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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20478-h.zip b/20478-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a8f330b --- /dev/null +++ b/20478-h.zip diff --git a/20478-h/20478-h.htm b/20478-h/20478-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bf1082 --- /dev/null +++ b/20478-h/20478-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,790 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Strong Souls, by Charles Beard. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 20%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Strong Souls, by Charles Beard + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Strong Souls + A Sermon + +Author: Charles Beard + +Release Date: January 29, 2007 [EBook #20478] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRONG SOULS *** + + + + +Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h1>STRONG SOULS:</h1> + +<h2><span class="smcap">A Sermon</span>,</h2> + +<h5>PREACHED IN</h5> + +<h2>RENSHAW STREET CHAPEL, LIVERPOOL,</h2> + +<h5>ON</h5> + +<h3>SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1882.</h3> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h2>CHARLES BEARD, B.A.</h2> + +<hr /> + +<h5>PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION.</h5> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<h5> +LONDON:<br /> +PRINTED BY C. GREEN AND SON,<br /> +178, STRAND.<br /></h5> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<h3> +In Memory of<br /> +<br /> +ELIZABETH RATHBONE,<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Of Greenbank,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Aged</span> 92.<br /></h3> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/start.png" alt="Decorative Device" /></p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<h2>STRONG SOULS.</h2> + +<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/dec.png" alt="Text Decoration" /></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John</span> x. 10 p. (Revised Version):</p> + +<p class="center">"I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly."</p> + +<p> +<br /> + +Life is a gift of very unequal distribution. I am not speaking merely of +length of life, though that is an important element in the case: there +may be sad and quiet years which do not count: we have known existences +which crept on in one dull round, from petty pleasure to petty pleasure, +from monotonous occupation to monotonous occupation, never roused to +storm by any noble passion, never thrilled by an electric touch of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>sympathy. Some lives are complete within narrow limits: in the few +years which are all they have, they ripen into perfect sweetness, or +expend themselves in such a flash of heroism, as would make subsequent +days, were they given, mean and poor by contrast. What shall we say of +that nameless engine-driver in America, who last week, measuring his own +life against six hundred more, rushed through the flames and saved them? +Dead of his glorious wounds, who would dare to pity him, or to think his +end untimely? Life may be measured by its breadth as well as by its +length: by the number of its intellectual points of contact with +humanity, by the width of its sympathies, the largeness of its hopes. +Still more, there is a quality of intensity in which lives differ: some +live more in a week than others in a year: it is not that they are +consuming themselves under stress of circumstance or in agony of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>passion, but that their fibre is stronger, their central flame +brighter, their power of endurance larger. This inequality of gift may +be a religious difficulty, but it fits in with the whole economy of +Nature, who is a Mother at once bountiful and prodigal, and while +careful of the type, careless of the individual life; bidding one soul +but open unconscious eyes upon the world and close them again, while +another moves through the slow changes of ninety years. But it is easier +to understand when we remember that a just God asks account only of what +He has given. Within the narrowest fate is yet room to round off the +perfect sphere. Of the lily that blooms to-day and fades to-morrow, He +demands only that it shall be sweet and beautiful in its season.</p> + +<p>Energy is largely, though perhaps not wholly, a physical quality. It +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>comes of a certain superb vitality, a power of unconscious living, +well-strung nerves, a quickly-working brain. I know the wonders which an +eager will and a keen conscience can work, with no better instrument +than a frail body, always full of languors, always accessible to pain; +and I bow before them in glad reverence, as tokens of the spirit's +victory over the flesh. But this, though undoubtedly from a moral point +of view not inferior, is not the same thing as the easy swing of mind +and body which is not only always equal to its work, but finds its +keenest delight in strenuous efforts and long-drawn toils, which would +hopelessly overtax weaker men. And there is an obvious connection +between this kind of vitality and that which shows itself in life +prolonged far beyond the usual limits. Men and women do not live the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>longer for sparing themselves, even were long life under such +conditions worth having. I admit the wearing power of fretting anxiety, +of sorrow that saps the springs of life, of labour pushed to contempt of +the physical and moral conditions of existence; but honest work for an +honest purpose, the full exercise of all the powers from day to day, the +steady strain of faculties that were meant for strain and which rust in +disuse, never hurt any one yet. But the temptations of exuberant +vitality are all, if not to over-strain, yet to a certain hardness, and +arrogance, and disregard of eternal law. It is not complimentary to +human nature to note that perfectly healthy people, whom nothing tries +and who are ignorant of pain, are seldom tolerant, tender, sympathetic, +with lives that in one important constituent of happiness are far +beneath their own. Upon such the shadow of the infinite seems to fall +but seldom. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> succeed in so many things that they undertake, as to +escape the sense of the impassable barriers that hem in all human +existence. The very fact of living is so much to them, that they fail to +see the meaning of the limitations, the shortcomings, the +disappointments of life. They feel no abiding smart of a thorn in the +flesh, and so are never forced back upon a higher strength than their +own. And yet it is when a nature richly endowed with all the elements of +vitality, and living from the first, living to the last, devotes itself +to the highest aims and is supported by the highest helps, that we see +what I will venture to call the finest triumph of grace. Or if the word +triumph seem to imply a struggle, which is not always necessary, and +difficulties which may never have vexed the development of a vigorous +life, I will describe the result as the richest and sweetest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> harvest of +the Spirit's husbandry. Great things can be accomplished only by great +natures, and even then by the help and under the eye of God.</p> + +<p>"I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." Life is +the characteristic word of the great spiritual Gospel from which my text +is taken. And no word can penetrate more deeply into the secret of +Christ than this does. He was the sweetest, the most persuasive of moral +teachers; but ethical principles and precepts are the common possession +of humanity; and that in which Christ is pre-eminent over all sages is +not so much that he gives us new matter of obedience, as that he infuses +into us a fresh power to obey. I fail to see that he anywhere presents +to us a dogmatic theological system: I do not believe that his apostles +succeed in throwing his teaching into this shape. But supposing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> that it +were so, as so many men believe, life is still the ultimate object, the +life of God in man, the life which quickens all faculties, and casts off +all impurities, and rises into a higher stage of vitality from year to +year. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "I came that they may +have life, and may have it abundantly." "The bread of God is he which +cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world." "I am the bread +of life." So, too, the author of this Gospel, speaking in his own +person: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." So Paul: +"The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus." "Your life is hid with +Christ in God." And last of all, in that antithesis so full of +instruction: "The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam +was made a life-giving spirit."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>Adam's children we all are in the possession of a physical nature full +of possibilities of moral good and evil: the question for us is, shall +we be Christ's children too? I cannot assert that this is the only line +in which we can inherit life: heroes and saints before and apart from +Christ would rise up to rebuke me if I did. God's tender mercies, even +of the most intimately spiritual kind, are over all His human children. +But it is the line in which we naturally stand; and to stand in it I +count the highest privilege of our humanity. I will lay down no +conditions of salvation where I believe Christ has laid none down: I +will not attempt to compare his disciples with those of other masters: I +am content to know that here is a fountain of living waters, which flows +for us, and at which those who drink shall never thirst again. I will +not even try to define<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> the process by which a strong, bright, +master-soul pours itself into poorer and narrower spirits, for I rest +joyfully in the certain knowledge that it is so. Is it not possible to +forget the fact too much in discussing the rationale of the process? "In +the last day, that great day of the feast," when the silver trumpets +were sounding, and the priests were bearing up to the temple court the +water which they had drawn from that brook Siloam which "flows fast by +the oracles of God," "Jesus stood and cried, 'If any man thirst, let him +come unto me and drink. He that believeth in me, as the Scripture has +said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.'" There is the +whole secret. All true life is contagious. Not the dull and dead, but +only the living, can quicken. Fragrance makes fragrant: sweetness +imparts sweetness: strength begets strength. How many of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> us have +learned integrity from an upright father, and breathed in the confidence +of faith at a mother's knee? They gave because they had; and Christ was +their fountain-head.</p> + +<p>The religious life, to some imaginations, presents itself as inclining +largely to the side of the passive and the negative. It is abstinence +from evil quite as much as eager realization of good. On this view, an +air of cloistered sanctity hangs about it: it is full of prayers and +mystic raptures: its eye is fixed within, or, if not within, only upon +God. It is sweet rather than strong: more meditative than active: a +faint fragrance exhales from it, but it does not forget itself to +grapple with wrong, or descend upon the arena of human woes and +oppressions, full of the heat of battle, or, with a careless heroism, +spend itself to the last for the kingdom of God. I do not deny the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +reality and the sweetness of this type of goodness; but it is not the +only type, and much less the type produced by the contagion of Christ +upon a strong nature and an eager vitality. I have said that the +abundant physical gift of life may carry with it a certain temptation to +an unsympathizing self-sufficiency. It is difficult not to be proud of +an untiring energy, and faculties that are always abreast of the demands +made upon them, and an immunity from pain and languor which is like a +double portion of strength. But what if all these things are only a +larger gift to lay upon the altar of humanity? What if strength be used +only to follow with swifter stride in the self-denying footsteps of +Christ? What if the sense of joyous energy only fortifies the soul +against disappointment, and makes light of hindrances, and enables +patience to have her perfect work? We envy the strong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> because we think +they can do more than we, and enjoy more than we—in a word, because +they live more than we. Let us envy them, if at all, because they have +more than we to give to God and men, and answer with a fuller and more +eager impulse to the breath of inspiration, and can throw a less +infinitesimal weight into the scale of the Divine purpose.</p> + +<p>Such lives, believe me, are eminently happy. They have their full +measure of sensibility, and therefore their full share of trouble too. +What sorrows come to all, do not spare them; and it is the quickly +throbbing heart that is the tenderest. They cannot take life with dull +acquiescence, being neither keenly glad nor greatly sorry: to them, its +brightness is like opening Paradise; its gloom, a very valley of the +Shadow of Death. And as they emerge out of the narrowness of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> their +personal lot, to go down into the ringing battle of the world, they +encounter blows and bruises which more selfish lives are able to avoid; +they lay bare their hearts to sorrows not their own, and are stricken +with the disappointments of mankind. Was it not a part of the secret of +Christ that his affections were so wide, his sympathies so keen, his +identification with humanity so complete, that sin not his own cast a +shadow upon him almost like remorse, and all his tears were for others' +sorrows? So is it with his strong and eager disciples: they lay their +breast against the thorn, and would not have it otherwise. And yet they +are happy. If it be happiness to have life filled to the brim with +occupation that never tires and always brings with it its own reward: to +be conscious of the easy movement of power, the strong putting forth of +faculty:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> to be secure against disappointment in reliance upon the +righteous purposes of God, which must prevail at last: to have a sure +escape from personal grief in the largeness of human sympathy and the +vista of universal hope: to feel, as life wears away, no disenchantment +of purpose, no stealing languor upon the will, no freezing chill upon +the heart, but only a passionate desire to live to the last in the full +glow of service, and an absolute completeness of self-renunciation—then +are these strong souls happy. They cannot but find life good, because +everywhere in it they feel the touch of God's hand; they see the skirt +of Christ's garment as he goes before them in the way.</p> + +<p>"He that believeth on me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water." +The privilege of giving life is not Christ's alone, though still his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> in +the first instance and the greatest degree: it is shared by all who are +truly one with him in spirit and in work. And I am not sure that a large +part of the value to humanity of these bright and strong souls does not +lie in the inspiration which goes out of them. The weaker ones are +always apt to take life in too low a key. They are easily daunted: they +resign themselves, as they say, to the inevitable: they have too keen a +sense of evils to be overborne and difficulties to be confronted: they +learn to distrust, if not to smile at, the ideal, to call acquiescence +common sense, and cowardice prudence. And upon them the presence of a +strong soul, with its carelessness of toil, its contempt of danger, its +faith in the better things that shall be, its trust in God, its generous +self-abandonment to men, passes like a breath of inspiration, bringing +shame at once and strength<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> with it. Before such an one, not only does +selfishness hold its peace, and cynicism forget to be sarcastic, but a +new vigour steals into the irresolute will, a fresh power of +self-sacrifice takes possession of the heart. The kingdom of God no +longer seems a dimly glorious dream, far off in a new strange world, but +an ideal that may be realized, here, upon the ruins of innumerable +failures, now, in the depths of living human hearts. It is as if God +himself were somewhat nearer to us: a strong faith seems to draw Him +down from heaven, to build His tabernacle among men: or if this cannot +be, and we know that He is always round about us, at least the mists +scatter, the clouds clear away, and we catch a glimpse of His unceasing +activity, of His eternal rest. I cling to the thought that at some time +or other the soul of every one of His children is in direct +commu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>nication with Him; but for the most part He speaks to us by other +human lips, and strong, clear, white lives are the ladder by which we +climb to Him. So down the ages we trace the golden thread of the +succession of Saints, Christ the first, afterwards they that are his, in +turn receiving, in turn giving life, blessed and blessing—till at last +the kingdom comes.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>You know of whom I have been speaking, friends and fellow-worshippers: +though I have named no name, you have interpreted my meaning, you have +read between my lines. And now that we are about to part, with regretful +love and honour freely paid, with the oldest of those who have loved +this place,—and, in parting with her, to bid good-bye for ever to a +generation of pious men and women who in their day served God<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> and +wrought righteousness,—I have one last appeal to make. And I make it +far less to the middle-aged, whose habits are fixed, whose principles +chosen, and who have taken a course in life which they will not lightly +abandon, than to the young, whose nature is yet plastic, and who may +make of their existence what they will. I ask them, Is the life which I +have tried to describe worth living? or is there any other method by +which they think the highest objects of existence can be more completely +attained? Is there any finer discipline for their powers than the +service of God, any nobler education than the fellowship of Christ? I do +not plead with them for allegiance to any particular form of +Christianity, though we have a right to rejoice in the strength and +sweetness of our own Saints, and I might argue that the faith which +issues in such fruit of holy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> living cannot be without its just claim to +respect. But my interest is at once deeper and wider than this: I plead +for Christianity, I plead for Religion; for the awe of God, for the love +of Christ, for the service of man. We are falling upon careless times, +when the world is too much with us, and the love of ease seduces us, and +we flit—thinking, God help us! that it is pleasure—from one facile +excitement, from one selfish gratification, to another. We live in a +sceptical age, when knowledge and faith find it hard to come to terms, +and there is always an excuse for disbelieving truths which startle the +soul into seriousness and make a painful demand upon the will. But +whatever else is false, one thing remains true—that the service of God +is strength and peace and freedom. Christ still holds the secret of +life: "If any man will come after me, let him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> deny himself and take up +his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, +and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Amen.</p> + +<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/end.png" alt="End Decoration" /></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Strong Souls, by Charles Beard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRONG SOULS *** + +***** This file should be named 20478-h.htm or 20478-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/4/7/20478/ + +Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Strong Souls + A Sermon + +Author: Charles Beard + +Release Date: January 29, 2007 [EBook #20478] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRONG SOULS *** + + + + +Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +STRONG SOULS: + +A SERMON, + +PREACHED IN + +RENSHAW STREET CHAPEL, LIVERPOOL, + +ON + +SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1882. + +BY + +CHARLES BEARD, B.A. + +PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. + + + + +LONDON: +PRINTED BY C. GREEN AND SON, +178, STRAND. + + + + +In Memory of + +ELIZABETH RATHBONE, + +OF GREENBANK, + +AGED 92. + + + + +STRONG SOULS. + +JOHN x. 10 p. (Revised Version): + +"I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." + + +Life is a gift of very unequal distribution. I am not speaking merely of +length of life, though that is an important element in the case: there +may be sad and quiet years which do not count: we have known existences +which crept on in one dull round, from petty pleasure to petty pleasure, +from monotonous occupation to monotonous occupation, never roused to +storm by any noble passion, never thrilled by an electric touch of +sympathy. Some lives are complete within narrow limits: in the few +years which are all they have, they ripen into perfect sweetness, or +expend themselves in such a flash of heroism, as would make subsequent +days, were they given, mean and poor by contrast. What shall we say of +that nameless engine-driver in America, who last week, measuring his own +life against six hundred more, rushed through the flames and saved them? +Dead of his glorious wounds, who would dare to pity him, or to think his +end untimely? Life may be measured by its breadth as well as by its +length: by the number of its intellectual points of contact with +humanity, by the width of its sympathies, the largeness of its hopes. +Still more, there is a quality of intensity in which lives differ: some +live more in a week than others in a year: it is not that they are +consuming themselves under stress of circumstance or in agony of +passion, but that their fibre is stronger, their central flame +brighter, their power of endurance larger. This inequality of gift may +be a religious difficulty, but it fits in with the whole economy of +Nature, who is a Mother at once bountiful and prodigal, and while +careful of the type, careless of the individual life; bidding one soul +but open unconscious eyes upon the world and close them again, while +another moves through the slow changes of ninety years. But it is easier +to understand when we remember that a just God asks account only of what +He has given. Within the narrowest fate is yet room to round off the +perfect sphere. Of the lily that blooms to-day and fades to-morrow, He +demands only that it shall be sweet and beautiful in its season. + +Energy is largely, though perhaps not wholly, a physical quality. It +comes of a certain superb vitality, a power of unconscious living, +well-strung nerves, a quickly-working brain. I know the wonders which an +eager will and a keen conscience can work, with no better instrument +than a frail body, always full of languors, always accessible to pain; +and I bow before them in glad reverence, as tokens of the spirit's +victory over the flesh. But this, though undoubtedly from a moral point +of view not inferior, is not the same thing as the easy swing of mind +and body which is not only always equal to its work, but finds its +keenest delight in strenuous efforts and long-drawn toils, which would +hopelessly overtax weaker men. And there is an obvious connection +between this kind of vitality and that which shows itself in life +prolonged far beyond the usual limits. Men and women do not live the +longer for sparing themselves, even were long life under such +conditions worth having. I admit the wearing power of fretting anxiety, +of sorrow that saps the springs of life, of labour pushed to contempt of +the physical and moral conditions of existence; but honest work for an +honest purpose, the full exercise of all the powers from day to day, the +steady strain of faculties that were meant for strain and which rust in +disuse, never hurt any one yet. But the temptations of exuberant +vitality are all, if not to over-strain, yet to a certain hardness, and +arrogance, and disregard of eternal law. It is not complimentary to +human nature to note that perfectly healthy people, whom nothing tries +and who are ignorant of pain, are seldom tolerant, tender, sympathetic, +with lives that in one important constituent of happiness are far +beneath their own. Upon such the shadow of the infinite seems to fall +but seldom. They succeed in so many things that they undertake, as to +escape the sense of the impassable barriers that hem in all human +existence. The very fact of living is so much to them, that they fail to +see the meaning of the limitations, the shortcomings, the +disappointments of life. They feel no abiding smart of a thorn in the +flesh, and so are never forced back upon a higher strength than their +own. And yet it is when a nature richly endowed with all the elements of +vitality, and living from the first, living to the last, devotes itself +to the highest aims and is supported by the highest helps, that we see +what I will venture to call the finest triumph of grace. Or if the word +triumph seem to imply a struggle, which is not always necessary, and +difficulties which may never have vexed the development of a vigorous +life, I will describe the result as the richest and sweetest harvest of +the Spirit's husbandry. Great things can be accomplished only by great +natures, and even then by the help and under the eye of God. + +"I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." Life is +the characteristic word of the great spiritual Gospel from which my text +is taken. And no word can penetrate more deeply into the secret of +Christ than this does. He was the sweetest, the most persuasive of moral +teachers; but ethical principles and precepts are the common possession +of humanity; and that in which Christ is pre-eminent over all sages is +not so much that he gives us new matter of obedience, as that he infuses +into us a fresh power to obey. I fail to see that he anywhere presents +to us a dogmatic theological system: I do not believe that his apostles +succeed in throwing his teaching into this shape. But supposing that it +were so, as so many men believe, life is still the ultimate object, the +life of God in man, the life which quickens all faculties, and casts off +all impurities, and rises into a higher stage of vitality from year to +year. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "I came that they may +have life, and may have it abundantly." "The bread of God is he which +cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world." "I am the bread +of life." So, too, the author of this Gospel, speaking in his own +person: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." So Paul: +"The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus." "Your life is hid with +Christ in God." And last of all, in that antithesis so full of +instruction: "The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam +was made a life-giving spirit." + +Adam's children we all are in the possession of a physical nature full +of possibilities of moral good and evil: the question for us is, shall +we be Christ's children too? I cannot assert that this is the only line +in which we can inherit life: heroes and saints before and apart from +Christ would rise up to rebuke me if I did. God's tender mercies, even +of the most intimately spiritual kind, are over all His human children. +But it is the line in which we naturally stand; and to stand in it I +count the highest privilege of our humanity. I will lay down no +conditions of salvation where I believe Christ has laid none down: I +will not attempt to compare his disciples with those of other masters: I +am content to know that here is a fountain of living waters, which flows +for us, and at which those who drink shall never thirst again. I will +not even try to define the process by which a strong, bright, +master-soul pours itself into poorer and narrower spirits, for I rest +joyfully in the certain knowledge that it is so. Is it not possible to +forget the fact too much in discussing the rationale of the process? "In +the last day, that great day of the feast," when the silver trumpets +were sounding, and the priests were bearing up to the temple court the +water which they had drawn from that brook Siloam which "flows fast by +the oracles of God," "Jesus stood and cried, 'If any man thirst, let him +come unto me and drink. He that believeth in me, as the Scripture has +said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.'" There is the +whole secret. All true life is contagious. Not the dull and dead, but +only the living, can quicken. Fragrance makes fragrant: sweetness +imparts sweetness: strength begets strength. How many of us have +learned integrity from an upright father, and breathed in the confidence +of faith at a mother's knee? They gave because they had; and Christ was +their fountain-head. + +The religious life, to some imaginations, presents itself as inclining +largely to the side of the passive and the negative. It is abstinence +from evil quite as much as eager realization of good. On this view, an +air of cloistered sanctity hangs about it: it is full of prayers and +mystic raptures: its eye is fixed within, or, if not within, only upon +God. It is sweet rather than strong: more meditative than active: a +faint fragrance exhales from it, but it does not forget itself to +grapple with wrong, or descend upon the arena of human woes and +oppressions, full of the heat of battle, or, with a careless heroism, +spend itself to the last for the kingdom of God. I do not deny the +reality and the sweetness of this type of goodness; but it is not the +only type, and much less the type produced by the contagion of Christ +upon a strong nature and an eager vitality. I have said that the +abundant physical gift of life may carry with it a certain temptation to +an unsympathizing self-sufficiency. It is difficult not to be proud of +an untiring energy, and faculties that are always abreast of the demands +made upon them, and an immunity from pain and languor which is like a +double portion of strength. But what if all these things are only a +larger gift to lay upon the altar of humanity? What if strength be used +only to follow with swifter stride in the self-denying footsteps of +Christ? What if the sense of joyous energy only fortifies the soul +against disappointment, and makes light of hindrances, and enables +patience to have her perfect work? We envy the strong because we think +they can do more than we, and enjoy more than we--in a word, because +they live more than we. Let us envy them, if at all, because they have +more than we to give to God and men, and answer with a fuller and more +eager impulse to the breath of inspiration, and can throw a less +infinitesimal weight into the scale of the Divine purpose. + +Such lives, believe me, are eminently happy. They have their full +measure of sensibility, and therefore their full share of trouble too. +What sorrows come to all, do not spare them; and it is the quickly +throbbing heart that is the tenderest. They cannot take life with dull +acquiescence, being neither keenly glad nor greatly sorry: to them, its +brightness is like opening Paradise; its gloom, a very valley of the +Shadow of Death. And as they emerge out of the narrowness of their +personal lot, to go down into the ringing battle of the world, they +encounter blows and bruises which more selfish lives are able to avoid; +they lay bare their hearts to sorrows not their own, and are stricken +with the disappointments of mankind. Was it not a part of the secret of +Christ that his affections were so wide, his sympathies so keen, his +identification with humanity so complete, that sin not his own cast a +shadow upon him almost like remorse, and all his tears were for others' +sorrows? So is it with his strong and eager disciples: they lay their +breast against the thorn, and would not have it otherwise. And yet they +are happy. If it be happiness to have life filled to the brim with +occupation that never tires and always brings with it its own reward: to +be conscious of the easy movement of power, the strong putting forth of +faculty: to be secure against disappointment in reliance upon the +righteous purposes of God, which must prevail at last: to have a sure +escape from personal grief in the largeness of human sympathy and the +vista of universal hope: to feel, as life wears away, no disenchantment +of purpose, no stealing languor upon the will, no freezing chill upon +the heart, but only a passionate desire to live to the last in the full +glow of service, and an absolute completeness of self-renunciation--then +are these strong souls happy. They cannot but find life good, because +everywhere in it they feel the touch of God's hand; they see the skirt +of Christ's garment as he goes before them in the way. + +"He that believeth on me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water." +The privilege of giving life is not Christ's alone, though still his in +the first instance and the greatest degree: it is shared by all who are +truly one with him in spirit and in work. And I am not sure that a large +part of the value to humanity of these bright and strong souls does not +lie in the inspiration which goes out of them. The weaker ones are +always apt to take life in too low a key. They are easily daunted: they +resign themselves, as they say, to the inevitable: they have too keen a +sense of evils to be overborne and difficulties to be confronted: they +learn to distrust, if not to smile at, the ideal, to call acquiescence +common sense, and cowardice prudence. And upon them the presence of a +strong soul, with its carelessness of toil, its contempt of danger, its +faith in the better things that shall be, its trust in God, its generous +self-abandonment to men, passes like a breath of inspiration, bringing +shame at once and strength with it. Before such an one, not only does +selfishness hold its peace, and cynicism forget to be sarcastic, but a +new vigour steals into the irresolute will, a fresh power of +self-sacrifice takes possession of the heart. The kingdom of God no +longer seems a dimly glorious dream, far off in a new strange world, but +an ideal that may be realized, here, upon the ruins of innumerable +failures, now, in the depths of living human hearts. It is as if God +himself were somewhat nearer to us: a strong faith seems to draw Him +down from heaven, to build His tabernacle among men: or if this cannot +be, and we know that He is always round about us, at least the mists +scatter, the clouds clear away, and we catch a glimpse of His unceasing +activity, of His eternal rest. I cling to the thought that at some time +or other the soul of every one of His children is in direct +communication with Him; but for the most part He speaks to us by other +human lips, and strong, clear, white lives are the ladder by which we +climb to Him. So down the ages we trace the golden thread of the +succession of Saints, Christ the first, afterwards they that are his, in +turn receiving, in turn giving life, blessed and blessing--till at last +the kingdom comes. + + * * * * * + +You know of whom I have been speaking, friends and fellow-worshippers: +though I have named no name, you have interpreted my meaning, you have +read between my lines. And now that we are about to part, with regretful +love and honour freely paid, with the oldest of those who have loved +this place,--and, in parting with her, to bid good-bye for ever to a +generation of pious men and women who in their day served God and +wrought righteousness,--I have one last appeal to make. And I make it +far less to the middle-aged, whose habits are fixed, whose principles +chosen, and who have taken a course in life which they will not lightly +abandon, than to the young, whose nature is yet plastic, and who may +make of their existence what they will. I ask them, Is the life which I +have tried to describe worth living? or is there any other method by +which they think the highest objects of existence can be more completely +attained? Is there any finer discipline for their powers than the +service of God, any nobler education than the fellowship of Christ? I do +not plead with them for allegiance to any particular form of +Christianity, though we have a right to rejoice in the strength and +sweetness of our own Saints, and I might argue that the faith which +issues in such fruit of holy living cannot be without its just claim to +respect. But my interest is at once deeper and wider than this: I plead +for Christianity, I plead for Religion; for the awe of God, for the love +of Christ, for the service of man. We are falling upon careless times, +when the world is too much with us, and the love of ease seduces us, and +we flit--thinking, God help us! that it is pleasure--from one facile +excitement, from one selfish gratification, to another. We live in a +sceptical age, when knowledge and faith find it hard to come to terms, +and there is always an excuse for disbelieving truths which startle the +soul into seriousness and make a painful demand upon the will. But +whatever else is false, one thing remains true--that the service of God +is strength and peace and freedom. Christ still holds the secret of +life: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up +his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, +and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Amen. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Strong Souls, by Charles Beard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRONG SOULS *** + +***** This file should be named 20478.txt or 20478.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/4/7/20478/ + +Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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