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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/20560-8.txt b/20560-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad77b57 --- /dev/null +++ b/20560-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6212 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters to His Friends, by Forbes Robinson + +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: Letters to His Friends + +Author: Forbes Robinson + +Release Date: February 11, 2007 [EBook #20560] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Forbes Robinson] + + + + + + +LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS + + +BY + +FORBES ROBINSON + + + LATE FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE + AND EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OF SOUTHWELL + + + + EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTICE + BY HIS BROTHER CHARLES + + + +SECOND EDITION + + + +PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION BY + +SPOTTISWOODE & CO. LTD., LONDON. 1904 + + + + +NOTE + + +This volume has been printed for private circulation at the request of +many of Forbes Robinson's personal friends. The first edition having +been exhausted, a second has been prepared, in which are included six +additional letters (cf. pp. 151, 154, 164, 166, 167, 182). Copies of +this volume will be supplied (price 2s. 6d. post free) to all who +desire to obtain them, on application to the Rev. Canon Charles H. +Robinson, Hill Brow, Woking. The volume of College and Ordination +Addresses which will be published by Longmans in about two months' time +can be ordered through any bookseller. + +_October_ 1904. + + + + +[Transcriber's note: The book contains a number of short Greek phrases, +all of which have been transliterated according to Project Gutenberg's +"Greek How-To". A more detailed transliteration note follows each +paragraph or article where the Greek phrase occurs.] + +[Transcriber's note: Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers +enclosed in curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page +breaks occurred in the original book, in accordance with Project +Gutenberg's FAQ-V-99. For its Index, a page number has been placed +only at the start of that section. In the HTML version of this book, +page numbers are placed in the left margin.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +INTRODUCTORY SKETCH + +CHAPTER. PAGE + + I. SCHOOLDAYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + II. LIFE AS AN UNDERGRADUATE AT CAMBRIDGE . . . . 10 + III. WORK AT CAMBRIDGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + IV. THE LAST FEW MONTHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 + V. TWO APPRECIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 + +LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 + +APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 + +INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +Forbes Robinson . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece + +Forbes Robinson (1880) + +Forbes Robinson (1887) + + + + +{1} + +INTRODUCTORY SKETCH + +CHAPTER I + +SCHOOLDAYS + +Forbes Robinson was born on November 13, 1867, in the vicarage of +Keynsham, a village in Somerset lying between Bristol and Bath. He was +the eleventh child in a family of thirteen, of whom eight were sons and +five daughters. His parents were both from the north of Ireland, and +his Christian name had been his mother's surname. The motto attached +to his father's family crest was 'Non nobis solum sed toti mundo nati.' +Before he was three years old his father moved to Liverpool and became +incumbent of St. Augustine's, Everton. He died before Forbes was +thirteen, but the memory of his holy life remained as an abiding +influence. Thus he writes of him in 1903: + +'The old memories form a kind of sacred history urging me onwards and +upwards. I like to feel that I reap the prayers and thanksgivings of +my father, that God blesses the son of such a father. The same work, +the same God, the same promises, the same hope, the same sure and +certain reward. I thank God and take courage.' + +{2} As a boy he was never robust and might even be regarded as +delicate. After attending one or two private schools he was entered, +at the age of twelve, at Liverpool College, where five of his brothers +had been. When his father died in February 1881, the house in +Liverpool was given up and Forbes was sent to Rossall. He continued at +Rossall till he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1887. + +The photograph which is inserted on p. 4 was taken just before he went +to Rossall. He was then a shy retiring boy, fonder of reading than of +athletic exercise. One who was in the same house with him at Rossall, +and who is now vicar of a parish in Lancashire, writes: + +'His life at Rossall was not an outwardly eventful one. Not being +athletic, he lived rather apart from and above the rest of us in a +world of books. The walls of his study used to be almost covered with +extracts, largely, I think, from the poets, copied on to scraps of +paper and pinned up all round, partly to be learnt by heart and partly, +I think, for companionship. He was much older than the rest of us +whose years were the same as his. His school life was a time of +retirement and preparation for the wider life among men at Cambridge. +Though my memory of him as a quiet studious member of the house, more +often alone than not, and quite happy to be alone so long as his books +were near him, is very distinct, I can recall almost nothing of the +nature of incident or about which one can write.' + +The present headmaster of Marlborough, who was {3} also a contemporary +at Rossall, writes in a letter to the editor of this memoir: + +'Your brother was a great recluse at Rossall, and I much doubt whether +you would get any great amount of information about him from +Rossallians. I knew him because we were both interested in reading, +and I owed a good deal to his influence. . . . You will find, I +believe, that his Cambridge days show him in a far clearer light than +his school days. I know that when I saw him at Cambridge I realised +with pleasure that he was a welcomed visitor in the rooms of very +various types of undergraduates, whereas his circle at school had been +very limited, and most boys no doubt regarded him as quite "out of it." +This is of course to some extent the fault of the athletic standards of +our schools, but I also think that he himself developed a great deal +socially at Cambridge.' + +A sketch of Forbes, by Dr. James, written for 'The Rossallian,' will be +found at the close of this chapter. Dr. Tancock, who succeeded Dr. +James as headmaster of Rossall a year before Forbes left, writes: + +'When I was appointed to Rossall in 1886, I found him a member of the +upper sixth form. . . . He always gave me the impression of an +earnest-minded, hard-working boy, with a deep sense of duty. It was +rather suggested to my mind sometimes, possibly erroneously, that as a +younger boy he had felt himself misunderstood, and a certain reserve +was the consequence, not perhaps unnaturally. He was already much +interested in theological work. . . . It {4} has been a great pleasure +to me in later years to hear of his excellent work at Christ's and the +strong influence he exerted over undergraduates. It was quite the +natural result of the qualities I saw in him at school, provided once +his reserve could be broken.' + +[Illustration: Forbes Robinson (1880)] + +Though of Irish descent he only once visited Ireland. This was during +his summer holidays in 1884, when he travelled round a good part of the +north and west coasts. The only adventure of special interest was his +unintended voyage across the Bay of Donegal, which was nearly attended +with fatal consequences. He and his brother, the editor of this +memoir, started in a small open sailing boat from the harbour of +Killybegs, intending to return within a few minutes; but no sooner had +they got outside the harbour than they were caught in a squall, which +rapidly developed into a gale, and made it impossible to turn the boat +or head it for the shore, owing to the immediate risk of swamping. The +only means of securing momentary safety was to head the boat out into +the Atlantic, but as the nearest land in this direction was the coast +of America, the prospect was far from cheerful. Eventually the boat +was turned a few points further south, in the direction of land which +could not be seen, but which was known to lie about fifteen miles away +on the other side of the Bay of Donegal. After having been nearly +swamped many times, and running with bare poles, owing to the violence +of the gale, the boat arrived at length at Bundoran. As this place was +distant some sixty miles from Killybegs, {5} it seemed wearisome to +return by land, and a return by sea was out of the question. +Accordingly, Forbes and the writer, drenched to the skin and without a +vestige of baggage, started forthwith on a walking tour along the west +coast of Ireland, arriving at Connemara in the course of the following +week. Forbes's dislike of sea voyages in after years may in part be +traced to this experience. During the greater part of the voyage +across Donegal Bay he was helpless from sea-sickness; his companion was +busily occupied in baling out the water to prevent the boat from +sinking. + +The letters which Forbes wrote from school to members of his family are +a curious mixture of humour and religion. It was his keen sense of +humour which preserved him from becoming morbid. It was this same +sense of humour which helped to attract to him at the University men on +whom he eventually exercised a strong religious influence, but whom +religious conversation would have inevitably repelled. + +In two letters written to one of his sisters from Rossall in 1886, the +following sentences occur. They show that he found time while at +school for a considerable amount of reading which was not connected +with his school work: + +'You ask me to tell you what books I have been reading. Among others, +Longfellow's "Hiawatha" and "Evangeline," both exquisite; continually +the "In Memoriam," "Idylls of the King"; some of Buchanan, which I +scarcely recommend; M. Arnold, which I do most heartily recommend; and +Walt Whitman, the {6} great poet of democracy; "Confessions of an +English Opium Eater," by De Quincey, good in its way; G. Eliot and Mrs. +Browning, &c., &c. Perhaps you would like some of those. I read Chas. +Kingsley's "Andromeda"--it is really a splendid rhythmical piece of +hexameter--and some of his Life. I rather like pieces of his poetry, +and the one you sent me I liked. + +'My only birthday advice is: Read more Longfellow. If you have any +writers, send me word, though I am sorry to say I can appreciate but +few. . . .' + +Another letter, written the same year, is entirely composed of +selections from Tennyson's 'Princess,' which, he says, 'I have just +read through.' He ends, 'Mind you send me gleanings of Milton if you +have time.' In another, 'I have been reading a fair amount of Carlyle +at present, as we had an essay on "The influence of individuals on +great movements of religion, politics, and thought," for which I read +especially Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship," and Emerson's +"Representative Men," and for which, I am glad to say, I not only got +full marks, but the highest maximum possible. Have read Tennyson's +"Queen Mary." Am reading "Harold." I liked the first very much, but +the latter a great deal more. The scene where Harold debates about +telling a lie or the truth is very fine. . . .' The rest of the letter +is composed of quotations from 'Harold.' In other letters he says, +'Get Emerson's "Essays" for me.' 'I send you "Aurora Leigh." . . .' + +He left Rossall in the summer of 1887, when he {7} was nearly twenty, +and entered Christ's College, Cambridge, in the following October. His +brother Armitage, now Dean of Westminster, was then fellow and dean of +Christ's College, and Forbes occupied the attic rooms over his. + + +The following notice by Dr. James, now headmaster of Rugby and formerly +headmaster of Rossall, appeared in 'The Rossallian' and is reprinted +here at his suggestion: + +'Forbes Robinson came to Rossall in 1881. He was a member of a very +able family; an elder brother is Dean of Westminster; another is +Charles H. Robinson, Editorial Secretary of the S.P.G. and translator +of part of the Gospels into Hausa. He was a delicate boy, and lived +for a year or two in the headmaster's private house, from which he +passed on into Mr. Batson's. Rather shy and retiring in disposition, +and unable to take much part in games, he was not conspicuous in the +School until he reached the Sixth, and did not make friends as easily +as some boys do. But the few who knew him well recognised in him a +deeply affectionate if very sensitive nature, and saw how the religious +side of it, afterwards so conspicuous, was even then developing. His +powers as a classical scholar, though considerable, were not +exceptional; they enabled him to reach the Upper Sixth, but not to win +a scholarship at his entrance to the university, and I well remember +advising him to make theology, to which his inclinations were already +drawing him, his special subject at Cambridge. To this I knew he would +bring not only interest but power of reasoning and literary culture. +He had won the Divinity Prize of the School in 1885 and again in 1886, +and the English Essay Prize (for an essay on "The relative value of +art, science, and literature in education") in the latter year. + +{8} + +'He went up to Christ's, Cambridge, in 1887, and at once addressed +himself to his favourite study. What strides he was making in it were +apparent at once from the extraordinary series of distinctions which he +won--a scholarship at the college, the Carus Greek Testament Prize for +undergraduates, the Jeremie Septuagint Prize, a first class in the +Theological Tripos, the Burney Theological Essay Prize, the Carus Prize +for Bachelors, the Crosse Divinity Scholarship, and the Hulsean Prize +all fell to him between 1888 and 1893, and finally in 1896 he was +elected to a Fellowship at Christ's, where he had already been +Theological Lecturer for a year. + +'His essay which gained the Burney Prize in 1891 was on "The Authority +of our Lord in its bearing upon the Interpretation of the Old +Testament." He printed it in 1893 under the title of "The +Self-limitation of the Word of God as manifested in the Incarnation." +With characteristic modesty he says in his preface: "I can claim but +little of the work as strictly original." This is far too deprecatory; +the essay is a singularly lucid statement and attempted solution of a +most difficult theological problem, in which all who believe in the +Deity of Christ must be deeply interested, and I can bear personal +testimony to its helpfulness. It was only the other day that I was +reading it afresh, for I had just recovered it, when I feared that the +copy he gave me was hopelessly lost and irreplaceable, from South +Africa, where a friend to whom I had lent it had taken it among his +books. Among Forbes Robinson's later activities were a work on the +Coptic Apocryphal Gospels ("the subject," he wrote to me, "was so +technical and uninteresting that I did not send you a copy"), and the +editing of a Sahidic fragment of the Gospels. + +'But his value to Cambridge and to his college lay mainly in the +influence for good which he was able to exert over undergraduates. +Again and again I have been told {9} there how great this was; and it +was no little achievement for one whose very modesty and +humble-mindedness must have made it difficult. But his heart was in +the work, and in the maintaining of Christian influences in university +life. It is hard to over-estimate the loss which his death at so early +an age implies alike to students of theology and to those among whom he +was more immediately working. But he has left us the example of a +simple and devoted life and the consecration of great and growing +powers to his Master's service. "God buries His workmen, but carries +on His work."' + + + + +{10} + +CHAPTER II + +LIFE AS AN UNDERGRADUATE AT CAMBRIDGE + +From this point forward the sketch of Forbes's life can be given almost +entirely in the words of those who knew him at Cambridge. + +A writer in the Christ's College Magazine for the Lent term 1904 says: +'Many older friends will always think of him in his attic rooms, where +he began to make his mark in our College society upon his first coming +up. Only two other Freshmen had rooms in College, and Robinson's rooms +became at once a centre for his year, and later a meeting-place where +the gulfs between higher and lower years were bridged over. A little +older than most men of his year, he was considerably their senior in +character and in intellect. He showed at once the qualities which he +retained to such a unique degree in later years--an inexhaustible power +of making friends with all sorts and conditions of men, and an +insatiable interest in all sides of College life; the most serious +things were from the first not beyond his comprehension, and the most +trivial did not appear to bore him, even when their freshness had worn +off. His love of books was catholic; he possessed a great many and +read them {11} to his friends. At the College Debate, of which he +became secretary and president in his second year, he was a frequent +and fluent speaker, with a remarkable command of language, though +sometimes his eloquence was more than half burlesque. His powers of +thought and real strength in argument were more often displayed in +private discussions, where irony and humour hardly veiled the depth of +earnestness below.' + +[Illustration: Forbes Robinson (1887)] + +During his first three years at Cambridge he read for the Theological +Tripos. In the course of his first year he was elected a scholar of +his College. At the beginning of his second year he won his first +University distinction, the Carus prize for the Greek Testament. The +other University prizes which he gained were the Jeremie prize for the +Septuagint in 1889, the Burney prize essay in 1891, the Carus prize for +Bachelors, the Hulsean prize essay, and the Crosse University +Scholarship in 1892. He took his degree in the first class of the +Theological Tripos in 1890, and obtained a second class in the Moral +Science Tripos of 1891. The year which he spent in reading moral +science he afterwards looked back upon as one of the most useful in his +life. After he had been reading for some time in view of this Tripos, +he wrote to a friend: 'I have come to the conclusion that I know +nothing, and am an awful fool into the bargain. . . . The subject is +so utterly fresh to me, so completely unlike theology of any sort at +Cambridge, that I find it hard to do anything at it. In fact, I +chucked it up for about ten days in the middle of the term, and +determined to have nothing more to {12} do with it; but after that rest +I thought better and renewed the study. It is an excellent training +for the mind. I never distinctly remember thinking at all before this +term.' + +Having learnt to _think_ himself, his desire was to help others by +teaching them to think. One who came under his influence several years +later says of him: 'I owe so much to him in every way. Above +everything else he taught me to _think_. I remember so well the first +time I went to him with a difficulty. I expected him to solve it for +me, instead of which, at the end of half an hour, I still found that I +had to think it out for myself. It was a revelation to me, and has +helped me in my dealings with men.' The same friend writes: 'I may +mention a conversation I once had with him. He had in front of him the +answers to some Theological Tripos papers. He took up two of them and +compared the answers given to the same question by the two men. The +answer required was a translation of a passage of Greek with notes. +And, as far as I can remember, his words were these: "Now, W----, this +man has passed over the real difficulty. As far as I can tell, he has +not even noticed that there is a difficulty. I have given him two +marks out of a possible ten. This other man has seen the difficulty +and grappled with it. His solution is without doubt incorrect, but +that is quite immaterial. Result, eight marks out of ten." I cannot +but think that this attitude of mind was largely the secret of his +influence.' In another case, when urging a man to attempt some +independent investigation of the Synoptic problem, he said; {13} 'Your +conclusions may be wrong, but you can correct them, and it will teach +you to think.' + +One who was an undergraduate with Forbes says of him: He 'did not take +a prominent part in religious movements in the College, such as the +College prayer meeting or Bible readings, though he was occasionally +present at them. In chapel his reverence was quiet, though in no way +obtrusive. I think that by not identifying himself with any particular +religious party he had greater influence with those men whose minds ran +in very different grooves. I always felt when in his company that I +was conversing with one vastly superior to myself in intellectual +powers, and yet he never appeared conscious of it himself. It is +surprising how considerate he was of the feelings of others. I +remember a large print of Pope Leo XIII. which used to hang in his +rooms as an undergraduate, which delighted his gyp, who was a Romanist, +but scandalised his Protestant friends. I begged earnestly for a copy +of one of his prize essays, which had been printed though not +published. He at first consented, but almost immediately asked me to +return it, saying that he did not wish it to go out to the world as +expressing his matured views. He then asked me to accept instead a +small booklet, which he said I should find useful to have in visiting. +It contained the verses called "The Old, Old Story." He also gave me a +copy of the "Practice of the Presence of God," by Brother Lawrence.' + +Before he decided to read for the Moral Science Tripos he had thought +of going in for the Semitic Languages Tripos. With this object in view +he {14} commenced the study of Syriac. Finding that the best Syriac +grammar was written in German and had not been translated, he decided +to learn German also. He was advised that Switzerland was a suitable +place in which to study German, and accordingly, after taking his +degree, he started in the summer of 1890 for Switzerland. The two +following letters are inserted in order to illustrate his sense of +humour, as well as to describe the way in which he spent this summer. +He eventually returned from Switzerland, having made more progress in +Syriac than in German, but without having obtained any great knowledge +of either language. Soon after his return he decided to commence the +study of Moral Science instead of the Semitic languages. + + +_To H. M. S._ + +'Habkern: July 1890. + +'A few days after I got to Switzerland, by dint of incessant inquiries +and correspondence I found out the name of a pastor who lived in a +sufficiently healthy place and who talked German. So I girded up my +loins and went to visit him. "Sprechen Sie Englisch, mein Herr?" I +asked. "Nein" was the reply. As I scarcely knew a word of German I +was in a considerable fix. But I found out that the Pfarrer spoke +"Lateinisch" and could read English a little when it was written. So I +went up to his study and we got paper and pencil and began. I tried to +tell him in a mixture of broken English and dog-Latin that I intended +to give him the honour of my company. He said he would be pleased to +take me "en pension." He then {15} asked how much I wished to pay. I +hadn't for the life of me an idea of what I ought to pay. "Ut tibi +optimum videtur," I said. But he made me fix my price. Then, when I +had fixed it, I had to turn it into Swiss money. The good Pfarrer was +so pleased with the honour of my company that he took me for less than +I asked. Our greatest difficulty next arose: How was my luggage to be +conveyed the five miles from the nearest town up a steep hill? Latin, +French, English, German, failed to make me understand the situation. +At last I took in the Pfarrer's meaning. I was to send it by the +milkman after leaving it at a certain hotel. "Ja," I cried in an +ecstasy of joy, at last grasping his meaning, "Ja, ich mittam der +Gepäck von der milkman." I arrived the next day. I found the Pfarrer +knew Latin, Greek (but he pronounces both quite differently from me), +German, French, Russian, Syriac, Hebrew, and a little English. His +usual custom is to address me in German. If I fail to understand, he +tries Latin and intersperses his remarks with Greek and Hebrew. So my +great difficulty is first of all to find out what language he thinks he +is speaking in. + +'Yesterday we were sitting, smoking and drinking, in the village +"Wirthshaus" among the natives of the place, the Pfarrer addressing me +in Latin, the villagers staring at his learning in adoration and +astonishment, and laughing at my attempts at German. The landlord came +up to me when I arrived and sent in a bottle of wine for me, refusing +to be paid for it, for he said that the natives of Interlaken fleeced +the English; but when Habkern was for once honoured by the {16} +presence of one, the people were not going to treat him in the same way. + +'It is curious how the Pfarrer goes and sits and drinks and gossips in +the "Wirthshaus," even on Sunday, I think. Last Sunday they had a +country dance, and very curious and pretty was the scene--the +old-fashioned wooden room--the odd national dress of the women--the +curiously cut brown clothes of the men--the thick boots--the fiddlers +raised above the rest--the quaint urn with its inscriptions above--the +gaping crowd of villagers. Then the church is strange--very rude and +simple, all whitewashed. The women sit on one side, the men on the +other. They stand to pray and hear the text, and sit to sing and hear +the sermon. The organ and font are placed at one end. The elders +stand below the organ, the Pfarrer is lost in the far distance, right +up in a big pulpit. The "Predigt" or sermon is everything. They have +one written prayer before and one after the "Predigt." The people +never say "Amen" or anything--only sing. They sing so slowly that, +although I had only been with the Pfarrer three days, I could almost +sing and look out the words in the dictionary at the same time! I talk +German with every one who will talk with me. So well did I spin yarns +when I had been in the country three or four days, that with a mixture +of Latin and German I managed to make a German use strong language at +some of my tales, which he was pleased to think were not exactly true. +Reflecting on the situation afterwards, I remembered that I had told +him, among other things, that I had walked nearly fifty "stunden" {17} +in a day. His language was awful. I found afterwards that "stunde" +was not, as I had supposed, an English "mile," but an English "hour." +But I keep on talking. I have come to the conclusion that the way to +learn a language is to argue in it. Accordingly I do so. I have tried +to convince them that the order of bishops is semi-apostolic, and that +if St. Paul did not actually wear a surplice himself, his successors +shortly afterwards did. + +'One other thing, if you ever reply to this letter: would you copy out +a few of the most thickly marked lines in the "Grammarian's Funeral" in +my edition of Browning? They are always in my mind, but I can't quite +recollect how they go. There is no poem I like so much as that. I +would send you some butterflies, but I daren't kill them. Some of us +may have once been butterflies: as M. Arnold says, + + 'What was before us we know not, + And we know not what shall succeed.' + + +_To H. M. S._ + +'Habkern: August 1890. + +'There is a French pensionnaire staying here, the same as I am. He is +very polite, but his tastes are diametrically opposite to mine. He +likes wine, walking, women, smoking, painting, violin and piano +playing, dogs, and the like. + +'He asked me whether I liked the French. I told him "No," and gave him +a good many reasons. He abhors the Germans. I told him I thought the +Germans were a fine race. I'm occupying my time {18} in sleeping, +arguing, observing the natives, and reading a Tauchnitz edition of +"Martin Chuzzlewit," which is good, though already a young girl of +seventeen has been introduced, very beautiful and all the rest, and I'm +afraid she won't be poisoned, but marry a certain young man already +introduced. I'd give a good deal to be able to write a novel in which +all the young ladies tumbled out of windows, six stories high, and were +picked up dead. I think I must try and write one. Shall I dedicate it +to you? The heroine will be a plain old lady with white curls, close +on sixty-five, without any money, but with a certain amount of +intellect. There will be no marriages, but suicides and murders if +necessary. + +'I'm inventing a German word of 1,000 letters. It is to be divided +into some 150 or 200 compartments. After each compartment there is +five minutes for refreshments. After about the 500th letter there will +be half an hour allowed for dinner. After the 600th letter or so there +will be a notice to the effect that no person with a weak heart may +proceed further without consulting a medical man. After about the +980th there will be a notice forbidding any one to go further until +their family doctor is in attendance. I have thought of the groundwork +of the word--the finished word I'm going to send to M----, as he has +the strongest constitution of any one I know. Then I shall get Duke +Bismarck to patent it; after which I shall take out a professorship on +the strength of it at Berne. It will, of course, be the "Hauptsache" +of my existence.' + +{19} + +Forbes was far from being an athlete, but in 1891, shortly before his +ordination, he accomplished the feat of walking with two athletic +friends from London to Cambridge in a day, a distance of more than +fifty miles. The following description is by Mr. A. N. C. +Kittermaster, who was one of his companions. + + +_Walk from London to Cambridge._ + +Some of us had read that Charles Kingsley had walked from London to +Cambridge; so we determined to follow in his footsteps. We were a +party of three--Forbes Robinson, D. D. Robertson, and myself. We spent +the previous day at the Naval Exhibition, the night at the Liverpool +Street Hotel, and at 4.30 A.M. of Tuesday, August 25, 1891, we started +on our fifty-mile trudge. We walked steadily, at first over immense +stretches of pavement, till we reached Ware, twenty-one miles out. +There we had breakfast or lunch of huge chops at 10.15. After that we +took the road again, and did not call a halt of any length till we had +put another twenty miles behind us. The day was fine but dull, and we +were not troubled by the heat. At the fortieth milestone it began to +appear doubtful whether we should all reach the journey's end. I have +an entry in my diary: 'At 40 Robertson bad, I worse, Deanlet (_i.e._ +Forbes) quite fit.' So at Foulmire, nine miles from Cambridge, we +stopped for tea. By this time I was in a state of temporary collapse, +but I remember the other two during tea carried on an animated +discussion upon the creation as described in Genesis. We all felt +better after the {20} rest and covered the last stage fairly easily, +arriving at Christ's at 9.30 P.M. We had a meal in Forbes's rooms, +fought our battles over again, and retired to rest about midnight. + +The thing which remains with me best is the amazing ease with which +Forbes accomplished the journey. It is a matter of common experience +that prolonged physical effort reacts on the mind; conversation becomes +difficult, and cheerfulness forced. I must say that in my case the +thought which for a considerable period occupied my mind was how I was +to get to the end. But it was not so with Forbes. He travelled +lightly, talking happily on all subjects the whole day. It seemed to +make little difference to him whether he took food or no, and he was as +willing to stop at every place of refreshment we suggested as to march +the whole day without a meal. + + + + +{21} + +CHAPTER III + +WORK AT CAMBRIDGE + +In September 1891 Forbes was ordained as curate to his brother +Armitage, who was at that time vicar of All Saints', Cambridge. +Several of the letters which are given later refer to his thoughts and +feelings at the time of his ordination. His connection with All +Saints' did not last more than a year, as his brother resigned in the +following spring. Forbes had already been licensed as chaplain to +Emmanuel College. He received priest's orders in 1892. In 1895 he was +appointed theological lecturer at Christ's College, and in the +following year, May 30, 1896, was elected a fellow. During the same +year he was appointed an examining chaplain to the Bishop of Southwell. + +One who knew him well, soon after the time of his ordination, writes: +'I cannot remember how we first became acquainted, beyond the fact that +I used to meet him in the rooms of some prominent members of the +College Football XV. All I know is that several of our year got to +know him quite well, and the friendship grew with time. The fact that +he had distinguished himself in the Moral Science Tripos at {22} first +rather awed me, a freshman. But I soon got over that feeling, for he +was the last person in the world to trouble any one with a sense of +intellectual inferiority. + +'I am sure the private business hours of the Debating Society were some +of his happiest moments. His magnificent assumption of wrath on the +most absurd grounds; his vast intensity over trivialities; his love for +the heat and play of debate, would have made a stranger believe he +lived for nothing else. + +'Physical strength and virtue seemed to have a strange attraction for +him. His assortment of athlete friends was peculiarly wide, and his +frank admiration of their qualities gave them a pleasant feeling that +in some way he looked up to them--a feeling which I am sure +strengthened the hold he had over them. + +'He was a tireless walker, and could go far on very little. A party of +us used to take long walks, often on a Sunday, to various places in the +country. There was generally a volume of Burke or Emerson in his +pocket, whose sonorous periods filled the interval when we lunched +frugally or rested. I have never known him anything but good-humoured +under any conditions. His enthusiasm for our most commonplace jests +was unfailing--perhaps one of the surest ways of getting to a man's +heart and staying there--and he had a wide tolerance for the minor +offences of undergraduate thought and deed. Yet, as for the tone of +conversation when he was near, I need scarcely say that one simply did +not think of anything unpleasant or vulgar, much less say it. + +'I used to admire his immense power of putting {23} his thoughts into +words, but he could be silent too. Sometimes he would come to my rooms +when I was working, throw himself into an arm-chair, and absolutely +refuse to speak. After a considerable interval perhaps he would +consider I had worked long enough, and cocoa and conversation would +follow. But it was when I visited him in his own rooms that I remember +things most vividly. + +'I can still see that little room under the roof; the picture on the +wall of the dead saint floating on the dark water; the well-filled +bookcase; the table piled with volumes; himself throwing everything +aside to greet one. It was almost with a feeling of awe that I +sometimes climbed those stairs and entered into his presence. Perhaps +it would be for a lesson on the New Testament--for when I was reading +for a Theological Tripos he was generous, even prodigal, of help. The +lesson over--and there are many who know what a goodly thing a lesson +from him on the New Testament was--he would open a volume of +Tennyson--"In Memoriam" most likely--read a few stanzas, and begin to +talk about them. Gradually, it would seem, the things of the world +would fade from him. He forgot the hour and my presence as his +thoughts poured out. I sat and listened, generally silent, sometimes +hazarding a question. Presently--it was often late--I would rise to +leave. Rapt from his surroundings, he seemed scarcely conscious of my +departure; and I would go quietly out, almost as though I had been on +holy ground, where not once nor twice the dweller had seen God face to +face.' + +His power of helping men by silent sympathy is {24} referred to by one +who writes: 'The many words of kindness, but more particularly the +silent sympathy he conveyed in some mysterious manner, will ever keep +him present with us.' + +Another, who had known him in his early days at Christ's, and again in +later years, writes: 'When I was up he was a nervous retiring man, at +his best when one found him alone in his own room. Even then he would +sometimes talk little. Since my return from South Africa I have found +him much more at home with men and much more ready to talk, but +retaining his old power of sympathy without words.' His own faith was +based rather upon intuitive perception of the Divine love than upon +argument. On one occasion, quite towards the end of his life, he said +to one with whom he was staying, 'Sometimes I sit and think, till I can +find no reason for the existence of God; and then there rises up in me +something which is stronger than the love I have for those who are dear +to me--and they are very dear--the love of God. It seems to smile at +my doubts.' + +Several of his friends have referred to Forbes's influence as a power +which helped to develop their own sympathy towards others. Thus one +writes: + +'I think perhaps it was my intercourse with him that first taught me to +look out for and appreciate the real goodness--or, better, +Christlikeness--of others from whom one differed in important matters +and with whom one seemed perhaps to have little in common.' + +In some instances friendship between Forbes and an acquaintance seems +to have arisen where very {25} little direct intercourse had taken +place. One who was greatly his senior says of him, 'I have never known +any one with whom there was so strong a sense of intimacy founded on so +little positive intercourse.' + +In July 1892--_i.e._ about nine months after his ordination as +deacon--he took part in a kind of peregrinating mission tour through +part of South Cornwall. Dressed simply in cassock and cape, and +carrying a small brown paper parcel containing necessary luggage, he +and his brother (the compiler of this book) walked from village to +village, preaching afternoon and evening in the open air. At the end +of the evening service an appeal was made to the people. It was +explained to them that the preachers had come without provision or +money, and hoped to receive hospitality from those to whom they +ministered. Night after night Forbes and his companion were taken in +and entertained, often by very poor people. A unique opportunity was +thus afforded of getting to know something of the home life as well as +of the religious beliefs of the poor. As a rule, those who acted as +hosts were Nonconformists. Forbes spoke once or twice each day to the +people who gathered, and his addresses, which were generally based on +the words 'Our Father,' were admirably suited to the comprehension and +needs of the simple country people. + +For several months during 1895 he took charge of a small country parish +near Cambridge, called Toft. While staying at Toft he wrote to a +friend, 'I like living among country folk and talking with {26} and +visiting them. I want to get out of my life into their lives. This +parish work humiliates if it does not humble one. . . . The smallest +parish is a tremendous responsibility.' + + +The following are a few additional notes contributed by others who knew +Forbes at Christ's: 'His broad sympathies, his unfailing efforts to +find out the good in persons and systems--the rays of truth which each +possessed--combined with the rare faculty of going deep down beneath +vexed questions, and thus lifting controversies to a higher and serener +atmosphere: these were qualities in him which were known especially by +those privileged to have more intimate knowledge of him than that +vouchsafed by formal lectures or social gatherings. . . . He is now +another link with the life beyond these conflicting voices, one "who +loved Heaven's silence more than fame."' + +The same writer says of him in another letter: 'His extreme fairness +and toleration, which at first seemed to me to reduce half one's +cherished beliefs to open questions, was of the greatest value in +dispelling ignorance and prejudice, and in promoting true charity and a +more intelligent faith. He delighted to call attention to the fact +that our Lord found something commendable and exemplary in the serpent. +And so, in dealing with those with whom he most disagreed, he tried to +fix attention on that portion of truth which lay behind their opinions, +or on those real difficulties, to be slighted only by {27} the +superficial, with which they were grappling. Tertullian, with his love +of scoring off opponents, fared badly at his hands, and he used to +treat Clement of Alexandria more sympathetically than Irenaeus. + +'It was striking to find a mind so evenly balanced and philosophical +become fired with enthusiasm as he spoke in simplest language, in +chapel or elsewhere, of great Christian truths or the victories of +faith. His sermons influenced, I believe, many of the naturally +careless. Simple, impartial, earnest and sympathetic, he won, I know, +the deepest affection and respect of many.' + +Another writes: 'Bright, pure, and strong--this was the impression he +gave me . . . . Many men will be very sorry that he is not here any +more, but every one who _knew_ him will be very thankful that he was +here, and that they had an opportunity of hearing him "think" +sometimes. I recall him most in his own rooms, beginning to talk on +some small matter, and gradually lifting us higher and still higher, +until we all silently listened, following as best we, with our muddier +minds, could; and even when he got beyond us there were still +inspiration and strength to be got from his flashing eyes and +on-rushing earnestness; but if some smaller mind broke in, in a moment +he was down at the level of that mind, half bantering and wholly +sympathising. Nevertheless, some of us have never forgotten the things +he showed us as he led us up, and the possibility of soaring very high +without losing touch with those whose levels are pathetically +human. . . . I do know that he helped {28} me much, and that many +things he said I shall never forget, and thank God for still.' + +A Cambridge and international athlete, an intimate friend of Forbes, +writes: 'Though I have lost your brother Forbes, and life will be for +ever poorer to me, I can't thank God enough that I ever knew him and +loved him, and that he called himself my friend. He was so dear to +me--my greatest friend in the world. His goodness and his help to me +in my Cambridge days were wonderful. He altered my life. God has +called him home and to the blessed rest of the children of God, and we +are rich still with his memory and the influence of his beautiful, +patient, Christlike life.' + +In another letter he writes: 'The death, or, as I like to think of it, +the passing of Forbes into the Great Beyond has been such a grief to +me. You have no idea what he was to me--a real man "sent from God" +into my life. I could do nothing when I heard the sad, and to me +utterly unexpected, news, but kneel down by my bedside, and weep till I +could weep no more for my beloved friend. I feel so rich and proud to +have had him for my friend, and to have had his love; and so do many +Cambridge men. Oh, but I did so love him! and my prayer now is that +the memory of him with me always may strengthen my weak and feeble +life, and help me to live somewhat more as he lived, very near the +Master.' + +He obtained but little help from self-introspection or +self-examination. Thus he writes in one of the letters given later on: +'I am not sure that we cannot learn more about others than we can about +ourselves. {29} I never think it is profitable to study oneself too +closely. I never could meditate with any profit on my sins. But +there, I dare say I differ from many others.' + +To very intimate friends he would in rare instances admit that the +secret of any influence which he possessed over men was the outcome of +his efforts to pray for them. One who had known him intimately at +Christ's writes in 1904: + +'About eighteen months ago I had the privilege of spending a night with +him, and then for the first time I realised how much of his spiritual +power was the outcome of prayer. He told me that in his younger days +he had taken every opportunity of personally appealing to men to come +to Christ. "But," he went on, "as I grow older I become more +diffident, and now often, when I desire to see the Truth come home to +any man, I say to myself, 'If I have him here he will spend half an +hour with me. Instead, I will spend that half-hour in prayer for +him.'" Later on, when I had retired for the night, he came to me again +and said, "W----, what I have said to you is in the strictest +confidence: don't mention it to any one." And this revelation of his +inner life is my last memory of him.' + +On another occasion he said to one with whom he was staying, when +speaking of the little that men could do for each other, 'I think that +I should go mad were it not for prayer.' + +As an instance of his common sense in a matter in which as a bachelor +he could have had no personal experience, he strongly urged a married +man, before {30} deciding to accept a curacy which had been offered to +him, to let his wife see the vicar's wife or women-folk. 'She will +know intuitively,' he said, 'whether she can get on with them and they +with her, and it will make all the difference to your work and +happiness.' The man to whom this advice was offered writes: 'The +advice was given seriously, but with that bright twinkle of his; and I +owe much to it, for we have been here since . . . and I don't want to +go.' + + +The following is an extract from a notice which appeared in the +'Guardian '! + +'By his published work he is best known to the outer world as one of +the few English scholars who have given attention to Coptic. In 1896 +he edited "The Coptic Apocryphal Gospels" in the "Cambridge Texts and +Studies." The important article on the Coptic Version in Hastings's +"Bible Dictionary" came also from his pen, and he was engaged on an +edition of the Sahidic fragments of St. Luke's Gospel. His deepest +interest, however, lay not in these subsidiary studies, but in the +fundamental problems of theology proper. His Burney Prize essay, +printed at the University Press in 1893 under the title of "The +Self-limitation of the Word of God as manifested in the Incarnation," +is no doubt comparatively slight, and in some respects immature; but +its reverent and fearless treatment of the difficulties of his great +theme gave promise of work of permanent value in this field. His +interest in the great problems never flagged, and his sympathetic touch +with the life and thought of the younger men in his college kept him +constantly {31} engaged on the task of putting into clear and ever +clearer expression such solutions as he was able to attain. His +sermons in College Chapel were singularly effective, because he never +wasted a word, and because every sentence was felt to be the outcome of +strenuous thought tested by living experience. + +'It is not surprising, therefore, that he exercised an unusual +influence upon younger students. His friends were very closely bound +to him indeed, in bonds which death can consecrate but cannot sever. +They can never cease to thank God for the pure, bright, tender, utterly +sincere, fearless, and faithful spirit He has given them to love.' + + + + +{32} + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LAST FEW MONTHS + +From the time that Forbes took his degree at Cambridge his health was +far from strong. He suffered from time to time from a form of eczema +which caused him a good deal of discomfort and pain. Many of his +letters contain references to the fact that he had been unwell and had +been unable to do as much work as he had hoped. In September 1897 he +went with his brother Armitage on a visit to St. Petersburg and Moscow. +He stayed in the house of a Russian priest at St. Petersburg, and was +much interested in the work of Father John of Kronstadt, with whom an +interview was arranged which unfortunately fell through at the last +moment. Towards the end of 1897 he developed a bad cough and was +threatened with phthisis. He accordingly spent Christmas and the first +two or three months of 1898 at St. Moritz in Switzerland. His health +then seemed to be much improved. For several years he went back to St. +Moritz to spend the greater part of the Christmas vacation. He took +great delight in tobogganing, and on one occasion was awarded a prize +for a race in which he took part. In the summer of 1899 he went out to +South Africa {33} during the Long Vacation. He visited Pretoria and +had an interview with President Kruger and his wife. One of his +letters records his impressions of the President. He was for some time +disposed to believe that the war, which broke out soon after his +return, could and should have been avoided, but he subsequently +modified his views on this point. + +Towards the end of August 1903 the pain from which he had suffered +intermittently for years became so much worse that he came up to +consult a London doctor, and by his advice remained in town as a +patient at St. Thomas's Home. When he entered the home he fully +expected to undergo an operation within a fortnight; but the doctor who +had suggested it declared, after further examination, that no operation +was necessary. Meanwhile Forbes lingered on in the home week after +week. Eventually a partial operation was performed, and after he had +spent thirteen weeks in the home the surgeon suggested his removal to a +private nursing home, where he could keep him under closer observation. +Here he performed a second operation. This seemed at first to have +been a success, and after a fortnight in this private home he was well +enough to start for Switzerland again. He went at first to St. Moritz, +where he had been so often before; but, finding that the pain returned +and that he could not sleep, he went down to Alassio on the Riviera. +Here he was for several weeks till his return to England. He reached +Westminster on January 13 and went up to Cambridge on the following +day. For a few days he was well enough to lecture, and it seemed as +though he might be able to {34} resume his old work. On Sunday +evening, January 17, he was 'at home' in his rooms and received over +sixty undergraduates who came to welcome him back. Soon the old +trouble returned, and he rapidly grew worse. His pain became almost +constant, and he was removed with great difficulty to another London +nursing home on January 29. It was then proposed that the original +operation which had been suggested, but had never been performed, +should take place, and he fully expected that this would result in his +restoration to health and to work. A few days later he was threatened +with blood-poisoning, and it became obvious that the operation must be +delayed. On Saturday evening, February 6, he seemed fairly cheerful. +Neither he nor his doctors had any idea that he was in an extremely +critical state. About midnight, as the pain had become worse, his +doctor was sent for, and he gave him an injection of morphia. Soon +after this he asked his nurse to turn the light down and said to her, +'If I am asleep in the morning do not wake me.' She looked in about +3.30 A.M. to see if he was asleep, and, finding him awake, inquired if +he would like a drink of champagne. He said yes, and asked her first +of all to help him turn over to the other side. As she was in the act +of assisting him, he passed away, without a movement of any kind. A +happy smile lingered long on his face after the end had come. + +His body was removed the same evening to St. Faith's Chapel, in +Westminster Abbey. Here on the following Thursday morning, February +11, at 9 A.M., the funeral service was said. The chapel {35} was +filled with his friends, who had come from Cambridge and elsewhere. +His body was buried the same afternoon at Eastbourne in the same grave +with that of his sister, the Deaconess Cecilia, who had passed away +five months before. + +The inscription on the memorial card issued to his friends was: + + CUM CHRISTO VICTURUS + DE MORTE AD VITAM MIGRAVIT + DOMINICA IN SEXAGESIMA + ANNO SALUTIS MCMIV + AETATIS SUAE XXXVII. + + + And, doubtless, unto thee is given + A life that bears immortal fruit + In those great offices that suit + The full-grown energies of heaven. + + + + +{36} + +CHAPTER V + +TWO APPRECIATIONS + +The two following sketches of Forbes Robinson's life at Cambridge have +been contributed, the first by the Rev. T. C. Fitzpatrick, Fellow and +Dean of Christ's College, and the second by the Rev. Digby B. +Kittermaster, of Clare College, now Head of the Shrewsbury School +Mission in Liverpool. + + +Mr. Fitzpatrick writes: + +'College life has changed a good deal since the days when a young +graduate, on his election to a fellowship, was advised not to see too +much of the undergraduate members of the College, that the division +between the senior and junior members of the College might be +preserved. A custom of that kind, once established, is not easy to +break, for traditions of all sorts, good and bad, live long in College. + +'Fortunately, the relations between the undergraduates and the fellows +of the College are gradually becoming more natural, to the benefit of +the whole body. Forbes Robinson will be long remembered for the +influence that he exerted in this {37} direction, and what he has +effected it will be comparatively easy for others to carry on. + +'It is my desire to give some slight impression of his life in College, +and I do not wish to say much about his teaching work. I must mention, +however, what frequently struck me, the great joy he had in teaching; +his success was not surprising. When he found (in January last) that +he could not take up all his lecture work he would not allow another to +give in his place the course of lectures on Church History. "I want," +he said to me, "to give them myself in my own way," and he hoped to +have given them this Easter term. I was not surprised to hear from a +pupil of the interest that he and others found in a similar course of +lectures which he had given the previous year. "He put things so," the +pupil told me, "that you could not forget what he had said." + +'My last recollection of him as a teacher bears witness to his interest +and purpose. Word was brought me before morning chapel that he had +been obliged to call in the doctor in the middle of the night. I went +to his rooms after chapel and found that he was asleep, I put up a +notice that he would be unable to lecture. He awoke soon after I had +left his rooms; he had another notice put up that he would lecture in +his rooms. When I came back to College later in the morning I looked +in and found him lying on his sofa with the room full of men, sitting +where they could. The class will not forget that lecture, nor shall I +forget the sight. + +'When two men have lived a number of years within the same College, it +is difficult for them to {38} realise the change in their relationship +that has come with time. There is a comradeship that comes through the +influence of circumstances rather than from that personal attraction +which two men feel for one another, and which arose they don't remember +when or how. It was this comradeship of work and the sharing of +responsibilities that led me to know Forbes Robinson. We had lived +some years in College before I knew much of him; I was some years his +senior, and our lines of work were very different. As far as I know, +he never talked to older men in that frank way which was his custom +with those of his own age, and still more with men younger than +himself. Some weeks ago I was staying at the hotel on the Riviera +where he had been at Christmas time. The English lady, whose husband +keeps the house, told me that with them Forbes Robinson hardly talked +at all, but that he took their boy out for long walks and talked to +him; and the boy's face lit up as I spoke to him of Forbes. + +'There is still the recollection in College, handed on from year to +year, of the walk which he took at the end of a Long Vacation from +London to Cambridge with two other men, and how he talked all the way. +It was these conversations, often prolonged for two or three hours, +that impressed those to whom he opened out his thoughts, and who in +turn let him see something of their inner life. + +'Forbes always had one or two special friends among the younger men, +whom he seemed to me to look upon as heroes; he always yearned for +sympathy, and he was prepared to give to others all that {39} he had +got. This closer relationship with a few men did not in the least +narrow his interest in the life of the College. He gained, I cannot +believe that it can have been without an effort long and hard, the +power of taking an interest in all sorts of things that form no small +part of the life of the average man. There was nothing strained or +exaggerated in his relations with other men; he was at all times just +himself. + +'When he was elected a Fellow, being also Theological Lecturer, he was +anxious to do something to interest and help those who were not +theological students, and he had, first on Sunday mornings after +Chapel, and afterwards in the latter part of the afternoons, Greek +Testament readings for non-theological men, and some terms he took up +some of the problems that present themselves as difficulties to the +thoughtful man. These papers were prepared with great care, and, as I +know, at no small cost of time and energy. + +'On Sunday evenings he was "at home" from 9 to 11 to any members of the +College who cared to come. On those occasions it was a curious sight +that met the eyes of any late comer as he opened the door and saw men +in groups sitting on the floor, as chairs were insufficient; as a rule +there was no general subject of conversation--numbers made that +impossible. Most Sunday evenings there was music, but not always, and +it was difficult at the end of the evening to say what could have +brought so many men together. It was a common ground of meeting for +different kinds of men. Forbes Robinson was often at his best on these +occasions; he would join {40} first one group and then another, and +take part in the subject which was being discussed. Generally one or +two would remain when the others left, and deeper problems would then +be talked over. Only on one Sunday of last term was Forbes Robinson +well enough to be "at home." The room was more crowded than I had ever +seen it. It was a sort of welcome back after his absence the previous +term. It was evident that it gave him pleasure, and evident, too, that +he was all the time in pain. Yet with a brightness, which must have +cost him much, he talked with one and another of simple daily interests +in the way that showed his sympathy with life, and gained for him the +power of saying on other occasions deeper things. + +'Nothing could have been simpler than the character of these +gatherings. Simplicity was the secret of his power. + +'I find it impossible to write of my own conversations with him; they +dealt chiefly with the difficulties of Cambridge, of College life, and +of the lives of those in our College for whom we felt we had a +responsibility. Talking of the difficulties of belief, I was struck by +his quiet answer: "I do not believe some things which I did when I was +younger; but those which I believe, I believe more firmly." Forbes +Robinson had a great belief in the power of intercession. Quite +recently a man in his year told me that when Forbes Robinson was an +undergraduate he had known him spend two hours during the afternoon in +intercession for his friends. One is not surprised that prayer was a +subject on which he {41} thought much. He was to have written an +important article on it. + +'As we talked together of different men, I remember being struck with +the desire he expressed that men should be good and strong, and not of +any one type. He had a great confidence in the essential goodness that +there is in men, and he always formed a high estimate of another. + +'His letters will indicate how deeply he entered into the lives of +others, and how wide were his sympathies. A member of another College +told me that the news of the death of Forbes Robinson reached him just +after the close of their evening chapel, and he had not long returned +to his rooms when an Indian gentleman called, an undergraduate of this +College, who almost in tears told him of all that Forbes had done for +him, and how he had learnt in Hall at Christ's from the strange silence +that something must have happened, and was told of the loss that came +so unexpectedly upon us on Sunday, February 7. + +'I close this short account of my friend with extracts from three +letters casually taken from those which have reached me. A young +clergyman writes: "I feel I owe a very great debt to him, both as a +lecturer and as a friend. His clearness of mind and power of thought +were such as I have never seen in any other man. But far more precious +than these intellectual gifts was the inspiration of his personal +character. His ideals were so high, and he lived so close to them. +Few lives have better expressed the truth of the words of which he was +so fond: 'He that {42} loseth his life shall find it.'" A schoolmaster +writes: "The last talk I had with him was a month before my ordination, +and I remember the emphasis that he laid on the praying side of a +clergyman's life." A doctor writes: "Looking back upon my time at +Christ's, I think that of all the influences which helped me, the most +potent was my friendship with Forbes Robinson. . . . I came to know +him somewhat intimately by spending an Easter vacation with him, and +several of our conversations then have left a lasting impression on my +mind. . . . I suppose, as one gets older and sees so much more of +death, that a deepening faith takes away that sense of personal loss +and leaves behind a feeling of gladness that yet another friend has +passed to the Communion of Saints." + +'Of his life we may use the motto of his College: + +'AD HONOREM CHRISTI JESU ET FIDEI EJUS INCREMENTUM.' + + +Mr. Kittermaster writes: + +'Forbes Robinson did not regard any one of us as a "mere +undergraduate," one of a mass; that was the first thing which those of +us who knew him as undergraduates learnt. He was genuinely interested +from the first in his undergraduate acquaintances; interested in them +as men, not as promising pupils, not as likely scholars, not as +athletes, not as material for "improving" influence, but as +men--individuals, each possessing a separate and distinct human {43} +personality, and therefore of the truest and deepest interest to him. + +'Our public schools taught us (and for most of us Cambridge continued +the teaching) that to be of any real importance and consequence among +his fellows a man must be "good at games," or perhaps--but this more +rarely--"good at work." Such is the simple creed of the undergraduate. +If he satisfies neither of the above requirements, then he recognises, +with greater or less sadness, that he is an ordinary man, the "average +undergraduate." He is one of the crowd if he has no athletic powers to +commend him to the notice of his fellows _in statu pupillari_; he is +one of the crowd if he has no slightest hope of making for himself any +name in the intellectual world, to commend him to the leaders of +thought at Cambridge. And this knowledge is to many a Cambridge boy, +playing at being a man, a matter of real, if unconfessed, grief. + +'But "there is no such thing as the average man, or at least as the +average undergraduate." This was the belief which Forbes Robinson held +with increasing conviction as his life went on. And it was this belief +which accounted to some extent for the very large part which his +friendship undoubtedly played in the life of many a Cambridge +undergraduate. + +'For a man condemned by his fellows and himself to the position of the +"ordinary man" found himself in the presence of Forbes (as all of us +universally called him) to be no such thing. Gradually and with +genuine surprise he learned from him--not by any definite {44} word of +teaching--that though it might cost him efforts painful and many to get +the better of his "special," and though athletic fame knew him not at +all, yet the possibilities of his own peculiar personal life were +wonderful and great. For here was one who compelled men by his genuine +unaffected interest in their lives and work to be themselves genuinely +interested in them too. A man could not know Forbes for long and not +be quickly conscious of a new sense of the value of himself, which made +him believe that his own personality and life were things of great +importance. For "He is interested in me" is what almost every man felt +from the start of his acquaintance with Forbes. "He is interested in +me" we felt when he passed us in the street with his quaint humorous +smile of recognition; we felt the same when we entered his room, to be +received often without a word but with the same half smile: we felt the +same again if we knew that he was watching the progress of a football +match or boat race in which we were taking part. And "he is interested +in me"--most wonderful of all--we felt as we listened to him in the +lecture room, and were compelled to attention; for his interest in the +men in front of him, coupled with his interest in his subject, forced +us all--pass men and honours men alike--to listen to the history of +Church and Doctrine and Creeds. It was this unfeigned interest in men, +simply as men, that in the first instance gave him the influence which +he certainly exercised over all sorts of men, including the kind of men +whom the majority of their fellows disregarded, {45} or perhaps +despised; "the babes and sucklings of the undergraduate world," to +quote another. Such men, in whom most of us could find little to +attract us, were to him vastly interesting--interesting for their +simple human personality. + +'Some men perhaps never discovered from what source his interest in +them sprang. They knew that their views of the possibilities of their +own life were enlarged, that they believed in themselves more for +having been with him; but it was not all at once that they discovered +the reason of his interest and belief in them. It was due to the +Christ. With each new friendship and acquaintance which Forbes +made--and this is especially true of young men--he saw deeper into the +meaning of the Incarnation of Christ. This was the secret of his +extraordinary interest and amazing belief in nearly every one of us. +He saw in us all, however ordinary, however commonplace--yes, however +unlovely were our lives--something somewhere of Jesus Christ. + +'Then some of us were privileged to discover that what he felt for us +was something far deeper and holier than is expressed by the word +"interest." It was love. In every fullest sense he understood the +grand full meaning of the word. His love for his friends was something +altogether larger and deeper and truer than is generally understood by +the word. It was so holy a thing that it is hard to write of it. He +knew, and the knowledge is perhaps rarer than is supposed, what in all +its fulness was the meaning of the love of one man for another. This +is why he could enter into the spirit of Tennyson's "In {46} Memoriam" +as almost no one else could. Tennyson's experience might have been so +entirely his own. His love for his friends was indeed a wonderful, +sacred thing, beautiful to see. With Henry Drummond he felt that it +was better not to live than not to love. Love was to him a part of all +his being: for in him dwelt "the strong Son of God, Immortal Love," +compelling him to love his fellow-men. + +'It was to him a real grief that (as he often quite wrongly supposed) +one or two of those, for whom he would quite willingly have cut off his +right hand if in any way it could have advantaged them, cared not at +all for him, nor ever understood how he cared for them. But he found +relief from the strange unsatisfied longing, engendered in him by this +belief, in intense continuous prayer for those whom he loved. He +prayed, it is certain, as few men pray. Prayer was to him the very +breath of life. And his prayers, like his life, must have been utterly +selfless. Many do not understand the amount they owe to his prayers. +Some of us may some day realise the magnitude of the debt; at present +it is not seen. But he prayed with all the effort of his being for his +friends: eagerly, passionately, unceasingly he prayed. "Pray for him, +believe in him; believe in him, pray for him," he was never tired of +saying to those who spoke to him of some disappointing friend. And his +own life was a proof of the power which lay behind such prayer. + +'To those reading this who did not know Forbes Robinson it may seem +that a man of such intensity of feeling and holiness of life would be +more likely {47} to frighten away than to attract to close quarters the +"average undergraduate" (whose existence he denied). This most +certainly was not the case. For, if there was in him something utterly +divine, he was also human as ever man could be. He admired, like the +veriest freshman, the physical strength and powers of the athlete. In +his presence the man of bodily attainments and strength of limb +experienced the strange sensation of being looked up to by one whom he +knew to be utterly superior to him. But perhaps nearly all who knew +him experienced this at one time or another; for he must have been one +of the most humble men that have ever lived. His humility was almost a +fault. It led him to depreciate himself so far. And yet how beautiful +a thing it was! He did indeed count all men better than himself. + +'He easily condoned offences which in some eyes, and especially the +eyes of dons, loom as a general rule heinous and large. And the +riotous undergraduate, who cuts chapels and lectures, found that a +don--yes, and a junior dean--could be a friend of his. + +'He possessed too a keen and real sense of humour. He could, and often +did, laugh with all his heart. He chaffed continuously his large +circle of undergraduate friends. When he was questioning a man in the +lecture-room, you felt that all the time he was half chaffing him. He +addressed us all in lectures as "Mr.," in a half serious, half amused +style. "It is the only chance for some men to retain any +self-respect--to address them as 'Mr.'"--he would say, after the +discovery of some more than usual piece of {48} ignorance in his class +of "special" men; "for how can a man have any self-respect unless +addressed as 'Mr.' who does not know which are the Pastoral Epistles, +or who is the Bishop of Durham (then Bishop Westcott)?" + +'He could not remember the name of his best friend on occasions, and he +would recount with real glee how he had been known successfully to +introduce two men, not knowing the name of either. On one occasion it +fell to him to introduce to each other a low-caste West African native +and a particularly high-caste Brahmin rejoicing in a lofty sounding +polysyllabic title: of course he transposed the names--with results, so +he declared, almost fatal to himself. + +'He would display with humorous pride to his athletic friends a +photograph of himself coming in second in a toboggan handicap race at +St. Moritz, which he always maintained he morally won. He was full of +spontaneous humour. When he greeted you, when he looked at you, when +he talked with you, it was always with a half smile on his face. It +was his sense of humour which procured him a quick entrance into many a +man's life and heart. It was his sense of humour which made the +hostile undergraduate, hauled for cutting lectures or chapels, forget +his hostility and the presence of the don; though at the end of the +interview he, probably for the first time, began to think whether +chapel-going had any meaning, whether a lecture, if listened to, might +conceivably profit the listener. It was his sense of humour which made +all feel at home with him, which at the first attracted the most +unlikely men, {49} which inspired with confidence the shyest, and made +the most frivolous and thoughtless not afraid of him. Yet while he +would laugh, and make us laugh, for as long as ever any one wished, +through all his unaffected merriment he made men feel the strange +earnestness of his life. And all knew that, while he never obtruded on +us religious or even serious matters, he was ready at a moment's notice +to speak with us of spiritual things. And most men felt something of +what a friend of his wrote of him after his death: "He understood of +'the things that matter' more than any man that I shall ever meet." +And many men who owe to Forbes Robinson their first serious thoughts of +and their first insight into "the things that matter" must feel the +same. It is this fact that makes it impossible to measure the +far-reaching deep influence of his life. For the greatness of that +life lay not in any large influence on any large body of +undergraduates, though the undergraduate life of Christ's College must, +as a whole, have felt his real influence; nor was his life great simply +because he was a scholar and a thinker. But his life was great, and +will for all time remain great, because it was an inspiration--there is +no other word: it was, and is, a lasting, vivid, real inspiration to a +few. What Bishop Westcott did on a large scale, Forbes Robinson did on +a small. He inspired men--inspired them to search for and hold to the +realities of life. + +'To sum up: a man admitted into the inner chamber of his life learnt +there something of these three things: (_a_) The value of his own +personality, (_b_) the meaning of love, (_c_) the power of prayer. + +{50} + +'_a. The value of his own personality._--A man, as he talked with +Forbes, was taught with increasing clearness the amazing possibilities +of life for any one who has tried to think what it means to say that +"this is I." Many of us, conscious in ourselves only of very ordinary +attainments, of no very high ideals, of weaknesses of character, learnt +from our friend that in spite of all this, our own personality was +God's greatest gift to us. We learnt from him that our own particular +commonplace life was, with all its failures and inconsistencies, a +tremendous enterprise, big with opportunities. He taught us this by +his belief in us. He held (again like Bishop Westcott) through +everything to the faith of "man naturally Christian." By his belief in +a man he forced him at last to believe in himself. For he taught us +that we were, each one, two men--the real "Ego" and the false--and that +the real self must in the end have the mastery over the false, because +that real self was the Christ. + +'_b. The meaning of love._--It is impossible for lesser natures to +enter into all that the word "love" meant to Forbes. His love for his +friends was "wonderful, passing the love of women." He loved some men +with an intensity of feeling impossible to describe. It was almost +pain to him. If he loved a man he loved him with a passionate love (no +weaker expression will do). We undergraduates found our natures too +small to understand it. Yet, as we learnt to know him more and more, +we began too to learn a little of what real love is--we began to learn +what can be the meaning and the wonder and the power {51} and the depth +of the love of man for man. And we understood in time that his love +for us and his belief in us sprang from the same high source--from the +Christ in him, in us. + +'_c. The power of prayer._--This last lesson explained the other two. +Perhaps only a few of those who knew Forbes as undergraduates learnt +it. Yet an intimate knowledge of him must have forced almost any man +to the belief that 'more things are wrought by prayer than this world +dreams of.' He prayed for those he loved, it is certain, for hours at +a time. All his thoughts about some men gradually became prayers. He +could not teach us everything that prayer meant to him; he could not +teach us to pray as he prayed. Yet through him one or two at least of +his undergraduate friends saw a little further into the eternal mystery +of prayer. And men must sometimes--with all reverence be it said--have +experienced in his presence the same kind of a feeling of some great +unseen influence at work as that which the disciples must have +experienced in the presence of Christ after He, apart and alone, had +watched through the night with God in prayer. For many an hour of his +life did Forbes spend like that, striving with God for those he loved. +He believed--he knew (this was his own testimony)--that he could in +this way bring to bear upon a man's life more real effective influence +than by any word of direct personal teaching or advice. So did he +prove once more that the man of power in the spiritual world is the man +of prayer. + +'These are the great lessons of Forbes Robinson's {52} life--lessons +which many a careless undergraduate learnt in a greater or less degree, +and, learning, caught from the teacher something of his passion for +life and love and prayer, for service of God and man. + +'There must be many who will not soon forget the lessons; there must be +many in whose lives the influence and inspiration of that saintly life +will be for ever a power making for holiness and high ideals of living; +there are, it is certain, very many who will thank God continually that +they were, in their undergraduate days, allowed to call Forbes Robinson +friend. + +'How many of us, when we heard with a shock of almost horror that he +had passed from us, conjured up before us the picture we shall never +see again--the picture of our friend sitting any evening at his table +in Darwin's historic rooms at Christ's, dimly lighted with candles! We +shall remember long the quick look up at our entrance, the half-smile +on his face, the welcome of a man's love in his eyes, however busy and +tired he might be. Then, though it cost him later hours out of bed, +the invitation to sit down, followed quickly by an indignant +remonstrance as we ousted his cat from the best arm-chair. And then +the talk that followed: sometimes almost trivial; sometimes (but only +if we wished it) deeply serious; sometimes--and these occasions were +precious--a kind of soliloquy on his part, as he spoke of God, of the +realities of life, of love, of prayer. Then, with still the same +half-smile, he would bid us "Good night," and watch us out of the room +with the same look of love in his eyes with which he welcomed us, {53} +as he turned back to his table to work and think and pray far into the +night. + +'So many a one of us has left him again and again, to return to the +merry, careless, selfish undergraduate world a nobler, better man. And +now he has passed from us--"dead ere his prime" we should say, did we +not understand that somewhere the faithful, hopeful, loving soul has +better work to do. He is, as he ever was, "in Christ." He lives. His +life remains here and beyond. His faith in God, in prayer; his hope +for every man; his utterly wonderful, amazing love,--they still remain. +For _nuni menei_ (nothing can rob us of the word) _pistis, elpis, +agape, ta tria tauta; meizpon de touton he agape_.' + + +[Transcriber's note: The above Greek phrases were transliterated as +follows: _nuni_--nu, upsilon, nu, iota; _menei_--mu, epsilon, nu, +epsilon, iota; _pistis_--pi, iota, sigma, tau, iota, final sigma; +_elpis_--epsilon, lambda, pi, iota, final sigma; _agape_--alpha (soft +breathing mark), gamma, alpha, pi, eta; _ta_--tau, alpha; _tria_--tau, +rho, iota, alpha; _tauta_--tau, alpha, upsilon, tau, alpha; +_meizpon_--mu, epsilon, iota, zeta, omega, nu; _de_--delta, epsilon; +_touton_--tau, omicron, upsilon, tau, omega, nu; _he_--(rough breathing +mark) epsilon; _agape_--alpha (soft breathing mark), gamma, alpha, pi, +eta] + + + +{54} + +LETTERS + + +_To A. V. R._ + +Brislington Hill, Bristol: September 24, 1890. + +. . . I have been persuaded to try the Semitic Languages Tripos. I +have been learning German and Syriac a little this Long with that aim +in view. . . . I don't really know what to do. I am trying to do what +will best fit me for my future work. It is hard to know what is right. + +. . . The only thing I want is not to develop into a mere +bookworm. . . . The atmosphere of Cambridge so tends to deaden one, +and to make one unsympathetic with humanity; and yet the Church today +does so need men who know something, men who can express with no +uncertain sound the truth of Old Testament and New Testament criticism. +I want so to find out what the Old Testament is, and how far we can +believe in it, in its essential truth, in its historical accuracy. The +question can only be settled by scholars--by scholars filled with the +spirit of humility and understanding. It cannot be settled by the +so-called spiritual faculty alone, but only by the intellect guided by +the Spirit of Truth. + +I have been reading St. John's Gospel in Greek and Syriac, and more and +more I become convinced {55} that what it says is truth: +_zoe_--life--anything worth calling life--anything that can +last--anything that is of use here and hereafter--is to be gained alone +by actually eating and drinking the Body of the Son of Man. The +expression is awfully strong--the expression in itself. I am not +talking of all sorts of modern explanations of the expression. Take it +as it stands in the original: 'You have no life, unless you eat and +drink. . . .' + +[Transcriber's note: The word _zoe_ in the above paragraph was +transliterated from the Greek letters zeta, omega, eta.] + +I wish there could be a small Greek Testament reading in the College +for considering what the New Testament really means, apart from modern +interpretations. Is it possible to find out the true, original meaning +of that book, and to understand its problems a little and its +solutions? 'Quid importat scientia sine timore Dei?' + + + +_To T. H. M._ + +Aldeburgh House, Blackheath: March 20, 1891. + +I am gradually finding out how ignorant I am of the meaning of the New +Testament, and how miserably I have read my own miserable notions and +glosses into the words of St. Paul. I am sure that the solution of the +greatest problems which concern humanity is to be found in his +Epistles, if we could only approach them without bias and with more +childishness. I feel certain that the Incarnation is the great fact of +the world's, and probably of the universe's, history. 'The Word was +made flesh.' + + And so the Word had breath, and wrought + With human hands the creed of creeds + In loveliness of perfect deeds, + More strong than all poetic thought. + + +{56} + +The death on Calvary must have had effects far beyond this particular +world. 'He descended into hell.' He claimed His power over all parts +of His universe. The Good _has_ conquered. The Bad _is_ defeated. + + + +_To T. H. M._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: July 18, 1891. + +We have but lately heard that my missionary brother[1] has passed away +into the eternal world. He died in Africa. He gave up all, he gave up +his life for Christ. Terribly as we feel the loss, and shall feel it +still more, I cannot help thanking the Eternal Father that He has +accepted the life-sacrifice, and feeling that He calls upon us here and +now, each day and moment of our lives, to offer up ourselves on the +altar of universal thanksgiving. Life is sacrifice, renunciation: true +life is dependence on God. Sin is isolation, death--a failure to +recognise and act on our dependence. I do feel as I seldom felt before +something of the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, the +communion of the Spirit. We _must_ learn that an individual hope, +aspiration, ambition, is against the law of the universe--the law of +self-sacrifice. We _must_ learn that our wills are ours to make them +God's; that if we have a single hope or thought which He does not +inspire, which true humanity cannot share, the hope and thought are +wrong. God grant that you and I may renounce {57} our individual +lives, and become truly ourselves by martyrdom, by allowing the Christ +in us to live. + +I am to be ordained in September. Pray for me. There is no power like +prayer. Let us pray for one another. The great Father longs for +simple lives, simple piety, perpetual thanksgiving. And we have so +much to be thankful for--so much here and now. I do long to offer +body, mind, soul, affections, will, hope, to Him as a thanksgiving. +Self-renunciation, life in a Church, a Body, is the only life. God +grant we may live it! + + +[1] John Alfred Robinson, formerly a scholar of Christ's College, who +died at Lokoja on the River Niger, on June 25, 1891. + + + +_To T. H. M._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: November 17, 1891. + +Do you know that it isn't a bad thing to feel a babe? We must all +become simple little children before we enter the kingdom of heaven, +because God, who lives in that kingdom, has the simplest heart in all +the wide universe--the most childlike, for God is Love. He has no +cross purposes. Though He is stronger and better and bigger than we +are, He is simpler. He will love a poor, simple old woman in His +simple way with a wonderful affection. He is so simple, because He +does not know what sin is. God never sins. God is Light, and in Him +is no darkness at all. + +It is this simplicity, this love of One who is omnipotent, uncreate, +illimitable, eternal, that makes me reverence Him, adore Him, live for +Him, love Him. + +Simplicity is wonderfully attractive. The man who knows least of sin +is most helpful to me, because {58} he is most simple and Godlike. The +'man of the world' is most repulsive, because he is most like the Devil. + + + +_To E. N. L., on the occasion of his ordination._ + +Cambridge: March 10, 1892. + +It gives me great pleasure to think that on Sunday next you will be +made a Deacon in God's Church. I thank God that He has called you to +one of the highest offices on earth, that henceforth you will be 'in' +or (shall we say?) 'under' orders--God's orders--that you willingly +renounce your life, your thoughts, your hopes, your ambitions to Him. +You will probably hear much and be told much at this time. I have +nothing to say that you have not heard and will not hear said far +better by others. Our Church gives the keynote in the collect for +Sunday: 'We have no power.' I never realised my weakness, my pride, my +hollowness so much as I did at my ordination. God has been teaching +me, even in the short time since I was ordained, wonderful +lessons--lessons of strength being perfected in weakness. He alone +knows the depths of our hypocrisy, our vanity, our atheism, and He +alone can help us. To get nearer to Him, to know Him better--this is +what I want, this is eternal life. As we believe in a Person who is by +our side, who is helping us, training us, we shall be able to proclaim +Him to others. Do not mind about feelings. You may have beautiful +feelings at your ordination time. Thank God if you have. He sends +them. You may have none. Thank God if you have not, for He has kept +them back. We do {59} not want to _feel_ better and stronger; we want +to _be_ better and stronger. And He _has_ made us better and stronger. +He has given us His Spirit as we knelt before the bishop. We must go +forth in that strength. We must use it, live on it, and it will be +ours. _Kata ten pistin humon genetheto humin_. When we feel most +hopeless, most wretched, most distant from God, remember 'feelings +don't matter.' Remember that God's Son felt the same temptation, +remember that He too was forsaken by His God. And when all seems lost, +Satan seems master, we are misunderstood; remember that 'I believe in +the Holy Ghost,' who is stronger than separation or death, than +feelings, than our hearts. All our feelings and thoughts and wishes +are nothing. God is everything and in all. All our conceptions will +be shattered, all our schemes overthrown, that a Great Person behind +may be revealed. To know, to love, to make known, to make men love +that Person is our work in life . . . . + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek words in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _Kata_--Kappa, alpha, tau, alpha; +_ten_--tau, eta, nu; _pistin_--pi, iota, sigma, tau, iota, nu; +_humon_--(rough breathing mark) upsilon, mu, omega, nu; +_genetheto_--gamma, epsilon, nu, eta, theta, eta, tau, omega; +_humin_--(rough breathing mark) upsilon, mu, iota, nu] + +We are men sent from God. We come to bear witness of a Light. Do not +let us confuse ourselves with our message. The message is everything; +we are nothing. The Light simply shines through us. We must be glad +to be shattered, rejected, if so be that the Light shining through us +may be manifested. + +One suggestion I make: that you do what I believe you are expected by +the words of the Prayer-book to do--say the Morning and Evening Prayer +daily _always_, unless you are ill, at home or in church, and the +Litany on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. You will find this a greater +help than almost anything else--a help against superstition, +narrowness, bigotry, {60} heartlessness. If you decide not to do so, +do it with some _really_ good reason, and not because others do the +same, or because it is a bother. + +And now good-bye. And may God grant us to know Him on earth, so that +we may together know Him better hereafter. + + + +_To W. A. B._ + +Blackheath: April 30, 1892. + +. . . No amount of philosophical theories are worth much compared with +a simple picture of home life. It is these common relations of life +which are most awful and sacred. The highest life we know is, I think +I may say with reverence, family life--life of Father and Son; family +life on earth is a faint picture of something better in heaven. We +shall be surprised some day to find that, while we have been searching +for the noble and divine, we have it all the while at home. The +relations of brother and brother, son and father, are eternal +realities, which we shall never fathom, for God Himself is below them. +'Omnia exeunt in mysterium,' as Kingsley says in 'Yeast.' I am very +pleased with that novel. The description he gives of the sufferings +and squalor of villages is positively awful. We do want men who +believe that self-sacrifice, not selfishness, is at the top of all, who +are sure that family life is made in heaven and is made in the image of +God's life, who know that in the present is the eternal, to go and live +and work and die in our villages. But Kingsley shows it is not enough +to give alms or other social benefits--we must do more than that, we +must raise their whole {61} life and condition. I believe myself that +this can only be done from inside. Thus, when God wished to redeem +man, He did it from inside. Man himself fought and conquered. Deity +entered into humanity. It is not merely that we must live simply, +think simply, work, as they do. That is well, but we must do more. If +we want to look at them from the inside, I know only one way--the old, +old way which God Himself adopts. We must love them, love the Christ, +the Spirit in them--not the beast, the devil in them. Like attracts +like. To love and to detect that, we must have some of that Spirit, +that Christ. + +That means to say that to help others from the inside, we must be right +inside ourselves. And yet none of us are right inside. But there is +that in us which is right, that in us which is not ourselves, but is +deeper than ourselves. A Son who will make us true sons, a Brother who +will teach us how to be brothers, a Human Being who will show us what +is in all human beings; a Love who will teach us what we always fancy +we know, but what we don't know (else we should be divine)--how to +love; a Man who will make us saints and gentlemen--the Man Christ +Jesus. Yes, and there is in us a Great Spirit who is uniting us by +invisible bonds to all that is good and healthy and Godlike, a Spirit +who disciplines our will when it is weakest and most self-indulgent, +who trains our spirit and fights our battles against the evil spirit, a +Person who makes us persons. How then do men differ? If in every man +there is the Light which lightens him, the Christ, the Spirit, what is +the difference between good and bad men? Does {62} a good man possess +religion, or faith, or love? No, the best men would tell you they were +possessed by faith and love, rather than that they possessed them. +What faith or love they have is not a possession--it is in them, not of +them, not belonging to them. It comes from the Christ in them. The +difference between men is not that one is inspired and another is not, +but that one yields to the Spirit, another does not. We begin to obey +when we lose ourselves in that Spirit and forget all but God. We ought +never to settle any detail in life without taking Him into account: we +are fools if we do. How can we be logical? For He is in that detail, +and not to think of Him is not to understand that detail. For every +detail is more than a detail--it is the expression of a Person. + +I have wandered into a train of thought suggested by 'Yeast,' and in +part copied directly from it. Forgive me. I was half thinking aloud. +That is my one excuse for saying what I am trying to think. + +I never played golf. I do that sort of thing by deputy. K---- is the +sort of man to do it for me. At any rate, I trust him with my football +and rowing. It doesn't tire you so much if you do it that way. Only +let me give you one piece of advice, which I only wish I acted upon: +'Don't do your thinking by deputy:' do your rowing, golf, football, +cricket, skittles, talking if you like, but not your thinking. + + +{63} + +_To D. D. R; written apropos of a discussion on St. Paul's idea of the +relation between Sin and the Law._ + +2 New Square, Cambridge; Monday before Easter, 1892. + +I cannot but help feeling that part of your difficulties are self-made. +Is there such a difference between Jewish law and law in general? What +is law--law in the abstract? What do you mean when you talk about laws +of science or morality? Surely there is no such thing as law in the +abstract. You really mean God's thought. All law existed long before +this world existed, as the thought of God. This thought expresses +itself, when the world is actually made, in animals, nature, man. But +this thought is somewhat long before it expresses itself, because it is +God's thought. With Him 'to think' is 'to do.' Before you and I were +born, before men were made, man exists in God as a thought. Each of us +is an expression of part of that thought. The whole thought is the +image of God, not any one part. Now, when I speak of man as something +in contra-distinction to men, I mean the thought of God in +contradistinction to its individual realisation. So when I speak of +law as distinct from special laws, I mean a thought of God as distinct +from its special expressions. Otherwise 'man' and 'law' are +abstractions and nonentities. + +The nominalist is right in so far as he denies that law as an abstract +thing (considered apart from a person--as his thought) is anything: the +realist is right in so far as he affirms that law, apart from {64} any +particular manifestation, is an eternal reality. The reconciliation of +nominalism and realism is found in God. Applying this to the case in +hand--you admit that the Ten Commandments are the ground of morality; +therefore, I say, they must be an expression of a thought of God, the +Author of morality. But you are puzzled to find that the most trivial +sanitary arrangements are considered by the Jew as equally a +manifestation of God. Need we be? In every little sanitary precaution +I recognise, or ought to recognise, an expression of that same mind as +I see it in the Ten Commandments. God is Light, therefore the clean, +the healthy, the decent is an expression of Him. God is Love, +therefore the social, the self-sacrificing, is an expression of Him as +well. But sanitary arrangements and the like, though an expression of +an unchanging principle, change according to state of civilisation, +climate, country. Therefore we take the principle, not the expression, +as the ultimate reality in the case of these sanitary laws. + +I am afraid I am rather stupid, and cannot make my meaning plain. I +want to show you that the Jewish law only differs from English law as +being in some ways a more complete expression of God's nature. But in +all sanitary law, &c., _now_ we have God's nature expressed. And it +would be true to say, 'God spake unto England, saying'--_e.g._ in a +right decision in court; it would be true to say, 'God spake unto the +judge, saying.' Therefore, what holds good of Moses' law holds good of +all law, because all law is a thought of God. {65} Therefore St. Paul +uses indifferently _nomos_ and _ho nomos_, for what is true of God's +thought is true of every expression of it. In fact, he more often +perhaps argues about one particular expression of it. Why? Because we +can only tell what the thought is by studying the expression. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek words in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _nomos_--nu, omicron, mu, omicron, final +sigma; _ho_--(rough breathing mark), omicron] + +Don't be taken in by abstractions. An ideal is nothing--worse than +nothing--unless our ideal is God's idea. Then it is the only reality, +because God's idea will take effect. His idea is to make man in His +image, and be sure it will take effect. Commandments, judgments, +statutes, mean much the same in the Old Testament, I conceive, as we +mean when we use them. The Ten Commandments are not so called in the +Bible, I think. They are called 'words,' I think. + +I do not think St. Paul at all restricted _nomos_ to the Ten +Commandments. In fact, I don't know that he ever very clearly +separated those off from all the rest. + +Do not in your essay make the same mistake as many of the Jews in St. +Paul's time. Do not try to consider law apart from the Law-giver. +They looked upon law as a dead thing by itself, not as an expression of +the character of a person. + +Thus the Commandment about resting on the Sabbath day was considered by +them as an order as though from a tyrant. But God, when He gave it, +did not simply say, 'Here it is: do it'--but 'Do it because,' and He +gives the reason why. The reason is different in Exodus and +Deuteronomy, because the books were, to a certain degree perhaps, +written to {66} illustrate different aspects of God's character. +Exodus says: 'Work and rest, because God's life is work and rest. +Therefore human life made in His image is work and rest.' Deuteronomy +says: 'Work and rest. God has emancipated you from slavery. He bids +you rest.' In both cases God is the ground of the law. Study law--any +law--English law--and in so far as it is law, and not lawlessness under +guise of law, you will be studying God Himself; for if St. Paul's +principles are true at all, they must be true of all law. But, oh! +don't deal with abstractions, which sound well, but mean little. Let +us use what we have. It is a grand thing to know that the highest +ideal we can conceive must be realised, for the highest ideal must be +part of God's idea. + +Don't try to look at moral law apart from national life. St. Paul did +not. Law is seen in national life. A nation is a better expression of +God than an individual, because God is three, not simply one. He is a +social Being, a Being of relations. And nations will last for ever. +Law will always be seen worked out in national life. God has more +worlds than one. Each nation is a thought of God worked out in human +clay (cf. Jeremiah xviii. 1-6). Human clay lasts for ever ('I believe +in the resurrection of the body'). Law will always be worked out thus. +We are part of a thought of God--part of an English nation--little +fragments of a huge whole. Our immortality depends on the fact that we +are parts of a nation, parts of a Divine idea, which lasts for ever. +Law is more completely seen in conscious than unconscious life, because +God's life is conscious. Law is more completely seen {67} in family +and national than individual life, because in God Himself are seen the +archetypes of human relations. + +This letter is disjointed, but contains a few thoughts which may prove +helpful--thoughts I have been learning from others of late. + +We are having lovely weather. + +The buds 'feeling' after each other--new life and resurrection life--a +type, a pledge of fuller resurrection, of Easter life--nay, the same +Life--'I am the Resurrection and the Life'--working in trees and +flowers and man. What a glorious thing to live in a world which has +been united with its Maker--a world of perfect law and order--a world +where every infraction of law must and will be punished--a world where +Love is Law and Law is Love--a world where a great thought is being +realised, and will be realised in and for us! You use 'Theology' +loosely--'Theology' is _the_ thing and 'Religion' is not, I think, +nearly such a fine word. Theology is the Learning, Knowing, Studying +God. I am sorry I have said nothing about Jewish sacrificial law. I +meant to. That expresses a great fact. It dimly hints (as sacrificial +law in other nations does) at the fact that the ground of the universe +is self-sacrifice--that the ground of all human, whether family or +national, life is a filial sacrifice. I think other nations besides +Jews regarded _all_ law as coming from God; nay, I think all nations +did in part at least. + + + +{68} + +_To E. N. L., on the occasion of the death of his brother, who was +killed by lightning at Cambridge._[1] + +June 18, 1892. + +. . . I do feel for you, and could do a great deal to help you. I can +only tell you what I have felt to be the only thing which makes life +endurable at a time of real sorrow--God Himself. He comes unutterably +near in trouble. In fact, one scarcely knows He exists until one loves +or sorrows. There is no 'getting over' sorrow. I hate the idea. But +there is a 'getting into' sorrow, and finding right in the heart of it +the dearest of all human beings--the Man of Sorrows, a God. This may +sound as commonplace, but it is awfully real to me. I cling to God. I +believe He exists. If He does not, I can explain nothing. If He does, +all whom we love are safer with Him than with us. If we can only get +nearer ourselves to God, we shall get nearer to those whom we love, for +they too are in God. + +We shall be one, ever more and more really one, the nearer and the +liker we get to God. . . . My dear friend, words are poor comfort at a +time like this, when we see into eternity. A Person is our only hope, +and that Person is God. God often takes those whom He loves best home +to Himself as soon as He can. In the process of their development they +break through the bonds of space and time. He has taken your brother, +but not taken him away from you. We are {69} all in the same +home--praying for, knowing, loving each other. . . I believe in the +communion of saints--I believe that those who began to know God here, +and whom we call dead, are not dead. They are just beginning to live, +because they are finding out God: they are just beginning to know us, +because they see us as we are--they see us in God. They are with +Jesus, and Jesus is a human being. Because they are with a human +being, a man, _the_ man, the Son of man, they must, they do, take a +deep interest in the affairs of the sons of men, and--may we not +believe?--in us, whom they knew below. . . . These are truths which +sorrow helps me to make my own. I pray that you may never, never 'get +over' the sorrow, but get through it, into it, into the very heart of +God. + + +[1] Writing to another friend at this time he says, 'He was walking +with a friend, and in a moment, without any apparent pain, "God's +finger touched him and he slept."' + + + +_To A. W. G._ + +Blackheath: June 27, 1892. + +I have more and more come to the conclusion for some time past that the +only reality underlying and explaining the world must be personal. I +know that I am a person, and that it is persons--especially a few +particular persons--not things, who have influenced me and had a power +in my life. All my ideas of justice and purity and goodness are +inseparably bound up with persons. At last I have come to the +conclusion that nothing exists except the personal, and that below all +is One who is personal. That means to say that the world and things in +it are only real in so far as they are thoughts of God. We are real +only in so far as we are thoughts of God. A {70} Roman Catholic poet, +speaking of the Virgin Mary, says: + + If Mary is so beautiful, + What must her Maker be? + + +I look round the world and I see persons who attract me in a wonderful +way--persons who are more gracious and simple than I am; and then I +cannot help feeling that they all are a kind of faint picture of One +who is better than all of them, One in whose image they are made. I +like, I cannot help liking, intensely some of them; and from them I am +led on to Him who made them and who therefore must--if I only knew +Him--be more attractive even than they are. I believe that we are +intended to rise from them to Him who made them, that if we stop short +with the creature, we lower ourselves--we become idolaters. We worship +beauty or intellect or goodness as though they belonged to the +creature; we thereby lower ourselves and the persons whom we worship. +If, on the contrary, we rise from them to the Personal Being, we see +more in them than we ever saw before, and we get nearer to them than we +ever got before. For life is a circle whose centre is God. Each of us +is unconnected with his neighbour, but connected with the centre from +whom he comes. The nearer the centre, the nearer we get to each other. +When we get to the centre, we really become united with each other. To +die is to get a step nearer the centre. The closer we are connected +with the centre, the nearer we are to those whom we call dead. Our +communion with them is spiritual, because 'God is spirit' and they are +in Him. But the {71} spiritual is not the unsubstantial, the nebulous, +the gaseous; it is the personal--to my mind the awful--reality. The +more truly we understand persons, the more we shall find they are +spirits. + +I tell you what has been the greatest possible strength to me of late. +God is not merely a Person, He is Three Persons in One. I am always +trying to get closer to those whom I love best, to know them more, to +serve them better. Yet something is ever keeping us apart. I said +'something,' I mean 'some one,' for only a person can keep a person +from another--only a malicious, a devilish person--yet I feel that some +day I shall be able to love, and know them better. Then I look out on +life and I see how again and again death, and some one worse than +death, is separating us, misinterpreting motives, keeping men apart; +men are struggling to be one, and cannot be; on earth persons long to +be one, persons who love feel they ought to be, they must be one. In +heaven Three Persons are really, perfectly, quite One. What we are +trying to do has been done there. Men try to be one. God is One. And +the comfort comes in when one knows that 'in the image of God made He +man.' Our life is a copy; God's life is the original. Because God is +One, we, whose life is a picture of His, shall some day be one, as He +is. The unity of Deity is a pledge of the unity of humanity. + +The more we make our life like the original the more shall we realise +what we long to realise--truer, deeper, more eternal unity. But we are +not simply _trying_ to be, we _are_ one. All we have to do, I believe, +is to act as though we were one. We have {72} proofs of this unity. +We find ourselves doing an action which we should never have done +unless we had known some one. That one lives over his life, or part of +his life, again in us. So too we are living over our lives in other +people, perhaps in some who have passed into other worlds of fuller +activity than this. In living our lives over in each other, we show +that we are more than we thought; and it is grand to think how big our +lives may become in this way, for those whom we _influence_--into whom +our life _flows in_--in turn may influence others. When I get quite +quiet, and my mind is sane, and my conscience at rest, when I almost +stop thinking, and listen, I am quite sure that a Personal Being comes +to me, and, as He comes, brings some of His own life to flow into my +life. I am also sure that with Him come those who live in Him, that +all whom I have known or know, and longed or long to know better, who +were _worth_ knowing, are near me, are, if I let them, living their +lives in my life, making me what I should not be without them. (These +are facts, of which I think I may say I have more certainty in the best +moments of my life than I have now that Switzerland exists. But I may +be exaggerating. Perhaps as regards the second fact--of the other +persons with Him--I may have spoken too strongly as regards my +certainty. It is so hard to say _exactly_ what one means.) + +I don't know that these thoughts will be of much use to you. They may +sound somewhat too philosophical. But I have more or less purposely +put them in a philosophical form, because we are not thus so {73} +easily led astray into vague pleasant feelings, which we sometimes get +from rhetoric. But I do wish I could put a little more of my feelings +into this cold paper, and cruel, unsympathetic ink. For what I have +written is not a mere philosophy of life; it is the only thing that +makes life tolerable for a moment to me; it is the one thing which I +intensely long to realise. To my mind life is love, and love is life. +Love is not sentimental affection, simply the readiness to die for a +person. But love is the laying down of life for a person, absolutely +renouncing your life for another. It means living the best life you +can conceive of for the sake of one you love; knowing for certain that +your life is flowing into that other person, though you may never see +him again in this world. Love is purifying yourself that another may +be pure. Love for one person, if it be true love, leads you at once to +God, for 'God is Love.' I do not know what that means, but I do know +that the little meaning I can see in it explains everything. As we +love, God is there; we see God, we are in God. So we are led on from +unselfish love on earth to that unselfish family life of Three in One +in heaven; we are led on to Him in whose image we are made, and whose +image we never so clearly reflect as when we love most. I could go on +talking on this subject almost for ever, but I think I had better not +tax your patience. + + + +{74} + +_To W. A. B._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: July 5, 1892. + +How very jolly for you to get out right away into the country! I hope +some day to be able to do the same. But I think, on the whole, _I_ am +better suited for retiring from the world than you are! If it were right +to wish it, I might almost wish to exchange places with you. But yet I +don't. It is very curious--I dare say you have thought of it--how very, +very few people, if any, you would deliberately wish to change into, if +you could. One admires many people, and would like to have their +goodness, their intellect, or their beauty or strength--but how few of +them one would really be: to cease at once to be yourself, and suddenly +to be some one else--to look at life with _their_ eyes, to have _their_ +past, _their_ hopes for the future, _their_ sins, _their_ inmost +thoughts, _their_ anxieties. There is only about one man in the world, +whom I know, whom I would like to be--and even of that I am not sure. It +is the wonderful sense of personality. We abuse 'me'; we often vaguely +say we would rather be some one else; yet very few of us wish to lose +'me': and most of us perhaps never will. + +Liddon is, I should think, somewhat stiff and uninteresting. Gore's +Bampton Lectures on much the same subject are far more interesting to my +mind, far more human. Lectures IV, V, VI of Gore would perhaps interest +and educate you on the subject. + +Are you so sure that your course at Cambridge is 'over'? + + I looked behind to find my past, + And lo, it had gone before. + +{75} + +You will find traces of that course, before you have done, in yourself +and in others for good or for evil. It is a good thing to think that +nothing good is ever 'over'--that whatever we do is done for eternity, is +part of ourselves and of others--that we live on in others, live on a +nobler life than we lived in ourselves. When we _influence_ another, our +life _flows into_ another: we live our life over again in him. The day +will come when we shall see more clearly into what we have been doing. +As yet we are like children playing with knives: they little know how +near they are to killing themselves at times. So we are playing with big +issues: we call them small and secular, we treat them as such--yet every +speck of dust is big with infinity. Would that we could see the Infinite +Being at every turn, then we should begin to live. You will get wrong in +all your plans unless you see them in Him, and Him in them, and correct +them as you see them thus--correct your thoughts to fit in with His +thoughts, not His thoughts to fit in with your thoughts. + +But you'll learn it is true. You'll understand later on why I am always +talking about a Person; why to know that Personal Being is life. +Meanwhile, thank you very, _very_ much for what you have taught me. I +feel I am down in the bottom class of that school, but I am glad that I +have got into the school at all. Later on I may reach a higher standard, +and know the Teacher better. In that school the lesson each of us is set +to learn is love, and the name we are all trying to spell out is the name +of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Some of us, +perhaps, have learnt to spell one part of the name, {76} some of us +another. But none of us have properly learnt to love one single person +as we ought; and few of us have learnt to see the Father's love in all, +the Son's grace in all, and the Spirit's fellowship in all. But patience +must have her perfect work: and if we work hard at our lessons, we shall +know more, love more, think in a simple way, and _do_ more. But we must +not be learning merely from each other; the pupils must look away to the +Master of all in the centre, and as we all learn from Him and love Him, +we shall be more modest, there will be no competition--save who can love +most and sacrifice most--and do most for Him who has done all for us. + +This letter is hurried. Forgive it. Write again. Accept the will for +the deed. Think, think, think! + + + +_To T. H. M._ + +Ivy House, Holkham: September 1, 1892. + +The sacraments are tremendous realities to me, just because they are a +living protest against all Popish, High Church, Low Church schemes of +thought--because they are a protest that man does nothing, God does +all--that everything is a sacrament of the grace of God. They explain +all life to me. They teach me what love means, for when man might least +expect it, love comes deluging in, and the outward and visible is +overwhelmed with the inward and spiritual. Oh, if bread and wine and +water are capable of being transformed into the highest means of grace +and hopes of glory; may not living, human, breathing persons--may not +those {77} I love--be sacraments as well? When we come near human beings +we love, we should come with the same feelings of reverence as when we +kneel at that altar, for we are coming to that which is part of God's +image--made in His likeness. And as we speak to them, when they answer +purely and simply, the Word of God speaks through them. This is not +degrading the sacraments--nay, but raising all human life--nay, raising +the sacraments as well, for it brings them into relation with real life, +and transforms the poor magical abstractions into eternal realities. + + + +_To W. A. B., who had told him that he had made up his mind to take up +school work till he was old enough to be ordained._ + +Holkham: September 3, 1892. + +A home circle reminds me, I think, more than anything else of that other +home, that other family--the home of a Father and of a Son, the family +circle of the Three who live in one unity. We should thank God for every +family circle on earth into which we are allowed to enter, and in whose +life He allows us to share--for any true family on earth--yes, and every +little child who is born into this strange world of ours is a sure and +certain pledge--a real sacrament--that God loves us still, has not +forgotten us, is giving us little glimpses into His own family life, is +making existence here a more perfect image of life in heaven. We should +come into such a family circle with the same feelings of awe as when we +bend on our knees to receive the Holy Communion. For here, too, we enter +into Holy Communion--the {78} communion of simple, human, happy family +life; here, too, we approach a sacrament, outward and visible signs of +happy, quiet, home life--the signs of an inward and spiritual grace--the +grace which lies below and interprets all human grace in man and +woman--the grace of our dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. True, that +grace is but little realised in the best of families--little consciously +realised in the noblest life. But, oh! surely a human family--brothers +and sisters in a home on earth--are a sure and certain pledge that this +grace does exist--that God is--for here we have an exquisite though +imperfect copy of the family life of God. Thank God when you see a good +or a beautiful man or woman, a pure and a simple family--thank God, +because it is a revelation, a manifestation, an unveiling, a copy, a +likeness of Himself. For though beauty often is proud and trivial, yet +it is a manifestation of Him from whom all beauty comes, in whom all +beauty dwells, by whom all beauty exists. And so not only thank--pray. +Pray to Him that the outward and visible may be ever more and more but an +expression of something inward and unseen and spiritual. For beauty, +grace, intellect, everything is doomed, unless it is sacramental--unless +it draws its life from God below, unless it lives but to testify of Him +who is. + +It is an awful problem--a beautiful face with no true moral beauty +below--splendid physical grace with no deeper grace beneath--a strong, +capable intellect which is not the expression of a noble soul. What does +it all mean? How in a world, where the outward and visible is but a +manifestation of the {79} good God, can such awful anomalies exist? +Partly it is due to the law that goodness is rewarded to a thousand +generations (Exodus xx. 6. R.V. margin, cf. Deut. vii. 9), while +wickedness is visited upon the third and fourth--that is, that one who is +beautiful in body or intellect, and who knows God, leaves the blessing of +such beauty long after him to descendants who are little conscious of the +reason of its origin, and who have little thought of God. + +Beautiful eyes, where there is no beauty of soul beneath, are the eyes of +others, long since dead, looking at us still--men who served God in their +generation. An exquisitely touching voice, where there is no music in +the life of the one who possesses it, may be the voice of one who knew +God, and left his legacy for a thousand generations. But still the +problem remains. In many cases the outward and inward seem divorced. +Now let us not try rashly to solve the problem ourselves. We are +inclined when we see such beauty to say, 'It is no use talking. I am +quite sure, whatever you say, that there must be some fine traits in the +character of one whose face is like the face of an angel, whose voice is +sweeter than that of the sons of men.' We may be, I believe we are, +partly right--at least in many cases, for the spiritual powers of those +who are gone may still in part live on in their descendants. But often, +if we are candid, we must admit that apparently the outward and visible +are separated from the inward and spiritual, that we have outward beauty +and grace which is no sign at all of anything deeper--nay, that the very +spiritual qualities, of which it is the sign, {80} and which may once +have existed in the person, have been used for the vilest ends. This +being the case, we are still left with the problem, Is the outward and +visible not intended to be a sign of something deeper? Here it is not a +sign. Why not? Will it ever be so? To put the case in its short, +simple, concrete form, how can a 'flirt' exist when by all the laws of +the universe beauty should surely be a sign not of instability, +insipidity, unspirituality, worldliness, shallowness, hypocrisy, but of +the Supreme? + +I cannot answer this question. I doubt whether any man can. But I can +show you where its ultimate solution must lie. It lies in the +sacraments. Yes, they are the answer to the whole problem. They tell us +that the outward and visible--the commonest objects, water, wine, +bread--may be the signs of something which is deeper than anything we +know. And they tell us more. They are to my mind a sure and certain +pledge that some day the outward and visible shall really correspond to +the inward and invisible. For, remember, this world lasts for ever. The +good lasts, and is purified by fire. The evil alone is consumed. The +sacraments are a pledge to me that some day upon this world our longings +after a correspondence of the inward with the outward will be +fulfilled--how, God only knows--probably not in the way we expect, but in +a way far, far better. For His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His +ways are not our ways. When therefore you are utterly bewildered and +perplexed by finding so much that is attractive which seems utterly +divorced from God's life; when you find yourself that the outward and +{81} visible in your own life--the words you say, the actions you do, +tend to become absolutely different from your real inward life; when you +feel that every one is a hypocrite, and you are the worst of all, kneel +down at that wonderful service, and take what is the one power of making +outward and inward correspond, of making our words a true index of our +thoughts, our actions a true presentation of our lives; kneel down and +pray that all you love may enter more and more into the meaning of that +service, that they too may flee from self to One who is stronger than +self--to the power which is capable of transforming our actions--to the +power which raised Christ from the dead, and is capable of raising us up +also. Then you will gradually be taught that all life is of the nature +of a sacrament--that all food is to be taken because thereby we have +health and strength to manifest forth the grace of God in a too often +graceless world--you will be taught lessons which I cannot even suggest; +for God knows so much more than any of us what unsearchable riches He has +as an inheritance for us. Let us enter upon that inheritance. God has +called us to be saints, called us, chosen us--chosen us before the world +was made--He has chosen us that in us, through us, He might manifest +Himself. It is not humility that prevents us recognising the fact. It +is our selfishness and stupidity. For the very fact that He has called +and chosen you and me and all His Church before we were born shows that +everything comes from Him. _We_ are utterly worthless and vile, but when +united, as we _are_ united to God, we are transformed into His {82} +image, we partake of His life. Only let us be what we are--sons of God. + +In regard to those words, 'I looked behind to find my past, and lo it had +gone before,' I do not know whether you are right or wrong about the +Greek idea. The past _has_ gone before us, we are always coming upon it. +Some day we shall be confronted with it. Every day that we live we are +making something that we shall meet again. The only way to get unity +into our lives--to make it possible to look back without sentimental +repining or an awful sense of dread--is to get God as the centre, God as +the foundation. As we look back then we shall find days 'linked each to +each by natural piety'--we shall see that our life forms a connected +whole a real progress, something worth calling life. + +. . . Do you know that the best way to strengthen your best thoughts is +to try and express them? Get them out; you help others, you help +yourself. Don't be careful of the grammatical accuracy and the finish of +your sentences; I don't think St. Paul was. I was thinking to-day that +perhaps a man who never wrote letters never could appreciate St. Paul. +He was a great letter-writer. Copy him. Read him. Read him fairly +quickly. Get into him. Find out his motive power, his real meaning. +Read the Greek, not from a critical point of view only, but read the +Greek. Do not trouble too much about the dictionary and accurate +translations, but keep reading and perhaps saying aloud the Greek. St. +Paul knew so much of God. Read him, and as you read, a greater than St. +Paul will come into you, interpret {83} him, explain him. St. Paul +himself will be with you, I think, trying to show you what he meant, and +what he has found out that he means now. + +But do write me a proper letter. We are just beginning life, and we have +so much to learn from and to teach each other. Everything is new to us. +Everything is strange. Already it seems to me I have been trained in a +hard school--harder, I hope, than you will ever need to be trained in--to +understand what God and love mean. I seem to have had a rough time of +it, perhaps rougher than most; and even now I am trained in a way which +is not attractive to me, trained to throw myself not on any merely human +love, but on Him who is perfectly human and perfectly divine. May God +train you in a less rough school, if possible! But at any rate, may He +train you--train you to get out of self, bring you into deeper +sympathies, stronger attachments, simpler earnestness! He alone can give +unity to all our thoughts and desires. He alone can give stability. And +we poor little creatures, who seem to have twice as much affection as we +have mind, how we do need that stability! We want not to be blown hither +and thither by every manifestation of strength, beauty, brain--we want to +be able to enter into the meaning of what we see and cannot help +admiring, without becoming the slaves of the visible and the finite. We +must build on the one foundation that is laid. We must lay our +affections deep down in the man Christ Jesus. As we see Him in men--and, +when we cannot see that, see men in Him--we shall be more stable, less +childish, less fickle. We never go deep enough. We skim over {84} life. +We must get into its heart. We must never begin an affection which can +have an end. For all affection must draw us into God, and God has no +end. The moment we see any one whose strength, grace, goodness, beauty, +or simplicity attracts us, we have deathless duties by that person. For +the attraction is the outward sign of a spiritual connection--a sign that +we ought to pray for that person, to thank God for the manifestation of +His character, which we see in a riddle, through a glass in that life, +that human life. + +And then we shall be prepared to realise deeper relationships, more +wonderful mysteries of love--to see with clearer eyes the heart of the +Supreme. We cannot make relationships too spiritual. We cannot be too +careful to see them in God and God in them. Think what it is to see a +relationship _in God_, to see it existing there in His life, as His +thought, long, long before we were born, long before we had an idea that +we were intended to realise it. What a new light on old +relationships--brother and brother, brother and sister, father and child, +husband and wife, all thoughts of God, all being gradually entered into, +appropriated, realised, understood, worked out by us. They seem so +common and natural, and yet they are intensely awful and sacred and +mysterious. And then think what it is to see _God in them_--to see One +from whom all family life flows, penetrating those whom we have never +properly learnt to love and those whom we love as much as we can. God in +them--all that is good and attractive--not their own, but God's. The +eyes which seem to be {85} contemplating something which we cannot see, +the face which lights up at times with another than human light; the +eyes, the face, a realisation and expression of that Being who is at once +human and divine, God and man. Why, this is bringing heaven down to +earth, this is a realisation in part of the holy city coming down from +heaven. For as we think of them, above all as we pray for them, we are +led beyond them, we forget our own selfish interests in them, we are +brought out from the 'garden' life of individual souls into the 'city' +corporate life of a great human society, a family, the Church of God. We +should live, we should die for Christ and His Body--the Church--the +fulness of His life, who is filling all in all. We must cease thinking +and praying for ourselves and for others, as though we were alone. We +are all part of one great society. Around us--nay, in us--are others, +some whom we can see, some who in the course of development have burst +the bonds of space and time and matter, all one, one, for ever one. We +all have one common Lord, one common hope, one common life, one common +enemy, one common Saviour, who is working through us, in us, in those +whom we least understand, in those in whom we should least expect it, in +those who are almost repulsive to us, in all--working out one big purpose +through the ages, the purpose of the Eternal. + +Remember me at my ordination as priest, please. Remember me, for I need +it so much, you do not know how much. It is such an important time, and +I cannot understand or enter into its significance, as I long to do. +Discipline, discipline, discipline, {86} self-discipline--obedience to +'orders.' Oh! how I long to have the power to realise these! Pray for +me that I may; that you may, pray also. Be very strict with yourself. +Compel yourself to obey rules. You are hurting so many besides yourself +when you are not strict with yourself. For we are 'one body.' You are +injuring those whom you like best, for you have less power over them, +when you have less power over yourself--less power to influence, to pray, +to thank for them. + +Do remember how marvellously sacred a schoolmaster's work is: it is not +enough to be able to play games--how I sometimes wish I could!--it is not +enough to be able to teach Latin and Greek: a schoolmaster should be so +much more. He represents the authority of God. He can be _so_ much, he +may be _so_ little to boys. We can never enter into a boy's life, into +his deepest thoughts, his 'long, long thoughts,' unless we too become +little children, unless we become young and fresh and simple--and all +young life comes from Him, who makes all the little children who ever +come into this big world. Let us enter into His life. Do not become a +schoolmaster simply to fill up time, to have something to do. + + + +_To W. A. B._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: November 20, 1902. + +. . . I am glad that you like your school, that you like your +boys. . . . Think of the weak chaps, those who are 'out of the way,' +those who are not naturally {87} attractive, those who positively repel +you. They often most need your sympathy, your prayers. + +And now about your ordination. Do you know I am doubtful whether it +would be a good thing for you to be ordained to a school chaplaincy. I +am almost more than doubtful. You would, I suppose, have no parish work, +nor anything to do with poor folk. Your work would be reading prayers, +and preaching about three times a year, I suppose. You would scarcely +care to be a curate in a country or poor town parish later on, would you, +if you began thus? But, after all, I must not, I dare not, advise you. +I can only point you to the Being who alone can advise us. The great +thing is to renounce all plans, all thoughts of self, to give up all we +are and expect to be, to come into His presence, and then to ask His +advice. Or rather we must come to Him like little helpless children and +ask Him to _help_ us to renounce planning and arranging with _self_ as +goal--to beg Him to give us strength to give up all. + +The great thing is to get the life where we shall develop best all our +powers--viz. the life in which we shall have most opportunities of +sacrifice. Can you get, can you _use_, opportunities of self-sacrifice +in your school life? Can you get fuller and better elsewhere? . . . Of +course, if you find that you have more influence over boys than you would +be likely to have over other folk, that might alter the case. Have you +found that you can influence them more for good than you would be likely +to influence others? + +Our one work in life must be to advance God's glory, God's kingdom. The +time is short. The night {88} soon comes. The great problem is how to +do most in that short time; how we ourselves can best lose ourselves in +the little time that we have for losing ourselves. 'He that loseth +himself, findeth himself.' + + + +_To D. D. R._ + +14 St. Margaret's Road, St. Leonards; January 10, 1893. + +I have been thinking to-day of that strange statement 'I no longer call +you slaves . . . but I have called you friends.' To understand any one +you must be their friend: you are able then to judge their life from the +inside, to see why and how they do what they do; all their actions which +seemed disconnected and purposeless before are seen to be part of a plan, +to have an end, a goal. We cannot understand the riddle of life, the +necessity of all the details in the great scheme of redemption, the +reason for certain means of grace, the real significance of the hope of +glory, while we are slaves. The whole appears so purposeless, such waste +of energy, such unintelligible and irrational self-sacrifice. Why must +the Christ suffer? Why could not sin be overcome in a less costly way? +Why is the victory of the Christ so incomplete? Why do some, who are +better than we, take so little interest in the eternal? We cannot answer +these and a thousand other questions while we are slaves. All is a +hopeless enigma, a play without a plot, a novel with no plan. But become +a friend of a man and all is changed. Each act in his life, each thought +in his life, each word from his lips--they have not ceased to be a +problem, {89} they are ten thousandfold more wonderful than they ever +were before: they are still a problem; but there is, there must be, we +feel, a purpose running through the whole. We have but one object--to +understand him more, to see what divine ideal he is trying to work out in +all the details of his common life. Each detail is important; each +thought, however wayward, must be recognised and understood. All are +seen in the clear, dry light of eternity; each is seen in something like +its right proportion. We feel that his life is our life--nay, more +interesting than our own miserable life--that if we are ever to know +ourselves we must know him first. So, too, become a friend of Him who +alone is, and all is changed. Gradually, perhaps painfully, yet surely, +as we become like very little children, the meaning of the whole dawns +upon us. We see it all: we see that it could not be otherwise: we cannot +say why, but we are quite sure that we see it--at least, we see a little +way, and where the light ends and it begins to get dark, we feel that it +is all right beyond--that He who is with us in the light will be with us +in the darkness. We are no longer slaves, doing His will because we +must. We are friends, and we cannot help taking deep interest in all +that He does. His acts, His thoughts, His words, they are still a +problem--we cannot make them all out. But they are the same kind of +problem as a friend is--a strange exquisite torture. We do not know what +the whole of his life means; he can do things which we cannot, and which +we rejoice to know that we can never do. We only see one side of him +ever, and the rest is only known to God. {90} And yet we _do_ know part +of his life, and we are content to know no more; what we know is good, +and what we do not know or understand must also be good. We judge from +what we see what that must be which we cannot see. We do not wish it +otherwise. We feel that it would be impious to try and understand him +fully, for is he not connected with God Himself? So we see one side of +the life of the Eternal; but we are friends; we do not wish it otherwise. +We cannot understand Him--we never can. And yet 'I have called you +friends.' His main purposes we see: the plan by which He realises them +we see in part. And as we know Him better, we shall be able to track His +footsteps even where we did not expect to find Him. We shall learn that +His methods are simpler and better than ours, that His thoughts are +surer, deeper, higher than all our schemes and plans. I am constantly +finding that ordinances, customs, beliefs, which I used to despise as +strange, antiquated, or useless, are yet the very ones which I need, that +my fathers knew better than I my needs, that above all God Himself had +provided institutions and customs, and had waited until I was old enough +to learn their use and to bless Him as I used them. So, as we know a man +better, we feel that we must pray for him and his the more. As we become +the friends of the Word, we feel we must pray that His will may be done +ever more and more--His purposes realised by us and ours. Let us then +not begin by criticising the world and God; let us first be the friends +of God, and then in the light of undying friendship and prayer begin to +criticise. {91} We must be the friend of a man before we understand his +life; we must be the friends of Jesus Christ before we understand His +life now upon earth. + +I used to skate: I don't now. I obey herein one of the great maxims of +my life: 'If you want to get a thing well done, _don't_ do it yourself.' +I consider that K----, in this as in other similar pursuits, performs the +ancient and 'sacred duty of delegation.' I have no doubt that he does it +admirably. Why must people try what they can't do well? Why not leave +it to those who like it and can do it well? The wretched +public-school-boy conception of dull uniformity is an abomination to me! +If K---- does the walking, you do the thinking; G---- does the dandy, +M---- the grumbling, S---- the jack-in-the-box, G---- the running, M---- +the philosopher, and D---- the little vulgar boy--allow me to do what +after all is the hardest of all tasks, 'to do nothing gracefully.' (I am +afraid that I begin by trying 'to do nothing--gracefully,' but end by +'doing nothing gracefully.' You see the difference!) I believe in +division of labour--let each man do what he is made to do best--and those +who feel their vocation to be nothing but receiving the results of the +labour of others--why, let them try to do it with the best grace they +can! Forgive me if such be my case. + + + +_To J. L. D._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: May 15, 1893. + +I think you are right in believing in the intense worth of sympathy. But +'sympathy' is the Greek {92} as 'compassion' is the Latin form of +'suffering together with.' He who has suffered most has perhaps the most +power to sympathise; not simply to pity or console, but to go right out +of self and to get right into another, to see life with his eyes, to feel +as he feels. If, then, you find many of those among whom your lot is +cast almost incapable of sympathy, may it not be that they have not yet +learned the meaning of suffering? They may not have had so many +opportunities of suffering as you, or, if they have had as many, they may +not have found any one to interpret to them what it all meant. Thank Him +from whom all sympathy comes if you have known anything of the sufferings +of life, anything of the worries and disappointments and delays and +unsatisfied ambitions which so many have; if you have known these--known +their inner meaning, and have been led out and beyond your own into that +wider life of suffering, and have learned what it is to fill up in your +turn _ta husteremata ton thlipseon tou Christou_. + +[Transcriber's note: The above Greek phrase was transliterated as +follows: _ta_--tau, alpha; _husteremata_--(rough breathing mark) upsilon, +sigma, tau, epsilon, rho, eta, mu, alpha, tau, alpha; _ton_--tau, omega, +nu; _thlipseon_--theta, lambda, iota, psi, epsilon, omega, nu; +_tou_--tau, omicron, upsilon; _Christou_--Chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, +omicron, upsilon] + +One hates to see others whose centre is self. Their whole life looks so +mean and low. Life over, the Ego alone left; and what a poor, wretched, +snivelling creature after all--this what we pampered, this what we thrust +forward for others to admire and flatter! If we were not in much the +same case, we might be able to view it in others with somewhat different +eyes. And yet do you know that, as a matter of fact, our Ego is +dead--self is not--and the devil's greatest lie is to make us believe in +this self? For do not you and I belong to One stronger than {93} +self--One whose own self may live in us--does live in us--whether we +recognise the fact or not? We died years ago to self when He claimed us +for Himself, and we rose again to a selfless life in Him: _zo de ouketi +ego, ze de en emoi Christos_. + +[Transcriber's note: The above Greek phrase was transliterated as +follows: _zo_--zeta, omega; _de_--delta, epsilon; _ouketi_--omicron, +upsilon, kappa, epsilon, tau, iota; _ego_--epsilon, gamma, omega; +_ze_--zeta, eta; _de_--delta, epsilon; _en_--epsilon, nu; +_emoi_--epsilon, mu, omicron, iota; _Christos_--Chi, rho, iota, sigma, +tau, omicron, final sigma] + +We act a lie whenever we make our Ego instead of His Ego the centre. If +He is our centre and our goal, then be sure our Ego will begin to live, +because it is 'grounded' and rooted in His. Any trouble and anxiety that +leads you out of self to the Infinite Ego, that makes you feel helpless +and lonely and in need of a Human Helper and a Human Comforter, thank God +for it. He is teaching you to cast yourself upon One who is perfectly +human because perfectly divine. He is teaching you that you are not your +own; that long, long ago yourself died: _ei oun sunegerthete to Christo, +ta ano zeteite_. + +[Transcriber's note: The above Greek phrase was transliterated as +follows: _ei_--epsilon, iota; _oun_--omicron, upsilon, nu; +_sunegerthete_--sigma, upsilon, nu, eta, gamma, epsilon, rho, theta, eta, +tau, epsilon; _to_--tau, omega; _Christo_--chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, +omega; _ta_--tau, alpha; _ano_--alpha, nu, omega; _zeteite_--zeta, eta, +tau, epsilon, iota, tau, epsilon] + +Thus we are led to understand something of the meaning of our Christian +names--to see that they are living pledges to us, whatever we do, +wherever we go--that Christ's name is called upon us--that when tiny +little children we were brought home to the Great Ego in whom alone our +Ego can ever find satisfaction--to feel that we are His and He is ours. + + + +_To J. L. D._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: October 9, 1893. + +The step which you contemplate taking is one with far-reaching +issues--reaching away through time and beyond it. I advise you to try +and gain a general idea of the meaning of the first half of St. Paul's +{94} second letter to the Corinthian Church--to try and enter into its +general spirit. Few things will humble you more: you will see something +of the unspeakable dignity of the office of him who represents God to his +fellow-men, and of the tremendous enthusiasm and love which a man must +have if he would be the minister that St. Paul would have him be. I do +not know what St. Paul means when he says that we are ambassadors on +behalf of Christ: but the more I think of what the words seem to mean, +the more I am startled at the awful responsibility that we have laid upon +us. To represent Christ, to treat with men, to attempt to arrange--if +one may so speak--terms, to use all our powers in performing the work of +the embassy--this at least is involved in the words. What strikes me so +much in the letter is the manner in which St. Paul literally loves the +Church; how he longs to communicate his own enthusiasm to it; how he +would die, almost does die, himself to bring life to them. All his hopes +are bound up with theirs--his salvation with their salvation. He seems +to 'fail from out his blood, and grow incorporate' into them. We are +called to the same office as St. Paul, we have the same power working in +us as he had working in him: we too shall have success in so far as we +love--as we identify ourselves with those whom God has given us to take +care of. The more we are disciplined and yet enthusiastic, the more +capable shall we be of love--of getting out of self--of working our way +into others--of representing the Christ to them--of understanding and +making allowances for them--of seeing them in the ideal, the only real, +light in {95} which God sees them--seeing them in the Christ, in whom we +live--mind that, with all your intellectual training, you don't forget +the other. Now is the time to learn, to force yourself to learn, to +pray--to pray not for a few minutes at a time, but to pray for an hour at +a time--to get alone with yourself--to get alone with your Maker. We +shall not have to talk so much to others if we pray more for them. We +talk and we do not influence, or we influence only for a time, because +our lives are not more prayer-full. + + + +_To J. L. D._ + +Aldeburgh House, Blackheath, S.E.: December 16, 1893. + +I cannot help thinking of you both at this time. It means so much to you +both--more than either of you dreams that it means. The issues of your +Ordination day are very far reaching indeed. They stretch away and +beyond this world in which we now are. The rush of school work and of +preparation for examination has probably not left you as much time as you +could have wished for thinking over what it all means. I hope you will +have more time after the service is over. But you may be comforted in +the thought that the last few years have been a definite preparation for +your life-work. Though you must regret, as you never regretted before, +misuse of time and powers in the past, yet you have had an education +which has in some degree prepared you for this time, an education for +which you may thank our common Master. But this {96} thought by itself +would be but a small comfort. For you must feel, if you are the man I +take you for, how unworthy you are to be what you are called to be. Now +there are two ways of dealing with this feeling. You may say, 'I am not +called to be an absolute saint; but I will try to reach a fairly high +standard;' or you may say, 'Yes, I am called to be an absolute saint. I +will not lower my ideal. I will comfort myself with that single word +"called." If He has called me, He will do in me and for me what He +wills.' This second way is the true way of dealing with feelings of +unworthiness and unfitness. You and I are utterly unfit. But we are +both called--called from our mother's womb--called to be saints and to be +ministers. He who called us will help us. With man the call seems +quixotic, impossible; with Him all things are possible. At times when +the call is loudest we can but reply, 'Ah! Lord, I am but a little +child.' We are intensely conscious of feebleness and, what is worse, of +treachery and meanness within; we half love what we are called upon to +denounce; we play with the sin we are to teach men to abhor. Yet the +call is sure, is definite, is perpetual, and again and again you will in +all probability find what a help it is to look back to that day in which +the call took formal shape. You have that as a definite fact to rest +upon, to reprove, to encourage, to urge to renewed effort, to force you +to be true and energetic. + +One thing you must learn to do. Whatever you leave undone you must not +leave this undone. Your work will be stunted and half developed unless +you {97} attend to it. You must force yourself to be alone and to pray. +Do make a point of this. You may be eloquent and attractive in your +life, but your real effectiveness depends on your communion with the +eternal world. You will easily find excuses. Work is so pressing, and +work is necessary. Other engagements take time. You are tired. You +want to go to bed. You go to bed late and want to get up late. So +simple prayer and devotion are crowded out. And yet, T----, the +necessity is paramount, is inexorable. If you and I are ever to be of +any good, if we are to be a blessing, not a curse, to those with whom we +are connected, we must enter into ourselves, we must be alone with the +only source of unselfishness. If we are of use to others, it will +chiefly be because we are simple, pure, unselfish. If we are to be +simple, pure, unselfish, it will not be by reading books or talking or +working primarily, it will be by coming in continual contact with the +ground of simplicity, purity, selfishness. Heaven is the possibility of +fresh acts of self-sacrifice, of a fuller life of unselfishness. You are +a man and a minister in so far as you are unselfish. You cannot learn +unselfishness save from the one Source. Definite habits of real +devotion--these we must make and keep to and renew and increase. Then we +shall gradually find that we are less dependent on self--that even in the +busiest scenes we dare not act on our own responsibility--that, be the +act ever so small and trifling, when we are in difficulty we shall +naturally, inevitably, spontaneously turn to that place whence help alone +can come. But it is a wonderful help again and again to feel that we +have been {98} alone with Him, that we are not working on our own +responsibility, that He is the 'Living Will' that rises and flows +'through our deeds and makes them pure.' + + + +_To D. D. R._ + +8 Alexandra Gardens, Ventnor: Jan. 2, 1894. + +While holding as firmly and unreservedly to the belief that a revelation +is a possibility that has actually been realised, I am becoming more +aware of the partial and limited view which any single individual can +have of the significance of such a revelation; and with this conviction +comes a desire not to hinder by any words or prejudices of mine the +education of one to whom I owe more than I at present know. Yet, as I +believe that no individual life is beyond the wise ordering of a Divine +economy, I am sure that he must have lessons to learn from me as well as +I to learn from him. Hence I dare not refrain from suggesting to +him--often in answer to questions that he puts to me--sides of truth +which, as I believe, I have been allowed to apprehend. The knowledge of +truth (in however small a degree) is a trust that we hold for the sake of +others. What I fear for him and for you--for you even more than for +him--is not that you will form wrong opinions on religious or ethical +subjects, but that you will lack that moral earnestness that forces a +man, whether he will or not, to look the facts of life in the face, that +deadly earnestness that refuses to allow us to contemplate creeds as +works of art, but forces us to ask whether these things be so. Life as a +whole must be faced. What has induced men to {99} believe this and that +tenet? Why have men craved for a knowledge of an unseen Being? Why have +systems of priestcraft arisen? How is it that those who most revolt +against such systems are slaves to other systems bearing different names, +but in substance the same? Is there a Deliverer? Is there a unity +beneath all this confusion? Can man know such a unity if there be one? +Can such a unity be revealed? Has it been revealed? Why do men think it +has been revealed if it has not? While I am slow to force upon those +whom I most respect and love lessons which I believe that I have slowly +learnt in a school in which perhaps they have not been, and never will +be, educated, yet I am sure that I cannot be wrong in praying for them +and in urging them to be increasingly earnest in the search for and the +practice of truth. You are a man in so far as you live. You live in so +far as you are self-sacrificing. You are self-sacrificing in so far as +you unswervingly practise the truth you know and follow after that which +you do not yet apprehend. And I am sure, if there be a unity beneath our +lives, if there be One who is educating us when we are most wayward, we +shall eventually be led by, it may be, very different paths to a single +goal. Meanwhile each failure to be earnest, each relapse into +sentimentality, unmanliness, morbidness, despair, unreality, laziness, +passiveness, may itself be a discipline, making us utterly mistrust +ourselves, whether at our worst or at our best, and forcing us to inquire +whether there be any help elsewhere, any power that can sweep through our +lives and force us to be human. + +For this reason I would impress on you the {100} necessity of trying to +think out your position, of asking yourself how you may be most human and +best serve God (if, indeed, you believe that this is possible) and your +generation. There are around you social forces making for good. Ought +you to be--nay, can you be--isolated? Does isolation give greater +strength? Does it enable you to do more or to be better? These +questions are not merely suggested by me. They have already suggested +themselves in one form or another to you. I am frightened of their not +receiving the attention they merit. + + + +_To T. H. M._ + +8 Alexandra Gardens, Ventnor: January 3, 1894. + +The fact that you have not all the sympathy and manly help and advice +that you could wish for from those around you will, I trust, force you to +depend with simpler confidence upon the unchanging Ground of all human +sympathy. You will, I hope, take all these experiences without grumbling +as a real and necessary stage in your education; remembering that if you +find yourself repining at the distressful circumstances in which you are +placed, you may be dishonouring Him who has placed you where you are. I +do not, of course, mean that such reflection will make you condone and +excuse the lukewarmness of others, but you will grasp the truth that God +uses even the sin of this world as an instrument in the education of His +people, and that you yourself may have your character formed partly +through the faults of others, for whom you are still bound to pray. +{101} This great Christmas festival that is past must be a power to us in +the year that is coming on. We must enter into and be penetrated by the +Life that has been manifested. For it is life that you and I need. Our +own puny individualistic life of morbid self-consciousness and +sensibility must be transformed by the fuller Life in which all may have +a share; and thus we shall come to think less of ourselves, our +successes, our failures, what others think about us and what others ought +to think about us--we shall forget all this because we shall share in the +Universal Life, which penetrates through all and which makes men forget +themselves and their ills, and be pure, simple, healthy, unselfish. And +this life has been realised and men have seen it, and it is still with us +to-day. In so far as we share in it we shall become natural, unaffected, +human. Nay, more. Because the life there manifested is divine as well +as human, we shall realise also with fuller force what it is to be a +child of a Father who is in heaven. It is life, not a system, that we +need. It is life which is given us when we are adopted as sons; it is +life that we receive when the Source of all life gives us Himself to feed +upon; it is life that Christ bestows upon us when we gradually realise +our position as members of a society in which no man can live for himself +alone. Life is life in so far as it is unselfish. May He who has called +us and given to us all our privileges teach us to live out that which we +know and believe! + + + +{102} + +_To F. S. H._ + +Cambridge: August 4, 1895. + +Life will not be the same without having you up here. I am very +dependent upon others, and I soon begin to be downcast if I have not +some one to help or to be helped by. But happily He who takes away is +the same as He who gives, and His great heart of affection understands +our manifold and seemingly contradictory needs. Life would be +intolerable if we had no one who knew us perfectly, not simply the +outside part of our life, but that inside and apparently incommunicable +part. Those who are least able to express themselves in words, or who +(if they did express themselves) fear that they would be misunderstood, +find in Him an unspeakable consolation. But I must not look at things +from the individualistic standpoint. No problem can ever be solved +until we have in some measure realised that the Life which flows +through us is larger than our own individual life. We get morbid, and +our reason becomes warped, when we think of our own future alone. +Every obstacle in our path, every interruption to the course which we +have planned for ourselves, every rough discipline, tells us that our +life and future are not our own, that they are intimately connected +with a larger life, a greater future. I have been thinking of those +words--so like Jesus Christ to have uttered them--_me merimnesete_. We +are always anxious about a set of circumstances which will soon be upon +us--engagements which we tremble to meet. Jesus Christ tells us, _me +merimnesete_. I believe that work in the {103} present world would be +far more free and effective if we would obey the command. We cannot +enter into life as it comes, because we are living in an imaginary +future. The man of God lives in the present; he leaves the future to +God, _me merimnesete_. If God has conducted us so far, He will not +leave us. It is easy to talk, hard to act. I think we gain the power +to act, we gain the calm peace of God, by compelling ourselves to +remain at certain times in His presence. Habits of prayer are slowly +formed, but when formed are hard to break. Talking may be a great +snare when it takes the place of prayer--and how easily it does! It is +easier to talk with a man than to pray for him--in many cases. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _me_--mu, eta; _merimnesete_--mu, epsilon, +rho, iota, mu, nu, eta, sigma, eta, tau, epsilon] + + + +_To F. S. H._ + +Clovelly: September 11, 1895. + +I am reading 'The Newcomes': have you ever read it? I find it hard to +appreciate Thackeray as much as some people do. Occasionally he says +some very true things and shows that he is acquainted with human nature +in its brighter and darker aspects. But, on the whole, the story of +marriage and giving in marriage--selling your daughter for money or a +title--the picture of young men who sow their wild oats and then repent +and marry innocent ladies and live virtuously and die in the odour of +sanctity--on the whole the story does not seem to correspond to the +ideals which haunt me, even though I do not act up to them. Surely +life is something utterly different from all this. Surely somewhere +there is a picture of {104} human life, somewhere in the mind of God +Himself, where the young man grows up without any harvest of wild oats, +with clear and unselfish ideals, with a longing to make the world purer +and diviner than he found it, a picture which is in some measure +realised around us to-day. May God deliver us not only from vicious +but from selfish thoughts! I believe Thackeray saw something of that +picture, but he didn't draw it with the colours I could have wished. +There is a solemn text in Ezekiel, which came in the lesson lately, +'The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of +his transgression.' Past religious experiences are of little value +without present righteousness. + + + +_To his cousin G. F._ + +Clovelly, N. Devon: September 12, 1895. + +I am in perhaps the quaintest and one of the loveliest villages in +England, just doing nothing, and enjoying the simple life around me. +You would like this village, with its one steep, narrow, picturesque +street, the great sea far down below, the little stone pier jutting out +and helping to form a small harbour. Then on either side of the +village are woods reaching down to the cliffs--beautiful woods, where +oaks, and in places heather, are glad to grow. St. Paul says in the +lesson to-day that the things which are seen are temporal, but the +things which are not seen are eternal. And one feels how true are his +words--how the trees, woods, flowers fade and die; how the old sea +wears slowly away the cliffs; how men and {105} their dwellings pass +away; how all these things which are seen are temporal; and yet the +beauty, the love, the joy, the purity, are more permanent than the +particular manifestations of them are. The beauty which is manifested +in the country around is eternal. The life which is seen in man has a +future beyond this world. + +As we enter in behind the veil, as we see that life and love which are +expressing themselves in objects around us, we are already in the +eternal, in that which endures. + +It is not, as we are constantly thinking, the things that are _present_ +which are temporal, and the things that are _future_ which are eternal. +No; the things which are present have an eternal side to them--the +unseen side. + +The man who is a slave to the seen has least of the eternal about him: +the man who despises not the seen, but who through the seen rises to +the unseen, is partaking of eternal life. . . . + + + +_To F. S. H._ + +Cambridge: October 23, 1895. + +Let me congratulate you on the way you ran against Yale.[1] I was +delighted to read of your 'romping' home!! . . . . It seems to me that +every unfulfilled longing is no accidental part of life. The longing, +in so far as it is genuinely human, is derived from Him in whose image +man is made. When it is hard to see why it is not gratified, yet we +{106} may confidently believe that this is part of our training. Is it +not a noble work to enter into and, in some measure, bear the burdens +of other men's lives, even if they have only imperfect sympathy with +ours? May we not sometimes even learn more in this way--or at least +learn different lessons--than if they were so similar to ourselves that +they could at once understand us? I am afraid that you have a hard +struggle before you. You must take care not to act upon first +impressions, or impulse--not even if those impressions are +favourable . . . your best 'pearls' must be used carefully. + + +[1] In the international athletic sports in U.S.A. + + + +_To F. S. H. on his going to a curacy in Liverpool._ + +Cambridge: October 18, 1896. + +In some respects I am glad to hear of your change of plans. I think +you will be more in your element working in a poor part of a large +town. . . . Our dean has just been preaching on the words 'One soweth, +and another reapeth.' It is a help to realise the continuity of work. +We enter into the work of many a man who has passed away, and who, +while he worked, often despaired and thought that he was achieving +nothing. No work is lost. The obscure and petty--these are relative +terms. We use them, but we are told on the best authority that there +is nothing secret which shall not be made manifest. The consciousness +of the continuity and perpetuity of work quiets and calms us; we need +not hurry over anything. When we have left off sowing, others will +reap. God give us grace to work, for the night {107} cometh when no +man can work. I am so sorry that I have not been able to come up and +see you. But we are working in the same field, though it is too large +across to see one another! + + + +_To C. T. W._ + +St. Moritz: February 1898. + +Two new toboggan runs have been opened: one is a Canadian run on soft +snow without turns, short and sweet; the other is part of the Crista +run, an ice run, which I suppose is quite the finest in the world, with +splendid corners. When it is all made it will be about a mile in +length. . . . In a noisy salon it is difficult to collect my scattered +thoughts. Music and other atrocities are in full swing; and as I +seldom use my brain now, the works are rusty. I wish you could see +this country in winter. . . . A male rival of The Brook has appeared. +He is impressed with the dust and dampness of the atmosphere--takes out +trays to toboggan on into Italy--sprinkles water on his bedroom floor, +because he considers a damp atmosphere conducive to sleep. So far we +have not fallen out altogether with one another; some of us are on +speaking terms. We only confidentially discuss whether so-and-so has +come here for his mind. We have an archdeacon, a canon, a curate, two +captains; one Plymouth-brother-like, who takes most gloomy views about +the future of us, or most of us, including the parsons; the other very +noisy, who attempted the Canadian toboggan run which is supposed to be +safe for ladies and {108} children, and swears that he almost broke his +neck. He had an upset and went head foremost into the snow, and, +according to his own account, had to be dug out. If he had been a +heavier man, I understand that he would have broken his neck. As two +accidents have occurred there, it is not absolutely safe. . . . This +place is a splendid pick-me-up. I am a reformed character--go to bed +between 6 and 10.30 P.M. I was detected last night cheating at cards. +But reformation to be effective requires time. Give up, I say, one bad +habit at a time, and then tackle the next. I have given up early +rising as being the most patent of my evil practices. + + + +_To J. K._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: August 19, 1898. + +. . . . I am sure that we have need to learn not only in the school of +health but also in the school of sickness. These breaks in life, and +the sense of helplessness and weakness which attend them, are not +simply periods to be 'got over'--to be made the best of till we can +'start again'--but they have a meaning which we can find, if we only +look with the eye of faith. It is strange how, although God sees the +whole way in which we ought to go, He leaves us in comparative +darkness. We need, I am sure, _revelation_. 'Lord, open the young +man's eyes, that he may see.' We shall take the wrong turning if we +trust to our ordinary eyes; we shall find the path if we have the eye +of faith to see what God is revealing. . . . And now at this time I +need your prayers. I have--and {109} this, I need hardly say, is +private--an invitation from the Bishop of ---- to come and lecture to +theological students, whom he hopes to gather round him. Of course the +scheme is rather in the air so far. He has not yet got the men. But +he has an attractive power, and he might on a smaller scale do some +such work as Vaughan used to do for men who did not go to definite +theological colleges. Will you pray for me that I may go if I ought, +and not go if I ought not, please? + + Our wills are ours, we know not how, + Our wills are ours, to make them Thine. + + + +_To J. L. D._ + +Cliff Dale, Cromer: October 3, 1898. + +I do not belong and I never have belonged to any of the societies or +guilds which you mention. I am a member of a Church. For that reason +I dare not join any party. In fact, I cannot understand what 'parties' +have to do with a Church. The Church by its very existence is a +witness against parties and divisions. It will take me more than a +lifetime to learn what it is to be a member of a Church; and no one can +learn the lesson while he persists in clinging to a party. He must be +a member not of a _part_ but of a _whole_. I therefore have no time to +waste in joining a party. + +I feel strongly that the various societies and guilds, based upon +_party_ life, are eating away the very life of the Church. But I am +slow in condemning my neighbour for conscientiously joining any such +{110} society. He may only be able to see one side of truth, and it is +better--far better--that he should see that side than nothing at all. + + + +_To the mother of his godchild, Margaret Forbes._ + +April 12, 1899. + +It is such a joy to me to be allowed to be her godparent, and I shall +remember her often in my prayers. What a wonderful revelation she must +be to you both--making the Heavenly Home a fuller reality than ever +before! It is through earthly relationships that we realise the +meaning of the unseen world. I like those lines of Faber: + + All fathers learn their craft from Thee: + All loves are shadows cast + By the beautiful eternal hills + Of Thine unbeginning past. + + + +_To his mother._ + +Rouxville, Orange Free State; July 8, 1899. + +It is a strange and somewhat terrible study in religion--this Boer +religion. It seems to have little or no connection with morality. +Kruger seems to have amassed great wealth by doubtful means. A man +comes to him and offers him, say, 8,000_l._ on condition that he may +have the right to sell mineral waters. Mrs. Kruger comes in and counts +the money; and if it is right, the concession is granted. Yet he is +religious, very religious. A short time ago they wanted to fire shells +into the low-lying clouds during a time {111} of drought. The clouds +gather, but they will not break. Firing shells was found to have a +good effect in bringing the rain. But Kruger stopped it because it was +wrong to 'fire shells at the Almighty.' You would think that a little +state like this might be an ideal one with its simple scattered +population of farmers. But it is by no means so. Corruption and +injustice are only too prevalent. At the start off they were +unfortunate in their choice of President. The state was at war with +the Basutos at the time when he was elected; and three months after he +was made President he had to be deposed, because he was discovered +selling arms to the Basutos. + +The Dutch don't treat the natives as well as we do. Yet in some +respects their laws are wise. A native may not live in the Free State +without doing some definite work, unless he pays a tax of 5_s._ a +month: this is, I think, a wise rule. + +We had two very nice services last Sunday at the English church; I +preach twice to-morrow. + + + +_To C. T. W._ + +Durban; July 1899. + +I write to congratulate you most heartily on your First Class. . . . I +believe you will find in a year's time that whatever your work may be, +contact with others--the necessity of influencing and guiding +them--will be a tremendous help to you in your own life. . . . + +Good man! I am delighted to think that you may see the Bishop of +Durham. Prophets' eyes are {112} needed out here to catch the glory +which must be slowly--so slowly--gaining on the shade. There is so +much materialism, so little refinement and spirituality. + +I had a grand voyage: only three people rescued from drowning before I +got on board, and two stowaways after we left Madeira, and two or three +days of rough weather. I enjoyed it. . . . + +I had afternoon tea, or rather coffee, with Uncle Paul. He is a +strong, fine old man. He was sitting puffing away at his large pipe. +It was after a long day's work in the secret Volksraad. He was tired. +'It is hard work,' he said, 'for the head.' The State attorney, a +young Christ's man, explained to him that 'we were both at the same +school in England.' Kruger was eloquent on the subject of the +Petition. He told me that some of the 21,000 had died three years +before they signed it, and some had signed it owing to a bottle of +whisky. 'And I want you to let that be known in England' (I know +anything said to you will circulate--by experience). He said, did the +subtle old man, that he wanted to do what was right and fair +irrespective of nationality. + +This Transvaal question is complicated. I thought it easy at first. +But now I can see no moral grounds of any sort for a war with the +Boers, in spite of their iniquities. There is a great deal to be said +on their side, and much iniquity concealed under such specious phrases +as 'Imperialism,' 'Supremacy of Great Britain in South Africa.' I +cannot see that we have a real cause for war, but it is a big question +with many sides. If England goes to war and wins, she {113} will have +her work cut out. 'Can she afford,' said the Attorney of the Transvaal +to me, 'to have a second Ireland at the distance of some 5,000 or 6,000 +miles from home? What if she had war in India? + + + +_To W. A. B._ + +Lucknow Lodge, Berea, Durban: August 22, 1899. + +I thank my God in my prayers on your behalf for His goodness in +granting you His best gift--a human soul to love and to inspire. +Together you will be able to know and love Him better than either of +you could alone. You cannot make your love too sacred; as you know God +you will learn to know one another. + +We are inclined to think that we know all that love means. The truth +is, we are only beginners. Thank God that we are in the school, +although only in one of the lowest forms. He will teach us, as years +go by, to sanctify ourselves for the sake of another. We have not +learned to love until we are living the highest possible life, in order +that the object of our affection may become a saint. God is giving you +a present, the value of which you see in part now, you will realise +fully hereafter. You must wrestle with God for her and for yourself. +If you are true to the highest, both of you will rise together and see +God. If you are not, she may not be able to mount alone. + +I am filled with joy and hope as I think of you both. I believe that +you will live for God more completely now than ever before, and that +you will be a fuller blessing to your people. You have my prayers. +{114} I want you to make your ideals higher and higher. Then, when you +have gained one height, you will find that what you took for the summit +from the plain was not really so: there were further peaks beyond. + +It is the beginning of an endless life. If God Himself be the centre +of all, the nearer we are to Him, the nearer we are to one another. I +_am_ glad that your wife is one who shares in your ideals, who lives +for the highest. What a life in store for you here! And there-- + + Before the judgment seat, + Though changed and glorified each face, + Not unremembered you will meet + For endless ages to embrace. + +You will be nearer the centre then, and nearer to one another. + +May God Himself bless you, dear old fellow! Forgive this poor attempt +at a letter. I share in your joy, although I am not actually with you. +I never remember any wedding outside my own family which has given me +greater pleasure. It was good of you to ask me to be present--very +good. + +B----, I _am_ glad. You must thank God and ask Him to tell you what it +all means, and for her sake live as good a life as you possibly can. + +With best love I am your friend, + +FORBES. + + + +_To a Friend after hearing of his intended ordination._ + +Durban: August 1899. + +Your ordination will be like my own over again. It is unutterably good +of God . . . to put it into {115} your heart to live the life which I +had prayed might be yours. _Meizoteran touton ouk charin, hina akouo +ta ema tekna en te aletheia peripatounta_ . . . + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _Meizoteran_--Mu, epsilon, iota, zeta, +omicron, tau, epsilon, rho, alpha, nu; _touton_--tau, omicron, upsilon, +tau, omega, nu; _ouk_--omicron, upsilon, kappa; _charin_--chi, alpha, +rho, iota, nu; _hina_--(rough breathing mark) iota, nu, alpha; +_akouo_--alpha, kappa, omicron, upsilon, omega; _ta_--tau, alpha; +_ema_--epsilon, mu, alpha; _tekna_--tau, epsilon, kappa, nu, alpha; +_en_--epsilon, nu; _te_--tau, eta; _aletheia_--alpha, lambda, eta, +theta, epsilon, iota, alpha; _peripatounta_--pi, epsilon, rho, iota, +pi, alpha, tau, omicron, upsilon, nu, tau, alpha] + +. . . If your temptations are great it is because your nature is rich +and noble; and when it is disciplined you will have tremendous power. +I shall not be content until your every thought is led captive to 'the +obedience of the Christ.' You are born to be a saint, and you will be +wretched until you are one. You are not the kind of man who can do +things by halves. + +I think I have told you of my father's words spoken during his last +illness: 'If I had a thousand lives, I would give them all--all to the +ministry.' You will not regret your decision. If angels could envy, +how they would envy us our splendid chance--to be able, in a world +where everything unseen must be taken on sheer faith, in a world where +the contest between the flesh and the spirit is being decided for the +universe, not only to win the battle ourselves but also to win it for +others! To help a brother up the mountain while you yourself are only +just able to keep your foothold, to struggle through the mist +together--that surely is better than to stand at the summit and beckon. +You will have a hard time of it, I know; and I would like to make it +smoother and to 'let you down' easier; but I am sure that God, who +loves you even more than I do, and has absolute wisdom, will not tax +you beyond your strength. . . . I'll pray for you, like the widow in +the parable, and I have immense belief in prayer. . . . You remember +what was said of Maurice, 'He {116} always impressed me as a man who +was naturally weak in his will; but an iron will seemed to work through +him.' That Will can work through you and transform you, but for God's +sake don't trust to your own will. . . . + +If you are ordained it will be because there is one who in St. Paul's +words--_ho aphorisas me ek koilias metros mou_--was separating you from +birth and educating you with a view to the Gospel of Christ. . . . + + Tasks in hours of insight willed + Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.[1] + + +[1] Matthew Arnold, _Morality_. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _ho_--(rough breathing mark) omicron; +_aphorisas_--alpha, phi, omicron, rho, iota, sigma, alpha, final sigma; +_me_--mu, epsilon; _ek_--epsilon, kappa; _koilias_--kappa, omicron, +iota, lambda, iota, alpha, final sigma; _metros_--mu, eta, tau, rho, +omicron, final sigma; _mou_--mu, omicron, upsilon] + + + +To his mother. + +Estcourt, Natal; August 18, 1899. + +General Gordon came to Kokstad on his way to Basutoland. When he +arrived he went to the Royal Hotel, ordered a room, threw open the +window, and spent two hours in prayer and meditation. The next day was +Sunday. He asked Mr. Adkin what was being done for 1,000 Cape Mounted +Infantry then stationed there, and when he learnt that nothing was +being done for their spiritual food, he burst into tears. On Monday +morning the first telegram which he sent off to the Cape Government was +a request that a chaplain should be appointed. Mr. Adkin was appointed +and remained chaplain until the force was disbanded. General Gordon +went on to Basutoland, and had wonderful power over the natives. He +told them that no force would be brought against {117} them; he himself +was without weapons. He was settling the country, when news came to +him that the Cape Government was, contrary to stipulation, sending an +armed force against them; so he left the country in twenty-four hours. + +Cecil Rhodes was once at Kokstad. When he was near the place, he lay +down on the hillside and exclaimed: 'Oh, how I wish they would let me +alone--let me stay here!' However, he had to go down to be fêted. He +was listless, and bored by the banquet, until the present mayor began +to attack him violently in his speech, and to complain about the Cape +Government, and to express a desire that Natal would take them over. +Then Rhodes woke up with a vengeance and gave them a great speech. +Ixopo is where Rhodes started out in South Africa. His name still +figures on the magistrates' books--fined 10_l._, for selling a gun to a +native. + + + +_To his cousin, J. C. H; on the occasion of the death of his brother._ + +December 7, 1899. + +You know, without my saying it, that you have my deep sympathy and +prayers at this time. . . . We dare not and cannot sorrow as do others +who have no certain hope. Our sorrow is of another kind. For I am +quite sure that + + In His vast world above, + A world of broader love, + God hath some grand employment for His son.[1] + +{118} How real it all makes that other world, to have our own brothers +there! It makes it in a deeper sense our home. + +[1] Faber, _The Old Labourer_. + + + +_To the mother of his godchild, Margaret Forbes._ + +Dore House, St. Leonards: January 10, 1900. + +I am so glad to feel that my little godchild will have real training. +I don't know how far I received such a training myself at an early +age . . . I came towards the end of a large family. The only +permanent instruction which I can remember imparted to me by my nursery +maid was a caution not to look behind me when I passed people in the +street, enforced by the biblical precept, 'Remember Lot's wife.' I +know what a fascination I had to look behind, accompanied by a terrible +dread of the consequences. + +I have always felt that Faber's 'God of my Childhood' describes the +normal and true development of a child's life. I am sure that, +although the gravity of sin should be early recognised, greater stress +should be laid upon the Fatherhood and kindness of God. I was noticing +to-day, when reading the second lesson, how Westcott and Hort have +placed the clause in the Lord's Prayer which speaks of the Fatherhood +of God in a line by itself as a heading to the whole prayer, putting a +colon after the clause, and beginning the first petition with a capital +letter. The prayer begins with 'Fatherhood' and ends with a reference +to 'Sinfulness.' I think this fact is significant. We may not all be +intended to come to {119} know religious truth in that order. But I +think we are intended, when we do know it, to lay even more stress on +the Fatherhood of God than on our own imperfections. It is a wonderful +and terrible thing to watch the development of a human spirit. We can +understand so little about any life, even when it is near and dear to +us. But I am not sure that we cannot learn more about others than we +can about ourselves. I never think it is profitable to study oneself +too closely! I never could meditate with any profit on my sins. But +there, I dare say, I differ from many others. + +Well, I hope that the hair of my godchild is growing, and that she has +now more than her god-father. His is coming to an untimely end. + + + +_To F. S. H; who had recently become a chaplain in the Navy._ + +St. Leonards: January 11, 1900. + +I am thinking of you in your new, difficult, and interesting life, and +wondering how you like it. Or, rather, I am sure that you like it in +its main features. There are in every life drawbacks and +discouragements, for we live by faith and not by sight, and faith must +be perfected in the midst of perplexities and contradictions. The +mists are useful. It would not do to have brilliant sunshine all the +time. For in that case, where would faith come in? Steering towards +our port in the fog means trusting the Pilot. 'Mercifully grant that +we, which know Thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition +of Thy glorious Godhead.' I suppose that none of us fully {120} knows +what this prayer means. I think that there will be more need of faith +hereafter than we usually think. Can we ever apprehend the Father or +the Son without faith? The deepest truths are grasped by faith not +sight. The man who has learned to exercise faith here will have fuller +scope for his faith hereafter. What a shock to wake up in the next +world and to find that the riddles of life still need faith for their +solution! Yet I imagine that it will be so. Only faith will be able +to go deeper than here. The faith perfected in the mists of life will, +in the sunshine of eternity, see deeper into the meaning of events. I +wish I had more faith. Not sudden flights of faith annihilating time +and space and rising up to the throne of heaven. But I wish I could +ground all my actions on faith, and regularly see the invisible and +live as one who could see always and everywhere the Unseen. We are +schooled in different ways. We cannot attain to perfection in a night. +As we advance in the Christian life progress seems slower. In some +sense it is so. It is easier to cast off a number of definite bad +habits clearly inconsistent with the ideal just at first, than to +perfect self-sacrifice, humility, and self-discipline. But we are +advancing, though we know it not. If the engines are always kept +working, we shall reach our goal! + + + +_To C. N. W; who had recently been ordained._ + +St. Leonards-on-Sea: January 12, 1900. + +You must remember how much your future efficiency is dependent upon a +judicious use of your {121} strength during the next two or three +years. I am sure you are right in looking back upon your life and +tracing in its developments a higher than human guidance. It is a +helpful thing to trace now and anon God's hand in our individual life. +It brings Him nearer to us, and it is an awful thought that He is +actually working within us. It makes us trust Him for time to come +even when the prospect is gloomy. I think that we do well to spend +some time in trying to interpret details of our past life. As years go +on, we should have such a firm faith founded on the rock of experience +that we will not be lightly shaken. Peace should be a characteristic +of our life--the joy and peace which come from a certainty that there +is a Purpose in all events. The sense that God has been with us in the +past is a help in interpreting the history of our nation. Even our +troubles are a proof that He is disciplining us. For the service of +Intercession, which my brother uses in Westminster Abbey at the time of +this war, the opening sentence is 'The Lord our God be with us,' and +the answer is, 'As He was with our fathers.' + +The College is getting on well. You must come up and see me this year, +while you still know a number of men. I have now a little evening +service--compline--in my rooms at 10 o'clock; Masterman asked me to +have it. He asked men to come, and they asked others. I purposely +refrained from asking any one. We are sometimes a goodly number. I +think it is helpful to those who come. It is, I know, to me. We have +a hymn when we have sufficient musical talent! + + + +{122} + +_To G. J. C._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: 1900. + +Gwatkin has exploded Anthony, 'who never existed.' But for all that I +think Anthony is much like Adam and Eve. The originals may 'never have +existed.' Yet their story belongs to all time. And there will be +Anthonies and Adams and Eves to the end of time. It comforts me to +feel that that which makes for evil is not my true self, but a +wretched, cunning animal existence independent of me, existing before I +came into being, although capable of appealing to me--a serpent. + +I am half glad and half sorry to hear of your harmonium. Public +worship is a terribly difficult thing, and it is well at times that we +should realise its difficulties, and have it stripped bare of many +helpful accessories. Yet worship in a village church impresses me. As +in a college chapel, I realise then the continuity of the race. An old +church tells me of generations of men who lived my life, to whom the +present was everything, and the dead almost nothing, who never could +seriously believe that some day the world would whirl and follow the +sun without them. It tells me more than most things of what St. Paul +means when he said that we were all making one perfect man. And I am +humbled and thankful to know that I in my generation can do something +towards the Christ 'that is to be.' + +Read the Old Testament itself. Nothing will {123} atone for lack of +knowledge of the Bible. Robertson Smith's and Adam Smith's books +(especially the latter's) on the Old Testament Prophets ought to prove +useful. . . . When I call a man by his Christian name, I usually make +it a rule to pray for him. I shall do so in your case. I will try to +pray every day. I wonder whether you would sometimes pray for me: I +believe immensely in the power of prayer. It is the greatest favour I +can ask of you, and I know I have no right to prefer the request; but +it would be kind of you if you could occasionally. One needs all the +help one can get in this strange life up here. Now I will end. I have +written you a strange, unreserved letter. Forgive me. How I wish this +dreadful war was at an end! U----'s going was a blow to me; but I am +sure he did the right thing. I admire and love that man. . . . + + + +_To G. J. C._ + +Castleton, Swanage: 1900. + +. . . You will not have misinterpreted my silence. I could not answer +your letter until I had secured a time for quiet thought and for +prayer. When I try to write, I feel the uselessness of words. I am +doing better when I am praying for you than when I am writing to you. +Yet I must write. . . . It is strange that God should have made us +thus. To those whom He honours most He gives largest capacity for +love, and therefore largest capacity for suffering. It is still more +strange that we would not wish to be {124} without the love in spite of +the agony which it brings. It must be because + + All loves are shadows cast + By the beautiful eternal hills + Of Thine unbeginning past. + +I feel this truth 'in seasons of calm weather.' But at other times I +ask myself, I ask God, angrily, Why should some men have no obstacle to +their love? Why should another suffer more than any one can tell--more +than, it sometimes seems to me, can ever be requited? I cannot answer +the question. But I often think of the great unsatisfied heart of God, +and then I think of this poor unsatisfied heart made in His image, and +I feel that He understands me, and that I understand Him better than I +used to do, before this terrible hunger of love began. + +I pray God that He will deal tenderly with you, G----, and I am sure +that He will. It cuts me to the heart to think of your suffering, and +I would stop it this moment if I could. So would God--for He loves you +more than I do--unless it were the best thing for you. It is written +of the Son of man, _emathen aph on epathen_. May the same words be +true of you and of me! God bless you and give you Light and Peace! + + Peace is something more than joy, + Even the joys above; + For peace, of all created things, + Is likest Him we love. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrase in the above paragraph was +transliterated as follows: _emathen_--epsilon, mu, alpha, theta, +epsilon, nu; _aph_--alpha, phi; _on_--emega, nu; _epathen_--epsilon, +pi, alpha, theta, epsilon, nu] + + +This letter may appear cold to you. It is not. I feel more deeply +than I write. . . . Some day, if {125} you care to hear, I will tell +you something about my own imperfect life. I can't write it down. +Later the day will dawn. But God sends the darkness that we may learn +to trust Him, I have never yet found Him to fail. We cannot trust Him +too much. + + + +_To the mother of a friend, after having been present at his funeral._ + +Cambridge: April 22, 1900. + +I feel I must write and tell you how grateful I am to you for your +kindness in allowing me to be present on Thursday. Whenever I think of +your son who has passed away, that text comes into my mind: 'Blessed +are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' He was pure in heart, +and I cannot think of him as lifeless, but as actually seeing +God. . . . I am thankful to have been allowed to be his friend. I +shall never forget him; his life remains a source of strength and +inspiration to me. It comforts me now to know that he is sinking +deeper and deeper into the peace of God, which passeth all +understanding. You were talking to me about W----; I could not say all +that I wished to say. . . . I am very, very slow to suggest ordination +to a man. I realise the responsibility of doing so, but there is no +man whom I desire to see ordained more than W----; he has been to me +more help than I can possibly say. I dare not try to tell you all that +he has done for me, because you would think I was exaggerating. I +cannot help feeling that, if he helps me so much, he might help others +also, and that, if he were ordained, {126} he would have singular +opportunities for rendering such help. But I do not press him in the +matter, because I might do wrong; but I pray again and again that, if +God wishes him to be ordained, He will make His purpose clear, and I am +quite sure that He will not leave us in the dark. + + + +_To C. T. W._ + +Cambridge: July 1900. + +I was delighted to read in the paper yesterday of your election to a +fellowship. . . . The life will be a harder one than that of an +ordinary parish clergyman; it will be easier to lose sight of ideals. +But the importance of the work is in proportion to its difficulty. +Blessed is the man who finds his work, and does it; and you will be +blessed. . . . + +You should read St. Patrick's 'Confession,' a genuine work of my +distinguished countryman. It is full of humility and zeal. I give you +a quotation: 'After I had come to Ireland I used daily to feed cattle, +and I often prayed during the day. More and more did the love of God +and the fear of Him increase, and faith became stronger and the spirit +was moved; so that in one day I said as many as a hundred prayers, and +in the night nearly the same. . . . And there was no sluggishness in +me, as I now see there is, for at that time the spirit was fervent +within me.' Pathetic--that last part. He might have been living at +Cambridge! But I hope better things for you. + +{127} + +_To C. T. W._ + +Thirlmere: September 1900. + +My thoughts are with you now--and my prayers. 'He had seven stars--in +His right hand,' was the thought which comforted me at my own +ordination, when I felt, as seldom before, my own hollowness and +incapacity. We can shed light--we are safe--because we are 'in His +right hand.' 'The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the +everlasting arms.' We can never go beyond His love and care. In +moments of perplexity and uncertainty, although we cannot feel His +presence, He is there. 'In His right hand.' 'They that turn many to +righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.' + +May God give you the power to love and the power to pray! Much prayer +and much love are needed for a successful ministry. Good-bye, and God +bless you and make you a true and faithful pastor! Remember St. Paul's +words: _he dunamis en astheneia teleitai. edista oun mallon +kauchesomai en tais astheneiais, hina episkenose ep eme he dunamis tou +Christou; hotan gar artheno, tote dunatos eimi_. + + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases above were transliterated as +follows: _he_--(rough breathing mark) eta; _dunamis_--delta, upsilon, +nu, alpha, mu, iota, final sigma; _en_--epsilon, nu; +_astheneia_--alpha, sigma, theta, epsilon, nu, epsilon, iota, alpha; +_teleitai_--tau, epsilon, lambda, epsilon, iota, tau, alpha, iota; +_edista_--eta, delta, iota, sigma, tau, alpha; _oun_--omicron, upsilon, +nu; _mallon_--mu, alpha, lambda, lambda, omicron, nu; +_kauchesomai_--kappa, alpha, upsilon, chi, eta, sigma, omicron, mu, +alpha, iota; _en_--epsilon, nu; _tais_--tau, alpha, iota, final sigma; +_astheneiais_--alpha, sigma, theta, epsilon, nu, epsilon, iota, alpha, +iota, final sigma; _hina_--(rough breathing mark) iota, nu, alpha; +_episkenose_--epsilon, pi, iota, sigma, kappa, eta, nu, omega, sigma, +eta; _ep_--epsilon, pi; _eme_--epsilon, mu, epsilon; _he_--(rough +breathing mark) eta; _dunamis_--delta, upsilon, nu, alpha, mu, iota, +final sigma; _tou_--tau, omicron, upsilon; _Christou_--Chi, rho, iota, +sigma, tau, omicron, upsilon; _hotan_--(rough breathing mark) omicron, +tau, alpha, nu; _gar_--gamma, alpha, rho; _artheno_--alpha, rho, theta, +epsilon, nu, omega; _tote_--tau, omicron, tau, epsilon; +_dunatos_--delta, upsilon, nu, alpha, tau, omicron, final sigma; +_eimi_--epsilon, iota, mu, iota] + + + +_To W. D. H._ + +Dale Head Post Office, Thirlmere, September 20, 1900. + +My thoughts and my prayers are with you at this time. I remember how +at my own ordination, when I felt as never before my own utter weakness +and incapacity, the thoughts in the first chapter of the Revelation, of +Christian ministers as 'stars in His {128} right hand' comforted and +supported me. In His right hand--with His power we can do all things. +As the lesson for to-day says, _he dunamis en astheneia teleitai_, +strength is perfected in weakness. _hotan astheno tote dunatos eimi_. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases above were transliterated as +follows: _he_--(rough breathing mark) eta; _dunamis_--delta, upsilon, +nu, alpha, mu, iota, final sigma; _en_--epsilon, nu; +_astheneia_--alpha, sigma, theta, epsilon, nu, epsilon, iota, alpha; +_teleitai_--tau, epsilon, lambda, epsilon, iota, tau, alpha, iota; +_hotan_--(rough breathing mark) omicron, tau, alpha, nu; +_astheno_--alpha, sigma, theta, epsilon, nu, omega; _tote_--tau, +omicron, tau, epsilon; _dunatos_--delta, upsilon, nu, alpha, tau, +omicron, final sigma; _eimi_--epsilon, iota, mu, iota] + +You will feel more, as years go on, the greatness of the task which you +are undertaking--the overwhelming responsibility--the dread lest +through any carelessness on your part one of the least of the sheep may +be lost. But you will also feel more and more that you are 'in His +right hand.' And if the eternal God is your refuge and underneath are +the everlasting arms, you need not fear what the devil or man can do +unto you. I pray that God may be with you and give you the spirit of +prayer and the spirit of love. Your ministry will only be effective if +you pray much and love much. And if you make mistakes, yet if you love +much your sins will be forgiven. + + + +_To his brother, a doctor in South Africa._ + +September 1900. + +When I feel what the grace of God has done for my life, what it is +doing, what it will do, I can despair of no one else. I am filled with +wonder and amazement and thanksgivings and hopes. I am sometimes so +thankful that I still live, that in a world of light and dark shadows I +can show my faith in God, before the other world dawns with its full +day and unclouded brightness--and most of all that I can here and now +pray for those whom He has taught me to love. I cannot conceive this +world without prayer. It is {129} worth while making any efforts, +however desperate, to learn to pray. When the Day dawns, how wonderful +it will be to look back and trace the path through which He has led us +in the Twilight! + + + +_To F. J. C._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: 1900. + +The more He tries you by His silence, the greater to my mind is the +proof that He believes in you. He knows you will come through. He has +great work for you to do, and therefore you need a strong perfected +faith, and He is trying to give you it. + +I am so sorry at what you tell me about prayer. But do go on. When +things are at their darkest light comes. After all God knows how much +you can bear, and He will not, if you will only persevere, allow you to +be utterly confounded. Don't be in the least discouraged at your +inability to concentrate your attention. Even a man who had lived in +the presence of God for years has told us that + + The world that looks so dull all day + Glows bright on me at prayer, + And plans that ask no thought but these, + Wake up and meet me there. + My very flesh has restless fits; + My changeful limbs conspire + With all these phantoms of the mind + My inner self to tire. + + +Do you expect to fare better, when you are exercising faculties which +have been for long more or less dormant? The same man goes on to +say--and I {130} think it is a comforting truth--that God sees further +than we do, sees what we mean: + + These surface troubles come and go, + Like rufflings of the sea; + The deeper depth is out of reach + To all, my God, but Thee. + + +Even if your conscience condemns you, remember that God is greater than +your conscience. He sees that you _want_ to pray, and the battle is +half won when there is even the want. I like these old words of the +hymn: + + Satan trembles when he sees + The weakest saint upon his knees, + +even if he can't collect his thoughts. I find it usually easier to +pray for others than for myself. I believe in beginning by praying for +what is easiest. I don't kneel down. I find it more possible to +concentrate my attention when I am walking about or sitting down. And +I tell God what I know about a man, and how I want him to live a better +life. Sometimes I seem to struggle for him as though for very life. I +go on and on and on--sometimes repeating the same request. I try to +copy the poor widow who wearied out the dishonest judge. I am not +distressed when my thoughts wander, I know that they will always wander +without God's help. The distress occasioned by wandering thoughts, and +the attempt to trace the stages by which they wandered, I regard as +temptations of the devil. . . . I go back as calmly as possible to the +matter in hand. + +Excuse my 'egoism.' I put it in the first person, {131} because I +believe my own experience will help you more than rules derived from +the experience of others. + +Suppose you spend half an hour in this way, and only really pray for +three or four minutes, your efforts will be more than rewarded. You +will have done more than you know for the person for whom you have +prayed. And the next half-hour you will find that you can concentrate +your attention for a minute or two longer. Don't think too much about +yourself when you pray. You must lose your soul if you would save it. + +There is probably some one thing or some one person easier than others +for you to pray for. Begin with that. + +I never try, as some people do, to classify and enter into details +about my sins. I bring the whole contradictory, weary, and +unintelligible mass of them to God, and leave them with Him. I am +quite sure I shall never do better without Him. But I know that He +believes in me, and will help me in spite of myself. He believes in +you too, dear old fellow! May God bless you for your kindness to me! +Write me just a short note to tell me that you don't despise me in +spite of what must seem to you rather unintelligible and ridiculous +confessions. + +I can't help it. And if you can bring yourself to do it, call me too +by my Christian name. + + + +_To the same._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: September 28, 1900. + +I feel more and more the necessity of being alone occasionally for some +time--to get time enough to {132} pray. I think my supreme desire is +to be a man of prayer. You must help me to accomplish the desire: +'Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed saepe cadendo.' + +So it is with prayer. As the stone gets worn away, not by the force of +the drop of water but by its constant trickling, so prayer often +renewed must at length attain its end. It is a wonderful privilege to +be able to state all one's wishes and hopes for others in prayer--to +know that there can be there no possibility of misunderstanding--to +tell to God the incomprehensible depth of one's love, and to feel that +He knows what it means, because He Himself is love. It is glorious to +be made in His image, and to be sure that all one's highest yearnings +are a reflection--however broken, partial, and unsightly--of His own +marvellous life. We have indeed cause to be grateful for our +'creation.' I often look at the poor dumb creatures, and thank God +that He has given me such full powers of love, which they cannot +understand: for I would rather have the pains of love than any other +pleasure. + + + +_To F. S. H., a chaplain in the Navy._ + +Cambridge: November 4, 1900. + +I ought to have written before this. The fact that I did not answer at +once is partly accounted for by my having a good deal of work to do, +and partly by physical weakness. I have not been very well this term. +It is cruel of you to suspect me of having forgotten all about you. I +am not that sort. I owe too much to you in the past ever to forget +you. {133} I don't think that you really suspected me of inconstancy. +I am so sorry that you are sometimes lonely and very miserable. I feel +at times weak, physically weak. I think that at such times one can +lean back, as it were, on the Divine arms. He understands our weakness +and weariness. He knows what loneliness and sadness mean. And He is +not extreme to mark what we do amiss. He knows that we are but flesh. +And He 'dwells not in the light alone, but in the darkness and the +light.' Even when the darkness hides Him and we cannot find where He +is, we can, as it were, reach out our hands to Him, and we are safe. +God has much to teach us while we are teaching others. And life is not +exactly the same as we thought at the beginning. He teaches us by +unexpected experiences. But the comfort is that He never changes; we +may be weary, but He never slumbers nor sleeps. Sometimes we feel very +fit and capable. Then is the time to pray and to rise to the heights. +Later, when we are incapable, although it is hard to rise, we need not +fall. When the mist clears we can go on again, and it may be that we +shall find that even in the mist we had gone further than we thought. +The deep snow and the long dark rainy days are necessary for the +perfecting of the fruit, as well as the sunshine. And we do need +sunshine. I feel more and more grateful and thankful to God for His +goodness. He has been so good to me, and I don't deserve it. And I +think that if you look back and look forward you will feel more and +more His marvellous sympathy and affection. I am glad you have been +reading Robertson's Life. Though he {134} may have been almost morbid +at times, he was a great man and did a great work. . . . You will find +later that your work has been far more effective than you expected. +Don't try to rush it. You can't help men much until you know them very +well; and when you know them you find how utterly different they are +from what you had expected them to be. At least I do. No two men are +alike. Each man that you come really to know is utterly different from +any man you have ever met or will meet. + + + +_To F. J. C._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: November 5, 1900. + +It is good of you to think of me and above all to pray for me. I need +your prayers--and most of all when I am run down and unable to pray +myself. I can see the mountain top at times: then the mist comes down, +and I cannot see the way; I try to keep where I am, though I may not be +able to advance; and when the mist clears I go on again. Possibly, +sometimes, we may be going forward even in the mist, although we seem +to be making no progress, or going backward. + + God judges by a light + Which baffles mortal sight. + +I often wish I had more physical strength and was able to do what other +men can do; but I can't. And I have no doubt that all is well--that I +am made to do one particular piece of work, and that I have strength +enough for that--and thank God for that. + +{135} + +_To a brother in South Africa._ + +December 1900. + +It is a marvellous thought that God can reveal Himself to man--even +primitive man. In those stories Jehovah is very near to man. He walks +in the garden at nightfall. He shuts Noah into the Ark. He comes down +to see the city and the tower 'which the children of men builded.' He +talks with Moses face to face as a man speaketh to his friend--and a +ladder connects heaven and earth, and the angels, instead of using +wings, walk up and down the ladder--and, behold, Jehovah stood above +it. At any moment you might meet Jehovah Himself. Three men come to +see Abraham--and Jehovah has appeared to him. A man wrestles with +Jacob, and he has seen God face to face. They were right when they +thought of God as very near to man, of man as capable of reflecting +God's likeness. Ye too shall see heaven opened and the angels of God +ascending and descending upon--the Son of man. It is good for us as +children to read these stories to realise that heaven is very near to +earth. It is good for us as men to read them again to realise that +heaven is even nearer earth than we thought as children. As I said +before, how marvellous it is that God can reveal Himself to man and +through man, that He has revealed Himself entirely, 'the perfect man,' +as Maurice says, reflecting the perfect God--God and man so near one to +the other that men can look upon the Son of man and see God--see Him in +His perfection! Our years ought to be bound each to {136} each by +natural piety. The child should surely be the father of the man. + + With age Thou growest more divine, + More glorious than before; + I fear Thee with a deeper fear + Because--I love Thee more. + +I have been reading Moody's Life. It has much the same effect as +Finney's used to have in days gone by--it creates a longing to work and +live for God, to bring men nearer to Him, to come nearer to Him myself. +Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I +desire in comparison of Thee. + +What a wonderful thing that we, as a family, are so united--that our +Ideal is so much the same--isn't it? + + + +_To F. S. H._ + +St. Moritz: January 6, 1901. + +I have succeeded in unfreezing my ink, so I can write and--although it +is late to do so--wish you a happy new century. It is only once in a +lifetime that one can do that sort of thing! I am out here for my +health. I wasn't up to much last term. However, I am as fit as a lord +now, and return to Cambridge this week. I have been reading out here +two very different kinds of books. One is Wellhausen's 'History of +Israel,' the other Moody's Life by his son. Wellhausen's book gives +you in outline the position of modern advanced criticism of the Old +Testament. I have never before studied the history from the critical +point of view really seriously. The study has proved extraordinarily +interesting, and I {137} must say that in the main I agree thoroughly +with Wellhausen's position. You will see it more or less clearly put +in that 'History of the Hebrew People' in two small volumes by Kent +which I recommended to you before. The history of the gradual progress +of the divine revelation to the human race is a marvellous study: the +way in which that people were educated to become the teachers of the +world is utterly different from anything which we should have devised. +I am struck more and more by the marvellous fact that God can and does +reveal Himself--in His essential moral nature--to man; that we are so +made that we can apprehend the revelation; nay, that we in turn can in +measure reveal Him to men! + +Moody's Life stirs me up to realise more the worth of the individual, +the surpassing value of man's moral and spiritual nature. I long to +help men to see what I see, to love Him whom I love, and the failure of +my efforts is largely, I feel, due to defects in myself. Still I do +not despair of doing something. + + + +_To his brother Edward in South Africa._ + +Brislington, Bristol; April 10, 1901. + +I was much interested in . . . (your letter) and in seeing a little +into your life. There is a strange family reserve among us which I +sometimes deplore. Perhaps it must always be so, that we can tell most +readily to strangers our deepest thoughts and feelings. Yet I feel +that we ought, as far as we can in this short life, to understand one +another. We have been led by different paths to understand different +aspects {138} of Truth. Yet, when we have climbed to the top of the +hill, I dare say we shall find that our paths were nearer to one +another than we ever realised. At any rate, we shall meet on the top. +I often think that your whole method of gaining truth must be unlike +mine. I use my reason, but I am more than half affection, and it is +that which helps me most. My strange love for some men makes me seek +to live their lives, to see the world as they see it; above all, it +forces me to pray. Prayer never seems to me irrational; yet I do not +pray so much because my reason bids me as because my affection forces +me. I sometimes feel that I should go mad if I didn't or couldn't. +And then, again, I am incapable of telling them all I feel, and I have +to find some one to tell it to, and I feel forced back on One who knows +me through and through, and I find comfort in pouring out my soul to +Him--in telling Him all, much that I dare say to no one else--in +letting Him sift the good and evil--in asking Him to develop and +satisfy the good, and to exterminate the evil. I cannot help trusting +Him. + + I know not where His islands lift + Their fronded palms in air; + I only know I cannot drift + Beyond His love and care. + + +You will tell me perhaps that I am too much like a woman in matters of +faith. Yet so I am made. I must follow the lead of my whole +being--not of my mind alone. I often wonder how it is that I love with +such a strange, passionate, unutterable affection, and whether many men +are like me. {139} I am most pleased to hear of your doings, +especially of your whist parties. + + + +_To F. S. H., chaplain on board H.M.S. Canopus._ + +Brislington; April 10, 1901. + +I am glad that you like your 'parish.' I feel more and more that I +should prefer being among sailors to being among soldiers. I am afraid +that I should do little good among either. Still I like, or think that +I should like, naval officers even more than army officers. If they do +talk a great deal of 'shop,' that is a healthy sign. I only wish our +officers in the army were--I will not say more proud of their +profession (for they have, I dare say, sufficient pride)--but more +anxious to learn and to think out matters connected with it. I dare +say the naval officer is obliged to act more independently and to think +for himself in an emergency; for the army discipline is carried to such +an extreme that the man for some years has seldom any occasion to act +on his own initiative--to rise to an occasion. He simply has to ask a +superior what to do next. He tends to resemble the Hindu +station-master who telegraphed 'Tiger on platform; please wire +instructions.' If their talking shop is worrying occasionally, yet be +of good comfort, it is on the whole a good sign. It is better than +talking golf or polo all day, and better far than loose and unmanly +conversation. The more you are interested in the matters yourself, not +simply because you want to be all things to all men, if by any means +you may gain one or two, but because you are a man {140} and a +Christian, and therefore all things human have an interest to you, the +more you will enjoy such 'shop.' We want not only to affect an +interest in what is of vital concern to our neighbours, but to feel it. +I begin to realise more now than I used to that I must not simply watch +football matches, or run with the boats, because I want to show +interest, but because I am learning--however late in the day and +however imperfectly--to feel a real concern for such matters. And, +strange to say, I am more interested in them than I used to be. Since +the Lord took human flesh and interested Himself in all human life, He +has left us an example that we may follow in His steps. We must call +nothing, and no man, common or unclean. My own life and my own +interests are terribly contracted. Sometimes I have been foolish +enough to glory in the fact, and to think that I honour God in caring +only for my brother's soul and not for his whole life. But love has +taught me that this is a low and incomplete view. God numbers the very +hairs of our head, and he who loves and tries to help another must +enter into his life and care for all that he cares for. I hope that +God will spare me a little longer to work in College, and to learn to +become one with others--to see life with their eyes, to let them teach +me--that so, if it please Him, I may gain some of them for His service. + +The disciple cannot expect to be above the Master. The Master was not +popular. He explained His deepest teaching to a few--a very few. If +you have one or two to whom you can explain part of your being, thank +God. You will find that {141} one man understands one side, another +appreciates another side. It is a comfort that there is One who knows +us through and through. What a terrible blank life would be if we had +no God to whom to pour out our whole soul! There are sides of our +being which no one but God seems to be able to apprehend. I am feeling +now comfort at nights in simply telling Him all--feelings which I +cannot explain to any one else, asking Him to interpret, to sift, to +allow the better to live, to annihilate the untrue. I do not cease to +expect great things from Him, to expect that He will do for my 'parish' +as a whole more than I have dreamed of or wished for. But then I am +content if He works slowly, and does what I did not wish or expect to +happen. He works slowly in nature, and I am not surprised if human +nature is still more stubborn material for Him to work upon. But what +a joy it is when one character in which we are interested, for which we +have prayed and wrestled in prayer, shows slight but sure signs of +healthy development! I feel inclined to shout for joy at the +miracle--for it is a miracle--and I thank God and take courage. He +does not let us see many results, but He lets us see just enough to +help us to go forward. It is a help when what is clear and true to us +begins to dawn upon another. 'My belief gains infinitely,' says +Novalis, 'when it is shared by any human soul.' + +Let your 'parish' clearly see that 'it is one thing to be tempted, +another thing to fall.' Vile, foul thoughts which come to us are not +in themselves a sign that we are falling. They are first of all from +{142} outside, and are suggestions entirely alien in origin from +ourselves; they are from the devil. They only become wrong when +entertained, when welcomed in the least degree as guests and allowed to +stay. Our aim is to bring every thought at once into captivity. + +I have just come back from the seaside, and as I looked at the sea I +thought more than once of 'the ocean of Thy love.' The waves of the +sea beat against a stubborn rock and seem to make no impression. But +in a few years' time the rock begins to yield. The constant wash of +the waves wears it away. So with our hard, stubborn wills. The ocean +of His love will reduce them slowly but surely, and likewise the +stubborn wills of men around us, thank God! When you are tired and +human strength gives way, remember 'the best of all is--God is with +us.' I often feel worn out, and then I love, as it were, to lean back +upon Him--without speaking--as a child on its mother's arms. + + I know not where His islands lift + Their fronded palms in air; + I only know I cannot drift + Beyond His love and care. + + O brother! if my faith is vain, + If hopes like these betray, + Pray for me that I too may gain + The sure and safer way. + + And Thou, O God, by whom are seen + Thy creatures as they be, + Forgive me if too close I lean + My human heart on Thee.[1] + +{143} + +I am, I fear, but a poor friend. I wish you had some one who loved you +as well as I did, and who was less weak and selfish. You must not give +me up in spite of my defects. I love you and am proud of you--proud to +think that you are doing work among men whom I should be powerless to +influence. Easter once more brings new life and hope. May the God of +all life, of all peace, of all hope, be with you and all your flock! +May He guide pastor and sheep! Don't despair; go on manfully; you are +doing greater work than you know, and if your eyes were open that you +could see, you would find that the host that was with you was more than +all that were against you. Into His keeping I commit you. Good-bye. +Your friend + +FORBES. + + +[1] Whittier. + + + +_To W. O._ + +Brislington: April 1901. + +I am glad that the lot has fallen to you in fair places. 'It has been +said with true wisdom that God means man not only to work but to be +happy in his work. . . . Without some sunshine we can never ripen into +what we are meant to be.' So writes Dr. Hort. I am reading his Life +with great joy. He drank deep of life, and I want to do so also. I +want to live in the present--in the sunshine of eternity. I feel more +and more inclined to thank God for life and all the good things it +brings, and for the friends He has given me, and the measure of +strength and health to use in the service of man. + +I had no idea where that Essay had gone. I {144} suppose it is most +immature and unsatisfactory; yet the central idea, however imperfectly +expressed, must surely be true. He took Manhood--in its weakness and +strength--up into God. He was tempted. That thought helps me +immensely. 'It is one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.' We +often accuse ourselves wrongly when foul thoughts spring up within us. +They are temptations from without--from the devil. They only become +sins when entertained as welcome guests. I have lately thought that +Christ's life, like ours, was a life of faith, that it needed a real +and constant effort of faith for Him to realise His relationship with +the unseen Father. Here and hereafter human life is based on faith. +If we get this idea into our minds, Christ's temptations become more +real. They are temptations to faithlessness. I like your idea that +Christ has entered into our manhood, into the phases (if there be such) +'of the life to come.' + +Rest in the Lord. This thought comes home to me more than it used to +do. I like to bring all the perplexities of life--the thoughts and +feelings which I can explain to no one--of some of which I cannot say +whether they are right or wrong, or where the right shades into +wrong--and to leave them with Him to develop (if right), to sift, to +correct. What a blank life would be without God! . . . + +Easter brings fresh hope and life. It is glorious to begin existence +in a world which has been redeemed. I am sure--since He rose and +defeated death--we ought to trust to life, to delight in it. 'I am the +Life.' + +{145} + +Breathe in the fresh air. It is one of the best gifts that the good +God has bestowed upon us. We want fresh air not only in our lungs but +all through, if I may say so, our being. I long to be more natural and +happy--not that I wish for 'religious happiness,' but something quite +different--the happiness which comes in the right exercise of power and +in conscious dependence upon Him in whom we live. + + + +_In reply to a letter from H. P., a master at Clifton College, who was +in doubt whether he ought to resign his mastership and go down to the +College Mission in Bristol._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: May 1, 1901. + +I have not had time to think over the matter yet, but my first feeling +is that you ought to be very slow to move. If men in your position, +who feel keenly interested in the highest welfare of their pupils and +long to influence them in spiritual matters, all go away to parish +work, what is to become of our public school boys? Masters are only +too anxious to leave for more 'directly spiritual' work, as they say. +But in doing so they leave a work of exceptional difficulty and +importance behind, and who is to take their place? I understand and +appreciate your feelings, but I am not at all sure that you have any +call to go. + +How much directly 'spiritual' work have you with the boys? Could you, +if you desired, get more? + +I will pray over the matter. Do be slow before you decide to leave. I +believe you ought to stay, {146} although it may be more difficult to +maintain your own spiritual life and ideals in a school than in a +parish. You may be doing more good than you know. It is easier to +find men to do parish work than to do school work of the highest kind. + +There is a sermon of Lightfoot's in which he urges clergymen at the +University not to go away, because it is hard to maintain their +spiritual ideals at Cambridge, and because they seem to have so little +direct spiritual influence. May not this apply to your work also? + + + +_To one about to be ordained._ + +Cambridge: May 1901. + +It seems so clear to us that you have a call, that I find it hard to +realise that you yourself are uncertain. But the very fact that you +have been 'counting the cost,' and that you have no ecstatic joy at the +prospect before you, encourages me. I am glad you realise the +difficulties beforehand. What you don't fully see is the strength upon +which you will be able to draw. I often think of those lines of +Tennyson:-- + + O living Will that shalt endure + When all that seems shall suffer shock, + Rise in the spiritual rock, + Flow through our deeds and make them pure.[1] + +That Will can transform our will, and the very weakness of our natural +will is then a help. The strength {147} is seen and felt to come from +an invisible source: 'Thy will, not my will.' + +The terrible need of men to fight against the forces of evil impresses +me. The call is so loud on every side. And if men like you cannot +hear it, I am driven almost to despair. . . . I often think of my +father's words on his deathbed: 'If I had a thousand lives I would give +them all--all to the ministry.' + +The thought that gave me comfort at my own ordination was a text +suggested to me by my brother: 'He had in His right hand seven stars.' +In His right hand--we are safe there. I felt such a worm as I had +never felt before. 'But fear not, thou worm Jacob.' . . . Don't look +for happiness or peace at this time, but for the presence and power +(whether felt or unfelt) of that God whom we both love and try to love +better. Do not persuade yourself that you do not love God. You do, +more than you have any idea of. The part of your 'Ego' which you would +least wish to lose is not even your love for men--but for God. If you +had your choice now, and had to decide what part of your being you +would retain for eternity, it would be the latter. Beloved, if our +heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart. . . . 'He who loves +makes his own the grandeur that he loves.' + +_He had in His right hand seven stars_. He is the Judge, but He also +is our refuge and strength and hope. + + +[1] _In Memoriam_, cxxi. + + +{148} + +_To D. B. K._ + +Cambridge: July 1901. + +When we set to work to help others we discover something of our own +weakness. But along with that discovery comes the realisation of an +inexhaustible fund of strength outside ourselves. We are fighting on +the winning side. God must be stronger than all that opposes. It is +uphill work, especially at first. But just as in learning a language +or learning how to swim, after toiling on with no apparent result, +there comes a day when suddenly we realise that we can do it--how we +know not: so it is in spiritual matters. There is effort still, +sometimes gruesome effort; but it is all different from what it was. +We find the meaning of the paradox, 'Whose service is perfect freedom.' +Love takes the place of law, and, although it is hard at times to serve +God, it is still harder to be the permanent servant of Satan. + +Your enthusiasm ought to increase, the more you look life in the face +and see its sin and misery. 'God,' said Moody, 'can do nothing with a +man who has ceased to hope.' Our hope in the possibilities of the +individual and of society ought to grow brighter and saner as time goes +on. . . . Missionary work--I have often wished to do it myself, but +have been 'let hitherto.' . . . It is a tremendous help to me to know +that we are both serving the same Master and that I can trust you to +His love. + +{149} + +_To an Auckland 'brother' after Bishop Westcott's Death._ + +Cambridge: August 1901. + +My thoughts are with you at this time. I am most thankful that you +have been a year with that man of God, and have gained ideals and +inspiration for work which will haunt you all your life long. In +moments of weakness, at times 'when your light is low,' the memory of +his strenuous, holy life will be a power making for self-discipline and +righteousness. And it is more than a memory. For he taught us by word +and deed that we are all one man, that those who have realised what it +is to belong to the body here will enter more fully into its life +there. 'We feebly struggle, they in glory shine'--yet we are verily +and indeed one. That thought is often a comfort to me. When I feel +the contradictions and perplexities and weaknesses of my own life, I +love to think that I am part of a whole--that I belong to the same body +and share in the same spirit as some other man who is immeasurably my +superior. + +When one whom we have known and venerated on earth passes to the +eternal home, it seems more like home than it was before. It is +peopled not only with countless saints of whom I have heard, but with +one whom I have known and seen, and hope to see again. His prayers for +us, his influence upon us there are more effective than they could have +been here. + +The great triumph of Christianity is to produce a few saints. They +raise our ideal of humanity. They {150} make us restless and +discontented with our own lives, as long as they are lived on a lower +plane. They speak to us in language more eloquent than words: 'Come up +higher.' + + + +_To F. J. C._ + +_Belvedere Hotel, St. Moritz: Sunday, December 15, 1901._ + +I feel more and more thankful that I have not had to wait till the next +world to know God's true nature and character and will. It is passing +strange that He should love us so much, and wish to unveil Himself to +us, 'that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.' But +that phrase 'stewards of His mysteries' almost appals me. A steward +must be faithful, and must render an account of the way in which he has +used his master's goods. God grant that at the final reckoning we may +not be found unprofitable servants. + +How those simple words in the twenty-third Psalm satisfy us more and +more as life advances, and as we realise that He is not our Shepherd +only, but the chief Shepherd of the whole flock, and that He has yet +other sheep whom He is looking for, and whom He will teach to hear His +voice amid the babel tongues of the world. It is a comfort to me to +feel that He has no private blessings for me apart from the rest of the +family--that we are one in Him, and that each blessing unites us not +only to the Head of the family, but to all the brothers within it. + +I suppose at first it is hard to realise the unseen world for long +together. But gradually that world {151} dominates our being, and +interprets the world we see, and makes all life intelligible and well +worth the living. + + + +_To H. J. B._ + +Hotel Belvedere, St. Moritz: December 16, 1901. + +I feel a new man now in this fresh mountain air. If I always lived +here I might be good for something. What a parable of life! If we +could live in the higher world and breathe in its air, what strong, +healthy men we should be! I stayed a night once with Westcott, and it +seemed to me that he lived and moved and had his being in a higher +region, to which I now and then came as a stranger, and he could see +habitually, what I sometimes saw, the way of God in human life. I am +sure we are meant to have our home in that higher world, and that we +only see life sanely, steadily, and in its true proportions, when we +view it from that vantage ground. I have always been thankful that I +spent that night with Westcott, and thereby gained, not simply fresh +inspiration, but a radically new revelation of human life and its +possibilities. It gave me an insight into the dignity and the destiny +of our common human nature. + +You have never been long absent from my thoughts, and at last I have +had time and strength to begin to pray for you as I could wish. It is +the only way in which I can show my gratitude to you. I don't +understand much about prayer, but I think of that strange, bold parable +of the unrighteous judge and the widow, and I take my stand on that. I +shall {152} not be content until your true self is formed; and I think +that God must be very ready to answer the prayer, however imperfect its +form may be, of one who loves another more than he can understand. I +like St Paul's words: _teknia mou ous odino mechris ou morphothe +Christos en humin_. Only I wish I were not such a worm myself. +However, the thought of you compels me to live a better life. If I +could only make all my thoughts of you into prayers and actions for you +I should be more content. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrase in the above paragraph was +transliterated as follows: _teknia_--tau, epsilon, kappa, nu, iota, +alpha; _mou_--mu, omicron, upsilon; _ous_--omicron, upsilon, final +sigma; _odino_--omega, delta, iota, nu, omega; _mechris_--mu, epsilon, +chi, rho, iota, final sigma; _ou_--omicron, upsilon; _morphothe_--mu, +omicron, rho, phi, omega, theta, eta; _Christos_--Chi, rho, iota, +sigma, tau, omicron, final sigma; _en_--epsilon, nu; _humin_--(rough +breathing mark) upsilon, mu, iota, nu] + +Don't imitate Uriah Heep with 'Yours most humbly.' I won't stand that +nonsense! and you give yourself away just a few lines above, when you +assert that you are too proud to confer a favour on me, and read Greek +Testament with me. What a funny chap you are! Can't you see, you +idiot, what a pleasure you give me? We shall have to compromise, and +I'll have to make some concession to your pride. Neither ---- nor I +know much about your section, but we could help you in your first part +papers. Of course, he could do it miles better than I can; but, all +the same, you are going to be my pupil. Promise me that you won't make +any arrangement with him until you have talked the matter over with me. +I'll make some compromise for the sake of your miserable pride, you +wretched creature. + +Write to me soon again, if it isn't a great bore. I can't recall as +much as I could wish of your conversations with me. In fact, I have +the unpleasant feeling sometimes that I did too much of the talking! +But one or two things that you said to me live in {153} my memory, and +make me wish to be more fit to talk to you. + +St. Moritz is much as usual. It is a strange little world in itself. +The comic and the tragic are blended weirdly together, and nature is +unimaginably beautiful. I wish you could see this snow. It has an +attraction for me, and I am sure it would have for you. I think you +understand more about the meaning of beauty than I do. When I see a +magnificent landscape, I want to share the sight with some one else. I +feel quite lonely when I am interpreting it alone. I wonder why that +is? + + + +_To F. J. C._ + +Hotel Belvedere, St. Moritz: December 21, 1901. + +Christmas seems to mean more to me, the longer that I live. I gaze +with bewilderment on that stupendous mystery of love--the very God +entering into and raising our human nature. My whole conception of the +meaning, the possibilities of our common human nature is transformed, +as I see that it can become a perfect reflection and manifestation of +the Divine nature. 'The Word became flesh, and lodged _in us_.' The +manger at Bethlehem reverses all our human conceptions of dignity and +greatness. 'The folly of God is wiser than men.' It is to the +humble--to babes--that God can reveal Himself. In them He can find His +home. + + O Father, touch the East and light + The light that shone when Hope was born. + +It is in Christmas that Tennyson found the birth of {154} Hope. It is +Christmas that, as life goes on, bids us never despair--of our own or +of human nature around us. + + + +_To a friend at Cambridge._ + +Hotel Belvedere, St. Moritz: December 30, 1901. + +I shall never forget this last Christmas Day, for your letter came in +the evening. I read it again and again, and wonder at it more each +time I read it. I can't tell you what I feel about it. I knew that +you more or less liked and respected me, but I didn't know that you +loved me. I've got what I wanted. When you merely respected me, I +dreaded the day when you would find that I was different to what you +thought I was. But now I feel I am safe _phobos ouk estin en te +agape_, however imperfect you find me. I know now that I can trust you +not to throw me off. And love is not extreme to mark what is amiss, +_hoti agape kaluptei plethos amartion_. I can't thank you for your +kindness, but I thank God for giving me the most precious gift in the +world, a human soul 'to love and be loved by for ever.' As I look at +your letter I feel a mere worm, and my one wonder is how on earth a man +like you can call me your friend. I can't thank you; but I'll do my +best to live up to the standard you expect of me, and to be a true +friend to you. And my idea of friendship is, as you know, prayer. I +can't, worse luck, do much for you, but I do pray for you, and +'whatever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.' It has been +truly said that the _how_, the _where_, and the _when_ are not told us, +but only the {155} _what_. And I am quite certain that every prayer I +offer for you is heard and answered, when I believe what I say; but the +manner, the place, and the occasion of the answer--of these things I +know nothing. I am sure that God loves to see us happy, and the pure +joy of the knowledge that such a man as you loves me is almost more +than I can bear. It throws a new light on life here, and on that +fuller life to which God is leading us hereafter; like you, thank God, +I cannot complain of lack of friends, but I have never had one who has +written me such a letter, full of an affection for which I crave. The +worst is, I can't repay your kindness. You bring me nearer to God, you +make me realise in the strangest way His affection, you make me feel +the worth and mystery of a human soul. I wish I could return your help +somehow or other. Do show me the way. I wish you did not find it so +difficult to pray for me. I am sure you are right in going back to +such a man as St. Paul for subjects of prayer. The opening chapters of +his letters to the Ephesians and Colossians give the kinds of requests +which it is worth making on behalf of any one. There is surely no harm +in finding that, as you pray for another, your own faith is growing. +There is nothing selfish in that. It is rather the result of the law +_didote kai dothesetai humin_. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _phobos_--phi, omicron, beta, omicron, final +sigma; _ouk_--omicron, upsilon, kappa; _estin_--epsilon, sigma, tau, +iota, nu; _en_--epsilon, nu; _te_--tau, eta; _agape_--alpha, gamma, +alpha, pi, eta; _hoti_--(rough breathing mark) omicron, tau, iota; +_agape_--alpha, gamma, alpha, pi, eta; _kaluptei_--kappa, alpha, +lambda, upsilon, pi, tau, epsilon, iota; _plethos_--pi, lambda, eta, +theta, omicron, final sigma; _amartion_--alpha, mu, alpha, rho, tau, +iota, omega, nu; _didote_--delta, iota, delta, omicron, tau, epsilon; +_kai_--kappa, alpha, iota; _dothesetai_--delta, omicron, theta, eta, +sigma, eta, tai, alpha, iota; _humin_--(rough breathing mark) upsilon, +mu, iota, nu] + +Your faith can only grow with exercise, and you exercise it by praying +for others. You would only be selfish if you prayed for some one else +_in order that_ your own soul might be benefited. + +But don't think too much of selfishness. Bring {156} all your half +selfish desires to Him who knows us through and through; and in His +presence, almost unconsciously, your motives will gradually be +purified. You will learn to walk in the light as He Himself is in the +light. As I look back on this letter, a large part of it seems +selfish. I expect much is; but, even in the selfish parts, there is +something more besides. I can only just say what I feel, and ask God +gradually to eliminate what is wrong. In His light I shall see light. + +Life is large, and I am fearful lest, in attempting a rough and ready +asceticism, I should exclude as wrong some elements which are in +reality God-given. I feel that in the case of our affections and our +longing for beauty. They are implanted in us, and tended and watered +by One who is perfect Love and perfect Beauty. They easily lead us +into sin, but that fact does not imply that they are wrong in +themselves. We have to bring them to their source that He may +interpret them, 'Too late have I sought thee,' said Augustine, 'thou +Beauty, so ancient and so new, too late have I sought thee.' I cannot +understand the mystery of your life, dearest, but I feel that all that +craving for beauty is in some kind of way a craving for God. Only God +demands the first place in your life before He will give you any +satisfying interpretation of that aspect of His life. You must love +Him for what He is--not simply because He is Beauty. + + I slept and dreamed that life was Beauty, + I woke and found that life is Duty. + +{157} + +They are not really contradictory conceptions. Nay, Duty has a +spiritual beauty of her own. But sometimes they seem for a moment +divergent, and then you must at all costs choose the latter, and you +will find that + + The topmost crags of Duty scaled, + Are close upon that shining tableland + To which God Himself is shield and sun. + +And, if I am not mistaken, that land will be utterly full of an +absolutely satisfying beauty. + +But I feel that I scarcely yet understand anything about the meaning of +Beauty. All I can do is to relate it immediately to God. If I see +beautiful scenery, I am usually thinking of God and thanking Him. If I +see human beauty, I feel that I am on holy ground, and I always try to +pray for a face that attracts me. I feel that I have a duty in return +for the revelation that has been given. But, as you see, I can explain +but little. These are merely rules of practical life which we very +imperfectly carry out. I cannot explain the relation of physical and +spiritual beauty in human beings. I feel, of course, that there ought +to be, there very often is, some such relation. But sometimes there is +something utterly wrong, and apparently no such connective. The +connection, I take it, is more perfect in nature; but in man, why, +something has occurred, something anomalous, which mars the whole. Sin +has come in somewhere, I suppose. + +I can't express on paper what I feel, or give you any real conception +of what you are to me. You {158} would be startled if you knew. God +bless you, and work out in you, not my miserable ideal of what I think +you ought to be, but His own ideal, which exceeds all our thoughts and +imagination, of what you are to be. + + + +_To G. J. C._ + +Christ's College: 1901. + +. . . I was never so pleased to hear of any engagement as of yours. I +thank God with all my heart. I cannot put my joy into words, but +somehow or other it seems to bring me nearer to the source of all joy. +I feel more than ever that He cares for us and is educating us, and I +feel that He has been so good to you, because He loves you. The older +I grow the more I am impressed by His infinite sympathy and concern for +us. And when He gives us not only love but a return of love, it seems +to me that He is giving us the very best thing that He has--a part, as +it were, of Himself. 'The merciful and gracious Lord hath so done His +marvellous works, that they ought to be had in remembrance.' + +I cannot tell you how glad I am. But I thank God in my prayers for +you; and I am sure that if He has been so good to you in the past, He +will not forget you in the future. + + + +_To the same when he had just accepted a mastership at Eton._ + +Brislington, Bristol: 1901. + +. . . . How good of you to write and tell me of your future +work! . . . The responsibility of such a {159} life is to my mind +almost overwhelming. 'Who is sufficient for these things? Our +sufficiency is of God.' + +I am thankful that the offer came as it did--unsought by you. You will +feel happier in accepting it. 'Infinite sympathy is needed for the +infinite pathos of human life'--more especially of a boy's life. The +first, second, third, requisite for a master is, in my judgment, +sympathy. As I look back on my own school days, I cannot help feeling +that most of my masters were either lacking in it or else strangely +incapable of manifesting it in a form which I could understand. +Sympathy with the dull, unpromising boy is a divine gift, and I trust +that Holy Orders will confer upon you this grace also. I thank God +that you are taking orders, and finding your work in teaching. Forgive +this lecture from one who has no right to speak, and who is himself +strangely deficient in sympathy. + + + +_To D. B. K._ + +Eastbourne: September 1901. + +I am glad that you have been home. I feel that home is a revelation--a +means whereby the Eternal Father shows us Himself and His purposes, a +strengthening and refreshing of our tired souls. . . . I have prayed +earnestly for you that your faith and love may not fail. I feel +intensely the same difficulty as you, and I am only slowly learning to +overcome it. I do not think we can learn to love people who are +altogether different from us in many respects, all at once. I love +some men with a strange, unsatisfied affection. All my thoughts about +them I am {160} gradually learning to resolve into prayers for them, +and I want to live longer that I may pray for them more. + +Well, it seems to me that God gives us this affection that we may learn +to do to others as we would do to these. I cannot pretend to care for +many with whom I come into contact as much as I do for the few. But I +can pray for them, and the feeling will more or less come in time. +Just try to pray for some one person committed to your charge--say for +half an hour or an hour--and you will begin really to love him. As you +lay his life before God, as you think of his needs and hopes, and +failings and possibilities, as you pray earnestly for him as you would +for some one whom you feel intense affection for; at the end of the +time you will feel more interested in him, you will think of him not as +one of a class but as a separate, mysterious person. You will not, it +may be, have time to pray for many in this way, but you will learn +imperceptibly to extend your sympathy--to feel real love for many more. +I advise you to keep a record of these prayers. It is quite worth your +while to take practically a day off sometimes, and to force yourself to +pray. It will be the best day's work you have ever done in your life. +Remember that! + +Don't be troubled by comparing yourself with other clergymen. I think +you are like me--not ecclesiastically minded. I don't have the sort of +feelings which a large number of persons have about their work and +their preaching. I can't put the difference into words, yet I feel it. +But I must serve God in my own way, and I am sure that He will use me +to do the work for which I am best fitted. And the {161} same is true +of you. Try to refer all your actions to His standard; and test your +work in His presence; and don't ask what So-and-so thinks of it. + +I very much wish you had some gentlemen to associate with besides +parsons. You must keep up as much as possible with your college +friends; and use every opportunity which reasonably presents itself of +seeing some 'society.' God knows what is best for you at present. + + God nothing does or suffers to be done + But thou wouldest do thyself, couldest thou but see + The end of all events as well as He. + +I am sure that He will not forget you. He knows what is best for your +development. It may be that He takes you away from friends that you +may learn to pray for them more and to see Him more clearly. + +I think you will influence many men whom a more ordinary parson would +not touch. . . . I am quite certain that if you have infinite +hope--hope against hope--you will be a tremendous power in the place +where God has put you. + +Get as much exercise as you can, and always get a clear day off in the +week, and don't give up any of your old interests. Don't always read +'religious' literature. . . . When the long day is done and we stand +before the judgment seat, I believe that many will rise up and call you +blessed. Only pray for individuals--for a long time together. To +influence, you must love; to love, you must pray. + + + +{162} + +_To one about to be ordained._ + +Eastbourne: September 1901. + +I shall indeed remember you on Sunday next. The words of the lesson come +home to me to-day--_kai eireken moi Arkei soi he chariu mou; he gar +dunamis en astheneia teleitai_. + +We are poor creatures, but there is Grace--and we can come into contact +with it--and that is all we need. We may have failed in the past, but +Christ offers a new childlike life and endless hope. + +I am glad to think that you will be returning to your difficult post at +Cambridge. I am sure that you will return to it with fresh humility and +courage--_en pleromati eulogias Christou_. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraphs were +transliterated as follows: _kai_--kappa, alpha, iota; _eireken_--epsilon, +iota, rho, eta, kappa, epsilon, nu; _moi_--mu, omicron, iota; +_Arkei_--Alpha, rho, kappa, epsilon, iota; _soi_--sigma, omicron, iota; +_he_--(rough breating mark) eta; _chariu_--chi, alpha, rho, iota, final +sigma; _mou_--mu, omicron, upsilon; _he_--(rough breathing mark) eta; +_gar_--gamma, alpha, rho; _dunamis_--delta, upsilon; nu, alpha, mu, iota, +final sigma; _en_--epsilon, nu; _astheneia_--alpha, sigma, theta, +epsilon, nu, epsilon, iota, alpha; _teleitai_--tau, epsilon, lambda, +epsilon, iota, tau, alpha, iota; _en_--_en_--epsilon, nu; +_pleromati_--pi, lambda, eta, rho, omega, mu, alpha, tau, iota; +_eulogias_--epsilon, upsilon, lambda, omicron, gamma, iota alpha, final +sigma; _Christou_--Chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, omicron, upsilon] + + + +_To W. D. H._ + +St. Moritz: January 4, 1902. + +I hope that you are now less overworked than you were in October. You +must at all costs make quiet time. Give up work, if need be. Your +influence finally depends upon your own first-hand knowledge of the +unseen world, and on your experience of prayer. Love and sympathy and +tact and insight are born of prayer. I am glad you have a Junior Clergy +S. P. G. Association. Try to take an intelligent interest in it, and +mind you read a paper before long. + + + +_To his brother Edward in South Africa._ + +Hotel Belvedere, St. Moritz: January 7, 1902. + +I am glad to think that we are now in many respects agreed about the +general question of the {163} war. I suppose in any great historical +upheaval there are at the time a number of people who are attempting to +make capital for themselves out of the misfortunes of others; there are +many who are working for their own hand; and yet, when we look back on +the crisis and judge it as a whole in the calm light of history, we see +that a large and rational purpose has been worked out. At the time of +the English Reformation--as some one was saying to me lately, pointing +the parallel which I am working out--there must have been a number of +honest and pure souls who held aloof from the whole of what appeared to +be political jobbery and fortune-making at the expense of religious +sentiment. Yet now most of us feel that the movement could not have had +the effects that it had, unless down below all there was a strong +upheaval of the national conscience. You will no doubt see many defects +in this historical parallel; but the thought is at any rate suggestive, +and full of what we require in these latter days--hope. Of course I feel +that injustice, dishonesty, cruelty, selfishness are in no way palliated +because they take cover and occasion in a real movement of national +feeling. + +I feel for you much in your work for examinations. It must come very +hard with ill health and in a hot climate, with the freshness of youth to +some extent passed. But + + O well for him whose will is strong, + He suffers, but he shall not suffer long; + He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong + +{164} It needs more courage than you were required to show on the field +of battle. But the reward is sure. I feel strongly that this life is +but the prelude to a larger life, when each faculty will have its full +exercise. + + Ah yet, when all is thought and said, + The heart still overrules the head; + Still what we hope we must believe, + And what is given us receive; + Must still believe, for still we hope, + That in a world of larger scope, + What here is faithfully begun + Will be completed, not undone. + +These words come from dough--the soul of honesty. + + + +_To H. J. B._ + +Derwent Hill, Ebchester, Durham: April 14, 1902. + +It seems to me a truism to say that we ought to look at life in the light +of eternity. Only then does the true significance of the meanest action +in life appear. Life is redeemed from triviality and vulgarity. So far +from worldly possessions losing their value, and ordinary occupations +appearing insignificant, their importance is realised as never before. +If man does not live for ever, his character and actions seem of +comparative unimportance. If he does live for ever, it is rational for +him to look at each action in the light of that larger life which he +inherits. If something like class distinctions are eternal, it is an +inducement so to use your distinctive privileges here in a worthy manner, +that hereafter you may use them for nobler ends. + +{165} + +I have expressed myself badly, but you will see what I want to say. My +relations to you surely become not less, but more important, when I +realise that I am only beginning to know and love you here. The eternal +element in them--the knowledge that there is throughout an implicit +reference to a Third and Unseen Person in all that I say to you or think +of you--fills me with a sense of awe, and makes the relations more real +because more spiritual. + + + +_To the mother of his godchild, Margaret Forbes._ + +July 6, 1902. + +I cannot tell you what a pleasure it was to see my godchild. . . . I +feel she has a strength of purpose and a desire to know the truth which +will fit her for high service in God's kingdom on earth. I pray for her, +and I shall do so in the future with fuller understanding and with great +hope. What God hath begun He will assuredly bring to perfection. I hope +that some day she will learn to pray for Uncle Forbes. I should value +her prayers. It is good to feel that in the midst of your weary time of +weakness God has given you such a child as a pledge of His affection for +you, as an assurance that He believes in you. To give you a little child +to train for Himself is a proof that He trusts you very much. I do not +know that He could have given a greater proof of His confidence in you. +And it is God's implicit trust in us that draws out our trust in turn. +We trust and love Him, because He first trusted and loved us. I wonder +more and more at the way in which He trusts us. To allow us to suffer +without {166} telling us the reason, when He knows that we shall be +inclined to think harshly of Him--that is, perhaps, the greatest proof +that He believes in us. He can try our faith and perfect it by +long-continued trial, because He knows that we shall respond, that we +shall prove 'worthy to suffer.' + + + +_To H. J. B._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: August 26, 1902. + +The worst of seeing you for some time is that I feel it all the more +impossible to live without you. I realise now as never before that you +are out and away before me, and better than I am; and yet I feel that you +are part and parcel of my life. You mustn't be too hard on me if I can't +come up to your ideal. + +Intellectually the Hebrew and Greek ideals may be irreconcilable. Yet +'life is larger than logic;' and practically we may become heirs of both +ideals. The man who loses the world, who gives up all without any desire +for gain, is often given the whole back again transfigured, glorified by +sacrifice. To get you must forget. If you love God absolutely with all +your being, you inherit the life that is as well as that which is to +come. If all is not given you, yet enough is given for the development +of character. But there must, it seems to me, be an absolute +sacrifice--a surrender of your whole being--whatever the result may be. +There must be no calculation. + + High Heaven rejects the lore + Of nicely calculated less and more. + +{167} + +You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind: +you must trust Him to do the best by you. You say the Hebrew ideal does +not appeal to you. But I know better; for you half like me, and I am a +Hebrew of the Hebrews! There must be a dash of recklessness about the +man who gains the other world. 'All or nothing' is the requirement of +the kingdom of Heaven. To gain yourself you must throw yourself +away--'lose your soul.' You must have faith. 'He who loves makes his +own the grandeur that he loves' is a sentence of Emerson which consoles +me when I think of my love for you. + + + +_To a friend at Cambridge._ + +40 Upperton Gardens, Eastbourne: September 8, 1902. + +I have been thinking of you. I keep myself from becoming morbid by +making most of my thoughts into prayers for you. The +glory--wonder--strangeness of being loved by a man from another and a +better world fills me with gratitude to God. Sometimes it seems a dream, +and I half dread that I shall wake up and find that you have ceased to +care for a worthless creature. But _phobos ouk estin en te agape, all he +teleia agape exo ballei ton phobon_. I need not fear. I know that you +will love me, whatever happens. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _phobos_--phi, omicron, beta, omicron, final +sigma; _ouk_--omicron, upsilon, kappa; _estin_--epsilon, sigma, tau, +iota, nu; _en_--epsilon, nu; _te_--tau, eta; _agape_--alpha, gamma, +alpha, pi, eta; _all_--alpha, lambda, lambda; _he_--(rough breathing +mark) eta; _teleia_--tau, epsilon, lambda, epsilon, iota, alpha; +_agape_--alpha, gamma, alpha, pi, eta; _exo_--epsilon, xi, omega; +_ballei_--beta, alpha, lambda, lambda, epsilon, iota; _ton_--tau, +omicron, nu; _phobon_--phi, omicron, beta, omicron, nu] + +I want you to be one of the best men that ever lived--to see God and to +reveal Him to men. This is the burden of my prayers. My whole being +goes out in passionate entreaty to God that He will give me what I ask. +I am sure He will, for the request {168} is after His own heart. I do +not pray that you may 'succeed in life' or 'get on' in the world. I +seldom even pray that you may love me better, or that I may see you +oftener in this or any other world--much as I crave for this. But I ask, +I implore, that Christ may be formed in you, that you may be made not in +a likeness suggested by my imagination, but in the image of God--that you +may realise, not mine, but His ideal, however much that ideal may +bewilder me, however little I may fail to recognise it when it is +created. I hate the thought that out of love for me you should accept my +presentation--my feeble idea--of the Christ. I want God to reveal His +Son in you independently of me--to give you a first-hand knowledge of Him +whom I am only beginning to see. Sometimes more selfish thoughts will +intrude, but this represents the main current of my prayers; and if the +ideal is to be won from heaven by importunity, by ceaseless begging, I +think I shall get it for you. But it grieves me to think that I can do +nothing else for you. To receive so many favours from you, and to be +incapable of doing more in return--this is what saddens me. I feel an +ungrateful brute. You have brought new joy, hope, power into my life, +and I want to show my gratitude. You would be doing me a real kindness +if you would tell me how I could show it. + +Don't think by what I have said that I simply care--as an 'Evangelical' +would say--for your 'soul.' Every part of your being--everything you do +or say--all that you are--has a strange fascination for me. Only I feel +that the whole of it is a revelation of {169} God; and I want that +revelation to be clearer, truer, simpler. I am sure God does not only +care for our souls. It is every part of our complicated being--all sides +of our manifold life--that attracts Him. He loves our home life, our +affection for the dear old Mother Earth which He made, our interest in +the men and women whom He formed in His own image. He longs that all +those interests should be developed--that we should live genuine, sane +human lives. But true development here or elsewhere--the law of +existence in heaven or on earth--is life through death. 'Verily, verily, +I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it +abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.' You must +give up all. As I think of you, those words keep ringing in my ears: 'If +any one cometh to Me, and hateth not his own father and mother, yea, and +his own self also, he cannot be My disciple.' + +I cannot tell you what they mean. You must find them out for yourself. + +If I were a true disciple of Christ, you could see what they mean by +looking at me. But I am not. You must learn their meaning for yourself. +Your mother's life will speak louder than words of mine. Only I know +they are true. Christ will recreate the world, recreate the home, human +beings, dear Mother Earth; but He cannot do so until you have been +willing to give up all--until He has caused you to be 'born again.' When +the ruler asked how these things could be, Christ could only repeat His +words. The man must work it out for himself. + +But I am sure that he that willeth to do the will {170} shall know +whether the teaching be true. There are no doubt some mere intellectual +obscurities in the ideal which I might make simpler if I were not such a +duffer. But finally a paradox would be left--a paradox which can only be +solved by living the ideal out, and finding it work. It is the pathos of +our love, of God's love for us, that each man, however much he is loved, +must work out the ideal for himself. No man can save his brother's soul. + +I do not like to weaken the paradoxes of the Gospel. I think there is +more in Christ's words concerning 'loving one's life' or 'self' than you +suggest. You say it means 'self-denial.' Yes, that is true, but what a +tremendous meaning 'deny one's self' has! To disown your identity, that +is not much easier when you come to think of it than to lose your life. +I know you will find out what it all means, and that human love, beauty, +home, social service, will be more real than ever before, because you +will see the eternal reality underneath. You will be a 'new creation.' + +Now I must stop without satisfactorily answering your question, without +entering into any casuistical questions concerning conformity such as you +suggest. I should like you to think out that problem in casuistry more +for yourself, before I attempt to answer it. Forgive me for talking so +much about myself. When all is said and done, words fail me. I can only +thank God that you exist, and that you let me love you. + +{171} + +_To H. P., a Clifton College master who had given up school work in order +to devote himself to the School Mission in Bristol._ + +40 Upperton Gardens, Eastbourne: September 30, 1902. + +. . . I am glad that you feel you have done right in giving up your +school work. I am sorry that you left Clifton, but you thought you +_ought_ to go, and that is an end of the matter. I can only hope that +you are in some measure a connecting-link between the school and its +mission. . . . Don't forget me in my very different work--and yet work +for the same Master--at college. I have need of your prayers. It is so +easy to blunder, and to drive a man further from the kingdom by lack of +sympathy and love. I feel more than I used to my weakness, and my +absolute need of prayer. + + + +_To his brother Edward in South Africa._ + +40 Upperton Gardens, Eastbourne: October 1, 1902. + +The October term has an interest of its own, bringing, as it does, a +batch of freshmen. I try more and more not simply to impose my ideals +upon them, but to find out their ideals and to quicken them with all my +power. But assuredly 'infinite sympathy is needed for the infinite +pathos of human life;' and my sympathies are as yet imperfectly developed. + +Still, as years go by, I think I can sympathise more with those who have +been trained up in other schools of thought and experience. I was +reading in a book lately that we are largely responsible for our {172} +own experiences, that we have a duty to get them of the right kind. The +book was by an American lady on social questions. I think there is truth +in her words. + + + +_To D. B. K., head of a Public School Mission._ + +Eastbourne: October 1902. + +I delight to know men better, because I find so much more in them than I +had expected. They differ from me, and I try to get out of the habit of +making them in my own image, and try to find the image in which God is +making them. I have been praying for you. I want a spirit of sanity and +sacrifice to possess you, that you may be able to see the good works +which God has prepared beforehand that you should walk in them. . . . + +I am struck by the sacrifice which Christ demands. Unless the man hates +father, mother, family, friends, yea, and himself also, he 'cannot be' +His disciple, Christ gives them all back again--only 'with persecutions.' +We find more in the world, when we are 'crucified to it,' than ever +before; but there is a something added. We have a deeper joy in home +ties, in human love, in social life, in the changing seasons, in the dear +old earth. Only the joy has a note of sorrow, a pathos, which Christ +calls 'persecutions.' We see more in life, and yet we are in a measure +out of sympathy with our surroundings. We have heard and we can never +forget the sorrows of those who are 'one man' with us. There is more in +that word 'persecutions' than this, as no doubt {173} you have found. +But this, I think, is part of its signification, isn't it? . . . + +I believe in your 'mission' even more than you do. It is men like you, +who through great tribulations strive to enter the Kingdom, that God +uses. The fact that you are two men, and that the true man--the +Christ--is painfully yet surely being 'formed' in you, means that you +will be able to appeal to others who are painfully conscious of their +double consciousness and are often the slaves of the lower, inhuman self. +Your wealth of affection will make you feel as St. Paul did--_teknia mou, +ous palin mechris ou morphothe Christos en humin_. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _teknia_--tau, epsilon, kappa, nu, iota, +alpha; _mou_--mu, omicron, upsilon; _ous_--omicron, upsilon, final sigma; +_palin_--pi, alpha, lambda, iota, nu; _mechris_--mu, epsilon, ch, rho, +iota, final sigma; _ou_--omicron, upsilon; _morphothe_--mu, omicron, rho, +phi, omega, theta, eta; _Christos_--Chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, omicron, +final sigma; _en_--epsilon, nu; _humin_--(rough breathing mark) upsilon, +mu, iota, nu] + +These words sum up for me, better than any others, my deepest wish for my +friends. I fall back with desperate energy upon prayer, as the one power +by which my wish can be realised. + +You seem to look ahead almost more than is necessary. I delight in the +feeling that I am in eternity, that I can serve God now fully and +effectively, that the next piece of the road will come in sight when I am +ready to walk on it 'I do not ask to see the distant scene.' I hate the +unsettled feeling that I have not yet begun my main work. + +Don't measure work by human standards of greatness. Your present +occupation might well be the envy of angels--if they could envy. + +But now I am lecturing. So it is time to shut up. . . . + +I fear that the origin of evil is more of a mystery to me now than when I +wrote that essay! But I still think that we are fighting a real being, +one whom {174} we can best describe as personal. His will, it seems to +me, must be given to him by God. He has identified it with a hitherto +unrealised potentiality for disobedience. In plain language, his will is +free, and therefore capable of resisting God. I should like to have a +talk with you some day about it. But, as you see, the problem is beyond +me. . . . + +It is a strength to me to feel that you are fighting the devil in +yourself and others up in ----, and that I am 'one man' with you. + + + +_To D. B. K._ + +St. Moritz: January 1903. + +It is getting on for your birthday, isn't it? Congratulations. I wish I +knew the exact day. I think more and more that a birthday is a subject +not--as poor Job thought--for anathemas, but for congratulations. To be +a reasonable human being--with capacity for seeing something of God's +purposes for the race--with power to forward them--with opportunities for +love and sacrifice and prayer--oh! I am so glad that I was not a mere +animal. And to be born at the end of the nineteenth century--I prefer +that period even to Apostolic times. We can know more of God's purposes, +enter more deeply into His mind and even His heart, than primitive +Christians. + +I have been reading to-day Temple's essay on 'The Education of the World' +in 'Essays and Reviews.' Get hold of an old copy of that book, and read +it. It is strong and manly, and rings true. I {175} love that old man +with his tenderness, simplicity, thoughtfulness, and will of steel. I +thank God for him. There is something about utter goodness which makes +me worship, and fills me with the challenge, 'Go and do thou likewise.' +Goodness is as infectious as any disease. + +I have been thinking lately of the self-sacrifice of God's life. I +suppose that is the reason why He can enter into our lives--see them from +the inside. + + Thou canst conceive our highest and our lowest, + Pulses of nobleness and aches of shame. + +It must have been the wealth of His self-sacrifice which made Him give us +selves--wills--of our own. Then He makes them His own by more +self-sacrifice. We are made in His image--made to go out of self, and +find our self by losing it. Other men at first seem to limit our +freedom, but later we find that the apparent limitations are only just +scope for realising our true self. Each time we go out of self, and +enter into another 'ego,' we return the richer for our sacrifice. We +take up other lives into our own, and are richer than a millionaire. + +I think that when the other 'ego' is most unlike our own--when at first +sight the man is repulsive, and (worse still) uninteresting to us--when +the sacrifice is great, if we would see life through his eyes, share his +ambitions, fears, longings, and mental outlook, then is the time when we +are peculiarly rewarded for our pains. Our consciousness is larger, more +human, more divine than before. + +'By feeblest agents doth our God fulfil His {176} righteous will' is the +thought suggested by some of our brother-clergy. God does not choose the +agents we should choose. Or perhaps the latter do not respond to His +choice. Yet I feel that I am one of them, and that it is my faults writ +large which I detest in them. I feel that, with all the riches of the +revelation which I possess, I have that same self-satisfaction and lack +of sympathy which I loathe in others. It is my life which is the +stumbling-block to my message. They have often far less light than I +have, but walk in it more simply than I do. The rafter in my own eye +troubles me even more than the speck in theirs. But it is hard, God +knows, sometimes to feel His presence in their presence. But the forces +of good must be united ('Keep, ah! keep them combined. Else . . .'), and +if by any effort we can enter into their lives, and transcend the +barriers between us, we are not only enriching our own life, but we are +doing our best to show a combined front against the almost overwhelming +forces of evil. + +Even the Apostles must have found it hard to work together. We know they +did. Look at Peter and Paul. Yet the spirit of unity was stronger than +all that opposed Him, and the One Body was in some measure realised. +What was difficult in the childhood of the Body is still more difficult +in its manhood. And Englishmen, with their strong sense of +individuality, find it a terrible lesson to learn. + +But pray. You enter then into another man's 'ego.' You see him in God. +You see him as an end in himself. Remember Kant's maxim--a wonderful +maxim from one who would not, I suppose, be {177} technically called a +Christian--'Treat humanity, whether in thyself or in another, always as +an end, not simply as a means.' Put aside a certain amount of time, and +pray for one man. If your thoughts wander, do not be disturbed, do not +try to find when they began or how they began to wander; do not despair, +go back to the subject in hand. And God will have mercy. Your +influence, your life, your all, depends on prayer. + +We must faint sometimes. But let your saddest times, your deepest +struggles be known to God. Gain there the strength and quietness which +you need for life. But don't let men see the agony--let them see the +peace which comes from wrestling alone with God--wrestling for them. + +You are not one man, but two or three. Thank God for that. It means +that you will have a hard life--an awful struggle with self or selves: +but it also means more influence, more power to enter into man's life. +So many of the finest men owe their attractiveness to their diverse, +many-sided nature. You will be able to feel for such, and perhaps to +help them. You are half a Greek with your yearning for beauty and +knowledge, half a Hebrew with your loathing for sin and love of God. The +Greek in you must not be annihilated, but it must be subordinated to the +Hebrew. Conscience must be absolute master. You must sacrifice the +'Greek' to Christ; but He will give you back what is best in the Greek +ideal, all the better for the mark of the Cross on it. He will give it +you back partly in this world, partly in the next, when you have learnt +to renounce it--if need {178} were, for ever--for His sake. But you must +give up all for Him without thought of reward. He can give no reward to +the man who is looking for it. The thought of your life helps me. Go +on, for the night cometh when no man can work. Thank God it is yet day. + + + +_To his brother Edward in South Africa._ + +Mühlen, Switzerland: January 11, 1903. + +I found walking a pleasant change after reading philosophy, which I have +been doing during my holidays. I seem to have been getting my ideas a +little clearer, and am no longer as content as I was with the Kantian +doctrine, that our knowledge in speculative matters never gets beyond +'appearances.' I feel that at every turn we do get to that which +_is_--to an underlying reality. I cannot feel that Kant's hard and fast +division between 'speculative' and 'moral' reason holds good. The +external world, because it is intelligible, must be akin to us; there +must be an intelligence in it, otherwise it would never become an object +of knowledge to our intelligence. It is not only in our ethical life +that we come across the absolute consciousness. I feel now more than +ever how we cannot divide up ourselves into water-tight compartments, and +think of reason, will, and feeling as separate things, lying side by +side. They can be separated--abstracted--in thought, but in actual life +you never find one without the other. We cannot think without some +degree of attention, and attention involves an exercise of will, and will +cannot {179} be exercised without desire, and desire involves feeling. + +I think faith also cannot be regarded as a separate faculty. Reason, +will, and feeling are all involved even in the faith of a poor cottager; +much more does reason enter into the faith of a thoughtful man. + +I have been reading Butler, and hope when I go back to study Hume. What +a wealth of light the conception of 'Development' has shed upon the +problems which exercised the eighteenth century! I have read half +through Leslie Stephen's 'Thought in the Eighteenth Century,' and I have +been struck again and again at the new aspect that the old questions take +when looked at from the standpoint of Evolution. + +I feel also that we need to study more the evolution of _thought_--the +necessary phases that reason (like man's physical life) must pass through +before perfection. . . . + +I think you are right, that education must now include instruction in +imperial ideas--in our relations with that larger social life which is +dawning upon us--a step towards a still larger social life to be realised +in the brotherhood of nations. + + + +_To F. J. C._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: February 1, 1903. + +I am slow to suggest to another man that what seems bad luck is in +reality the voice of God making itself felt in his busy life, calling him +to fuller sacrifice. But I am sure that we are right when we interpret +it {180} thus for ourselves. I share your wish for 'some really strong +man' to come as a prophet and read the writing on the wall, and tell us +'what it all means.' Yet the absence of human help is not accidental. +It must be designed, in order that we may learn to fall back on the +everlasting arms--to find by experience that the unseen is more real than +the seen. + + There is an arm that never tires + When human strength gives way. + +I like that phrase, 'worthy to suffer.' It is to those whom God loves +best and most that He gives--as He gave to His Son--the chance of +suffering. Sympathy, strength, reality--these are some of its fruits for +those who allow them to grow. 'He cannot be My disciple.' I can't help +sometimes thinking of these words. Unless the man is prepared to make +sacrifice the basis of his life, he _cannot_ be Christ's disciple. I +don't think we always realise the 'trans-valuation of values' found in +Christ's teaching. 'Blessed are the poor--the hungry. He that would +save his life shall lose it. He that loseth, saveth. He that would be +greatest shall be least. It is more blessed to give than to receive.' +As I think over such statements as these, I find that I have again and +again to revise, as it were, my moral arithmetic--to change my standards, +to revise my ideas of great and little, happiness and misery, importance +and insignificance. + +I am sure that nothing but the highest will satisfy you. God has given +you singular powers of influence and of attracting others. He will +demand an account {181} of those powers. You know Matthew Arnold's lines +on his father. I believe the day will come when men will say like words +of you. + + But thou would'st not _alone_ + Be saved, my father! alone + Conquer and come to thy goal, + Leaving the rest in the wild. . . . + Therefore to thee it was given + Many to save with thyself. + +That is what I want you to be--a tower of strength--strength perfected, +it may be, in weakness--weakness forcing you to despair of self, and find +the Rock of Ages. You have been so much to me, and helped me so often, +that I feel you must be born to help others as well. And this quiet +time, it may be that God is using it to call you closer to Himself, to +teach you to revise your 'values,' to show you a new fund of strength. + + Our wills are ours, we know not how, + Our wills are ours, to make them Thine. + +You must--literally must--let His will overpower your will. Nothing but +complete sacrifice will satisfy you or Him, and I believe in you +profoundly. I am sure that, whatever be the ghastly struggle, you will +go through with it, and find your strength in Him. I pray for you. + + + +_To his mother._ + +Cambridge; March 15, 1903. + +The term is almost over . . . I am enjoying a quiet Sunday. What a +blessing these Sundays are {182} to us--a foretaste of a fuller life of +service and worship hereafter! I have been thinking lately with comfort +of the quiet perpetual work of the Holy Spirit, silently but surely +leading us on to higher things--comforting, correcting, guiding. It +gives ground for hope in dealing with men, this knowledge that there is +One who perfects what we feebly struggle to begin, who watches over men +with a love that will not let them go. We are not alone in our work; we +have omnipotence and illimitable wisdom on our side, forwarding our +efforts. When I consider what the Spirit has accomplished in my own +life, I have large hope for others. The argument from personal +experience is singularly convincing. 'The fellowship of the Holy +Ghost'--it is He who unites men and interprets them one to the other. It +is He who gives spirit and life to our words. + + + +_To H. J. B._ + +Bexley House, Cromer: March 31, 1903. + +It was good of you to send me that card from Florence. You don't know +how glad it made me. To know that you were thinking of me was a strength +to me. Your love for me comes as a perpetual surprise and inspiration. +I feel a brute compared with you, but the knowledge that you care for me +more than you do for most men makes me feel that I must try to be good. +'In Italy of the fifteenth century renaissance we see in strange +confusion all that we love in art, and all that we loathe in man!' Greek +history was short compared {183} with the Hebrew: I suppose because +intellectual and artistic ideals are more easily realised than ethical +and religious. It takes time to make a saint. It is part of the +discipline of life to find the two sets of ideas apparently antagonistic. +There is a higher unity in which they are blended--in God Himself. It +must be right to follow the dictates of conscience when it bids us lose +our soul if we would gain it. We cannot trust God too much. If we +forget our self, He will see that our truest self is ultimately realised. + +I can't express myself well, for I have just finished a spell of hard +work. I have sent away my tripos papers to-night. I am going up to +Edinburgh on Friday or Saturday. I fear I shall not see you until April +21. Will you tell Armitage that I will, if convenient to him, sleep at +Westminster that night instead of going straight to Cambridge? The +hopelessness of ever showing my gratitude to you or of ever making you +realise how much I love you oppresses me. I don't know what I should do +if I had not One Higher than I am to confide in--if I could not leave you +in His hands--if I could not gain strength and life for you by appealing +to Him. + + O brother, if my faith is vain, + If hopes like these betray, + Pray for me, that I too may gain + The sure and safer way. + + And Thou, O God, by whom are seen + Thy creatures as they be, + Forgive me if too close I lean + My human heart on Thee! + +{184} I lean closer and closer as life goes on. I feel that our hope +lies in despair--despair of self. The vessels which contain the treasure +are, as to-night's lesson says, earthen, 'that the excess of the power +may be God's and not from us.' And there is a power, there is a life +working in us. It is the quiet, sane, constant work of the Spirit in and +upon our spirit, that never hastes and never tires: which gives me +comfort for you, for myself, for all of us. The same life that is at +work in the hedge across the road is in us, only in us it attains full +self-consciousness and freedom. We can deliberately use it or refuse it. +Forgive the length of the letter. But I felt so tired that I thought it +would do me good to write to you, selfish brute that I am. + +I expect you enjoyed your time in Italy immensely. I should have liked +to be with you. I wonder if ever we shall be there together? Some day +we shall be in a world where the barriers of space are broken down: +'There shall be no more sea.' Yet it seems to me that we have not +altogether to wait for that other world. They are half broken down +already; and if we had faith as a grain of mustard seed, we should +realise the meaning of a unity deeper than any special or temporal bond. +If we fail to realise its meaning now, shall we realise it then? Is not +life here a training for life hereafter? If we learn nothing in this +school, we shall not be able to take our places in that school of +'broader love.' The best part in me does not complain. I thank God for +His thoughtful goodness in bringing you near to me. I thank Him for the +mystery of life, which enables me to realise that {185} Power 'which +lives not in the light alone, But in the darkness and the light.' I +become more and more inclined to thank Him as I see Him more clearly. + + + +_To F. S. H. on his accepting the post of chaplain at the Royal Naval +College, Osborne._ + +Cambridge: April 30, 1903. + +I am satisfied with your decision. I thought over the matter, but I +could not see my way quite clearly to say anything more definite, so I +did not write again. Don't think that my silence was due to slackness. +I did what I thought was better than writing. I spent an hour in praying +over the matter. Now that the matter is settled I can tell you what a +keen pleasure it is to me to have my dear old ---- near me in England,[1] +and doing a piece of work which is full of hope and joy. I would not say +this before, because I did not wish to influence your decision by private +considerations. Get some quiet time for prayer before September 1, that +when you go to Osborne you may go _en pleromati eulogias Christou_ +('filled full with the blessing of Christ'). I feel increasingly the +need of such times to learn to walk by faith without stumbling, and to +accustom myself to the atmosphere of faith, to see things as they appear +to a man who has faith 'as a grain of mustard seed.' + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _en_--epsilon, nu; _pleromati_--pi, lambda, +eta, rho, omega, mu, alpha, tau, iota; _eulogias_--epsilon, upsilon, +lambda, omicron, gamma, iota, alpha, final sigma; _Christou_--Chi, rho, +iota, sigma, tau, omicron, upsilon] + +Westcott records a visit (see 'Life,' i. 249) to his old schoolmaster, +Bishop Prince Lee. '"People quote various words of the Lord," said the +Bishop, "as containing the sum of the Gospel--the Lord's Prayer, {186} +the Sermon on the Mount, and the like; to me the essence of the Gospel is +in simpler and shorter terms: _me phobou, monon pisteue_.[2] Ah! +Westcott, mark that _monon_," and his eyes were filled with tears as he +spoke.' Ah! S----, mark that _monon_! . . . God bless you in your new +work and make you a blessing to others as you have been to me. + +[1] He had been offered work in South Africa. + +[2] 'Be not afraid, only believe.' + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _me_--mu, eta; _phobou_--phi, omicron, beta, +omicron, upsilon; _monon_--mu, omicron, nu, omicron, nu; _pisteue_--pi, +iota, sigma, tau, epsilon, upsilon, epsilon] + + + +_To J. K._ + +_St. Thomas's Home, St. Thomas's Hospital: August 28, 1903._ + +. . . I am most grateful for your kind words, though I know full well +how little it is that I have done for you. We clergymen so often seem to +be working in the dark. There are no clear results to show, as _e.g._ a +doctor can comfort himself with, when he has visibly cured a patient. +And I for one am too easily inclined to despair, and to wonder whether +the work is not in vain. But 'trust is truer than our fears.' Yet it +does me good when I feel I have done anything, however tiny, for a man. +After all, results are best left in God's hand. He gives us enough to +help us the next step onward, but not enough to exalt us, and to make us +think we can do anything without His assistance. Work 'in the Lord' +cannot be in vain. + +I am glad you have been reading Bishop Westcott's life. He was a man of +God, and his life is an inspiration, and a prophecy of what our life +may--nay, some day--will be. . . . I like that passage {187} when he +goes to see his old schoolmaster, Bishop Prince Lee, who tells him with +tears in his eyes that to his mind the whole Gospel message is summed up +in the words '_me phobou, monon pisteue_.' + +[Transcriber's note: see the previous letter for transliteration notes on +the above Greek phrase.] + + + +_To a friend who had been an international athlete._ + +St. Thomas's Home: September 5, 1903. + +We had a fairly good 'Long' in spite of the miserable weather. +Congratulate me. I won my first athletic distinction last 'Long'--a +ten-shilling prize. I am thinking of chucking work and becoming a +professional. It was a second prize in a tennis tournament. I had (I +must own) the best player in College as my partner. I want to get a very +conspicuous object as prize. What do you suggest? + + + +_To C. T. W._ + +St. Thomas's Hospital: September 1903. + +I am getting on first-rate, and I hope to be up early next week. I +believe you are right. We should do well if we had more regularity and +self-discipline in our life at Cambridge, and we should have more power +over others. Pray for me. . . . + +You needn't pity me. I am having a very good time. It is jolly to do +nothing, and not even to have to dress and undress--both exhausting and +monotonous occupations. It has been a glorious day, and although it is +almost 7 P.M., I am still out on the balcony enjoying the cool breezes. + + + +{188} + +_To W. O._ + +Alassio; December 1903. + +Death has come near to my family lately. I told you that my sister--the +Deaconess--had passed away from us.[1] It is not all sorrow, when we +know that the life has been spent in walking with God, when we know that +this corruptible puts on incorruption, and that what is sown in intense +bodily weakness is raised in strength--eternal strength. + +I am so glad that God has given to you His highest blessing. I long to +meet your future wife. It makes me very happy to think of the happiness +in store for you--to know that you are in the best of all schools. I +thank God. Love will bring you both nearer to the source of Love. . . . +This new blessing, as you say, is 'the gathering up of the best that God +gives.' I can't express my thoughts as I would, but I am very, very +glad. . . . + +Illness teaches one many lessons. I trust I have learned some. I have +been amazed at the goodness of my friends! + +[1] His sister, Deaconess Cecilia, 'passed away' at the Deanery, +Westminster, on September 8. + + + +_To W. P., an officer in the Army._ + +Hotel Salisbury, Alassio, Italy: December 21, 1903. + +I don't think things happen by chance. Indeed I am sure they do not. I +have never felt so humbled to the earth. One sees one's life as a whole, +when one is helpless and can do nothing, and the whole looks very poor +and mean. It is like the {189} judgment-day--only with this grand +exception, that life is not yet over, that the night has not yet come in +which 'no man can work,' that you have still a chance to make the future +better, more honest, more noble than the past. Then, again, I learnt the +utter and wonderful kindness of my friends. I felt so selfish and so +surprised at the goodness they showed me. Again, I saw something of the +mystery of pain. My own was so trivial compared with that which some +others had to bear. Yet I had enough to startle me that such a fact +should be permitted on earth at all. I don't suppose we can understand +its meaning; but my consolation was that it is not necessarily a sign of +God's displeasure--that the highest life was a life of suffering, that +the Son of Man was a 'Man of Sorrows.' Everything seems to me to depend +upon the way in which one takes the pain--if one voluntarily says, 'Thy +kingdom come, Thy will be done,' then one is entering into the highest +life, and the pain becomes a new method of serving and knowing God. But +physical pain, if prolonged, is a terrible thing; and there is no time on +a bed of sickness for praying or thinking much of God unless one is +accustomed to do so in health. The needs of the poor body press in upon +one. Death-bed repentances are realities, but I am inclined to think +that they are very rare. It is terribly dangerous to defer being good +until we are ill. Illness does not necessarily make us good. + +I am afraid I was but a poor coward, and yet my faith did not utterly +fail. God is the one hope for a man who is ill, and He is true to His +word. He {190} hides His face behind the clouds; but even when I +couldn't see Him at all, I felt that He was there. Pray for me; at +present I feel too weak to pray much for myself. I want--I do want--to +be a better man, to help others nearer the kingdom. I want, when life is +over, to have a better record to look back upon than I had in hospital. + + + +_To F. S. H._ + +Alassio, Italy; January 2, 1904. + +Your letter came to me at a time when I was rather low. I had to have a +second operation. However, after fifteen weeks of Nursing Homes I +escaped, and, as soon as I could, made my way to St. Moritz. For once +the place didn't seem to suit me very well. So, after little more than a +week, I came down into Italy. I am so far recovered now that I quite +hope to be able to go back to college at the beginning of this term. + +Illness and pain have taught me some lessons--at least I hope so. I feel +solemnised, startled, when I think of how life looked when I could do +nothing for the time. Pray for me that I may be more real. I learnt, +too, how futile it is to put off repentance till sickness. It is hard at +such a time to think of aught save self and physical pain. And my own +pain was so trivial compared with that of others. O God! it is a +terrible thing. Some day shall we be able to understand, if not with the +head, with the heart, part of its meaning? Meanwhile the individual can +say, however feebly, 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.' + +{191} + +_To his brother, a doctor in South Africa._ + +Alassio, Italy: January 7, 1904. + +At last I am beginning to get tired of doing nothing. I hope that +eventually I shall be stronger than I have been for some years past. At +any rate I hope a little first-hand experience of pain will make me more +sympathetic. Pain seems to me now a greater mystery than ever before. +But I comforted myself with the thought that in the highest Life ever +seen on earth, there was a full measure of spiritual, mental, and +physical pain. Also it was a comfort to feel that when one accepted, not +simply with resignation but with faith, certain suffering, one was in +sympathy with the will of the universe, 'working together with God' in +some mysterious way. What a strange place a hospital is! How wonderful +the Gospels are, with their hope and comfort on every page--hope for the +physical as well as the mental side of man's life! I like more than ever +now to read how Jesus went about healing all manner of diseases and all +manner of sickness and bringing life and strength wherever He came, +showing us that Heaven is on our side in our wrestle with all that +deforms and degrades human nature. + +I certainly don't regret my illness. Besides showing me the marvellous +kindness of friends, it has, I hope, taught me much. + + + + +{193} + +APPENDIX + +The following letter addressed to the Editor of this volume was +received from the Rev. H. Bisseker, chaplain at the Leys School, +Cambridge, too late for insertion in an earlier portion of the book: + + +'Your brother's friendship, as you must have heard so often during the +past few months, was valued in Cambridge beyond that of most men, and I +am probably only one of many who still look to that friendship as among +the prominent facts of their time up here. Though personally I did not +learn to know Mr. Robinson when I first came up, his brotherliness so +deeply impressed me during the four years for which our friendship +lasted, that I still find it difficult to believe that he is no longer +to be found in the familiar rooms at Christ's, and has ceased to be a +part of our Cambridge life. And yet, in another sense, he has not +ceased to be a part of that life; for one feels that during his +residence up here he managed, if one may so express it, to put a bit of +himself into more than one man, and that in this way he will continue +to live among us long after he himself has been removed. + +{194} 'I have often thought about him and his quiet, strong influence +since we heard that we had lost him, and almost invariably the same +three of his characteristics assume the uppermost place in my thought. +Different sides of his nature would appeal to different men: I can best +serve your purpose by mentioning those which made the deepest +impression on my own mind. + +'One of the chief causes of your brother's influence was unquestionably +_his sense of the value of the individual_. He used to take men one by +one and make a separate study of each. The consequence was that he +_knew_ his men. On any given visit the acquaintance did not, as it +were, have to be begun over again. On the contrary, the acquaintance +once formed, some common ground already existed; for so great was your +brother's power of sympathy that, where at the first no such common +ground appeared to exist, he soon learnt to find a standing-place +himself on that assumed by the man he was seeking to know. And not +only did Mr. Robinson possess this power of valuing the individual, but +he also was able to inspire the objects of his influence with the +knowledge of his particular interest in them. Thus they soon dropped +the idea of acquaintanceship, and began to think of him as friend, and +there you have in a word the secret of his wide influence. He was +interested in _men_, but what he loved was a _man_. + +'Mr. Robinson was no less marked off from the majority of men by the +stress which he laid upon the reality and power of prayer. We used +from time to time to have long talks together on this subject, so {195} +that I can speak with some little knowledge of the place which he +assigned it in his life. With characteristic modesty he not +infrequently distrusted himself in his active contact with men. His +very anxiety to help others towards the ideals by which his own life +was dominated led him to see the risk of placing hindrances in their +way by an injudicious intrusion into the secret places of their hearts. +Drawn in different directions, therefore, by his passionate desire to +win men for Christ and his cautious fear lest untimely words of his +should hinder rather than help, he found refuge in giving himself up to +earnest prayer on their behalf. And prayer to him meant more than a +light repetition of words. He used often, I believe, to spend as long +as half an hour at a time in seeking blessing for a single man. We +cannot doubt that, in the strong influence which he himself exerted +upon so many of those who knew him, such persistent prayer received at +least a part of its own answer. + +'The last element in your brother's individuality which always +impressed me was his restrained, but genuine, mysticism. In the few +accounts of his life that I have read I do not remember any allusion to +this characteristic. That he possessed it, however, and this to no +usual degree, seems to my mind quite patent; in fact, it was this +suggestion of mysticism that first attracted me to him. The mysticism +one sees around one is often so unregulated and so ignorant that it was +refreshing to find a mystic who was also an enlightened scholar and +thinker. It confirmed the feeling, instinctive in one's heart, that, +despite the abuse of caricature, a deep, intelligent {196} apprehension +of unseen realities is of the essence of the fulness of religion. Mr. +Forbes Robinson appeared to possess an unusually certain cognisance of +the unseen world. How well I remember the way in which, again and +again, tea over and our pipes lighted, he would curl himself up in one +of his or my own big chairs and discuss questions of interest to us +both with a far-away look in his eyes altogether suggestive of a +genuine otherworldliness! And this familiarity with unseen verities +seemed to run through all those parts of his life with which I was +acquainted, and indeed to be to him the most real fact of all +existence. To use the simple language of olden days, I believe that +"he walked with God": and that explains his life. + +'These, then, were the three characteristics of your brother which more +than any others have impressed themselves upon my mind. I do not think +that they were three separate sides of his personality: I should say, +rather, that they were three different expressions of one fundamental +attribute. It was because he walked so closely with God that he so +loved the individual sons of God. It was because he so loved the Great +Father and each child of His that he had so strong a faith in the power +of prayer and such unwearying patience to persist in it. + +'A life like your brother's, if I may say one thing more, forms, I +sometimes think, one of the strongest pledges of human immortality. In +one sense, it is true, he seems to have done so much; and yet, in +another sense, those of us who knew the faculties which he had +cultivated, his knowledge and patient {197} scholarship, his sympathy +and insight, his tact and passion for men, and, most precious of all, +his power with God, were looking for even greater things in years to +come. Such fitness for influence as he possessed is not acquired in a +day, and just when its worth was being proved he was taken from us. +Surely these gifts and graces are not now as if they had never been, or +as if, once granted, they had been idly wasted! Can that earnest, +patient cultivation really have been gratuitous, and the unselfish +instinct that inspired it mistaken? Were it so, the whole universe +looks out of joint. The more I consider such lives as that of your +brother--lives, I mean, which, bearing promise of so rich a harvest, +are yet cut off before the full harvest can possibly have been +realised--the more my conviction grows that the passing of such men as +he is not death, but only "the birth which we call death."' + + + + +{199} + +INDEX + + + Anthropomorphism in the O.T., 135 + Average man, the, 43 + + + Beauty, natural, 153, 156 _sq._ + Beauty, origin of personal, 78-81 + Boers, religion of the, 110 _sq._ + Boer war, the, 162 _sq._ + + + Christmas, meaning of, 153 + Christ's College Magazine, extract from, 10 + Clough, quotation from, 164 + Communion of saints, 69 + Continuity of work, 106 _sq._ + Cornwall, open-air preaching in, 25 + Criticism of O.T., 54, 136 _sq._ + + + Daily service, repetition of, 59 + + + Eternity, life in the light of, 164 + + + Faith, function of, 120 + Fitzpatrick, Rev. T. C., sketch by, 36-42 + Friendship, permanent character of, 84 + Friendship, the, of Christ, 89 _sq._ + Future life, the, 69, 117 _sq._, 125, 149, 150 _sq._ + + + Gordon, General, in S. Africa, 116 _sq._ + + + Hebrew and Greek ideals, 166 _sq._, 183 + Holy Spirit, work of the, 182, 184 + Home life, significance of, 60, 77 _sq._, 84, 110, 118, 159 + Humour, sense of, 47 _sq._ + + + Incarnation, results of his belief in, 45 + Influence upon others, 75 + + + James, Dr., sketch by, 7 _sqq._ + + + Kant, philosophy of, 176, 178 + Kittermaster, Rev. D. B., sketch by, 42-53 + Kruger, interview with, 112 + + + Law as revealed to the Jews, 63 _sqq._ + Letter-writer, St. Paul a, 82 + _Letters_-- + H. J. B., 151, 164, 166, 182 + W. A. B., 60, 74, 77, 86, 113 + F. J. C., 129, 131, 134, 153, 179 + G. J. C., 122, 123, 158 + J. L. D., 91, 93, 95, 109 + G. F., 104 + A. W. G., 69 + F. S. H., 102, 103, 105, 106, 119, 132, 136, 139, 185, 187, 190 + J. C. H., 117 + W. D. H., 127, 162 + D. B. K., 148, 159, 172, 174 + J. K., 108, 186 + E. N. L., 58, 68 + T. H. M., 55, 56, 57, 76, 100 + W. O., 143, 188 + H. P., 145, 171 + W. P., 188 + A. V. R., 54 + D. D. R., 63, 88, 98 + C. N. W., 120 + C. T. W., 107, 111, 126, 127, 187 + Anonymous, 114, 125, 146, 149, 162 + To a friend at Cambridge, 154, 167 + To his brother Edward in S. Africa, 137, 156, 171, 178 + To his brother, a doctor in S. Africa, 128, 135, 191 + To his mother, 116, 181 + To the mother of his godchild, M. F., 110, 118, 165 + Life, _zoe_ as used in St. John, 55 + Life, the Divine, manifested, 101 _sq._ + Love, his, for his friends, 45 _sq._, 50, 154, 182 + Love, meaning and scope of, 73, 76, 113 _sq._, 124, 142 + Love, the action of the Divine, 142 + + + Motto, family, 1. + + + National life, significance of, 66 + Natural beauty, eternal, 105 + Naval officers, life of, 139 _sq._ + + + Ordination, letters to candidates for, 58, 127 _sq._, 146, 162 + + + Pain, mystery of, 189, 191 + Parties in the Church, 109 + Person, God revealed as a, 71 _sq._, 75 + Prayer, his habit of intercessory, 29, 40, 51, 123, 138, 151, + 154, 167 _sq._, 173, 185 + Prayer, need of, 95, 97, 129-132, 160 _sq._, 162, 177 + Providence revealed in life of individuals, 121 + + + Sacraments, the, their significance, 76 _sq._, 80 + Saints, called to be, 96, 149 _sq._ + Schoolmaster, the work of a, 86 _sq._, 145 _sq._, 158 + Selfishness, tendency of, 92 _sq._ + Self-sacrifice, 166, 170 + Self-sacrifice of God, 175 + Simplicity of the Divine nature, 57 + Suffering, a proof of the Divine love, 165 _sq._, 180 + Sunday evening 'at homes,' 39 _sq._ + Sympathy, meaning and need of, 91 _sq._, 106, 140, 171, 175-7 + Sympathy, silent, 23 _sq._ + + + Tancock, Dr., impressions of F. R., 3 _sq._ + Temptations of Christ, 144 + Thackeray's novels, 103 _sq._ + Think, attempts to teach men to, 12 + Toft, work at, 25 _sq._ + Toleration, 26 _sq._ + Trinity, significance of doctrine of, 71, 75 + + + Unity of all men in God, 70 + + + Walk from London to Cambridge, 19 _sq._ + Worship, public, 122 + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Letters to His Friends, by Forbes Robinson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS *** + +***** This file should be named 20560-8.txt or 20560-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/5/6/20560/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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: Letters to His Friends + +Author: Forbes Robinson + +Release Date: February 11, 2007 [EBook #20560] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="Forbes Robinson" BORDER="2" WIDTH="352" HEIGHT="534"> +<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 352px"> +Forbes Robinson +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +FORBES ROBINSON +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +LATE FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE<BR> +AND EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OF SOUTHWELL<BR> +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTICE<BR> +BY HIS BROTHER CHARLES<BR> +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +SECOND EDITION +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION BY +<BR> +SPOTTISWOODE & CO. LTD., LONDON. 1904 +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTE +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +This volume has been printed for private circulation at the request of +many of Forbes Robinson's personal friends. The first edition having +been exhausted, a second has been prepared, in which are included six +additional letters (cf. pp. 151, 154, 164, 166, 167, 182). Copies of +this volume will be supplied (price 2s. 6d. post free) to all who +desire to obtain them, on application to the Rev. Canon Charles H. +Robinson, Hill Brow, Woking. The volume of College and Ordination +Addresses which will be published by Longmans in about two months' time +can be ordered through any bookseller. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>October</I> 1904. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The book contains a number of short Greek phrases, +all of which have been transliterated according to Project Gutenberg's +"Greek How-To". A more detailed transliteration note follows each +paragraph or article where the Greek phrase occurs.] +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers +enclosed in curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page +breaks occurred in the original book, in accordance with Project +Gutenberg's FAQ-V-99. For its Index, a page number has been placed +only at the start of that section. In the HTML version of this book, +page numbers are placed in the left margin.] +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> + +<TABLE WIDTH="80%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" COLSPAN="3"><B>INTRODUCTORY SKETCH</B></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="15%">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="75%"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%">PAGE</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">SCHOOLDAYS </A></TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> 1 </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">LIFE AS AN UNDERGRADUATE AT CAMBRIDGE </A></TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> 10 </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">WORK AT CAMBRIDGE </A></TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> 21 </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">THE LAST FEW MONTHS </A></TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> 32 </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">TWO APPRECIATIONS </A><BR><BR></TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> 36 </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap054">LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS </A><BR><BR></TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> 54 </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap193">APPENDIX </A><BR><BR></TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> 193 </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap199">INDEX </A><BR></TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> 199 </TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +ILLUSTRATIONS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-front"> +Forbes Robinson . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-006"> +Forbes Robinson (1880) +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-010"> +Forbes Robinson (1887) +</A> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P1"></A>1}</SPAN> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +INTRODUCTORY SKETCH +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SCHOOLDAYS +</H3> + +<P> +Forbes Robinson was born on November 13, 1867, in the vicarage of +Keynsham, a village in Somerset lying between Bristol and Bath. He was +the eleventh child in a family of thirteen, of whom eight were sons and +five daughters. His parents were both from the north of Ireland, and +his Christian name had been his mother's surname. The motto attached +to his father's family crest was 'Non nobis solum sed toti mundo nati.' +Before he was three years old his father moved to Liverpool and became +incumbent of St. Augustine's, Everton. He died before Forbes was +thirteen, but the memory of his holy life remained as an abiding +influence. Thus he writes of him in 1903: +</P> + +<P> +'The old memories form a kind of sacred history urging me onwards and +upwards. I like to feel that I reap the prayers and thanksgivings of +my father, that God blesses the son of such a father. The same work, +the same God, the same promises, the same hope, the same sure and +certain reward. I thank God and take courage.' +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P2"></A>2}</SPAN> +As a boy he was never robust and might even be regarded as +delicate. After attending one or two private schools he was entered, +at the age of twelve, at Liverpool College, where five of his brothers +had been. When his father died in February 1881, the house in +Liverpool was given up and Forbes was sent to Rossall. He continued at +Rossall till he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1887. +</P> + +<P> +The photograph which is inserted on p. 4 was taken just before he went +to Rossall. He was then a shy retiring boy, fonder of reading than of +athletic exercise. One who was in the same house with him at Rossall, +and who is now vicar of a parish in Lancashire, writes: +</P> + +<P> +'His life at Rossall was not an outwardly eventful one. Not being +athletic, he lived rather apart from and above the rest of us in a +world of books. The walls of his study used to be almost covered with +extracts, largely, I think, from the poets, copied on to scraps of +paper and pinned up all round, partly to be learnt by heart and partly, +I think, for companionship. He was much older than the rest of us +whose years were the same as his. His school life was a time of +retirement and preparation for the wider life among men at Cambridge. +Though my memory of him as a quiet studious member of the house, more +often alone than not, and quite happy to be alone so long as his books +were near him, is very distinct, I can recall almost nothing of the +nature of incident or about which one can write.' +</P> + +<P> +The present headmaster of Marlborough, who was +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P3"></A>3}</SPAN> +also a contemporary +at Rossall, writes in a letter to the editor of this memoir: +</P> + +<P> +'Your brother was a great recluse at Rossall, and I much doubt whether +you would get any great amount of information about him from +Rossallians. I knew him because we were both interested in reading, +and I owed a good deal to his influence.… You will find, I +believe, that his Cambridge days show him in a far clearer light than +his school days. I know that when I saw him at Cambridge I realised +with pleasure that he was a welcomed visitor in the rooms of very +various types of undergraduates, whereas his circle at school had been +very limited, and most boys no doubt regarded him as quite "out of it." +This is of course to some extent the fault of the athletic standards of +our schools, but I also think that he himself developed a great deal +socially at Cambridge.' +</P> + +<P> +A sketch of Forbes, by Dr. James, written for 'The Rossallian,' will be +found at the close of this chapter. Dr. Tancock, who succeeded Dr. +James as headmaster of Rossall a year before Forbes left, writes: +</P> + +<P> +'When I was appointed to Rossall in 1886, I found him a member of the +upper sixth form.… He always gave me the impression of an +earnest-minded, hard-working boy, with a deep sense of duty. It was +rather suggested to my mind sometimes, possibly erroneously, that as a +younger boy he had felt himself misunderstood, and a certain reserve +was the consequence, not perhaps unnaturally. He was already much +interested in theological work.… It +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P4"></A>4}</SPAN> +has been a great pleasure +to me in later years to hear of his excellent work at Christ's and the +strong influence he exerted over undergraduates. It was quite the +natural result of the qualities I saw in him at school, provided once +his reserve could be broken.' +</P> + +<A NAME="img-006"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-006.jpg" ALT="Forbes Robinson (1880)" BORDER="2" WIDTH="287" HEIGHT="368"> +<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 287px"> +Forbes Robinson (1880) +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +Though of Irish descent he only once visited Ireland. This was during +his summer holidays in 1884, when he travelled round a good part of the +north and west coasts. The only adventure of special interest was his +unintended voyage across the Bay of Donegal, which was nearly attended +with fatal consequences. He and his brother, the editor of this +memoir, started in a small open sailing boat from the harbour of +Killybegs, intending to return within a few minutes; but no sooner had +they got outside the harbour than they were caught in a squall, which +rapidly developed into a gale, and made it impossible to turn the boat +or head it for the shore, owing to the immediate risk of swamping. The +only means of securing momentary safety was to head the boat out into +the Atlantic, but as the nearest land in this direction was the coast +of America, the prospect was far from cheerful. Eventually the boat +was turned a few points further south, in the direction of land which +could not be seen, but which was known to lie about fifteen miles away +on the other side of the Bay of Donegal. After having been nearly +swamped many times, and running with bare poles, owing to the violence +of the gale, the boat arrived at length at Bundoran. As this place was +distant some sixty miles from Killybegs, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P5"></A>5}</SPAN> +it seemed wearisome to +return by land, and a return by sea was out of the question. +Accordingly, Forbes and the writer, drenched to the skin and without a +vestige of baggage, started forthwith on a walking tour along the west +coast of Ireland, arriving at Connemara in the course of the following +week. Forbes's dislike of sea voyages in after years may in part be +traced to this experience. During the greater part of the voyage +across Donegal Bay he was helpless from sea-sickness; his companion was +busily occupied in baling out the water to prevent the boat from +sinking. +</P> + +<P> +The letters which Forbes wrote from school to members of his family are +a curious mixture of humour and religion. It was his keen sense of +humour which preserved him from becoming morbid. It was this same +sense of humour which helped to attract to him at the University men on +whom he eventually exercised a strong religious influence, but whom +religious conversation would have inevitably repelled. +</P> + +<P> +In two letters written to one of his sisters from Rossall in 1886, the +following sentences occur. They show that he found time while at +school for a considerable amount of reading which was not connected +with his school work: +</P> + +<P> +'You ask me to tell you what books I have been reading. Among others, +Longfellow's "Hiawatha" and "Evangeline," both exquisite; continually +the "In Memoriam," "Idylls of the King"; some of Buchanan, which I +scarcely recommend; M. Arnold, which I do most heartily recommend; and +Walt Whitman, the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P6"></A>6}</SPAN> +great poet of democracy; "Confessions of an +English Opium Eater," by De Quincey, good in its way; G. Eliot and Mrs. +Browning, &c., &c. Perhaps you would like some of those. I read Chas. +Kingsley's "Andromeda"—it is really a splendid rhythmical piece of +hexameter—and some of his Life. I rather like pieces of his poetry, +and the one you sent me I liked. +</P> + +<P> +'My only birthday advice is: Read more Longfellow. If you have any +writers, send me word, though I am sorry to say I can appreciate but +few.…' +</P> + +<P> +Another letter, written the same year, is entirely composed of +selections from Tennyson's 'Princess,' which, he says, 'I have just +read through.' He ends, 'Mind you send me gleanings of Milton if you +have time.' In another, 'I have been reading a fair amount of Carlyle +at present, as we had an essay on "The influence of individuals on +great movements of religion, politics, and thought," for which I read +especially Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship," and Emerson's +"Representative Men," and for which, I am glad to say, I not only got +full marks, but the highest maximum possible. Have read Tennyson's +"Queen Mary." Am reading "Harold." I liked the first very much, but +the latter a great deal more. The scene where Harold debates about +telling a lie or the truth is very fine.…' The rest of the letter +is composed of quotations from 'Harold.' In other letters he says, +'Get Emerson's "Essays" for me.' 'I send you "Aurora Leigh." …' +</P> + +<P> +He left Rossall in the summer of 1887, when he +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P7"></A>7}</SPAN> +was nearly twenty, +and entered Christ's College, Cambridge, in the following October. His +brother Armitage, now Dean of Westminster, was then fellow and dean of +Christ's College, and Forbes occupied the attic rooms over his. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The following notice by Dr. James, now headmaster of Rugby and formerly +headmaster of Rossall, appeared in 'The Rossallian' and is reprinted +here at his suggestion: +</P> + +<P> +'Forbes Robinson came to Rossall in 1881. He was a member of a very +able family; an elder brother is Dean of Westminster; another is +Charles H. Robinson, Editorial Secretary of the S.P.G. and translator +of part of the Gospels into Hausa. He was a delicate boy, and lived +for a year or two in the headmaster's private house, from which he +passed on into Mr. Batson's. Rather shy and retiring in disposition, +and unable to take much part in games, he was not conspicuous in the +School until he reached the Sixth, and did not make friends as easily +as some boys do. But the few who knew him well recognised in him a +deeply affectionate if very sensitive nature, and saw how the religious +side of it, afterwards so conspicuous, was even then developing. His +powers as a classical scholar, though considerable, were not +exceptional; they enabled him to reach the Upper Sixth, but not to win +a scholarship at his entrance to the university, and I well remember +advising him to make theology, to which his inclinations were already +drawing him, his special subject at Cambridge. To this I knew he would +bring not only interest but power of reasoning and literary culture. +He had won the Divinity Prize of the School in 1885 and again in 1886, +and the English Essay Prize (for an essay on "The relative value of +art, science, and literature in education") in the latter year. +</P> + +<P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P8"></A>8}</SPAN> + +</P> + +<P> +'He went up to Christ's, Cambridge, in 1887, and at once addressed +himself to his favourite study. What strides he was making in it were +apparent at once from the extraordinary series of distinctions which he +won—a scholarship at the college, the Carus Greek Testament Prize for +undergraduates, the Jeremie Septuagint Prize, a first class in the +Theological Tripos, the Burney Theological Essay Prize, the Carus Prize +for Bachelors, the Crosse Divinity Scholarship, and the Hulsean Prize +all fell to him between 1888 and 1893, and finally in 1896 he was +elected to a Fellowship at Christ's, where he had already been +Theological Lecturer for a year. +</P> + +<P> +'His essay which gained the Burney Prize in 1891 was on "The Authority +of our Lord in its bearing upon the Interpretation of the Old +Testament." He printed it in 1893 under the title of "The +Self-limitation of the Word of God as manifested in the Incarnation." +With characteristic modesty he says in his preface: "I can claim but +little of the work as strictly original." This is far too deprecatory; +the essay is a singularly lucid statement and attempted solution of a +most difficult theological problem, in which all who believe in the +Deity of Christ must be deeply interested, and I can bear personal +testimony to its helpfulness. It was only the other day that I was +reading it afresh, for I had just recovered it, when I feared that the +copy he gave me was hopelessly lost and irreplaceable, from South +Africa, where a friend to whom I had lent it had taken it among his +books. Among Forbes Robinson's later activities were a work on the +Coptic Apocryphal Gospels ("the subject," he wrote to me, "was so +technical and uninteresting that I did not send you a copy"), and the +editing of a Sahidic fragment of the Gospels. +</P> + +<P> +'But his value to Cambridge and to his college lay mainly in the +influence for good which he was able to exert over undergraduates. +Again and again I have been told +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P9"></A>9}</SPAN> +there how great this was; and it +was no little achievement for one whose very modesty and +humble-mindedness must have made it difficult. But his heart was in +the work, and in the maintaining of Christian influences in university +life. It is hard to over-estimate the loss which his death at so early +an age implies alike to students of theology and to those among whom he +was more immediately working. But he has left us the example of a +simple and devoted life and the consecration of great and growing +powers to his Master's service. "God buries His workmen, but carries +on His work."' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P10"></A>10}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LIFE AS AN UNDERGRADUATE AT CAMBRIDGE +</H3> + +<P> +From this point forward the sketch of Forbes's life can be given almost +entirely in the words of those who knew him at Cambridge. +</P> + +<P> +A writer in the Christ's College Magazine for the Lent term 1904 says: +'Many older friends will always think of him in his attic rooms, where +he began to make his mark in our College society upon his first coming +up. Only two other Freshmen had rooms in College, and Robinson's rooms +became at once a centre for his year, and later a meeting-place where +the gulfs between higher and lower years were bridged over. A little +older than most men of his year, he was considerably their senior in +character and in intellect. He showed at once the qualities which he +retained to such a unique degree in later years—an inexhaustible power +of making friends with all sorts and conditions of men, and an +insatiable interest in all sides of College life; the most serious +things were from the first not beyond his comprehension, and the most +trivial did not appear to bore him, even when their freshness had worn +off. His love of books was catholic; he possessed a great many and +read them +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P11"></A>11}</SPAN> +to his friends. At the College Debate, of which he +became secretary and president in his second year, he was a frequent +and fluent speaker, with a remarkable command of language, though +sometimes his eloquence was more than half burlesque. His powers of +thought and real strength in argument were more often displayed in +private discussions, where irony and humour hardly veiled the depth of +earnestness below.' +</P> + +<A NAME="img-010"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-010.jpg" ALT="Forbes Robinson (1887)" BORDER="2" WIDTH="295" HEIGHT="441"> +<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 295px"> +Forbes Robinson (1887) +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<P> +During his first three years at Cambridge he read for the Theological +Tripos. In the course of his first year he was elected a scholar of +his College. At the beginning of his second year he won his first +University distinction, the Carus prize for the Greek Testament. The +other University prizes which he gained were the Jeremie prize for the +Septuagint in 1889, the Burney prize essay in 1891, the Carus prize for +Bachelors, the Hulsean prize essay, and the Crosse University +Scholarship in 1892. He took his degree in the first class of the +Theological Tripos in 1890, and obtained a second class in the Moral +Science Tripos of 1891. The year which he spent in reading moral +science he afterwards looked back upon as one of the most useful in his +life. After he had been reading for some time in view of this Tripos, +he wrote to a friend: 'I have come to the conclusion that I know +nothing, and am an awful fool into the bargain.… The subject is +so utterly fresh to me, so completely unlike theology of any sort at +Cambridge, that I find it hard to do anything at it. In fact, I +chucked it up for about ten days in the middle of the term, and +determined to have nothing more to +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P12"></A>12}</SPAN> +do with it; but after that rest +I thought better and renewed the study. It is an excellent training +for the mind. I never distinctly remember thinking at all before this +term.' +</P> + +<P> +Having learnt to <I>think</I> himself, his desire was to help others by +teaching them to think. One who came under his influence several years +later says of him: 'I owe so much to him in every way. Above +everything else he taught me to <I>think</I>. I remember so well the first +time I went to him with a difficulty. I expected him to solve it for +me, instead of which, at the end of half an hour, I still found that I +had to think it out for myself. It was a revelation to me, and has +helped me in my dealings with men.' The same friend writes: 'I may +mention a conversation I once had with him. He had in front of him the +answers to some Theological Tripos papers. He took up two of them and +compared the answers given to the same question by the two men. The +answer required was a translation of a passage of Greek with notes. +And, as far as I can remember, his words were these: "Now, W——, this +man has passed over the real difficulty. As far as I can tell, he has +not even noticed that there is a difficulty. I have given him two +marks out of a possible ten. This other man has seen the difficulty +and grappled with it. His solution is without doubt incorrect, but +that is quite immaterial. Result, eight marks out of ten." I cannot +but think that this attitude of mind was largely the secret of his +influence.' In another case, when urging a man to attempt some +independent investigation of the Synoptic problem, he said; +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P13"></A>13}</SPAN> +'Your +conclusions may be wrong, but you can correct them, and it will teach +you to think.' +</P> + +<P> +One who was an undergraduate with Forbes says of him: He 'did not take +a prominent part in religious movements in the College, such as the +College prayer meeting or Bible readings, though he was occasionally +present at them. In chapel his reverence was quiet, though in no way +obtrusive. I think that by not identifying himself with any particular +religious party he had greater influence with those men whose minds ran +in very different grooves. I always felt when in his company that I +was conversing with one vastly superior to myself in intellectual +powers, and yet he never appeared conscious of it himself. It is +surprising how considerate he was of the feelings of others. I +remember a large print of Pope Leo XIII. which used to hang in his +rooms as an undergraduate, which delighted his gyp, who was a Romanist, +but scandalised his Protestant friends. I begged earnestly for a copy +of one of his prize essays, which had been printed though not +published. He at first consented, but almost immediately asked me to +return it, saying that he did not wish it to go out to the world as +expressing his matured views. He then asked me to accept instead a +small booklet, which he said I should find useful to have in visiting. +It contained the verses called "The Old, Old Story." He also gave me a +copy of the "Practice of the Presence of God," by Brother Lawrence.' +</P> + +<P> +Before he decided to read for the Moral Science Tripos he had thought +of going in for the Semitic Languages Tripos. With this object in view +he +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P14"></A>14}</SPAN> +commenced the study of Syriac. Finding that the best Syriac +grammar was written in German and had not been translated, he decided +to learn German also. He was advised that Switzerland was a suitable +place in which to study German, and accordingly, after taking his +degree, he started in the summer of 1890 for Switzerland. The two +following letters are inserted in order to illustrate his sense of +humour, as well as to describe the way in which he spent this summer. +He eventually returned from Switzerland, having made more progress in +Syriac than in German, but without having obtained any great knowledge +of either language. Soon after his return he decided to commence the +study of Moral Science instead of the Semitic languages. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To H. M. S.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +'Habkern: July 1890. +</P> + +<P> +'A few days after I got to Switzerland, by dint of incessant inquiries +and correspondence I found out the name of a pastor who lived in a +sufficiently healthy place and who talked German. So I girded up my +loins and went to visit him. "Sprechen Sie Englisch, mein Herr?" I +asked. "Nein" was the reply. As I scarcely knew a word of German I +was in a considerable fix. But I found out that the Pfarrer spoke +"Lateinisch" and could read English a little when it was written. So I +went up to his study and we got paper and pencil and began. I tried to +tell him in a mixture of broken English and dog-Latin that I intended +to give him the honour of my company. He said he would be pleased to +take me "en pension." He then +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P15"></A>15}</SPAN> +asked how much I wished to pay. I +hadn't for the life of me an idea of what I ought to pay. "Ut tibi +optimum videtur," I said. But he made me fix my price. Then, when I +had fixed it, I had to turn it into Swiss money. The good Pfarrer was +so pleased with the honour of my company that he took me for less than +I asked. Our greatest difficulty next arose: How was my luggage to be +conveyed the five miles from the nearest town up a steep hill? Latin, +French, English, German, failed to make me understand the situation. +At last I took in the Pfarrer's meaning. I was to send it by the +milkman after leaving it at a certain hotel. "Ja," I cried in an +ecstasy of joy, at last grasping his meaning, "Ja, ich mittam der +Gepäck von der milkman." I arrived the next day. I found the Pfarrer +knew Latin, Greek (but he pronounces both quite differently from me), +German, French, Russian, Syriac, Hebrew, and a little English. His +usual custom is to address me in German. If I fail to understand, he +tries Latin and intersperses his remarks with Greek and Hebrew. So my +great difficulty is first of all to find out what language he thinks he +is speaking in. +</P> + +<P> +'Yesterday we were sitting, smoking and drinking, in the village +"Wirthshaus" among the natives of the place, the Pfarrer addressing me +in Latin, the villagers staring at his learning in adoration and +astonishment, and laughing at my attempts at German. The landlord came +up to me when I arrived and sent in a bottle of wine for me, refusing +to be paid for it, for he said that the natives of Interlaken fleeced +the English; but when Habkern was for once honoured by the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P16"></A>16}</SPAN> + +presence of one, the people were not going to treat him in the same way. +</P> + +<P> +'It is curious how the Pfarrer goes and sits and drinks and gossips in +the "Wirthshaus," even on Sunday, I think. Last Sunday they had a +country dance, and very curious and pretty was the scene—the +old-fashioned wooden room—the odd national dress of the women—the +curiously cut brown clothes of the men—the thick boots—the fiddlers +raised above the rest—the quaint urn with its inscriptions above—the +gaping crowd of villagers. Then the church is strange—very rude and +simple, all whitewashed. The women sit on one side, the men on the +other. They stand to pray and hear the text, and sit to sing and hear +the sermon. The organ and font are placed at one end. The elders +stand below the organ, the Pfarrer is lost in the far distance, right +up in a big pulpit. The "Predigt" or sermon is everything. They have +one written prayer before and one after the "Predigt." The people +never say "Amen" or anything—only sing. They sing so slowly that, +although I had only been with the Pfarrer three days, I could almost +sing and look out the words in the dictionary at the same time! I talk +German with every one who will talk with me. So well did I spin yarns +when I had been in the country three or four days, that with a mixture +of Latin and German I managed to make a German use strong language at +some of my tales, which he was pleased to think were not exactly true. +Reflecting on the situation afterwards, I remembered that I had told +him, among other things, that I had walked nearly fifty "stunden" +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P17"></A>17}</SPAN> + +in a day. His language was awful. I found afterwards that "stunde" +was not, as I had supposed, an English "mile," but an English "hour." +But I keep on talking. I have come to the conclusion that the way to +learn a language is to argue in it. Accordingly I do so. I have tried +to convince them that the order of bishops is semi-apostolic, and that +if St. Paul did not actually wear a surplice himself, his successors +shortly afterwards did. +</P> + +<P> +'One other thing, if you ever reply to this letter: would you copy out +a few of the most thickly marked lines in the "Grammarian's Funeral" in +my edition of Browning? They are always in my mind, but I can't quite +recollect how they go. There is no poem I like so much as that. I +would send you some butterflies, but I daren't kill them. Some of us +may have once been butterflies: as M. Arnold says, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +'What was before us we know not,<BR> +And we know not what shall succeed.'<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To H. M. S.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +'Habkern: August 1890. +</P> + +<P> +'There is a French pensionnaire staying here, the same as I am. He is +very polite, but his tastes are diametrically opposite to mine. He +likes wine, walking, women, smoking, painting, violin and piano +playing, dogs, and the like. +</P> + +<P> +'He asked me whether I liked the French. I told him "No," and gave him +a good many reasons. He abhors the Germans. I told him I thought the +Germans were a fine race. I'm occupying my time +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P18"></A>18}</SPAN> +in sleeping, +arguing, observing the natives, and reading a Tauchnitz edition of +"Martin Chuzzlewit," which is good, though already a young girl of +seventeen has been introduced, very beautiful and all the rest, and I'm +afraid she won't be poisoned, but marry a certain young man already +introduced. I'd give a good deal to be able to write a novel in which +all the young ladies tumbled out of windows, six stories high, and were +picked up dead. I think I must try and write one. Shall I dedicate it +to you? The heroine will be a plain old lady with white curls, close +on sixty-five, without any money, but with a certain amount of +intellect. There will be no marriages, but suicides and murders if +necessary. +</P> + +<P> +'I'm inventing a German word of 1,000 letters. It is to be divided +into some 150 or 200 compartments. After each compartment there is +five minutes for refreshments. After about the 500th letter there will +be half an hour allowed for dinner. After the 600th letter or so there +will be a notice to the effect that no person with a weak heart may +proceed further without consulting a medical man. After about the +980th there will be a notice forbidding any one to go further until +their family doctor is in attendance. I have thought of the groundwork +of the word—the finished word I'm going to send to M——, as he has +the strongest constitution of any one I know. Then I shall get Duke +Bismarck to patent it; after which I shall take out a professorship on +the strength of it at Berne. It will, of course, be the "Hauptsache" +of my existence.' +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P19"></A>19}</SPAN> + +<P> +Forbes was far from being an athlete, but in 1891, shortly before his +ordination, he accomplished the feat of walking with two athletic +friends from London to Cambridge in a day, a distance of more than +fifty miles. The following description is by Mr. A. N. C. +Kittermaster, who was one of his companions. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>Walk from London to Cambridge.</I> +</P> + +<P> +Some of us had read that Charles Kingsley had walked from London to +Cambridge; so we determined to follow in his footsteps. We were a +party of three—Forbes Robinson, D. D. Robertson, and myself. We spent +the previous day at the Naval Exhibition, the night at the Liverpool +Street Hotel, and at 4.30 A.M. of Tuesday, August 25, 1891, we started +on our fifty-mile trudge. We walked steadily, at first over immense +stretches of pavement, till we reached Ware, twenty-one miles out. +There we had breakfast or lunch of huge chops at 10.15. After that we +took the road again, and did not call a halt of any length till we had +put another twenty miles behind us. The day was fine but dull, and we +were not troubled by the heat. At the fortieth milestone it began to +appear doubtful whether we should all reach the journey's end. I have +an entry in my diary: 'At 40 Robertson bad, I worse, Deanlet (<I>i.e.</I> +Forbes) quite fit.' So at Foulmire, nine miles from Cambridge, we +stopped for tea. By this time I was in a state of temporary collapse, +but I remember the other two during tea carried on an animated +discussion upon the creation as described in Genesis. We all felt +better after the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P20"></A>20}</SPAN> +rest and covered the last stage fairly easily, +arriving at Christ's at 9.30 P.M. We had a meal in Forbes's rooms, +fought our battles over again, and retired to rest about midnight. +</P> + +<P> +The thing which remains with me best is the amazing ease with which +Forbes accomplished the journey. It is a matter of common experience +that prolonged physical effort reacts on the mind; conversation becomes +difficult, and cheerfulness forced. I must say that in my case the +thought which for a considerable period occupied my mind was how I was +to get to the end. But it was not so with Forbes. He travelled +lightly, talking happily on all subjects the whole day. It seemed to +make little difference to him whether he took food or no, and he was as +willing to stop at every place of refreshment we suggested as to march +the whole day without a meal. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P21"></A>21}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WORK AT CAMBRIDGE +</H3> + +<P> +In September 1891 Forbes was ordained as curate to his brother +Armitage, who was at that time vicar of All Saints', Cambridge. +Several of the letters which are given later refer to his thoughts and +feelings at the time of his ordination. His connection with All +Saints' did not last more than a year, as his brother resigned in the +following spring. Forbes had already been licensed as chaplain to +Emmanuel College. He received priest's orders in 1892. In 1895 he was +appointed theological lecturer at Christ's College, and in the +following year, May 30, 1896, was elected a fellow. During the same +year he was appointed an examining chaplain to the Bishop of Southwell. +</P> + +<P> +One who knew him well, soon after the time of his ordination, writes: +'I cannot remember how we first became acquainted, beyond the fact that +I used to meet him in the rooms of some prominent members of the +College Football XV. All I know is that several of our year got to +know him quite well, and the friendship grew with time. The fact that +he had distinguished himself in the Moral Science Tripos at +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P22"></A>22}</SPAN> +first +rather awed me, a freshman. But I soon got over that feeling, for he +was the last person in the world to trouble any one with a sense of +intellectual inferiority. +</P> + +<P> +'I am sure the private business hours of the Debating Society were some +of his happiest moments. His magnificent assumption of wrath on the +most absurd grounds; his vast intensity over trivialities; his love for +the heat and play of debate, would have made a stranger believe he +lived for nothing else. +</P> + +<P> +'Physical strength and virtue seemed to have a strange attraction for +him. His assortment of athlete friends was peculiarly wide, and his +frank admiration of their qualities gave them a pleasant feeling that +in some way he looked up to them—a feeling which I am sure +strengthened the hold he had over them. +</P> + +<P> +'He was a tireless walker, and could go far on very little. A party of +us used to take long walks, often on a Sunday, to various places in the +country. There was generally a volume of Burke or Emerson in his +pocket, whose sonorous periods filled the interval when we lunched +frugally or rested. I have never known him anything but good-humoured +under any conditions. His enthusiasm for our most commonplace jests +was unfailing—perhaps one of the surest ways of getting to a man's +heart and staying there—and he had a wide tolerance for the minor +offences of undergraduate thought and deed. Yet, as for the tone of +conversation when he was near, I need scarcely say that one simply did +not think of anything unpleasant or vulgar, much less say it. +</P> + +<P> +'I used to admire his immense power of putting +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P23"></A>23}</SPAN> +his thoughts into +words, but he could be silent too. Sometimes he would come to my rooms +when I was working, throw himself into an arm-chair, and absolutely +refuse to speak. After a considerable interval perhaps he would +consider I had worked long enough, and cocoa and conversation would +follow. But it was when I visited him in his own rooms that I remember +things most vividly. +</P> + +<P> +'I can still see that little room under the roof; the picture on the +wall of the dead saint floating on the dark water; the well-filled +bookcase; the table piled with volumes; himself throwing everything +aside to greet one. It was almost with a feeling of awe that I +sometimes climbed those stairs and entered into his presence. Perhaps +it would be for a lesson on the New Testament—for when I was reading +for a Theological Tripos he was generous, even prodigal, of help. The +lesson over—and there are many who know what a goodly thing a lesson +from him on the New Testament was—he would open a volume of +Tennyson—"In Memoriam" most likely—read a few stanzas, and begin to +talk about them. Gradually, it would seem, the things of the world +would fade from him. He forgot the hour and my presence as his +thoughts poured out. I sat and listened, generally silent, sometimes +hazarding a question. Presently—it was often late—I would rise to +leave. Rapt from his surroundings, he seemed scarcely conscious of my +departure; and I would go quietly out, almost as though I had been on +holy ground, where not once nor twice the dweller had seen God face to +face.' +</P> + +<P> +His power of helping men by silent sympathy is +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P24"></A>24}</SPAN> +referred to by one +who writes: 'The many words of kindness, but more particularly the +silent sympathy he conveyed in some mysterious manner, will ever keep +him present with us.' +</P> + +<P> +Another, who had known him in his early days at Christ's, and again in +later years, writes: 'When I was up he was a nervous retiring man, at +his best when one found him alone in his own room. Even then he would +sometimes talk little. Since my return from South Africa I have found +him much more at home with men and much more ready to talk, but +retaining his old power of sympathy without words.' His own faith was +based rather upon intuitive perception of the Divine love than upon +argument. On one occasion, quite towards the end of his life, he said +to one with whom he was staying, 'Sometimes I sit and think, till I can +find no reason for the existence of God; and then there rises up in me +something which is stronger than the love I have for those who are dear +to me—and they are very dear—the love of God. It seems to smile at +my doubts.' +</P> + +<P> +Several of his friends have referred to Forbes's influence as a power +which helped to develop their own sympathy towards others. Thus one +writes: +</P> + +<P> +'I think perhaps it was my intercourse with him that first taught me to +look out for and appreciate the real goodness—or, better, +Christlikeness—of others from whom one differed in important matters +and with whom one seemed perhaps to have little in common.' +</P> + +<P> +In some instances friendship between Forbes and an acquaintance seems +to have arisen where very +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P25"></A>25}</SPAN> +little direct intercourse had taken +place. One who was greatly his senior says of him, 'I have never known +any one with whom there was so strong a sense of intimacy founded on so +little positive intercourse.' +</P> + +<P> +In July 1892—<I>i.e.</I> about nine months after his ordination as +deacon—he took part in a kind of peregrinating mission tour through +part of South Cornwall. Dressed simply in cassock and cape, and +carrying a small brown paper parcel containing necessary luggage, he +and his brother (the compiler of this book) walked from village to +village, preaching afternoon and evening in the open air. At the end +of the evening service an appeal was made to the people. It was +explained to them that the preachers had come without provision or +money, and hoped to receive hospitality from those to whom they +ministered. Night after night Forbes and his companion were taken in +and entertained, often by very poor people. A unique opportunity was +thus afforded of getting to know something of the home life as well as +of the religious beliefs of the poor. As a rule, those who acted as +hosts were Nonconformists. Forbes spoke once or twice each day to the +people who gathered, and his addresses, which were generally based on +the words 'Our Father,' were admirably suited to the comprehension and +needs of the simple country people. +</P> + +<P> +For several months during 1895 he took charge of a small country parish +near Cambridge, called Toft. While staying at Toft he wrote to a +friend, 'I like living among country folk and talking with +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P26"></A>26}</SPAN> +and +visiting them. I want to get out of my life into their lives. This +parish work humiliates if it does not humble one.… The smallest +parish is a tremendous responsibility.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The following are a few additional notes contributed by others who knew +Forbes at Christ's: 'His broad sympathies, his unfailing efforts to +find out the good in persons and systems—the rays of truth which each +possessed—combined with the rare faculty of going deep down beneath +vexed questions, and thus lifting controversies to a higher and serener +atmosphere: these were qualities in him which were known especially by +those privileged to have more intimate knowledge of him than that +vouchsafed by formal lectures or social gatherings.… He is now +another link with the life beyond these conflicting voices, one "who +loved Heaven's silence more than fame."' +</P> + +<P> +The same writer says of him in another letter: 'His extreme fairness +and toleration, which at first seemed to me to reduce half one's +cherished beliefs to open questions, was of the greatest value in +dispelling ignorance and prejudice, and in promoting true charity and a +more intelligent faith. He delighted to call attention to the fact +that our Lord found something commendable and exemplary in the serpent. +And so, in dealing with those with whom he most disagreed, he tried to +fix attention on that portion of truth which lay behind their opinions, +or on those real difficulties, to be slighted only by +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P27"></A>27}</SPAN> +the +superficial, with which they were grappling. Tertullian, with his love +of scoring off opponents, fared badly at his hands, and he used to +treat Clement of Alexandria more sympathetically than Irenaeus. +</P> + +<P> +'It was striking to find a mind so evenly balanced and philosophical +become fired with enthusiasm as he spoke in simplest language, in +chapel or elsewhere, of great Christian truths or the victories of +faith. His sermons influenced, I believe, many of the naturally +careless. Simple, impartial, earnest and sympathetic, he won, I know, +the deepest affection and respect of many.' +</P> + +<P> +Another writes: 'Bright, pure, and strong—this was the impression he +gave me … Many men will be very sorry that he is not here any +more, but every one who <I>knew</I> him will be very thankful that he was +here, and that they had an opportunity of hearing him "think" +sometimes. I recall him most in his own rooms, beginning to talk on +some small matter, and gradually lifting us higher and still higher, +until we all silently listened, following as best we, with our muddier +minds, could; and even when he got beyond us there were still +inspiration and strength to be got from his flashing eyes and +on-rushing earnestness; but if some smaller mind broke in, in a moment +he was down at the level of that mind, half bantering and wholly +sympathising. Nevertheless, some of us have never forgotten the things +he showed us as he led us up, and the possibility of soaring very high +without losing touch with those whose levels are pathetically +human.… I do know that he helped +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P28"></A>28}</SPAN> +me much, and that many +things he said I shall never forget, and thank God for still.' +</P> + +<P> +A Cambridge and international athlete, an intimate friend of Forbes, +writes: 'Though I have lost your brother Forbes, and life will be for +ever poorer to me, I can't thank God enough that I ever knew him and +loved him, and that he called himself my friend. He was so dear to +me—my greatest friend in the world. His goodness and his help to me +in my Cambridge days were wonderful. He altered my life. God has +called him home and to the blessed rest of the children of God, and we +are rich still with his memory and the influence of his beautiful, +patient, Christlike life.' +</P> + +<P> +In another letter he writes: 'The death, or, as I like to think of it, +the passing of Forbes into the Great Beyond has been such a grief to +me. You have no idea what he was to me—a real man "sent from God" +into my life. I could do nothing when I heard the sad, and to me +utterly unexpected, news, but kneel down by my bedside, and weep till I +could weep no more for my beloved friend. I feel so rich and proud to +have had him for my friend, and to have had his love; and so do many +Cambridge men. Oh, but I did so love him! and my prayer now is that +the memory of him with me always may strengthen my weak and feeble +life, and help me to live somewhat more as he lived, very near the +Master.' +</P> + +<P> +He obtained but little help from self-introspection or +self-examination. Thus he writes in one of the letters given later on: +'I am not sure that we cannot learn more about others than we can about +ourselves. +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P29"></A>29}</SPAN> +I never think it is profitable to study oneself too +closely. I never could meditate with any profit on my sins. But +there, I dare say I differ from many others.' +</P> + +<P> +To very intimate friends he would in rare instances admit that the +secret of any influence which he possessed over men was the outcome of +his efforts to pray for them. One who had known him intimately at +Christ's writes in 1904: +</P> + +<P> +'About eighteen months ago I had the privilege of spending a night with +him, and then for the first time I realised how much of his spiritual +power was the outcome of prayer. He told me that in his younger days +he had taken every opportunity of personally appealing to men to come +to Christ. "But," he went on, "as I grow older I become more +diffident, and now often, when I desire to see the Truth come home to +any man, I say to myself, 'If I have him here he will spend half an +hour with me. Instead, I will spend that half-hour in prayer for +him.'" Later on, when I had retired for the night, he came to me again +and said, "W——, what I have said to you is in the strictest +confidence: don't mention it to any one." And this revelation of his +inner life is my last memory of him.' +</P> + +<P> +On another occasion he said to one with whom he was staying, when +speaking of the little that men could do for each other, 'I think that +I should go mad were it not for prayer.' +</P> + +<P> +As an instance of his common sense in a matter in which as a bachelor +he could have had no personal experience, he strongly urged a married +man, before +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P30"></A>30}</SPAN> +deciding to accept a curacy which had been offered to +him, to let his wife see the vicar's wife or women-folk. 'She will +know intuitively,' he said, 'whether she can get on with them and they +with her, and it will make all the difference to your work and +happiness.' The man to whom this advice was offered writes: 'The +advice was given seriously, but with that bright twinkle of his; and I +owe much to it, for we have been here since … and I don't want to +go.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The following is an extract from a notice which appeared in the +'Guardian '! +</P> + +<P> +'By his published work he is best known to the outer world as one of +the few English scholars who have given attention to Coptic. In 1896 +he edited "The Coptic Apocryphal Gospels" in the "Cambridge Texts and +Studies." The important article on the Coptic Version in Hastings's +"Bible Dictionary" came also from his pen, and he was engaged on an +edition of the Sahidic fragments of St. Luke's Gospel. His deepest +interest, however, lay not in these subsidiary studies, but in the +fundamental problems of theology proper. His Burney Prize essay, +printed at the University Press in 1893 under the title of "The +Self-limitation of the Word of God as manifested in the Incarnation," +is no doubt comparatively slight, and in some respects immature; but +its reverent and fearless treatment of the difficulties of his great +theme gave promise of work of permanent value in this field. His +interest in the great problems never flagged, and his sympathetic touch +with the life and thought of the younger men in his college kept him +constantly +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P31"></A>31}</SPAN> +engaged on the task of putting into clear and ever +clearer expression such solutions as he was able to attain. His +sermons in College Chapel were singularly effective, because he never +wasted a word, and because every sentence was felt to be the outcome of +strenuous thought tested by living experience. +</P> + +<P> +'It is not surprising, therefore, that he exercised an unusual +influence upon younger students. His friends were very closely bound +to him indeed, in bonds which death can consecrate but cannot sever. +They can never cease to thank God for the pure, bright, tender, utterly +sincere, fearless, and faithful spirit He has given them to love.' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P32"></A>32}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE LAST FEW MONTHS +</H3> + +<P> +From the time that Forbes took his degree at Cambridge his health was +far from strong. He suffered from time to time from a form of eczema +which caused him a good deal of discomfort and pain. Many of his +letters contain references to the fact that he had been unwell and had +been unable to do as much work as he had hoped. In September 1897 he +went with his brother Armitage on a visit to St. Petersburg and Moscow. +He stayed in the house of a Russian priest at St. Petersburg, and was +much interested in the work of Father John of Kronstadt, with whom an +interview was arranged which unfortunately fell through at the last +moment. Towards the end of 1897 he developed a bad cough and was +threatened with phthisis. He accordingly spent Christmas and the first +two or three months of 1898 at St. Moritz in Switzerland. His health +then seemed to be much improved. For several years he went back to St. +Moritz to spend the greater part of the Christmas vacation. He took +great delight in tobogganing, and on one occasion was awarded a prize +for a race in which he took part. In the summer of 1899 he went out to +South Africa +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P33"></A>33}</SPAN> +during the Long Vacation. He visited Pretoria and +had an interview with President Kruger and his wife. One of his +letters records his impressions of the President. He was for some time +disposed to believe that the war, which broke out soon after his +return, could and should have been avoided, but he subsequently +modified his views on this point. +</P> + +<P> +Towards the end of August 1903 the pain from which he had suffered +intermittently for years became so much worse that he came up to +consult a London doctor, and by his advice remained in town as a +patient at St. Thomas's Home. When he entered the home he fully +expected to undergo an operation within a fortnight; but the doctor who +had suggested it declared, after further examination, that no operation +was necessary. Meanwhile Forbes lingered on in the home week after +week. Eventually a partial operation was performed, and after he had +spent thirteen weeks in the home the surgeon suggested his removal to a +private nursing home, where he could keep him under closer observation. +Here he performed a second operation. This seemed at first to have +been a success, and after a fortnight in this private home he was well +enough to start for Switzerland again. He went at first to St. Moritz, +where he had been so often before; but, finding that the pain returned +and that he could not sleep, he went down to Alassio on the Riviera. +Here he was for several weeks till his return to England. He reached +Westminster on January 13 and went up to Cambridge on the following +day. For a few days he was well enough to lecture, and it seemed as +though he might be able to +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P34"></A>34}</SPAN> +resume his old work. On Sunday +evening, January 17, he was 'at home' in his rooms and received over +sixty undergraduates who came to welcome him back. Soon the old +trouble returned, and he rapidly grew worse. His pain became almost +constant, and he was removed with great difficulty to another London +nursing home on January 29. It was then proposed that the original +operation which had been suggested, but had never been performed, +should take place, and he fully expected that this would result in his +restoration to health and to work. A few days later he was threatened +with blood-poisoning, and it became obvious that the operation must be +delayed. On Saturday evening, February 6, he seemed fairly cheerful. +Neither he nor his doctors had any idea that he was in an extremely +critical state. About midnight, as the pain had become worse, his +doctor was sent for, and he gave him an injection of morphia. Soon +after this he asked his nurse to turn the light down and said to her, +'If I am asleep in the morning do not wake me.' She looked in about +3.30 A.M. to see if he was asleep, and, finding him awake, inquired if +he would like a drink of champagne. He said yes, and asked her first +of all to help him turn over to the other side. As she was in the act +of assisting him, he passed away, without a movement of any kind. A +happy smile lingered long on his face after the end had come. +</P> + +<P> +His body was removed the same evening to St. Faith's Chapel, in +Westminster Abbey. Here on the following Thursday morning, February +11, at 9 A.M., the funeral service was said. The chapel +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P35"></A>35}</SPAN> +was +filled with his friends, who had come from Cambridge and elsewhere. +His body was buried the same afternoon at Eastbourne in the same grave +with that of his sister, the Deaconess Cecilia, who had passed away +five months before. +</P> + +<P> +The inscription on the memorial card issued to his friends was: +</P> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CUM CHRISTO VICTURUS<BR> +DE MORTE AD VITAM MIGRAVIT<BR> +DOMINICA IN SEXAGESIMA<BR> +ANNO SALUTIS MCMIV<BR> +AETATIS SUAE XXXVII.<BR> +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +And, doubtless, unto thee is given<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">A life that bears immortal fruit</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">In those great offices that suit</SPAN><BR> +The full-grown energies of heaven.<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P36"></A>36}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TWO APPRECIATIONS +</H3> + +<P> +The two following sketches of Forbes Robinson's life at Cambridge have +been contributed, the first by the Rev. T. C. Fitzpatrick, Fellow and +Dean of Christ's College, and the second by the Rev. Digby B. +Kittermaster, of Clare College, now Head of the Shrewsbury School +Mission in Liverpool. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Mr. Fitzpatrick writes: +</P> + +<P> +'College life has changed a good deal since the days when a young +graduate, on his election to a fellowship, was advised not to see too +much of the undergraduate members of the College, that the division +between the senior and junior members of the College might be +preserved. A custom of that kind, once established, is not easy to +break, for traditions of all sorts, good and bad, live long in College. +</P> + +<P> +'Fortunately, the relations between the undergraduates and the fellows +of the College are gradually becoming more natural, to the benefit of +the whole body. Forbes Robinson will be long remembered for the +influence that he exerted in this +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P37"></A>37}</SPAN> +direction, and what he has +effected it will be comparatively easy for others to carry on. +</P> + +<P> +'It is my desire to give some slight impression of his life in College, +and I do not wish to say much about his teaching work. I must mention, +however, what frequently struck me, the great joy he had in teaching; +his success was not surprising. When he found (in January last) that +he could not take up all his lecture work he would not allow another to +give in his place the course of lectures on Church History. "I want," +he said to me, "to give them myself in my own way," and he hoped to +have given them this Easter term. I was not surprised to hear from a +pupil of the interest that he and others found in a similar course of +lectures which he had given the previous year. "He put things so," the +pupil told me, "that you could not forget what he had said." +</P> + +<P> +'My last recollection of him as a teacher bears witness to his interest +and purpose. Word was brought me before morning chapel that he had +been obliged to call in the doctor in the middle of the night. I went +to his rooms after chapel and found that he was asleep, I put up a +notice that he would be unable to lecture. He awoke soon after I had +left his rooms; he had another notice put up that he would lecture in +his rooms. When I came back to College later in the morning I looked +in and found him lying on his sofa with the room full of men, sitting +where they could. The class will not forget that lecture, nor shall I +forget the sight. +</P> + +<P> +'When two men have lived a number of years within the same College, it +is difficult for them to +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P38"></A>38}</SPAN> +realise the change in their relationship +that has come with time. There is a comradeship that comes through the +influence of circumstances rather than from that personal attraction +which two men feel for one another, and which arose they don't remember +when or how. It was this comradeship of work and the sharing of +responsibilities that led me to know Forbes Robinson. We had lived +some years in College before I knew much of him; I was some years his +senior, and our lines of work were very different. As far as I know, +he never talked to older men in that frank way which was his custom +with those of his own age, and still more with men younger than +himself. Some weeks ago I was staying at the hotel on the Riviera +where he had been at Christmas time. The English lady, whose husband +keeps the house, told me that with them Forbes Robinson hardly talked +at all, but that he took their boy out for long walks and talked to +him; and the boy's face lit up as I spoke to him of Forbes. +</P> + +<P> +'There is still the recollection in College, handed on from year to +year, of the walk which he took at the end of a Long Vacation from +London to Cambridge with two other men, and how he talked all the way. +It was these conversations, often prolonged for two or three hours, +that impressed those to whom he opened out his thoughts, and who in +turn let him see something of their inner life. +</P> + +<P> +'Forbes always had one or two special friends among the younger men, +whom he seemed to me to look upon as heroes; he always yearned for +sympathy, and he was prepared to give to others all that +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P39"></A>39}</SPAN> +he had +got. This closer relationship with a few men did not in the least +narrow his interest in the life of the College. He gained, I cannot +believe that it can have been without an effort long and hard, the +power of taking an interest in all sorts of things that form no small +part of the life of the average man. There was nothing strained or +exaggerated in his relations with other men; he was at all times just +himself. +</P> + +<P> +'When he was elected a Fellow, being also Theological Lecturer, he was +anxious to do something to interest and help those who were not +theological students, and he had, first on Sunday mornings after +Chapel, and afterwards in the latter part of the afternoons, Greek +Testament readings for non-theological men, and some terms he took up +some of the problems that present themselves as difficulties to the +thoughtful man. These papers were prepared with great care, and, as I +know, at no small cost of time and energy. +</P> + +<P> +'On Sunday evenings he was "at home" from 9 to 11 to any members of the +College who cared to come. On those occasions it was a curious sight +that met the eyes of any late comer as he opened the door and saw men +in groups sitting on the floor, as chairs were insufficient; as a rule +there was no general subject of conversation—numbers made that +impossible. Most Sunday evenings there was music, but not always, and +it was difficult at the end of the evening to say what could have +brought so many men together. It was a common ground of meeting for +different kinds of men. Forbes Robinson was often at his best on these +occasions; he would join +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P40"></A>40}</SPAN> +first one group and then another, and +take part in the subject which was being discussed. Generally one or +two would remain when the others left, and deeper problems would then +be talked over. Only on one Sunday of last term was Forbes Robinson +well enough to be "at home." The room was more crowded than I had ever +seen it. It was a sort of welcome back after his absence the previous +term. It was evident that it gave him pleasure, and evident, too, that +he was all the time in pain. Yet with a brightness, which must have +cost him much, he talked with one and another of simple daily interests +in the way that showed his sympathy with life, and gained for him the +power of saying on other occasions deeper things. +</P> + +<P> +'Nothing could have been simpler than the character of these +gatherings. Simplicity was the secret of his power. +</P> + +<P> +'I find it impossible to write of my own conversations with him; they +dealt chiefly with the difficulties of Cambridge, of College life, and +of the lives of those in our College for whom we felt we had a +responsibility. Talking of the difficulties of belief, I was struck by +his quiet answer: "I do not believe some things which I did when I was +younger; but those which I believe, I believe more firmly." Forbes +Robinson had a great belief in the power of intercession. Quite +recently a man in his year told me that when Forbes Robinson was an +undergraduate he had known him spend two hours during the afternoon in +intercession for his friends. One is not surprised that prayer was a +subject on which he +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P41"></A>41}</SPAN> +thought much. He was to have written an +important article on it. +</P> + +<P> +'As we talked together of different men, I remember being struck with +the desire he expressed that men should be good and strong, and not of +any one type. He had a great confidence in the essential goodness that +there is in men, and he always formed a high estimate of another. +</P> + +<P> +'His letters will indicate how deeply he entered into the lives of +others, and how wide were his sympathies. A member of another College +told me that the news of the death of Forbes Robinson reached him just +after the close of their evening chapel, and he had not long returned +to his rooms when an Indian gentleman called, an undergraduate of this +College, who almost in tears told him of all that Forbes had done for +him, and how he had learnt in Hall at Christ's from the strange silence +that something must have happened, and was told of the loss that came +so unexpectedly upon us on Sunday, February 7. +</P> + +<P> +'I close this short account of my friend with extracts from three +letters casually taken from those which have reached me. A young +clergyman writes: "I feel I owe a very great debt to him, both as a +lecturer and as a friend. His clearness of mind and power of thought +were such as I have never seen in any other man. But far more precious +than these intellectual gifts was the inspiration of his personal +character. His ideals were so high, and he lived so close to them. +Few lives have better expressed the truth of the words of which he was +so fond: 'He that +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P42"></A>42}</SPAN> +loseth his life shall find it.'" A schoolmaster +writes: "The last talk I had with him was a month before my ordination, +and I remember the emphasis that he laid on the praying side of a +clergyman's life." A doctor writes: "Looking back upon my time at +Christ's, I think that of all the influences which helped me, the most +potent was my friendship with Forbes Robinson.… I came to know +him somewhat intimately by spending an Easter vacation with him, and +several of our conversations then have left a lasting impression on my +mind.… I suppose, as one gets older and sees so much more of +death, that a deepening faith takes away that sense of personal loss +and leaves behind a feeling of gladness that yet another friend has +passed to the Communion of Saints." +</P> + +<P> +'Of his life we may use the motto of his College: +</P> + +<P> +'AD HONOREM CHRISTI JESU ET FIDEI EJUS INCREMENTUM.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Mr. Kittermaster writes: +</P> + +<P> +'Forbes Robinson did not regard any one of us as a "mere +undergraduate," one of a mass; that was the first thing which those of +us who knew him as undergraduates learnt. He was genuinely interested +from the first in his undergraduate acquaintances; interested in them +as men, not as promising pupils, not as likely scholars, not as +athletes, not as material for "improving" influence, but as +men—individuals, each possessing a separate and distinct human +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P43"></A>43}</SPAN> + +personality, and therefore of the truest and deepest interest to him. +</P> + +<P> +'Our public schools taught us (and for most of us Cambridge continued +the teaching) that to be of any real importance and consequence among +his fellows a man must be "good at games," or perhaps—but this more +rarely—"good at work." Such is the simple creed of the undergraduate. +If he satisfies neither of the above requirements, then he recognises, +with greater or less sadness, that he is an ordinary man, the "average +undergraduate." He is one of the crowd if he has no athletic powers to +commend him to the notice of his fellows <I>in statu pupillari</I>; he is +one of the crowd if he has no slightest hope of making for himself any +name in the intellectual world, to commend him to the leaders of +thought at Cambridge. And this knowledge is to many a Cambridge boy, +playing at being a man, a matter of real, if unconfessed, grief. +</P> + +<P> +'But "there is no such thing as the average man, or at least as the +average undergraduate." This was the belief which Forbes Robinson held +with increasing conviction as his life went on. And it was this belief +which accounted to some extent for the very large part which his +friendship undoubtedly played in the life of many a Cambridge +undergraduate. +</P> + +<P> +'For a man condemned by his fellows and himself to the position of the +"ordinary man" found himself in the presence of Forbes (as all of us +universally called him) to be no such thing. Gradually and with +genuine surprise he learned from him—not by any definite +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P44"></A>44}</SPAN> +word of +teaching—that though it might cost him efforts painful and many to get +the better of his "special," and though athletic fame knew him not at +all, yet the possibilities of his own peculiar personal life were +wonderful and great. For here was one who compelled men by his genuine +unaffected interest in their lives and work to be themselves genuinely +interested in them too. A man could not know Forbes for long and not +be quickly conscious of a new sense of the value of himself, which made +him believe that his own personality and life were things of great +importance. For "He is interested in me" is what almost every man felt +from the start of his acquaintance with Forbes. "He is interested in +me" we felt when he passed us in the street with his quaint humorous +smile of recognition; we felt the same when we entered his room, to be +received often without a word but with the same half smile: we felt the +same again if we knew that he was watching the progress of a football +match or boat race in which we were taking part. And "he is interested +in me"—most wonderful of all—we felt as we listened to him in the +lecture room, and were compelled to attention; for his interest in the +men in front of him, coupled with his interest in his subject, forced +us all—pass men and honours men alike—to listen to the history of +Church and Doctrine and Creeds. It was this unfeigned interest in men, +simply as men, that in the first instance gave him the influence which +he certainly exercised over all sorts of men, including the kind of men +whom the majority of their fellows disregarded, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P45"></A>45}</SPAN> +or perhaps +despised; "the babes and sucklings of the undergraduate world," to +quote another. Such men, in whom most of us could find little to +attract us, were to him vastly interesting—interesting for their +simple human personality. +</P> + +<P> +'Some men perhaps never discovered from what source his interest in +them sprang. They knew that their views of the possibilities of their +own life were enlarged, that they believed in themselves more for +having been with him; but it was not all at once that they discovered +the reason of his interest and belief in them. It was due to the +Christ. With each new friendship and acquaintance which Forbes +made—and this is especially true of young men—he saw deeper into the +meaning of the Incarnation of Christ. This was the secret of his +extraordinary interest and amazing belief in nearly every one of us. +He saw in us all, however ordinary, however commonplace—yes, however +unlovely were our lives—something somewhere of Jesus Christ. +</P> + +<P> +'Then some of us were privileged to discover that what he felt for us +was something far deeper and holier than is expressed by the word +"interest." It was love. In every fullest sense he understood the +grand full meaning of the word. His love for his friends was something +altogether larger and deeper and truer than is generally understood by +the word. It was so holy a thing that it is hard to write of it. He +knew, and the knowledge is perhaps rarer than is supposed, what in all +its fulness was the meaning of the love of one man for another. This +is why he could enter into the spirit of Tennyson's "In +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P46"></A>46}</SPAN> +Memoriam" +as almost no one else could. Tennyson's experience might have been so +entirely his own. His love for his friends was indeed a wonderful, +sacred thing, beautiful to see. With Henry Drummond he felt that it +was better not to live than not to love. Love was to him a part of all +his being: for in him dwelt "the strong Son of God, Immortal Love," +compelling him to love his fellow-men. +</P> + +<P> +'It was to him a real grief that (as he often quite wrongly supposed) +one or two of those, for whom he would quite willingly have cut off his +right hand if in any way it could have advantaged them, cared not at +all for him, nor ever understood how he cared for them. But he found +relief from the strange unsatisfied longing, engendered in him by this +belief, in intense continuous prayer for those whom he loved. He +prayed, it is certain, as few men pray. Prayer was to him the very +breath of life. And his prayers, like his life, must have been utterly +selfless. Many do not understand the amount they owe to his prayers. +Some of us may some day realise the magnitude of the debt; at present +it is not seen. But he prayed with all the effort of his being for his +friends: eagerly, passionately, unceasingly he prayed. "Pray for him, +believe in him; believe in him, pray for him," he was never tired of +saying to those who spoke to him of some disappointing friend. And his +own life was a proof of the power which lay behind such prayer. +</P> + +<P> +'To those reading this who did not know Forbes Robinson it may seem +that a man of such intensity of feeling and holiness of life would be +more likely +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P47"></A>47}</SPAN> +to frighten away than to attract to close quarters the +"average undergraduate" (whose existence he denied). This most +certainly was not the case. For, if there was in him something utterly +divine, he was also human as ever man could be. He admired, like the +veriest freshman, the physical strength and powers of the athlete. In +his presence the man of bodily attainments and strength of limb +experienced the strange sensation of being looked up to by one whom he +knew to be utterly superior to him. But perhaps nearly all who knew +him experienced this at one time or another; for he must have been one +of the most humble men that have ever lived. His humility was almost a +fault. It led him to depreciate himself so far. And yet how beautiful +a thing it was! He did indeed count all men better than himself. +</P> + +<P> +'He easily condoned offences which in some eyes, and especially the +eyes of dons, loom as a general rule heinous and large. And the +riotous undergraduate, who cuts chapels and lectures, found that a +don—yes, and a junior dean—could be a friend of his. +</P> + +<P> +'He possessed too a keen and real sense of humour. He could, and often +did, laugh with all his heart. He chaffed continuously his large +circle of undergraduate friends. When he was questioning a man in the +lecture-room, you felt that all the time he was half chaffing him. He +addressed us all in lectures as "Mr.," in a half serious, half amused +style. "It is the only chance for some men to retain any +self-respect—to address them as 'Mr.'"—he would say, after the +discovery of some more than usual piece of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P48"></A>48}</SPAN> +ignorance in his class +of "special" men; "for how can a man have any self-respect unless +addressed as 'Mr.' who does not know which are the Pastoral Epistles, +or who is the Bishop of Durham (then Bishop Westcott)?" +</P> + +<P> +'He could not remember the name of his best friend on occasions, and he +would recount with real glee how he had been known successfully to +introduce two men, not knowing the name of either. On one occasion it +fell to him to introduce to each other a low-caste West African native +and a particularly high-caste Brahmin rejoicing in a lofty sounding +polysyllabic title: of course he transposed the names—with results, so +he declared, almost fatal to himself. +</P> + +<P> +'He would display with humorous pride to his athletic friends a +photograph of himself coming in second in a toboggan handicap race at +St. Moritz, which he always maintained he morally won. He was full of +spontaneous humour. When he greeted you, when he looked at you, when +he talked with you, it was always with a half smile on his face. It +was his sense of humour which procured him a quick entrance into many a +man's life and heart. It was his sense of humour which made the +hostile undergraduate, hauled for cutting lectures or chapels, forget +his hostility and the presence of the don; though at the end of the +interview he, probably for the first time, began to think whether +chapel-going had any meaning, whether a lecture, if listened to, might +conceivably profit the listener. It was his sense of humour which made +all feel at home with him, which at the first attracted the most +unlikely men, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P49"></A>49}</SPAN> +which inspired with confidence the shyest, and made +the most frivolous and thoughtless not afraid of him. Yet while he +would laugh, and make us laugh, for as long as ever any one wished, +through all his unaffected merriment he made men feel the strange +earnestness of his life. And all knew that, while he never obtruded on +us religious or even serious matters, he was ready at a moment's notice +to speak with us of spiritual things. And most men felt something of +what a friend of his wrote of him after his death: "He understood of +'the things that matter' more than any man that I shall ever meet." +And many men who owe to Forbes Robinson their first serious thoughts of +and their first insight into "the things that matter" must feel the +same. It is this fact that makes it impossible to measure the +far-reaching deep influence of his life. For the greatness of that +life lay not in any large influence on any large body of +undergraduates, though the undergraduate life of Christ's College must, +as a whole, have felt his real influence; nor was his life great simply +because he was a scholar and a thinker. But his life was great, and +will for all time remain great, because it was an inspiration—there is +no other word: it was, and is, a lasting, vivid, real inspiration to a +few. What Bishop Westcott did on a large scale, Forbes Robinson did on +a small. He inspired men—inspired them to search for and hold to the +realities of life. +</P> + +<P> +'To sum up: a man admitted into the inner chamber of his life learnt +there something of these three things: (<I>a</I>) The value of his own +personality, (<I>b</I>) the meaning of love, (<I>c</I>) the power of prayer. +</P> + +<P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P50"></A>50}</SPAN> + +</P> + +<P> +'<I>a. The value of his own personality.</I>—A man, as he talked with +Forbes, was taught with increasing clearness the amazing possibilities +of life for any one who has tried to think what it means to say that +"this is I." Many of us, conscious in ourselves only of very ordinary +attainments, of no very high ideals, of weaknesses of character, learnt +from our friend that in spite of all this, our own personality was +God's greatest gift to us. We learnt from him that our own particular +commonplace life was, with all its failures and inconsistencies, a +tremendous enterprise, big with opportunities. He taught us this by +his belief in us. He held (again like Bishop Westcott) through +everything to the faith of "man naturally Christian." By his belief in +a man he forced him at last to believe in himself. For he taught us +that we were, each one, two men—the real "Ego" and the false—and that +the real self must in the end have the mastery over the false, because +that real self was the Christ. +</P> + +<P> +'<I>b. The meaning of love.</I>—It is impossible for lesser natures to +enter into all that the word "love" meant to Forbes. His love for his +friends was "wonderful, passing the love of women." He loved some men +with an intensity of feeling impossible to describe. It was almost +pain to him. If he loved a man he loved him with a passionate love (no +weaker expression will do). We undergraduates found our natures too +small to understand it. Yet, as we learnt to know him more and more, +we began too to learn a little of what real love is—we began to learn +what can be the meaning and the wonder and the power +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P51"></A>51}</SPAN> +and the depth +of the love of man for man. And we understood in time that his love +for us and his belief in us sprang from the same high source—from the +Christ in him, in us. +</P> + +<P> +'<I>c. The power of prayer.</I>—This last lesson explained the other two. +Perhaps only a few of those who knew Forbes as undergraduates learnt +it. Yet an intimate knowledge of him must have forced almost any man +to the belief that 'more things are wrought by prayer than this world +dreams of.' He prayed for those he loved, it is certain, for hours at +a time. All his thoughts about some men gradually became prayers. He +could not teach us everything that prayer meant to him; he could not +teach us to pray as he prayed. Yet through him one or two at least of +his undergraduate friends saw a little further into the eternal mystery +of prayer. And men must sometimes—with all reverence be it said—have +experienced in his presence the same kind of a feeling of some great +unseen influence at work as that which the disciples must have +experienced in the presence of Christ after He, apart and alone, had +watched through the night with God in prayer. For many an hour of his +life did Forbes spend like that, striving with God for those he loved. +He believed—he knew (this was his own testimony)—that he could in +this way bring to bear upon a man's life more real effective influence +than by any word of direct personal teaching or advice. So did he +prove once more that the man of power in the spiritual world is the man +of prayer. +</P> + +<P> +'These are the great lessons of Forbes Robinson's +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P52"></A>52}</SPAN> +life—lessons +which many a careless undergraduate learnt in a greater or less degree, +and, learning, caught from the teacher something of his passion for +life and love and prayer, for service of God and man. +</P> + +<P> +'There must be many who will not soon forget the lessons; there must be +many in whose lives the influence and inspiration of that saintly life +will be for ever a power making for holiness and high ideals of living; +there are, it is certain, very many who will thank God continually that +they were, in their undergraduate days, allowed to call Forbes Robinson +friend. +</P> + +<P> +'How many of us, when we heard with a shock of almost horror that he +had passed from us, conjured up before us the picture we shall never +see again—the picture of our friend sitting any evening at his table +in Darwin's historic rooms at Christ's, dimly lighted with candles! We +shall remember long the quick look up at our entrance, the half-smile +on his face, the welcome of a man's love in his eyes, however busy and +tired he might be. Then, though it cost him later hours out of bed, +the invitation to sit down, followed quickly by an indignant +remonstrance as we ousted his cat from the best arm-chair. And then +the talk that followed: sometimes almost trivial; sometimes (but only +if we wished it) deeply serious; sometimes—and these occasions were +precious—a kind of soliloquy on his part, as he spoke of God, of the +realities of life, of love, of prayer. Then, with still the same +half-smile, he would bid us "Good night," and watch us out of the room +with the same look of love in his eyes with which he welcomed us, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P53"></A>53}</SPAN> + +as he turned back to his table to work and think and pray far into the +night. +</P> + +<P> +'So many a one of us has left him again and again, to return to the +merry, careless, selfish undergraduate world a nobler, better man. And +now he has passed from us—"dead ere his prime" we should say, did we +not understand that somewhere the faithful, hopeful, loving soul has +better work to do. He is, as he ever was, "in Christ." He lives. His +life remains here and beyond. His faith in God, in prayer; his hope +for every man; his utterly wonderful, amazing love,—they still remain. +For <I>nuni menei</I> (nothing can rob us of the word) <I>pistis, elpis, +agape, ta tria tauta; meizpon de touton he agape</I>.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The above Greek phrases were transliterated as +follows: <I>nuni</I>—nu, upsilon, nu, iota; <I>menei</I>—mu, epsilon, nu, +epsilon, iota; <I>pistis</I>—pi, iota, sigma, tau, iota, final sigma; +<I>elpis</I>—epsilon, lambda, pi, iota, final sigma; <I>agape</I>—alpha (soft +breathing mark), gamma, alpha, pi, eta; <I>ta</I>—tau, alpha; <I>tria</I>—tau, +rho, iota, alpha; <I>tauta</I>—tau, alpha, upsilon, tau, alpha; +<I>meizpon</I>—mu, epsilon, iota, zeta, omega, nu; <I>de</I>—delta, epsilon; +<I>touton</I>—tau, omicron, upsilon, tau, omega, nu; <I>he</I>—(rough breathing +mark) epsilon; <I>agape</I>—alpha (soft breathing mark), gamma, alpha, pi, +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap054"></A> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P54"></A>54}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LETTERS +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To A. V. R.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Brislington Hill, Bristol: September 24, 1890. +</P> + +<P> +… I have been persuaded to try the Semitic Languages Tripos. I +have been learning German and Syriac a little this Long with that aim +in view.… I don't really know what to do. I am trying to do what +will best fit me for my future work. It is hard to know what is right. +</P> + +<P> +… The only thing I want is not to develop into a mere +bookworm.… The atmosphere of Cambridge so tends to deaden one, +and to make one unsympathetic with humanity; and yet the Church today +does so need men who know something, men who can express with no +uncertain sound the truth of Old Testament and New Testament criticism. +I want so to find out what the Old Testament is, and how far we can +believe in it, in its essential truth, in its historical accuracy. The +question can only be settled by scholars—by scholars filled with the +spirit of humility and understanding. It cannot be settled by the +so-called spiritual faculty alone, but only by the intellect guided by +the Spirit of Truth. +</P> + +<P> +I have been reading St. John's Gospel in Greek and Syriac, and more and +more I become convinced +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P55"></A>55}</SPAN> +that what it says is truth: +<I>zoe</I>—life—anything worth calling life—anything that can +last—anything that is of use here and hereafter—is to be gained alone +by actually eating and drinking the Body of the Son of Man. The +expression is awfully strong—the expression in itself. I am not +talking of all sorts of modern explanations of the expression. Take it +as it stands in the original: 'You have no life, unless you eat and +drink.…' +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The word <I>zoe</I> in the above paragraph was +transliterated from the Greek letters zeta, omega, eta.] +</P> + +<P> +I wish there could be a small Greek Testament reading in the College +for considering what the New Testament really means, apart from modern +interpretations. Is it possible to find out the true, original meaning +of that book, and to understand its problems a little and its +solutions? 'Quid importat scientia sine timore Dei?' +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To T. H. M.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Aldeburgh House, Blackheath: March 20, 1891. +</P> + +<P> +I am gradually finding out how ignorant I am of the meaning of the New +Testament, and how miserably I have read my own miserable notions and +glosses into the words of St. Paul. I am sure that the solution of the +greatest problems which concern humanity is to be found in his +Epistles, if we could only approach them without bias and with more +childishness. I feel certain that the Incarnation is the great fact of +the world's, and probably of the universe's, history. 'The Word was +made flesh.' +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +And so the Word had breath, and wrought<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">With human hands the creed of creeds</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">In loveliness of perfect deeds,</SPAN><BR> +More strong than all poetic thought.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P56"></A>56}</SPAN> + +<P> +The death on Calvary must have had effects far beyond this particular +world. 'He descended into hell.' He claimed His power over all parts +of His universe. The Good <I>has</I> conquered. The Bad <I>is</I> defeated. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To T. H. M.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: July 18, 1891. +</P> + +<P> +We have but lately heard that my missionary brother[1] has passed away +into the eternal world. He died in Africa. He gave up all, he gave up +his life for Christ. Terribly as we feel the loss, and shall feel it +still more, I cannot help thanking the Eternal Father that He has +accepted the life-sacrifice, and feeling that He calls upon us here and +now, each day and moment of our lives, to offer up ourselves on the +altar of universal thanksgiving. Life is sacrifice, renunciation: true +life is dependence on God. Sin is isolation, death—a failure to +recognise and act on our dependence. I do feel as I seldom felt before +something of the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, the +communion of the Spirit. We <I>must</I> learn that an individual hope, +aspiration, ambition, is against the law of the universe—the law of +self-sacrifice. We <I>must</I> learn that our wills are ours to make them +God's; that if we have a single hope or thought which He does not +inspire, which true humanity cannot share, the hope and thought are +wrong. God grant that you and I may renounce +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P57"></A>57}</SPAN> +our individual +lives, and become truly ourselves by martyrdom, by allowing the Christ +in us to live. +</P> + +<P> +I am to be ordained in September. Pray for me. There is no power like +prayer. Let us pray for one another. The great Father longs for +simple lives, simple piety, perpetual thanksgiving. And we have so +much to be thankful for—so much here and now. I do long to offer +body, mind, soul, affections, will, hope, to Him as a thanksgiving. +Self-renunciation, life in a Church, a Body, is the only life. God +grant we may live it! +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] John Alfred Robinson, formerly a scholar of Christ's College, who +died at Lokoja on the River Niger, on June 25, 1891. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To T. H. M.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: November 17, 1891. +</P> + +<P> +Do you know that it isn't a bad thing to feel a babe? We must all +become simple little children before we enter the kingdom of heaven, +because God, who lives in that kingdom, has the simplest heart in all +the wide universe—the most childlike, for God is Love. He has no +cross purposes. Though He is stronger and better and bigger than we +are, He is simpler. He will love a poor, simple old woman in His +simple way with a wonderful affection. He is so simple, because He +does not know what sin is. God never sins. God is Light, and in Him +is no darkness at all. +</P> + +<P> +It is this simplicity, this love of One who is omnipotent, uncreate, +illimitable, eternal, that makes me reverence Him, adore Him, live for +Him, love Him. +</P> + +<P> +Simplicity is wonderfully attractive. The man who knows least of sin +is most helpful to me, because +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P58"></A>58}</SPAN> +he is most simple and Godlike. The +'man of the world' is most repulsive, because he is most like the Devil. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To E. N. L., on the occasion of his ordination.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cambridge: March 10, 1892. +</P> + +<P> +It gives me great pleasure to think that on Sunday next you will be +made a Deacon in God's Church. I thank God that He has called you to +one of the highest offices on earth, that henceforth you will be 'in' +or (shall we say?) 'under' orders—God's orders—that you willingly +renounce your life, your thoughts, your hopes, your ambitions to Him. +You will probably hear much and be told much at this time. I have +nothing to say that you have not heard and will not hear said far +better by others. Our Church gives the keynote in the collect for +Sunday: 'We have no power.' I never realised my weakness, my pride, my +hollowness so much as I did at my ordination. God has been teaching +me, even in the short time since I was ordained, wonderful +lessons—lessons of strength being perfected in weakness. He alone +knows the depths of our hypocrisy, our vanity, our atheism, and He +alone can help us. To get nearer to Him, to know Him better—this is +what I want, this is eternal life. As we believe in a Person who is by +our side, who is helping us, training us, we shall be able to proclaim +Him to others. Do not mind about feelings. You may have beautiful +feelings at your ordination time. Thank God if you have. He sends +them. You may have none. Thank God if you have not, for He has kept +them back. We do +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P59"></A>59}</SPAN> +not want to <I>feel</I> better and stronger; we want +to <I>be</I> better and stronger. And He <I>has</I> made us better and stronger. +He has given us His Spirit as we knelt before the bishop. We must go +forth in that strength. We must use it, live on it, and it will be +ours. <I>Kata ten pistin humon genetheto humin</I>. When we feel most +hopeless, most wretched, most distant from God, remember 'feelings +don't matter.' Remember that God's Son felt the same temptation, +remember that He too was forsaken by His God. And when all seems lost, +Satan seems master, we are misunderstood; remember that 'I believe in +the Holy Ghost,' who is stronger than separation or death, than +feelings, than our hearts. All our feelings and thoughts and wishes +are nothing. God is everything and in all. All our conceptions will +be shattered, all our schemes overthrown, that a Great Person behind +may be revealed. To know, to love, to make known, to make men love +that Person is our work in life … +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek words in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: <I>Kata</I>—Kappa, alpha, tau, alpha; +<I>ten</I>—tau, eta, nu; <I>pistin</I>—pi, iota, sigma, tau, iota, nu; +<I>humon</I>—(rough breathing mark) upsilon, mu, omega, nu; +<I>genetheto</I>—gamma, epsilon, nu, eta, theta, eta, tau, omega; +<I>humin</I>—(rough breathing mark) upsilon, mu, iota, nu] +</P> + +<P> +We are men sent from God. We come to bear witness of a Light. Do not +let us confuse ourselves with our message. The message is everything; +we are nothing. The Light simply shines through us. We must be glad +to be shattered, rejected, if so be that the Light shining through us +may be manifested. +</P> + +<P> +One suggestion I make: that you do what I believe you are expected by +the words of the Prayer-book to do—say the Morning and Evening Prayer +daily <I>always</I>, unless you are ill, at home or in church, and the +Litany on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. You will find this a greater +help than almost anything else—a help against superstition, +narrowness, bigotry, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P60"></A>60}</SPAN> +heartlessness. If you decide not to do so, +do it with some <I>really</I> good reason, and not because others do the +same, or because it is a bother. +</P> + +<P> +And now good-bye. And may God grant us to know Him on earth, so that +we may together know Him better hereafter. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To W. A. B.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Blackheath: April 30, 1892. +</P> + +<P> +… No amount of philosophical theories are worth much compared with +a simple picture of home life. It is these common relations of life +which are most awful and sacred. The highest life we know is, I think +I may say with reverence, family life—life of Father and Son; family +life on earth is a faint picture of something better in heaven. We +shall be surprised some day to find that, while we have been searching +for the noble and divine, we have it all the while at home. The +relations of brother and brother, son and father, are eternal +realities, which we shall never fathom, for God Himself is below them. +'Omnia exeunt in mysterium,' as Kingsley says in 'Yeast.' I am very +pleased with that novel. The description he gives of the sufferings +and squalor of villages is positively awful. We do want men who +believe that self-sacrifice, not selfishness, is at the top of all, who +are sure that family life is made in heaven and is made in the image of +God's life, who know that in the present is the eternal, to go and live +and work and die in our villages. But Kingsley shows it is not enough +to give alms or other social benefits—we must do more than that, we +must raise their whole +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P61"></A>61}</SPAN> +life and condition. I believe myself that +this can only be done from inside. Thus, when God wished to redeem +man, He did it from inside. Man himself fought and conquered. Deity +entered into humanity. It is not merely that we must live simply, +think simply, work, as they do. That is well, but we must do more. If +we want to look at them from the inside, I know only one way—the old, +old way which God Himself adopts. We must love them, love the Christ, +the Spirit in them—not the beast, the devil in them. Like attracts +like. To love and to detect that, we must have some of that Spirit, +that Christ. +</P> + +<P> +That means to say that to help others from the inside, we must be right +inside ourselves. And yet none of us are right inside. But there is +that in us which is right, that in us which is not ourselves, but is +deeper than ourselves. A Son who will make us true sons, a Brother who +will teach us how to be brothers, a Human Being who will show us what +is in all human beings; a Love who will teach us what we always fancy +we know, but what we don't know (else we should be divine)—how to +love; a Man who will make us saints and gentlemen—the Man Christ +Jesus. Yes, and there is in us a Great Spirit who is uniting us by +invisible bonds to all that is good and healthy and Godlike, a Spirit +who disciplines our will when it is weakest and most self-indulgent, +who trains our spirit and fights our battles against the evil spirit, a +Person who makes us persons. How then do men differ? If in every man +there is the Light which lightens him, the Christ, the Spirit, what is +the difference between good and bad men? Does +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P62"></A>62}</SPAN> +a good man possess +religion, or faith, or love? No, the best men would tell you they were +possessed by faith and love, rather than that they possessed them. +What faith or love they have is not a possession—it is in them, not of +them, not belonging to them. It comes from the Christ in them. The +difference between men is not that one is inspired and another is not, +but that one yields to the Spirit, another does not. We begin to obey +when we lose ourselves in that Spirit and forget all but God. We ought +never to settle any detail in life without taking Him into account: we +are fools if we do. How can we be logical? For He is in that detail, +and not to think of Him is not to understand that detail. For every +detail is more than a detail—it is the expression of a Person. +</P> + +<P> +I have wandered into a train of thought suggested by 'Yeast,' and in +part copied directly from it. Forgive me. I was half thinking aloud. +That is my one excuse for saying what I am trying to think. +</P> + +<P> +I never played golf. I do that sort of thing by deputy. K—— is the +sort of man to do it for me. At any rate, I trust him with my football +and rowing. It doesn't tire you so much if you do it that way. Only +let me give you one piece of advice, which I only wish I acted upon: +'Don't do your thinking by deputy:' do your rowing, golf, football, +cricket, skittles, talking if you like, but not your thinking. +</P> + +<BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P63"></A>63}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To D. D. R; written apropos of a discussion on St. Paul's idea of the +relation between Sin and the Law.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +2 New Square, Cambridge; Monday before Easter, 1892. +</P> + +<P> +I cannot but help feeling that part of your difficulties are self-made. +Is there such a difference between Jewish law and law in general? What +is law—law in the abstract? What do you mean when you talk about laws +of science or morality? Surely there is no such thing as law in the +abstract. You really mean God's thought. All law existed long before +this world existed, as the thought of God. This thought expresses +itself, when the world is actually made, in animals, nature, man. But +this thought is somewhat long before it expresses itself, because it is +God's thought. With Him 'to think' is 'to do.' Before you and I were +born, before men were made, man exists in God as a thought. Each of us +is an expression of part of that thought. The whole thought is the +image of God, not any one part. Now, when I speak of man as something +in contra-distinction to men, I mean the thought of God in +contradistinction to its individual realisation. So when I speak of +law as distinct from special laws, I mean a thought of God as distinct +from its special expressions. Otherwise 'man' and 'law' are +abstractions and nonentities. +</P> + +<P> +The nominalist is right in so far as he denies that law as an abstract +thing (considered apart from a person—as his thought) is anything: the +realist is right in so far as he affirms that law, apart from +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P64"></A>64}</SPAN> +any +particular manifestation, is an eternal reality. The reconciliation of +nominalism and realism is found in God. Applying this to the case in +hand—you admit that the Ten Commandments are the ground of morality; +therefore, I say, they must be an expression of a thought of God, the +Author of morality. But you are puzzled to find that the most trivial +sanitary arrangements are considered by the Jew as equally a +manifestation of God. Need we be? In every little sanitary precaution +I recognise, or ought to recognise, an expression of that same mind as +I see it in the Ten Commandments. God is Light, therefore the clean, +the healthy, the decent is an expression of Him. God is Love, +therefore the social, the self-sacrificing, is an expression of Him as +well. But sanitary arrangements and the like, though an expression of +an unchanging principle, change according to state of civilisation, +climate, country. Therefore we take the principle, not the expression, +as the ultimate reality in the case of these sanitary laws. +</P> + +<P> +I am afraid I am rather stupid, and cannot make my meaning plain. I +want to show you that the Jewish law only differs from English law as +being in some ways a more complete expression of God's nature. But in +all sanitary law, &c., <I>now</I> we have God's nature expressed. And it +would be true to say, 'God spake unto England, saying'—<I>e.g.</I> in a +right decision in court; it would be true to say, 'God spake unto the +judge, saying.' Therefore, what holds good of Moses' law holds good of +all law, because all law is a thought of God. +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P65"></A>65}</SPAN> +Therefore St. Paul +uses indifferently <I>nomos</I> and <I>ho nomos</I>, for what is true of God's +thought is true of every expression of it. In fact, he more often +perhaps argues about one particular expression of it. Why? Because we +can only tell what the thought is by studying the expression. +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek words in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: <I>nomos</I>—nu, omicron, mu, omicron, final +sigma; <I>ho</I>—(rough breathing mark), omicron] +</P> + +<P> +Don't be taken in by abstractions. An ideal is nothing—worse than +nothing—unless our ideal is God's idea. Then it is the only reality, +because God's idea will take effect. His idea is to make man in His +image, and be sure it will take effect. Commandments, judgments, +statutes, mean much the same in the Old Testament, I conceive, as we +mean when we use them. The Ten Commandments are not so called in the +Bible, I think. They are called 'words,' I think. +</P> + +<P> +I do not think St. Paul at all restricted <I>nomos</I> to the Ten +Commandments. In fact, I don't know that he ever very clearly +separated those off from all the rest. +</P> + +<P> +Do not in your essay make the same mistake as many of the Jews in St. +Paul's time. Do not try to consider law apart from the Law-giver. +They looked upon law as a dead thing by itself, not as an expression of +the character of a person. +</P> + +<P> +Thus the Commandment about resting on the Sabbath day was considered by +them as an order as though from a tyrant. But God, when He gave it, +did not simply say, 'Here it is: do it'—but 'Do it because,' and He +gives the reason why. The reason is different in Exodus and +Deuteronomy, because the books were, to a certain degree perhaps, +written to +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P66"></A>66}</SPAN> +illustrate different aspects of God's character. +Exodus says: 'Work and rest, because God's life is work and rest. +Therefore human life made in His image is work and rest.' Deuteronomy +says: 'Work and rest. God has emancipated you from slavery. He bids +you rest.' In both cases God is the ground of the law. Study law—any +law—English law—and in so far as it is law, and not lawlessness under +guise of law, you will be studying God Himself; for if St. Paul's +principles are true at all, they must be true of all law. But, oh! +don't deal with abstractions, which sound well, but mean little. Let +us use what we have. It is a grand thing to know that the highest +ideal we can conceive must be realised, for the highest ideal must be +part of God's idea. +</P> + +<P> +Don't try to look at moral law apart from national life. St. Paul did +not. Law is seen in national life. A nation is a better expression of +God than an individual, because God is three, not simply one. He is a +social Being, a Being of relations. And nations will last for ever. +Law will always be seen worked out in national life. God has more +worlds than one. Each nation is a thought of God worked out in human +clay (cf. Jeremiah xviii. 1-6). Human clay lasts for ever ('I believe +in the resurrection of the body'). Law will always be worked out thus. +We are part of a thought of God—part of an English nation—little +fragments of a huge whole. Our immortality depends on the fact that we +are parts of a nation, parts of a Divine idea, which lasts for ever. +Law is more completely seen in conscious than unconscious life, because +God's life is conscious. Law is more completely seen +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P67"></A>67}</SPAN> +in family +and national than individual life, because in God Himself are seen the +archetypes of human relations. +</P> + +<P> +This letter is disjointed, but contains a few thoughts which may prove +helpful—thoughts I have been learning from others of late. +</P> + +<P> +We are having lovely weather. +</P> + +<P> +The buds 'feeling' after each other—new life and resurrection life—a +type, a pledge of fuller resurrection, of Easter life—nay, the same +Life—'I am the Resurrection and the Life'—working in trees and +flowers and man. What a glorious thing to live in a world which has +been united with its Maker—a world of perfect law and order—a world +where every infraction of law must and will be punished—a world where +Love is Law and Law is Love—a world where a great thought is being +realised, and will be realised in and for us! You use 'Theology' +loosely—'Theology' is <I>the</I> thing and 'Religion' is not, I think, +nearly such a fine word. Theology is the Learning, Knowing, Studying +God. I am sorry I have said nothing about Jewish sacrificial law. I +meant to. That expresses a great fact. It dimly hints (as sacrificial +law in other nations does) at the fact that the ground of the universe +is self-sacrifice—that the ground of all human, whether family or +national, life is a filial sacrifice. I think other nations besides +Jews regarded <I>all</I> law as coming from God; nay, I think all nations +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P68"></A>68}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To E. N. L., on the occasion of the death of his brother, who was +killed by lightning at Cambridge.</I>[1] +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +June 18, 1892. +</P> + +<P> +… I do feel for you, and could do a great deal to help you. I can +only tell you what I have felt to be the only thing which makes life +endurable at a time of real sorrow—God Himself. He comes unutterably +near in trouble. In fact, one scarcely knows He exists until one loves +or sorrows. There is no 'getting over' sorrow. I hate the idea. But +there is a 'getting into' sorrow, and finding right in the heart of it +the dearest of all human beings—the Man of Sorrows, a God. This may +sound as commonplace, but it is awfully real to me. I cling to God. I +believe He exists. If He does not, I can explain nothing. If He does, +all whom we love are safer with Him than with us. If we can only get +nearer ourselves to God, we shall get nearer to those whom we love, for +they too are in God. +</P> + +<P> +We shall be one, ever more and more really one, the nearer and the +liker we get to God.… My dear friend, words are poor comfort at a +time like this, when we see into eternity. A Person is our only hope, +and that Person is God. God often takes those whom He loves best home +to Himself as soon as He can. In the process of their development they +break through the bonds of space and time. He has taken your brother, +but not taken him away from you. We are +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P69"></A>69}</SPAN> +all in the same +home—praying for, knowing, loving each other… I believe in the +communion of saints—I believe that those who began to know God here, +and whom we call dead, are not dead. They are just beginning to live, +because they are finding out God: they are just beginning to know us, +because they see us as we are—they see us in God. They are with +Jesus, and Jesus is a human being. Because they are with a human +being, a man, <I>the</I> man, the Son of man, they must, they do, take a +deep interest in the affairs of the sons of men, and—may we not +believe?—in us, whom they knew below.… These are truths which +sorrow helps me to make my own. I pray that you may never, never 'get +over' the sorrow, but get through it, into it, into the very heart of +God. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] Writing to another friend at this time he says, 'He was walking +with a friend, and in a moment, without any apparent pain, "God's +finger touched him and he slept."' +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To A. W. G.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Blackheath: June 27, 1892. +</P> + +<P> +I have more and more come to the conclusion for some time past that the +only reality underlying and explaining the world must be personal. I +know that I am a person, and that it is persons—especially a few +particular persons—not things, who have influenced me and had a power +in my life. All my ideas of justice and purity and goodness are +inseparably bound up with persons. At last I have come to the +conclusion that nothing exists except the personal, and that below all +is One who is personal. That means to say that the world and things in +it are only real in so far as they are thoughts of God. We are real +only in so far as we are thoughts of God. A +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P70"></A>70}</SPAN> +Roman Catholic poet, +speaking of the Virgin Mary, says: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +If Mary is so beautiful,<BR> +What must her Maker be?<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I look round the world and I see persons who attract me in a wonderful +way—persons who are more gracious and simple than I am; and then I +cannot help feeling that they all are a kind of faint picture of One +who is better than all of them, One in whose image they are made. I +like, I cannot help liking, intensely some of them; and from them I am +led on to Him who made them and who therefore must—if I only knew +Him—be more attractive even than they are. I believe that we are +intended to rise from them to Him who made them, that if we stop short +with the creature, we lower ourselves—we become idolaters. We worship +beauty or intellect or goodness as though they belonged to the +creature; we thereby lower ourselves and the persons whom we worship. +If, on the contrary, we rise from them to the Personal Being, we see +more in them than we ever saw before, and we get nearer to them than we +ever got before. For life is a circle whose centre is God. Each of us +is unconnected with his neighbour, but connected with the centre from +whom he comes. The nearer the centre, the nearer we get to each other. +When we get to the centre, we really become united with each other. To +die is to get a step nearer the centre. The closer we are connected +with the centre, the nearer we are to those whom we call dead. Our +communion with them is spiritual, because 'God is spirit' and they are +in Him. But the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P71"></A>71}</SPAN> +spiritual is not the unsubstantial, the nebulous, +the gaseous; it is the personal—to my mind the awful—reality. The +more truly we understand persons, the more we shall find they are +spirits. +</P> + +<P> +I tell you what has been the greatest possible strength to me of late. +God is not merely a Person, He is Three Persons in One. I am always +trying to get closer to those whom I love best, to know them more, to +serve them better. Yet something is ever keeping us apart. I said +'something,' I mean 'some one,' for only a person can keep a person +from another—only a malicious, a devilish person—yet I feel that some +day I shall be able to love, and know them better. Then I look out on +life and I see how again and again death, and some one worse than +death, is separating us, misinterpreting motives, keeping men apart; +men are struggling to be one, and cannot be; on earth persons long to +be one, persons who love feel they ought to be, they must be one. In +heaven Three Persons are really, perfectly, quite One. What we are +trying to do has been done there. Men try to be one. God is One. And +the comfort comes in when one knows that 'in the image of God made He +man.' Our life is a copy; God's life is the original. Because God is +One, we, whose life is a picture of His, shall some day be one, as He +is. The unity of Deity is a pledge of the unity of humanity. +</P> + +<P> +The more we make our life like the original the more shall we realise +what we long to realise—truer, deeper, more eternal unity. But we are +not simply <I>trying</I> to be, we <I>are</I> one. All we have to do, I believe, +is to act as though we were one. We have +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P72"></A>72}</SPAN> +proofs of this unity. +We find ourselves doing an action which we should never have done +unless we had known some one. That one lives over his life, or part of +his life, again in us. So too we are living over our lives in other +people, perhaps in some who have passed into other worlds of fuller +activity than this. In living our lives over in each other, we show +that we are more than we thought; and it is grand to think how big our +lives may become in this way, for those whom we <I>influence</I>—into whom +our life <I>flows in</I>—in turn may influence others. When I get quite +quiet, and my mind is sane, and my conscience at rest, when I almost +stop thinking, and listen, I am quite sure that a Personal Being comes +to me, and, as He comes, brings some of His own life to flow into my +life. I am also sure that with Him come those who live in Him, that +all whom I have known or know, and longed or long to know better, who +were <I>worth</I> knowing, are near me, are, if I let them, living their +lives in my life, making me what I should not be without them. (These +are facts, of which I think I may say I have more certainty in the best +moments of my life than I have now that Switzerland exists. But I may +be exaggerating. Perhaps as regards the second fact—of the other +persons with Him—I may have spoken too strongly as regards my +certainty. It is so hard to say <I>exactly</I> what one means.) +</P> + +<P> +I don't know that these thoughts will be of much use to you. They may +sound somewhat too philosophical. But I have more or less purposely +put them in a philosophical form, because we are not thus so +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P73"></A>73}</SPAN> +easily led astray into vague pleasant feelings, which we sometimes get +from rhetoric. But I do wish I could put a little more of my feelings +into this cold paper, and cruel, unsympathetic ink. For what I have +written is not a mere philosophy of life; it is the only thing that +makes life tolerable for a moment to me; it is the one thing which I +intensely long to realise. To my mind life is love, and love is life. +Love is not sentimental affection, simply the readiness to die for a +person. But love is the laying down of life for a person, absolutely +renouncing your life for another. It means living the best life you +can conceive of for the sake of one you love; knowing for certain that +your life is flowing into that other person, though you may never see +him again in this world. Love is purifying yourself that another may +be pure. Love for one person, if it be true love, leads you at once to +God, for 'God is Love.' I do not know what that means, but I do know +that the little meaning I can see in it explains everything. As we +love, God is there; we see God, we are in God. So we are led on from +unselfish love on earth to that unselfish family life of Three in One +in heaven; we are led on to Him in whose image we are made, and whose +image we never so clearly reflect as when we love most. I could go on +talking on this subject almost for ever, but I think I had better not +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P74"></A>74}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To W. A. B.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: July 5, 1892. +</P> + +<P> +How very jolly for you to get out right away into the country! I hope +some day to be able to do the same. But I think, on the whole, <I>I</I> am +better suited for retiring from the world than you are! If it were right +to wish it, I might almost wish to exchange places with you. But yet I +don't. It is very curious—I dare say you have thought of it—how very, +very few people, if any, you would deliberately wish to change into, if +you could. One admires many people, and would like to have their +goodness, their intellect, or their beauty or strength—but how few of +them one would really be: to cease at once to be yourself, and suddenly +to be some one else—to look at life with <I>their</I> eyes, to have <I>their</I> +past, <I>their</I> hopes for the future, <I>their</I> sins, <I>their</I> inmost +thoughts, <I>their</I> anxieties. There is only about one man in the world, +whom I know, whom I would like to be—and even of that I am not sure. It +is the wonderful sense of personality. We abuse 'me'; we often vaguely +say we would rather be some one else; yet very few of us wish to lose +'me': and most of us perhaps never will. +</P> + +<P> +Liddon is, I should think, somewhat stiff and uninteresting. Gore's +Bampton Lectures on much the same subject are far more interesting to my +mind, far more human. Lectures IV, V, VI of Gore would perhaps interest +and educate you on the subject. +</P> + +<P> +Are you so sure that your course at Cambridge is 'over'? +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +I looked behind to find my past,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And lo, it had gone before.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P75"></A>75}</SPAN> + +<P> +You will find traces of that course, before you have done, in yourself +and in others for good or for evil. It is a good thing to think that +nothing good is ever 'over'—that whatever we do is done for eternity, is +part of ourselves and of others—that we live on in others, live on a +nobler life than we lived in ourselves. When we <I>influence</I> another, our +life <I>flows into</I> another: we live our life over again in him. The day +will come when we shall see more clearly into what we have been doing. +As yet we are like children playing with knives: they little know how +near they are to killing themselves at times. So we are playing with big +issues: we call them small and secular, we treat them as such—yet every +speck of dust is big with infinity. Would that we could see the Infinite +Being at every turn, then we should begin to live. You will get wrong in +all your plans unless you see them in Him, and Him in them, and correct +them as you see them thus—correct your thoughts to fit in with His +thoughts, not His thoughts to fit in with your thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +But you'll learn it is true. You'll understand later on why I am always +talking about a Person; why to know that Personal Being is life. +Meanwhile, thank you very, <I>very</I> much for what you have taught me. I +feel I am down in the bottom class of that school, but I am glad that I +have got into the school at all. Later on I may reach a higher standard, +and know the Teacher better. In that school the lesson each of us is set +to learn is love, and the name we are all trying to spell out is the name +of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Some of us, +perhaps, have learnt to spell one part of the name, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P76"></A>76}</SPAN> +some of us +another. But none of us have properly learnt to love one single person +as we ought; and few of us have learnt to see the Father's love in all, +the Son's grace in all, and the Spirit's fellowship in all. But patience +must have her perfect work: and if we work hard at our lessons, we shall +know more, love more, think in a simple way, and <I>do</I> more. But we must +not be learning merely from each other; the pupils must look away to the +Master of all in the centre, and as we all learn from Him and love Him, +we shall be more modest, there will be no competition—save who can love +most and sacrifice most—and do most for Him who has done all for us. +</P> + +<P> +This letter is hurried. Forgive it. Write again. Accept the will for +the deed. Think, think, think! +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To T. H. M.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Ivy House, Holkham: September 1, 1892. +</P> + +<P> +The sacraments are tremendous realities to me, just because they are a +living protest against all Popish, High Church, Low Church schemes of +thought—because they are a protest that man does nothing, God does +all—that everything is a sacrament of the grace of God. They explain +all life to me. They teach me what love means, for when man might least +expect it, love comes deluging in, and the outward and visible is +overwhelmed with the inward and spiritual. Oh, if bread and wine and +water are capable of being transformed into the highest means of grace +and hopes of glory; may not living, human, breathing persons—may not +those +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P77"></A>77}</SPAN> +I love—be sacraments as well? When we come near human beings +we love, we should come with the same feelings of reverence as when we +kneel at that altar, for we are coming to that which is part of God's +image—made in His likeness. And as we speak to them, when they answer +purely and simply, the Word of God speaks through them. This is not +degrading the sacraments—nay, but raising all human life—nay, raising +the sacraments as well, for it brings them into relation with real life, +and transforms the poor magical abstractions into eternal realities. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To W. A. B., who had told him that he had made up his mind to take up +school work till he was old enough to be ordained.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Holkham: September 3, 1892. +</P> + +<P> +A home circle reminds me, I think, more than anything else of that other +home, that other family—the home of a Father and of a Son, the family +circle of the Three who live in one unity. We should thank God for every +family circle on earth into which we are allowed to enter, and in whose +life He allows us to share—for any true family on earth—yes, and every +little child who is born into this strange world of ours is a sure and +certain pledge—a real sacrament—that God loves us still, has not +forgotten us, is giving us little glimpses into His own family life, is +making existence here a more perfect image of life in heaven. We should +come into such a family circle with the same feelings of awe as when we +bend on our knees to receive the Holy Communion. For here, too, we enter +into Holy Communion—the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P78"></A>78}</SPAN> +communion of simple, human, happy family +life; here, too, we approach a sacrament, outward and visible signs of +happy, quiet, home life—the signs of an inward and spiritual grace—the +grace which lies below and interprets all human grace in man and +woman—the grace of our dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. True, that +grace is but little realised in the best of families—little consciously +realised in the noblest life. But, oh! surely a human family—brothers +and sisters in a home on earth—are a sure and certain pledge that this +grace does exist—that God is—for here we have an exquisite though +imperfect copy of the family life of God. Thank God when you see a good +or a beautiful man or woman, a pure and a simple family—thank God, +because it is a revelation, a manifestation, an unveiling, a copy, a +likeness of Himself. For though beauty often is proud and trivial, yet +it is a manifestation of Him from whom all beauty comes, in whom all +beauty dwells, by whom all beauty exists. And so not only thank—pray. +Pray to Him that the outward and visible may be ever more and more but an +expression of something inward and unseen and spiritual. For beauty, +grace, intellect, everything is doomed, unless it is sacramental—unless +it draws its life from God below, unless it lives but to testify of Him +who is. +</P> + +<P> +It is an awful problem—a beautiful face with no true moral beauty +below—splendid physical grace with no deeper grace beneath—a strong, +capable intellect which is not the expression of a noble soul. What does +it all mean? How in a world, where the outward and visible is but a +manifestation of the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P79"></A>79}</SPAN> +good God, can such awful anomalies exist? +Partly it is due to the law that goodness is rewarded to a thousand +generations (Exodus xx. 6. R.V. margin, cf. Deut. vii. 9), while +wickedness is visited upon the third and fourth—that is, that one who is +beautiful in body or intellect, and who knows God, leaves the blessing of +such beauty long after him to descendants who are little conscious of the +reason of its origin, and who have little thought of God. +</P> + +<P> +Beautiful eyes, where there is no beauty of soul beneath, are the eyes of +others, long since dead, looking at us still—men who served God in their +generation. An exquisitely touching voice, where there is no music in +the life of the one who possesses it, may be the voice of one who knew +God, and left his legacy for a thousand generations. But still the +problem remains. In many cases the outward and inward seem divorced. +Now let us not try rashly to solve the problem ourselves. We are +inclined when we see such beauty to say, 'It is no use talking. I am +quite sure, whatever you say, that there must be some fine traits in the +character of one whose face is like the face of an angel, whose voice is +sweeter than that of the sons of men.' We may be, I believe we are, +partly right—at least in many cases, for the spiritual powers of those +who are gone may still in part live on in their descendants. But often, +if we are candid, we must admit that apparently the outward and visible +are separated from the inward and spiritual, that we have outward beauty +and grace which is no sign at all of anything deeper—nay, that the very +spiritual qualities, of which it is the sign, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P80"></A>80}</SPAN> +and which may once +have existed in the person, have been used for the vilest ends. This +being the case, we are still left with the problem, Is the outward and +visible not intended to be a sign of something deeper? Here it is not a +sign. Why not? Will it ever be so? To put the case in its short, +simple, concrete form, how can a 'flirt' exist when by all the laws of +the universe beauty should surely be a sign not of instability, +insipidity, unspirituality, worldliness, shallowness, hypocrisy, but of +the Supreme? +</P> + +<P> +I cannot answer this question. I doubt whether any man can. But I can +show you where its ultimate solution must lie. It lies in the +sacraments. Yes, they are the answer to the whole problem. They tell us +that the outward and visible—the commonest objects, water, wine, +bread—may be the signs of something which is deeper than anything we +know. And they tell us more. They are to my mind a sure and certain +pledge that some day the outward and visible shall really correspond to +the inward and invisible. For, remember, this world lasts for ever. The +good lasts, and is purified by fire. The evil alone is consumed. The +sacraments are a pledge to me that some day upon this world our longings +after a correspondence of the inward with the outward will be +fulfilled—how, God only knows—probably not in the way we expect, but in +a way far, far better. For His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His +ways are not our ways. When therefore you are utterly bewildered and +perplexed by finding so much that is attractive which seems utterly +divorced from God's life; when you find yourself that the outward and +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P81"></A>81}</SPAN> +visible in your own life—the words you say, the actions you do, +tend to become absolutely different from your real inward life; when you +feel that every one is a hypocrite, and you are the worst of all, kneel +down at that wonderful service, and take what is the one power of making +outward and inward correspond, of making our words a true index of our +thoughts, our actions a true presentation of our lives; kneel down and +pray that all you love may enter more and more into the meaning of that +service, that they too may flee from self to One who is stronger than +self—to the power which is capable of transforming our actions—to the +power which raised Christ from the dead, and is capable of raising us up +also. Then you will gradually be taught that all life is of the nature +of a sacrament—that all food is to be taken because thereby we have +health and strength to manifest forth the grace of God in a too often +graceless world—you will be taught lessons which I cannot even suggest; +for God knows so much more than any of us what unsearchable riches He has +as an inheritance for us. Let us enter upon that inheritance. God has +called us to be saints, called us, chosen us—chosen us before the world +was made—He has chosen us that in us, through us, He might manifest +Himself. It is not humility that prevents us recognising the fact. It +is our selfishness and stupidity. For the very fact that He has called +and chosen you and me and all His Church before we were born shows that +everything comes from Him. <I>We</I> are utterly worthless and vile, but when +united, as we <I>are</I> united to God, we are transformed into His +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P82"></A>82}</SPAN> +image, we partake of His life. Only let us be what we are—sons of God. +</P> + +<P> +In regard to those words, 'I looked behind to find my past, and lo it had +gone before,' I do not know whether you are right or wrong about the +Greek idea. The past <I>has</I> gone before us, we are always coming upon it. +Some day we shall be confronted with it. Every day that we live we are +making something that we shall meet again. The only way to get unity +into our lives—to make it possible to look back without sentimental +repining or an awful sense of dread—is to get God as the centre, God as +the foundation. As we look back then we shall find days 'linked each to +each by natural piety'—we shall see that our life forms a connected +whole a real progress, something worth calling life. +</P> + +<P> +… Do you know that the best way to strengthen your best thoughts is +to try and express them? Get them out; you help others, you help +yourself. Don't be careful of the grammatical accuracy and the finish of +your sentences; I don't think St. Paul was. I was thinking to-day that +perhaps a man who never wrote letters never could appreciate St. Paul. +He was a great letter-writer. Copy him. Read him. Read him fairly +quickly. Get into him. Find out his motive power, his real meaning. +Read the Greek, not from a critical point of view only, but read the +Greek. Do not trouble too much about the dictionary and accurate +translations, but keep reading and perhaps saying aloud the Greek. St. +Paul knew so much of God. Read him, and as you read, a greater than St. +Paul will come into you, interpret +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P83"></A>83}</SPAN> +him, explain him. St. Paul +himself will be with you, I think, trying to show you what he meant, and +what he has found out that he means now. +</P> + +<P> +But do write me a proper letter. We are just beginning life, and we have +so much to learn from and to teach each other. Everything is new to us. +Everything is strange. Already it seems to me I have been trained in a +hard school—harder, I hope, than you will ever need to be trained in—to +understand what God and love mean. I seem to have had a rough time of +it, perhaps rougher than most; and even now I am trained in a way which +is not attractive to me, trained to throw myself not on any merely human +love, but on Him who is perfectly human and perfectly divine. May God +train you in a less rough school, if possible! But at any rate, may He +train you—train you to get out of self, bring you into deeper +sympathies, stronger attachments, simpler earnestness! He alone can give +unity to all our thoughts and desires. He alone can give stability. And +we poor little creatures, who seem to have twice as much affection as we +have mind, how we do need that stability! We want not to be blown hither +and thither by every manifestation of strength, beauty, brain—we want to +be able to enter into the meaning of what we see and cannot help +admiring, without becoming the slaves of the visible and the finite. We +must build on the one foundation that is laid. We must lay our +affections deep down in the man Christ Jesus. As we see Him in men—and, +when we cannot see that, see men in Him—we shall be more stable, less +childish, less fickle. We never go deep enough. We skim over +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P84"></A>84}</SPAN> +life. +We must get into its heart. We must never begin an affection which can +have an end. For all affection must draw us into God, and God has no +end. The moment we see any one whose strength, grace, goodness, beauty, +or simplicity attracts us, we have deathless duties by that person. For +the attraction is the outward sign of a spiritual connection—a sign that +we ought to pray for that person, to thank God for the manifestation of +His character, which we see in a riddle, through a glass in that life, +that human life. +</P> + +<P> +And then we shall be prepared to realise deeper relationships, more +wonderful mysteries of love—to see with clearer eyes the heart of the +Supreme. We cannot make relationships too spiritual. We cannot be too +careful to see them in God and God in them. Think what it is to see a +relationship <I>in God</I>, to see it existing there in His life, as His +thought, long, long before we were born, long before we had an idea that +we were intended to realise it. What a new light on old +relationships—brother and brother, brother and sister, father and child, +husband and wife, all thoughts of God, all being gradually entered into, +appropriated, realised, understood, worked out by us. They seem so +common and natural, and yet they are intensely awful and sacred and +mysterious. And then think what it is to see <I>God in them</I>—to see One +from whom all family life flows, penetrating those whom we have never +properly learnt to love and those whom we love as much as we can. God in +them—all that is good and attractive—not their own, but God's. The +eyes which seem to be +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P85"></A>85}</SPAN> +contemplating something which we cannot see, +the face which lights up at times with another than human light; the +eyes, the face, a realisation and expression of that Being who is at once +human and divine, God and man. Why, this is bringing heaven down to +earth, this is a realisation in part of the holy city coming down from +heaven. For as we think of them, above all as we pray for them, we are +led beyond them, we forget our own selfish interests in them, we are +brought out from the 'garden' life of individual souls into the 'city' +corporate life of a great human society, a family, the Church of God. We +should live, we should die for Christ and His Body—the Church—the +fulness of His life, who is filling all in all. We must cease thinking +and praying for ourselves and for others, as though we were alone. We +are all part of one great society. Around us—nay, in us—are others, +some whom we can see, some who in the course of development have burst +the bonds of space and time and matter, all one, one, for ever one. We +all have one common Lord, one common hope, one common life, one common +enemy, one common Saviour, who is working through us, in us, in those +whom we least understand, in those in whom we should least expect it, in +those who are almost repulsive to us, in all—working out one big purpose +through the ages, the purpose of the Eternal. +</P> + +<P> +Remember me at my ordination as priest, please. Remember me, for I need +it so much, you do not know how much. It is such an important time, and +I cannot understand or enter into its significance, as I long to do. +Discipline, discipline, discipline, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P86"></A>86}</SPAN> +self-discipline—obedience to +'orders.' Oh! how I long to have the power to realise these! Pray for +me that I may; that you may, pray also. Be very strict with yourself. +Compel yourself to obey rules. You are hurting so many besides yourself +when you are not strict with yourself. For we are 'one body.' You are +injuring those whom you like best, for you have less power over them, +when you have less power over yourself—less power to influence, to pray, +to thank for them. +</P> + +<P> +Do remember how marvellously sacred a schoolmaster's work is: it is not +enough to be able to play games—how I sometimes wish I could!—it is not +enough to be able to teach Latin and Greek: a schoolmaster should be so +much more. He represents the authority of God. He can be <I>so</I> much, he +may be <I>so</I> little to boys. We can never enter into a boy's life, into +his deepest thoughts, his 'long, long thoughts,' unless we too become +little children, unless we become young and fresh and simple—and all +young life comes from Him, who makes all the little children who ever +come into this big world. Let us enter into His life. Do not become a +schoolmaster simply to fill up time, to have something to do. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To W. A. B.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: November 20, 1902. +</P> + +<P> +… I am glad that you like your school, that you like your +boys.… Think of the weak chaps, those who are 'out of the way,' +those who are not naturally +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P87"></A>87}</SPAN> +attractive, those who positively repel +you. They often most need your sympathy, your prayers. +</P> + +<P> +And now about your ordination. Do you know I am doubtful whether it +would be a good thing for you to be ordained to a school chaplaincy. I +am almost more than doubtful. You would, I suppose, have no parish work, +nor anything to do with poor folk. Your work would be reading prayers, +and preaching about three times a year, I suppose. You would scarcely +care to be a curate in a country or poor town parish later on, would you, +if you began thus? But, after all, I must not, I dare not, advise you. +I can only point you to the Being who alone can advise us. The great +thing is to renounce all plans, all thoughts of self, to give up all we +are and expect to be, to come into His presence, and then to ask His +advice. Or rather we must come to Him like little helpless children and +ask Him to <I>help</I> us to renounce planning and arranging with <I>self</I> as +goal—to beg Him to give us strength to give up all. +</P> + +<P> +The great thing is to get the life where we shall develop best all our +powers—viz. the life in which we shall have most opportunities of +sacrifice. Can you get, can you <I>use</I>, opportunities of self-sacrifice +in your school life? Can you get fuller and better elsewhere?… Of +course, if you find that you have more influence over boys than you would +be likely to have over other folk, that might alter the case. Have you +found that you can influence them more for good than you would be likely +to influence others? +</P> + +<P> +Our one work in life must be to advance God's glory, God's kingdom. The +time is short. The night +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P88"></A>88}</SPAN> +soon comes. The great problem is how to +do most in that short time; how we ourselves can best lose ourselves in +the little time that we have for losing ourselves. 'He that loseth +himself, findeth himself.' +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To D. D. R.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +14 St. Margaret's Road, St. Leonards; January 10, 1893. +</P> + +<P> +I have been thinking to-day of that strange statement 'I no longer call +you slaves … but I have called you friends.' To understand any one +you must be their friend: you are able then to judge their life from the +inside, to see why and how they do what they do; all their actions which +seemed disconnected and purposeless before are seen to be part of a plan, +to have an end, a goal. We cannot understand the riddle of life, the +necessity of all the details in the great scheme of redemption, the +reason for certain means of grace, the real significance of the hope of +glory, while we are slaves. The whole appears so purposeless, such waste +of energy, such unintelligible and irrational self-sacrifice. Why must +the Christ suffer? Why could not sin be overcome in a less costly way? +Why is the victory of the Christ so incomplete? Why do some, who are +better than we, take so little interest in the eternal? We cannot answer +these and a thousand other questions while we are slaves. All is a +hopeless enigma, a play without a plot, a novel with no plan. But become +a friend of a man and all is changed. Each act in his life, each thought +in his life, each word from his lips—they have not ceased to be a +problem, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P89"></A>89}</SPAN> +they are ten thousandfold more wonderful than they ever +were before: they are still a problem; but there is, there must be, we +feel, a purpose running through the whole. We have but one object—to +understand him more, to see what divine ideal he is trying to work out in +all the details of his common life. Each detail is important; each +thought, however wayward, must be recognised and understood. All are +seen in the clear, dry light of eternity; each is seen in something like +its right proportion. We feel that his life is our life—nay, more +interesting than our own miserable life—that if we are ever to know +ourselves we must know him first. So, too, become a friend of Him who +alone is, and all is changed. Gradually, perhaps painfully, yet surely, +as we become like very little children, the meaning of the whole dawns +upon us. We see it all: we see that it could not be otherwise: we cannot +say why, but we are quite sure that we see it—at least, we see a little +way, and where the light ends and it begins to get dark, we feel that it +is all right beyond—that He who is with us in the light will be with us +in the darkness. We are no longer slaves, doing His will because we +must. We are friends, and we cannot help taking deep interest in all +that He does. His acts, His thoughts, His words, they are still a +problem—we cannot make them all out. But they are the same kind of +problem as a friend is—a strange exquisite torture. We do not know what +the whole of his life means; he can do things which we cannot, and which +we rejoice to know that we can never do. We only see one side of him +ever, and the rest is only known to God. +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P90"></A>90}</SPAN> +And yet we <I>do</I> know part +of his life, and we are content to know no more; what we know is good, +and what we do not know or understand must also be good. We judge from +what we see what that must be which we cannot see. We do not wish it +otherwise. We feel that it would be impious to try and understand him +fully, for is he not connected with God Himself? So we see one side of +the life of the Eternal; but we are friends; we do not wish it otherwise. +We cannot understand Him—we never can. And yet 'I have called you +friends.' His main purposes we see: the plan by which He realises them +we see in part. And as we know Him better, we shall be able to track His +footsteps even where we did not expect to find Him. We shall learn that +His methods are simpler and better than ours, that His thoughts are +surer, deeper, higher than all our schemes and plans. I am constantly +finding that ordinances, customs, beliefs, which I used to despise as +strange, antiquated, or useless, are yet the very ones which I need, that +my fathers knew better than I my needs, that above all God Himself had +provided institutions and customs, and had waited until I was old enough +to learn their use and to bless Him as I used them. So, as we know a man +better, we feel that we must pray for him and his the more. As we become +the friends of the Word, we feel we must pray that His will may be done +ever more and more—His purposes realised by us and ours. Let us then +not begin by criticising the world and God; let us first be the friends +of God, and then in the light of undying friendship and prayer begin to +criticise. +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P91"></A>91}</SPAN> +We must be the friend of a man before we understand his +life; we must be the friends of Jesus Christ before we understand His +life now upon earth. +</P> + +<P> +I used to skate: I don't now. I obey herein one of the great maxims of +my life: 'If you want to get a thing well done, <I>don't</I> do it yourself.' +I consider that K——, in this as in other similar pursuits, performs the +ancient and 'sacred duty of delegation.' I have no doubt that he does it +admirably. Why must people try what they can't do well? Why not leave +it to those who like it and can do it well? The wretched +public-school-boy conception of dull uniformity is an abomination to me! +If K—— does the walking, you do the thinking; G—— does the dandy, +M—— the grumbling, S—— the jack-in-the-box, G—— the running, M—— +the philosopher, and D—— the little vulgar boy—allow me to do what +after all is the hardest of all tasks, 'to do nothing gracefully.' (I am +afraid that I begin by trying 'to do nothing—gracefully,' but end by +'doing nothing gracefully.' You see the difference!) I believe in +division of labour—let each man do what he is made to do best—and those +who feel their vocation to be nothing but receiving the results of the +labour of others—why, let them try to do it with the best grace they +can! Forgive me if such be my case. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To J. L. D.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: May 15, 1893. +</P> + +<P> +I think you are right in believing in the intense worth of sympathy. But +'sympathy' is the Greek +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P92"></A>92}</SPAN> +as 'compassion' is the Latin form of +'suffering together with.' He who has suffered most has perhaps the most +power to sympathise; not simply to pity or console, but to go right out +of self and to get right into another, to see life with his eyes, to feel +as he feels. If, then, you find many of those among whom your lot is +cast almost incapable of sympathy, may it not be that they have not yet +learned the meaning of suffering? They may not have had so many +opportunities of suffering as you, or, if they have had as many, they may +not have found any one to interpret to them what it all meant. Thank Him +from whom all sympathy comes if you have known anything of the sufferings +of life, anything of the worries and disappointments and delays and +unsatisfied ambitions which so many have; if you have known these—known +their inner meaning, and have been led out and beyond your own into that +wider life of suffering, and have learned what it is to fill up in your +turn <I>ta husteremata ton thlipseon tou Christou</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The above Greek phrase was transliterated as +follows: <I>ta</I>—tau, alpha; <I>husteremata</I>—(rough breathing mark) upsilon, +sigma, tau, epsilon, rho, eta, mu, alpha, tau, alpha; <I>ton</I>—tau, omega, +nu; <I>thlipseon</I>—theta, lambda, iota, psi, epsilon, omega, nu; +<I>tou</I>—tau, omicron, upsilon; <I>Christou</I>—Chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, +omicron, upsilon] +</P> + +<P> +One hates to see others whose centre is self. Their whole life looks so +mean and low. Life over, the Ego alone left; and what a poor, wretched, +snivelling creature after all—this what we pampered, this what we thrust +forward for others to admire and flatter! If we were not in much the +same case, we might be able to view it in others with somewhat different +eyes. And yet do you know that, as a matter of fact, our Ego is +dead—self is not—and the devil's greatest lie is to make us believe in +this self? For do not you and I belong to One stronger than +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P93"></A>93}</SPAN> + +self—One whose own self may live in us—does live in us—whether we +recognise the fact or not? We died years ago to self when He claimed us +for Himself, and we rose again to a selfless life in Him: <I>zo de ouketi +ego, ze de en emoi Christos</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The above Greek phrase was transliterated as +follows: <I>zo</I>—zeta, omega; <I>de</I>—delta, epsilon; <I>ouketi</I>—omicron, +upsilon, kappa, epsilon, tau, iota; <I>ego</I>—epsilon, gamma, omega; +<I>ze</I>—zeta, eta; <I>de</I>—delta, epsilon; <I>en</I>—epsilon, nu; +<I>emoi</I>—epsilon, mu, omicron, iota; <I>Christos</I>—Chi, rho, iota, sigma, +tau, omicron, final sigma] +</P> + +<P> +We act a lie whenever we make our Ego instead of His Ego the centre. If +He is our centre and our goal, then be sure our Ego will begin to live, +because it is 'grounded' and rooted in His. Any trouble and anxiety that +leads you out of self to the Infinite Ego, that makes you feel helpless +and lonely and in need of a Human Helper and a Human Comforter, thank God +for it. He is teaching you to cast yourself upon One who is perfectly +human because perfectly divine. He is teaching you that you are not your +own; that long, long ago yourself died: <I>ei oun sunegerthete to Christo, +ta ano zeteite</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The above Greek phrase was transliterated as +follows: <I>ei</I>—epsilon, iota; <I>oun</I>—omicron, upsilon, nu; +<I>sunegerthete</I>—sigma, upsilon, nu, eta, gamma, epsilon, rho, theta, eta, +tau, epsilon; <I>to</I>—tau, omega; <I>Christo</I>—chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, +omega; <I>ta</I>—tau, alpha; <I>ano</I>—alpha, nu, omega; <I>zeteite</I>—zeta, eta, +tau, epsilon, iota, tau, epsilon] +</P> + +<P> +Thus we are led to understand something of the meaning of our Christian +names—to see that they are living pledges to us, whatever we do, +wherever we go—that Christ's name is called upon us—that when tiny +little children we were brought home to the Great Ego in whom alone our +Ego can ever find satisfaction—to feel that we are His and He is ours. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To J. L. D.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: October 9, 1893. +</P> + +<P> +The step which you contemplate taking is one with far-reaching +issues—reaching away through time and beyond it. I advise you to try +and gain a general idea of the meaning of the first half of St. Paul's +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P94"></A>94}</SPAN> +second letter to the Corinthian Church—to try and enter into its +general spirit. Few things will humble you more: you will see something +of the unspeakable dignity of the office of him who represents God to his +fellow-men, and of the tremendous enthusiasm and love which a man must +have if he would be the minister that St. Paul would have him be. I do +not know what St. Paul means when he says that we are ambassadors on +behalf of Christ: but the more I think of what the words seem to mean, +the more I am startled at the awful responsibility that we have laid upon +us. To represent Christ, to treat with men, to attempt to arrange—if +one may so speak—terms, to use all our powers in performing the work of +the embassy—this at least is involved in the words. What strikes me so +much in the letter is the manner in which St. Paul literally loves the +Church; how he longs to communicate his own enthusiasm to it; how he +would die, almost does die, himself to bring life to them. All his hopes +are bound up with theirs—his salvation with their salvation. He seems +to 'fail from out his blood, and grow incorporate' into them. We are +called to the same office as St. Paul, we have the same power working in +us as he had working in him: we too shall have success in so far as we +love—as we identify ourselves with those whom God has given us to take +care of. The more we are disciplined and yet enthusiastic, the more +capable shall we be of love—of getting out of self—of working our way +into others—of representing the Christ to them—of understanding and +making allowances for them—of seeing them in the ideal, the only real, +light in +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P95"></A>95}</SPAN> +which God sees them—seeing them in the Christ, in whom we +live—mind that, with all your intellectual training, you don't forget +the other. Now is the time to learn, to force yourself to learn, to +pray—to pray not for a few minutes at a time, but to pray for an hour at +a time—to get alone with yourself—to get alone with your Maker. We +shall not have to talk so much to others if we pray more for them. We +talk and we do not influence, or we influence only for a time, because +our lives are not more prayer-full. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To J. L. D.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Aldeburgh House, Blackheath, S.E.: December 16, 1893. +</P> + +<P> +I cannot help thinking of you both at this time. It means so much to you +both—more than either of you dreams that it means. The issues of your +Ordination day are very far reaching indeed. They stretch away and +beyond this world in which we now are. The rush of school work and of +preparation for examination has probably not left you as much time as you +could have wished for thinking over what it all means. I hope you will +have more time after the service is over. But you may be comforted in +the thought that the last few years have been a definite preparation for +your life-work. Though you must regret, as you never regretted before, +misuse of time and powers in the past, yet you have had an education +which has in some degree prepared you for this time, an education for +which you may thank our common Master. But this +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P96"></A>96}</SPAN> +thought by itself +would be but a small comfort. For you must feel, if you are the man I +take you for, how unworthy you are to be what you are called to be. Now +there are two ways of dealing with this feeling. You may say, 'I am not +called to be an absolute saint; but I will try to reach a fairly high +standard;' or you may say, 'Yes, I am called to be an absolute saint. I +will not lower my ideal. I will comfort myself with that single word +"called." If He has called me, He will do in me and for me what He +wills.' This second way is the true way of dealing with feelings of +unworthiness and unfitness. You and I are utterly unfit. But we are +both called—called from our mother's womb—called to be saints and to be +ministers. He who called us will help us. With man the call seems +quixotic, impossible; with Him all things are possible. At times when +the call is loudest we can but reply, 'Ah! Lord, I am but a little +child.' We are intensely conscious of feebleness and, what is worse, of +treachery and meanness within; we half love what we are called upon to +denounce; we play with the sin we are to teach men to abhor. Yet the +call is sure, is definite, is perpetual, and again and again you will in +all probability find what a help it is to look back to that day in which +the call took formal shape. You have that as a definite fact to rest +upon, to reprove, to encourage, to urge to renewed effort, to force you +to be true and energetic. +</P> + +<P> +One thing you must learn to do. Whatever you leave undone you must not +leave this undone. Your work will be stunted and half developed unless +you +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P97"></A>97}</SPAN> +attend to it. You must force yourself to be alone and to pray. +Do make a point of this. You may be eloquent and attractive in your +life, but your real effectiveness depends on your communion with the +eternal world. You will easily find excuses. Work is so pressing, and +work is necessary. Other engagements take time. You are tired. You +want to go to bed. You go to bed late and want to get up late. So +simple prayer and devotion are crowded out. And yet, T——, the +necessity is paramount, is inexorable. If you and I are ever to be of +any good, if we are to be a blessing, not a curse, to those with whom we +are connected, we must enter into ourselves, we must be alone with the +only source of unselfishness. If we are of use to others, it will +chiefly be because we are simple, pure, unselfish. If we are to be +simple, pure, unselfish, it will not be by reading books or talking or +working primarily, it will be by coming in continual contact with the +ground of simplicity, purity, selfishness. Heaven is the possibility of +fresh acts of self-sacrifice, of a fuller life of unselfishness. You are +a man and a minister in so far as you are unselfish. You cannot learn +unselfishness save from the one Source. Definite habits of real +devotion—these we must make and keep to and renew and increase. Then we +shall gradually find that we are less dependent on self—that even in the +busiest scenes we dare not act on our own responsibility—that, be the +act ever so small and trifling, when we are in difficulty we shall +naturally, inevitably, spontaneously turn to that place whence help alone +can come. But it is a wonderful help again and again to feel that we +have been +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P98"></A>98}</SPAN> +alone with Him, that we are not working on our own +responsibility, that He is the 'Living Will' that rises and flows +'through our deeds and makes them pure.' +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To D. D. R.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +8 Alexandra Gardens, Ventnor: Jan. 2, 1894. +</P> + +<P> +While holding as firmly and unreservedly to the belief that a revelation +is a possibility that has actually been realised, I am becoming more +aware of the partial and limited view which any single individual can +have of the significance of such a revelation; and with this conviction +comes a desire not to hinder by any words or prejudices of mine the +education of one to whom I owe more than I at present know. Yet, as I +believe that no individual life is beyond the wise ordering of a Divine +economy, I am sure that he must have lessons to learn from me as well as +I to learn from him. Hence I dare not refrain from suggesting to +him—often in answer to questions that he puts to me—sides of truth +which, as I believe, I have been allowed to apprehend. The knowledge of +truth (in however small a degree) is a trust that we hold for the sake of +others. What I fear for him and for you—for you even more than for +him—is not that you will form wrong opinions on religious or ethical +subjects, but that you will lack that moral earnestness that forces a +man, whether he will or not, to look the facts of life in the face, that +deadly earnestness that refuses to allow us to contemplate creeds as +works of art, but forces us to ask whether these things be so. Life as a +whole must be faced. What has induced men to +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P99"></A>99}</SPAN> +believe this and that +tenet? Why have men craved for a knowledge of an unseen Being? Why have +systems of priestcraft arisen? How is it that those who most revolt +against such systems are slaves to other systems bearing different names, +but in substance the same? Is there a Deliverer? Is there a unity +beneath all this confusion? Can man know such a unity if there be one? +Can such a unity be revealed? Has it been revealed? Why do men think it +has been revealed if it has not? While I am slow to force upon those +whom I most respect and love lessons which I believe that I have slowly +learnt in a school in which perhaps they have not been, and never will +be, educated, yet I am sure that I cannot be wrong in praying for them +and in urging them to be increasingly earnest in the search for and the +practice of truth. You are a man in so far as you live. You live in so +far as you are self-sacrificing. You are self-sacrificing in so far as +you unswervingly practise the truth you know and follow after that which +you do not yet apprehend. And I am sure, if there be a unity beneath our +lives, if there be One who is educating us when we are most wayward, we +shall eventually be led by, it may be, very different paths to a single +goal. Meanwhile each failure to be earnest, each relapse into +sentimentality, unmanliness, morbidness, despair, unreality, laziness, +passiveness, may itself be a discipline, making us utterly mistrust +ourselves, whether at our worst or at our best, and forcing us to inquire +whether there be any help elsewhere, any power that can sweep through our +lives and force us to be human. +</P> + +<P> +For this reason I would impress on you the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P100"></A>100}</SPAN> +necessity of trying to +think out your position, of asking yourself how you may be most human and +best serve God (if, indeed, you believe that this is possible) and your +generation. There are around you social forces making for good. Ought +you to be—nay, can you be—isolated? Does isolation give greater +strength? Does it enable you to do more or to be better? These +questions are not merely suggested by me. They have already suggested +themselves in one form or another to you. I am frightened of their not +receiving the attention they merit. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To T. H. M.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +8 Alexandra Gardens, Ventnor: January 3, 1894. +</P> + +<P> +The fact that you have not all the sympathy and manly help and advice +that you could wish for from those around you will, I trust, force you to +depend with simpler confidence upon the unchanging Ground of all human +sympathy. You will, I hope, take all these experiences without grumbling +as a real and necessary stage in your education; remembering that if you +find yourself repining at the distressful circumstances in which you are +placed, you may be dishonouring Him who has placed you where you are. I +do not, of course, mean that such reflection will make you condone and +excuse the lukewarmness of others, but you will grasp the truth that God +uses even the sin of this world as an instrument in the education of His +people, and that you yourself may have your character formed partly +through the faults of others, for whom you are still bound to pray. +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P101"></A>101}</SPAN> +This great Christmas festival that is past must be a power to us in +the year that is coming on. We must enter into and be penetrated by the +Life that has been manifested. For it is life that you and I need. Our +own puny individualistic life of morbid self-consciousness and +sensibility must be transformed by the fuller Life in which all may have +a share; and thus we shall come to think less of ourselves, our +successes, our failures, what others think about us and what others ought +to think about us—we shall forget all this because we shall share in the +Universal Life, which penetrates through all and which makes men forget +themselves and their ills, and be pure, simple, healthy, unselfish. And +this life has been realised and men have seen it, and it is still with us +to-day. In so far as we share in it we shall become natural, unaffected, +human. Nay, more. Because the life there manifested is divine as well +as human, we shall realise also with fuller force what it is to be a +child of a Father who is in heaven. It is life, not a system, that we +need. It is life which is given us when we are adopted as sons; it is +life that we receive when the Source of all life gives us Himself to feed +upon; it is life that Christ bestows upon us when we gradually realise +our position as members of a society in which no man can live for himself +alone. Life is life in so far as it is unselfish. May He who has called +us and given to us all our privileges teach us to live out that which we +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P102"></A>102}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. S. H.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cambridge: August 4, 1895. +</P> + +<P> +Life will not be the same without having you up here. I am very +dependent upon others, and I soon begin to be downcast if I have not +some one to help or to be helped by. But happily He who takes away is +the same as He who gives, and His great heart of affection understands +our manifold and seemingly contradictory needs. Life would be +intolerable if we had no one who knew us perfectly, not simply the +outside part of our life, but that inside and apparently incommunicable +part. Those who are least able to express themselves in words, or who +(if they did express themselves) fear that they would be misunderstood, +find in Him an unspeakable consolation. But I must not look at things +from the individualistic standpoint. No problem can ever be solved +until we have in some measure realised that the Life which flows +through us is larger than our own individual life. We get morbid, and +our reason becomes warped, when we think of our own future alone. +Every obstacle in our path, every interruption to the course which we +have planned for ourselves, every rough discipline, tells us that our +life and future are not our own, that they are intimately connected +with a larger life, a greater future. I have been thinking of those +words—so like Jesus Christ to have uttered them—<I>me merimnesete</I>. We +are always anxious about a set of circumstances which will soon be upon +us—engagements which we tremble to meet. Jesus Christ tells us, <I>me +merimnesete</I>. I believe that work in the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P103"></A>103}</SPAN> +present world would be +far more free and effective if we would obey the command. We cannot +enter into life as it comes, because we are living in an imaginary +future. The man of God lives in the present; he leaves the future to +God, <I>me merimnesete</I>. If God has conducted us so far, He will not +leave us. It is easy to talk, hard to act. I think we gain the power +to act, we gain the calm peace of God, by compelling ourselves to +remain at certain times in His presence. Habits of prayer are slowly +formed, but when formed are hard to break. Talking may be a great +snare when it takes the place of prayer—and how easily it does! It is +easier to talk with a man than to pray for him—in many cases. +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: <I>me</I>—mu, eta; <I>merimnesete</I>—mu, epsilon, +rho, iota, mu, nu, eta, sigma, eta, tau, epsilon] +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. S. H.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Clovelly: September 11, 1895. +</P> + +<P> +I am reading 'The Newcomes': have you ever read it? I find it hard to +appreciate Thackeray as much as some people do. Occasionally he says +some very true things and shows that he is acquainted with human nature +in its brighter and darker aspects. But, on the whole, the story of +marriage and giving in marriage—selling your daughter for money or a +title—the picture of young men who sow their wild oats and then repent +and marry innocent ladies and live virtuously and die in the odour of +sanctity—on the whole the story does not seem to correspond to the +ideals which haunt me, even though I do not act up to them. Surely +life is something utterly different from all this. Surely somewhere +there is a picture of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P104"></A>104}</SPAN> +human life, somewhere in the mind of God +Himself, where the young man grows up without any harvest of wild oats, +with clear and unselfish ideals, with a longing to make the world purer +and diviner than he found it, a picture which is in some measure +realised around us to-day. May God deliver us not only from vicious +but from selfish thoughts! I believe Thackeray saw something of that +picture, but he didn't draw it with the colours I could have wished. +There is a solemn text in Ezekiel, which came in the lesson lately, +'The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of +his transgression.' Past religious experiences are of little value +without present righteousness. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To his cousin G. F.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Clovelly, N. Devon: September 12, 1895. +</P> + +<P> +I am in perhaps the quaintest and one of the loveliest villages in +England, just doing nothing, and enjoying the simple life around me. +You would like this village, with its one steep, narrow, picturesque +street, the great sea far down below, the little stone pier jutting out +and helping to form a small harbour. Then on either side of the +village are woods reaching down to the cliffs—beautiful woods, where +oaks, and in places heather, are glad to grow. St. Paul says in the +lesson to-day that the things which are seen are temporal, but the +things which are not seen are eternal. And one feels how true are his +words—how the trees, woods, flowers fade and die; how the old sea +wears slowly away the cliffs; how men and +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P105"></A>105}</SPAN> +their dwellings pass +away; how all these things which are seen are temporal; and yet the +beauty, the love, the joy, the purity, are more permanent than the +particular manifestations of them are. The beauty which is manifested +in the country around is eternal. The life which is seen in man has a +future beyond this world. +</P> + +<P> +As we enter in behind the veil, as we see that life and love which are +expressing themselves in objects around us, we are already in the +eternal, in that which endures. +</P> + +<P> +It is not, as we are constantly thinking, the things that are <I>present</I> +which are temporal, and the things that are <I>future</I> which are eternal. +No; the things which are present have an eternal side to them—the +unseen side. +</P> + +<P> +The man who is a slave to the seen has least of the eternal about him: +the man who despises not the seen, but who through the seen rises to +the unseen, is partaking of eternal life.… +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. S. H.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cambridge: October 23, 1895. +</P> + +<P> +Let me congratulate you on the way you ran against Yale.[1] I was +delighted to read of your 'romping' home!! … It seems to me that +every unfulfilled longing is no accidental part of life. The longing, +in so far as it is genuinely human, is derived from Him in whose image +man is made. When it is hard to see why it is not gratified, yet we +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P106"></A>106}</SPAN> +may confidently believe that this is part of our training. Is it +not a noble work to enter into and, in some measure, bear the burdens +of other men's lives, even if they have only imperfect sympathy with +ours? May we not sometimes even learn more in this way—or at least +learn different lessons—than if they were so similar to ourselves that +they could at once understand us? I am afraid that you have a hard +struggle before you. You must take care not to act upon first +impressions, or impulse—not even if those impressions are +favourable … your best 'pearls' must be used carefully. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] In the international athletic sports in U.S.A. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. S. H. on his going to a curacy in Liverpool.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cambridge: October 18, 1896. +</P> + +<P> +In some respects I am glad to hear of your change of plans. I think +you will be more in your element working in a poor part of a large +town.… Our dean has just been preaching on the words 'One soweth, +and another reapeth.' It is a help to realise the continuity of work. +We enter into the work of many a man who has passed away, and who, +while he worked, often despaired and thought that he was achieving +nothing. No work is lost. The obscure and petty—these are relative +terms. We use them, but we are told on the best authority that there +is nothing secret which shall not be made manifest. The consciousness +of the continuity and perpetuity of work quiets and calms us; we need +not hurry over anything. When we have left off sowing, others will +reap. God give us grace to work, for the night +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P107"></A>107}</SPAN> +cometh when no +man can work. I am so sorry that I have not been able to come up and +see you. But we are working in the same field, though it is too large +across to see one another! +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To C. T. W.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +St. Moritz: February 1898. +</P> + +<P> +Two new toboggan runs have been opened: one is a Canadian run on soft +snow without turns, short and sweet; the other is part of the Crista +run, an ice run, which I suppose is quite the finest in the world, with +splendid corners. When it is all made it will be about a mile in +length.… In a noisy salon it is difficult to collect my scattered +thoughts. Music and other atrocities are in full swing; and as I +seldom use my brain now, the works are rusty. I wish you could see +this country in winter.… A male rival of The Brook has appeared. +He is impressed with the dust and dampness of the atmosphere—takes out +trays to toboggan on into Italy—sprinkles water on his bedroom floor, +because he considers a damp atmosphere conducive to sleep. So far we +have not fallen out altogether with one another; some of us are on +speaking terms. We only confidentially discuss whether so-and-so has +come here for his mind. We have an archdeacon, a canon, a curate, two +captains; one Plymouth-brother-like, who takes most gloomy views about +the future of us, or most of us, including the parsons; the other very +noisy, who attempted the Canadian toboggan run which is supposed to be +safe for ladies and +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P108"></A>108}</SPAN> +children, and swears that he almost broke his +neck. He had an upset and went head foremost into the snow, and, +according to his own account, had to be dug out. If he had been a +heavier man, I understand that he would have broken his neck. As two +accidents have occurred there, it is not absolutely safe.… This +place is a splendid pick-me-up. I am a reformed character—go to bed +between 6 and 10.30 P.M. I was detected last night cheating at cards. +But reformation to be effective requires time. Give up, I say, one bad +habit at a time, and then tackle the next. I have given up early +rising as being the most patent of my evil practices. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To J. K.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: August 19, 1898. +</P> + +<P> +.… I am sure that we have need to learn not only in the school of +health but also in the school of sickness. These breaks in life, and +the sense of helplessness and weakness which attend them, are not +simply periods to be 'got over'—to be made the best of till we can +'start again'—but they have a meaning which we can find, if we only +look with the eye of faith. It is strange how, although God sees the +whole way in which we ought to go, He leaves us in comparative +darkness. We need, I am sure, <I>revelation</I>. 'Lord, open the young +man's eyes, that he may see.' We shall take the wrong turning if we +trust to our ordinary eyes; we shall find the path if we have the eye +of faith to see what God is revealing.… And now at this time I +need your prayers. I have—and +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P109"></A>109}</SPAN> +this, I need hardly say, is +private—an invitation from the Bishop of —— to come and lecture to +theological students, whom he hopes to gather round him. Of course the +scheme is rather in the air so far. He has not yet got the men. But +he has an attractive power, and he might on a smaller scale do some +such work as Vaughan used to do for men who did not go to definite +theological colleges. Will you pray for me that I may go if I ought, +and not go if I ought not, please? +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Our wills are ours, we know not how,</SPAN><BR> +Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To J. L. D.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cliff Dale, Cromer: October 3, 1898. +</P> + +<P> +I do not belong and I never have belonged to any of the societies or +guilds which you mention. I am a member of a Church. For that reason +I dare not join any party. In fact, I cannot understand what 'parties' +have to do with a Church. The Church by its very existence is a +witness against parties and divisions. It will take me more than a +lifetime to learn what it is to be a member of a Church; and no one can +learn the lesson while he persists in clinging to a party. He must be +a member not of a <I>part</I> but of a <I>whole</I>. I therefore have no time to +waste in joining a party. +</P> + +<P> +I feel strongly that the various societies and guilds, based upon +<I>party</I> life, are eating away the very life of the Church. But I am +slow in condemning my neighbour for conscientiously joining any such +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P110"></A>110}</SPAN> +society. He may only be able to see one side of truth, and it is +better—far better—that he should see that side than nothing at all. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To the mother of his godchild, Margaret Forbes.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +April 12, 1899. +</P> + +<P> +It is such a joy to me to be allowed to be her godparent, and I shall +remember her often in my prayers. What a wonderful revelation she must +be to you both—making the Heavenly Home a fuller reality than ever +before! It is through earthly relationships that we realise the +meaning of the unseen world. I like those lines of Faber: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +All fathers learn their craft from Thee:<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">All loves are shadows cast</SPAN><BR> +By the beautiful eternal hills<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Of Thine unbeginning past.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To his mother.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Rouxville, Orange Free State; July 8, 1899. +</P> + +<P> +It is a strange and somewhat terrible study in religion—this Boer +religion. It seems to have little or no connection with morality. +Kruger seems to have amassed great wealth by doubtful means. A man +comes to him and offers him, say, 8,000<I>l.</I> on condition that he may +have the right to sell mineral waters. Mrs. Kruger comes in and counts +the money; and if it is right, the concession is granted. Yet he is +religious, very religious. A short time ago they wanted to fire shells +into the low-lying clouds during a time +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P111"></A>111}</SPAN> +of drought. The clouds +gather, but they will not break. Firing shells was found to have a +good effect in bringing the rain. But Kruger stopped it because it was +wrong to 'fire shells at the Almighty.' You would think that a little +state like this might be an ideal one with its simple scattered +population of farmers. But it is by no means so. Corruption and +injustice are only too prevalent. At the start off they were +unfortunate in their choice of President. The state was at war with +the Basutos at the time when he was elected; and three months after he +was made President he had to be deposed, because he was discovered +selling arms to the Basutos. +</P> + +<P> +The Dutch don't treat the natives as well as we do. Yet in some +respects their laws are wise. A native may not live in the Free State +without doing some definite work, unless he pays a tax of 5<I>s.</I> a +month: this is, I think, a wise rule. +</P> + +<P> +We had two very nice services last Sunday at the English church; I +preach twice to-morrow. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To C. T. W.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Durban; July 1899. +</P> + +<P> +I write to congratulate you most heartily on your First Class.… I +believe you will find in a year's time that whatever your work may be, +contact with others—the necessity of influencing and guiding +them—will be a tremendous help to you in your own life.… +</P> + +<P> +Good man! I am delighted to think that you may see the Bishop of +Durham. Prophets' eyes are +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P112"></A>112}</SPAN> +needed out here to catch the glory +which must be slowly—so slowly—gaining on the shade. There is so +much materialism, so little refinement and spirituality. +</P> + +<P> +I had a grand voyage: only three people rescued from drowning before I +got on board, and two stowaways after we left Madeira, and two or three +days of rough weather. I enjoyed it.… +</P> + +<P> +I had afternoon tea, or rather coffee, with Uncle Paul. He is a +strong, fine old man. He was sitting puffing away at his large pipe. +It was after a long day's work in the secret Volksraad. He was tired. +'It is hard work,' he said, 'for the head.' The State attorney, a +young Christ's man, explained to him that 'we were both at the same +school in England.' Kruger was eloquent on the subject of the +Petition. He told me that some of the 21,000 had died three years +before they signed it, and some had signed it owing to a bottle of +whisky. 'And I want you to let that be known in England' (I know +anything said to you will circulate—by experience). He said, did the +subtle old man, that he wanted to do what was right and fair +irrespective of nationality. +</P> + +<P> +This Transvaal question is complicated. I thought it easy at first. +But now I can see no moral grounds of any sort for a war with the +Boers, in spite of their iniquities. There is a great deal to be said +on their side, and much iniquity concealed under such specious phrases +as 'Imperialism,' 'Supremacy of Great Britain in South Africa.' I +cannot see that we have a real cause for war, but it is a big question +with many sides. If England goes to war and wins, she +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P113"></A>113}</SPAN> +will have +her work cut out. 'Can she afford,' said the Attorney of the Transvaal +to me, 'to have a second Ireland at the distance of some 5,000 or 6,000 +miles from home? What if she had war in India? +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To W. A. B.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Lucknow Lodge, Berea, Durban: August 22, 1899. +</P> + +<P> +I thank my God in my prayers on your behalf for His goodness in +granting you His best gift—a human soul to love and to inspire. +Together you will be able to know and love Him better than either of +you could alone. You cannot make your love too sacred; as you know God +you will learn to know one another. +</P> + +<P> +We are inclined to think that we know all that love means. The truth +is, we are only beginners. Thank God that we are in the school, +although only in one of the lowest forms. He will teach us, as years +go by, to sanctify ourselves for the sake of another. We have not +learned to love until we are living the highest possible life, in order +that the object of our affection may become a saint. God is giving you +a present, the value of which you see in part now, you will realise +fully hereafter. You must wrestle with God for her and for yourself. +If you are true to the highest, both of you will rise together and see +God. If you are not, she may not be able to mount alone. +</P> + +<P> +I am filled with joy and hope as I think of you both. I believe that +you will live for God more completely now than ever before, and that +you will be a fuller blessing to your people. You have my prayers. +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P114"></A>114}</SPAN> +I want you to make your ideals higher and higher. Then, when you +have gained one height, you will find that what you took for the summit +from the plain was not really so: there were further peaks beyond. +</P> + +<P> +It is the beginning of an endless life. If God Himself be the centre +of all, the nearer we are to Him, the nearer we are to one another. I +<I>am</I> glad that your wife is one who shares in your ideals, who lives +for the highest. What a life in store for you here! And there— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">Before the judgment seat,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Though changed and glorified each face,</SPAN><BR> +Not unremembered you will meet<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">For endless ages to embrace.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +You will be nearer the centre then, and nearer to one another. +</P> + +<P> +May God Himself bless you, dear old fellow! Forgive this poor attempt +at a letter. I share in your joy, although I am not actually with you. +I never remember any wedding outside my own family which has given me +greater pleasure. It was good of you to ask me to be present—very +good. +</P> + +<P> +B——, I <I>am</I> glad. You must thank God and ask Him to tell you what it +all means, and for her sake live as good a life as you possibly can. +</P> + +<P> +With best love I am your friend, +</P> + +<P> +FORBES. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To a Friend after hearing of his intended ordination.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Durban: August 1899. +</P> + +<P> +Your ordination will be like my own over again. It is unutterably good +of God … to put it into +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P115"></A>115}</SPAN> +your heart to live the life which I +had prayed might be yours. <I>Meizoteran touton ouk charin, hina akouo +ta ema tekna en te aletheia peripatounta</I> … +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: <I>Meizoteran</I>—Mu, epsilon, iota, zeta, +omicron, tau, epsilon, rho, alpha, nu; <I>touton</I>—tau, omicron, upsilon, +tau, omega, nu; <I>ouk</I>—omicron, upsilon, kappa; <I>charin</I>—chi, alpha, +rho, iota, nu; <I>hina</I>—(rough breathing mark) iota, nu, alpha; +<I>akouo</I>—alpha, kappa, omicron, upsilon, omega; <I>ta</I>—tau, alpha; +<I>ema</I>—epsilon, mu, alpha; <I>tekna</I>—tau, epsilon, kappa, nu, alpha; +<I>en</I>—epsilon, nu; <I>te</I>—tau, eta; <I>aletheia</I>—alpha, lambda, eta, +theta, epsilon, iota, alpha; <I>peripatounta</I>—pi, epsilon, rho, iota, +pi, alpha, tau, omicron, upsilon, nu, tau, alpha] +</P> + +<P> +… If your temptations are great it is because your nature is rich +and noble; and when it is disciplined you will have tremendous power. +I shall not be content until your every thought is led captive to 'the +obedience of the Christ.' You are born to be a saint, and you will be +wretched until you are one. You are not the kind of man who can do +things by halves. +</P> + +<P> +I think I have told you of my father's words spoken during his last +illness: 'If I had a thousand lives, I would give them all—all to the +ministry.' You will not regret your decision. If angels could envy, +how they would envy us our splendid chance—to be able, in a world +where everything unseen must be taken on sheer faith, in a world where +the contest between the flesh and the spirit is being decided for the +universe, not only to win the battle ourselves but also to win it for +others! To help a brother up the mountain while you yourself are only +just able to keep your foothold, to struggle through the mist +together—that surely is better than to stand at the summit and beckon. +You will have a hard time of it, I know; and I would like to make it +smoother and to 'let you down' easier; but I am sure that God, who +loves you even more than I do, and has absolute wisdom, will not tax +you beyond your strength.… I'll pray for you, like the widow in +the parable, and I have immense belief in prayer.… You remember +what was said of Maurice, 'He +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P116"></A>116}</SPAN> +always impressed me as a man who +was naturally weak in his will; but an iron will seemed to work through +him.' That Will can work through you and transform you, but for God's +sake don't trust to your own will.… +</P> + +<P> +If you are ordained it will be because there is one who in St. Paul's +words—<I>ho aphorisas me ek koilias metros mou</I>—was separating you from +birth and educating you with a view to the Gospel of Christ.… +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Tasks in hours of insight willed<BR> +Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.[1]<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] Matthew Arnold, <I>Morality</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: <I>ho</I>—(rough breathing mark) omicron; +<I>aphorisas</I>—alpha, phi, omicron, rho, iota, sigma, alpha, final sigma; +<I>me</I>—mu, epsilon; <I>ek</I>—epsilon, kappa; <I>koilias</I>—kappa, omicron, +iota, lambda, iota, alpha, final sigma; <I>metros</I>—mu, eta, tau, rho, +omicron, final sigma; <I>mou</I>—mu, omicron, upsilon] +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +To his mother. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Estcourt, Natal; August 18, 1899. +</P> + +<P> +General Gordon came to Kokstad on his way to Basutoland. When he +arrived he went to the Royal Hotel, ordered a room, threw open the +window, and spent two hours in prayer and meditation. The next day was +Sunday. He asked Mr. Adkin what was being done for 1,000 Cape Mounted +Infantry then stationed there, and when he learnt that nothing was +being done for their spiritual food, he burst into tears. On Monday +morning the first telegram which he sent off to the Cape Government was +a request that a chaplain should be appointed. Mr. Adkin was appointed +and remained chaplain until the force was disbanded. General Gordon +went on to Basutoland, and had wonderful power over the natives. He +told them that no force would be brought against +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P117"></A>117}</SPAN> +them; he himself +was without weapons. He was settling the country, when news came to +him that the Cape Government was, contrary to stipulation, sending an +armed force against them; so he left the country in twenty-four hours. +</P> + +<P> +Cecil Rhodes was once at Kokstad. When he was near the place, he lay +down on the hillside and exclaimed: 'Oh, how I wish they would let me +alone—let me stay here!' However, he had to go down to be fêted. He +was listless, and bored by the banquet, until the present mayor began +to attack him violently in his speech, and to complain about the Cape +Government, and to express a desire that Natal would take them over. +Then Rhodes woke up with a vengeance and gave them a great speech. +Ixopo is where Rhodes started out in South Africa. His name still +figures on the magistrates' books—fined 10<I>l.</I>, for selling a gun to a +native. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To his cousin, J. C. H; on the occasion of the death of his brother.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +December 7, 1899. +</P> + +<P> +You know, without my saying it, that you have my deep sympathy and +prayers at this time.… We dare not and cannot sorrow as do others +who have no certain hope. Our sorrow is of another kind. For I am +quite sure that +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">In His vast world above,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">A world of broader love,</SPAN><BR> +God hath some grand employment for His son.[1]<BR> +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P118"></A>118}</SPAN> +How real it all makes that other world, to have our own brothers +there! It makes it in a deeper sense our home. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] Faber, <I>The Old Labourer</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To the mother of his godchild, Margaret Forbes.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Dore House, St. Leonards: January 10, 1900. +</P> + +<P> +I am so glad to feel that my little godchild will have real training. +I don't know how far I received such a training myself at an early +age … I came towards the end of a large family. The only +permanent instruction which I can remember imparted to me by my nursery +maid was a caution not to look behind me when I passed people in the +street, enforced by the biblical precept, 'Remember Lot's wife.' I +know what a fascination I had to look behind, accompanied by a terrible +dread of the consequences. +</P> + +<P> +I have always felt that Faber's 'God of my Childhood' describes the +normal and true development of a child's life. I am sure that, +although the gravity of sin should be early recognised, greater stress +should be laid upon the Fatherhood and kindness of God. I was noticing +to-day, when reading the second lesson, how Westcott and Hort have +placed the clause in the Lord's Prayer which speaks of the Fatherhood +of God in a line by itself as a heading to the whole prayer, putting a +colon after the clause, and beginning the first petition with a capital +letter. The prayer begins with 'Fatherhood' and ends with a reference +to 'Sinfulness.' I think this fact is significant. We may not all be +intended to come to +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P119"></A>119}</SPAN> +know religious truth in that order. But I +think we are intended, when we do know it, to lay even more stress on +the Fatherhood of God than on our own imperfections. It is a wonderful +and terrible thing to watch the development of a human spirit. We can +understand so little about any life, even when it is near and dear to +us. But I am not sure that we cannot learn more about others than we +can about ourselves. I never think it is profitable to study oneself +too closely! I never could meditate with any profit on my sins. But +there, I dare say, I differ from many others. +</P> + +<P> +Well, I hope that the hair of my godchild is growing, and that she has +now more than her god-father. His is coming to an untimely end. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. S. H; who had recently become a chaplain in the Navy.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +St. Leonards: January 11, 1900. +</P> + +<P> +I am thinking of you in your new, difficult, and interesting life, and +wondering how you like it. Or, rather, I am sure that you like it in +its main features. There are in every life drawbacks and +discouragements, for we live by faith and not by sight, and faith must +be perfected in the midst of perplexities and contradictions. The +mists are useful. It would not do to have brilliant sunshine all the +time. For in that case, where would faith come in? Steering towards +our port in the fog means trusting the Pilot. 'Mercifully grant that +we, which know Thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition +of Thy glorious Godhead.' I suppose that none of us fully +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P120"></A>120}</SPAN> +knows +what this prayer means. I think that there will be more need of faith +hereafter than we usually think. Can we ever apprehend the Father or +the Son without faith? The deepest truths are grasped by faith not +sight. The man who has learned to exercise faith here will have fuller +scope for his faith hereafter. What a shock to wake up in the next +world and to find that the riddles of life still need faith for their +solution! Yet I imagine that it will be so. Only faith will be able +to go deeper than here. The faith perfected in the mists of life will, +in the sunshine of eternity, see deeper into the meaning of events. I +wish I had more faith. Not sudden flights of faith annihilating time +and space and rising up to the throne of heaven. But I wish I could +ground all my actions on faith, and regularly see the invisible and +live as one who could see always and everywhere the Unseen. We are +schooled in different ways. We cannot attain to perfection in a night. +As we advance in the Christian life progress seems slower. In some +sense it is so. It is easier to cast off a number of definite bad +habits clearly inconsistent with the ideal just at first, than to +perfect self-sacrifice, humility, and self-discipline. But we are +advancing, though we know it not. If the engines are always kept +working, we shall reach our goal! +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To C. N. W; who had recently been ordained.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +St. Leonards-on-Sea: January 12, 1900. +</P> + +<P> +You must remember how much your future efficiency is dependent upon a +judicious use of your +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P121"></A>121}</SPAN> +strength during the next two or three +years. I am sure you are right in looking back upon your life and +tracing in its developments a higher than human guidance. It is a +helpful thing to trace now and anon God's hand in our individual life. +It brings Him nearer to us, and it is an awful thought that He is +actually working within us. It makes us trust Him for time to come +even when the prospect is gloomy. I think that we do well to spend +some time in trying to interpret details of our past life. As years go +on, we should have such a firm faith founded on the rock of experience +that we will not be lightly shaken. Peace should be a characteristic +of our life—the joy and peace which come from a certainty that there +is a Purpose in all events. The sense that God has been with us in the +past is a help in interpreting the history of our nation. Even our +troubles are a proof that He is disciplining us. For the service of +Intercession, which my brother uses in Westminster Abbey at the time of +this war, the opening sentence is 'The Lord our God be with us,' and +the answer is, 'As He was with our fathers.' +</P> + +<P> +The College is getting on well. You must come up and see me this year, +while you still know a number of men. I have now a little evening +service—compline—in my rooms at 10 o'clock; Masterman asked me to +have it. He asked men to come, and they asked others. I purposely +refrained from asking any one. We are sometimes a goodly number. I +think it is helpful to those who come. It is, I know, to me. We have +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P122"></A>122}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To G. J. C.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: 1900. +</P> + +<P> +Gwatkin has exploded Anthony, 'who never existed.' But for all that I +think Anthony is much like Adam and Eve. The originals may 'never have +existed.' Yet their story belongs to all time. And there will be +Anthonies and Adams and Eves to the end of time. It comforts me to +feel that that which makes for evil is not my true self, but a +wretched, cunning animal existence independent of me, existing before I +came into being, although capable of appealing to me—a serpent. +</P> + +<P> +I am half glad and half sorry to hear of your harmonium. Public +worship is a terribly difficult thing, and it is well at times that we +should realise its difficulties, and have it stripped bare of many +helpful accessories. Yet worship in a village church impresses me. As +in a college chapel, I realise then the continuity of the race. An old +church tells me of generations of men who lived my life, to whom the +present was everything, and the dead almost nothing, who never could +seriously believe that some day the world would whirl and follow the +sun without them. It tells me more than most things of what St. Paul +means when he said that we were all making one perfect man. And I am +humbled and thankful to know that I in my generation can do something +towards the Christ 'that is to be.' +</P> + +<P> +Read the Old Testament itself. Nothing will +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P123"></A>123}</SPAN> +atone for lack of +knowledge of the Bible. Robertson Smith's and Adam Smith's books +(especially the latter's) on the Old Testament Prophets ought to prove +useful.… When I call a man by his Christian name, I usually make +it a rule to pray for him. I shall do so in your case. I will try to +pray every day. I wonder whether you would sometimes pray for me: I +believe immensely in the power of prayer. It is the greatest favour I +can ask of you, and I know I have no right to prefer the request; but +it would be kind of you if you could occasionally. One needs all the +help one can get in this strange life up here. Now I will end. I have +written you a strange, unreserved letter. Forgive me. How I wish this +dreadful war was at an end! U——'s going was a blow to me; but I am +sure he did the right thing. I admire and love that man.… +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To G. J. C.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Castleton, Swanage: 1900. +</P> + +<P> +… You will not have misinterpreted my silence. I could not answer +your letter until I had secured a time for quiet thought and for +prayer. When I try to write, I feel the uselessness of words. I am +doing better when I am praying for you than when I am writing to you. +Yet I must write.… It is strange that God should have made us +thus. To those whom He honours most He gives largest capacity for +love, and therefore largest capacity for suffering. It is still more +strange that we would not wish to be +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P124"></A>124}</SPAN> +without the love in spite of +the agony which it brings. It must be because +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">All loves are shadows cast</SPAN><BR> +By the beautiful eternal hills<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Of Thine unbeginning past.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +I feel this truth 'in seasons of calm weather.' But at other times I +ask myself, I ask God, angrily, Why should some men have no obstacle to +their love? Why should another suffer more than any one can tell—more +than, it sometimes seems to me, can ever be requited? I cannot answer +the question. But I often think of the great unsatisfied heart of God, +and then I think of this poor unsatisfied heart made in His image, and +I feel that He understands me, and that I understand Him better than I +used to do, before this terrible hunger of love began. +</P> + +<P> +I pray God that He will deal tenderly with you, G——, and I am sure +that He will. It cuts me to the heart to think of your suffering, and +I would stop it this moment if I could. So would God—for He loves you +more than I do—unless it were the best thing for you. It is written +of the Son of man, <I>emathen aph on epathen</I>. May the same words be +true of you and of me! God bless you and give you Light and Peace! +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Peace is something more than joy,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Even the joys above;</SPAN><BR> +For peace, of all created things,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Is likest Him we love.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrase in the above paragraph was +transliterated as follows: <I>emathen</I>—epsilon, mu, alpha, theta, +epsilon, nu; <I>aph</I>—alpha, phi; <I>on</I>—emega, nu; <I>epathen</I>—epsilon, +pi, alpha, theta, epsilon, nu] +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This letter may appear cold to you. It is not. I feel more deeply +than I write.… Some day, if +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P125"></A>125}</SPAN> +you care to hear, I will tell +you something about my own imperfect life. I can't write it down. +Later the day will dawn. But God sends the darkness that we may learn +to trust Him, I have never yet found Him to fail. We cannot trust Him +too much. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To the mother of a friend, after having been present at his funeral.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cambridge: April 22, 1900. +</P> + +<P> +I feel I must write and tell you how grateful I am to you for your +kindness in allowing me to be present on Thursday. Whenever I think of +your son who has passed away, that text comes into my mind: 'Blessed +are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' He was pure in heart, +and I cannot think of him as lifeless, but as actually seeing +God.… I am thankful to have been allowed to be his friend. I +shall never forget him; his life remains a source of strength and +inspiration to me. It comforts me now to know that he is sinking +deeper and deeper into the peace of God, which passeth all +understanding. You were talking to me about W——; I could not say all +that I wished to say.… I am very, very slow to suggest ordination +to a man. I realise the responsibility of doing so, but there is no +man whom I desire to see ordained more than W——; he has been to me +more help than I can possibly say. I dare not try to tell you all that +he has done for me, because you would think I was exaggerating. I +cannot help feeling that, if he helps me so much, he might help others +also, and that, if he were ordained, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P126"></A>126}</SPAN> +he would have singular +opportunities for rendering such help. But I do not press him in the +matter, because I might do wrong; but I pray again and again that, if +God wishes him to be ordained, He will make His purpose clear, and I am +quite sure that He will not leave us in the dark. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To C. T. W.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cambridge: July 1900. +</P> + +<P> +I was delighted to read in the paper yesterday of your election to a +fellowship.… The life will be a harder one than that of an +ordinary parish clergyman; it will be easier to lose sight of ideals. +But the importance of the work is in proportion to its difficulty. +Blessed is the man who finds his work, and does it; and you will be +blessed.… +</P> + +<P> +You should read St. Patrick's 'Confession,' a genuine work of my +distinguished countryman. It is full of humility and zeal. I give you +a quotation: 'After I had come to Ireland I used daily to feed cattle, +and I often prayed during the day. More and more did the love of God +and the fear of Him increase, and faith became stronger and the spirit +was moved; so that in one day I said as many as a hundred prayers, and +in the night nearly the same.… And there was no sluggishness in +me, as I now see there is, for at that time the spirit was fervent +within me.' Pathetic—that last part. He might have been living at +Cambridge! But I hope better things for you. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P127"></A>127}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To C. T. W.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Thirlmere: September 1900. +</P> + +<P> +My thoughts are with you now—and my prayers. 'He had seven stars—in +His right hand,' was the thought which comforted me at my own +ordination, when I felt, as seldom before, my own hollowness and +incapacity. We can shed light—we are safe—because we are 'in His +right hand.' 'The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the +everlasting arms.' We can never go beyond His love and care. In +moments of perplexity and uncertainty, although we cannot feel His +presence, He is there. 'In His right hand.' 'They that turn many to +righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.' +</P> + +<P> +May God give you the power to love and the power to pray! Much prayer +and much love are needed for a successful ministry. Good-bye, and God +bless you and make you a true and faithful pastor! Remember St. Paul's +words: <I>he dunamis en astheneia teleitai. edista oun mallon +kauchesomai en tais astheneiais, hina episkenose ep eme he dunamis tou +Christou; hotan gar artheno, tote dunatos eimi</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases above were transliterated as +follows: <I>he</I>—(rough breathing mark) eta; <I>dunamis</I>—delta, upsilon, +nu, alpha, mu, iota, final sigma; <I>en</I>—epsilon, nu; +<I>astheneia</I>—alpha, sigma, theta, epsilon, nu, epsilon, iota, alpha; +<I>teleitai</I>—tau, epsilon, lambda, epsilon, iota, tau, alpha, iota; +<I>edista</I>—eta, delta, iota, sigma, tau, alpha; <I>oun</I>—omicron, upsilon, +nu; <I>mallon</I>—mu, alpha, lambda, lambda, omicron, nu; +<I>kauchesomai</I>—kappa, alpha, upsilon, chi, eta, sigma, omicron, mu, +alpha, iota; <I>en</I>—epsilon, nu; <I>tais</I>—tau, alpha, iota, final sigma; +<I>astheneiais</I>—alpha, sigma, theta, epsilon, nu, epsilon, iota, alpha, +iota, final sigma; <I>hina</I>—(rough breathing mark) iota, nu, alpha; +<I>episkenose</I>—epsilon, pi, iota, sigma, kappa, eta, nu, omega, sigma, +eta; <I>ep</I>—epsilon, pi; <I>eme</I>—epsilon, mu, epsilon; <I>he</I>—(rough +breathing mark) eta; <I>dunamis</I>—delta, upsilon, nu, alpha, mu, iota, +final sigma; <I>tou</I>—tau, omicron, upsilon; <I>Christou</I>—Chi, rho, iota, +sigma, tau, omicron, upsilon; <I>hotan</I>—(rough breathing mark) omicron, +tau, alpha, nu; <I>gar</I>—gamma, alpha, rho; <I>artheno</I>—alpha, rho, theta, +epsilon, nu, omega; <I>tote</I>—tau, omicron, tau, epsilon; +<I>dunatos</I>—delta, upsilon, nu, alpha, tau, omicron, final sigma; +<I>eimi</I>—epsilon, iota, mu, iota] +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To W. D. H.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Dale Head Post Office, Thirlmere, September 20, 1900. +</P> + +<P> +My thoughts and my prayers are with you at this time. I remember how +at my own ordination, when I felt as never before my own utter weakness +and incapacity, the thoughts in the first chapter of the Revelation, of +Christian ministers as 'stars in His +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P128"></A>128}</SPAN> +right hand' comforted and +supported me. In His right hand—with His power we can do all things. +As the lesson for to-day says, <I>he dunamis en astheneia teleitai</I>, +strength is perfected in weakness. <I>hotan astheno tote dunatos eimi</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases above were transliterated as +follows: <I>he</I>—(rough breathing mark) eta; <I>dunamis</I>—delta, upsilon, +nu, alpha, mu, iota, final sigma; <I>en</I>—epsilon, nu; +<I>astheneia</I>—alpha, sigma, theta, epsilon, nu, epsilon, iota, alpha; +<I>teleitai</I>—tau, epsilon, lambda, epsilon, iota, tau, alpha, iota; +<I>hotan</I>—(rough breathing mark) omicron, tau, alpha, nu; +<I>astheno</I>—alpha, sigma, theta, epsilon, nu, omega; <I>tote</I>—tau, +omicron, tau, epsilon; <I>dunatos</I>—delta, upsilon, nu, alpha, tau, +omicron, final sigma; <I>eimi</I>—epsilon, iota, mu, iota] +</P> + +<P> +You will feel more, as years go on, the greatness of the task which you +are undertaking—the overwhelming responsibility—the dread lest +through any carelessness on your part one of the least of the sheep may +be lost. But you will also feel more and more that you are 'in His +right hand.' And if the eternal God is your refuge and underneath are +the everlasting arms, you need not fear what the devil or man can do +unto you. I pray that God may be with you and give you the spirit of +prayer and the spirit of love. Your ministry will only be effective if +you pray much and love much. And if you make mistakes, yet if you love +much your sins will be forgiven. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To his brother, a doctor in South Africa.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +September 1900. +</P> + +<P> +When I feel what the grace of God has done for my life, what it is +doing, what it will do, I can despair of no one else. I am filled with +wonder and amazement and thanksgivings and hopes. I am sometimes so +thankful that I still live, that in a world of light and dark shadows I +can show my faith in God, before the other world dawns with its full +day and unclouded brightness—and most of all that I can here and now +pray for those whom He has taught me to love. I cannot conceive this +world without prayer. It is +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P129"></A>129}</SPAN> +worth while making any efforts, +however desperate, to learn to pray. When the Day dawns, how wonderful +it will be to look back and trace the path through which He has led us +in the Twilight! +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. J. C.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: 1900. +</P> + +<P> +The more He tries you by His silence, the greater to my mind is the +proof that He believes in you. He knows you will come through. He has +great work for you to do, and therefore you need a strong perfected +faith, and He is trying to give you it. +</P> + +<P> +I am so sorry at what you tell me about prayer. But do go on. When +things are at their darkest light comes. After all God knows how much +you can bear, and He will not, if you will only persevere, allow you to +be utterly confounded. Don't be in the least discouraged at your +inability to concentrate your attention. Even a man who had lived in +the presence of God for years has told us that +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +The world that looks so dull all day<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Glows bright on me at prayer,</SPAN><BR> +And plans that ask no thought but these,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Wake up and meet me there.</SPAN><BR> +My very flesh has restless fits;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">My changeful limbs conspire</SPAN><BR> +With all these phantoms of the mind<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">My inner self to tire.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Do you expect to fare better, when you are exercising faculties which +have been for long more or less dormant? The same man goes on to +say—and I +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P130"></A>130}</SPAN> +think it is a comforting truth—that God sees further +than we do, sees what we mean: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +These surface troubles come and go,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Like rufflings of the sea;</SPAN><BR> +The deeper depth is out of reach<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">To all, my God, but Thee.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Even if your conscience condemns you, remember that God is greater than +your conscience. He sees that you <I>want</I> to pray, and the battle is +half won when there is even the want. I like these old words of the +hymn: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Satan trembles when he sees<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">The weakest saint upon his knees,</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +even if he can't collect his thoughts. I find it usually easier to +pray for others than for myself. I believe in beginning by praying for +what is easiest. I don't kneel down. I find it more possible to +concentrate my attention when I am walking about or sitting down. And +I tell God what I know about a man, and how I want him to live a better +life. Sometimes I seem to struggle for him as though for very life. I +go on and on and on—sometimes repeating the same request. I try to +copy the poor widow who wearied out the dishonest judge. I am not +distressed when my thoughts wander, I know that they will always wander +without God's help. The distress occasioned by wandering thoughts, and +the attempt to trace the stages by which they wandered, I regard as +temptations of the devil.… I go back as calmly as possible to the +matter in hand. +</P> + +<P> +Excuse my 'egoism.' I put it in the first person, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P131"></A>131}</SPAN> +because I +believe my own experience will help you more than rules derived from +the experience of others. +</P> + +<P> +Suppose you spend half an hour in this way, and only really pray for +three or four minutes, your efforts will be more than rewarded. You +will have done more than you know for the person for whom you have +prayed. And the next half-hour you will find that you can concentrate +your attention for a minute or two longer. Don't think too much about +yourself when you pray. You must lose your soul if you would save it. +</P> + +<P> +There is probably some one thing or some one person easier than others +for you to pray for. Begin with that. +</P> + +<P> +I never try, as some people do, to classify and enter into details +about my sins. I bring the whole contradictory, weary, and +unintelligible mass of them to God, and leave them with Him. I am +quite sure I shall never do better without Him. But I know that He +believes in me, and will help me in spite of myself. He believes in +you too, dear old fellow! May God bless you for your kindness to me! +Write me just a short note to tell me that you don't despise me in +spite of what must seem to you rather unintelligible and ridiculous +confessions. +</P> + +<P> +I can't help it. And if you can bring yourself to do it, call me too +by my Christian name. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To the same.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: September 28, 1900. +</P> + +<P> +I feel more and more the necessity of being alone occasionally for some +time—to get time enough to +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P132"></A>132}</SPAN> +pray. I think my supreme desire is +to be a man of prayer. You must help me to accomplish the desire: +'Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed saepe cadendo.' +</P> + +<P> +So it is with prayer. As the stone gets worn away, not by the force of +the drop of water but by its constant trickling, so prayer often +renewed must at length attain its end. It is a wonderful privilege to +be able to state all one's wishes and hopes for others in prayer—to +know that there can be there no possibility of misunderstanding—to +tell to God the incomprehensible depth of one's love, and to feel that +He knows what it means, because He Himself is love. It is glorious to +be made in His image, and to be sure that all one's highest yearnings +are a reflection—however broken, partial, and unsightly—of His own +marvellous life. We have indeed cause to be grateful for our +'creation.' I often look at the poor dumb creatures, and thank God +that He has given me such full powers of love, which they cannot +understand: for I would rather have the pains of love than any other +pleasure. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. S. H., a chaplain in the Navy.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cambridge: November 4, 1900. +</P> + +<P> +I ought to have written before this. The fact that I did not answer at +once is partly accounted for by my having a good deal of work to do, +and partly by physical weakness. I have not been very well this term. +It is cruel of you to suspect me of having forgotten all about you. I +am not that sort. I owe too much to you in the past ever to forget +you. +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P133"></A>133}</SPAN> +I don't think that you really suspected me of inconstancy. +I am so sorry that you are sometimes lonely and very miserable. I feel +at times weak, physically weak. I think that at such times one can +lean back, as it were, on the Divine arms. He understands our weakness +and weariness. He knows what loneliness and sadness mean. And He is +not extreme to mark what we do amiss. He knows that we are but flesh. +And He 'dwells not in the light alone, but in the darkness and the +light.' Even when the darkness hides Him and we cannot find where He +is, we can, as it were, reach out our hands to Him, and we are safe. +God has much to teach us while we are teaching others. And life is not +exactly the same as we thought at the beginning. He teaches us by +unexpected experiences. But the comfort is that He never changes; we +may be weary, but He never slumbers nor sleeps. Sometimes we feel very +fit and capable. Then is the time to pray and to rise to the heights. +Later, when we are incapable, although it is hard to rise, we need not +fall. When the mist clears we can go on again, and it may be that we +shall find that even in the mist we had gone further than we thought. +The deep snow and the long dark rainy days are necessary for the +perfecting of the fruit, as well as the sunshine. And we do need +sunshine. I feel more and more grateful and thankful to God for His +goodness. He has been so good to me, and I don't deserve it. And I +think that if you look back and look forward you will feel more and +more His marvellous sympathy and affection. I am glad you have been +reading Robertson's Life. Though he +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P134"></A>134}</SPAN> +may have been almost morbid +at times, he was a great man and did a great work.… You will find +later that your work has been far more effective than you expected. +Don't try to rush it. You can't help men much until you know them very +well; and when you know them you find how utterly different they are +from what you had expected them to be. At least I do. No two men are +alike. Each man that you come really to know is utterly different from +any man you have ever met or will meet. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. J. C.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: November 5, 1900. +</P> + +<P> +It is good of you to think of me and above all to pray for me. I need +your prayers—and most of all when I am run down and unable to pray +myself. I can see the mountain top at times: then the mist comes down, +and I cannot see the way; I try to keep where I am, though I may not be +able to advance; and when the mist clears I go on again. Possibly, +sometimes, we may be going forward even in the mist, although we seem +to be making no progress, or going backward. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +God judges by a light<BR> +Which baffles mortal sight.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +I often wish I had more physical strength and was able to do what other +men can do; but I can't. And I have no doubt that all is well—that I +am made to do one particular piece of work, and that I have strength +enough for that—and thank God for that. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P135"></A>135}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To a brother in South Africa.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +December 1900. +</P> + +<P> +It is a marvellous thought that God can reveal Himself to man—even +primitive man. In those stories Jehovah is very near to man. He walks +in the garden at nightfall. He shuts Noah into the Ark. He comes down +to see the city and the tower 'which the children of men builded.' He +talks with Moses face to face as a man speaketh to his friend—and a +ladder connects heaven and earth, and the angels, instead of using +wings, walk up and down the ladder—and, behold, Jehovah stood above +it. At any moment you might meet Jehovah Himself. Three men come to +see Abraham—and Jehovah has appeared to him. A man wrestles with +Jacob, and he has seen God face to face. They were right when they +thought of God as very near to man, of man as capable of reflecting +God's likeness. Ye too shall see heaven opened and the angels of God +ascending and descending upon—the Son of man. It is good for us as +children to read these stories to realise that heaven is very near to +earth. It is good for us as men to read them again to realise that +heaven is even nearer earth than we thought as children. As I said +before, how marvellous it is that God can reveal Himself to man and +through man, that He has revealed Himself entirely, 'the perfect man,' +as Maurice says, reflecting the perfect God—God and man so near one to +the other that men can look upon the Son of man and see God—see Him in +His perfection! Our years ought to be bound each to +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P136"></A>136}</SPAN> +each by +natural piety. The child should surely be the father of the man. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +With age Thou growest more divine,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">More glorious than before;</SPAN><BR> +I fear Thee with a deeper fear<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Because—I love Thee more.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +I have been reading Moody's Life. It has much the same effect as +Finney's used to have in days gone by—it creates a longing to work and +live for God, to bring men nearer to Him, to come nearer to Him myself. +Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I +desire in comparison of Thee. +</P> + +<P> +What a wonderful thing that we, as a family, are so united—that our +Ideal is so much the same—isn't it? +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. S. H.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +St. Moritz: January 6, 1901. +</P> + +<P> +I have succeeded in unfreezing my ink, so I can write and—although it +is late to do so—wish you a happy new century. It is only once in a +lifetime that one can do that sort of thing! I am out here for my +health. I wasn't up to much last term. However, I am as fit as a lord +now, and return to Cambridge this week. I have been reading out here +two very different kinds of books. One is Wellhausen's 'History of +Israel,' the other Moody's Life by his son. Wellhausen's book gives +you in outline the position of modern advanced criticism of the Old +Testament. I have never before studied the history from the critical +point of view really seriously. The study has proved extraordinarily +interesting, and I +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P137"></A>137}</SPAN> +must say that in the main I agree thoroughly +with Wellhausen's position. You will see it more or less clearly put +in that 'History of the Hebrew People' in two small volumes by Kent +which I recommended to you before. The history of the gradual progress +of the divine revelation to the human race is a marvellous study: the +way in which that people were educated to become the teachers of the +world is utterly different from anything which we should have devised. +I am struck more and more by the marvellous fact that God can and does +reveal Himself—in His essential moral nature—to man; that we are so +made that we can apprehend the revelation; nay, that we in turn can in +measure reveal Him to men! +</P> + +<P> +Moody's Life stirs me up to realise more the worth of the individual, +the surpassing value of man's moral and spiritual nature. I long to +help men to see what I see, to love Him whom I love, and the failure of +my efforts is largely, I feel, due to defects in myself. Still I do +not despair of doing something. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To his brother Edward in South Africa.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Brislington, Bristol; April 10, 1901. +</P> + +<P> +I was much interested in … (your letter) and in seeing a little +into your life. There is a strange family reserve among us which I +sometimes deplore. Perhaps it must always be so, that we can tell most +readily to strangers our deepest thoughts and feelings. Yet I feel +that we ought, as far as we can in this short life, to understand one +another. We have been led by different paths to understand different +aspects +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P138"></A>138}</SPAN> +of Truth. Yet, when we have climbed to the top of the +hill, I dare say we shall find that our paths were nearer to one +another than we ever realised. At any rate, we shall meet on the top. +I often think that your whole method of gaining truth must be unlike +mine. I use my reason, but I am more than half affection, and it is +that which helps me most. My strange love for some men makes me seek +to live their lives, to see the world as they see it; above all, it +forces me to pray. Prayer never seems to me irrational; yet I do not +pray so much because my reason bids me as because my affection forces +me. I sometimes feel that I should go mad if I didn't or couldn't. +And then, again, I am incapable of telling them all I feel, and I have +to find some one to tell it to, and I feel forced back on One who knows +me through and through, and I find comfort in pouring out my soul to +Him—in telling Him all, much that I dare say to no one else—in +letting Him sift the good and evil—in asking Him to develop and +satisfy the good, and to exterminate the evil. I cannot help trusting +Him. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +I know not where His islands lift<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Their fronded palms in air;</SPAN><BR> +I only know I cannot drift<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Beyond His love and care.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +You will tell me perhaps that I am too much like a woman in matters of +faith. Yet so I am made. I must follow the lead of my whole +being—not of my mind alone. I often wonder how it is that I love with +such a strange, passionate, unutterable affection, and whether many men +are like me. +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P139"></A>139}</SPAN> +I am most pleased to hear of your doings, +especially of your whist parties. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. S. H., chaplain on board H.M.S. Canopus.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Brislington; April 10, 1901. +</P> + +<P> +I am glad that you like your 'parish.' I feel more and more that I +should prefer being among sailors to being among soldiers. I am afraid +that I should do little good among either. Still I like, or think that +I should like, naval officers even more than army officers. If they do +talk a great deal of 'shop,' that is a healthy sign. I only wish our +officers in the army were—I will not say more proud of their +profession (for they have, I dare say, sufficient pride)—but more +anxious to learn and to think out matters connected with it. I dare +say the naval officer is obliged to act more independently and to think +for himself in an emergency; for the army discipline is carried to such +an extreme that the man for some years has seldom any occasion to act +on his own initiative—to rise to an occasion. He simply has to ask a +superior what to do next. He tends to resemble the Hindu +station-master who telegraphed 'Tiger on platform; please wire +instructions.' If their talking shop is worrying occasionally, yet be +of good comfort, it is on the whole a good sign. It is better than +talking golf or polo all day, and better far than loose and unmanly +conversation. The more you are interested in the matters yourself, not +simply because you want to be all things to all men, if by any means +you may gain one or two, but because you are a man +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P140"></A>140}</SPAN> +and a +Christian, and therefore all things human have an interest to you, the +more you will enjoy such 'shop.' We want not only to affect an +interest in what is of vital concern to our neighbours, but to feel it. +I begin to realise more now than I used to that I must not simply watch +football matches, or run with the boats, because I want to show +interest, but because I am learning—however late in the day and +however imperfectly—to feel a real concern for such matters. And, +strange to say, I am more interested in them than I used to be. Since +the Lord took human flesh and interested Himself in all human life, He +has left us an example that we may follow in His steps. We must call +nothing, and no man, common or unclean. My own life and my own +interests are terribly contracted. Sometimes I have been foolish +enough to glory in the fact, and to think that I honour God in caring +only for my brother's soul and not for his whole life. But love has +taught me that this is a low and incomplete view. God numbers the very +hairs of our head, and he who loves and tries to help another must +enter into his life and care for all that he cares for. I hope that +God will spare me a little longer to work in College, and to learn to +become one with others—to see life with their eyes, to let them teach +me—that so, if it please Him, I may gain some of them for His service. +</P> + +<P> +The disciple cannot expect to be above the Master. The Master was not +popular. He explained His deepest teaching to a few—a very few. If +you have one or two to whom you can explain part of your being, thank +God. You will find that +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P141"></A>141}</SPAN> +one man understands one side, another +appreciates another side. It is a comfort that there is One who knows +us through and through. What a terrible blank life would be if we had +no God to whom to pour out our whole soul! There are sides of our +being which no one but God seems to be able to apprehend. I am feeling +now comfort at nights in simply telling Him all—feelings which I +cannot explain to any one else, asking Him to interpret, to sift, to +allow the better to live, to annihilate the untrue. I do not cease to +expect great things from Him, to expect that He will do for my 'parish' +as a whole more than I have dreamed of or wished for. But then I am +content if He works slowly, and does what I did not wish or expect to +happen. He works slowly in nature, and I am not surprised if human +nature is still more stubborn material for Him to work upon. But what +a joy it is when one character in which we are interested, for which we +have prayed and wrestled in prayer, shows slight but sure signs of +healthy development! I feel inclined to shout for joy at the +miracle—for it is a miracle—and I thank God and take courage. He +does not let us see many results, but He lets us see just enough to +help us to go forward. It is a help when what is clear and true to us +begins to dawn upon another. 'My belief gains infinitely,' says +Novalis, 'when it is shared by any human soul.' +</P> + +<P> +Let your 'parish' clearly see that 'it is one thing to be tempted, +another thing to fall.' Vile, foul thoughts which come to us are not +in themselves a sign that we are falling. They are first of all from +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P142"></A>142}</SPAN> +outside, and are suggestions entirely alien in origin from +ourselves; they are from the devil. They only become wrong when +entertained, when welcomed in the least degree as guests and allowed to +stay. Our aim is to bring every thought at once into captivity. +</P> + +<P> +I have just come back from the seaside, and as I looked at the sea I +thought more than once of 'the ocean of Thy love.' The waves of the +sea beat against a stubborn rock and seem to make no impression. But +in a few years' time the rock begins to yield. The constant wash of +the waves wears it away. So with our hard, stubborn wills. The ocean +of His love will reduce them slowly but surely, and likewise the +stubborn wills of men around us, thank God! When you are tired and +human strength gives way, remember 'the best of all is—God is with +us.' I often feel worn out, and then I love, as it were, to lean back +upon Him—without speaking—as a child on its mother's arms. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +I know not where His islands lift<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Their fronded palms in air;</SPAN><BR> +I only know I cannot drift<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Beyond His love and care.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +O brother! if my faith is vain,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">If hopes like these betray,</SPAN><BR> +Pray for me that I too may gain<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">The sure and safer way.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +And Thou, O God, by whom are seen<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Thy creatures as they be,</SPAN><BR> +Forgive me if too close I lean<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">My human heart on Thee.[1]</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P143"></A>143}</SPAN> + +<P> +I am, I fear, but a poor friend. I wish you had some one who loved you +as well as I did, and who was less weak and selfish. You must not give +me up in spite of my defects. I love you and am proud of you—proud to +think that you are doing work among men whom I should be powerless to +influence. Easter once more brings new life and hope. May the God of +all life, of all peace, of all hope, be with you and all your flock! +May He guide pastor and sheep! Don't despair; go on manfully; you are +doing greater work than you know, and if your eyes were open that you +could see, you would find that the host that was with you was more than +all that were against you. Into His keeping I commit you. Good-bye. +Your friend +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +FORBES. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] Whittier. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To W. O.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Brislington: April 1901. +</P> + +<P> +I am glad that the lot has fallen to you in fair places. 'It has been +said with true wisdom that God means man not only to work but to be +happy in his work.… Without some sunshine we can never ripen into +what we are meant to be.' So writes Dr. Hort. I am reading his Life +with great joy. He drank deep of life, and I want to do so also. I +want to live in the present—in the sunshine of eternity. I feel more +and more inclined to thank God for life and all the good things it +brings, and for the friends He has given me, and the measure of +strength and health to use in the service of man. +</P> + +<P> +I had no idea where that Essay had gone. I +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P144"></A>144}</SPAN> +suppose it is most +immature and unsatisfactory; yet the central idea, however imperfectly +expressed, must surely be true. He took Manhood—in its weakness and +strength—up into God. He was tempted. That thought helps me +immensely. 'It is one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.' We +often accuse ourselves wrongly when foul thoughts spring up within us. +They are temptations from without—from the devil. They only become +sins when entertained as welcome guests. I have lately thought that +Christ's life, like ours, was a life of faith, that it needed a real +and constant effort of faith for Him to realise His relationship with +the unseen Father. Here and hereafter human life is based on faith. +If we get this idea into our minds, Christ's temptations become more +real. They are temptations to faithlessness. I like your idea that +Christ has entered into our manhood, into the phases (if there be such) +'of the life to come.' +</P> + +<P> +Rest in the Lord. This thought comes home to me more than it used to +do. I like to bring all the perplexities of life—the thoughts and +feelings which I can explain to no one—of some of which I cannot say +whether they are right or wrong, or where the right shades into +wrong—and to leave them with Him to develop (if right), to sift, to +correct. What a blank life would be without God!… +</P> + +<P> +Easter brings fresh hope and life. It is glorious to begin existence +in a world which has been redeemed. I am sure—since He rose and +defeated death—we ought to trust to life, to delight in it. 'I am the +Life.' +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P145"></A>145}</SPAN> + +<P> +Breathe in the fresh air. It is one of the best gifts that the good +God has bestowed upon us. We want fresh air not only in our lungs but +all through, if I may say so, our being. I long to be more natural and +happy—not that I wish for 'religious happiness,' but something quite +different—the happiness which comes in the right exercise of power and +in conscious dependence upon Him in whom we live. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>In reply to a letter from H. P., a master at Clifton College, who was +in doubt whether he ought to resign his mastership and go down to the +College Mission in Bristol.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: May 1, 1901. +</P> + +<P> +I have not had time to think over the matter yet, but my first feeling +is that you ought to be very slow to move. If men in your position, +who feel keenly interested in the highest welfare of their pupils and +long to influence them in spiritual matters, all go away to parish +work, what is to become of our public school boys? Masters are only +too anxious to leave for more 'directly spiritual' work, as they say. +But in doing so they leave a work of exceptional difficulty and +importance behind, and who is to take their place? I understand and +appreciate your feelings, but I am not at all sure that you have any +call to go. +</P> + +<P> +How much directly 'spiritual' work have you with the boys? Could you, +if you desired, get more? +</P> + +<P> +I will pray over the matter. Do be slow before you decide to leave. I +believe you ought to stay, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P146"></A>146}</SPAN> +although it may be more difficult to +maintain your own spiritual life and ideals in a school than in a +parish. You may be doing more good than you know. It is easier to +find men to do parish work than to do school work of the highest kind. +</P> + +<P> +There is a sermon of Lightfoot's in which he urges clergymen at the +University not to go away, because it is hard to maintain their +spiritual ideals at Cambridge, and because they seem to have so little +direct spiritual influence. May not this apply to your work also? +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To one about to be ordained.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cambridge: May 1901. +</P> + +<P> +It seems so clear to us that you have a call, that I find it hard to +realise that you yourself are uncertain. But the very fact that you +have been 'counting the cost,' and that you have no ecstatic joy at the +prospect before you, encourages me. I am glad you realise the +difficulties beforehand. What you don't fully see is the strength upon +which you will be able to draw. I often think of those lines of +Tennyson:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +O living Will that shalt endure<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">When all that seems shall suffer shock,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Rise in the spiritual rock,</SPAN><BR> +Flow through our deeds and make them pure.[1]<BR> +</P> + +<P> +That Will can transform our will, and the very weakness of our natural +will is then a help. The strength +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P147"></A>147}</SPAN> +is seen and felt to come from +an invisible source: 'Thy will, not my will.' +</P> + +<P> +The terrible need of men to fight against the forces of evil impresses +me. The call is so loud on every side. And if men like you cannot +hear it, I am driven almost to despair.… I often think of my +father's words on his deathbed: 'If I had a thousand lives I would give +them all—all to the ministry.' +</P> + +<P> +The thought that gave me comfort at my own ordination was a text +suggested to me by my brother: 'He had in His right hand seven stars.' +In His right hand—we are safe there. I felt such a worm as I had +never felt before. 'But fear not, thou worm Jacob.' … Don't look +for happiness or peace at this time, but for the presence and power +(whether felt or unfelt) of that God whom we both love and try to love +better. Do not persuade yourself that you do not love God. You do, +more than you have any idea of. The part of your 'Ego' which you would +least wish to lose is not even your love for men—but for God. If you +had your choice now, and had to decide what part of your being you +would retain for eternity, it would be the latter. Beloved, if our +heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart.… 'He who loves +makes his own the grandeur that he loves.' +</P> + +<P> +<I>He had in His right hand seven stars</I>. He is the Judge, but He also +is our refuge and strength and hope. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] <I>In Memoriam</I>, cxxi. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P148"></A>148}</SPAN>{148} + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To D. B. K.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cambridge: July 1901. +</P> + +<P> +When we set to work to help others we discover something of our own +weakness. But along with that discovery comes the realisation of an +inexhaustible fund of strength outside ourselves. We are fighting on +the winning side. God must be stronger than all that opposes. It is +uphill work, especially at first. But just as in learning a language +or learning how to swim, after toiling on with no apparent result, +there comes a day when suddenly we realise that we can do it—how we +know not: so it is in spiritual matters. There is effort still, +sometimes gruesome effort; but it is all different from what it was. +We find the meaning of the paradox, 'Whose service is perfect freedom.' +Love takes the place of law, and, although it is hard at times to serve +God, it is still harder to be the permanent servant of Satan. +</P> + +<P> +Your enthusiasm ought to increase, the more you look life in the face +and see its sin and misery. 'God,' said Moody, 'can do nothing with a +man who has ceased to hope.' Our hope in the possibilities of the +individual and of society ought to grow brighter and saner as time goes +on.… Missionary work—I have often wished to do it myself, but +have been 'let hitherto.' … It is a tremendous help to me to know +that we are both serving the same Master and that I can trust you to +His love. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P149"></A>149}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To an Auckland 'brother' after Bishop Westcott's Death.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cambridge: August 1901. +</P> + +<P> +My thoughts are with you at this time. I am most thankful that you +have been a year with that man of God, and have gained ideals and +inspiration for work which will haunt you all your life long. In +moments of weakness, at times 'when your light is low,' the memory of +his strenuous, holy life will be a power making for self-discipline and +righteousness. And it is more than a memory. For he taught us by word +and deed that we are all one man, that those who have realised what it +is to belong to the body here will enter more fully into its life +there. 'We feebly struggle, they in glory shine'—yet we are verily +and indeed one. That thought is often a comfort to me. When I feel +the contradictions and perplexities and weaknesses of my own life, I +love to think that I am part of a whole—that I belong to the same body +and share in the same spirit as some other man who is immeasurably my +superior. +</P> + +<P> +When one whom we have known and venerated on earth passes to the +eternal home, it seems more like home than it was before. It is +peopled not only with countless saints of whom I have heard, but with +one whom I have known and seen, and hope to see again. His prayers for +us, his influence upon us there are more effective than they could have +been here. +</P> + +<P> +The great triumph of Christianity is to produce a few saints. They +raise our ideal of humanity. They +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P150"></A>150}</SPAN> +make us restless and +discontented with our own lives, as long as they are lived on a lower +plane. They speak to us in language more eloquent than words: 'Come up +higher.' +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. J. C.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>Belvedere Hotel, St. Moritz: Sunday, December 15, 1901.</I> +</P> + +<P> +I feel more and more thankful that I have not had to wait till the next +world to know God's true nature and character and will. It is passing +strange that He should love us so much, and wish to unveil Himself to +us, 'that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.' But +that phrase 'stewards of His mysteries' almost appals me. A steward +must be faithful, and must render an account of the way in which he has +used his master's goods. God grant that at the final reckoning we may +not be found unprofitable servants. +</P> + +<P> +How those simple words in the twenty-third Psalm satisfy us more and +more as life advances, and as we realise that He is not our Shepherd +only, but the chief Shepherd of the whole flock, and that He has yet +other sheep whom He is looking for, and whom He will teach to hear His +voice amid the babel tongues of the world. It is a comfort to me to +feel that He has no private blessings for me apart from the rest of the +family—that we are one in Him, and that each blessing unites us not +only to the Head of the family, but to all the brothers within it. +</P> + +<P> +I suppose at first it is hard to realise the unseen world for long +together. But gradually that world +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P151"></A>151}</SPAN> +dominates our being, and +interprets the world we see, and makes all life intelligible and well +worth the living. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To H. J. B.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Hotel Belvedere, St. Moritz: December 16, 1901. +</P> + +<P> +I feel a new man now in this fresh mountain air. If I always lived +here I might be good for something. What a parable of life! If we +could live in the higher world and breathe in its air, what strong, +healthy men we should be! I stayed a night once with Westcott, and it +seemed to me that he lived and moved and had his being in a higher +region, to which I now and then came as a stranger, and he could see +habitually, what I sometimes saw, the way of God in human life. I am +sure we are meant to have our home in that higher world, and that we +only see life sanely, steadily, and in its true proportions, when we +view it from that vantage ground. I have always been thankful that I +spent that night with Westcott, and thereby gained, not simply fresh +inspiration, but a radically new revelation of human life and its +possibilities. It gave me an insight into the dignity and the destiny +of our common human nature. +</P> + +<P> +You have never been long absent from my thoughts, and at last I have +had time and strength to begin to pray for you as I could wish. It is +the only way in which I can show my gratitude to you. I don't +understand much about prayer, but I think of that strange, bold parable +of the unrighteous judge and the widow, and I take my stand on that. I +shall +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P152"></A>152}</SPAN> +not be content until your true self is formed; and I think +that God must be very ready to answer the prayer, however imperfect its +form may be, of one who loves another more than he can understand. I +like St Paul's words: <I>teknia mou ous odino mechris ou morphothe +Christos en humin</I>. Only I wish I were not such a worm myself. +However, the thought of you compels me to live a better life. If I +could only make all my thoughts of you into prayers and actions for you +I should be more content. +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrase in the above paragraph was +transliterated as follows: <I>teknia</I>—tau, epsilon, kappa, nu, iota, +alpha; <I>mou</I>—mu, omicron, upsilon; <I>ous</I>—omicron, upsilon, final +sigma; <I>odino</I>—omega, delta, iota, nu, omega; <I>mechris</I>—mu, epsilon, +chi, rho, iota, final sigma; <I>ou</I>—omicron, upsilon; <I>morphothe</I>—mu, +omicron, rho, phi, omega, theta, eta; <I>Christos</I>—Chi, rho, iota, +sigma, tau, omicron, final sigma; <I>en</I>—epsilon, nu; <I>humin</I>—(rough +breathing mark) upsilon, mu, iota, nu] +</P> + +<P> +Don't imitate Uriah Heep with 'Yours most humbly.' I won't stand that +nonsense! and you give yourself away just a few lines above, when you +assert that you are too proud to confer a favour on me, and read Greek +Testament with me. What a funny chap you are! Can't you see, you +idiot, what a pleasure you give me? We shall have to compromise, and +I'll have to make some concession to your pride. Neither —— nor I +know much about your section, but we could help you in your first part +papers. Of course, he could do it miles better than I can; but, all +the same, you are going to be my pupil. Promise me that you won't make +any arrangement with him until you have talked the matter over with me. +I'll make some compromise for the sake of your miserable pride, you +wretched creature. +</P> + +<P> +Write to me soon again, if it isn't a great bore. I can't recall as +much as I could wish of your conversations with me. In fact, I have +the unpleasant feeling sometimes that I did too much of the talking! +But one or two things that you said to me live in +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P153"></A>153}</SPAN> +my memory, and +make me wish to be more fit to talk to you. +</P> + +<P> +St. Moritz is much as usual. It is a strange little world in itself. +The comic and the tragic are blended weirdly together, and nature is +unimaginably beautiful. I wish you could see this snow. It has an +attraction for me, and I am sure it would have for you. I think you +understand more about the meaning of beauty than I do. When I see a +magnificent landscape, I want to share the sight with some one else. I +feel quite lonely when I am interpreting it alone. I wonder why that +is? +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. J. C.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Hotel Belvedere, St. Moritz: December 21, 1901. +</P> + +<P> +Christmas seems to mean more to me, the longer that I live. I gaze +with bewilderment on that stupendous mystery of love—the very God +entering into and raising our human nature. My whole conception of the +meaning, the possibilities of our common human nature is transformed, +as I see that it can become a perfect reflection and manifestation of +the Divine nature. 'The Word became flesh, and lodged <I>in us</I>.' The +manger at Bethlehem reverses all our human conceptions of dignity and +greatness. 'The folly of God is wiser than men.' It is to the +humble—to babes—that God can reveal Himself. In them He can find His +home. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">O Father, touch the East and light</SPAN><BR> +The light that shone when Hope was born.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +It is in Christmas that Tennyson found the birth of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P154"></A>154}</SPAN> +Hope. It is +Christmas that, as life goes on, bids us never despair—of our own or +of human nature around us. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To a friend at Cambridge.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Hotel Belvedere, St. Moritz: December 30, 1901. +</P> + +<P> +I shall never forget this last Christmas Day, for your letter came in +the evening. I read it again and again, and wonder at it more each +time I read it. I can't tell you what I feel about it. I knew that +you more or less liked and respected me, but I didn't know that you +loved me. I've got what I wanted. When you merely respected me, I +dreaded the day when you would find that I was different to what you +thought I was. But now I feel I am safe <I>phobos ouk estin en te +agape</I>, however imperfect you find me. I know now that I can trust you +not to throw me off. And love is not extreme to mark what is amiss, +<I>hoti agape kaluptei plethos amartion</I>. I can't thank you for your +kindness, but I thank God for giving me the most precious gift in the +world, a human soul 'to love and be loved by for ever.' As I look at +your letter I feel a mere worm, and my one wonder is how on earth a man +like you can call me your friend. I can't thank you; but I'll do my +best to live up to the standard you expect of me, and to be a true +friend to you. And my idea of friendship is, as you know, prayer. I +can't, worse luck, do much for you, but I do pray for you, and +'whatever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.' It has been +truly said that the <I>how</I>, the <I>where</I>, and the <I>when</I> are not told us, +but only the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P155"></A>155}</SPAN> +<I>what</I>. And I am quite certain that every prayer I +offer for you is heard and answered, when I believe what I say; but the +manner, the place, and the occasion of the answer—of these things I +know nothing. I am sure that God loves to see us happy, and the pure +joy of the knowledge that such a man as you loves me is almost more +than I can bear. It throws a new light on life here, and on that +fuller life to which God is leading us hereafter; like you, thank God, +I cannot complain of lack of friends, but I have never had one who has +written me such a letter, full of an affection for which I crave. The +worst is, I can't repay your kindness. You bring me nearer to God, you +make me realise in the strangest way His affection, you make me feel +the worth and mystery of a human soul. I wish I could return your help +somehow or other. Do show me the way. I wish you did not find it so +difficult to pray for me. I am sure you are right in going back to +such a man as St. Paul for subjects of prayer. The opening chapters of +his letters to the Ephesians and Colossians give the kinds of requests +which it is worth making on behalf of any one. There is surely no harm +in finding that, as you pray for another, your own faith is growing. +There is nothing selfish in that. It is rather the result of the law +<I>didote kai dothesetai humin</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: <I>phobos</I>—phi, omicron, beta, omicron, final +sigma; <I>ouk</I>—omicron, upsilon, kappa; <I>estin</I>—epsilon, sigma, tau, +iota, nu; <I>en</I>—epsilon, nu; <I>te</I>—tau, eta; <I>agape</I>—alpha, gamma, +alpha, pi, eta; <I>hoti</I>—(rough breathing mark) omicron, tau, iota; +<I>agape</I>—alpha, gamma, alpha, pi, eta; <I>kaluptei</I>—kappa, alpha, +lambda, upsilon, pi, tau, epsilon, iota; <I>plethos</I>—pi, lambda, eta, +theta, omicron, final sigma; <I>amartion</I>—alpha, mu, alpha, rho, tau, +iota, omega, nu; <I>didote</I>—delta, iota, delta, omicron, tau, epsilon; +<I>kai</I>—kappa, alpha, iota; <I>dothesetai</I>—delta, omicron, theta, eta, +sigma, eta, tai, alpha, iota; <I>humin</I>—(rough breathing mark) upsilon, +mu, iota, nu] +</P> + +<P> +Your faith can only grow with exercise, and you exercise it by praying +for others. You would only be selfish if you prayed for some one else +<I>in order that</I> your own soul might be benefited. +</P> + +<P> +But don't think too much of selfishness. Bring +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P156"></A>156}</SPAN> +all your half +selfish desires to Him who knows us through and through; and in His +presence, almost unconsciously, your motives will gradually be +purified. You will learn to walk in the light as He Himself is in the +light. As I look back on this letter, a large part of it seems +selfish. I expect much is; but, even in the selfish parts, there is +something more besides. I can only just say what I feel, and ask God +gradually to eliminate what is wrong. In His light I shall see light. +</P> + +<P> +Life is large, and I am fearful lest, in attempting a rough and ready +asceticism, I should exclude as wrong some elements which are in +reality God-given. I feel that in the case of our affections and our +longing for beauty. They are implanted in us, and tended and watered +by One who is perfect Love and perfect Beauty. They easily lead us +into sin, but that fact does not imply that they are wrong in +themselves. We have to bring them to their source that He may +interpret them, 'Too late have I sought thee,' said Augustine, 'thou +Beauty, so ancient and so new, too late have I sought thee.' I cannot +understand the mystery of your life, dearest, but I feel that all that +craving for beauty is in some kind of way a craving for God. Only God +demands the first place in your life before He will give you any +satisfying interpretation of that aspect of His life. You must love +Him for what He is—not simply because He is Beauty. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +I slept and dreamed that life was Beauty,<BR> +I woke and found that life is Duty.<BR> +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P157"></A>157}</SPAN> + +<P> +They are not really contradictory conceptions. Nay, Duty has a +spiritual beauty of her own. But sometimes they seem for a moment +divergent, and then you must at all costs choose the latter, and you +will find that +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +The topmost crags of Duty scaled,<BR> +Are close upon that shining tableland<BR> +To which God Himself is shield and sun.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +And, if I am not mistaken, that land will be utterly full of an +absolutely satisfying beauty. +</P> + +<P> +But I feel that I scarcely yet understand anything about the meaning of +Beauty. All I can do is to relate it immediately to God. If I see +beautiful scenery, I am usually thinking of God and thanking Him. If I +see human beauty, I feel that I am on holy ground, and I always try to +pray for a face that attracts me. I feel that I have a duty in return +for the revelation that has been given. But, as you see, I can explain +but little. These are merely rules of practical life which we very +imperfectly carry out. I cannot explain the relation of physical and +spiritual beauty in human beings. I feel, of course, that there ought +to be, there very often is, some such relation. But sometimes there is +something utterly wrong, and apparently no such connective. The +connection, I take it, is more perfect in nature; but in man, why, +something has occurred, something anomalous, which mars the whole. Sin +has come in somewhere, I suppose. +</P> + +<P> +I can't express on paper what I feel, or give you any real conception +of what you are to me. You +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P158"></A>158}</SPAN> +would be startled if you knew. God +bless you, and work out in you, not my miserable ideal of what I think +you ought to be, but His own ideal, which exceeds all our thoughts and +imagination, of what you are to be. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To G. J. C.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College: 1901. +</P> + +<P> +… I was never so pleased to hear of any engagement as of yours. I +thank God with all my heart. I cannot put my joy into words, but +somehow or other it seems to bring me nearer to the source of all joy. +I feel more than ever that He cares for us and is educating us, and I +feel that He has been so good to you, because He loves you. The older +I grow the more I am impressed by His infinite sympathy and concern for +us. And when He gives us not only love but a return of love, it seems +to me that He is giving us the very best thing that He has—a part, as +it were, of Himself. 'The merciful and gracious Lord hath so done His +marvellous works, that they ought to be had in remembrance.' +</P> + +<P> +I cannot tell you how glad I am. But I thank God in my prayers for +you; and I am sure that if He has been so good to you in the past, He +will not forget you in the future. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To the same when he had just accepted a mastership at Eton.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Brislington, Bristol: 1901. +</P> + +<P> +.… How good of you to write and tell me of your future +work!… The responsibility of such a +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P159"></A>159}</SPAN> +life is to my mind +almost overwhelming. 'Who is sufficient for these things? Our +sufficiency is of God.' +</P> + +<P> +I am thankful that the offer came as it did—unsought by you. You will +feel happier in accepting it. 'Infinite sympathy is needed for the +infinite pathos of human life'—more especially of a boy's life. The +first, second, third, requisite for a master is, in my judgment, +sympathy. As I look back on my own school days, I cannot help feeling +that most of my masters were either lacking in it or else strangely +incapable of manifesting it in a form which I could understand. +Sympathy with the dull, unpromising boy is a divine gift, and I trust +that Holy Orders will confer upon you this grace also. I thank God +that you are taking orders, and finding your work in teaching. Forgive +this lecture from one who has no right to speak, and who is himself +strangely deficient in sympathy. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To D. B. K.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Eastbourne: September 1901. +</P> + +<P> +I am glad that you have been home. I feel that home is a revelation—a +means whereby the Eternal Father shows us Himself and His purposes, a +strengthening and refreshing of our tired souls.… I have prayed +earnestly for you that your faith and love may not fail. I feel +intensely the same difficulty as you, and I am only slowly learning to +overcome it. I do not think we can learn to love people who are +altogether different from us in many respects, all at once. I love +some men with a strange, unsatisfied affection. All my thoughts about +them I am +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P160"></A>160}</SPAN> +gradually learning to resolve into prayers for them, +and I want to live longer that I may pray for them more. +</P> + +<P> +Well, it seems to me that God gives us this affection that we may learn +to do to others as we would do to these. I cannot pretend to care for +many with whom I come into contact as much as I do for the few. But I +can pray for them, and the feeling will more or less come in time. +Just try to pray for some one person committed to your charge—say for +half an hour or an hour—and you will begin really to love him. As you +lay his life before God, as you think of his needs and hopes, and +failings and possibilities, as you pray earnestly for him as you would +for some one whom you feel intense affection for; at the end of the +time you will feel more interested in him, you will think of him not as +one of a class but as a separate, mysterious person. You will not, it +may be, have time to pray for many in this way, but you will learn +imperceptibly to extend your sympathy—to feel real love for many more. +I advise you to keep a record of these prayers. It is quite worth your +while to take practically a day off sometimes, and to force yourself to +pray. It will be the best day's work you have ever done in your life. +Remember that! +</P> + +<P> +Don't be troubled by comparing yourself with other clergymen. I think +you are like me—not ecclesiastically minded. I don't have the sort of +feelings which a large number of persons have about their work and +their preaching. I can't put the difference into words, yet I feel it. +But I must serve God in my own way, and I am sure that He will use me +to do the work for which I am best fitted. And the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P161"></A>161}</SPAN> +same is true +of you. Try to refer all your actions to His standard; and test your +work in His presence; and don't ask what So-and-so thinks of it. +</P> + +<P> +I very much wish you had some gentlemen to associate with besides +parsons. You must keep up as much as possible with your college +friends; and use every opportunity which reasonably presents itself of +seeing some 'society.' God knows what is best for you at present. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +God nothing does or suffers to be done<BR> +But thou wouldest do thyself, couldest thou but see<BR> +The end of all events as well as He.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +I am sure that He will not forget you. He knows what is best for your +development. It may be that He takes you away from friends that you +may learn to pray for them more and to see Him more clearly. +</P> + +<P> +I think you will influence many men whom a more ordinary parson would +not touch.… I am quite certain that if you have infinite +hope—hope against hope—you will be a tremendous power in the place +where God has put you. +</P> + +<P> +Get as much exercise as you can, and always get a clear day off in the +week, and don't give up any of your old interests. Don't always read +'religious' literature.… When the long day is done and we stand +before the judgment seat, I believe that many will rise up and call you +blessed. Only pray for individuals—for a long time together. To +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P162"></A>162}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To one about to be ordained.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Eastbourne: September 1901. +</P> + +<P> +I shall indeed remember you on Sunday next. The words of the lesson come +home to me to-day—<I>kai eireken moi Arkei soi he chariu mou; he gar +dunamis en astheneia teleitai</I>. +</P> + +<P> +We are poor creatures, but there is Grace—and we can come into contact +with it—and that is all we need. We may have failed in the past, but +Christ offers a new childlike life and endless hope. +</P> + +<P> +I am glad to think that you will be returning to your difficult post at +Cambridge. I am sure that you will return to it with fresh humility and +courage—<I>en pleromati eulogias Christou</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraphs were +transliterated as follows: <I>kai</I>—kappa, alpha, iota; <I>eireken</I>—epsilon, +iota, rho, eta, kappa, epsilon, nu; <I>moi</I>—mu, omicron, iota; +<I>Arkei</I>—Alpha, rho, kappa, epsilon, iota; <I>soi</I>—sigma, omicron, iota; +<I>he</I>—(rough breating mark) eta; <I>chariu</I>—chi, alpha, rho, iota, final +sigma; <I>mou</I>—mu, omicron, upsilon; <I>he</I>—(rough breathing mark) eta; +<I>gar</I>—gamma, alpha, rho; <I>dunamis</I>—delta, upsilon; nu, alpha, mu, iota, +final sigma; <I>en</I>—epsilon, nu; <I>astheneia</I>—alpha, sigma, theta, +epsilon, nu, epsilon, iota, alpha; <I>teleitai</I>—tau, epsilon, lambda, +epsilon, iota, tau, alpha, iota; <I>en</I>—<I>en</I>—epsilon, nu; +<I>pleromati</I>—pi, lambda, eta, rho, omega, mu, alpha, tau, iota; +<I>eulogias</I>—epsilon, upsilon, lambda, omicron, gamma, iota alpha, final +sigma; <I>Christou</I>—Chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, omicron, upsilon] +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To W. D. H.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +St. Moritz: January 4, 1902. +</P> + +<P> +I hope that you are now less overworked than you were in October. You +must at all costs make quiet time. Give up work, if need be. Your +influence finally depends upon your own first-hand knowledge of the +unseen world, and on your experience of prayer. Love and sympathy and +tact and insight are born of prayer. I am glad you have a Junior Clergy +S. P. G. Association. Try to take an intelligent interest in it, and +mind you read a paper before long. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To his brother Edward in South Africa.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Hotel Belvedere, St. Moritz: January 7, 1902. +</P> + +<P> +I am glad to think that we are now in many respects agreed about the +general question of the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P163"></A>163}</SPAN> +war. I suppose in any great historical +upheaval there are at the time a number of people who are attempting to +make capital for themselves out of the misfortunes of others; there are +many who are working for their own hand; and yet, when we look back on +the crisis and judge it as a whole in the calm light of history, we see +that a large and rational purpose has been worked out. At the time of +the English Reformation—as some one was saying to me lately, pointing +the parallel which I am working out—there must have been a number of +honest and pure souls who held aloof from the whole of what appeared to +be political jobbery and fortune-making at the expense of religious +sentiment. Yet now most of us feel that the movement could not have had +the effects that it had, unless down below all there was a strong +upheaval of the national conscience. You will no doubt see many defects +in this historical parallel; but the thought is at any rate suggestive, +and full of what we require in these latter days—hope. Of course I feel +that injustice, dishonesty, cruelty, selfishness are in no way palliated +because they take cover and occasion in a real movement of national +feeling. +</P> + +<P> +I feel for you much in your work for examinations. It must come very +hard with ill health and in a hot climate, with the freshness of youth to +some extent passed. But +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +O well for him whose will is strong,<BR> +He suffers, but he shall not suffer long;<BR> +He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong<BR> +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P164"></A>164}</SPAN> +It needs more courage than you were required to show on the field +of battle. But the reward is sure. I feel strongly that this life is +but the prelude to a larger life, when each faculty will have its full +exercise. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Ah yet, when all is thought and said,<BR> +The heart still overrules the head;<BR> +Still what we hope we must believe,<BR> +And what is given us receive;<BR> +Must still believe, for still we hope,<BR> +That in a world of larger scope,<BR> +What here is faithfully begun<BR> +Will be completed, not undone.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +These words come from dough—the soul of honesty. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To H. J. B.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Derwent Hill, Ebchester, Durham: April 14, 1902. +</P> + +<P> +It seems to me a truism to say that we ought to look at life in the light +of eternity. Only then does the true significance of the meanest action +in life appear. Life is redeemed from triviality and vulgarity. So far +from worldly possessions losing their value, and ordinary occupations +appearing insignificant, their importance is realised as never before. +If man does not live for ever, his character and actions seem of +comparative unimportance. If he does live for ever, it is rational for +him to look at each action in the light of that larger life which he +inherits. If something like class distinctions are eternal, it is an +inducement so to use your distinctive privileges here in a worthy manner, +that hereafter you may use them for nobler ends. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P165"></A>165}</SPAN> + +<P> +I have expressed myself badly, but you will see what I want to say. My +relations to you surely become not less, but more important, when I +realise that I am only beginning to know and love you here. The eternal +element in them—the knowledge that there is throughout an implicit +reference to a Third and Unseen Person in all that I say to you or think +of you—fills me with a sense of awe, and makes the relations more real +because more spiritual. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To the mother of his godchild, Margaret Forbes.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +July 6, 1902. +</P> + +<P> +I cannot tell you what a pleasure it was to see my godchild.… I +feel she has a strength of purpose and a desire to know the truth which +will fit her for high service in God's kingdom on earth. I pray for her, +and I shall do so in the future with fuller understanding and with great +hope. What God hath begun He will assuredly bring to perfection. I hope +that some day she will learn to pray for Uncle Forbes. I should value +her prayers. It is good to feel that in the midst of your weary time of +weakness God has given you such a child as a pledge of His affection for +you, as an assurance that He believes in you. To give you a little child +to train for Himself is a proof that He trusts you very much. I do not +know that He could have given a greater proof of His confidence in you. +And it is God's implicit trust in us that draws out our trust in turn. +We trust and love Him, because He first trusted and loved us. I wonder +more and more at the way in which He trusts us. To allow us to suffer +without +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P166"></A>166}</SPAN> +telling us the reason, when He knows that we shall be +inclined to think harshly of Him—that is, perhaps, the greatest proof +that He believes in us. He can try our faith and perfect it by +long-continued trial, because He knows that we shall respond, that we +shall prove 'worthy to suffer.' +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To H. J. B.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: August 26, 1902. +</P> + +<P> +The worst of seeing you for some time is that I feel it all the more +impossible to live without you. I realise now as never before that you +are out and away before me, and better than I am; and yet I feel that you +are part and parcel of my life. You mustn't be too hard on me if I can't +come up to your ideal. +</P> + +<P> +Intellectually the Hebrew and Greek ideals may be irreconcilable. Yet +'life is larger than logic;' and practically we may become heirs of both +ideals. The man who loses the world, who gives up all without any desire +for gain, is often given the whole back again transfigured, glorified by +sacrifice. To get you must forget. If you love God absolutely with all +your being, you inherit the life that is as well as that which is to +come. If all is not given you, yet enough is given for the development +of character. But there must, it seems to me, be an absolute +sacrifice—a surrender of your whole being—whatever the result may be. +There must be no calculation. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +High Heaven rejects the lore<BR> +Of nicely calculated less and more.<BR> +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P167"></A>167}</SPAN> + +<P> +You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind: +you must trust Him to do the best by you. You say the Hebrew ideal does +not appeal to you. But I know better; for you half like me, and I am a +Hebrew of the Hebrews! There must be a dash of recklessness about the +man who gains the other world. 'All or nothing' is the requirement of +the kingdom of Heaven. To gain yourself you must throw yourself +away—'lose your soul.' You must have faith. 'He who loves makes his +own the grandeur that he loves' is a sentence of Emerson which consoles +me when I think of my love for you. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To a friend at Cambridge.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +40 Upperton Gardens, Eastbourne: September 8, 1902. +</P> + +<P> +I have been thinking of you. I keep myself from becoming morbid by +making most of my thoughts into prayers for you. The +glory—wonder—strangeness of being loved by a man from another and a +better world fills me with gratitude to God. Sometimes it seems a dream, +and I half dread that I shall wake up and find that you have ceased to +care for a worthless creature. But <I>phobos ouk estin en te agape, all he +teleia agape exo ballei ton phobon</I>. I need not fear. I know that you +will love me, whatever happens. +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: <I>phobos</I>—phi, omicron, beta, omicron, final +sigma; <I>ouk</I>—omicron, upsilon, kappa; <I>estin</I>—epsilon, sigma, tau, +iota, nu; <I>en</I>—epsilon, nu; <I>te</I>—tau, eta; <I>agape</I>—alpha, gamma, +alpha, pi, eta; <I>all</I>—alpha, lambda, lambda; <I>he</I>—(rough breathing +mark) eta; <I>teleia</I>—tau, epsilon, lambda, epsilon, iota, alpha; +<I>agape</I>—alpha, gamma, alpha, pi, eta; <I>exo</I>—epsilon, xi, omega; +<I>ballei</I>—beta, alpha, lambda, lambda, epsilon, iota; <I>ton</I>—tau, +omicron, nu; <I>phobon</I>—phi, omicron, beta, omicron, nu] +</P> + +<P> +I want you to be one of the best men that ever lived—to see God and to +reveal Him to men. This is the burden of my prayers. My whole being +goes out in passionate entreaty to God that He will give me what I ask. +I am sure He will, for the request +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P168"></A>168}</SPAN> +is after His own heart. I do +not pray that you may 'succeed in life' or 'get on' in the world. I +seldom even pray that you may love me better, or that I may see you +oftener in this or any other world—much as I crave for this. But I ask, +I implore, that Christ may be formed in you, that you may be made not in +a likeness suggested by my imagination, but in the image of God—that you +may realise, not mine, but His ideal, however much that ideal may +bewilder me, however little I may fail to recognise it when it is +created. I hate the thought that out of love for me you should accept my +presentation—my feeble idea—of the Christ. I want God to reveal His +Son in you independently of me—to give you a first-hand knowledge of Him +whom I am only beginning to see. Sometimes more selfish thoughts will +intrude, but this represents the main current of my prayers; and if the +ideal is to be won from heaven by importunity, by ceaseless begging, I +think I shall get it for you. But it grieves me to think that I can do +nothing else for you. To receive so many favours from you, and to be +incapable of doing more in return—this is what saddens me. I feel an +ungrateful brute. You have brought new joy, hope, power into my life, +and I want to show my gratitude. You would be doing me a real kindness +if you would tell me how I could show it. +</P> + +<P> +Don't think by what I have said that I simply care—as an 'Evangelical' +would say—for your 'soul.' Every part of your being—everything you do +or say—all that you are—has a strange fascination for me. Only I feel +that the whole of it is a revelation of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P169"></A>169}</SPAN> +God; and I want that +revelation to be clearer, truer, simpler. I am sure God does not only +care for our souls. It is every part of our complicated being—all sides +of our manifold life—that attracts Him. He loves our home life, our +affection for the dear old Mother Earth which He made, our interest in +the men and women whom He formed in His own image. He longs that all +those interests should be developed—that we should live genuine, sane +human lives. But true development here or elsewhere—the law of +existence in heaven or on earth—is life through death. 'Verily, verily, +I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it +abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.' You must +give up all. As I think of you, those words keep ringing in my ears: 'If +any one cometh to Me, and hateth not his own father and mother, yea, and +his own self also, he cannot be My disciple.' +</P> + +<P> +I cannot tell you what they mean. You must find them out for yourself. +</P> + +<P> +If I were a true disciple of Christ, you could see what they mean by +looking at me. But I am not. You must learn their meaning for yourself. +Your mother's life will speak louder than words of mine. Only I know +they are true. Christ will recreate the world, recreate the home, human +beings, dear Mother Earth; but He cannot do so until you have been +willing to give up all—until He has caused you to be 'born again.' When +the ruler asked how these things could be, Christ could only repeat His +words. The man must work it out for himself. +</P> + +<P> +But I am sure that he that willeth to do the will +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P170"></A>170}</SPAN> +shall know +whether the teaching be true. There are no doubt some mere intellectual +obscurities in the ideal which I might make simpler if I were not such a +duffer. But finally a paradox would be left—a paradox which can only be +solved by living the ideal out, and finding it work. It is the pathos of +our love, of God's love for us, that each man, however much he is loved, +must work out the ideal for himself. No man can save his brother's soul. +</P> + +<P> +I do not like to weaken the paradoxes of the Gospel. I think there is +more in Christ's words concerning 'loving one's life' or 'self' than you +suggest. You say it means 'self-denial.' Yes, that is true, but what a +tremendous meaning 'deny one's self' has! To disown your identity, that +is not much easier when you come to think of it than to lose your life. +I know you will find out what it all means, and that human love, beauty, +home, social service, will be more real than ever before, because you +will see the eternal reality underneath. You will be a 'new creation.' +</P> + +<P> +Now I must stop without satisfactorily answering your question, without +entering into any casuistical questions concerning conformity such as you +suggest. I should like you to think out that problem in casuistry more +for yourself, before I attempt to answer it. Forgive me for talking so +much about myself. When all is said and done, words fail me. I can only +thank God that you exist, and that you let me love you. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P171"></A>171}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To H. P., a Clifton College master who had given up school work in order +to devote himself to the School Mission in Bristol.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +40 Upperton Gardens, Eastbourne: September 30, 1902. +</P> + +<P> +… I am glad that you feel you have done right in giving up your +school work. I am sorry that you left Clifton, but you thought you +<I>ought</I> to go, and that is an end of the matter. I can only hope that +you are in some measure a connecting-link between the school and its +mission.… Don't forget me in my very different work—and yet work +for the same Master—at college. I have need of your prayers. It is so +easy to blunder, and to drive a man further from the kingdom by lack of +sympathy and love. I feel more than I used to my weakness, and my +absolute need of prayer. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To his brother Edward in South Africa.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +40 Upperton Gardens, Eastbourne: October 1, 1902. +</P> + +<P> +The October term has an interest of its own, bringing, as it does, a +batch of freshmen. I try more and more not simply to impose my ideals +upon them, but to find out their ideals and to quicken them with all my +power. But assuredly 'infinite sympathy is needed for the infinite +pathos of human life;' and my sympathies are as yet imperfectly developed. +</P> + +<P> +Still, as years go by, I think I can sympathise more with those who have +been trained up in other schools of thought and experience. I was +reading in a book lately that we are largely responsible for our +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P172"></A>172}</SPAN> +own experiences, that we have a duty to get them of the right kind. The +book was by an American lady on social questions. I think there is truth +in her words. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To D. B. K., head of a Public School Mission.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Eastbourne: October 1902. +</P> + +<P> +I delight to know men better, because I find so much more in them than I +had expected. They differ from me, and I try to get out of the habit of +making them in my own image, and try to find the image in which God is +making them. I have been praying for you. I want a spirit of sanity and +sacrifice to possess you, that you may be able to see the good works +which God has prepared beforehand that you should walk in them.… +</P> + +<P> +I am struck by the sacrifice which Christ demands. Unless the man hates +father, mother, family, friends, yea, and himself also, he 'cannot be' +His disciple, Christ gives them all back again—only 'with persecutions.' +We find more in the world, when we are 'crucified to it,' than ever +before; but there is a something added. We have a deeper joy in home +ties, in human love, in social life, in the changing seasons, in the dear +old earth. Only the joy has a note of sorrow, a pathos, which Christ +calls 'persecutions.' We see more in life, and yet we are in a measure +out of sympathy with our surroundings. We have heard and we can never +forget the sorrows of those who are 'one man' with us. There is more in +that word 'persecutions' than this, as no doubt +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P173"></A>173}</SPAN> +you have found. +But this, I think, is part of its signification, isn't it?… +</P> + +<P> +I believe in your 'mission' even more than you do. It is men like you, +who through great tribulations strive to enter the Kingdom, that God +uses. The fact that you are two men, and that the true man—the +Christ—is painfully yet surely being 'formed' in you, means that you +will be able to appeal to others who are painfully conscious of their +double consciousness and are often the slaves of the lower, inhuman self. +Your wealth of affection will make you feel as St. Paul did—<I>teknia mou, +ous palin mechris ou morphothe Christos en humin</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: <I>teknia</I>—tau, epsilon, kappa, nu, iota, +alpha; <I>mou</I>—mu, omicron, upsilon; <I>ous</I>—omicron, upsilon, final sigma; +<I>palin</I>—pi, alpha, lambda, iota, nu; <I>mechris</I>—mu, epsilon, ch, rho, +iota, final sigma; <I>ou</I>—omicron, upsilon; <I>morphothe</I>—mu, omicron, rho, +phi, omega, theta, eta; <I>Christos</I>—Chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, omicron, +final sigma; <I>en</I>—epsilon, nu; <I>humin</I>—(rough breathing mark) upsilon, +mu, iota, nu] +</P> + +<P> +These words sum up for me, better than any others, my deepest wish for my +friends. I fall back with desperate energy upon prayer, as the one power +by which my wish can be realised. +</P> + +<P> +You seem to look ahead almost more than is necessary. I delight in the +feeling that I am in eternity, that I can serve God now fully and +effectively, that the next piece of the road will come in sight when I am +ready to walk on it 'I do not ask to see the distant scene.' I hate the +unsettled feeling that I have not yet begun my main work. +</P> + +<P> +Don't measure work by human standards of greatness. Your present +occupation might well be the envy of angels—if they could envy. +</P> + +<P> +But now I am lecturing. So it is time to shut up.… +</P> + +<P> +I fear that the origin of evil is more of a mystery to me now than when I +wrote that essay! But I still think that we are fighting a real being, +one whom +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P174"></A>174}</SPAN> +we can best describe as personal. His will, it seems to +me, must be given to him by God. He has identified it with a hitherto +unrealised potentiality for disobedience. In plain language, his will is +free, and therefore capable of resisting God. I should like to have a +talk with you some day about it. But, as you see, the problem is beyond +me.… +</P> + +<P> +It is a strength to me to feel that you are fighting the devil in +yourself and others up in ——, and that I am 'one man' with you. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To D. B. K.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +St. Moritz: January 1903. +</P> + +<P> +It is getting on for your birthday, isn't it? Congratulations. I wish I +knew the exact day. I think more and more that a birthday is a subject +not—as poor Job thought—for anathemas, but for congratulations. To be +a reasonable human being—with capacity for seeing something of God's +purposes for the race—with power to forward them—with opportunities for +love and sacrifice and prayer—oh! I am so glad that I was not a mere +animal. And to be born at the end of the nineteenth century—I prefer +that period even to Apostolic times. We can know more of God's purposes, +enter more deeply into His mind and even His heart, than primitive +Christians. +</P> + +<P> +I have been reading to-day Temple's essay on 'The Education of the World' +in 'Essays and Reviews.' Get hold of an old copy of that book, and read +it. It is strong and manly, and rings true. I +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P175"></A>175}</SPAN> +love that old man +with his tenderness, simplicity, thoughtfulness, and will of steel. I +thank God for him. There is something about utter goodness which makes +me worship, and fills me with the challenge, 'Go and do thou likewise.' +Goodness is as infectious as any disease. +</P> + +<P> +I have been thinking lately of the self-sacrifice of God's life. I +suppose that is the reason why He can enter into our lives—see them from +the inside. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Thou canst conceive our highest and our lowest,<BR> +Pulses of nobleness and aches of shame.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +It must have been the wealth of His self-sacrifice which made Him give us +selves—wills—of our own. Then He makes them His own by more +self-sacrifice. We are made in His image—made to go out of self, and +find our self by losing it. Other men at first seem to limit our +freedom, but later we find that the apparent limitations are only just +scope for realising our true self. Each time we go out of self, and +enter into another 'ego,' we return the richer for our sacrifice. We +take up other lives into our own, and are richer than a millionaire. +</P> + +<P> +I think that when the other 'ego' is most unlike our own—when at first +sight the man is repulsive, and (worse still) uninteresting to us—when +the sacrifice is great, if we would see life through his eyes, share his +ambitions, fears, longings, and mental outlook, then is the time when we +are peculiarly rewarded for our pains. Our consciousness is larger, more +human, more divine than before. +</P> + +<P> +'By feeblest agents doth our God fulfil His +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P176"></A>176}</SPAN> +righteous will' is the +thought suggested by some of our brother-clergy. God does not choose the +agents we should choose. Or perhaps the latter do not respond to His +choice. Yet I feel that I am one of them, and that it is my faults writ +large which I detest in them. I feel that, with all the riches of the +revelation which I possess, I have that same self-satisfaction and lack +of sympathy which I loathe in others. It is my life which is the +stumbling-block to my message. They have often far less light than I +have, but walk in it more simply than I do. The rafter in my own eye +troubles me even more than the speck in theirs. But it is hard, God +knows, sometimes to feel His presence in their presence. But the forces +of good must be united ('Keep, ah! keep them combined. Else …'), and +if by any effort we can enter into their lives, and transcend the +barriers between us, we are not only enriching our own life, but we are +doing our best to show a combined front against the almost overwhelming +forces of evil. +</P> + +<P> +Even the Apostles must have found it hard to work together. We know they +did. Look at Peter and Paul. Yet the spirit of unity was stronger than +all that opposed Him, and the One Body was in some measure realised. +What was difficult in the childhood of the Body is still more difficult +in its manhood. And Englishmen, with their strong sense of +individuality, find it a terrible lesson to learn. +</P> + +<P> +But pray. You enter then into another man's 'ego.' You see him in God. +You see him as an end in himself. Remember Kant's maxim—a wonderful +maxim from one who would not, I suppose, be +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P177"></A>177}</SPAN> +technically called a +Christian—'Treat humanity, whether in thyself or in another, always as +an end, not simply as a means.' Put aside a certain amount of time, and +pray for one man. If your thoughts wander, do not be disturbed, do not +try to find when they began or how they began to wander; do not despair, +go back to the subject in hand. And God will have mercy. Your +influence, your life, your all, depends on prayer. +</P> + +<P> +We must faint sometimes. But let your saddest times, your deepest +struggles be known to God. Gain there the strength and quietness which +you need for life. But don't let men see the agony—let them see the +peace which comes from wrestling alone with God—wrestling for them. +</P> + +<P> +You are not one man, but two or three. Thank God for that. It means +that you will have a hard life—an awful struggle with self or selves: +but it also means more influence, more power to enter into man's life. +So many of the finest men owe their attractiveness to their diverse, +many-sided nature. You will be able to feel for such, and perhaps to +help them. You are half a Greek with your yearning for beauty and +knowledge, half a Hebrew with your loathing for sin and love of God. The +Greek in you must not be annihilated, but it must be subordinated to the +Hebrew. Conscience must be absolute master. You must sacrifice the +'Greek' to Christ; but He will give you back what is best in the Greek +ideal, all the better for the mark of the Cross on it. He will give it +you back partly in this world, partly in the next, when you have learnt +to renounce it—if need +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P178"></A>178}</SPAN> +were, for ever—for His sake. But you must +give up all for Him without thought of reward. He can give no reward to +the man who is looking for it. The thought of your life helps me. Go +on, for the night cometh when no man can work. Thank God it is yet day. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To his brother Edward in South Africa.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Mühlen, Switzerland: January 11, 1903. +</P> + +<P> +I found walking a pleasant change after reading philosophy, which I have +been doing during my holidays. I seem to have been getting my ideas a +little clearer, and am no longer as content as I was with the Kantian +doctrine, that our knowledge in speculative matters never gets beyond +'appearances.' I feel that at every turn we do get to that which +<I>is</I>—to an underlying reality. I cannot feel that Kant's hard and fast +division between 'speculative' and 'moral' reason holds good. The +external world, because it is intelligible, must be akin to us; there +must be an intelligence in it, otherwise it would never become an object +of knowledge to our intelligence. It is not only in our ethical life +that we come across the absolute consciousness. I feel now more than +ever how we cannot divide up ourselves into water-tight compartments, and +think of reason, will, and feeling as separate things, lying side by +side. They can be separated—abstracted—in thought, but in actual life +you never find one without the other. We cannot think without some +degree of attention, and attention involves an exercise of will, and will +cannot +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P179"></A>179}</SPAN> +be exercised without desire, and desire involves feeling. +</P> + +<P> +I think faith also cannot be regarded as a separate faculty. Reason, +will, and feeling are all involved even in the faith of a poor cottager; +much more does reason enter into the faith of a thoughtful man. +</P> + +<P> +I have been reading Butler, and hope when I go back to study Hume. What +a wealth of light the conception of 'Development' has shed upon the +problems which exercised the eighteenth century! I have read half +through Leslie Stephen's 'Thought in the Eighteenth Century,' and I have +been struck again and again at the new aspect that the old questions take +when looked at from the standpoint of Evolution. +</P> + +<P> +I feel also that we need to study more the evolution of <I>thought</I>—the +necessary phases that reason (like man's physical life) must pass through +before perfection.… +</P> + +<P> +I think you are right, that education must now include instruction in +imperial ideas—in our relations with that larger social life which is +dawning upon us—a step towards a still larger social life to be realised +in the brotherhood of nations. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. J. C.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Christ's College, Cambridge: February 1, 1903. +</P> + +<P> +I am slow to suggest to another man that what seems bad luck is in +reality the voice of God making itself felt in his busy life, calling him +to fuller sacrifice. But I am sure that we are right when we interpret +it +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P180"></A>180}</SPAN> +thus for ourselves. I share your wish for 'some really strong +man' to come as a prophet and read the writing on the wall, and tell us +'what it all means.' Yet the absence of human help is not accidental. +It must be designed, in order that we may learn to fall back on the +everlasting arms—to find by experience that the unseen is more real than +the seen. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +There is an arm that never tires<BR> +When human strength gives way.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +I like that phrase, 'worthy to suffer.' It is to those whom God loves +best and most that He gives—as He gave to His Son—the chance of +suffering. Sympathy, strength, reality—these are some of its fruits for +those who allow them to grow. 'He cannot be My disciple.' I can't help +sometimes thinking of these words. Unless the man is prepared to make +sacrifice the basis of his life, he <I>cannot</I> be Christ's disciple. I +don't think we always realise the 'trans-valuation of values' found in +Christ's teaching. 'Blessed are the poor—the hungry. He that would +save his life shall lose it. He that loseth, saveth. He that would be +greatest shall be least. It is more blessed to give than to receive.' +As I think over such statements as these, I find that I have again and +again to revise, as it were, my moral arithmetic—to change my standards, +to revise my ideas of great and little, happiness and misery, importance +and insignificance. +</P> + +<P> +I am sure that nothing but the highest will satisfy you. God has given +you singular powers of influence and of attracting others. He will +demand an account +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P181"></A>181}</SPAN> +of those powers. You know Matthew Arnold's lines +on his father. I believe the day will come when men will say like words +of you. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +But thou would'st not <I>alone</I><BR> +Be saved, my father! alone<BR> +Conquer and come to thy goal,<BR> +Leaving the rest in the wild…<BR> +Therefore to thee it was given<BR> +Many to save with thyself.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +That is what I want you to be—a tower of strength—strength perfected, +it may be, in weakness—weakness forcing you to despair of self, and find +the Rock of Ages. You have been so much to me, and helped me so often, +that I feel you must be born to help others as well. And this quiet +time, it may be that God is using it to call you closer to Himself, to +teach you to revise your 'values,' to show you a new fund of strength. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Our wills are ours, we know not how,</SPAN><BR> +Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +You must—literally must—let His will overpower your will. Nothing but +complete sacrifice will satisfy you or Him, and I believe in you +profoundly. I am sure that, whatever be the ghastly struggle, you will +go through with it, and find your strength in Him. I pray for you. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To his mother.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cambridge; March 15, 1903. +</P> + +<P> +The term is almost over … I am enjoying a quiet Sunday. What a +blessing these Sundays are +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P182"></A>182}</SPAN> +to us—a foretaste of a fuller life of +service and worship hereafter! I have been thinking lately with comfort +of the quiet perpetual work of the Holy Spirit, silently but surely +leading us on to higher things—comforting, correcting, guiding. It +gives ground for hope in dealing with men, this knowledge that there is +One who perfects what we feebly struggle to begin, who watches over men +with a love that will not let them go. We are not alone in our work; we +have omnipotence and illimitable wisdom on our side, forwarding our +efforts. When I consider what the Spirit has accomplished in my own +life, I have large hope for others. The argument from personal +experience is singularly convincing. 'The fellowship of the Holy +Ghost'—it is He who unites men and interprets them one to the other. It +is He who gives spirit and life to our words. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To H. J. B.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Bexley House, Cromer: March 31, 1903. +</P> + +<P> +It was good of you to send me that card from Florence. You don't know +how glad it made me. To know that you were thinking of me was a strength +to me. Your love for me comes as a perpetual surprise and inspiration. +I feel a brute compared with you, but the knowledge that you care for me +more than you do for most men makes me feel that I must try to be good. +'In Italy of the fifteenth century renaissance we see in strange +confusion all that we love in art, and all that we loathe in man!' Greek +history was short compared +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P183"></A>183}</SPAN> +with the Hebrew: I suppose because +intellectual and artistic ideals are more easily realised than ethical +and religious. It takes time to make a saint. It is part of the +discipline of life to find the two sets of ideas apparently antagonistic. +There is a higher unity in which they are blended—in God Himself. It +must be right to follow the dictates of conscience when it bids us lose +our soul if we would gain it. We cannot trust God too much. If we +forget our self, He will see that our truest self is ultimately realised. +</P> + +<P> +I can't express myself well, for I have just finished a spell of hard +work. I have sent away my tripos papers to-night. I am going up to +Edinburgh on Friday or Saturday. I fear I shall not see you until April +21. Will you tell Armitage that I will, if convenient to him, sleep at +Westminster that night instead of going straight to Cambridge? The +hopelessness of ever showing my gratitude to you or of ever making you +realise how much I love you oppresses me. I don't know what I should do +if I had not One Higher than I am to confide in—if I could not leave you +in His hands—if I could not gain strength and life for you by appealing +to Him. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +O brother, if my faith is vain,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">If hopes like these betray,</SPAN><BR> +Pray for me, that I too may gain<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">The sure and safer way.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +And Thou, O God, by whom are seen<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Thy creatures as they be,</SPAN><BR> +Forgive me if too close I lean<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">My human heart on Thee!</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P184"></A>184}</SPAN> +I lean closer and closer as life goes on. I feel that our hope +lies in despair—despair of self. The vessels which contain the treasure +are, as to-night's lesson says, earthen, 'that the excess of the power +may be God's and not from us.' And there is a power, there is a life +working in us. It is the quiet, sane, constant work of the Spirit in and +upon our spirit, that never hastes and never tires: which gives me +comfort for you, for myself, for all of us. The same life that is at +work in the hedge across the road is in us, only in us it attains full +self-consciousness and freedom. We can deliberately use it or refuse it. +Forgive the length of the letter. But I felt so tired that I thought it +would do me good to write to you, selfish brute that I am. +</P> + +<P> +I expect you enjoyed your time in Italy immensely. I should have liked +to be with you. I wonder if ever we shall be there together? Some day +we shall be in a world where the barriers of space are broken down: +'There shall be no more sea.' Yet it seems to me that we have not +altogether to wait for that other world. They are half broken down +already; and if we had faith as a grain of mustard seed, we should +realise the meaning of a unity deeper than any special or temporal bond. +If we fail to realise its meaning now, shall we realise it then? Is not +life here a training for life hereafter? If we learn nothing in this +school, we shall not be able to take our places in that school of +'broader love.' The best part in me does not complain. I thank God for +His thoughtful goodness in bringing you near to me. I thank Him for the +mystery of life, which enables me to realise that +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P185"></A>185}</SPAN> +Power 'which +lives not in the light alone, But in the darkness and the light.' I +become more and more inclined to thank Him as I see Him more clearly. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. S. H. on his accepting the post of chaplain at the Royal Naval +College, Osborne.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Cambridge: April 30, 1903. +</P> + +<P> +I am satisfied with your decision. I thought over the matter, but I +could not see my way quite clearly to say anything more definite, so I +did not write again. Don't think that my silence was due to slackness. +I did what I thought was better than writing. I spent an hour in praying +over the matter. Now that the matter is settled I can tell you what a +keen pleasure it is to me to have my dear old —— near me in England,[1] +and doing a piece of work which is full of hope and joy. I would not say +this before, because I did not wish to influence your decision by private +considerations. Get some quiet time for prayer before September 1, that +when you go to Osborne you may go <I>en pleromati eulogias Christou</I> +('filled full with the blessing of Christ'). I feel increasingly the +need of such times to learn to walk by faith without stumbling, and to +accustom myself to the atmosphere of faith, to see things as they appear +to a man who has faith 'as a grain of mustard seed.' +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: <I>en</I>—epsilon, nu; <I>pleromati</I>—pi, lambda, +eta, rho, omega, mu, alpha, tau, iota; <I>eulogias</I>—epsilon, upsilon, +lambda, omicron, gamma, iota, alpha, final sigma; <I>Christou</I>—Chi, rho, +iota, sigma, tau, omicron, upsilon] +</P> + +<P> +Westcott records a visit (see 'Life,' i. 249) to his old schoolmaster, +Bishop Prince Lee. '"People quote various words of the Lord," said the +Bishop, "as containing the sum of the Gospel—the Lord's Prayer, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P186"></A>186}</SPAN> +the Sermon on the Mount, and the like; to me the essence of the Gospel is +in simpler and shorter terms: <I>me phobou, monon pisteue</I>.[2] Ah! +Westcott, mark that <I>monon</I>," and his eyes were filled with tears as he +spoke.' Ah! S——, mark that <I>monon</I>!… God bless you in your new +work and make you a blessing to others as you have been to me. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] He had been offered work in South Africa. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[2] 'Be not afraid, only believe.' +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: <I>me</I>—mu, eta; <I>phobou</I>—phi, omicron, beta, +omicron, upsilon; <I>monon</I>—mu, omicron, nu, omicron, nu; <I>pisteue</I>—pi, +iota, sigma, tau, epsilon, upsilon, epsilon] +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To J. K.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>St. Thomas's Home, St. Thomas's Hospital: August 28, 1903.</I> +</P> + +<P> +… I am most grateful for your kind words, though I know full well +how little it is that I have done for you. We clergymen so often seem to +be working in the dark. There are no clear results to show, as <I>e.g.</I> a +doctor can comfort himself with, when he has visibly cured a patient. +And I for one am too easily inclined to despair, and to wonder whether +the work is not in vain. But 'trust is truer than our fears.' Yet it +does me good when I feel I have done anything, however tiny, for a man. +After all, results are best left in God's hand. He gives us enough to +help us the next step onward, but not enough to exalt us, and to make us +think we can do anything without His assistance. Work 'in the Lord' +cannot be in vain. +</P> + +<P> +I am glad you have been reading Bishop Westcott's life. He was a man of +God, and his life is an inspiration, and a prophecy of what our life +may—nay, some day—will be.… I like that passage +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P187"></A>187}</SPAN> +when he +goes to see his old schoolmaster, Bishop Prince Lee, who tells him with +tears in his eyes that to his mind the whole Gospel message is summed up +in the words '<I>me phobou, monon pisteue</I>.' +</P> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: see the previous letter for transliteration notes on +the above Greek phrase.] +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To a friend who had been an international athlete.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +St. Thomas's Home: September 5, 1903. +</P> + +<P> +We had a fairly good 'Long' in spite of the miserable weather. +Congratulate me. I won my first athletic distinction last 'Long'—a +ten-shilling prize. I am thinking of chucking work and becoming a +professional. It was a second prize in a tennis tournament. I had (I +must own) the best player in College as my partner. I want to get a very +conspicuous object as prize. What do you suggest? +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To C. T. W.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +St. Thomas's Hospital: September 1903. +</P> + +<P> +I am getting on first-rate, and I hope to be up early next week. I +believe you are right. We should do well if we had more regularity and +self-discipline in our life at Cambridge, and we should have more power +over others. Pray for me.… +</P> + +<P> +You needn't pity me. I am having a very good time. It is jolly to do +nothing, and not even to have to dress and undress—both exhausting and +monotonous occupations. It has been a glorious day, and although it is +almost 7 P.M., I am still out on the balcony enjoying the cool breezes. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P188"></A>188}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To W. O.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Alassio; December 1903. +</P> + +<P> +Death has come near to my family lately. I told you that my sister—the +Deaconess—had passed away from us.[1] It is not all sorrow, when we +know that the life has been spent in walking with God, when we know that +this corruptible puts on incorruption, and that what is sown in intense +bodily weakness is raised in strength—eternal strength. +</P> + +<P> +I am so glad that God has given to you His highest blessing. I long to +meet your future wife. It makes me very happy to think of the happiness +in store for you—to know that you are in the best of all schools. I +thank God. Love will bring you both nearer to the source of Love.… +This new blessing, as you say, is 'the gathering up of the best that God +gives.' I can't express my thoughts as I would, but I am very, very +glad.… +</P> + +<P> +Illness teaches one many lessons. I trust I have learned some. I have +been amazed at the goodness of my friends! +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] His sister, Deaconess Cecilia, 'passed away' at the Deanery, +Westminster, on September 8. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To W. P., an officer in the Army.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Hotel Salisbury, Alassio, Italy: December 21, 1903. +</P> + +<P> +I don't think things happen by chance. Indeed I am sure they do not. I +have never felt so humbled to the earth. One sees one's life as a whole, +when one is helpless and can do nothing, and the whole looks very poor +and mean. It is like the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P189"></A>189}</SPAN> +judgment-day—only with this grand +exception, that life is not yet over, that the night has not yet come in +which 'no man can work,' that you have still a chance to make the future +better, more honest, more noble than the past. Then, again, I learnt the +utter and wonderful kindness of my friends. I felt so selfish and so +surprised at the goodness they showed me. Again, I saw something of the +mystery of pain. My own was so trivial compared with that which some +others had to bear. Yet I had enough to startle me that such a fact +should be permitted on earth at all. I don't suppose we can understand +its meaning; but my consolation was that it is not necessarily a sign of +God's displeasure—that the highest life was a life of suffering, that +the Son of Man was a 'Man of Sorrows.' Everything seems to me to depend +upon the way in which one takes the pain—if one voluntarily says, 'Thy +kingdom come, Thy will be done,' then one is entering into the highest +life, and the pain becomes a new method of serving and knowing God. But +physical pain, if prolonged, is a terrible thing; and there is no time on +a bed of sickness for praying or thinking much of God unless one is +accustomed to do so in health. The needs of the poor body press in upon +one. Death-bed repentances are realities, but I am inclined to think +that they are very rare. It is terribly dangerous to defer being good +until we are ill. Illness does not necessarily make us good. +</P> + +<P> +I am afraid I was but a poor coward, and yet my faith did not utterly +fail. God is the one hope for a man who is ill, and He is true to His +word. He +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P190"></A>190}</SPAN> +hides His face behind the clouds; but even when I +couldn't see Him at all, I felt that He was there. Pray for me; at +present I feel too weak to pray much for myself. I want—I do want—to +be a better man, to help others nearer the kingdom. I want, when life is +over, to have a better record to look back upon than I had in hospital. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To F. S. H.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Alassio, Italy; January 2, 1904. +</P> + +<P> +Your letter came to me at a time when I was rather low. I had to have a +second operation. However, after fifteen weeks of Nursing Homes I +escaped, and, as soon as I could, made my way to St. Moritz. For once +the place didn't seem to suit me very well. So, after little more than a +week, I came down into Italy. I am so far recovered now that I quite +hope to be able to go back to college at the beginning of this term. +</P> + +<P> +Illness and pain have taught me some lessons—at least I hope so. I feel +solemnised, startled, when I think of how life looked when I could do +nothing for the time. Pray for me that I may be more real. I learnt, +too, how futile it is to put off repentance till sickness. It is hard at +such a time to think of aught save self and physical pain. And my own +pain was so trivial compared with that of others. O God! it is a +terrible thing. Some day shall we be able to understand, if not with the +head, with the heart, part of its meaning? Meanwhile the individual can +say, however feebly, 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.' +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P191"></A>191}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<I>To his brother, a doctor in South Africa.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Alassio, Italy: January 7, 1904. +</P> + +<P> +At last I am beginning to get tired of doing nothing. I hope that +eventually I shall be stronger than I have been for some years past. At +any rate I hope a little first-hand experience of pain will make me more +sympathetic. Pain seems to me now a greater mystery than ever before. +But I comforted myself with the thought that in the highest Life ever +seen on earth, there was a full measure of spiritual, mental, and +physical pain. Also it was a comfort to feel that when one accepted, not +simply with resignation but with faith, certain suffering, one was in +sympathy with the will of the universe, 'working together with God' in +some mysterious way. What a strange place a hospital is! How wonderful +the Gospels are, with their hope and comfort on every page—hope for the +physical as well as the mental side of man's life! I like more than ever +now to read how Jesus went about healing all manner of diseases and all +manner of sickness and bringing life and strength wherever He came, +showing us that Heaven is on our side in our wrestle with all that +deforms and degrades human nature. +</P> + +<P> +I certainly don't regret my illness. Besides showing me the marvellous +kindness of friends, it has, I hope, taught me much. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap193"></A> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P193"></A>193}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX +</H3> + +<P> +The following letter addressed to the Editor of this volume was +received from the Rev. H. Bisseker, chaplain at the Leys School, +Cambridge, too late for insertion in an earlier portion of the book: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Your brother's friendship, as you must have heard so often during the +past few months, was valued in Cambridge beyond that of most men, and I +am probably only one of many who still look to that friendship as among +the prominent facts of their time up here. Though personally I did not +learn to know Mr. Robinson when I first came up, his brotherliness so +deeply impressed me during the four years for which our friendship +lasted, that I still find it difficult to believe that he is no longer +to be found in the familiar rooms at Christ's, and has ceased to be a +part of our Cambridge life. And yet, in another sense, he has not +ceased to be a part of that life; for one feels that during his +residence up here he managed, if one may so express it, to put a bit of +himself into more than one man, and that in this way he will continue +to live among us long after he himself has been removed. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P194"></A>194}</SPAN> +'I have often thought about him and his quiet, strong influence +since we heard that we had lost him, and almost invariably the same +three of his characteristics assume the uppermost place in my thought. +Different sides of his nature would appeal to different men: I can best +serve your purpose by mentioning those which made the deepest +impression on my own mind. +</P> + +<P> +'One of the chief causes of your brother's influence was unquestionably +<I>his sense of the value of the individual</I>. He used to take men one by +one and make a separate study of each. The consequence was that he +<I>knew</I> his men. On any given visit the acquaintance did not, as it +were, have to be begun over again. On the contrary, the acquaintance +once formed, some common ground already existed; for so great was your +brother's power of sympathy that, where at the first no such common +ground appeared to exist, he soon learnt to find a standing-place +himself on that assumed by the man he was seeking to know. And not +only did Mr. Robinson possess this power of valuing the individual, but +he also was able to inspire the objects of his influence with the +knowledge of his particular interest in them. Thus they soon dropped +the idea of acquaintanceship, and began to think of him as friend, and +there you have in a word the secret of his wide influence. He was +interested in <I>men</I>, but what he loved was a <I>man</I>. +</P> + +<P> +'Mr. Robinson was no less marked off from the majority of men by the +stress which he laid upon the reality and power of prayer. We used +from time to time to have long talks together on this subject, so +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P195"></A>195}</SPAN> + +that I can speak with some little knowledge of the place which he +assigned it in his life. With characteristic modesty he not +infrequently distrusted himself in his active contact with men. His +very anxiety to help others towards the ideals by which his own life +was dominated led him to see the risk of placing hindrances in their +way by an injudicious intrusion into the secret places of their hearts. +Drawn in different directions, therefore, by his passionate desire to +win men for Christ and his cautious fear lest untimely words of his +should hinder rather than help, he found refuge in giving himself up to +earnest prayer on their behalf. And prayer to him meant more than a +light repetition of words. He used often, I believe, to spend as long +as half an hour at a time in seeking blessing for a single man. We +cannot doubt that, in the strong influence which he himself exerted +upon so many of those who knew him, such persistent prayer received at +least a part of its own answer. +</P> + +<P> +'The last element in your brother's individuality which always +impressed me was his restrained, but genuine, mysticism. In the few +accounts of his life that I have read I do not remember any allusion to +this characteristic. That he possessed it, however, and this to no +usual degree, seems to my mind quite patent; in fact, it was this +suggestion of mysticism that first attracted me to him. The mysticism +one sees around one is often so unregulated and so ignorant that it was +refreshing to find a mystic who was also an enlightened scholar and +thinker. It confirmed the feeling, instinctive in one's heart, that, +despite the abuse of caricature, a deep, intelligent +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P196"></A>196}</SPAN> +apprehension +of unseen realities is of the essence of the fulness of religion. Mr. +Forbes Robinson appeared to possess an unusually certain cognisance of +the unseen world. How well I remember the way in which, again and +again, tea over and our pipes lighted, he would curl himself up in one +of his or my own big chairs and discuss questions of interest to us +both with a far-away look in his eyes altogether suggestive of a +genuine otherworldliness! And this familiarity with unseen verities +seemed to run through all those parts of his life with which I was +acquainted, and indeed to be to him the most real fact of all +existence. To use the simple language of olden days, I believe that +"he walked with God": and that explains his life. +</P> + +<P> +'These, then, were the three characteristics of your brother which more +than any others have impressed themselves upon my mind. I do not think +that they were three separate sides of his personality: I should say, +rather, that they were three different expressions of one fundamental +attribute. It was because he walked so closely with God that he so +loved the individual sons of God. It was because he so loved the Great +Father and each child of His that he had so strong a faith in the power +of prayer and such unwearying patience to persist in it. +</P> + +<P> +'A life like your brother's, if I may say one thing more, forms, I +sometimes think, one of the strongest pledges of human immortality. In +one sense, it is true, he seems to have done so much; and yet, in +another sense, those of us who knew the faculties which he had +cultivated, his knowledge and patient +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P197"></A>197}</SPAN> +scholarship, his sympathy +and insight, his tact and passion for men, and, most precious of all, +his power with God, were looking for even greater things in years to +come. Such fitness for influence as he possessed is not acquired in a +day, and just when its worth was being proved he was taken from us. +Surely these gifts and graces are not now as if they had never been, or +as if, once granted, they had been idly wasted! Can that earnest, +patient cultivation really have been gratuitous, and the unselfish +instinct that inspired it mistaken? Were it so, the whole universe +looks out of joint. The more I consider such lives as that of your +brother—lives, I mean, which, bearing promise of so rich a harvest, +are yet cut off before the full harvest can possibly have been +realised—the more my conviction grows that the passing of such men as +he is not death, but only "the birth which we call death."' +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap199"></A> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P199"></A>199}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +INDEX +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Anthropomorphism in the O.T., <A HREF="#P135">135</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Average man, the, <A HREF="#P43">43</A> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Beauty, natural, <A HREF="#P153">153</A>, <A HREF="#P156">156</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Beauty, origin of personal, <A HREF="#P78">78-81</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Boers, religion of the, <A HREF="#P110">110</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Boer war, the, <A HREF="#P162">162</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Christmas, meaning of, <A HREF="#P153">153</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Christ's College Magazine, extract from, <A HREF="#P10">10</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Clough, quotation from, <A HREF="#P164">164</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Communion of saints, <A HREF="#P69">69</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Continuity of work, <A HREF="#P106">106</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Cornwall, open-air preaching in, <A HREF="#P25">25</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Criticism of O.T., <A HREF="#P54">54</A>, <A HREF="#P136">136</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Daily service, repetition of, <A HREF="#P59">59</A> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Eternity, life in the light of, <A HREF="#P164">164</A> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Faith, function of, <A HREF="#P120">120</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Fitzpatrick, Rev. T. C., sketch by, <A HREF="#P36">36-42</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Friendship, permanent character of, <A HREF="#P84">84</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Friendship, the, of Christ, <A HREF="#P89">89</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Future life, the, <A HREF="#P69">69</A>, <A HREF="#P117">117</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P125">125</A>, <A HREF="#P149">149</A>, <A HREF="#P150">150</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Gordon, General, in S. Africa, <A HREF="#P116">116</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Hebrew and Greek ideals, <A HREF="#P166">166</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P183">183</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Holy Spirit, work of the, <A HREF="#P182">182</A>, <A HREF="#P184">184</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Home life, significance of, <A HREF="#P60">60</A>, <A HREF="#P77">77</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P84">84</A>, <A HREF="#P110">110</A>, <A HREF="#P118">118</A>, <A HREF="#P159">159</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Humour, sense of, <A HREF="#P47">47</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Incarnation, results of his belief in, <A HREF="#P45">45</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Influence upon others, <A HREF="#P75">75</A> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +James, Dr., sketch by, <A HREF="#P7">7</A> <I>sqq.</I> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Kant, philosophy of, <A HREF="#P176">176</A>, <A HREF="#P178">178</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Kittermaster, Rev. D. B., sketch by, <A HREF="#P42">42-53</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Kruger, interview with, <A HREF="#P112">112</A> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Law as revealed to the Jews, <A HREF="#P63">63</A> <I>sqq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Letter-writer, St. Paul a, <A HREF="#P82">82</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +<I>Letters</I>— +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +H. J. B., <A HREF="#P151">151</A>, <A HREF="#P164">164</A>, <A HREF="#P166">166</A>, <A HREF="#P182">182</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +W. A. B., <A HREF="#P60">60</A>, <A HREF="#P74">74</A>, <A HREF="#P77">77</A>, <A HREF="#P86">86</A>, <A HREF="#P113">113</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +F. J. C., <A HREF="#P129">129</A>, <A HREF="#P131">131</A>, <A HREF="#P134">134</A>, <A HREF="#P153">153</A>, <A HREF="#P179">179</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +G. J. C., <A HREF="#P122">122</A>, <A HREF="#P123">123</A>, <A HREF="#P158">158</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +J. L. D., <A HREF="#P91">91</A>, <A HREF="#P93">93</A>, <A HREF="#P95">95</A>, <A HREF="#P109">109</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +G. F., <A HREF="#P104">104</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +A. W. G., <A HREF="#P69">69</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +F. S. H., <A HREF="#P102">102</A>, <A HREF="#P103">103</A>, <A HREF="#P105">105</A>, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>, <A HREF="#P119">119</A>, <A HREF="#P132">132</A>, <A HREF="#P136">136</A>, <A HREF="#P139">139</A>, <A HREF="#P185">185</A>, <A HREF="#P187">187</A>, <A HREF="#P190">190</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +J. C. H., <A HREF="#P117">117</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +W. D. H., <A HREF="#P127">127</A>, <A HREF="#P162">162</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +D. B. K., <A HREF="#P148">148</A>, <A HREF="#P159">159</A>, <A HREF="#P172">172</A>, <A HREF="#P174">174</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +J. K., <A HREF="#P108">108</A>, <A HREF="#P186">186</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +E. N. L., <A HREF="#P58">58</A>, <A HREF="#P68">68</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +T. H. M., <A HREF="#P55">55</A>, <A HREF="#P56">56</A>, <A HREF="#P57">57</A>, <A HREF="#P76">76</A>, <A HREF="#P100">100</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +W. O., <A HREF="#P143">143</A>, <A HREF="#P188">188</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +H. P., <A HREF="#P145">145</A>, <A HREF="#P171">171</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +W. P., <A HREF="#P188">188</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +A. V. R., <A HREF="#P54">54</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +D. D. R., <A HREF="#P63">63</A>, <A HREF="#P88">88</A>, <A HREF="#P98">98</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +C. N. W., <A HREF="#P120">120</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +C. T. W., <A HREF="#P107">107</A>, <A HREF="#P111">111</A>, <A HREF="#P126">126</A>, <A HREF="#P127">127</A>, <A HREF="#P187">187</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Anonymous, <A HREF="#P114">114</A>, <A HREF="#P125">125</A>, <A HREF="#P146">146</A>, <A HREF="#P149">149</A>, <A HREF="#P162">162</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +To a friend at Cambridge, <A HREF="#P154">154</A>, <A HREF="#P167">167</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +To his brother Edward in S. Africa, <A HREF="#P137">137</A>, <A HREF="#P156">156</A>, <A HREF="#P171">171</A>, <A HREF="#P178">178</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +To his brother, a doctor in S. Africa, <A HREF="#P128">128</A>, <A HREF="#P135">135</A>, <A HREF="#P191">191</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +To his mother, <A HREF="#P116">116</A>, <A HREF="#P181">181</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +To the mother of his godchild, M. F., <A HREF="#P110">110</A>, <A HREF="#P118">118</A>, <A HREF="#P165">165</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Life, <I>zoe</I> as used in St. John, <A HREF="#P55">55</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Life, the Divine, manifested, <A HREF="#P101">101</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Love, his, for his friends, <A HREF="#P45">45</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P50">50</A>, <A HREF="#P154">154</A>, <A HREF="#P182">182</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Love, meaning and scope of, <A HREF="#P73">73</A>, <A HREF="#P76">76</A>, <A HREF="#P113">113</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P124">124</A>, <A HREF="#P142">142</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Love, the action of the Divine, <A HREF="#P142">142</A> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Motto, family, <A HREF="#P1">1</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +National life, significance of, <A HREF="#P66">66</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Natural beauty, eternal, <A HREF="#P105">105</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Naval officers, life of, <A HREF="#P139">139</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Ordination, letters to candidates for, <A HREF="#P58">58</A>, <A HREF="#P127">127</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P146">146</A>, <A HREF="#P162">162</A> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Pain, mystery of, <A HREF="#P189">189</A>, <A HREF="#P191">191</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Parties in the Church, <A HREF="#P109">109</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Person, God revealed as a, <A HREF="#P71">71</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P75">75</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Prayer, his habit of intercessory, <A HREF="#P29">29</A>, <A HREF="#P40">40</A>, <A HREF="#P51">51</A>, <A HREF="#P123">123</A>, <A HREF="#P138">138</A>, <A HREF="#P151">151</A>, <A HREF="#P154">154</A>, <A HREF="#P167">167</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P173">173</A>, <A HREF="#P185">185</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Prayer, need of, <A HREF="#P95">95</A>, <A HREF="#P97">97</A>, <A HREF="#P129">129-132</A>, <A HREF="#P160">160</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P162">162</A>, <A HREF="#P177">177</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Providence revealed in life of individuals, <A HREF="#P121">121</A> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Sacraments, the, their significance, <A HREF="#P76">76</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P80">80</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Saints, called to be, <A HREF="#P96">96</A>, <A HREF="#P149">149</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Schoolmaster, the work of a, <A HREF="#P86">86</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P145">145</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P158">158</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Selfishness, tendency of, <A HREF="#P92">92</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Self-sacrifice, <A HREF="#P166">166</A>, <A HREF="#P170">170</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Self-sacrifice of God, <A HREF="#P175">175</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Simplicity of the Divine nature, <A HREF="#P57">57</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Suffering, a proof of the Divine love, <A HREF="#P165">165</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P180">180</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Sunday evening 'at homes,' <A HREF="#P39">39</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Sympathy, meaning and need of, <A HREF="#P91">91</A> <I>sq.</I>, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>, <A HREF="#P140">140</A>, <A HREF="#P171">171</A>, <A HREF="#P175">175-7</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Sympathy, silent, <A HREF="#P23">23</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Tancock, Dr., impressions of F. R., <A HREF="#P3">3</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Temptations of Christ, <A HREF="#P144">144</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Thackeray's novels, <A HREF="#P103">103</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Think, attempts to teach men to, <A HREF="#P12">12</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Toft, work at, <A HREF="#P25">25</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Toleration, <A HREF="#P26">26</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Trinity, significance of doctrine of, <A HREF="#P71">71</A>, <A HREF="#P75">75</A> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Unity of all men in God, <A HREF="#P70">70</A> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Walk from London to Cambridge, <A HREF="#P19">19</A> <I>sq.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Worship, public, <A HREF="#P122">122</A> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Letters to His Friends, by Forbes Robinson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS *** + +***** This file should be named 20560-h.htm or 20560-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/5/6/20560/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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: Letters to His Friends + +Author: Forbes Robinson + +Release Date: February 11, 2007 [EBook #20560] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Forbes Robinson] + + + + + + +LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS + + +BY + +FORBES ROBINSON + + + LATE FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE + AND EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OF SOUTHWELL + + + + EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTICE + BY HIS BROTHER CHARLES + + + +SECOND EDITION + + + +PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION BY + +SPOTTISWOODE & CO. LTD., LONDON. 1904 + + + + +NOTE + + +This volume has been printed for private circulation at the request of +many of Forbes Robinson's personal friends. The first edition having +been exhausted, a second has been prepared, in which are included six +additional letters (cf. pp. 151, 154, 164, 166, 167, 182). Copies of +this volume will be supplied (price 2s. 6d. post free) to all who +desire to obtain them, on application to the Rev. Canon Charles H. +Robinson, Hill Brow, Woking. The volume of College and Ordination +Addresses which will be published by Longmans in about two months' time +can be ordered through any bookseller. + +_October_ 1904. + + + + +[Transcriber's note: The book contains a number of short Greek phrases, +all of which have been transliterated according to Project Gutenberg's +"Greek How-To". A more detailed transliteration note follows each +paragraph or article where the Greek phrase occurs.] + +[Transcriber's note: Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers +enclosed in curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page +breaks occurred in the original book, in accordance with Project +Gutenberg's FAQ-V-99. For its Index, a page number has been placed +only at the start of that section. In the HTML version of this book, +page numbers are placed in the left margin.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +INTRODUCTORY SKETCH + +CHAPTER. PAGE + + I. SCHOOLDAYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + II. LIFE AS AN UNDERGRADUATE AT CAMBRIDGE . . . . 10 + III. WORK AT CAMBRIDGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + IV. THE LAST FEW MONTHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 + V. TWO APPRECIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 + +LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 + +APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 + +INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +Forbes Robinson . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece + +Forbes Robinson (1880) + +Forbes Robinson (1887) + + + + +{1} + +INTRODUCTORY SKETCH + +CHAPTER I + +SCHOOLDAYS + +Forbes Robinson was born on November 13, 1867, in the vicarage of +Keynsham, a village in Somerset lying between Bristol and Bath. He was +the eleventh child in a family of thirteen, of whom eight were sons and +five daughters. His parents were both from the north of Ireland, and +his Christian name had been his mother's surname. The motto attached +to his father's family crest was 'Non nobis solum sed toti mundo nati.' +Before he was three years old his father moved to Liverpool and became +incumbent of St. Augustine's, Everton. He died before Forbes was +thirteen, but the memory of his holy life remained as an abiding +influence. Thus he writes of him in 1903: + +'The old memories form a kind of sacred history urging me onwards and +upwards. I like to feel that I reap the prayers and thanksgivings of +my father, that God blesses the son of such a father. The same work, +the same God, the same promises, the same hope, the same sure and +certain reward. I thank God and take courage.' + +{2} As a boy he was never robust and might even be regarded as +delicate. After attending one or two private schools he was entered, +at the age of twelve, at Liverpool College, where five of his brothers +had been. When his father died in February 1881, the house in +Liverpool was given up and Forbes was sent to Rossall. He continued at +Rossall till he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1887. + +The photograph which is inserted on p. 4 was taken just before he went +to Rossall. He was then a shy retiring boy, fonder of reading than of +athletic exercise. One who was in the same house with him at Rossall, +and who is now vicar of a parish in Lancashire, writes: + +'His life at Rossall was not an outwardly eventful one. Not being +athletic, he lived rather apart from and above the rest of us in a +world of books. The walls of his study used to be almost covered with +extracts, largely, I think, from the poets, copied on to scraps of +paper and pinned up all round, partly to be learnt by heart and partly, +I think, for companionship. He was much older than the rest of us +whose years were the same as his. His school life was a time of +retirement and preparation for the wider life among men at Cambridge. +Though my memory of him as a quiet studious member of the house, more +often alone than not, and quite happy to be alone so long as his books +were near him, is very distinct, I can recall almost nothing of the +nature of incident or about which one can write.' + +The present headmaster of Marlborough, who was {3} also a contemporary +at Rossall, writes in a letter to the editor of this memoir: + +'Your brother was a great recluse at Rossall, and I much doubt whether +you would get any great amount of information about him from +Rossallians. I knew him because we were both interested in reading, +and I owed a good deal to his influence. . . . You will find, I +believe, that his Cambridge days show him in a far clearer light than +his school days. I know that when I saw him at Cambridge I realised +with pleasure that he was a welcomed visitor in the rooms of very +various types of undergraduates, whereas his circle at school had been +very limited, and most boys no doubt regarded him as quite "out of it." +This is of course to some extent the fault of the athletic standards of +our schools, but I also think that he himself developed a great deal +socially at Cambridge.' + +A sketch of Forbes, by Dr. James, written for 'The Rossallian,' will be +found at the close of this chapter. Dr. Tancock, who succeeded Dr. +James as headmaster of Rossall a year before Forbes left, writes: + +'When I was appointed to Rossall in 1886, I found him a member of the +upper sixth form. . . . He always gave me the impression of an +earnest-minded, hard-working boy, with a deep sense of duty. It was +rather suggested to my mind sometimes, possibly erroneously, that as a +younger boy he had felt himself misunderstood, and a certain reserve +was the consequence, not perhaps unnaturally. He was already much +interested in theological work. . . . It {4} has been a great pleasure +to me in later years to hear of his excellent work at Christ's and the +strong influence he exerted over undergraduates. It was quite the +natural result of the qualities I saw in him at school, provided once +his reserve could be broken.' + +[Illustration: Forbes Robinson (1880)] + +Though of Irish descent he only once visited Ireland. This was during +his summer holidays in 1884, when he travelled round a good part of the +north and west coasts. The only adventure of special interest was his +unintended voyage across the Bay of Donegal, which was nearly attended +with fatal consequences. He and his brother, the editor of this +memoir, started in a small open sailing boat from the harbour of +Killybegs, intending to return within a few minutes; but no sooner had +they got outside the harbour than they were caught in a squall, which +rapidly developed into a gale, and made it impossible to turn the boat +or head it for the shore, owing to the immediate risk of swamping. The +only means of securing momentary safety was to head the boat out into +the Atlantic, but as the nearest land in this direction was the coast +of America, the prospect was far from cheerful. Eventually the boat +was turned a few points further south, in the direction of land which +could not be seen, but which was known to lie about fifteen miles away +on the other side of the Bay of Donegal. After having been nearly +swamped many times, and running with bare poles, owing to the violence +of the gale, the boat arrived at length at Bundoran. As this place was +distant some sixty miles from Killybegs, {5} it seemed wearisome to +return by land, and a return by sea was out of the question. +Accordingly, Forbes and the writer, drenched to the skin and without a +vestige of baggage, started forthwith on a walking tour along the west +coast of Ireland, arriving at Connemara in the course of the following +week. Forbes's dislike of sea voyages in after years may in part be +traced to this experience. During the greater part of the voyage +across Donegal Bay he was helpless from sea-sickness; his companion was +busily occupied in baling out the water to prevent the boat from +sinking. + +The letters which Forbes wrote from school to members of his family are +a curious mixture of humour and religion. It was his keen sense of +humour which preserved him from becoming morbid. It was this same +sense of humour which helped to attract to him at the University men on +whom he eventually exercised a strong religious influence, but whom +religious conversation would have inevitably repelled. + +In two letters written to one of his sisters from Rossall in 1886, the +following sentences occur. They show that he found time while at +school for a considerable amount of reading which was not connected +with his school work: + +'You ask me to tell you what books I have been reading. Among others, +Longfellow's "Hiawatha" and "Evangeline," both exquisite; continually +the "In Memoriam," "Idylls of the King"; some of Buchanan, which I +scarcely recommend; M. Arnold, which I do most heartily recommend; and +Walt Whitman, the {6} great poet of democracy; "Confessions of an +English Opium Eater," by De Quincey, good in its way; G. Eliot and Mrs. +Browning, &c., &c. Perhaps you would like some of those. I read Chas. +Kingsley's "Andromeda"--it is really a splendid rhythmical piece of +hexameter--and some of his Life. I rather like pieces of his poetry, +and the one you sent me I liked. + +'My only birthday advice is: Read more Longfellow. If you have any +writers, send me word, though I am sorry to say I can appreciate but +few. . . .' + +Another letter, written the same year, is entirely composed of +selections from Tennyson's 'Princess,' which, he says, 'I have just +read through.' He ends, 'Mind you send me gleanings of Milton if you +have time.' In another, 'I have been reading a fair amount of Carlyle +at present, as we had an essay on "The influence of individuals on +great movements of religion, politics, and thought," for which I read +especially Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship," and Emerson's +"Representative Men," and for which, I am glad to say, I not only got +full marks, but the highest maximum possible. Have read Tennyson's +"Queen Mary." Am reading "Harold." I liked the first very much, but +the latter a great deal more. The scene where Harold debates about +telling a lie or the truth is very fine. . . .' The rest of the letter +is composed of quotations from 'Harold.' In other letters he says, +'Get Emerson's "Essays" for me.' 'I send you "Aurora Leigh." . . .' + +He left Rossall in the summer of 1887, when he {7} was nearly twenty, +and entered Christ's College, Cambridge, in the following October. His +brother Armitage, now Dean of Westminster, was then fellow and dean of +Christ's College, and Forbes occupied the attic rooms over his. + + +The following notice by Dr. James, now headmaster of Rugby and formerly +headmaster of Rossall, appeared in 'The Rossallian' and is reprinted +here at his suggestion: + +'Forbes Robinson came to Rossall in 1881. He was a member of a very +able family; an elder brother is Dean of Westminster; another is +Charles H. Robinson, Editorial Secretary of the S.P.G. and translator +of part of the Gospels into Hausa. He was a delicate boy, and lived +for a year or two in the headmaster's private house, from which he +passed on into Mr. Batson's. Rather shy and retiring in disposition, +and unable to take much part in games, he was not conspicuous in the +School until he reached the Sixth, and did not make friends as easily +as some boys do. But the few who knew him well recognised in him a +deeply affectionate if very sensitive nature, and saw how the religious +side of it, afterwards so conspicuous, was even then developing. His +powers as a classical scholar, though considerable, were not +exceptional; they enabled him to reach the Upper Sixth, but not to win +a scholarship at his entrance to the university, and I well remember +advising him to make theology, to which his inclinations were already +drawing him, his special subject at Cambridge. To this I knew he would +bring not only interest but power of reasoning and literary culture. +He had won the Divinity Prize of the School in 1885 and again in 1886, +and the English Essay Prize (for an essay on "The relative value of +art, science, and literature in education") in the latter year. + +{8} + +'He went up to Christ's, Cambridge, in 1887, and at once addressed +himself to his favourite study. What strides he was making in it were +apparent at once from the extraordinary series of distinctions which he +won--a scholarship at the college, the Carus Greek Testament Prize for +undergraduates, the Jeremie Septuagint Prize, a first class in the +Theological Tripos, the Burney Theological Essay Prize, the Carus Prize +for Bachelors, the Crosse Divinity Scholarship, and the Hulsean Prize +all fell to him between 1888 and 1893, and finally in 1896 he was +elected to a Fellowship at Christ's, where he had already been +Theological Lecturer for a year. + +'His essay which gained the Burney Prize in 1891 was on "The Authority +of our Lord in its bearing upon the Interpretation of the Old +Testament." He printed it in 1893 under the title of "The +Self-limitation of the Word of God as manifested in the Incarnation." +With characteristic modesty he says in his preface: "I can claim but +little of the work as strictly original." This is far too deprecatory; +the essay is a singularly lucid statement and attempted solution of a +most difficult theological problem, in which all who believe in the +Deity of Christ must be deeply interested, and I can bear personal +testimony to its helpfulness. It was only the other day that I was +reading it afresh, for I had just recovered it, when I feared that the +copy he gave me was hopelessly lost and irreplaceable, from South +Africa, where a friend to whom I had lent it had taken it among his +books. Among Forbes Robinson's later activities were a work on the +Coptic Apocryphal Gospels ("the subject," he wrote to me, "was so +technical and uninteresting that I did not send you a copy"), and the +editing of a Sahidic fragment of the Gospels. + +'But his value to Cambridge and to his college lay mainly in the +influence for good which he was able to exert over undergraduates. +Again and again I have been told {9} there how great this was; and it +was no little achievement for one whose very modesty and +humble-mindedness must have made it difficult. But his heart was in +the work, and in the maintaining of Christian influences in university +life. It is hard to over-estimate the loss which his death at so early +an age implies alike to students of theology and to those among whom he +was more immediately working. But he has left us the example of a +simple and devoted life and the consecration of great and growing +powers to his Master's service. "God buries His workmen, but carries +on His work."' + + + + +{10} + +CHAPTER II + +LIFE AS AN UNDERGRADUATE AT CAMBRIDGE + +From this point forward the sketch of Forbes's life can be given almost +entirely in the words of those who knew him at Cambridge. + +A writer in the Christ's College Magazine for the Lent term 1904 says: +'Many older friends will always think of him in his attic rooms, where +he began to make his mark in our College society upon his first coming +up. Only two other Freshmen had rooms in College, and Robinson's rooms +became at once a centre for his year, and later a meeting-place where +the gulfs between higher and lower years were bridged over. A little +older than most men of his year, he was considerably their senior in +character and in intellect. He showed at once the qualities which he +retained to such a unique degree in later years--an inexhaustible power +of making friends with all sorts and conditions of men, and an +insatiable interest in all sides of College life; the most serious +things were from the first not beyond his comprehension, and the most +trivial did not appear to bore him, even when their freshness had worn +off. His love of books was catholic; he possessed a great many and +read them {11} to his friends. At the College Debate, of which he +became secretary and president in his second year, he was a frequent +and fluent speaker, with a remarkable command of language, though +sometimes his eloquence was more than half burlesque. His powers of +thought and real strength in argument were more often displayed in +private discussions, where irony and humour hardly veiled the depth of +earnestness below.' + +[Illustration: Forbes Robinson (1887)] + +During his first three years at Cambridge he read for the Theological +Tripos. In the course of his first year he was elected a scholar of +his College. At the beginning of his second year he won his first +University distinction, the Carus prize for the Greek Testament. The +other University prizes which he gained were the Jeremie prize for the +Septuagint in 1889, the Burney prize essay in 1891, the Carus prize for +Bachelors, the Hulsean prize essay, and the Crosse University +Scholarship in 1892. He took his degree in the first class of the +Theological Tripos in 1890, and obtained a second class in the Moral +Science Tripos of 1891. The year which he spent in reading moral +science he afterwards looked back upon as one of the most useful in his +life. After he had been reading for some time in view of this Tripos, +he wrote to a friend: 'I have come to the conclusion that I know +nothing, and am an awful fool into the bargain. . . . The subject is +so utterly fresh to me, so completely unlike theology of any sort at +Cambridge, that I find it hard to do anything at it. In fact, I +chucked it up for about ten days in the middle of the term, and +determined to have nothing more to {12} do with it; but after that rest +I thought better and renewed the study. It is an excellent training +for the mind. I never distinctly remember thinking at all before this +term.' + +Having learnt to _think_ himself, his desire was to help others by +teaching them to think. One who came under his influence several years +later says of him: 'I owe so much to him in every way. Above +everything else he taught me to _think_. I remember so well the first +time I went to him with a difficulty. I expected him to solve it for +me, instead of which, at the end of half an hour, I still found that I +had to think it out for myself. It was a revelation to me, and has +helped me in my dealings with men.' The same friend writes: 'I may +mention a conversation I once had with him. He had in front of him the +answers to some Theological Tripos papers. He took up two of them and +compared the answers given to the same question by the two men. The +answer required was a translation of a passage of Greek with notes. +And, as far as I can remember, his words were these: "Now, W----, this +man has passed over the real difficulty. As far as I can tell, he has +not even noticed that there is a difficulty. I have given him two +marks out of a possible ten. This other man has seen the difficulty +and grappled with it. His solution is without doubt incorrect, but +that is quite immaterial. Result, eight marks out of ten." I cannot +but think that this attitude of mind was largely the secret of his +influence.' In another case, when urging a man to attempt some +independent investigation of the Synoptic problem, he said; {13} 'Your +conclusions may be wrong, but you can correct them, and it will teach +you to think.' + +One who was an undergraduate with Forbes says of him: He 'did not take +a prominent part in religious movements in the College, such as the +College prayer meeting or Bible readings, though he was occasionally +present at them. In chapel his reverence was quiet, though in no way +obtrusive. I think that by not identifying himself with any particular +religious party he had greater influence with those men whose minds ran +in very different grooves. I always felt when in his company that I +was conversing with one vastly superior to myself in intellectual +powers, and yet he never appeared conscious of it himself. It is +surprising how considerate he was of the feelings of others. I +remember a large print of Pope Leo XIII. which used to hang in his +rooms as an undergraduate, which delighted his gyp, who was a Romanist, +but scandalised his Protestant friends. I begged earnestly for a copy +of one of his prize essays, which had been printed though not +published. He at first consented, but almost immediately asked me to +return it, saying that he did not wish it to go out to the world as +expressing his matured views. He then asked me to accept instead a +small booklet, which he said I should find useful to have in visiting. +It contained the verses called "The Old, Old Story." He also gave me a +copy of the "Practice of the Presence of God," by Brother Lawrence.' + +Before he decided to read for the Moral Science Tripos he had thought +of going in for the Semitic Languages Tripos. With this object in view +he {14} commenced the study of Syriac. Finding that the best Syriac +grammar was written in German and had not been translated, he decided +to learn German also. He was advised that Switzerland was a suitable +place in which to study German, and accordingly, after taking his +degree, he started in the summer of 1890 for Switzerland. The two +following letters are inserted in order to illustrate his sense of +humour, as well as to describe the way in which he spent this summer. +He eventually returned from Switzerland, having made more progress in +Syriac than in German, but without having obtained any great knowledge +of either language. Soon after his return he decided to commence the +study of Moral Science instead of the Semitic languages. + + +_To H. M. S._ + +'Habkern: July 1890. + +'A few days after I got to Switzerland, by dint of incessant inquiries +and correspondence I found out the name of a pastor who lived in a +sufficiently healthy place and who talked German. So I girded up my +loins and went to visit him. "Sprechen Sie Englisch, mein Herr?" I +asked. "Nein" was the reply. As I scarcely knew a word of German I +was in a considerable fix. But I found out that the Pfarrer spoke +"Lateinisch" and could read English a little when it was written. So I +went up to his study and we got paper and pencil and began. I tried to +tell him in a mixture of broken English and dog-Latin that I intended +to give him the honour of my company. He said he would be pleased to +take me "en pension." He then {15} asked how much I wished to pay. I +hadn't for the life of me an idea of what I ought to pay. "Ut tibi +optimum videtur," I said. But he made me fix my price. Then, when I +had fixed it, I had to turn it into Swiss money. The good Pfarrer was +so pleased with the honour of my company that he took me for less than +I asked. Our greatest difficulty next arose: How was my luggage to be +conveyed the five miles from the nearest town up a steep hill? Latin, +French, English, German, failed to make me understand the situation. +At last I took in the Pfarrer's meaning. I was to send it by the +milkman after leaving it at a certain hotel. "Ja," I cried in an +ecstasy of joy, at last grasping his meaning, "Ja, ich mittam der +Gepaeck von der milkman." I arrived the next day. I found the Pfarrer +knew Latin, Greek (but he pronounces both quite differently from me), +German, French, Russian, Syriac, Hebrew, and a little English. His +usual custom is to address me in German. If I fail to understand, he +tries Latin and intersperses his remarks with Greek and Hebrew. So my +great difficulty is first of all to find out what language he thinks he +is speaking in. + +'Yesterday we were sitting, smoking and drinking, in the village +"Wirthshaus" among the natives of the place, the Pfarrer addressing me +in Latin, the villagers staring at his learning in adoration and +astonishment, and laughing at my attempts at German. The landlord came +up to me when I arrived and sent in a bottle of wine for me, refusing +to be paid for it, for he said that the natives of Interlaken fleeced +the English; but when Habkern was for once honoured by the {16} +presence of one, the people were not going to treat him in the same way. + +'It is curious how the Pfarrer goes and sits and drinks and gossips in +the "Wirthshaus," even on Sunday, I think. Last Sunday they had a +country dance, and very curious and pretty was the scene--the +old-fashioned wooden room--the odd national dress of the women--the +curiously cut brown clothes of the men--the thick boots--the fiddlers +raised above the rest--the quaint urn with its inscriptions above--the +gaping crowd of villagers. Then the church is strange--very rude and +simple, all whitewashed. The women sit on one side, the men on the +other. They stand to pray and hear the text, and sit to sing and hear +the sermon. The organ and font are placed at one end. The elders +stand below the organ, the Pfarrer is lost in the far distance, right +up in a big pulpit. The "Predigt" or sermon is everything. They have +one written prayer before and one after the "Predigt." The people +never say "Amen" or anything--only sing. They sing so slowly that, +although I had only been with the Pfarrer three days, I could almost +sing and look out the words in the dictionary at the same time! I talk +German with every one who will talk with me. So well did I spin yarns +when I had been in the country three or four days, that with a mixture +of Latin and German I managed to make a German use strong language at +some of my tales, which he was pleased to think were not exactly true. +Reflecting on the situation afterwards, I remembered that I had told +him, among other things, that I had walked nearly fifty "stunden" {17} +in a day. His language was awful. I found afterwards that "stunde" +was not, as I had supposed, an English "mile," but an English "hour." +But I keep on talking. I have come to the conclusion that the way to +learn a language is to argue in it. Accordingly I do so. I have tried +to convince them that the order of bishops is semi-apostolic, and that +if St. Paul did not actually wear a surplice himself, his successors +shortly afterwards did. + +'One other thing, if you ever reply to this letter: would you copy out +a few of the most thickly marked lines in the "Grammarian's Funeral" in +my edition of Browning? They are always in my mind, but I can't quite +recollect how they go. There is no poem I like so much as that. I +would send you some butterflies, but I daren't kill them. Some of us +may have once been butterflies: as M. Arnold says, + + 'What was before us we know not, + And we know not what shall succeed.' + + +_To H. M. S._ + +'Habkern: August 1890. + +'There is a French pensionnaire staying here, the same as I am. He is +very polite, but his tastes are diametrically opposite to mine. He +likes wine, walking, women, smoking, painting, violin and piano +playing, dogs, and the like. + +'He asked me whether I liked the French. I told him "No," and gave him +a good many reasons. He abhors the Germans. I told him I thought the +Germans were a fine race. I'm occupying my time {18} in sleeping, +arguing, observing the natives, and reading a Tauchnitz edition of +"Martin Chuzzlewit," which is good, though already a young girl of +seventeen has been introduced, very beautiful and all the rest, and I'm +afraid she won't be poisoned, but marry a certain young man already +introduced. I'd give a good deal to be able to write a novel in which +all the young ladies tumbled out of windows, six stories high, and were +picked up dead. I think I must try and write one. Shall I dedicate it +to you? The heroine will be a plain old lady with white curls, close +on sixty-five, without any money, but with a certain amount of +intellect. There will be no marriages, but suicides and murders if +necessary. + +'I'm inventing a German word of 1,000 letters. It is to be divided +into some 150 or 200 compartments. After each compartment there is +five minutes for refreshments. After about the 500th letter there will +be half an hour allowed for dinner. After the 600th letter or so there +will be a notice to the effect that no person with a weak heart may +proceed further without consulting a medical man. After about the +980th there will be a notice forbidding any one to go further until +their family doctor is in attendance. I have thought of the groundwork +of the word--the finished word I'm going to send to M----, as he has +the strongest constitution of any one I know. Then I shall get Duke +Bismarck to patent it; after which I shall take out a professorship on +the strength of it at Berne. It will, of course, be the "Hauptsache" +of my existence.' + +{19} + +Forbes was far from being an athlete, but in 1891, shortly before his +ordination, he accomplished the feat of walking with two athletic +friends from London to Cambridge in a day, a distance of more than +fifty miles. The following description is by Mr. A. N. C. +Kittermaster, who was one of his companions. + + +_Walk from London to Cambridge._ + +Some of us had read that Charles Kingsley had walked from London to +Cambridge; so we determined to follow in his footsteps. We were a +party of three--Forbes Robinson, D. D. Robertson, and myself. We spent +the previous day at the Naval Exhibition, the night at the Liverpool +Street Hotel, and at 4.30 A.M. of Tuesday, August 25, 1891, we started +on our fifty-mile trudge. We walked steadily, at first over immense +stretches of pavement, till we reached Ware, twenty-one miles out. +There we had breakfast or lunch of huge chops at 10.15. After that we +took the road again, and did not call a halt of any length till we had +put another twenty miles behind us. The day was fine but dull, and we +were not troubled by the heat. At the fortieth milestone it began to +appear doubtful whether we should all reach the journey's end. I have +an entry in my diary: 'At 40 Robertson bad, I worse, Deanlet (_i.e._ +Forbes) quite fit.' So at Foulmire, nine miles from Cambridge, we +stopped for tea. By this time I was in a state of temporary collapse, +but I remember the other two during tea carried on an animated +discussion upon the creation as described in Genesis. We all felt +better after the {20} rest and covered the last stage fairly easily, +arriving at Christ's at 9.30 P.M. We had a meal in Forbes's rooms, +fought our battles over again, and retired to rest about midnight. + +The thing which remains with me best is the amazing ease with which +Forbes accomplished the journey. It is a matter of common experience +that prolonged physical effort reacts on the mind; conversation becomes +difficult, and cheerfulness forced. I must say that in my case the +thought which for a considerable period occupied my mind was how I was +to get to the end. But it was not so with Forbes. He travelled +lightly, talking happily on all subjects the whole day. It seemed to +make little difference to him whether he took food or no, and he was as +willing to stop at every place of refreshment we suggested as to march +the whole day without a meal. + + + + +{21} + +CHAPTER III + +WORK AT CAMBRIDGE + +In September 1891 Forbes was ordained as curate to his brother +Armitage, who was at that time vicar of All Saints', Cambridge. +Several of the letters which are given later refer to his thoughts and +feelings at the time of his ordination. His connection with All +Saints' did not last more than a year, as his brother resigned in the +following spring. Forbes had already been licensed as chaplain to +Emmanuel College. He received priest's orders in 1892. In 1895 he was +appointed theological lecturer at Christ's College, and in the +following year, May 30, 1896, was elected a fellow. During the same +year he was appointed an examining chaplain to the Bishop of Southwell. + +One who knew him well, soon after the time of his ordination, writes: +'I cannot remember how we first became acquainted, beyond the fact that +I used to meet him in the rooms of some prominent members of the +College Football XV. All I know is that several of our year got to +know him quite well, and the friendship grew with time. The fact that +he had distinguished himself in the Moral Science Tripos at {22} first +rather awed me, a freshman. But I soon got over that feeling, for he +was the last person in the world to trouble any one with a sense of +intellectual inferiority. + +'I am sure the private business hours of the Debating Society were some +of his happiest moments. His magnificent assumption of wrath on the +most absurd grounds; his vast intensity over trivialities; his love for +the heat and play of debate, would have made a stranger believe he +lived for nothing else. + +'Physical strength and virtue seemed to have a strange attraction for +him. His assortment of athlete friends was peculiarly wide, and his +frank admiration of their qualities gave them a pleasant feeling that +in some way he looked up to them--a feeling which I am sure +strengthened the hold he had over them. + +'He was a tireless walker, and could go far on very little. A party of +us used to take long walks, often on a Sunday, to various places in the +country. There was generally a volume of Burke or Emerson in his +pocket, whose sonorous periods filled the interval when we lunched +frugally or rested. I have never known him anything but good-humoured +under any conditions. His enthusiasm for our most commonplace jests +was unfailing--perhaps one of the surest ways of getting to a man's +heart and staying there--and he had a wide tolerance for the minor +offences of undergraduate thought and deed. Yet, as for the tone of +conversation when he was near, I need scarcely say that one simply did +not think of anything unpleasant or vulgar, much less say it. + +'I used to admire his immense power of putting {23} his thoughts into +words, but he could be silent too. Sometimes he would come to my rooms +when I was working, throw himself into an arm-chair, and absolutely +refuse to speak. After a considerable interval perhaps he would +consider I had worked long enough, and cocoa and conversation would +follow. But it was when I visited him in his own rooms that I remember +things most vividly. + +'I can still see that little room under the roof; the picture on the +wall of the dead saint floating on the dark water; the well-filled +bookcase; the table piled with volumes; himself throwing everything +aside to greet one. It was almost with a feeling of awe that I +sometimes climbed those stairs and entered into his presence. Perhaps +it would be for a lesson on the New Testament--for when I was reading +for a Theological Tripos he was generous, even prodigal, of help. The +lesson over--and there are many who know what a goodly thing a lesson +from him on the New Testament was--he would open a volume of +Tennyson--"In Memoriam" most likely--read a few stanzas, and begin to +talk about them. Gradually, it would seem, the things of the world +would fade from him. He forgot the hour and my presence as his +thoughts poured out. I sat and listened, generally silent, sometimes +hazarding a question. Presently--it was often late--I would rise to +leave. Rapt from his surroundings, he seemed scarcely conscious of my +departure; and I would go quietly out, almost as though I had been on +holy ground, where not once nor twice the dweller had seen God face to +face.' + +His power of helping men by silent sympathy is {24} referred to by one +who writes: 'The many words of kindness, but more particularly the +silent sympathy he conveyed in some mysterious manner, will ever keep +him present with us.' + +Another, who had known him in his early days at Christ's, and again in +later years, writes: 'When I was up he was a nervous retiring man, at +his best when one found him alone in his own room. Even then he would +sometimes talk little. Since my return from South Africa I have found +him much more at home with men and much more ready to talk, but +retaining his old power of sympathy without words.' His own faith was +based rather upon intuitive perception of the Divine love than upon +argument. On one occasion, quite towards the end of his life, he said +to one with whom he was staying, 'Sometimes I sit and think, till I can +find no reason for the existence of God; and then there rises up in me +something which is stronger than the love I have for those who are dear +to me--and they are very dear--the love of God. It seems to smile at +my doubts.' + +Several of his friends have referred to Forbes's influence as a power +which helped to develop their own sympathy towards others. Thus one +writes: + +'I think perhaps it was my intercourse with him that first taught me to +look out for and appreciate the real goodness--or, better, +Christlikeness--of others from whom one differed in important matters +and with whom one seemed perhaps to have little in common.' + +In some instances friendship between Forbes and an acquaintance seems +to have arisen where very {25} little direct intercourse had taken +place. One who was greatly his senior says of him, 'I have never known +any one with whom there was so strong a sense of intimacy founded on so +little positive intercourse.' + +In July 1892--_i.e._ about nine months after his ordination as +deacon--he took part in a kind of peregrinating mission tour through +part of South Cornwall. Dressed simply in cassock and cape, and +carrying a small brown paper parcel containing necessary luggage, he +and his brother (the compiler of this book) walked from village to +village, preaching afternoon and evening in the open air. At the end +of the evening service an appeal was made to the people. It was +explained to them that the preachers had come without provision or +money, and hoped to receive hospitality from those to whom they +ministered. Night after night Forbes and his companion were taken in +and entertained, often by very poor people. A unique opportunity was +thus afforded of getting to know something of the home life as well as +of the religious beliefs of the poor. As a rule, those who acted as +hosts were Nonconformists. Forbes spoke once or twice each day to the +people who gathered, and his addresses, which were generally based on +the words 'Our Father,' were admirably suited to the comprehension and +needs of the simple country people. + +For several months during 1895 he took charge of a small country parish +near Cambridge, called Toft. While staying at Toft he wrote to a +friend, 'I like living among country folk and talking with {26} and +visiting them. I want to get out of my life into their lives. This +parish work humiliates if it does not humble one. . . . The smallest +parish is a tremendous responsibility.' + + +The following are a few additional notes contributed by others who knew +Forbes at Christ's: 'His broad sympathies, his unfailing efforts to +find out the good in persons and systems--the rays of truth which each +possessed--combined with the rare faculty of going deep down beneath +vexed questions, and thus lifting controversies to a higher and serener +atmosphere: these were qualities in him which were known especially by +those privileged to have more intimate knowledge of him than that +vouchsafed by formal lectures or social gatherings. . . . He is now +another link with the life beyond these conflicting voices, one "who +loved Heaven's silence more than fame."' + +The same writer says of him in another letter: 'His extreme fairness +and toleration, which at first seemed to me to reduce half one's +cherished beliefs to open questions, was of the greatest value in +dispelling ignorance and prejudice, and in promoting true charity and a +more intelligent faith. He delighted to call attention to the fact +that our Lord found something commendable and exemplary in the serpent. +And so, in dealing with those with whom he most disagreed, he tried to +fix attention on that portion of truth which lay behind their opinions, +or on those real difficulties, to be slighted only by {27} the +superficial, with which they were grappling. Tertullian, with his love +of scoring off opponents, fared badly at his hands, and he used to +treat Clement of Alexandria more sympathetically than Irenaeus. + +'It was striking to find a mind so evenly balanced and philosophical +become fired with enthusiasm as he spoke in simplest language, in +chapel or elsewhere, of great Christian truths or the victories of +faith. His sermons influenced, I believe, many of the naturally +careless. Simple, impartial, earnest and sympathetic, he won, I know, +the deepest affection and respect of many.' + +Another writes: 'Bright, pure, and strong--this was the impression he +gave me . . . . Many men will be very sorry that he is not here any +more, but every one who _knew_ him will be very thankful that he was +here, and that they had an opportunity of hearing him "think" +sometimes. I recall him most in his own rooms, beginning to talk on +some small matter, and gradually lifting us higher and still higher, +until we all silently listened, following as best we, with our muddier +minds, could; and even when he got beyond us there were still +inspiration and strength to be got from his flashing eyes and +on-rushing earnestness; but if some smaller mind broke in, in a moment +he was down at the level of that mind, half bantering and wholly +sympathising. Nevertheless, some of us have never forgotten the things +he showed us as he led us up, and the possibility of soaring very high +without losing touch with those whose levels are pathetically +human. . . . I do know that he helped {28} me much, and that many +things he said I shall never forget, and thank God for still.' + +A Cambridge and international athlete, an intimate friend of Forbes, +writes: 'Though I have lost your brother Forbes, and life will be for +ever poorer to me, I can't thank God enough that I ever knew him and +loved him, and that he called himself my friend. He was so dear to +me--my greatest friend in the world. His goodness and his help to me +in my Cambridge days were wonderful. He altered my life. God has +called him home and to the blessed rest of the children of God, and we +are rich still with his memory and the influence of his beautiful, +patient, Christlike life.' + +In another letter he writes: 'The death, or, as I like to think of it, +the passing of Forbes into the Great Beyond has been such a grief to +me. You have no idea what he was to me--a real man "sent from God" +into my life. I could do nothing when I heard the sad, and to me +utterly unexpected, news, but kneel down by my bedside, and weep till I +could weep no more for my beloved friend. I feel so rich and proud to +have had him for my friend, and to have had his love; and so do many +Cambridge men. Oh, but I did so love him! and my prayer now is that +the memory of him with me always may strengthen my weak and feeble +life, and help me to live somewhat more as he lived, very near the +Master.' + +He obtained but little help from self-introspection or +self-examination. Thus he writes in one of the letters given later on: +'I am not sure that we cannot learn more about others than we can about +ourselves. {29} I never think it is profitable to study oneself too +closely. I never could meditate with any profit on my sins. But +there, I dare say I differ from many others.' + +To very intimate friends he would in rare instances admit that the +secret of any influence which he possessed over men was the outcome of +his efforts to pray for them. One who had known him intimately at +Christ's writes in 1904: + +'About eighteen months ago I had the privilege of spending a night with +him, and then for the first time I realised how much of his spiritual +power was the outcome of prayer. He told me that in his younger days +he had taken every opportunity of personally appealing to men to come +to Christ. "But," he went on, "as I grow older I become more +diffident, and now often, when I desire to see the Truth come home to +any man, I say to myself, 'If I have him here he will spend half an +hour with me. Instead, I will spend that half-hour in prayer for +him.'" Later on, when I had retired for the night, he came to me again +and said, "W----, what I have said to you is in the strictest +confidence: don't mention it to any one." And this revelation of his +inner life is my last memory of him.' + +On another occasion he said to one with whom he was staying, when +speaking of the little that men could do for each other, 'I think that +I should go mad were it not for prayer.' + +As an instance of his common sense in a matter in which as a bachelor +he could have had no personal experience, he strongly urged a married +man, before {30} deciding to accept a curacy which had been offered to +him, to let his wife see the vicar's wife or women-folk. 'She will +know intuitively,' he said, 'whether she can get on with them and they +with her, and it will make all the difference to your work and +happiness.' The man to whom this advice was offered writes: 'The +advice was given seriously, but with that bright twinkle of his; and I +owe much to it, for we have been here since . . . and I don't want to +go.' + + +The following is an extract from a notice which appeared in the +'Guardian '! + +'By his published work he is best known to the outer world as one of +the few English scholars who have given attention to Coptic. In 1896 +he edited "The Coptic Apocryphal Gospels" in the "Cambridge Texts and +Studies." The important article on the Coptic Version in Hastings's +"Bible Dictionary" came also from his pen, and he was engaged on an +edition of the Sahidic fragments of St. Luke's Gospel. His deepest +interest, however, lay not in these subsidiary studies, but in the +fundamental problems of theology proper. His Burney Prize essay, +printed at the University Press in 1893 under the title of "The +Self-limitation of the Word of God as manifested in the Incarnation," +is no doubt comparatively slight, and in some respects immature; but +its reverent and fearless treatment of the difficulties of his great +theme gave promise of work of permanent value in this field. His +interest in the great problems never flagged, and his sympathetic touch +with the life and thought of the younger men in his college kept him +constantly {31} engaged on the task of putting into clear and ever +clearer expression such solutions as he was able to attain. His +sermons in College Chapel were singularly effective, because he never +wasted a word, and because every sentence was felt to be the outcome of +strenuous thought tested by living experience. + +'It is not surprising, therefore, that he exercised an unusual +influence upon younger students. His friends were very closely bound +to him indeed, in bonds which death can consecrate but cannot sever. +They can never cease to thank God for the pure, bright, tender, utterly +sincere, fearless, and faithful spirit He has given them to love.' + + + + +{32} + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LAST FEW MONTHS + +From the time that Forbes took his degree at Cambridge his health was +far from strong. He suffered from time to time from a form of eczema +which caused him a good deal of discomfort and pain. Many of his +letters contain references to the fact that he had been unwell and had +been unable to do as much work as he had hoped. In September 1897 he +went with his brother Armitage on a visit to St. Petersburg and Moscow. +He stayed in the house of a Russian priest at St. Petersburg, and was +much interested in the work of Father John of Kronstadt, with whom an +interview was arranged which unfortunately fell through at the last +moment. Towards the end of 1897 he developed a bad cough and was +threatened with phthisis. He accordingly spent Christmas and the first +two or three months of 1898 at St. Moritz in Switzerland. His health +then seemed to be much improved. For several years he went back to St. +Moritz to spend the greater part of the Christmas vacation. He took +great delight in tobogganing, and on one occasion was awarded a prize +for a race in which he took part. In the summer of 1899 he went out to +South Africa {33} during the Long Vacation. He visited Pretoria and +had an interview with President Kruger and his wife. One of his +letters records his impressions of the President. He was for some time +disposed to believe that the war, which broke out soon after his +return, could and should have been avoided, but he subsequently +modified his views on this point. + +Towards the end of August 1903 the pain from which he had suffered +intermittently for years became so much worse that he came up to +consult a London doctor, and by his advice remained in town as a +patient at St. Thomas's Home. When he entered the home he fully +expected to undergo an operation within a fortnight; but the doctor who +had suggested it declared, after further examination, that no operation +was necessary. Meanwhile Forbes lingered on in the home week after +week. Eventually a partial operation was performed, and after he had +spent thirteen weeks in the home the surgeon suggested his removal to a +private nursing home, where he could keep him under closer observation. +Here he performed a second operation. This seemed at first to have +been a success, and after a fortnight in this private home he was well +enough to start for Switzerland again. He went at first to St. Moritz, +where he had been so often before; but, finding that the pain returned +and that he could not sleep, he went down to Alassio on the Riviera. +Here he was for several weeks till his return to England. He reached +Westminster on January 13 and went up to Cambridge on the following +day. For a few days he was well enough to lecture, and it seemed as +though he might be able to {34} resume his old work. On Sunday +evening, January 17, he was 'at home' in his rooms and received over +sixty undergraduates who came to welcome him back. Soon the old +trouble returned, and he rapidly grew worse. His pain became almost +constant, and he was removed with great difficulty to another London +nursing home on January 29. It was then proposed that the original +operation which had been suggested, but had never been performed, +should take place, and he fully expected that this would result in his +restoration to health and to work. A few days later he was threatened +with blood-poisoning, and it became obvious that the operation must be +delayed. On Saturday evening, February 6, he seemed fairly cheerful. +Neither he nor his doctors had any idea that he was in an extremely +critical state. About midnight, as the pain had become worse, his +doctor was sent for, and he gave him an injection of morphia. Soon +after this he asked his nurse to turn the light down and said to her, +'If I am asleep in the morning do not wake me.' She looked in about +3.30 A.M. to see if he was asleep, and, finding him awake, inquired if +he would like a drink of champagne. He said yes, and asked her first +of all to help him turn over to the other side. As she was in the act +of assisting him, he passed away, without a movement of any kind. A +happy smile lingered long on his face after the end had come. + +His body was removed the same evening to St. Faith's Chapel, in +Westminster Abbey. Here on the following Thursday morning, February +11, at 9 A.M., the funeral service was said. The chapel {35} was +filled with his friends, who had come from Cambridge and elsewhere. +His body was buried the same afternoon at Eastbourne in the same grave +with that of his sister, the Deaconess Cecilia, who had passed away +five months before. + +The inscription on the memorial card issued to his friends was: + + CUM CHRISTO VICTURUS + DE MORTE AD VITAM MIGRAVIT + DOMINICA IN SEXAGESIMA + ANNO SALUTIS MCMIV + AETATIS SUAE XXXVII. + + + And, doubtless, unto thee is given + A life that bears immortal fruit + In those great offices that suit + The full-grown energies of heaven. + + + + +{36} + +CHAPTER V + +TWO APPRECIATIONS + +The two following sketches of Forbes Robinson's life at Cambridge have +been contributed, the first by the Rev. T. C. Fitzpatrick, Fellow and +Dean of Christ's College, and the second by the Rev. Digby B. +Kittermaster, of Clare College, now Head of the Shrewsbury School +Mission in Liverpool. + + +Mr. Fitzpatrick writes: + +'College life has changed a good deal since the days when a young +graduate, on his election to a fellowship, was advised not to see too +much of the undergraduate members of the College, that the division +between the senior and junior members of the College might be +preserved. A custom of that kind, once established, is not easy to +break, for traditions of all sorts, good and bad, live long in College. + +'Fortunately, the relations between the undergraduates and the fellows +of the College are gradually becoming more natural, to the benefit of +the whole body. Forbes Robinson will be long remembered for the +influence that he exerted in this {37} direction, and what he has +effected it will be comparatively easy for others to carry on. + +'It is my desire to give some slight impression of his life in College, +and I do not wish to say much about his teaching work. I must mention, +however, what frequently struck me, the great joy he had in teaching; +his success was not surprising. When he found (in January last) that +he could not take up all his lecture work he would not allow another to +give in his place the course of lectures on Church History. "I want," +he said to me, "to give them myself in my own way," and he hoped to +have given them this Easter term. I was not surprised to hear from a +pupil of the interest that he and others found in a similar course of +lectures which he had given the previous year. "He put things so," the +pupil told me, "that you could not forget what he had said." + +'My last recollection of him as a teacher bears witness to his interest +and purpose. Word was brought me before morning chapel that he had +been obliged to call in the doctor in the middle of the night. I went +to his rooms after chapel and found that he was asleep, I put up a +notice that he would be unable to lecture. He awoke soon after I had +left his rooms; he had another notice put up that he would lecture in +his rooms. When I came back to College later in the morning I looked +in and found him lying on his sofa with the room full of men, sitting +where they could. The class will not forget that lecture, nor shall I +forget the sight. + +'When two men have lived a number of years within the same College, it +is difficult for them to {38} realise the change in their relationship +that has come with time. There is a comradeship that comes through the +influence of circumstances rather than from that personal attraction +which two men feel for one another, and which arose they don't remember +when or how. It was this comradeship of work and the sharing of +responsibilities that led me to know Forbes Robinson. We had lived +some years in College before I knew much of him; I was some years his +senior, and our lines of work were very different. As far as I know, +he never talked to older men in that frank way which was his custom +with those of his own age, and still more with men younger than +himself. Some weeks ago I was staying at the hotel on the Riviera +where he had been at Christmas time. The English lady, whose husband +keeps the house, told me that with them Forbes Robinson hardly talked +at all, but that he took their boy out for long walks and talked to +him; and the boy's face lit up as I spoke to him of Forbes. + +'There is still the recollection in College, handed on from year to +year, of the walk which he took at the end of a Long Vacation from +London to Cambridge with two other men, and how he talked all the way. +It was these conversations, often prolonged for two or three hours, +that impressed those to whom he opened out his thoughts, and who in +turn let him see something of their inner life. + +'Forbes always had one or two special friends among the younger men, +whom he seemed to me to look upon as heroes; he always yearned for +sympathy, and he was prepared to give to others all that {39} he had +got. This closer relationship with a few men did not in the least +narrow his interest in the life of the College. He gained, I cannot +believe that it can have been without an effort long and hard, the +power of taking an interest in all sorts of things that form no small +part of the life of the average man. There was nothing strained or +exaggerated in his relations with other men; he was at all times just +himself. + +'When he was elected a Fellow, being also Theological Lecturer, he was +anxious to do something to interest and help those who were not +theological students, and he had, first on Sunday mornings after +Chapel, and afterwards in the latter part of the afternoons, Greek +Testament readings for non-theological men, and some terms he took up +some of the problems that present themselves as difficulties to the +thoughtful man. These papers were prepared with great care, and, as I +know, at no small cost of time and energy. + +'On Sunday evenings he was "at home" from 9 to 11 to any members of the +College who cared to come. On those occasions it was a curious sight +that met the eyes of any late comer as he opened the door and saw men +in groups sitting on the floor, as chairs were insufficient; as a rule +there was no general subject of conversation--numbers made that +impossible. Most Sunday evenings there was music, but not always, and +it was difficult at the end of the evening to say what could have +brought so many men together. It was a common ground of meeting for +different kinds of men. Forbes Robinson was often at his best on these +occasions; he would join {40} first one group and then another, and +take part in the subject which was being discussed. Generally one or +two would remain when the others left, and deeper problems would then +be talked over. Only on one Sunday of last term was Forbes Robinson +well enough to be "at home." The room was more crowded than I had ever +seen it. It was a sort of welcome back after his absence the previous +term. It was evident that it gave him pleasure, and evident, too, that +he was all the time in pain. Yet with a brightness, which must have +cost him much, he talked with one and another of simple daily interests +in the way that showed his sympathy with life, and gained for him the +power of saying on other occasions deeper things. + +'Nothing could have been simpler than the character of these +gatherings. Simplicity was the secret of his power. + +'I find it impossible to write of my own conversations with him; they +dealt chiefly with the difficulties of Cambridge, of College life, and +of the lives of those in our College for whom we felt we had a +responsibility. Talking of the difficulties of belief, I was struck by +his quiet answer: "I do not believe some things which I did when I was +younger; but those which I believe, I believe more firmly." Forbes +Robinson had a great belief in the power of intercession. Quite +recently a man in his year told me that when Forbes Robinson was an +undergraduate he had known him spend two hours during the afternoon in +intercession for his friends. One is not surprised that prayer was a +subject on which he {41} thought much. He was to have written an +important article on it. + +'As we talked together of different men, I remember being struck with +the desire he expressed that men should be good and strong, and not of +any one type. He had a great confidence in the essential goodness that +there is in men, and he always formed a high estimate of another. + +'His letters will indicate how deeply he entered into the lives of +others, and how wide were his sympathies. A member of another College +told me that the news of the death of Forbes Robinson reached him just +after the close of their evening chapel, and he had not long returned +to his rooms when an Indian gentleman called, an undergraduate of this +College, who almost in tears told him of all that Forbes had done for +him, and how he had learnt in Hall at Christ's from the strange silence +that something must have happened, and was told of the loss that came +so unexpectedly upon us on Sunday, February 7. + +'I close this short account of my friend with extracts from three +letters casually taken from those which have reached me. A young +clergyman writes: "I feel I owe a very great debt to him, both as a +lecturer and as a friend. His clearness of mind and power of thought +were such as I have never seen in any other man. But far more precious +than these intellectual gifts was the inspiration of his personal +character. His ideals were so high, and he lived so close to them. +Few lives have better expressed the truth of the words of which he was +so fond: 'He that {42} loseth his life shall find it.'" A schoolmaster +writes: "The last talk I had with him was a month before my ordination, +and I remember the emphasis that he laid on the praying side of a +clergyman's life." A doctor writes: "Looking back upon my time at +Christ's, I think that of all the influences which helped me, the most +potent was my friendship with Forbes Robinson. . . . I came to know +him somewhat intimately by spending an Easter vacation with him, and +several of our conversations then have left a lasting impression on my +mind. . . . I suppose, as one gets older and sees so much more of +death, that a deepening faith takes away that sense of personal loss +and leaves behind a feeling of gladness that yet another friend has +passed to the Communion of Saints." + +'Of his life we may use the motto of his College: + +'AD HONOREM CHRISTI JESU ET FIDEI EJUS INCREMENTUM.' + + +Mr. Kittermaster writes: + +'Forbes Robinson did not regard any one of us as a "mere +undergraduate," one of a mass; that was the first thing which those of +us who knew him as undergraduates learnt. He was genuinely interested +from the first in his undergraduate acquaintances; interested in them +as men, not as promising pupils, not as likely scholars, not as +athletes, not as material for "improving" influence, but as +men--individuals, each possessing a separate and distinct human {43} +personality, and therefore of the truest and deepest interest to him. + +'Our public schools taught us (and for most of us Cambridge continued +the teaching) that to be of any real importance and consequence among +his fellows a man must be "good at games," or perhaps--but this more +rarely--"good at work." Such is the simple creed of the undergraduate. +If he satisfies neither of the above requirements, then he recognises, +with greater or less sadness, that he is an ordinary man, the "average +undergraduate." He is one of the crowd if he has no athletic powers to +commend him to the notice of his fellows _in statu pupillari_; he is +one of the crowd if he has no slightest hope of making for himself any +name in the intellectual world, to commend him to the leaders of +thought at Cambridge. And this knowledge is to many a Cambridge boy, +playing at being a man, a matter of real, if unconfessed, grief. + +'But "there is no such thing as the average man, or at least as the +average undergraduate." This was the belief which Forbes Robinson held +with increasing conviction as his life went on. And it was this belief +which accounted to some extent for the very large part which his +friendship undoubtedly played in the life of many a Cambridge +undergraduate. + +'For a man condemned by his fellows and himself to the position of the +"ordinary man" found himself in the presence of Forbes (as all of us +universally called him) to be no such thing. Gradually and with +genuine surprise he learned from him--not by any definite {44} word of +teaching--that though it might cost him efforts painful and many to get +the better of his "special," and though athletic fame knew him not at +all, yet the possibilities of his own peculiar personal life were +wonderful and great. For here was one who compelled men by his genuine +unaffected interest in their lives and work to be themselves genuinely +interested in them too. A man could not know Forbes for long and not +be quickly conscious of a new sense of the value of himself, which made +him believe that his own personality and life were things of great +importance. For "He is interested in me" is what almost every man felt +from the start of his acquaintance with Forbes. "He is interested in +me" we felt when he passed us in the street with his quaint humorous +smile of recognition; we felt the same when we entered his room, to be +received often without a word but with the same half smile: we felt the +same again if we knew that he was watching the progress of a football +match or boat race in which we were taking part. And "he is interested +in me"--most wonderful of all--we felt as we listened to him in the +lecture room, and were compelled to attention; for his interest in the +men in front of him, coupled with his interest in his subject, forced +us all--pass men and honours men alike--to listen to the history of +Church and Doctrine and Creeds. It was this unfeigned interest in men, +simply as men, that in the first instance gave him the influence which +he certainly exercised over all sorts of men, including the kind of men +whom the majority of their fellows disregarded, {45} or perhaps +despised; "the babes and sucklings of the undergraduate world," to +quote another. Such men, in whom most of us could find little to +attract us, were to him vastly interesting--interesting for their +simple human personality. + +'Some men perhaps never discovered from what source his interest in +them sprang. They knew that their views of the possibilities of their +own life were enlarged, that they believed in themselves more for +having been with him; but it was not all at once that they discovered +the reason of his interest and belief in them. It was due to the +Christ. With each new friendship and acquaintance which Forbes +made--and this is especially true of young men--he saw deeper into the +meaning of the Incarnation of Christ. This was the secret of his +extraordinary interest and amazing belief in nearly every one of us. +He saw in us all, however ordinary, however commonplace--yes, however +unlovely were our lives--something somewhere of Jesus Christ. + +'Then some of us were privileged to discover that what he felt for us +was something far deeper and holier than is expressed by the word +"interest." It was love. In every fullest sense he understood the +grand full meaning of the word. His love for his friends was something +altogether larger and deeper and truer than is generally understood by +the word. It was so holy a thing that it is hard to write of it. He +knew, and the knowledge is perhaps rarer than is supposed, what in all +its fulness was the meaning of the love of one man for another. This +is why he could enter into the spirit of Tennyson's "In {46} Memoriam" +as almost no one else could. Tennyson's experience might have been so +entirely his own. His love for his friends was indeed a wonderful, +sacred thing, beautiful to see. With Henry Drummond he felt that it +was better not to live than not to love. Love was to him a part of all +his being: for in him dwelt "the strong Son of God, Immortal Love," +compelling him to love his fellow-men. + +'It was to him a real grief that (as he often quite wrongly supposed) +one or two of those, for whom he would quite willingly have cut off his +right hand if in any way it could have advantaged them, cared not at +all for him, nor ever understood how he cared for them. But he found +relief from the strange unsatisfied longing, engendered in him by this +belief, in intense continuous prayer for those whom he loved. He +prayed, it is certain, as few men pray. Prayer was to him the very +breath of life. And his prayers, like his life, must have been utterly +selfless. Many do not understand the amount they owe to his prayers. +Some of us may some day realise the magnitude of the debt; at present +it is not seen. But he prayed with all the effort of his being for his +friends: eagerly, passionately, unceasingly he prayed. "Pray for him, +believe in him; believe in him, pray for him," he was never tired of +saying to those who spoke to him of some disappointing friend. And his +own life was a proof of the power which lay behind such prayer. + +'To those reading this who did not know Forbes Robinson it may seem +that a man of such intensity of feeling and holiness of life would be +more likely {47} to frighten away than to attract to close quarters the +"average undergraduate" (whose existence he denied). This most +certainly was not the case. For, if there was in him something utterly +divine, he was also human as ever man could be. He admired, like the +veriest freshman, the physical strength and powers of the athlete. In +his presence the man of bodily attainments and strength of limb +experienced the strange sensation of being looked up to by one whom he +knew to be utterly superior to him. But perhaps nearly all who knew +him experienced this at one time or another; for he must have been one +of the most humble men that have ever lived. His humility was almost a +fault. It led him to depreciate himself so far. And yet how beautiful +a thing it was! He did indeed count all men better than himself. + +'He easily condoned offences which in some eyes, and especially the +eyes of dons, loom as a general rule heinous and large. And the +riotous undergraduate, who cuts chapels and lectures, found that a +don--yes, and a junior dean--could be a friend of his. + +'He possessed too a keen and real sense of humour. He could, and often +did, laugh with all his heart. He chaffed continuously his large +circle of undergraduate friends. When he was questioning a man in the +lecture-room, you felt that all the time he was half chaffing him. He +addressed us all in lectures as "Mr.," in a half serious, half amused +style. "It is the only chance for some men to retain any +self-respect--to address them as 'Mr.'"--he would say, after the +discovery of some more than usual piece of {48} ignorance in his class +of "special" men; "for how can a man have any self-respect unless +addressed as 'Mr.' who does not know which are the Pastoral Epistles, +or who is the Bishop of Durham (then Bishop Westcott)?" + +'He could not remember the name of his best friend on occasions, and he +would recount with real glee how he had been known successfully to +introduce two men, not knowing the name of either. On one occasion it +fell to him to introduce to each other a low-caste West African native +and a particularly high-caste Brahmin rejoicing in a lofty sounding +polysyllabic title: of course he transposed the names--with results, so +he declared, almost fatal to himself. + +'He would display with humorous pride to his athletic friends a +photograph of himself coming in second in a toboggan handicap race at +St. Moritz, which he always maintained he morally won. He was full of +spontaneous humour. When he greeted you, when he looked at you, when +he talked with you, it was always with a half smile on his face. It +was his sense of humour which procured him a quick entrance into many a +man's life and heart. It was his sense of humour which made the +hostile undergraduate, hauled for cutting lectures or chapels, forget +his hostility and the presence of the don; though at the end of the +interview he, probably for the first time, began to think whether +chapel-going had any meaning, whether a lecture, if listened to, might +conceivably profit the listener. It was his sense of humour which made +all feel at home with him, which at the first attracted the most +unlikely men, {49} which inspired with confidence the shyest, and made +the most frivolous and thoughtless not afraid of him. Yet while he +would laugh, and make us laugh, for as long as ever any one wished, +through all his unaffected merriment he made men feel the strange +earnestness of his life. And all knew that, while he never obtruded on +us religious or even serious matters, he was ready at a moment's notice +to speak with us of spiritual things. And most men felt something of +what a friend of his wrote of him after his death: "He understood of +'the things that matter' more than any man that I shall ever meet." +And many men who owe to Forbes Robinson their first serious thoughts of +and their first insight into "the things that matter" must feel the +same. It is this fact that makes it impossible to measure the +far-reaching deep influence of his life. For the greatness of that +life lay not in any large influence on any large body of +undergraduates, though the undergraduate life of Christ's College must, +as a whole, have felt his real influence; nor was his life great simply +because he was a scholar and a thinker. But his life was great, and +will for all time remain great, because it was an inspiration--there is +no other word: it was, and is, a lasting, vivid, real inspiration to a +few. What Bishop Westcott did on a large scale, Forbes Robinson did on +a small. He inspired men--inspired them to search for and hold to the +realities of life. + +'To sum up: a man admitted into the inner chamber of his life learnt +there something of these three things: (_a_) The value of his own +personality, (_b_) the meaning of love, (_c_) the power of prayer. + +{50} + +'_a. The value of his own personality._--A man, as he talked with +Forbes, was taught with increasing clearness the amazing possibilities +of life for any one who has tried to think what it means to say that +"this is I." Many of us, conscious in ourselves only of very ordinary +attainments, of no very high ideals, of weaknesses of character, learnt +from our friend that in spite of all this, our own personality was +God's greatest gift to us. We learnt from him that our own particular +commonplace life was, with all its failures and inconsistencies, a +tremendous enterprise, big with opportunities. He taught us this by +his belief in us. He held (again like Bishop Westcott) through +everything to the faith of "man naturally Christian." By his belief in +a man he forced him at last to believe in himself. For he taught us +that we were, each one, two men--the real "Ego" and the false--and that +the real self must in the end have the mastery over the false, because +that real self was the Christ. + +'_b. The meaning of love._--It is impossible for lesser natures to +enter into all that the word "love" meant to Forbes. His love for his +friends was "wonderful, passing the love of women." He loved some men +with an intensity of feeling impossible to describe. It was almost +pain to him. If he loved a man he loved him with a passionate love (no +weaker expression will do). We undergraduates found our natures too +small to understand it. Yet, as we learnt to know him more and more, +we began too to learn a little of what real love is--we began to learn +what can be the meaning and the wonder and the power {51} and the depth +of the love of man for man. And we understood in time that his love +for us and his belief in us sprang from the same high source--from the +Christ in him, in us. + +'_c. The power of prayer._--This last lesson explained the other two. +Perhaps only a few of those who knew Forbes as undergraduates learnt +it. Yet an intimate knowledge of him must have forced almost any man +to the belief that 'more things are wrought by prayer than this world +dreams of.' He prayed for those he loved, it is certain, for hours at +a time. All his thoughts about some men gradually became prayers. He +could not teach us everything that prayer meant to him; he could not +teach us to pray as he prayed. Yet through him one or two at least of +his undergraduate friends saw a little further into the eternal mystery +of prayer. And men must sometimes--with all reverence be it said--have +experienced in his presence the same kind of a feeling of some great +unseen influence at work as that which the disciples must have +experienced in the presence of Christ after He, apart and alone, had +watched through the night with God in prayer. For many an hour of his +life did Forbes spend like that, striving with God for those he loved. +He believed--he knew (this was his own testimony)--that he could in +this way bring to bear upon a man's life more real effective influence +than by any word of direct personal teaching or advice. So did he +prove once more that the man of power in the spiritual world is the man +of prayer. + +'These are the great lessons of Forbes Robinson's {52} life--lessons +which many a careless undergraduate learnt in a greater or less degree, +and, learning, caught from the teacher something of his passion for +life and love and prayer, for service of God and man. + +'There must be many who will not soon forget the lessons; there must be +many in whose lives the influence and inspiration of that saintly life +will be for ever a power making for holiness and high ideals of living; +there are, it is certain, very many who will thank God continually that +they were, in their undergraduate days, allowed to call Forbes Robinson +friend. + +'How many of us, when we heard with a shock of almost horror that he +had passed from us, conjured up before us the picture we shall never +see again--the picture of our friend sitting any evening at his table +in Darwin's historic rooms at Christ's, dimly lighted with candles! We +shall remember long the quick look up at our entrance, the half-smile +on his face, the welcome of a man's love in his eyes, however busy and +tired he might be. Then, though it cost him later hours out of bed, +the invitation to sit down, followed quickly by an indignant +remonstrance as we ousted his cat from the best arm-chair. And then +the talk that followed: sometimes almost trivial; sometimes (but only +if we wished it) deeply serious; sometimes--and these occasions were +precious--a kind of soliloquy on his part, as he spoke of God, of the +realities of life, of love, of prayer. Then, with still the same +half-smile, he would bid us "Good night," and watch us out of the room +with the same look of love in his eyes with which he welcomed us, {53} +as he turned back to his table to work and think and pray far into the +night. + +'So many a one of us has left him again and again, to return to the +merry, careless, selfish undergraduate world a nobler, better man. And +now he has passed from us--"dead ere his prime" we should say, did we +not understand that somewhere the faithful, hopeful, loving soul has +better work to do. He is, as he ever was, "in Christ." He lives. His +life remains here and beyond. His faith in God, in prayer; his hope +for every man; his utterly wonderful, amazing love,--they still remain. +For _nuni menei_ (nothing can rob us of the word) _pistis, elpis, +agape, ta tria tauta; meizpon de touton he agape_.' + + +[Transcriber's note: The above Greek phrases were transliterated as +follows: _nuni_--nu, upsilon, nu, iota; _menei_--mu, epsilon, nu, +epsilon, iota; _pistis_--pi, iota, sigma, tau, iota, final sigma; +_elpis_--epsilon, lambda, pi, iota, final sigma; _agape_--alpha (soft +breathing mark), gamma, alpha, pi, eta; _ta_--tau, alpha; _tria_--tau, +rho, iota, alpha; _tauta_--tau, alpha, upsilon, tau, alpha; +_meizpon_--mu, epsilon, iota, zeta, omega, nu; _de_--delta, epsilon; +_touton_--tau, omicron, upsilon, tau, omega, nu; _he_--(rough breathing +mark) epsilon; _agape_--alpha (soft breathing mark), gamma, alpha, pi, +eta] + + + +{54} + +LETTERS + + +_To A. V. R._ + +Brislington Hill, Bristol: September 24, 1890. + +. . . I have been persuaded to try the Semitic Languages Tripos. I +have been learning German and Syriac a little this Long with that aim +in view. . . . I don't really know what to do. I am trying to do what +will best fit me for my future work. It is hard to know what is right. + +. . . The only thing I want is not to develop into a mere +bookworm. . . . The atmosphere of Cambridge so tends to deaden one, +and to make one unsympathetic with humanity; and yet the Church today +does so need men who know something, men who can express with no +uncertain sound the truth of Old Testament and New Testament criticism. +I want so to find out what the Old Testament is, and how far we can +believe in it, in its essential truth, in its historical accuracy. The +question can only be settled by scholars--by scholars filled with the +spirit of humility and understanding. It cannot be settled by the +so-called spiritual faculty alone, but only by the intellect guided by +the Spirit of Truth. + +I have been reading St. John's Gospel in Greek and Syriac, and more and +more I become convinced {55} that what it says is truth: +_zoe_--life--anything worth calling life--anything that can +last--anything that is of use here and hereafter--is to be gained alone +by actually eating and drinking the Body of the Son of Man. The +expression is awfully strong--the expression in itself. I am not +talking of all sorts of modern explanations of the expression. Take it +as it stands in the original: 'You have no life, unless you eat and +drink. . . .' + +[Transcriber's note: The word _zoe_ in the above paragraph was +transliterated from the Greek letters zeta, omega, eta.] + +I wish there could be a small Greek Testament reading in the College +for considering what the New Testament really means, apart from modern +interpretations. Is it possible to find out the true, original meaning +of that book, and to understand its problems a little and its +solutions? 'Quid importat scientia sine timore Dei?' + + + +_To T. H. M._ + +Aldeburgh House, Blackheath: March 20, 1891. + +I am gradually finding out how ignorant I am of the meaning of the New +Testament, and how miserably I have read my own miserable notions and +glosses into the words of St. Paul. I am sure that the solution of the +greatest problems which concern humanity is to be found in his +Epistles, if we could only approach them without bias and with more +childishness. I feel certain that the Incarnation is the great fact of +the world's, and probably of the universe's, history. 'The Word was +made flesh.' + + And so the Word had breath, and wrought + With human hands the creed of creeds + In loveliness of perfect deeds, + More strong than all poetic thought. + + +{56} + +The death on Calvary must have had effects far beyond this particular +world. 'He descended into hell.' He claimed His power over all parts +of His universe. The Good _has_ conquered. The Bad _is_ defeated. + + + +_To T. H. M._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: July 18, 1891. + +We have but lately heard that my missionary brother[1] has passed away +into the eternal world. He died in Africa. He gave up all, he gave up +his life for Christ. Terribly as we feel the loss, and shall feel it +still more, I cannot help thanking the Eternal Father that He has +accepted the life-sacrifice, and feeling that He calls upon us here and +now, each day and moment of our lives, to offer up ourselves on the +altar of universal thanksgiving. Life is sacrifice, renunciation: true +life is dependence on God. Sin is isolation, death--a failure to +recognise and act on our dependence. I do feel as I seldom felt before +something of the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, the +communion of the Spirit. We _must_ learn that an individual hope, +aspiration, ambition, is against the law of the universe--the law of +self-sacrifice. We _must_ learn that our wills are ours to make them +God's; that if we have a single hope or thought which He does not +inspire, which true humanity cannot share, the hope and thought are +wrong. God grant that you and I may renounce {57} our individual +lives, and become truly ourselves by martyrdom, by allowing the Christ +in us to live. + +I am to be ordained in September. Pray for me. There is no power like +prayer. Let us pray for one another. The great Father longs for +simple lives, simple piety, perpetual thanksgiving. And we have so +much to be thankful for--so much here and now. I do long to offer +body, mind, soul, affections, will, hope, to Him as a thanksgiving. +Self-renunciation, life in a Church, a Body, is the only life. God +grant we may live it! + + +[1] John Alfred Robinson, formerly a scholar of Christ's College, who +died at Lokoja on the River Niger, on June 25, 1891. + + + +_To T. H. M._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: November 17, 1891. + +Do you know that it isn't a bad thing to feel a babe? We must all +become simple little children before we enter the kingdom of heaven, +because God, who lives in that kingdom, has the simplest heart in all +the wide universe--the most childlike, for God is Love. He has no +cross purposes. Though He is stronger and better and bigger than we +are, He is simpler. He will love a poor, simple old woman in His +simple way with a wonderful affection. He is so simple, because He +does not know what sin is. God never sins. God is Light, and in Him +is no darkness at all. + +It is this simplicity, this love of One who is omnipotent, uncreate, +illimitable, eternal, that makes me reverence Him, adore Him, live for +Him, love Him. + +Simplicity is wonderfully attractive. The man who knows least of sin +is most helpful to me, because {58} he is most simple and Godlike. The +'man of the world' is most repulsive, because he is most like the Devil. + + + +_To E. N. L., on the occasion of his ordination._ + +Cambridge: March 10, 1892. + +It gives me great pleasure to think that on Sunday next you will be +made a Deacon in God's Church. I thank God that He has called you to +one of the highest offices on earth, that henceforth you will be 'in' +or (shall we say?) 'under' orders--God's orders--that you willingly +renounce your life, your thoughts, your hopes, your ambitions to Him. +You will probably hear much and be told much at this time. I have +nothing to say that you have not heard and will not hear said far +better by others. Our Church gives the keynote in the collect for +Sunday: 'We have no power.' I never realised my weakness, my pride, my +hollowness so much as I did at my ordination. God has been teaching +me, even in the short time since I was ordained, wonderful +lessons--lessons of strength being perfected in weakness. He alone +knows the depths of our hypocrisy, our vanity, our atheism, and He +alone can help us. To get nearer to Him, to know Him better--this is +what I want, this is eternal life. As we believe in a Person who is by +our side, who is helping us, training us, we shall be able to proclaim +Him to others. Do not mind about feelings. You may have beautiful +feelings at your ordination time. Thank God if you have. He sends +them. You may have none. Thank God if you have not, for He has kept +them back. We do {59} not want to _feel_ better and stronger; we want +to _be_ better and stronger. And He _has_ made us better and stronger. +He has given us His Spirit as we knelt before the bishop. We must go +forth in that strength. We must use it, live on it, and it will be +ours. _Kata ten pistin humon genetheto humin_. When we feel most +hopeless, most wretched, most distant from God, remember 'feelings +don't matter.' Remember that God's Son felt the same temptation, +remember that He too was forsaken by His God. And when all seems lost, +Satan seems master, we are misunderstood; remember that 'I believe in +the Holy Ghost,' who is stronger than separation or death, than +feelings, than our hearts. All our feelings and thoughts and wishes +are nothing. God is everything and in all. All our conceptions will +be shattered, all our schemes overthrown, that a Great Person behind +may be revealed. To know, to love, to make known, to make men love +that Person is our work in life . . . . + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek words in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _Kata_--Kappa, alpha, tau, alpha; +_ten_--tau, eta, nu; _pistin_--pi, iota, sigma, tau, iota, nu; +_humon_--(rough breathing mark) upsilon, mu, omega, nu; +_genetheto_--gamma, epsilon, nu, eta, theta, eta, tau, omega; +_humin_--(rough breathing mark) upsilon, mu, iota, nu] + +We are men sent from God. We come to bear witness of a Light. Do not +let us confuse ourselves with our message. The message is everything; +we are nothing. The Light simply shines through us. We must be glad +to be shattered, rejected, if so be that the Light shining through us +may be manifested. + +One suggestion I make: that you do what I believe you are expected by +the words of the Prayer-book to do--say the Morning and Evening Prayer +daily _always_, unless you are ill, at home or in church, and the +Litany on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. You will find this a greater +help than almost anything else--a help against superstition, +narrowness, bigotry, {60} heartlessness. If you decide not to do so, +do it with some _really_ good reason, and not because others do the +same, or because it is a bother. + +And now good-bye. And may God grant us to know Him on earth, so that +we may together know Him better hereafter. + + + +_To W. A. B._ + +Blackheath: April 30, 1892. + +. . . No amount of philosophical theories are worth much compared with +a simple picture of home life. It is these common relations of life +which are most awful and sacred. The highest life we know is, I think +I may say with reverence, family life--life of Father and Son; family +life on earth is a faint picture of something better in heaven. We +shall be surprised some day to find that, while we have been searching +for the noble and divine, we have it all the while at home. The +relations of brother and brother, son and father, are eternal +realities, which we shall never fathom, for God Himself is below them. +'Omnia exeunt in mysterium,' as Kingsley says in 'Yeast.' I am very +pleased with that novel. The description he gives of the sufferings +and squalor of villages is positively awful. We do want men who +believe that self-sacrifice, not selfishness, is at the top of all, who +are sure that family life is made in heaven and is made in the image of +God's life, who know that in the present is the eternal, to go and live +and work and die in our villages. But Kingsley shows it is not enough +to give alms or other social benefits--we must do more than that, we +must raise their whole {61} life and condition. I believe myself that +this can only be done from inside. Thus, when God wished to redeem +man, He did it from inside. Man himself fought and conquered. Deity +entered into humanity. It is not merely that we must live simply, +think simply, work, as they do. That is well, but we must do more. If +we want to look at them from the inside, I know only one way--the old, +old way which God Himself adopts. We must love them, love the Christ, +the Spirit in them--not the beast, the devil in them. Like attracts +like. To love and to detect that, we must have some of that Spirit, +that Christ. + +That means to say that to help others from the inside, we must be right +inside ourselves. And yet none of us are right inside. But there is +that in us which is right, that in us which is not ourselves, but is +deeper than ourselves. A Son who will make us true sons, a Brother who +will teach us how to be brothers, a Human Being who will show us what +is in all human beings; a Love who will teach us what we always fancy +we know, but what we don't know (else we should be divine)--how to +love; a Man who will make us saints and gentlemen--the Man Christ +Jesus. Yes, and there is in us a Great Spirit who is uniting us by +invisible bonds to all that is good and healthy and Godlike, a Spirit +who disciplines our will when it is weakest and most self-indulgent, +who trains our spirit and fights our battles against the evil spirit, a +Person who makes us persons. How then do men differ? If in every man +there is the Light which lightens him, the Christ, the Spirit, what is +the difference between good and bad men? Does {62} a good man possess +religion, or faith, or love? No, the best men would tell you they were +possessed by faith and love, rather than that they possessed them. +What faith or love they have is not a possession--it is in them, not of +them, not belonging to them. It comes from the Christ in them. The +difference between men is not that one is inspired and another is not, +but that one yields to the Spirit, another does not. We begin to obey +when we lose ourselves in that Spirit and forget all but God. We ought +never to settle any detail in life without taking Him into account: we +are fools if we do. How can we be logical? For He is in that detail, +and not to think of Him is not to understand that detail. For every +detail is more than a detail--it is the expression of a Person. + +I have wandered into a train of thought suggested by 'Yeast,' and in +part copied directly from it. Forgive me. I was half thinking aloud. +That is my one excuse for saying what I am trying to think. + +I never played golf. I do that sort of thing by deputy. K---- is the +sort of man to do it for me. At any rate, I trust him with my football +and rowing. It doesn't tire you so much if you do it that way. Only +let me give you one piece of advice, which I only wish I acted upon: +'Don't do your thinking by deputy:' do your rowing, golf, football, +cricket, skittles, talking if you like, but not your thinking. + + +{63} + +_To D. D. R; written apropos of a discussion on St. Paul's idea of the +relation between Sin and the Law._ + +2 New Square, Cambridge; Monday before Easter, 1892. + +I cannot but help feeling that part of your difficulties are self-made. +Is there such a difference between Jewish law and law in general? What +is law--law in the abstract? What do you mean when you talk about laws +of science or morality? Surely there is no such thing as law in the +abstract. You really mean God's thought. All law existed long before +this world existed, as the thought of God. This thought expresses +itself, when the world is actually made, in animals, nature, man. But +this thought is somewhat long before it expresses itself, because it is +God's thought. With Him 'to think' is 'to do.' Before you and I were +born, before men were made, man exists in God as a thought. Each of us +is an expression of part of that thought. The whole thought is the +image of God, not any one part. Now, when I speak of man as something +in contra-distinction to men, I mean the thought of God in +contradistinction to its individual realisation. So when I speak of +law as distinct from special laws, I mean a thought of God as distinct +from its special expressions. Otherwise 'man' and 'law' are +abstractions and nonentities. + +The nominalist is right in so far as he denies that law as an abstract +thing (considered apart from a person--as his thought) is anything: the +realist is right in so far as he affirms that law, apart from {64} any +particular manifestation, is an eternal reality. The reconciliation of +nominalism and realism is found in God. Applying this to the case in +hand--you admit that the Ten Commandments are the ground of morality; +therefore, I say, they must be an expression of a thought of God, the +Author of morality. But you are puzzled to find that the most trivial +sanitary arrangements are considered by the Jew as equally a +manifestation of God. Need we be? In every little sanitary precaution +I recognise, or ought to recognise, an expression of that same mind as +I see it in the Ten Commandments. God is Light, therefore the clean, +the healthy, the decent is an expression of Him. God is Love, +therefore the social, the self-sacrificing, is an expression of Him as +well. But sanitary arrangements and the like, though an expression of +an unchanging principle, change according to state of civilisation, +climate, country. Therefore we take the principle, not the expression, +as the ultimate reality in the case of these sanitary laws. + +I am afraid I am rather stupid, and cannot make my meaning plain. I +want to show you that the Jewish law only differs from English law as +being in some ways a more complete expression of God's nature. But in +all sanitary law, &c., _now_ we have God's nature expressed. And it +would be true to say, 'God spake unto England, saying'--_e.g._ in a +right decision in court; it would be true to say, 'God spake unto the +judge, saying.' Therefore, what holds good of Moses' law holds good of +all law, because all law is a thought of God. {65} Therefore St. Paul +uses indifferently _nomos_ and _ho nomos_, for what is true of God's +thought is true of every expression of it. In fact, he more often +perhaps argues about one particular expression of it. Why? Because we +can only tell what the thought is by studying the expression. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek words in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _nomos_--nu, omicron, mu, omicron, final +sigma; _ho_--(rough breathing mark), omicron] + +Don't be taken in by abstractions. An ideal is nothing--worse than +nothing--unless our ideal is God's idea. Then it is the only reality, +because God's idea will take effect. His idea is to make man in His +image, and be sure it will take effect. Commandments, judgments, +statutes, mean much the same in the Old Testament, I conceive, as we +mean when we use them. The Ten Commandments are not so called in the +Bible, I think. They are called 'words,' I think. + +I do not think St. Paul at all restricted _nomos_ to the Ten +Commandments. In fact, I don't know that he ever very clearly +separated those off from all the rest. + +Do not in your essay make the same mistake as many of the Jews in St. +Paul's time. Do not try to consider law apart from the Law-giver. +They looked upon law as a dead thing by itself, not as an expression of +the character of a person. + +Thus the Commandment about resting on the Sabbath day was considered by +them as an order as though from a tyrant. But God, when He gave it, +did not simply say, 'Here it is: do it'--but 'Do it because,' and He +gives the reason why. The reason is different in Exodus and +Deuteronomy, because the books were, to a certain degree perhaps, +written to {66} illustrate different aspects of God's character. +Exodus says: 'Work and rest, because God's life is work and rest. +Therefore human life made in His image is work and rest.' Deuteronomy +says: 'Work and rest. God has emancipated you from slavery. He bids +you rest.' In both cases God is the ground of the law. Study law--any +law--English law--and in so far as it is law, and not lawlessness under +guise of law, you will be studying God Himself; for if St. Paul's +principles are true at all, they must be true of all law. But, oh! +don't deal with abstractions, which sound well, but mean little. Let +us use what we have. It is a grand thing to know that the highest +ideal we can conceive must be realised, for the highest ideal must be +part of God's idea. + +Don't try to look at moral law apart from national life. St. Paul did +not. Law is seen in national life. A nation is a better expression of +God than an individual, because God is three, not simply one. He is a +social Being, a Being of relations. And nations will last for ever. +Law will always be seen worked out in national life. God has more +worlds than one. Each nation is a thought of God worked out in human +clay (cf. Jeremiah xviii. 1-6). Human clay lasts for ever ('I believe +in the resurrection of the body'). Law will always be worked out thus. +We are part of a thought of God--part of an English nation--little +fragments of a huge whole. Our immortality depends on the fact that we +are parts of a nation, parts of a Divine idea, which lasts for ever. +Law is more completely seen in conscious than unconscious life, because +God's life is conscious. Law is more completely seen {67} in family +and national than individual life, because in God Himself are seen the +archetypes of human relations. + +This letter is disjointed, but contains a few thoughts which may prove +helpful--thoughts I have been learning from others of late. + +We are having lovely weather. + +The buds 'feeling' after each other--new life and resurrection life--a +type, a pledge of fuller resurrection, of Easter life--nay, the same +Life--'I am the Resurrection and the Life'--working in trees and +flowers and man. What a glorious thing to live in a world which has +been united with its Maker--a world of perfect law and order--a world +where every infraction of law must and will be punished--a world where +Love is Law and Law is Love--a world where a great thought is being +realised, and will be realised in and for us! You use 'Theology' +loosely--'Theology' is _the_ thing and 'Religion' is not, I think, +nearly such a fine word. Theology is the Learning, Knowing, Studying +God. I am sorry I have said nothing about Jewish sacrificial law. I +meant to. That expresses a great fact. It dimly hints (as sacrificial +law in other nations does) at the fact that the ground of the universe +is self-sacrifice--that the ground of all human, whether family or +national, life is a filial sacrifice. I think other nations besides +Jews regarded _all_ law as coming from God; nay, I think all nations +did in part at least. + + + +{68} + +_To E. N. L., on the occasion of the death of his brother, who was +killed by lightning at Cambridge._[1] + +June 18, 1892. + +. . . I do feel for you, and could do a great deal to help you. I can +only tell you what I have felt to be the only thing which makes life +endurable at a time of real sorrow--God Himself. He comes unutterably +near in trouble. In fact, one scarcely knows He exists until one loves +or sorrows. There is no 'getting over' sorrow. I hate the idea. But +there is a 'getting into' sorrow, and finding right in the heart of it +the dearest of all human beings--the Man of Sorrows, a God. This may +sound as commonplace, but it is awfully real to me. I cling to God. I +believe He exists. If He does not, I can explain nothing. If He does, +all whom we love are safer with Him than with us. If we can only get +nearer ourselves to God, we shall get nearer to those whom we love, for +they too are in God. + +We shall be one, ever more and more really one, the nearer and the +liker we get to God. . . . My dear friend, words are poor comfort at a +time like this, when we see into eternity. A Person is our only hope, +and that Person is God. God often takes those whom He loves best home +to Himself as soon as He can. In the process of their development they +break through the bonds of space and time. He has taken your brother, +but not taken him away from you. We are {69} all in the same +home--praying for, knowing, loving each other. . . I believe in the +communion of saints--I believe that those who began to know God here, +and whom we call dead, are not dead. They are just beginning to live, +because they are finding out God: they are just beginning to know us, +because they see us as we are--they see us in God. They are with +Jesus, and Jesus is a human being. Because they are with a human +being, a man, _the_ man, the Son of man, they must, they do, take a +deep interest in the affairs of the sons of men, and--may we not +believe?--in us, whom they knew below. . . . These are truths which +sorrow helps me to make my own. I pray that you may never, never 'get +over' the sorrow, but get through it, into it, into the very heart of +God. + + +[1] Writing to another friend at this time he says, 'He was walking +with a friend, and in a moment, without any apparent pain, "God's +finger touched him and he slept."' + + + +_To A. W. G._ + +Blackheath: June 27, 1892. + +I have more and more come to the conclusion for some time past that the +only reality underlying and explaining the world must be personal. I +know that I am a person, and that it is persons--especially a few +particular persons--not things, who have influenced me and had a power +in my life. All my ideas of justice and purity and goodness are +inseparably bound up with persons. At last I have come to the +conclusion that nothing exists except the personal, and that below all +is One who is personal. That means to say that the world and things in +it are only real in so far as they are thoughts of God. We are real +only in so far as we are thoughts of God. A {70} Roman Catholic poet, +speaking of the Virgin Mary, says: + + If Mary is so beautiful, + What must her Maker be? + + +I look round the world and I see persons who attract me in a wonderful +way--persons who are more gracious and simple than I am; and then I +cannot help feeling that they all are a kind of faint picture of One +who is better than all of them, One in whose image they are made. I +like, I cannot help liking, intensely some of them; and from them I am +led on to Him who made them and who therefore must--if I only knew +Him--be more attractive even than they are. I believe that we are +intended to rise from them to Him who made them, that if we stop short +with the creature, we lower ourselves--we become idolaters. We worship +beauty or intellect or goodness as though they belonged to the +creature; we thereby lower ourselves and the persons whom we worship. +If, on the contrary, we rise from them to the Personal Being, we see +more in them than we ever saw before, and we get nearer to them than we +ever got before. For life is a circle whose centre is God. Each of us +is unconnected with his neighbour, but connected with the centre from +whom he comes. The nearer the centre, the nearer we get to each other. +When we get to the centre, we really become united with each other. To +die is to get a step nearer the centre. The closer we are connected +with the centre, the nearer we are to those whom we call dead. Our +communion with them is spiritual, because 'God is spirit' and they are +in Him. But the {71} spiritual is not the unsubstantial, the nebulous, +the gaseous; it is the personal--to my mind the awful--reality. The +more truly we understand persons, the more we shall find they are +spirits. + +I tell you what has been the greatest possible strength to me of late. +God is not merely a Person, He is Three Persons in One. I am always +trying to get closer to those whom I love best, to know them more, to +serve them better. Yet something is ever keeping us apart. I said +'something,' I mean 'some one,' for only a person can keep a person +from another--only a malicious, a devilish person--yet I feel that some +day I shall be able to love, and know them better. Then I look out on +life and I see how again and again death, and some one worse than +death, is separating us, misinterpreting motives, keeping men apart; +men are struggling to be one, and cannot be; on earth persons long to +be one, persons who love feel they ought to be, they must be one. In +heaven Three Persons are really, perfectly, quite One. What we are +trying to do has been done there. Men try to be one. God is One. And +the comfort comes in when one knows that 'in the image of God made He +man.' Our life is a copy; God's life is the original. Because God is +One, we, whose life is a picture of His, shall some day be one, as He +is. The unity of Deity is a pledge of the unity of humanity. + +The more we make our life like the original the more shall we realise +what we long to realise--truer, deeper, more eternal unity. But we are +not simply _trying_ to be, we _are_ one. All we have to do, I believe, +is to act as though we were one. We have {72} proofs of this unity. +We find ourselves doing an action which we should never have done +unless we had known some one. That one lives over his life, or part of +his life, again in us. So too we are living over our lives in other +people, perhaps in some who have passed into other worlds of fuller +activity than this. In living our lives over in each other, we show +that we are more than we thought; and it is grand to think how big our +lives may become in this way, for those whom we _influence_--into whom +our life _flows in_--in turn may influence others. When I get quite +quiet, and my mind is sane, and my conscience at rest, when I almost +stop thinking, and listen, I am quite sure that a Personal Being comes +to me, and, as He comes, brings some of His own life to flow into my +life. I am also sure that with Him come those who live in Him, that +all whom I have known or know, and longed or long to know better, who +were _worth_ knowing, are near me, are, if I let them, living their +lives in my life, making me what I should not be without them. (These +are facts, of which I think I may say I have more certainty in the best +moments of my life than I have now that Switzerland exists. But I may +be exaggerating. Perhaps as regards the second fact--of the other +persons with Him--I may have spoken too strongly as regards my +certainty. It is so hard to say _exactly_ what one means.) + +I don't know that these thoughts will be of much use to you. They may +sound somewhat too philosophical. But I have more or less purposely +put them in a philosophical form, because we are not thus so {73} +easily led astray into vague pleasant feelings, which we sometimes get +from rhetoric. But I do wish I could put a little more of my feelings +into this cold paper, and cruel, unsympathetic ink. For what I have +written is not a mere philosophy of life; it is the only thing that +makes life tolerable for a moment to me; it is the one thing which I +intensely long to realise. To my mind life is love, and love is life. +Love is not sentimental affection, simply the readiness to die for a +person. But love is the laying down of life for a person, absolutely +renouncing your life for another. It means living the best life you +can conceive of for the sake of one you love; knowing for certain that +your life is flowing into that other person, though you may never see +him again in this world. Love is purifying yourself that another may +be pure. Love for one person, if it be true love, leads you at once to +God, for 'God is Love.' I do not know what that means, but I do know +that the little meaning I can see in it explains everything. As we +love, God is there; we see God, we are in God. So we are led on from +unselfish love on earth to that unselfish family life of Three in One +in heaven; we are led on to Him in whose image we are made, and whose +image we never so clearly reflect as when we love most. I could go on +talking on this subject almost for ever, but I think I had better not +tax your patience. + + + +{74} + +_To W. A. B._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: July 5, 1892. + +How very jolly for you to get out right away into the country! I hope +some day to be able to do the same. But I think, on the whole, _I_ am +better suited for retiring from the world than you are! If it were right +to wish it, I might almost wish to exchange places with you. But yet I +don't. It is very curious--I dare say you have thought of it--how very, +very few people, if any, you would deliberately wish to change into, if +you could. One admires many people, and would like to have their +goodness, their intellect, or their beauty or strength--but how few of +them one would really be: to cease at once to be yourself, and suddenly +to be some one else--to look at life with _their_ eyes, to have _their_ +past, _their_ hopes for the future, _their_ sins, _their_ inmost +thoughts, _their_ anxieties. There is only about one man in the world, +whom I know, whom I would like to be--and even of that I am not sure. It +is the wonderful sense of personality. We abuse 'me'; we often vaguely +say we would rather be some one else; yet very few of us wish to lose +'me': and most of us perhaps never will. + +Liddon is, I should think, somewhat stiff and uninteresting. Gore's +Bampton Lectures on much the same subject are far more interesting to my +mind, far more human. Lectures IV, V, VI of Gore would perhaps interest +and educate you on the subject. + +Are you so sure that your course at Cambridge is 'over'? + + I looked behind to find my past, + And lo, it had gone before. + +{75} + +You will find traces of that course, before you have done, in yourself +and in others for good or for evil. It is a good thing to think that +nothing good is ever 'over'--that whatever we do is done for eternity, is +part of ourselves and of others--that we live on in others, live on a +nobler life than we lived in ourselves. When we _influence_ another, our +life _flows into_ another: we live our life over again in him. The day +will come when we shall see more clearly into what we have been doing. +As yet we are like children playing with knives: they little know how +near they are to killing themselves at times. So we are playing with big +issues: we call them small and secular, we treat them as such--yet every +speck of dust is big with infinity. Would that we could see the Infinite +Being at every turn, then we should begin to live. You will get wrong in +all your plans unless you see them in Him, and Him in them, and correct +them as you see them thus--correct your thoughts to fit in with His +thoughts, not His thoughts to fit in with your thoughts. + +But you'll learn it is true. You'll understand later on why I am always +talking about a Person; why to know that Personal Being is life. +Meanwhile, thank you very, _very_ much for what you have taught me. I +feel I am down in the bottom class of that school, but I am glad that I +have got into the school at all. Later on I may reach a higher standard, +and know the Teacher better. In that school the lesson each of us is set +to learn is love, and the name we are all trying to spell out is the name +of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Some of us, +perhaps, have learnt to spell one part of the name, {76} some of us +another. But none of us have properly learnt to love one single person +as we ought; and few of us have learnt to see the Father's love in all, +the Son's grace in all, and the Spirit's fellowship in all. But patience +must have her perfect work: and if we work hard at our lessons, we shall +know more, love more, think in a simple way, and _do_ more. But we must +not be learning merely from each other; the pupils must look away to the +Master of all in the centre, and as we all learn from Him and love Him, +we shall be more modest, there will be no competition--save who can love +most and sacrifice most--and do most for Him who has done all for us. + +This letter is hurried. Forgive it. Write again. Accept the will for +the deed. Think, think, think! + + + +_To T. H. M._ + +Ivy House, Holkham: September 1, 1892. + +The sacraments are tremendous realities to me, just because they are a +living protest against all Popish, High Church, Low Church schemes of +thought--because they are a protest that man does nothing, God does +all--that everything is a sacrament of the grace of God. They explain +all life to me. They teach me what love means, for when man might least +expect it, love comes deluging in, and the outward and visible is +overwhelmed with the inward and spiritual. Oh, if bread and wine and +water are capable of being transformed into the highest means of grace +and hopes of glory; may not living, human, breathing persons--may not +those {77} I love--be sacraments as well? When we come near human beings +we love, we should come with the same feelings of reverence as when we +kneel at that altar, for we are coming to that which is part of God's +image--made in His likeness. And as we speak to them, when they answer +purely and simply, the Word of God speaks through them. This is not +degrading the sacraments--nay, but raising all human life--nay, raising +the sacraments as well, for it brings them into relation with real life, +and transforms the poor magical abstractions into eternal realities. + + + +_To W. A. B., who had told him that he had made up his mind to take up +school work till he was old enough to be ordained._ + +Holkham: September 3, 1892. + +A home circle reminds me, I think, more than anything else of that other +home, that other family--the home of a Father and of a Son, the family +circle of the Three who live in one unity. We should thank God for every +family circle on earth into which we are allowed to enter, and in whose +life He allows us to share--for any true family on earth--yes, and every +little child who is born into this strange world of ours is a sure and +certain pledge--a real sacrament--that God loves us still, has not +forgotten us, is giving us little glimpses into His own family life, is +making existence here a more perfect image of life in heaven. We should +come into such a family circle with the same feelings of awe as when we +bend on our knees to receive the Holy Communion. For here, too, we enter +into Holy Communion--the {78} communion of simple, human, happy family +life; here, too, we approach a sacrament, outward and visible signs of +happy, quiet, home life--the signs of an inward and spiritual grace--the +grace which lies below and interprets all human grace in man and +woman--the grace of our dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. True, that +grace is but little realised in the best of families--little consciously +realised in the noblest life. But, oh! surely a human family--brothers +and sisters in a home on earth--are a sure and certain pledge that this +grace does exist--that God is--for here we have an exquisite though +imperfect copy of the family life of God. Thank God when you see a good +or a beautiful man or woman, a pure and a simple family--thank God, +because it is a revelation, a manifestation, an unveiling, a copy, a +likeness of Himself. For though beauty often is proud and trivial, yet +it is a manifestation of Him from whom all beauty comes, in whom all +beauty dwells, by whom all beauty exists. And so not only thank--pray. +Pray to Him that the outward and visible may be ever more and more but an +expression of something inward and unseen and spiritual. For beauty, +grace, intellect, everything is doomed, unless it is sacramental--unless +it draws its life from God below, unless it lives but to testify of Him +who is. + +It is an awful problem--a beautiful face with no true moral beauty +below--splendid physical grace with no deeper grace beneath--a strong, +capable intellect which is not the expression of a noble soul. What does +it all mean? How in a world, where the outward and visible is but a +manifestation of the {79} good God, can such awful anomalies exist? +Partly it is due to the law that goodness is rewarded to a thousand +generations (Exodus xx. 6. R.V. margin, cf. Deut. vii. 9), while +wickedness is visited upon the third and fourth--that is, that one who is +beautiful in body or intellect, and who knows God, leaves the blessing of +such beauty long after him to descendants who are little conscious of the +reason of its origin, and who have little thought of God. + +Beautiful eyes, where there is no beauty of soul beneath, are the eyes of +others, long since dead, looking at us still--men who served God in their +generation. An exquisitely touching voice, where there is no music in +the life of the one who possesses it, may be the voice of one who knew +God, and left his legacy for a thousand generations. But still the +problem remains. In many cases the outward and inward seem divorced. +Now let us not try rashly to solve the problem ourselves. We are +inclined when we see such beauty to say, 'It is no use talking. I am +quite sure, whatever you say, that there must be some fine traits in the +character of one whose face is like the face of an angel, whose voice is +sweeter than that of the sons of men.' We may be, I believe we are, +partly right--at least in many cases, for the spiritual powers of those +who are gone may still in part live on in their descendants. But often, +if we are candid, we must admit that apparently the outward and visible +are separated from the inward and spiritual, that we have outward beauty +and grace which is no sign at all of anything deeper--nay, that the very +spiritual qualities, of which it is the sign, {80} and which may once +have existed in the person, have been used for the vilest ends. This +being the case, we are still left with the problem, Is the outward and +visible not intended to be a sign of something deeper? Here it is not a +sign. Why not? Will it ever be so? To put the case in its short, +simple, concrete form, how can a 'flirt' exist when by all the laws of +the universe beauty should surely be a sign not of instability, +insipidity, unspirituality, worldliness, shallowness, hypocrisy, but of +the Supreme? + +I cannot answer this question. I doubt whether any man can. But I can +show you where its ultimate solution must lie. It lies in the +sacraments. Yes, they are the answer to the whole problem. They tell us +that the outward and visible--the commonest objects, water, wine, +bread--may be the signs of something which is deeper than anything we +know. And they tell us more. They are to my mind a sure and certain +pledge that some day the outward and visible shall really correspond to +the inward and invisible. For, remember, this world lasts for ever. The +good lasts, and is purified by fire. The evil alone is consumed. The +sacraments are a pledge to me that some day upon this world our longings +after a correspondence of the inward with the outward will be +fulfilled--how, God only knows--probably not in the way we expect, but in +a way far, far better. For His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His +ways are not our ways. When therefore you are utterly bewildered and +perplexed by finding so much that is attractive which seems utterly +divorced from God's life; when you find yourself that the outward and +{81} visible in your own life--the words you say, the actions you do, +tend to become absolutely different from your real inward life; when you +feel that every one is a hypocrite, and you are the worst of all, kneel +down at that wonderful service, and take what is the one power of making +outward and inward correspond, of making our words a true index of our +thoughts, our actions a true presentation of our lives; kneel down and +pray that all you love may enter more and more into the meaning of that +service, that they too may flee from self to One who is stronger than +self--to the power which is capable of transforming our actions--to the +power which raised Christ from the dead, and is capable of raising us up +also. Then you will gradually be taught that all life is of the nature +of a sacrament--that all food is to be taken because thereby we have +health and strength to manifest forth the grace of God in a too often +graceless world--you will be taught lessons which I cannot even suggest; +for God knows so much more than any of us what unsearchable riches He has +as an inheritance for us. Let us enter upon that inheritance. God has +called us to be saints, called us, chosen us--chosen us before the world +was made--He has chosen us that in us, through us, He might manifest +Himself. It is not humility that prevents us recognising the fact. It +is our selfishness and stupidity. For the very fact that He has called +and chosen you and me and all His Church before we were born shows that +everything comes from Him. _We_ are utterly worthless and vile, but when +united, as we _are_ united to God, we are transformed into His {82} +image, we partake of His life. Only let us be what we are--sons of God. + +In regard to those words, 'I looked behind to find my past, and lo it had +gone before,' I do not know whether you are right or wrong about the +Greek idea. The past _has_ gone before us, we are always coming upon it. +Some day we shall be confronted with it. Every day that we live we are +making something that we shall meet again. The only way to get unity +into our lives--to make it possible to look back without sentimental +repining or an awful sense of dread--is to get God as the centre, God as +the foundation. As we look back then we shall find days 'linked each to +each by natural piety'--we shall see that our life forms a connected +whole a real progress, something worth calling life. + +. . . Do you know that the best way to strengthen your best thoughts is +to try and express them? Get them out; you help others, you help +yourself. Don't be careful of the grammatical accuracy and the finish of +your sentences; I don't think St. Paul was. I was thinking to-day that +perhaps a man who never wrote letters never could appreciate St. Paul. +He was a great letter-writer. Copy him. Read him. Read him fairly +quickly. Get into him. Find out his motive power, his real meaning. +Read the Greek, not from a critical point of view only, but read the +Greek. Do not trouble too much about the dictionary and accurate +translations, but keep reading and perhaps saying aloud the Greek. St. +Paul knew so much of God. Read him, and as you read, a greater than St. +Paul will come into you, interpret {83} him, explain him. St. Paul +himself will be with you, I think, trying to show you what he meant, and +what he has found out that he means now. + +But do write me a proper letter. We are just beginning life, and we have +so much to learn from and to teach each other. Everything is new to us. +Everything is strange. Already it seems to me I have been trained in a +hard school--harder, I hope, than you will ever need to be trained in--to +understand what God and love mean. I seem to have had a rough time of +it, perhaps rougher than most; and even now I am trained in a way which +is not attractive to me, trained to throw myself not on any merely human +love, but on Him who is perfectly human and perfectly divine. May God +train you in a less rough school, if possible! But at any rate, may He +train you--train you to get out of self, bring you into deeper +sympathies, stronger attachments, simpler earnestness! He alone can give +unity to all our thoughts and desires. He alone can give stability. And +we poor little creatures, who seem to have twice as much affection as we +have mind, how we do need that stability! We want not to be blown hither +and thither by every manifestation of strength, beauty, brain--we want to +be able to enter into the meaning of what we see and cannot help +admiring, without becoming the slaves of the visible and the finite. We +must build on the one foundation that is laid. We must lay our +affections deep down in the man Christ Jesus. As we see Him in men--and, +when we cannot see that, see men in Him--we shall be more stable, less +childish, less fickle. We never go deep enough. We skim over {84} life. +We must get into its heart. We must never begin an affection which can +have an end. For all affection must draw us into God, and God has no +end. The moment we see any one whose strength, grace, goodness, beauty, +or simplicity attracts us, we have deathless duties by that person. For +the attraction is the outward sign of a spiritual connection--a sign that +we ought to pray for that person, to thank God for the manifestation of +His character, which we see in a riddle, through a glass in that life, +that human life. + +And then we shall be prepared to realise deeper relationships, more +wonderful mysteries of love--to see with clearer eyes the heart of the +Supreme. We cannot make relationships too spiritual. We cannot be too +careful to see them in God and God in them. Think what it is to see a +relationship _in God_, to see it existing there in His life, as His +thought, long, long before we were born, long before we had an idea that +we were intended to realise it. What a new light on old +relationships--brother and brother, brother and sister, father and child, +husband and wife, all thoughts of God, all being gradually entered into, +appropriated, realised, understood, worked out by us. They seem so +common and natural, and yet they are intensely awful and sacred and +mysterious. And then think what it is to see _God in them_--to see One +from whom all family life flows, penetrating those whom we have never +properly learnt to love and those whom we love as much as we can. God in +them--all that is good and attractive--not their own, but God's. The +eyes which seem to be {85} contemplating something which we cannot see, +the face which lights up at times with another than human light; the +eyes, the face, a realisation and expression of that Being who is at once +human and divine, God and man. Why, this is bringing heaven down to +earth, this is a realisation in part of the holy city coming down from +heaven. For as we think of them, above all as we pray for them, we are +led beyond them, we forget our own selfish interests in them, we are +brought out from the 'garden' life of individual souls into the 'city' +corporate life of a great human society, a family, the Church of God. We +should live, we should die for Christ and His Body--the Church--the +fulness of His life, who is filling all in all. We must cease thinking +and praying for ourselves and for others, as though we were alone. We +are all part of one great society. Around us--nay, in us--are others, +some whom we can see, some who in the course of development have burst +the bonds of space and time and matter, all one, one, for ever one. We +all have one common Lord, one common hope, one common life, one common +enemy, one common Saviour, who is working through us, in us, in those +whom we least understand, in those in whom we should least expect it, in +those who are almost repulsive to us, in all--working out one big purpose +through the ages, the purpose of the Eternal. + +Remember me at my ordination as priest, please. Remember me, for I need +it so much, you do not know how much. It is such an important time, and +I cannot understand or enter into its significance, as I long to do. +Discipline, discipline, discipline, {86} self-discipline--obedience to +'orders.' Oh! how I long to have the power to realise these! Pray for +me that I may; that you may, pray also. Be very strict with yourself. +Compel yourself to obey rules. You are hurting so many besides yourself +when you are not strict with yourself. For we are 'one body.' You are +injuring those whom you like best, for you have less power over them, +when you have less power over yourself--less power to influence, to pray, +to thank for them. + +Do remember how marvellously sacred a schoolmaster's work is: it is not +enough to be able to play games--how I sometimes wish I could!--it is not +enough to be able to teach Latin and Greek: a schoolmaster should be so +much more. He represents the authority of God. He can be _so_ much, he +may be _so_ little to boys. We can never enter into a boy's life, into +his deepest thoughts, his 'long, long thoughts,' unless we too become +little children, unless we become young and fresh and simple--and all +young life comes from Him, who makes all the little children who ever +come into this big world. Let us enter into His life. Do not become a +schoolmaster simply to fill up time, to have something to do. + + + +_To W. A. B._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: November 20, 1902. + +. . . I am glad that you like your school, that you like your +boys. . . . Think of the weak chaps, those who are 'out of the way,' +those who are not naturally {87} attractive, those who positively repel +you. They often most need your sympathy, your prayers. + +And now about your ordination. Do you know I am doubtful whether it +would be a good thing for you to be ordained to a school chaplaincy. I +am almost more than doubtful. You would, I suppose, have no parish work, +nor anything to do with poor folk. Your work would be reading prayers, +and preaching about three times a year, I suppose. You would scarcely +care to be a curate in a country or poor town parish later on, would you, +if you began thus? But, after all, I must not, I dare not, advise you. +I can only point you to the Being who alone can advise us. The great +thing is to renounce all plans, all thoughts of self, to give up all we +are and expect to be, to come into His presence, and then to ask His +advice. Or rather we must come to Him like little helpless children and +ask Him to _help_ us to renounce planning and arranging with _self_ as +goal--to beg Him to give us strength to give up all. + +The great thing is to get the life where we shall develop best all our +powers--viz. the life in which we shall have most opportunities of +sacrifice. Can you get, can you _use_, opportunities of self-sacrifice +in your school life? Can you get fuller and better elsewhere? . . . Of +course, if you find that you have more influence over boys than you would +be likely to have over other folk, that might alter the case. Have you +found that you can influence them more for good than you would be likely +to influence others? + +Our one work in life must be to advance God's glory, God's kingdom. The +time is short. The night {88} soon comes. The great problem is how to +do most in that short time; how we ourselves can best lose ourselves in +the little time that we have for losing ourselves. 'He that loseth +himself, findeth himself.' + + + +_To D. D. R._ + +14 St. Margaret's Road, St. Leonards; January 10, 1893. + +I have been thinking to-day of that strange statement 'I no longer call +you slaves . . . but I have called you friends.' To understand any one +you must be their friend: you are able then to judge their life from the +inside, to see why and how they do what they do; all their actions which +seemed disconnected and purposeless before are seen to be part of a plan, +to have an end, a goal. We cannot understand the riddle of life, the +necessity of all the details in the great scheme of redemption, the +reason for certain means of grace, the real significance of the hope of +glory, while we are slaves. The whole appears so purposeless, such waste +of energy, such unintelligible and irrational self-sacrifice. Why must +the Christ suffer? Why could not sin be overcome in a less costly way? +Why is the victory of the Christ so incomplete? Why do some, who are +better than we, take so little interest in the eternal? We cannot answer +these and a thousand other questions while we are slaves. All is a +hopeless enigma, a play without a plot, a novel with no plan. But become +a friend of a man and all is changed. Each act in his life, each thought +in his life, each word from his lips--they have not ceased to be a +problem, {89} they are ten thousandfold more wonderful than they ever +were before: they are still a problem; but there is, there must be, we +feel, a purpose running through the whole. We have but one object--to +understand him more, to see what divine ideal he is trying to work out in +all the details of his common life. Each detail is important; each +thought, however wayward, must be recognised and understood. All are +seen in the clear, dry light of eternity; each is seen in something like +its right proportion. We feel that his life is our life--nay, more +interesting than our own miserable life--that if we are ever to know +ourselves we must know him first. So, too, become a friend of Him who +alone is, and all is changed. Gradually, perhaps painfully, yet surely, +as we become like very little children, the meaning of the whole dawns +upon us. We see it all: we see that it could not be otherwise: we cannot +say why, but we are quite sure that we see it--at least, we see a little +way, and where the light ends and it begins to get dark, we feel that it +is all right beyond--that He who is with us in the light will be with us +in the darkness. We are no longer slaves, doing His will because we +must. We are friends, and we cannot help taking deep interest in all +that He does. His acts, His thoughts, His words, they are still a +problem--we cannot make them all out. But they are the same kind of +problem as a friend is--a strange exquisite torture. We do not know what +the whole of his life means; he can do things which we cannot, and which +we rejoice to know that we can never do. We only see one side of him +ever, and the rest is only known to God. {90} And yet we _do_ know part +of his life, and we are content to know no more; what we know is good, +and what we do not know or understand must also be good. We judge from +what we see what that must be which we cannot see. We do not wish it +otherwise. We feel that it would be impious to try and understand him +fully, for is he not connected with God Himself? So we see one side of +the life of the Eternal; but we are friends; we do not wish it otherwise. +We cannot understand Him--we never can. And yet 'I have called you +friends.' His main purposes we see: the plan by which He realises them +we see in part. And as we know Him better, we shall be able to track His +footsteps even where we did not expect to find Him. We shall learn that +His methods are simpler and better than ours, that His thoughts are +surer, deeper, higher than all our schemes and plans. I am constantly +finding that ordinances, customs, beliefs, which I used to despise as +strange, antiquated, or useless, are yet the very ones which I need, that +my fathers knew better than I my needs, that above all God Himself had +provided institutions and customs, and had waited until I was old enough +to learn their use and to bless Him as I used them. So, as we know a man +better, we feel that we must pray for him and his the more. As we become +the friends of the Word, we feel we must pray that His will may be done +ever more and more--His purposes realised by us and ours. Let us then +not begin by criticising the world and God; let us first be the friends +of God, and then in the light of undying friendship and prayer begin to +criticise. {91} We must be the friend of a man before we understand his +life; we must be the friends of Jesus Christ before we understand His +life now upon earth. + +I used to skate: I don't now. I obey herein one of the great maxims of +my life: 'If you want to get a thing well done, _don't_ do it yourself.' +I consider that K----, in this as in other similar pursuits, performs the +ancient and 'sacred duty of delegation.' I have no doubt that he does it +admirably. Why must people try what they can't do well? Why not leave +it to those who like it and can do it well? The wretched +public-school-boy conception of dull uniformity is an abomination to me! +If K---- does the walking, you do the thinking; G---- does the dandy, +M---- the grumbling, S---- the jack-in-the-box, G---- the running, M---- +the philosopher, and D---- the little vulgar boy--allow me to do what +after all is the hardest of all tasks, 'to do nothing gracefully.' (I am +afraid that I begin by trying 'to do nothing--gracefully,' but end by +'doing nothing gracefully.' You see the difference!) I believe in +division of labour--let each man do what he is made to do best--and those +who feel their vocation to be nothing but receiving the results of the +labour of others--why, let them try to do it with the best grace they +can! Forgive me if such be my case. + + + +_To J. L. D._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: May 15, 1893. + +I think you are right in believing in the intense worth of sympathy. But +'sympathy' is the Greek {92} as 'compassion' is the Latin form of +'suffering together with.' He who has suffered most has perhaps the most +power to sympathise; not simply to pity or console, but to go right out +of self and to get right into another, to see life with his eyes, to feel +as he feels. If, then, you find many of those among whom your lot is +cast almost incapable of sympathy, may it not be that they have not yet +learned the meaning of suffering? They may not have had so many +opportunities of suffering as you, or, if they have had as many, they may +not have found any one to interpret to them what it all meant. Thank Him +from whom all sympathy comes if you have known anything of the sufferings +of life, anything of the worries and disappointments and delays and +unsatisfied ambitions which so many have; if you have known these--known +their inner meaning, and have been led out and beyond your own into that +wider life of suffering, and have learned what it is to fill up in your +turn _ta husteremata ton thlipseon tou Christou_. + +[Transcriber's note: The above Greek phrase was transliterated as +follows: _ta_--tau, alpha; _husteremata_--(rough breathing mark) upsilon, +sigma, tau, epsilon, rho, eta, mu, alpha, tau, alpha; _ton_--tau, omega, +nu; _thlipseon_--theta, lambda, iota, psi, epsilon, omega, nu; +_tou_--tau, omicron, upsilon; _Christou_--Chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, +omicron, upsilon] + +One hates to see others whose centre is self. Their whole life looks so +mean and low. Life over, the Ego alone left; and what a poor, wretched, +snivelling creature after all--this what we pampered, this what we thrust +forward for others to admire and flatter! If we were not in much the +same case, we might be able to view it in others with somewhat different +eyes. And yet do you know that, as a matter of fact, our Ego is +dead--self is not--and the devil's greatest lie is to make us believe in +this self? For do not you and I belong to One stronger than {93} +self--One whose own self may live in us--does live in us--whether we +recognise the fact or not? We died years ago to self when He claimed us +for Himself, and we rose again to a selfless life in Him: _zo de ouketi +ego, ze de en emoi Christos_. + +[Transcriber's note: The above Greek phrase was transliterated as +follows: _zo_--zeta, omega; _de_--delta, epsilon; _ouketi_--omicron, +upsilon, kappa, epsilon, tau, iota; _ego_--epsilon, gamma, omega; +_ze_--zeta, eta; _de_--delta, epsilon; _en_--epsilon, nu; +_emoi_--epsilon, mu, omicron, iota; _Christos_--Chi, rho, iota, sigma, +tau, omicron, final sigma] + +We act a lie whenever we make our Ego instead of His Ego the centre. If +He is our centre and our goal, then be sure our Ego will begin to live, +because it is 'grounded' and rooted in His. Any trouble and anxiety that +leads you out of self to the Infinite Ego, that makes you feel helpless +and lonely and in need of a Human Helper and a Human Comforter, thank God +for it. He is teaching you to cast yourself upon One who is perfectly +human because perfectly divine. He is teaching you that you are not your +own; that long, long ago yourself died: _ei oun sunegerthete to Christo, +ta ano zeteite_. + +[Transcriber's note: The above Greek phrase was transliterated as +follows: _ei_--epsilon, iota; _oun_--omicron, upsilon, nu; +_sunegerthete_--sigma, upsilon, nu, eta, gamma, epsilon, rho, theta, eta, +tau, epsilon; _to_--tau, omega; _Christo_--chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, +omega; _ta_--tau, alpha; _ano_--alpha, nu, omega; _zeteite_--zeta, eta, +tau, epsilon, iota, tau, epsilon] + +Thus we are led to understand something of the meaning of our Christian +names--to see that they are living pledges to us, whatever we do, +wherever we go--that Christ's name is called upon us--that when tiny +little children we were brought home to the Great Ego in whom alone our +Ego can ever find satisfaction--to feel that we are His and He is ours. + + + +_To J. L. D._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: October 9, 1893. + +The step which you contemplate taking is one with far-reaching +issues--reaching away through time and beyond it. I advise you to try +and gain a general idea of the meaning of the first half of St. Paul's +{94} second letter to the Corinthian Church--to try and enter into its +general spirit. Few things will humble you more: you will see something +of the unspeakable dignity of the office of him who represents God to his +fellow-men, and of the tremendous enthusiasm and love which a man must +have if he would be the minister that St. Paul would have him be. I do +not know what St. Paul means when he says that we are ambassadors on +behalf of Christ: but the more I think of what the words seem to mean, +the more I am startled at the awful responsibility that we have laid upon +us. To represent Christ, to treat with men, to attempt to arrange--if +one may so speak--terms, to use all our powers in performing the work of +the embassy--this at least is involved in the words. What strikes me so +much in the letter is the manner in which St. Paul literally loves the +Church; how he longs to communicate his own enthusiasm to it; how he +would die, almost does die, himself to bring life to them. All his hopes +are bound up with theirs--his salvation with their salvation. He seems +to 'fail from out his blood, and grow incorporate' into them. We are +called to the same office as St. Paul, we have the same power working in +us as he had working in him: we too shall have success in so far as we +love--as we identify ourselves with those whom God has given us to take +care of. The more we are disciplined and yet enthusiastic, the more +capable shall we be of love--of getting out of self--of working our way +into others--of representing the Christ to them--of understanding and +making allowances for them--of seeing them in the ideal, the only real, +light in {95} which God sees them--seeing them in the Christ, in whom we +live--mind that, with all your intellectual training, you don't forget +the other. Now is the time to learn, to force yourself to learn, to +pray--to pray not for a few minutes at a time, but to pray for an hour at +a time--to get alone with yourself--to get alone with your Maker. We +shall not have to talk so much to others if we pray more for them. We +talk and we do not influence, or we influence only for a time, because +our lives are not more prayer-full. + + + +_To J. L. D._ + +Aldeburgh House, Blackheath, S.E.: December 16, 1893. + +I cannot help thinking of you both at this time. It means so much to you +both--more than either of you dreams that it means. The issues of your +Ordination day are very far reaching indeed. They stretch away and +beyond this world in which we now are. The rush of school work and of +preparation for examination has probably not left you as much time as you +could have wished for thinking over what it all means. I hope you will +have more time after the service is over. But you may be comforted in +the thought that the last few years have been a definite preparation for +your life-work. Though you must regret, as you never regretted before, +misuse of time and powers in the past, yet you have had an education +which has in some degree prepared you for this time, an education for +which you may thank our common Master. But this {96} thought by itself +would be but a small comfort. For you must feel, if you are the man I +take you for, how unworthy you are to be what you are called to be. Now +there are two ways of dealing with this feeling. You may say, 'I am not +called to be an absolute saint; but I will try to reach a fairly high +standard;' or you may say, 'Yes, I am called to be an absolute saint. I +will not lower my ideal. I will comfort myself with that single word +"called." If He has called me, He will do in me and for me what He +wills.' This second way is the true way of dealing with feelings of +unworthiness and unfitness. You and I are utterly unfit. But we are +both called--called from our mother's womb--called to be saints and to be +ministers. He who called us will help us. With man the call seems +quixotic, impossible; with Him all things are possible. At times when +the call is loudest we can but reply, 'Ah! Lord, I am but a little +child.' We are intensely conscious of feebleness and, what is worse, of +treachery and meanness within; we half love what we are called upon to +denounce; we play with the sin we are to teach men to abhor. Yet the +call is sure, is definite, is perpetual, and again and again you will in +all probability find what a help it is to look back to that day in which +the call took formal shape. You have that as a definite fact to rest +upon, to reprove, to encourage, to urge to renewed effort, to force you +to be true and energetic. + +One thing you must learn to do. Whatever you leave undone you must not +leave this undone. Your work will be stunted and half developed unless +you {97} attend to it. You must force yourself to be alone and to pray. +Do make a point of this. You may be eloquent and attractive in your +life, but your real effectiveness depends on your communion with the +eternal world. You will easily find excuses. Work is so pressing, and +work is necessary. Other engagements take time. You are tired. You +want to go to bed. You go to bed late and want to get up late. So +simple prayer and devotion are crowded out. And yet, T----, the +necessity is paramount, is inexorable. If you and I are ever to be of +any good, if we are to be a blessing, not a curse, to those with whom we +are connected, we must enter into ourselves, we must be alone with the +only source of unselfishness. If we are of use to others, it will +chiefly be because we are simple, pure, unselfish. If we are to be +simple, pure, unselfish, it will not be by reading books or talking or +working primarily, it will be by coming in continual contact with the +ground of simplicity, purity, selfishness. Heaven is the possibility of +fresh acts of self-sacrifice, of a fuller life of unselfishness. You are +a man and a minister in so far as you are unselfish. You cannot learn +unselfishness save from the one Source. Definite habits of real +devotion--these we must make and keep to and renew and increase. Then we +shall gradually find that we are less dependent on self--that even in the +busiest scenes we dare not act on our own responsibility--that, be the +act ever so small and trifling, when we are in difficulty we shall +naturally, inevitably, spontaneously turn to that place whence help alone +can come. But it is a wonderful help again and again to feel that we +have been {98} alone with Him, that we are not working on our own +responsibility, that He is the 'Living Will' that rises and flows +'through our deeds and makes them pure.' + + + +_To D. D. R._ + +8 Alexandra Gardens, Ventnor: Jan. 2, 1894. + +While holding as firmly and unreservedly to the belief that a revelation +is a possibility that has actually been realised, I am becoming more +aware of the partial and limited view which any single individual can +have of the significance of such a revelation; and with this conviction +comes a desire not to hinder by any words or prejudices of mine the +education of one to whom I owe more than I at present know. Yet, as I +believe that no individual life is beyond the wise ordering of a Divine +economy, I am sure that he must have lessons to learn from me as well as +I to learn from him. Hence I dare not refrain from suggesting to +him--often in answer to questions that he puts to me--sides of truth +which, as I believe, I have been allowed to apprehend. The knowledge of +truth (in however small a degree) is a trust that we hold for the sake of +others. What I fear for him and for you--for you even more than for +him--is not that you will form wrong opinions on religious or ethical +subjects, but that you will lack that moral earnestness that forces a +man, whether he will or not, to look the facts of life in the face, that +deadly earnestness that refuses to allow us to contemplate creeds as +works of art, but forces us to ask whether these things be so. Life as a +whole must be faced. What has induced men to {99} believe this and that +tenet? Why have men craved for a knowledge of an unseen Being? Why have +systems of priestcraft arisen? How is it that those who most revolt +against such systems are slaves to other systems bearing different names, +but in substance the same? Is there a Deliverer? Is there a unity +beneath all this confusion? Can man know such a unity if there be one? +Can such a unity be revealed? Has it been revealed? Why do men think it +has been revealed if it has not? While I am slow to force upon those +whom I most respect and love lessons which I believe that I have slowly +learnt in a school in which perhaps they have not been, and never will +be, educated, yet I am sure that I cannot be wrong in praying for them +and in urging them to be increasingly earnest in the search for and the +practice of truth. You are a man in so far as you live. You live in so +far as you are self-sacrificing. You are self-sacrificing in so far as +you unswervingly practise the truth you know and follow after that which +you do not yet apprehend. And I am sure, if there be a unity beneath our +lives, if there be One who is educating us when we are most wayward, we +shall eventually be led by, it may be, very different paths to a single +goal. Meanwhile each failure to be earnest, each relapse into +sentimentality, unmanliness, morbidness, despair, unreality, laziness, +passiveness, may itself be a discipline, making us utterly mistrust +ourselves, whether at our worst or at our best, and forcing us to inquire +whether there be any help elsewhere, any power that can sweep through our +lives and force us to be human. + +For this reason I would impress on you the {100} necessity of trying to +think out your position, of asking yourself how you may be most human and +best serve God (if, indeed, you believe that this is possible) and your +generation. There are around you social forces making for good. Ought +you to be--nay, can you be--isolated? Does isolation give greater +strength? Does it enable you to do more or to be better? These +questions are not merely suggested by me. They have already suggested +themselves in one form or another to you. I am frightened of their not +receiving the attention they merit. + + + +_To T. H. M._ + +8 Alexandra Gardens, Ventnor: January 3, 1894. + +The fact that you have not all the sympathy and manly help and advice +that you could wish for from those around you will, I trust, force you to +depend with simpler confidence upon the unchanging Ground of all human +sympathy. You will, I hope, take all these experiences without grumbling +as a real and necessary stage in your education; remembering that if you +find yourself repining at the distressful circumstances in which you are +placed, you may be dishonouring Him who has placed you where you are. I +do not, of course, mean that such reflection will make you condone and +excuse the lukewarmness of others, but you will grasp the truth that God +uses even the sin of this world as an instrument in the education of His +people, and that you yourself may have your character formed partly +through the faults of others, for whom you are still bound to pray. +{101} This great Christmas festival that is past must be a power to us in +the year that is coming on. We must enter into and be penetrated by the +Life that has been manifested. For it is life that you and I need. Our +own puny individualistic life of morbid self-consciousness and +sensibility must be transformed by the fuller Life in which all may have +a share; and thus we shall come to think less of ourselves, our +successes, our failures, what others think about us and what others ought +to think about us--we shall forget all this because we shall share in the +Universal Life, which penetrates through all and which makes men forget +themselves and their ills, and be pure, simple, healthy, unselfish. And +this life has been realised and men have seen it, and it is still with us +to-day. In so far as we share in it we shall become natural, unaffected, +human. Nay, more. Because the life there manifested is divine as well +as human, we shall realise also with fuller force what it is to be a +child of a Father who is in heaven. It is life, not a system, that we +need. It is life which is given us when we are adopted as sons; it is +life that we receive when the Source of all life gives us Himself to feed +upon; it is life that Christ bestows upon us when we gradually realise +our position as members of a society in which no man can live for himself +alone. Life is life in so far as it is unselfish. May He who has called +us and given to us all our privileges teach us to live out that which we +know and believe! + + + +{102} + +_To F. S. H._ + +Cambridge: August 4, 1895. + +Life will not be the same without having you up here. I am very +dependent upon others, and I soon begin to be downcast if I have not +some one to help or to be helped by. But happily He who takes away is +the same as He who gives, and His great heart of affection understands +our manifold and seemingly contradictory needs. Life would be +intolerable if we had no one who knew us perfectly, not simply the +outside part of our life, but that inside and apparently incommunicable +part. Those who are least able to express themselves in words, or who +(if they did express themselves) fear that they would be misunderstood, +find in Him an unspeakable consolation. But I must not look at things +from the individualistic standpoint. No problem can ever be solved +until we have in some measure realised that the Life which flows +through us is larger than our own individual life. We get morbid, and +our reason becomes warped, when we think of our own future alone. +Every obstacle in our path, every interruption to the course which we +have planned for ourselves, every rough discipline, tells us that our +life and future are not our own, that they are intimately connected +with a larger life, a greater future. I have been thinking of those +words--so like Jesus Christ to have uttered them--_me merimnesete_. We +are always anxious about a set of circumstances which will soon be upon +us--engagements which we tremble to meet. Jesus Christ tells us, _me +merimnesete_. I believe that work in the {103} present world would be +far more free and effective if we would obey the command. We cannot +enter into life as it comes, because we are living in an imaginary +future. The man of God lives in the present; he leaves the future to +God, _me merimnesete_. If God has conducted us so far, He will not +leave us. It is easy to talk, hard to act. I think we gain the power +to act, we gain the calm peace of God, by compelling ourselves to +remain at certain times in His presence. Habits of prayer are slowly +formed, but when formed are hard to break. Talking may be a great +snare when it takes the place of prayer--and how easily it does! It is +easier to talk with a man than to pray for him--in many cases. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _me_--mu, eta; _merimnesete_--mu, epsilon, +rho, iota, mu, nu, eta, sigma, eta, tau, epsilon] + + + +_To F. S. H._ + +Clovelly: September 11, 1895. + +I am reading 'The Newcomes': have you ever read it? I find it hard to +appreciate Thackeray as much as some people do. Occasionally he says +some very true things and shows that he is acquainted with human nature +in its brighter and darker aspects. But, on the whole, the story of +marriage and giving in marriage--selling your daughter for money or a +title--the picture of young men who sow their wild oats and then repent +and marry innocent ladies and live virtuously and die in the odour of +sanctity--on the whole the story does not seem to correspond to the +ideals which haunt me, even though I do not act up to them. Surely +life is something utterly different from all this. Surely somewhere +there is a picture of {104} human life, somewhere in the mind of God +Himself, where the young man grows up without any harvest of wild oats, +with clear and unselfish ideals, with a longing to make the world purer +and diviner than he found it, a picture which is in some measure +realised around us to-day. May God deliver us not only from vicious +but from selfish thoughts! I believe Thackeray saw something of that +picture, but he didn't draw it with the colours I could have wished. +There is a solemn text in Ezekiel, which came in the lesson lately, +'The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of +his transgression.' Past religious experiences are of little value +without present righteousness. + + + +_To his cousin G. F._ + +Clovelly, N. Devon: September 12, 1895. + +I am in perhaps the quaintest and one of the loveliest villages in +England, just doing nothing, and enjoying the simple life around me. +You would like this village, with its one steep, narrow, picturesque +street, the great sea far down below, the little stone pier jutting out +and helping to form a small harbour. Then on either side of the +village are woods reaching down to the cliffs--beautiful woods, where +oaks, and in places heather, are glad to grow. St. Paul says in the +lesson to-day that the things which are seen are temporal, but the +things which are not seen are eternal. And one feels how true are his +words--how the trees, woods, flowers fade and die; how the old sea +wears slowly away the cliffs; how men and {105} their dwellings pass +away; how all these things which are seen are temporal; and yet the +beauty, the love, the joy, the purity, are more permanent than the +particular manifestations of them are. The beauty which is manifested +in the country around is eternal. The life which is seen in man has a +future beyond this world. + +As we enter in behind the veil, as we see that life and love which are +expressing themselves in objects around us, we are already in the +eternal, in that which endures. + +It is not, as we are constantly thinking, the things that are _present_ +which are temporal, and the things that are _future_ which are eternal. +No; the things which are present have an eternal side to them--the +unseen side. + +The man who is a slave to the seen has least of the eternal about him: +the man who despises not the seen, but who through the seen rises to +the unseen, is partaking of eternal life. . . . + + + +_To F. S. H._ + +Cambridge: October 23, 1895. + +Let me congratulate you on the way you ran against Yale.[1] I was +delighted to read of your 'romping' home!! . . . . It seems to me that +every unfulfilled longing is no accidental part of life. The longing, +in so far as it is genuinely human, is derived from Him in whose image +man is made. When it is hard to see why it is not gratified, yet we +{106} may confidently believe that this is part of our training. Is it +not a noble work to enter into and, in some measure, bear the burdens +of other men's lives, even if they have only imperfect sympathy with +ours? May we not sometimes even learn more in this way--or at least +learn different lessons--than if they were so similar to ourselves that +they could at once understand us? I am afraid that you have a hard +struggle before you. You must take care not to act upon first +impressions, or impulse--not even if those impressions are +favourable . . . your best 'pearls' must be used carefully. + + +[1] In the international athletic sports in U.S.A. + + + +_To F. S. H. on his going to a curacy in Liverpool._ + +Cambridge: October 18, 1896. + +In some respects I am glad to hear of your change of plans. I think +you will be more in your element working in a poor part of a large +town. . . . Our dean has just been preaching on the words 'One soweth, +and another reapeth.' It is a help to realise the continuity of work. +We enter into the work of many a man who has passed away, and who, +while he worked, often despaired and thought that he was achieving +nothing. No work is lost. The obscure and petty--these are relative +terms. We use them, but we are told on the best authority that there +is nothing secret which shall not be made manifest. The consciousness +of the continuity and perpetuity of work quiets and calms us; we need +not hurry over anything. When we have left off sowing, others will +reap. God give us grace to work, for the night {107} cometh when no +man can work. I am so sorry that I have not been able to come up and +see you. But we are working in the same field, though it is too large +across to see one another! + + + +_To C. T. W._ + +St. Moritz: February 1898. + +Two new toboggan runs have been opened: one is a Canadian run on soft +snow without turns, short and sweet; the other is part of the Crista +run, an ice run, which I suppose is quite the finest in the world, with +splendid corners. When it is all made it will be about a mile in +length. . . . In a noisy salon it is difficult to collect my scattered +thoughts. Music and other atrocities are in full swing; and as I +seldom use my brain now, the works are rusty. I wish you could see +this country in winter. . . . A male rival of The Brook has appeared. +He is impressed with the dust and dampness of the atmosphere--takes out +trays to toboggan on into Italy--sprinkles water on his bedroom floor, +because he considers a damp atmosphere conducive to sleep. So far we +have not fallen out altogether with one another; some of us are on +speaking terms. We only confidentially discuss whether so-and-so has +come here for his mind. We have an archdeacon, a canon, a curate, two +captains; one Plymouth-brother-like, who takes most gloomy views about +the future of us, or most of us, including the parsons; the other very +noisy, who attempted the Canadian toboggan run which is supposed to be +safe for ladies and {108} children, and swears that he almost broke his +neck. He had an upset and went head foremost into the snow, and, +according to his own account, had to be dug out. If he had been a +heavier man, I understand that he would have broken his neck. As two +accidents have occurred there, it is not absolutely safe. . . . This +place is a splendid pick-me-up. I am a reformed character--go to bed +between 6 and 10.30 P.M. I was detected last night cheating at cards. +But reformation to be effective requires time. Give up, I say, one bad +habit at a time, and then tackle the next. I have given up early +rising as being the most patent of my evil practices. + + + +_To J. K._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: August 19, 1898. + +. . . . I am sure that we have need to learn not only in the school of +health but also in the school of sickness. These breaks in life, and +the sense of helplessness and weakness which attend them, are not +simply periods to be 'got over'--to be made the best of till we can +'start again'--but they have a meaning which we can find, if we only +look with the eye of faith. It is strange how, although God sees the +whole way in which we ought to go, He leaves us in comparative +darkness. We need, I am sure, _revelation_. 'Lord, open the young +man's eyes, that he may see.' We shall take the wrong turning if we +trust to our ordinary eyes; we shall find the path if we have the eye +of faith to see what God is revealing. . . . And now at this time I +need your prayers. I have--and {109} this, I need hardly say, is +private--an invitation from the Bishop of ---- to come and lecture to +theological students, whom he hopes to gather round him. Of course the +scheme is rather in the air so far. He has not yet got the men. But +he has an attractive power, and he might on a smaller scale do some +such work as Vaughan used to do for men who did not go to definite +theological colleges. Will you pray for me that I may go if I ought, +and not go if I ought not, please? + + Our wills are ours, we know not how, + Our wills are ours, to make them Thine. + + + +_To J. L. D._ + +Cliff Dale, Cromer: October 3, 1898. + +I do not belong and I never have belonged to any of the societies or +guilds which you mention. I am a member of a Church. For that reason +I dare not join any party. In fact, I cannot understand what 'parties' +have to do with a Church. The Church by its very existence is a +witness against parties and divisions. It will take me more than a +lifetime to learn what it is to be a member of a Church; and no one can +learn the lesson while he persists in clinging to a party. He must be +a member not of a _part_ but of a _whole_. I therefore have no time to +waste in joining a party. + +I feel strongly that the various societies and guilds, based upon +_party_ life, are eating away the very life of the Church. But I am +slow in condemning my neighbour for conscientiously joining any such +{110} society. He may only be able to see one side of truth, and it is +better--far better--that he should see that side than nothing at all. + + + +_To the mother of his godchild, Margaret Forbes._ + +April 12, 1899. + +It is such a joy to me to be allowed to be her godparent, and I shall +remember her often in my prayers. What a wonderful revelation she must +be to you both--making the Heavenly Home a fuller reality than ever +before! It is through earthly relationships that we realise the +meaning of the unseen world. I like those lines of Faber: + + All fathers learn their craft from Thee: + All loves are shadows cast + By the beautiful eternal hills + Of Thine unbeginning past. + + + +_To his mother._ + +Rouxville, Orange Free State; July 8, 1899. + +It is a strange and somewhat terrible study in religion--this Boer +religion. It seems to have little or no connection with morality. +Kruger seems to have amassed great wealth by doubtful means. A man +comes to him and offers him, say, 8,000_l._ on condition that he may +have the right to sell mineral waters. Mrs. Kruger comes in and counts +the money; and if it is right, the concession is granted. Yet he is +religious, very religious. A short time ago they wanted to fire shells +into the low-lying clouds during a time {111} of drought. The clouds +gather, but they will not break. Firing shells was found to have a +good effect in bringing the rain. But Kruger stopped it because it was +wrong to 'fire shells at the Almighty.' You would think that a little +state like this might be an ideal one with its simple scattered +population of farmers. But it is by no means so. Corruption and +injustice are only too prevalent. At the start off they were +unfortunate in their choice of President. The state was at war with +the Basutos at the time when he was elected; and three months after he +was made President he had to be deposed, because he was discovered +selling arms to the Basutos. + +The Dutch don't treat the natives as well as we do. Yet in some +respects their laws are wise. A native may not live in the Free State +without doing some definite work, unless he pays a tax of 5_s._ a +month: this is, I think, a wise rule. + +We had two very nice services last Sunday at the English church; I +preach twice to-morrow. + + + +_To C. T. W._ + +Durban; July 1899. + +I write to congratulate you most heartily on your First Class. . . . I +believe you will find in a year's time that whatever your work may be, +contact with others--the necessity of influencing and guiding +them--will be a tremendous help to you in your own life. . . . + +Good man! I am delighted to think that you may see the Bishop of +Durham. Prophets' eyes are {112} needed out here to catch the glory +which must be slowly--so slowly--gaining on the shade. There is so +much materialism, so little refinement and spirituality. + +I had a grand voyage: only three people rescued from drowning before I +got on board, and two stowaways after we left Madeira, and two or three +days of rough weather. I enjoyed it. . . . + +I had afternoon tea, or rather coffee, with Uncle Paul. He is a +strong, fine old man. He was sitting puffing away at his large pipe. +It was after a long day's work in the secret Volksraad. He was tired. +'It is hard work,' he said, 'for the head.' The State attorney, a +young Christ's man, explained to him that 'we were both at the same +school in England.' Kruger was eloquent on the subject of the +Petition. He told me that some of the 21,000 had died three years +before they signed it, and some had signed it owing to a bottle of +whisky. 'And I want you to let that be known in England' (I know +anything said to you will circulate--by experience). He said, did the +subtle old man, that he wanted to do what was right and fair +irrespective of nationality. + +This Transvaal question is complicated. I thought it easy at first. +But now I can see no moral grounds of any sort for a war with the +Boers, in spite of their iniquities. There is a great deal to be said +on their side, and much iniquity concealed under such specious phrases +as 'Imperialism,' 'Supremacy of Great Britain in South Africa.' I +cannot see that we have a real cause for war, but it is a big question +with many sides. If England goes to war and wins, she {113} will have +her work cut out. 'Can she afford,' said the Attorney of the Transvaal +to me, 'to have a second Ireland at the distance of some 5,000 or 6,000 +miles from home? What if she had war in India? + + + +_To W. A. B._ + +Lucknow Lodge, Berea, Durban: August 22, 1899. + +I thank my God in my prayers on your behalf for His goodness in +granting you His best gift--a human soul to love and to inspire. +Together you will be able to know and love Him better than either of +you could alone. You cannot make your love too sacred; as you know God +you will learn to know one another. + +We are inclined to think that we know all that love means. The truth +is, we are only beginners. Thank God that we are in the school, +although only in one of the lowest forms. He will teach us, as years +go by, to sanctify ourselves for the sake of another. We have not +learned to love until we are living the highest possible life, in order +that the object of our affection may become a saint. God is giving you +a present, the value of which you see in part now, you will realise +fully hereafter. You must wrestle with God for her and for yourself. +If you are true to the highest, both of you will rise together and see +God. If you are not, she may not be able to mount alone. + +I am filled with joy and hope as I think of you both. I believe that +you will live for God more completely now than ever before, and that +you will be a fuller blessing to your people. You have my prayers. +{114} I want you to make your ideals higher and higher. Then, when you +have gained one height, you will find that what you took for the summit +from the plain was not really so: there were further peaks beyond. + +It is the beginning of an endless life. If God Himself be the centre +of all, the nearer we are to Him, the nearer we are to one another. I +_am_ glad that your wife is one who shares in your ideals, who lives +for the highest. What a life in store for you here! And there-- + + Before the judgment seat, + Though changed and glorified each face, + Not unremembered you will meet + For endless ages to embrace. + +You will be nearer the centre then, and nearer to one another. + +May God Himself bless you, dear old fellow! Forgive this poor attempt +at a letter. I share in your joy, although I am not actually with you. +I never remember any wedding outside my own family which has given me +greater pleasure. It was good of you to ask me to be present--very +good. + +B----, I _am_ glad. You must thank God and ask Him to tell you what it +all means, and for her sake live as good a life as you possibly can. + +With best love I am your friend, + +FORBES. + + + +_To a Friend after hearing of his intended ordination._ + +Durban: August 1899. + +Your ordination will be like my own over again. It is unutterably good +of God . . . to put it into {115} your heart to live the life which I +had prayed might be yours. _Meizoteran touton ouk charin, hina akouo +ta ema tekna en te aletheia peripatounta_ . . . + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _Meizoteran_--Mu, epsilon, iota, zeta, +omicron, tau, epsilon, rho, alpha, nu; _touton_--tau, omicron, upsilon, +tau, omega, nu; _ouk_--omicron, upsilon, kappa; _charin_--chi, alpha, +rho, iota, nu; _hina_--(rough breathing mark) iota, nu, alpha; +_akouo_--alpha, kappa, omicron, upsilon, omega; _ta_--tau, alpha; +_ema_--epsilon, mu, alpha; _tekna_--tau, epsilon, kappa, nu, alpha; +_en_--epsilon, nu; _te_--tau, eta; _aletheia_--alpha, lambda, eta, +theta, epsilon, iota, alpha; _peripatounta_--pi, epsilon, rho, iota, +pi, alpha, tau, omicron, upsilon, nu, tau, alpha] + +. . . If your temptations are great it is because your nature is rich +and noble; and when it is disciplined you will have tremendous power. +I shall not be content until your every thought is led captive to 'the +obedience of the Christ.' You are born to be a saint, and you will be +wretched until you are one. You are not the kind of man who can do +things by halves. + +I think I have told you of my father's words spoken during his last +illness: 'If I had a thousand lives, I would give them all--all to the +ministry.' You will not regret your decision. If angels could envy, +how they would envy us our splendid chance--to be able, in a world +where everything unseen must be taken on sheer faith, in a world where +the contest between the flesh and the spirit is being decided for the +universe, not only to win the battle ourselves but also to win it for +others! To help a brother up the mountain while you yourself are only +just able to keep your foothold, to struggle through the mist +together--that surely is better than to stand at the summit and beckon. +You will have a hard time of it, I know; and I would like to make it +smoother and to 'let you down' easier; but I am sure that God, who +loves you even more than I do, and has absolute wisdom, will not tax +you beyond your strength. . . . I'll pray for you, like the widow in +the parable, and I have immense belief in prayer. . . . You remember +what was said of Maurice, 'He {116} always impressed me as a man who +was naturally weak in his will; but an iron will seemed to work through +him.' That Will can work through you and transform you, but for God's +sake don't trust to your own will. . . . + +If you are ordained it will be because there is one who in St. Paul's +words--_ho aphorisas me ek koilias metros mou_--was separating you from +birth and educating you with a view to the Gospel of Christ. . . . + + Tasks in hours of insight willed + Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.[1] + + +[1] Matthew Arnold, _Morality_. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _ho_--(rough breathing mark) omicron; +_aphorisas_--alpha, phi, omicron, rho, iota, sigma, alpha, final sigma; +_me_--mu, epsilon; _ek_--epsilon, kappa; _koilias_--kappa, omicron, +iota, lambda, iota, alpha, final sigma; _metros_--mu, eta, tau, rho, +omicron, final sigma; _mou_--mu, omicron, upsilon] + + + +To his mother. + +Estcourt, Natal; August 18, 1899. + +General Gordon came to Kokstad on his way to Basutoland. When he +arrived he went to the Royal Hotel, ordered a room, threw open the +window, and spent two hours in prayer and meditation. The next day was +Sunday. He asked Mr. Adkin what was being done for 1,000 Cape Mounted +Infantry then stationed there, and when he learnt that nothing was +being done for their spiritual food, he burst into tears. On Monday +morning the first telegram which he sent off to the Cape Government was +a request that a chaplain should be appointed. Mr. Adkin was appointed +and remained chaplain until the force was disbanded. General Gordon +went on to Basutoland, and had wonderful power over the natives. He +told them that no force would be brought against {117} them; he himself +was without weapons. He was settling the country, when news came to +him that the Cape Government was, contrary to stipulation, sending an +armed force against them; so he left the country in twenty-four hours. + +Cecil Rhodes was once at Kokstad. When he was near the place, he lay +down on the hillside and exclaimed: 'Oh, how I wish they would let me +alone--let me stay here!' However, he had to go down to be feted. He +was listless, and bored by the banquet, until the present mayor began +to attack him violently in his speech, and to complain about the Cape +Government, and to express a desire that Natal would take them over. +Then Rhodes woke up with a vengeance and gave them a great speech. +Ixopo is where Rhodes started out in South Africa. His name still +figures on the magistrates' books--fined 10_l._, for selling a gun to a +native. + + + +_To his cousin, J. C. H; on the occasion of the death of his brother._ + +December 7, 1899. + +You know, without my saying it, that you have my deep sympathy and +prayers at this time. . . . We dare not and cannot sorrow as do others +who have no certain hope. Our sorrow is of another kind. For I am +quite sure that + + In His vast world above, + A world of broader love, + God hath some grand employment for His son.[1] + +{118} How real it all makes that other world, to have our own brothers +there! It makes it in a deeper sense our home. + +[1] Faber, _The Old Labourer_. + + + +_To the mother of his godchild, Margaret Forbes._ + +Dore House, St. Leonards: January 10, 1900. + +I am so glad to feel that my little godchild will have real training. +I don't know how far I received such a training myself at an early +age . . . I came towards the end of a large family. The only +permanent instruction which I can remember imparted to me by my nursery +maid was a caution not to look behind me when I passed people in the +street, enforced by the biblical precept, 'Remember Lot's wife.' I +know what a fascination I had to look behind, accompanied by a terrible +dread of the consequences. + +I have always felt that Faber's 'God of my Childhood' describes the +normal and true development of a child's life. I am sure that, +although the gravity of sin should be early recognised, greater stress +should be laid upon the Fatherhood and kindness of God. I was noticing +to-day, when reading the second lesson, how Westcott and Hort have +placed the clause in the Lord's Prayer which speaks of the Fatherhood +of God in a line by itself as a heading to the whole prayer, putting a +colon after the clause, and beginning the first petition with a capital +letter. The prayer begins with 'Fatherhood' and ends with a reference +to 'Sinfulness.' I think this fact is significant. We may not all be +intended to come to {119} know religious truth in that order. But I +think we are intended, when we do know it, to lay even more stress on +the Fatherhood of God than on our own imperfections. It is a wonderful +and terrible thing to watch the development of a human spirit. We can +understand so little about any life, even when it is near and dear to +us. But I am not sure that we cannot learn more about others than we +can about ourselves. I never think it is profitable to study oneself +too closely! I never could meditate with any profit on my sins. But +there, I dare say, I differ from many others. + +Well, I hope that the hair of my godchild is growing, and that she has +now more than her god-father. His is coming to an untimely end. + + + +_To F. S. H; who had recently become a chaplain in the Navy._ + +St. Leonards: January 11, 1900. + +I am thinking of you in your new, difficult, and interesting life, and +wondering how you like it. Or, rather, I am sure that you like it in +its main features. There are in every life drawbacks and +discouragements, for we live by faith and not by sight, and faith must +be perfected in the midst of perplexities and contradictions. The +mists are useful. It would not do to have brilliant sunshine all the +time. For in that case, where would faith come in? Steering towards +our port in the fog means trusting the Pilot. 'Mercifully grant that +we, which know Thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition +of Thy glorious Godhead.' I suppose that none of us fully {120} knows +what this prayer means. I think that there will be more need of faith +hereafter than we usually think. Can we ever apprehend the Father or +the Son without faith? The deepest truths are grasped by faith not +sight. The man who has learned to exercise faith here will have fuller +scope for his faith hereafter. What a shock to wake up in the next +world and to find that the riddles of life still need faith for their +solution! Yet I imagine that it will be so. Only faith will be able +to go deeper than here. The faith perfected in the mists of life will, +in the sunshine of eternity, see deeper into the meaning of events. I +wish I had more faith. Not sudden flights of faith annihilating time +and space and rising up to the throne of heaven. But I wish I could +ground all my actions on faith, and regularly see the invisible and +live as one who could see always and everywhere the Unseen. We are +schooled in different ways. We cannot attain to perfection in a night. +As we advance in the Christian life progress seems slower. In some +sense it is so. It is easier to cast off a number of definite bad +habits clearly inconsistent with the ideal just at first, than to +perfect self-sacrifice, humility, and self-discipline. But we are +advancing, though we know it not. If the engines are always kept +working, we shall reach our goal! + + + +_To C. N. W; who had recently been ordained._ + +St. Leonards-on-Sea: January 12, 1900. + +You must remember how much your future efficiency is dependent upon a +judicious use of your {121} strength during the next two or three +years. I am sure you are right in looking back upon your life and +tracing in its developments a higher than human guidance. It is a +helpful thing to trace now and anon God's hand in our individual life. +It brings Him nearer to us, and it is an awful thought that He is +actually working within us. It makes us trust Him for time to come +even when the prospect is gloomy. I think that we do well to spend +some time in trying to interpret details of our past life. As years go +on, we should have such a firm faith founded on the rock of experience +that we will not be lightly shaken. Peace should be a characteristic +of our life--the joy and peace which come from a certainty that there +is a Purpose in all events. The sense that God has been with us in the +past is a help in interpreting the history of our nation. Even our +troubles are a proof that He is disciplining us. For the service of +Intercession, which my brother uses in Westminster Abbey at the time of +this war, the opening sentence is 'The Lord our God be with us,' and +the answer is, 'As He was with our fathers.' + +The College is getting on well. You must come up and see me this year, +while you still know a number of men. I have now a little evening +service--compline--in my rooms at 10 o'clock; Masterman asked me to +have it. He asked men to come, and they asked others. I purposely +refrained from asking any one. We are sometimes a goodly number. I +think it is helpful to those who come. It is, I know, to me. We have +a hymn when we have sufficient musical talent! + + + +{122} + +_To G. J. C._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: 1900. + +Gwatkin has exploded Anthony, 'who never existed.' But for all that I +think Anthony is much like Adam and Eve. The originals may 'never have +existed.' Yet their story belongs to all time. And there will be +Anthonies and Adams and Eves to the end of time. It comforts me to +feel that that which makes for evil is not my true self, but a +wretched, cunning animal existence independent of me, existing before I +came into being, although capable of appealing to me--a serpent. + +I am half glad and half sorry to hear of your harmonium. Public +worship is a terribly difficult thing, and it is well at times that we +should realise its difficulties, and have it stripped bare of many +helpful accessories. Yet worship in a village church impresses me. As +in a college chapel, I realise then the continuity of the race. An old +church tells me of generations of men who lived my life, to whom the +present was everything, and the dead almost nothing, who never could +seriously believe that some day the world would whirl and follow the +sun without them. It tells me more than most things of what St. Paul +means when he said that we were all making one perfect man. And I am +humbled and thankful to know that I in my generation can do something +towards the Christ 'that is to be.' + +Read the Old Testament itself. Nothing will {123} atone for lack of +knowledge of the Bible. Robertson Smith's and Adam Smith's books +(especially the latter's) on the Old Testament Prophets ought to prove +useful. . . . When I call a man by his Christian name, I usually make +it a rule to pray for him. I shall do so in your case. I will try to +pray every day. I wonder whether you would sometimes pray for me: I +believe immensely in the power of prayer. It is the greatest favour I +can ask of you, and I know I have no right to prefer the request; but +it would be kind of you if you could occasionally. One needs all the +help one can get in this strange life up here. Now I will end. I have +written you a strange, unreserved letter. Forgive me. How I wish this +dreadful war was at an end! U----'s going was a blow to me; but I am +sure he did the right thing. I admire and love that man. . . . + + + +_To G. J. C._ + +Castleton, Swanage: 1900. + +. . . You will not have misinterpreted my silence. I could not answer +your letter until I had secured a time for quiet thought and for +prayer. When I try to write, I feel the uselessness of words. I am +doing better when I am praying for you than when I am writing to you. +Yet I must write. . . . It is strange that God should have made us +thus. To those whom He honours most He gives largest capacity for +love, and therefore largest capacity for suffering. It is still more +strange that we would not wish to be {124} without the love in spite of +the agony which it brings. It must be because + + All loves are shadows cast + By the beautiful eternal hills + Of Thine unbeginning past. + +I feel this truth 'in seasons of calm weather.' But at other times I +ask myself, I ask God, angrily, Why should some men have no obstacle to +their love? Why should another suffer more than any one can tell--more +than, it sometimes seems to me, can ever be requited? I cannot answer +the question. But I often think of the great unsatisfied heart of God, +and then I think of this poor unsatisfied heart made in His image, and +I feel that He understands me, and that I understand Him better than I +used to do, before this terrible hunger of love began. + +I pray God that He will deal tenderly with you, G----, and I am sure +that He will. It cuts me to the heart to think of your suffering, and +I would stop it this moment if I could. So would God--for He loves you +more than I do--unless it were the best thing for you. It is written +of the Son of man, _emathen aph on epathen_. May the same words be +true of you and of me! God bless you and give you Light and Peace! + + Peace is something more than joy, + Even the joys above; + For peace, of all created things, + Is likest Him we love. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrase in the above paragraph was +transliterated as follows: _emathen_--epsilon, mu, alpha, theta, +epsilon, nu; _aph_--alpha, phi; _on_--emega, nu; _epathen_--epsilon, +pi, alpha, theta, epsilon, nu] + + +This letter may appear cold to you. It is not. I feel more deeply +than I write. . . . Some day, if {125} you care to hear, I will tell +you something about my own imperfect life. I can't write it down. +Later the day will dawn. But God sends the darkness that we may learn +to trust Him, I have never yet found Him to fail. We cannot trust Him +too much. + + + +_To the mother of a friend, after having been present at his funeral._ + +Cambridge: April 22, 1900. + +I feel I must write and tell you how grateful I am to you for your +kindness in allowing me to be present on Thursday. Whenever I think of +your son who has passed away, that text comes into my mind: 'Blessed +are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' He was pure in heart, +and I cannot think of him as lifeless, but as actually seeing +God. . . . I am thankful to have been allowed to be his friend. I +shall never forget him; his life remains a source of strength and +inspiration to me. It comforts me now to know that he is sinking +deeper and deeper into the peace of God, which passeth all +understanding. You were talking to me about W----; I could not say all +that I wished to say. . . . I am very, very slow to suggest ordination +to a man. I realise the responsibility of doing so, but there is no +man whom I desire to see ordained more than W----; he has been to me +more help than I can possibly say. I dare not try to tell you all that +he has done for me, because you would think I was exaggerating. I +cannot help feeling that, if he helps me so much, he might help others +also, and that, if he were ordained, {126} he would have singular +opportunities for rendering such help. But I do not press him in the +matter, because I might do wrong; but I pray again and again that, if +God wishes him to be ordained, He will make His purpose clear, and I am +quite sure that He will not leave us in the dark. + + + +_To C. T. W._ + +Cambridge: July 1900. + +I was delighted to read in the paper yesterday of your election to a +fellowship. . . . The life will be a harder one than that of an +ordinary parish clergyman; it will be easier to lose sight of ideals. +But the importance of the work is in proportion to its difficulty. +Blessed is the man who finds his work, and does it; and you will be +blessed. . . . + +You should read St. Patrick's 'Confession,' a genuine work of my +distinguished countryman. It is full of humility and zeal. I give you +a quotation: 'After I had come to Ireland I used daily to feed cattle, +and I often prayed during the day. More and more did the love of God +and the fear of Him increase, and faith became stronger and the spirit +was moved; so that in one day I said as many as a hundred prayers, and +in the night nearly the same. . . . And there was no sluggishness in +me, as I now see there is, for at that time the spirit was fervent +within me.' Pathetic--that last part. He might have been living at +Cambridge! But I hope better things for you. + +{127} + +_To C. T. W._ + +Thirlmere: September 1900. + +My thoughts are with you now--and my prayers. 'He had seven stars--in +His right hand,' was the thought which comforted me at my own +ordination, when I felt, as seldom before, my own hollowness and +incapacity. We can shed light--we are safe--because we are 'in His +right hand.' 'The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the +everlasting arms.' We can never go beyond His love and care. In +moments of perplexity and uncertainty, although we cannot feel His +presence, He is there. 'In His right hand.' 'They that turn many to +righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.' + +May God give you the power to love and the power to pray! Much prayer +and much love are needed for a successful ministry. Good-bye, and God +bless you and make you a true and faithful pastor! Remember St. Paul's +words: _he dunamis en astheneia teleitai. edista oun mallon +kauchesomai en tais astheneiais, hina episkenose ep eme he dunamis tou +Christou; hotan gar artheno, tote dunatos eimi_. + + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases above were transliterated as +follows: _he_--(rough breathing mark) eta; _dunamis_--delta, upsilon, +nu, alpha, mu, iota, final sigma; _en_--epsilon, nu; +_astheneia_--alpha, sigma, theta, epsilon, nu, epsilon, iota, alpha; +_teleitai_--tau, epsilon, lambda, epsilon, iota, tau, alpha, iota; +_edista_--eta, delta, iota, sigma, tau, alpha; _oun_--omicron, upsilon, +nu; _mallon_--mu, alpha, lambda, lambda, omicron, nu; +_kauchesomai_--kappa, alpha, upsilon, chi, eta, sigma, omicron, mu, +alpha, iota; _en_--epsilon, nu; _tais_--tau, alpha, iota, final sigma; +_astheneiais_--alpha, sigma, theta, epsilon, nu, epsilon, iota, alpha, +iota, final sigma; _hina_--(rough breathing mark) iota, nu, alpha; +_episkenose_--epsilon, pi, iota, sigma, kappa, eta, nu, omega, sigma, +eta; _ep_--epsilon, pi; _eme_--epsilon, mu, epsilon; _he_--(rough +breathing mark) eta; _dunamis_--delta, upsilon, nu, alpha, mu, iota, +final sigma; _tou_--tau, omicron, upsilon; _Christou_--Chi, rho, iota, +sigma, tau, omicron, upsilon; _hotan_--(rough breathing mark) omicron, +tau, alpha, nu; _gar_--gamma, alpha, rho; _artheno_--alpha, rho, theta, +epsilon, nu, omega; _tote_--tau, omicron, tau, epsilon; +_dunatos_--delta, upsilon, nu, alpha, tau, omicron, final sigma; +_eimi_--epsilon, iota, mu, iota] + + + +_To W. D. H._ + +Dale Head Post Office, Thirlmere, September 20, 1900. + +My thoughts and my prayers are with you at this time. I remember how +at my own ordination, when I felt as never before my own utter weakness +and incapacity, the thoughts in the first chapter of the Revelation, of +Christian ministers as 'stars in His {128} right hand' comforted and +supported me. In His right hand--with His power we can do all things. +As the lesson for to-day says, _he dunamis en astheneia teleitai_, +strength is perfected in weakness. _hotan astheno tote dunatos eimi_. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases above were transliterated as +follows: _he_--(rough breathing mark) eta; _dunamis_--delta, upsilon, +nu, alpha, mu, iota, final sigma; _en_--epsilon, nu; +_astheneia_--alpha, sigma, theta, epsilon, nu, epsilon, iota, alpha; +_teleitai_--tau, epsilon, lambda, epsilon, iota, tau, alpha, iota; +_hotan_--(rough breathing mark) omicron, tau, alpha, nu; +_astheno_--alpha, sigma, theta, epsilon, nu, omega; _tote_--tau, +omicron, tau, epsilon; _dunatos_--delta, upsilon, nu, alpha, tau, +omicron, final sigma; _eimi_--epsilon, iota, mu, iota] + +You will feel more, as years go on, the greatness of the task which you +are undertaking--the overwhelming responsibility--the dread lest +through any carelessness on your part one of the least of the sheep may +be lost. But you will also feel more and more that you are 'in His +right hand.' And if the eternal God is your refuge and underneath are +the everlasting arms, you need not fear what the devil or man can do +unto you. I pray that God may be with you and give you the spirit of +prayer and the spirit of love. Your ministry will only be effective if +you pray much and love much. And if you make mistakes, yet if you love +much your sins will be forgiven. + + + +_To his brother, a doctor in South Africa._ + +September 1900. + +When I feel what the grace of God has done for my life, what it is +doing, what it will do, I can despair of no one else. I am filled with +wonder and amazement and thanksgivings and hopes. I am sometimes so +thankful that I still live, that in a world of light and dark shadows I +can show my faith in God, before the other world dawns with its full +day and unclouded brightness--and most of all that I can here and now +pray for those whom He has taught me to love. I cannot conceive this +world without prayer. It is {129} worth while making any efforts, +however desperate, to learn to pray. When the Day dawns, how wonderful +it will be to look back and trace the path through which He has led us +in the Twilight! + + + +_To F. J. C._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: 1900. + +The more He tries you by His silence, the greater to my mind is the +proof that He believes in you. He knows you will come through. He has +great work for you to do, and therefore you need a strong perfected +faith, and He is trying to give you it. + +I am so sorry at what you tell me about prayer. But do go on. When +things are at their darkest light comes. After all God knows how much +you can bear, and He will not, if you will only persevere, allow you to +be utterly confounded. Don't be in the least discouraged at your +inability to concentrate your attention. Even a man who had lived in +the presence of God for years has told us that + + The world that looks so dull all day + Glows bright on me at prayer, + And plans that ask no thought but these, + Wake up and meet me there. + My very flesh has restless fits; + My changeful limbs conspire + With all these phantoms of the mind + My inner self to tire. + + +Do you expect to fare better, when you are exercising faculties which +have been for long more or less dormant? The same man goes on to +say--and I {130} think it is a comforting truth--that God sees further +than we do, sees what we mean: + + These surface troubles come and go, + Like rufflings of the sea; + The deeper depth is out of reach + To all, my God, but Thee. + + +Even if your conscience condemns you, remember that God is greater than +your conscience. He sees that you _want_ to pray, and the battle is +half won when there is even the want. I like these old words of the +hymn: + + Satan trembles when he sees + The weakest saint upon his knees, + +even if he can't collect his thoughts. I find it usually easier to +pray for others than for myself. I believe in beginning by praying for +what is easiest. I don't kneel down. I find it more possible to +concentrate my attention when I am walking about or sitting down. And +I tell God what I know about a man, and how I want him to live a better +life. Sometimes I seem to struggle for him as though for very life. I +go on and on and on--sometimes repeating the same request. I try to +copy the poor widow who wearied out the dishonest judge. I am not +distressed when my thoughts wander, I know that they will always wander +without God's help. The distress occasioned by wandering thoughts, and +the attempt to trace the stages by which they wandered, I regard as +temptations of the devil. . . . I go back as calmly as possible to the +matter in hand. + +Excuse my 'egoism.' I put it in the first person, {131} because I +believe my own experience will help you more than rules derived from +the experience of others. + +Suppose you spend half an hour in this way, and only really pray for +three or four minutes, your efforts will be more than rewarded. You +will have done more than you know for the person for whom you have +prayed. And the next half-hour you will find that you can concentrate +your attention for a minute or two longer. Don't think too much about +yourself when you pray. You must lose your soul if you would save it. + +There is probably some one thing or some one person easier than others +for you to pray for. Begin with that. + +I never try, as some people do, to classify and enter into details +about my sins. I bring the whole contradictory, weary, and +unintelligible mass of them to God, and leave them with Him. I am +quite sure I shall never do better without Him. But I know that He +believes in me, and will help me in spite of myself. He believes in +you too, dear old fellow! May God bless you for your kindness to me! +Write me just a short note to tell me that you don't despise me in +spite of what must seem to you rather unintelligible and ridiculous +confessions. + +I can't help it. And if you can bring yourself to do it, call me too +by my Christian name. + + + +_To the same._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: September 28, 1900. + +I feel more and more the necessity of being alone occasionally for some +time--to get time enough to {132} pray. I think my supreme desire is +to be a man of prayer. You must help me to accomplish the desire: +'Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed saepe cadendo.' + +So it is with prayer. As the stone gets worn away, not by the force of +the drop of water but by its constant trickling, so prayer often +renewed must at length attain its end. It is a wonderful privilege to +be able to state all one's wishes and hopes for others in prayer--to +know that there can be there no possibility of misunderstanding--to +tell to God the incomprehensible depth of one's love, and to feel that +He knows what it means, because He Himself is love. It is glorious to +be made in His image, and to be sure that all one's highest yearnings +are a reflection--however broken, partial, and unsightly--of His own +marvellous life. We have indeed cause to be grateful for our +'creation.' I often look at the poor dumb creatures, and thank God +that He has given me such full powers of love, which they cannot +understand: for I would rather have the pains of love than any other +pleasure. + + + +_To F. S. H., a chaplain in the Navy._ + +Cambridge: November 4, 1900. + +I ought to have written before this. The fact that I did not answer at +once is partly accounted for by my having a good deal of work to do, +and partly by physical weakness. I have not been very well this term. +It is cruel of you to suspect me of having forgotten all about you. I +am not that sort. I owe too much to you in the past ever to forget +you. {133} I don't think that you really suspected me of inconstancy. +I am so sorry that you are sometimes lonely and very miserable. I feel +at times weak, physically weak. I think that at such times one can +lean back, as it were, on the Divine arms. He understands our weakness +and weariness. He knows what loneliness and sadness mean. And He is +not extreme to mark what we do amiss. He knows that we are but flesh. +And He 'dwells not in the light alone, but in the darkness and the +light.' Even when the darkness hides Him and we cannot find where He +is, we can, as it were, reach out our hands to Him, and we are safe. +God has much to teach us while we are teaching others. And life is not +exactly the same as we thought at the beginning. He teaches us by +unexpected experiences. But the comfort is that He never changes; we +may be weary, but He never slumbers nor sleeps. Sometimes we feel very +fit and capable. Then is the time to pray and to rise to the heights. +Later, when we are incapable, although it is hard to rise, we need not +fall. When the mist clears we can go on again, and it may be that we +shall find that even in the mist we had gone further than we thought. +The deep snow and the long dark rainy days are necessary for the +perfecting of the fruit, as well as the sunshine. And we do need +sunshine. I feel more and more grateful and thankful to God for His +goodness. He has been so good to me, and I don't deserve it. And I +think that if you look back and look forward you will feel more and +more His marvellous sympathy and affection. I am glad you have been +reading Robertson's Life. Though he {134} may have been almost morbid +at times, he was a great man and did a great work. . . . You will find +later that your work has been far more effective than you expected. +Don't try to rush it. You can't help men much until you know them very +well; and when you know them you find how utterly different they are +from what you had expected them to be. At least I do. No two men are +alike. Each man that you come really to know is utterly different from +any man you have ever met or will meet. + + + +_To F. J. C._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: November 5, 1900. + +It is good of you to think of me and above all to pray for me. I need +your prayers--and most of all when I am run down and unable to pray +myself. I can see the mountain top at times: then the mist comes down, +and I cannot see the way; I try to keep where I am, though I may not be +able to advance; and when the mist clears I go on again. Possibly, +sometimes, we may be going forward even in the mist, although we seem +to be making no progress, or going backward. + + God judges by a light + Which baffles mortal sight. + +I often wish I had more physical strength and was able to do what other +men can do; but I can't. And I have no doubt that all is well--that I +am made to do one particular piece of work, and that I have strength +enough for that--and thank God for that. + +{135} + +_To a brother in South Africa._ + +December 1900. + +It is a marvellous thought that God can reveal Himself to man--even +primitive man. In those stories Jehovah is very near to man. He walks +in the garden at nightfall. He shuts Noah into the Ark. He comes down +to see the city and the tower 'which the children of men builded.' He +talks with Moses face to face as a man speaketh to his friend--and a +ladder connects heaven and earth, and the angels, instead of using +wings, walk up and down the ladder--and, behold, Jehovah stood above +it. At any moment you might meet Jehovah Himself. Three men come to +see Abraham--and Jehovah has appeared to him. A man wrestles with +Jacob, and he has seen God face to face. They were right when they +thought of God as very near to man, of man as capable of reflecting +God's likeness. Ye too shall see heaven opened and the angels of God +ascending and descending upon--the Son of man. It is good for us as +children to read these stories to realise that heaven is very near to +earth. It is good for us as men to read them again to realise that +heaven is even nearer earth than we thought as children. As I said +before, how marvellous it is that God can reveal Himself to man and +through man, that He has revealed Himself entirely, 'the perfect man,' +as Maurice says, reflecting the perfect God--God and man so near one to +the other that men can look upon the Son of man and see God--see Him in +His perfection! Our years ought to be bound each to {136} each by +natural piety. The child should surely be the father of the man. + + With age Thou growest more divine, + More glorious than before; + I fear Thee with a deeper fear + Because--I love Thee more. + +I have been reading Moody's Life. It has much the same effect as +Finney's used to have in days gone by--it creates a longing to work and +live for God, to bring men nearer to Him, to come nearer to Him myself. +Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I +desire in comparison of Thee. + +What a wonderful thing that we, as a family, are so united--that our +Ideal is so much the same--isn't it? + + + +_To F. S. H._ + +St. Moritz: January 6, 1901. + +I have succeeded in unfreezing my ink, so I can write and--although it +is late to do so--wish you a happy new century. It is only once in a +lifetime that one can do that sort of thing! I am out here for my +health. I wasn't up to much last term. However, I am as fit as a lord +now, and return to Cambridge this week. I have been reading out here +two very different kinds of books. One is Wellhausen's 'History of +Israel,' the other Moody's Life by his son. Wellhausen's book gives +you in outline the position of modern advanced criticism of the Old +Testament. I have never before studied the history from the critical +point of view really seriously. The study has proved extraordinarily +interesting, and I {137} must say that in the main I agree thoroughly +with Wellhausen's position. You will see it more or less clearly put +in that 'History of the Hebrew People' in two small volumes by Kent +which I recommended to you before. The history of the gradual progress +of the divine revelation to the human race is a marvellous study: the +way in which that people were educated to become the teachers of the +world is utterly different from anything which we should have devised. +I am struck more and more by the marvellous fact that God can and does +reveal Himself--in His essential moral nature--to man; that we are so +made that we can apprehend the revelation; nay, that we in turn can in +measure reveal Him to men! + +Moody's Life stirs me up to realise more the worth of the individual, +the surpassing value of man's moral and spiritual nature. I long to +help men to see what I see, to love Him whom I love, and the failure of +my efforts is largely, I feel, due to defects in myself. Still I do +not despair of doing something. + + + +_To his brother Edward in South Africa._ + +Brislington, Bristol; April 10, 1901. + +I was much interested in . . . (your letter) and in seeing a little +into your life. There is a strange family reserve among us which I +sometimes deplore. Perhaps it must always be so, that we can tell most +readily to strangers our deepest thoughts and feelings. Yet I feel +that we ought, as far as we can in this short life, to understand one +another. We have been led by different paths to understand different +aspects {138} of Truth. Yet, when we have climbed to the top of the +hill, I dare say we shall find that our paths were nearer to one +another than we ever realised. At any rate, we shall meet on the top. +I often think that your whole method of gaining truth must be unlike +mine. I use my reason, but I am more than half affection, and it is +that which helps me most. My strange love for some men makes me seek +to live their lives, to see the world as they see it; above all, it +forces me to pray. Prayer never seems to me irrational; yet I do not +pray so much because my reason bids me as because my affection forces +me. I sometimes feel that I should go mad if I didn't or couldn't. +And then, again, I am incapable of telling them all I feel, and I have +to find some one to tell it to, and I feel forced back on One who knows +me through and through, and I find comfort in pouring out my soul to +Him--in telling Him all, much that I dare say to no one else--in +letting Him sift the good and evil--in asking Him to develop and +satisfy the good, and to exterminate the evil. I cannot help trusting +Him. + + I know not where His islands lift + Their fronded palms in air; + I only know I cannot drift + Beyond His love and care. + + +You will tell me perhaps that I am too much like a woman in matters of +faith. Yet so I am made. I must follow the lead of my whole +being--not of my mind alone. I often wonder how it is that I love with +such a strange, passionate, unutterable affection, and whether many men +are like me. {139} I am most pleased to hear of your doings, +especially of your whist parties. + + + +_To F. S. H., chaplain on board H.M.S. Canopus._ + +Brislington; April 10, 1901. + +I am glad that you like your 'parish.' I feel more and more that I +should prefer being among sailors to being among soldiers. I am afraid +that I should do little good among either. Still I like, or think that +I should like, naval officers even more than army officers. If they do +talk a great deal of 'shop,' that is a healthy sign. I only wish our +officers in the army were--I will not say more proud of their +profession (for they have, I dare say, sufficient pride)--but more +anxious to learn and to think out matters connected with it. I dare +say the naval officer is obliged to act more independently and to think +for himself in an emergency; for the army discipline is carried to such +an extreme that the man for some years has seldom any occasion to act +on his own initiative--to rise to an occasion. He simply has to ask a +superior what to do next. He tends to resemble the Hindu +station-master who telegraphed 'Tiger on platform; please wire +instructions.' If their talking shop is worrying occasionally, yet be +of good comfort, it is on the whole a good sign. It is better than +talking golf or polo all day, and better far than loose and unmanly +conversation. The more you are interested in the matters yourself, not +simply because you want to be all things to all men, if by any means +you may gain one or two, but because you are a man {140} and a +Christian, and therefore all things human have an interest to you, the +more you will enjoy such 'shop.' We want not only to affect an +interest in what is of vital concern to our neighbours, but to feel it. +I begin to realise more now than I used to that I must not simply watch +football matches, or run with the boats, because I want to show +interest, but because I am learning--however late in the day and +however imperfectly--to feel a real concern for such matters. And, +strange to say, I am more interested in them than I used to be. Since +the Lord took human flesh and interested Himself in all human life, He +has left us an example that we may follow in His steps. We must call +nothing, and no man, common or unclean. My own life and my own +interests are terribly contracted. Sometimes I have been foolish +enough to glory in the fact, and to think that I honour God in caring +only for my brother's soul and not for his whole life. But love has +taught me that this is a low and incomplete view. God numbers the very +hairs of our head, and he who loves and tries to help another must +enter into his life and care for all that he cares for. I hope that +God will spare me a little longer to work in College, and to learn to +become one with others--to see life with their eyes, to let them teach +me--that so, if it please Him, I may gain some of them for His service. + +The disciple cannot expect to be above the Master. The Master was not +popular. He explained His deepest teaching to a few--a very few. If +you have one or two to whom you can explain part of your being, thank +God. You will find that {141} one man understands one side, another +appreciates another side. It is a comfort that there is One who knows +us through and through. What a terrible blank life would be if we had +no God to whom to pour out our whole soul! There are sides of our +being which no one but God seems to be able to apprehend. I am feeling +now comfort at nights in simply telling Him all--feelings which I +cannot explain to any one else, asking Him to interpret, to sift, to +allow the better to live, to annihilate the untrue. I do not cease to +expect great things from Him, to expect that He will do for my 'parish' +as a whole more than I have dreamed of or wished for. But then I am +content if He works slowly, and does what I did not wish or expect to +happen. He works slowly in nature, and I am not surprised if human +nature is still more stubborn material for Him to work upon. But what +a joy it is when one character in which we are interested, for which we +have prayed and wrestled in prayer, shows slight but sure signs of +healthy development! I feel inclined to shout for joy at the +miracle--for it is a miracle--and I thank God and take courage. He +does not let us see many results, but He lets us see just enough to +help us to go forward. It is a help when what is clear and true to us +begins to dawn upon another. 'My belief gains infinitely,' says +Novalis, 'when it is shared by any human soul.' + +Let your 'parish' clearly see that 'it is one thing to be tempted, +another thing to fall.' Vile, foul thoughts which come to us are not +in themselves a sign that we are falling. They are first of all from +{142} outside, and are suggestions entirely alien in origin from +ourselves; they are from the devil. They only become wrong when +entertained, when welcomed in the least degree as guests and allowed to +stay. Our aim is to bring every thought at once into captivity. + +I have just come back from the seaside, and as I looked at the sea I +thought more than once of 'the ocean of Thy love.' The waves of the +sea beat against a stubborn rock and seem to make no impression. But +in a few years' time the rock begins to yield. The constant wash of +the waves wears it away. So with our hard, stubborn wills. The ocean +of His love will reduce them slowly but surely, and likewise the +stubborn wills of men around us, thank God! When you are tired and +human strength gives way, remember 'the best of all is--God is with +us.' I often feel worn out, and then I love, as it were, to lean back +upon Him--without speaking--as a child on its mother's arms. + + I know not where His islands lift + Their fronded palms in air; + I only know I cannot drift + Beyond His love and care. + + O brother! if my faith is vain, + If hopes like these betray, + Pray for me that I too may gain + The sure and safer way. + + And Thou, O God, by whom are seen + Thy creatures as they be, + Forgive me if too close I lean + My human heart on Thee.[1] + +{143} + +I am, I fear, but a poor friend. I wish you had some one who loved you +as well as I did, and who was less weak and selfish. You must not give +me up in spite of my defects. I love you and am proud of you--proud to +think that you are doing work among men whom I should be powerless to +influence. Easter once more brings new life and hope. May the God of +all life, of all peace, of all hope, be with you and all your flock! +May He guide pastor and sheep! Don't despair; go on manfully; you are +doing greater work than you know, and if your eyes were open that you +could see, you would find that the host that was with you was more than +all that were against you. Into His keeping I commit you. Good-bye. +Your friend + +FORBES. + + +[1] Whittier. + + + +_To W. O._ + +Brislington: April 1901. + +I am glad that the lot has fallen to you in fair places. 'It has been +said with true wisdom that God means man not only to work but to be +happy in his work. . . . Without some sunshine we can never ripen into +what we are meant to be.' So writes Dr. Hort. I am reading his Life +with great joy. He drank deep of life, and I want to do so also. I +want to live in the present--in the sunshine of eternity. I feel more +and more inclined to thank God for life and all the good things it +brings, and for the friends He has given me, and the measure of +strength and health to use in the service of man. + +I had no idea where that Essay had gone. I {144} suppose it is most +immature and unsatisfactory; yet the central idea, however imperfectly +expressed, must surely be true. He took Manhood--in its weakness and +strength--up into God. He was tempted. That thought helps me +immensely. 'It is one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.' We +often accuse ourselves wrongly when foul thoughts spring up within us. +They are temptations from without--from the devil. They only become +sins when entertained as welcome guests. I have lately thought that +Christ's life, like ours, was a life of faith, that it needed a real +and constant effort of faith for Him to realise His relationship with +the unseen Father. Here and hereafter human life is based on faith. +If we get this idea into our minds, Christ's temptations become more +real. They are temptations to faithlessness. I like your idea that +Christ has entered into our manhood, into the phases (if there be such) +'of the life to come.' + +Rest in the Lord. This thought comes home to me more than it used to +do. I like to bring all the perplexities of life--the thoughts and +feelings which I can explain to no one--of some of which I cannot say +whether they are right or wrong, or where the right shades into +wrong--and to leave them with Him to develop (if right), to sift, to +correct. What a blank life would be without God! . . . + +Easter brings fresh hope and life. It is glorious to begin existence +in a world which has been redeemed. I am sure--since He rose and +defeated death--we ought to trust to life, to delight in it. 'I am the +Life.' + +{145} + +Breathe in the fresh air. It is one of the best gifts that the good +God has bestowed upon us. We want fresh air not only in our lungs but +all through, if I may say so, our being. I long to be more natural and +happy--not that I wish for 'religious happiness,' but something quite +different--the happiness which comes in the right exercise of power and +in conscious dependence upon Him in whom we live. + + + +_In reply to a letter from H. P., a master at Clifton College, who was +in doubt whether he ought to resign his mastership and go down to the +College Mission in Bristol._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: May 1, 1901. + +I have not had time to think over the matter yet, but my first feeling +is that you ought to be very slow to move. If men in your position, +who feel keenly interested in the highest welfare of their pupils and +long to influence them in spiritual matters, all go away to parish +work, what is to become of our public school boys? Masters are only +too anxious to leave for more 'directly spiritual' work, as they say. +But in doing so they leave a work of exceptional difficulty and +importance behind, and who is to take their place? I understand and +appreciate your feelings, but I am not at all sure that you have any +call to go. + +How much directly 'spiritual' work have you with the boys? Could you, +if you desired, get more? + +I will pray over the matter. Do be slow before you decide to leave. I +believe you ought to stay, {146} although it may be more difficult to +maintain your own spiritual life and ideals in a school than in a +parish. You may be doing more good than you know. It is easier to +find men to do parish work than to do school work of the highest kind. + +There is a sermon of Lightfoot's in which he urges clergymen at the +University not to go away, because it is hard to maintain their +spiritual ideals at Cambridge, and because they seem to have so little +direct spiritual influence. May not this apply to your work also? + + + +_To one about to be ordained._ + +Cambridge: May 1901. + +It seems so clear to us that you have a call, that I find it hard to +realise that you yourself are uncertain. But the very fact that you +have been 'counting the cost,' and that you have no ecstatic joy at the +prospect before you, encourages me. I am glad you realise the +difficulties beforehand. What you don't fully see is the strength upon +which you will be able to draw. I often think of those lines of +Tennyson:-- + + O living Will that shalt endure + When all that seems shall suffer shock, + Rise in the spiritual rock, + Flow through our deeds and make them pure.[1] + +That Will can transform our will, and the very weakness of our natural +will is then a help. The strength {147} is seen and felt to come from +an invisible source: 'Thy will, not my will.' + +The terrible need of men to fight against the forces of evil impresses +me. The call is so loud on every side. And if men like you cannot +hear it, I am driven almost to despair. . . . I often think of my +father's words on his deathbed: 'If I had a thousand lives I would give +them all--all to the ministry.' + +The thought that gave me comfort at my own ordination was a text +suggested to me by my brother: 'He had in His right hand seven stars.' +In His right hand--we are safe there. I felt such a worm as I had +never felt before. 'But fear not, thou worm Jacob.' . . . Don't look +for happiness or peace at this time, but for the presence and power +(whether felt or unfelt) of that God whom we both love and try to love +better. Do not persuade yourself that you do not love God. You do, +more than you have any idea of. The part of your 'Ego' which you would +least wish to lose is not even your love for men--but for God. If you +had your choice now, and had to decide what part of your being you +would retain for eternity, it would be the latter. Beloved, if our +heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart. . . . 'He who loves +makes his own the grandeur that he loves.' + +_He had in His right hand seven stars_. He is the Judge, but He also +is our refuge and strength and hope. + + +[1] _In Memoriam_, cxxi. + + +{148} + +_To D. B. K._ + +Cambridge: July 1901. + +When we set to work to help others we discover something of our own +weakness. But along with that discovery comes the realisation of an +inexhaustible fund of strength outside ourselves. We are fighting on +the winning side. God must be stronger than all that opposes. It is +uphill work, especially at first. But just as in learning a language +or learning how to swim, after toiling on with no apparent result, +there comes a day when suddenly we realise that we can do it--how we +know not: so it is in spiritual matters. There is effort still, +sometimes gruesome effort; but it is all different from what it was. +We find the meaning of the paradox, 'Whose service is perfect freedom.' +Love takes the place of law, and, although it is hard at times to serve +God, it is still harder to be the permanent servant of Satan. + +Your enthusiasm ought to increase, the more you look life in the face +and see its sin and misery. 'God,' said Moody, 'can do nothing with a +man who has ceased to hope.' Our hope in the possibilities of the +individual and of society ought to grow brighter and saner as time goes +on. . . . Missionary work--I have often wished to do it myself, but +have been 'let hitherto.' . . . It is a tremendous help to me to know +that we are both serving the same Master and that I can trust you to +His love. + +{149} + +_To an Auckland 'brother' after Bishop Westcott's Death._ + +Cambridge: August 1901. + +My thoughts are with you at this time. I am most thankful that you +have been a year with that man of God, and have gained ideals and +inspiration for work which will haunt you all your life long. In +moments of weakness, at times 'when your light is low,' the memory of +his strenuous, holy life will be a power making for self-discipline and +righteousness. And it is more than a memory. For he taught us by word +and deed that we are all one man, that those who have realised what it +is to belong to the body here will enter more fully into its life +there. 'We feebly struggle, they in glory shine'--yet we are verily +and indeed one. That thought is often a comfort to me. When I feel +the contradictions and perplexities and weaknesses of my own life, I +love to think that I am part of a whole--that I belong to the same body +and share in the same spirit as some other man who is immeasurably my +superior. + +When one whom we have known and venerated on earth passes to the +eternal home, it seems more like home than it was before. It is +peopled not only with countless saints of whom I have heard, but with +one whom I have known and seen, and hope to see again. His prayers for +us, his influence upon us there are more effective than they could have +been here. + +The great triumph of Christianity is to produce a few saints. They +raise our ideal of humanity. They {150} make us restless and +discontented with our own lives, as long as they are lived on a lower +plane. They speak to us in language more eloquent than words: 'Come up +higher.' + + + +_To F. J. C._ + +_Belvedere Hotel, St. Moritz: Sunday, December 15, 1901._ + +I feel more and more thankful that I have not had to wait till the next +world to know God's true nature and character and will. It is passing +strange that He should love us so much, and wish to unveil Himself to +us, 'that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.' But +that phrase 'stewards of His mysteries' almost appals me. A steward +must be faithful, and must render an account of the way in which he has +used his master's goods. God grant that at the final reckoning we may +not be found unprofitable servants. + +How those simple words in the twenty-third Psalm satisfy us more and +more as life advances, and as we realise that He is not our Shepherd +only, but the chief Shepherd of the whole flock, and that He has yet +other sheep whom He is looking for, and whom He will teach to hear His +voice amid the babel tongues of the world. It is a comfort to me to +feel that He has no private blessings for me apart from the rest of the +family--that we are one in Him, and that each blessing unites us not +only to the Head of the family, but to all the brothers within it. + +I suppose at first it is hard to realise the unseen world for long +together. But gradually that world {151} dominates our being, and +interprets the world we see, and makes all life intelligible and well +worth the living. + + + +_To H. J. B._ + +Hotel Belvedere, St. Moritz: December 16, 1901. + +I feel a new man now in this fresh mountain air. If I always lived +here I might be good for something. What a parable of life! If we +could live in the higher world and breathe in its air, what strong, +healthy men we should be! I stayed a night once with Westcott, and it +seemed to me that he lived and moved and had his being in a higher +region, to which I now and then came as a stranger, and he could see +habitually, what I sometimes saw, the way of God in human life. I am +sure we are meant to have our home in that higher world, and that we +only see life sanely, steadily, and in its true proportions, when we +view it from that vantage ground. I have always been thankful that I +spent that night with Westcott, and thereby gained, not simply fresh +inspiration, but a radically new revelation of human life and its +possibilities. It gave me an insight into the dignity and the destiny +of our common human nature. + +You have never been long absent from my thoughts, and at last I have +had time and strength to begin to pray for you as I could wish. It is +the only way in which I can show my gratitude to you. I don't +understand much about prayer, but I think of that strange, bold parable +of the unrighteous judge and the widow, and I take my stand on that. I +shall {152} not be content until your true self is formed; and I think +that God must be very ready to answer the prayer, however imperfect its +form may be, of one who loves another more than he can understand. I +like St Paul's words: _teknia mou ous odino mechris ou morphothe +Christos en humin_. Only I wish I were not such a worm myself. +However, the thought of you compels me to live a better life. If I +could only make all my thoughts of you into prayers and actions for you +I should be more content. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrase in the above paragraph was +transliterated as follows: _teknia_--tau, epsilon, kappa, nu, iota, +alpha; _mou_--mu, omicron, upsilon; _ous_--omicron, upsilon, final +sigma; _odino_--omega, delta, iota, nu, omega; _mechris_--mu, epsilon, +chi, rho, iota, final sigma; _ou_--omicron, upsilon; _morphothe_--mu, +omicron, rho, phi, omega, theta, eta; _Christos_--Chi, rho, iota, +sigma, tau, omicron, final sigma; _en_--epsilon, nu; _humin_--(rough +breathing mark) upsilon, mu, iota, nu] + +Don't imitate Uriah Heep with 'Yours most humbly.' I won't stand that +nonsense! and you give yourself away just a few lines above, when you +assert that you are too proud to confer a favour on me, and read Greek +Testament with me. What a funny chap you are! Can't you see, you +idiot, what a pleasure you give me? We shall have to compromise, and +I'll have to make some concession to your pride. Neither ---- nor I +know much about your section, but we could help you in your first part +papers. Of course, he could do it miles better than I can; but, all +the same, you are going to be my pupil. Promise me that you won't make +any arrangement with him until you have talked the matter over with me. +I'll make some compromise for the sake of your miserable pride, you +wretched creature. + +Write to me soon again, if it isn't a great bore. I can't recall as +much as I could wish of your conversations with me. In fact, I have +the unpleasant feeling sometimes that I did too much of the talking! +But one or two things that you said to me live in {153} my memory, and +make me wish to be more fit to talk to you. + +St. Moritz is much as usual. It is a strange little world in itself. +The comic and the tragic are blended weirdly together, and nature is +unimaginably beautiful. I wish you could see this snow. It has an +attraction for me, and I am sure it would have for you. I think you +understand more about the meaning of beauty than I do. When I see a +magnificent landscape, I want to share the sight with some one else. I +feel quite lonely when I am interpreting it alone. I wonder why that +is? + + + +_To F. J. C._ + +Hotel Belvedere, St. Moritz: December 21, 1901. + +Christmas seems to mean more to me, the longer that I live. I gaze +with bewilderment on that stupendous mystery of love--the very God +entering into and raising our human nature. My whole conception of the +meaning, the possibilities of our common human nature is transformed, +as I see that it can become a perfect reflection and manifestation of +the Divine nature. 'The Word became flesh, and lodged _in us_.' The +manger at Bethlehem reverses all our human conceptions of dignity and +greatness. 'The folly of God is wiser than men.' It is to the +humble--to babes--that God can reveal Himself. In them He can find His +home. + + O Father, touch the East and light + The light that shone when Hope was born. + +It is in Christmas that Tennyson found the birth of {154} Hope. It is +Christmas that, as life goes on, bids us never despair--of our own or +of human nature around us. + + + +_To a friend at Cambridge._ + +Hotel Belvedere, St. Moritz: December 30, 1901. + +I shall never forget this last Christmas Day, for your letter came in +the evening. I read it again and again, and wonder at it more each +time I read it. I can't tell you what I feel about it. I knew that +you more or less liked and respected me, but I didn't know that you +loved me. I've got what I wanted. When you merely respected me, I +dreaded the day when you would find that I was different to what you +thought I was. But now I feel I am safe _phobos ouk estin en te +agape_, however imperfect you find me. I know now that I can trust you +not to throw me off. And love is not extreme to mark what is amiss, +_hoti agape kaluptei plethos amartion_. I can't thank you for your +kindness, but I thank God for giving me the most precious gift in the +world, a human soul 'to love and be loved by for ever.' As I look at +your letter I feel a mere worm, and my one wonder is how on earth a man +like you can call me your friend. I can't thank you; but I'll do my +best to live up to the standard you expect of me, and to be a true +friend to you. And my idea of friendship is, as you know, prayer. I +can't, worse luck, do much for you, but I do pray for you, and +'whatever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.' It has been +truly said that the _how_, the _where_, and the _when_ are not told us, +but only the {155} _what_. And I am quite certain that every prayer I +offer for you is heard and answered, when I believe what I say; but the +manner, the place, and the occasion of the answer--of these things I +know nothing. I am sure that God loves to see us happy, and the pure +joy of the knowledge that such a man as you loves me is almost more +than I can bear. It throws a new light on life here, and on that +fuller life to which God is leading us hereafter; like you, thank God, +I cannot complain of lack of friends, but I have never had one who has +written me such a letter, full of an affection for which I crave. The +worst is, I can't repay your kindness. You bring me nearer to God, you +make me realise in the strangest way His affection, you make me feel +the worth and mystery of a human soul. I wish I could return your help +somehow or other. Do show me the way. I wish you did not find it so +difficult to pray for me. I am sure you are right in going back to +such a man as St. Paul for subjects of prayer. The opening chapters of +his letters to the Ephesians and Colossians give the kinds of requests +which it is worth making on behalf of any one. There is surely no harm +in finding that, as you pray for another, your own faith is growing. +There is nothing selfish in that. It is rather the result of the law +_didote kai dothesetai humin_. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _phobos_--phi, omicron, beta, omicron, final +sigma; _ouk_--omicron, upsilon, kappa; _estin_--epsilon, sigma, tau, +iota, nu; _en_--epsilon, nu; _te_--tau, eta; _agape_--alpha, gamma, +alpha, pi, eta; _hoti_--(rough breathing mark) omicron, tau, iota; +_agape_--alpha, gamma, alpha, pi, eta; _kaluptei_--kappa, alpha, +lambda, upsilon, pi, tau, epsilon, iota; _plethos_--pi, lambda, eta, +theta, omicron, final sigma; _amartion_--alpha, mu, alpha, rho, tau, +iota, omega, nu; _didote_--delta, iota, delta, omicron, tau, epsilon; +_kai_--kappa, alpha, iota; _dothesetai_--delta, omicron, theta, eta, +sigma, eta, tai, alpha, iota; _humin_--(rough breathing mark) upsilon, +mu, iota, nu] + +Your faith can only grow with exercise, and you exercise it by praying +for others. You would only be selfish if you prayed for some one else +_in order that_ your own soul might be benefited. + +But don't think too much of selfishness. Bring {156} all your half +selfish desires to Him who knows us through and through; and in His +presence, almost unconsciously, your motives will gradually be +purified. You will learn to walk in the light as He Himself is in the +light. As I look back on this letter, a large part of it seems +selfish. I expect much is; but, even in the selfish parts, there is +something more besides. I can only just say what I feel, and ask God +gradually to eliminate what is wrong. In His light I shall see light. + +Life is large, and I am fearful lest, in attempting a rough and ready +asceticism, I should exclude as wrong some elements which are in +reality God-given. I feel that in the case of our affections and our +longing for beauty. They are implanted in us, and tended and watered +by One who is perfect Love and perfect Beauty. They easily lead us +into sin, but that fact does not imply that they are wrong in +themselves. We have to bring them to their source that He may +interpret them, 'Too late have I sought thee,' said Augustine, 'thou +Beauty, so ancient and so new, too late have I sought thee.' I cannot +understand the mystery of your life, dearest, but I feel that all that +craving for beauty is in some kind of way a craving for God. Only God +demands the first place in your life before He will give you any +satisfying interpretation of that aspect of His life. You must love +Him for what He is--not simply because He is Beauty. + + I slept and dreamed that life was Beauty, + I woke and found that life is Duty. + +{157} + +They are not really contradictory conceptions. Nay, Duty has a +spiritual beauty of her own. But sometimes they seem for a moment +divergent, and then you must at all costs choose the latter, and you +will find that + + The topmost crags of Duty scaled, + Are close upon that shining tableland + To which God Himself is shield and sun. + +And, if I am not mistaken, that land will be utterly full of an +absolutely satisfying beauty. + +But I feel that I scarcely yet understand anything about the meaning of +Beauty. All I can do is to relate it immediately to God. If I see +beautiful scenery, I am usually thinking of God and thanking Him. If I +see human beauty, I feel that I am on holy ground, and I always try to +pray for a face that attracts me. I feel that I have a duty in return +for the revelation that has been given. But, as you see, I can explain +but little. These are merely rules of practical life which we very +imperfectly carry out. I cannot explain the relation of physical and +spiritual beauty in human beings. I feel, of course, that there ought +to be, there very often is, some such relation. But sometimes there is +something utterly wrong, and apparently no such connective. The +connection, I take it, is more perfect in nature; but in man, why, +something has occurred, something anomalous, which mars the whole. Sin +has come in somewhere, I suppose. + +I can't express on paper what I feel, or give you any real conception +of what you are to me. You {158} would be startled if you knew. God +bless you, and work out in you, not my miserable ideal of what I think +you ought to be, but His own ideal, which exceeds all our thoughts and +imagination, of what you are to be. + + + +_To G. J. C._ + +Christ's College: 1901. + +. . . I was never so pleased to hear of any engagement as of yours. I +thank God with all my heart. I cannot put my joy into words, but +somehow or other it seems to bring me nearer to the source of all joy. +I feel more than ever that He cares for us and is educating us, and I +feel that He has been so good to you, because He loves you. The older +I grow the more I am impressed by His infinite sympathy and concern for +us. And when He gives us not only love but a return of love, it seems +to me that He is giving us the very best thing that He has--a part, as +it were, of Himself. 'The merciful and gracious Lord hath so done His +marvellous works, that they ought to be had in remembrance.' + +I cannot tell you how glad I am. But I thank God in my prayers for +you; and I am sure that if He has been so good to you in the past, He +will not forget you in the future. + + + +_To the same when he had just accepted a mastership at Eton._ + +Brislington, Bristol: 1901. + +. . . . How good of you to write and tell me of your future +work! . . . The responsibility of such a {159} life is to my mind +almost overwhelming. 'Who is sufficient for these things? Our +sufficiency is of God.' + +I am thankful that the offer came as it did--unsought by you. You will +feel happier in accepting it. 'Infinite sympathy is needed for the +infinite pathos of human life'--more especially of a boy's life. The +first, second, third, requisite for a master is, in my judgment, +sympathy. As I look back on my own school days, I cannot help feeling +that most of my masters were either lacking in it or else strangely +incapable of manifesting it in a form which I could understand. +Sympathy with the dull, unpromising boy is a divine gift, and I trust +that Holy Orders will confer upon you this grace also. I thank God +that you are taking orders, and finding your work in teaching. Forgive +this lecture from one who has no right to speak, and who is himself +strangely deficient in sympathy. + + + +_To D. B. K._ + +Eastbourne: September 1901. + +I am glad that you have been home. I feel that home is a revelation--a +means whereby the Eternal Father shows us Himself and His purposes, a +strengthening and refreshing of our tired souls. . . . I have prayed +earnestly for you that your faith and love may not fail. I feel +intensely the same difficulty as you, and I am only slowly learning to +overcome it. I do not think we can learn to love people who are +altogether different from us in many respects, all at once. I love +some men with a strange, unsatisfied affection. All my thoughts about +them I am {160} gradually learning to resolve into prayers for them, +and I want to live longer that I may pray for them more. + +Well, it seems to me that God gives us this affection that we may learn +to do to others as we would do to these. I cannot pretend to care for +many with whom I come into contact as much as I do for the few. But I +can pray for them, and the feeling will more or less come in time. +Just try to pray for some one person committed to your charge--say for +half an hour or an hour--and you will begin really to love him. As you +lay his life before God, as you think of his needs and hopes, and +failings and possibilities, as you pray earnestly for him as you would +for some one whom you feel intense affection for; at the end of the +time you will feel more interested in him, you will think of him not as +one of a class but as a separate, mysterious person. You will not, it +may be, have time to pray for many in this way, but you will learn +imperceptibly to extend your sympathy--to feel real love for many more. +I advise you to keep a record of these prayers. It is quite worth your +while to take practically a day off sometimes, and to force yourself to +pray. It will be the best day's work you have ever done in your life. +Remember that! + +Don't be troubled by comparing yourself with other clergymen. I think +you are like me--not ecclesiastically minded. I don't have the sort of +feelings which a large number of persons have about their work and +their preaching. I can't put the difference into words, yet I feel it. +But I must serve God in my own way, and I am sure that He will use me +to do the work for which I am best fitted. And the {161} same is true +of you. Try to refer all your actions to His standard; and test your +work in His presence; and don't ask what So-and-so thinks of it. + +I very much wish you had some gentlemen to associate with besides +parsons. You must keep up as much as possible with your college +friends; and use every opportunity which reasonably presents itself of +seeing some 'society.' God knows what is best for you at present. + + God nothing does or suffers to be done + But thou wouldest do thyself, couldest thou but see + The end of all events as well as He. + +I am sure that He will not forget you. He knows what is best for your +development. It may be that He takes you away from friends that you +may learn to pray for them more and to see Him more clearly. + +I think you will influence many men whom a more ordinary parson would +not touch. . . . I am quite certain that if you have infinite +hope--hope against hope--you will be a tremendous power in the place +where God has put you. + +Get as much exercise as you can, and always get a clear day off in the +week, and don't give up any of your old interests. Don't always read +'religious' literature. . . . When the long day is done and we stand +before the judgment seat, I believe that many will rise up and call you +blessed. Only pray for individuals--for a long time together. To +influence, you must love; to love, you must pray. + + + +{162} + +_To one about to be ordained._ + +Eastbourne: September 1901. + +I shall indeed remember you on Sunday next. The words of the lesson come +home to me to-day--_kai eireken moi Arkei soi he chariu mou; he gar +dunamis en astheneia teleitai_. + +We are poor creatures, but there is Grace--and we can come into contact +with it--and that is all we need. We may have failed in the past, but +Christ offers a new childlike life and endless hope. + +I am glad to think that you will be returning to your difficult post at +Cambridge. I am sure that you will return to it with fresh humility and +courage--_en pleromati eulogias Christou_. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraphs were +transliterated as follows: _kai_--kappa, alpha, iota; _eireken_--epsilon, +iota, rho, eta, kappa, epsilon, nu; _moi_--mu, omicron, iota; +_Arkei_--Alpha, rho, kappa, epsilon, iota; _soi_--sigma, omicron, iota; +_he_--(rough breating mark) eta; _chariu_--chi, alpha, rho, iota, final +sigma; _mou_--mu, omicron, upsilon; _he_--(rough breathing mark) eta; +_gar_--gamma, alpha, rho; _dunamis_--delta, upsilon; nu, alpha, mu, iota, +final sigma; _en_--epsilon, nu; _astheneia_--alpha, sigma, theta, +epsilon, nu, epsilon, iota, alpha; _teleitai_--tau, epsilon, lambda, +epsilon, iota, tau, alpha, iota; _en_--_en_--epsilon, nu; +_pleromati_--pi, lambda, eta, rho, omega, mu, alpha, tau, iota; +_eulogias_--epsilon, upsilon, lambda, omicron, gamma, iota alpha, final +sigma; _Christou_--Chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, omicron, upsilon] + + + +_To W. D. H._ + +St. Moritz: January 4, 1902. + +I hope that you are now less overworked than you were in October. You +must at all costs make quiet time. Give up work, if need be. Your +influence finally depends upon your own first-hand knowledge of the +unseen world, and on your experience of prayer. Love and sympathy and +tact and insight are born of prayer. I am glad you have a Junior Clergy +S. P. G. Association. Try to take an intelligent interest in it, and +mind you read a paper before long. + + + +_To his brother Edward in South Africa._ + +Hotel Belvedere, St. Moritz: January 7, 1902. + +I am glad to think that we are now in many respects agreed about the +general question of the {163} war. I suppose in any great historical +upheaval there are at the time a number of people who are attempting to +make capital for themselves out of the misfortunes of others; there are +many who are working for their own hand; and yet, when we look back on +the crisis and judge it as a whole in the calm light of history, we see +that a large and rational purpose has been worked out. At the time of +the English Reformation--as some one was saying to me lately, pointing +the parallel which I am working out--there must have been a number of +honest and pure souls who held aloof from the whole of what appeared to +be political jobbery and fortune-making at the expense of religious +sentiment. Yet now most of us feel that the movement could not have had +the effects that it had, unless down below all there was a strong +upheaval of the national conscience. You will no doubt see many defects +in this historical parallel; but the thought is at any rate suggestive, +and full of what we require in these latter days--hope. Of course I feel +that injustice, dishonesty, cruelty, selfishness are in no way palliated +because they take cover and occasion in a real movement of national +feeling. + +I feel for you much in your work for examinations. It must come very +hard with ill health and in a hot climate, with the freshness of youth to +some extent passed. But + + O well for him whose will is strong, + He suffers, but he shall not suffer long; + He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong + +{164} It needs more courage than you were required to show on the field +of battle. But the reward is sure. I feel strongly that this life is +but the prelude to a larger life, when each faculty will have its full +exercise. + + Ah yet, when all is thought and said, + The heart still overrules the head; + Still what we hope we must believe, + And what is given us receive; + Must still believe, for still we hope, + That in a world of larger scope, + What here is faithfully begun + Will be completed, not undone. + +These words come from dough--the soul of honesty. + + + +_To H. J. B._ + +Derwent Hill, Ebchester, Durham: April 14, 1902. + +It seems to me a truism to say that we ought to look at life in the light +of eternity. Only then does the true significance of the meanest action +in life appear. Life is redeemed from triviality and vulgarity. So far +from worldly possessions losing their value, and ordinary occupations +appearing insignificant, their importance is realised as never before. +If man does not live for ever, his character and actions seem of +comparative unimportance. If he does live for ever, it is rational for +him to look at each action in the light of that larger life which he +inherits. If something like class distinctions are eternal, it is an +inducement so to use your distinctive privileges here in a worthy manner, +that hereafter you may use them for nobler ends. + +{165} + +I have expressed myself badly, but you will see what I want to say. My +relations to you surely become not less, but more important, when I +realise that I am only beginning to know and love you here. The eternal +element in them--the knowledge that there is throughout an implicit +reference to a Third and Unseen Person in all that I say to you or think +of you--fills me with a sense of awe, and makes the relations more real +because more spiritual. + + + +_To the mother of his godchild, Margaret Forbes._ + +July 6, 1902. + +I cannot tell you what a pleasure it was to see my godchild. . . . I +feel she has a strength of purpose and a desire to know the truth which +will fit her for high service in God's kingdom on earth. I pray for her, +and I shall do so in the future with fuller understanding and with great +hope. What God hath begun He will assuredly bring to perfection. I hope +that some day she will learn to pray for Uncle Forbes. I should value +her prayers. It is good to feel that in the midst of your weary time of +weakness God has given you such a child as a pledge of His affection for +you, as an assurance that He believes in you. To give you a little child +to train for Himself is a proof that He trusts you very much. I do not +know that He could have given a greater proof of His confidence in you. +And it is God's implicit trust in us that draws out our trust in turn. +We trust and love Him, because He first trusted and loved us. I wonder +more and more at the way in which He trusts us. To allow us to suffer +without {166} telling us the reason, when He knows that we shall be +inclined to think harshly of Him--that is, perhaps, the greatest proof +that He believes in us. He can try our faith and perfect it by +long-continued trial, because He knows that we shall respond, that we +shall prove 'worthy to suffer.' + + + +_To H. J. B._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: August 26, 1902. + +The worst of seeing you for some time is that I feel it all the more +impossible to live without you. I realise now as never before that you +are out and away before me, and better than I am; and yet I feel that you +are part and parcel of my life. You mustn't be too hard on me if I can't +come up to your ideal. + +Intellectually the Hebrew and Greek ideals may be irreconcilable. Yet +'life is larger than logic;' and practically we may become heirs of both +ideals. The man who loses the world, who gives up all without any desire +for gain, is often given the whole back again transfigured, glorified by +sacrifice. To get you must forget. If you love God absolutely with all +your being, you inherit the life that is as well as that which is to +come. If all is not given you, yet enough is given for the development +of character. But there must, it seems to me, be an absolute +sacrifice--a surrender of your whole being--whatever the result may be. +There must be no calculation. + + High Heaven rejects the lore + Of nicely calculated less and more. + +{167} + +You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind: +you must trust Him to do the best by you. You say the Hebrew ideal does +not appeal to you. But I know better; for you half like me, and I am a +Hebrew of the Hebrews! There must be a dash of recklessness about the +man who gains the other world. 'All or nothing' is the requirement of +the kingdom of Heaven. To gain yourself you must throw yourself +away--'lose your soul.' You must have faith. 'He who loves makes his +own the grandeur that he loves' is a sentence of Emerson which consoles +me when I think of my love for you. + + + +_To a friend at Cambridge._ + +40 Upperton Gardens, Eastbourne: September 8, 1902. + +I have been thinking of you. I keep myself from becoming morbid by +making most of my thoughts into prayers for you. The +glory--wonder--strangeness of being loved by a man from another and a +better world fills me with gratitude to God. Sometimes it seems a dream, +and I half dread that I shall wake up and find that you have ceased to +care for a worthless creature. But _phobos ouk estin en te agape, all he +teleia agape exo ballei ton phobon_. I need not fear. I know that you +will love me, whatever happens. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _phobos_--phi, omicron, beta, omicron, final +sigma; _ouk_--omicron, upsilon, kappa; _estin_--epsilon, sigma, tau, +iota, nu; _en_--epsilon, nu; _te_--tau, eta; _agape_--alpha, gamma, +alpha, pi, eta; _all_--alpha, lambda, lambda; _he_--(rough breathing +mark) eta; _teleia_--tau, epsilon, lambda, epsilon, iota, alpha; +_agape_--alpha, gamma, alpha, pi, eta; _exo_--epsilon, xi, omega; +_ballei_--beta, alpha, lambda, lambda, epsilon, iota; _ton_--tau, +omicron, nu; _phobon_--phi, omicron, beta, omicron, nu] + +I want you to be one of the best men that ever lived--to see God and to +reveal Him to men. This is the burden of my prayers. My whole being +goes out in passionate entreaty to God that He will give me what I ask. +I am sure He will, for the request {168} is after His own heart. I do +not pray that you may 'succeed in life' or 'get on' in the world. I +seldom even pray that you may love me better, or that I may see you +oftener in this or any other world--much as I crave for this. But I ask, +I implore, that Christ may be formed in you, that you may be made not in +a likeness suggested by my imagination, but in the image of God--that you +may realise, not mine, but His ideal, however much that ideal may +bewilder me, however little I may fail to recognise it when it is +created. I hate the thought that out of love for me you should accept my +presentation--my feeble idea--of the Christ. I want God to reveal His +Son in you independently of me--to give you a first-hand knowledge of Him +whom I am only beginning to see. Sometimes more selfish thoughts will +intrude, but this represents the main current of my prayers; and if the +ideal is to be won from heaven by importunity, by ceaseless begging, I +think I shall get it for you. But it grieves me to think that I can do +nothing else for you. To receive so many favours from you, and to be +incapable of doing more in return--this is what saddens me. I feel an +ungrateful brute. You have brought new joy, hope, power into my life, +and I want to show my gratitude. You would be doing me a real kindness +if you would tell me how I could show it. + +Don't think by what I have said that I simply care--as an 'Evangelical' +would say--for your 'soul.' Every part of your being--everything you do +or say--all that you are--has a strange fascination for me. Only I feel +that the whole of it is a revelation of {169} God; and I want that +revelation to be clearer, truer, simpler. I am sure God does not only +care for our souls. It is every part of our complicated being--all sides +of our manifold life--that attracts Him. He loves our home life, our +affection for the dear old Mother Earth which He made, our interest in +the men and women whom He formed in His own image. He longs that all +those interests should be developed--that we should live genuine, sane +human lives. But true development here or elsewhere--the law of +existence in heaven or on earth--is life through death. 'Verily, verily, +I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it +abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.' You must +give up all. As I think of you, those words keep ringing in my ears: 'If +any one cometh to Me, and hateth not his own father and mother, yea, and +his own self also, he cannot be My disciple.' + +I cannot tell you what they mean. You must find them out for yourself. + +If I were a true disciple of Christ, you could see what they mean by +looking at me. But I am not. You must learn their meaning for yourself. +Your mother's life will speak louder than words of mine. Only I know +they are true. Christ will recreate the world, recreate the home, human +beings, dear Mother Earth; but He cannot do so until you have been +willing to give up all--until He has caused you to be 'born again.' When +the ruler asked how these things could be, Christ could only repeat His +words. The man must work it out for himself. + +But I am sure that he that willeth to do the will {170} shall know +whether the teaching be true. There are no doubt some mere intellectual +obscurities in the ideal which I might make simpler if I were not such a +duffer. But finally a paradox would be left--a paradox which can only be +solved by living the ideal out, and finding it work. It is the pathos of +our love, of God's love for us, that each man, however much he is loved, +must work out the ideal for himself. No man can save his brother's soul. + +I do not like to weaken the paradoxes of the Gospel. I think there is +more in Christ's words concerning 'loving one's life' or 'self' than you +suggest. You say it means 'self-denial.' Yes, that is true, but what a +tremendous meaning 'deny one's self' has! To disown your identity, that +is not much easier when you come to think of it than to lose your life. +I know you will find out what it all means, and that human love, beauty, +home, social service, will be more real than ever before, because you +will see the eternal reality underneath. You will be a 'new creation.' + +Now I must stop without satisfactorily answering your question, without +entering into any casuistical questions concerning conformity such as you +suggest. I should like you to think out that problem in casuistry more +for yourself, before I attempt to answer it. Forgive me for talking so +much about myself. When all is said and done, words fail me. I can only +thank God that you exist, and that you let me love you. + +{171} + +_To H. P., a Clifton College master who had given up school work in order +to devote himself to the School Mission in Bristol._ + +40 Upperton Gardens, Eastbourne: September 30, 1902. + +. . . I am glad that you feel you have done right in giving up your +school work. I am sorry that you left Clifton, but you thought you +_ought_ to go, and that is an end of the matter. I can only hope that +you are in some measure a connecting-link between the school and its +mission. . . . Don't forget me in my very different work--and yet work +for the same Master--at college. I have need of your prayers. It is so +easy to blunder, and to drive a man further from the kingdom by lack of +sympathy and love. I feel more than I used to my weakness, and my +absolute need of prayer. + + + +_To his brother Edward in South Africa._ + +40 Upperton Gardens, Eastbourne: October 1, 1902. + +The October term has an interest of its own, bringing, as it does, a +batch of freshmen. I try more and more not simply to impose my ideals +upon them, but to find out their ideals and to quicken them with all my +power. But assuredly 'infinite sympathy is needed for the infinite +pathos of human life;' and my sympathies are as yet imperfectly developed. + +Still, as years go by, I think I can sympathise more with those who have +been trained up in other schools of thought and experience. I was +reading in a book lately that we are largely responsible for our {172} +own experiences, that we have a duty to get them of the right kind. The +book was by an American lady on social questions. I think there is truth +in her words. + + + +_To D. B. K., head of a Public School Mission._ + +Eastbourne: October 1902. + +I delight to know men better, because I find so much more in them than I +had expected. They differ from me, and I try to get out of the habit of +making them in my own image, and try to find the image in which God is +making them. I have been praying for you. I want a spirit of sanity and +sacrifice to possess you, that you may be able to see the good works +which God has prepared beforehand that you should walk in them. . . . + +I am struck by the sacrifice which Christ demands. Unless the man hates +father, mother, family, friends, yea, and himself also, he 'cannot be' +His disciple, Christ gives them all back again--only 'with persecutions.' +We find more in the world, when we are 'crucified to it,' than ever +before; but there is a something added. We have a deeper joy in home +ties, in human love, in social life, in the changing seasons, in the dear +old earth. Only the joy has a note of sorrow, a pathos, which Christ +calls 'persecutions.' We see more in life, and yet we are in a measure +out of sympathy with our surroundings. We have heard and we can never +forget the sorrows of those who are 'one man' with us. There is more in +that word 'persecutions' than this, as no doubt {173} you have found. +But this, I think, is part of its signification, isn't it? . . . + +I believe in your 'mission' even more than you do. It is men like you, +who through great tribulations strive to enter the Kingdom, that God +uses. The fact that you are two men, and that the true man--the +Christ--is painfully yet surely being 'formed' in you, means that you +will be able to appeal to others who are painfully conscious of their +double consciousness and are often the slaves of the lower, inhuman self. +Your wealth of affection will make you feel as St. Paul did--_teknia mou, +ous palin mechris ou morphothe Christos en humin_. + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _teknia_--tau, epsilon, kappa, nu, iota, +alpha; _mou_--mu, omicron, upsilon; _ous_--omicron, upsilon, final sigma; +_palin_--pi, alpha, lambda, iota, nu; _mechris_--mu, epsilon, ch, rho, +iota, final sigma; _ou_--omicron, upsilon; _morphothe_--mu, omicron, rho, +phi, omega, theta, eta; _Christos_--Chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, omicron, +final sigma; _en_--epsilon, nu; _humin_--(rough breathing mark) upsilon, +mu, iota, nu] + +These words sum up for me, better than any others, my deepest wish for my +friends. I fall back with desperate energy upon prayer, as the one power +by which my wish can be realised. + +You seem to look ahead almost more than is necessary. I delight in the +feeling that I am in eternity, that I can serve God now fully and +effectively, that the next piece of the road will come in sight when I am +ready to walk on it 'I do not ask to see the distant scene.' I hate the +unsettled feeling that I have not yet begun my main work. + +Don't measure work by human standards of greatness. Your present +occupation might well be the envy of angels--if they could envy. + +But now I am lecturing. So it is time to shut up. . . . + +I fear that the origin of evil is more of a mystery to me now than when I +wrote that essay! But I still think that we are fighting a real being, +one whom {174} we can best describe as personal. His will, it seems to +me, must be given to him by God. He has identified it with a hitherto +unrealised potentiality for disobedience. In plain language, his will is +free, and therefore capable of resisting God. I should like to have a +talk with you some day about it. But, as you see, the problem is beyond +me. . . . + +It is a strength to me to feel that you are fighting the devil in +yourself and others up in ----, and that I am 'one man' with you. + + + +_To D. B. K._ + +St. Moritz: January 1903. + +It is getting on for your birthday, isn't it? Congratulations. I wish I +knew the exact day. I think more and more that a birthday is a subject +not--as poor Job thought--for anathemas, but for congratulations. To be +a reasonable human being--with capacity for seeing something of God's +purposes for the race--with power to forward them--with opportunities for +love and sacrifice and prayer--oh! I am so glad that I was not a mere +animal. And to be born at the end of the nineteenth century--I prefer +that period even to Apostolic times. We can know more of God's purposes, +enter more deeply into His mind and even His heart, than primitive +Christians. + +I have been reading to-day Temple's essay on 'The Education of the World' +in 'Essays and Reviews.' Get hold of an old copy of that book, and read +it. It is strong and manly, and rings true. I {175} love that old man +with his tenderness, simplicity, thoughtfulness, and will of steel. I +thank God for him. There is something about utter goodness which makes +me worship, and fills me with the challenge, 'Go and do thou likewise.' +Goodness is as infectious as any disease. + +I have been thinking lately of the self-sacrifice of God's life. I +suppose that is the reason why He can enter into our lives--see them from +the inside. + + Thou canst conceive our highest and our lowest, + Pulses of nobleness and aches of shame. + +It must have been the wealth of His self-sacrifice which made Him give us +selves--wills--of our own. Then He makes them His own by more +self-sacrifice. We are made in His image--made to go out of self, and +find our self by losing it. Other men at first seem to limit our +freedom, but later we find that the apparent limitations are only just +scope for realising our true self. Each time we go out of self, and +enter into another 'ego,' we return the richer for our sacrifice. We +take up other lives into our own, and are richer than a millionaire. + +I think that when the other 'ego' is most unlike our own--when at first +sight the man is repulsive, and (worse still) uninteresting to us--when +the sacrifice is great, if we would see life through his eyes, share his +ambitions, fears, longings, and mental outlook, then is the time when we +are peculiarly rewarded for our pains. Our consciousness is larger, more +human, more divine than before. + +'By feeblest agents doth our God fulfil His {176} righteous will' is the +thought suggested by some of our brother-clergy. God does not choose the +agents we should choose. Or perhaps the latter do not respond to His +choice. Yet I feel that I am one of them, and that it is my faults writ +large which I detest in them. I feel that, with all the riches of the +revelation which I possess, I have that same self-satisfaction and lack +of sympathy which I loathe in others. It is my life which is the +stumbling-block to my message. They have often far less light than I +have, but walk in it more simply than I do. The rafter in my own eye +troubles me even more than the speck in theirs. But it is hard, God +knows, sometimes to feel His presence in their presence. But the forces +of good must be united ('Keep, ah! keep them combined. Else . . .'), and +if by any effort we can enter into their lives, and transcend the +barriers between us, we are not only enriching our own life, but we are +doing our best to show a combined front against the almost overwhelming +forces of evil. + +Even the Apostles must have found it hard to work together. We know they +did. Look at Peter and Paul. Yet the spirit of unity was stronger than +all that opposed Him, and the One Body was in some measure realised. +What was difficult in the childhood of the Body is still more difficult +in its manhood. And Englishmen, with their strong sense of +individuality, find it a terrible lesson to learn. + +But pray. You enter then into another man's 'ego.' You see him in God. +You see him as an end in himself. Remember Kant's maxim--a wonderful +maxim from one who would not, I suppose, be {177} technically called a +Christian--'Treat humanity, whether in thyself or in another, always as +an end, not simply as a means.' Put aside a certain amount of time, and +pray for one man. If your thoughts wander, do not be disturbed, do not +try to find when they began or how they began to wander; do not despair, +go back to the subject in hand. And God will have mercy. Your +influence, your life, your all, depends on prayer. + +We must faint sometimes. But let your saddest times, your deepest +struggles be known to God. Gain there the strength and quietness which +you need for life. But don't let men see the agony--let them see the +peace which comes from wrestling alone with God--wrestling for them. + +You are not one man, but two or three. Thank God for that. It means +that you will have a hard life--an awful struggle with self or selves: +but it also means more influence, more power to enter into man's life. +So many of the finest men owe their attractiveness to their diverse, +many-sided nature. You will be able to feel for such, and perhaps to +help them. You are half a Greek with your yearning for beauty and +knowledge, half a Hebrew with your loathing for sin and love of God. The +Greek in you must not be annihilated, but it must be subordinated to the +Hebrew. Conscience must be absolute master. You must sacrifice the +'Greek' to Christ; but He will give you back what is best in the Greek +ideal, all the better for the mark of the Cross on it. He will give it +you back partly in this world, partly in the next, when you have learnt +to renounce it--if need {178} were, for ever--for His sake. But you must +give up all for Him without thought of reward. He can give no reward to +the man who is looking for it. The thought of your life helps me. Go +on, for the night cometh when no man can work. Thank God it is yet day. + + + +_To his brother Edward in South Africa._ + +Muehlen, Switzerland: January 11, 1903. + +I found walking a pleasant change after reading philosophy, which I have +been doing during my holidays. I seem to have been getting my ideas a +little clearer, and am no longer as content as I was with the Kantian +doctrine, that our knowledge in speculative matters never gets beyond +'appearances.' I feel that at every turn we do get to that which +_is_--to an underlying reality. I cannot feel that Kant's hard and fast +division between 'speculative' and 'moral' reason holds good. The +external world, because it is intelligible, must be akin to us; there +must be an intelligence in it, otherwise it would never become an object +of knowledge to our intelligence. It is not only in our ethical life +that we come across the absolute consciousness. I feel now more than +ever how we cannot divide up ourselves into water-tight compartments, and +think of reason, will, and feeling as separate things, lying side by +side. They can be separated--abstracted--in thought, but in actual life +you never find one without the other. We cannot think without some +degree of attention, and attention involves an exercise of will, and will +cannot {179} be exercised without desire, and desire involves feeling. + +I think faith also cannot be regarded as a separate faculty. Reason, +will, and feeling are all involved even in the faith of a poor cottager; +much more does reason enter into the faith of a thoughtful man. + +I have been reading Butler, and hope when I go back to study Hume. What +a wealth of light the conception of 'Development' has shed upon the +problems which exercised the eighteenth century! I have read half +through Leslie Stephen's 'Thought in the Eighteenth Century,' and I have +been struck again and again at the new aspect that the old questions take +when looked at from the standpoint of Evolution. + +I feel also that we need to study more the evolution of _thought_--the +necessary phases that reason (like man's physical life) must pass through +before perfection. . . . + +I think you are right, that education must now include instruction in +imperial ideas--in our relations with that larger social life which is +dawning upon us--a step towards a still larger social life to be realised +in the brotherhood of nations. + + + +_To F. J. C._ + +Christ's College, Cambridge: February 1, 1903. + +I am slow to suggest to another man that what seems bad luck is in +reality the voice of God making itself felt in his busy life, calling him +to fuller sacrifice. But I am sure that we are right when we interpret +it {180} thus for ourselves. I share your wish for 'some really strong +man' to come as a prophet and read the writing on the wall, and tell us +'what it all means.' Yet the absence of human help is not accidental. +It must be designed, in order that we may learn to fall back on the +everlasting arms--to find by experience that the unseen is more real than +the seen. + + There is an arm that never tires + When human strength gives way. + +I like that phrase, 'worthy to suffer.' It is to those whom God loves +best and most that He gives--as He gave to His Son--the chance of +suffering. Sympathy, strength, reality--these are some of its fruits for +those who allow them to grow. 'He cannot be My disciple.' I can't help +sometimes thinking of these words. Unless the man is prepared to make +sacrifice the basis of his life, he _cannot_ be Christ's disciple. I +don't think we always realise the 'trans-valuation of values' found in +Christ's teaching. 'Blessed are the poor--the hungry. He that would +save his life shall lose it. He that loseth, saveth. He that would be +greatest shall be least. It is more blessed to give than to receive.' +As I think over such statements as these, I find that I have again and +again to revise, as it were, my moral arithmetic--to change my standards, +to revise my ideas of great and little, happiness and misery, importance +and insignificance. + +I am sure that nothing but the highest will satisfy you. God has given +you singular powers of influence and of attracting others. He will +demand an account {181} of those powers. You know Matthew Arnold's lines +on his father. I believe the day will come when men will say like words +of you. + + But thou would'st not _alone_ + Be saved, my father! alone + Conquer and come to thy goal, + Leaving the rest in the wild. . . . + Therefore to thee it was given + Many to save with thyself. + +That is what I want you to be--a tower of strength--strength perfected, +it may be, in weakness--weakness forcing you to despair of self, and find +the Rock of Ages. You have been so much to me, and helped me so often, +that I feel you must be born to help others as well. And this quiet +time, it may be that God is using it to call you closer to Himself, to +teach you to revise your 'values,' to show you a new fund of strength. + + Our wills are ours, we know not how, + Our wills are ours, to make them Thine. + +You must--literally must--let His will overpower your will. Nothing but +complete sacrifice will satisfy you or Him, and I believe in you +profoundly. I am sure that, whatever be the ghastly struggle, you will +go through with it, and find your strength in Him. I pray for you. + + + +_To his mother._ + +Cambridge; March 15, 1903. + +The term is almost over . . . I am enjoying a quiet Sunday. What a +blessing these Sundays are {182} to us--a foretaste of a fuller life of +service and worship hereafter! I have been thinking lately with comfort +of the quiet perpetual work of the Holy Spirit, silently but surely +leading us on to higher things--comforting, correcting, guiding. It +gives ground for hope in dealing with men, this knowledge that there is +One who perfects what we feebly struggle to begin, who watches over men +with a love that will not let them go. We are not alone in our work; we +have omnipotence and illimitable wisdom on our side, forwarding our +efforts. When I consider what the Spirit has accomplished in my own +life, I have large hope for others. The argument from personal +experience is singularly convincing. 'The fellowship of the Holy +Ghost'--it is He who unites men and interprets them one to the other. It +is He who gives spirit and life to our words. + + + +_To H. J. B._ + +Bexley House, Cromer: March 31, 1903. + +It was good of you to send me that card from Florence. You don't know +how glad it made me. To know that you were thinking of me was a strength +to me. Your love for me comes as a perpetual surprise and inspiration. +I feel a brute compared with you, but the knowledge that you care for me +more than you do for most men makes me feel that I must try to be good. +'In Italy of the fifteenth century renaissance we see in strange +confusion all that we love in art, and all that we loathe in man!' Greek +history was short compared {183} with the Hebrew: I suppose because +intellectual and artistic ideals are more easily realised than ethical +and religious. It takes time to make a saint. It is part of the +discipline of life to find the two sets of ideas apparently antagonistic. +There is a higher unity in which they are blended--in God Himself. It +must be right to follow the dictates of conscience when it bids us lose +our soul if we would gain it. We cannot trust God too much. If we +forget our self, He will see that our truest self is ultimately realised. + +I can't express myself well, for I have just finished a spell of hard +work. I have sent away my tripos papers to-night. I am going up to +Edinburgh on Friday or Saturday. I fear I shall not see you until April +21. Will you tell Armitage that I will, if convenient to him, sleep at +Westminster that night instead of going straight to Cambridge? The +hopelessness of ever showing my gratitude to you or of ever making you +realise how much I love you oppresses me. I don't know what I should do +if I had not One Higher than I am to confide in--if I could not leave you +in His hands--if I could not gain strength and life for you by appealing +to Him. + + O brother, if my faith is vain, + If hopes like these betray, + Pray for me, that I too may gain + The sure and safer way. + + And Thou, O God, by whom are seen + Thy creatures as they be, + Forgive me if too close I lean + My human heart on Thee! + +{184} I lean closer and closer as life goes on. I feel that our hope +lies in despair--despair of self. The vessels which contain the treasure +are, as to-night's lesson says, earthen, 'that the excess of the power +may be God's and not from us.' And there is a power, there is a life +working in us. It is the quiet, sane, constant work of the Spirit in and +upon our spirit, that never hastes and never tires: which gives me +comfort for you, for myself, for all of us. The same life that is at +work in the hedge across the road is in us, only in us it attains full +self-consciousness and freedom. We can deliberately use it or refuse it. +Forgive the length of the letter. But I felt so tired that I thought it +would do me good to write to you, selfish brute that I am. + +I expect you enjoyed your time in Italy immensely. I should have liked +to be with you. I wonder if ever we shall be there together? Some day +we shall be in a world where the barriers of space are broken down: +'There shall be no more sea.' Yet it seems to me that we have not +altogether to wait for that other world. They are half broken down +already; and if we had faith as a grain of mustard seed, we should +realise the meaning of a unity deeper than any special or temporal bond. +If we fail to realise its meaning now, shall we realise it then? Is not +life here a training for life hereafter? If we learn nothing in this +school, we shall not be able to take our places in that school of +'broader love.' The best part in me does not complain. I thank God for +His thoughtful goodness in bringing you near to me. I thank Him for the +mystery of life, which enables me to realise that {185} Power 'which +lives not in the light alone, But in the darkness and the light.' I +become more and more inclined to thank Him as I see Him more clearly. + + + +_To F. S. H. on his accepting the post of chaplain at the Royal Naval +College, Osborne._ + +Cambridge: April 30, 1903. + +I am satisfied with your decision. I thought over the matter, but I +could not see my way quite clearly to say anything more definite, so I +did not write again. Don't think that my silence was due to slackness. +I did what I thought was better than writing. I spent an hour in praying +over the matter. Now that the matter is settled I can tell you what a +keen pleasure it is to me to have my dear old ---- near me in England,[1] +and doing a piece of work which is full of hope and joy. I would not say +this before, because I did not wish to influence your decision by private +considerations. Get some quiet time for prayer before September 1, that +when you go to Osborne you may go _en pleromati eulogias Christou_ +('filled full with the blessing of Christ'). I feel increasingly the +need of such times to learn to walk by faith without stumbling, and to +accustom myself to the atmosphere of faith, to see things as they appear +to a man who has faith 'as a grain of mustard seed.' + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _en_--epsilon, nu; _pleromati_--pi, lambda, +eta, rho, omega, mu, alpha, tau, iota; _eulogias_--epsilon, upsilon, +lambda, omicron, gamma, iota, alpha, final sigma; _Christou_--Chi, rho, +iota, sigma, tau, omicron, upsilon] + +Westcott records a visit (see 'Life,' i. 249) to his old schoolmaster, +Bishop Prince Lee. '"People quote various words of the Lord," said the +Bishop, "as containing the sum of the Gospel--the Lord's Prayer, {186} +the Sermon on the Mount, and the like; to me the essence of the Gospel is +in simpler and shorter terms: _me phobou, monon pisteue_.[2] Ah! +Westcott, mark that _monon_," and his eyes were filled with tears as he +spoke.' Ah! S----, mark that _monon_! . . . God bless you in your new +work and make you a blessing to others as you have been to me. + +[1] He had been offered work in South Africa. + +[2] 'Be not afraid, only believe.' + +[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were +transliterated as follows: _me_--mu, eta; _phobou_--phi, omicron, beta, +omicron, upsilon; _monon_--mu, omicron, nu, omicron, nu; _pisteue_--pi, +iota, sigma, tau, epsilon, upsilon, epsilon] + + + +_To J. K._ + +_St. Thomas's Home, St. Thomas's Hospital: August 28, 1903._ + +. . . I am most grateful for your kind words, though I know full well +how little it is that I have done for you. We clergymen so often seem to +be working in the dark. There are no clear results to show, as _e.g._ a +doctor can comfort himself with, when he has visibly cured a patient. +And I for one am too easily inclined to despair, and to wonder whether +the work is not in vain. But 'trust is truer than our fears.' Yet it +does me good when I feel I have done anything, however tiny, for a man. +After all, results are best left in God's hand. He gives us enough to +help us the next step onward, but not enough to exalt us, and to make us +think we can do anything without His assistance. Work 'in the Lord' +cannot be in vain. + +I am glad you have been reading Bishop Westcott's life. He was a man of +God, and his life is an inspiration, and a prophecy of what our life +may--nay, some day--will be. . . . I like that passage {187} when he +goes to see his old schoolmaster, Bishop Prince Lee, who tells him with +tears in his eyes that to his mind the whole Gospel message is summed up +in the words '_me phobou, monon pisteue_.' + +[Transcriber's note: see the previous letter for transliteration notes on +the above Greek phrase.] + + + +_To a friend who had been an international athlete._ + +St. Thomas's Home: September 5, 1903. + +We had a fairly good 'Long' in spite of the miserable weather. +Congratulate me. I won my first athletic distinction last 'Long'--a +ten-shilling prize. I am thinking of chucking work and becoming a +professional. It was a second prize in a tennis tournament. I had (I +must own) the best player in College as my partner. I want to get a very +conspicuous object as prize. What do you suggest? + + + +_To C. T. W._ + +St. Thomas's Hospital: September 1903. + +I am getting on first-rate, and I hope to be up early next week. I +believe you are right. We should do well if we had more regularity and +self-discipline in our life at Cambridge, and we should have more power +over others. Pray for me. . . . + +You needn't pity me. I am having a very good time. It is jolly to do +nothing, and not even to have to dress and undress--both exhausting and +monotonous occupations. It has been a glorious day, and although it is +almost 7 P.M., I am still out on the balcony enjoying the cool breezes. + + + +{188} + +_To W. O._ + +Alassio; December 1903. + +Death has come near to my family lately. I told you that my sister--the +Deaconess--had passed away from us.[1] It is not all sorrow, when we +know that the life has been spent in walking with God, when we know that +this corruptible puts on incorruption, and that what is sown in intense +bodily weakness is raised in strength--eternal strength. + +I am so glad that God has given to you His highest blessing. I long to +meet your future wife. It makes me very happy to think of the happiness +in store for you--to know that you are in the best of all schools. I +thank God. Love will bring you both nearer to the source of Love. . . . +This new blessing, as you say, is 'the gathering up of the best that God +gives.' I can't express my thoughts as I would, but I am very, very +glad. . . . + +Illness teaches one many lessons. I trust I have learned some. I have +been amazed at the goodness of my friends! + +[1] His sister, Deaconess Cecilia, 'passed away' at the Deanery, +Westminster, on September 8. + + + +_To W. P., an officer in the Army._ + +Hotel Salisbury, Alassio, Italy: December 21, 1903. + +I don't think things happen by chance. Indeed I am sure they do not. I +have never felt so humbled to the earth. One sees one's life as a whole, +when one is helpless and can do nothing, and the whole looks very poor +and mean. It is like the {189} judgment-day--only with this grand +exception, that life is not yet over, that the night has not yet come in +which 'no man can work,' that you have still a chance to make the future +better, more honest, more noble than the past. Then, again, I learnt the +utter and wonderful kindness of my friends. I felt so selfish and so +surprised at the goodness they showed me. Again, I saw something of the +mystery of pain. My own was so trivial compared with that which some +others had to bear. Yet I had enough to startle me that such a fact +should be permitted on earth at all. I don't suppose we can understand +its meaning; but my consolation was that it is not necessarily a sign of +God's displeasure--that the highest life was a life of suffering, that +the Son of Man was a 'Man of Sorrows.' Everything seems to me to depend +upon the way in which one takes the pain--if one voluntarily says, 'Thy +kingdom come, Thy will be done,' then one is entering into the highest +life, and the pain becomes a new method of serving and knowing God. But +physical pain, if prolonged, is a terrible thing; and there is no time on +a bed of sickness for praying or thinking much of God unless one is +accustomed to do so in health. The needs of the poor body press in upon +one. Death-bed repentances are realities, but I am inclined to think +that they are very rare. It is terribly dangerous to defer being good +until we are ill. Illness does not necessarily make us good. + +I am afraid I was but a poor coward, and yet my faith did not utterly +fail. God is the one hope for a man who is ill, and He is true to His +word. He {190} hides His face behind the clouds; but even when I +couldn't see Him at all, I felt that He was there. Pray for me; at +present I feel too weak to pray much for myself. I want--I do want--to +be a better man, to help others nearer the kingdom. I want, when life is +over, to have a better record to look back upon than I had in hospital. + + + +_To F. S. H._ + +Alassio, Italy; January 2, 1904. + +Your letter came to me at a time when I was rather low. I had to have a +second operation. However, after fifteen weeks of Nursing Homes I +escaped, and, as soon as I could, made my way to St. Moritz. For once +the place didn't seem to suit me very well. So, after little more than a +week, I came down into Italy. I am so far recovered now that I quite +hope to be able to go back to college at the beginning of this term. + +Illness and pain have taught me some lessons--at least I hope so. I feel +solemnised, startled, when I think of how life looked when I could do +nothing for the time. Pray for me that I may be more real. I learnt, +too, how futile it is to put off repentance till sickness. It is hard at +such a time to think of aught save self and physical pain. And my own +pain was so trivial compared with that of others. O God! it is a +terrible thing. Some day shall we be able to understand, if not with the +head, with the heart, part of its meaning? Meanwhile the individual can +say, however feebly, 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.' + +{191} + +_To his brother, a doctor in South Africa._ + +Alassio, Italy: January 7, 1904. + +At last I am beginning to get tired of doing nothing. I hope that +eventually I shall be stronger than I have been for some years past. At +any rate I hope a little first-hand experience of pain will make me more +sympathetic. Pain seems to me now a greater mystery than ever before. +But I comforted myself with the thought that in the highest Life ever +seen on earth, there was a full measure of spiritual, mental, and +physical pain. Also it was a comfort to feel that when one accepted, not +simply with resignation but with faith, certain suffering, one was in +sympathy with the will of the universe, 'working together with God' in +some mysterious way. What a strange place a hospital is! How wonderful +the Gospels are, with their hope and comfort on every page--hope for the +physical as well as the mental side of man's life! I like more than ever +now to read how Jesus went about healing all manner of diseases and all +manner of sickness and bringing life and strength wherever He came, +showing us that Heaven is on our side in our wrestle with all that +deforms and degrades human nature. + +I certainly don't regret my illness. Besides showing me the marvellous +kindness of friends, it has, I hope, taught me much. + + + + +{193} + +APPENDIX + +The following letter addressed to the Editor of this volume was +received from the Rev. H. Bisseker, chaplain at the Leys School, +Cambridge, too late for insertion in an earlier portion of the book: + + +'Your brother's friendship, as you must have heard so often during the +past few months, was valued in Cambridge beyond that of most men, and I +am probably only one of many who still look to that friendship as among +the prominent facts of their time up here. Though personally I did not +learn to know Mr. Robinson when I first came up, his brotherliness so +deeply impressed me during the four years for which our friendship +lasted, that I still find it difficult to believe that he is no longer +to be found in the familiar rooms at Christ's, and has ceased to be a +part of our Cambridge life. And yet, in another sense, he has not +ceased to be a part of that life; for one feels that during his +residence up here he managed, if one may so express it, to put a bit of +himself into more than one man, and that in this way he will continue +to live among us long after he himself has been removed. + +{194} 'I have often thought about him and his quiet, strong influence +since we heard that we had lost him, and almost invariably the same +three of his characteristics assume the uppermost place in my thought. +Different sides of his nature would appeal to different men: I can best +serve your purpose by mentioning those which made the deepest +impression on my own mind. + +'One of the chief causes of your brother's influence was unquestionably +_his sense of the value of the individual_. He used to take men one by +one and make a separate study of each. The consequence was that he +_knew_ his men. On any given visit the acquaintance did not, as it +were, have to be begun over again. On the contrary, the acquaintance +once formed, some common ground already existed; for so great was your +brother's power of sympathy that, where at the first no such common +ground appeared to exist, he soon learnt to find a standing-place +himself on that assumed by the man he was seeking to know. And not +only did Mr. Robinson possess this power of valuing the individual, but +he also was able to inspire the objects of his influence with the +knowledge of his particular interest in them. Thus they soon dropped +the idea of acquaintanceship, and began to think of him as friend, and +there you have in a word the secret of his wide influence. He was +interested in _men_, but what he loved was a _man_. + +'Mr. Robinson was no less marked off from the majority of men by the +stress which he laid upon the reality and power of prayer. We used +from time to time to have long talks together on this subject, so {195} +that I can speak with some little knowledge of the place which he +assigned it in his life. With characteristic modesty he not +infrequently distrusted himself in his active contact with men. His +very anxiety to help others towards the ideals by which his own life +was dominated led him to see the risk of placing hindrances in their +way by an injudicious intrusion into the secret places of their hearts. +Drawn in different directions, therefore, by his passionate desire to +win men for Christ and his cautious fear lest untimely words of his +should hinder rather than help, he found refuge in giving himself up to +earnest prayer on their behalf. And prayer to him meant more than a +light repetition of words. He used often, I believe, to spend as long +as half an hour at a time in seeking blessing for a single man. We +cannot doubt that, in the strong influence which he himself exerted +upon so many of those who knew him, such persistent prayer received at +least a part of its own answer. + +'The last element in your brother's individuality which always +impressed me was his restrained, but genuine, mysticism. In the few +accounts of his life that I have read I do not remember any allusion to +this characteristic. That he possessed it, however, and this to no +usual degree, seems to my mind quite patent; in fact, it was this +suggestion of mysticism that first attracted me to him. The mysticism +one sees around one is often so unregulated and so ignorant that it was +refreshing to find a mystic who was also an enlightened scholar and +thinker. It confirmed the feeling, instinctive in one's heart, that, +despite the abuse of caricature, a deep, intelligent {196} apprehension +of unseen realities is of the essence of the fulness of religion. Mr. +Forbes Robinson appeared to possess an unusually certain cognisance of +the unseen world. How well I remember the way in which, again and +again, tea over and our pipes lighted, he would curl himself up in one +of his or my own big chairs and discuss questions of interest to us +both with a far-away look in his eyes altogether suggestive of a +genuine otherworldliness! And this familiarity with unseen verities +seemed to run through all those parts of his life with which I was +acquainted, and indeed to be to him the most real fact of all +existence. To use the simple language of olden days, I believe that +"he walked with God": and that explains his life. + +'These, then, were the three characteristics of your brother which more +than any others have impressed themselves upon my mind. I do not think +that they were three separate sides of his personality: I should say, +rather, that they were three different expressions of one fundamental +attribute. It was because he walked so closely with God that he so +loved the individual sons of God. It was because he so loved the Great +Father and each child of His that he had so strong a faith in the power +of prayer and such unwearying patience to persist in it. + +'A life like your brother's, if I may say one thing more, forms, I +sometimes think, one of the strongest pledges of human immortality. In +one sense, it is true, he seems to have done so much; and yet, in +another sense, those of us who knew the faculties which he had +cultivated, his knowledge and patient {197} scholarship, his sympathy +and insight, his tact and passion for men, and, most precious of all, +his power with God, were looking for even greater things in years to +come. Such fitness for influence as he possessed is not acquired in a +day, and just when its worth was being proved he was taken from us. +Surely these gifts and graces are not now as if they had never been, or +as if, once granted, they had been idly wasted! Can that earnest, +patient cultivation really have been gratuitous, and the unselfish +instinct that inspired it mistaken? Were it so, the whole universe +looks out of joint. The more I consider such lives as that of your +brother--lives, I mean, which, bearing promise of so rich a harvest, +are yet cut off before the full harvest can possibly have been +realised--the more my conviction grows that the passing of such men as +he is not death, but only "the birth which we call death."' + + + + +{199} + +INDEX + + + Anthropomorphism in the O.T., 135 + Average man, the, 43 + + + Beauty, natural, 153, 156 _sq._ + Beauty, origin of personal, 78-81 + Boers, religion of the, 110 _sq._ + Boer war, the, 162 _sq._ + + + Christmas, meaning of, 153 + Christ's College Magazine, extract from, 10 + Clough, quotation from, 164 + Communion of saints, 69 + Continuity of work, 106 _sq._ + Cornwall, open-air preaching in, 25 + Criticism of O.T., 54, 136 _sq._ + + + Daily service, repetition of, 59 + + + Eternity, life in the light of, 164 + + + Faith, function of, 120 + Fitzpatrick, Rev. T. C., sketch by, 36-42 + Friendship, permanent character of, 84 + Friendship, the, of Christ, 89 _sq._ + Future life, the, 69, 117 _sq._, 125, 149, 150 _sq._ + + + Gordon, General, in S. Africa, 116 _sq._ + + + Hebrew and Greek ideals, 166 _sq._, 183 + Holy Spirit, work of the, 182, 184 + Home life, significance of, 60, 77 _sq._, 84, 110, 118, 159 + Humour, sense of, 47 _sq._ + + + Incarnation, results of his belief in, 45 + Influence upon others, 75 + + + James, Dr., sketch by, 7 _sqq._ + + + Kant, philosophy of, 176, 178 + Kittermaster, Rev. D. B., sketch by, 42-53 + Kruger, interview with, 112 + + + Law as revealed to the Jews, 63 _sqq._ + Letter-writer, St. Paul a, 82 + _Letters_-- + H. J. B., 151, 164, 166, 182 + W. A. B., 60, 74, 77, 86, 113 + F. J. C., 129, 131, 134, 153, 179 + G. J. C., 122, 123, 158 + J. L. D., 91, 93, 95, 109 + G. F., 104 + A. W. G., 69 + F. S. H., 102, 103, 105, 106, 119, 132, 136, 139, 185, 187, 190 + J. C. H., 117 + W. D. H., 127, 162 + D. B. K., 148, 159, 172, 174 + J. K., 108, 186 + E. N. L., 58, 68 + T. H. M., 55, 56, 57, 76, 100 + W. O., 143, 188 + H. P., 145, 171 + W. P., 188 + A. V. R., 54 + D. D. R., 63, 88, 98 + C. N. W., 120 + C. T. W., 107, 111, 126, 127, 187 + Anonymous, 114, 125, 146, 149, 162 + To a friend at Cambridge, 154, 167 + To his brother Edward in S. Africa, 137, 156, 171, 178 + To his brother, a doctor in S. Africa, 128, 135, 191 + To his mother, 116, 181 + To the mother of his godchild, M. F., 110, 118, 165 + Life, _zoe_ as used in St. John, 55 + Life, the Divine, manifested, 101 _sq._ + Love, his, for his friends, 45 _sq._, 50, 154, 182 + Love, meaning and scope of, 73, 76, 113 _sq._, 124, 142 + Love, the action of the Divine, 142 + + + Motto, family, 1. + + + National life, significance of, 66 + Natural beauty, eternal, 105 + Naval officers, life of, 139 _sq._ + + + Ordination, letters to candidates for, 58, 127 _sq._, 146, 162 + + + Pain, mystery of, 189, 191 + Parties in the Church, 109 + Person, God revealed as a, 71 _sq._, 75 + Prayer, his habit of intercessory, 29, 40, 51, 123, 138, 151, + 154, 167 _sq._, 173, 185 + Prayer, need of, 95, 97, 129-132, 160 _sq._, 162, 177 + Providence revealed in life of individuals, 121 + + + Sacraments, the, their significance, 76 _sq._, 80 + Saints, called to be, 96, 149 _sq._ + Schoolmaster, the work of a, 86 _sq._, 145 _sq._, 158 + Selfishness, tendency of, 92 _sq._ + Self-sacrifice, 166, 170 + Self-sacrifice of God, 175 + Simplicity of the Divine nature, 57 + Suffering, a proof of the Divine love, 165 _sq._, 180 + Sunday evening 'at homes,' 39 _sq._ + Sympathy, meaning and need of, 91 _sq._, 106, 140, 171, 175-7 + Sympathy, silent, 23 _sq._ + + + Tancock, Dr., impressions of F. R., 3 _sq._ + Temptations of Christ, 144 + Thackeray's novels, 103 _sq._ + Think, attempts to teach men to, 12 + Toft, work at, 25 _sq._ + Toleration, 26 _sq._ + Trinity, significance of doctrine of, 71, 75 + + + Unity of all men in God, 70 + + + Walk from London to Cambridge, 19 _sq._ + Worship, public, 122 + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Letters to His Friends, by Forbes Robinson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS *** + +***** This file should be named 20560.txt or 20560.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/5/6/20560/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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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