matthew alone +has saved for us the eternal cry:--'Come unto me all ye that labour and +are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'--'I know the Father; come +then to me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.' He does not here +call those who want to know the Father; his cry goes far beyond them; it +reaches to the ends of the earth. He calls those who are weary; those +who do not know that ignorance of the Father is the cause of all their +labour and the heaviness of their burden. 'Come unto me,' he says, 'and +I will give you rest.' + +This is the Lord's own form of his gospel, more intensely personal and +direct, at the same time of yet wider inclusion, than that which, at +Nazareth, he appropriated from Isaiah; differing from it also in this, +that it is interfused with strongest persuasion to the troubled to enter +into and share his own eternal rest. I will turn his argument a little. +'I have rest because I know the Father. Be meek and lowly of heart +toward him as I am; let him lay his yoke upon you as he lays it on me. I +do his will, not my own. Take on you the yoke that I wear; be his child +like me; become a babe to whom he can reveal his wonders. Then shall you +too find rest to your souls; you shall have the same peace I have; you +will be weary and heavy laden no more. I find my yoke easy, my burden +light.' + +We must not imagine that, when the Lord says, 'Take my yoke upon you,' +he means a yoke which he lays on those that come to him; 'my yoke' is +the yoke he wears himself, the yoke his father lays upon him, the yoke +out of which, that same moment, he speaks, bearing it with glad +patience. 'You must take on you the yoke I have taken: the Father lays +it upon us.' + +The best of the good wine remains; I have kept it to the last. A friend +pointed out to me that the Master does not mean we must take on us a +yoke like his; we must take on us the very yoke he is carrying. + +Dante, describing how, on the first terrace of Purgatory, he walked +stooping, to be on a level with Oderisi, who went bowed to the ground by +the ponderous burden of the pride he had cherished on earth, says--'I +went walking with this heavy-laden soul, just as oxen walk in the yoke': +this picture almost always comes to me with the words of the Lord, 'Take +my yoke upon you, and learn of me.' Their intent is, 'Take the other end +of my yoke, doing as I do, being as I am.' Think of it a moment:--to +walk in the same yoke with the Son of Man, doing the same labour with +him, and having the same feeling common to him and us! This, and nothing +else, is offered the man who would have rest to his soul; is required of +the man who would know the Father; is by the Lord pressed upon him to +whom he would give the same peace which pervades and sustains his own +eternal heart. + +But a yoke is for drawing withal: what load is it the Lord is drawing? +Wherewith is the cart laden which he would have us help him draw? With +what but the will of the eternal, the perfect Father? How should the +Father honour the Son, but by giving him his will to embody in deed, by +making him hand to his father's heart!--and hardest of all, in bringing +home his children! Specially in drawing this load must his yoke-fellow +share. How to draw it, he must learn of him who draws by his side. + +Whoever, in the commonest duties that fall to him, does as the Father +would have him do, bears His yoke along with Jesus; and the Father takes +his help for the redemption of the world--for the deliverance of men +from the slavery of their own rubbish-laden waggons, into the liberty of +God's husbandmen. Bearing the same yoke with Jesus, the man learns to +walk step for step with him, drawing, drawing the cart laden with the +will of the father of both, and rejoicing with the joy of Jesus. The +glory of existence is to take up its burden, and exist for Existence +eternal and supreme--for the Father who does his divine and perfect best +to impart his glad life to us, making us sharers of that nature which is +bliss, and that labour which is peace. He lives for us; we must live for +him. The little ones must take their full share in the great Father's +work: his work is the business of the family. + +Starts thy soul, trembles thy brain at the thought of such a burden as +the will of the eternally creating, eternally saving God? 'How shall +mortal man walk in such a yoke,' sayest thou, 'even with the Son of God +bearing it also?' + +Why, brother, sister, it is the only burden bearable--the only burden +that can be borne of mortal! Under any other, the lightest, he must at +last sink outworn, his very soul gray with sickness! + +He on whom lay the other half of the burden of God, the weight of his +creation to redeem, says, 'The yoke I bear is easy; the burden I draw is +light'; and this he said, knowing the death he was to die. The yoke did +not gall his neck, the burden did not overstrain his sinews, neither did +the goal on Calvary fright him from the straight way thither. He had the +will of the Father to work out, and that will was his strength as well +as his joy. He had the same will as his father. To him the one thing +worth living for, was the share the love of his father gave him in his +work. He loved his father even to the death of the cross, and eternally +beyond it. + +When we give ourselves up to the Father as the Son gave himself, we +shall not only find our yoke easy and our burden light, but that they +communicate ease and lightness; not only will they not make us weary, +but they will give us rest from all other weariness. Let us not waste a +moment in asking how this can be; the only way to know that, is to take +the yoke on us. That rest is a secret for every heart to know, for never +a tongue to tell. Only by having it can we know it. If it seem +impossible to take the yoke on us, let us attempt the impossible; let us +lay hold of the yoke, and bow our heads, and try to get our necks under +it. Giving our Father the opportunity, he will help and not fail us. He +is helping us every moment, when least we think we need his help; when +most we think we do, then may we most boldly, as most earnestly we must, +cry for it. What or how much his creatures can do or bear, God only +understands; but when most it seems impossible to do or bear, we must be +most confident that he will neither demand too much, nor fail with the +vital creator-help. That help will be there when wanted--that is, the +moment it can be help. To be able beforehand to imagine ourselves doing +or bearing, we have neither claim nor need. + +It is vain to think that any weariness, however caused, any burden, +however slight, may be got rid of otherwise than by bowing the neck to +the yoke of the Father's will. There can be no other rest for heart and +soul that he has created. From every burden, from every anxiety, from +all dread of shame or loss, even loss of love itself, that yoke will set +us free. + +These words of the Lord--so many as are reported in common by St Matthew +and St Luke, namely his thanksgiving, and his statement concerning the +mutual knowledge of his father and himself, meet me like a well known +face unexpectedly encountered: they come to me like a piece of heavenly +bread cut from the gospel of St John. The words are not in that gospel, +and in St Matthew's and St Luke's there is nothing more of the kind--in +St Mark's nothing like them. The passage seems to me just one solitary +flower testifying to the presence in the gospels of Matthew and Luke of +the same root of thought and feeling which everywhere blossoms in that +of John. It looks as if it had crept out of the fourth gospel into the +first and third, and seems a true sign, though no proof, that, however +much the fourth be unlike the other gospels, they have all the same +origin. Some disciple was able to remember one such word of which the +promised comforter brought many to the remembrance of John. I do not see +how the more phenomenal gospels are ever to be understood, save through +a right perception of the relation in which the Lord stands to his +father, which relation is the main subject of the gospel according to St +John. + +As to the loving cry of the great brother to the whole weary world +which Matthew alone has set down, I seem aware of a certain +indescribable individuality in its tone, distinguishing it from all his +other sayings on record. + +Those who come at the call of the Lord, and take the rest he offers +them, learning of him, and bearing the yoke of the Father, are the salt +of the earth, the light of the world. + + + + +_THE SALT AND THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD._ + +'Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savour, +wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to +be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of +the world. A city that is set on an hill, cannot be hid. Neither do men +light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it +giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine +before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father +which is in heaven.'--_Matthew_ v. 3--16. + + +The Lord knew these men, and had their hearts in his hand; else would he +have told them they were the salt of the earth and the light of the +world? They were in danger, it is true, of pluming themselves on what he +had said of them, of taking their importance to their own credit, and +seeing themselves other than God saw them. Yet the Lord does not +hesitate to call his few humble disciples the salt of the earth; and +every century since has borne witness that such indeed they were--that +he spoke of them but the simple fact. Where would the world be now but +for their salt and their light! The world that knows neither their salt +nor their light may imagine itself now at least greatly retarded by the +long-drawn survival of their influences; but such as have chosen +aspiration and not ambition, will cry, But for those men, whither should +we at this moment be bound! Their Master set them to be salt against +corruption, and light against darkness; and our souls answer and say, +Lord, they have been the salt, they have been the light of the world! + +No sooner has he used the symbol of the salt, than the Lord proceeds to +supplement its incompleteness. They were salt which must remember that +it is salt; which must live salt, and choose salt, and be salt. For the +whole worth of salt lies in its being salt; and all the saltness of the +moral salt lies in the will to be salt. To lose its saltness, then, is +to cease to exist, save as a vile thing whose very being is +unjustifiable. What is to be done with saltless salt!--with such as +would teach religion, and know not God! + +Having thus carried the figure as far as it will serve him, the Master +changes it for another, which he can carry farther. For salt only +preserves from growing bad; it does not cause anything to grow better. +His disciples are the salt of the world, but they are more. Therefore, +having warned the human salt to look to itself that it be indeed salt, +he proceeds: 'Ye are the light of the world, a city, a candle,' and so +resumes his former path of persuasion and enforcement: 'It is so, +therefore make it so.'--'Ye are the salt of the earth; therefore be +salt.'--'Ye are the light of the world; therefore shine.'--'Ye are a +city; be seen upon your hill.'--'Ye are the Lord's candles; let no +bushels cover you. Let your light shine.' Every disciple of the Lord +must be a preacher of righteousness. + +Cities are the best lighted portions of the world; and perhaps the Lord +meant, 'You are a live city, therefore light up your city.' Some +connection of the city with light seems probably in his thought, seeing +the allusion to the city on the hill comes in the midst of what he says +about light in relation to his disciples as the light of the world. +Anyhow the city is the best circle in which, and the best centre from +which to diffuse moral light. A man brooding in the desert may find the +very light of light, but he must go to the city to let it shine. + +From the general idea of light, however, associated with the city as +visible to all the country around, the Lord turns at once, in this +probably fragmentary representation of his words, to the homelier, the +more individual and personally applicable figure of the lamp: 'Neither +do men light a lamp, and put it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, and +it giveth light to all that are in the house,' + +Here let us meditate a moment. For what is a lamp or a man lighted? For +them that need light, therefore for all. A candle is not lighted for +itself; neither is a man. The light that serves self only, is no true +light; its one virtue is that it will soon go out. The bushel needs to +be lighted, but not by being put over the lamp. The man's own soul needs +to be lighted, but light for itself only, light covered by the bushel, +is darkness whether to soul or bushel. Light unshared is darkness. To be +light indeed, it must shine out. It is of the very essence of light, +that it is for others. The thing is true of the spiritual as of the +physical light--of the truth as of its type. + +The lights of the world are live lights. The lamp that the Lord kindles +is a lamp that can will to shine, a soul that must shine. Its true +relation to the spirits around it--to God and its fellows, is its light. +Then only does it fully shine, when its love, which is its light, shows +it to all the souls within its scope, and all those souls to each other, +and so does its part to bring all together toward one. In the darkness +each soul is alone; in the light the souls are a family. Men do not +light a lamp to kill it with a bushel, but to set it on a stand, that +it may give light to all that are in the house. The Lord seems to say, +'So have I lighted you, not that you may shine for yourselves, but that +you may give light unto all. I have set you like a city on a hill, that +the whole earth may see and share in your light. Shine therefore; so +shine before men, that they may see your good things and glorify your +father for the light with which he has lighted you. Take heed to your +light that it be such, that it so shine, that in you men may see the +Father--may see your works so good, so plainly his, that they recognize +his presence in you, and thank him for you.' There was the danger always +of the shadow of the self-bushel clouding the lamp the Father had +lighted; and the moment they ceased to show the Father, the light that +was in them was darkness. God alone is the light, and our light is the +shining of his will in our lives. If our light shine at all, it must be, +it can be only in showing the Father; nothing is light that does not +bear him witness. The man that sees the glory of God, would turn sick at +the thought of glorifying his own self, whose one only possible glory is +to shine with the glory of God. When a man tries to shine from the self +that is not one with God and filled with his light, he is but making +ready for his own gathering contempt. The man who, like his Lord, seeks +not his own, but the will of him who sent him, he alone shines. He who +would shine in the praises of men, will, sooner or later, find himself +but a Gideon's-pitcher left broken on the field. + +Let us bestir ourselves then to keep this word of the Lord; and to this +end inquire how we are to let our light shine. + +To the man who does not try to order his thoughts and feelings and +judgments after the will of the Father, I have nothing to say; he can +have no light to let shine. For to let our light shine is to see that in +every, even the smallest thing, our lives and actions correspond to what +we know of God; that, as the true children of our father in heaven, we +do everything as he would have us do it. Need I say that to let our +light shine is to be just, honourable, true, courteous, more careful +over the claim of our neighbour than our own, as knowing ourselves in +danger of overlooking it, and not bound to insist on every claim of our +own! The man who takes no count of what is fair, friendly, pure, +unselfish, lovely, gracious,--where is his claim to call Jesus his +master? where his claim to Christianity? What saves his claim from being +merest mockery? + +The outshining of any human light must be obedience to truth recognized +as such; our first show of light as the Lord's disciples must be in +doing the things he tells us. Naturally thus we declare him our master, +the ruler of our conduct, the enlightener of our souls; and while in +the doing of his will a man is learning the loveliness of righteousness, +he can hardly fail to let some light shine across the dust of his +failures, the exhalations from his faults. Thus will his disciples shine +as lights in the world, holding forth the Word of life. + +To shine, we must keep in his light, sunning our souls in it by thinking +of what he said and did, and would have us think and do. So shall we +drink the light like some diamonds, keep it, and shine in the dark. +Doing his will, men will see in us that we count the world his, hold +that his will and not ours must be done in it. Our very faces will then +shine with the hope of seeing him, and being taken home where he is. +Only let us remember that trying to look what we ought to be, is the +beginning of hypocrisy. + +If we do indeed expect better things to come, we must let our hope +appear. A Christian who looks gloomy at the mention of death, still +more, one who talks of his friends as if he had lost them, turns the +bushel of his little-faith over the lamp of the Lord's light. Death is +but our visible horizon, and our look ought always to be focussed beyond +it. We should never talk as if death were the end of anything. + +To let our light shine, we must take care that we have no respect for +riches: if we have none, there is no fear of our showing any. To treat +the poor man with less attention or cordiality than the rich, is to show +ourselves the servants of Mammon. In like manner we must lay no value on +the praise of men, or in any way seek it. We must honour no man because +of intellect, fame, or success. We must not shrink, in fear of the +judgment of men, from doing openly what we hold right; or at all +acknowledge as a law-giver what calls itself Society, or harbour the +least anxiety for its approval. + +In business, the custom of the trade must be understood by both +contracting parties, else it can have no place, either as law or excuse, +with the disciple of Jesus. The man to whom business is one thing and +religion another, is not a disciple. If he refuses to harmonize them by +making his business religion, he has already chosen Mammon; if he thinks +not to settle the question, it is settled. The most futile of all human +endeavours is, to serve God and Mammon. The man who makes the endeavour, +betrays his Master in the temple and kisses him in the garden; takes +advantage of him in the shop, and offers him 'divine service!' on +Sunday. His very church-going is but a further service of Mammon! But +let us waste no strength in despising such men; let us rather turn the +light upon ourselves: are we not in some way denying him? Is our light +bearing witness? Is it shining before men so that they glorify God for +it? If it does not shine, it is darkness. In the darkness which a man +takes for light, he will thrust at the heart of the Lord himself. + +He who goes about his everyday duty as the work the Father has given him +to do, is he who lets his light shine. But such a man will not be +content with this: he must yet let his light shine. Whatever makes his +heart glad, he will have his neighbour share. The body is a lantern; it +must not be a dark lantern; the glowing heart must show in the shining +face. His glad thought may not be one to impart to his neighbour, but he +must not quench the vibration of its gladness ere it reach him. What +shall we say of him who comes from his closet, his mountain-top, with +such a veil over his face as masks his very humanity? Is it with the +Father that man has had communion, whose every movement is +self-hampered, and in whose eyes dwell no smiles for the people of his +house? The man who receives the quiet attentions, the divine +ministrations, of wife or son or daughter, without token of pleasure, +without sign of gratitude, can hardly have been with Jesus. Or can he +have been with him, and have left him behind in his closet? If his faith +in God take from a man his cheerfulness, how shall the face of a man +ever shine? And why are they always glad before the face of the Father +in heaven? It is true that pain or inward grief may blameless banish all +smiling, but even heaviness of heart has no right so to tumble the +bushel over the lamp that no ray can get out to tell that love is yet +burning within. The man must at least let his dear ones know that +something else than displeasure with them is the cause of his clouded +countenance. + +What a sweet colour the divine light takes to itself in courtesy, whose +perfection is the recognition of every man as a temple of the living +God. Sorely ruined, sadly defiled the temple may be, but if God had left +it, it would be a heap and not a house. + +Next to love, specially will the light shine out in fairness. What light +can he have in him who is always on his own side, and will never descry +reason or right on that of his adversary? And certainly, if he that +showeth mercy, as well he that showeth justice, ought to do it with +cheerfulness. + +But if all our light shine out, and none of our darkness, shall we not +be in utmost danger of hypocrisy? Yes, if we but hide our darkness, and +do not strive to slay it with our light: what way have we to show it, +while struggling to destroy it? Only when we cherish evil, is there +hypocrisy in hiding it. A man who is honestly fighting it and showing it +no quarter, is already conqueror in Christ, or will soon be--and more +than innocent. But our good feelings, those that make for righteousness +and unity, we ought to let shine; they claim to commune with the light +in others. Many parents hold words unsaid which would lift +hundred-weights from the hearts of their children, yea, make them leap +for joy. A stern father and a silent mother make mournful, or, which is +far worse, hard children. Need I add that, if any one, hearing the +injunction to let his light shine, makes himself shine instead, it is +because the light is not in him! + +But what shall I say of such as, in the name of religion, let only their +darkness out--the darkness of worshipped opinion, the darkness of +lip-honour and disobedience! Such are those who tear asunder the body of +Christ with the explosives of dispute, on the plea of such a unity as +alone they can understand, namely a paltry uniformity. What have not the +'good church-man' and the 'strong dissenter' to answer for, who, hiding +what true light they have, if indeed they have any, each under the +bushel of his party-spirit, radiate only repulsion! There is no schism, +none whatever, in using diverse forms of thought or worship: true +honesty is never schismatic. The real schismatic is the man who turns +away love and justice from the neighbour who holds theories in religious +philosophy, or as to church-constitution, different from his own; who +denies or avoids his brother because he follows not with him; who calls +him a schismatic because he prefers this or that mode of public worship +not his. The other _may_ be schismatic; he himself certainly _is_. He +walks in the darkness of opinion, not in the light of life, not in the +faith which worketh by love. Worst of all is division in the name of +Christ who came to make one. Neither Paul nor Apollos nor Cephas +would--least of all will Christ be the leader of any party save that of +his own elect, the party of love--of love which suffereth long and is +kind; which envieth not, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself +unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, +rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all +things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. + +'Let your light shine,' says the Lord:--if I have none, the call cannot +apply to me; but I must bethink me, lest, in the night I am cherishing +about me, the Lord come upon me like a thief. There may be those, +however, and I think they are numerous, who, having some, or imagining +they have much light, yet have not enough to know the duty of letting it +shine on their neighbours. The Lord would have his men so alive with his +light, that it should for ever go flashing from each to all, and all, +with eternal response, keep glorifying the Father. Dost thou look for a +good time coming, friend, when thou shalt know as thou art known? Let +the joy of thy hope stream forth upon thy neighbours. Fold them round in +that which maketh thyself glad. Let thy nature grow more expansive and +communicative. Look like the man thou art--a man who knows something +very good. Thou believest thyself on the way to the heart of things: +walk so, shine so, that all that see thee shall want to go with thee. + +What light issues from such as make their faces long at the very name of +death, and look and speak as if it were the end of all things and the +worst of evils? Jesus told his men not to fear death; told them his +friends should go to be with him; told them they should live in the +house of his father and their father; and since then he has risen +himself from the tomb, and gone to prepare a place for them: who, what +are these miserable refusers of comfort? Not Christians, surely! Oh, +yes, they are Christians! 'They are gone,' they say, 'to be for ever +with the Lord;' and then they weep and lament, and seem more afraid of +starting to join them than of aught else under the sun! To the last +attainable moment they cling to what they call life. They are +children--were there ever any other such children?--who hang crying to +the skirts of their mother, and will not be lifted to her bosom. They +are not of Paul's mind: to be with Him is not better! They worship +their physician; and their prayer to the God of their life is to spare +them from more life. What sort of Christians are they? Where shines +their light? Alas for thee, poor world, hadst thou no better lights than +these! + +You who have light, show yourselves the sons and daughters of Light, of +God, of Hope--the heirs of a great completeness. Freely let your light +shine. + +Only take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen +of them. + + + + +_THE RIGHT HAND AND THE LEFT._ + +Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of +them; otherwise ye have no reward of your father which is in heaven.... +But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand +doeth; that thine alms may be in secret; and thy father which seeth in +secret, himself shall reward thee.--_Matthew_ vi. I,3. + + +Let your light out freely, that men may see it, but not that men may see +you. If I do anything, not because it has to be done, not because God +would have it so, not that I may do right, not because it is honest, not +that I love the thing, not that I may be true to my Lord, not that the +truth may be recognized as truth and as his, but that I may be seen as +the doer, that I may be praised of men, that I may gain repute or fame; +be the thing itself ever so good, I may look to men for my reward, for +there is none for me with the Father. If, that light being my pleasure, +I do it that the light may shine, and that men may know _the_ Light, +the father of lights, I do well; but if I do it that I may be seen +shining, that the light may be noted as emanating from me and not from +another, then am I of those that seek glory of men, and worship Satan; +the light that through me may possibly illuminate others, will, in me +and for me, be darkness. + +_But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right +hand doeth_. + +How, then, am I to let my light shine, if I take pains to hide what I +do? + +The injunction is not to hide what you do from others, but to hide it +from yourself. The Master would have you not plume yourself upon it, not +cherish the thought that you have done it, or confer with yourself in +satisfaction over it. You must not count it to your praise. A man must +not desire to be satisfied with himself. His right hand must not seek +the praise of his left hand. His doing must not invite his +after-thinking. The right hand must let the thing done go, as a thing +done-with. We must meditate nothing either as a fine thing for us to do, +or a fine thing for us to have done. We must not imagine any merit in +us: it would be to love a lie, for we can have none; there is no such +thing possible. Is there anything to be proud of in refusing to worship +the devil? Is it a grand thing, is it a meritorious thing, not to be +vile? When we have done all, we are unprofitable servants. Our very best +is but decent. What more could it be? Why then think of it as anything +more? What things could we or any one do, worthy of being brooded over +as possessions. Good to do, they were; bad to pride ourselves upon, they +are. Why should a man meditate with satisfaction on having denied +himself some selfish indulgence, any more than on having washed his +hands? May we roll the rejection of a villainy as a sweet morsel under +our tongues? They were the worst villains of all who could be proud of +not having committed a villainy; and their pride would but render them +the more capable of the villainy, when next the temptation to it came. +Even if our supposed merit were of the positive order, and we did every +duty perfectly, the moment we began to pride ourselves upon the fact, we +should drop into a hell of worthlessness. What are we for but to do our +duty? We must do it, and think nothing of ourselves for that, neither +care what men think of us for anything. With the praise or blame of men +we have nought to do. Their blame may be a good thing, their praise +cannot be. But the worst sort of the praise of men is the praise we give +ourselves. We must do nothing to be seen of ourselves. We must seek no +approbation even, but that of God, else we shut the door of the kingdom +from the outside. His approbation will but quicken our sense of +unworthiness. What! seek the praise of men for being fair to our own +brothers and sisters? What! seek the praise of God for laying our hearts +at the feet of him to whom we utterly belong? There is no pride so +mean--and all pride is absolutely, essentially mean--as the pride of +being holier than our fellow, except the pride of being holy. Such +imagined holiness is foulness. Religion itself in the hearts of the +unreal, is a dead thing; what seems life in it, is the vermiculate life +of a corpse. + +There is one word in the context, as we have it in the authorized +version, that used to trouble me, seeming to make its publicity a +portion of the reward for doing certain right things in secret: I mean +the word _openly_, at the ends of the fourth, the sixth, and the +eighteenth verses, making the Lord seem to say, 'Avoid the praise of +men, and thou shalt at length have the praise of men.'--'Thy father, +which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.' _Thy reward shall be +seen of men! and thou seen as the receiver of the reward!_ In what other +way could the word, then or now, be fairly understood? It must be the +interpolation of some Jew scribe, who, even after learning a little of +the Christ, continued unable to conceive as reward anything that did not +draw part at least of its sweetness from the gazing eyes of the +multitude. Glad was I to find that the word is not in the best +manuscripts; and God be thanked that it is left out in the revised +version. What shall we think of the daring that could interpolate it! +But of like sort is the daring of much exposition of the Master's words. +What men have not faith enough to receive, they will still dilute to the +standard of their own faculty of reception. If any one say, 'Why did the +Lord let the word remain there so long, if he never said it?' I answer: +Perhaps that the minds of his disciples might be troubled at its +presence, arise against it, and do him right by casting it out--and so +Wisdom be justified of her children. + +But there are some who, if the notion of reward is not naturally a +trouble to them, yet have come to feel it such, because of the words of +certain objectors who think to take a higher stand than the Christian, +saying the idea of reward for doing right is a low, an unworthy idea. +Now, verily, it would be a low thing for any child to do his father's +will in the hope that his father would reward him for it; but it is +quite another thing for a father whose child endeavours to please him, +to let him know that he recognizes his childness toward him, and will be +fatherly good to him. What kind of a father were the man who, because +there could be no merit or desert in doing well, would not give his +child a smile or a pleased word when he saw him trying his best? Would +not such acknowledgment from the father be the natural correlate of the +child's behaviour? and what would the father's smile be but the perfect +reward of the child? Suppose the father to love the child so that he +wants to give him everything, but dares not until his character is +developed: must he not be glad, and show his gladness, at every shade of +a progress that will at length set him free to throne his son over all +that he has? 'I am an unprofitable servant,' says the man who has done +his duty; but his lord, coming unexpectedly, and finding him at his +post, girds himself, and makes him sit down to meat, and comes forth and +serves him. How could the divine order of things, founded for growth and +gradual betterment, hold and proceed without the notion of return for a +thing done? Must there be only current and no tide? How can we be +workers with God at his work, and he never say 'Thank you, my child'? +Will he take joy in his success and give none? Is he the husbandman to +take all the profit, and muzzle the mouth of his ox? When a man does +work for another, he has his wages for it, and society exists by the +dependence of man upon man through work and wages. The devil is not the +inventor of this society; he has invented the notion of a certain +degradation in work, a still greater in wages; and following this up, +has constituted a Society after his own likeness, which despises work, +leaves it undone, and so can claim its wages without disgrace. + +If you say, 'No one ought to do right for the sake of reward,' I go +farther and say, 'No man _can_ do right for the sake of reward. A man +may do a thing indifferent, he may do a thing wrong, for the sake of +reward; but a thing in itself right, done for reward, would, in the very +doing, cease to be right.' At the same time, if a man does right, he +cannot escape being rewarded for it; and to refuse the reward, would be +to refuse life, and foil the creative love. The whole question is of the +kind of reward expected. What first reward for doing well, may I look +for? To grow purer in heart, and stronger in the hope of at length +seeing God. If a man be not after this fashion rewarded, he must perish. +As to happiness or any lower rewards that naturally follow the first--is +God to destroy the law of his universe, the divine sequence of cause and +effect in order to say: 'You must do well, but you shall gain no good by +it; you must lead a dull joyless existence to all eternity, that lack of +delight may show you pure'? Could Love create with such end in view? +Righteousness does not demand creation; it is Love, not Righteousness, +that cannot live alone. The creature must already be, ere Righteousness +can put in a claim. But, hearts and souls there, Love itself, which +created for love and joy, presses the demand of Righteousness first. + +A righteousness that created misery in order to up-hold itself, would be +a righteousness that was unrighteous. God will die for righteousness, +but never create for a joyless righteousness. To call into being the +necessarily and hopelessly incomplete, would be to wrong creation in its +very essence. To create for the knowledge of himself, and then not give +himself, would be injustice even to cruelty; and if God give himself, +what other reward--there can be no _further_--is not included, seeing he +is Life and all her children--the All in all? It will take the utmost +joy God can give, to let men know him; and what man, knowing him, would +mind losing every other joy? Only what other joy could keep from +entering, where the God of joy already dwelt? The law of the universe +holds, and will hold, the name of the Father be praised:--'Whatsoever a +man soweth, that shall he also reap.' 'They have sown the wind, and they +shall reap the whirlwind.' 'He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the +flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the +spirit reap life everlasting.' 'Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, +and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall +be taken away even that he hath.' + +To object to Christianity as selfish, is utter foolishness; Christianity +alone gives any hope of deliverance from selfishness. Is it selfish to +desire to love? Is it selfish to hope for purity and the sight of God? +What better can we do for our neighbour than to become altogether +righteous toward him? Will he not be the nearer sharing in the exceeding +great reward of a return to the divine idea? + +Where is the evil toward God, where the wrong to my neighbour, if I +think sometimes of the joys to follow in the train of perfect loving? Is +not the atmosphere of God, love itself, the very breath of the Father, +wherein can float no thinnest pollution of selfishness, the only +material wherewithal to build the airy castles of heaven? 'Creator,' the +childlike heart might cry, 'give me all the wages, all the reward thy +perfect father-heart can give thy unmeriting child. My fit wages may be +pain, sorrow, humiliation of soul: I stretch out my hands to receive +them. Thy reward will be to lift me out of the mire of self-love, and +bring me nearer to thyself and thy children: welcome, divinest of good +things! Thy highest reward is thy purest gift; thou didst make me for it +from the first; thou, the eternal life, hast been labouring still to fit +me for receiving it--the vision, the knowledge, the possession of +thyself. I can seek but what thou waitest and watchest to give: I would +be such into whom thy love can flow.' + +It seems to me that the only merit that could live before God, is the +merit of Jesus--who of himself, at once, untaught, unimplored, laid +himself aside, and turned to the Father, refusing his life save in the +Father. Like God, of himself he chose righteousness, and so merited to +sit on the throne of God. In the same spirit he gave himself afterward +to his father's children, and merited the power to transfuse the +life-redeeming energy of his spirit into theirs: made perfect, he became +the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. But it is a +word of little daring, that Jesus had no thought of merit in what he +did--that he saw only what he had to be, what he must do.--I speak after +the poor fashion of a man lost in what is too great for him, yet is his +very life.--Where can be a man's merit in refusing to go down to an +abyss of loss--loss of the right to be, loss of his father, loss of +himself? Would Satan, with all the instincts and impulses of his origin +in him, have _merited_ eternal life by refusing to be a devil? Not the +less would he have had eternal life; not the less would he have been +wrapt in the love and confidence of the Father. He would have had his +reward. I cannot imagine thing created meriting aught save by divine +courtesy. + +I suspect the notion of merit belongs to a low development, and the +higher a man rises, the less will he find it worth a thought. Perhaps we +shall come to see that it owes what being it has, to man, that it is a +thing thinkable only by man. I suspect it is not a thought of the +eternal mind, and has in itself no existence, being to God merely a +thing thought by man. + + For merit lives from man to man, + And not from man, O Lord, to thee. + +The man, then, who does right, and seeks no praise from men, while he +merits nothing, shall be rewarded by his Father, and his reward will be +right precious to him. + +We must let our light shine, make our faith, our hope, our love, +manifest--that men may praise, not us for shining, but the Father for +creating the light. No man with faith, hope, love, alive in his soul, +could make the divine possessions a show to gain for himself the +admiration of men: not the less must they appear in our words, in our +looks, in our carriage--above all, in honourable, unselfish, hospitable, +helpful deeds. Our light must shine in cheerfulness, in joy, yea, where +a man has the gift, in merriment; in freedom from care save for one +another, in interest in the things of others, in fearlessness and +tenderness, in courtesy and graciousness. In our anger and indignation, +specially, must our light shine. But we must give no quarter to the most +shadowy thought of how this or that will look. From the faintest +thought of the praise of men, we must turn away. No man can be the +disciple of Christ and desire fame. To desire fame is ignoble; it is a +beggarly greed. In the noble mind, it is the more of an infirmity. There +is no aspiration in it--nothing but ambition. It is simply selfishness +that would be proud if it could. Fame is the applause of the many, and +the judgment of the many is foolish; therefore the greater the fame, the +more is the foolishness that swells it, and the worse is the foolishness +that longs after it. Aspiration is the sole escape from ambition. He who +aspires--that is, does his endeavour to rise above himself--neither +lusts to be higher than his neighbour, nor seeks to mount in his +opinion. What light there is in him shines the more that he does nothing +to be seen of men. He stands in the mist between the gulf and the glory, +and looks upward. He loves not his own soul, but longs to be clean. + + Out of the gulf into the glory, + Father, my soul cries out to be lifted. + Dark is the woof of my dismal story, + Thorough thy sun-warp stormily drifted!-- + Out of the gulf into the glory, + Lift me, and save my story. + + I have done many things merely shameful; + I am a man ashamed, my father! + My life is ashamed and broken and blameful-- + The broken and blameful, oh, cleanse and gather! + Heartily shame me, Lord, of the shameful! + To my judge I flee with my blameful. + + Saviour, at peace in thy perfect purity, + Think what it is, not to be pure! + Strong in thy love's essential security, + Think upon those who are never secure. + Full fill my soul with the light of thy purity; + Fold me in love's security. + + O Father, O Brother, my heart is sore aching + Help it to ache as much as is needful; + Is it you cleansing me, mending, remaking, + Dear potter-hands, so tender and heedful? + Sick of my past, of my own self aching-- + Hurt on, dear hands, with your making. + + Proud of the form thou hadst given thy vessel, + Proud of myself, I forgot my donor; + Down in the dust I began to nestle, + Poured thee no wine, and drank deep of dishonour! + Lord, thou hast broken, thou mendest thy vessel! + In the dust of thy glory I nestle. + +O Lord, the earnest expectation of thy creature waiteth for the +manifestation of the sons of God. + + + + +_THE HOPE OF THE UNIVERSE._ + +For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the +manifestation of the sons of God.--_Romans_ viii. 19. + + +Let us try, through these words, to get at the idea in St Paul's mind +for which they stand, and have so long stood. It can be no worthless +idea they represent--no mere platitude, which a man, failing to +understand it at once, may without loss leave behind him. The words mean +something which Paul believes vitally associated with the life and death +of his Master. He had seen Jesus with his bodily eyes, I think, but he +had not seen him with those alone; he had seen and saw him with the real +eyes, the eyes that do not see except they understand; and the sight of +him had uplifted his whole nature--first his pure will for +righteousness, and then his hoping imagination; and out of these, in the +knowledge of Jesus, he spoke. + +The letters he has left behind him, written in the power of this +uplifting, have waked but poor ideas in poor minds; for words, if they +seem to mean anything, must always seem to mean something within the +scope of the mind hearing them. Words cannot convey the thought of a +thinker to a no-thinker; of a largely aspiring and self-discontented +soul, to a creature satisfied with his poverty, and counting his meagre +faculty the human standard. Neither will they readily reveal the mind of +one old in thought, to one who has but lately begun to think. The higher +the reader's notion of what St Paul intends--the higher the idea, that +is, which his words wake in him, the more likely is it to be the same +which moved the man who had seen Jesus, and was his own no more. If a +man err in his interpretation, it will hardly be by attributing to his +words an intent too high. + +First then, what does Paul, the slave of Christ, intend by 'the +creature' or 'the creation'? If he means the _visible world_, he did not +surely, and without saying so, mean to exclude the noblest part of +it--the sentient! If he did, it is doubly strange that he should +immediately attribute not merely sense, but conscious sense, to that +part, the insentient, namely, which remained. If you say he does so but +by a figure of speech, I answer that a figure that meant less than it +said--and how much less would not this?--would be one altogether +unworthy of the Lord's messenger. + +First, I repeat, to exclude the sentient from the term common to both in +the word _creation_ or _creature_--and then to attribute the +capabilities of the sentient to the insentient, as a mere figure to +express the hopes of men with regard to the perfecting of the insentient +for the comfort of men, were a violence as unfit in rhetoric as in its +own nature. Take another part of the same utterance: 'For we know that +the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now:' +is it not manifest that to interpret such words as referring to the mere +imperfections of the insensate material world, would be to make of the +phrase a worthless hyperbole? I am inclined to believe the apostle +regarded the whole visible creation as, in far differing degrees of +consciousness, a live outcome from the heart of the living one, who is +all and in all: such view, at the same time, I do not care to insist +upon; I only care to argue that the word _creature_ or _creation_ must +include everything in creation that has sentient life. That I should in +the class include a greater number of phenomena than a reader may be +prepared to admit, will nowise affect the force of what I have to say, +seeing my point is simply this: that in the term _creation_, Paul +comprises all creatures capable of suffering; the condition of which +sentient, therefore superior portion, gives him occasion to speak of +the whole creation as suffering in the process of its divine evolution +or development, groaning and travailing as in the pangs of giving birth +to a better self, a nobler world. It is not necessary to the idea that +the creation should know what it is groaning after, or wherein the +higher condition constituting its deliverance must consist. The human +race groans for deliverance: how much does the race know that its +redemption lies in becoming one with the Father, and partaking of his +glory? Here and there one of the race knows it--which is indeed a pledge +for the race--but the race cannot be said to know its own lack, or to +have even a far-off notion of what alone can stay its groaning. In like +manner the whole creation is groaning after an unforeseen yet essential +birth--groans with the necessity of being freed from a state that is but +a transitional and not a true one, from a condition that nowise answers +to the intent in which existence began. In both the lower creation and +the higher, this same groaning of the fettered idea after a freer life, +seems the first enforced decree of a holy fate, and itself the first +movement of the hampered thing toward the liberty of another birth. + +To believe that God made many of the lower creatures merely for prey, or +to be the slaves of a slave, and writhe under the tyrannies of a cruel +master who will not serve his own master; that he created and is +creating an endless succession of them to reap little or no good of +life but its cessation--a doctrine held by some, and practically +accepted by multitudes--is to believe in a God who, so far as one +portion at least of his creation is concerned, is a demon. But a +creative demon is an absurdity; and were such a creator possible, he +would not be God, but must one day be found and destroyed by the real +God. Not the less the fact remains, that miserable suffering abounds +among them, and that, even supposing God did not foresee how creation +would turn out for them, the thing lies at his door. He has besides made +them so far dumb that they cannot move the hearts of the oppressors into +whose hands he has given them, telling how hard they find the world, how +sore their life in it. The apostle takes up their case, and gives us +material for an answer to such as blame God for their sad condition. + +There are many, I suspect, who from the eighth chapter of St Paul's +epistle to the Romans, gather this much and no more:--that the lower +animals alive at the coming of the Lord, whensoever that may be, will +thenceforward, with such as thereafter may come into existence, lead a +happy life for the time allotted them! Strong champions of God, these +profound believers! What lovers of life, what disciples of St Paul, nay, +what disciples of Jesus, to whom such a gloss is consolation for the +moans of a universe! Truly, the furnace of affliction they would +extinguish thus, casts out the more an evil odour! For all the creatures +who through ages of misery have groaned and travailed and died, to these +mild Christians it is enough that they are dead, therefore, as they +would argue, out of it now! 'It is well with them,' I seem to hear such +say; 'they are mercifully dealt with; their sufferings are over; they +had not to live on for ever in oppression. The God of their life has +taken from them their past, and troubles them with no future!' It is +true this were no small consolation concerning such as are gone away! +Surely rest is better than ceaseless toil and pain! But what shall we +say of such a heedless God as those Christians are content to worship! +Is he a merciful God? Is he a loving God? How shall he die to escape the +remorse of the authorship of so much misery? Our pity turns from the +dead creature to the live creator who could live and know himself the +maker of so many extinguished hearts, whose friend was--not he, but +Death. Blessed be the name of the Father of Jesus, there is no such +creator! + +Be we have not to do with the dead only; there are those which live and +suffer: is there no comfort concerning them, but that they too shall at +length die and leave their misery? And what shall we say of those +coming, and yet to come and pass--evermore issuing from the fountain of +life, daily born into evil things? Will the consolation that they will +soon die, suffice for the heart of the child who laments over his dead +bird or rabbit, and would fain love that father in heaven who keeps on +making the creatures? Alas, they are crowding in; they cannot help +themselves; their misery is awaiting them! Would those Christians have +me believe in a God who differentiates creatures from himself, only that +they may be the prey of other creatures, or spend a few hours or years, +helpless and lonely, speechless and without appeal, in merciless hands, +then pass away into nothingness? I will not; in the name of Jesus, I +will not. Had he not known something better, would he have said what he +did about the father of men and the sparrows? + +What many men call their beliefs, are but the prejudices they happen to +have picked up: why should such believers waste a thought as to how +their paltry fellow-inhabitants of the planet fare? Many indeed have all +their lives been too busy making their human fellows groan and sweat for +their own fancied well-being, to spare a thought for the fate of the yet +more helpless. But there are not a few, who would be indignant at having +their belief in God questioned, who yet seem greatly to fear imagining +him better than he is: whether is it he or themselves they dread +injuring by expecting too much of him? 'You see the plain facts of the +case!' they say. 'There is no questioning them! What can be done for the +poor things--except indeed you take the absurd notion into your head, +that they too have a life beyond the grave?' + +Why should such a notion seem to you absurd? I answer. The teachers of +the nation have unwittingly, it seems to me through unbelief, wronged +the animals deeply by their silence anent the thoughtless popular +presumption that they have no hereafter; thus leaving them deprived of a +great advantage to their position among men. But I suppose they too have +taken it for granted that the Preserver of man and beast never had a +thought of keeping one beast alive beyond a certain time; in which case +heartless men might well argue he did not care how they wronged them, +for he meant them no redress. Their immortality is no new faith with me, +but as old as my childhood. + +Do you believe in immortality for yourself? I would ask any reader who +is not in sympathy with my hope for the animals. If not, I have no +argument with you. But if you do, why not believe in it for them? +Verily, were immortality no greater a thing for the animals than it +seems for men to some who yet profess to expect it, I should scarce care +to insist upon their share in it. But if the thought be anywise precious +to you, is it essential to your enjoyment in it, that nothing less than +yourself should share its realization? Are you the lowest kind of +creature that _could_ be permitted to live? Had God been of like heart +with you, would he have given life and immortality to creatures so much +less than himself as we? Are these not worth making immortal? How, then, +were they worth calling out of the depth of no-being? It is a greater +deed, to make be that which was not, than to seal it with an infinite +immortality: did God do that which was not worth doing? What he thought +worth making, you think not worth continuing made! You would have him go +on for ever creating new things with one hand, and annihilating those he +had made with the other--for I presume you would not prefer the earth to +be without animals! If it were harder for God to make the former go on +living, than to send forth new, then his creatures were no better than +the toys which a child makes, and destroys as he makes them. For what +good, for what divine purpose is the maker of the sparrow present at its +death, if he does not care what becomes of it? What is he there for, I +repeat, if he have no care that it go well with his bird in its dying, +that it be neither comfortless nor lost in the abyss? If his presence be +no good to the sparrow, are you very sure what good it will be to you +when your hour comes? Believe it is not by a little only that the heart +of the universe is tenderer, more loving, more just and fair, than yours +or mine. + +If you did not believe you were yourself to out-live death, I could not +blame you for thinking all was over with the sparrow; but to believe in +immortality for yourself, and not care to believe in it for the sparrow, +would be simply hard-hearted and selfish. If it would make you happy to +think there was life beyond death for the sparrow as well as for +yourself, I would gladly help you at least to hope that there may be. + +I know of no reason why I should not look for the animals to rise again, +in the same sense in which I hope myself to rise again--which is, to +reappear, clothed with another and better form of life than before. If +the Father will raise his children, why should he not also raise those +whom he has taught his little ones to love? Love is the one bond of the +universe, the heart of God, the life of his children: if animals can be +loved, they are loveable; if they can love, they are yet more plainly +loveable: love is eternal; how then should its object perish? Must the +very immortality of love divide the bond of love? Must the love live on +for ever without its object? or worse still, must the love die with its +object, and be eternal no more than it? What a mis-invented correlation +in which the one side was eternal, the other, where not yet annihilated, +constantly perishing! Is not our love to the animals a precious variety +of love? And if God gave the creatures to us, that a new phase of love +might be born in us toward another kind of life from the same fountain, +why should the new life be more perishing than the new love? Can you +imagine that, if, here-after, one of God's little ones were to ask him +to give again one of the earth's old loves--kitten, or pony, or +squirrel, or dog, which he had taken from him, the Father would say no? +If the thing was so good that God made it for and gave it to the child +at first who never asked for it, why should he not give it again to the +child who prays for it because the Father had made him love it? What a +child may ask for, the Father will keep ready. + +That there are difficulties in the way of believing thus, I grant; that +there are impossibilities, I deny. Perhaps the first difficulty that +occurs is, the many forms of life which we cannot desire again to see. +But while we would gladly keep the perfected forms of the higher +animals, we may hope that those of many other kinds are as transitory as +their bodies, belonging but to a stage of development. All animal forms +tend to higher: why should not the individual, as well as the race, pass +through stages of ascent. If I have myself gone through each of the +typical forms of lower life on my way to the human--a supposition by +antenatal history rendered probable--and therefore may have passed +through any number of individual forms of life, I do not see why each of +the lower animals should not as well pass upward through a succession of +bettering embodiments. I grant that the theory requires another to +complement it; namely, that those men and women, who do not even +approximately fulfil the conditions of their elevated rank, who will not +endeavour after the great human-divine idea, striving to ascend, are +sent away back down to that stage of development, say of fish or insect +or reptile, beyond which their moral nature has refused to advance. Who +has not seen or known men who _appeared_ not to have passed, or indeed +in some things to have approached the development of the more human of +the lower animals! Let those take care who look contemptuously upon the +animals, lest, in misusing one of them, they misuse some ancestor of +their own, sent back, as the one mercy for him, to reassume far past +forms and conditions--far past in physical, that is, but not in moral +development--and so have another opportunity of passing the +self-constituted barrier. The suggestion may appear very ridiculous, and +no doubt lends itself to humorous comment; but what if it should be +true! what if the amused reader should himself be getting ready to +follow the remanded ancestor! Upon it, however, I do not care to spend +thought or time, least of all argument; what I care to press is the +question--If we believe in the progress of creation as hitherto +manifested, also in the marvellous changes of form that take place in +every individual of certain classes, why should there be any difficulty +in hoping that old lives may reappear in new forms? The typical soul +reappears in higher formal type; why may not also the individual soul +reappear in higher form? + +Multitudes evidently count it safest to hold by a dull scheme of things: +can it be because, like David in Browning's poem _Saul_, they dread lest +they should worst the Giver by inventing better gifts than his? That we +do not know, is the best reason for hoping to the full extent God has +made possible to us. If then we go wrong, it will be in the direction of +the right, and with such aberration as will be easier to correct than +what must come of refusing to imagine, and leaving the dullest +traditional prepossessions to rule our hearts and minds, with no claim +but the poverty of their expectation from the paternal riches. Those +that hope little cannot grow much. To them the very glory of God must be +a small thing, for their hope of it is so small as not to be worth +rejoicing in. That he is a faithful creator means nothing to them for +far the larger portion of the creatures he has made! Truly their notion +of faithfulness is poor enough; how then can their faith be strong! In +the very nature of divine things, the common-place must be false. The +stupid, self-satisfied soul, which cannot know its own stupidity, and +will not trouble itself either to understand or to imagine, is the +farthest behind of all the backward children in God's nursery. + +As I say, then, I know no cause of reasonable difficulty in regard to +the continued existence of the lower animals, except the present nature +of some of them. But what Christian will dare to say that God does not +care about them?--and he knows them as we cannot know them. Great or +small, they are his. Great are all his results; small are all his +beginnings. That we have to send many of his creatures out of this phase +of their life because of their hurtfulness in this phase of ours, is to +me no stumbling-block. The very fact that this has always had to be +done, the long protracted combat of the race with such, and the +constantly repeated though not invariable victory of the man, has had an +essential and incalculable share in the development of humanity, which +is the rendering of man capable of knowing God; and when their part to +that end is no longer necessary, changed conditions may speedily so +operate that the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie +down with the kid. The difficulty may go for nothing in view of the +forces of that future with which this loving speculation concerns +itself. + +I would now lead my companion a little closer to what the apostle says +in the nineteenth verse; to come closer, if we may, to the idea that +burned in his heart when he wrote what we call the eighth chapter of his +epistle to the Romans. Oh, how far ahead he seems, in his hope for the +creation, of the footsore and halting brigade of Christians at present +crossing the world! He knew Christ, and could therefore look into the +will of the Father. + +_For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the +manifestation of the sons of God_! + +At the head of one of his poems, Henry Vaughan has this Latin +translation of the verse: I do not know whether he found or made it, but +it is closer to its sense than ours:-- + +'Etenim res creatae exerto capite observantes expectant revelationem +filiorum Dei.'--'For the things created, watching with head thrust out, +await the revelation of the sons of God.' + +Why? + +Because God has subjected the creation to vanity, in the hope that the +creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into +the glorious liberty of the children of God. For this double +deliverance--from corruption and the consequent subjection to vanity, +the creation is eagerly watching. + +The bondage of corruption God encounters and counteracts by subjection +to vanity. Corruption is the breaking up of the essential idea; the +falling away from the original indwelling and life-causing thought. It +is met by the suffering which itself causes. That suffering is for +redemption, for deliverance. It is the life in the corrupting thing that +makes the suffering possible; it is the live part, not the corrupted +part that suffers; it is the redeemable, not the doomed thing, that is +subjected to vanity. The race in which evil--that is, corruption, is at +work, needs, as the one means for its rescue, subjection to vanity; it +is the one hope against the supremacy of corruption; and the whole +encircling, harboring, and helping creation must, for the sake of man, +its head, and for its own further sake too, share in this subjection to +vanity with its hope of deliverance. + +Corruption brings in vanity, causes empty aching gaps in vitality. This +aching is what most people regard as evil: it is the unpleasant cure of +evil. It takes all shapes of suffering--of the body, of the mind, of the +heart, of the spirit. It is altogether beneficent: without this ever +invading vanity, what hope would there be for the rich and powerful, +accustomed to, and set upon their own way? what hope for the +self-indulgent, the conceited, the greedy, the miserly? The more things +men seek, the more varied the things they imagine they need, the more +are they subject to vanity--all the forms of which may be summed in the +word disappointment. He who would not house with disappointment, must +seek the incorruptible, the true. He must break the bondage of havings +and shows; of rumours, and praises, and pretences, and selfish +pleasures. He must come out of the false into the real; out of the +darkness into the light; out of the bondage of corruption into the +glorious liberty of the children of God. To bring men to break with +corruption, the gulf of the inane yawns before them. Aghast in soul, +they cry, 'Vanity of vanities! all is vanity!' and beyond the abyss +begin to espy the eternal world of truth. + +Note now 'the hope that the creation itself also,' as something besides +and other than God's men and women, 'shall be delivered from the bondage +of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.' +The creation then is to share in the deliverance and liberty and glory +of the children of God. Deliverance from corruption, liberty from +bondage, must include escape from the very home and goal of corruption, +namely death,--and that in all its kinds and degrees. When you say then +that for the children of God there is no more death, remember that the +deliverance of the creature is from the bondage of corruption into the +glorious liberty of the children of God. Dead, in bondage to +corruption, how can they share in the liberty of the children of Life? +Where is their deliverance? + +If such then be the words of the apostle, does he, or does he not, I +ask, hold the idea of the immortality of the animals? If you say all he +means is, that the creatures alive at the coming of the Lord will be set +free from the tyranny of corrupt man, I refer you to what I have already +said of the poverty of such an interpretation, accepting the failure of +justice and love toward those that have passed away, are passing, and +must yet, ere that coming, be born to pass away for ever. For the man +whose heart aches to adore a faithful creator, what comfort lies in such +good news! He must perish for lack of a true God! Oh lame conclusion to +the grand prophecy! Is God a mocker, who will not be mocked? Is there a +past to God with which he has done? Is Time too much for him? Is he God +enough to care for those that happen to live at one present time, but +not God enough to care for those that happened to live at another +present time? Or did he care for them, but could not help them? Shall we +not rather believe that the vessels of less honour, the misused, the +maltreated, shall be filled full with creative wine at last? Shall not +the children have little dogs under the Father's table, to which to let +fall plenty of crumbs? If there was such provision for the sparrows of +our Lord's time of sojourn, and he will bring yet better with him when +he comes again, how should the dead sparrows and their sorrows be passed +over of him with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning? Or +would the deliverance of the creatures into the groaned-for liberty have +been much worth mentioning, if within a few years their share in the +glory of the sons of God was to die away in death? But the gifts of God +are without repentance. + +How St Paul longs for and loves liberty! Only true lover of liberty is +he, who will die to give it to his neighbour! St Paul loved liberty more +than his own liberty. But then see how different his notion of the +liberty on its way to the children of God, from the dull modern fancies +of heaven still set forth in the popular hymn-books! The new heaven and +the new earth will at least be a heaven and an earth! What would the +newest earth be to the old children without its animals? Barer than the +heavens emptied of the constellations that are called by their names. +Then, if the earth must have its animals, why not the old ones, already +dear? The sons of God are not a new race of sons of God, but the old +race glorified:--why a new race of animals, and not the old ones +glorified? + +The apostle says they are to share in the liberty of the sons of God: +will it not then be a liberty like ours, a liberty always ready to be +offered on the altar of love? What sweet service will not that of the +animals be, thus offered! How sweet also to minister to them in their +turns of need! For to us doubtless will they then flee for help in any +difficulty, as now they flee from us in dread of our tyranny. What +lovelier feature in the newness of the new earth, than the old animals +glorified with us, in their home with us--our common home, the house of +our father--each kind an unfailing pleasure to the other! Ah, what +horses! Ah, what dogs! Ah, what wild beasts, and what birds in the air! +The whole redeemed creation goes to make up St Paul's heaven. He had +learned of him who would leave no one out; who made the excuse for his +murderers that they did not know what they were doing. + +Is not the prophecy on the groaning creation to have its fulfilment in +the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness? Does +not this involve its existence beyond what we call this world? Why +should it not then involve immortality? Would it not be more like the +king eternal, immortal, invisible, to know no life but the immortal? to +create nothing that could die; to slay nothing but evil? 'For he is not +a God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto him.' + +But what is this liberty of the children of God, for which the whole +creation is waiting? The children themselves are waiting for it: when +they have it, then will their house and retinue, the creation, whose +fate hangs on that of the children, share it with them: what is this +liberty? + +All liberty must of course consist in the realization of the ideal +harmony between the creative will and the created life; in the +correspondence of the creature's active being to the creator's idea, +which is his substantial soul. In other words the creature's liberty is +what his obedience to the law of his existence, the will of his maker, +effects for him. The instant a soul moves counter to the will of its +prime cause, the universe is its prison; it dashes against the walls of +it, and the sweetest of its uplifting and sustaining forces at once +become its manacles and fetters. But St Paul is not at the moment +thinking either of the metaphysical notion of liberty, or of its +religious realization; he has in his thought the birth of the soul's +consciousness of freedom. + +'And not only so'--that the creation groaneth and travaileth--'but +ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we +ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for.... the redemption of our +body.'--We are not free, he implies, until our body is redeemed; then +all the creation will be free with us. He regards the creation as part +of our embodiment. The whole creation is waiting for the manifestation +of the sons of God--that is, the redemption of their body, the idea of +which extends to their whole material envelopment, with all the life +that belongs to it. For this as for them, the bonds of corruption must +fall away; it must enter into the same liberty with them, and be that +for which it was created--a vital temple, perfected by the unbroken +indwelling of its divinity. + +The liberty here intended, it may be unnecessary to say, is not that +essential liberty--freedom from sin, but the completing of the +redemption of the spirit by the redemption of the body, the perfecting +of the greater by its necessary complement of the less. Evil has been +constantly at work, turning our house of the body into a prison; +rendering it more opaque and heavy and insensible; casting about it +bands and cerements, and filling it with aches and pains. The freest +soul, the purest of lovers, the man most incapable of anything mean, +would not, for all his mighty liberty, yet feel absolutely at large +while chained to a dying body--nor the less hampered, but the more, that +that dying body was his own. The redemption of the body, therefore, the +making of it for the man a genuine, perfected, responsive house-alive, +is essential to the apostle's notion of a man's deliverance. The new man +must have a new body with a new heaven and earth. St Paul never thinks +of himself as released from body; he desires a perfect one, and of a +nobler sort; he would inhabit a heaven-made house, and give up the +earth-made one, suitable only to this lower stage of life, infected and +unsafe from the first, and now much dilapidated in the service of the +Master who could so easily give him a better. He wants a spiritual +body--a body that will not thwart but second the needs and aspirations +of the spirit. He had in his mind, I presume, such a body as the Lord +died with, changed by the interpenetrating of the creative indwelling +will, to a heavenly body, the body with which he rose. A body like the +Lord's is, I imagine, necessary to bring us into true and perfect +contact with the creation, of which there must be multitudinous phases +whereof we cannot now be even aware. + +The way in which both good and indifferent people alike lay the blame on +their bodies, and look to death rather than God-aided struggle to set +them at liberty, appears to me low and cowardly: it is the master +fleeing from the slave, despising at once and fearing him. We must hold +the supremacy over our bodies, but we must not despise body; it is a +divine thing. Body and soul are in the image of God; and the lord of +life was last seen in the glorified body of his death. I believe that he +still wears that body. But we shall do better without these bodies that +suffer and grow old--which may indeed, as some think, be but the outer +cases, the husks of our real bodies. Endlessly helpful as they have been +to us, and that, in a measure incalculable, through their very +subjection to vanity, we are yet surely not in altogether and only +helpful company, so long as the houses wherein we live have so many +spots and stains in them which friendly death, it may be, can alone wash +out--so many weather-eaten and self-engendered sores which the builder's +hand, pulling down and rebuilding of fresh and nobler material, alone +can banish. + +When the sons, then, are free, when their bodies are redeemed, they will +lift up with them the lower creation into their liberty. St Paul seems +to believe that perfection in their kind awaits also the humbler +inhabitants of our world, its advent to follow immediately on the +manifestation of the sons of God: for our sakes and their own they have +been made subject to vanity; for our sakes and their own they shall be +restored and glorified, that is, raised higher with us. + +Has the question no interest for you? It would have much, had you now +what you must one day have--a heart big enough to love any life God has +thought fit to create. Had the Lord cared no more for what of his +father's was lower than himself, than you do for what of your father's +is lower than you, you would not now be looking for any sort of +redemption. + +I have omitted in my quotations the word _adoption_ used in both English +versions: it is no translation of the Greek word for which it stands. It +is used by St Paul as meaning the same thing with the phrase, 'the +redemption of the body'--a fact to bring the interpretation given it at +once into question. Falser translation, if we look at the importance of +the thing signified, and its utter loss in the word used to represent +it, not to mention the substitution for that of the apostle, of an idea +not only untrue but actively mischievous, was never made. The thing St +Paul means in the word he uses, has simply nothing to do with +adoption--nothing whatever. In the beginning of the fourth chapter of +his epistle to the Galatians, he makes perfectly clear what he intends +by it. His unusual word means the father's recognition, when he comes of +age, of the child's relation to him, by giving him his fitting place of +dignity in the house; and here the deliverance of the body is the act of +this recognition by the great Father, completing and crowning and +declaring the freedom of the man, the perfecting of the last lingering +remnant of his deliverance. St Paul's word, I repeat, has nothing to do +with _adoption_; it means the manifestation of the grown-up sons of God; +the showing of those as sons, who have always been his children; the +bringing of them out before the universe in such suitable attire and +with such fit attendance, that to look at them is to see what they are, +the sons of the house--such to whom their elder brother applied the +words: 'I said ye are Gods.' + +If then the sons groan within themselves, looking to be lifted up, and +the other inhabitants of the same world groan with them and cry, shall +they not also be lifted up? Have they not also a faithful creator? He +must be a selfish man indeed who does not desire that it should be so. + +It appears then, that, in the expectation of the apostle, the new +heavens and the new earth in which dwell the sons of God, are to be +inhabited by blessed animals also--inferior, but risen--and I think, yet +to rise in continuous development. + +Here let me revert a moment, and say a little more clearly and strongly +a thing I have already said:-- + +When the apostle speaks of the whole creation, is it possible he should +have dismissed the animals from his thoughts, to regard the trees and +flowers bearing their part in the groaning and travailing of the sore +burdened world? Or could he, animals and trees and flowers forgotten, +have intended by the creation that groaned and travailed, only the bulk +of the earth, its mountains and valleys, plains and seas and rivers, its +agglomeration of hard and soft, of hot and cold, of moist and dry? If +he could, then the portion that least can be supposed to feel or know, +is regarded by the apostle of love as immeasurably more important than +the portion that loves and moans and cries. Nor is this all; for +thereupon he attributes the suffering-faculty of the excluded, far more +sentient portion at least, to the altogether inferior and less sentient, +and upon the ground of that faculty builds the vision of its redemption! +If it could be so, then how should the seeming apostle's affected +rhapsody of hope be to us other than a mere puff-ball of falsest +rhetoric, a special-pleading for nothing, as degrading to art as +objectless in nature? + +Much would I like to know clearly what animals the apostle saw on his +travels, or around his home when he had one--their conditions, and their +relations to their superiors. Anyhow they were often suffering +creatures; and Paul was a man growing hourly in likeness to his maker +and theirs, therefore overflowing with sympathy. Perhaps as he wrote, +there passed through his mind a throb of pity for the beasts he had to +kill at Ephesus. + +If the Lord said very little about animals, could he have done more for +them than tell men that his father cared for them? He has thereby +wakened and is wakening in the hearts of men a seed his father planted. +It grows but slowly, yet has already borne a little precious fruit. His +loving friend St Francis has helped him, and many others have tried, +and are now trying to help him: whoever sows the seed of that seed the +Father planted is helping the Son. Our behaviour to the animals, our +words concerning them, are seed, either good or bad, in the hearts of +our children. No one can tell to what the animals might not grow, even +here on the old earth under the old heaven, if they were but dealt with +according to their true position in regard to us. They are, in sense +very real and divine, our kindred. If I call them our poor relations, it +is to suggest that poor relations are often ill used. Relatives, poor or +rich, may be such ill behaved, self-assertive, disagreeable persons, +that we cannot treat them as we gladly would; but our endeavour should +be to develop every true relation. He who is prejudiced against a +relative because he is poor, is himself an ill-bred relative, and to be +ill-bred is an excluding fault with the court of the high countries. +There, poverty is welcome, vulgarity inadmissible. + +Those who love certain animals selfishly, pampering them, as so many +mothers do their children with worse results, that they may be loved of +them in return, betray them to their enemies. They are not lovers of +animals, but only of favourites, and do their part to make the rest of +the world dislike animals. Theirs are the dogs that inhospitably growl +and bark and snap, moving the indifferent to dislike, and confirming +the unfriendly in their antagonism. Any dog-parliament, met in the +interests of their kind, would condemn such dogs to be discreetly +bitten, and their mistresses to be avoided. And certainly, if animals +are intended to live and grow, she is the enemy of any individual +animal, who stunts his moral and intellectual development by unwise +indulgence. Of whatever nature be the heaven of the animals, that animal +is not in the fair way to enter it. The education of the lower lies at +the door of the higher, and in true education is truest kindness. + +But what shall I say of such as for any kind of end subject animals to +torture? I dare hardly trust myself to the expression of my judgment of +their conduct in this regard. + +'We are investigators; we are not doing it for our own sakes, but for +the sake of others, our fellow-men.' + +The higher your motive for it, the greater is the blame of your +unrighteousness. Must we congratulate you on such a love for your +fellows as inspires you to wrong the weaker than they, those that are +without helper against you? Shall we count the man worthy who, for the +sake of his friend, robbed another man too feeble to protect himself, +and too poor to punish his assailant? For the sake of your children, +would you waylay a beggar? No real good can grow in the soil of +injustice. + +I cannot help suspecting, however, that the desire to know has a greater +share in the enormity than the desire to help. Alas for the science that +will sacrifice the law of righteousness but to behold a law of sequence! +The tree of knowledge will never prove to man the tree of life. There is +no law says, Thou shalt know; a thousand laws cry out, Thou shalt do +right. These men are a law unto themselves--and what a law! It is the +old story: the greed of knowing casts out righteousness, and mercy, and +faith. Whatever believed a benefit may or may not thus be wrought for +higher creatures, the injustice to the lower is nowise affected. Justice +has no respect of persons, but they are surely the weaker that stand +more in need of justice! + +Labour is a law of the universe, and is not an evil. Death is a law of +this world at least, and is not an evil. Torture is the law of no world +but the hell of human invention. Labour and death are for the best good +of those that labour and die; they are laws of life. Torture is +doubtless over-ruled for the good of the tortured, but it will one day +burn a very hell in the hearts of the torturers. + +Torture can be inflicted only by the superior. The divine idea of a +superior, is one who requires duty, and protects, helps, delivers: our +relation to the animals is that of their superiors in the family, who +require labour, it may be, but are just, helpful, protective. Can they +know anything of the Father who neither love nor rule their inferiors, +but use them as a child his insensate toys, pulling them to pieces to +know what is inside them? Such men, so-called of science--let them have +the dignity to the fullness of its worth--lust to know as if a man's +life lay in knowing, as if it were a vile thing to be ignorant--so vile +that, for the sake of his secret hoard of facts, they do right in +breaking with torture into the house of the innocent! Surely they shall +not thus find the way of understanding! Surely there is a maniac thirst +for knowledge, as a maniac thirst for wine or for blood! He who loves +knowledge the most genuinely, will with the most patience wait for it +until it can be had righteously. + +Need I argue the injustice? Can a sentient creature come forth without +rights, without claim to well-being, or to consideration from the other +creatures whom they find, equally without action of their own, present +in space? If one answer, 'For aught I know, it may be so,'--Where then +are thy own rights? I ask. If another have none, thine must lie in thy +superior power; and will there not one day come a stronger than thou? +Mayst thou not one day be in Naboth's place, with an Ahab getting up to +go into thy vineyard to possess it? The rich man may come prowling +after thy little ewe lamb, and what wilt thou have to say? He may be the +stronger, and thou the weaker! That the rights of the animals are so +much less than ours, does not surely argue them the less rights! They +have little, and we have much; ought they therefore to have less and we +more? Must we not rather be the more honourably anxious that they have +their little to the full. Every gain of injustice is a loss to the +world; for life consists neither in length of days nor in ease of body. +Greed of life and wrong done to secure it, will never work anything but +direst loss. As to knowledge, let justice guide thy search and thou wilt +know the sooner. Do the will of God, and thou shalt know God, and he +will open thine eyes to look into the very heart of knowledge. Force thy +violent way, and gain knowledge, to miss truth. Thou mayest wound the +heart of God, but thou canst not rend it asunder to find the Truth that +sits there enthroned. + +What man would he be who accepted the offer to be healed and kept alive +by means which necessitated the torture of certain animals? Would he +feel himself a gentleman--walking the earth with the sense that his life +and conscious well-being were informed and upheld by the agonies of +other lives? + +'I hope, sir, your health is better than it has been?' + +'Thank you, I am wonderfully restored--have entered in truth upon a +fresh lease of life. My organism has been nourished with the agonies of +several dogs, and the pangs of a multitude of rabbits and guinea-pigs, +and I am aware of a marvellous change for the better. They gave me their +lives, and I gave them in return worse pains than mine. The bargain has +proved a quite satisfactory one! True, their lives were theirs, not +mine; but then their sufferings were theirs, not mine! They could not +defend themselves; they had not a word to say, so reasonable was the +exchange. Poor fools! they were neither so wise, nor so strong, nor such +lovers of comfort as I! If they could not take care of themselves, that +was their look-out, not mine! Every animal for himself!' + +There was a certain patriotic priest who thought it better to put a just +man to death than that a whole nation should perish. Precious salvation +that might be wrought by injustice! But then the just man taught that +the rich man and the beggar must one day change places. + +'To set the life of a dog against the life of a human being!' + +No, but the torture of a dog against the prolonged life of a being +capable of torturing him. Priceless gain, the lengthening of such a +life, to the man and his friends and his country! + +That the animals do not suffer so much as we should under like +inflictions, I hope true, and think true. But is toothache nothing, +because there are yet worse pains for head and face? + +Not a few who now regard themselves as benefactors of mankind, will one +day be looked upon with a disapprobation which no argument will now +convince them they deserve. But yet another day is coming, when they +will themselves right sorrowfully pour out disapprobation upon their own +deeds; for they are not stones but men, and must repent. Let them, in +the interests of humanity, give their own entrails to the knife, their +own silver cord to be laid bare, their own golden bowl to be watched +throbbing, and I will worship at their feet. But shall I admire their +discoveries at the expense of the stranger--nay, no stranger--the poor +brother within their gates? + +Your conscience does not trouble you? Take heed that the light that is +in you be not darkness. Whatever judgment mean, will it suffice you in +that hour to say, 'My burning desire to know how life wrought in him, +drove me through the gates and bars of his living house'? I doubt if you +will add, in your heart any more than with your tongue, 'and I did +well.' + +To those who expect a world to come, I say then, Let us take heed how +we carry ourselves to the creation which is to occupy with us the world +to come. + +To those whose hearts are sore for that creation, I say, The Lord is +mindful of his own, and will save both man and beast. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hope of the Gospel, by George MacDonald + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14453 *** |